Want to transform your photography?

So, I want to share with you my 40 plus years experience so that you don’t have to spend years and years going through what I went through. This is one of my students, Mark.

Mark didn’t take bad photos, they just weren’t very exciting. So we sat down and created a plan for him to implement the ordinary to extraordinary photography system. We went through the three steps on the roadmap so that he knew what to do to set himself up for success. He understood how to capture the moment, and he was confident he could reveal the magic and it transformed his photos.

Here’s just one example of the photos that he would have taken. Now, it’s not a bad picture of these barracks in Cwmorthyn, Wales.

But now using the lessons that he learned, he’d take a picture which is about the barracks.

So, why is this photo better?

Well, by thinking about his viewpoint and the story he wanted to tell, and by backing up and using a wide angle lens, he included the environment which gives more of a sense of scale and isolation.

Using the rule of thirds, the barracks are now positioned on the left hand third. And by getting down low, there’s added foreground interest, all of which makes a much more engaging image.

This is John. John contacted me because he was not getting the results he wanted when he was photographing clients. His lighting was flat and the images weren’t interesting. And he didn’t feel he was showing his clients at their best.

So, we sat down and we created a plan for him to implement the ordinary to extraordinary photography system. We went through the three steps on the roadmap. So, he knew how to set up his lights, how to set himself up for success. He understood how to engage with clients to capture the moment, and he was confident that he could reveal the magic, and he transformed his photos.

Here’s an example of the sort of photo that he was taking the beginning of our sessions

And this is the sort of image he was capturing by the end of the sessions.

This was achieved by full understanding of how to set up his lighting, by having his main light 45 degrees to the left and 30 degrees above his subject with a big softbox for that lovely soft light.

And by increasing the light in the background by one stop to get that pure white.

And more importantly interacting and chatting with his client to make her feel at ease.

Veronica was near the start of her photography journey when she contacted me. So we created a plan for her. We helped her understand what it meant to set herself up for success, and how to see beyond the obvious so she could capture the moment and how to get the most out of her images when she got them home.

Here’s an example of the sort of photo that she was taking at the beginning of our sessions.

It’s a picture of bridge that most people would take. Square on of the bridge. Okay, nice reflection, but not exciting.

So, I showed her how to get creative with her viewpoint. By using a wide angle lens, it enables the inclusion of the banks on either side, creating lead lines into the bridge (it would have been nice if there’d been a swan in the space Infront of the bridge)

Or by turning a little to the left and including the trees and the houses on the bank to recreate an image that tells more of a story. It’s an image about something rather than of something.

How to look beyond what she first saw. Here, there’s some beautiful light falling on the trees and some beautiful reflections. It makes an interesting image without the bridge at all. Always look past the obvious.

This is Keith. Keith wasn’t doing anything wrong as such. It was just that his pictures didn’t tell a story.

So, how did the system change his images. The big thing was setting himself up for success, capturing the moment, and then getting constructive feedback, being challenged to think differently about what he was doing.

We focused on capturing the moment on using graphic controls to the maximum, and on his timing.  

We focused on setting him up for success and make his images about things like this.

The first picture was two people on a horseback. By waiting a fraction of a second until they’d travel a little bit further around the ring. By including the spotlights, and some of the audience the image tells the story of circus performers and transforms the image.