Blog
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by mdharrison22/03/2013
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by mdharrison21/03/2013
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by mdharrison20/03/2013
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by mdharrison19/03/2013
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by mdharrisonVintage Fair Leigh-on-Sea
The Leigh-on-Sea vintage fair is coming to town again soon and it reminded me of these promotional shots I did for the organisers. A great shoot made fun by Sarah’s insane posing and the fantastic location.
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by mdharrisonBondi Beer
Here are a couple of product shots I did for Bondi Beer. This is a new product to the UK and they are aiming themselves at the extreme sports market among others. Their USP is the beer is not too fizzy and not too strong (alcohol) so is the perfect ‘session beer’. After drinking the samples they sent me I can concur that this is indeed good beer!
Now, its surprising how much work goes into these kind of images, its mostly a retouching job as the studio is only the start. The silver of the can is particularly difficult, you have to shoot it flat with no reflections and then add in some grey texturing to move towards the reflective feel. I particularly liked the can and bottle shot from above. These were done by using a focus stacking technique in photoshop (from 4 or 5 different shots) which means you can have both the top and side of the product in focus! Clever stuff.
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by mdharrison18/03/2013
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by mdharrison17/03/2013
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by mdharrison16/03/2013
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by mdharrison15/03/2013
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by mdharrison14/03/2013
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by mdharrison13/03/2013
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by mdharrison12/03/2013
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by mdharrison11/03/2013
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by mdharrison10/03/2013
Sorry, last 5 posts have all gone up together. I have been taking pictures, just not editing/producing/blogging them!
Anyway, all 5 shots have something in common – difficult lighting. A previous post of a building site near Barbican discussed this a little, but did not try to eliminate any of the casts, in fact the dual lighting is what made the image interesting. These last 5 images have all had difficult lighting which required the removal of a cast in only part of the image.
This shot had some blue left in the sky contrasting with the (very) yellow tungsten street lights. Together with the noise it was almost impossible to deal with so I just went B&W!
The next down had a general yellow cast from the tungsten light in the loft, combined with very cool blue light coming through the window. I balanced the lighting for the tungsten then eliminated the blue in and around the window with some RGB curves.
The alley way had both tungsten and fluorescent lighting. The street scene had a general blue cast from the cloud/fog but some tungsten creeping in from street level. Finally, the street scene at night had some blue daylight still in the sky, fluorescent from the billboard, tungsten from the street lamps and also the car headlights which are a combination of lots of things!
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by mdharrison09/03/2013
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by mdharrison08/03/2013
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by mdharrison07/03/2013
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by mdharrison06/03/2013
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by mdharrison05/03/2013
Nothing particularly interesting about this picture. Its here because today I ran up Tower 42 (the one in the middle) for the charity Shelter. I did 42 floors in 9 minutes 25 seconds then spent the next hour sweating and gasping for breath. I had planned to get a picture from the viewing gallery at the top but participants weren’t allowed any personal items in the stairwell.
My time was about average, I came 565th out of 1500. The winner did it in 4 minutes and 50 seconds, which is not humanly possible so I’m assuming he was a robot or freak or something. Thanks everyone that sponsored me x
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by mdharrison04/03/2013
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by mdharrison03/03/2013
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by mdharrison02/03/2013
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by mdharrison01/03/2013
MARCH!
And I think one of my favourite pictures yet. Maybe because it actually has a person in it (other than my family). I had an evening out with my brother and a client he had introduced me to. I met my brother at St Paul’s Cathedral as he works near there. Being the successful lawyer type he was busy and made me wait. So, camera out I was trying to think of an alternative way of picturing the Cathedral and I started to focus on the tourists. I would have liked to get one of the priests who kept walking in and out, but this works well. Its one of those that I had a bit of a buzz about when I took it.
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by mdharrison28/02/2013
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by mdharrisonLucy & Graham
So, a blast from the past here. This was the second wedding I ever shot, but its still one of my favourites. Salle Church is in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Norfolk. So much so that I got lost on the way to the church! I still made it in time but bought a sat-nav as soon as I got home, its now one of my most valuable pieces of kit.
