I was really honoured when Artur Heller founder and owner of Camerapixo asked to do an article an interview with me last month.

This is a really top class Polish magazine and has featured some great photographers upto now, so of course I was delighted to be included as well. You can read the article here http://camerapixo.com/ The article can be found by clicking on the top left edition. Enjoy !

Don’t worry, I’m not doing this !

However I am delighted to say my good friends and colleagues Whitesmoke Studio in Warsaw are now offering wedding photography training. Dorota and Michal have a really unique style and in my opinion there is no better wedding photographers in the world today. And I can guarantee you’ll learn something completely different to what is on offer here in the UK, something that is vital in today’s crowded market. So you cannot go wrong by contacting them (they speak excellent English).

What better way to spend a cold, grey November afternoon than doing some street photography. I recently purchased  the Leica Summilux 25mm 1.4 lens with an adapter to fit my Lumix G1. Below are some shots I recently took on a visit to London’s Science museum with the kids.

I love the Lumix camera in particular its small size and Leica fast lenses. So the 2 together is a match made in heaven. Some have said the AF is slow but I found it perfectly OK. I did not need to go higher than 800 iso which is just as well as it gets quite noisy at 1600 (I guess as a Canon 5d mark ll user I’ve become spoilt). and the Leica Lens is pin sharp even at 1.4.

Most of these were taken on this lens apart from the last few which I took on the Lumix 20mm 1.7. Again a great fast lens and also being very small it fitted very well into my jacket pocketeven when attached to the body.

Most of these shots below were shot around waist/chest height so I can remain as unobtrusive as possible which is important for street photography and photographing strangers.

Neil Palmer Leica street photography London

After many months of planning my new website finally went live earlier this week.

For my business its vital that I constantly evolve and not stay static for too long. So not only was a new site needed but also new, fresher images as well. During this last summer I’ve gone for a more documentary look with a slightly looser, more instinctive style. Not only that but I also process the images in a different way with some grain and harder black and whites, in a way mimicking fast 800/1600 iso film. I also add a rough black border (known in the industry as sloppy borders) to the images which, in my opinion, gives them a real documentary feel and is different to what everyone else is offering. I’ve had fantastic feedback from clients as well, some of whom want their albums presented this way.

Anyhow I’m delighted with the new site which is much easier to update than my old one and has more features and options as well. Another reason to change was that my old site didn’t do that well on google. My new one, even though its still a flash site, will do much better with the help of my SEO expert Marc Summers

Neil Palmer wedding photographer Berkshire

I was recently asked to give a talk to some Lithuanian wedding photographers at their annual get together in the city of Klaipeda. Unfortunately due to a heavy work load I was unable to attend. I did however agree to judge their print competitions. I was asked to judge 2 categories – Reportage and Funny wedding moments. This was really interesting and fun to do.

I finally chose this image for the reportage category

This was taken by Liutauras Bartasius. This is a sweet and simple moment. I particularly liked the way the rainbow leads the eye towards the subjects and also how it matches the colour of the flowers.

For the funny moments category I chose this image

This was taken by Ruta Doksiene . This image really intrigued me and it made me look twice – always the sign of a good image. I don’t know what is going on but it made me smile. A clear winner which stood out well above the rest.

Its good to see wedding photography developing all over the world at such a fast pace. This wasn’t the case when I started out 25 years ago. But with the digital and internet age now firmly established everyone can pick up and learn new ideas so much easier.

I recently exchanged my Leica 75mm lens (which is an overpriced heap of rubbish) for a Zeiss 50mm 1.5.  Yesterday’s spring like weather was an ideal opportunity to try this out on a family trip to Oxford.

I do not know any of the people in these images and the aim was therefore to remain as ‘invisible’ as possible. Most of these were taken with the camera around waist/chest level with zone focusing.

This was a very useful exercise and makes me realise, as photographers, how spoilt we are with zoom lenses and Auto Focus. Below are some of my favourites

neil palmer documentary wedding photographer berkshire oxfordshire

I’ve just checked out my equipment for tomorrow’s wedding and thought this would be a good opportunity to go through how I work.

I constantly have nightmares about not having enough equipment or it malfunctioning. On top of this there’s the worry about the car breaking down, getting lost……..

When I’m actually shooting I carry as little as possible, just the camera (Canon 5d Mk II) and a small crumpler bag (top right). In this I carry equipment I might need immediately such as lenses, spare batteries, flash gun, CF cards…

Then in the larger bag I keep all my back up equipment and will leave this in the car boot or somewhere safe at the venue. Basically I have 4 spare cameras (3 canon 5d’s and 1 20d), spare flash gun, spare lens (a bog standard 28-135 which would cover me for most situations), spare camera batteries, flash gun batteries, extra CF cards. Everything is double checked thoroughly and all cameras are set exactly the same, so in the event of equipment malfunction I can just change quickly without thinking.

The smaller bag includes the Leica M8 plus zeiss lenses 21mm, 35mm and a Leica 75mm. I tend to use the Leica during the reception meal when things are less hectic and I can take relaxed candids.

Finally on the left is my i phone with all details entered – e mails, phone numbers, websites of the bride and groom, parents, venues…Likewise I enter all the venue addresses on the sat nav and also print out pages from google maps.

That’s about it ! Quite a lot to sort out, possibly overkill. But I can’t afford to take any chances and is why, in 25 years of photographing weddings, I’ve not had any disasters.

neil palmer documentary wedding photographer berkshire

I’ve not had a wedding for a few months now so I decided to dust down the Leica and practise on a recent trip to London.
In particular I tried out zone focusing and shooting at higher iso’s.
When shooting people in public places its important to be as ‘invisible’ as possible in view of the recent paranoia and implementation of Section 76 today. Although I’m not breaking the law someone could object and before I know it be stopped and questioned by the police
All of these were taken with the camera held just above waist level.
Image wise this camera is extremely noisey and shooting indoors I dare’nt go higher than iso 1250. Most of these were shot at that, I had no choice. But to disguise this I converted the black and whites with the Nik’s Silver Efex Pro and used the Kodak Tri X 400 effect.

Anyhow, enough talk. Here are some favourites below

I always carry my Leica and Canons on my travels. However I decided not to on a recent skiing trip to Austria. I dare’nt risk losing or damaging them as I’m quite a reckless skier ! Anyhow I decided to use my iPhone instead which fitted neatly in my jacket pocket. I must say some very interesting and pleasing results.