Everyone Active Gym Fitness Photographer East Midlands

Everyone Active Gym Fitness Photographer Leicester, Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Nottingham, Northampton.

PR, Branding & Event Photographer East Midlands

One of my regular clients is Everyone Active, I travel all over country for these guys. It could be a recently acquired and refurbished site, a gym shoot, fun in the pool, or a special event.

This event was two special body pump workout classes with Radio 1 DJ Charlie Hedges. The centre for this event was Everyone Active in Dunstable, part of community hub. Like with other EA events, it was run perfectly with lots of staff bought in from Leicester and Derby, who I already know. 

Also in attendance was FPV Drone pilot James Singleton, his drone skills are unmatched and a was real inspiration to me to lean more. 

The event started with two instructors on the start with Charlie who played some amazing tunes. Class one quickly led into class two after a 15 min break. 

Following on from Charlie was two body combat classes from the Les Mills team. I have to say these looked insane, and it’s on one hand hard to see why people put themselves through this, but on the other hand I can see how addictive it would become. 

Overall a brilliant morning, with some great shots captured. I edited 50 images onsite and left them with the centre manager. The other 200+ images were edited and delivered Monday morning. On Monday afternoon the design team had already used some of the images in marketing for the centre.

Here are a few screen grabs for the images in place..

And finally, hear are a few of my images from throughout the morning.

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Furnley House Foundation Summer Ball 2024

Leicester Event Photographer Summer Ball

Leicestershire Charity Photographer

A few weeks ago it was the Furnley House Foundations summer ball 2024

Furnley House Foundation

Having done numerous work for FH now, they asked if i’d be interested in photographing ther summer ball. It was a YES from me. Furnley House is an amazing company, and some of my great friends work there.. Their foundation is a registered chairty, they raise money to give to other charities in need.

The ball took place at Winstanley House, with many familiar faces in attendance.

Photo kit wise I pretty much stayed on one camera with a 28-75mm zoom lens and on camera flash. I did occasionally use my 135mm lens for some of the shots of the presenter on stage.

Here are a few shots from the evening. If you are holding a similar event and would like it capturing so you can look back in years to come, please get in touch. There photos are an excellent reminder and keepsake of your event. They can also be used in future marketing in print and social media. Guests can have access to the photo gallery and download digital files as well. Optional print products are also available from the online gallery.

Leicester Photographer Raises money for local charity

Leicester Photographer raises money for local Mental Health Charity

Headshot, Portrait & Event photographer Pete Martin raised £765 for Leicestershire Mental Health Charity LAMP

It was that time of year again, national mental health week 2024.

For the last two years I‘ve organised little gathering at one of my favourite Indian restaurants. This year however, the restaurant was already booked! So a new venue was foudn and the the organisation began.

Tickets were produced, the online booking system went live, emails went out to raffle prizes, a poster was designed. I asked a few people to share the social media posts to help with ticket sales and before long we had just under 40 tickets solds for the event.

It was no nice to see so many friendly faces, some i’ve not seen in quite a few years!

Enjoy some of the photos below, I kept the camera equipment really small, one camera, one lens and a small flash.. Great quality results from such a small compact set up.

Signature & Nachurel Awards

Signature & Nachurel Awards Event Photographer

Event Photographer Leicester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Coventry, Northampton, Coventry & London

Following on from my charity work with LAMP, I photographed their ‘Time to Talk’ event in 2023. At this event there were many guests in attendance to listen to the chosen speakers. 

One of these guests was Mr Ninder Johal, a man who eases many hats. He’s on the board of trustees at Wolverhampton University, he’s also a Deputy Lieutenant of the city too. But, he also founded the Signature and Nachurel Awards. On seeing me work the room, and some of my work was being shown on the screens at the Time to Talk event, Ninder asked if I would photograph the Signature Awards at Wolverhampton Racecourse.

Of course I said yes!

On arrivial I could see the attention to detail everywhere, the venue looked stunning. The AV crew, also from the East Midlands had a superb set up, with multiple camera’s of the presenter and the people receiving the awards. 

The night from my side was a real success, everyone looked great, and so did the photos. I had them edited the next day, and sent off to Ninder. A few hours later and they started to appear on social media.

Shortly after the Wolverhampton event, I had the call from Ninder…. Can you photograph the next awards night, in Mayfair London?!

Le me think about that…… Yep, put me down for it!

This event was much much bigger, so there was also a London photographer there. We shared out the work, he took the stage shots, I took care of the media wall shots of people with their awards. I also did some of the drinks reception too. 

Take a look at a few of the images from both nights below, And yes… I have been booked for the next one!

Miele Brent Cross

Miele Brent Cross opening event photography

London Event Photographer

Another client I’ve been working a lot for in the last 12 months is Miele, the German appliance brand. Their products have always fascinated me, as the price is high, but I’ve not had the chance to see them up close. Summer 2022 I was asked to video the Experience Centre’s at Touchwood Solihull, Abingdon in Oxford, Bluewater in Kent, Edinburgh and Central London.

Video wise it was pretty straight forward, a tour of the store, and some close up shots of each appliance in action.

Fast forward to March 2023 and a new store was being planned for the Brent Cross Shopping Centre in London. The site next to the Apple Store had become available, and Miele was the perfect fit.

Fast forward to September and the shop fit out was complete and the store was opened to the public.

I was booked this time as an event photographer to capture the opening of the store, the chefs in action using the appliances, the cutting of the ribbon etc. I was also asked to take wide shots of the store empty, and a few creative shots showing a busy store use motion blur of the pubic.

I arrived at Brent Cross on the Wednesday, Grand Opening. I pretty much got to work straight away and finished at 12. From there I had a look around the shopping centre, got some lunch and edited 10 photos… Did I not mention that Miele wanted edits on the day to publish on their social media??!

