Facebook Black and White Photography Challenge | Solway to Saltburn

As a north east professional photographer I like to keep my work fresh and I belong to many groups and forums to keep up to date and challenge myself. A York-based press photographer Mike Tipping recently challenged me to join in a Facebook five-day black and white challenge. The idea was to post a black and white photo every day for five days, and nominate other photographers to do the same.

I used a mix of photos I had on file and new ones. It was great fun to take part in and a good reminder of how powerful black and white photos can be. When you remove colour, you’re distilling images down to shape, form and contrast to tell the story and it was interesting to see such a wide variation of shots and what other photographers had done.

Day 1 – this was a photo I took in Portling, on the Solway coast during the worst snow in Scotland for 30 years.  I love the moody feel and the way the rock face is silhouetted against the sky, and how the black and white format really makes the dripping icicles stand out. 

Day 2 – I spotted a huge flock of Starlings feeding in a field between Marske and Recar, and when they flew off I jumped in my car and followed them until they landed at The Stray, a 2-mile long strip of grassland bordering the beach at Redcar. Shot against the light, you can see the amazing detail on the birds’ feathers, which I thought made up a visually very pleasing shot.

Day 3 – for my third day I chose a photo of a chap jumping in the air on Saltburn Pier. He is comedian Victoria Wood’s brother and a very colourful character who was in the town that day to promote the region, and was easy to work with. His straw bowler and pinstripes gave him a great ‘going yachting’ look, and the shot of him with his arms outstretched and mirroring the shape of the pier meant that several photos from this shoot appeared in the Middlesbrough Gazette. 

Day 4 – this was taken at the Stockton Light and Sound Festival in Thornaby, next to the University campus. I used a remote flash to photograph the performer using the firesticks, which also perfectly framed the couple snatching a kiss behind him. Black and white made for a very atmospheric feel to this night shoot.

Day 5 was one of my favourite shots, a picture taken in Preston Park showing Britains Got Talent motorbike and rider flying through the air. Shooting upwards gave me a plain white background and a perfect contrast between the rider and his disconnected bike. The two were reunited at ground level without any injuries, you will be pleased to hear.

I found the five-day black and white challenge very useful, and in turn I challenged my cousin Kevin Henderson in Scotland, Stu Bolton and Tom Banks from the Darlington-based Northern Echo, and Katie Lynn from the Middlesbrough Gazette. All of them produced some impressive shots, and contributed to a great challenge for professional photographers.

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Season of Goodwill | Independent Business Free Half Day Photography Competition

As the season of goodwill is nearly upon us, and by way of a thank you to all my great businesses who have booked me for commercial photography across the Teesside region from Stockton, Redcar, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Darlington areas this year, I’m running a competition to win a free half-day photography session for one lucky independent retailer, cafe, restaurant, etc whose name is pulled out of the hat on the 22nd December. 

As a North East photographer with nearly three decades of commercial, press and freelance photography experience behind me, I’m passionate about images and how they can affect the success of a business. If you look at any successful organisation it is likely to be one that has invested in professional imagery that really tells the story of its brand and its product.

There’s nothing wrong with using stock shots but if you are trying to create a powerful brand that people can identify with, you really do need great photos, taken by a professional photographer.  When you look at the cost of setting up and growing an enterprise, the cost of investing in a professional photographer for your business is a drop in the ocean, yet it could mean the difference between success and failure.

A product or a service can easily be portrayed through the right look and feel in your pictures. It’s about being honest and using ‘real’ imagery, but presenting your business in a way that your target audience will be attracted to. I often use the example of a café that serves a terrific full English breakfast. There would be no point in photos that presented breakfast as a healthy option, but equally it would be silly to make it look like a greasy spoon café. As with most things in life, honesty is the best policy.

So, off my soapbox now and back to this fantastic competition. If your business is the lucky winner, just one half-day photography session could provide you with enough images for a website and a brochure, plus enough images to use on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms too.

I really wish I could open this up to all the small businesses across the region, but the winner must be an independent retail outlet, not a big chain, operating in any area of business but with premises, rather than being a home-based business.

I’m doing this partly as a thank you for all the work I’ve had this year, and partly to show my support for local businesses.  I’m a big believer in shopping local wherever possible. If we all do a bit where we can, then the cumulative effect will be massive.

If you want to be in with a chance of winning, drop me an email at info@davecharnleyphotography.com with details...

