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.     

Imagine that every person had exactly the same fashion taste. Imagine if each of us had the same clothing or the same hairstyle.  Imagine that everyone was the same height and build.  Imagine that everyone had identical makeup.

Just imagine.

Of course, it's a nonsense - different styling suits different people. Short, tall, thin, round, dark-skinned, fair-skinned, red-heads, blondes, straight haired, curly haired: everyone looks for something different to bring out their best.

So why do so many photographers light their subjects using the exact same lighting pattern without adjusting for the variety of life? Why?

I can't answer that but I do have a view!

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

 Well, it's the end of an incredibly busy week and an incredibly busy day. And today the temperature hasn't. Risen above freezing. It's so cold that our shower at home has frozen. The Landrover won't start. And the two clients, the two families I've had in today who desperately wanted to go out. And take pictures in the wintery Wonderland were sadly disappointed when even they couldn't last more than about 10 minutes at a go. 

So we've been based in the studio, which is where I am right now. I'm Paul. And this is the mastering portrait photography  📍 podcast. 

 

   So hello.  how are you all doing? I must apologize. I spent quite a lot of the year with this ambition. I'm going to record. A podcast every week or every other week. And in fact, I haven't looked, but I think. Apple. Uh, quotes, the masteringportraitphotography.com podcast is being monthly.  It shouldn't be monthly. 

It should really be weekly, but it's been such a busy year. It's been a kind of a year that I'm glad if I'm honest. That we're at the end of it, where it's a new, fresh, shiny new year.  2024 has been reasonably successful on many fronts has been incredibly successful, but it has also been brutal a grueling year, I think, by any measure with not an awful lot of good news around. Um,  You know, Uh, various things happening. But we survived it. 

We hit our numbers, but we've had to work so, so hard to do it. And I think I careened into Christmas. Like one of those videos of cars on icy Hills, much as I fought it. There was nothing I could do. To stop it. So.  We're here. It's 20, 25 it's January. And once more, I'm sitting. At the microphone, today's been a busy day. 

We've had a couple of family shoots and yes, they wanted desperately to go out. Into the frost, but when we stepped out there, they didn't last any more than 10 minutes. Uh, piece and that's not that much of a surprise. So we already had the studio nice and warm.  And we've been working in there. But one of the things that's happening at the end of this month is Sarah and myself are heading off working with crystal cruises for seven weeks. 

That's a long stint of working, but it does also mean that we've had to clear a hole in the diary and all of the work that it would normally done normally be done in those seven weeks. Has had to be done either prior or after we get back.  Which has meant that we have been running at a hundred. Miles an hour with back-to-back shoots even yesterday. Um, one of my favorite gigs of the year, as , I know, you know, because I've talked about it. 

Incessantly is the Royal institution. Uh, Christmas lectures. Now at the end of last year, I photograph the three lectures. And for those of you who are in the UK, you can watch those on the BBC I play. They will with Chris fan, Dr. Chris van  Uh, talking about big food, talking about ultra processed foods. How it works and how it affects, uh, in particular. Our kids.  A really, really interesting and exciting set of lectures. 

And we usually shoot the PR. For these, the BBC lectures sometime around July or August. Um, but this year, this year we've had to do it slightly differently. So we were in London yesterday. I can't tell you who the lecturer is or what the topic is. But I can tell you that we were in London yesterday with the Royal institution photographing this year's publicity photos they'd been brought forward incredibly early. Uh, for not just because of our diary, but because of the presenter's diary to.  And so instead of doing it in July, we've done it in the first couple of weeks of January, but that's been on top of everything else. We're doing so it's been a hell of a week. 

And then today, if I'm honest, I'm quite tired. It's not also been the best. Start to the end that we've had a few bits fail. I've just had a monitor fail. If anyone has a great alternative to my Ben Q my trustee, Ben Q 27 inch. Something or other. Um, it just stopped working. Uh, it flickers on and off, and it doesn't seem to be anything. I can do to stop it.  I have tried. Every test I can think of, but no, it looks like. It looks like the monitor has died. 

 So I've had to replace it with a monitor that our son left lying around. Uh, which is to be fair to Dell. It's not an awful monitor. Um, I calibrated it and it's reaching about 90% of Adobe RGB, which isn't half bad. Uh, but I'd quite like to get back to my hundred percent. Uh, Adobe RGB coverage, because when you're doing color correction, you really do want to know that your images are a color-correct.

I could do with it. My second monitor. I love my iMac. Uh, but I don't trust the iMac display to give me accurate colors. So I've got a second monitor. That's always calibrated with it alongside. Um, to show me exactly how the colors will be in that one has suddenly died. But anyway, how are things with all of you? 

How was your year? How have you been.  Uh, I hope it was a good year. I hope you had a really good break. Over Christmas. And I hope you've started the new year full of ideas, full of inspiration. Um, and full of energy. Um, next week is the society's convention in London. Which historically has been such an incredible start to the year. 

I always love it.  It's back in its slot in January. Uh, and that is for me, at least the perfect place for it because you get to do a few days judging. You get to do a lot of socializing and I get to present masterclasses. And all of these other things. And so the whole thing is just the best. Energizer for the year.  And spending time with so many incredible photographers and friends of ours across the industry, whether it's on the photography side. Or whether it's on the trade side. so many amazing, amazing people cannot wait.

 

So if you're around in about next week, please do come and say hello. I'll be there all days. I'll be there Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Uh, I'm on stage on Friday and Saturday, 

 

 I'm doing a couple of stints, um, at the convention this time round. Uh, I'm onstage on Friday and Saturday. Uh, I'm doing a masterclass.  Uh, called, uh, creating the coolest composites on Friday from four 30, till six. And that's all about bringing multiple images together, whether it's, um, family groups, whether it's corporate, where you photographing individual headshots at different times, or they're doing something cooler. Where, uh, your taking multiple images or acceptive images and place them onto new backgrounds. 

All of these are composites and there are techniques and ideas. For shooting that make all of that seamless, whether you're using. Um, playing backgrounds, whether you're using hand-drawn backgrounds or whether you're using, um, AI of course.  And so this will be. Uh, that's on Friday at four 30, till six. 

I think that's the last slot people, the drinks. So, uh, I might be doing it at a pace to make sure everyone can get out of the room, get into their posh togs and go down to the awards. So many and then on the 18th, Uh, on the Saturday.  We're doing high key, low key, which is a variant of some videos we've done before, but it's all about pushing to the extremes. Um, using very simple lighting to create incredible high key, bright white, uh, images, and equally going to the other end of the spectrum. Um, and shooting those dark moody sumptuous, um, low key images. That's on the Saturday from four 30 to six. I'm also going to be presenting on the Ellen. From stage. Um, throughout the convention.  I can't remember exactly what times. Uh, I'm there, but if you look it up on the schedules, Uh, Alan Crum schedules, you'll be able to find me and we're just doing mastering portrait photography. 

So we're just going to create incredible images with what I consider to be the best lighting in the business. So that's next week. That's the convention in London.  So please do come and say hello, whether it's to one of the two master classes. And if you have a convention pass, they're both free. Um, or if you want to come in. Uh, have a play or what you're saying, having a play, I suppose, on the Ellyn Crump state, then please do come and say hello.

 So I'll have to be honest. Um, this podcast is one of my unscripted. Sit down at a microphone and see what happens, sort of podcasts. I do apologize. It's just been a very long week, a very busy week. Um, and.  Sometimes it just Wells that way. And I just ended up sitting here thinking, oh, w w what should we talk about? 

Well, let me talk about a workshop. We ran this week because some points came up during it that I think. Are quite, uh, interesting now the master class or workshop this week. Was, um, booked as a one to one. And one of the things we are in a lovely position to do at our studio is we can run our scheduled workshops and they're an absolute blast. 

And people love having a fixed date. They can book in, turn up one of a crowd.  Um, and those are hugely popular, but equally we have people come to us to do one-on-one. So you get to pick your topic, we've sourced the models. Um, you can spend the entire day dedicated to whatever it is. That you feel you need. 

And so this week, um, a few guys came down.  Uh, from a camera club in the Midlands. And instead of it being one of our pre scheduled. Workshops. It was a masterclass, a one-on-one, but they booked. Extra places. So the three of them. Could come now, this works really, really well. If all three of you or all three of the delegates or 10 DS. Ah, of broadly the same standard and have the same interest and have the same goals. Because if you all do then. Even though it's a, um, a group think style workshop. It can be done in the style of a one on one, because we are showing it, going to teach the topic and everyone. Gets to S two. Explore it and play with it. And everyone, no one feels left out and no one feels like someone else is taking too much time because they're all doing the same thing or wishing to learn the same thing.  Um, and this particular one-on-one was all about. Getting the most out of lighting. 

Now, when we hear that, when we read the brief, we get the emails, people contact us. Whenever entirely certain. What it is that they really mean, and also what it is that they don't know because of course, people don't know. I mean, this is the Rumsfeld paradox is that people don't know what they don't know.  And so as a trainer, as a, as someone running a workshop, Um, part of the role is to try and figure out what would be useful. 

And so when they leave, it feels like you've answered that question. And I think from the feedback we got, we did do this, but it's always a bit of a puzzle. Um, and it, it was really interesting and. I think this was one of my favorite one-on-one workshops that we run this week in the morning, we had Abby who came so that we could just do simple portraits, simple light setups. Um,  And talk through how you develop the lighting and then in the afternoon, Uh, Jess and other one of our regular models came. And Jess is a gymnast and a dancer. 

Um, and so, uh, they wanted to learn, the guys wanted to learn how to light. And, uh, uh, capture dance and movement. So those are the two sort of ends of the spectrum and they're actually quite different things. To do. And I'll post some of the images up with some lighting diagrams.  Uh, onto the masteringportraitphotography.com. Uh, website at some point. 

Um, but it's been, it was an absolute through, but what surprised me? I think juring the masterclass and it didn't just surprise me. It saddened me. Was that the guys had been regularly going to a studio where everything is pre-set. So the lights are at the powers. They are they're in the positions. 

They are, you can do what you like in the middle, but you not to change. The lighting and I don't think I've ever taken three pictures of the same person without changing the lighting each time. So to hear this from the guys broke my heart a little bit. I think.  Now I can take. Take you back to 2008 when, um, I first joined the MPA, the master photographers association, which is now sadly. Uh, disbanded, but back then in 2008, when you joined,  um, you had to, or you didn't have to, but you went to an induction day. You, I had no idea what to expect. 

I had not long turned full-time as a pro. And so I rocked up to a conference in the middle of, in the Midlands, in, in England. And sat and went and listened through a whole series of seminars on different things, different aspects of, I dunno, portrait, photography, wedding, photography, studio, photography, lifestyle, all sorts of things. 

It was actually a very, very, very productive day. It was the day that I first met the person that was going to become, uh, my incredible mentor, Kevin Wilson.  And it was also the day that I nearly threw the towel in and left the MPA. And it was because one of the presenters stood up. And he started talking about lighting and he talked about lighting studio lighting. In a way that was so dry was so technical. 

So mathematical.  That I couldn't believe that something is creative as taking a photograph, particularly when you have control over the lights had been boiled down. To a whole series of numbers.  One stop on this half a stop later on that two stops later on those two. And you've got your picture. And that was literally the process.  Now I do understand. And in fact, not just understand, but love the fact that studio lighting can be technical. 

I absolutely adore the fact that this technical I'm a geek. I love all of that stuff. Um, it's one of the reasons I've gone back to Allen Chrome is because I love what they're doing with the technology. I adore it. But it's not, that's not creative. That's not how you. Produce beautiful art. That's not how you engage a client. 

That's not how you capture the mood of a moment. You don't do that with numbers. You can't do that with numbers now, I suppose. You could argue that if your lighting is secured and you're not worrying about that, then you can concentrate on your subjects. Okay. I'll take that as an argument. I do understand that might be. Where people are.  But let me put it a different way. What if we said, I don't know.  Jeans and a t-shirt or a suit and a tie. Our perfect uniform for everybody you photograph, let's do it that way around. Let's just assume that clothing. Is exactly the same for everybody. 

Now, the minute I say it, you can hear how stupid that sounds. So why would light. Be the same for every subject clothes, the same clothes don't suit everybody. Nor does the same lighting. If you have around figure around face, then you use the lighting, maybe. Two. Change that into something that the client would prefer. Now, obviously you have to tread a very gentle game and not so clients. One thing, different clients want different things. 

So maybe you have to shoot narrow. Maybe you have to shoot broad, maybe have to shoot with the softest light you've ever shot. Maybe you have to shoot with the hardest light. You've ever shot.  But not changing the light for every single subject. And in my case for every single image.  Doesn't make any sense? 

Why would you not change it? So when a guy said that, It really? It did surprise me. I'm honest. I wasn't expecting that. Um, and it saddened me because it was such an opportunity. Last, I think, um, that they're going into a studio and not able to change everything. So we spent an entire day, an entire day. Moving the lights we set in the lights.  Changing staff. Uh, we use some color lights. 

We did RC in the end. One of the things one of the guys wanted to learn. With how to combine movement. So dragging the shutter.  How to combine movement along with the studio strobes. So you get that. Sort of, um, it's a really beautiful effect. It's not one that I go to very often. Where you have a blurred image and at the end you have pop of the flash and it freezes just the end of the movement. Um, so Jess very patiently. 

She danced. She swerved. She spun.  She did all of these things so that we could practice or they could practice with, uh, dragging the shutter.  And it was. A really liberating day, just going through the principles of lighting, because with all of this stuff, if you understand.  

Why things work? Why you do certain things? Why, why you have a wide open? Sorry, why you have a long shutter speed too, to capture movement, but why the pulse of the light then freezes that movement at the last second. If you have rear curtains sink, if you understand all the bits of the puzzle. Um, you can piece it together for almost anything. Um, and so we spent the morning creating beautiful portraits of Abby and we spent the afternoon creating well havoc, basically lots of movement. Lots of color, um, with Jess. 

And I think there's the rub is that. When you're working in the studio. Every time you press that shutter button. Every single time you press that shutter button. It really should be not just a unique experience between you and the setter. Not just a unique moment in time. But you should have lit it. Like it's a unique moment. It's not just same old, same old. Don't just stick the lights on the wall.  Or in a high glider on their tripods. I love them at their regular settings. Take a look at your client is their skin shiny. In which case will you put the lights in the same place system on who's got very matte skin, um, are their clothes, clothes absorbing light? Because white. Tee shirts and white blouses. I create kicker light under the chin. 

Whereas black clouds don't.  Would you like them? The same? Is that the effect you're looking for? Um, Do you have a client with blonde hair or dark hair, because that will give you slightly different lighting patterns in the hair. Um, do they have a wide face or a narrow face or more importantly? How do they want their features to look. Because if you've got someone wearing contoured makeup and deep foundation, the chances are that person would quite like their skin to look smooth and their cheekbones and her jawline. To have shape. Whereas, if someone's just wearing, let's say the minimal amount of foundation.  Um, they may just want their face to look exactly the way. Um, it does naturally, without any shadows on it, you need to talk, you need to listen and you need to observe. And when you do that. Then, if you have the knowledge of why you like things in certain ways to do certain things, You can then piece that together, but you certainly never leave the lights. The way they are for every single image. 

And if I've one pet peeve and I'll finish this slight runs, it's not meant to be. And I don't know how I got here. Um, I was just thought I'd sit down and record a podcast. Cause it's been way too long. And to Paul from Chester. Um, I do apologize it. Nice comment on Instagram. We have something along the lines of, when will I find a moment to sit and record? Another podcast cause he enjoys them. 

So here GoPro, here you go. Paul. Here's that moment, but I haven't scripted it and I haven't really thought about it and I've ended up tub thumping a little bit.  Um, But I guess the point I'm making is spend the time understanding why you do what you do.  Um, why you play slights, why you post people and then use that knowledge you use that. Process. Two. Create the very best for each and every one. Of your subjects. 

Um, that's anyway, that's my thought for the day. So on that happy note, I'm going to go and have cottage pie. Uh, Sarah has been to, uh, Waitrose in town and has bought the stuff to make cottage pie. And I love it's my favorite meal. I think I know that's a bit prosaic and I don't know why it's my favorite, but it is. 

I love cottage by. Um, there's something really beautiful about it and given just how cold it is at the moment, it'll be wonderfully warming.  So for those of you around next week, we'd love to see you. Uh, for those of you cursed by our workshops. I think we have one workshop. We have one place on one workshop left. Uh, before we head off to work, uh, abroad for seven weeks.  And that's, uh, on mastering off-camera lighting. Uh, it's a workshop on, he says looking it up. 

It's a workshop on January, January the 20th. So just to just over a week away. Well, I think we've got one place left and we're going to explore assay many of the topics. That we did on the workshop this week, where we balance, um,  Uh, available light with, uh, off-camera flash off camera, tungsten notes, eyesight tungsten showing my age off-camera led people. Uh, I don't think we ever either. 

Remember the last time I used the tungsten light or a halogen light for anything. It's all absolutely led these days. So it's going to be a brilliant day. Um, exploring light lighting patterns. Um, Different ideas and showing how you can do everything from creating the most natural light all the way through to the most complex.  Uh, on that note as well on off-camera flash. Uh, look out over the next day or two for a video on exactly this off-camera flash, which, uh, Sarah, myself and Katie put together. Um, a few weeks ago, I've just finished the edits. 

I finished the edits for that last night. Um, and that will go up onto mastering portrait photography. For those of you who are members. Uh, it's a 30 minute video all about this very topic. So if you fancy having a look at that, please do. Become a subscriber. Where you can not only find tons of videos, tons of articles and lighting diagrams, but also get access to our Facebook page, our Facebook community, where you can ask questions and get answers from a really positive, energetic crowd. 

And I should say hi to all of the guys who are already in there. There's just a joy. I'm on that group.  Has never a negative word said everyone's really positive and enthusiastic and it will stay that way because we make sure. It stays that week  📍 stays that way. Sorry. So on that happy note, I'm going to go and fill it with some carbohydrate, a glass of wine, and have a nice cozy evening in front of the tele.

Um, and until next time, whatever else you do  be kind to yourself. Take care.       

So after three days of judging images for the British Institute Of Professional Photographers, it's time for me to step down from my role as Chair Of Awards And Qualifications.  I have been in the role for three years and it is time for someone else to pick up the reins and run with it (if that isn't a mixed metaphor.)

I have loved doing this and if it weren't for a million things I have to go on and do, I think I would do it forever!  So as I drive home from my last round of qualifications - possibly the best one I've ever been involved in - here are a few musings of things I have spotted.

This is a 'Tales From The Land Rover' edition so please forgive the audio quality and any mild road rage!

Enjoy!

 

Cheers
P.

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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

EP158 Heading Home From The Awards

Introduction and Event Recap

[00:00:00] Paul In The Defender: So for those of you who love the Land Rover episodes, you'll be thrilled to hear that I'm just leaving the BIPP, the British Institute of Professional Photography Awards, uh, event 2024 25. Uh, why do we call it 2024 and 2025 is because if you get an award at the end of a year, it's a real pain from a marketing point of view if you can only say you have an award for 2024. So we call it 2024 slash 25, uh, just to extend the marketing value. So you're, you hold the titles for a year, , so why wouldn't we? Anyway, that's where I've been. I've just spent an absolute fortune on some fuel, uh, because I hadn't got a lot of choice but to fill up at a service station.

[00:00:47] And I am just pulling in to traffic. He says, concentrating on driving.

Driving and Multitasking

[00:00:52] Paul In The Defender: I had a lovely, uh, lovely email from someone this week. , sorry I'm driving so I can't, uh, look up your name. I'm so, I think it was John McCarthy. I'm gonna go with John McCarthy. , who said, amongst many other things, uh, he doesn't know how I drive and record a podcast at the same time.

[00:01:09] Well, the answer to that is I drive. And chat. Uh, there's not a lot of structure to it, , and a few people have said this week they like the podcast like that, uh, because, uh, they find it interesting to hear me ad libbing. I don't know whether that's, I don't know whether there's merit in that, but yeah, I am ad libbing because driving is the priority.

[00:01:30] They also said, uh, John said, I'm sure it's John McCarthy. I hope it is, if not, uh, I'm crediting somebody who's a fictional character. , he also said that uh, he can hear in everything we're talking about just how busy we are here at the studio. And it must be hard to find the time to fit in to do the podcast, and it is, which is why, uh, I am recording while driving.

[00:01:52] , but he did also go on to say, he loves it when we do them. Uh, they are really valuable. They don't just disappear out there into the ether. There are lots of you out there in the photographic community listening to, uh, hopefully enjoying, uh, at least to a, a greater or lesser degree, the podcast.

[00:02:10] So here we are. I'm Paul, and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast. Well, hello one and all. Uh, I am in relatively. Reasonably slow, fast ish, medium paced traffic, which is not good for me getting home quickly. I've got about an hour and a half of driving, but it is good from a road noise point of view 'cause at this speed, the road noise in my Land Rover isn't quite as, uh, intrusive as it would be. I see. It's not so much the road noise as the wind noise in this thing. I'm just looking at the other side of the motorway and thinking, I'm glad I'm not going that way 'cause it's must have been an accident.

[00:03:01] It's absolutely log jammed.

Reflections on a Photography Career

[00:03:04] Paul In The Defender: Uh, so what have I been up to? Well, it was the awards. It was the British Institute of Professional Photography International Awards yesterday in, uh, Bromsgrove, which is in Birmingham, in the Midlands, in the heart, in the heart of the country. Uh, an absolutely wonderful event.

[00:03:20] Lots of our friends and lots of colleagues, lots of photographers, uh, having a drink, having a laugh, and celebrating some of the very best images. That you can, uh, possibly imagine is absolutely brilliant. Uh, I have to say it's my last formal event as chair, uh, of qualifications and awards of the BIPP and I.

[00:03:41] I guess I have to just say a quick thank you, uh, to Martin Bains and the guys at the British Institute for asking me to take on the role. It has been the honor of a lifetime. You know, when you start out in photography, I, I was just a kid with a camera. Actually, to be fair, I still probably am, uh, just a kid with a camera.

[00:04:02] I've just grown quite a lot older and now earn my living from it. But the enthusiasm and the awe and wonder of what you can do with this gadget hasn't diminished at all in the time since I first picked one up at age, sort of, seven or eight or whatever age I was when my grandfather's, uh, Kodak Brownie.

[00:04:21] So to be. Chair of Quals And Awards for the oldest photographic association in the world has truly been the honor of a lifetime and when Martin asked me if I'd take that on three years ago, I think I might have been a bit reticent because I wasn't quite sure whether I could deliver what he needed, but hopefully we've gone on to answer the question.

[00:04:42] That was an emphatic yes and he, he and the board let me create a program and methods and standards That I think we can be really proud of. , and at the end of the, uh, sorry, at the beginning of the awards yesterday, so it's the end of my tenure. It's my last one as chair. So it is a, it is a sort of a bittersweet moment for me 'cause I've loved it.

[00:05:01] Uh, I'm only stepping down because I desperately need to find time to do a load of other things. And now is the time after three years, all the work we've done, uh, you know, on the, on the judging side for me, but particularly on Sarah. Putting in processes and making sure you can get judges when you need them.

[00:05:18] , so I'm gonna say thank you to Martin, thank you to the B-I-P-P-A huge thank you to Sarah. And thank you to all the judges who've judged with me, , who've been part of the team. , hopefully over the coming years I'll be able to stand back on the other side of the line and judge alongside the judges that for the past few years I've been sitting in front of while chairing.

Honorary Fellowship Award

[00:05:38] Paul In The Defender: , the other thing that happened last night, , so forgive me, this is a very personal. It's one of those things where I don't know quite how to do it, but I'm so chuffed I'm going to tell you anyway. I was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the BIPP. So, if you're not in the industry, I guess it's hard to articulate just how rare these things are and what an honor they are.

[00:06:04] There's only 26 or 27 Honorary Fellows in the industry. And as of now, I am also one. I already had my Fellowship. I got that in 2011. , Uh, but I now have an Honorary Fellowship, which is, it's been given to me. It's engraved on the thing is for services to the BIPP, which I rather like it. Uh, so it's just a real privilege to be given that, , I never, you know, just being chair of quals was to be honest, gratitude enough but it is still a lovely thing to be presented with. And that will carry with me for the rest of my life, you know. You keep that title, , and I'm so proud. I was so surprised and pleased last night and so proud now.

[00:06:50] But I must also just put out there that, although it is me because I'm the photographer, it's my letters. , actually, this particular one has to be 50 percent Sarah. It's Sarah that coordinated the judges. It's Sarah that managed things and runs me. It's Sarah that manages my time. It's Sarah, and even last night, several of the judges were telling me they were sad to see me step down, but actually, , it's Sarah they're really gonna miss.

[00:07:16] So, uh, this goes to Sarah more than anybody else. Uh, so that's a huge, huge thank you. Right, traffic's all braking. Good job I've left lots of gaps, that's nice. Right, so, what was today's topic?

Key Ingredient for Great Portraits

[00:07:31] Paul In The Defender: Today's topic is, , based on a question that a client asked me the other day. So I was photographing a beautiful family, mother, father, nine month old baby,

[00:07:42] The weather? Horribly unkind. It was cold and raining. Your perfect blend of the two types of weather that you don't really want to photograph a baby in. However, we did some studio work and the little girl possibly got a little warm and a little bit grouchy, and so we stepped outside just to see if we could get anything and it turned out, actually, just going out into the cool air, uh, sort of, she, completely cheered up so i think she might just have been a little bit warm or she just didn't like being in the environment of the studio i don't know which but out in the cool air so her mom's holding a huge umbrella over her she sat on one of my our doormats from the studio and scattered the front edge edge with leaves so it looks like the little girl is sitting in this beautiful sort of array of leaves but she's actually sitting on a dry mat in the middle of our lawn and beautiful light and of course when you have water around and Those sort of gloomy bluish tones from a cloudy sky actually the colors pop, you get these oranges and greens that are really interesting.

[00:08:45] So we got these incredible pictures and, and afterwards we're sitting chatting and it was the, it was my client, it was the dad said, so what is it? He said, what is it that makes, what's the, the one thing you have to have to make a great portrait? Ah, well, you know, you don't ask someone like me to talk about stuff like that, or at least you don't if you want a short answer.

[00:09:05] Uh, so of course the obvious answer, , I'm a lighting specialist. , I love portraiture, but I've always been fascinated by light, its qualities, its colour, the, the shadows that it creates, and I think light obviously is a key ingredient, and I think if you were being Purely pragmatic, you'd have to say the one thing you need to create a great photograph is light.

[00:09:31] There has to be light because without it, it's dark, and if it's dark, you've not got a picture. So, that's a really pragmatic answer, but it's a bit dull and a bit obvious. And as I'm a portrait photographer, and during that day, I was taking his baby's portrait, and I've taken their portraits before now. It got me on to think, what is it?

[00:09:48] What is that primal? Thing that absolutely makes a portrait. And I think it's a relationship. That is my answer. , it's the relationship you form. Oh man, we're in a rolling roadblock. , that's what's going on. , so there's a slow moving, uh, police car or two.

[00:10:06] At the front of, , this particular traffic jam, so we're now travelling at 10 miles an hour. Uh, if we, if we carry on travelling at 10 miles an hour, I'm assuming we won't, but if we do, uh, I'll still be travelling home tomorrow. It's going to take us a while. I'm going to assume up, up ahead, somewhere, they're having to clear an accident, and so all of the traffic, we're sitting straight behind, , a police vehicle.

