The Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast

This week, I’m recording late in the lounge with a glass of Irish whiskey, reflecting on the usual mix of chaos and joy in a photographer’s life. Some good news first: the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast has landed in the Top 100 Photography Podcasts, Top 10 Portrait Photography Podcasts, and Top 35 UK Photography Podcasts—all thanks to FeedSpot. A massive thank you to everyone who listens, emails, or stops me at events to say hi.

The charts can be found here:
https://podcast.feedspot.com/photography_podcasts/
https://podcast.feedspot.com/portrait_photography_podcasts/
https://podcast.feedspot.com/uk_photography_podcasts/

I share stories from a beautiful small wedding at Le Manoir, talk about how AI is both transforming and disrupting our industry (and how I’m using it to write useful code for the studio), and confess to completely changing my Instagram strategy so it actually makes me smile—feel free to check it out @paulwilkinsonphotography.

The highlight? Racing through three days of corporate headshots in London, where the CEO arrives and my flash promptly refuses to fire—just classic timing. A reminder: knowing your kit inside-out and keeping calm is what clients are really paying for.

If you fancy joining me in Oxford for a day of portraits, stories, and good company, there’s still a spot on our next Location Portraits Workshop.

https://masteringportraitphotography.com/resource/mastering-portrait-photography-on-location-in-oxford-9th-june-2025/

As ever: trust yourself, enjoy the process, and be kind to yourself. Cheers!

Transcript

Introduction and Setting the Scene

Well, it's been a while since I've recorded a podcast quite like this, but I'm sitting in our lounge. It's late. I've got a glass of Irish whiskey for a change, which is just beautiful. All of my whiskeys have been bought by someone and I love that. I love sitting and thinking of someone, a family member or a friend.

'cause I enjoy, well, the smell and the taste. There's some, I dunno why I like whiskey so much. Um, I just do, there's something, I think it's 'cause my mom and dad liked it. And possibly because of that, I find there's something really magical about the smell and the taste and the color and just, I don't know, something that sat in a barrel for a decade or more just appeals to me, and it has been another busy week.

It's Wednesday as I record this, and yet it feels like it's been the end of a week. Um, it's just, it always feels like I'm playing catch up, but I think that's just the nature of the job. When I worked at Accenture all of those years ago, I quite liked the project mentality. Although we were busy, we ramped up and up and up and up until eventually we got to the delivery date.

And then of course, once it was delivered, you've got a week or two off all of that pressure built and built and built. It was to an end point. And I don't think, as a photographer, I felt like that since I left that world now it's just a constant churn of to-do lists, retouching shoots, being energized, even things like recording this podcast.

You have to be really in the mood to do it, and I'm not always. There have been plenty of times when I've sat down to record something and even a large glass of 15-year-old single molt doesn't do it. However, I am here, it is late. So forgive me if I sort of tumble over some of my words, but I really wanted to get, um, an episode out.

I'm Paul and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography  📍 podcast.

Podcast Achievements and Listener Appreciation

So before I get into the main body of, uh, the podcast this week or this episode, I wanted to give a little bit of good news. We have been voted by we, I mean the Mastering Portrait Photography podcast has been judged or voted, or I don't know. I don't exactly know how it's assessed, but we have been given three really cool things by the guys at Feed Spot who list and assess, uh, podcasts from all around the world.

I. So we are in, uh, for photographers, we're in the top 100 podcasts for photographers globally. We're in the top 10 portrait photography podcasts globally, and we're in the top 35 UK photography podcasts on the web. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much to everybody who listens and everybody who's made this thing possible.

We are ranking right up there with some really big commercial podcasts and at the end of the day, it's just me, a microphone and I suppose 20 years of experience of being a photographer. But nonetheless, it's an absolute thrill that we are getting recognized. Um, so thank you to all of you who listen.

Every one of you sends in emails. Everyone who, uh, stops us at the conventions and the shows to say that they like listening to it. Uh, so what have we been up to other than celebrating, uh, a major success. By the way, you can head over to Feed Spot. I'll put the links in the show notes if you're gonna go see the lists of everybody else Tell I listen to, there are some great podcasts on there.

And of course my target is to be higher up the list, not just one of the top 100 we wanna be. The one, but yeah, I dunno whether we'll ever get to that given it really is just me and a microphone. Uh, but I'll do my best, uh, last week. 

Recent Photography Projects and AI Innovations

Over the past week or so shot the most beautiful tiny wedding at Le Manoir. I lo I love these little weddings.

35 people, the nicest bride and crew who were so excited. Uh, they had family from all over the world, from India, from Austria, Switzerland, the uk. Why Europe? Brilliant. Brilliant, brilliant. The weather. Stunning. We had loads of time. We relaxed, we had, oh, it was just the best day possible. Uh, what else? What else?

Uh oh, yeah. Um, one of the things, um, sorry, that's, that's another subject jump. Um, I've got notes. Obviously. I sit here with a screen of notes and these are the things I wanted to cover. One of the things I wanted to cover is some other focus of what I'm doing at the moment and what we are doing in the studio.

And one of the things that's right front of mind at the moment has been ai, and I'm guessing from everything I'm reading and everything I'm studying is that AI is gonna stay at the front. And it might just be the last thing standing if I've understood it all correctly. So I've, I mean, those of you who know me know my PhD is in neural networks, which is the backbone.

Um, of AI 30 years ago, so of course I'm well outta date, but that hasn't stopped me being really quite curious and I guess I've got a natural, uh, sort of a natural aptitude for it in spite of the fact that it's advanced so far on the whole, I'm getting my head round. Most of it. Some of it's really daunting, some of it is frankly terrifying, but some of it is exhilarating.

So I'll give you an example of some ways we're using AI here at the moment. Um, one of the things I'm doing is I'm using it to help me code some really useful add-ons, scripts and plugins for things like Lightroom, Photoshop. And some general stuff behind the scenes, um, which we will be able to release as commercialized product.

Um, I'm not a terrible coder. I'm not a great coder, but I have enough knowledge to be able to know how to specify what I want, understand the problems I'm trying to describe. And now that I have all of these AI tools beside me is it's just opened up a huge wealth of opportunity to make our life in the studio simpler and faster.