• Details of your own name. 
• Your business name.
• Your business address and postcode.
• Contact telephone and email.
• Type of business you operate.

• Retail business premises must be in the Stockton, Darlington, Redcar, Hartlepool or the Middlesbrough areas.
• Winner will be notified before the 9th January and valid till the 27th March, 2015
• Please do not enter via Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc 

And the winner was....

Winner - Vintages Rags in Middlesbrough

Tees Valley Commercial Photography in Hartlepool, Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough & Redcar

A recent commercial photography job saw me photographing across all of the Tees Valley, for my client Local Enterprise Partnership Tees Valley Unlimited. 

Tees Valley Unlimited works to deliver jobs and economic growth across the Tees Valley, an area of 304 square miles, which is located between North Yorkshire and County Durham, stretching from the mouth of the River Tees through to Darlington.

This was a wide-ranging photography project that needed a lot of planning to structure a large number of shoots in different locations, and each with a different focus. I spent hours putting together a comprehensive plan to detail not just the type of commercial photos I would take, but how I would carry out this complex project, and I believe this was one of the factors in my winning the work.

My first job was to sit down with the LEP team to talk about the Tees Valley commercial photography project, and what they wanted to achieve from it. This was a useful stage - getting to know the client and their objectives is the most important part of a job and happens long before I pick up a camera.

My brief covered key areas across Tees Valley and nine specific topics ranging from photographing wind turbines in the North Sea and trains to people and places, all designed to promote Tees Valley as a great place to work, live and do business.

I also needed to factor in both landscape and portrait shots, plus some with the space for designers to overlay text if needed. The images will be used across the LEP’s new website, its marketing literature and could feature on large format outdoor spaces such as buses and billboards or used as canvas prints in meeting rooms, so the photo library had to be extremely versatile.  

Wide ranging projects like this that include a lot of outdoor photographs are governed by changeable weather, and I did a lot of early mornings and late nights.  At one point I photographed Middlesbough from Eston Nab in the dark and I can tell you I’ve never come down a hill so quickly.

The pace was fast and I remember one Sunday shoot that started at 4am and finished at 4pm and as I rounded off the day by taking photos of people enjoying themselves on Seaburn beach I was pretty much exhausted.

Every day was different and I covered a 100's of miles. I might start off with an early morning photography shot at Hartlepool, then move on to photograph apprentices at a chemical plant at Wilton in Billingham before calling at Darlington Railway Station to photograph business people getting on and off trains, and finish by photographing aircraftshots at Durham Tees Valley airport near Darlington.

One of my favourite leisure shots from this job was one of a mature chap simply standing looking at the beautiful Saltburn coastline. A perfect lifestyle shot, this reminded me what a little gem the Tees Valley is, and I realised I was not alone in thinking this when I tweeted from my Twitter account @charnleyphoto  that ‘Teesside is not full of smog’ and it got 34 retweets.

I love being a North East photographer. We are blessed in this region with beautiful coastline and countryside, presenting a fantastic commercial photography chance to showcase Teesside towns such as Darlington, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Hartlepool and Redcar, plus traditional villages like Norton, Yarm, BIllingham and Eaglescliffe.

It’s an incredibly beautiful part of the world, I’ve lived here for 18 years and I still keep on discovering areas I’ve never seen. The great thing about being a professional photographer is being able to help people see familiar sights with a fresh eye, and I hope my work has achieved that aim for Tees Valley Unlimited.

Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough Sport Photographer | Commercial Advertising Photography

In my job as a North East freelance photographer I’ve photographed hundreds of sporting events at venues across the North of England, from Middlesbrough Riverside Football ground, Gateshead Stadium to the Stadium of Light in Sunderland. 

In view of all the photography jobs needing pin-sharp close ups in venues where it is hard to get close the subject, I’ve recently invested in a fantastic high performance telephoto lens, a Canon 300mm f2.8L IS. The optics are stunning, the quality of pictures is breathtaking in their crispness, helped by an image stabiliser minimising camera shake keeping the focus staying rock solid, even in low light conditions.

Redcar Sea Front

Along the way in my 30-year background in press and commercial photography I’ve picked up the North East Sports Photographer of the Year and photographed a series of national and international rugby and football matches. My new lens will make specialised jobs like this, where I need to get close up shots while standing yards away, much easier.

