A Lifestyle Photographer Surviving In The Bush…

A Lifestyle Photographer Surviving In The Bush…

Not sure about you but it scares me slightly to where time seems to go, does it speed up as you enter your thirties? I reckon so.
As I look through the thousands of images I’ve captured over the years many feel like they were completed in the months previous when in fact some were captured well over 25 years ago.
This particular image comes from a lifestyle photography production completed a few years ago. It blends the rustic beauty of Exmoor with two gorgeous female models with the concept being about friendship and survival.
Having spent nearly 3 decades now capturing images, I myself often feel a little like a survivor!… it’s not easy but then the best jobs never are.

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New Year Old Doubts ?

Happy New Year…We often say that as a matter of politeness..but it does not always feel that way does it? It’s no secret or maybe surprise that those in the creative freelancing field can often be plagued by self-doubt especially when times are slow at this time of year.

 

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Commercial Photography Shoot, Seeing Double For Stonar

Commercial Photography Shoot, Seeing Double For Stonar

A few weeks ago I received a call from Ice House Design In Bath which is always exciting as I’ve had some lovely briefs from them in the past.
It turned out this call was to chat about another interesting brief titled ” Whoever You Want To Be” for a private school in Bath called Stonar.

The concept was to show the wide variety of activities and opportunities the school offed by showing the same students repeated in the image but in other outfits.
After a brief chat about what I thought might be the best solution to getting the job shot and retouched Jack from Ice House explained about the rather tight deadlines that needed to be met.
The completion dates required happened to be bang in the middle of one of the busiest periods I’ve known as well a family holiday but a doable schedule was drawn up and the job was booked in.

The shoot itself was shot on location at a beautiful 18th-century Georgian mansion called Hartham Park close to Bath.
Upon arrival on the shoot day, It seemed every corner of Haytham’s interior offered me another photographic opportunity and the phrase “Kid Candy Shop” comes to mind.

Finally though myself and Les, the creative director narrowed it down two rooms that fitted the brief perfectly and the job was completed within our allotted time.

A few days (and early hours) in the post was needed to meet a couple of the deadlines but the whole job went together without any drama and more importantly, the client & agency were very pleased with the results.

Design Agency Ice House Design

Photography Simon Plant

Published-stonar-bus

Published-stonar-bathmag

Published-stonar-bathlife-upright

Commercial Photography Shoot, Seeing Double For Stonar

A few weeks ago I received a call from Ice House Design In Bath which is always exciting as I’ve had some lovely briefs from them in the past.
It turned out this call was to chat about another interesting brief titled ” Whoever You Want To Be” for a private school in Bath called Stonar.

The concept was to show the wide variety of activities and opportunities the school offed by showing the same students repeated in the image but in other outfits.
After a brief chat about what I thought might be the best solution to getting the job shot and retouched Jack from Ice House explained about the rather tight deadlines that needed to be met.
The completion dates required happened to be bang in the middle of one of the busiest periods I’ve known as well a family holiday but a doable schedule was drawn up and the job was booked in.

The shoot itself was shot on location at a beautiful 18th-century Georgian mansion called Hartham Park close to Bath.
Upon arrival on the shoot day, It seemed every corner of Haytham’s interior offered me another photographic opportunity and the phrase “Kid Candy Shop” comes to mind.

Finally though myself and Les, the creative director narrowed it down two rooms that fitted the brief perfectly and the job was completed within our allotted time.

A few days (and early hours) in the post was needed to meet a couple of the deadlines but the whole job went together without any drama and more importantly, the client & agency were very pleased with the results.

Design Agency Ice House Design

Photography Simon Plant

Published-stonar-bus
Published-stonar-bathmag
Published-stonar-bathlife-upright

Commercial Photography Shoot, Seeing Double For Stonar

A few weeks ago I received a call from Ice House Design In Bath which is always exciting as I’ve had some lovely briefs from them in the past.
It turned out this call was to chat about another interesting brief titled ” Whoever You Want To Be” for a private school in Bath called Stonar.

The concept was to show the wide variety of activities and opportunities the school offed by showing the same students repeated in the image but in other outfits.
After a brief chat about what I thought might be the best solution to getting the job shot and retouched Jack from Ice House explained about the rather tight deadlines that needed to be met.
The completion dates required happened to be bang in the middle of one of the busiest periods I’ve known as well a family holiday but a doable schedule was drawn up and the job was booked in.

The shoot itself was shot on location at a beautiful 18th-century Georgian mansion called Hartham Park close to Bath.
Upon arrival on the shoot day, It seemed every corner of Haytham’s interior offered me another photographic opportunity and the phrase “Kid Candy Shop” comes to mind.

Finally though myself and Les, the creative director narrowed it down two rooms that fitted the brief perfectly and the job was completed within our allotted time.

A few days (and early hours) in the post was needed to meet a couple of the deadlines but the whole job went together without any drama and more importantly, the client & agency were very pleased with the results.