Lucy and Graham are friends of ours and put us up in a hotel near the church (Katie did the makeup). We met up with them the night before as they were preparing the church hall (cricket club) for the reception. On the way back to the hotel there was a forecast on the radio predicting a clear misty morning. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get up and steal some shots of the church at dawn. A success even though my lens misted up (see the water tower shot) and I got very muddy.
The wedding itself was beautiful. Everything you see was made by the bride and groom and their family. The church was simply amazing, and the quaint little cricket club was perfect for tea and cakes. I have re-edited these shots for the blog which wasn’t easy as my skills were not as developed as they are now and some of the exposures were a little off! Its worth noting that I have experimented in a new colour space (Lab) so some of the colours are a little saturated. As naive as some of the composition is, some of my favourite shots come from this wedding. Would I shoot it differently now? Certainly, but I like it how it is. For me it captures both Lucy and Grahams amazing day and a step for me in my career.
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by mdharrison27/02/2013
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by mdharrison26/02/2013
I dont usually go in for saturated colour, in fact I tend toward de-saturation in post processing. However, this shot is interesting to me because its processed much the same as the other shots in this blog but for some reason the colours are really bright! Might be something to do with perspective contrast or something. Not sure. The colour makes me feel a bit weird?!?
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by mdharrison25/02/2013
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by mdharrison24/02/2013
Went skating today, half work – half birthday treat! See the dedicated post for more shots from a long day in the city.
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by mdharrison23/02/2013
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by mdharrison22/02/2013
My birthday! My wife took me to see Bloc Party at Earls Court. Awesome. I also got a Leatherman.
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by mdharrisonSwitch Skates Day In The City
I have known Jamie and Mark who run Switch Skate Shop for many years. Mainly through Skateboarding but more recently i’ve done some product work for them. I never really got into taking pictures of skaters as when we go skating I mainly want to skate! However, on this occasion the guys asked me to come along, skate, take some pictures and enjoy a Bondi on Barry. With a crew of regular customers and some of their sponsored team we hit some street spots in The City before heading to the (very) secret bowl in Shoreditch.
Skate photography is an art and requires unique skills which take years of practice to master. I had a day. Here are the results.
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by mdharrison21/02/2013
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by mdharrison20/02/2013
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by mdharrison19/02/2013
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by mdharrison18/02/2013
I havent posted a city scape for a couple of days and this is a favourite compositional trick. Having mostly sky means you don’t need foreground interest. Also, the sky is interesting. Its one of those indescribable things. How often do you catch yourself staring at the clouds or marvelling at the infinite blue?
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by mdharrison17/02/2013
More abstract. I took this out of the car window but it was thoroughly over exposed so when I first pulled it into lightroom it was just a white rectangle. I was interested to see if there was any detail in there at all and used some extreme exposure settings to bring out the shapes on the lower left. I added the colour (obv) and some noise to give it a little texture.
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by mdharrison16/02/2013
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by mdharrison15/02/2013
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by mdharrisonZukie Jr
More work for the Zukie crew for their new ‘Jr’ range.
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by mdharrison14/02/2013
Yesterdays post was a bit of a prelude to todays. The letters are sprayed all over shop shutters in and around Petticoat Lane market. My wife used to work in a cocktail bar in Shoreditch. When she left they got her a big alphabet print made up of a collage of graffiti letters from all over London. For valentines day I thought I would try something similar. She hasn’t seen this yet so it will be a good test to see if she is following the blog!
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by mdharrison13/02/2013
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by mdharrison12/02/2013
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by mdharrison11/02/2013
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by mdharrison10/02/2013
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by mdharrison09/02/2013
Second fail of the campaign. Didn’t get to take a picture today (as i’m posting this on the 14th Feb I cant remember why – just checked my diary, it was last Saturday, I was working all day) so I have been back through everything I’ve taken to date and sorted through some of the pictures that didn’t make the cut. Her is one!
Its a bit fussy but I like the colours. Its a good example of the difference between the colour of fluorescent (green) and tungsten (orange) lighting. Our eyes naturally compensate for these different colour ‘temperatures’, the camera however gets thoroughly confused and throws a strop.
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by mdharrisonLesleys Party
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by mdharrisonLesleys 40th
If you would like to download any images, the full resolution file is available by right clicking on the image (ctrl click for Mac) and selecting ‘Download Linked File As….’ then choose a location to save the file to such as your Desktop. If you click on the file you can view the full resolution image but it may take some time to load depending on your internet speed.
