Leicester Portrait and Headshot Photographer
Leicester Portrait and Headshot Photographer
Location Headshots for Businesses
I love it when an email pops in from a contact I met a few years ago. Caroline Hunt owns Emerald Starfish recruitment, based in Market Harborough Leicestershire. Caroline had recently moved offices and taken on two new members of staff, so it was the perfect time to update the website with some fresh images.
We did headshots in colour and black and white, and also did some environmental shot in the office and in the reception area.
Here are a few samples from the Emerald Starfish shoot.
Another nice surprise was an email from Northwood Estate agents. This was a new client for me, but a similar story to Emerald Starfish. Northwood was also recently moved office and taken on more new staff members.
A date was set, but sadly I had to cancel!!
Those who know me will know how much I hated to cancel and let people down. But I was ill, really ill… not COVID, but I’d burnt out. A GP advised me to rest, take more exercise, keep hydrated and generally take time off from my business to reset myself.
Northwood was re-arranged for the following week, and what a great shoot!
All staff members were ‘shot in the face’, two edits each provided in colour and black and white. I also did a couple of team shots while I was there.
There was a chap there who I recognised, but I could place him. Turns out his name is Elliot, and he used to live next to me 8yrs ago!! Small world!!
Here are a few photos from the Northwood shoot.
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.
Leicester Branding Photographer
Next, we have to talk about ‘Branding’.
I had an amazing video call with two ladies from ‘The Orange Notebook’, a brand marketing agency over in Birmingham. There is actually 3 of them, Beatrice however is based in Sweden!
Their company needed a bank load of images for their website and social media, we put a plan together to create the images they needed. It was decided that we would meet at Medicine, a coffee shop in Birmingham that they often frequent. We would use Medicine as location 1, getting individual and group shots. A local photo studio was also booked so they we could get some more varied shots, such as clean studio images with the orange background to tie in with their branding. This was a really fun shoot, the 4 hours went really fast. Sadly I was still suffering from the effects of COVID and was really tired towards the end. I don’t mind saying, I slept for 13 hours when I got home!!
I also competed a brilliant branding shoot for the fabulous Sukh Kaur and her bespoke matchmaking service, ‘Matched by Sukh Kaur’.
We met up at the Exchange bar in Leicester, grappled a coffee and talked about the shoot. This shoot was originally going to be a simple headshot session, but after Sukh saw some sample images from The Orange Notebook shoot, an upgrade was ordered.
The setting in Exchange bar is always good for photos, and the coffee is pretty amazing too! We shot in 3 different areas before heading to my favourite studio in Leicester, XYZ.
At XYZ we used the classic white and grey for headshots and also positioned their graffitied sofa near the exposed walls for a more urban looking shot.
Very soon there will be a personal branding page added to my wesbite!
I can’t explain how much I enjoyed these shoots, it’s a different process to my normal portraits and headshots.. and if you know anything about me, you’ll know I enjoy a creative challenge. Branding shoots tick all the boxes for me
Busy shooting lots of people in the face!
What i’ve been doing for the last four weeks
The busiest 4 weeks to date!
Its pretty fair to say that the last 4 weeks has been a little hectic. I’ve lost count of the amount of people i’ve shot in the face, it’s probably around the 400 mark.
I can honestly say it’s been awesome!
I like to keep the images on the memory card for a few weeks after the shoot, I’ve had to buy more cards… six 128gb cards to be exact.
So what people have I been shooting I hear you ask?
A couple of schools, staff and pupils. CEO’s of companies, golf club chairman, insurance broker, solicitors, protection services, charity for young people, a writer, local MP… and an office chair!!
Also in this time i’ve simplified my systems and processes, it’s now so easy to book me via this site.
If you have any shoot enquiries, drop me an email at pete@petemartinphotography.co.uk
Last Job Before UK Lockdown - Coronavirus
My last job before Coronavirus caused the UK to go into Lockdown
Staff Headshots & Lifestyle Portraits
Currently we are in week 5 of the UK lockdown, due to COVID-19.
My last job was for a recruitment agency based in the Midlands. They have three offices and required headshots of key staff members and some lifestyle images showing the office’s and staff at work.
I had completed two locations and was scheduled to shoot the third when the country went into lockdown.
I love doing these type of jobs. Not only do I get to spend a little time with each staff member, learnig about their individual role. I get to create a fantasic portrait of them!
Below are a few images from the shoot, if you need similiar images, drop me a message.
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.
Event Photography
Why having a professional photographer at an event is a good idea
Event Photography Leicester
Why book an event photographer?
As good as mobile phone camera’s are now, there is still no substitute for a decent camera and flash.. and the professional operating it.
And here’s why, this might get a bit technical!
The sensor on a decent full frame camera is roughly 24x36mm in diameter. An iPhone sensor roughly measures 7.01 x 5.79 mm.
The sensors job is to capture the the image, which is based on mainly on the available light hitting the sensor.. so the bigger the sensor the more light can hit it and therefor... will equate to a better image.
Add to that the use of flash and the results speak for themselves.
Most camera phones have a small flash next to the sensor/lens, which points directly at the subject. In a pinch, just to get the shot.. this is ok. But using a real camera with a dedicated flash gun (speedlite) is a much better option.
The flash head on a speedlite can be rotated to different positions, so we can bounce that light from the ceiling or a nearby wall which will create a much more natural and pleasing image. We can also place more of these speedlites around the room on stands to create dramatic lighting, or simply to add more light if the venue doesn’t have great lights itself.
Check these two images out, The first was taken on an iPhone X, in the image you can see me taking a shot…
And this is the photo I took at that time. Notice how my additional light has made the subject (Kwoklyn Wan) look normal, and less purple.. Also the image is much sharper and clearer.
So if you or someone you know is holding an event, drop me an email or give me a call!
Below are a few images of mine from recent events, the last image was taken on an iPhone X… see the difference.
www.petemartinphotography.co.uk/events
Headshot Photographer Leicestershire
Headshot photographer Leicester
When is the last time you had your headshot updated?
In todays online world having a great up to date headshot is a must. Whether it’s for LinkedIn, your website about me page, your staff board or for a leaflet going into print. An up to date headshot will set you apart from the rest.
I’m a mobile photographer, I can bring a portable photography studio to your place of work. This is really useful for a company that has a larger number of staff who require new headshots but can’t afford for those staff to be out of the office for a long period.
Space wise all I need is a small room, 2m by 3m is the smallest space i’ve worked in, and I had great results!
Check out the video on my home page, it’s only 30 seconds long, but you’ll see the whole process from setting up to editing.
Here are a few headshots from Hollingsworth, a firm of commercial solicitors based here in Leicester. All these photos were taken in their office space.