And more productive. And while that, you know, all of that's really good, of course the downside of AI is it is gonna tear through the job market in every single industry. And of course our industry is particularly susceptible to it. If you think about any photograph you can imagine, um, where the subject is irrelevant, it as in, it doesn't have to be a named face.

It could just be. A nameless detective, um, a doctor, a medic, a firefighter, a parachutist, a pilot, a family, a child, a dog. As long as it doesn't have to be that dog, that person, that pilot, that firefighter. AI does it today. And this is just an early version chat. GPTs photo generator is off the top of the scale.

Good. Um, I've actually written. Some stuff where it's taking, so, you know, automated some scripts that are taking my pictures, generating the prompts to generate those pictures, and then generating more pictures. And I'm doing it as an experiment just to test where we are and honestly. Yes. Not perfect, but we are right at the beginning of where we're headed.

So, you know, if I was gonna be slightly gloomy, I suppose if, if you are a stock photographer, well, you know, that's gotta have limited legs unless you do wildlife or landscape where it's really important. That the location is key. I'm looking at um, I've got an Amazon fire stick in our TV here in the lounge.

Um, obviously it's gone onto a screensaver 'cause I'm recording this and it's showing pictures of real places in the world that's never gonna go anywhere. You are always gonna need that. But if it's just generic photographs, generic imagery than AI is already eating into those markets. But I'm still throwing myself into it.

Social Media Strategy and Personal Reflections

One thing I have done, um, on our Instagram account is I took a long hard look at social media. And again, for those of you who know me, you'll know I'm not the biggest fan. I know we have to use it. It's a necessary evil, but I am one of those doom scrollers. I spend my life scrolling down thinking everyone else is having a better time.

Everyone else is a better photographer. Everyone else has got a better business. You name it, I think it, I'm just wired that way. I'm also wired.  I can't resist it 'cause it's there. And so the longer I spend on on social media, the less inspired and the less energized I am. I really do have to stay away from it.

But one of the things I've done in our studio is my screens, in particular on my laptop and on my workstation. Whenever the screensaver kicks in, it's pointing at a portfolio of our images, our clients, our friends, the people, the photographs, the moments, the memories from our life. And so whenever I pause, I go make a cup of tea or something, and I come back.

All of these screens are showing. My favorite pictures from 20 years, sorry, I stumbled over the word 20, getting emotional, uh, of 20 years of working as a professional photographer, and I decided what might be nice is to use Instagram like that. So I've changed the way I'm working on Instagram. Stopped trying to show just current work and trying to do the whole kind of, you know, social sort of networking side of it.

And I've decided I just want it to make me smile. That's it. That's all I'm gonna do. So I've hauled together, I've written some code. It's got a little bit of an AI in there to help me. I. And it just goes back and picks out images from different parts of our portfolio and tells me what to post. I then just post it.

Simple as that, because if I sit for hours looking at my portfolios, I spent ages. Becoming really paranoid that my work's no good. Oh no, I can't post that. I posted something similar to that. Oh, no. Will people like it? And I've stopped that. It's just a hard list. Here's what you're gonna do today. Here's what you're gonna do tomorrow.

And I'm just posting these pictures exactly the same pictures that my screensaver connects to. So it has, it's giving me now the same joy seeing these pictures come up. Some are recent, some are from quite a long way away, a long way ago, rather. Some are landscapes. There's some stuff in there from some landscapes where we've been traveling, not many.

And of course, all my landscape friends, all my, you know, friends in the industry can happily laugh at me. I'm not a landscape photographer. But I am loving every single second of it, and it's really given me some of the joy I think I used to have with social media. It's become a portfolio of people, of memories, of moments, of my history.

You know, some of the pictures come up and I cringe. It's like, really? Did I really do that? But some of the old pictures come up and I can really see. The foundations of where I came from. Yeah, right. I shoot things differently now. Of course, we all do. I've learned techniques, new techniques, new post-production, new finishing grading.

The resolutions on the cameras are different. The lenses are different. Even for me, you know, one weakness I was talking to with the videographer the other day is that. On the older cameras, I didn't dare shoot below about F four because if I focused on the eyes focus, recompose in the recomposing, I had to move.

And in moving the eyes would go out of focus. But now of course with eye tracking, I could shoot at F1 0.8 and every time the eyes are pinned, sharp, and. It's weird that technology can fundamentally change my aesthetic because I always wanted to shoot at 2.8 or 1.8. I just never had the technique for it.

One of the things I'm very good at is working quickly. I work fast and I catch those moments, but unfortunately the trade off is I don't slow down and really concentrate on things like the focusing and that's problematic. But now the technology's helping me. And here similarly, you know, I'm using a little bit of AI to identify pictures, written some bits of code to do it, and it pulls the pictures from the catalog to make sure that there's a nice variety, that it's across all of our clients, all of our work.

It's not just one style, which is what tends to happen if, um. I do it on my own. So it's just lovely. And there's, you know, I've written here, it's a bit like a treasure hunt with a robot sidekick. The robot being the ai, I hope the robot's not me. I don't think it's me. Maybe it his, maybe that's the way around the AI is having the treasure hunt and I'm the robot.

But if it's me, I'd only pick things like pictures that I thought might do well in awards or pictures that other photographers would like. Whereas I've stopped that by doing this. The code tells me what I'm gonna. Post. I post it and then I can just smile and enjoy the memory. And I've long since stopped worrying about whether the algorithm rewards me, it ain't going to.

So if you've answer having a look, you can see what we're doing. Um, at some point, if anyone comes to the studio, I'll happily show you how I've done it, um, and what we're doing. Uh, what else do we do over the weekend? Oh, Sarah and I, um, we had to record our own a roll, uh, Katie. 'cause I was, I've been working Friday, Monday, Tuesday.

I. Out in London. Um, I knew we had to get the, a roll for video ready for Katie to be able to do something with it on Monday. Unfortunately, that meant Sarah and I doing it on our own, which is great. I mean, Sarah and I, we have all of the kit, the kit's, hours, um, I. It took a little bit longer than the setup.

It took me two hours to rig the studio for the video, which is way too long. Um, it was also quite a lot more disciplined when it was just Sarah and myself much less messing around. Mostly I think because I'm slightly scared of her. There's no getting around it. Sarah wanted to crack on, so we cracked on.

