It was a great shame that Saddleworth Wartime Weekend was such a washout this year. It has grown into a major event in the village and, with new organisers, extra attractions had been added for families with children to enjoy. But torrential rain showers on both Saturday and Sunday turned Churchill playing fields into a mud bath and the battle re-enactment that had been planned for Sunday afternoon had to be cancelled by the safety marshalls.

I donned hiking boots and waterproof (even a camouflage waterproof jacket for my camera and lens) and we set off between the heavy showers. The event has blossomed from the Yanks event of the last few years and this year there seemed to be even more vehicles in the parade than ever. The convoy was led off by veterans and the British Legion Pipe Band and was applauded by crowds of visitors.

See more photos in our client galleries…

When we arrived at the campsite/battleground (Churchill Fields) the extent of the rain damage became obvious. Children waded through puddles and Pearl Harbor nurses picked their way gingerly across the muddy grass in their high heeled shoes. The military vehicles negotiated the soft ground easily, but one saloon car had become totally bogged down in the mud.

A gallery of pictures from the event is in our client gallery section.

Hewlett Packard were top of my customer services list last week. My B9180 printer sprang a nasty surprise when it spat out a couple of its tiny pizza wheels a few weeks ago. That didn’t stop it making prints, but we decided to contact HP before the warranty runs out in August. A quick phone call to the call centre somewhere in the Asian continent brought forth the question…”can you fax your receipt?”…yes we did that…they called back a day or two later with the question “do you have a digital camera”…..which we thought was a bit odd. The reply being in the affirmative, we were asked to photograph the damage and email the pictures. That duly done, another phone call told us to expect a new printer being delivered within a few days. (more…)

Many photographers choose to specialise in only one area of photography, so it might be surprising to find social and commercial photography hand in hand with fine art on our site. But are they really as different as chalk and cheese? and what exactly is fine art photography? Well, I guess the wikipedia definition is a good starting point…

“Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism and commercial photography. Photojournalism is to promote an editorial point of view. Commercial photography’s main focus being to sell a product or service. The final creative reason for a fine art photograph is the photograph itself. It is not a means to another end except perhaps to please those besides the photographer who beholds it.”

Commercial Photography is any kind of photography where money changes hands! so commercial can be fine art and fine art can be commercial.  For me, the fine art side of my life is a way of immersing myself in my own imagination, whereas in the wedding and business side of our work, the taste and requirements of the client and type of usage often can dictate the brief. (more…)

Getting married is one of the most important events of your life and you’ll want to have wonderful photographic memories of it for years to come. There is nothing to match the immediacy and spontaneity of a still photograph. It captures a fleeting moment in time, an expression, a detail that you can revisit time and time again. It has been said that all you eventually remember about your wedding is what is in the photographs….as other memories fade, your photos are still there to remind you of that important life-changing day.

Choosing a photographer that you are comfortable with is the first step. If you have a rapport from the outset, you will be well on the way to achieving the album of your dreams. Make sure that you see more than one example of the photographer’s work and that you see a real album with a real wedding, not just stock photos of model brides…and of course you need to talk about any extra special moments and favourite people that you want to have captured… (more…)

Just as we thought that winter was relinquishing its icy grip on the North West, it reared its head for perhaps a final time this year with a moderate fall of snow on the Pennines. Waking up on Easter Sunday to four inches of snow outside our house meant that there would be at least six inches a mile or so up the valley at Dovestones. It gave me the perfect excuse to have a quick breakfast, don some warm clothing and hiking boots and dash out with my camera to enjoy something that is becoming increasingly rare – the opportunity to take pictures for myself!!

I love all kinds of photography and, for me, taking photographs for a living isn’t like real work, but most of our professional work involves photographing people and it certainly isn’t usual for the phone to ring with the request “it’s snowing – can you take some pictures of the landscape for me?” so Sunday allowed me a day to indulge in my first love, photographing the land. I didn’t need to feel guilty – with wedding album orders to fulfil, it’s difficult to indulge in a day off sometimes even at the weekend, but this was Easter weekend and I promised myself I’d work and catch up tomorrow. (more…)

Fine Art photographic printing took a major leap forward in the last few years with the introduction of high quality pigment ink printing. We upgraded to the HPB9180 printer last year and, hey, is it brilliant?! Low metamerism, low bronzing on gloss/lustre papers and bright saturated colour on matte and textured fine art papers make this a very desirable piece of kit. After several months of making prints with this beast, I have come up with a series of papers that work well with it. There’s a growing list of icc profiles available at HP here and it’s a simple process to load them - just follow the instructions in the HP Digital Imaging Monitor.

All of the following papers produced very good results:

HP Advanced Photo Paper Glossy
As you would expect with a paper made for HP pigment inks, this paper gives an excellent result with good detail, low metamerism and only a little gloss differential. It’s a good all round gloss paper and, at 250g/m² it’s a good weight and feels like a wet process photo. Be careful only to choose “advanced” papers from HP and not the more readily available “premium” papers, which are made for dye inks and do not produce as good a result. Unfortunately, in the UK, it’s quite difficult to obtain HP’s own paper in anything above A4 size.

Epson Premium Semigloss Photo Paper
This paper gives an excellent result with the HP inks. There is just a little gloss differential (which you can see if you tilt the print so that the light hits it at an angle). It’s best used with the icc profile downloadable from HP, who seem to have realised that people will make prints with other manufacturer’s papers and cater for it. Thanks HP!

Epson Archival Matte
A good everyday paper with a smooth white finish which takes the ink well. A minor crit is that the paper is rather thin and so the resulting print doesn’t feel too much like a high quality piece of art. It’s great for sending away to competitions though, where it’s light weight (192gm/sq m) is an advantage and it’s the cheapest of the bunch to buy too. (more…)

Did it again! I like to talk to my clients…have a laugh…make them feel comfortable…work quickly so they don’t get bored…

But that ****** flash gets me every time. I’m working in their office …low light, bounced flash…off the ceiling so it doesn’t hurt their eyes…take a quick shot…talk and relax them a bit more…they smile…that’s the moment…quickly squeeze the shutter and the ****** flash fails to fire. I laugh… “it’s a girl thing” I say. They smile again (with pity I think)…but this time it’s recharged and I get the shot. Next time I’ll wear the battery pack even though it does make me look a bit of a terrorist.

The beginning of February was a landmark for us…after five years of international competition; we were both awarded the distinction of AFIAP – not one to share, but one each! It stands for (at least the English translation from the French) “Artist of the International Federation of Photographic Art”. (more…)

Welcome to our new blog. Easiest install I have ever done