This young man’s Mum wanted a few Photos to capture the youth of this little one and to share amongst her friends and close family. She wanted just him in the frame, no covers or other props.

I had to work quick to capture the images I was after. The Baby was great, so interested in the camera…. He would just watch it wherever I went. I needed a little extra light as the natural light on this day was very flat, so I rigged an off camera flash to one side of baby and began shooting.

He is a perfect model and we managed about 15  mins of shooting before he became hungry and wanted Mum.

The final chosen image was printed on 12 inch square paper and mounted and backed. It has made a real centre piece for any home!!

To find out more and to book me please follow this link Portrait Photography with Babies and Infants and contact me to talk through a package tailored to your requirements..

Child portrait photography.

A quick post to show you another photograph from a recent location portrait shoot. Another image from this shoot can be found here – Child location portrait shoot. Located here in digital-scene Cornwall photography blog.

This photograph was taken balancing the natural rim light (the sun) with an off camera strobe. The lens is a nifty fifty set at f 1.7, matrix metering with the camera picture control set to landscape (that set the colours and sharpening in camera.) all saved as a Nikon Neff file. The quick edit was done in Nikon Capture, with the black and white conversion and a quick levels tweak.

Working in this environment I set the camera to do the work, P or A modes, as light levels are changing quickly and you do not want to miss the pose. However, the flip side to this is a lot more time post processing the photographs.

There is always a pay off in photography and I guess part of the skill is learning which pay off to use, in what situation.

Location portrait shoot

Portrait shoot on Location

Things are really getting busy at the moment with my location  portrait photography. Here is the latest image to add to this Cornwall photography web site. I have also been doing some consultation work up in Devon, so I have been racking up the miles recently.

This shot was taken with off camera strobe, placed camera right, just adding a little fill light to lift the subject in the frame. The sun was working as a great rim light, giving the hair line some separation from the back ground. This photograph was also lit in a similar way -  location portrait shoot in Cornwall

Shot on a local Cornish beach both myself , the young man and his Mum had a great hour working together to get a great selection of 40 images to choose from.

Working fast and making the most of a location is what I really enjoy and it keeps young people interested as well. Please get in touch if you would like to book your own portrait shoot, time is getting limited at the moment!!

Child portrait photography in Cornwall

Child portrait photography in Cornwall

I have been really busy just recently with designing a creative for a web site and with location portraiture photography sessions. I have not added much in the way of Cornwall photography images here over these hectic weeks.

I have head a number of requests for location portrait photography and finally after post production, sales and some added marketing I am able to show you what I have been working on.

The image to the left uses one off camera strobe. The same unit was used here Portrait photography on beach location in Cornwall and with this location portrait shoot with strobe.

Off camera lighting is great to balance out photographs, especially when shooting outdoors in full sunlight. You are able to soften some of the heavy shadows that would be otherwise present.

Location shoots are demanding. You fight the weather, people and the light all the time. However, when it all comes together you get some really great photographs. The softness in the natural sunlight has added some lovely gentle tones to this girls face, with the flash just lifting the shadows. You also get a key light in the eye, which draws the viewer in to the photo.

There are a few more images from this session I will share with you over the next few posts. I would love to get some feed back about the photograph, so please feel free to comment on this or any other post in the portrait photography category here at digital-scene.

Location portrait photography in Cornwall

Portrait photography

Just a very quick post from me.  Another addition to my Cornwall photography collection, taken on the same day as this location portrait shoot. I am racking up the beaches of Cornwall as backgrounds to portrait shoots really quickly.

This portrait photograph was shot in harsh sunlight on Kennack Sands beach, on the Lizard. I was after a real honest photo, capturing expression. The day had been long and I know this is not a happy face, but what a wonderful, fed up look this is – it cannot be posed!!!

The lighting is harsh, but it works wonders. I really enjoying looking at the textures in the background, but they do not distract from the portrait subject, due to the lighting which provides a nice level of separation in the image.

If you have any feed back please comment via the twitter button or the “please comment” at the top of this post. I would be delighted to get some feedback on my portrait photography.

