Portrait Photography

Wedding Photographer Cornwall, Devon, London

Portrait Photography in Cornwall

Portrait Photography in Cornwall or for a fact across the South West as a whole, has never been something I have strongly associated myself with, for the last 3 years, I have been all about weddings! For the most part anyway. And I don’t see or want that to change. However it is nice sometimes just to take a walk and shoot a few pics, which is one of the reasons I like Pre Wedding Shoots so much, its just about a few pics and getting to know the people I am photographing. Perhaps engagement shoots can actually really be called portrait shoots – they are – and I do them with every couple who’s wedding I photograph – its such a good way to get to know them and for them to get to know me.

On to the pictures here, this really was a mini portrait shoot, a very good friend from my school days and his partner met me in a carpark near a local stretch of woodland, and we just went for a walk – had a chat and took some pictures. Simples. :) The whole set are very simple, all on a 50mm at f/2 on a new Sigma 50mm f/1.4 I was testing out. We got stuck in straight away with the close and personal and continued like this throughout -normally I would shoot the first few frames from a distance, but knowing my friend Nathan, I knew it would be an easy start!

Anyway here are about 20 frames from our little walk. The last few of which are just shot in the carpark whilst raining. Hope you like :)

To see some more pics and for information on my little shoots like this then please check out my portrait photography page or fly back to weddings here.

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Cornwall Portrait Photographer | Engagement Photography (19) To see some more pics and for information on my little shoots like this then please check out my portrait photography page or fly back to weddings here.

– By Barney Walters

Portrait Photographers Cornwall

I recently watched a video that a wedding photographer had published about how they approached wedding photography and more crucially how it demonstrated this person interacted and communicated with their clients. The short video was aimed at promoting their business, however it made me laugh and then cringe! I couldn’t believe that in this day an age and with the way public opinion is turning away from ‘posed’ and cringe worthy pictures, how much control this photographer had over his/her clients and how little they had to say or even how much of the final images represented their personality. Not even 24 hours after seeing this video, I then came across a similar video, a shorter one, this time about portrait photography by a portrait photographer, this time a studio environment so perhaps a little more control was needed but it seemed a million miles away from how I would approach the task in hand.

Now obviously this is all subjective and what me and my clients, couples, families may like, others may not, however I can’t help but fear that these poor people don’t understand how the industry has changed in recent years and now what range is on offer – or perhaps this is the problem – too much choice and not enough information. Like most I like the odd ‘cheese’ picture, not that I think I have ever asked anyone to say such silly words, however the ways of old do have their place, on the other hand their are now more natural, documentary led styles of going about portrait photography or the term I like to use ‘lifestyle photography’.

It is true that recently I have not been heavy on the portrait photography scene and have been almost a 110% focused on the wedding industry, however natural progression of family status normally means I end up photographing new arrivals in families who’s wedding I have photographed and also catching up with past wedding couples for family lifestyle shoots, which is great fun and I always enjoy meeting up with past couples and photographing them once more. I also offer these shoots which I nickname ‘the adventure’ to anyone up for a family or couple oriented lifestyle shoot out in the wild South West, or even further afield.

My lifestyle shoots and my ethos or approach to portrait photography outside of the studio is all about me, as the photographer, both being apart of the activity in hand and an observer from the outside depending on the situation, but whatever the circumstances my one goal is to strive to make my pictures and your lasting reminders of this time in your life to be both genuine and timeless. Genuine in the sense that the images on the whole are natural, relaxed and ultimately you. Sometimes prompted in some loose way but certainly no hip out action. And timeless in the sense that everything is processed and originally photographed with the idea that the pictures shouldn’t have any particular traits of date stamps other than your appearance and knowledge of when. No ‘vintage’ look here. :)

For more information on my lifestyle shoots please see my portraits page here or contact me to arrange a shoot here.

Here are half a dozen frames with no cheese or hip action in sight. What do you think? – leave me a comment below.

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Cartagena, Murcia, Spain.

Several weeks ago I was in Cartagena, located in South East Spain, near Murcia. I had travelled to Spain for a few weeks of exploring the country and (trying) to speak the language. However the first few days was spent alongside some other photographers on an organised photography style training course in the Spanish sun. I was lucky to meet some great people, photographers and models alike. I wanted to share some of the pictures here to show some of the great locations around the Cartagena & Murcia area we visited and some of the powerful pictures we created.

