Thanks again… x

I’m so grateful that I get to do something I’m passionate about as a career and last year was our best year yet. So many amazing moments!

It’s all about the people we meet along the way though and I can’t thank those people enough.

My wife, Evelyne…. There’s no way to sum up how much I love her and how important she is to me. She’s the best!

My boys, Elliott, Isaac & Jonas. They’ve taken over our lives and make us laugh out loud every day. I couldn’t love them more.

Our clients. I can’t believe what amazing clients we continue to book. They’re all so welcoming and we never take for granted the privilege of being allowed into their lives and to witness their most important moments. We have made a lot of great new friends this year.

Add to that the wedding bloggers, magazines, bands, workshop attendees, companies that help us out with shoots, other photographers…. the list goes on.

Thank you. Here’s to an amazing 2012.

So, here are some of my favourite images from 2011. It’s a varied collection. I had too many for one post though so here is Part 1…. Part 2 will follow tomorrow… Enjoy!

One-To-One sessions really are the best way to make the most of your day if you’re interested in finding out more about how I work and improving your own photography. Workshops last from 10am until 5pm and can be custom-built to cover the exact subjects you’re keen to learn more about.

You can choose from wedding photography, music photography or just photography in general.

Below is a sample of topics that we can cover during your session. We can try to cover all of them or we can focus only on the subjects you specify. Just me. And you. Sound like fun?

We also cater to small groups – from 2 to 8 people – and can again tailor workshops so that everybody gets the most from their day.

Wedding Photography

- My photography style

- How I find the right clients without spending too much money

- What’s in my bag.

- How I work on the wedding day.

- How I use natural light, off camera flash and a little wizardry

- Live shoot. A regular couple on the urban backstreets of Birmingham. How to get a varied and creative set of images in a short space of time.

- Post-production. How I give images the look I’m after.

- Workflow – Don’t let work take over your life!

Music Photography

** Lunch will be provided **

When?

Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and selected Saturdays. 10am – 5pm

Where?

Our studio at The Custard Factory, Birmingham

How much?

One-to-One sessions - £450 + VAT

Groups of 2 or 3 people – £300 + VAT per person

Groups of 4 or 8 people – £250 + VAT per person

(Please note we do not arrange groups. You bring a group of friends, colleagues or significant others)

To book a One-to-One Workshop or a Group Workshop please call or email for available dates.

Payments can be made by Paypal, bank transfer or cheque. Contact us for details.

See you soon

Steve

Yildiz Hussein is an actress and a beautiful singer. She’s also very patient!

She had asked me to take some portraits for her over the summer, but things were so hectic I only managed to find time for the shoot in October. Hopefully, it was worth the wait….

Check out her MySpace page to hear for yourself what a stunning voice she has… www.myspace.com/yildizmusic

Action Replay are a Birmingham based rock band who recently entered a competition run via Kerrang Radio and Brum Notes Magazine to win a photoshoot with yours truly.

You may have already worked out that they won the competition

The shoot in question took place as part of a Music Photography workshop which I held this weekend as part of the Home Of Metal campaign. The workshop ended with us taking the band out into a deserted high street in West Bromwich and over the course of just 30 minutes or so I tried to demonstrate to the people on the workshop how I aim to get a varied set of images in a short space of time. The fact that, on this occasion, we were restricted with our location as well as a boringly flat grey sky added a little more pressure to get something worthwhile, but I hope you’ll agree we did ok.

All these images were captured within a couple of hundred yards of each other during our 30 minute shoot. You can check out Action Replay’s MySpace page to hear their tunes. They’re also playing live regularly if you like what you hear.

Thanks to everyone who came to the workshop, the good people behind the Home Of Metal campaign and, of course, the band themselves who made my job easy.

Ever since I held my Calumet seminar last year I’ve been getting a lot of people asking about another music photography workshop. So, we’ve decided to do one at our studio. But this one will be bigger & better!

Whether you’re a complete beginner who’s never shot a gig or if you’re just interested in learning a bit about how I work, we hope to see you at our studio in Birmingham on 23rd March.

Here’s the details…

When?

Wednesday 23rd March 2011 – 10am until 6pm

Where?

Our studio at The Custard Factory in Birmingham.

How much?

£200 + VAT – Places are limited to 10 people

What will be covered?

** Lunch will be provided **

In the evening, I will be booking a table at a local restaurant and you are invited to join us for dinner if you choose to.

Your payment is your registration. Please use the Paypal button below to make your payment. If you’d like to pay by cheque or bank transfer please email me.

