The Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast

So why do people think it's OK to criticise HOW you do something?  In this episode, I am more or less muttering about something that is prevalent in our industry: snobbishness about how you create your images rather than the celebration of what you've created.

I may have uttered an expletive during the recording of this podcast.  Sorry - don't judge me.  I've left it in because I think a little passion is a good thing. Besides, bleeping it out wouldn't have hidden the fact I said 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. 

In a podcast last year, I lamented that I had lost a little mojo - the penalty for having a massively busy season prior to that.  This triggered a couple of threads of conversation, one of which is this interview with Trevor Long PhD.

To quote from his bio: "Trevor brings an extensive experience in education and consultancy to this work, from many different countries and cultures, with a primary interest in individual development as a means of building long-term growth and well-being.  Working with several business schools, including Cambridge, Duke, Henley and Warwick, he has designed and delivered programmes on strategy, leadership, change, personal development and cultural awareness. He focuses on the educational content of the charity.

In this fascinating interview, Trevor talks about ways in which we can be more creative, stay motivated and generally be happier in everything that we do.  And right now?  Well, I'll take every bit of information on joy and contentment that I can find!

Trevor, and his wife Nikki, run a charity in The Gambia, called Be Reel, that helps the community form viable, sustainable micro-businesses to feed themselves and their families.  Details of the charity can be found here.  

As always, I asked Trevor to nominate a book for our every-growing Photography Library here at the studio.  In typical enthusiastic fashion, he nominated two!

The first is called "Mindfulness And The Natural World", by Claire Thompson:

The second, by Micah Mortali, is called Rewilding.

Enjoy the interview and please share with anyone you think might find it useful.

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. 

Well, it's only gone and happened again: we're back in lockdown from this Thursday.  Finding out on a Saturday night that you have five working days left in what is normally the busiest month of the year, is not ideal, to put it mildly.  Still, we have to find ways of coping, ways of staying positive.  

This is a quick podcast I recorded to talk about the things we're doing here to stay in the right frame of mind to see our way through what is undoubtedly going to be a tough end of this year and, probably, beginning of next.

There are no silver bullets in here - just the things we're planning right now.

In the end, I have to think of this time as an opportunity: an opportunity to finish the jobs I never have time for; an opportunity to find new avenues for revenue and an opportunity to reach out to our clients when they, too, will be feeling low.

Taking control of what I CAN be in control of and figuring ways around everything I CAN'T be in control of is the only thing I can do.

I hope you're all OK and I hope this podcast is, in some way, useful.

Take care,
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. 

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. 

Well this is one of those catchup episodes (I have discovered that our studio microwave has a grill!) but it also deals with one of those odd bits of human nature: that as you develop your talents and knowledge, the insecurity never seems to leave you.

Funny ol' world isn't it?!

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. 

In this episode, I get a chance to talk to the team of qualification judges that I am privileged to be a part of for the British Institue of Professional Photography.

I thought it would be interesting (and so it proved to be) to ask each of them before and after the judging, what they would love to see, what (after the fact) was a highlight and what they would say to anyone thinking of getting themselves qualified.

The two days of judging are really intensive - you can hear the fatigue in the judges' voices later in the podcast - but what they have to see is inciteful and priceless.

The judges in this episode are:

• David Stanbury - https://www.stanburyphotography.co.uk/
• Catherine Beltramini - http://www.catherine-beltraminiphotography.com/
• Sean Conboy - http://seanconboy.com/
• Saraya Corteville - https://sarayacortaville.co.uk/
• James Musselwhite - https://www.portraitofawrestler.com/
• and me - https://paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk

The chair of judges is Scott Johnson -https://www.theedgephotography.co.uk/

And if that weren't enough, I also get the chance to chat with Martin Baynes, the CEO of the British Institute of Professional Photography about qualifications and what the future holds.

• The British Institue Of Professional Photography - https://www.bipp.com/

So, all in all, quite a long podcast (just over an hour), but well worth it. So pour a cuppa, sit back and enjoy an insight into the judges and judging for professional photography qualifications.

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 

Another Land Rover based podcast I'm afraid (at one point it sounds like I am being shaken to pieces!) but this time I have a little help with the noise reduction and sound quality.  Hopefully, it'll take the edge off it!

In this (bumpy) episode, I wanted to mull on the value of critiques, competitions, and qualifications and how judges, such as me, evaluate images across all genres irrespective of specialism and come to the conclusion they all have their place.

As for judging?  There is no shortcut - you need to have a wide variety of experience!

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 

You'll be happy to hear that this episode is recorded in the peace and quiet of our studio - actually, I had intended to record it in the studio garden as the cool and the smells of late summer and early autumn are so seductive.  Sadly, about a million drills, chainsaws, strimmers, lawnmowers and jackhammers ruined that for me.  It wasn't nearly as peaceful as I'd hoped!  Goodness knows what our neighbours are building!

Still, we're lucky to have a nice calm studio in which to record so, with a microphone, recorder and a cup of coffee, I decamped to our consultation room which is currently not being used as we impose some Covid-19 policies for safety.

Anyway, this podcast was triggered by a lovely email that included a question about whether someone who is gentle and quiet could be a successful wedding or portrait photographer: do you have to be energetic and confident or does gentle and reserved have its place too?

Here are my thoughts on the matter.

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 

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