Um, I dunno if the video's gonna be any good, but it's certainly. Succinct and to the point. Um, so, uh, I'll let you know when that one comes out and see if you can tell the difference when, uh, it's Katie directing or whether it's Sarah, but it was a lot of fun and you will get to see it. 

Corporate Headshots and Technical Challenges

So, uh, moving on to the boardroom and this episode's point.

So over the past three days or so, Sarah and I have been ensconced in a room in an office in London and one of the world's biggest companies, and we were brought in to create headshots of senior execs, board members, CEO, CFOs, C-C-O-C-M-O, all of these people, C-level execs. And they'd approached us to do it as part of a bigger package.

There's some marketing going on. I can't talk about what the company is and I can't talk about what the product is. But the broad brush of it is there's some new product coming out. It's being sponsored by the entire board. Each of them was gonna record a video, and they also needed some stills to go out and posters and social media and things like that at the same time.

We were gonna create additional headshots, uh, just for general purpose. So right up my street. I love headshot. I love corporate work, smart people. Being smart is never a bad thing to photograph. I really enjoy it. But slight, slight challenge with this particular gig is that the predominant job was for them to record video.

Each slot was about 30 minutes, and these execs really had no time. They're close to a launch. There's a lot going on. It's a huge company, and half an hour in an exec's diary to record a video, as you can imagine, although they wanted to do it because they know it's important, they were also thinking about the next meeting and the meeting after that.

So. They'd come in, they'd spend half an hour in front of the video cameras and the green screen. And do their job brilliantly with a teleprompter and the scripting and everything. And then just as they thought they were gonna leave, um, the head of marketing would say to them, no, no, we just need to get a few headshots of you.

And I was given about 30 seconds to create these shots. It will have a lifespan of probably like five years, because you know what it's like with headshot? No one ever refreshes them. So we go from sitting around doing very little. To a hundred miles an hour. There's no warmup, there's no tea, there's no small talk.

It really was literally the head of marketing said, wait, uh, here's Paul. He's here to take some headshot. Go. And I would say hello, trying to get energy into a shoot like that. And of course the first person up was the CEO. And he walks over. Everything's set. Sarah and I have rigged, and we've, luckily it's a secure building.

Um, so we can leave all of the kit rigged overnight. Anyway, so we've decided, right, we've got, we've taken as much kit as we can spare 'cause I'm also working in the gaps back here at the studio. So we've got the lights, got the backdrop. Nice small. You've seen the videos we've created on doing this kind of stuff.

It's, there's, it's enough kit to do the job, but it's still small enough that Sarah and I can lu it in on the train. So a backdrop, a couple of rom threes with some soft boxes, and actually everything's pretty good to go. But the kit has been sitting here now for about four hours. And what I would normally do if I was about to meet someone and do studio style shots with a studio lighting is I would fire the lights a few times and make sure everything's perfect.

Slight wrinkle, we're in the same room as the video filming. So we can't do any of that. All I can do is check that nothing's gone to sleep. I can't, I didn't do anything because of the noise of the, um, beeps on the lights 'cause I use those to make sure everything's fired. And the flashes, of course, are gonna bleed into the video recording, so I can't do anything.

So of course the first person is the CEO, the most important person in the entire process. He's my subject. He does his video, it's very good. He comes off, but he's clearly tired, um, and has a lot on his mind. He walks in front of over to me, head of marketing. This is Paul. Really nice to meet you. Um, you know, normal kind of stuff.

Please stand there in front of the lights. How do you normally stand? And I'd watch him. And the great thing about watching people filming is you get to see how they naturally sit, how they naturally stand. And these were all to be standing portraits. And I kind of started, got chatting, going where I wanted it.

We'd mark the tape, mark the floor where I wanted him, got the lights, the same height. 'cause of course, everybody's a different height. We could do most of the work, but I can't set the height of the lights until I meet the subject. Pick up my camera, I focus it, I hit the button. Nothing. I mean silence. So I kind of talk my way through it.

Sarah knows what's happening, but because of course, the Z nine doesn't make any noise at all. I don't think anyone realized it hadn't fired. Sarah knew I knew, so I kind of carried on chatting, refocused, hit the button. Again, nothing. I mean, silence. Now, fortunately, I'm used to the fact that. When you are working with any kind of wireless technology, there's always connection, challenges.

Um, and so I kind of took a breath, paused to check that all the lights were up, checked the controller was seated correctly into the hot shoe. Third time's a charm, blink off. It went flash, the flashes flood, and I literally, I watched everyone in the room sort of breathe a sigh of relief. Even they, even though they didn't know.

It wasn't firing. They thought I was taking way too long to get this first shot. And if you've ever had that moment, you've ever had that moment where Kit just doesn't do what you expect, it goes on strike at exactly the wrong moment. You know that sinking feeling. And there's nothing I could do. I couldn't have pre-fire it.

We checked everything until they started filming, and then it, it just lost its connections. And once it happened, it all started rolling. Three days, amazing portraits. And we've had the most wonderful, wonderful feedback from the client, from the people. The pictures look great. We're really happy. But over those three days, I think I've, I'm estimating the actual amount of time I had a camera in my hand with a client in front of me.

15 minutes tops. That's not a lot of time. And we are obviously charging for those days 'cause that's days I'm not earning anything in the studio here. So you have to wonder, you know, why they pay people like me to come in and do that job. Well, I can tell you why. It's because in those 30 seconds for each of those people, we created magic.

We got them to laugh just by chatting really. Or maybe, maybe people just look at me and giggle. I have no idea. But they looked engaged. We took the lighting, of course Crumb, beautiful lighting. So the lighting is on point. Um, I know the camera, I know the lights. I also know my post-production. So I knew when I could compromise and I knew when I couldn't.

So things like, uh, nearly everybody wore glasses and you could spend as the videographers did hours trying to figure out how to get the reflections outta glasses in our studio. I would spend a bit more time doing it, but here, there was no way I could do it. So I lit, I drifted the light across and I knew when I was seeing blue or green reflections.

The Voto, the EVOTO.AI package, its glasses. Reflection cleaning button is a thing of weird genius. It just works. So there's lots of little bits to the puzzle, but broadly speaking, it's a lot of experience. It's a lot of energy, it's a lot of being totally present and in that moment so that you are subject, no matter what they're feeling, it's gonna get swept along with it.

