PaddyYates.Co.Uk Blog
21Nov/130

Super Bennie Westwood’s Calendar 2014

Cover Image

Calendar Cover

 

Well the cat's finally been let out of the bag now, as its been announced and is now on sale !!! So I can now blog about it......

Earlier this year I was asked to get involved in a project which I had to keep secret (well secret-ish). Bennie, who has been a good friend for quite some time now, asked me to do the photography for the production of his Testimonial Calendar. When I say "he asked", more like I was told and I had no other option to do it !! (Damn you Debbie Hudson!).

For some reason in the Rugby League World, the players can't wait to get their kit off. The mere mention of the word calendar to one of them and they've stripped off before you've had a chance to ask them to pose for it!! Bennie wanted something different with this calendar, he wanted the nakedness ..... just not with the usual white backgrounds or photoshop'd images. Normally we'd do these shoots in a studio where it's nice and private (and warm!), this time we had no such privileges. Bennie had done a deal with the sponsors for each month of the calendar to have the images taken at their place of work - Nice one Bennie! To make matters worse, we would only have one hour or so to get set up and take the shot. I think it was fair to say no matter how much background research we did on the Sponsors, the locations and types of shot we'd expect, we really only had a short time slot to really prepare - usually just before the player got naked!

Emma Bryan (Hattie Boo Designs - www.hattieboodesigns.co.uk) and myself spent the best part of the last 3 months running around various locations in and around Warrington taking the pictures of the players, desperately trying to get the shots required with the best lighting possible, but also protecting the players modesty (some were some done in public view!) and preventing camera phone shots from onlookers getting onto Facebook/Twitter etc.

I think all the hard work and panic has proved it's worth, the calendar is now available to buy from the Warrington Wolves souvenir shop (Wolfware) at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, Calendar Club in the Golden Gates Shopping Centre Warrington. Its also available online from 1895Sports.com

The calendar features 13 of the current Warrington Wolves squad, each of them revealing quite a bit more than what you would normally see on the pitch! It's also a limited edition run, so once it's sold out there won't be anymore being produced.

Thanks to all the Sponsors, Players, Bennie's Testimonial Committee, Warrington Wolves and the man himself Bennie Westwood.

 

Primary Back Cover Image

Primary Back Cover Image

 

1Jun/130

We made it home safe…..

Just to prove we made it home safe .... Shot of a Ferrari 599 GTB and 458 Spider in the mountains around Davos. It was fun driving these beasts up the winding mountain passes. More pics will be posted soon on Flickr / Facebook and Galleries site.

FerrariDavos

I'll put a new post up soon with details of the trip.

 

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25Mar/130

Iceland, February 2013

In February I was very lucky to take part of the first Welshot Imaging Iceland "Experience". Welshot really wanted to call the trip "The Northern Lights" experience but didn't want to upset attendees in case the weather was too bad or overcast that we saw nothing of the Aurora. Well, Lee Iggulden (one of the Welshot Directors) needn't have worried, what we saw and experienced probably couldn't have been beaten and provided us with unforgettable memories and friendships.

Lee had really done her homework with regards to hiring the best private tour guide, Ýmir Björgvin Arthúrsson and selecting team leaders from Welshot who would simply make the whole trip thoroughly memorable, in particular Richard Roberts. With their guidance and perseverance, all attendees had a fantastic experience. I'll not blab on here about the whole trip, I'll leave that to a fellow attendee, John Evans who wrote a fantastic entry on the Welshot Imaging blog:

 http://www.welshotimaging.co.uk/blog/2013/03/12-go-mad-in-iceland/

 

The images I took have taken a while to process, some of them may be re-visited in the future and re-posted, but a selection of the images have been uploaded to both my gallery site and Flickr pages.

http://www.paddyyates.co.uk/jalbum/galleries/index.html#folder=Recent%20Images/Iceland/Around%20Reykjavik

http://www.flickr.com/photos/padster1970/sets/72157633087693968/

 

Funnily enough, my favourite image of the whole trip wasn't the Northern Lights, thats not to say they weren't fantastic.  It was this shot taken on the last day which brings a smile to my face each time I view it....

Iceland--12

A poignant and fitting end to the trip, and truly a place for contemplation and reflection.  Djúpalónssandur beach is the site where the British Trawler "Epine"  was shipwrecked in 1948. The bits of the boat have been left as a reminder and natural monument to those who lost their lives.

Thanks Lee, Eifion, Richie and Ymir it truly will be a trip I will always remember with great memories!!

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10Feb/130

Nice panorama in Iceland

20130210-224651.jpg

Taken with the iPhone panorama app.

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10Feb/130

You had the fox, here’s the Glacier!!

20130210-192947.jpg

Taken on the Welshot Iceland Experience.

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6Feb/130

Morning visitor

CF__0431

 

One of this morning visitors to the new house. The cheek of it, we've only just moved in and it looks like this fox and his pal are squatting in the garden.

Quite nice to actually get my camera out this year!!

This little fella looked so content sunbathing, but boy it was cold - How the heck am I going to survive Iceland at the weekend??

15Nov/120

Another photoshoot in the bag

I was approached recently by a good friend to 'tackle' (sorry Rugby pun) some photography for the launch of the new Warrington Wolves Rugby League team's 2013 Season kit. Brookson are the principle sponsors this year and they wanted some publicity shots for their website and associated publications etc.

The main shot involved 'creating' a team shot with around 175 of Brookson staff wearing the new shirt. The only gotcha was that only half the amount of staff would be available at separate shoots, how the heck was I going to produce this? Thank Adobe for Photoshop CS!!

Two separate images were taken, this is the result.....

Brookson Team Shot

For more information about Brookson visit their website: http://www.brookson.co.uk

5Oct/120

Lightroom 4.2 update released!

For all the photographers who use Adobe Lightroom, version 4.2 has now been released.

Hopefully this fixes the issues with the Canon 5D Mk3 !!

13Aug/120

The Church of St. Thomas, Stockton Heath.

 

Work in progress for the biggest project I've ever taken on.

24Jul/120

Canon Mirrorless Camera – it’s coming!!

Interesting times are ahead for us Canon users.

I was always quite impressed with the 'old' mirrorless Panasonic GF1 camera which I purchased about 4 years  ago now. Even a few DSLR users at the time (I wasn't one back then) turned their heads at the images it produced. Small, quiet, relatively compact and can slip into a suit pocket (with pancake lens).

Canon have now decided to throw their new baby into the arena and given that the M camera bodies can use EF or EFS lenses (with an adapter), this just might be the ultimate travel camera for us DSLR users.

A few links for more details:

http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/Digital_SLR/EOS_M/

http://www.calumetphoto.co.uk/eng/gallery-canoneosm/home?t=CM02&a=CM02&cal

http://www.parkcameras.com/c/314/Canon-Compact-System-Cameras.html

 

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