Autumn Newsletter

After what has felt like an endless summer, I must admit it’s quite good to feel the balance of life slowly return to a more regular rhythm. The kids are back at school and the days are noticeably shorter with the changing of the seasons. Over the past few months I’ve been busy with shoots for various clients as well as the teaching, and although I’m not great at updating my website, I have uploaded a few new images and added a couple of new blog articles.

As promised in my first newsletter, I’ll try to keep it brief, hopefully interesting and possibly even helpful! If you ever want to talk about a shoot, a workshop, or anything else photography related just drop me a line. I’m not on Facebook but you can follow me on Instagram or drop me an email.

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On Location

Nikon Z7ii 85mm ISO 400 1/60 f2

August can be a strange month for freelance photographers. It’s the school holidays and like many people, I like to go on holiday with my family during this time, which unfortunately means I’m not working. August is also the time a lot of organisations and businesses start thinking about their Christmas campaigns and after a very slow start to the month I was happy to see that this year was no different. While still sitting on the plane at Heathrow after a wonderful family holiday, I turned my phone on to find an email from a long established client of mine - the youth homelessness charity Centrepoint - asking me to shoot the stills for their 2026 Christmas campaign, scheduled to be shot during the last week of August. It was a two day shoot across two locations in London, the second day being an all-nighter starting at 6pm and finishing at 5am the following morning. It was an intense couple of days but everyone was pleased with the resulting photos which were to accompany their first ever TV ad. Click here to see the gallery of selected images and a short overview of the shoot.

“We had the pleasure of working with Steve over two very long days, including a shoot that went right through the night into the early hours of the morning and honestly, he was an absolute pleasure to have on board.

The shoot was for Centrepoint's Christmas appeal and was happening alongside filming a TV ad, so there was a lot going on. Steve was super flexible and patient throughout it all, not to mention great to chat with, which made the long days a lot more enjoyable! The photos are fab and exactly what we were hoping for. Would definitely recommend and we’re already looking forward to hopefully doing more together in the future.”

Georgina Jackson-Waite

★★★★★ Google review

Photography Tips:

Street Photography

I tend to think there are two different ways of approaching Street Photography: you either go hunting or you go fishing. Hunting means moving around looking for subjects, it requires focus and a fast response. It requires confidence and takes practice. Fishing on the other hand is more relaxed. The key to successful fishing is in identifying a good location and being prepared. It demands patience. Both approaches need a technical understanding of equipment and understanding of light and both can deliver rewarding images.

Whichever approach you choose, here are a few guidelines to bear in mind the next time you’re out on the street :

Simplify: Strip away as many distractions as possible from a scene to remove clutter and unnecessary detail. A plain brick wall can make a perfect background.
Use layers: Think in foreground, mid-ground, and background. A strong composition often has something in at least two of these planes to add a sense of depth.
Rule of Thirds: This is a classic one, not to be ignored, but don’t be afraid to break it. Just by considering the rule of thirds, any deviation from it becomes intentional!
Angle of view: Before defaulting to eye level, see how much a lower or higher angle of view could improve the frame.

You can find a few more tips on composition on this blog post on Street Photography.

Workshops

Upcoming workshops:

2 hour Guided Street Photography walk:

30th October
06th November

Beginners Photography Workshop

03rd October

Street Photography Workshop:

07th November

Long Exposure Photography Workshop

5th December

Obligations to other photography schools mean I have less availability for my own workshops than I’d like, especially at weekends, but I’m always prepared to run workshops on request, either as a 1-2-1 session, or for small groups or camera clubs, so if there is nothing scheduled on my website, please contact me if you’re interested in arranging anything.

VIEW ALL WORKSHOPS

Photo Heroes

Nick Brandt

I’ve long taken the view that to be a good photographer it’s important to look at the work of other photographers and find inspiration from people whose work you admire. I have many photo heroes whose work spans many years and many genres, but for the second of my series of randomly selected photo heroes I’ve chosen Nick Brandt.

Born in London in 1964, Brandt studied at St. Martin’s School of Art, before moving to California to work as a director for music videos for people like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.

In 2001 he turned his attention to stills photography and began a series of projects exploring the relationships between humans and the natural world, his work emphasising the fragility of the environment and the impact of human activity on habitat and climate. His projects have been shot across the world, in locations where climate change, environmental destruction and habitat loss due to human activity have had noticeable direct impact on local communities and wildlife.

His approach to photographing wildlife is exactly the same as his approach to people, viewing them as equals and portraying them not in a documentary style but as subjects that exist in their own right, without the action or drama typically associated with wildlife photography. His work often blurs the boundaries between the human and animal kingdoms, implying a fragile coexistence that reminds us of the impact of our place within the natural world. His projects tend to be quite stylised, with highly technical production. For example, his project “This Empty World" consists of composite images of wild animals and human beings photographed often weeks apart, within a constructed set on location in rural Kenya. The result is a surreal scene of coexistence that would otherwise never occur.

Brandt’s profound passion for his subjects is undeniable, and his images are an important reminder that human beings do not own the planet and are not the only beings that matter on Earth.

I’m not only struck by his technical and creative talent, but his emphasis on human narratives is something that I aspire to in my own work wherever possible. I strongly encourage you to look at his work on his website and be as inspired by it as I am.

What’s the point of Exposure Compensation?

Have you ever wondered what the Exposure Compensation feature on your camera is for? It’s surprising how many people don’t know what it’s actually for, so if that’s you, read on…

On some cameras the exposure compensation (EC) feature shown as a +/- symbol (image above, left) while other cameras (often consumer or compact models) have a dedicated dial (image above, right).

So what exactly is it for? Well the first thing to say is that if you’re shooting in full Manual Mode, it’s usually disabled and carries out absolutely no function whatsoever!

(N.B. Some camera models will use it in Manual Mode as an effective means of re-calibrating the built-in light meter - image above, centre - by the selected amount of stops, but for the purpose of this explanation I’ll ignore this option here)

Exposure Compensation is intended to be used only in semi-automatic modes as a way to either brighten or darken an image. Because the camera’s built-in light meter is calibrated to achieve accurate exposure by recording light at a mid grey tone, lighting conditions which lack the contrast the camera needs to find this tone can create confusion and cause it to misread the light. For example, a bright object against a bright background can trick the camera into underexposing the scene. Similarly a dark object against a dark background can lead to over-exposure. It might seem counter-intuitive but in such conditions you should dial in positive (+) exposure for bright or backlit scenes and negative (-) exposure for darker scenes in order to achieve the correct exposure. Of course, when shooting in “normal” lighting conditions, the EC will simply brighten or darken the image.

So what’s actually happening? When shooting in Aperture Priority Mode, EC will simply adjust the shutter speed. In Shutter Priority Mode it will adjust the aperture. If auto ISO is enabled in either of these modes, the camera will also adjust ISO as necessary, while aiming to avoid overly slow shutter speeds in Aperture Priority or overcome the physical limitations of Aperture in Shutter Priority.

That’s why when shooting in full Manual Mode, and each of the exposure variables is set manually, exposure compensation is entirely disabled. The only time it will have any impact in Manual Mode is if the ISO is set to AUTO. As a general act of housekeeping, if you do ever change the exposure compensation value for any reason, I’d recommend always setting it back to zero afterwards because turning the camera off doesn’t automatically reset this feature.

Don’t forget to take a look at my website and if you have any questions, or suggested topics you’d like me to discuss, don’t be shy, just drop me an email and I’ll try and cover it next time.

Lastly, if you have a website or an instagram page you’d like me to share in my next newsletter, please send me a DM with the link.

Steve