And there's an awful lot. Of me knowing the kit, having bought great kit, knowing the kit and knowing that, okay, it didn't fire a couple of times, but it will, it's just gonna take a second for everything to just talk to each other and get rolling. And apparently this is all true because they've asked us to come back.

So in spite of the wobbly star and the crumbs, um, and the fact actually the hardest bit wasn't that, the hardest bit is that you've been sitting around for ages waiting. And you go from naught to a hundred miles an hour in a heartbeat, and that's really, really tough. But it is a huge amount of fun. And I, like I said, I absolutely love corporate headshots.

So get really good at what you do. Trust yourself. Buy good kit and know how to use it and trust in it even when it stutters. And ultimately, your client is not paying for your ability to press a button or connect things your client. Is paying for your ability to be calm, to be present, and to know what you are doing no matter what hiccups, uh, come your way.

Right. I'm gonna close out this, uh, happy little podcast for a moment. You can hear, Hey, fever is bad. I dunno if you can hear it or not, but my nose is blocked in spite of my whiskey. Uh, one last quick plug. Um. 

Upcoming Workshop and Closing Remarks

Is that, uh, we have had a last minute somebody's dropped out of a workshop. We are running in Oxford on Monday.

This Monday coming. I'm recording this Wednesday night, and on Monday the 9th of June. We are running our location portraits workshop in Oxford. We meander through this most incredible city. It's beautiful. Oxford is just stunning taking pictures, uh, creating portraits, looking for light and shape and form telling stories, uh, lunches provided.

Um, we have a space, somebody suddenly dropped out and it'd be lovely. It'd be lovely if we could fill that space. If you fancy it, head over to mastering portrait photography.com, uh, and look for the workshops and mentoring section. Uh, and you'll find a workshop in there. It's the Oxford, uh, location portrait photography.

It's honestly, it's my favorite workshop of the year, although, to be fair, the bootcamp, the bootcamp is coming close. I really enjoyed the bootcamp. This last one, our inaugural bootcamp was brilliant. The two day workshop was brilliant. Um, however, walking around Oxford, this glorious architecture, um. Uh, it is just amazing.

So if you fancy that here, if you fancy that, head over to our workshop section. Have a look and see what you think. We'd love to see you there. And that is me. I have a glass of Irish whiskey sitting beside me. The TV has now gone to a blue  📍 screen. Um, I'm gonna fire that back up while I do the edit for this and whatever else.

I hope your kit doesn't stutter. I hope it fires first time and whatever else. Be kind to yourself. Take care.     

In this episode, I get to very briefly chat with Louis Wahl, CEO of WEX Photo Video. Turns out he is a really nice guy (and with luck, I'll get to chat to him in a full-length interview at some point in the future.) It's the great thing about the photography show - I get to meet loads of people!

As well as the short chat, the episode is primarily a response to an email I received from 'Steve' asking what first strobe he should choose.  Having sat and pieced together an answer, I thought it would be useful to make a podcast out of the answer.  I guess you can be the judge of that!

Cheers
P.

If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography, for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode.

PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think!

If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. 

Transcript

[00:00:00] My name is Lewis Wall, and I'm the CEO of Wexphoto Video. Okay. So maybe this needs just a little explanation at the photography show last week, which was a blast. I took my little handheld recorder and just grabbed a few people as I wanted ran the show. And I had a vision of creating one big podcast episode where multiple photographers could answer the same question.

[00:00:25] Just questions about the industry, how they felt and why they were, where they're at the show. But when I played them back for a couple of reasons, I didn't think that that was going to work mostly. And you'll hear this in this little snippet. I get quite excited and an hour of that. Well, nobody needs that in their life.

[00:00:42] So instead I'm going to sprinkle these little clips. Through some upcoming podcasts just for interest. And so you can hear the views. I have some really interesting people in our industry.

[00:00:53] And I started with this guy. Now I bumped into him. And by accident. I was buying a memory card for the recorder. Actually. I needed additional memory card. And so I went and queued at warehouse express, WEX photo and video. Standing there quietly in the queue and the next chapter at the till waved his arm at me, I went over and while I was there, I noticed that it was Louis. It said on his badge CEO. Of WEX photo video. And do you know what I thought I chance, my arm and see if he would be willing to do a short interview. Well, you couldn't have met a nicer guy. And he was very willing to give me a few, a little bit of a viewpoint. And so we grabbed just five minutes and this is that interview.

[00:01:33] And I start the conversation with why. Do you come to the photography show? This is where our customers are, uh, and they expect to get the service that we provide to them all the time in the stores, and we provide to them online, as well as our institutional customers, a lot of our professional customers, so, yeah, I mean, this has got to be the place to be.

[00:01:52] Where else wouldn't you be at a time like this? This is a brilliant place for us to meet our customers. And, of course, I have to ask you, well, I guess it's an obvious question, but you're a supplier to this incredible industry. Why do you love the photography industry so much? Well, the one thing is that I don't come from a photographic background myself.

[00:02:10] I actually come from a kind of a radio television production background. But it's all about the intrinsic desire that our customers have to accomplish something. There's an artistic need, so We've got a mission, which is to help our customers get the perfect shot every time and anytime. People come to us not to buy a black box with a camera in it.

[00:02:31] They come to us because they've got a problem, and that's brilliant. So they've got a project, they've got a creative spark, they want to achieve something. And all of the people who work with us, they're all photographers as well. So they've all started with some kind of imaging or background, a creative background.

[00:02:46] My last question, this is just a very short set of snippets, but my last question is if you could change just one thing about this beautiful industry of ours, what would it be? That's a tough one. I wouldn't necessarily say it was a perfect industry. I wouldn't say it was problematic.

[00:03:02] It's, what would I change? I'd probably make it a bit easier for us to understand how people work. Product is flowing through from the developers, the people who are originally designing it all the way through the end user. 'cause that's often a very translucent, it's almost opaque, so you don't quite understand what's happening there.

[00:03:21] Sometimes the big brands will tell you a little bit more about where their thinking is, how they want to develop their technology. But I think what happens is you get a lot of customers who they want to see that they actually wanna see that where, where the technology's going. Because again, they've got these objectives and often it.

[00:03:37] You know, it's kind of cased in a little bit of secrecy. I kind of understand that. If you're developing technology, you want to protect it. You want to protect your intellectual property. But that's probably the only thing I would say that's a little bit problematic, yeah? I mean, we went through such a long period of difficulty in terms of production supply.

