North East Sport Photographer | FlowRider Pro Am finals in Redcar

Clearing the snow off my car to drive through the snow and cover a national surfing competition recently felt slightly odd, but as a North East freelance photographer every day brings variety, from corporate portraiture in a boardroom to exciting outdoor events.

 The occasion this time was the FlowRider Pro/Am finals at the Redcar & Cleveland Leisure and Community Heart, which saw competitors from across the country descend on the town. Heart offers a variety of ways to stay active, with a state of the art gym, a multi-use sports hall, group exercise classes, Flowrider, swimming pool and water confidence pool.

The two-day event saw flowboard and bodyboard riders put their colourful boards through their tricks, with 12 young riders competing on Saturday, and eight amateur adults plus seven professionals battling for top spot on the Sunday.

If you’ve never seen wave riding, you’re missing a treat. It’s a tough physical challenge involving breathtaking moves that take hours of practice to perfect. Surfers come down the waves pretty quickly so as a sport photographer my challenge was to keep up with the action as it happened. There is nothing worse than being slightly behind a shot and missing what would have been a perfect photographic moment.

I was so busy concentrating and looking for the shot that I forgot to look out for the water, and managed to get completely soaked at one point when a wave came over, to the amusement of the spectators. Fortunately the camera I was using is waterproof, so I carried on taking shots like a trooper, albeit a bit soggily.

I love photographing water and experimenting with slow and fast shutter speeds for different effects. A slower speed gives effect such as a trail of water, while a fast speed picks up the people action in sharp definition. It’s not possible yet, but I’m sure one day technology will move on so photographers can capture both effects in a single shot.

As well as shot of the action I mixed in some of the spectators and the facilities, including some of people taking their own photos on iPads and phones, to add variety.

Half a dozen students from Teesside University were also busy filming the event, using GoPro hand held cameras. Some of the surfers also took real action shots using selfie sticks – surfing and filming took some real skill and was amazing to see. 

I was pleased to see my photos used for PR and publicity purposes, and widely distributed across the North East media and across social media channels.

A summer-themed event held in winter, this competition was a great chance to get more people interested in the sport and and there is talk of it becoming a twice-yearly event, which would be a great chance to put Redcar Heart on the map.

The Princess Royal, Princess Anne visit to Sulzer in Middlesbrough

A recent commercial photography commission to document The Princess Royal, Princess Anne’s visit to an engineering centre in Middlesbrough came via my website, and was based on my press photography experience covering many north east royal visits, including Her Majesty the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, the Duchess of Cambridge and even the Countess of Wessex.

 Royal visits are choreographed to the last detail, with the itinerary kept under wraps and usually known only to a few of the people involved. 

Careful briefings and at least one walk-through will take place in advance, and I had several conversations with my client the PR agency DMA Europe’s senior management, discussing the brief and their requirements.

Engineering equipment repair firm Sulzer employs 40 staff, and recently expanded into a £4.5m service centre in Middlehaven, Teesside, hence the royal visit.

A large gathering was massed for the occasion, including Middlesbrough’s Labour MP Andy McDonald and Middlesbrough councillors, and Princess Anne arrived on time in a helicopter fresh Northumberland to Acklam Grange School in Middlesbrough, which lead to a short drive to the service centre.

People can sometimes be over-awed by royalty, but Princess Anne is highly experienced at VIP visits and took the trouble to put people at their ease, talking to at least 80 people, including apprentice Josh Ferguson and Sulzer staff and management, and making it a special day for many of them. This was followed by a tour of the facility and the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the event.

The two-hour shoot mean working hard to vary the shots, rather than simply going for repetitive handshake pictures as I followed Princess Anne around the facility, and I included some interior and exterior shots of the building as well as photos of Sulzer’s marketing collateral and branding.

Reporters and press photographer from the Middlesbrough Gazette, Northern Echo and Tyne Tees attended, with all of us conscious of not getting in each other’s way. I was lucky in that as the commissioned photographer I had full access to all areas, while the rest of press were restricted. 

Many of my pictures were used in various publications and for social media, and it was my pleasure to be on hand to support Sultzer’s big day as its new facility was given the royal seal of approval.

