The Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast

In this episode, sponsored by Panasonic eneloop Pro Rechargeable Batteries, I am pondering on the difference between being 'proud' and 'taking pride' in everything you do.  A subtle but important distinction - particularly if you're British and have been brought up that pride always comes before a fall!

Some ideas about how to get around that familiar feeling of not wanting to brag about your images - tell the client how amazing they look instead!  Much more comfortable for us Brits and has the added bonus of making the client feel great too!

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

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

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

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

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

In this episode I'm back in the Land Rover Defender heading out to buy our evening's supper: fish'n'chips!  We were due to go and sit on a hill side and eat them with a pint of beer but, sadly, the brassic weather has other ideas.  Instead, I am pootling through Midsommer Murders territory on a wet and wild Friday evening.

In this episode, sponsored by Panasonic Eneloop Pro Batteries, I have an idea about how you might use your own portfolio - the images that you've taken that you love - to inspire you and keep you energised ready for whatever walks through the door.

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

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

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

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

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

Have you ever wondered how just a few words can make your day or break your heart?  In this episode I ponder on how words are the backbone of portrait photography: during the shoot, they're the only thing you have!

From the minute your client arrives, to the moment you're saying your goodbyes and waving them from your doorstep (you do actually make the effort to see them to their card don't you?!), it's your words and what you say with your body language that is going to make or break the shoot.  Yes, the images will ultimately be the thing you sell, but the experience and the way your client feels during the shoot are so much important than any pixels can be.

Words.  It's all in the witchery of the words.

I mention a piece of software called FoCal in the episode - this is a fantastic app for calibrating your lenses if you happen to own a Nikon or Canon camera (sorry Fuji, Sony, and Olympus users!)  It was recommended by one of our Mastering Portrait Photography members - Bob Foyers (https://foyers.photography/) and may be one of the most useful apps I will see all year! 

FoCal can be found here: https://www.reikanfocal.com/ You're welcome.  Oh, and thanks to Bob for mentioning it!

Cheers
P.

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

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

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

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

It's been an amazing week and you can really feel the change in energy as the Covid lockdown is gradually eased.  Emails coming in, the phones are ringing, shoots are happening (rather than perpetually postponed) and in-person sales sessions are back and in full force! Yay!

On the other hand, everything feels rusty, unfamiliar and slightly unnerving.  Weird. Getting back up to speed is going to be an exciting process for us here at the studio!  Every day is a school day huh?

As long as we're laughing all the way, things will be just fine!

Cheers
P.

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

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

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

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

One from the Land Rover this week - I recorded it while heading over to photograph puppies at the Hearing Dogs UK Charity.  Tough gig huh?

A bit of a rambly update, I admit, but the excitement of being out in the sunshine had taken hold. I was later to find that the sunshine belied just how cold it was!  That'll teach me not to forget my coat!  Anyway, that was later.  In this podcast, there is a short update on life, broken websites, flat batteries and scrubbing the studio spotless like a surgical theatre ready to be open for commercial clients.

The actual subject of this mobile recording, is "Who Buys All The Ugly Cars" (or, with a more business-style paraphrase, "There is a market for everything.")

Please do subscribe to the podcast and leave a review - it's a nice thing to do and we really appreciate it!

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

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

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

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

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

I admit this is a shorter episode than some - I am multitasking and getting prepped and rehearsed for the Graphistudio Live Lounge over the weekend - details can be found at https://www.graphistudio.com/en/accademia/

I'm on stage (as much as there is a stage of course) at 15:40 UK time (16:40 European time, 10:40 US Eastern) talking about shooting for album sales.  Would love to see you all there!  We could all go out for a drink at the bar afterwards... ....oh.... ...wait... nope, sadly not.

This podcast is about something I've always believed: keeping it simple!  Complexity rarely helps you, your photography or your business.  Keeping things nice and simple helps the shoot to flow and for your clients to enjoy their experience as much as possible.  At least that's true for portrait photography - it may not be so true if you're someone who shoots detailed products where a focus-stacking, light-stacking and hours of retouching are the norm!