[00:03:56] People were very difficult to find stuff. Um, we're kind of through that now. We can get pretty much what we need. Um, but, uh, you kind of feel this, probably me as not a terribly, um, technologically, uh, kind of genius sort of person. You kind of, well, where does it go next? And I think a lot of people kind of think in that way too.

[00:04:15] They want to compete, they want to, they want to grow, they want to develop. So, yeah, I'd say that's probably one area. It's like, what does it look like? You know, what does the future look like? That's probably one question everybody's got. What does the future look like? It's funny, in the last episode I did, one of my laments was, I wish more of the kit was designed with the photographers that are going to use it in mind, as opposed to the guys developing it with their, you know, various bits of interfaces and the way the software, it's all software driven now, everything is software.

[00:04:44] Um, and I wish there were more people who are photographers involved in the design phase. But listen, what an absolute pleasure, thank you both for your good service, I've just bought, A very small memory card from you, but over the years, I've spent many thousands with you, but thank you for it. It's my pleasure.

[00:04:59] Thank you so much. So, like I said, you can hear me getting very excited, but what a thoroughly decent guy and of course, warehouse express WEX photo video. Is one of those bastions of the industry. It's huge. And it's ultra reliable. I've bought a ton of kit. From them over the years and I'm sure I will continue to do so.

[00:05:19] And it was a real pleasure to meet Louis a genuinely nice guy. At least he was in the few minutes I got to chat to him. And hopefully I did leave with a seed that I'll go over and maybe get a chance to record a full length interview with him. Cause I think the insights. From some of our trade suppliers. Would be fascinating for all of us because they've seen the trends and they've got the data on it.

[00:05:41] Whereas each of us. Our, in our little silos. So one after the other, I will introduce these little interviews into each of the upcoming podcasts. I'm Paul. And this is the mastering portrait photography podcast.

[00:05:56] So hello. One and all, I hope you well on this, I see quite bright and sunny Sunday evening. It's not particularly warm, but at least for a moment, it isn't. raining yesterday, dance the showers quite a bit. It was a good day yesterday. I've had a good week, lots and lots going on. As you can imagine, we had a training workshop here on Monday, which was an absolute blast.

[00:06:33] It was so much fun. We called it a mastering extraordinary to sorry, mastery can't even get my own titles right. Mastering Ordinary To Extraordinary Studio Photography, which is basically about shooting in reasonably confined spaces.

[00:06:47] And the guys that came in the workshop with just brilliant. We laughed all day the models big shout out to Kinga and to Libby who were brilliant. The two guys who modeled for us and the whole thing about having a good time, enjoying being creative learning as we go Was just the whole, the whole workshop the whole day. It was fantastic.

[00:07:09] So thank you to everyone who came. Also this week. I had two shoots yesterday. You forgive me for telling this story. It was that. It was a good day. Lovely clients, but I did that thing that I do so often, which is to get people's names muddled. And this is yet another one of those extreme examples. Sophie and Matt were the couple and Bertie was their dog. So as we're heading out into the garden to take some pictures in daylight, I'm just double checking their names.

[00:07:38] I've got, my phone it's got the appointment on it. I'm just very quickly scanning it to make sure I've got everything I need. It's Sophie and Matt, Sophie and Matt, Sophie and Matt. I've literally, as I put my phone in my pocket. I turned to them and say, right, so Alice and Sam, what are we going to do? And the two of them just look at me. Are you absolutely out of your mind? And the minute they looked at me, I knew I'd got it wrong.

[00:08:05] How, how, how can your brain ditch what you've just been reading. I mean, literally, as I said, it. It was seconds after I'd read it. The only name I remembered it was Bertie the dog. It was just, oh, come on. Anyway. Saturday was interesting in as much as, although we've had the alien crumb kit in now for a week or so, saturday was the first day when I've had two full shoots going at my normal pace.

[00:08:34] But with all of this new equipment on the upside, let's talk about the upside. The light that they give off is beautiful. And I remember now why I originally chose Elinchrom and why, even when I was using Profoto kit, I would still put Elinchrom modifiers back in to the mix. The light we're getting is just beautiful.

[00:08:55] And it, it seems to play really well in our studio. Now, every studio is different. Every photographer's tastes and color profiles, are different. For me, for what I do in the space. I do it, there was a proper magic in the studio and it was, it's hard to describe, but I actually felt quite emotional. That said none of the kids did what I expected to when I expected it. One light turned itself off, eventually found the off timer.

[00:09:27] There's a little timer in the settings. So I turned the two backlights off cause I needed to turn the two back lights off, which is fine. But when I powdered them back up again, they wouldn't register on the controller. The controller would trigger them. But it wouldn't read them.

[00:09:40] So I had no idea. I. I've got literally thousands of pounds worth of kit in the studio and I'm doing what I used to do, which is to walk up to them and turn the dials on the back. Talk about old school. Maybe just, maybe I need to spend the day with the manual because I'm sure none of this is to do with the kit.

[00:10:00] It's all to do with the operator. Again, thank you for putting up with the sound quality on that interview. I've got a load of those coming. It was a lot of fun. To do it and a huge amount of fun, lots of questions, or the same questions to lots of people. And there are some really quite interesting insights in there, but today's podcast.

[00:10:19] I was going to talk about something different, but I had this email. That came in during the week and it just simply says the following.

[00:10:26] Hi, Paul. I have just listened to the latest podcast. Congratulations on becoming an Elinchrom ambassador. I enjoyed hearing the story of you buying your first strobe and how it has led to you becoming a brand ambassador all these years later. I am probably in a very similar situation to where you were in 2003 i.e. Just thinking of buying my first strobe and I wondered which light you would recommend now. I've been looking at the Godox AD200 as I'm on a limited budget, but we'd love to hear your thoughts.

[00:10:57] So there you go. Nice email from Steve and in the process of sitting and tapping a pencil on my teeth as I do. I have actually emailed him back and so this is in some senses a transcript of that email, but I thought it'd be an interesting podcast too. Chew on why you choose the kit. You do. So obviously when I'm going back to someone who asks a question like that, and we get these kinds of questions all the time, what camera, what lighting, what software. In the end. You have to make these decisions and they're all arbitrary, but you live with them for quite a long time.

