Night Photography in London

Night Photography in London at low tide

With the long winter nights and the shorter days at this time of year I've been running a lot of low light and night photography workshops lately. Most of these take place around some of London's iconic and extremely photogenic riverside locations but I also like to venture further in towards the City or the West End, depending on people's preferences. I often bring a small camera and tripod along myself as I find it hard to resist the urge to shoot these locations again myself. The river is always a big draw for me as I love the way the city lights reflect on the water with the super slow exposures that I use at night, both at high and low tide, but especially when the tide is low.

There are a few key points to consider when shooting in low light but once these are understood and you're familiar with the concepts, there's no reason not to feel confident in going out at night with a camera and a tripod. What I do find though is that when shooting at night, each shot takes a lot longer to complete, as shutter speeds are generally much slower, in-camera processing also takes a lot longer and often several shots of the same subject matter are necessary to judge the results and decide on which elements work best (tip: buses and high sided vehicles work better than cars for low angle light trail shots!). I like to play around with light trails and create light orbs too. The spinning balls of sparking fire are a lot of fun, achieved by a simple trick involving steel wool and a kitchen whisk!

This galley was all shot as .jpegs on my Canon G16. The quality isn't bad at all with its 12MP CMOS sensor. The beauty of this little camera for night photography for me is the built in ND filter and the extended range of pre-set shutter speeds beyond 30", something I've yet to find on any full frame DSLR! The dynamic range can be difficult for any camera to capture accurately at night so some degree of post processing is almost always required. I'm not generally a fan of HDR images but when the ambient light conditions are so high, a lot of night scenes in London are HDR by default, so I don't mind bringing that out a bit in post processing.

The night and low light photography workshops that I run are informal and fun. Nobody knows it all and photography is a continual  learning process but my aim is always to ensure that everyone develops their understanding of photography that little bit further. 

If you want to join in one of these night workshops and learn more about the tricks and some tips on low light photography, please just get in touch or check back here regularly to see when the next workshops are scheduled.

LAH Property Shoot

Corporate Portraits 

When it comes to photographing real people on location there are always challenges to overcome. If you're unfamiliar with the location and you're shooting in a space which is used by the general public it's important to be able to quickly choose a setting within the venue which will work both for the shot and for the client's brief. Setting up lighting, tripod, laptop etc. can cause some Health & Safety concerns in public areas but the most important thing is getting people to relax in front of the camera.

A good portrait is a reflection of the person being photographed and when people are nervous, as they often are in front of the camera, the job of the photographer is more than just getting the technical aspects of lighting, composition, focus and so on right, it's about engaging with the subject and getting them to relax and enjoy the shoot. 

Here's a small selection of some of the corporate portraits I've been shooting for one of my regular clients, LAH Property Marketing who have a number of staff working in locations all across London and the South East. These portraits were shot for their website and I've included a few of the more relaxed ones in this gallery which show some of the fun that we have on these shoots. 

Brexit Photo Project

52:48 - A Nation Divided

A series of portraits around the theme of the referendum to leave the EU held on 23rd June 2016. I want to approach this project without prejudice, as an open dialogue to find out who voted how and to share their opinions with other people so that both leavers and remainers can see the ‘other side of the story’ as it were.

As more details emerge about post Brexit Britain, a picture of a divided nation is forming. In my opinion, this is not so much based on Britain’s relationship with Europe as was portrayed by both campaigns in the run up to the vote but more as the result of successive national governments having ignored huge swathes of the population, who ultimately viewed the referendum as an opportunity to make their voices heard.

Since Brexit there has been a tremendous increase in the amount of reported incidents of hate crime but I feel that this is a separate issue which simply reflects how the outcome has been interpreted by a small proportion of the population and is in no way indicative of the motivations that people had in casting their vote.

My own position is irrelevant as I am an EU national and was ineligible to vote, although for the sake of transparency, my position was to remain. I have lived in the UK since 1975.

If you'd like to take part, please contact me to arrange a portrait session.

To visit the page relating to this project on the BBC website, click here.