For me?  Well I'm at my happiest when it's just me, my client, my camera and a little light.  Just perfect.

Enjoy!

Cheers
P.

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

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

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

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

In this episode we look at ways of seeing your images as your clients will.  When I used to work in recording studios, we would dump a copy of the music track onto cassette (yes I am that old) and walk it out into the car park and sit in a band member's car, listening to the audio.  It was the best way to make sure it sounded good somewhere other than in a sophisticated mixing room! 

Making sure your images look great to your end client is much the same - but you don't need an old Ford Capri, a Sony Cassette deck and five sweaty musicians!

In this podcast I also mention (well, someone has to blow my trumpet!) the award we won a couple of weeks ago at the Master Photographers Association International Photography Awards - I won the title of 'Portrait Photography Of The Year' with this image of Carol.

You can read the story on the BBC News website.

Enjoy!

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

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

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

I don't know quite what inspired me for this podcast, but I thought it would be interesting (and so it proved to be) to invite someone onto the podcast that really does understand relationships and the language that people use.

Every day in a portrait photography business, we're facing families and couples, watching their behaviour, listening to their conversations and creating beautiful images of them and their loved ones.  I wondered if there were techniques we could use to improve their experience - in particular, ways of diffusing the natural tensions that are present when a family arrives for a portrait session.

Kate Nicolle is a long-standing friend and client of the business and, as it happens, is also a qualified relationship counsellor.  The way she views a couple is going to be distinctly different from the way we see things through the viewfinder, but there is plenty to be learned in this conversation.

We mention the portrait session that Kate and her friends, Karen and Rachel, had a few years ago (and the picture that now hangs in her downstairs loo!) If you're curious, a short blog about this can be found here on my portrait website.

If you'd like to see more of what Kate is involved in, her website can be found at www.katenicolle-happierrelationships.co.uk and she is, truly, one of the nicest, smartest people you could meet! 

NOTE!  If you would like a virtual relationship counselling session, Kate has very kindly offered a 20% discount to anyone who mentions this podcast!

Enjoy!

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

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

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

Today I am musing (and, additionally, interrupting myself - not once but twice!) on being beholden to my diary.  It is, of course, completely to be expected when you run a successful portrait photography business but that doesn't make it easy.  Instead, you have to find strategies for keeping motivated, keeping the excitement and keeping up the creativity.

PS. there is a slight irony in today's recording that, having had a massively scheduled day, I felt the need to add a couple of updates to the recording to talk about just how much I have enjoyed today - both personally and creatively!

Enjoy!

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

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

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

Life as a photographer can feel like you're working on your own - all those hours with the camera, lights, with Photoshop and the complexities of your own business.  But, of course, the truth is a little more nuanced than that: we may be here in our studio on our own, but we have a wealth of talent around us - our suppliers.  Every day, I sell their products, their talents, their ideas to our clients, whether it's a frame, an album or a portfolio, I am wholly reliant on numerous other people to carry my brand.

In this interview, I get the chance to talk with Andy Blake, the General Manager at Kaleidoscope Framing - a company whose wonderful products we have relied on for well over a decade now.  It's a lovely interview (you may get the impression we get on well - and you'd be right!) and we talk about various aspects of the photographic industry and how things are changing - something particularly pertinent in these complicated times.

The fact that we get on well isn't a coincidence - building a relationship with your suppliers is as important as building them with your clients as it's your suppliers who, ultimately, provide the platform on which your products will shine.  It's not about the products, of course, it's about your photography, but displaying your craft in the very best light is what this business is all about. And your suppliers make that possible.

As always with our interviews, I asked Andy to recommend a book to add to our every-expanding library.  He recommended "One Day For Life", a book of photos all taken on a single day in 1987 in aid of Cancer Research.  I couldn't find any new copies but this link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0593014642/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_OV6mFbGKHVT2G takes you to second-hand copies on Amazon (I bought mine for £2.95!)

Enjoy the interview!

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

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

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