[00:11:33] So how would I go about today, choosing my first strobe? So I have to caveat all of this conversation, as you now know. With the fact that as a brand ambassador for it puts me in an interesting position. Of course, I want to recommend nothing but 'Chroms. Why would I do anything else? But of course, That doesn't suit everybody.

[00:11:57] The budgets don't suit everybody. And even in my bag, my camera bag right now. I have a Nikon SB800. I have two Godox V1's. And coincidentally, two Godox AD200's. Because they're small, they do their job. The SB800 is then there because occasionally I want to have on-camera flash. Nikon, well, it plays better with Nikon the than it does with Godox.

[00:12:21] So I've got that in there. Um, permanently with it's AA batteries, for those moments when I want to do an on-camera flash very often a direct flash, old school photo journalist style. Whether I'm doing a wedding or without doing something a little bit more commercial either way, but it's a very versatile rig.

[00:12:38] And I, at the moment, I don't have an answer to how I'm going to change that. To step a little bit more into line with the Elinchroms. Now don't get me wrong at all. It was a proper emotional moment when I fired up the 'Chroms. Uh, for the first time in an, in anger, I suppose, as the expression, for two paying clients, as opposed to doing junior workshop. We're in a workshop, you have time to think.

[00:13:01] So I have time to reset. I have time, to adapt when I'm working with a client, of course, it's quick fire. I had a two year old and a four year old in in the afternoon. And I had a dog in the morning, the knee, none of these are patient. You don't have time. So actually working them was app was brilliant, even if I'll be honest, I haven't quite got my arms around it.

[00:13:24] So to answer the question, the AD200 is a really good light. So instead of saying, here's what, here's the right answer. Here's the kit you want? I posed some questions and here's the question list I went back to Steve with for him to answer.

[00:13:41] Firstly, and most importantly, what is your budget? And then add 25%, possibly 50%. cause no matter what you think you needed, you're going to need more, whether it's spare batteries, whether it's modifiers to put on the front, whether it's a bracket, that'll put it onto a normal light stand, whatever it may be. You're going to need to add that on the AD200's very good, they're a little bit fiddly. But they are exceptionally. Good for what they do.

[00:14:04] And even if, and even, sorry, not with, when I'm out there using my Elinchroms, I am sure that the AD200's will never be far away for little bits of fill light or effects lighting, when I need it.

[00:14:16] Do the triggers. This is an important one about studio lighting in particular off-camera flashlight ING. Do the triggers for that system feel right to you? All too often, the bit that is missing from any money fractures lineup is the trigger. They're, they're made, they do their job, but they're not user-friendly.

[00:14:34] And I have to say, even after however many years I was using the Profoto. synchro Air TTL. It was never my favorite trigger. I get frustrated with Godox as well is nine times out of 10 when I'm using a strobe, I'm using it in the dark. So what's the one thing I want to be lit up.

[00:14:51] It's the buttons on the triggers. I. I know what I'm doing is really, I don't get how for a device that by definition, I'm going to use when the light levels are low. It really is difficult to use in low light levels. I just, yeah, just one of those things and it comes back a little bit. To what Lewis was saying about having the designers of these systems a little bit more transparent.

[00:15:14] I'd love to have more designers, more designer input. Sorry, more photographers input into the design processes of some of this kit. Because actually we use it. We know where its weaknesses are. We know what is frustrating when we're down there in the dirt. Trying to get things sorted.

[00:15:30] Next question.

[00:15:31] What adapters will you need to get a modifier onto the light or will you always use a bare head flash? I asked this because if you're using an AD200 nothing fits it until he put a modifier, a bracket on it that will take. Whether it's Elinchrom, whether it's Profoto, whether it's Godox themselves. Any S- type for instance, an S- type modifier on to the front, but you are going to have to buy some additional brackets. To make that possible.

[00:15:59] Are you going to expand the system?

[00:16:01] So Steve's email asked. W I'm buying or stated I'm buying my first strobe. What would you recommend? And part of the puzzle is what are you going to do in the future? Is this just one strobe, in which case an AD200 is perfectly fine. Is it going to be part of a set and will it all be the same style? They're big for speed lights, but they're little for strobes AD200's of, I don't know if you've seen them. They sort of look. Sort of rectangular, like, I dunno. Couple of bars of chocolate. taped together. They're not very big. They're very rectangular and they're very good.

[00:16:37] But will you always stay with this manufacturer? Are you going to buy into their system? Will you have a Godox controller? And then you'll add Godox studio lights Godox led lights Godox, more Speedlights what are you going to do? Because if you're going to stick with a system. Start with the system that ultimately you want to use.

[00:16:57] What modifiers ultimately do you want to use?

[00:17:00] Will it be umbrellas or boxes? Are they readily available and affordable. Of course, anything that clips onto an S type adapter, that's the old Bowens adapter, is really relatively speaking available and it's going to be not too expensive, because the manufacturers like good docs and picks was it picks a pro and a few of the others.

[00:17:20] They're all adult. Adapting and adopting the S type. And it means you get access to really good quality budget kit. To bolt onto the front. Or, you know, like me, are you fascinated with really beautiful light? And it's not that those modifies don't create beautiful light, but for me, just using a kit, I want to feel good about it. So I've stayed. I've had, I've stayed pretty much with Elinchrom, um, throughout, even though. I was using pro photo strobes.

[00:17:47] I was still using my old Elinchrom modifiers because they just lovely. Um, Is it. An additional question who inspires you? Maybe that's an obtuse question. But it's not a bad shout to have a look around. Photographers whose work you really like. And then it doesn't take long to go through their social feeds and figure out what they use.

[00:18:10] Because if there's a look you're trying to create, there's a lighting quality it's going to try and create. I mean, in the end, you'll form your own lighting, your own designs, your own style. And that's absolutely right. But more often than not, when you're starting out you're using ideas from other people, you're looking at social feeds, you're looking at websites, you're looking in magazines as much as magazines. It's still a thing.

[00:18:35] And you, you, the curiosity is peaked when you see a picture, you really like, and you're thinking, okay, how did they do that? It's never a bad idea to have a look at the kit they've used. And for us here in the studio, for instance, I will constantly look at images and try and figure out what lighting they've used.