[00:10:28] Anywho, uh, let's talk about the relationship. If you're creating portraits, the one ingredient that you cannot get away without to create a great portrait is a connection with your client.

[00:10:43] When you connect with your client, when you create that magic between you, , then something happens and yes, you need beautiful light, of course you do, but in that moment, that split second when they look down the lens and you, uh, fire the shutter, if you have some kind of connection with your client, people who see that picture later will feel it.

[00:11:08] It's a really subtle thing, but it's all about what happens when somebody else sees the picture. Because remember when you're holding a camera and you grab that shot. The ultimate consumer of the image isn't you. Yes, all right, you've got the camera, there's that moment, you can show the client if that's your particular workflow, , all of these things, but what you're doing is , you're going to show that image or the image is going to be shown by your client to somebody else.

[00:11:34] Normally, that's how it works.

[00:11:36] And if you've got that magical connection between you and the person in front of the camera, that connection seems to flow out to someone who views the image later. That's where the magic happens, and you really have to do it fast too. , when people come into our studio, we have an entire workflow that is based around getting our client to relax, getting them to feel comfortable.

[00:12:03] And we are starting to create a very temporary but very powerful relationship. It's not, it's not a love affair, but it is that sort of some kind of rapport. Where. You can have a conversation, you can laugh, you can maybe learn a little bit about someone, which is always lovely. And when you do that, when you pick up the camera, you, that sort of momentum of that relationship carries through.

[00:12:28] So if you tell 'em to look down the lens, it has a, a magic to it if you're tell, even if you're telling them to look slightly to the side or down, that still has a body language to it that feels comfortable. So for me and the kind of portraiture that I love, it's that. relationship that you build, that connection in the moment you hit the button, and that is the most important thing about a portrait, and it's beautiful.

[00:12:53] And I said this to my client, and I really hope he sort of thought, oh, okay, that's a, that's a, you know, useful answer. I don't know whether, , I think he might just be making chit chat, same, because it was, he's the client, and so that's the rapport, right? So instead of me asking the questions of it, he was asking questions, , of me.

[00:13:11] Anyway, there you go. Key ingredient other than light is a relationship, the connection with your sitter.

Masteringportraitphotography.com Launch

[00:13:19] Paul In The Defender: I know this is a short one as I'm pottling along, but I also wanted to take the opportunity in this podcast to formally, as much as, you know, anything is formal with me, to formally launch masteringportraitphotography.

[00:13:33] com. Now of course the website has been there for an eternity. It's been there pretty much ever since we launched the book. Actually on the book there might be some news coming, but I'll keep you posted if and when contracts get signed. , But the website's been there, it's had sort of content, but we've really only used it primarily for the podcast as its spiritual home.

[00:13:58] Yes, there's lots of articles, there've been tons of articles, , but we've never really used it as our first and foremost focus.

[00:14:14] Mastering Portrait Photography is now very much in our viewfinder, if you like, if you like the metaphor, and we are pushing a huge amount of energy and content into it. So every month there will be a long form video. By long form I mean half an hour. Video, uh, talking about something, uh, I think the ones that are up there at the moment, like I said, I'm in the Land Rover, and while I did make some notes, uh, prior to clipping on the microphone, I didn't make all of them, so I think there is how to structure a shoot is on there, uh, I think there is how to work in harsh sunlight in there, , I know the one that's on the editing screens at the moment is five ideas for off camera flash, oh, we're all speeding up again now.

[00:14:57] We're So it's about to get a little bit more background noise. They must have rescued whatever vehicle it was. , and so, uh, you get one long form video a month. There will also be an article a month, or every couple of weeks, with a lighting diagram. On top of that, there are the frame, room, whatever you want to call them, mock ups, where they are photorealistic Photoshop files that you can drop your own image into, and it just looks like that's how the image was put on a wall. Why do we do those? Well, originally it was to help sell, , wall art to our clients. Because obviously as a business, I need ways of getting them to visualize the, uh, the wall art that I'd like them to have. And the closer I can get it to photorealistic, the better it is.

[00:15:50] Because they'll, they can't touch it. Because. That we haven't made it yet. And the old adage in sales, if they can touch it, they'll buy it. , we can't quite get there, but we can certainly visualize it. So that's really good. , and that's why we built them. I built them for my own team and everything about the website, Mastering Portrait Photography.com is of and for us, I built it or we built it to support us as a business.

[00:16:17] The articles, some of it came out of the book, but then much of the rest of it. It's been to help train people, it's been to help train my own team when we've got assistants in, , the room mock ups or the art mock ups are entirely built for us. They were built for us to be able to improve our sales, and that works.

[00:16:38] Make no bones about it, they work. You can see them, there's hundreds of them, we're building more all the time, , Oh, this bit's bumpy. The thing about recording in a Land Rover is if the road, the M40, as it is, has a rubbish road surface, which it does at this particular bit, , then it gets a little bit shaky.

[00:16:56] You can hear everything rattling around. And so we built them to be photorealistic. We built them for us. There's tons of them, but there's actually a by product which I didn't necessarily anticipate. So while I'm building these things, I drop images into them all the time. I go back to my sort of stock of portfolio images, some of my favorite images, my favorite clients over the years.

[00:17:17] And I drop them in, , to create, , thumbnails that when you browse the site you can have a look at. , but actually what I've learned, or I'm learning as I go, is how different styles of image work in different types of frame. So certain images work great big on a wall. You know, I think as photographers We're drawn towards the idea of the Mona Lisa type portrait photograph, or at least I am.

[00:17:43] I love a headshot. I love a clean, big, bold, you know, almost as if it was an LP album cover. Uh, I think, you know, Bruce Springsteen or Peter Gabriel, that's I'm sure my age, I suppose, , on an album cover, something like that, I think would be just brilliant. But would my client really put that huge on their wall?

[00:18:04] Well, they might if it's Bruce Springsteen or Peter Gabriel. They're unlikely to if it's them. Now, they might if they have an only child and they might if it's a picture of a dog. There's some amazing photographers out there doing pet photography and I can, and certainly when we do it too, you know, I can visualize how one of our dog photographs, for instance, might appear in a big frame on a wall.

[00:18:28] I was with a client and an old friend of mine the other day and they had a A picture on the wall. It's one of Randall Ford's pictures. , and I know the family and their dogs and, and, uh, the dad. And I just think I could do exactly that with, uh, his dogs and his family. , something big and bold. A couple of frames lined up across the wall, but on the whole, if you are gonna sell big frames, single big frames, you probably want groups in there.

[00:18:56] Now, if you've got clients with huge walls and. You know, a couple of kids, you might be able to put individual headshots into individual frames on the wall, and I do have clients like that, and they look stunning, my oh my, do I love it. Uh, but they're not the norm, they're not the norm. The norm is a normal sized house, with moderate sized walls, and if you put a big frame up on the wall, it's either got to be something like a fine art piece, where, let's say, The couple are silhouetted against the wall, small, but there's a big sky or something, , or a picture of a dog, or a picture of, you know, the two kids, or the whole family.

[00:19:35] It's highly likely that they're going to want something full of joy and laughter, because that is something that would be appealing at that size on a wall. Similarly, if you're laying up three frames, you can tell a story across them. You can use a different star a different type of image. You can use individual shots in a different way.

[00:19:52] For more information visit www. paulwilkinsonphotography. com , if you put three acrylics on a wall, you can triptych across it, so you have one picture that's spread across the three acrylics, and that could look super creative, uh, really, really interesting way to do it, , and all of this, my understanding of this side of it is increasing all the time, because I'm laying out using these mock ups, so on top of them being brilliant as a sales tool for you and for your clients, they're also a really creative thing to play with, just trying different ideas, And seeing how they look.

[00:20:25] So that's the room mockups on the website. There's also, of course, the podcast, this very thing that you're listening to, that's the spiritual home for it. Even if you're listening to this on iTunes or on Spotify or on YouTube. The spiritual home for it is masteringportraitphotography.com.

Upcoming Workshops and Events

[00:20:43] Paul In The Defender: And then the final section, or the main section is the academy.

[00:20:47] And this is now where all of our workshops, , are going to be. So, uh, while I'm on that topic, I'll just reel off the workshops that we have already got, uh, to book in the diary. Now these have got, uh, people have already started booking on them, , we only put them up a week or two ago. Uh, so on January the 20th, January the 20th, we've got an Off Camera Flash Workshop.

[00:21:14] Uh, funnily enough, one of the toughest topics to teach, uh, but also one of the most rewarding techniques to learn. , so we did, uh, we are in the process of releasing a video on it that will go on, a long form video that will go onto the website, uh, and that is a deep dive into some ideas of what you can do with off camera flash.

[00:21:33] I think people are a bit afraid of it because it's, , a little bit technical, but once you get your head around it and what you can do with it, you can do anything from create really natural, almost available light portraits but with stunning light wherever you are all the way through to theatrical halloween images with smoke machines and all of the paraphernalia and they're all in this video and the workshop on january the 20th is going to cover that ground it's Off Camera Flash we may or may not include some continuous lighting but at the moment the plan is for it to be Off Camera Flash but if the delegates ask to also cover continuous light then we could do Some of that because of course every workshop we run we tune it to the delegates We tell you broadly what the topic is going to be and then through the feedback we get in the Early forms that you submit and we can tune it if you want to

[00:22:27] It's the joy of having a studio. I guess we can do anything we want to as long as everybody's happy with that on March the 31st, we have a Mastering Headshots Workshop, so As it says, it's all about headshot. It's all about, uh, the, uh, for me, I think one of the purest, most beautiful forms of portraiture. I love doing headshot. They're my favorite, uh, thing to do.

[00:22:51] I think it, I dunno why I, maybe it's 'cause I've always been fascinated with faces and a headshot is simply an excuse to photograph a face. So that's headshots on, uh, April the 14th. So the headshots is March the 31st, April the 14th. We have got dogs and owners. We're photographing dogs with their owners for a day.

[00:23:11] , Of course, during that we will take some pictures of the dogs on their own. We will also take some pictures of the owners on their own. But primarily it's targeted at how to photograph dogs in conjunction with their, uh, their owners. Why do we do that? Well, most of our clients would wish to have a shot with the dog.

[00:23:32] That's the best shot you can get. , not all, we have plenty of clients that just want the dog photographed, but we also have plenty of clients, one in particular of the day, brilliant, oh man, one of my favorite sessions, Vivienne, who has given me permission to talk about and show the shoots. Vivienne came with her dog Dodie, tiny little West Highland Terrier, who contrary to my Nan's West Highland Terrier that used to bite my toes, this dog was the best behaved dog in the world.

[00:23:59] PAULWILKINSONPHOTOGRAPHY. COM , followed her everywhere she went, but also would just wander off and get inquisitive and then immediately return. A beautiful dog, beautiful shots, and she booked us specifically for one thing. She said, I can find people who shoot their dog on their own, I can find plenty of portrait photographers, only one photographer came up who quite openly and on the website said, yeah, we can photograph a dog with their owner, and I do it all the time with the hearing dogs, why wouldn't I?

[00:24:25] , I think it's a really lovely thing, and the shots of her. They're off the top of the scale. So that is April the 14th, Dogs and Owners. Uh, and then, this is a completely new thing. On May the 12th and 13th, we we have a two day bootcamp Now what's a bootcamp? Well, basically, it's as much stuff as we can fit in over two days. And we get the chance in the evening to have some food, maybe have a drink, have a chat, be together as a group. , We don't have accommodation at the studio, uh, but we certainly have plenty around us. So that will be, uh, two days, , either at our studio or somewhere local.

[00:25:06] , depending on what we decide exactly where it'll be. But it will certainly be within a mile or two of, of where we are based two days. That's two days back to back a maximum of 10 people. So it's a few more than our normal. Uh, workshops, but it'll be pretty intense. We're gonna cover all sorts of ground, , using available light, using studio light, using off camera flash, maybe a bit of post production thrown into the mix, again, depending on what the delegates, the delegates would like to cover.

[00:25:34] It's gonna be an absolute blast, cannot wait for that one. It's the first time we've run it, , and it's such a smart idea, it's Sarah's idea to do it. , as always, the smart ideas come from Sarah, uh, and, uh, looking forward to that one. That's May 12th and 13th. And then the final one that's available at the moment, right now, is June the 9th.

[00:25:52] We are doing our regular jaunt, uh, we're gonna dance to the weather, see what we get, uh, on location in Oxford. Now this workshop, I think, might be, might be my favourite, because it's just me with a camera, with some people to photograph, on a location. That's it. We don't carry a load of kit, don't carry particularly reflectors and lights, we just go and find locations, find light pools and patches, find stories to tell.

[00:26:24] We just go and photograph our models in Oxford on location. So that's on June 9th. And all of these workshops are now home, housed, ha ha, can't even say it, are now located, let's try that, are now located on masteringportraitphotography. com. We've moved everything over because that was always what we were building with the workshops.

[00:26:50] , originally it was under Paul Wilkinson Photography, uh, but we always knew, , and had, and had a reasonably openly talked about this, Always knew that we'd be moving it across to Mastering Portrait Photography. 'cause that's the place that's all about learning, all about teaching, all about enjoying and exploring portrait photography.

[00:27:10] So if you go to mastering portrait photography.com, there's a, a section called the Academy. So there's all these sections. There's The Visual Vault, that's all of the articles. There's The Podcast, there's, uh, The Resources, which is, , the mockups and , tools, Photoshop downloads and things. And then there is the, uh, Academy.

[00:27:31] And this is where you'll find the workshops. Exactly the same booking process as before. Everything's as it was, it's just now hosed, ha ha ha, it's just now located on masteringportraitphotography. com. Now, for the articles and the videos and the mock ups, at the moment the mock ups are 9. 99 each, uh, which is already a bargain, there's a few free ones, just so you can get an idea, uh, so they're about a tenner each, , there's a few backgrounds, I'm working on building more backgrounds as I need them, but mostly it's the mock ups.

[00:28:02] So they're a tenner, which is a bargain, you can create them, you can put them in magazines, you can use them on your website. It just shows your prospective or your existing clients how their images might look. A tenner. Bargain. However, there's a bigger bargain. I suddenly sound like a salesman. So sorry, it's because I'm driving.

[00:28:21] And I want to give you not one, but two bargains. It sounds like that. Anyway, if you become a subscriber of Mastering Portrait Photography, you get access to the videos. , and you get access to the downloads. And you get access, well, to everything we put on there, except the workshops. We charge separately for those.

[00:28:39] But you get access to all of the resources for 6. 99 a month, which is an even bigger bargain. So even if you only want to download a few of the room mock ups, it's still better to keep a subscription going at 6. 99 a month. It's less than an expensive cup of coffee. And, uh, we will keep the mock ups coming, we will keep the articles coming, we will keep the videos coming, so you'll always have value for money for your 6.99. If you're feeling a bit more, you know, a bit, you have a bit more conviction, then it's 69 quid, or 69. 99 a year, so that's 12 months for the price of 10. Uh, 10 percent saving, or whatever that is, 2 out of 12. Is it a 10? Yeah, it's a 10 percent saving. Is it? No, it's not. It's, I don't know what it is. It's two twelfths.

[00:29:25] There you go. It's one sixth. No! Which is a great saving. My maths isn't good enough, uh, while I'm driving. I can't concentrate. I'm concentrating on the road, as I should be, by the way. Uh, so it's 6. 99 a month, , or 69. 99 per year. So head over to masteringportraitphotography. com, , and we promise, we promise we'll make it worth your while.

[00:29:48] Oh, sorry, all of our members also. Uh, you get access to our Facebook community. Which is hidden and private. You can't get onto it any other way. , only people who are part of our community can be in there. And that way people can ask for critiques. People can ask for advice and tips is where we put discount codes for things.

[00:30:07] , like software where we have, uh, access to discounts from suppliers, those kinds of things. They all go onto the Facebook community. I know a few of you aren't on Facebook, and if I'm honest, it's not my favorite thing. Because I'm just a dopamine idiot when it comes to social media. Once I'm on it, I can't get off it.

[00:30:26] , however, it's the best way to do this to be, so you don't have to log into multiple places to find information. It's on our Facebook community, uh, and most of us have a Facebook account. So you see the, , the alerts come up when things, uh, are uploaded. So that is masteringportraitphotography. com. If you want to find the workshops, Head across there and go to the academy.

[00:30:47] You can Google Mastering Portrait Photography Academy or mastering portrait photography workshops. , they're a little bit lower down the rankings at the moment because obviously I've spent my entire life saying just Google Paul Wilkinson Photography workshops and everyone heads over there. So, uh, you might just have to scroll down, uh, one or two line items and we'll be there.

[00:31:05] Uh, that will change more and more of you. Uh, search for it and click on the link. So search for mastering portrait photography workshops or Mastering Portrait Photography Academy and you will. Find us.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

[00:31:15] Paul In The Defender: And that's it for me. The traffic is free flowing. There's cars going everywhere. The light is dimming.

[00:31:20] They're salting the roads. They must be expecting some cold weather. It's a beautiful, beautiful afternoon. It's been a wonderful evening of celebrating photography. I am thrilled, thrilled to bits that I've rounded off my three years with setting up the most incredible monthly photo competition and also, of course, the surprise and honor.

[00:31:46] So on that happy note, I hope you're all well, I hope things are treating you nicely, and until next time, whatever else, be kind to yourself. Take care. P. S. Sorry if this sounds a bit shouty, but when you're driving a Land Rover, it's really loud, and I forget that although I'm mic'd up, or I forget rather that because I'm mic'd up, it might sound weirdly, like I'm simply yelling!

[00:32:27] That's because I'm traveling at Sixty mile an hour in a Land Rover Defender, so apologies if I'm shouting. Be kind to yourself. Take care. Bye.

Sometimes it's just a pleasure to sit back and listen.  This is one of those moments - for me, certainly, but hopefully for you too. 

I had the pleasure of sitting and chatting with two icons of the industry - Sean Conboy and the inimatable nonagenarian, Stuart Clark who is not only still shooting at the age of 97 but is a considerable racontour (you can hear me and Sean laughing in the background throughout!)

Stuart started his career in 1941, so his stories are not only entertaining but are fascinating as they cover every photography development from glass plate through to the state of the art digital wizardry we're facing today.

This interview is worth listening to every one of its 90 or so minutes!

Enjoy!

 

Cheers
P.

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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. 

 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Paul: So there are so, so many things I love about being in this industry, the things we get to do, and in particular, this podcast, and one of the many things is having these moments that you're about to hear, where I get to sit and chat with someone I've known for a very long time, Sean Conboy, fantastic photographer, and just a wonderful human being.

[00:00:20] And someone he introduced me to, a guy called Stuart Clark. 

[00:00:23] Now Stuart is 98 years old in July this year. Self proclaimed as one of the oldest working photographers in the country, and I'm not sure that anyone's going to argue with that. He started training as a photographer in 1940. That makes this, he's been working as a photographer for 84 years.

[00:00:46] And the whole of this interview is taking place in what was, his photography studio in a little town just outside Leeds. It's his front living room, but it's huge. It's got a high ceiling and you can imagine how the lighting would have been hot, continuous lights and families just having the best time with someone who I learned very quickly, is a storyteller and a raconteur, uh, just a wonderful, a wonderful human being. There are lots of things to listen out for in the following interview, and let me draw your attention to just a few. Uh, listen out for the flash powder story. It's very funny. Uh, the story of, uh, People retouching, lots of retouching stories from the 1940s and billiard ball complexions.

[00:01:31] . Doing multiple jobs in a day. He used to do three or four jobs in a day, and have the timing so accurate that could include photographing a wedding. He learned his craft. He's great.

[00:01:42] He's spent time creating images for press, looking for alternative, alternative images and looking for PR images that no matter how much a sub editor crops them, the brand or at least the story is still very much intact. He talks about the utter love of the job and appreciating what a privileged position photographers like ourselves are in every day of the week.

[00:02:07] He talks a little about the role of agencies and how they now manage messages from companies in a way that probably they never did. He talks about relationships and he talks about being positive and persistence. He also talks about the role of the Institute.

[00:02:24] Finally, he talks a little bit about photographers always being the fag end of everything, but in the end, what he talks about really, It's the love of his job and the love of his clients. 

[00:02:35] Why am I telling you all of this upfront? Well, this is a long interview, but the sound of Stuart's voice and the history that it represents, as well as the fact that he's more current than an awful lot of photographers who I know right now who are much younger, uh, but just, there's something in his, his entire manner that is captivating and enthralling, informative and useful. And so, although it's a long interview, I thought I'd just explain a little bit about why I found it so appealing and why I've left the edit almost entirely intact. I've removed a few lumps and bumps where we all managed to hit a microphone as we're gesticulating.

[00:03:16] So picture the scene, there's myself, Sean and Stuart sitting, in armchairs and on couches.

[00:03:27] And if you're wondering why it took me quite so long, this interview is actually, it goes back to February of this year, and why it took me quite so long to get it out, it was partly because there was a lot of of lumps to remove and partly because it was this trip, this interview, this podcast that I was returning home from when the Land Rover blew up.

[00:03:46] And frankly, I think there's a little bit of trauma there with a six and a half thousand pound bill to re, to replace and repair piston number two. I think my heart just, I needed a minute just to not recall it every single time I try to edit this particular podcast down. It's a wonderful interview. Please enjoy.

[00:04:06] I know it's quite long, um, but what an absolute legend. I'm Paul and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast. 

[00:04:32] So, firstly, Stuart, thank you for welcoming us into your home. We've driven quite a long way, uh, to come and see you. Sean, uh, recommended we speak to you, because the number of stories you have make even his collection of stories look Insignificant.

[00:04:48] And as we all know, Sean, The Footnote Conboy has more stories than any man I've ever met up until probably this, this moment in time. So to kick the conversation off, how did you become a photographer?

[00:05:05] Stuart: It was an unfortunate or fortunate chain of events because, um, I was at the Leeds College of Art in 1940, 41, and I had the desire and intention of being a commercial artist, which is now referred as graphic designer and at that time, being wartime, there was little advertising being done, and so, uh, perhaps I was not sufficiently talented, but I finished up working for a firm who were essentially photoengravers, but they had a commercial photography studio as well, and they were short of somebody to join them, and I went in there and became virtually an apprentice photographer. This was very interesting because at that time, again, there was very little commercial photography advertising being done, and so all our efforts, or most of our efforts, were centred on war work, which involved going round the factories and, uh, Photographing for record purposes, the input of the particular company. And in those days, I can tell you that that was not a very comfortable proposition because we were on total blackout, and therefore, all the fumes in the factory, whatever they were, had very little chance of escaping, so you've got the fumes and the heat, and then of course we were only Illuminating scenes with flash powder, which was an added hazard, and, and so Photography outside in the factories was not very pleasant, but inside the factory, or in the studio, we were also doing war work, and that was to photograph silhouettes, scale models of all aircraft of both the enemy and, uh, and, uh, Home, uh, Aircraft for identification purposes, so that the air gunners were not shooting our own planes down in action. And another very interesting thing which I have always remembered was that the four, or the eight cannons In the Spitfire, that was four in each wing, were harmonized to converge at a point away from the Spitfire so that the Fire, the maximum fire point was when those two lots of cannons converged.

[00:08:34] The only reference that the pilots had was a silhouette which we had photographed, so that he could visualize that silhouette in the, aiming sight of his 

[00:08:50] guns. 

[00:08:51] Paul: a very early heads up display. 

[00:08:53] Stuart: Indeed. 

[00:08:54] Paul: Yeah.

[00:08:55] Stuart: And, so, that was quite an important element, I think, of our war work for the Air Ministry.

[00:09:03] The main factory was engraving the, conical, rangefinder cones for 25 pound howitzers.

[00:09:14] Paul: Right.

[00:09:15] Stuart: And at the time of leaving school, everybody had to be doing war work. 

[00:09:21] And so I went to the company on the pretext of doing war work of that nature, rather than going round snapping.

[00:09:31] Paul: Right.

[00:09:32] Sean: Stuart, could you also, um, I mean you've told me many great tales about your time actually in the, uh, armed services film unit, i think that might be quite interesting, 

[00:09:42] Stuart: Well, I was called up and because of my interest in mechanical things and gadgetry and so forth, I finished up in the Royal Army Service Corps. But a friend of my mother's husband suggested that I applied for a trade test in photography. And one day I was called up to the orderly room and they said, We've got the movement order here for you. Um, to go to Pinewood Studios, of all places. I don't know what this is about, but anyway, here's your movement order. So, I went down to Pinewood, and we had a trade test, and I think I finished up, uh, top of the, the, uh, examination. But then I was returned to unit at Catterick, and I was up there for another few months, and then I was posted. And eventually, after about six weeks of the posting, I got another movement order to go back to Pinewood Studios, where I started my course in cinephotography,

[00:11:06] and still photography. Now, this was the last course. before Pinewood closed down and the unit closed down. I'm talking about Pinewood closing down, Pinewood was the headquarters of the Army Film and Photographic Unit from when it was formed in October 41.

[00:11:35] The course included preparation for action photography, essentially. when the course started, the war was still on in Central Europe. but before the course finished, it, uh, the war finished.

[00:11:58] And The Japanese War was still going on until September of the same year, which was 45. But we were still being trained, and when the course finished, we had very little to do but just wait to see what happened. And so from September to, um, December of that year, we were just hanging about in the studios.

[00:12:30] We were then posted to the Far East, in fact to Malaya, where the No. 9 unit was formed. Having been moved by Batten's headquarters, Mountbatten's headquarters, from Ceylon to Singapore, thought that it would be probably much more congenial there than in Ceylon, India.

[00:12:57] So number nine was there and it's interesting to note that right at this moment an exhibition is being produced for the photographer's gallery on Bert Hardy's life and Bert Hardy at the time that I there was, in fact, the stills captain in charge of all the still photography in Malay Command. Or the, not Malay Command, the Far East Command, because we had outstations in Java and Hong Kong, and even, uh, one guy, uh, was in, um, in Hiroshima. So that was the formation of the, the, uh, Far East, Southeast Asia Command photographic, uh, outfit. until it closed down, uh, in September, August September of 46, and we are then dispersed Some went to the Imperial War Museum, the Imperial, uh, war, graves Commission, et cetera, and six of us went back to Vienna, where we joined number 9, Public Relations, because unit had been disbanded completely. So, there in, uh, in Austria, we were doing what they call Local Boy Stories, and we made a couple of films on the Irish regiments and also the East Yorkshire, not the East Yorkshire, the Yorkshire regiments who were guarding and on guard duties at the palace, Shurnbran Palace, which everybody has heard of, and um, and so that carried on until, uh, the Until I was demobbed in 1947, December. came home and went back to the company I originally started with because they were compelled to take people for 12 months. And at the end of that time, I decided to leave I had a bit of a a difference of opinion with the studio manager, who was RAF, and I was Army, and I was a sergeant as well, and I don't think he was quite that when he was in the RAF photographic section, but there was a resentment anyway.

[00:16:02] of my presence. 

[00:16:03] So, I went to the firm called C. R. H. Pickards, who were one of the finest industrial, uh, and leading industrial photographic units, companies, in the north of England.

[00:16:24] It was there, then, that I began to learn industrial photography. And we photographed all sorts of various things, from factory engineering, factories, products and so forth, lathes, milling machines, railway engines, all manner of things. And that's where I cut my teeth on industrial photography.

