It was a straight forward brief by the lovely people over at Approach PR, go out and photograph a lady who was doing a testimonial for one of their clients.

Normally these types of jobs throw up all sorts of problems, bad weather, hard to find places, people not expecting you or even not wanting to do what you have turn up for.

So this one was winning hands down, found the house, the weather was great, the lady was lovely and happy to do what was needed. A quick sit down and a chat, get introduced to the 5 dogs and the parrot, and then outside to do the shoot.

We needed to do the shoot with the lady stood by her car, which she had parked in the paddock to give us more room. Also in the paddock were 2 donkeys, 2 goats and a number of geese, most of which were very friendly and wander over for a look.

I started to do what I do, when I felt a number of things all at once, a tugging at my knee, a prodding on my bum and to finish off a shove in the back. Looking down I could see one of the goats trying to eat my knee, while it mate was sticking it horn, where horns don’t go, behind me the donkey gave me another great shove in the shoulder blades.

At this point there was a loud shout from the lady, who point out that the second donkey had taken a fancy to my camera bag and was swinging it about with some force.

After rescuing my camera bag we continued the shoot, with only the occasional nibble, butt and shove.

The small market town of Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands seems an unlikely place to be a hot bed of Blues music, but for the last 4 years during the first weekend in October, the town has become exactly that.

I have had the great honour to be the festival’s photographer right from the start and to celebrate the festivals 5th year we are planning an exhibition of the best of the pictures taken over those 4 years to be shown in some of the venues during this year’s festival.

To do this we have set up an Indiegogo page to fund the exhibition.

Leek Blues exhibition

Using the pictures taken over the last 4 years, we aim to mount a free exhibition during the festival, using at least 2 of the venues, if not more, to display the pictures. The higher the sum of money raised the more pictures can go into the venues.

There are a number perks for supporting us but the main one is that you get one of the pictures from the exhibition, you get to choose the picture, it is then printed on canvas and displayed during the festival. Once the exhibition is finished your picture will be sent to you.

As a commercial photographer I can be asked to photograph anything, from a simple profile picture to a complex multi place multi day shoot. Each shoot has it’s own challenges and a large part of my job is working around these challenges and producing the pictures my clients wants.

While the work is very satisfying most of it is not very artistic and one of the reasons I became a photographer was to get an out let for my creative side.  So trying to balance an image that fits a customers brief while also trying to be creative is a constant struggle, but when the two come together the result can be fantastic.

Just finished work on a great shoot at Seasoned Cookery School. Seasoned is one of the UK’s leading cookery schools, specialising in inspirational courses taught by friendly, passionate chefs.

My brief for the day was just to hang out and capture the feel of one of their excellent cookery courses.

This might sound simple, but trying to photograph in a room containing 14 chefs, 3 kitchen assistants, lots of hot pans and sharp knifes, while trying not to get in the way, or be stabbed, burned or scalded, meant a lot of quick foot work and always checking what was going on around me.

The hardest part for me was trying not to get distracted by what was going on, I love cooking and while picking up tips on a great creme patissiere might be fun, it’s not really the reason I’m there for.

Most people have a competitive streak and we all like praise and adoration, and who doesn’t love a bargain, so when we see “Free photo competition” splashed across a web site how can we resist.
But we all known nothing comes for free, so where is the catch in these seemingly harmless competitions. Well it will come as no surprise that it is normally buried in the small print, and by buried I do mean buried, this example was right at the bottom of 4 pages of terms and conditions.
So what is the catch, in most of these competitions the catch is you lose all the rights to your photo, just check out these T’s and C’s from one I’ve just found.

TRANSFER OF RIGHTS. By submitting an entry, participant hereby irrevocably grants and assigns to Sponsor the exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right, title and interest in and to the entry, including all rights to reproduce, publish, edit, market, store, adapt, assign, sell, dispose of, distribute, have distributed, publicly and privately display, communicate, publicly and privately perform, transmit, have transmitted, create derivative works based upon, and promote the entry or excerpts of the entry (as such may be edited and modified by the Sponsor in its discretion) in perpetuity, for editorial, commercial, promotional and all other purposes (including posting on Sponsor-affiliated websites, and/or other Sponsor-selected media). Participant hereby disclaims any rights, including any copyright or any other intellectual property right, in or to the entry following the assignment contemplated hereby.

