Welcome to our blog

This is where you can see examples of our recent and not so recent projects.
Northwich | A family portrait session with young children

Northwich in Cheshire is one of the most popular places for me to go to take family portrait photos. I’m lucky that A family portrait in Northwich
I’ve been chosen by so many families and pet owners to take their portrait photographs. This session from March 2019 was taken as part of a practice session for a wedding at Blakemere Village just outside Northwich. It’s a brilliant outdoor wedding venue but it’s also a great place to for a woodland family portrait session in Spring and Autumn. I don’t like doing family portraits in deciduous woodland in the summer months as there’s often too much leaf cover. In bright sunlight that gives a nasty green caste to the photos. When it’s a cloudy day it can be too dark to get decent photos. Either way, the light is usually bad. In spring and autumn the light and colours can be awesome.Read More

Liverpool | Family portrait photography in Hope Street

Liverpool, home of The Beatles, is one of my favourite locations for one of my favourite types of photography. A genre with raw edge and a degree of cool that doesn’t really happen elsewhere.

socially distanced family portrait in Hope Street, Liverpool

Urban portraits, street portraits, there are loads of different names for them but they are amongst my favourites to do. Being able to mix a family portrait with an urban setting is brilliant. It’s not ideal for all age groups but is perfect for families with older children, late teens and young adults. For late teens and young adults there are so many outstanding backgrounds. Abandoned shops where windows are covered with faded gig posters, bits of graffiti, peeling paintwork, rust and general decay gives me the chance to take photos that wouldn’t out of place on an album cover. Read More

Lymm Dam | Family portrait photography

Portrait of a young family in Autumn near Warrington, Cheshire

Here’s a story about a beautiful family portrait session at Lymm Dam. I’ve photographed literally hundreds of family portrait sessions over the last twelve years and most have had a significant reason behind them. The family portrait session I did for Jane and her children was poignant and marked an anniversary that nobody would have ever wanted.
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Pets | Lifestyle product photography

Lifestyle dog product photography
This post is about a product photography session I did last year for treatyourdog.co.uk. It’s been a while since I posted any commercial work on here. I usually post my commercial work on my commercial photography website yourcommercialphotographer.com. Very occasionally there is a cross over to my social photography and that’s true here. I’ve become well known around Cheshire and North Wales for my pet portrait photography and when Hesther Hiley at treatyourdog.co.uk was looking for a photographer to shoot new photographs and digital assets for their new website, I was delighted to find that I had been recommended by several people she knew.

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How might family group portraits look in the future?

The Coronavirus pandemic has caused so many problems in so many areas of our lives. Social distancing and hand washing have become the norms. We smile and wave as we cross the street to avoid people coming towards us. Apart from the terrible death toll and economic impact, the virus has stopped us doing many of the things we would take for granted; hugging our friends and relatives, going for a pint, playing and watching sport. The list is huge.

Socially distanced group portraits in Warrington, Cheshire

A portrait of socially distanced household groups celebrating VE Day, May 2020.


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Lymm | Thelwall viaduct

Sunrise over Thelwall Viaduct as mist hangs over teh Manchester Ship Canal, Warrington, Cheshire

During lockdown we started to explore parts of Lymm village, where we live near Warrington in Cheshire. We chose places that we hoped would be quiet and away from too many people. We found a footpath that’s well used but on the few occasions we’ve walked it we’ve only seen one or two people walking their dogs or riding their bikes. The path follows Manchester Ship Canal under Thelwall Viaduct. Ive been going over the viaduct all my life but I’d never walked under it.
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Dramatic portraits – seven years apart

dramatic portrait of young man in Warrington on a dark background

Portrait – what does it mean? It means different things to different people but the dictionary definition is ‘A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person.’ And that last bit for me sums it up perfectly, likeness, personality and mood.

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Dog photography | A Golden Retriever in Chester

Chester is a great place for dog photography with some great locations within the city and in the surrounding countryside in Cheshire and just over the border in North Wales.

Portrait photograph of a Golden Retriever and his owner in parkland in Chester, Cheshire

Dog photography is one of my favourite parts of portrait photography. There is something really special about capturing the character, call it personality, of a pet. I’ve been photographing dogs and cats (and the occasional rabbit) for eleven years and there’s something magic about it. I think the secret is eye contact. You have to get down to the eye level of your subject and you’ve got to let them engage with you. Let them come to you. Whenever I meet clients and their pets for the first time I don’t make a fuss. I let them come to me. And I always have treats in my pockets. Read More

Urban portraits in Manchester – Argentine tango

Argentine tango dancing near Insituto Cervantes in Manchester

This was supposed to be a family portrait session but it didn’t quite work out like that. Jan’s friends bought her a gift voucher for a family portrait session and a bespoke framed photograph for her and her two sons as birthday present. The only problem was that her sons live and work a long way from her getting everyone together for a family portrait session proved to be more difficult than she imagined.Read More

Hartford Golf Club & International Women’s Day 2020

International Women’s Day photography in Northwich

Hartford Golf Club played host to International Women’s Day on 8th March 2020. This year it falls on a Sunday so many of the events to mark the occasion were held in the week before and I was invited to photograph one of the largest events in Cheshire. It was organised by Sue France, Tricia Peters and Kirsty James; three women who have helped so many small businesses and entrepreneurs in Cheshire and across the Northwest over the last decade or so. Read More