Location portrait shoot with strobe

Child Portrait shoot

I had a wonderful day yesterday, capturing some photographs for this blog, based around Cornwall Photography, my trials, errors and successes stories as shared.

I was armed with my camera, a few ideas and a single strobe, not to mention my lads and a packed lunch big enough to feed a small army! We headed off to Goonhilly Downs on the Lizard peninsular to take some photos on location as these were:

• High key portrait on location in Cornwall
• Winter location shoot

I wanted a totally different feel to the images, something a little edgy and more like a fashion shoot feel, rather than a solid portrait photograph.

I found a great location. It was a dis-used building with high walls and no roof. There was loads of ambient light pouring in, but not harsh direct sunlight. In the middle of the floor was this lovely tree growing up through the concrete  floor, dressed in moss.

I set up the lighting – a small child holding a strobe. Took some ambient light levels, switched into Manuel mode, dropped the exposure about 5 stops below normal exposure and powered the flash to just below full, Bang! I got the photograph I was looking for.

This just shows the flexibility you have when out location shooting with a camera and a strobe, let alone a few reflectors to soften things up a little. I so prefer this type of photography to studio shooting. The light offers more challenges, the environment enhances your photos and you get lung fulls of fresh air.

Location Child photograph

Children portrait in St Ives

Great fun was had by all in this photograph taken in St Ives, Cornwall. Capturing children just enjoying themselves is great.

This shot I took almost reminds me of a band cover that you would have found in the NME. It is full of fun and shows lots of different aspects of the group.

This portrait photograph was taken in jpeg format. I did a few basic adjustments to it before highlighting lightly the front faces of the rocks to give the image a lot more depth to the picture. A quick black and white conversion and a soft light layer to punch the contrast up a little and there you have it.

I have used the same crop as I did here Marazion portrait shoot and this lifestyle portrait. As I have said before, it produces a really clean contemporary photograph that looks out of this world when mounted and framed. I have a choice of mounts available to bring out colours of the photographs, or to match decor. Anyway, what do you think of this Cornish photograph?

Location portraiture

High key photography

I seem to be spending more and more of my time out there practicing  location photography. If I am not working, I am using my boys to practice with. The world provides endless backgrounds to add emotion and interest to photographs. Steel sheeting, old rough painted doors, fences and block walls are some of my most used backgrounds. On there own, they sound rather dull, but used properly, softened and balanced they provide very interesting backdrops for portrait photography.

There are so many things to consider when looking for that portrait to show emotion, freshness and fun. This was  shot on a piece of play equipment in Porthleven, Cornwall.

The orange structure works beautifully to tie the subject into the photograph. A blast of strobe from camera left and a few tweaks later… voila!

This crop is one of favorites at the moment. You can see others here – Beach portrait & black and white portrait . The subject takes up a third to a half of the frame and it works so well in my opinion. I am really pleased with the result of this life style portrait.

A shoot like this is a very affordable solution to increase your collection of loved ones. I am able to offer packages to suite your requirements on locations in Cornwall. The beaches, woods, rivers and towns all provide some great opportunities. Marazion, Porthleven, Helston, Penzance and Falmouth have been used by me regularly to capture life style photographs.

The photographer

A Portrait of Me!

It is about time that I shared a shot of me. I have been writing this photography blog and sharing my work, yet never have I showen you a half decent portrait photograph of me.

Well here it is. Taken in my house by my other half (there is a portrait captured in Cornwall of her here) using a mobile lighting set up. The image, apart from grey scaling  is off camera. I must admit I helped set the lighting up, but the camera was not worked by me!

It felt strange to be infront of the camera for a change, but I also learnt alot during the experience. It was a valuable 20 mins and I am looking forward to the next time.

A good self portrait will be my next challange. It is much harder then you might tink to capture a quality image of yourself.

Bright beach winter photo

Winter location shoot

A quick image to share, cropped in a similar style to the portrait photograph below.

The winter sun, colours of the skin, fur on the hood and the sand background all compliment each other perfectly. Again I love the tight crop and bokeh (technical term for blur). It really makes the subject leap out of the photo, yet places him in context with the surroundings of a beach. Its situations like this when I realise why I love photography in Cornwall

Please contact me to discuss an affordable portrait session in Cornwall