There is more,

I hereby irrevocably assign to PTV MEDIA LTD. (“PTV”) its successors, assigns and legal representatives, all rights, title and interest, including all intellectual property rights, in and to the images, recordings or film of my pet which I have uploaded onto YouTube, the Facebook website or Facebook App or the PTV website (the “Property”), and I hereby irrevocably waive and agree never to asset any moral rights, including but not limited to, rights of attribution of authorship or limitation on subsequent modification that I may have in or with respect to the Property.

And more

I understand and agree that PTV: (i) shall have full, unrestricted, sole and exclusive ownership of all right, title and interest in and to the Property, (ii) shall have the exclusive right to make any use of the Property as it deems fit, including without limitation, to use, reproduce, copy, exhibit, display, broadcast, modify, create derivative works of, distribute, dispose, license or otherwise transfer the Property for any commercial and/or other purpose, (ii) may include the Property in the PTV archives, (iii) shall not be required to give me attribution when using the Property, (iv) shall be allowed to make any changes to the Property and I shall have no rights with respect thereto, and (v) may register any Property for copyright protection. If requested, I will take any action and sign any documents, which PTV deems necessary to effect the aforesaid. I hereby waive all inspection and/or approval rights to any products for which the Property may be used in connection therewith.

And just in case you are unsure there is this,

I hereby agree that I shall not be entitled, now or in the future, to any consideration or royalties in connection with the Property.

So how much could this free competition be costing you?

At the moment my largest print is sold for £160, so taking this as a base price and adding on all the rights to the picture world wide and forever it takes the price, using an industry calculator for these things, to £12,960. This competition prize was worth a few hundred pounds, if you won, but you give away your picture regardless of the result.

Leek is full of great buildings, it’s also full of cars, so when I saw The Roebuck without anything blocking the view I just had to grab a picture. When it came to working on the picture I was struck by the fact that this great building was still a bit cluttered up with a lamp post and street sign.

With the wonder of photoshop and years of experiance, I set about cleaning up the view, first to go was the lamp post and street sign. Then I saw the TV aerial which then just had to go. The little square vent on the right was easily dealt with leaving the building looking much better, job done.  But it still looked a bit dull, so a quick touch up on the paint work, brightening the white bits, removing some of the marks and darkening the black wood work. There was a temptation to remove more, like the A boards and signs, but they are part of the pub and add to the picture.

It’s great to be able to play with a picture like this, when doing this sort of shot for an estate agent I have to leave the house and surroundings untouched so that people can see just what they are buying.

At this time of year that is a question that runs through my mind a lot, why go professional.

January is a strange month for me, it follows the busiest period for my business, 4 months work in 6 weeks, it’s the anniversary of me going pro, it’s the time of the year you plan forward and review what has been, it’s tax return time and it is normally the quietest month work wise. All in all a time to reflect on life and the choices you have made.

This January finds me tired, stressed, thinking too much and with time on my hands, not the best combination. So back to the big question, why go pro. The case for not going pro is stronger so lets start with that.

Between where I sit and the centre of Leek, about 2 miles, Google thinks there are at least 20 photographers and looking at their web site they all look professional, but most are not, most are part time at best, so what are the advantages that keep so many back from making it a full time career.

• Security, most have a full time job that pays a regular wage.
• Competition, at the level they are working at the battle for paying jobs is fierce, it’s safer not having to rely on the income
• Paper work, when it’s formally a business there is just so much admin, best to keep it on the quite.
• Tax, really there’s no need to bother Mr Tax man, it’s only a hobby and he’s so busy.
• Insurance, it’s not really needed as it’s not really a business!

So why go pro, admittedly after spending a week working on my tax figures and being constantly reminded about my costs as I print out receipt after receipt, not going pro seems like a good idea, but for the rest of the year it’s great.

• You are the boss, I’m nearly the worst boss I’ve worked for, I always seem to know when I’m slacking off.
• You are in control, if it all goes wrong it’s down to just you.
• Its very rewarding, and sometimes you get paid as well!

When ever you go self employed you are gambling all you have on just your skill and ability, be it running a shop or being a builder, the deciding factor is belief in your self. The reward is knowing you have made it, if you have, 20% of businesses fail within the first year, 50% within 3.

The reason I’m happy I went pro can be summed up in one picture taken on Blue Monday last year, taking this on what is supposed to be the worst day of the year really brings home how right I was to go pro.