Just having a look for some shots and came upon a sunset at Semerwater – which I photographed in January 2008…. 6.5 years ago.  2008 Workflow Back then my workflow was a little different :- Shoot RAW files Copy files onto hard drive after a shoot Import RAW files into Capture One – Version 3 […]

Saddleworth Moor to Scammonden Bridge May seems to be throwing up some amazing sunsets Missing quite a few of them, I decided it was time to hit the road an get a few shots from the moors between Huddersfield and Oldham – loads of variety and drama there. So here are a selection from the

End to end screen recording, with strange northern narration, of a dull day photo in Stainforth, North Yorkshire.  

If TV Did “Popular” Photography In the wake of the deluge of “talent” shows, which has seen “talented” people battle, week in week out, to survive to the next round – including riveting subjects as:- Baking Cakes Cooking Food Modelling Being a Drag Queen Growing Vegetables oh – and singing…   Here’s an idea for

If you like Architecture, you will love London’s huge variety of styles, periods and sizes. The City of London’s skyline is rapidly growing taller, from the lone Natwest Tower in the 80’s, then Lloyds and the Gherkin appeared, now we have several new ones of various shapes and sizes. On a recent trip I enjoyed

Coast Trinity Leeds Glamour Magazine and Prom Events Trinity Leeds most recent events, Glamour Magazine and Prom Night, have seen fashion shop Coast bustling with customers, champagne, chocolates and we’ve been down capturing events on camera. Thanks for the invite go to Chloe Chong, in Yellow on this next shot, who remembered us after doing some

Clarence Dock or New Dock Leeds? I’ve always referred to it as Clarence Dock, but the area was rebranded “New Dock Leeds” in 2012 according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Dock_(Leeds)). Either way, the blend of architecture and water makes for a great place to photograph – even on dull days, dusk photos look great once the lights

Leeds Shopping – Knightsbridge of the North? Leeds does seem to have its fair share of shops. Posh shops. Harvey Nichols. Designer stuff. I like the shop in the Victoria Quarter with Panerai watches best – often found lusting after the PAM 372, a huge watch which looks just about perfect on my wrist… shame

7 HDR Photos of Leeds – Swinegate & Calls In Leeds, where the canal and Aire merge, there’s The Calls and Swinegate. Streets on the inner ring road with some fantastic brick buildings to photograph, especially great for HDR photos of Leeds, as you can pull lots of detail out of those walls. Maybe not

Reality Sucks Transforming reality into an uber-detailed, fantastical coloured fantasy world… No highlights or shadows are allowed – they shoot loads of different exposures to make sure not one pixel will be clipped black or white. Even on flat light days, when you don’t need HDR, they still bracket away – it’s all part of

Joe Cusimano Founder of the Lovelution Movement, Joe Cusimano met for a shoot in Halifax – sheltering from the rain under a few of its viaducts! What is Lovelution… From his Viva La Lovelution Facebook page, Joe says… Join the Lovelution: Follow your Heart, Shine your Light,Seek the Truth and Reunite! This is YOUR revolution!

Light it at All Costs The Flash Addicts are driven to introduce their own light to everything – whether it needs it or not. Their enjoyment is in adding that rim lighting, colouring backgrounds, and playing with the latest flash modifiers. Stacks of Kit… Armed with “poverty wizard” style radio triggers, light stands and a

Sleep Deprivation Up well before the lark, usually 2 hours before the sun rises, so they can drive an hour and walk 40 minutes to be in “that” position for the sunrise they’ve planned for the last 4 years. They say a prayer before bed – “Please god, let the light be good this year”

Who are they….? Tortured Visionaries who take photos of stuff, cut it out and bung them all together in a hybrid shot. There is usually some deep story behind the image and the challenge is for you, the viewer, to work it out. They go for months without touching their camera – they need inspiration,

Or digital artists – these are very popular on all the photo sharing websites, their natural home is Deviant Art. Often young and female, with attractive friends who resemble extras from “Skins” – they take moodily posed photos, often with a bag, teddy bear or some other large prop, in woodlands or derelict buildings.  