Any problems drop me an email and i’ll be happy to mail any images by reply.
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by mdharrison08/02/2013
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by mdharrison07/02/2013
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by mdharrison06/02/2013
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by mdharrison05/02/2013
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by mdharrison04/02/2013
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by mdharrison03/02/2013
I had a busy Sunday. I did a booth last night and while unloading the car I dropped my camera (again). It landed, butter side down (on the lens) and jammed the lens. I have done it before and know how to fix it but its time consuming and fiddly and altogether unenjoyable. Anyway, slaving over lots and lots of tiny parts, along with other weekend chores meant it totally slipped my mind to take any pictures. Although, after successfully fixing my lens I took a couple of test shots and this one gets in on interesting colour alone. Enjoy the wallpaper while I purchase a protective lens hood.
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by mdharrison02/02/2013
Originally this post had no text. After texting me to point out some spelling mistakes in another post, I asked my wife if she liked the picture of Kurtis I posted. ‘Which one’ she asked, to which I replied ‘the one with the shadow’. She hadn’t noticed the shadow. ‘The shadow is the point’ I said. ‘You should write it in the post then’, she said.
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by mdharrison01/02/2013
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by mdharrison31/01/2013
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by mdharrison30/01/2013
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by mdharrison29/01/2013
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by mdharrison28/01/2013
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by mdharrison27/01/2013
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by mdharrison26/01/2013 – supplemental
“How can the conservative ideologies of contemporary politics be contested? And how can they be contested visually? We live to a large extent in a political culture where denialism is a powerful force, and it is a force that too much journalism, still beholden to false notions of objectivity that require balance between competing viewpoints even when one of those viewpoints has at best a tenuous relationship to evidence, either furthers or allows to fester.
It would be good if this were the year that visual journalists redoubled efforts to take on the big issues with powerful pictures supported by clear evidence for the larger stories that need to be told.
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by mdharrison26/01/2013
Today our new house was used as a film location. The director wanted something ’80’s looking’. Usually this might be insulting but we’ve only just moved in and not done any decorating yet. Think its going to be a music video. Hopefully we get credit for location and tea making! The director was the talented Andrew Gooch and this film should end up on his website.
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by mdharrison25/01/2013
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by mdharrison24/01/2013
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by mdharrison23/01/2013
Hard to describe whats interesting about this. The technical side of me wants to see how the camera is going to render the smooth gradients and colours. As a subject I think this is an interesting space. Its a corridor on the 28th floor of 1 Canada Square (Canary Wharf to you and I). Its a shared space and as such is kind of bland, non intrusive and functional. The minimal colours and lack of features creates an unintentional ambience. I’ve done very little other than a little exposure correction and sharpening. The darkening of the wall is a camera fail!
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by mdharrison22/01/2013
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by mdharrison21/01/2013
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by mdharrison20/01/2013
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by mdharrison19/01/2013
Its a Saturday and between decorating and entertaining I only got to take a couple of pictures of my boy playing around in a car seat. Its one of his favourite past times and he will happily play with the buckles for minutes on end. The downside of all this is I have nothing interesting I have taken to post. After some deliberation I decided to post something a bit different.
This image is by Rinko Kawauchi. I saw her work at The Photographers Gallery this year, as part of the Deutsche Borse Photography prize and picked up her book ‘Illuminance’. The colours are beautiful and many of the images have a dream like quality that is surreal and at times unnerving.
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by mdharrison18/01/2013
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by mdharrison17/01/2013
Couple of images today. First a depressing reminder that Christmas is over but also, and without getting too heavy, a reference to the throw-away consumerism of the modern festive period.
Second, another picture from the Barbican area. Its a photogenic place and I’m sure there will be more in the future. Also, today someone told me an interesting fact about Charterhouse Square in Barbican. Currently its a grassy square park that is used as a playground for the neighbouring school. CrossRail are excavating the road adjacent but apparently they cant dig in the park because it was originally a ‘plague pit’ with tens of thousands of bodies in it!
Now i’ll stop spreading the happiness .