Apart from shooting 48 weddings in 2010, I was also busy in between shooting bands. I work regularly for magazines such as Rock Sound, Terrorizer and Metal Hammer as well as shooting for the Birmingham Live site which I launched 3 years ago.

I’ve also shot a bunch of band portraits, mostly for local bands and I hope to do much more of those in 2011.

It’s been a mixed bag too. From legends like Kiss, Aerosmith and Glen Campbell to popstars Peter Andre, The Saturdays & Olly Murs. From extreme bands to acoustic singer/songwriters. And I finally got to photograph my favourite band, Pearl Jam. Twice!

All in all a great year and here are some of my faves from the past 12 months. Enjoy!

**** NOTE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS – WE WILL BE ANNOUNCING A MUSIC PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP VERY SHORTLY. WATCH THIS SPACE ****

AEROSMITH

PAUL WELLER

LISSIE

ARCHITECTS

THE SATURDAYS

KINGS OF LEON

AC/DC

&U&I

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER

BLONDIE

TINCHY STRYDER

CONVERGE

FESTIVAL VIBES

DELPHIC

FLORENCE & THE MACHINE

DARK FOREST

PAOLO NUTINI

MOTORHEAD

DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL

OLLY MURS

BLEEDING THROUGH

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE

COPIOUS

SLASH

DIRTY MINDZ

KT TUNSTALL

LIAM GALLAGHER

AUGUST BURNS RED

PETER ANDRE

CROWD SURFER

STEREOPHONICS

KYLESA

THE SCRIPT

DEFTONES

KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

DETRALATE

DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL CROWD

TRICKY (smoking a naughty cigarette!)

WAR FROM A HARLOT’S MOUTH

EDITORS

PEARL JAM

POWDERFINGER

TOMORROW BRINGS GIANTS

PARKWAY DRIVE

PUNKS

PALOMA FAITH

THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM

INTERPOL

STRANGETIME

IMOGEN HEAP

CROWD

EMMURE

GLEN CAMPBELL

SEASICK STEVE

FAITHLESS

JIMMY EAT WORLD

THE PRODIGY

JAY-Z

WHITE LIES

KISS

THE COURTEENERS

JOB FOR A COWBOY

DOVES

MANIC STREET PREACHERS

THE SWELLERS

OCEAN COLOUR SCENE (playing in a pub 5 minutes from our studio)

REVENANT DEAD

PARAMORE

SUZANNE VEGA

DEAD OR DIVINE

And finally, one of me at work, taken by my friend Bianca Barrett

So you thought I just photographed scary, bearded rock dudes eh?

If I have any credibility at all, I’m seriously risking all that with this post but I could not care less. On Saturday night I was asked to photograph a total cheesy popfest at Birmingham’s LG Arena and I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not the music, that’s for sure – almost all of it was throw-away rubbish – but it was fun shooting household names and, for me, something quite different from what I normally photograph. Plus, I can’t say photographing The Saturdays was exactly a chore!

The event was for local radio station BRMB and featured several big pop names, as well as X-Factor finalists and the slightly more credible headliners, The Script.

None of the acts were on for longer than 20 minutes. Some only performed two songs. Thankfully!

So, here are a few of my faves from my Saturday night popfest…

Mark Ronson played a DJ set…

McFly

Alexandra Burke

Teenage girls’ favourites, The Wanted

Tinchy Stryder

Shayne Ward

Example

Olly Murs

The Hoosiers

James Blunt

Joe McElderry (wearing more make-up than The Saturdays!)

Diana Vickers

The Saturdays

And… finally… The Script

Fun was had. But I listened to The Chariot on the car journey home just to balance it all out

If you’d like to buy prints of any of these images, please CLICK HERE

Photographing bands can be pretty amazing. It can also be a little dangerous on occasion. And that’s why I love shooting the smaller, rowdier gigs. You never know what might happen next.

Converge are a somewhat legendary hardcore band from Massachusetts who have been a force to be reckoned with for 20 years. Their live shows are intense, so when I set out to shoot them at Birmingham Academy this month i wanted to try and capture some of the energy of the show.

I reckon I managed it…

A couple from support band, Kylesa, too…

Some bands are a bit dull to photograph in concert. They stand there in subdued lighting, staring at their instruments and hardly communicate with the crowd.

KISS are not one of those bands!

Earlier tonight I was at the LG Arena in Birmingham to photograph KISS for the second time and the self-proclaimed “hottest band in the world” are possibly the most fun band you could ever want to have in front of you when you have a camera in hand.

Here are just a few of my fave photos from the gig…