PHOTOGRAPHERS WEST MIDLANDS

Posh & Becks on a fairground ride….. they do live a fairly normal life after all!

Went to the Red Kite feeding station at Gigrin Farm, Rhayader today. You need to get their early to secure a front pitch in one of the hides, but boy is it worth it. Come 3pm the sky was full of Red Kites ready in anticipation for the feast to come.

You would think with so many birds in the sky getting a good photo should be easy, how wrong you’d be! You have to get your ‘eye in’ and attempt to follow one bird at a time with a telephoto lens, as their flight path can be erratic it’s easier said than done.

Deja vu.. doesn’t seem that long ago since the country was brought to a stand still by snow, how time flies, it was February. At least the countryside looks pretty, though not great for driving is it!

Worcestershire Life have used another one of my shots for their January front cover, this time Broadway Tower taken in the February snow. Last January they used an image of Malvern in the snow at dusk.

A recent aerial job shooting a commercial building in Coventry involved flying over the Ricoh Stadium - so I took the opportunity to rattle of a few shots.

I love doing aerial shoots, the perspective you get of daily life going on from the air and of all the buildings we work & live in fascinates me. It’s particularly when doing these jobs that I feel very lucky to have such variety in my working life.

Hopefully customers old & new benefit from my passion & enthusiasm to produce great images to promote their product or service time after time.

There is something quite magical about Venice, the canals, gondolas and old buildings, coupled with Italian style, makes this one of the most romantic places to visit anywhere in the world.

For a photographer it can be a fantastic experience, the trick is to get up before the tourists…

Above is the famous Rialto Bridge just before sunrise, try getting this shot after 9am!

Looking down the Grand Canal early morning

Gondolas lined up just off St Mark’s Square at sunrise.

Andrew Priest is a photographer based near Birmingham in the West Midlands, providing clients a nationwide photographic service across commerce and industry. If you require photography for brochures, annual reports, websites, exhibition or editorial please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Have just returned from a trip to the USA where the wildlife seemed very friendly…. well at least you could get real close to a variety of animals!

Our first encounter was with the ’smiling’ dear below, I got within 10 feet in a car park where the cars were having to drive around her to leave.

A few days later and just as a storm was brewing we came across this family of bears 60 to 80 feet from the road side. Mother and two cubs, how cute is that…. Needless to say on this occasion I kept my distance..

On a number of occasions we had various types of squirrel after food or playing in very close proximity. Below are two babies from what seemed a very big litter playing only feet from a pedestrian pathway.

A favourite of mine is below because the ground squirrel seems totally unaware or bothered by the person in the background. The squirrel only interested in eating a nut.

Another favourite was this big marmot, I spent ages watching and waiting to get a few different shots of him looking relaxed in his surroundings.

Finally this was a shot taken at a transport cafe near High Wycombe on the way back from Heathrow, so not exactly in the USA. There were a number of Red Kites hovering around the cafe, it turns out the reason being the ladies from the cafe feed the birds every day, quite a spectacle.

Quite a change photographing wildlife for fun and a real challenge with either fast moving squirrels playing or birds in flight. Your technical skill as a professional photographer comes in handy and also being patient to capture the right moment. The marmot was a classic example as I hung around for half an hour or more waiting for just the right moment.

The jobs commercial photographers get! In the middle of the balmy weather we have all been enjoying I get a commission to shoot a Christmas meal set for a pub restaurant Christmas brochure. Thats what I call planning ahead.

Seeing red! A truly amazing poppy field has appeared near Bewdley, in Worcestershire. It has attracted so much interest that the local TV news crew have been down to film it. Every day there is a steady stream of people taking photos, it must be the most photographed field in the country! I guess it’s typical of the digital age - would so many have taken pictures when it was just film, I doubt it.

To capture it in all it’s glory you need to put something in it for scale, also it helps to act as a focal point, hence I have used people in two of my photos below. It’s interesting to see how other photographers tackle a situation like this, I’m sure you would find examples on flickr and other photo websites.

This type of environment allows a photographer the luxury of visiting the site a number of times to experiment and get the best photo. However, with the majority of professional assignments you have one opportunity to get it right, therefore it’s important for a customer to choose a professional photographer carefully.

As a commercial photographer based in the midlands my customer motto is ‘delivering great shots whatever the conditions and environment’

Took a few photos using an iphone app of an old mate playing guitar last night. He was gigging at a Kidderminster pub with his band Trower Power, a tribute to Robin Trower. This app gives an interesting old style instamatic camera look to the images.

I was recently on an architectural shoot down in Woking, Surrey on the same day that Nicky Campbell on Radio 5 had a ‘where have all the Punks gone’ phone in to commemorate the passing of Malcolm McLaren. As I was in the street lining up my camera to take the exterior photograph of a building, mohican man (teenager!) appeared in my viewfinder. I couldn’t let the opportunity pass without persuading him to stop for a moment whilst I captured him and his mane in silhouette! I did get the impression he was too young to have even heard of Malcolm McLaren and origins of Punk….

For all your nationwide commercial photographic requirements, as well as the occasional punk, please call Andrew on 07850 560250