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Introducing Emma!

Wowee! 2018 has been absolutely phenomenal! I can’t tell you how grateful I am that I have amazingly lovely repeat clients who are such a delight to work with such as Centre for Life, John Lewis, RTC North, Guide Dogs for the Blind and AHSN NEC and not to mention fab new relationships with Millie’s Cookies, Fentimans, The Helix and last (but certainly not least) Greggs (oh yes, oh yum)! There is not a day that goes by where I don’t thank my lucky stars for the success of this biz. Pardon my French but I bloody love it!

So with all this busy biz as you can imagine I have seriously needed a helping hand. When Emma Cheng, a Photography graduate from Leeds Arts University, returned to her native city of Newcastle this summer she got in touch asking for a intern position at the studio. I was delighted! Emma’s photography work is fantastic, beautifully executed with creativity, sharp graphic compositions and superb retouching and edit skills. Her work really stood out amongst the many emails of requests for work experience I receive from students and graduates.

Emma specialises in product photography and her eye is a fab match for mine. This studio in fact now has not two but FOUR very arty eyes!! So after a few months of training and learning the ropes over these Summer and Autumn months Emma has recently become my assistant on a regular freelance basis. Emma’s role currently supports me behind the scenes, helping edit my shoots turning around hundreds of raw images a day, as general studio assistant and will be supporting my clients when I take two weeks off in January 2019.  As Emma’s role develops we plan to progress and promote the studio’s product photography together so please watch this space for updates and new work. You see now she is held captive in my basement studio at Clavering House in Newcastle city centre and I am certainly not letting her go!

Emma and I are having a great time getting to know one another, sharing a silly sense of humour, educating each other on ‘good old’ and exciting new editing techniques (I am a dinosaur) and old and new music and radio while we work- yes I like radio 4 Woman’s hour and she likes Kisstory and Radio 1! Emma is of tremendous support to me and and this year it feels celebratory, I’ve worked so incredibly hard on building my photography business, celebrating 8 years this spring, that she is the winning prize! I can’t tell you what a relief it is to be out shooting on location knowing my clients work is being edited with skill and care back at the studio by Emma. I am excited to see her how her skills excel, her role develops and how my business grows, so here she is….. introducing the delightful Emma, please give her a big wave and a giant smile!

Staff photos taken in a Photo studio in Newcastle Staff photos taken in a Photo studio in Newcastle Staff photos taken in a Photo studio in Newcastle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Staff photos taken in a Photo studio in Newcastle

Staff photos taken in a Photo studio in Newcastle

Branding, Website and Studio Refresh

This year has seen some big changes at my photo studio and the way I approach my work. As I am now non stop with corporate photography Monday to Friday I have restricted my weekend work and ceased wedding shoots altogether. It’s exactly where I aimed to be so I’m delighted and have celebrated with an updated logo to reflect my focus on Commercial Photography. This all celebrates 7 years in business which feels fantastic!

London based Studio hb who had designed my original branding were briefed to update the typeface to something very ‘me’. A new fresher tone of green has replaced the old and we have ridded of the black and dark greys and switched to a fresher cleaner white. The new font Bella Regular has a similar friendly, approachable and creative feel to the last, but with a new simplistic SD and circular icon. I love its newness and to me it represents progression and celebration that I am still here 7 years on! Hurray! The new logo is now stripped though my website, my marketing materials and up on my studio walls so have a gander and see what you think…

SD Photographic logo 2018

As well as my branding refresh I have refitted my beloved studio with a built in desk space beautifully designed and fitted by A. Lister Carpentry and Joinery, a local lady who knows her stuff when it comes to bespoke office creations in uneven underground whitewashed caves!

Clients often visiting my studio at Clavering House for portrait headshots, comment on how my photo studio looks like a house in Santorini, the bar in an early Star Wars film or an igloo. Whilst young visitors here for family portraits often ask ‘do you live here?’ as it is so cosy and homely. Thankfully there is time after work to go to my real home!