Documentary Photography of the Positively Stockton on Tees (Psst) Campaign

In my work as a North East commercial and PR photographer I know how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful region, among people with warmth, a great sense of humour and tons of community spirit, and the news that the next series of Channel4’s Benefits Street was to be filmed on Kingston Road on the Tilery estate in Stockton saw feelings running high here in the region.

All of which meant I was delighted to be asked to cover the Positively Stockton on Tees (Psst...) campaign, the world’s biggest ever game of Chinese Whispers, designed to spread positive messages about the town.

Fronted by Wildcats of Kilkenny’s Mike McGrother and world and European champion sprinter Richard Kilty, the event ran over March 13^th and 14^th and saw colourful clowns from the Urban Kaos street dance group escorting the message along a human chain using transport ranging from buses and bikes to rowing boats and jet-skis, and raising money for Comic Relief along the way.

Weeks of planning went into the shoot to make sure we were in the right place at the right time to capture pictures that would generate positive PR for the town.

I was kept on my toes shooting documentary photography in venues including shopping centres, schools, a care home, a bike rally and a bowling green, plus the organisers had publicised a handful of spots where locals could take part, such as Infinity Bridge and Ropner Park in Stockton, and Preston Hall at Eaglescliffe. These drew crowds of people all keen to join the chain and pass on the secret that Stockton on Tees is a great place to live and work.

All ages took part, from children through to people in their 90s, and included everyone from hairdressers and traffic wardens to police officers and passers-by, all very happy to have their photos taken and making the my job easy.

My biggest challenge as a photographer was to stay on the move while editing the photos and sending across to the client so they could be out via social media streams as the event happened.  I prefer a combination of a lightweight laptop for flexibility and speed without sacrificing the quality of the images. 

Finishing off on Saturday at Wynyard Hall, the event was very well received and a lot of fun to be part of.  All credit to the organisers – the whisper campaign was a perfect way to celebrate community pride in the face of a series seeking to paint Stockton in an unfair light on national television.

The first series of Benefits Street generated huge national controversy around its portrayal of people living on benefits, and the airing of series two has been delayed due to General Election restrictions so it remains to be seen how it portrays our town.  But I was proud to play my part in the ‘Positively Stockton on Tees’ campaign using positive images that will help to counteract any negative publicity generated by the series.

Evolution Rebrand | North East Commercial, Portrait and Editorial Photography

I was delighted to be asked to take commercial photographs around Hartlepool, Gateshead, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and surrounding areas for accountancy firm Evolution LLP recently.

As well as being a photography partner to many marketing and PR agencies, I also work directly for clients and this commission came via Evolution’s marketing partner. A brand refresh meant some new advertising photography over the north east and involved a lot of careful planning and several meetings to establish the look and feel that would work best.

As well as using customers to tell Evolution’s story, we opted to go with a technique known as de-saturating the colour, to give a stylised, almost black and white look. This fitted well with the colour palette used by the web designers and lines up with the company’s new brand identity and push to promote its dynamic accountancy practice.

Being involved with the planning process for a photoshoot is really useful, it means I can get to grips with what the client is looking for, and suggest some appropriate approaches. 

Several meetings with Evolution staff and its marketing and web experts led to a schedule of commercial photography at six client locations including Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Gateshead, Brotton and Skelton.

Each location involved taking photographs of Evolution’s client in their natural habitat and included shots on a factory floor, at a creative agency and even a rally school. I gave the client several variations of shot at each venue, to make sure the photos would be suitable for a range of print and online uses. 

The clients are all highly successful business people and I went for strong, engaging shots with subtle backgrounds - what I call ‘hero’ shots. Having my mobile studio equipment with me meant I could dismiss the use of flash in favour of using all the natural light available and making the shots gritty and ‘real’.

As well as the portrait shots I was asked to cover the rebrand launch event for 150 invited guests. The event had been booked at Crathorne Hall in North Yorkshire but a huge fire there the night before saw a last-minute switch to photograph the event Wynyard Hall in County Durham and the event organisers did a great job of swapping venues without a hitch. 

As I moved round the room photographing key speakers and guests I was pleased to see how well my shots had worked on pop up banners and in large screen format as the audience were treated to Evolution’s new brand film. 

I was very happy to have been entrusted with producing the imagery to sum up Evolution’s fresh, engaging and contemporary new look, and I wish the firm and its clients all the very best for the future.