North East Headshot Photographer | Jo Hand Recruitment Middlesbrough, Teesside

My many years as a press photographer in Middlesbrough stood me in good stead with marketing and PR agencies, who know that only the best pictures will be chosen by the press, or influence the people reading marketing literature or browsing websites.

Teesside-based Jo Hand Recruitment is a respected name in the competitive world of recruitment.  Its marketing agency commissioned me to take a series of pictures to support the forward marketing plan, for use in brochures, newsletters, on the website and with press releases.

The brief was to capture corporate headshots of the people behind the business, showing the approachable, knowledgeable team that founder Jo Hand has built around her. As a professional press and pr photographer in Stockton on Tees I have a portable studio with high performance flashguns, reflectors and other tools of the trade.  This meant I could quickly turn the firm’s central Middlesbrough office into a studio.  The fresh and fabulous lime green walls - the company’s signature brand colour – created a perfect backdrop for pictures of the team.

Part of the brief was also to reinforce the company’s roots in the region.  Teesside, north Yorkshire and County Durham are the heartland of Jo Hand Recruitment’s customer base so the next job was to go out and vary the shots by working with a range of local landmarks. I chose two iconic backdrops that are right on the doorstep, to save Jo travelling time.  First stop was the 35ft high tempered steel Bottle of Notes sculpture in the centre of Middlesbrough, with its clean lines providing a perfect background.  We followed up with some lovely shots in front of the funky new CIAC RiversideOne apartments, in the Middlehaven district.

Jo and her team were relaxed in front of the camera and a delight to work with. Press and PR photography is essentially about people, and I like to retain the same relaxed, informal style that I use in my wedding and portrait photography

In the studio I edited around 40 key images, making adjustments and checking colours. Because I use top quality lenses I can capture natural brightness in a subject, bringing out the warmth of people’s faces, keeping the colours true and resulting in minimum re-touching. The two-hour PR photography shoot in Middlesbrough meant I was able to give the marketing agency a great range of images to use in its plans to help Jo Hand Recruitment reinforce its position as one of Teesside’s leading recruitment agencies. 

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

Middlesbrough Architectural, Interior & Commercial Photographer

Photographing homes, offices, shops or public buildings might not involve people, but it takes the same level of creativity as I use in my portrait, wedding and corporate photography bookings. Because most of my work comes via recommendation or from clients I’ve worked with before in the north east, they often trust me with a very simple brief such as ‘I need some shots of a building’.

I never know what to expect and it can be a challenge to arrive at a building to find it only part complete. It’s understandable because developers need to get a fast return on their investment and market their properties as soon as the paint is dry and it means I often have to work around builders and decorators and their equipment to get the shots I want.   

The trick with property, particularly industrial buildings and office exteriors, is to look for lines and shapes while steering away from the wackiness of steep angles and overly-slanted buildings, which are not appropriate for commercial property photography. I like to keep images clean and crisp, and use a mix of wide angle and also use short telephoto lenses, combined with post-production skills on Photoshop to keep the parallels lined up and the pictures pleasing to the eye.

The best light conditions are often in the early morning or late at night, when the tonal range of colours is most vibrant.  And those are perfect times for taking pictures without people too, which can date a photograph. Sometimes I’m helped by the exterior of a building being lit, so I can use shadows to create depth.

I was pleased to be asked by Middlesbrough Erimus Housing to photograph its innovative Bohouse development, which is part of the Boho Zone, the commercial quarter for Middlesbrough’s digital media, digital technology and creative sectors. Bohouse provides flexible living and working space, encouraging people to work from home and set up new creative and digital media businesses. My brief was to produce lively, contemporary pictures that would help to fill the last few apartments in central Middlesbrough. 
   

The bathroom and kitchen showroom job presented an interesting challenge. To create a luxury feel I wanted to use the purple light set into the spa bath, which meant some clever – and quick - work with three flashguns to get just the right look for the glossy magazine for which the pictures were destined.

Good quality architectural and interior photography encourages interest in a property for sale or rent, and the kitchen and living room interiors shots were taken to showcase a Fabrick Housing development on Teesside. Happily, because the homes had been ‘dressed’ by interior designers, I had a range of colourful accessories to use as props to create a fresh, aspirational feel to the photography.

Sometimes it’s a case of looking for that one great picture that sums up the building.  A long shot of a B&Q lighting centre reflected in a steel lightshade perfectly captured the enormous range of products available. At the other end of the scale a job to photograph a very practical sports centre interior forced me to look for an unusual angle, and I opted for a remote fish eye lens, set inside a locker, to bring a different perspective.