[00:16:56] Sean: And, and Stuart, what sort of, um, equipment would you be using in those days? not 

[00:17:01] Stuart: so ha! 

[00:17:02] Sean: but how 

[00:17:03] would you be lighting these spaces in those days 

[00:17:05] Stuart: um The equipment that we were using was always, almost always, whole plate, six a half, eight by, eight and a half, six a half, uh, folding field cameras. when I started, we

[00:17:29] were on glass plates. But then the advent of film came in. And this was obviously much lighter stuff to carry around. And every, exposure had to count. Now in today's terms, where you press the button and pick the best out of however many, all we used to do was a duplicate at the most. So we used to There was a variation in the exposure or the aperture setting, and that was the only difference the two exposures.

[00:18:19] So what we used to do was develop one side of the, uh, the double dark slides, see what they were like, if they wanted a little bit more or a bit less development, that was applied to second side. And, don't know whether you've ever heard of the expression of, um, developing by, uh, vision. But we used to have a very dim green light, and the sensitive film.

[00:18:59] was not, uh, sensitive to the green light. 

[00:19:03] Paul: All right. 

[00:19:04] Stuart: But you had to be in the darkroom for ten minutes for your eyes to become adjusted, and you could then see absolutely every detail of the, the development process. And when the highlights started to you, to, To show a dark mark through the back of the antihalation backing, then the development was just about right, if but if you wanted a little bit more contrast, then you just pushed it on. If it had been a dull day, a dull, miserable day, then you pushed the development on a little bit further.

[00:19:49] Sean: And 

[00:19:49] Stuart: you've asked 

[00:19:50] Sean: be, how would you be lighting some of these scenes? I'm very intrigued at that 

[00:19:53] Stuart: I 

[00:19:53] Sean: that 

[00:19:53] Stuart: about to say that.

[00:19:54] Um, for big areas, we used to use flash powder. And a little bit of flash powder goes a long way, believe me. But it was pretty dangerous stuff. And um, I remember we photographed a wedding on one occasion at the Majestic Hotel Harrogate. And there were 450 people. at the reception and they wanted a photograph to show as many of the people as possible. So we put the whole plate camera on a table stood up there with tray into which I poured flash powder.

[00:20:38] Now then, this was actuated. with a percussion cap, like we used to have in little

[00:20:46] hand pistols for toys. and when you pulled the release catch, that ignited the cap,

[00:20:56] that ignited the flash powder.

[00:21:00] So, the exposure was only going to be once. One exposure.

[00:21:07] And so, the photographer I was with, he said, right everybody. Look this way, and I want to be making sure that everybody keeps still.

[00:21:21] I'm going to count five for you, but don't move until I've finished counting.

[00:21:29] So the idea was to take the sheath out of the slide. With having put a cap over the lens, shutter, just an open lens with a cap or a lid on the front.

[00:21:46] And the technique was to take the cap off hold it in front of the lens, so that that allowed the vibration or any vibration in the camera to settle down and then take the exposure. the idea was count 1, 2, 3, 4, then take the cup off. And on four I ignited the flash gun and then the cup went on and the guy that I was worth put the sheath back and said, right, let's get out of here quick. The reason for that was that you got the brightness, got the, the buildup of the available lights. then it's just topped off, illuminated with the flash, not a very big one, I hasten to add. But the significance of flash powder was that there was a flame which simply went upwards. 

[00:23:00] And that was it, that was all there was to be seen. But, it produced smoke, which used to go into, onto the ceiling, and it would roll across the ceiling, carrying with it the grains of the flash powder, which had obviously changed colour from

[00:23:24] silver

[00:23:25] To yellow, that was okay. But when the waiters came to move the, uh, soup plates, what they found was a white circle on a yellow 

[00:23:47] cloth.

[00:23:51] And you can also visualize the fact that a lot of people had a lot of. Little flash powder grains in their hair 

[00:24:01] as well. well. By the time that

[00:24:04] By the time that this happened, we were halfway back to Leeds. 

[00:24:08] Sean: Very good. 

[00:24:09] Stuart: But this this was the scourge of flash powder because you could only take one shot. Because the place used to, the whole of the place, the factory, if you using a large amount of powder, made a lot of smoke, and it just collected on the ceiling and it obscured it, the vision. So, we used to use photo floods, these were overrun pearl lamps, we used to have six on a button. And if the subject was still, we could go around on a long lead and paint scene with light. And that was, and that became established, So flash balder started to go,

[00:25:08] Paul: Right.

[00:25:10] Stuart: but you see, at this time, flash bulbs hadn't really got going.

[00:25:17] The GEC flash bulbs, which were foil filled, were about the only thing that was available. Um, in this, in this country. And they were sympathetic.

[00:25:31] And the GEC Warehouse in Leeds on one occasion, uh, a consignment of, um, bulbs came,

[00:25:43] Uh,

[00:25:44] in a, in a case, and, uh, one of the attendants decided that he would test them to see whether they were all alright.

[00:25:54] So

[00:25:54] he fired one.

[00:25:57] and 50 flashbulbs, because

[00:26:01] they had to be in contact with each other. If they were separate, it didn't work, but when you put them side by side, they were sympathetic.

[00:26:11] Paul: What

[00:26:11] happens? 

[00:26:13] Stuart: Well, the whole lot 

[00:26:14] went 

[00:26:14] off. A whole box full of, um, flashbulbs, and they weren't cheap at that time. 

[00:26:22] So 

[00:26:23] really, 

[00:26:23] that was, that was the basic equipment which we used to

[00:26:29] use.

[00:26:31] And

[00:26:32] it was all,

[00:26:33] it

[00:26:34] was all, uh, 8x6.

[00:26:37] Sometimes it was 10x8.

[00:26:41] The, uh, the railway engines, which we used to photograph for the Hunsley's Engine Company

[00:26:47] and hudderswell Clark's in Leeds, we always used to use 10x8 for those. Now it was interesting there because we used to have a particular date for going to photograph them. And

[00:27:04] they were all finished up in black, white and grey paint. Because that served the cost of retouching the finished print.

[00:27:15] There was very little photography done at that time. Apart from views and so forth. But anything that meant a machine, a lathe the, or whatever, it always had to go to the process retoucher who airbrushed the reflections or put one or two, put a shadow in or whatever it is. It was a highly skilled, uh, process. Uh, process, retoucher with white lines and so forth. But the interesting thing about these two railway engine companies was. that they only painted them on one side, the side that was being photographed.

[00:27:59] Paul: And

[00:28:01] Stuart: we used to go back to the studio, develop them straight away, yes, the negatives are alright, as soon as that happened, then they would strip all the black, white, and grey paint off and finish up in the customer's required, required colours.

[00:28:23] Paul: Wow.

[00:28:25] So, so the bit that strikes me is retouching has been part of this art 

[00:28:30] Sean: a long time. Well, 

[00:28:33] Paul: I mean, think about

[00:28:33] it, right? Because we, there's a lot of debate about retouching and post production. That rages. Even now, but when you think about a manufacturer only painting one side of a train, they're painting it colours that repro well, and then it's being handed on to a retoucher, retouching's been going on for a very long time. 

[00:28:51] Stuart: Well of course, everything at that time was, was, um, retouched, and most portraits finish up with complexions like billiard balls. There were no shadows, etc. 

[00:29:03] Paul: haha, It's like nothing's changed! 

[00:29:07] Stuart: Indeed. Indeed, and, and when people speak now in condemnation of, oh well you can see the retouching and so forth, well the only thing that you have to do now is to make sure that it doesn't show. But, it was, really when Photoshop and the like came in on the scene, this was manna from heaven.

[00:29:32] Paul: Yeah.

[00:29:33] Stuart: Because it cut out the need to do the work on the actual print. To retouch transparencies was a rather different process altogether.

[00:29:48] And it was 

[00:29:49] Sean: difficult process to be

[00:29:50] Stuart: Oh yes, and very highly skilled. And the firm that I worked for, Giltrous Brothers, who were the photo engravers, they used to retouch twenty, twenty

[00:30:02] four, twenty glass plates. Whereby, when you talk about printing today, and I think the, uh, top of the range, uh, Epson, Uh, printer works in, uh, we're printing 11 colors, but the, limited edition photolitho, uh, illustrations were, uh, certainly on, on 13 colors

[00:30:36] And from 13 separate plates. All of which were retouched.

[00:30:42] Paul: So

[00:30:42] the plates were retouched separately? 

[00:30:45] Stuart: correct? 

[00:30:45] Oh yes. 

[00:30:46] Paul: Wow.

[00:30:48] Stuart: So

[00:30:48] Paul: each of these plates is a black and

[00:30:49] white plate that's going to take one color ink?

[00:30:52] Sean: Correct. I understood the

[00:30:52] Paul: the process right?

[00:30:53] Sean: Yeah. 

[00:30:54] Stuart: process, right? Retouches were earning more than photographers at any time. 

[00:31:01] Sean: It's most interesting to hear this, Stuart, because you come into my era when I was learning photography and the discipline of the transparency, the 4x5 and 8 inch transparency, and of course there, retouching was an anathema because if we retouched the transparency, we started to lose some quality.

[00:31:17] Stuart: Yes. we to, it was a period of photography, I think, more than ever, when we had to get everything right in the camera because the client demanded the transparency. Whereas the processes you were using enabled this retouching method, which is very, very interesting.

[00:31:29] There are certain elements, as you well know, with your, even with your skills, whereby there are elements which cannot be lit out or exposed out or 

[00:31:43] whatever. And there has to be some artwork, or whatever you call it, retouching done. And at the end of the day, most of the photography which, which I was taking and involved with, was going to be reproduced. And so if it was retouched at source, before it got to the retouchers on the reproduction, uh, side.

[00:32:11] of the plate making, then that was, it was as we wanted it rather than what they thought it should be. 

[00:32:20] Paul: As ever photographers being control freaks. 

[00:32:24] Stuart: Well, after something like two to three years at Picards, by which time I got a fair amount of idea of what's going on. 

[00:32:37] Um, I decided that, um, I ought to seek pastures new and became a staff photographer for the 600 Group Of Companies just on the west side of Leeds. And there I photographed secondhand machinery, which they used to recondition and I photographed the, lathes and milling machines, drilling machines and that sort of thing, and they were then printed on and they, all these were taken on the half plate camera, which is half the size of a whole plate camera, obviously, um, and, um. they were made on 6x4 glossy prints, and these were distributed by the appropriate department to potential buyers. And I was there for three and a half years. But I'd got to the stage where I'd photographed everything that didn't move, and I was becoming rather dissatisfied with life. So I 

[00:33:49] Paul: Do you mind if I ask how old are you at this point?

[00:33:53] Stuart: this point? Well, let me see, I would be about, twenty, twenty four, twenty, what, twenty five. Right. Twenty five, six. 

[00:34:03] Paul: Right.

[00:34:04] Stuart: I was dissatisfied because I didn't think I was getting anywhere.

[00:34:09] Sean: So you were, you were ambitious, really, to take your photography on to another level and, and have more control, would you say, over what you were doing

[00:34:16] Stuart: you could say that, yes. just say to work for yourself, Stuart? 

[00:34:20] Sean: The Thing is that the, the company that I worked for. was part of the A. H. Leach corporate, uh, company at Brighouse, which was, uh, a very big organization with studios in Cambridge, Manchester, Glasgow. Um, and the prospects of moving to any one of those places was stalemate because they were well staffed was no flexibility for moving, and so I thought, well the only way to see whether I am a capable photographer was to make it on my own, see if I could make it on my own. And in fact started the business in some premises now occupied by the local library. down at the bottom end of the village.

[00:35:19] Stuart: But this was going on for some time, two or three years, and then the question of getting married.

[00:35:27] came into the reckoning, and this house in which we're sitting now became available, and very suitable because the front room lounge in which we now sit became my portrait studio.

[00:35:46] And across the top of the window, which is facing opposite you, was a bank of Kodak, um, lighting with five, four 500 watt lamps in each for general illumination.

[00:36:04] And So then I had a spotlight which is, was behind you for lighting the hair and then a fill in light on this side. And by this time, we'd moved on to two and a quarter square, real film cameras, 12 on 120.

[00:36:22] I hadn't really at that stage got into, back into the industrial scene because I was doing social photography, weddings and portraits, to build up a reserve of capital to move on to buying more advanced equipment.

[00:36:44] And the changes at that time were considerable. 5x4 were on the, on the fringe. At the time that I'm speaking of, German 9x12 plate cameras were still being used for press photography. And there they were, on the touchline at Heddingley, these, the local press photographers, with box of 9x12 single shot plates freezing to death, and um, and that's it, one off shots.

[00:37:26] But I missed the point earlier on, I think, of saying that uh, every shot had to count. And, over the years, that has influenced me considerably, because I've always made sure that everything was right before I took the exposure.

[00:37:48] And whatever the, whatever the occasion was, whether it was an industrial scene or a social scene, you look at the subject before you, to begin with, and then start looking round and see what's happening in the background. Because, if you do that, it saves retouching, and that's an absolute classical instance of today, where people, when Photoshop came, what about so and so?

[00:38:22] Oh, don't bother about that, I'll take it out. I can take it out in Photoshop, and I've heard speakers come to the Institute and talk about, Oh, I do this and do that, and I've said, well, how long does it take you to do that? Oh, well, a couple of hours or so, like that. It could have all been addressed in the taking, and that would have been eliminated.

[00:38:51] And when you talk about 2 or 3 hours retouching, well how much do you charge for, oh well I'll throw it all in.

[00:39:00] And the number of people who I've heard say that, oh well I'll just include it. I think they've got a bit wise to it now because Uh, any extramural activities are chargeable by the hour, and, uh, and it's certainly in need of that, but what I would say to any in, up and coming photographer, they need to sure of what it is that they're taking to avoid having to retouch it afterwards, albeit that in today's terms,

[00:39:40] With the relaxation of dress and disciplines and so forth, Um, I don't think it quite matters. And so, I think as far as today is concerned, I would find it difficult to go back to being a photographer in today's terms. Because, I can sit in a restaurant or in a room, somebody's room or whatever, and I'm looking at the, the vertical lines of the structure to, to see whether that line lines up with that, and it's surprising how often I can see lines that are out, even buildings.

[00:40:27] I could see buildings that, that were not, um, vertical. completely vertical and line up with the I sit there looking at the streets and doors and windows and it's very, it's very difficult to get out of that discipline into the much more free and relaxed attitude towards photography today.

[00:40:56] I don't know whether I, whether you would agree with that or not.

[00:41:00] Sean: Stuart, I would agree with what you're saying and it's like the photographer's eye, your whole life has been trained by your eye viewing scenes and viewing situations and it's quite impossible to turn that off really.

[00:41:10] That's part of you and how you see things, so no, I couldn't agree with you more. So Stuart, tell me, you obviously, the room we're in now was your studio, and you're in here, you're now married, you're doing more social photography, as you said, and obviously starting to make money. Where did the business go from there?

[00:41:29] What was your sort of next stage really? Because I believe you had another studio then in the village, is that correct? 

[00:41:35] Stuart: The children grew up and we were running out of room space,

[00:41:40] So an opportunity came in the main street down the road to take over a building, um, which I was able to use the ground floor and turn it into a studio, a reception studio and darkroom. And, uh, during that time, I was doing, um, mainly social photography, but also, I had got associated with the local newspaper which circulated in this area, and I virtually, without being on the strength, I virtually became the staff photographer for the whole of the circulation area.

[00:42:32] So on a Saturday in the summer, it was not unknown for me to do perhaps 11 cover 11 eventualities such as garden parties, a flower show, etc. and also fit in a complete wedding. So,

[00:43:00] Paul: So, 

[00:43:00] Stuart: so

[00:43:01] my time, my, my mind used to work like a, like

[00:43:07] a clock, uh, a precision clock, because it was, it was timed to the nth degree. Um, what time is the, uh, what time is the wedding? How long will the service be? Where's the reception? And I had a mental, uh, mental, uh, memo of the distance from here to there, and the length of time it takes to get from, from there to there.

[00:43:36] And, as far as the, as the newspaper is concerned, I tried to take a different picture. at each occasion, so that we don't want the same picture of women serving tea, uh, for the WI, the church of this and that and the other. Um, I tried to make a different picture. So that training and experience fitted me in good stead for when the industrial scene tailed off.

[00:44:15] Sean: I've just, uh, I've just, um, picked a photograph up here.

[00:44:18] Stuart's got quite a number of his photographs in the room with us here. It's a very nice PR, press type shot here of Harry Ramsden's Fish and Chips shop, and it's got a very 1980s mobile phone and the world famous in this part of the world, Nora Batty which some of you may know from a famous last of the summer wine tv show and i think this is to do with the flotation of Harry Ramsden because it became quite a successful company didn't it so talk a little bit about this photograph Stuart it's very captivating and i think very very well executed

[00:44:50] Stuart: Well, the story as you've already identified, I'm surprised that you have, because that was when they went public. And, uh, the, story was the Harry Ramsden fish restaurant, which, it was the center of all activities, just on the outskirts of Leeds, and they, as you said, they got Nora Batty there, who was a very leading personality at the time, and, of course, telephones, you can see the size of that, that mobile telephone, which is about the size of a half of a brick. Um, this was the, um, the story. And the essential thing was to locate the seed of the picture with the name of the, the company. across the top of the, the print or the format.

[00:45:46] Sean: And if I could just butt in there Stuart just to say sorry to do this but I think it's important to get this across that I've just picked this image up and the story has come straight across to me. We've got the mobile phone. You've got the Financial Times, which is holding the fish and chips. You've got the sort of banker type chap behind her.

[00:46:02] It just shows the skill that's gone into that picture, that an image is telling that story to me all these years later. Because I presume this photograph is 30 or 40 years old, Stuart. Am I correct there? 

[00:46:12] Stuart: It's quite a long time. And the essential thing about that picture, uh, Sean, is that however much a sub editor chops it down. There was always be something of the story there, because the nearest or the furthest down that they could chop it would be across the top of the bloke's head, but it would still say Harry on the left hand side.

[00:46:42] And, and, that was the, the art of, at that time, of getting the story across for public relations. Include the company's name or the brand in the background somewhere so that it had to be seen and it couldn't be taken out. 

[00:47:03] Paul: I ask you a question? Have you always loved being a

[00:47:06] Stuart: being a photographer? Oh, absolutely. 

[00:47:09] I wouldn't do anything else. Um, had a very enjoyable life in every aspect of it. And I'll tell you one thing about it, and Sean will agree with me on this. Photography, photographers are in a very privileged position, and they don't realize how much so. Because so often, they are in, at the ground floor of activity. A conference, a confidential conference projecting the aims of the company.

[00:47:46] I was in a company when I was in the conference actually, when the whole of the regional bank managers were in a conference at Harrogate, and they were told then, that we were going to dispose of the buildings, our assets, and I photographed several banks which were up for sale and they were simply being sold off. The managers didn't know. What's the photograph for? Oh, it's just for the estate. I knew what they were, why they were selling it. It was going on the market.

[00:48:25] You know all these little convenience grocery shops and so on, on filling stations, I was in the conference there for all the ESSO managers in the region, when the the project was put to them that we're going to put these little kiosks, or whatever it is, and, and, and there I was. Um, and we were privy to information that was light years ahead of the actual official announcement.

[00:48:59] Paul: Yeah.

[00:48:59] Stuart: Metahall, for instance, um, I was in the conference when they were talking about what their footprint was needed to be to make that viable. And there are several instances such as that. And you do get it to a more personal level, where we've got, uh, injuries, personal injuries to photograph.

[00:49:26] Oh well, what about Snow?

[00:49:29] Well,

[00:49:29] And you just can't get involved with passing that or repeating that information.

[00:49:35] Paul: Yeah.

[00:49:36] Stuart: It's confidential. And as I said, photographers are so often right in the heart of things. And I'm sure, Sean, that in today's terms, you'll be more exposed to it than I was with them.

[00:49:51] Sean: Well, very much so Stuart.

[00:49:52] Very much so. Yeah. I mean, it's, I can't tell you how many NDAs I've signed in my career, so, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. 

[00:50:00] So Stuart, so you've now got the studio, the, the biggest studio now on in the, in the, in the village here. And you're obviously doing your social, your weddings, you're obviously doing a lot of PR.

[00:50:11] Did you start to do, did the industrial photography come back a little bit more as well?

[00:50:15] Stuart: Yes But I was, I was extremely fortunate and the odd thing about it was that the connection came through the, uh, the work of the local paper because three miles from here was the control room for the Central Electricity Generating Board and they were having an open night and the local paper was invited to to cover the, the event. So I went along and took a few photographs of whatever was going on and had a bit of a look around the place and subsequently then I was approached by their, their public relations department for the northeast region. Would I take a photograph of something else? 

[00:51:13] From that stemmed the work, which really became the mainstay of my activities with the Central Electricity Generating Board.

[00:51:26] Again, I wasn't on the staff, but I was vir, virtually became the staff photographer for the Northeast Region. And the amazing thing is that here I was, photographing power stations, the grand openings of power stations, starting with Thorpe Marsh, which was the, down in Doncaster, which had two 400 megawatt sets, which were the f The Forerunner, they Thorpe Marsh was really the testbed for the, um, the 400 megawatt stations which followed.

[00:52:13] And there again, this was being in on the ground floor whenever there was a fault down there or whatever. or a problem, um, I was called in to, to, to take the photographs. 

[00:52:27] Sean: So

[00:52:28] Stuart, would you say that, um, he's very interesting listening to this about how your business built. Would you say that networking was a great part of building your business?

[00:52:37] Stuart: Networking, well they call it networking now, and it's, it's contacts really. And I think, I'm sure that you'll agree that being in the right place at the right time, and that really applies to anything, the theatrical world, et cetera, and, not necessarily knowing the people, the right people, but getting on with them, and being able to mix with people, and behave in a way that people expect you to. So 

[00:53:10] Sean: Would you have any sort of advice or tips for a young photographer or somebodnew breaking into photography and how to. build a business? Have you anything to add there at all? 

[00:53:22] Stuart: I think that in today's terms, it is extremely difficult for photographers. And I'll tell you why, because I think that the opportunities which I just mentioned are remote, probably remote in the extreme. Social photography is something else, and the, the website, and all the various media opportunities, with which I am unfamiliar and have no knowledge of because I've not had the need to do it. But I am aware because I look at what people are doing. And that's another instance of success. Of keeping an eye on what other people are doing. If you admire anybody's particular work, then that sets the example and the criteria to work to. But as far as going back to contact is concerned, I have the distinct impression now that not only photography, but everything now stems from public Relations and I don't know whether you've noticed it or not, but if there's, if there are any problems, on the one hand, of people's behavior or their activities, or whatever it may be, adversely or favorably, and the promotion of brands and industries and business, it all seems to stem now very much from the agencies. 

[00:55:12] If you read question of the so and so company are going to introduce this product or

[00:55:22] service or whatever it is, or they've taken over a business. the

[00:55:27] statements attributed to the managing director or chief executive or accountant or whatever it is, right across the board, a great many of the people that are being quoted, I would suggest, are not capable of speaking and thinking the way that the statement appears in print. And it raises sometimes, a lot of suspicion as to just what is behind this thing. This business with the post office. It's full of it. And so the point that I'm making is that advertising agencies, that's another one, the advertising agencies are in direct contact with the, um, with the brand or the company.

[00:56:24] And so the opportunities of the photographers, in my judgment, are minimized because of the hold. that the advertising agencies have on the job. 

[00:56:43] And 

[00:56:43] they, 

[00:56:45] they will say who they want and who should be employed. They may think them best or otherwise. And it also then comes down to, rights, and I bet you are right in the thick of this, that, uh, you are the, the favorite bloke on the, on the block, and whilst ever that person is engaged in that company, your situation is secure. But suddenly, if he goes to pastures new, and they've already got their established photographers, as far as you're concerned, you've lost that company.

[00:57:28] Sean: Very 

[00:57:28] Stuart: company. 

[00:57:29] Sean: very true. Yeah, yeah. 

[00:57:30] Stuart: Is it true?

[00:57:31] Paul: But there's always opportunities with these things, I mean, in the end, there are more photographs being created today than ever historically, I think you're right about the structures of advertising agencies, though this isn't my world, when someone moves on, there's an opportunity, and there's always the opportunity to stay as well, there is risk, of course there's risk, but equally, you could be the guy he takes with you.

[00:57:54] So how do you make that happen?

[00:57:56] Sean: Well, I think it's very apt because I've had two or three key clients in my career that have moved numerous times, you know, seriously big companies and they've taken me with them, yeah. And not only that, in some cases, they've taken me to their new company. And it's gone well. They've then moved on to another company and taken me with them, but the company they've left still retains me.

[00:58:19] So there's a benefit that way. But I think it's really, I greatly believe in the, in the networking, keeping in touch with people, making an effort at all times. And I think, I know we've got today's digital world and there's lots of advantages to that, but also personal contact I think is still really, really important.

[00:58:38] Relationships and personal contact.

[00:58:40] Stuart: What you are saying is, is correct. And I remember an uncle of mine who was a milkman and, had a, a big dairy, and he once said to my mum, oh, well, it's so and so, he's come again, a rep has come. It's been three times, so really it deserves an order.

[00:59:03] There's a 

[00:59:04] lot 

[00:59:05] Paul: in

[00:59:05] Stuart: a lot in

[00:59:06] truth in that, backs and it backs up what you were just saying, of keeping in contact, and, of course as far as advertising is concerned, or mail shots. the first one they take no notice of and throw away. The second one, oh well, there's another one from this so and so. The third one, it is usually reckoned that the person will be activated by that And so, as you said, keeping in contact is very important.

[00:59:42] But I'm bound to say that breaking in a lot of it is by accident, but certainly the persistence of contact is very important.

[00:59:56] And when you consider, you see, over the years we have thought of Only the Institute, or I have, and I've done, I've put a lot of time and work into it, as other people have, without which we might have been a lot more better off or a lot wealthier than we in fact are.

[01:00:20] Sean: Stuart, did, did, when we say the institute, it's the British Institute Professional Photography we're talking about here. And I, I'm a member too, and that's how I met Stuart through the institute. Through your long career as a photographer, how important did you find the, The Institute and the ability to mix and talk and, and, and work, you know, get information from other photographers, I suppose.

[01:00:41] How important did you find that 

[01:00:44] Stuart: Photographers, um, are, as you know, very, very much individualists. they work a lot on their own, and when you consider that there are probably 7 or 10, 000 practicing photographers in this country, and so few of them belong to anything. 

[01:01:10] It makes you wonder how all those people survive. but, it really comes back to, to, uh, what we were saying earlier, of contact, those people must be in contact with other people.

[01:01:29] Their reputation goes before them, obviously, and when you consider the situation with the Royals, for instance, who, from time to time, have official photographs taken, um, by names that I've never heard of, where you would perhaps expect that they are members of the, this organization, the Royal Photographic Society, as a case in point. Um, these people are not members of them and so how they I'm not talking about the Litchfields, I'm talking about the other people who officially, officially photograph, uh, in recent times, the, um, William and Kate's family, the, their birthday or whatever anniversary it was. So, those people, um, are plowing their own furrow.

[01:02:33] But going back to the the meaning of the institute, whereby people are individual, the opportunity over the past years was for all these individuals to rub shoulders with each other and the networking that went on then. For instance, you go to a meeting and you're chatting away, and a couple of blokes have a common, common interest, uh, uh, or they're equal practitioners, but suddenly, one of them comes up with a problem that he can't answer, and so he's able to phone this guy in Nottingham, or wherever, because he is not in competition down the street. He can't ask the guy down the street how to tackle the question, but the man in Nottingham will willingly bare his soul for you, and keeping in contact with, um, with other people to solve problems where they have them is incredibly useful, in my judgment. 

