Monthly Archives: November 2007

Morocco photo

Morocco essaoira

In a slight move away from Birmingham, this photo is one from a series taken in Morocco.

Taken in the depths of the Medina in Essaouira, this photo involved a lot of waiting around.  The background and shaft of sunlight were great, but I needed someone walking in the light.  After a while a young girl came running in to the frame, followed by her mother.

It is difficult to appreciate this one at such a small size, but I am really pleased with it when printed large.  This one is available in the Crowded Gallery.

Come for a chat…

I had a phone call recently about visiting an ad agency for ‘a chat about location and travel photography’.

Fine, no problem, that is what I spend a large proportion of my time photographing. I entered the room, expecting one person, to be greeted by ten.  Again, no problem…I just realised I was in for a grilling.

They started by asking about my background in photography, and then asked to see samples of my work - I gave them a copy of my recent book - and they seemed quite happy (apart from one ad man, who turned to the window and muttered, “never heard of you”, which is always a nice way to bring you back down to earth).

I was told of a particular brief to photograph a new campaign which involved various locations, and was then asked for input on locations, possibilities, impact, timing etc - the usual stuff.

I gave as much input as I could, including a ball park quote (which I hate doing in meetings).  I mentioned how certain locations may work, and how others wouldn’t for that particular project.  They sent me away, telling me to reserve some space in my diary for December.

Well, I didn’t get the pitch - but I find out they are using all my suggested locations for the photography (the photography community is very small!).

This makes me smile!!  I’m not sure of the ethics in nicking my ideas, but it certainly makes me smile.

Marketing a City Photos

Birmingham panoramic photo

Well, the campaign to market Birmingham has started with various photo shoots - although there are a lot more to do.  The above is just one of the images that will be used, a panoramic showing the city centre from the roof of a building on the periphery.

Excuse the ‘over the top’ copyright markings.

Prints for Christmas

If you are thinking of buying a print from the gallery for Christmas, then it may be best to get your order in before the 17th of December, to guarantee getting it in time.  Saying that, if you get in touch in an absolute mad panic, I’ll make sure we do our best to get a print to you before the 25th…even if I have to hand deliver it in the snow….even if I have to use UPS.

Crowded Makeover

Over the coming months, the Crowded Gallery will be getting a complete makeover.  It will, from mid December, focus much more closely on black and white prints - which are the most popular with collectors.

There is just one thing I’m not sure of…the prints are sold to both the UK and the US, so I can’t decide whether to price the prints in pounds sterling, or US dollars (unfortunately, I can’t do both).

Book Delays

Birmingham colmore row

When I first started photography, I always wondered why it took photographers an age to finish a book/project etc.  After 15 years, now I know: Commissions.

With so many commissions lately (which is good!), the black and white photography book on Birmingham is taking a while to complete - in fact, I have about ten to fifteen images at the moment.  A book is going to take about 60-100 images.  So a while to go then…. I was hoping to get it published in Spring, but I reckon it will take until Spring 2009 (even if I self publish it).

Just as a flavour of the type of thing to be included, here is one that will be in there.

Training Day

I quite often get called in to companies to explain the role of photography in the media - and more specifically how photography can be used to increase positive coverage of a business or organisation.  In fact, it is one of the fastest growing areas in our business.

It’s no secret I have previously worked for newspapers, and then magazines, so I am familiar with the editorial world - in fact, virtually every image I take ends up in print.  What I am not familiar with is explaining the beauty of photography to 14 year olds.

For some reason, I have agreed to pass on my knowledge (their words not mine) to several hundred teenagers who are apparently eager to gain an understanding of the photography business.

When I talk to business managers, directors, whoever, there is usually some ‘need’ to gain an understanding of photography - I hope that ‘need’ is there with school kids.  At least I can show some nice photos and try and explain what life is like for a photographer… all being well, they will want to become a photographer, and then they will have the ‘need’ to gain the knowledge.

Saying that, I do feel slightly concerned about trying to encourage hundreds of teenagers to become photographers when you consider there are about ten photographers undertaking my type of photography on my ‘patch’.  Perhaps it would be better to sit down with a select few who particularly want to go in to photography - rather than preach to every student on a media course.

The Marketing of a City

Today marks the start of a fairly large project involving a combination of stock photography and newly commissioned imagery in order to market the city of Birmingham.

The client is after a whole range of contemporary images that can be used worldwide to attract visitors and investments.

It really is a nice projects to work on, with a nice client (I am sure they don’t read this!) who has realistic timescales to work to.  Amongst other things, today involved time in a posh hotel and scaling a tall building in the hope of finding a really nice skyline (I think we found it in the end).

It is amazing how many doors working for this organisation opens.  Everywhere we went we were provided with staff to help out - unheard of usually.

All Change

Over the last few months this blog has started to focus less and less on the prints that are sold at the Crowded Gallery, and more and more on the differing types of photography I undertake.

Although I will still do the ’stories behind individual photos’ - these photos may no longer be sold in the gallery - but may well be either a commissioned photo or a stock image.