First Class Commercial and Magazine Photography: Northumberland to Lancashire Post Offices

Travelling round the North East as a commercial and PR photographer means one day photographing cities and towns like Newcastle or Middlesbrough, and the next photographing events and scenes in small villages spread around Teesside, County Durham and Tyne and Wear.

A London-based publishing company who found me via my website at www.davecharnleyphotography.com commissioned me for a commercial photography job at a plastics warehouse in Northallerton, before asking me to document scenes across a series of Post Offices from Alnwick in Northumberland down to Trawden in Lancashire. 

 I found quite a contrast between the atmosphere in a brisk Christmas pop-up Post Office on Northumberland in Newcastle to photographing one in a rural village with just a handful of local residents, where the Post Office really is the heart of the community.

Most people think of the Post Office as somewhere where you can buy stamps and post parcels, but I was amazed by the variety of services they now offer.

Today’s Post Office is a dynamic operation with a network of 11,500 branches where people can make e-top ups, pay bills, apply for licenses and passports, drop off dry cleaning, collect parcels and access a host of other support services.

Photographing in the smaller branches was interesting, everyone was keen to chat and of course keep up with the local gossip. As I chatted to staff and customers while I worked, I realised that people really value their local Post Offices for the wide range of services offered, all delivered with friendly, personal service.

The brief was to photograph different scenarios from press, adverting, reportage and PR photography in each North East and Yorkshire branch, which threw up its own photographic challenges, and I used all of my skills as an ex-press photographer used to working fast and photographing everything from concerts, charity events to corporate portraits.    

The job involved a lot of travel time between branches, but driving through beautiful  photographic landscapes of Lancashire, County Durham, North Yorkshire and Northumberland was no hardship. Leaving my base in Stockton to get to Trawden near Skipton threw up a spooky moment as I passed my sister in law, who lives in nearby Silsden, on a winding country road. The look on her face as I waved was a picture and she was obviously surprised to see me so far from home.

The photos I took across a range of north east branches will be used for internal publications, annual reports, magazines and newsletters, and I was pleased to have been the commercial photographer asked to deliver a slice of life behind the counter, to keep staff and other stakeholders up to date with news, and encourage people to consider a career in this great British Institution.

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

North East Professional Editorial and Press Photographer: Trusted With Confidential Information

Over the past 25 years as a commercial and press photographer in North East England I’ve been privy to some highly confidential business developments and embargoed events. 

I’ve built long term relationships with clients who trust my professionalism and discretion.

Photographing the royal family is top of my list of sensitive jobs, and I am regularly booked several weeks in advance, under strict embargo. The royals’ itineraries are quite rightly a closely guarded secret, well-organised and scripted and there is often little opportunity to check out the venue without having to explain why I want to look around. 

My background as an ex-press photographer in South West Scotland and North East England comes into play on these jobs, I am used to assessing where the best shots will be, and working quickly and with minimum fuss.

Knowing the protocol to be observed is essential when doing royal photography. Many of them are likely to go slightly off-piste when they choose, breaking away from the hand-shaking opportunities to chat to people in depth, and then it’s a case of staying unobtrusive but still getting the shot.  All north east royal photography jobs involve getting security approval from Buckingham Palace, and a press pass. The days of being sent to the Tower might be over, but it would still not do to put my foot in it - I am always conscious that I am representing my client on the day.

Some of my recent royal photography includes the Duchess of Cornwall’s visit to Teesside to support a literacy project; the Duchess of Cambridge’s visit to the Crime Reduction Initiative’s recovery centre in Stockton; and HRH The Queen’s official opening of the Tees Barrage International White Water centre near Thornaby on Teesside.

Business announcements (good news images below) such as mergers, takeovers and new partnerships are another area of photography where any hint of a leak could be disastrous. It’s vital that the photographs reflect the messages my client wants to get across, whether it’s good news or a sombre announcement about a plant closure and the loss of jobs.

Photographing children is probably the biggest minefield and an area where it’s essential to book an experienced North East professional photographer. Before I even pick up the camera I check that parent permissions are in place and all the health and safety considerations have been taken into account. 

I’ve photographed lots of school prospectuses and college brochures around County Durham, Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Newcastle, which involved taken pictures of hundreds of young people over the years, and as always, getting the best shots comes back to a level of trust between the client, the photographer and the subject. 

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

Negative and Slide Scanner: Dalbeattie, Galloway Documentary Photography from 1982

My early Christmas present to myself was a top of the range negative scanner, so I can catalogue the thousands of photos I’ve taken in my work as a north east press and commercial photographer over the last three decades.

Mum x                                                                   Dad x

It seems like a long time ago when I first joined a camera club aged 13, in my home town of Dalbeattie in Galloway. I took to carrying my Practica MTL3 camera everywhere, using a documentary style of photography, everything from people and places as I got a feel for the camera, processing films and developing an eye for a shot.