[00:18:52] But of course then actually our studio isn't that big, so I have to figure out a way round that. The good news is if you can figure out a way around it, you can use pretty much any kit. The bad news is there are some things I can't do. There's some lighting patterns. I simply don't have the space typically overhead to be able to do. But either way go and have a look at the people you really, really admire and are inspired by and have a look at their kit and see if that's something that might feed in to the conversation.

[00:19:21] This is one of those techie dweeby things, but what is the battery life? And are you going to exceed it? And by battery life, I don't mean it, the total lifespan of the battery, I mean, is it going to go flat at the moment you really want to take a photograph and as such. How much are the spare batteries.

[00:19:38] Some of these manufacturers that, you know, in additional batteries, 500, 600, 700 quid. And it's fine if you've got the money. But. You know, maybe that's just too much. Or would you, for instance, if you're only going to work in a studio, will mains power do you? Now here at the studio, I've taken a view to move away from mains, but for no, not because I want to take the strobes out on location necessarily, but because we have children running around, we have dogs running around and having mains cables is not ideal.

[00:20:10] My Profoto B1's We're brilliant for that could keep them out of the way the kids, the tripods are all weighted down. There's no cables. The only downside is if I use the modeling lights, batteries are going to go flat pretty quickly. So have a look at the batteries and what strategy you're going to have for keeping things charged up during a day of shooting.

[00:20:29] And then the final one I think was do you need modeling lights? If you're like me a photographer that uses modeling lights as your guide, how are you going to do that with something like the AD200 and although the manufacturer Godox do claim that it has a modeling light on it, it's really small.

[00:20:45] It's not going to do you an all flood a good it's. Okay. If you're in a really dark space. And you just need to see what you're doing. It does. Okay. But it's not great. In my opinion from that, but if you don't need it, then that's absolutely, brilliant. So it's instead of answering really for Steve.

[00:21:03] I don't know what he was expecting: buy that one. that'll be fine. What could go wrong?

[00:21:07] I've opposed yet more questions. But I think this is how you choose your kit. And this goes across all types of kit. These are the types of questions. You need to ask yourself. And for me, I think the really important ones, the fundamental one. Is what is your budget?

[00:21:23] Because in the end, particularly if like me, you, when you're living from it, You have to show a return on that investment for every bit of kit you buy over its lifespan. What is your budget?

[00:21:36] The next thing you have to ask yourself is going to, is it going to do the job? I need it to do. Because as always, there's a thousand ways of doing everything. And every manufacturer will tell you their way is the right way.

[00:21:50] And every manufacturer is absolutely right. But what do you do? You got to pick one in the end.

[00:21:56] And that's the final question.

[00:22:00] Do you want to pick it up and do you want to use it? And that's the most important question of all when it comes to being creative. Because if you don't utterly love using the kit, it land. In a box and that is a proper waste of money. You have to buy the kit that you love and that makes you want to create images. That, that there's no getting around that because if you don't buy something that makes you smile and makes you want to pick up your camera and create a picture, then you'll never use it.

[00:22:31] And that really is, a waste of money.

[00:22:35] So on that happy note, this is a shorter episode. I'm hoping to go back to my weekly recordings, but we'll see how we go. So far so good. I hope the little interview snippet with Louis at the beginning, was interesting is only short, but I thought he had a really nice way about him and a really intriguing Viewpoint on the industry and it's always interesting to talk to these guys.

[00:22:55] As a thank you for him being recorded. I'm giving warehouse express a free plug. There's no arrangement here at all. I buy stuff from them. Much as I buy it from other suppliers too, but I really, I really rate warehouse expresses customer service. I have had. I'm sure if you troll around, you'll find people with different stories. But the story I have is they've always been exceptional. They've always delivered on time. They've always been good value. They are one of those companies where their customer service is rock solid and their stock levels also a pretty high. So if you want it, you can get it and you're going to get it when they say it will arrive.

[00:23:33] So you can't say much better than that. So on that happy note, thank you for listening. Thank you for getting into the end of this particular episode and as always, please do subscribe to the podcast, wherever it is that you get your podcasts. Please also leave us a review. Oh, I'm one of the main platforms.

[00:23:50] We love it when we see ratings and reviews on iTunes, because of course it is the biggest platform for podcasts of them all but wherever it is that you listen to your podcasts, please do leave us a review. Of course, if you ever have any questions, just like Steve did, please drop me a line.

[00:24:06] It's paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. That's paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. Um, I did mention the workshops we're running. We're ramping those up just at the moment, having a blast. It's so much fun. We've had the nicest models and more importantly, the nicest attendees on our workshops, they're very friendly.

[00:24:28] They're very funny. We have a really, just a good time laughing and taking or laughing and creating beautiful images. If you fancy one of our workshops, please head over to Paul Wilkinson photography and look for the coaching section or just Google paul Wilkinson photography workshops and you will land on them. Without a shadow of a doubt and head over to masteringportraitphotography.com, the spiritual home of this podcast. Which has a ton of resources for portrait photographers, whether it's about the creativity. The artistry, the enjoyment or the business of this wonderful art.

[00:25:02] And until next time when I should be presenting yet another snippet from the photography show. , thank you for listening and be kind to yourself. Take care.

Had a chance this week to go and enjoy some incredible sketches and watercolours at the Ashmolean in Oxford.  The artists?  The Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood - one of my favourite groups of artists. 

Somewhat uncharacteristically, we also developed some Ilford XP2 film (our daughter wants a film camera) and I've been testing a few old boxes we've had laying around for the past 20 years or more. The results, if I was being charitable, weren't a disaster.  But they weren't great either.

And that's in stark contrast to the camera I am using daily: the Nikon Z9.  

This camera is so utterly good that it is literally changing everything I have believed in since I first picked up a DSLR.  Have a listen and see if you agree with me (or not!)

Would love to hear your thoughts.

Also, a quick reminder, if you're listening to the BEFORE 20th September 2022, Sarah and I will be presenting on the Graphistudio stand at the Photography Show at 1pm - grandstanding as usual - and you can also catch us on the BIPP stand, doing business and portfolio reviews.

See you there!

Cheers
P.

If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography, for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. 

PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think!

If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. 

Well, this is the last episode of 2021.  Unless I find a moment to drag myself away from the turkey, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, cheese, Quality Street, sherry, wine, stuffing, more turkey, more cheese and maybe just a tad more sherry.  Oh go on then, if I must, best make it a small one.