 

NOTE: to see the rest of the transcript, head over to https://masteringportraitphotography.com (it exceed the normal limit for podcast texts!)

Ever wondered why you should sign your work?  Well, in this, our 150th episode, we have chat about it.

But before that, a quick catchup with Charlie Kaufman of Click Group at The Photography Show - head to https://www.clickliveexpo.co.uk/ to see details of one of the most exciting events in years!

There is also news of the PMI Smoke Genie / Smoke Ninja competition - a fantastic opportunity to get creative and win some hefty prizes.  The details for this brilliant competition can be found here:
https://pmigear.com/pages/smokeninja-portrait-contest 

Good luck!

If you're interested in any of our workshops or masterclasses, you can find them at https://www.paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk/photography-workshops-and-training/ 

 

Enjoy (and sign your work!)

 

Cheers
P.

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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. 

 

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Transcript

[00:00:00] OK there are one or two fruity words in this episode. If you're offended by swearing then I do apologise!

[00:00:05] So I'm here at the photography show up in the NEC in Birmingham, have just bumped in to one of the big characters in the industry. So tell me a little bit about who you are. So, Charlie Kaufman, Honorary Fellow of the Societies, uh, been in the business for 35 years, professional, and I've run the Click Group for 30 years.

[00:00:27] Started in 1994. And you've got several other letters after your name. I thought it was KFA, but you said it was No, it wasn't KFA. FKA, as my mum always says, fucking know all, uh, excuse my language, but no, a fellow of the societies, I was the youngest, uh, BIPP licensorship and MPA, uh, licentiate when I was just 17 years old, so two years into the industry, I'm also the CEO of Click Backdrops and Click Live, a new expo launching at Stoney Park, Coventry, this June. Tell me why you've come to the photography show. So it's all about brand awareness. Clip Backdrops, uh, exhibits at all of the major trade shows in the, in the world.

[00:01:04] We do about 100, 000 miles with my partner in crime, Gary Hill. He's got more letters after his name than the alphabet, and Gary and I love doing the trade shows because it gets our British made, award winning product in the hands of creative photographers, so they can see the difference of why they're investing in a quality product.

[00:01:23] Why do you love this photography industry of ours so much? I love it because it's changing. I love being in an industry where we make money from giving people creative memories for people, creating art. I love the fact that being the owner of a company, I'm in control and I can pivot in a heartbeat in which direction I want to take my company.

[00:01:44] And that's one of the problems that a lot of British photographers don't do is pivot enough and change quickly enough. But being a small company, we're very quick at changing. We can actually have an idea to marketplace sometimes within a week.

[00:01:57] And if there's one thing you could change about the photography industry that we know so well, what would it be?

[00:02:03] Well, I'm going to hone in on the British photography industry, and what we need to change is we need to get British photographers getting more educated. Uh, as Big Dog Damien once said, the better, the easiest way to make more money as a photographer is to be a better photographer. I completely agree with that. Visiting ten U. S. expos a year, these expos sometimes start at 7am and these photographers are in classes and learning till midnight every single day. And that's one of the reasons that my team and I have launched Click Live, a brand new, uh, educational expo launching Stony Park, Coventry this June, where we've brought in the biggest educators from around the world. I mean, we've got Lindsay Adler, we've got Chris Knight, but we've also got other educators that have never even taught before in Europe, like Kimberly Smith, one of the world's best digital artists. So we want to give British photographers and European photographers, the opportunity to learn, hone in their craft and get better. Because the better you are, the more money you should make out of photography. It's as simple as that.

[00:03:04] Brilliant. And I have to say, it's an honour and a privilege to be a very small part of that operation. I'm very...

[00:03:09] ...an important part of that. Not a small part, an important Don't sell yourself short, Paul. You're an important part as we launch Clickmasters, a digital and print competition. And the nice thing about our print competition? Our educators at the show are not allowed to enter. So they're there to mentor and help and, and train, but they can't enter this year's competition.

[00:03:33] Excellent. Well, I'll tell you what, I'm beyond excited about it.

[00:03:36] Thanks for talking to me, Charlie. See you I'm Paul. And this is the mastering portrait photography podcast.

[00:03:43] Can you believe it? 150. Episodes honestly. I never really thought about it when I set this thing going about six years ago and here we are. 150 episodes later. I thought, I think I thought it would just be somewhere where I could get things off my chest -a sort of passive therapist, I suppose, and let's face it, we all need one of those mine, well, mine, just happens to be a microphone.

[00:04:29] Since then I've muttered about, oh, so many things, have interviewed all sorts of people and received well, many and varied emails. I've also been told I do have a face for radio, and that even happened again, today.

[00:04:46] But I'll take those little wins when people tell me they find the podcast either interesting or at the very least, something that passes time on a journey. Anyway, that interview was with the wonderful Charlie Koufman, who not only is the owner of Click Backdrops, which are brilliant and British. I will put the link in the show notes, but it's also the inspiration behind the upcoming Click Live convention, Which you will all be hearing about. In the coming months and I cannot wait to see you there.

[00:05:16] So here we are, it's April. And how are you? Did you have a good weekend? I hope you did. Sarah and I went down to Plymouth in Devon, Southern England. As well more almost as far south as you can get. In the UK with Harriet, our daughter and had a wonderful weekend with my in-laws.

[00:05:36] We drank a little beer. We ate a little chocolate, actually, we ate a lot of chocolates. We bought some Devon fudge and we painted some pottery. Yep. You heard that right. We went pottery painting. It was Sarah's idea. She wanted to do something that was a little different, maybe a little creative pass a couple of hours.

[00:05:55] The weather wasn't predictable. It wasn't bad. It wasn't good. It was just well crazy. And so we headed inside to do a little pottery painting. And apart from a very slight mismatch in how things were explained to us,- it turns out, I guess I've got a face that looks like a primary school child, as the explanations were to put it mildly a little basic, but I guess in the end, the heart and soul were very much where they should be.

[00:06:26] And we had a blast.

[00:06:29] Well, at least we did, as long as we dab-dab-dabbed, and we didn't wipe-wipe-wipe because if we were caught wipe-wipe-wiping There would be ter-ouble. We would be shown the error of our ways and instructed to get back to that dab-dab-dabbing. Anyway, it turns out I'm pretty good at dab-dab-dabbidy-dab-dabbing.

[00:06:48] And I spent nearly two hours, literally dubbing black glaze onto a pot, on which I could then paint a wintery woods, kinda scene.

[00:06:58] Harriet and Sarah. Well, they're a little more subtle with their craft with gentle blues and teals, little tiny flowers and spots of detail. Subtle understated, gloriously sophisticated. While mine was anything but that, but Hey, I need a new pen pot. As I have knocked my tin mug off the desk, yet again, today. And I really do need something that is seriously heavy, preferably black and well, it'd be nice if it was something that was a little unique. I'll get no points for subtlety, but I'll get plenty for the drama.

[00:07:32] And since it's been a long, long bank holiday weekend, there isn't too much to report on the diary of a working pro front, at least not in terms of shoots because we took the weekend away, took the time off. And so we haven't been shooting that much.

[00:07:48] We have had a couple of portrait sessions Hearing Dogs, just Hearing Dogs, brilliant, fun as always. And a one-to-one workshop here at our studio. And I love. Workshops. And I love this one in particular. A guy called Dave came down. And we spent the day creating, I think, well, I think. I think some magic, two of my clients now for models, we always use our clients. We don't usually use professional models because at the end of the day training photographers with models sets the sets an expectation that it's always going to be that easy.

[00:08:24] And of course it's never that easy. So Charlene and Katie came in as our models for the day. And while they may not be professional models , they are both just splendidly, photogenic, and more importantly, incredible people to spend time, laughing with working with and playing with light around.

[00:08:42] And I love, I do genuinely love these one to ones. Because they are entirely bespoke, they're entirely creative. We have the time to sit and answer any questions. We can explore ideas and let, well, let the client just guide us, which is exactly what we did. And the images that we finished up with well, everything I ever set out to do. Had such a blast. Dave was brilliant and I hope he went away with the same amount of energy that I've come away with. Just that idea that tomorrow, well tomorrow, we're going to create some magic. And as low, we haven't shot that much in the studio this week, well, next week is a whole different story. And there is going to be well busy, but while we haven't shot much this week, there is still a ton going on.

[00:09:32] Today in particular had my kitlist through from Elinchrom, which is really exciting. I'm still sort of working out what we really need, but it looks like we have it almost nailed down. The big decision is around the Elinchrom Threes. Now I've sorted out the Fives, we're going to get four of those and they will be almost permanently in studio I think. But the Threes are really quite exciting though. There, there are about 250 Watt seconds, so about half that just a little over half that of the fives. But I think they'll be massively useful when I'm out on location. They are big enough to do some serious work and small enough that I can pop them in a bag and have them with me.

[00:10:15] So.

[00:10:15] I'll let you know, as soon as that kicks in, I'm sure there will be videos, a little bits and pieces going on and I can't wait to do it.

[00:10:21] Another email that came in this morning. And it's one. I reacted to really quickly. Practical Magic and Innovations emailed in. Now you'll probably know them is P M I. And they're the guys who make the incredible Smoke Ninja and Smoke Genie smoke machines. The fog machines they've been in touch. And wanted us to help them get the word out about a competition they're running and I'll put the links to the competition in the show notes again. But basically it's an international competition, a photographic competition, but it must feature the use of either the Smoke Ninja. Oh, the Smoke Genie.

[00:10:59] Now I'm already a fan, of course of the Smoke Ninja is the one that I bought as part of the Kickstarter agreement, so I'm already a big fan and I've spoken about this on the podcast before. I love the thing, I think it's genius. It should be called the Smoke Genius, but it's great. And I know one or two of you have already bought one of these based on my recommendation. It's great fun to play with.

[00:11:21] It's not that expensive. The fog that it gives out is hugely controllable and incredibly photogenic. So given there's a few of you with these things, of course, I have agreed, to put the word out about the competition. Once again, show notes will be the place to go, but I'm going to even, I'm going to enter it this time.

[00:11:38] You have to create some images and also show some behind the scenes. I'm guessing it's a great opportunity, for them to get both the finished pictures and pictures of their Smoke Genie or Smoked Ninja in use price is pretty big. There's about $10,000 of them and some big names involved. So why not head to them?

[00:11:57] I'll put the link up why not head to them and have a look?

[00:12:00] Not only that, but I got an email this morning. From data color, who've shipped some kit for me to review. That'll come up in some future episodes, our to use the Datacolor photo Checkr, which is brilliant.

[00:12:12] It's part of our workflow anyway, but they're going to send me the updated version as well as the cube, which looks like to me, I haven't used this thing yet. I'll let you know once I actually use it properly, but it looks to me like it allows for backlight to be measured to white balance of backlight to be measured as well. Which looks like good, fun. Because we use a lot of mixed lighting. But not only that they are going to send me the video checker as well. Which allows us to color calibrate as part of our video workflow.

[00:12:39] Now I'm not big in video yet, but we are having to learn how to do it, and one of the things that constantly frustrates me is I can't seem to get the colors, as I want them a lot of homework to do. I need to understand video color spaces air slog, and the like, but I'll have the video color checker from Datacolor in the toolkit, and that hopefully will be a small part of the puzzle. I've not only understanding but controlling it. The color. These, I think these products will appear properly in a future podcast once I've had a chance to play with them and understand, I understand quite what I'm talking about. Cause I'm not a video guy. I need to go and ask some video guys about the best way of using it. A quick update on ACDSee, just again, a reminder. I am not paid by any of these people ACDSee sent me a license to have a play with and I've kept my word.

[00:13:32] I've used it. I still use it. I love it. I absolutely love it. I guess I'm not paid, but they have given me a license for. I think the license for the Apple. For the Mac, that is about 60, 70, quid. The speed of ACDSee is absolutely blistering and I love working with it. Haven't quite worked out how to get the very best out of it.

[00:13:50] As it turns out 300,000 images with the facial recognition turned on, maybe pushing the upper limits of our network and my machine. But I still love having it there alongside everything else I do in Lightroom. It's so quick. It's so handy. I love the way it just works or interacts in with the file system, which means I can always have, I've always got access to files, to drag and drop, throw them up onto Facebook, throw them up onto Instagram, put them into designs.

[00:14:18] It's just really useful. It's the kind of software you feel almost. Should be built into the operating system, but isn't, it's just so natural to use. Absolutely love it again. As I get my head around that I'll give you more, more updates.

[00:14:31] Right. So where are we? Let's have a think about my thought for today. Now this one. Is about signing your work or singeing your work. As it was the first three times I wrote it down, signing, not singeing.

[00:14:47] Don't singe your work. That is no good to anybody signing your work. I heard someone say a while ago this couple of years ago. That signing your work is pretentious.

[00:15:00] And all I can say is what utter, utter, bullshit.

[00:15:06] Sorry. I'm sorry. I know, I know. I shouldn't be emphatic in such a way. Everyone's got their own way of doing things and each to their own. But just occasionally something pops up that is purely, and simply, bullshit. This is one of them.

[00:15:24] Sign your work.

[00:15:26] If I could write a song called cite your work. It sounded a bit like Sunscreen. Maybe I should figure that out. Sign your work.

[00:15:34] My dad taught me many years ago. That you should sign everything. Now my Dad was a wise guy is so many ways an idiot. It's so many others, but a wonderful human being. And this was one where I think he was absolutely right. He said, sign it. And when I said, why well he said, firstly, well, why not? But he also said you do it because you never quite know who might see it, in the future. Isn't that the truth.

[00:16:03] So I was working at British Steel, in my early twenties as a work placement, my dad was working there. As well, he ran all of the competing and I got a work placement in their design office. And as part of that, they asked me to create some huge 3d visuals of the galvanizing plants that shot and steelworks British steel.

[00:16:24] And there's this, they have these coatings lines where they take a coil of steel and they'd run it through the line and coat it with either a plastic coat or some paint coat, but the line I was really interested in coated it. With zinc. It was the hot dip galvanizing line. And this line was around about three quarters of a mile long.

[00:16:43] It was huge.

[00:16:45] And they wanted me to create some 3d drawings of it. Now this is going back before we would simply have done all of it in 3d CAD and rendered it. They wanted 3d drawings. But they were then going to go off to an airbrusher to go into British Steel's brochures. So my job was to create the line work, the art, the sort of the technical drawing work.

[00:17:08] But the best way of doing that was is it happened to create a 3d model of it. But back then, we're talking about really early versions of AutoCAD and the output of AutoCAD. Wasn't very controllable and it certainly didn't create appealing visuals. What it did do though, is give me these huge, A0 printouts that I could then place a piece of tracing paper over the top and much the same way as a comic artist inks in over the pencil. From the original illustrator I then inked it. And that created these really beautiful.

[00:17:40] I thought they were beautiful anyway - these really beautiful. Inked drawings of these vast lines that could be annotated and airbrushed by a graphic design team. And I signed them. And I signed him just in case somebody else saw them. Somebody did, and I got more work from it. I've got a lot of plaudits for my work as well, all because they saw my signature and asked who Paul was.

[00:18:07] Now it doesn't work for everybody, I guess. But here at the studio we sign every frame and every album that goes out, it's got our brand on it. That signature. Is our brand just like Apple or Jaguar or Pepsi, Tiffany, Nikon or even the guys I worked with a little bit more regularly, like Elinchrom, or even PMI who've emailed today. It's their logo and that represents their brand.

[00:18:38] Now, if you're putting work out there without your logo or your signature on it, not only are you missing an important opportunity, an important opportunity that might just lead to more work might just lead to a brand recognition, like we've built . But I also think you're quietly saying you're not really proud of what you do. The signature we put on our work says I am proud of it. Really proud of it. Every time. Every time we create something here. We ask ourselves the question. Are we happy to put the Paul Wilkinson photography signature -my signature. On it. And if the answer to that is not clear.

[00:19:21] Cut. Yes, of course. Then that piece of work never goes near a client. Ever. The brand custodian side of our business is all about that signature and being proud. To put it on our work, being proud to say, yep, I've seen that. But at work. I think that warrants a signature and I'm very happy for other people to see it too.

[00:19:42] Now is that pretentious? Well, I suppose you could argue it is, but I don't think it is. I think what it's saying is I'm really proud of what we've done. I'm really proud of the effort we've put into it. And I don't think that's pretentious. Pretentions come from almost the opposite from trying to be something you're not, that's not what your signature is, your signature or your logo represent you and they represent your values and they represent your brand. They're everything you stand by and you stand for. Now, if you think your logo screams pretentions, then, well, maybe you need to adjust quite what you believe in and what your brand stands for, but from where I'm sat. I think you should sign every single bit of your work.

[00:20:32] Anyway, I'll get down off my soap box. Sorry about that just sometimes, you know, just sometimes there are things I think we have to just get off our chest. And when it comes to your signature sign, your work, people sign your work.

[00:20:45] Don't listen to what anybody else says. Get that signature on there. You never know who might be watching. Anyway. 150 episodes. One or two of you have listened to all of them. One or two of you have listened to all of them in the past 60 days. I did have an email from someone this week. And it said they've been working their way through them at a rate of a little over two episodes a day. And they are 50 something days in and heading towards catching up.

[00:21:15] I think that's absolutely, hilarious. Flattering and lovely, but well, slightly hilarious. Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to the end of this particular episode. I hope as always there's something of use or if nothing else. It's got you to work in your car and you can now switch the radio off and go face the day knowing there are other people out there feeling and thinking the same things as you. Uh, if you'd like to hear more of these episodes, please do subscribe wherever it is that you get your podcasts.

[00:21:49] Please hit that subscribe button. And then every time I hit publish, you get to hear it, which I think is a marvelous thing. Please do also. If you would like to leave us a review. And a five-star rating somewhere, wherever it is. You consume your podcasts, please. Do we love it when you do? And of course it helps get the word out there.

[00:22:07] It helps get the podcast out there. It helps make some of this stuff possible. Also if you have any questions, please do email paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk, that's paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk If you're interested in our workshops or indeed one of our, one to one masterclasses, then please do head over to Paul Wilkinson Photography and look for the coaching section of the website.

[00:22:33] Alternatively, just stick paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk workshops into your Google-y Browsery thing and you will find us.

[00:22:41] And if you fancy more content, that's all about the joy, the brands, the business, the creativity, of portrait photography, then why not head over to masteringportraitphotography.com, which is not only a vast resource of portrait photography stuff, but is also the spiritual home of this 'ere podcast.

[00:23:01] But whatever else. whatever else. Until next time. Be kind to yourself. and stick yer signature on things. Take care.

[00:23:14]

Well, I'm back on the road with a microphone - but this time in my wife's nippy little Peugeot!  

 

There are so many aspects of customer service but one of them is how you explain what you're going to deliver and how you're going to do it and, given the stories in this episode, that is something that is very easy to get wrong!  Ultimately, clarity is king!

 

Cheers
P.

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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. 

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Full Transcript:

EP148 - Clarity Is King

[00:00:00] So for those of you with sharp ears, you may have noticed that that does not sound like my regular Land Rover biscuit tin on wheels, and you'd be absolutely right about that. I shall tell you the slightly sorry tale of what's happened to my Land Rover, uh, later in the podcast. In the meantime, I'm heading up to the photography show in Sarah's car, which is, frankly, as nippy as hell.

[00:00:26] It's like driving a go kart. It's tiny, it's quick, it's a lot of fun to drive. It's not my Land Rover, but hey, I'm Paul, and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast.

[00:00:40] So hello one and all, it is a very, very wet Sunday here in the UK. It's one of those, it's one of those days when I look around me And everything looks monochrome. You. You wouldn't be certain if this was an entry in a photographic , competition, I'd be accusing the author of putting a, a plugin on it that has sucked the color, sucked the life outta the scene. The sky is well gray, the road gray, the walls. The trees and hedges as I drive past them, sort of a grey green. Even, even the bright yellow markers on the roundabout signs that I've just driven past are not iridescent yellow. They're sort of a dull ochre.

[00:01:44] Everything about today, except for my mood, is grey. And actually, it's been a little bit of a mixed month. Now, I know I said at the beginning of the year, and this, I said also at the beginning of the year, You never set yourself. New Year's Resolutions, because they're impossible to live up to, and if you want to do something, just set out about doing it, whatever time of the year it is, just set about doing it.

[00:02:05] I set about doing a podcast a week, and then crunched into some of the busiest couple of weeks, I think, I can remember, which I'm now, well, sort of surfacing from. It hasn't, it's not exactly clear As in, the diary isn't clear, there's a lot going on but there are also chunks like today when I'm gonna spend the best part of three hours sitting in a car.

[00:02:26] Now I know three hours, to my American and Australian friends, is like driving down to Starbucks for a coffee. For us in the UK, that is not an insignificant amount of time. So I'm going to record a podcast or two and then maybe over the coming weeks I'll get back into the rhythm of it and get these things rolling.

[00:02:44] But there is so much going on story of the Land Rover so let's deal with some of the slightly sadder news over the last couple of weeks or last month or so. It started with an accident. Excellent couple of days up with the BIPP, that's the British Institute of Professional Photographers, or Professional Photography up in Preston, and then had a great meeting and spent a lovely evening with the guys for, with Martin and the guys there.

[00:03:12] Discussing things like the monthly competition, how we're gonna, promote it. It's been very successful so far but of course, there's plenty more we could be doing. And then on The following day, went across to record a podcast, went across with a friend and a photographer, Sean Conboy, to meet a photographer who I had never met personally, but knew about, a guy called Stuart Clark.

[00:03:35] Now, Stuart is 97, nearly 98 years old, and one of the sharpest, most interesting photographers I think I've had the privilege of meeting. We sat in his lounge and recorded, probably about an hour and a half, I have a conversation about photography, his life in it, his history in it, the things he has seen change, and when I say the things he's seen change, I mean fundamentally, you know, he started on glass plate cameras, and is now in the digital age, I mean that's in one lifetime how far it's come.

[00:04:11] Almost in one set of stories we've gone from the origins of photography, maybe not quite, there's a little bit before that of course, I mean it started in the 1850s. But you know, almost the origins of photography as we know it through to today, and it's a fascinating interview, and as much as anything else, just listening to his voice on the microphone, I sat at the beginning of this interview and we popped a microphone in front of him and I put some headphones on, and as he spoke, it was the most breathtaking sound, he's quite quietly spoken, But the mic, and the room, and the ambience, and the stories he was telling, I mean, it was electric in my headphones.

[00:04:51] I actually gave the headphones over to Sean so he could have a listen, simply because it was so beautiful. I'll cut that down, it's just a long interview, and I need to just figure out how I'm going to share that. But it was a wonderful thing. Wonderful thing. And at the end of it, took a few portraits of the man with He said, oh, I've got all my cameras.

[00:05:09] We said, oh, get them out, get them out. And of course, he went looking for them and couldn't find them in the attic. I mean, Sean and myself, slightly terrified that we've sent this 97 year old into his roof space to see if he can find a camera. Anyway, he eventually returned with a Raleigh, a TLR.

[00:05:25] Twinlens, Reflex, Rolleiflex. Beautiful camera, and so I've got some pictures of him with that, so a little bit of his history. Anyway, roll o'clock forwards to that evening, I leave Leeds head down the M1, which is the in the UK, for, again, my listeners around the world. It's the motorway that runs straight down the middle.

[00:05:44] of the UK connecting the north to the south. It connects all the way up to pretty well, it goes up to Scotland pretty much and then drops straight into London. And I was heading down the M1 when suddenly, 70 miles an hour, I'm in the fast lane, they, there is, there wasn't really a bang, but you felt this kind of thunk, and then the engine's vibrating, I can smell oil, oh man, the smell, it's, if you've owned cars for a while, And you've had them go wrong, you just know, when you can smell oil like that, there is nothing but trouble.

[00:06:19] Coming I planted my foot on the brake pedal and manoeuvred my way across a couple of lanes of reasonably fast moving traffic. Sort of slan slapped it into the hard shoulder as quickly as I could, because if you're running an engine, You can smell oil, it's vibrating, the last thing you wanna do is keep going because you are at that point destroying what is left of your engine.

[00:06:45] So I lifted the bonnet to have a quick look, just to make sure there wasn't anything obvious. Sure enough, there is oil everywhere. Engine's not good. That's not going. So, luckily, I say luckily, this is, it's my life. I spend my life in a car. And we have recovery, RAC recovery. So I rang the RAC.

[00:07:04] They said they'd be there within an hour because I'm on, I'm in live, I'm on the edge of live traffic. This is the, probably the busiest motorway in the UK and I'm sitting on a hard shoulder in the pouring rain by now. And I keep getting the updates and, you know, it's like, it says it's going to be an hour, then it's an hour and a half, then it's two hours.

[00:07:21] It's, it's four degrees, which is pretty chilly. It's raining and sleeting. So I've, thinking, well, I don't really, and this is a lesson, I don't have any rain gear in a car. Luckily, I had a couple of blankets in there that we use for, if I want to sit people, if I'm doing a shoot somewhere out and about, I've got it in the back of the car, just in case I need to sit somebody down on the ground.

[00:07:41] So I wrapped myself in a pair of picnic blankets, sat under one of our wedding umbrellas. Luckily I got some battery packs so I could keep my iPhone charged up and sat and watch Netflix. And of course I'm watching the arrival time of the RAC and it keeps creeping out and creeping out. And eventually this orange van arrives he takes one look at the car, sticks his head under the bonnet and says yeah, you've blown your engine, that's not going anywhere.

[00:08:04] I can't tow you, he tells me, because the limit for towing a car as heavy as the Defender is one mile, and I'm six miles from the next available exit. So, he says the next, they'll send the recovery vehicle, proper recovery vehicle out, and I say, well, am I supposed just to sit here in the rain then? And he says, yep.

[00:08:24] And so, for the next couple of hours, yet again, I'm out in the rain, I keep my phone charged up, keep watching Netflix. It turns out Netflix, I like watching Netflix anyway, it's always on in the background while I'm editing. It turns out it's quite a useful distraction, because by the time the recovery vehicle turned up to actually put it onto the flatbed, the guy looked at me and he just said, Simply, get in the cab, get warm.

[00:08:47] I could barely move, my legs were shaking, I was beginning to get hypothermic. You stay out of the car for safety reasons, but I'm beginning to think it was more dangerous being not in the car than it was being in the car, which is an absolute nightmare. He had to open the door for me, my hands were so cold I could barely pull the handle.

[00:09:04] I climbed into the cab, which turned out to be like a sauna, and sat and defrosted as he hitched up the car. and took me halfway home. Yeah, halfway. Because I was so far away, they couldn't drive me all the way back to home. So of course I'm in touch with Sarah, I've told her what's going on. They parked me at Northampton Services where they're going to send another recovery vehicle out for me.

[00:09:27] And again, it says it's going to be an hour and a half. And I wait and I watch as the time increases, two hours, three hours, four hours. It's not clear, they never, they're never clear about how long it's going to take. And they, they deliberately obfuscate, I think, so that you can't say, well you said you'd turn up then.

[00:09:44] They give you a range and then they keep telling you the range is creeping out. And, apart from the gas, I'm not the only person that needs recovering. And the driver did give me a. a heads up. He said to me as he left, he said, you might be a while because you're no longer in live traffic, so you're no longer in danger.

