End Of Year Roundup Pete Martin Photography

Leicester Headshot Photographer Pete Martin 2024 roundup

Professional Corporate and Events Photographer Pete Martin - Leicester

My Best Year Yet

I'm so excited to share that this has been my best year yet as a professional photographer! I've had the opportunity to work on some amazing projects, meet some incredible people, and capture some truly unforgettable moments.

I'm grateful to all of my clients for trusting me with their photography needs. I couldn't have done it without you!

Here are a few highlights from my year:

 * Working with the brilliant people over at Miele

 * Learning more video and drone skills

 * Selling an image to the Daily Telegraph for a1yr usage

I'm so excited to see what next year brings! I can't wait to continue to grow my business and capture even more amazing moments.

Thank you for reading!

Sincerely,

Pete M

New Year New Headshot

Headshot Photographer Leicester

New Year, New Me, New Headshot.

Time for a headshot or portrait upgrade?

You’d think i’d have an up to date headshot wouldn’t you??

Turn out my last headshot was done during the pandemic, around May 2020!!!

Definitely time to get a fresh one sorted. I waited till I had a morning free, & set up in my living room when everyone else was out. Also, i’d had a haircut the day before, so I was feeling all fresh!

Sony camera with 50mm lens (normally use 85 but I was stuck on space!), two strip/soft boxes with studio flash units, and a pop up dark textured backdrop was all that was needed!.

I tethered the camera straight to Capture One Pro on my iPad Pro and started remotely firing the the camera. After doing all the charity vlogs last year I feel way more comfortable in front of the camera and only had to do minor coaching on myself!

I did a couple of wardrobe changes, to add a little interest and colour and that was it.

Here is my new 2024 Headshot

2024 Headshot, taken with my mobile studio… in my lounge!

Taking the photo is only stage one.

After the image was lightly edited it was then exported in various sizes and uploaded to every social platform I use for business… that would be, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, Google. Then my business tools like Xero, Starling and of course my email signature.

You can’t beat a consistent look across all platforms!

Now, lets see the old 2020 headshot… see how i’ve aged!

2020 headshot, different lighting to the new one

And now for a good laugh, here is 2016’s headshot!!

2016’s headshot, good hair, not many grey’s + moody lighting

Drop me an email or give me a call if you are looking to refresh you look for 2024.

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.

London Corporate Headshots

London Corporate Headshots

Leicester Portrait Photographer Location Headshots

For the last 6yrs I’ve been photographing the wonderful people of Mars Petcare UK. I’ve been to Melton, Nottingham, Bury St Edmond’s, Battersea Park amongst others. Previous work has mainly been events, the odd portrait at said event and a few warehouse/factory jobs for internal marketing.

Earlier this year I was asked to photograph their Global Sustainability Summit. This was the first face to face meeting of the global leaders where they were discussing all aspects of planet, food and crop sustainability. I actually found it fascinating! It was also nice to grab a quick chat with none other than Frank Mars, a truly dedicated man… and the 21st richest person in the world! Quite surprising that he was still using an iPhone 10, in 2023.

Part of this summit was to capture a professional portrait of each delegate, for the email signature, Linkedin profile and other marketing.

Now, with this taking place in a Sofitel in London, and I’d be travelling there by train, tube and foot.. my kit had to be scaled down size and weight wise. But I had to get the same (or at least similar) to my previous work. A new collapsible softbox was purchased, along with a small lightweight light stand, and a carbon fibre tripod.

I did lighting and set  up tests with this new equipment to make sure it was all up to the job, and it was. One thing I didn’t scale down was my studio light, I kept the faithful 300w strobe.

Travelling for the job was a struggle, even having a member of the design team with me to carry a lighting bag.. the camera backpack, tripod and softbox still weighed me down with the various tube stations and 15 min walk to the hotel.

The setup went well, we chose a dark purple wall in the hotel corridor. Same as all my headshot sessions, the clients can see the shots in real time on my laptop. this made the session run to time, and everyone picked their favourite image to be edited.

3 hours later and we were on the train on the way home.

What do you think of the images taken during the session?

#Photographer #LeicesterPhotographer #LondonPhotographer #PortraitPhotographer #HeadshotPhotogrpaher