Like many industries, photography is an ever changing one, and often what or how you photograph something is a very unique method to yourself. After the very basics of photography such as camera craft and knowing something that is sharp from something that isn’t, the rest is very conceptual to the individual photographer or the client paying for the outcome. Therefore opportunities that give me time to watch what other people do, how they operate, how they communicate and then seeing their results afterwards is always fairly interesting. Its an opportunity to see ways of doing things differntly or ideas you may not have considered. So many photographers, in my opinion, don’t understand this priceable of learning and adapting. I for one, have my way of doing things which I have learnt from others and through self teaching whist I was an enthusiast, then a semi pro, to the photographer I am today. However I also understand the need to develop, move forward and most importantly adapt!

I don’t do a lot in terms of training, nor have I ever done any formal training, in fact, the only notable qualification I have for my carer is an A grade in A-Level Photography. I learnt my camera craft myself, endless hours of just adjusting and adjusting, (not that it was a chore :) ) and then learn’t my operational skills and application of theory whilst on the job, and watching one or two key people go from idea to product. Now I am ever engaging with other professionals to share ideas and do that key thing… adapt.

So here are a few pictures from my most recent experimentation of adapting and meeting some great people in the process. Something a bit different from weddings today. Modelling credits to Olivia Ward & Natalia Warner. Hope you like. Weddings with resume tomorrow. :)

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Birthday Party Photo Shoot Cornwall

Its nice to do something a little different from time to time and last week I had the pleasure of doing a Birthday Party Photo Shoot for a group of girls to celebrate a 16th Birthday in Cornwall. We spent just over an hour in a studio style environment, in a large room I had rented for the event and then got to work on creating a few formal and lots of fun images for the girls to have and keep as a reminder of this time in their lives. I always try to style anything I do that might be a little cliché or mainstream slightly different and in this case, amongst the more obvious stuff I attempted to add both a bit more of a fashion twist alongside some technical stuff, low key setup of black instead of the normal high key white for example.

As well as the studio stuff we also got 10 minutes outside to do a few frames in the evening light in a different environment, hopefully to give variety of location to the pictures, that often you can’t get with studio work alone. I processed all the pics with an idea of high contrast black and whites alongside some vivid colours in the other pictures – also keeping the idea of processing with a traditional film mind – adding a little grain in places for example.

Hope you like – here are a few frames but in total the Birthday Girl will get well over 100 pics on disk. If you would be interested in a similar styled shoot then please get in contact with me here.

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Portrait Photography Cornwall with Musician Jessica Crosbie

Portrait photography in and around Cornwall is something I enjoy doing, especially during the week when it breaks up my routine which consists of many tasks revolved around being sat at a computer Monday to Thursday. Its nice to be able to get out of the office for a few hours during the week, rather than having to wait all week until the inevitable wedding on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, or all three (thats another story).

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing one of my fellow peers back from my school days, a little younger than me, yet her talent for music is clearly there. Jessica is thinking of soon travelling to the USA to live in order to push her music ideas for her future, meanwhile trying to launch an online presence for herself, Jess contacted me to produce some portraits of her and her music. We spent a couple of hours at various locations around Cornwall including woodland, a rape field and a beach to create a dynamic set of pictures from which Jess can hopefully draw what she needs from them when she needs it, not fitting any one specific product or outcome but so she can pull social networking material, website material, posters or even CD/Album covers if she needs it.

I have to admit I had a great time, it was brilliant that all the time we could both share ideas and build on each others imagination, something you only really get with other artistically minded people, or very keen brides! I’m no closed door, in fact, one idea that came from Jess that I was not very keen on to start with turned out to be one of our favourite pics of the day.

Jess took about 60 pics away from the day after our meeting a week later when we both looked through the pics together, its also great when both myself and the client pick out ruffly the same favourite 20 frames, below are a sample of these pics.

You can see some of Jessica’s work on Youtube.

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studio and location portrait shoot – Menheniot – Liskeard – Cornwall

Last Sunday afternoon, the Howard family, from Dobwalls, Wales & Cambridge got together for a family portrait shoot in my studio at Menheniot. I tend to use the local village hall for studio shoots, purely because of the large space to work in, not many studios are well over the size of a tennis court in length. The beauty of such a long building is the ability to be able to shoot from much further away and use my second favourite lens, namely by 70-200 f/2.8. The distance also, I believe, gives the family, couples, or other clients a more relaxed experience because I am not right in their face with a camera.

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