Martin and Karen Photography Blog » Portraits

Family photo shoot

martin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:57:47 +0000

This shoot was organised by Evonne and Emma as a birthday present for Mo. So we made a day of it with a location photo shoot that started late morning, a buffet lunch back here at the studio then back out on location for some more photos. It was the first time I’d seen everyone together since Evonne and Alex’s wedding in 2007 so it was great to meet everyone again. It was also great to see Kaian again and to see how he’s changed since we photographed him at a few weeks old.

It was a great fun shoot and a great jet lag antitdote Here’s a selection of our favourites.

Catherine in the snow – location portraits

martin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:50:36 +0000

Catherine was at the studio last week for a portfolio shoot. By late afternoon we had finished the studio photographs and since we had a fresh covering of snow and some late afternoon sun it would have been a shame not to take some outdoor shots. It was freezing and the sun was setting fast so we took these pictures in the space of about twenty minutes and just a few yards from the studio.

Arlene and Christoph – Location Portrait Photographs

martin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 09:38:48 +0000

Arlene and Christoph came for their photo session between Christmas and New Year. They were on a visit from their home in the middle east, so the freezing conditions were a bit of shock for them. I’d fully expected that we’d revert to plan B and do a session in the studio but they decided to brave the cold and the sleet and the rain and have a location shoot.

I’m really glad we did, even though with temperatures around freezing and pouring rain it meant working quickly and trying to keep Arlene and Christoph dry at the same time. Of course it helps a lot when you are working with a good looking couple who don’t mind trying a few of my ideas for images that must have seemed a bit eccentric at the time. A special thank you to Karin (Christoph’s sister) for helping to keep me dry with an umbrella

Lola weaved her magic on the images and Arlene and Christoph came back for their viewing later the same day. I’m pleased to say they loved their pictures. Here are some of my favourites.

Jon and Karin’s family shoot

martin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:59:38 +0000

Last month I had the privilege of photographing Jon and Karin and their lovely family of five kids (and two dogs). My approach to keeping that many kids amused is to get them involved in the shoot to make it exciting. So we had great fun together exploring their garden looking for interesting places to take pictures. We were spoilt for choice for brilliant locations and the kids were fantastic. There’s too many great pictures to show individual pictures of everyone on the blog (sorry guys) but here are a few of my favourites.

Creative day pictures – Ash

martin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:51:05 +0000

Here are some images of model Ash taken on the same shoot last month as those of Georgia (see below). Same locations and hair and styling again by Toni Creative. Lola has given these images a cool look. I especially like the black and white.

If anyone’s interested in the photographic details, all but one of these was lit by an Elinchrom Ranger with either a big Octa softbox or a grid. The odd one out was lit by a speedlight.

Creative day – fashion pictures

martin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:34:55 +0000

Every so often I like to take time to recharge the creative batteries and create some images just for fun. The idea of these shoots is to do something different and challenging – stylistically or technically. I love trying out new ideas when it doesn’t really matter whether they work or not.

It’s not unusual for clients to see the results from a creative day shoot and ask for something similar themselves.

On this shoot I had the pleasure of working again with our good friend Toni Perryman. Toni created the stunning hair and makeup, and styles and also found us the fab urban location. My only brief to Toni was to create something that would look completely incongruous in a grungy urban location.

Our models for the day were Georgia and Ash who were both brilliant and super tolerant as we experimented with our lights to create these images.

Lola assisted on the shoot and is responsible for the stunning post production work on these pictures.

This first set of pictures are of Georgia. Look out for Ash’s pictures next week.

Sue and Nathan – Urban Portrait Shoot

martin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:40:56 +0000

Sue and Nathan are getting married in September so this is technically a pre-wedding shoot. But they’ve had one of those already – last year – in the grounds of Rushton Hall (their reception venue). They planned their wedding so far in advance that they asked if they could have two photo shoots before their wedding. Which of course we were happy to do.

Pre-wedding shoots generally start off with couples a little nervous and as the shoot progresses they relax and get used to having their picture taken. Generally, though not always, we’ll use a rural setting for these shoots. We have a lot of fun and by the end of the shoot and the viewing we’re firm friends. All that gives us a flying start on the wedding day and we get relaxed photos from the start of the day.

Because Sue and Nathan had already done a shoot with me this time we could be more adventurous. I had an idea for a shoot with a cinematic feel with the theme being a couple on a glamorous night out in the city. No jeans and T shirts on this shoot – I wanted Sue and Nathan dressed to the nines. They didn’t disappoint.

I also knew that I expected most of the shots in the set to be lit by flash rather than daylight. In early July that meant starting the shoot late in the evening. Couldn’t be a weekday – too much to expect them to do after a full day in the office. Not a Saturday – too much of an audience. Which is how we ended up in Milton Keynes city centre at 8pm on a Sunday night.

As a final nod to the cinematic theme every shot in this set was taken in landscape orientation, and unusually for us, every shot is in colour. The album of the shoot is going to be a panoramic with one picture per page. Spectacular. Big kudos to Sue and Nathan who were brilliant. Uber cool in fact (private joke).

What do you think? Please leave your comments by following the link below. Do you know anyone who might like a shoot like this (they don’t have to be getting married)? Please send them a link to this post

Jamie at one

martin — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:05:51 +0000

It was a thrill to have the chance to photograph Jamie again a few days after his first birthday. He’s changed a lot since his first shoot (link) but was still a smiley happy chap and great fun to photograph.

We started the shoot with a trip to a nearby country park. Despite the dull weather I had a few tricks up my sleeve to come up with these sunny looking shots.

We finished the shoot back at Jamie’s home with a few simple pictures to complement the pictures from the first shoot in Mum and Dad’s album.

Antonia’s Dancing Shoot

martin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:47:20 +0000

Here are some photographs of the lovely Antonia dancing in our studio. We were aiming for a classic ‘stage lighting’ look to these pictures and I think we pretty much succeeded. I’ve photographed Antonia twice before and she’s a natural in front of the camera. She’s an excellent dancer too

Laura and Friends

martin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:20:12 +0000

Here are a few pictures from Laura’s birthday photo shoot with her friends Hazel and Jo. Although its not obvious from the pictures it rained all through this shoot. The girls took it all in good spirit even laying in the wet leaves to get a great picture with autumn colours