Redcar seafront’s £8.3m Hub is a new 35,000 sq ft business centre for the creative industries sector, and part of the town’s seafront improvement scheme that includes a 80ft high ‘vertical pier’. I was asked to photograph the architects’ model of how the finished development will look, and worked with natural lighting to reproduce the remarkable light conditions only found at the coast.

Whether it’s industrial, commercial or residential photography, my job is to let the pictures speak for the buildings, and encourage people to live, work and relax there.  

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

Corporate PR Photography for Fabrick Housing Group in Middlesbrough

Everyone needs a good quality place to live, and Fabrick Housing Group based in Middlesbrough prides itself on building communities through rental, shared equity and shared ownership.  The company manages 15,000 homes, from North Tyneside to York. Fabrick Housing Group includes Erimus Housing and Tees Valley Housing and I’ve worked with them for several years over the north east, so I understand the company’s ethos the community feel it wants from its imagery.

When one of the marketing team, a contact from my days as a press photographer at the Middlesbrough Gazette, rang me to talk about a multiple location commercial photo shoot across Teesside and County Durham, I knew it would be a busy day.

The core of the company’s business is people, so it’s logical that they figure largely in its marketing materials.  The photo brief was to produce a set of clean, bright shots to reflect the heart of the business and the diversity of the communities it works in.  These were to be added to its photo library and used on the website, for news releases, in newsletters, the annual report and other materials.

To give Fabrick’s graphic designers a free hand with future layouts I planned a series of landscape and portrait formats, giving these additions to Fabrick’s image library maximum flexibility.

Because I’m familiar with Fabrick I had some ideas for the type of shots that would work well.  One of the marketing team came out on location with me, which was really useful.  As we moved round the sites I was constantly referring to the photo brief and scanning the opportunities for a great photo, while they were highlighting what was important and relevant to the business so we worked well together.  As the day progressed I was also able to show them what photographers call back of camera shots so they can see the photo stock we were building up.

It was a full day that saw us travel between Redcar, Stockton on Tees, Middlesbrough and Darlington photographing people and properties, with shots ranging from happy tenants and busy workmen, to a young apprentice on a building site, and senior executives back at headquarters. I’m a big fan of working quickly, with the minimum of fuss, and my style is natural, informal photography.  

Speed is a necessity because whatever their role, anyone with a busy job does not want to stop to have their photograph taken! If you are too slow, the subject gets uncomfortable and the picture loses its energy and looks forced. If your subject is a man with a toolbox, you would be very unpopular with the foreman too, who could get twitchy about the time spent holding the job up.

Everyone was very helpful, the weather was kind to us all day and we were able to get all the shots the brief demanded. It was an action-packed day, but once I had processed the images back at my studio, we had a great set of commercial photos that Fabrick can use to show how it is helping to build neighbourhoods and benefit the people at the heart of its communities. 

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

Unique Christmas Gift: One to One Photography Training

Would you like to capture great photographs? Our 'One to One Photography Training Day's are perfect way to learn at any level and age.  Many of you have loved the 'One to One' training with Middlesbrough Award Winning Photographer Dave Charnley and this Personal Photography Experience could possibly be a Christmas present or unique gift for a loved one (ask about gift vouchers)

Dave would be happy to base the training at a location of your choice and covering a subject of your choice (e.g. kids, sport, off camera flash, landscape, natural light, Photoshop on the computer - anything!) Your 'one to one' bespoked course gives you a fantastic opportunity to sample life through the eyes of a professional photographer with over 20-years experience.

Teesside based commercial, wedding and portrait photographer Dave Charnley offers valuable advice and tuition on technical side of photography too. We can cover topics such as use of lenses, Photoshop skills, shutter speeds, working in natural light, technical skills, working with a flash and how to create an eye catching composition.

One to One Packages:

Refresher  Session            £ 75

Morning / Afternoon           £165

Evening Session               £175

Full Day Session               £295

Please contact us for more detailed information about each package or check available dates.

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

Press Release Photographer | Same-Day Corporate Photography For Hartlepool Stadium Group

As a former Middlesbrough Evening Gazette press photographer I’ve photographed everyone from royalty, senior business figures and media stars through to community champions, children and winners of giant leek competitions. Working with such a range of subjects means your job on the day is not only to capture the perfect image, you have to do it in double quick time too!

A recent booking to photograph Stephen Phipson, the new Chief Executive of the £44m electronics manufacturer Stadium Group in Hartlepool came via the company’s marketing manager, who had seen my work on www.davecharnleyphotography.com

Stacey wanted a same day service, and like most in-house communications teams and PR agencies she had a detailed photo brief ready for me.  This is a useful tool that guides me as to what sort of shots the client wants to achieve, and what they are to be used for, whether that’s to go with news stories for regional and national newspapers and magazines, in-house documents, websites or other communications channels. In Stacey’s case, she wanted a variety of press photos that she could use to illustrate press releases, news stories and interviews with the new CEO.  Some of them were to be in a photography style that fitted with Stadium Group’s existing image library, and she wanted a range of internal and external backgrounds, some branding in shot and a choice of portrait and landscape layouts.