The studio space accommodates website product photography, headshot staff profiles, fashion and family celebrations whether Graduations, Wedding Anniversaries or Bumps and Babies now with even greater ease and I have space for another staff member too! I’ll be updating you on this fab addition soon.

My website has also had a revamp (yes I was VERY busy this June & July!) and has a whole new set of professional/corporate portraiture galleries, featuring Studio Headshots, Staff at Work, Meet the Team and on location portrait photography. I also have afab selection of performer profiles and model portfolio images. Check it out on http://www.sarahdeanephotography.co.uk/professional-portraiture/ 

So here are the before and after- from store cupboard in 2015 to a glorious space in its 2018 newness. I am loving it!

Clavering house basement converted to photo studio

 

 

sarah deane studio refit in 2018 sarah deane studio refit in 2018 sarah deane studio refit in 2018

People in June, my top 5 shots

So this weekend I am on a residential training weekend with the Enterprise Agency and 40 other business owners from the North East. For three days I am intensively looking at my studio business, working process and new ideas.

Today is focussing on marketing and media platforms so a live task is to post a piece of content that may be of interest to my clients past current and future.

So with only 30 minutes to pull this post together I am (probably with many typos!) throwing out there 5 top photos shot in June. The theme is people in a documentary context, not posed and just naturally doing their thing shot with a shallow depth of field giving that lovely atmospheric blur. This style of photography is particularly helpful when the summer drinks shot was taken in the rain!

Having gained many new contracts this month I have met lots of new faces and so had a good variety of people to choose from. Below are a selection taken from commissions from Metro newspaper in conjunction with Jack Daniels and local businesses Adventures in Aude catering and Transcendit IT company.

I hope they inspire you to think about how the people in your business can be represented in photography and how this reflects the brand of your business in attractive imagery for editorial or website use. Happy working Saturday folks!

Newborn Portraits at Home

The newborn portrait shoot is always a good deal easier for all the family when its captured at home. Life is a bit of a whirlwind with a new arrival so I am always happy to bring my camera to your house and capture your family there. Whilst I love my Newcastle studio work, there is something lovely about capturing a family in their home using soft furnishings as backdrops and scenes that will be so familiar in years to come.

Sarah came to me through a recommendation and wanted her newborn daughter Freya photographed at her Low Fell home in her first few days with brother Noah. She was super sweet and Noah was really gentle with her making the newborn photos of the two of them easy to compose.

The results were atmospheric and homely. If you are interested in any of my packages for a home shoot for yourself or for a gift to a new mum all my studio deals can be offered at home too. Just drop me a line!

newborn portraits at home in low fell gatesheadnewborn family portraits at home in low fell gatesheadnewborn and brother photos at home for portrait shoot gateshead9 tile design of family portraits of newborn family shot

British Bulldog Pet Portraits

This was a fab pet portrait shoot of British Bulldog at the studio! Benjy was brought into Newcastle after a grooming session to have his pictures taken by his owner Chris. He was commissioning me to capture a large print for his girlfriend as a surprise birthday gift.

Benjy was a fabulous subject as even thought he was a bit over excited on arrival and fast movement is always the challenge with pet photography, he was fairly static towards the end so I could get really close to his face with my macro lens. The brief was for a black backdrop however spot lit shots were challenging as it was difficult to get catch lights inside those incredible folds! So softer wider lighting worked better.

For anyone wanting to photograph a bulldog, make sure you work hard at the lighting as it will enhance the details of the face, fur and whiskers. It’s also important to capture their gentle expressions as sometimes they can look cross when they are just inquisitive. Be prepared for some hard editing needed and to work with the owner on which photos show their personality best.

Any pet owners wanting to capture their pet in photos do please drop me a line for pricing or visit my prices page for packages; http://www.sarahdeanephotography.co.uk/portrait-packages/

english bull dog portraits at newcastle studioBritish bulldog portraits copy