[00:10:02] You're just sitting in a services. Now I would agree with him about the danger bit, but sitting in Northampton services at what were we now? Sort of midnight, 11 o'clock I think I arrived there. Maybe 10. 30 we arrived. And it's not a place you'd want to sit. There's nobody else around. Then luckily for me, I have a, you know, guilty pleasure in McDonald's and KFC and things.

[00:10:23] Can't help myself, the smell of it. And I thought, I'll get myself a McDonald's. And so I got, I did, I got myself a burger. Some coffee and some chips, and sat chewing on those. And within two minutes of me buying it and getting it, I noticed that McDonald's had changed their sign. The big signs outside say that it's open 24 hours.

[00:10:43] Big sign. McDonald's. 24 hours. Five minutes after I buy my burger, they put up signs that say, Sorry, only serving coffee. So that's not Open. That's not, that's a complete breach of contract as far as I'm concerned. They said they'd be, I'm thinking it's alright, I'll just get a burger and if I need one in a few hours I'll get another one.

[00:11:02] Nope, none of that. I could get a coffee but couldn't get a burger in spite of the sign saying 24 hours. I'm gonna come back to this point because it's quite important for us as photography businesses. Anyway, I'm sitting there. The great and good of those that probably need a little bit of help from mental support and social services came and went, came and went, came and went. One or two drug deals were going on out in the car park. I don't know how, the police don't spot it. You can see it a mile away. So it's a fairly lonely thing. So I recorded a podcast. I recorded what was going to be this podcast. I got my recorder because it was in the car.

[00:11:37] Obviously, I'd been recording with Stuart. And so I sat and I recorded a pretty, I think it was a pretty good, quite emotive podcast, I sat clutching my coffee because obviously that's now all that McDonald's was serving. It's fairly lonely except for the rantings of one chap who was telling me all about his relationship with the Queen.

[00:11:57] I don't think he was very well, if I'm honest. I also don't think he was sober. So I recorded this, what I think was a rather excellent podcast, very Radio Four very radio documentary, you know, lots of background sounds and lots of life real life going on. And at the end of it, I sat back and thought to myself, that, that is going to be an excellent podcast, and I noticed that I hadn't hit the record button.

[00:12:23] I was just so tired by now and a bit stressed. just forgot to do it. And so that was the end of that really, and I never, I didn't have the heart to do it again, even though I did have the time, because I was there for another couple of hours. I think in the end I waited there for four hours front to back.

[00:12:39] Recovery vehicle, the phone rings, he says, I'm here, but where are you? And I look across six lanes of moving traffic, and he's on the other side of the motorway. Heading North. So, I'm heading South, so I have to direct him somewhere. Surely the guys have told you where I am, and they had, but not very well.

[00:12:58] And he had to drive up to the next junction, turn around and come back and pick me up. And then, on it goes, and, and, we drop the car, I nominate to drop the car at our next stop. The guys that service it, my local, well it's not local, it's about 10 miles away, but the garage that services the Land Rover on a regular basis.

[00:13:15] I dropped it in there lay by, switched on the immobiliser, locked it all up and Sarah picked me up and I got home at just about quarter past four in the morning. Now having left Leeds at about Two in the afternoon to get home at four in the morning was, well, a little bit heartbreaking. By now I was fairly fed up, fairly cold, incredibly tired, and I knew I had to wake up really early to let the guys know at the garage they've got a service to land over and also to get on with our day that was already in the diary.

[00:13:49] So rang up the garage the next day, he didn't sound at all surprised. I'm glad to hear from me having spotted my Land Rover and he knows If the Land Rover's there, it needs something doing. And, obviously I got the engine, I went over, I got the engineer out to have a look at it, and even he rubbed his chin a bit.

[00:14:05] And the only good news was there was still oil in the engine, which gives you hope. If there's oil in the engine, you haven't seized it. That's the good news. Anyway, 24 hours later, I get a ring from the engineer who says Found the problem, you've got a hole in Piston 2. Now, I don't, I'm not a mechanic, but I've been around engines all my life, and I know that if you hear the line, you've got a hole in Piston 2, you're in trouble.

[00:14:33] And so it has proved to be, because to get a piston out to replace it, you have to take the entire engine apart. There's no getting away from it. The engine has to basically be dismantled, almost certainly taken out and put back in. Or in a Land Rover, they can actually lift the bodywork and service the engine on the chassis, but it depends what they're doing.

[00:14:53] On this, I haven't asked the guys, I haven't been back to get it yet, and this is three weeks ago. So, So he explained to me that if an injector is maladjusted and is running a little bit rich, the additional heat from the fuel burns a hole through the aluminium. And I said, well, should I have done something?

[00:15:08] And he said, no, there's no way of knowing. It's just not something that you could detect. And it's something that used to go wrong a lot. He hasn't seen it for a while with the later engines, but this one, he said, we used to see this quite a bit. For the past three weeks, they have been replacing the hole or replacing the pixel.

[00:15:22] Piston with the hole in it in my Land Rover. I got a phone call yesterday, Saturday, but unfortunately I was in a shoot, and this is how the phone call went. He said, We've road tested your Land Rover. It's ready to drive. You can come and pick it up, but please bring your piggy bank with you. I kid you not, he used the phrase, bring Piggybank with you.

[00:15:43] So I couldn't pick it up yesterday, can't pick it up today, can't pick it up tomorrow because I'm running a workshop, so I'll go over on Tuesday. I still don't know how much it is because the garage hasn't told me, in spite of me asking because it's a labour led cost. So the parts have been 1000 plus VAT, I know that much.

[00:16:01] The labour is 75 an hour and I reckon, he reckoned it was 4 5 days work. So I know I'm in it for quite a large amount of outlay. Unplanned, bad time of year. I've got to find, who knows, anywhere between four and seven thousand pounds, who knows. So again, no clarity. Something I'm gonna come back to.

[00:16:27] However, rest of the week, not so bad. And Another story. I think about podcasts, right? I could just tell you the facts, but it wouldn't be that much fun to listen to. Well, I don't think it would be fun to listen to. I wouldn't listen to it. 20 years ago, and I only know this because I picked up the light that I still have and looked at the Flash Center's service and and Quality Assurance sticker on it, and the light I bought second hand was serviced by the Flash Centre in 2003.

[00:17:00] There's a sticker on it, and I remember going to the Flash Centre in London, scratching my chin, and I can't remember the guy's name, he's still in the industry, he doesn't work with the Flash Centre anymore and I, he said, can I help? And I said, yes, I want my first strobe, please. He said, I said, I'm happy to buy second hand, I don't know whether this is something I'm gonna do, but Would you recommend?

[00:17:20] And we looked at the shelves, and, and, if you've ever been to the Flash Centre in London, it was brilliant. It wasn't a posh shop. It was, in some ways, it was like the drum shops I used to go to when I was a working musician, and it's just got racks and racks and racks of stuff. You know, there'd be a posh rack somewhere with all of the new bits and pieces from then, Bowens and Elinchrom, but then there'd be sort of, you know, Shelves and cupboards with interesting little bits of second hand kit and cabling and softboxes and umbrellas And it was brilliant and I was like toy a kid in a sweet shop And he said I think this would do you and he lifted off the shelf a second hand Elinchrom 500 so that's an Elinchrom 500 as this is a A strobe but it's got the old school analog sliders on it.

[00:18:09] There were two sliders, one that controlled the strobe power, and one that controlled the power to the modeling light. And if you wanted them to stay the same, you move the sliders together. The slider's been designed to be close together, so you move them up and down, which, to me, having worked on audio mixing desks for concerts in the music industry, was absolutely brilliant.

[00:18:32] Perfect. It was absolutely brilliant because I knew, it felt completely natural. Now, of course, one of the things was you never had the same Bower twice. It was already a second hand light when I bought it, and not a new one. So, whenever you set the lights in the studio, you had to reset your aperture to suit.

[00:18:51] Because the things, it didn't matter. It didn't matter that you put a mark against the sliding scale. The sliders were so worn that lighting power would go up and down all the time. But it was metal cased. It's got a fan. It was quite loud. It's quite loud. And I bought that light. I. I bought a big tripod and I bought an Octabox, a six foot Octabox.

[00:19:14] That was the three things I bought. A tripod, an Elecrom 500, an Elecrom tripod, Elecrom six foot Octa. Took it home and for the next year or two, practiced lighting. It wasn't part of our business for quite a long time because I never really had the space to do it. At that time I didn't have a studio.

[00:19:34] I just knew that was the road we were going to go down, or I thought I might go down. But I didn't understand studio lighting, and so I needed time to get my shit together. So, I used to practice, I bought a polystyrene head, so there's a shop in London called the London Graphic Centre, which sell stuff. They sell art pens and graphics and it's two glorious floors of anything you can think of to be creative. It's absolutely fantastic. And in there, for some reason, they sold polystyrene heads. I don't know what they're for. You know, if they were in a hat shop, I'd understand it. If they were in a wig shop, I'd understand it.

[00:20:14] In a graphics shop? I've no idea. What do you do? Sit with your pen in your hand looking at a fictitious head going, What do you think of this? Having a conversation with Polybeads, and I don't know. Anyway, I bought one. It was like three pounds or something. Carved out the eyes like something from a CSI episode.

[00:20:31] I got a penknife, carved out the eyes, got a couple of big glass marbles, and shoved them in. I mean, it was quite macabre, but if ever, I'm found out to be a psychopathic, sociopathic, you know, mass murderer. Everyone will go back to this head and say, Well, we could see it then. Look what he did to the eyes.

[00:20:49] But I popped those in because what I wanted to understand was how I move light around, what happened to the face, And what happened to the reflections in these glass marbles? It was just a very simple way of me being able to, without having models, because I didn't have a reputation back then, I didn't have a client base back then, I didn't have a steady stream of people that would come to the house to be photographed, but I needed to understand it.

[00:21:15] So this polystyrene head, with its macabre eyeballs, was my go to. I stuck it, I skewered it, like Queen Elizabeth would have done. And off with the head, I said! I skewered it on a pole of some description and stuck it in the middle of the room. And, that's how I learned to light. It was all with this Elinchrom 500, the, the, this brilliant bit of light, and I still own it.

[00:21:40] I still have it, it's still in the attic, unfortunately the tube was blown, you can actually see that there's black in there. The rest of it I'm sure still works so if I actually sent it back for a replacement tube, I could probably get it working again. I don't know that I will maybe I will, maybe I will, because the footnote to this story is that last week, Elinchrom asked me if I would be an ambassador.

[00:22:03] for them. Now, this comes off the back of a conversation where I'd looked at the Elinchrom lighting at the London the Society's Convention of Photographers in London, and got chatting to the guys, Simon Burfoot and the, and the guys, uh, at Elinchrom, people I've known for quite a long time. He used to work at the Flash Sensor, he's now looking after Elinchrom, so I got to chatting to him about the lights had a look over the product, had a look at what they're producing, both in terms of the technology, in terms of the roadmap in terms of the light that these things produce, and the light has the same quality that I remember with my Elinchrom 500.

[00:22:38] Now the thing is, if you look at the cover of the box, Book, Mastering Portrait Photography. That was shot in a study in somebody's house with my very first light. It was shot with my Elinchrom 500, my 6 foot Octa, which was wedged in because the ceiling was only just 6 foot, so we had to wedge this thing in on its tripod in their room with some black velvet behind.

[00:23:01] Pinned to the curtain rail, and it's still, to this day, one of my favourite ever shots. And, when you go to Elinchrom, one of the things I've always loved about them is the colour accuracy of the tube. Now, every time you ignite um, Xenon in a tube, it gives off a very particular light. For all sorts of reasons with the, to do with the design of the circuitry and the light, getting that right is really important.

[00:23:26] And Elinchrom have always had this really beautifully consistent quality of light out of the units. Now I moved away from Elinchrom about six, seven years ago, I think to Profoto for the simple reason that And maybe it's a bit longer, but for the simple reason that when I went looking for a battery powered, rather than a mains powered monoblock.

[00:23:48] Now a monoblock strobe is simply when everything is in the head, as opposed to a battery pack and the small flying heads. I didn't want that. I wanted something that was self contained. I wanted something with a battery. I wanted something with no cabling. And so when I went to Elinchrom at that time, they didn't do anything.

[00:24:04] I think even now I have eight Elinchrom lights up in the attic. And I had to retire them because I went over to ProPhoto who produced the B1. The B1 is an excellent light. It's brilliant. There's, you know, it did everything and has done everything that I would ask of a light over the years. Beautiful kit, beautiful lighting, beautiful modifiers.

[00:24:26] They're having said that I've kept all of my Elinchrom soft boxes because the Rotalux system is the best in the world and I still prefer it to my Profoto stuff. But nonetheless, you know, there's no doubting the quality of the Profoto units, and there's no doubting that I've created some images that I really like with it, But I've never felt the same nostalgia as I have with Elinchrom. And so when Elinchrom showed me their kit at the convention, it's you know what, I would absolutely love, love to switch back. It's about time that I thought about it. And so I asked the guys if I could get a price on a full rig of kit, switch over to Elinchrom and it went a little bit quiet if I'm honest.

[00:25:12] I'd sent the email, I'd listed out what I wanted and then I got a quick message saying was I around the other morning, could they pop into the studio and come and see us, and Simon and Mark from Elinchrom popped into the studio, had a look around, and during that conversation asked if I would be an ambassador for Elinchrom. So for the first time in quite a long time I got a little bit emotional about kit. I do get attached to kit. Even though the Profoto stuff is brilliant, I've never felt that way about that. But with Elinchrom, it was that first light. It was that first moment that I learned to read and and understand Studio Lighting.

[00:25:54] And to be asked to be an ambassador is, it has a couple of angles on it. I mean, the first and most important is that what an honor, you know, this is a lighting company who I have so much of an emotional connection with, and here I am 20 years after buying my very first secondhand light, here I am as an ambassador for them.

[00:26:17] So I'm quite emotional about that. But also the kit is so. Phenomenal. There's something about the way it works, the way it operates. It feels like photographers designed it for photographers. So, I'm very happy. They've lent me some kit at the moment. Now, I have a bit of a challenge tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'm running a workshop.

[00:26:35] It's a workshop. All around, using studio lighting of various types in small spaces. Because if you go out into location, you very often end up in a boardroom or a kitchen. Well, the other day we ended up in a storeroom for computer equipment. It was quite bizarre where we were working. And you have to very quickly read the room, figure out what you're gonna do, and create something.

[00:26:59] Magical from it. So, that's what we're doing tomorrow. And of course, it's premised on using my strobes. Now, understandably and I suppose predictably, Elinchrom are not that keen that I continue to use Profoto kit, my Profoto lighting for my workshops. So at 9. 30 tomorrow morning on the day of workshop, I am expecting a delivery of a whole load of Elinchrom kit that I'm going to actually then use for the training day.

[00:27:33] Interesting, huh? It's a good job that not only did I learn to use light, but I'm really quick to get my head round the technology. Now they did leave me the other day with an Elinchrom 5 and an Elinchrom 3. And fortunately I have a trigger. I have a dedicated Elinchrom trigger anyway. Bye! From some Rotolight kit, which also uses, thankfully Elinchrom radio telemetry.

[00:28:00] So, I've got the, I've got the Elinchrom trigger. Now, as an aside, here's a little bit of detail, right? This is just a bit of detail. It doesn't, it has no bearing on anything, really. My Profoto dedicated Nikon trigger. The something or else, something or else. Is it AirTTL, TTL, TTL? Unit. If I leave the batteries in it, it goes flat in about 10 days, even if it's switched off.

[00:28:25] I pulled the Elinchrom trigger out of its box, having not used it as a trigger in probably three years, forgot that I'd left the batteries in there, which is a dreadful thing to do, never leave batteries in kit when you store it, but I had, so I hit the power button thinking, oh, that's not gonna work. Nope, fired up instantly.

[00:28:43] There is a joy when you're When someone designs kit properly, there is a joy in it. This Elinchrom trigger has had those batteries in it for as long as I can remember. I can't remember the last time I used it as a trigger, and it fired up instantly. I know for a fact my Profoto unit would have been dead in 10 days.

[00:29:02] And as designers of kit, this is a plea to everybody who designs for our beautiful industry. It's for good. Goodness sake, think this stuff through properly. You know, if you're going to turn something off, it shouldn't be draining enough current to flat a pair of AAA's in 10 days. It just shouldn't.

[00:29:21] Because many of us don't pick up our triggers in those kinds of time frames. Many of us would just be out, you know, location photographers that use the strobes intermittently. So think about that. Think about how, um, The kit is going to be used in design. Even the circuitry has to be designed in a way that makes sense.

[00:29:40] You know, Elinchrom, this unit, it's been in its box. It's still boxed. It's been in its box for a few years. Powered it up because I'd forgotten to take the batteries out. Nope, quite happy. Right, where do I go? Downloaded the new firmware because it's so old that It doesn't actually know about or didn't know about 3.

[00:29:57] They weren't on its list of recognized Elenchrom lighting. Connected it up, and off it went. Just genius. That's I'm sorry though, that is an aside. Anyway, tomorrow morning, tomorrow morning, I've got a handful of delegates we've got a room full of people, a couple of models, and some lights that I have never ever seen.

[00:30:13] ever used in anger. It's going to be an exciting day. Other good news this week so that's, I mean that is my good news this week, but other good news this week is that I finally managed to get our broadband account sorted out. We live in funny times my broadband contract had come up a little while ago with BT.

[00:30:32] Um, I've got both the house and the studio are on the same contract because primarily we use it. all of the bandwidth for when I'm working, and I like to be able to work from home a lot. And we're paying, I don't know, I think nearly, I think we're paying 300 quid a month for the two. So I'd rung BT a couple of weeks ago and said, right, it's time to renew because I'm out of contract.

[00:30:53] I will stay with BT although there are other providers in the village now, their reputation is awful, so I can't build my business on that. And while BT might be a little bit dull. They're also the most reliable. This is British Telecom. It used to be British Telecom. Isn't it interesting how a brand evolves to be known as BT?

[00:31:12] But it has to have such a long history. You know, if you say BA, we know we're talking about British Airways. If you say BT, you know you're talking about British Telecom. You know, I've no idea in any more what ICI Stands for, we know what it does though. Interesting to see if the BIPP, the BIP, or the British Institute of Professional Photography can evolve the same way.

[00:31:33] Time will tell. Anyway, BT, so I rang them up spent the best part of half a day on the phone because you have to. I'm sorry, we're experiencing a very high volume of calls at the moment. Your call is important, and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Yeah, right. There's only, there's one call handler, but I have no idea, but there's certainly not enough.

[00:31:52] So anyway, I got through a long conversation, got both contracts more or less nailed, or the one contract with both lines more or less nailed, and our bill came down by two thirds. My speed went up, I'm on a digital line, my bill came down. You have to think, maybe I was being stitched before, or maybe I built a bad contract before, but anyway, that was half a day well spent.

[00:32:15] So, and it's, I mean, it's like, you know, it's 300 quid a month, or was. It's now for the two lines, 100 quid a month and I've got gigabit down, 100 megabit up, and life is pretty good. But the delivery cycle of it, I've no idea. I mean, I get random boxes, I get random texts from DHL, or FedEx, or Royal Mail, as to what's going to arrive when, it's I couldn't make head nor tail of it.

[00:32:39] Sarah said, when are they connecting us? Well, I've got this date, Monday the 11th. Okay, Monday the 11th, that's brilliant. Monday the 11th, that's when they're going to connect everything up. Monday the 11th. Right, are we sure about that? Yeah, Monday the 11th, I've got an email here. Monday the 11th. F Thursday, before that, what's that, 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, so Thursday the 7th, I get I walk into the office 10 o'clock, and Michelle says, phone line's dead, and I'm like, can't be dead.

[00:33:05] Why would it be dead? I look at the hub for the broadband, the broadband's working okay, but no telephone, and they say, oh, you are kidding me. They've switched it over four days early. Now, I'd had some text saying the engineer was working on our line, and the engineer had completed his work, but at no time, at no time, did it tell me which of the two lines were being affected and what they'd done.

[00:33:30] So I rock up on Thursday to find no telephone. Now, again, fortunately, we'd had the digital phones arrive. They were in their boxes, but I hadn't set anything up yet because I had been told it was all going to happen on Monday the 11th of March. Have I got those dates right? Yeah, I'm sure it's Monday the 11th of March.

[00:33:49] Monday whichever day it was, only the Monday of March. And, so I'm very frantic, because at this point, anybody that rings us up isn't going to get through. I didn't know even if we had voicemail because I got, none of it is done as far as I'm concerned. So we rattly, a bit of a rattly morning as I sort of ripped out the old phones, put in these new digital lines, logged in, set it all up, got admin rights, because of course it's basically VoIP is nothing more than Zoom without pictures.

[00:34:18] So. And I got all of that set up and all of it is now working, but it got me thinking, and here we go. This is the point of this bit of this podcast. Now, I don't know whether the second half of the podcast is gonna be the second half of this podcast as I drive back from the photography show or whether I'm gonna release that as an entirely self-contained episode.

[00:34:39] I guess it depends how much news I find at the photography show. But let's assume. This is a self-contained driving to the NEC Podcast, and it's done. This is the point of this podcast. I've told you three stories, okay? I've told you about the RAC, I've told you about the garage, and I've told you about British Telecom.

[00:34:59] All of these have been suppliers that I would say on the whole, I rate pretty highly, the RAC. They've got me out of a pretty horrible situation. I pay money for that. By the way. It's not like they're, they're definitely not a charity. It's not the NHS, but. They rescued me when I needed it. Admittedly, they weren't clear about when and how, and it took quite a long time, but I'd have been in a lot of trouble if I couldn't have got off that motorway, and the car was undriveable.

[00:35:26] Our garage. I know they fixed it because they always fixed it. But I do wish they'd be clear. I do wish they'd tell me how much, to the best of their knowledge, it's going to cost me. I don't like obfuscation. I don't like not knowing how long it's going to take. They've had the car for three weeks to do a week's worth of work.

[00:35:44] Again, I know they've had to order parts. In a sense, I'm an experienced buyer. And then there's BT, who They told me certain things and then did them in a different order on different dates and put me into a flat spin when they disconnected the phone line to my business. All of these are quite important.

[00:36:04] It's about clarity. It's about being clear with your client. It's about When you say you're going to do something, you do it. Now there is a theory about under promising and over delivering. So being, having things connected early, in theory, should be a good thing. But it's only a good thing if your client's ready for it and their new phone's ready.

[00:36:25] If they're not, what you've basically done is disable part of their business for part of a day. Clarity is really important. For me, even now, I go back through the BT, various texts and emails, and even I After the event, couldn't tell you exactly what was supposed to happen, and the order. I still have some stuff to do, I still have to send some kit back, but, because I've got these two lines into two different buildings being contracted at the same time, none of the emails make sense, because they send both emails, or rather they send emails for both lines, on the same contract number.

[00:37:02] It's never clear exactly what is going on. It's not clear. that some kit is going to work and some kit is not going to work. It's not clear quite what should have happened. And that can't be a good thing. That can't be a good thing when I'm sitting here telling you about three suppliers who I rate actually pretty highly.

[00:37:21] I've chosen them through years of experience, I've picked them out of the crowd, and I've decided who I'm going to use. Are they all working now? Well, as far as I know, they are. RAC rescued me, the garage has rung me to say the car is ready, and I have Absolutely electric connectivity in our building or buildings, but the confusion is unnecessary.

[00:37:43] The confusion, had that confusion happened in the sales process, I don't know whether I would have bought. It didn't happen in the sales process, it happened in the fulfillment side. So the sales guys, they got it nailed. When I bought my RAC, Membership, I don't know how many years ago. The guy was utterly convincing.

[00:38:05] When I bought my BT contract, the guys were utterly convincing and of course when I go to the garage, well, the first time I went to the garage, I went reputationally because somebody else had recommended them. I bought instantly because they were They were utterly convincing. The problem happens in the fulfilment stages.

[00:38:27] And as such, I think we need to keep an eye on that. We need to be very clear to our clients, exactly what it is that we're going to do, and when we're going to do it. I was doing a wedding pitch yesterday. And I had to be, and I've, I mean I've well practiced at it, I've done it a long time. I say to them, okay, here's the process.

[00:38:45] I actually talk them through the fulfillment process. We talk loads about the wedding, but then I go through to the fulfillment process, and I suspect occasionally I lose a gig because of it, because maybe it sounds just a little bit too boring. Precise. I don't know. But, I said to the client yesterday, who are buying with us, by the way, you come to the studio two to three weeks after your wedding.

[00:39:10] That gives you enough time to have a short honeymoon. If it needs to be longer, or you want it shorter, we can do that. Two to three weeks, you're gonna come, you're gonna have lunch. During that meeting, we are gonna show you a slideshow. We're gonna melt your hearts. I do say this. We're gonna say, I'm gonna soften your wallet,

[00:39:27] We are gonna make life very difficult for you to say no to any pictures. Then we're gonna bring up those pictures and we're gonna, we are gonna help you choose the pictures that are going to go in your album. It's a lovely process, but it's not an easy process, so we're going to give you some lunch.

[00:39:42] It'll take a few hours. At the end of that, you're going to pay for the extra images you put in your album. I'd say that a little bit softer, but that's what I'm saying. You're going to settle up with us as to the images that are going to go into your album, on top of the ones you've already paid for as part of your initial contract.

[00:40:00] Then, We're going to give you a USB that has watermarked images of everything we've shown you, and the slideshow of the, uh, that we showed you in that reveal. We license the music, by the way, with the MCPS, so you can have any music you like. So, you let us know what music you like. That's what your slideshow will be set to.

[00:40:19] It'll be on a USB. At the end of the meeting, when you've settled up with us, that's what you take away with you. The next morning, we start working on that design. Within a week, maybe two, depending on what's going on in the studio, we will send you a PDF that shows that design. You have a look at it and decide whether you like it or not, or if there's anything you'd like to change.

[00:40:40] And the things we're looking for from you are A. Do you like the design? And B. Is there anything in any of the images that needs additional retouching? Fire exit signs, those kinds of things. When you eventually sign off the design, and you can go backwards and forwards as much as you like, by the way, because the most important thing is that you love your album more than anything else in the world.

[00:41:02] You're going to have that for the rest of your lives together. You must love it. You make as many changes as you want. Yes, okay, by iteration number seven or eight, we might be rolling our eyes at you. But we will still do it, and we will get it perfect for you. When you're happy, you sign that off. We will do two things.

[00:41:20] Firstly, we will order your album and any copy albums you need. I don't say it like this, I'm saying it really clearly because I'm driving a car at 70 mile an hour and I'm trying to make this clear. But nonetheless, this is the process, right? Uh, I say we will order that album and any additional copies you'd like.

[00:41:35] Eight weeks after that, as a maximum, you will have your album in your hands. The actual order time, by the way, is shorter than this, but we always say, 8 weeks, because then I'm under promising and over delivering. You will also receive a link online that has a link to the finished images. The edits that we've done for you without the watermarks, because part of what we do is any image a client puts in their album, we will give them a digital copy of that as part of the contract.

[00:42:06] We charge quite a lot of money for this, so it's fine that they can have the files, but we only release the finished files. When the album design is signed off. Why do I do it that way? Well, it gives me a couple of things. Firstly, it gives me a lever to pull when people are saying, Can I have a file? And I say, Yeah, as soon as you sign off your album.