The Grande Finale! We started a series of Night Workshops back in November 2013 – 15 workshops taking people from Nidderdale in the north to Huddersfield in the west, Parks and moors, city centres and saw dozens of photos edited for the attendees. The final night was thankfully a dry one, one with hazy moon

Read about our trip east to enjoy The Humber Bridge Bridlington Flamborough North Landing Flamborough Head Lighthouse http://www.mcfade.co.uk/training/flamborough-head-review/ Here are a few of our photos from the day… more if you follow the above link  

You’ll know these as they’ll ask you what camera you have before anything else. Then move on to whether you’ve heard about the new camera they’ve heard speculated about on the forums, and how it’s ISO performance “blows out of the water” your camera… He is in a state of “always craving more kit”, and

It’s unique isn’t it – this photography thing. It appeals to retired men and teenage girls It’s used by bohemian artists and geeky computer programmers. It’s as slow and contemplative as fishing, or as fast and furious as grand prix racing. It’s a fun pastime, or a serious competitive sport. It can take hours of

Real Ale on the UP! Real ale is on the up – micro breweries are springing up all over the UK, nowhere more so than in Yorkshire. Every small town seems to have it’s own brewery producing everything from pale ales to dark porters. Ossett, Salamander, Daleside, Rooster’s, Leeds Brewery, Wharfbank, Saltaire, Wendworth, Copper Dragon,

Your business is all about you Not in an egotistical way, but any SME business owner knows that they are the “face” of their company. It’s unavoidable really – we create:- the business idea, the hard graft to get it going, the risks you take, the people you meet These things are all down to

Just been asked to do one of these things… so thought I’d share!   Q. What do you do for a living? I help add personality to businesses by replacing tired, generic “stock library images” with stunning photos of their people, place, products, suppliers… to make their website tell their story.   Q. What makes

Welcome to Castleford: A Photographic Adventure Exploring the Waterside Castleford, a small town in West Yorkshire, is a treasure trove of photographic opportunities. My adventure began by the River Aire, which was brimming and roaring as it cascaded over the weir. I snapped away with my trusty 70-200mm lens, capturing the scene in all its

  2013 is no more… I needed some new shots so on Thursday 2nd of Jan, 2014 I hit the road over to Ferrybridge to see if the sun was hitting the steam clouds over the cooling towers. It was to an extent, my usual spot by the canal gave some reasonable long exposure shots

December’s night workshop was at Brimham Rocks so I decided to head up there early to get some shots of the valley… little did I realise the clouds would be inverted, with the valley full of mist and the sky clear… here are some shots from one of the best days of 2013. 

After running a workshop on Anglesey in the late Noughties, I got chatting to a professional photographer from Somerset. Great guy, had a few beers and his main comments on his 20 years in the photo business were stock photography wasn’t worth doing any more and assignment pay rates had dropped and not to even

The answer is of course, yes. Give me a dentist’s drill and I’ll have a good go at it! Never done it before, but I used drills in Woodwork at school, and many times on the farm I worked as a kid.   Would you let me do it – based on that experience? I’m

Visiting Yorkshire? The coast is well worth a visit for anyone, especially photographers. Here are 5 places to call into with your camera. All these photos were taken on one day – Sunday 1st December 2013 – during a McFade Photography workshop, proving you can get a huge variety of subject in 20 miles of

Title: 5 Tips For Photographing Holiday Parties The holiday season is nearly upon us, and for photographers that may mean a number of Christmas events and similar holiday parties coming up. People love to have professional quality photos of these special events, and indeed it’s a great time of year to create some lasting memories.

Here’s a selection of photos from Leeds’ Roundhay Park firework display on 5th December 2013, and a few tips on how we did them. Get a good place to watch them A good clear view is best, you get to watch the entire journey of all the fireworks. Too close and you may end up

Casvegas…. Pontecarlo…. West Yorkshire’s casino district? Well maybe not, but between the 2 or them, they have a couple of real photographic gems. The boating lake at Pontefract’s racecourse is fantastic for sunsets, and this bridge in Castleford is pretty spectacular after dark. So what brought me here… Well 2 things really – I’m starting

September’s travel photography trip included a surprise trip over to Seville, we were 2 hours away so it was well within range. We’d been recommended by the car hire bloke AND a cab driver who said it was the “home of beautiful architecture – and women”. SOLD! So we got there on Saturday afternoon when

The lakes in Austria tend to be green – a bluey, greeny Jade kine of colour. But on an overcast day, they weren’t really shouting “colour” at us – so I decided to create a series of black and white images from our morning walk around the lake on the German border. The passers by