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Grays Of Westminster - a legendary shop of all things Nikon.  I am speaking with Becky and Kon from the shop who not only run rings around me with their knowledge of Nikon gear but are two of the nicest people you can imagine!  It is a lovely interview, irrespective of the camera brand you use. Mostly we chat kit, customer service and the imminent Z9!

In the interview, I ask them both for the book recommendations.

Kon recommended Wonderland, by Annie Leibovitz: 

‘Looking back at my work, I see that fashion has always been there,’ Annie Leibovitz observes in the preface to Wonderland. ‘Fashion plays a part in the scheme of everything, but photography always comes first for me. The photograph is the most important part.  And photography is so big that it can encompass journalism, portraiture, reportage, family photographs, fashion ... My work for Vogue fueled the fire for a kind of photography that I might not otherwise have explored.’ 

Becky recommended The Real Deal, by Jo McNally

'Joe writes about everything from the crucial ability to know how to use (and make!) window light to the importance of creating long-term relationships built on trust; from lessons learned after a day in the field to the need to follow your imagination wherever it takes you; from the random and lucky moments that propel one s career to the wonders and pitfalls of today s camera technology. For every mention of f-stops and shutter speeds, there is equal discussion about the importance of access, the occasional moment of hubris, and the idea of becoming iconic. Before Joe was a celebrated and award-winning photographer, before he was a well-respected educator and author of multiple bestselling books, he was just Joe, hustling every day, from one assignment to the next, piecing together a portfolio, a skill set, a reputation, a career. He imagined a life and then took pictures of it. Here are a few frames.'

I'll be adding them to the library!

If you'd like to see some of their videos, they can be found on YouTube (or just search for 'Grays Of Westminster')

Have a wonderful Christmas, one and all and here's to a happy New Year!

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography, where there are articles and videos about this beautiful industry. 

PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think!

If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. 

If you'd like to use one of the other players out there, why not try Vurbl?  

So it's Sunday as I both record and write this and I'm having a frankly chilled day.  Not that this is in any way your worry, but I thought I'd tell you.

This episode is a rebuttal of my own grumpy podcast (EP113) when I seem to have spent most of it muttering about my Z7ii and how it isn't quite there yet.  Well, this one is the other extreme - here are the reasons I think mirrorless and, by extension, the Nikon Z9 is about to come of age.  If the spec of the Z9 is correct (I don't have my hands on one yet - it's ordered and paid for but could be a while) then this camera won't just be the pinnacle of mirrorless as we know it, it will be the start of a whole new generation of cameras and capability.  Seriously.  

I also give a shameless (and, just to be clear, unpaid) plug for the wonderful institution that is Grays Of Westminster - simply the best Nikon shop in the world.  I should add, I don't know if there are other dedicated Nikon shops in the world.  I don't care if there are: Grays would still come out on top. It is truly like Ollivander's Wand Shop in Harry Potter. But with lenses not wands. And customer service that is every bit as personal.

If you're curious they can be found at https://www.graysofwestminster.co.uk/ and they also have a fabulous range of 2nd hand kit in their online store. 

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography, where there are articles and videos about this beautiful industry. 

PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think!

If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. 

If you'd like to use one of the other players out there, why not try Vurbl?  

Switching to a mirrorless system was always going to happen - SLRs (and their requisite mirrors) are slowly heading the same way as film, dark rooms, Black Forest gateaux, prawn cocktail and sandals with socks. Though I happen to love Black Forest gateaux. And film.  And the darkroom.  Prawn cocktails and sandals with socks, well they can stay in the history books!

Anyway, James Keen DM'd me on Instagram and asked for an update on my move to mirrorless and so, while clattering my way home in the Land Rover from a perfect Oxfordshire wedding, here are my thoughts.  With a few rattly sound effects in the background just for authenticity.

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography, where there are articles and videos about this beautiful industry. 

PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think!

If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. 

If you'd like to use one of the other players out there, why not try Vurbl?  

In this episode, I get to to sit and chat with Chris Cooze, Technical Communications & Training Manager at Hasselblad. It has been a real pleasure for me to have both the Hasselblad X1D and H6D for a couple of months here at the studio and it was Chris, along with Hasselblad's European Marketing Manager, Mark Witney, who came to the studio to help me get the most out of the kit.  Who knows, maybe we'll add medium format to the capability here for our studio portraits!

In the interview, we chat about life, the universe (well, the moon anyway) and the future of medium format.  

Chris is a lovely guy and an accomplished photographer in his own right, as well as being Hasselblad's technical go-to person, and his own work can be found on his personal website.

As we build our little photographer's library, Chris recommends Patrick Demarchelier during the interview. He has a vast back-catalogue of fashion images so this link takes you to Abe Books and lists the titles he has available there. Enjoy!

If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography where there are articles and videos about this wonderful industry.  You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, PodBean and Spotify.

PLEASE also leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think!

If there are any topics you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would simply like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk 

In this podcast it is an absolute joy to interview the fantastic documentary photographer, Mark Seymour.  Mark has spent many years at the top of the wedding profession but is equally at home (maybe more at home these days) creating iconic street documentary images - so much so that images are featured in the National Geographic magazine.

In the interview we talk about many aspects of life, the job and family and Mark's disaster one fateful day when a concerned wedding venue had to call to ask him why he hadn't yet arrived!

As an avid collector of books, Mark mentions three in particular (though the titles here are not quite as he recalls):

1. Contact Sheets, Magnum (one that we have featured previously)
2. The Life Of A Photograph by Sam Abell  (during the podcast, Mark refers to this as "Two Shots" which may have been an overseas title of the book - at least, I couldn't find any reference to a book of that name but, given Mark's description, this appears to be the correct one.)
3. The World from My Front Porch by Larry Towell

These links go to abebooks.co.uk which has a vast range of titles available and is noticeably cheaper than Amazon!

If you're interested in attending one of Mark's incredible Street Photography courses, details can be found here.

If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography where there are articles and videos about this wonderful industry.  You can subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, PodBean and Spotify.

PLEASE also leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think!

If there are any topics you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would simply like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk 

I am frequently asked to advise on what would I buy if I started from scratch so, as I drink a last coffee (decaf of course!) before heading out to shoot a glorious, sunny wedding, I ponder on those initial purchases: what and why.  And it includes good shoes. Who knew?