Design Agency Ice House Design

Photography Simon Plant

Published-stonar-bus
Published-stonar-bathmag
Published-stonar-bathlife-upright

Oh..Anaerobic Digestion! The varied days of a Corporate Photographer

Oh..Anaerobic Digestion! The varied days of a Corporate Photographer

Earlier this year I travelled to Scotland for a 3-day corporate photography shoot for my client KCP Ltd (see my post “Capturing The Cleaning Up For KCP” )
As a follow up a couple of weeks ago KCP asked me to shoot once again for them this time travelling a little closer to home to Basingstoke in Hamshire to capture images of the work they do at an Anaerobic Digestion plant.
The plant basically takes food waste and converts this into energy through some very clever process that went way over my head without much effort from the guy doing the explaining!
I wasn’t armed with much of a brief but KCP did ask that I show the huge domed tanks that they maintain and include their lorries in some images other than that I was free to capture whatever caught my eye which of course was fine by me.
Post-production was a pretty straight forward job which, to be honest, was a nice change from some of the recent quite demanding commissions I’ve completed. You can download my Corporate Photographer PDF Portfolio Here

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A break from the darkness

Corporate London To The South Hams, The Contrast Of A Photographic Week

You can never say this industry is boring, frustrating & unpredictable at times yes, but never boring.
It’s been a very manic few weeks seeing me on location in Scotland, Denmark and a couple of jobs in London.
This week made me realise once again just how no two days or two jobs are ever the same and why I love what I do.
Monday morning saw me in the heart of central London for an early morning corporate portrait shoot in some very modern and swanky offices.

This was followed a couple of days later when I found myself on route to the beautiful South Hams in Devon shooting a Lighthouse for a recent new client.

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The contrast in the assignments & the locations was simply chalk & cheese.
The London assignment was in the heart of the city with tall modern office buildings and as you might expect pretty full-on but also quite a buzz.

Corporate Lifestyle Man Outside London Office On iPad

The Devon shoot was also a pretty busy day however the location was simply mesmerising and you could not work for long without taking a moment to once again appreciate the stunning coastline views from our elevated clifftop location.

Holiday-cottage-photographer-start-point-lighthouse

This kind of day makes me realise how lucky I am (due to many years ongoing hard work !) to get to visit such great places and meet so many interesting people because of the camera.
More images will follow in the coming weeks but for now, here are a few iPhone snaps from both shoots and a little video.
Have a great weekend everyone….

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/129832517″ width=”1280″ height=”720″]

A precarious viewpoint!

 

 

Professional Business Photographer. Boosting The Ayr Miles..

Professional Business Photographer. Boosting The Ayr Miles..

Being a commercial photographer in the uk is a funny business as you never know what the next phone call will bring and the last couple of weeks have been no exception.
It started with a call from an old friend who operates  KCP Ltd from Ayrshire in Scotland.
KCP specialise in transferring all types of waste with their huge fleet of lorries both from within Scotland and across the UK.
They needed to not only capture the vehicles within the beautiful Scottish landscape (something which I have a lot of experience of shooting in the past) but also corporate portraits and other images to showcase what they do.

Corporate-business-photography-kcp-industrial-rubbish-dup

The shoot took place over a long weekend with some changeable weather that actually worked very well with our schedule as did the locations that were chosen.

Short flight home on a Sunday evening allowed me just enough time on Monday to secure the images and repack before driving up to Heathrow for a flight to Copenhagen for Bristol Agency Flourish
I’ve worked with Flourish a few times capturing campaign images in Holland of various Chef’s for their client Knorr and this one was not different except Denmark was the location for this particular shoot.
After a change to the original location for a better one and a shorter shooting time, everything came together according to the client’s wishes.
I can’t publish any images at this point as the campaign is not yet live but as soon as I can get some samples rest assured I will.

This week I packed again for a trip to see some buyers in London followed by a meeting and a small shoot in central London for a corporate photoshoot  with client Mimecast. This is followed today by packing yet again but this time for a weeks holiday and boy I feel I need one !

Have a great Bank holiday everyone….

Scooters,Skinheads & Dodgy Snaps : Content Over Quality

 

As an advertising photographer when creating images I’m always looking for the highest quality, both in capture and when I’m photo retouching
However, just recently I have realised that sometimes image content rules over how sharp,well-exposed or even well lit an image is..who would have imagined that!

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A fresh-faced me with a camera at the ready and hair!

Nearly a year ago I lost my mother and as a result, I have found myself reminiscing a lot about my childhood and youth growing up in Somerset.
I decided a few weeks ago to open up my film archives which contain thousands of images spanning 15 or so years.

 

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Turkish Tony

Here once again in Turkey checking on our villa and catching up with some old friends.
I met Fatih Toran or “Turkish Tony” as we refer to him some 7 years ago and has become a good friend.

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Another guy we have known for several years is Otern who is a local guy with fingers in many pies !

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