Grease! Promotion photoshoot

Whitehaven Theatre Group are promoting their latest production, Grease!   They asked me to do their promotional photos.

Dance troupe 15 year celebration

Whitehaven’s line dancers are celebrating 15 years at The Civic Hall in Whitehaven.

Commission for an Inn at night

The White Mare at Beckermet is a repeat customer.   The images Phil asked for were to cover the welcoming side of the pub during the winter months for his website.

Model photoshoot with Emma

Emma is a great model, she helped me out with part of my photography course and I loved this picture!

MX5 photoshoot

A great opportunity to shoot a moving car by hanging my camera from it!

Promotion photos for Panto

The Whitehaven Theatre Group are doing Aladin this year so I did the promo photos!

Photography course dates announced (updated)

I’m pleased to announce start dates for some of my courses;

– Digital Photography for beginners; 14th Jan 2013 / 3rd June 2013
– Digital Photography for the serious amateur; 5th Nov 2012 / 15th April 2013
– Digital Photography in the studio; 19th & 26th Jan 2013
More info;  http://www.photographynorthwest.com/photography-courses-whitehaven-lake-district-cumbria/

Please call 01946-595476 to book any course

My 10 tips for photographing fireworks

With the International Whitehaven Festival starting this week I posted in a recent thread on Flickr about some tips on taking firework photos.    I hope this is useful…

10 top firework tips from me;

1. Use a tripod!  And also use a remote shutter release so that you don’t transmit vibrations when you press the shutter button on the camera with your finger.
2. Make sure you have a full battery and lots and lots of memory card space (obvious but you’ll be surprised!).
3.  If your camera struggles to focus in low light, set it up before hand while it’s light and switch your lens to Manual focus and don’t touch it.
4. Don’t use auto modes (including Aperture and Shutter priorities). Use manual.  And turn the flash off 🙂
5. Shooting in raw instead of JPG will give you better pictures. But be aware that raw will use a lot more memory card space and you may need to process each shot individually depending on what software you use.
6. Exposure?  Get the right amount of ambient light with the shutter speed, a few seconds should be enough for each shot. Adjust the aperture to get the exposure on the fireworks right and use your ISO to control the overall brightness of the scene..
7. Don’t use a long exposure because the results will just be a complete mess of whited-out over-exposed-ness. Instead, try to time each main burst from start to finish.
8. Don’t be afraid to blend two or more shot together afterwards to get the shot you need.
9. Don’t get in anyone’s way!
10. Don’t forget to enjoy the show! I’ve shot loads of fireworks where I’ve concentrated so much on the pictures I didn’t get time to enjoy it.

My Photography Courses are proving very popular!

Word about my Photography Courses certainly has got around and the demand as high as ever.  We will be adding more dates for the Introduction to Studio Photography course as we go through the year – the first three studio courses after Christmas were fully booked within a few weeks!

The Beginners course has now concluded and Summer term dates will be announced soon.
The Serious Amateur course starts in mid-April and we only have a few places remaining so be quick 🙂

I have to report that I didn’t expect the large demand for these courses, especially being tucked away in West Cumbria.  I really enjoy hosting them and I know that everyone who attends reports leaps and bounds in both skill and general confidence.

Don’t forget that to book your place on my course or to request an information pack please contact the centre directly;
– Telephone; 01946-595476
– Email; Click to email
– Website; Click to visit

Baby photoshoot

Happy parents loved my pictures of their kids, a nice photoshoot with great results!
Conditions were quite tricky but the baby was very alert and loved the camera. Very cute pictures!

A unique opportinuty

Eclipse Bowling in Workington opened their doors leading to some great photos including a view behind the scenes at the machines making the bowling alley tick. A great photoshoot under difficult conditions went beautifully!

Gaiety Cinema pictures cause a stir

It seems that my pictures which ran in The Whitehaven News have provoked a good reaction!
Page 10 of this weeks’ paper (23rd December 2009) features letters from the public who having seen my pictures are backing up the plea to re-open the cinema, especially in light of the Workington bridge disaster which makes it difficult to get to the local multiplex.

There is even a Facebook group called Re-open the Gaiety Cinema – please join up!

My full Gaiety picture set can be viewed here; http://www.flickr.com/photos/horrgakx/sets/72157622745861702/

This is a link to the feature on the Whitehaven News’ own website.
Here’s a jpg copy of the feature in The Whitehaven News (hosted on Flickr).
Here is a link to The Whitehaven News letter page.

New section added for picture sales!

We are proud to be able to announce a partnership with a local shop (‘The Tenth Bull’ in Whitehaven) that stocks our photographs!

Please click the small arrow in the black strip above and to the right to view this section, or click here to go direct.

Marathon weekend behind the camera

Another fantastic and marathon weekend behind the camera; 2x Cricket matches, Workington Reds playing at home, a charity bed push, soldier returning from Afghanistan, a kids party, stock photos of a trading estate, a ploughing competition, a celebrity chef and finally; Solfest!!

It was quite a challenge this weekend, I was amazingly busy, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m very happy with the results!!

Caught!

Going for the ball

Crispian on guitar

Freelancing with the Times & Star newpaper

I’m pleased to announce that I am now freelancing with the Times & Star newspaper.  Owned by the CN Group media company, the Times & Star has coverage from Distington in the south to Aspatria in the north and Keswick to the east.

My first weekend went well, they had me working between a job on Friday, four jobs on Saturday and two on Sunday! Thoroughly enjoyable and good experience.

Met some great people along the way too!

The bands at the Cockermouth Rock Festival were excellent, very very high standards all round. Well done to the stewards, marshals and other officials who did an amazing job!

To view my pictures online please visit my Flickr.com account.

Theatre Tol production

A specatcular theatre came to Whitehaven; Theatre Tol’s production of Corazon de Angeles.  An amazing visual spectacle, the likes of which haven’t been seen in Cumbria for a long time!

Amazing combination of theatre and opera which was performed inside the crowd!

The fireworks finished off the evening.

Some content hosted by www.flickr.com

4th July Fireworks in Whitehaven

The new management at Sellafield Limited here in Cumbria are American.  They put on a spectacular 4th July fireworks display and my shoot went well.  I managed to shoot for the entire duration and then picked the best of them in post-production.

I think the next time this happens I’ll be moving closer to the water to get the reflections.