Wensum Valley Wedding

Last month I had the pleasure of capturing the wedding of Kenny and Caroline.
The wedding took place at the wonderful Wensum Valley in Norfolk.
Here is a little sneak peak of some of their wedding pics.
If you are getting married, get in touch to arrange a free informal chat about your day.

www.jamesnealephotography.com

Beginners Guide to Wildlife Photography

Wildlife Photography is something that I love doing, and certainly one area I don't do enough of.
I have a list of things I want to do and an African Safari is certainly up towards the top.

To me, the key to great wildlife shots is to include some of the location and to create some kind of atmosphere in the image. In this article I hope to give you some key points regarding kit, camera settings and some hints and tips on the types of photography that are available to you.

Firstly lets talk about kit.

Lenses

Some wildlife you will be able to get up close and not have to worry about spooking it. For instance, you will be able to get much closer to a duck, than you would a deer, so the type of lens you are using will play a big part in the type of wildlife you are going to be able to snap.
If you only have a kit lens like 18-55mm then you are only going to be able to shoot certain types as you are going to have to get fairly close to your subject.

If you have a 70-300mm or larger zoom lens, this will open up more doors, and enable you to keep your distance from the subject.





Tripod

Some of the larger lenses are very heavy. My 500mm zoom is not something that is easy to keep still when you are zoomed in at that level, so by placing the lens on a tripod I can make sure that it is as still as possible which will help keep my images nice and sharp. Sometimes tripods are just not practical and so things like bean bags are a great way of supporting your lens on gate posts or tree branches.

I always try and shoot wildlife from their level. So sometimes that means that I need to get my knees dirty. By getting down to their level you will keep the perspective of the animal right and also can help you to hide and not frighten the animal.

Don't always go for the close up shot, by including it in its natural habitat can help to add some atmosphere to the shot. Remember the rule of thirds and maybe add some other features of the landscape into the shot. When doing this though, always make sure you are focusing on the animal itself.

For most of my wildlife shots, I use Aperture Priority mode (A / Av) so that I can control my depth of field. Most of the time I will have the apperture wide open (f2.8 - f5.6) to allow as much light in to the camera to give me Faster shutter speeds to freeze the action in the picture. If you are out shooting in low light you may need to push the ISO up to increase the shutter speed. Sometimes though, you can get great results by adding some blur into the shot. For this I would use Shutter Priority Mode (S / Tv) and key in a slower shutter speed.






Focusing

A lot of wildlife shots can be ruined by focusing on the wrong part of the animal. Make sure you have the focusing mode in single point and that you have control. Especially in close up shots, you need to focus on the eyes, a lot of auto area focus systems will focus on the closest part of the animal to the camera, this can give you sharp beaks or noses and out of focus eyes.

Also, whilst we are on the subject of focusing, we need to have the camera set to continuous focusing mode. This will allow the lens to keep focusing on the animal if its getting closer or further away from us. This is a must for bird photography. With birds the distance between us and them can change very quickly, so by having the camera set to continuous focusing, this enables us to concentrate on keeping up with the bird in flight.

For the guys who only have a kit lens of 18-55mm, dont panic, there is still great opportunities to capture wildlife shots.
If you have a garden, try setting up a bird feeder close to a window. If you haven't got a tree to hang it on,  get yourself a branch and fix it close to the window. After a few days the birds will soon realise that they have an easy feeding opportunity and will all be hanging out at their newly found fast food joint. This will enable you to shoot through the glass and capture them. You may find that you need to get in position for a while until they get used to you being there.
Shooting through glass will have its problems, but as long as you get close and that the window is nice and clean you should be able to get some great shots.
Other things you could try are insects and butterflies, although we are a thousand times bigger than they are, they don't get spooked very easily.

For the guys with the zoom lenses, you have the opportunity to shoot a wide variety of wildlife. I think one of the key things to this type of photography is patience. You are going to have to wait to get the shot. Animals are not like humans, we can't ask them to 'stand there' or 'hold that pose' so we are going to have to wait for them to get in the right position.

I hope this article has given you more of an insight to Wildlife Photography. If you would like to take it one step further, I run Wildlife Photography workshops at Banham Zoo in Norfolk and Africa Alive in Suffolk. Details of these can be found on my website www.jamesnealephotography.com

If you like this article, please comment and make sure you follow the blog.

Thanks for your support

James Neale

James Neale is an award winning international photographer based in Norfolk.