I’ll predominantly use it to photograph events such as this year’s Nova Great North Run, where I'm officially booked or the River Rat Race as these are fast-paced events where you have one chance to get the perfect shot. I photographed Mo Farrah at a Great North Run two years ago, but I suspect even the ‘gentleman of running’ is unlikely to go back and do a stretch again for photographic purposes if someone turns up without the right kit for the job. 

Because the new lens in effect knocks the background out of focus, I’m looking forward to using it for commercial photography and nature shots too. I’m really enthusiastic about its uses - horse racing at Gosforth Park, motorsport events at Croft Circuit in Darlington, activity shots for outdoor brands such as Berghaus and Go Outdoors – the list of potential jobs it can cope brilliantly with is endless.

Redcar Trunk Road 

Successful outdoor photography can dependent on the weather, and can involve several visits to a location to get the right conditions.  I don’t know whether I’m pleased or not that my new sports lens can shoot in appalling weather and still generate stunning images. I foresee some cold, wet winter shoots this year, but as long as I get the shot, I’ll be happy with that.

Year after year camera equipment gets smarter and faster – although sadly, the cost never seems to go down at the same rate - and I’m pleased that I’ve made continuous investments so that whatever type of photography I’m doing, whether it’s a commercial photography job in North Yorkshire, outdoor events or a large business award event in Harrogate, I’ve got the right range of camera equipment for the job.

Combined with my compact studio lights and kit, I’ve got everything I need and it can all be carried on the go from job to job too.

The end result is that no job is impossible – try me!

West Yorkshire Commercial Photographer | Magazine, PR and Website Photography of Darrington Healthcare, Pontefract

People photography, especially natural and relaxed photography, are some one my of my favourite commissions. So it was my pleasure to travel to Pontefract in West Yorkshire recently to do some care home commercial photography with the residents of Darrington Healthcare’s luxury care home, Willow Park on Baghill Lane.   

 

A lot of care homes use stock photography to market themselves, but moving into a care home is a big decision and if I was helping a member of my family make that choice I’d prefer to see photos of residents in a real care home, to get a feel for a place and its atmosphere.    

The photographs I took are going to be used to market all of Darrington Healthcare’s homes, so needed to be a mix of portrait and landscape photography orientation, and be suitable for inclusion in adverts, in brochures and flyers, online on the company’s website and on the over-sized roadside hoardings around Elm Park Care Home, the group’s newest property, which is being built in Doncaster in South Yorkshire, and set to open in September 2014. 

Willow Park is a purpose built home set on three floors offering residential, nursing and dementia care, and is very popular with local families, constantly being at almost full occupancy.     

On the day I visited it was buzzing with residents, their visiting families and staff and I had taken the time to walk round introducing myself and getting acclimatised so by the time I got my camera out everyone was comfortable with having me around.   

I had also made sure that I had plenty of consent forms with me for people to sign. It’s really important that anyone who might appear in the resulting photos has given written permission, especially when the shots are to be used for marketing purposes.  

Some of the liveliest photos came from the coffee bar and lounges, where people were relaxing and chatting with friends, playing board games or watching TV. Darrington Healthcare’s philosophy is that it’s the staff who make a care home, so I was careful to include plenty of staff lifestyle photographs attending to the needs of residents, whether that was getting them a cup of tea, helping them out into the garden for some sun or organising a lively game of bingo.   

As luck would have it, the weekly visit from the hairdresser coincided with my visit, and the ladies were very good about me photographing them getting their hair done and catching up with local news, while upstairs in The Rovers bar and cinema room, I photographed two gentlemen enjoying a drink and engrossed in a huge jigsaw. 

The home itself is tastefully furnished, and the dementia suite in particular has been designed to help people with this difficult condition recognise the various furnishings that have been chosen to help them find their way around.

A traditional rocking horse, an old gramophone and some framed newspaper cuttings from 50 years ago all added up to photos that would reassure families about the attention to detail that runs through all of Willow Park.

As the sun broke through the clouds I was able to get some exterior photos of the home and its landscaped gardens, complete with red telephone box. Willow Park was designed by Newcastle architects Alston Murphy, and photographing some of the branding and architectural details made for some interesting angles.

I finished the photography session off by taking some shots of some of the cosy corners and subtle lighting that typify the home and give it the look of a five-star hotel rather than what most people would expect a care home to look like.  

That’s one of the things I like most about being a professional commercial and PR photographer working all over North East England and Yorkshire – being able to use my skills to take shots of people in everyday situations, and using great imagery to give a glimpse of the unexpected and beautiful.