Recent exterior and interior work undertaken in Cambridge and London.
Various examples of exterior photography by Alex Orrow
Example of night exterior photography
Examples of interior photography
Sawston Fun Run 15th May 2011 – Images by Alex Orrow
A new facility is now available for clients and image buyers to access photographs online via a gallery website. The galleries can be configured to be accessible to specific clients and only by those invited. Public access galleries of commercially available stock photography and personal event photography are accessible by anyone and are fully searchable. Full resolution downloads can be made available as well as the ability to create a lightbox of favourite images which in turn can be shared with other registered users. All galleries are equipped with social media sharing tools and email tools. Tools are also available to provide code to embed slideshows on a website or blog of choice.
The galleries can be accessed via the client area of my commercial portfolio website or by invitation. An internet search of a gallery name could also provide another access point.
Results from the Cambridge University Botanic Garden commission, to photograph children enjoying the Botanic Gardens surroundings and activities. Before undertaking this project I spent some time scouting locations with the marketing manager to find suitable places for children to enjoy and interact with the garden. There were so many beautiful and interesting options I new it would probably be best to stick to just a few places rather than tackling a long list of locations. Otherwise tiring the children and loosing their attention span.
There were in total about 12 children on the day, all were very enthusiastic and full of energy. My approach was to allow the children freedom to interact and enjoy themselves but to also set up and pose situations where the children might interact or find fun. Such as looking into fish ponds, hiding under tree branches or creeping through bamboo. Always keeping a mindful eye on the unexpected. I beleive the results are very natural and capture the fun atmosphere of the mornings shoot.
All images were shot available light with some fill from reflectors. The gardens are very interesting and diverse, with some wonderful views and trails throughout. More than enough for any photographer to get their teeth into, if you enjoy photographing nature and landscapes.
Photographs of Children enjoying Botanic Gardens
Photographs of Children enjoying Botanic Gardens
At the begining of the summer of 2009 I was asked by the marketing and communications team of Cambridgeshire Mencap to undertake photography for a new website and to update existing library images. The work involved visiting many of the homes, services and activities of the service users over a period of just under 3 months. With the aim of the photography to capture creative natural and fun images of volunteers, activities and service users.
Work is now complete on the new Cambridgeshire Mencap website and the site is now live. Cambridgeshire Mencap is a charity based in Cambridge, UK and supports local people with learning disabilities. Their important work encompasses supported living, access to community activites and training. They also support parents and carers providing them with information, advice on relevant issues and backup when they need a rest. Undertaking photography work for Mencap was a real joy and great learning experience for me, and gave me a better insight into the lives of those with learning disabilities and the conditions associated with having a learning disability. As well as the parents and people who support and care for them.
More information about this interesting commission and examples of the results can be viewed here.
Spire Healthcare commissioned Alex to take photographs for a new image library. The photo shoot took place in Manchester, Leeds and Hull Hospitals on 3 consecutive days during October 2009. Resulting images are to be used across the Spire group for all corporate marketing and PR.
Healthcare & Medical Images
Healthcare & Medical Images
Healthcare & Medical Images
Art Director: Tim Gosling / Hair & Makeup: Lesley Vye / Assistant: Wayne McDermott
Scouting Locations for a photo shoot at Cambridge University Botanic Gardens for new leaflets and image library updates. The garden is a fascinating place with exploding cucumber buds and carniverous plants! It also has endless possibilities for photographs and so I used the iphone camera to quickly take photo sketches of interesting locations so that I would have a reference on the day of the shoot as a reminder. Rather than having models and client hanging around waiting for me to find the best location and angles.
Example iphone images from the recce below. I will post comparisons to these images on completion of the job in a few weeks time!
Location scout Cambridge University Botanic Garden
Location scout Cambridge University Botanic Garden
New images for the Cambridge Museum of Technology. No specific brief for these images. The room used at the museum was full of old radios and television sets, unfortunately none were working. The children had fun though despite the lack of interaction in the exhibits. I asked them to pose and they really got on with finding ways to look intersted. I used x2 Nikon SB800′s without modification placed on stands on camera right to provide side and backlight while filling shadows from window behind the exhibits. The use of off camera flash helped also to separate the subjects from the background. I also used 1 SB800 fired into the window side wall to help lift the ambient light. See lighting diagram below, handrawn! More example lighting set ups in Part 2
Children enjoying exhibits at Cambridge Museum of Technology
Children enjoying exhibits at Museum
Lighting Setup diagram
Lots of portraits taken over two days for the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital’s new nursing recruitment brochure. Great job, loads of fun meeting some very nice people. The brief was quite open with guidance to take approachable, happy portraits with neutral backgrounds. I chose to shoot with available light where possible and fill shadows evenly.
Cover Portrait Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospital Nursing Recruitment Brochure
Nursing Recruitment Brochure Portrait
I have posted the examples below and in part 2 to give an idea of how a very simple and relaxed corporate portrait can be taken on location with minimum fuss but with lots of variety. Both examples use the exact same location and a lighting se tup which did not need to be moved. Using this set up enabled a variety of shots to be taken without taking to much time to reset lights and location. This was a necessity as I was confined to just one room.
Relaxed Corporate Portrait lighting examples
The first image on the left above was set up as follows:
One Bowens Gemini 500 with wafer softbox positioned on camera right close to subject and with a white reflector on the opposite side to provide fill. A second smaller light a Nikon Sb800 was placed on top of my lighting case low down behind the subject aimed up towards the wall behind. This provided a formal set up but with some separation with the background. The pose and lighting is quite standard but was a good starting point to work from. It also allowed the subject to begin to relax and get an idea how things were looking by seeing the image on the back of the camera.
The set up for the second image was a matter of turning the softbox used in the first image around so that it pointed towards the wall behind the subject, raising the level from a dark grey to almost white, no adjustment to the power output was needed. A second Gemini 500 with umbrella was used as the key light placed on camera left and feather slightly so that light would not fall onto the glass partition immediately on the subjects left side. The pose was adopted by the subject and I only asked her to turn slightly more both left and right.
The third image from the left was changed only by moving the subject to a different part of the room where I could use a glass partition wall as background. Using as my key light the soft available daylight through a window behind camera. I left the softbox in place but rotated it again so that this time it was aimed at the glass wall behind the subject. Even though the ambient daylight level was quite high the background remained flat and dark. I wanted to keep the high key level created by the daylight and so used the softbox to create some fall off behind the subject. The pose this time was set up only by asking the subject to stand and lean on one hand toward the camera. Although the pose felt a little awkward to begin with, this soon changed as we chatted and laughed. The pose begin to take a more intuitive and natural feel.
The fourth image was lit in the same way, except this time I asked the subject to sit (a different portion of the wall behind could be used as background now) again leaning on the table with one hand, the subject adopted a version of this position when she sat down and I could see she was comfortable with it and so I asked her to continue but I refined some the shapes and position of her hands. It is always enjoyable to be photographed when you are not aware of having to think to much about posing, allowing subjects to find an intuitive position always works well and means you can continue to keep a dialog flowing.
In total shooting time for one subject was between 20-30 minutes. There were more variations taken but not included in this example.