My first SLR: Practica MTL3 with the original receipt 

In the early days of learning my trade as a photographer I used black and white film. Colour film was way too expensive in the days when you had to develop the film before you could see the results, and it was a while before I had built up enough confidence in my skill as a photographer to graduate to it.

I’ve spent 30 years as a press and commercial photographer in the North East, Yorkshire and South West Scotland, and my negative image archive numbers around 80,000 pictures. It was a chance remark from someone I know through a personal group on Facebook that got me thinking about a negative scanner, and how good it would be to revisit some of my old shots, particularly the black and whites, which is a favourite medium of mine.

Although I bought the scanner a couple of months ago I’ve had so many North East press and commercial photography bookings I’ve hardly had chance to use it. The scanner works by digitalising negatives and 35mm slides to create high quality scans, and over Christmas I plan to spent nearly 2 days playing around with it and seeing what it can do. 

The reviews from professional photographer forums were all good, so I’ve been able to scan the depth of colour and quality of the original negatives, the only main issue was cheap lenses on the camera. 

I’m really looking forward to taking a walk down memory lane and looking back at how my career as a press photographer started back in my home region of Dumfries and Galloway, where I worked for the Solway Press Services, John Donnelly Photographic, then freelancing over Dumfries & Galloway.

All my old images have been put away in cupboards for years, including the time I spent working on a kibbutz in Israel and cycling back across Europe to the UK,  I’m expecting the memories to come flooding back.

Depending on how time-consuming it is I may consider offering it as a service to commercial companies and organisations with image archives dating back to pre-digital years. 

There must be so many old photographs of buildings, products and people that need to see the light of day again and could be really effective when used in press, PR and marketing campaigns.

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

Redcar Press and Editorial Photographer: Christmas Events and Festivals

Photographing the happy atmosphere of Christmas celebrations, usually in near-dark conditions, which really tests your skills and experience, and I was lucky enough to be asked to be the only North East commercial photographer to be commissioned to shoot a trio of North East Christmas light ceremonies and parades this year.

Stockton Sparkles Launch

My first job was the Stockton Sparkles launch on 28^th November, with thousands gathered in the town centre. Attractions ranged from a nativity scene and firework display to carol singing children, entertaining the crowns. Stockton-born musician Mike McGrother coordinated the 1500 kids wearing flashing Xylobands, and the carol singing children drawn from schools across Teesside.  

At one point I was on stage and felt like a rock star as I encouraged the audience to wave their armbands. My childhood ambition was to be a drummer and I had a surreal moment standing up there, thinking ‘What on earth am I doing?’

Stockton Sparkles had a real festival feel, marking the first night of late night shopping in Wellington Square and the Castlegate Centre, the Press photographs were for the local papers the Darlington Northern Echo and the Middlesbrough Gazette. It was what I call a ‘live shoot’, where my photos have to be edited and sent back to the client or to local media titles within a few hours or even minutes! I got some great front page pictures of the large crowd, using a fish eye lens on my Canon camera, which can cope with near darkness and was well worth the investment.

A couple of days later saw me photographing Redcar’s Christmas light switch on at the Beacon, it stands above the town, to mark the completion of the £30m seafront regeneration programme.

Redcar Light Swich On

The town centre stage was the heart of the celebrations and drew a big crowd, keen to see Santa and experience a fabulous snow machine that delighted children and adults alike. I moved through the crowd taking photos of people being entertained by singers from the Topline Youth Choir and One Voice Choir, as the Christmas parade made its way from the blue clock to the main town clock, before the lights were switched on by Councillor Brian Briggs.

 

Middlesbrough Fire and Ice Procession

The third of my seasonal jobs involved photographing Middlesbrough’s Fire and Ice procession. This was a fantastic spectacle, with around 5000 people gathered in the streets and in Centre Square. The Coca Cola truck proved a popular attraction, while with ice queens, Jack Frost, ice dragons and fire birds keeping everyone entertained.  

Santa and his Cairngorm reindeer parade provided the ‘aah’ factor, while an ice rink and coloured fountains in central Middlesbrough created challenging light conditions for this commercial photographer.

Capturing the spirit of events like these with clear photos taken in very low light takes every bit of my years of experience as a north east press and commercial photographer,  and as well as a top of the range camera I use techniques such as bouncing the flash off the ground to light up the crowd’s faces.

I love photographing Christmas events, they are an important way of bringing the community together as well as creating tourism revenue, and as well as making the news this year, many of the photos I took will be used to publicise next December’s events through print publications, advertising and social media.  

I was proud to have been asked to photograph the three big Christmas events & festivals across Teesside, and to help to get the festivities off to a great start for local people. 

...Merry Christmas!!!

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography