The Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast

Meet one of our clients.  Rob Panting, Communications Officer for OxLEP (The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership) has been a commissioning client of ours for nearly decade - starting at the Hearing Dogs charity in 2011 and then with Affinity Trust, Bucks Care and his current employer, OxLEP.

I thought it would be interesting to ask him what he values when selecting (and retaining) suppliers such as photographers.  Of course, the answer to that question is a useful insight (and the answer is NOT the quality of the photography!)

It was a pleasure to chat with someone who I really love working with and whose organisation really does value and use photography well - if you look at their website you'll see what I mean.  Rob came to our studio to chat along with Leona Weston who is their star apprentice and she also chats a little about why she chose an apprenticeship rather than college or university.

Plenty of stuff in this interview if you want to run a successful photography business.

As usual, I asked our guest to recommend a book for our virtual library and Rob recommended two. There's enthusiasm for you.

The first is Coming Back To Me - the autobiography of Marcus Trescothick. This is a true-life sporting memoir of one of the best batsman in the game who stunned the cricket world when he prematurely ended his own England career. Trescothick’s brave and soul-baring account of his mental frailties opens the way to a better understanding of the unique pressures experienced by modern-day professional sportsmen.

The second is not a book but a magazine: Sports Illustrated.  You'll have to listen to the interview to understand Rob's passion for sports photography.  While I can't give a link to be able to download the one book, you can subscribe to the magazine (if you fancy)_ here.

Enjoy!

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

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

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

In this episode, I am talking about the all-too familiar feelings of a photography business: faith, fear and fatigue (and possibly one or two other 'F' words!)

When you start you set out from some point of having nothing more than an idea - and a whole heap of faith! Insecurity, sure, ignorance, naivity, risk, maybe a little poverty - but, in the end, an utter belief that it’s the right thing to do.  You may not be right, of course, but that faith carries you into the new venture.

Then it works. And the fatigue and the fear kick in.

This podcast is just me chatting away about those feelings and reading out the email I sent to Sarah way back in 2006 that described how I hoped things might pan out and firmly setting the two of us as the team that would make it happen (even though both of us were in different careers at that point!)

I mentioned a book by Anita Roddick in the email I sent to Sarah - I think she bought the bought the book for me as a Christmas present.  That book is 'Business Unusual' and can be found on Amazon for 1 pence (the postage is probably a tenner...)

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

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

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

"You soon start to learn a lot more about business"

In this interview, I get to talk to Karen Massey, wedding and portrait photographer.  Karen is a successful photographer and business owner, having started out owning a beauticians and then transferring her business skills to setting up a photography studio. She talks about how she has always worked, how she had to 'soften her accent' (not something you could be asked by an employer to do in this day and age!) and her plans for her new venture: RISE PFP, a group for professional female photographers.

Plenty for everyone in this podcast from business insights to how she runs her weddings.  Oh, and she's really lovely too!

Not only did Karen bring ideas for books for our little library, but she brought the actual books too!

• The first is A Coastal Reflection by Mary Shayler.  This can be found here on Blurb books
• The second is the Aston Martin Centenary Collection Programme 1913-2013. One for all you petrol heads out there! As I suspected in the podcast, this isn't one that you can buy (though a few copies do appear to be on eBay.) A real one off for our library!

Both worthy additions to our library!

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

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

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

"To keep them coming, to keep them inspired, you have to give them an experience."

So true.  In this episode I talk to Steve Gregory, founder and owner of the inspirational Fitlife Gym about his career as professional footballer (soccer player for my U.S. friends), his motiviation for fitness and how he deals with the highs and lows of running a business. A wonderfully frank interview that deals with the low points of suddenly running a successful business (yes, that is often how it can feel), having good mentors and finding ways to keep the business exciting and fast moving.  This is one of those interviews where the parallels to the photography industry are all too apparent.  Except for the fitness bit...

This episode's addition to our every-expanding library is Start With Why by Simon Sinek - a great book if you're building a new business!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 This podcast really is about the importance of relationships - particularly those with your clients - how some of those can play out in your career.

I don't know if this podcast makes too much of an intellectual point other than it being a vehicle for me to be proud of our son, Jake.  That's the nice thing about a podcast: I occasionally get a chance to wax lyrical about the people I love around me, whether family, friends or clients.

Still, it's only a short one so you can get through it in the time it takes to have a cup of tea, import the images from a couple of memory cards or play a few levels on Lemmings!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This podcast was triggered by us selling our trusty Land Rover Defender (though we are replacing it with a newer one) and pondering on why we chose such an esoteric car at the heart of our business. Well, of course, it's all part of the brand we decided to build. And so I thought I'd chat a bit about just that: brand.

It's so easy to think the brand is your logo, or website, or brochure design or, simply, your images but, of course, it's not quite so simple.  Your brand is everything your clients experiences, and I do mean everything. And that includes my beloved Land Rover. 

Enjoy!

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

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

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

This episode was recorded in the hotel lobby at The Societies Convention 2019, so forgive the background noise (and the unexpected accompaniment of a random pianist!) I am interviewing the incredible wedding photographer and all-round nice guy, David Bostock.

We talk about all things photography, saxophone playing, the importance of pursuing the image and the strategy of always selling albums.

David also mentions his favourite photographers (Bob Carlos Clarke and Horst P. Horst) and his favourite book Clarke's The Dark Summer.

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

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

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

So it's been a week or three since recording a podcast primarily due to being out on location in Italy co-hosting The 2 Fellows workshop with David Stanbury (shameless plug: if you'd like details of the 2020 workshop then head over to the2fellows.co.uk where we'll be releasing details for next year.)

In this podcast, I get to chat (in a VERY loud restaurant) to the inimitable wedding photographer, Scott Johnson, about his work, his history and his business.  Lots of great things in here - listen out for how selling files on USB nearly cost him his business (his words, not mine.)

Also listen out for a cacophony of culinary sound effects in the background!

Scott mentions a couple of books in the podcast:

• The Magnum Contact Sheets
• Vivian Maier: Street Photographer

Both these books are well worth a read - I'm ordering them for our studio library!

Enjoy!

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

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

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