[00:42:23] The second thing is, The only hi res files that go out are fully retouched and finished. There's no danger that an artist Unretouched image can end up in a big frame on someone's wall. So that's why we do it that way. And I'm really clear about that fulfillment process to the client. Now, I think there's other bits of our business where we're not so clear and I'm figuring out those areas and trying to work out and make sure that everything we do is super, super clear because the experience I've had with three suppliers who genuinely, I rate, genuinely.

[00:42:58] I'm happy to pay for their services. I think it's been a little bit muddled and a little bit muddy. And that, well, that can never be a good. Do you know what? I'm going to round this podcast off there and I'm going to make the journey away from the photography show another edition which I might release at a later date because that gives me extra content, right?

[00:43:20] For those of you, for those of you who are part of our workshop community, we released a new challenge last night. So we, inside, anyone that's been on our workshops, you get invited into a secret and private Facebook group. The only way you can get in there is by being on one of our workshops because that is creating a super concentrated little audience, a little community rather.

[00:43:42] of like minded people who can ask questions in a way that is safe, a way that is positive, and you get feedback from others in there. It's a really nice community. On top of that, people like Simon and Mark from Elinchrom are inside the group, so that if you have any specific questions about flash photography not only will you get answers from people who run the group companies based around this kit.

[00:44:06] Of course they're going to bias their answers towards Elinchrom, but hey, I'm an ambassador for them. So what else would you expect me to say? Likewise Jeremy and Miranda and the team from Neal and the team from Graphistudio are in there. So if you have any questions about albums and those kind of things, it's just a really nice place to be.

[00:44:21] But we run these image challenges. The current challenge which I released last night is the one chair challenge. Take a subject, take one chair, just one chair, and pop a photograph into the community. And then at the end of the month, I have a run through them, pick out my favourite, do a video critique, and set a new challenge.

[00:44:41] And we did this one because the article is featured in Professional Photo Magazine this month from us. We do an article every month, but this particular one is of Lucy in a chair, and it's just a simple shot of a teenager. Just looking super cool in what is my Nan's old throne, old armchair. So that's that community thing.

[00:45:02] Workshops, if anyone's interested in any of our workshops, just Google Paul Wilkinson Photography Workshops. You will find them they'll pop up in Google and And then you can see what's going on at the moment. The tomorrow's workshop is all about small spaces and it wasn't, but it now is about how to use Elinchrom lighting in small spaces.

[00:45:21] We'll see quite how that adventure goes, so to wrap up, let's overtake this tanker in tons of spray. Thank you for listening to this podcast. It's kept me entertained for at least half of my journey up to Birmingham. If you have any questions, please do email paul@ paulwilkinsonphotography.co.Uk. I've had a couple of really nice emails in the past few weeks. Apologies. I know I've been a little bit slow in getting back to everybody, but it really has been a . a tiny bit, a tiny bit crazy at the studio but also head across to masteringportraitphotography. com which has a heap of stuff all around this beautiful skill of ours or topic of ours the joy, the creativity and the business of portrait photography.

[00:46:08] Head over to masteringportraitphotography. com and do please subscribe. Hit that subscribe button. I don't know how you're listening to this right now, but I'll lay you a bet there's a subscribe button there somewhere. Subscribe to the podcast and then it just arrives. You know, you didn't even know you were going to listen to me today, and there you are.

[00:46:26] Forty minutes later, whatever it is, I've no idea how long I've been driving and talking forty minutes later, you are sitting thinking, Well, that was worthwhile! Do you know what? I'm really glad I hit that subscribe button. Also, if you get a chance, leave us a review.

[00:46:39] If it's a nice review, stick it somewhere public. If it's not such a nice review, email it to me, and then we can make changes to make things better, which is a constant process of evolution. Me and Darwin, well, we'd be great mates. And whatever else, as I head my way north, be kind to yourself. Take care.

Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast: Land Rover Edition

This is one of our "Land Rover Editions" which is to say, slightly noisy.  I'm on my way to and from the Hearing Dogs for a shoot, which is always lovely.  Various topics, but mostly "Yvonne's Law: Shoot For Dough Before Shooting For Show".  In other words, it's all about your client before it's about us and our lust for awards! haha.  Sadly, it does mean you can't always create award-winning or qualification-worthy images on every client job, no matter how much you want to!

00:00 Introduction and Land Rover Editions
01:06 The Journey and the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast
03:04 The Importance of Being Part of the Photography Industry
04:35 The Challenges of Recording Podcasts and Listener Engagement
06:00 The Timelessness of Radio Programs
07:05 The Arrival at Hearing Dogs and the Importance of Initials
07:45 The Challenges of Building a Website and Judging Image Competitions
16:08 The Arrival at the Wedding and Yvonne's Law
20:14 The Wedding Shoot and the Difference Between Shooting for Show and Dough
27:17 Conclusion and Farewell

 

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

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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. 

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Full Transcript:

EP145 Yvonne's Law

Introduction and Land Rover Editions

[00:00:00] As I'm absolutely certain you can hear, I'm back in the Land Rover. I think maybe, maybe I should call these the Land Rover Editions and actually separate them out from our normal podcasts. Mostly because when I was at the photography show at the beginning of the year, quite a few people came up to me and said how much they enjoyed them.

[00:00:24] Though looking in the mirror right now, I do look like I think a pilot, with my microphone, it's either that or Madonna, and I don't know which is better. I'm gonna go with pilot with the microphone on. However, quite a few people came up to me and said how much they enjoyed the podcast, when it's from the Land Rover, the podcast episodes.

[00:00:43] Except for Fiona. Fiona told me in no uncertain terms that not so keen, doesn't like them, wish I'd stopped doing them. Sadly however, look at the weather out here, it's just ridiculous. There's a huge flood. Water everywhere. Good job I'm driving this thing, I think. It's going to be an exciting trip.

[00:01:03] Note to self drive careful.

The Journey and the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast

[00:01:06] Anyway, this is one of the Land Rover editions of the Mastering Portrait, no, hang on, yes, no, that's right. I'm Paul. This is a Land Rover edition of the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast.

[00:01:33] The challenge with doing these particular versions of the podcast is, of course, the priority is to arrive safely at wherever it is I'm heading.

[00:01:44] Today it's the Hearing Dogs: I've got to photograph of some newborn puppies. Well, eight weeks old, so cute, yeah, cute. And also some Christmas stock imagery. The date today is the something of February. What is it? 7th, 8th, 9th something of February. Haven't looked the date up. And we're doing the Christmas, or some of the Christmas stock imagery ready for the end of the year.

[00:02:06] Now in some ways it feels absolutely ridiculous that we're doing that, but on the other hand, it's perfectly planned. So I'm actually quite happy about it because normally, every year I've photographed Christmas stock imagery in sort of August, which makes life very tricky when you're trying to hide flowers, make it, the light look slightly bluer.

[00:02:25] And ignoring the fact that the dog is panting in the heat. Today, that's not going to be a problem. It's 4 degrees according to the thermometer on the car. It is absolutely tipping it down with rain and has been by the look of it for the past 12 hours because there are floods everywhere. It's going to be a slightly lively journey through the lanes of Buckinghamshire to the Hearing Dogs site.

[00:02:49] So anyway, Fiona, I'm sorry I've, I set out at the beginning of the year that I was going to run at least once a week, the podcast would come out once a week, but finding the time for that has been nigh on impossible. On Tuesday.

The Importance of Being Part of the Photography Industry

[00:03:04] We spent the entire morning judging the images for the British Institute of Professional Photographers, the BIPP image competition, which is such a joyous, I mean, you know, some of the greatest pleasures of getting involved in the industry are that I'm involved in the industry.

[00:03:21] I know that may be alien to some people. I get asked quite a bit, what do you get out of it? And I'm going to guess that everybody who sticks their head over the parapet and does judging, mentoring, gets involved with various associations. You get a fairly, a fairly repeated question of what on earth is in it, for me, for other, you know, people asking why they would join, for instance.

[00:03:44] What do I get for my 15 quid a month or whatever it is, I don't even know how much it is. And the answer I'd always say is I get to be part of something. I get to be part of something bigger than just myself, Sarah, Michelle, and we're actually a pretty big business when it comes to the photography industry in terms of brand, but also in terms of turnover.

[00:04:02] We have a You know, a reasonably big business, the three of us run but it's still, in terms of the industry itself, if it wasn't for the associations, we'd be running it on our own, and yeah, alright, I'm with clients all the time, which is amazing, but it's the, things like the society's convention. Being part of the BIPP.

[00:04:19] com, being a judge for the FEP, that's just started this week, so I'm judging for the Federation of European Photographers as well, and it looks like I'm about to do some judging across the pond. with our American friends.

The Challenges of Recording Podcasts and Listener Engagement

[00:04:35] So, all in all, a lot's going on and, and , finding time to record the podcast just isn't that easy.

[00:04:42] On top of that, the thing I've suddenly had to become increasingly cognizant of is I've started to get emails of people who are discovering the podcast for the first time and are now listening to back episodes, and this particular message, I suppose, was triggered, or this thought was triggered, by an email that came from another Paul, I mean, great name, of course, another Paul, who had started listening to the podcast, and when he emailed in the other day, he was on episode 31.

[00:05:09] Now, I didn't look up the date of episode 31, but given we've been doing this for about Eight years now. Seven or eight years. Episode 31 is quite a long way back. Goodness only knows what's changed since then. And it may be another six years at that run rate before he gets to this episode of 145. So, who knows?

[00:05:33] So now I've got to be very careful. I don't get too specific on dates because by the time some people listen to these episodes it could be well out of date. Equally, there are people who've probably started episodes What, 144, and are now working their way backwards, but still won't get to 100, this episode, 145, for quite a long time.

[00:05:53] So forgive me if some of the stuff I talk about is very particular to the moment. Can't do a lot about that.

The Timelessness of Radio Programs and the Future of the Podcast

[00:06:00] One of my favourite radio programmes to listen to is Letter from America. Have I talked about this before? I've no idea. Letter from America, by a guy called Alastair Cook. He's, he's dead now.

[00:06:12] This was on Radio 4, BBC Radio 4, and I think you can still Listen to it. Oh, I listened to it on the BBC Sounds app and many of the back episodes are there. And I really like the fact that it's of its time. I was listening to an episode the other day that was actually about the Middle East, and it's incredible.

[00:06:31] I mean, These episodes must be, I think, 40 years old? You're looking at the mid 80s. And the politic of the region and things that were going on sounded like they could have been today, right here, right now. And I find stuff like that really interesting. So I suppose in a sense you can have a recording that is of its moment and yet still be pertinent later on.

The Arrival at the Hearing Dogs Site and the Struggles of PodcastingThe Arrival at the Hearing Dogs Site and the Struggles of Podcasting

[00:06:57] If I'm still doing this in 40 years, I don't know if I'm going to be driving around the country photographing hearing dogs, but that's what we're doing today. So thank you to Paul for emailing in. It's lovely to get these emails. We get them from people dotted all over the world.

[00:07:12] Describing what they're up to. I try to get back to everybody within a certain time frame not always possible, but I do try to, to do it. And those that sort of make me smile, I, I talk about on the podcast itself. Uh, An awful lot going on just at the moment, which is also a reason why I haven't managed To do a sit down at my desk recording really, the only time I've got.

[00:07:34] Sorry, I'm so sorry Fiona, I know, alright, I know. But I'll try and make the broadcast as clear as I can.

[00:07:41] Even in this clattering vehicle.

The Development of the Mastering Portrait Photography Website

[00:07:45] Still building the masteringportraitphotography. com website, causing me no end of head scratch. The hardest bit is a combination of technology and trying to figure out where Articles should sit. It's not, it turns out, as straightforward as I would like. Mostly because the platform we're using, or trying to use, or switching to, is more basic than the one I have at the moment.

[00:08:12] So the one I have at the moment, I can do anything I like. WordPress, with all of its plugins and all of its technology, of course you can do anything you like. But the problem is, with that kind of power comes an immense amount of work. Keeping on top of it, making sure it's patched correctly, making sure that all my licenses are up to date.

[00:08:32] And on top of that, a huge amount of expenditure. Because of its sophistication, well, you pay for it. So, what we're trying to do is simplify everything, because I don't really need that power to do the things I need to do. It's overkill, really, although I enjoy having that sort of level of control.

[00:08:54] But the kicker, of course, is now we're simplifying things down, is I'm discovering that certain core things that I relied on, for instance, the structure of how one article can be the child of another article, so you can have a parent which is a really simple idea.

The Challenges of Creating a User-Friendly Website

[00:09:12] But very powerful. I can't do that on the new platform, so I'm having to figure out ways of still making the content visible, make it logical make it easy to upload and easy to access.

[00:09:24] And have a structure that really makes sense, but haven't necessarily been able to find the way of doing that.

The Experience of Judging for the BIPP Image Competition

[00:09:32] Of course, things like judging the other day they take up time too, but it warranted pleasure. It was just It's the new BIPP monthly competition. So this was month one. So if you're listening to this podcast five years later, you will know whether the BIPP.

[00:09:47] com monthly competition has been a success because this was the very first round. A couple of hundred entries, which is really nice. Hopefully that will climb but the, the fun of it is sitting we've recorded the call, so I have it as an audit trial, but sitting on this video conference with two judges looking at images and enjoying the process of assessing images.

[00:10:10] Now, the only thing is, it didn't really occur to me, I thought we'll film this, we'll do it properly, so we're using a bit of software called Squadcast which is brilliant, it's one of the, it's, there are various things, a bit, Riverside FM is another one. Where you do it as if it was Zoom, but the video and audio for each participant is recorded locally on their machine, which means it's really high quality.

[00:10:29] I can run that then into our podcast software and do an automated transcription, transcribe it, because the new AI tools are Word Perfect. It's brilliant. However, what I hadn't allowed for in the four hour recording is, of course, we judge in silence. Why? Well, it's not because we're really dull.

[00:10:53] Well, maybe it is. It's because, actually, we want each judge to determine the score for the image independently. And if there's chatter, if people are sighing, if people are going, Oh, if only they'd done this better, it influences the, the, the judges. They influence each other. And of course, we want there to be an independent scoring because that helps to take out any sort of personal or subjective, I mean the whole thing is subjective, but sort of variability and, and outside influence. So it's great, they judge in silence, they punch in their scores, I announce the score and record it. It doesn't make for a very interesting video. So I'm now not certain that we'll ever release these things because the idea was, and still is, to find ways of providing insight into why an image does well, why an image maybe hasn't done so well, what the judge's thoughts are, but we never really do that during judging.

[00:11:50] So, having to have a think about how we might do it. We certainly can't critique a couple of hundred images in the time we have available. And we're going to do this every month. And the thing about the judges is that they are not retired. They are not Part time photographers. These are the best of the best.

[00:12:10] They have to be. They have to be current. They have to have their eye in. They have to be working pros for the judging to have validity. If I just used people who are no longer in the industry, they're no longer up to date. They're no longer current. So it's not that I can use judges that have, or we can use judges that have a ton of time at their fingertips.

[00:12:33] The most important thing about the judges is they are current and as such they need to be working and if they're working I cannot get a hole in their diary for more than a few hours at a time so we can't critique every image. It's not physically possible but somehow I've got to find a way of getting some of this information out to everyone who entered, entered the monthly competition.

[00:13:00] Anyway, it's a lot of fun doing it and those results, the first set of results, will come out. Next week. So if you're a BIPP. com member, look out for those results if you're listening to the podcast. And of course, I would encourage all of you to enter. You get one free image every month. You don't need to pay any money.

[00:13:18] But just make sure, just because it's free, doesn't mean that it can be any old image. It's a real competition. We're judging it to the international print competition standard. So it's tough. I make no apology for that. It's really tough, and as such, it's not your everyday work that is going to do really well.

[00:13:41] And I'm gonna come back to that as a topic of conversation on the return leg of this journey. However, before I do that, as I'm getting fairly close to the hearing dogs now, the weather's improving. It's still pretty horrible, but at least it's not literally lashing it down as it was when I got into the car.

[00:13:58] Quick tip!

The Importance of Presets in Photography

[00:13:59] This is a quick tip for nothing. It's not the subject of the podcast, but I thought about it while I was a moment ago prepping some files for a upload, and I was in Lightroom, and then in one of the Nik ColorFX, uh, plugins. Is, there are so many presets, lots, presets for plugins, presets for Lightroom.

[00:14:23] Presets for Photoshop. There's so much stuff around actions that it gets really hard to track the ones that you created for yourself. And I have this very simple rule of thumb. is for any, any preset, any action, any workflow item, any LUT, any, sorry, a LUT, L U T, lookup table, any color LUT anything at all really, I put my initials at the front of it.

[00:14:51] I always put P W because it identifies the things that I created for myself. As opposed to the things that I may have bought the things that I may have downloaded, the things that somebody else was helping me with, the things that I've done for myself, they have the initials PW at the front. And it's not an ego thing.

[00:15:11] A couple of times people have cocked an eye because everything I've got has got PW, PW, PW, PW. It's got nothing to do with that. It's got everything to do with the fact that I get really easily confused with the different things that are in the business, the different presets, folders, you name it. So I stick PW at the front to make it clear I did that one and then in two years time Because some of the things I've written they are like five six years old There's some scripts I wrote for Photoshop that we're still using and I think I wrote them ten years ago I know they're mine because they have PW at the front as opposed to some of the scripts I found and downloaded Which are by third parties, and of course, you know, I can use them.

[00:15:51] But I certainly couldn't distribute them. And I want to know that if I'm modifying them, I'm modifying somebody else's work. Which is only fair. So, stick your initials. At the beginning of any presets and things that you create for yourself. There you go, that's a top tip for nothing.

The Arrival at the Hearing Dogs Site and the Weather Conditions

[00:16:08] I'm just about to pull in to the hearing dogs.

[00:16:11] Wow, it's a grey day. Look how blue the light is, it's horrible. Ha, ha, ha. Usually, usually at this side of the hill, we come over a slight hill. Um, so it's only, how long I've been driving? What, 10, 15 minutes? It's not that there's a huge difference in location between us and the hearing dogs. The geography does change slightly.

[00:16:33] We come over a slight rise onto the other side of a hill, and then onto a plateau, a little bit of a plateau at the foot of the Chilterns. And the weather here is quite often different, very different. Sometimes, particularly, it's most pronounced when it's snowing. We will have snow and they won't, and vice versa, and it really is only 10 minutes separate.

[00:16:51] Today, sadly, the weather is exactly the same, which is to say, shitty. There's no, I'm sorry if you're offended by the word, but it's the right word. It is shitty. Dead flat light, cloudy, wet. It's gone down by 0. 2 of a degree since I've been driving. Over this side of the hill, it's 3. 8 degrees. Usually the temperature rises.

[00:17:17] Today, it's slightly colder. And I normally would say that I am looking forward to photographing the Hearing Dogs, particularly the puppies. Today, I'm looking forward to the photography. I am not looking forward to lying in a wet field. God, that car park needs a little bit of TLC you can hear the car rattling around on all of the divots and holes and puddles.

[00:17:42] And then my, my car cam pinging as it thinks I've hit something. I do think at the moment we live in a country where the roads are in such bad condition. My dash cam. Constantly thinks I've had an accident and records that little bit of footage automatically because it thinks I've hit something, and I haven't hit anything, I'm just driving along the A40.

[00:18:05] Right, I'm here. I shall return with the actual subject of this podcast. Maybe that's what Fiona doesn't like, is the randomness of it. Sarah says I repeat myself a lot when I'm recording from the car, so apologies if I am about to do that. However I will see you at the end of this particular shoot.

[00:18:23] Right, I'm back. So at the end of that, I've just spent, what is it now quarter past two, uh, four and a bit hours photographing puppies which is beautiful, photographing dogs which are equally beautiful, running dogs, jumping dogs, wet dogs, god the weather's been horrible, and some Christmas images. Of course it's this time of year when we shoot Christmas stuff, but actually created some really, well I mean I think they're beautiful, my client seems to think they're beautiful at this stage, I've only seen them on the back of the camera, but a lot of fun.

[00:18:59] We're using more and more and more LED lighting. Which is great when you're balancing up against Christmas lights and fairy lights and daylight. It's so much easier using LED than strobes for that. For the studio stuff, we are still using strobes because we can freeze movement really well, which is really, really important.

[00:19:20] So for the white background stuff, those standard shots we create for the charity, very much still strobe, and I don't see that changing. In the near future, uh, because that ability to have, you know, F 16 and that instantaneous pulse of light that freezes motion is a very particular look and just the moment, I don't see that becoming that being replaced.

[00:19:44] However, the LED side of it we had four different LED lights two with modifiers, two focusable spots with modifiers and two LED bars. Which just added beautiful touches of light where I wanted them. Made life really easy. I'll share a few of those hopefully on Insta over the next couple of days.

[00:20:04] Actually, I won't show them on Insta because they're our Christmas pictures. So no, no, I won't be showing them on Instagram. They're the Christmas pictures, but maybe I'll get to show them. In December next year, or this year.

The Concept of Yvonne's Law in Wedding Photography

[00:20:14] Over the weekend, and this is, I guess, we're heading towards the point of this particular podcast.

[00:20:19] I was photographing a wedding, beautiful wedding, only 13 people, pretty hectic, lots going on, Friday night, Saturday all day, Sunday morning and some of the afternoon. A really beautiful venue, and on the Friday night I got sitting chatting to the mothers of the groom, or the mother, sorry, mother and father of the groom, mother and father of the bride.

[00:20:38] And one of them said to me, she said Yvonne told me this. Now at that stage I didn't even know who Yvonne was, so Yvonne, Yvonne, said that she was complaining that all of the shots of her son were the back of his head. And it turns out Yvonne, at a different wedding, was the mother of the groom. And every shot of the groom, it was just the back of his head.

[00:21:00] And I said, I don't understand. She said, well, there's lots of shots of them as a couple. You can see the bride's face, very moody, just the back of the groom's head. And do you know what? Instantly, instantly, I knew the kind of shot she was talking about. It's the kind of shot that we see quite a lot when we're judging competitions, or maybe doing Quals.

[00:21:21] There's some, it's very moody, but essentially it's a bridal portrait using the groom as context. It's fine, there's definitely a place for it. But if you're shooting a wedding, you might just find yourself getting the reaction that, clearly, Yvonne gave. So, Yvonne is not happy that the photographer has not done what she would regard as the photograph that she would like.

[00:21:43] Which, I'm gonna guess, is a photograph of the bride, the groom, three quarter length, front on, snuggled up. Smiling at camera. That's the, that's the, still one of the best selling shots you can create. Certainly if you're pitching to sell to the parents of the couple. Yvonne's Law, I'm going to call it from now on, and I think we're going to talk about this, and I'm going to add it to my list of things that people should think about.

[00:22:09] Yvonne's Law is this. When you're photographing a wedding, make sure you cover everything that the people who are attending and the people who might be buying the pictures would wish for. Going for awards is fine. We all do it. We all need to do it. We need to push ourselves and be creative. That is For most of us, why we came into these industries in the first place, we want to do something exciting and different.

[00:22:32] We want to do something engaging and moody, and on the whole, those are not the shots that you can sell to the couple. Not always, it's not an entire, there is a Venn diagram with an overlap. You can, of course, sell really dark, moody pictures of the bride to the couple, and that may well happen. But there's a law of averages here and you're being paid by the client to satisfy numerous different angles.

[00:22:57] Now, the other thing I don't know about the wedding that was being described is whether the bride and groom had asked specifically for a certain type of image. I have shot a wedding, this is going back a little bit in my career. Where the bride and groom wanted me to, and I kid you not, ignore the mother of the bride.

[00:23:16] That was my brief. Do not pay any attention to her. She's gonna ask you to do all of these different shots with different people, but she is not paying. The bride and groom were really very clear about that. The problem is, from a diplomatic point of view, I've got a nightmare because, of course, the mother of the bride is asking me to do things.

[00:23:36] And I've been briefed not to, because it'll draw time and they're not shots that the bride and groom, who are my client, are going to buy. So yes, you can end up in that situation. But here's the rub for that particular wedding, is I ended up going back and doing a portrait shoot with the whole family, because the mother of the bride felt she hadn't got the pictures of them as a family that she would wish for.

[00:23:56] We ended up dancing through, or jumping through a few hoops, jumping through a few, I can't even say the word, hoop, jumping through a few hoops, hoops to get to the end goal. So Yvonne's Law simply states, remember that you're shooting for a client, you're not just shooting for you. Eventually I'll word it slightly differently as I probably think of 25 iterations of it.

[00:24:17] Let's just let these people out here. There you go. You go through there. That's good. Perfectly good. And so it was a really beautiful wedding and throughout the day though I laughed with the two mums about Yvonne's law and made it perfectly clear that I was getting everything they had asked for.

The Differences Between Shooting for Awards and Clients

[00:24:35] Now there's a slight addendum to this thought process which is well how come what you shoot for a client doesn't necessarily do so well in awards or so well in qualifications.

[00:24:49] And the truth of that is that we have to, to a degree, separate out context from the picture. So when we're judging we don't have the context which makes it sometimes a little bit tricky. As wedding photographers we know that shooting on a commissioned wedding is that little bit more complicated which is why in the categories for wedding photography most of them state really clearly Must be linked to the wedding day, must be commissioned.

[00:25:16] You can't use models, it can't be you just shooting for fun, because once you eliminate that sense of pressure, the time pressure mostly, but the performance pressure and having to work for a client, everything's much easier. Which is why fashion magazines have these beautiful pictures of models in bridal gowns and actually on a real wedding day.

[00:25:37] It's a lot trickier, it's not impossible but it's a lot trickier to get those images. So there's this thing, and I, we all know it the best I've ever heard it was shoot for show, shoot for dough. The difference between shooting for your portfolio, shooting for awards, shooting for qualifications, and shooting for the money, shooting for your client.

[00:25:58] They are slightly different things, and one photographer, a really nice photographer called Hoss Madavi, photographer, Put it like this. He said, think about designing for a catwalk. Think about what you would design out there for a catwalk and then think about what you actually end up selling through a high street chain like John Lewis or Marks and Spencer or whatever in the UK or maybe Macy's or someone like that in the States.

[00:26:27] Think about the difference between those two. Your haute couture arranges that you're going to produce on the catwalk. By the time they end up being sold to the mass public, not quite the same thing. Nor should they be. They're for different purposes. One is to show the world what you're capable of. One is to show, or it's actually sell to the world.

[00:26:46] Not quite the same thing because most people are not going to buy a really funky haute couture dress or outfit off the catwalk in the same way that a lot of our clients won't wish. to buy a moody dark shot that's of the back of the groom's head. There you go. Yvonne's Law is now what we're calling it.

[00:27:05] I might have to change it. I feel, I don't, I've never met Yvonne. I'm going to credit her with it because that was the story that was told to me. On that happy note, I am just pulling into a garage because I am absolutely starving.

Conclusion and Farewell

[00:27:17] I need to get some food and I need to get some food quick before I start getting grumpy.

[00:27:22] So I'm going to park up and I'm going to wish you all well for the week. So for this week's podcast, thank you for listening. Of course you can email me. At paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. You can head over to masteringportraitphotography.com. Please do subscribe to the podcast wherever it is that you consume your podcast.

[00:27:43] And if you feel like it, please leave us a review. If you feel sorry, if you feel like leaving us a nice review, please leave us a review. If you feel like leaving us some nastiness, then please email me so I know what we could improve on. But on that happy note, I hope you're having a good week. I hope the weather is better where you are than where we are.

