I’ve been photographing for Haywards Butchers this week, some delicious meat for your winter dishes. Above you can see stuffed duck, mixed game casserole and stuffed pheasant. Yum!

I had a lovely morning yesterday photographing some gorgeous pieces of glass made by my talented friend Ruth Willis. The lizard is a commissioned piece. The challenge was to find a way of lighting them pieces to show off their texture and colour without reflecting the flash or our ourselves.

I’ve been so busy lately that I’ve neglected to post any of my sessions, but I really wanted to share this one with you and I promise to post more soon. A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing these 5 lovely sisters. Never was the studio more full of fun and energy! My challenge was to take pictures that showed off each of the girl’s individual personalities while capturing them as a family unit. Much giggling and running around ensued and I’m delighted with the results.

It happens to us all – you’re sitting there watching your friends or family totally relaxed and having fun, so you whip out a camera to capture the moment and suddenly everyone becomes stiff and self conscious. It’s so frustrating and feels unavoidable. Yet there are simple ways to capture natural photos.
My first piece of advice is to be at ease with your camera – let people know you have it with you and that you mean to take some pictures. Don’t wield it like a weapon but make sure that everyone know it’s there.

One of the things that makes people feel so self conscious about having their photo taken, is not knowing what to do with themselves. This is where you come into things – yes you! – you’re not just there to point the camera and shoot, you need to be involved. A little bit of direction is a real help when someone is ill at ease, so don’t be afraid to direct the action (but not too much).

When you point a camera at someone their first instinct is to stand up straight and grimace, which rarely looks good, so it’s up to you to guide people by telling them to lean against a wall, put their hands in their pockets, even to look away from the camera at someone else. Some people hate having their photo taken so much that the best way to get a good shot of them is not to make them look into the lens but to distract their attention with another subject – preferably one within the frame. Far from spoiling an image by having subjects who aren’t looking at the camera, sometimes the best shots are about the interactions going on within the frame.

 
Two or more people in a photo will be much more relaxed than just one, as everyone is made more confident by the others around them. Equally, if a single subject has something to hide behind/lean against, they don’t feel so ‘naked’ in front of the lens.

Natural posing isn’t a matter of one shot and it’s over, it may take more than one photo to get that relaxed stance you’re after. Once the initial shot is taken, your subject will relax, which is just the time to take that sneaky second shot!

So, to recap, the key to natural posing is:
Be at ease with your camera and yourself, and your subject will trust you
Be patient and wait for moment to shoot, and when it comes, shoot lots
Watch for interactions between your subjects
Give your subject something to do, or they’ll feel very uncomfortable
Don’t be afraid to be a little bit bossy

I am so excited about launching my wedding album. It is a truly lovely thing
As you can see from the images above, it is a printed book so I can really play around with the layout. This includes, printing right to the edges and overlaying images. The album lays flat with virtually no image loss in the centre, for real impact and the pages are beautifully heavyweight.
The Infinity album cover is a photographically printed hardback cover and comes in a black presentation box.
It is great to be able to roll out this new album now to coincide with my pricing change for weddings. The good news is that this gorgeous album now comes as part of the package when you book your wedding with me.