Photographers’ Get Together in the Peak District

Posted by James - Monday, 18th April 2011

The week before last, 20 photographer friends and I stayed at Roaches Hall in the Peak District, hired exclusively for three nights. It was the biannual get together of our social photographers network, where wedding and portrait photographers catch up, share ideas and do some shooting! It was a brilliant few days, I’ve come back completely rejuvenated and ready for the new wedding season!

This was our house for the three nights, set in gorgeous countryside:

We have the wonderful Hayley Ruth to thank once again for organising such an amazing event. I’m so grateful to her for all of her hard work and ideas.

When you have so many people staying in the same house you need a lot of cakes…

…and a lot of bread!

Roaches Hall is a beautiful house with some unusual features such as this circular bed!

Day one and people start to arrive, time for a good chat and catch up

Then off to the nearby pub for some food

Then back to the lovely Roaches Hall for some more chat and drinks!

Day two and it’s shooting day!

Tom Arber and Annemarie King discussing Lightroom processing. It was a pleasure to meet Annemarie for the first time and to properly meet Tom too!

Emily Hancock finds shooting Stu way too funny

The lovely Jennifer Clare

Then it was time to get outdoors for shooting around the gorgeous grounds

Fellow photographers became subjects to get a feel for the other side of the camera

Here is Carrie Bugg doing a spot of posing

Then it was Rachael Connerton’s turn

Hayley’s turn

Here’s Rob Booker standing strong…

… and then crouching

We found a good spot round the back of the house near the bins(!) – we’ll go anywhere for some good light and interesting textures!! Here’s Annemarie

Here’s Barnaby Aldrick

A common sighting at a photographers’ get together; the duelling cameras

Laura stepped up for a quick portrait

Stu Cooper wondering what we were up to round the back of the house!

Laura and Pete Lawson having a giggle on the couch that was randomly relocated outdoors

Rachael and Ian Connerton

Here’s Barnaby posing for Pete and Laura

Barns showing off his spectacular balancing skills

Cris Matthews and Hayley dispute over a reflector

I love how you can see Pete on Laura’s camera LCD and Laura’s eye reflecting off it too

I love these trees

A pensive Ian Olsson after being shot by Annemarie

Day three and it was time to get serious and get down to some business talk. Carrie had some good news to share with everyone

Emily talked about her client viewing experience

Hayley shared her branding ideas and techniques

It was all too much for Stu though!

Rob Booker demonstrated his amazing InDesign skills

Stu talked us through his album designs

Yet another brilliant get together, thanks so much again Hayley for making it happen and thanks to everyone for being so amazing! Can’t wait for the next one!!

Hayley’s Headshots

Posted by James - Monday, 10th May 2010

When I was at the Photographers’ Get Together in London my fellow wedding and portrait photographer and good friend Hayley Oats of Hayley Ruth Photography asked me to take some headshots of her. So during a brief lunch break we dashed out onto the London streets and found a nice backdrop.

 

 

 

Photographers’ Get Together in London

Posted by James - Saturday, 1st May 2010

Last week I travelled down from the Scottish Borders to meet with 30+ wedding and portrait photographers from the Randall Network in London for our annual (or is it biannual!?) get together. After the huge success of the brilliant get together in Blackpool last September, expectations were high and we were far from disappointed – it was brilliant, the biggest get together yet with many new friends made. Thanks so much to those who made it and for being such great and inspiring friends. Sorry to those who couldn’t make it and I hope to see you next time. Thank you to Hayley for doing such an amazing job organising the event, to Stewart for the amazing contribution he made (and for creating the finest albums in the world!) and last but not least thanks to 3B Media for their superb introductory seminar about off-camera flash photography.

Onto some photographs… after a quick drink and introductions in a bar near Waterloo Train Station we set off in groups for a ‘fun photo challenge’. There were some rules and guidelines to follow, but nearly everyone abandoned them in favour of shooting whatever we wanted! The goal of the challenge was to get people out with their cameras and shoot things that might be outside their usual field. Everyone agreed that it was a great challenge and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. The best images from everyone were put into a slideshow and shown on a projector screen the following day. Here are some of mine from the challenge, all taken with the Canon EOS 5D MKII, 24-70L and processed in Lightroom 3 Beta:

Pete Lawson is uncompromising when it comes to getting the shot he wants

Simon Fazackarley wanted a shot of our shoes (as you do) so I took one from an alternative angle

Pigeons are fun to shoot

Back at the bar for a few drinks and to submit our images

I was demonstrating my shoot-from-the-hip “technique” which shocked Abby a little as she thought I was shooting something dodgy!!

  

Day two and we’re in the ‘boardroom’ for some serious discussions, coffee and Krispy Kremes!!

Phill Allen and Simon discuss their topic:

Stewart gives his ‘The Power of Social Networking’ talk

Then here’s me on the quiet train heading back to the Scottish Borders after a brilliant couple of days in London – thanks again everyone; you’re amazing people to know!

Here are a couple of superb blog posts of the get together with great photos from fellow Randall Network family members:

• Phil Barber – London Baby! – Randallmania
• Randall Photo Network London Get Together – By Barnaby Aldrick
• London by Lawson Photography