There I was removing fire exit signs in photoshop and editing in general like a mad man!

Edits were Air Dropped to the marketing team before I left, and they were on LinkedIn before I got to my Air B&B in Edgware!!

Teamwork makes the dreamwork!

Day 2, I arrived at 7:30am to photograph the empty store and capture headshots of the new staff members.

10:30am I was all done and on my way back home.

All in all a brilliant few days working for this amazing company.

Here are the edits used on Miele social media announcing the new store.

Leicester Charity Photographer

Leicester Charity Event Photographer

Charity work by a Leicester Photographer

Charity work is a big part of my life, and definitely part of my companies corporate social responsibility.

For the last 5 years I’ve been heavily involved with two charities, LAMP and Menphys.

LAMP is an advocacy service, they help people struggling with mental health issues navigate the  complex issues and get their life back.

Bing a charity LAMP needs funding, and that’s where myself and others step in. So far with LAMP I’ve climbed Ben Nevis, marshalled at a Leicester 10k running event, ran a 10k, helped set up and partake in the now annual 5k campaign during national mental health week and am also part of ‘Team LAMP 23’.

This year we had local Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth run with us, he was also kind enough to be interviewed (if you can call it that!) by me after the run.. and of course i vlogged it here https://youtu.be/uJvpG8ky-vM

Team Lamp is myself, Greg Hollingsworth and Dave Green.  Dave is an ex trustee of LAMP and Greg is an ambassador. Together we set the challenge of running a Parkrun alphabet, in 2023. We sold each letter off to a corporate sponsor and also set up a just giving page for donations. Our target is £10k, which we are well on the way to achieving.

Greg deals with most of the money, Dave does the organising and social media posts. My contribution is a weekly vlog of the run, and anything else that we get up to!.

This was a real challenge for me, as I know it’s hard to believe, I’m not a natural in front of the camera!

Looking back at vlog 1, I couldn’t wait to stop recording and get it over. I walked out fo sight of most people as I was a little shy and almost embarrassed at the thought of recording myself in public!

Now I almost crave it, and I definitely miss recording when we have a week off.

As of writing this, we have completed 22 runs, with just 4 remaining… and the last 2 are going to be amazing as they are international!

Here is a link to the vlog playlist on YouTube

Doing this also led me to try open water swimming with Charlotte Miles from Cross Productions who also hiked Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike with myself and a group of other fundraisers.

Here is a link to those videos. Pete & Charlotte

Charlotte did a training run with me, then I did an open water swim, then we combined a run and a swim. It was so good, just a bit cold! And if you want a good laugh, I’m in a wetsuit!

I also support Menphys, a local charity that runs sport programs for disabled children. I hiked Scalfell Pike for Menphys, and did Ben Nevis for both LAMP and Menphys. Menphys have and amazing business sports club, which i’m a member of, and I also photograph each event at a discounted rate.

Below is a photo gallery containing a selection of images from all of my charity work and events that I’ve been involved in.

#LeicesterPhotographer

#photographer

#eventphotographer

#charity

#mentalhealth

#mentalhealthawareness

Labout MP Jonathan Ashworth joins me for a charity run

Ben Nevis Summit

Party, portraits and another party!

Commercial Portrait & Event Photographer Leicester

Leicester Business Photographer

December 2019 I was asked to photography a works party and awards ceremony, the company was Industria Personel. Industria are a fantastic recruitment agency based in Leicester but with offices in Northampton, Manchester, Coventry, Uxbridge, Germany and Poland!

Fast forward to March 2022 and I get a call from Amanda from Industria about taking staff headshots of all of the senior recruiters in the UK offices in preparation for their new website.

After a few dates were passed around, the Leicester office was booked in. 24 people were photographed in a 2 hour session. A couple of weeks later Coventry was photographed, then Northampton, then Leicester again (as a few people were away and some people from the Birmingham office came over), then Uxbridge and finally Manchester. Phew!!

All in all over 50 people got ‘shot in the face’ by me, and we kept the look consistent in all the different locations.

Here are a few shots from all locations

Leicester Event Photography

Industria also celebrated their 20th year in Business, and I was asked to photograph the party at the Marriott Hotel here in Leicester. This was an incredible night, with lots of photos and stories from the early days of Michale Walker setting up the business. I honestly found that presentation about the company so interesting! The thing that really struck me was the culture, all of the staff genuinely enjoy working for Industria.

It just proved that if you have a great idea, determination and good people around you.. you can achieve anything. 

This year they hit the £50 Million Pound turnover, which is incredible, well done Industria! 

Here are a few photos from the party.

A blog about a vlog... ;-)

I did a vlog, now a blog about a vlog... ;-)

Professional Photographers Workflow

If you’re interested in what happens after a photoshoot, the stuff you don’t see… this is the video to watch!

In all seriousness, this stuff behind the scenes is mega important.

I had a phone call with a family member who was photographing a friends wedding last year.. I was also photographing a wedding. On a break I checked my phone and saw 5 missed calls from said family member. I called him back and he asked me a question…

“I changed lens towards the end of the ceremony, now when I look at my images I can’t find anything before the ceremony…”

My question back was “have you changed out the memory card for a fresh one??” he had not. So he did, and I arranged to meet up with him the following day.

Turns out he’d been victim to a fake memory card, which had corrupted and was overwriting old images when the card became full. So the whole bride prep and 90% of the ceremony was now gone forever.

The message here is he’s not a professional, and he didn’t have a professional camera.. a camera that has two memory cards. He put the images he had on his 8yr old laptop, and he was done.

This is very different to what myself and other professional photographers do.