Exciting News!

Jo Belfield Photography is delighted to be showing a video alongside local fashion icon Hoopers of Wilmslow within the ultra cool Revolution Bar in Wilmslow, Cheshire. You will now be able to see my images and some information about my stylish photography for businesses, musicans and models - indeed anywhere where your image is important - on their TV screens, including the massive 8ft one in the evenings!

I am very excited about this campaign which I hope will show people what the fashion styling and photography at Jo Belfield Photography can do for their business, portfolio or indeed their personal portraiture.

For more information please contact Jo on jo@jobelfield.com or 07908816147.

Helsby Family Photoshoot

One of my highlights of my recent trip to Helsby was an impromtu family photoshoot featuring R, aged 2, and his new baby brother - 10 week old baby B.


It was actually the first baby shoot i'd done and with reduced kit (natural light only, no studio lights / flash or even a reflector!) but I was pleased with the outcome. R and B's mummy is very happy with the images and so am I!

Helsby Arms Photoshoot

I have to admit the Helsby Arms www.helsbyarms.co.uk in Helsby, near Chester, effortlessly sails into my "top pubs" list. The pub is efficiently run by the landlord and landlady, Steve and Carole, and sumptious, beautiful food is cooked and presented by their head chef Lee Fish and his team with infinite care.



I am not writing this lightly - my parents and grandparents were both in the pub trade and my dad trained me wo his standards for waitressing and barwork during University holidays the same as he trained the other staff. So when I go into a pub I can generally spot a Brake Bros chocolate fudge cake from 20 paces and if there is something out of place I notice it.

When I first photographed the Helsby Arms, approximately 12 months ago, my brief was wide:to take publicity shots of the bar area, outside, food and kitchens. I was there from 9.30am until around 6pm as I also attended one of their infamous Cheshire Tweet Ups! in that time I found absolutely nothing I could criticise. I was, in all honesty, gobsmacked.

When I returned to the Helsby Arms yesterday I was visiting purely for pleasure and to attend another Cheshire Tweet Up (#cheshiretweetup on Twitter), however I had my camera with me and I just couldn't resist taking more photos.

You see, to my mind one of the things that makes the Helsby Arms so special is Carole's attention to detail. In every corner and on every windowsill is a perfect little still-life set-up just begging to be appreciated by their customers and off course, begging to be photographed.


This time I had a 50mm f1.8 lens so light was no issue and the wood floors and carpentry kept it's burnished tone. This time I concentrated on the details and creating modern images with a fine-art flavour. They can be used commercially or printed onto canvas or in a frame to produce art-works in their own right. It was an enjoyable exercise and a good indication of how I intend to approach capturing the little details that matter when on location at a wedding.


You can follow Carole on www.twitter.com/helsbyarms to find out all the latest news and offers at The Helsby Arms and of course, details of the next #Cheshiretweetup!


To discuss the photographic requirements for your business or family please contact Jo E. jo@jobelfield.com M. 07908816147

Jo Belfield

Jo Belfield Photography featured in PC Plus!

Jo Belfield Photography is delighted to have been featured in the latest issue of PC Plus Magazine (issue 296, July 2010) in a feature by Jon Thompson on how photographers and other creatives use the internet to boost their businesses.

http://pcplus.techradar.com/latestissue/

If you arte a photographer or other creative and you want to know how to use the internet to boost sales and to make managing your business easier watch this space as I am hoping to put together some workshops focussed on helping you to harness the power of the internet!

Jo

Capturing Moments

I did a lovely photoshoot last week with lovely, spirited L from Southport and her parents. It was a lovely photoshoot with moments of complete introspection and thoughtfulness appearing occasionally in a very energetic and bouncy shoot. She is a real firecracker with a strong idea of how she wants to pose and I really had to let her work through it to capture those precious moments of calm where she was relaxed and truly herself!

To book your own photosession with photographer Jo Belfield, in the studio or on location at your home or other location special to your family, please call the studio on 01625 429162.

School Photographs with a Difference.....

I will admit I am not fond of the "norm" when it comes to school photography. Sitting in front of a camera and lights is not the most comfortable or natural experience for anyone and since it is a natural and relaxed pose is what makes the best photos, the typical studio set up is something I shy away from. There are times it has it's place - for achieving a certain look or lighting effect, especially for commercial work or when using models, but for most of the time, especially when photographing children I prefer a much more familiar environment.



In an attempt not to get the strained smiles of typical school photographs and create pictures that you will be proud off I prefer to capture the children being themselves. So the best things to do are to let them play and act like they usually do whilst the photographer either blends into the background whilst photographing or alternatively I become familiar to them and they are happy to interact with the camera.

When I go to a nursery, playgroup, or toddler group to do a photoshoot I take the individual photographs hand held so there is no tripod to get in the way. I DO use a tripod for whole class pictures but otherwise I like the flexibility of angle and movement that handheld photography provides. It is much easier for me to interact with the children, get down to their level and engage them in the process and it makes for better pictures in my opinion.

If you would like to discuss a photoshoot at your nursery, preschool, playgroup, mums and tots group, or class please contact me by emailing jo@jobelfield.com. I work in the Macclesfield / South Manchester area mostly but will consider going further afield.

Jo Belfield

From the ordinary to the extraordinary......

It took me 33 years to discover that I was a photographer. A happy accident that arose out of a chance encounter with some awesome amateur photography on www.flickr.com and the rescuing of my used-for-holidays-only point and shoot from under 2 years worth of clutter in the dresser drawer. I went outside to have a play and take a few creative photos and started on a journey that has absorbed me for the last 10 months. I haven't travelled alone by any means. I have met many fantastic photographers allong the way - some virtually and some in person - some in my village and the surrounding area and some on completely different continents. I am grateful for how talented, supportive, enthusiatic, nurturing and generous with their advice, praise and criticism these people are. I am also grateful for the support of my hubby and kids - who only occasionally get crabby that I take twice as long to walk anywhere now that I am constantly stopping to take a photo or complain about their portraits being taken every five minutes.

I am continually gobsmacked by how the lens can transform the mundane in our world - the buildings we ignore because we're not going there we're going HERE and the flowers, weeds, debris and tiny details that we'd miss if we weren't looking for them. At the minute I am generally quite limited in the geographical area I shoot in. I don't drive and I have to be back home for nursery andd school runs so there isn't a wide area for me to shoot in. So my Canon D450 has become my constant companion. My everyday haunts are then photographed and then photographed some more, and finally when the obvious angles have been done and dusted there is the looking for something else, the looking for the tiny too-easily-missed details, the looking for something extraordinary in the ordinary. I am surprised the little things I find, the things that I would never have noticed if I hadn't been looking for something beyond the bricks and mortar and tarmacadam we pass everyday. Constantly amazed, constantly challenged, sometimes thrilled, sometimes disappointed and certainly always learning.

Jo Belfield http://www.flickr.com/photos/29171103@N05/