Waking to see rain was never what we wanted, but you just have to go with what you get… and what we started with was a hearty “Austrian farm” breakfast of yoghurt, meats, cheese, bread, butter, jam, orange juie and lots of coffee. Huge thanks to our hosts Keith and Manu for this each day

One of my Leeds prints has found its way on to a client’s mantelpiece – Laura’s just sent over this shot. Love seeing them in place – you send them off not knowing where they’ll end up, so it’s a real buzz seeing them in place like this. I think this one was about 45

The amazingly beautiful town near the Spanish border… I’ll let the photos do the talking… [AFG_gallery id=’1′]

After a shoot with personal trainer, Victoria Wood, she made the comment:- “who knew that lighting was such a big thing!” And it go me thinking about this blog… All we do as photographers is use a device which records light – it’s called a camera. We use things called “lenses” to focus and manipulate

Snow Blind? I’ve used the term “snow blind” a lot recently – it’s refers to that moment when you’ve been shooting the same thing over and over again, to try to get that “perfect” shot – usually for an art director or designer who’s looking on. You’ve tried all sorts, move the lights, changed the

Surreal Leeds! You’d not normally bother with the camera on a day like this was, but here’s what I tried, making a surreal Leeds….   It’s mid-afternoon… The sun is bright There is a slight wind blowing the clouds There are people and cars around I’ve just left a meeting in Leeds… So do I

York based financial advisers, Ardent Financial Planning, are having a new website site and brand built by digital agency “Plump Digital” – Rob Colley invited McFade over to capture some great new shots of directors. Being a York based company, I was keen to create some images with York in the background – it’s a

Wind farms are, by definition, positioned in windy, desolate places. This makes for truly atmospheric shots – given the right lighting conditions. The best time is sunset or sunrise, because the sun light comes in low and lights 1/2 of the turbine, leaving the other half in shadow. It gives a 3D feel to them.

  Mark’s been in the shipping game for 15 years – mainly sending containers around the world for clients. He’s just started a new role in a brand new business so needed some new shots to promote both him and the business. Images of Shipping… in Leeds? So the challenge of finding a suitable location

Coming from Ribblesdale, this is one I’d been looking forward to leading. The Ribble is around 70 miles long – we were at the source, I’m from about 35 miles downstream… so it wasn’t really “my hood” – but I’ve been around Horton, Settle and Ribblehead many times so knew a few gems to show

I’d just put an exhibition in the Midnight Bell pub and had the camera with me… so decided to get all nostalgic for 15 minutes and capture the end of town I worked in for 2 years – Holbeck. It’s had one hell of a face lift since 2000, now housing lots of businesses, 2

No Flash? We thought it a little cheeky setting up lots of lights in the Doubletree Hilton’s cafe bar – so we did a few shots with natural light, well a mix of light from outside and the halogen bulbs inside. Fast Lens Most of these are taken with the Canon 85mm F1.8 lens, which

This may seem a bit obvious, but having taught many people flash/portraits, it’s the number one reason why you get bored looks on your photos…. Don’t look at the back of your camera all the time You need get the lights right and checking this on camera is fine. But once you’ve got the lights

Mastering the Art of Portrait Photography: 5 Essential Tips for Engaging with Your Subject When it comes to portrait photography, the technical aspects like lighting, camera settings, and composition are undeniably important. However, the way you interact with your subject can often make the difference between a good portrait and a great one. Whether you’re

The Ideas Man…     Paul’s business card really does say The Ideas Man, and it’s true – you’ll go along way before you meet someone with more ideas – on branding, marketing, web, life, music… you name it! His Design Agency, All Good,  is a one-stop solution for people needing innovative branding and marketing

We’ve been supporting One Britain One Nation (OBON) for a while now, a campaign started by former police inspector Kash Singh, to bring people from ALL communities together in celebration of being British. This event at the Aagrar Midpoint centre at Thornbury saw giants of the local restaurant business unite behind Kash by the ceremonial

Gayle is director of Boroughbridge’s IRYS Ltd, providing a wide range of services including training, coaching and mystery shopping. When we were planning the shoot, we quickly discounted the typical “corporate office style” shots  in favour of using Leeds’ Victoria Quarter – a place Gayle knows VERY well and is very at home in! Along with being