The Mastering Portrait Photography Podcast

"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 

In this interview, I get to chat with Keith Roberts who had the masterstroke idea of matching top portrait photographers with the world's top cruise line.

He talks about his life prior to setting up Paragon Pixels with many funny stories along the way (listen out for how he managed to screw up a critical roll of film while working in medical photography, leaving him barricaded inside the hospital dark room!)

Keith is a remarkable guy on a number of levels - not least of which, is that he is a phenomenal photographer in his own right but has spent most of his life promoting the work of others (something that is all too rare!) It was his idea to match up some of the world's top portrait photographers with the world's top cruise line and, along with Phil, his brother, and Phil's wife, Lydia, he set up the company which now delivers beautiful images to discerning passengers around the globe. 

And I am very lucky to BE one of those photographers!

Keith cites his favourite book as Steve McCurry's South Southeast. 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 

It's just me for this episode: me, a microphone and my musings on creating portraits when on board a ship.  

When I first encountered the luxury cruise ship that was to be our home and business for the next month, I thought that creating images on board would be a simple extension of what we do here at the studio.  Of course, there are similarities but there are also innumerable unexpected factors to consider. Such as what happens when the ship changes it's bearing or how the different spaces of the ship are utilised during the day, making picking a spot that bit more complicated!

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 

The great thing about having my own podcast is that I get to talk to lots of interesting people - not, necessarily, from within the photographic industry.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my industry, but I think there is much to be learned from outside the industry too and, besides, the world is full of really cool people full stories, experiences and insight that just might (and I stress just might) be useful when it comes to running a photography business.

While this interview focusses on Ellie's hugely successful wedding gown boutiques, there are plenty of snippets that are useful from customer care, looking after employees, using data and, most importantly, some top tips when photographing wedding gowns.

Ellie's website is worth a look as it is beautifully designed. Much to be learned there too!  It can be found at https://elliesanderson.co.uk/

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