[00:27:58] And of course, in the spirit of this morning, a very happy Christmas to you all on this February day. And whatever else, be festive, but be kind to yourself. Take care.

I am recording this having just spent the day running one of our workshops with some of the nicest people imaginable.  A top day (though I am now shattered!) at the end of a top month (January has been amazing) and who knows?  Maybe it's the start of a top year.  Don't want to tempt fate though...

This episode was triggered by a shoot I did last week, when just a few words seemed to change the course of a shoot.

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

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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.

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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. 

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Full Transcript:

[00:00:00] Can you believe it? January has nearly gone. We are almost into February, the second month of only 12 in a year, and this has already been one of the best starts we've ever had to any year. I'm Paul, and this is a very optimistic Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast. Well, I'll be honest, I did not see that coming.

[00:00:39] I think when we got to the end of last year, exhaustion took over, I crashed into Christmas, came out of it the other side, went into the convention, we're having a ball, but I think I don't know why I wasn't expecting this year to be quite as lively as it has been, but it does seem to be that there is a ton of energy out there.

[00:00:59] Maybe, maybe I was expecting the general election to be early in the year, and so things tend to get a little bit quieter around elections or around referenda. But the phone is ringing like crazy, emails are coming in. This week we've had a handful of reveals and they've all been brilliant. The clients have loved the images, everything's gone well.

[00:01:23] My bit of the puzzle is to create images, create an experience, send them away with memories and make sure they know what to expect when they come back for the sales, for the reveals. And they've gone really smoothly, which means I've done my bit properly, which makes me very happy because as you all know, a little bit chaotic at the best of times, uh, but it looks like my debriefs are working.

[00:01:43] I'm getting the point across to the client. We're creating pictures that people love and I am having a ball. I did think I might feel a little flat after the success of the Society's convention. It was such a good week. I know I spoke about it in the last podcast, but I'm still smiling at just how much fun we had, just how many people I met.

[00:02:06] The workshops were full. I spend a lot of time chatting photography, having interesting conversations, meeting interesting and funny people, and I think, I suppose, last week, I thought I might feel a little flat about it all, but that could not be further from the truth. If anything, I'm more energetic now than I have been for a long time, ignoring the fact that I'm also pretty exhausted and my eyes. I don't know why, but my eyes have been tired today. You know, you get those days when I put my glasses on and within three minutes, I've got to take them off, even though everything is just slightly blurry because I don't know why, it just makes my, it's just been making my eyes tired today.

[00:02:46] Maybe I just need to go and get them sorted, but this has been the most successful January we've ever had. And sometimes everything goes like that. It's just hectic, it's full of stuff, all unexpected, but being busy is a good thing. I think? Isn't it? Uh, I don't know. Anyway, today we've just finished the first of this year's workshops.

[00:03:11] This particular workshop was our From Shutter to Print workshop, uh, which steps through everything from picking up your camera all the way through to prepping your images ready for print. It's a huge, if you think about it, that's a huge field to cover. And of course, we try really hard to To tune it, we ask all of the delegates coming, we ask questions on what they're looking for.

[00:03:35] So we try to make sure that everything we're delivering is in line with what would be useful for them. And at this point of the day, it's quarter to eight in the evening. I don't know, a couple of hours ago when they left But they all look just slightly shattered, whether that's just because I've thrown so much information at them, whether it's just because it's a Monday, a dark Monday in January, or a combination of the two, I've no idea.

[00:03:59] Of course, I'm always slightly nervous of whether I've done a good job of delivering the information that would be useful for them, but it certainly has been a blast. And it was Loretta today. I don't know if I've ever talked about Loretta. Loretta was one of my clients. I photographed her wedding. Oh, it must be 10 years ago now.

[00:04:17] Um, and we've been friends ever since. She is a ball of energy and I absolutely love it when she's in the studio because there is not a dull moment. There's never a flat. Easy, calm couple of minutes. It's just 100 miles an hour from when she arrives to when she goes. So today has been one of those days.

[00:04:39] So thank you to everybody who came on the workshop. And obviously, thank you to Loretta for modeling. And once again, best lunch. ever. The guys, there's a delicatessen in our local town of Thame called What's Cooking. I don't know if a shout out to a small company in Thame is any good to them on a podcast that has photographers all over the world, but I'm going to give them a big shout because every time they do the food for us, it is a highlight of the day.

[00:05:06] I like to think the pictures I've created might be the highlight of the day. But no, no, I'm absolutely convinced that as everybody's driving away, they'll have been thinking that was a great lunch. We had beautiful food full of flavor, not your sandwich, not your average sandwiches that you get in packets or bowls of crisps.

[00:05:26] No, no, no. These are. Big plates of really beautiful vegetables and salads and a quiche and chicken and scotch eggs. It was absolutely incredible. So thank you to What's Cooking in Tame for yet again. They're our regular, they cater to our workshops all the time. I, when I set out with this thing. I wanted to deliver something that's genuinely useful, but also something that people will enjoy coming to.

[00:05:52] And lunch, for me at least, is a big part of that. I'm always disappointed when I go somewhere and it's a crappy lunch. You know, the edges of the sandwiches are curled. It's like tea in Tearns. Those annoyingly sweet biscuits that you get. None of that. Mid afternoon, so the first part of the day, the first half of the day is all photography.

[00:06:13] And the second half of the day is all Uh, techniques and things in Photoshop and Lightroom. And midway through that, Sarah arrives with Millionaire's Shortbread and tea and coffee and just lovely. And it just picks everybody up long enough for them to survive, survive me rabbiting on about Photoshop and Lightroom and retouching and layers and masks and curves and color profiles and LUTs and all of the things that are part of this thing.

[00:06:43] The mid afternoon snack is my highlight. I actually look forward to it. So I had this brilliant lunch. We've had beautiful people around, created amazing pictures, had a lot of fun. And mid afternoon, in comes a millionaire's shortbread. Oh my days. Yes, please. Thank you very much. Uh, anyway, what did I actually learn today?

[00:07:00] One of the things that came up in the editing section , someone asked me, Um, why I choose the order that I do for making my edits. And I've never really thought about why in anything other than, well I, you know, the background I'll do, I'll do this, then I'll do that, then I'll get all the way up to the front layers, then I'll do the retouching on skin, etc, etc, and any, you know, liquefying things.

[00:07:24] And actually when I thought about it, I stopped dead and I thought about it. I edit in the order of certainty that I won't need to go back to it. Now, I've never really thought about it logically like that till today. Maybe I should have. I've done it instinctively.

[00:07:42] So there's a thing called a desire line, or desire lines, and these are those paths that when you look at like a park, uh, like a park, particularly in a town, like a big expanse of green, or maybe in our village here we have, um, walk into the station, you go along the path, and the path dips into each of the cul de sacs.

[00:08:04] So the designers, the architects, or the town planners expect you to walk round the corner by about 20 feet, cross the road, Inside the cul de sac, and then come back out on the path, and on the corners of each of those cul de sacs, there's green, there's grass. But if you actually look, the grass is worn down because people have gone sod that and walking in a straight line.

[00:08:22] Similarly in a park, you'll see where the planners and the architects and the designers wanted you to go, and then you'll see where people actually go, and it's never the same place. Well, there's a name for it, they're called desire lines. And the same is true in how you develop processes in your business.

[00:08:39] I've talked about this before, and the trick really is to do the same thing over and over and over and find your own desire line. So much as you sit and plan things, much as you sit and analyse and decide to do this after that and that before this, in the end, you'll do what comes naturally. You'll go and basically The straightest line you can, the path of least resistance.

[00:09:00] It's called a desire line, it has a proper name. So when I was thinking about it today, because one of the delegates asked, why do I do it in this order? And, what I actually do, is I start with the background. So I've got my background layer that's come in from the raw file. I'll duplicate that, because then I've always got an original, uh, layer to go back to.

[00:09:19] Then I usually clean up, so if it's a studio shot, I'll clean up the background. I'll sort out anything to do with the background, because that isn't going to change. It, there's no real decisions to make there. I'm just going to do it, because Once it's done, it's done. I'll never need to go back to it. Then, I might work on, uh, all of the elements of the image that, although they might be quite intensive Photoshopping, they definitely need to be done.

[00:09:45] So, for instance, if someone's wearing a black outfit, as they were today, And there's lots of little hairs and flecks of dust and things. They're gonna need to be cleaned off. There's no ifs, no buts, no wherefores, no decisions to be made. I'm just going to clean it. I'll never need to go back to it because once it's clean, it's clean.

[00:10:03] And I can move on to the next stages. Then I've got a couple of decisions to make. Um, probably what I'm gonna do is do my skin work. So if it's a face, I'm a portrait photographer, there's nearly always a face. I'll do some skin work. I might Photoshop around the edges of the hair, any stray hairs. And I might do things like, um, frequency separation and some retouching with some dodging and burning.

[00:10:27] Then once I've got clear of that, probably what I might think about doing is maybe putting in a texture on top of a background layer. But things like that I might change my mind about, so they're right at the top of the stack. Um, then when I've got there If I need to do any liquefying or any puppet warping, this is the moment.

[00:10:44] It's really late in the stages of photography. Why? Because I'm not certain at this stage, or I'm not 100 percent ever at this stage, quite what would be the right amount of that kind of work. Of all the things we do, I think it's probably the most contentious. Changing someone's body shape because I've posed them badly.

[00:11:07] It's still an area where it's a little bit vague as to how much is the right amount to do, particularly as someone who photographs all sorts of walks of life, all sorts of ages. I don't want to be in that realm of, you know, everybody has to look a certain way. But equally, if I've posed someone not as optimally as I should have, maybe I'll just fix that.

[00:11:27] But it's going to happen really late in the edit. If later on, I'm really close to finishing an image at this point, so if I decide, well, I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have done that, I can go back and I don't have to undo any of the rest of it. And then the final tiny little bit, probably to put a vignette on top, uh, if I, if I want to, and then maybe finish off with a black and white conversion, or something like Nik Color FX.

[00:11:52] So basically what I'm doing is I'm working all the way up from the bottom with all of the things that really, really, really, uh, are definitely going to be done no matter what, all the way to the things actually if I change my mind tomorrow, I won't have to start again at the bottom of the layer stack.

[00:12:07] And I've never really thought about it like that. Um, so many of the processes in our studio are my own desire lines, but I've never thought about that one. So it's kind of cool that at the end of a workshop I've learned something really good as well. So thank you to everyone who came. Really excited about this year's workshops.

[00:12:24] All of them. They're going to be brilliant. Particularly if they go like today. But the one, if I'm honest, that I am most looking forward to is the one we're running on the 18th. So, uh, I've got about six, what's that, six, eight weeks, uh, to think about it. Uh, it's called at the moment, Ordinary to Extraordinary Studio Photography, probably because we were hunting around for a title for it.

[00:12:46] Sounds alarmingly like some of Gerry Guionis titles. Uh, but it could also have been called, I don't know, the Storeroom Studio or Lighting Up in the Lounge. No, no, not lighting up. That makes it sounds like you're smoking lighting in the lounge or maybe the basement backdrop. I don't know, but whatever it is titled, it's all about creating magic in small, awkward, tricky spaces, which is something I've had to do a lot of when I'm working in office buildings.

[00:13:17] When I'm working in other people's homes, you never quite know what you're going to get. And this whole workshop is dedicated to things like basements. Boardrooms, cellars, lounges, hallways, corridors, even store cupboards. I kid you not, I did a shoot the other week in a store cupboard. A big store cupboard, but a store cupboard.

[00:13:40] So at the moment I am coming up with ways to mimic what it's like to work in these little spaces that are awkward, but still create gorgeous images. Now I'm really excited about it because one of the things about smaller spaces is you tend to get, assuming you can get your kit. In there, you tend to get lower contrast because the light pings around a little bit and you can get some really beautiful, gentle, effortless setups.

[00:14:06] Uh, so that is going to be an absolute blast. Cannot wait, uh, for that. Uh, how am I doing? What did I say I was doing last week? Oh yes, the MPP website. Still rebuilding it. It's a long process. We are getting there, slowly but surely, we are getting there and it is taking shape. The content is nearly over. But I've still got to reorganise it all.

[00:14:29] And in the process of doing it, we're reading everything. I'm reading every article, double checking to see if it's still relevant. One or two of the things we've ported over that came from the book, and then went to the Mastering Portrait Photography website. Well, of course, the book was published in 2014.

[00:14:43] It's 10 years old this year. And some of the information in there is now, frankly, outdated. Anything to do with cameras and lighting, things have moved on. Probably also the Photoshopping, although luckily, the small bits of Photoshopping I put in were basically about principles, not about specifics. So, you know, generative AI hadn't even been thought of at that stage, nor had things like the removal tool, nor had actually quite a lot of the tooling in Photoshop or Lightroom.

[00:15:12] It just, the latest versions are worlds apart from what was going on in 2014, but equally, an awful lot of what's on there is Totally relevant, totally pertinent, uh, to, uh, what's going on. So, um, we are working on it. We will get there, trust me. When it's done, we will sing it from the rooftops. Uh, but I'll keep you up to date with how that is all going, uh, including my excitement, uh, for it.

[00:15:39] Um, this week's Thought of the Week. And it's a simple one. Well, they're always simple ones. I mean, I'm not a complicated guy, not really. This week's Thought of the Week is that you genuinely You genuinely have the power to make people feel amazing with words, just as you do with pictures, if not more so.

[00:15:59] Why do I say that? Well, two different clients this week, one in particular, he came, he was just a lovely guy. Uh, he made the claim right at the beginning of the session that he hadn't really ever had a picture that he really liked of himself. And I'm looking at him thinking, I'm not quite sure why. I can't see it visually, but maybe it's the way he reacted to being in front of the camera.

[00:16:24] We've got shooting and all was going reasonably well, and then suddenly. Something about the way he looked and the way he moved reminded me of Vernon Kay. He's from a different area of the country, one's from the North, Vernon Kay's from Bolton, I think, and my client's from the South. Different heights, I think Vernon Kay's about 6 foot 8 or something, ridiculous, 6 foot 2, I've no idea.

[00:16:46] But he's tall and he was a model, my client, anything but. But, there were definitely similarities in the mannerisms, in the haircut, and if I got the light in a certain position and the angle was right, In the way he, it lit his face. And I've said this, and I'm laughing. And he didn't know who Vernon Kaye was, which is a little bit sobering.

[00:17:08] Obviously, people who are younger, uh, maybe Vernon Kaye's not on their radar just yet. But. As I talked it through, visibly, the guy grew in confidence. You could see his body language change, you could see him just come out of himself a little bit, and of course as he's doing that, I'm getting better pictures because his confidence has grown.

[00:17:30] It's paying dividends just having someone in front of me who feels better about themselves. Now don't get me wrong, you cannot tell someone they look like Robert Redford if they don't. That's not what I'm saying. But in finding really good positives Things about someone, not only that you like, but things that you can verbalize, whether it's something to do with a glint in their eye, whether it's something to do with their clothing.

[00:17:54] In this instance, it was someone he looks a little bit like. And with a shoot, particularly with headshots where it could be corporate, it could be an author, it could be a musician or an artist, I don't necessarily know who's coming in or how confident they are. or what we're going to do. Sometimes I do, but not that often.

[00:18:16] And so I will nearly always in my head figure out an actor or a public figure who has a media presence. Obviously not, hopefully someone who's nice, not a Donald Trump or a Liz Truss. Uh, to, to, and what I'll do is it's with that personality is I'll figure out what would their agent have asked of them for photos.

[00:18:40] What would be in their portfolio, their lookbook? What would be on the inside sleeve of an author's bio? If they were in a BBC or an ITV or a Netflix drama, what would the cover shot look like? Because the thing about actors, in particular, the thing about actors, is they reflect Every day Life.. So you get actors from all sorts of backgrounds and skill sets.

[00:19:06] You get every ethnicity, you get every gender, you get every identity, you get attitudes, you get heights, you get everything. Because actors have to represent the world in which we're all familiar. So you get as many different types of actor. As you do people on the planet. And if you can find an actor that is close enough, close enough to the person you have in front of you, and then work out in your head quickly, what might the film they're in be?

[00:19:37] What might a book they've published be? What would a cover look like? What would the poster image on Netflix or Amazon or Maybe in an agent book or maybe on a, on a music album cover. I don't know. I'm making this up as I go along, but if you can picture it, if you can find it, if you can drag it out of your imagination and your history, two things.

[00:20:01] Firstly, you can say to the client, Oh man, you remind me of X. And that's a very helpful thing to do because the client will grow in confidence, but secondly , so do you. Because you're now shooting with something in mind that you might not have had when the shoot started. You might have, but you might not have.

[00:20:21] For me, I love that moment when I open the door and suddenly I've got to figure out what shots are going to look good. How am I going to do this? What's I'm going to look at their clothing, get them to talk me through their clothing and step through all of the things we're going to do with that. I love that energy and that positivity as we drive the shoot forward.

[00:20:39] And I'm not kidding, not only did my client feel better, but so did I because I was now producing better pictures because my client was reacting to the camera in a way that could really only result in beautiful images.

[00:20:54] Please do, when you're working, think of ways of making your client feel a million bucks. And language is every bit as important as what you do with your lights and your camera with Photoshop. Now that's a proper time to know, a proper point to end. As always, if you're interested in our workshops, just Google Paul Wilkinson Photography Workshops, or head over to Paul Wilkinson Photography and look for the coaching section.

[00:21:20] Please do give us a like, a wave, a review. Uh, some five stars maybe that'd be really nice, uh, on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. If you wanna subscribe to the podcast, please do so on your, on your, uh, podcast Player of Choice so that every time I record one, it'll drop as if by magic, straight into the list of things to listen.

[00:21:41] Like I said last week, I'm gonna try and keep this as a weekly podcast, this time round. Shorter episodes, but far more. Of them. As always, if you have, uh, any questions at all, you can reach me onPaul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. We've had some really lovely emails this week from people. Thank you to everyone who's emailed in, uh, to say they're enjoying the podcast.

[00:22:03] Uh, so you can reach me atPaul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. And until next time, however your week is going, however, your January is ending, your February starting, or if you're just listening to the back catalog, whatever it is you're up to, whatever else. Be kind to yourself. Take care.

So we're kicking off 2024 with a slightly random podcast from the cab of my Land Rover (thank you Craig from New Zealand for telling me he quite likes the rawness - pretty much gave me permission to once again strap on my Madonna-esque headset mic and ad-lib my way through the first episode of the year!)

This episode is a blend of a summary of 2023 and some ideas for 2024.  If anyone is curious, the lighting I mention is the Aputure LS60x and LS60d (tunable, focussable LED spotlights), the Aputure Accent B7c and the Phottix TR200R RGB Tube Lights.  All brilliant.

The Superclass and Masterclass we will be running at the Societies Convention 2024 can be found at https://thesocieties.net/convention/speakers/paul-wilkinson/ and we would love to see you there - either at the workshops or just for a well-deserved pint!

Finally, all of our workshops at our studio can be found at https://www.paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk/photography-workshops-and-training/ 

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

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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. 

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Full Transcript:

[00:00:00] I wasn't intending to do too many more podcasts on the Land Rover. Um, however, However a nice guy called Craig from New Zealand emailed me over the Christmas period to say how much he enjoyed the podcast, how much he enjoyed Mastering Portrait Photography the website, and most importantly, at least from the perspective of this particular episode. How much he liked the ones from the Land Rover.
To use his words, they feel a little bit more raw, and I don't know what that means. Whether it means unscripted, or whether the sounds of a rattling Land Rover as I travel from point A to point B is somehow an interesting soundbed. I've no idea, he doesn't elaborate. However, thanks Craig partly because it's always nice to know that what you're doing doesn't just disappear into the ether, and I think as photographers we would All appreciate that sensation but also that even when I'm recording things literally in the last few minutes I have between jobs, because that's all the [00:01:00] time I'm managing to find, then even those episodes have their value.
So one way or another. A very happy new year. Please forgive the sound quality. I'm Paul, and this is the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast.
 Do you know one of the things you're meant to do as a sound engineer if you're recording for either, I guess, a podcast or radio or for video, is to record a sound bed, to record the ambient noise. So, forgive me while I record little bits like this. Yes, just, I suppose in theory it should be silence, but in a Land Rover nothing is silent.
But I'm going to need lots of little bits of the audio if I have to do any corrections. I'm off to another shoot. I'm working with the Hearing Dogs [00:02:00] today, just a few miles down the road, in the UK, a typically average journey, I suppose, half an hour or so. Uh, half an hour out, half an hour back.
If you live in the US, that's literally like tripping over your own doorstep because it's a journey under two hours. But here in the UK, we're used to slightly shorter journeys. The year has already got off to a ridiculous start. Uh, I actually thought, and every year I think this, that December will quieten down, I'll have a great break over Christmas, January will be quiet until it ramps up.
And actually all that happens is I tear through the whole of the holiday period at a hundred miles an hour, hoping I can get a breather. December was really busy, which was good. 2023 however wasn't the year that I'd like to relive. It hasn't been a bad year, but we've had to fight every inch of the way.
Nothing has ever landed in our lap. Both Sarah and I and Michelle. are grafters, [00:03:00] all of us work, and work hard for our living. But, last year really was a little bit of a brutal year. Um, just felt like the atmosphere out there in the marketplace wasn't everything it could have been.
Um, we've got very, or have had, very high inflation in the UK, certainly for this country. Now, if you're listening to us in Venezuela or somewhere, possibly not quite the same thing. But with inflation rates kicking up, uh, touching out somewhere near 10 percent and then obviously hikes in interest rates by the Bank of England to bring that back down, essentially what you've got is the perfect storm for people like us who work in the service sector, because our costs of production have gone up in line with inflation. At the same time, the costs of living for our clients have gone up by the same amount, and so the battle for us to be one of their priority spends is that little bit more tricky. However, we've [00:04:00] done it, we had a really good year in the end, but like I said, we have fought tooth and nail, uh, to do it, and I think that's the making of a business. I've said over the years, and I think it's probably out there on a podcast, I'd be surprised if it wasn't, that being a successful business when things are going well is actually really easy. There's not an awful lot to it.
You do your job, you create what you create, you sell it, you move on to the next one. Don't get me wrong, I know it's much more nuanced than that, I live this world. But broadly speaking, when things are going right, this job isn't that hard. It's when things are tough, that they show your real character.
So, I've spoken about customer service, it's when it goes wrong, really, that you show the true Skillset, the true worth in everything that you do. When things are a little bit tougher, that's when you have to dig deep. It's when you have to show what you are made of.
And we've done that over the past 12 months, and we ended December with some beautiful shoots, some lovely clients, [00:05:00] one or two unexpected sales that came in from jobs that I guess there was at least one that I had mothballed, to the point of it being in the archive when the orders eventually came in.
Didn't expect to hear from them, hadn't heard from them in 18 months. So for a business like ours, where we are very much about a personal service, it's in person sales, it's an in-person experience, it's about memories, it's about laughter, it's about feeling valued. Wherever possible, we do not do remote sales.
I don't do remote sales for precisely the reason that it's taken 18 months for one of our clients to come back and order their pictures. And that's in spite of us doing all the usual stuff, we've emailed them, we've called them. Not to be, not to hassle them. Just to see if there's anything we can do to help.
But the problem with non in person sales, online sales is of course. You have very few levers you can pull, and there's not a lot you can do. You can [00:06:00] say you're going to take the album down, which we did. In fact, the album was dormant for probably two thirds of that time. We'd just changed the password so that no one could log in. But of course, when they emailed and said, Oh, I've just noticed I can't log in, we opened it back up. So it's not a real lever, it's just A way of us knowing that they're looking at the album again. And the order came through, and it was a beautiful order.
So it's great. It's a proper Christmas bonus. Unexpected. Out of the blue. Beautiful album. Beautiful Graphistudio album. Beautiful frames. Big frames. And the whole thing, in the end, closed out at a really nice value sale. 
So there's a lesson in there somewhere, which is, you know, don't ever write anything off. And we don't write anything off. I didn't know what the title of this podcast would be. Maybe that's what it should be. It's, you know, don't write any job off. But actually, this is one of those unscripted podcasts where I haven't really got a clue exactly what it was I was going to talk about. So I have this kind of list of things in my head, but who knows whether I'll get to the bottom of [00:07:00] it.
Uh, on this year, on the title or on the topic of it being a New Year, of course everybody sits down and makes their list of New Year's resolutions, which actually I don't. I've never been a believer, and I think, I thought that's what the title of this podcast was going to be. I've never been a believer in New Year's resolutions.
I don't know why, I just think if you want to do something, do it. Make, make every day the opportunity for a resolution. That's not to say that I'm really good at doing that. That's not to say that every time I've thought, you know what, I'm going to make that happen this year. I'm going to lose three stone and get fit, for instance.
You know, doesn't happen. I'm going to stop drinking, doesn't happen. I'm going to become a vegetarian like my daughter, doesn't happen. There are plenty of things that I'd like to do that just Do you know what? They haven't happened. But Equally, I don't wait till New Year to change the big stuff.
But, and there is a but, is that New Year does mark a [00:08:00] natural transition, certainly when it comes to reporting your successes as a photography business. We actually don't report our profits December to December. our accounting period is September to September. But we do Internally, track it in standard calendar years.
Why? Well, actually because for social photographers there is a natural hiatus around about the end of December. People will have rollover jobs, we will very often have jobs in the diary. In the gap between Christmas and New Year simply because they book in for those. So it's not a perfectly clean break where , it stops, it starts.
But there's definitely a feeling in the marketplace that, oh, let's wait till next year. If somebody rings us and says, I want to do a shoot for my family, and if it's any time around November, the chances are they're gonna say, oh, do you know what, let's push that into next year. Let's see what next year brings.
There's a lot of that. And so it's [00:09:00] good for us to have a data point that I can compare year on year, decade, on decade these days, . And of course, covid sort of flung that up in the air, uh, three or two and a bit years of not really being able to rely on anything. 
Our data is absolutely shot: the trajectories, the averages, our historical patterns have somewhat collapsed. We are getting back, I'll be honest about that, things are beginning to look a little bit more familiar, the end of last year, or the bulk of last year, it was definitely starting to feel that way. However, things that we are looking forward to doing, so some of this stuff kicked off last year, and some of it is things we're gonna do this year.
So last year was a big sort of step up in us building our workshops and our workshop community. Lots to do on that front, we're not by any means in the position we are with our photography. Photography was a solid vision [00:10:00] for us. We can take a picture, we've worked out that the quality was good, we have fab suppliers, we have solid workflows, efficient practices, we knew our way around the marketing.
Over a few years we built the business reasonably sure footedly. Obviously, we've tripped over some things like all businesses do. Not gonna say for a minute we got it all perfect. But it was something we could get our arms around and could understand. And the minute I knew we had a good product then I knew we could build a business around it.
And I knew we had a good product because I've been taking pictures since I was a kid. I've been creating images and portraits since I was 10 years old, so I knew I could take a picture in the end, ignoring the whole kind of self confidence or insecurity bits and the imposter syndromes and all of the rest of the stuff we talk about all the time.
I knew I could take a picture. 
Training courses and workshops are slightly different. I still know I can take a picture, but whether or not we could run good workshops, whether or not we could supply great materials, [00:11:00] these were questions that we still had in our heads. 
 So, for instance, one of the things I was curious about was whether it would be a good idea to set the context of each workshop with a little presentation. I'm, I'm not a fan. When I go on a training course, I really, really, really want to see or want to understand how the person giving a workshop does what they do.
Whatever it's in, whether it's marketing, sales, Photoshopping 3D, visuals. Customer relationships, I don't know, many, many different aspects to this business. But if I want to go and learn from someone, I want them to hit the road sorry, hit, yeah, no, hit the road quick and get into the nitty gritty. I'm not a big fan of spending hours in a preamble.
However, one of the things I did pick up on is that you do need to be organized in your approach. And whether I like it or not, and whether I'm comfortable with it or not, I'm not that guy. I'm not the guy that thinks in a linear fashion. I can [00:12:00] when I have to. You know, I spent 10 years working as a manager in IT.
Trust me, I can when I have to. But that's not my natural skill set. I'm not linear. And I can, if I could see Sarah's face when she listens to this podcast, she'd be like, yeah, no shit, Sherlock. You are not linear. Because Sarah's very organized, very drilled, very Put together, and I'm so not those things.
I wish I was, sometimes, but out of the same chaos comes the imagery and the ideas that we have. So, I can't turn it off. I don't want to turn it off. If anything, being slightly chaotic is my superpower, because it brings ideas, and it brings energy, and it brings drive. But, equally, it brings inconsistency.
It brings me being really easily distracted. Distracted by breathing, you know? It's just ridiculous. So, some of the things we did last year were to [00:13:00] try and see if there are ways in which I can help myself and help the delegates on our workshops not suffer at the hands of my own chaos. And one of them is we do a quick presentation, half an hour, forty minutes.
If I get that right, of course that becomes a piece of collateral that we can send out to you if you come on one of our workshops. It becomes a series of ideas and diagrams that maybe I can use for training videos. It becomes some words that maybe I can re craft into maybe a podcast or for when I'm writing with NPhoto magazine or whether I'm writing for Professional Photographer.
So these are just parts of the puzzle. And we got that together last year and the feedback we're getting from our workshops is just phenomenal. It's absolutely brilliant that people have come on it. They seem to enjoy it. They come back. So to all of those people who are multiple offenders, thank you. It's so lovely to see you all. It feels [00:14:00] like we're beginning to build a little community. So now I know I've got the product right or we're in the, we're going in the right direction with the product. Now we can really start to focus on it. Forgive the pun. We can really start to drive that home just like we did with the core photography business.
And that's the target of this year. Mostly is to drive the training. Drive The platforms, the videos, all of the stuff that goes around that. The podcast is a big part of that. But finding the time when I'm on my own To sit and record is or has proven tricky over the past month or two. So, Christmas and New Year were lovely.
I digress here a little bit, but there's a slight point to it. Christmas and New Year were lovely. So, we stopped, we shut the studio down. Day before or two days before Christmas Eve I went shopping with my boy to do some mop up. Spent a really, just had a really lovely day the day before Christmas Eve.
Christmas Eve onwards up until, really up [00:15:00] until New Year's Day was spent with family and friends. And I really do mean pretty much every waking minute was with people I love. And now I'm an extrovert. In theory, as an extrovert, every one of those moments with family and friends is a moment to recharge.
It's a moment for me to really feel energised. Yeah, that's, that's an extravert I love being around people. But I tell you what, when I got to New Year's Day, all I really wanted to do was just find myself in a dark room. And switch the social side of my brain off and do something much less much less social I suppose is the only word I can think of.
I've had a couple of days of that and I'm beginning to get myself back together. And then, uh, last or two nights ago straight back out photographing the Christmas party for the Le Manoir chefs. And the staff, [00:16:00] which is riotous. Now those guys, Le Manoir is two Michelin starred hotel and restaurant, or restaurant with rooms, I think is how they like to call it.
It's an amazing place, beautiful food, voted one of the top hotels in the world. It's in the top 50 every year, I think it was in the top 10 this year. Absolutely phenomenal place, and they work hours that make mine look kind of shabby, I think. They work long hours, it's hard graft, they love it, they're brilliant.
But when you're thrown into their Christmas party, they don't half let off a little bit of steam, and it is great. So it was really nice to have a couple of quieter days, and then the Christmas party at La Manoire with my friends who are chefs, front of house gardeners, housekeeping you name it, the management team, marketing, sales, the HR team who asked me to do it.
They're just brilliant, and I've come away from it buzzing and energized all over again. So I cannot wait for the year. [00:17:00] And on that, we are building the workshops up. 
On that note, we have a couple actually, I'm going to be at the convention, the Societies of Photographers convention in January, I'm hoping there's some structure to this podcast by the way I'm gonna have to finish in about 5 to 10 minutes because I'll arrive at my client and I'll pick it up again, but I'll let you bet I'll repeat a bit because I won't remember where I got to, and I don't want to have to spend hours in edit, I don't have time to spend hours in the edit, so this is gonna be one of those podcasts That is pretty raw, it's gonna come out of the recording unit as it is, and it's gonna go straight out.
As you're hearing it, I don't think there'll have been very much editing except to stick in some music underneath it, and just to check the sound quality's alright. So, forgive me for that. But it's gonna be well I'm at the convention, 17th, I'm at the whole of the convention, but I'm doing two workshops, I'm doing a super class on the 17th.
And a Masterclass on the 18th. The Superclass you have to book in advance. I think there's one place left. That's all. If anybody fancies [00:18:00] it, head over to the Society's Convention and look for the Superclasses. We're gonna spend the whole of that three, three and a half hours. Creating headshots and personal branding images.
I've never met the couple who are my models. I'm looking forward to meeting them. They sound really cool. But we're going to explore lighting, how you interact. We're going to talk about whatever people want to talk about. Whether it's the marketing side of it, whether it's the business side of it.
Whether it's how you tell a story through the photos. It's whether, how you weave the story of the shoot. Because I think that's an underrepresented part of social photography is how you thread your way in a meaningful fashion through the shoots. That's the superclass. That's on the 17th. 
On the 18th, I'm doing a masterclass, you don't need to book for that, but I'd love to see you. It's free if you have a ticket to the event. Come along and we're going to be talking about specifically ten lighting patterns. I'm going to put together ten easy lighting patterns that you can replicate. One of the things I'm acutely aware of is, [00:19:00] I find much of taking a portrait second nature to me.
I do it Automatically, I can see light, I can feel it, I can almost smell it out. anD I, I don't know why or how that should be, but it is. So when I'm positioning lights, I know exactly what I'm doing, because I'm simply looking at what's in front of me. But, I've had to critique a few images some people have been on a workshop, some people have simply have asked me for some mentoring, and reading light, it turns out, is not the most natural thing in the world, and I, I assumed it was.
So I've clearly misunderstood some aspects of what, how we can teach this, so part of the Masterclass really, or part of the idea behind the Masterclass really, is to see if we can nail down ten lighting patterns with two lights, so we use one light, we'll use two lights, we'll create some drama, we'll create some theatre, we'll create some very basic stuff, [00:20:00] But the idea is we're going to hand over some real examples done live in front of the audience as to how you can do this with basic equipment.
We're going to do it in a normal room. It's just one of the meeting rooms in a hotel. We're going to do it with normal kit. I will have two lights I will, I think, have a pop up backdrop, which I'll bring in, just so I've got a plain backdrop, because I can't guarantee it. And we're going to go through some of the ideas.
And that's kind of where we're taking all of our workshops now, is to give our delegates things they can take away with them. Proper, right, okay, if you do this, that will work. One of the things I've always fought against, the reason we haven't really gone down that road up until now, is I've Rebelled a lot against people telling me how I should do it.
And I never ever, still don't, want to be the guy that says this is how you should do it. And I try really hard to remember at the beginning of every workshop, every presentation I [00:21:00] ever do. I did one the other day, we did a webinar, and I started by telling everybody on it. It's very personal to me. My eyes, my clients, my lights, my camera, my style. All of it is about me and what I like. It might not work for everybody. So I can give you insights into the thought process and this is what I thought we would do.
We'll give insights, we'll give ideas, we'll give inspiration, we'll energize. And all of that works. But the problem is if you don't understand the fundamentals or can't read it like some photographers can, then it becomes slightly trickier. So the masterclass, the second of the two classes, the masterclass at the convention on the 18th of January, it's gonna be much to do with that.
So if you're round the convention, you're a loose end. I think it's 11 till one 30 on the 18th. So it's a mid-morning slot. You'll finish your breakfast, you'll have had a couple of cups of coffee. You'll be thinking, what the hell am I gonna do today? Why not stick your head in and come and have a play?[00:22:00] 
So that's what we're going to do. And at that stage, I'm going to break off here now, because as I turn this left hand bend on a very wet road. Here we go. I'm just going to arrive at my client, which is great. I'm photographing for the Hearing Dogs this afternoon. I'm photographing a re a recipient, so a partnership, a hearing dog and a a deaf person whose story is both heartbreaking and inspirational in equal measure.
So I'm looking forward to that. It's going to be a lovely shoot. I will pick up again when I've broken off and let you know how that went. and finish off this podcast. Once again. Craig, thank you very much for telling me that I can, if I wish to record podcasts in the car,
 So just to pick up where I left off, just come to the end of a lovely shoot. Sorry, also weaving, or trying to weave through traffic in a very small Buckinghamshire town. Wilmslow, it turns out, is full of tiny little [00:23:00] streets. Many of which I'm navigating a large Land Rover through.
It's not easy and speaking at the same time. Apparently, it turns out, I can just about walk and chew gum at the same time, but cannot talk and drive a Land Rover at the same time. too: must be two different bits of my brain. Okay. And a nice person's let me out, and another person has refused to let me out.
And there's a motorbike, and I've just landed into school traffic. In Bucks, which means that no one's paying attention at all to anyone except their own journey home and trying to get back for our, I'm assuming, a cup of tea and to get the kids a sandwich. Where are we? So yes, I just finished a really beautiful shoot with a really lovely person who she lost her hearing.
Well, she had an illness, went into a coma, came out of the coma, and discovered that she had lost her hearing, one heck of a shock. And so she now has a Hearing Dog, but she's profoundly [00:24:00] deaf, has absolutely no hearing at all.
And the hearing dog provides all of the support that she needs. So if the doorbell goes, the phone goes. Smoke alarms, obviously. Every minutiae of life that we take for granted, the hearing dog supports them. A hearing dog. A beautiful spaniel. I'm not going to give any names away, because that's not my place to.
But an absolutely wonderful shoot. And I read in the notes that she wasn't particularly keen on being photographed. Not someone who's used to being photographed, not someone who enjoys being photographed. And you read these notes and I would say 80 percent of my clients sit in that bracket. Um, there are days, there are days when I wake up and wished everybody I photographed really, really, really wanted to be photographed.
Models and the like. Because man, wouldn't that be just glorious? Really easy too. It'd be wonderful that every person in [00:25:00] front of the camera wanted to show off, and they just loved it, and they were confident, and knew how beautiful they were. But that's just not my world. So the lady, really super smart lawyer didn't really want to be, well my note said that she didn't really feel comfortable being photographed, but it turns out, uh, She could not have been lovelier.
Did I just say that right? Lovelier, lovelier. She could not have I'm concentrating on driving. Lovelier. And the shoot has just been absolutely beautiful. The dog was stunning. The light has been really nice. We're under a rain warning at the moment. We're about to get some really heavy rain, but it held off long enough that we've done the whole shoot in the dry. Well, in the dry, but not on the dry. Everywhere. I don't know what it's like where you are around the world, but in Britain, just at the moment, we've had back to back rainstorms of one sort or another. Some of them big enough to be given names.
And we've got another tranche of it coming in in about an hour. Oh, half an hour, about half an hour. [00:26:00] I don't know why that matters. I'm one of those people that have to suddenly get to detail. I don't know why. I apologize. Anyway, it's been a brilliant afternoon, and it's these kinds of shoots that remind me why I do what I do.
Because just having people like the lady I've just photographed in front of the camera who full of energy, and smart, and laughter. She can hear nothing. Everything is being done through lip reading, which is, for me, is not I mean, I'm used to working around the deaf community, but I'm one of those people that spends a lot of time looking to the sides to see where the next shot's coming from.
So, mid sentence, I'll suddenly find myself looking away. And, until working with the Hearing Dogs For Deaf People, I didn't even know I did it. And, of course, it becomes a profound challenge that I need to concentrate and I've spent the afternoon concentrating on making sure no matter who I'm talking to or what I'm thinking for the next shot I must always [00:27:00] have eye contact with the person, the hearing dog recipient because They're relying on seeing my lip movements to be able to understand what's going on.
And it, you become acutely aware of it. but equally, she said, it's really bad when people try to talk slowly because that changes her understanding of the words. Because she's lip, because she's lip reading, if you speak slowly, actually that makes it harder to understand the wording. So all in all something I need to continue to work on and get better at.
At least I'm aware of it, and I try, I try pretty hard, but the photos we've got are absolutely beautiful. So where were we, where were we? Oh, I think we'd come to a bit, some of that training, I've no idea, I told you I'd lose track. podcast part two, I'm Paul, and this is still the Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast.
As I wind my way through the lanes. Other things that are happening in the studio. Obviously we're working on the setup of our training and our workshops. I'm about to re [00:28:00] platform all of our websites onto a new platform. Not quite sure which one it's going to be just yet. 
But one of the challenges I guess all of us have is our web presence is really important, and so I built all my own websites built it all on WordPress. So all hosted it's all currently hosted on Siteground but over the years, a combination of price walking, which simply means every year it's got more and more expensive. You can get a good deal to start with, but gradually, I mean, we pay now.
For two, the two main of our websites, I think the basic hosting is about 1200 quid a year for the two. And on top of that are all the little plug ins that we've had to buy and put in to run things like the shop, to run things like the automated side of it, the emails, to do certain things like display the images the way I want them.
All of these bits of software are licensed. [00:29:00] Which is fine, but if you added all of that in to get in as well, rather, I think you get up into the region of sort of 1, 500 quid a year, 1, 600 pounds a year, somewhere around there for the two websites. Now that's fine, we're a big business. We work really hard at what we do, and we can justify paying properly, and paying, well pay our licenses anyway, but we can justify all of the expense of the website simply because it's a part of our turnover. 
However, what irks me is firstly how difficult it is to keep on top of all of the updates of all of the component bits of software and also just how expensive it is when it doesn't need to be. It's not about the fact that I have to invest in it, it's about the fact that I don't think I need to do, I need to invest the time and the finances to the level we are.
So I'm hunting around at the moment. I think I know what we're gonna do, and I think I know how I'm gonna do it. It'll take time, which is [00:30:00] something I don't have a lot of, but it's still got to be done. But if I can get all of the websites into one place, simplify them down, they don't need to be as comp, I'm really proud of our websites, but they do not need to be as complicated as they have evolved to be. And it's not that I set out to make them complicated, or I set out to do stuff that's particularly difficult. It's just that, year on year on year, as you add functionality, as you try to do new things, as you get on top of SEO, and structuring, and then keeping a track of 301s and 404s, and then you've got to have, like, an SEO tool to help you make sure your SEO's alright.
And then you've got albums and portfolio bits of kit. You've got sliders. Oh man, there's so many bits of software. All of which is necessary to do what I have in my head. So what I've got to do first is figure out what's the bare minimum I can get away with. And then secondly, re platform all of that. So the websites will still be [00:31:00] beautiful.
But if I can get it all under one roof, it'll be much easier to manage. And I don't have the time, to manage everything anymore, I simply don't. So that's, that's on the list for this year. And the other thing we're gonna do this year, or I've already started doing, is gradually pushing more into continuous lighting and away from strobes.
Now, this is one which I don't yet know quite where the journey's gonna take me, but the foray that we've had into it so far has been incredibly rewarding. LED technology now with high CRI LEDs is at the standard where the quality is nearly as good as strobes. It's not, I still love the light you get off a Zenon strobe.
There's something really beautiful about the quality of light, and of course, massively punchy. You get a huge amount of light, [00:32:00] a huge amount of kick. out of pretty much any strobe compared to an LED. If you had LEDs as bright as the strobe, as bright as the instantaneous flash of a strobe, people wouldn't be able to see.
It's, you know, so bright, there's so much energy in that tiny fraction of a second, that, I don't know, thousandths of a second of light burst. But working with LED makes it easier to do video and you really can see What you're gonna get. And my logic is a very simple one. If it's good enough for the film industry, and the TV industry, Netflix and the like, then it's good enough for photography.
Yes, alright, there are some things I'm gonna have to learn how to do differently. But I love doing that anyway. I'm a quick learner on most things. And so, I'm really excited about it. We've started I bought I've got a couple of Aputure Lightstorm Focusable, so these have got focusing lenses on the front focusable spots, and [00:33:00] they've got the old Bowens S type mounts on them, so we can mount pretty much anything.
I use Profoto strobes in the studio but I've got these Aperture Lightstorm tunable lights, which are absolutely phenomenal. Really bright when you want them to be. If you turn them right down, they'll last for hours on a single charge. Also I've got a couple of, they were just cheap. I was working in the flash centre doing judging for the BIPP.
And it was the flash centre in Birmingham were hosting us. And they had these light strips, just light rods. LED, Phottix. I think they were 40 quid each. I mean, they're really pennies. You know, a tank of fuel in this Land Rover is about 80 quid, so for the price of a tank of fuel, I can get two highly tunable, full spectrum lights that will do any color on the color wheel.
As well as doing normal presets. They also do some clever things with, you can make, turn them into police lights and all the rest of it. They're quite cool. [00:34:00] So I got those working in the studio, but one of the challenges when you're working with Available light is the camera is going to capture everything it sees.
With strobes, I don't worry about the lighting in the studio because the strobe overpowers it. Doesn't really matter. But with LED, you have to get the lighting, the whole lighting, exactly as you want it. And it caught us out a little bit when we were recording a video recently, and the video is simply too dark because I've lit my subject perfectly.
But I haven't lit the rest of the studio because it never really occurred to me, and I need to do it, and it's fine. Everything's okay, and certainly the subject looks incredible, but when you look at the footage of me talking to camera, for instance, I'm in the gloom somewhere. And although we tried to sort it out a little bit, we haven't quite got there.
So I've now retrofitted all of the lighting in the studio, so all of our normal overheads, office lighting if you like, in the studio, with, again, made by Aputure. They are, I can't, I think they're called [00:35:00] B7Cs or BL7Cs, which are, they look like a fat light bulb with an Edison screw thread, so they'll fit pretty much any light fitting from 100 volts up to about 250 volts.
You screw them into a light fitting, and in normal mode, they just behave like normal light bulbs, except that you can hook them up to the same app I use for the Aputure Lightstorms, and you can control them completely from the phone. So I can control how strong they are. I can also control, again, like the Phottix, light sticks, I can control exactly what color they are.
So these things, they're only about 50 quid each, but they are fully tunable. Any color I like and some special effects, if ever I did video that needed to feature, I don't know, police, car or fireworks or firelight, , it does all of those, that's of almost no interest to me. It's quite a cool thing to do, but.
Not really for what I do. But I can control their light to be any colour [00:36:00] temperature and any power. On top of that, if you unscrew the light, it becomes a battery powered light. It simply can sit in someone's hand, or you can put it into any light fitting, even if it's not plugged in, and it will work exactly the same.
It doesn't really make any difference. It'll last for about seven hours off the battery. These are really cool. So, we've started to experiment. A little way to go. I need some slightly, some LED panels. I've got a couple of bits. I do have some LED panels, but they're slightly older and the high CRI on the newer LEDs, you can really see the difference when you're illuminating skin.
But it's a whole new adventure and it does change the way you shoot. So at the moment when I'm shooting, particularly when I'm doing headshots, I'll use, I'll do some with strobes because you get that glorious, clean light. With really deep depths of field. And obviously, ProPhoto units that modifies everything is absolutely stunning.
So that's not something I'm gonna [00:37:00] completely get rid of anytime soon because I'm addicted to the quality of the light. But in the second half of the shoot, or maybe for certain shots, I'll bring out some LED lighting, maybe with a soft box or maybe LED, the strips and. You then get this beautiful thing where you can have much shallower depths of field.
So, and total control, you can see exactly how the light's going to play. You can change the colours of the lights as if I was gelling the strobes, but it's so much easier. Literally, I can just dial it in to the app and change the colour of the lights. It's opening up new avenues to explore where we can play with colour because it's quicker.
We can play with really shallow depths of field. I'm unlikely to ever be able to light, a family easily, because the power you'd need to get the depth of field you need, at least with the ISOs that we're still using at the moment, is possibly a bit too bright. But, [00:38:00] ISOs are becoming normal.
The party I shot for the hotel I shot nearly all of it. Our ISO 10,000, ISO 10 K. That's just ridiculous in terms of sensitivity. But I wanted to capture the colors of the party. I wanted to capture the candlelight. I wanted to capture the sort of fairy lights and effects lights that the events company had put on.
I wanted all of that, and I didn't wanna bounce, flash in and kill it. I did, obviously, when they're doing their awards. I used a flash gun. I used a, a speedlight on the camera because. Me being creative with the lighting is really not part of that puzzle. They need to be well lit, they need to be clear, they want to be able to celebrate the awards they've won.
But, when it comes to the event side of it, the party side of it, I shot nearly all of it at ISO 10, 000 and then simply ran it through, for this particular run, I ran it through Adobe Lightroom, the AI noise reducer. I didn't turn the noise [00:39:00] reduction up very much, 20%? Tiny. But it has a really profound quality to it now.
So you can run at ISO 10, 000 and still get pretty clean images. You lose a little bit of detail, it can get a little bit mushy. But it's a 50 megapixel camera, the Z9. And these pictures are not going to be used anywhere bigger, I'm going to guess, than 7x5. That's it. They're not hero pictures, they're not going out as posters.
So, I've got a huge amount of latitude. And to be fair, I probably didn't even need to put the noise reducer on it, but I did just because, it's like somebody's going to zoom in and go, that's a bit grainy. Why do you need high ISOs, or clean high ISOs with LED? Well, think about it. Let's say I want to get to f8, right?
Let's say I want to photograph a group of four or five people, and I'm going to need f8. To get the front to back bite in the image. So that the person at the front of the shot is nice and sharp, the person at the back of the shot is nice and sharp. Now, with a strobe, [00:40:00] that's really easy. With a strobe, I can turn the power wherever I like it, it won't make an awful lot of difference to the people in the shot, it's just a bright flash, and it's done.
And I can set the camera at ISO 100, F8, F11, F16, whatever. Doesn't matter. It'll override all the light in the room, and I've got plenty of depth of field. Really easy. Now. If I turned my LEDs, and I'd need a few more than I own, up to get ISO 100, 100th of a second, f11, that is bright sunlight. That's effectively daylight, but on a sunny day.
So, that's not really practical in a studio if I don't want people to be squinting. I could turn the power of the lights down, and use less power on the lights, but then of course I'm going to need to use slower shutter speeds, wider apertures, or higher ISOs. And now, with the ability to clean up even high ISO, [00:41:00] I'm starting to teeter on the edge of being able to do practically what you can do with strobes, with LEDs instead.
Not there yet, but we're heading In the right direction. So that's on my list. That's part of this year. I'm gonna re-platform, the websites we're gonna switch over to LED. And we're gonna just see whether, for instance, we can create better videos, more videos, so it in, in the end. This year, it is all about making the changes we need to the business that we are looking forwards to.
More about training, more about workshops, more about creating videos, about creating educational materials. Who knows, who knows, one day I might even get around to writing a second book to go with the very successful Mastering Portrait Photography. Mastering Portrait Photography Part 2, the sequel.
This time it's personal. Mastering Portrait Photography Armageddon. I don't know, maybe I'll do it like Fast and Furious. We'll just do two, then three, then four, then [00:42:00] five, and then twenty eight. Who knows. But at the moment I haven't got that in me. The problem is always, of course, like all of us, our real clients, the clients that pay our everyday bills, the portrait clients, the wedding clients, the commercial clients I'm gonna have to service those guys first.
And that's always the kicker, is how do I manage to keep the revenue coming in just as we need it, while still effectively building an entire add on or new business. It's a new business. So that's the puzzle. I will get to the bottom of it. I will figure it out. I'm enjoying the process very much.
And so that, for us, is the year ahead. As I drive through, the rain has just arrived. It's dark and gloomy. My windscreen wipers are now squeaking in the background. I'm sure you can hear that on the recording. I'm driving through a very beautiful bit of the country. I'm running along one of the ridges in the Ridgeway.
That's the Chiltern Hills. Just driving along and in spite of it being gloomy and dramatic, there's [00:43:00] fields full of sheep, there's just past an old farm, it's actually one of my clients here, and it's beautiful I'm guessing that is a medieval farmhouse, that is well old, that's got to be, and you're looking at the roof line, it's all sagged and these tiny little bricks and the road dips and drives around into the distance, it's Quite beautiful in spite of the rain.
So there you have it. Please do head over to Mastering Portrait Photography. Also have a look if you're interested in the workshops that we're running this year. They're all out all up. The first six, at least, are up. The first few sold out literally within a day or so. Which is really flattering, but then gives me the problem of having to immediately schedule in new ones.
There are a few spaces on some of the others though, so if you fancy coming and having an absolute blast about portrait photography in particular, whether it's you want to talk about the business side, the photoshopping side, or camera craft [00:44:00] or studio lighting, then please do head over to Paul Wilkinson Photography and look for the section on workshops.
You can just google Paul Wilkinson Photography workshops. And you'll find them pretty quick. Whatever else happens, I hope your holiday season was peaceful. I hope you had a lovely, restful one. If not, I hope you're having an absolute party. And so, here's to 2024. Let's hope that it's Well, let's hope that it's a nicer year than it seems to have been in the first few days.
There's nothing in the news that fills me with very much joy. So I'm just ignoring the news. I'm not paying any attention to it. I'm not getting involved. It just upsets me. I'm going to continue to do what I do and enjoy spending time with my clients, enjoy spending time with other photographers.
Basically, I'm just going to make the most of my time on the planet. Here's to 2024 and whatever else, remember, be kind to yourself. Take care. [00:45:00] 

 

In this interview with an old friend of ours, Simon Shirley, Toastmaster extraordinaire, we end up chatting about some of the simple things that make for a successful client-facing business for responding quickly, to getting a crowd onside (even when the odds are stacked against you!)

I mention a few workshops we'll be running, so here are the links:

Sunday 10th September 2023
The Guild Of Photographers Photohub Event
Oxford
Mastering Off-Camera Flash
https://photohubs.photoguild.co.uk/the-oxford-belfry-photohub/

Thursday 28th September 2023
The Guild Of Photographers Photohub Event
Peebles, Scotland
Mastering Available Light
https://photohubs.photoguild.co.uk/peebles-hydro-photohub-2/ 

 

Monday September 11, 2023
Full-Day Workshop At Our Studio near Oxford
Mastering Dog Photography From Shutter To Print
https://www.paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk/store/workshops/mastering-dog-photography-from-shutter-to-print-11th-september-2023/ 

 

Monday October 9, 2023
Full-Day Workshop At Our Studio near Oxford
Mastering Personal Branding Photography
https://www.paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk/store/workshops/mastering-personal-branding-photography-9th-october-2023/ 

 

Monday October 23, 2023
Full-Day Workshop At Our Studio near Oxford
Mastering Available Light
https://www.paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk/store/workshops/mastering-available-light-23rd-october-2023/ 

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

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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.

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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.