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by mdharrison16/01/2013
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by mdharrison15/01/2013
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by mdharrison14/01/2013
Technically this was taken on the 15th, about 1am but thats splitting hairs. Its the 3 towers at Barbican taken from Charterhouse Square (through a window). London is totally different in the early hours. There are still signs of life but the urgency is gone. No one is rushing to get anywhere and its altogether more peaceful.
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by mdharrison13/01/2013
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by mdharrison12/01/2013
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by mdharrison11/01/2013
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by mdharrison10/01/2013
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by mdharrison09/01/2013
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by mdharrison08/01/2013
A new week and several images again, i’m starting to think i’m kind of prolific! (not). Just been lucky these last couple of days, and it highlights one of my main problems as a photographer – editing.
Seriously, i’m terrible at it. Deciding which is the best image and cutting out the rest shouldn’t be so hard? I find things I like in many images but I must learn to be more rutheless when editing down shots. Being as i’m breaking no rules of the 365 then i’ll just post more when I feel like it. OK?
A shot of a building I love in Charterhouse Square. Also, someones window display in Barbican.
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by mdharrison07/01/2013
So, I’ve done a week and its not been easy but its been fun and each picture posted has been taken on the day. Already i’m asking questions about what I want to photograph and what interests me visualy.
For the last post of the week there are a couple of images of a trip to High Wycombe on a very miserable day.
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by mdharrison06/01/2013
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by mdharrison05/01/2013
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by mdharrison04/01/2013
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by mdharrison03/01/2013
The house my family and I just moved into is a bit ‘old lady’ and we are looking forward to decorating and removing some of the more retro colour schemes. After finishing some product work at home I caught myself admiring the chintz curtains in the dining room. I happened to read an article on the photographer Juergen Teller today and it inspired me to experiment with my strobes a little.
Katie wasn’t up for it so I only got a couple of shots. This is my favourite. The little smile even though she didn’t want her picture taken makes me smile. I also like the power lead for my strobe creeping into the frame!
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by mdharrison02/01/2013
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by mdharrison01/01/2013
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by mdharrison+ 365
One picture, every day, for one year.
I cant promise i’ll post everyday, in fact I cant promise to take a picture everyday!! However, since my website has been up and running i’ve been tempted to give it a go. My life is pretty repetitive so i’m a little unsure of what I’m going to shoot and when, although thats kind of the point of a 365 project. It makes you look harder, sometimes look twice and hopefully find the beauty in the mundane and everyday.
I’ve just moved into a new house in a new area. I have a young boy and am expecting another addition in the summer. So expect lots of family pictures and details of me exploring my new neighbourhood. Images will not necessarily have been taken on the day. I like to shoot film, so sometimes I may scan an image. I might even just post a picture I found in a magazine, or something my wife took.
I dont know what to expect really. Lets just see where it goes.
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by mdharrisonSwitch Skates / Zukie
After a number of emails and admittedly not much time (over the xmas period as well) we had no permission to shoot at Southend Airport. I thought we were heading for Leigh marshes to shoot the military jacket by the WW2 pilbox. ‘Bomber’ (of Switch Skates and Zukie Clothing) had other plans and bought me and Andy (the talent) breakfast at the cafe on the airport while he sweet talked the manager at the flying school. I think he may have bought a few helicopter lessons and offered permanent discounts in his store!
The Vulcan Bomber is pretty famous round these parts and although there is a restoration society the guy from the flying school advised that it will never fly again, although they do fire up the engines occasionaly which are pretty loud!
Despite his hangover Andy did a great job of, well, looking hungover! Jamie was his usual excited self and special thanks to The Flight Centre. I’ve already asked for a helicopter lesson for my birthday.
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by mdharrisonSian & John
I always find it difficult shooting people I know. You have preconceptions about your friends that can affect how you plan to shoot the wedding. I lived with John for a couple of years, and Sian briefly when she moved in and I didn’t take the hint and move out! So I know them very well and was a bit worried about how I was going to shoot them.
One of the things you learn very quickly photographing weddings is to not make judgements about your clients. A couples wedding day is the one day when they can show their true emotions to all of their friends and family. Its a day when you get to see the best of people, with all worries striped away.