Lynford Hall Hotel - Norfolk Wedding Venue - James Neale Photography

Last week I was booked to photograph the stunning Lynford Hall Hotel.

Its set on the outskirts of Thetford Forest park and is a stunning venue. Whether its a weekend break you're looking for, an evening meal or to host your wedding day or conference, Lynford will be able to accommodate your needs.

Lynford Hall has so much history about the place. In its time the Hall has played host to many world famous names from American Presidents to British Prime Ministers and was also the setting for great Tv Comedy series Allo Allo. If you haven't been before, its well worth the visit.

 I was there to photograph the hotel to build up a portfolio of images that they can use on brochures, websites and other marketing materials. Below are some of the images.

Make sure you pay Lynford Hall Hotel a visit very soon, The food is amazing!
www.lynfordhallhotel.co.uk

If you would like to get a portfolio of images of your business, whether its a venue, boutique, hair salon, etc please get in touch for very competitive rates. www.jamesnealephotography.com

Boux Avenue Store opening in Norwich - By James Neale

This Morning I attended the Boux Avenue Store opening in Chapelfield shopping centre in Norwich.

Boux Avenue is a lingerie, nightwear and swimwear store and is owned by entrepreneur, and dragons Den star Theo Paphitis. Theo was at the launch event this morning and officially opened the new store.

Here are some pictures from the event.











One of me with Theo Paphitis.



If you would like an event or store opening covered, please contact me on 07833491550
or via the website www.jamesnealephotography.com

Second award for Norfolk Photographer James Neale

Last week Professional Photographer magazine announced the winners of the prestigious Photographer of the year awards. How shocked was I when I received the email telling me that I had won the category of Commercial Photographer!


Adam Scorey, competition judge and Group Editor of Professional Photographer
magazine said:

“When we saw the final quantity of images entered, we were
flabbergasted. However, what did dawn on us that we needed to shortlist 6,000-
plus images to just 16! It took far longer than we initially thought, especially as,
at virtually every other image we were exclaiming “Wow!”

I would like to thank everyone for all your texts, tweets and facebook messages congratulating me on receiving this award. I'm looking forward to the awards night at the end of the month at the Print Space in London, and to meeting some of the other winners and runners up.

You can see all the winners by following the link below

www.professionalphototgrapher.co.uk


James

A funny 'ole' day in the big smoke! By Norfolk Commercial Photographer James Neale

Yesterday I headed off to London to do a commercial photo shoot for Mune Healthy Water along with my assistant for the day Tiffany. For the photographers reading this, Mune is owned and run by Derek Sanders, brother of the well known American Photographer Dane Sanders.

I had a couple of hours to spare before the shoot so i arranged to meet up with Former Apprentice Star Jamie Lester a former client, and now a friend. Jamie has recently launched his new Property Company Haus and i wanted to drop in and see his funky new offices in Fulham.

Its always good to chat to Jamie as he is such a positive guy and I'm really pleased that business is going well for him, He recently had a fantastic piece about Haus in the Independent which you can read
Here.

The shoot was on Kensington High Street in the Whole food store, and we were going to be covering the launch of a new water. Actor, Adam Garcia was going to be there to help promote the launch. Adam is a man of many talents. He has been in movies such as Coyote Ugly, many west end musicals, and currently a judge on sky 1's Got To Dance show.

The shoot went well, and Adam created a buzz around the whole event. (Mainly with the ladies)He was a great laugh and posed for many photographs with passers by. All in all, a good afternoons work.




And the reason Tiff came all the way to London.


On the way home we decided to have a wander passed BBC Radio 1's studio. There were a few paparazzi photographers waiting for girl band, Stooshe to make there way out of the building. We waited for 5 minutes and soon got bored and began to walk off, as we turned the corner we bumped into DJ Scott Mills! Scott was a great guy and began telling us about his interview with the girl band,and that he needed some fresh air because they were so draining! He posed for a photo with Tiff, before rushing back in before the song finished.



So as the sun set over the London skyline, and the rain clouds began to disappear, we made our way to the car and headed back to good 'ole' Norfolk.

Thanks for having us London!

If you are planning a launch event or you are in need of images for a press release, please get in touch by calling 07833491550 or visiting my website www.jamesnealephotography.com

Credits - Big Thanks to Ross Dean for passing this job over to me.

- Tiffany Patterson for assisting with the shoot