Busy CEOs don’t have time to waste and want the photographer in and out in a flash (no pun intended!), so I arrived early and had a quick look around Stadium Group’s site to assess the possibilities. In the one-hour shoot I worked quickly to capture a range of formal and informal shots of Stephen, using a combination of natural light, reflectors and a remote flash. To get some branding in some of the images I took one picture through a window etched with the company logo, plus a series of shots with Stephen in front of the company’s glass-fronted reception area. 

Working with the light streaming through glass or bouncing off it was technically complex but resulted in some nice variations on the standard corporate headshot. Stephen is comfortable in front of a camera so I was able to add a touch of informality to some of the shots, moving round the room and using different camera angles while he talked to colleagues around a boardroom table.

Stadium Group is a big employer on Teesside so the media is always interested in developments at the company.  The shots have been added to Stadium’s stock library of photos and have already been widely used in the regional and national press and TV coverage of Stephen’s new appointment.

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography

France Camping Holiday: Brittany, Bordeaux and Paris

FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND

People often ask me if taking my camera away with me is like a busman’s holiday, but the truth is photography is not work to me, it’s part of who I am.

Our recent family trip to France meant shaking out a tent that hadn’t seen the light of day since last summer.  My wife Lynne did all the organising, we bought a trailer and a roofbox, stuffed in everything apart from the kitchen sink and set off with our two children, armed with my trusty Panasonic LX3 camera and a Michelin map.

Headed off from Teesside very early, catching the P&O ferry from Dover to Calais and taking the obligatory shot of the beautiful white cliffs as we sailed away. Little stop near Calais then drove on to Le Letty campsite, at Bénodet in Brittany in time to get the tent all up and sorted by supper time, and the chance for a well-deserved cold beer. 

This fabulous site was right on the beach, with plenty of sporting activities on offer, including canoeing, tennis courts, and a swimming pool complete with slides.  After three days there the forecast was poor so we headed South towards Bordeaux, arriving at 7pm to find all the good sites were full – yes, we had managed to pick the biggest public holiday of the year to arrive without booking accommodation.  I will draw a veil over where we slept that night, but we were pleased that the car is a good size! 

   

The next day took us on to the Panorama du Pyla site at Arcachon, a tranquil nature reserve whose massive sand dunes, the Dune du Pylas, make it a popular spot for kite flying.  The site is tucked away between the pine forest and the beach, and we were spoilt for choice with swimming, surfing, bike rides, paragliding and fishing just a few of the things that attract people to this beautiful area. 

We also managed to squeeze in plenty of time lying around watching the paragliders float lazily around the sky attached to jewel-coloured kites, set against the bluest of skies.  It was like free therapy, as my wife remarked from her prone position on the beach towel next to mine. 

The number of photos I took made me wonder why colours seem so much more vivid when you’re on holiday, and how we managed before digital photography and the opportunity to take as many images as you have memory cards. 

 

Our canvas neighbours Helen and Rick, who were on holiday with their two sons, sent us a glorious photo of a paraglider coming in to land against the setting sun.  It’s not one of my own pictures but it perfectly captured the essence of our stay at the site, and I’d be very pleased to have it in my portfolio.  

The French are more relaxed than the UK about impromptu roadside camping, and one of the delights of our trip was spotting numerous gorgeous old VW campervans tucked away in the edges of woodland and in laybys. 

  

We rounded off our holiday with 24 hours in Paris, buying a family Metro pass for the bargain price of just 25 euros, and packing in a whistle-stop tour of attractions.  The spectacular glass Pyramide du Louvre gave me the chance to seek out an unusual shot taken from inside, and of course what photographer could resist the chance to take photos from the top of the Eiffel Tower?

Inside the Louvre, people were standing 10-deep in front of the Mona Lisa.  Camera flashes were going off like fireflies in a forest but sadly, most people seemed keener just to record the experience, rather than appreciate the painting’s beauty.

Going past an unofficial shrine to Princess Diana, the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel, was a sobering moment.  We lifted our mood with a walk along the Seine as darkness fell, to the strains of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ – a popular choice for Parisian buskers and a tune we heard several times!

Arriving home I found out we had clocked up around 2,500 miles, and once we had unpacked the car and shaken the sand out of all our kit it fell to me to do what all holidaymakers do - even professional photographers – and sort out all the holiday pics.

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Direct Website Link to Dave Charnley Photography