Sian and John were honest and beautiful, loving and fun and put on a real party. I like to think that a marriage is serious, but a wedding doesn’t have to be. Sian & John clearly didn’t take their day too seriously, having fun with some of the pageantry and embracing the party. Any marriage that starts on a day with a double rainbow is destined to last.
PS – for some reason Sian & John felt it necessary to bring a bag of wigs and animal masks to their wedding? They made the photo booth go off with a bang!
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by mdharrisonPhoto Booth
The photo booth is less a booth and more a mini studio I set up in a noisy corner. Its an additional service I offer to my wedding clients which can be catered to parties and any event. I’ve played around with a couple of variations but find it fun to keep it small and make guests squeeze into a tight space, it adds to the boothishness!
Below is a selection of pics from a recent wedding I shot. I should note that the animal masks were property of the bride and groom. Quite why they had a box of masks at their wedding…… you will need to ask Sian & John. I might just add some to my box of ‘booth things’ though.
Please contact for further info.
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by mdharrisonHelen & Jack
Stylish and beautiful, relaxed and loving. Helen and Jacks wedding was the perfect mix of a traditional church ceremony and great celebration. The weather turned up to make this a perfect long summers day, what better for a beach party! They created something memorable and touching that i’m sure their guests will remember for a long time. Pictures cannot do justice to something this beautiful, just lift the heart with memories.
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by mdharrisonOlympus Trip 35
I, like the majority of (non insane) commercial photographers shoot digital. I still however have a love of film, especially black and white. A couple of years ago my mum gave me an old camera she found in a drawer, an Olympus Trip 35. This promptly disappeared into one of my cupboards until about 6 months ago when I found it and decided to run a couple of films through it. Its an amazing little camera. The only problem is it has ‘focus zones’ so you have to estimate the distance to your subject and then set the lens to that zone, e.g. 2 – 3 meters. It turns out my judge of distance is pretty rubbish and as such most of my shots were out of focus. More recently I picked up an Olympus 35 RC for around £40 on Ebay. Its essentially the same camera but it has a range finder spot so you can focus properly.
The absolute joy of film is that you do not know what you have until it has been sent off to the lab to be developed. Also, with these old cameras being so unpredictable you get unexpected exposures and as previously mentioned, out of focus shots. There is also something precious about only having 24/36 exposures, I think of my parents taking this camera on holidays and shooting maybe two rolls of film. What they got was their memories of the holiday, badly exposed, out of focus, they all went into the album as it was all they had.
I’m rambling now. Below are few shots from both of the above cameras. Mostly of family and from day trips, but you get the idea. If you are interested in photography, dont go in for those fashionable and expensive Lomo’s, get yourself down the boot fair and pick up anything you can find for a few pounds and run some film through. If anyone wants tips on where to get film and where to process cheaply feel free to drop me a mail.
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by mdharrisonZukie Store
Zukie are a new clothing company that I have worked with before. They make skateboards and teeshirts in between partying hard! I have been skateboarding since i was about 12 (although my knees told me recently that they think its time a reconsidered) so I embraced the chance to work with them. The guys that run the brand are just trying to create something a little different and have fun while they are doing it. They love to involve the local community in what they are doing and are regularly holding skate competitions for kids and giving away skateboards and tee’s. They started out supplying independent skate shops but have now opened their own place in Greenwich. I went down and shot this while the Olympics was on and there was a great vibe around the town.
I shot this at about 8pm and they should have been shut for hours but the local kids kept coming in and they continued to serve until I was finished at around 9:30! By the end of the shoot there were about 15 kids with skateboards just floating around trying to get in on the action! I should thank Jamie for supplying beer which I rather unprofessionally drank, and Christian the store manager, who works there every day yet still managed to get us lost on the way home?
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by mdharrisonSarah & Simon
Sometimes small is very beautiful. This wedding was unlike any I have ever shot before, just a handfull of close friends and family, a ceremony in a windmill and a reception in a back graden. The bride had put so much work into every part of the day, from making a cushion for every single chair in the windmill, to making her own dress! Sarah and Simon are a couple unlike any other I have shot. Unique yet unpretentious, friendly, and as kind as anyone you are likely to meet. Its one of those weddings where I feel truly honoured to be involved.
If you ever visit Leigh-on-Sea make sure to stop by their amazing coffee shop, Barlow & Fields, for lunch. You wont be disappointed.