photography Newcastle – www.photographynewcastle.com

North East photography – www.northeastphotography.co.uk
Newcastle photographers – www.newcastlephotographers.net
photographers Sunderland – www.photographers-sunderland.co.uk
photography Durham – www.photographydurham.co.uk

Search Engine Optimization is truly a black art and I am nowhere near mastering it. I have spent many hours tweaking the web pages of my main website www.robbirrell.com to make it feature more prominately in the search engine rankings.

I’ve done quite well in targeting keywords in my immediate town of Durham so keywords such as “Durham photographer“, “photographer in Durham” should find me. However, from the relatively low number of hits on the website I’m coming to the conclusion that folk simply aren’t looking for photographers in Durham and when they are, they are looking for wedding or portrait photographers which isn’t really my line of business. So once again I’ve targeted keywords such as “commercial photographer Durham“, or “product photographer Durham” but I’m finding that these keywords are hardly ever searched for. The jist of it is that there is a very small market for this sort of photography in Durham itself.

Of course I’m only 20 miles from Newcastle, about 16 miles from Sunderland, and 24 miles from Middlesborough, and Darlington, Stockton on Tees, Gateshead and Washington all fall within a 20 miles radius of my home so I consider all these local. In fact I’m very to happy travel anywhere in the North East of England, North of England, or South and Central Scotland. UK wide and international assignments are certainly not out of the question.

One of my neighbours, Russell Collingham of VoxDev (www.voxdev.com) has been invaluable in providing advice and help with creating backlinks to my various sites. Hopefully I’ll reap the dividends soon when I get an influx of hits on the website and hopefully a corresponding increase in the amount of business generated. If not I could be looking for my 3rd career!

Well, I’m just back from a short break to Manchester. It’s not somewhere I know well but I’ve visited twice in the last couple of years. Did Salford Quays on the last visit and was in the city centre this time. Both times I’ve been struck by the exciting modern architecture so this time I set off on a mission to capture some of it on camera. To cut a long story short, time was against me and by the time I got out of my hotel I only had about 10 minutes of good light left. Here are the best results mostly taken within the Spinning Fields district.

So what about the architecture that I didn’t manage to take on this trip. Top of the list is the Civil Justice Centre, then there’s the Urbis building, the Hilton, The Avenue when they take the wrappers of it, Chips New Islington, Hulme Arch Bridge, Trinity Bridge, and finally the Corporation Street Bridge. Google image search is a marvelous source of inspiration! Anyway, that’s plenty to occupy several more visits as well as a return visit to Salford Quays. If you’ve got any more suggestions please add a comment.

Now, I should really embark on similar projects closer to home in Newcastle, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Durham

Winner – Commercial Category

This year’s annual Photography competition for the North East region, held by the British Institute of Professional Photography, took place on Thursday 26th November 2009 at the Ravens Dean Hotel in Gateshead.

3rd Place Image – Commercial Category

The competition was divided into five photography categories; Weddings, Portraits, Press & PR, Commercial and Pictorial. Professional photographers from across the North East submitted their best photographs into the competition for judgment by BIPP Fellow Mike Roper, who has won Scottish Photographer of the Year for the past 3 years running.

Mike praised the technical skill of my winning photograph commenting on the exceptional sharp detail in even the darkest parts of the image.

One of my images “Mobile Phone” has been selected for this year’s Shot Up North (SUN) Awards. The SUN Awards – now entering its 20th year – recognises and rewards the best commercial photography in the UK regions, working in the disciplines of Advertising, Design, Fashion or Editorial Photography. The 50 chosen images are currently exhibited at Manchester’s Lowry Hotel and after that set off on a coutrywide tour.

SUN AWARDS Exhibition Tour 2008/9
MANCHESTER – Lowry Hotel, 6 November – 2 December 2008
LEEDS – Design Innovation Centre, 7 February – 2 March 2009
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE – The Biscuit Factory, 6 March – 19 April

the SUN Awards will also be at these Calumet branches:
Liverpool (Special Edition) January 12 – 31
and then Sun Awards as follows
Birmingham April 23 – May 10
Nottingham May 12 – 31
Drummond Street June 3 – 18
Belfast June 22 – July 10
Manchester September 1- 31

In addition to being selected for the main awards the image is also available as a limited edition print at a cost of £245 unframed, including delivery Buy Print

I’ve finally got around to a long overdue update of my commercial website, Rob Birrell Photography at RobBirrell.com. Along with a new colour scheme you’ll find loads of new images that hopefully better describe what I do. Let me know what you think, if it works for you and how it could be improved further.

Valve Assembly in makeshift studio

Finished Image of Valve Assembly

I recently completed a commision for a German Engineering company who asked me to shoot some images of a valve assembly before it shipped out to their customer. Problem was that the assemblage was about the size of a mini and could only be shifted about with a fork lift truck. Well the sub-contractor, VA Kirkdale of Wallsend, was most accomodating and agreed to paint the floor for me. The backdrop is my studio white muslin backdrop turned on its side and stretched as taught as possible between the uprights. Even then it wasn’t quite high enough so I ended up shooting from about 5 foot off the ground on a scaffolding tower.

Thankfully the job had been postponed from the original intended day as a couple of days previously I was largely immobilised by a nasty stomach bug which meant that I didn’t dare venture more that a few feet from a toilet. As it was I did the shoot drugged up to the eyeballs fueled by little more than 3 litres of water. I lost 7lbs that week!

Click through on the above images to see the finished images.

I must say that I was very happy with the results even if it was threatening to look like the Dating Ali showcase. We must try and get some other models next time we do a photoshoot.

The showcase was the culmination of a 6 month programme run by GLEAM. The programme aims to help creative graduate entrepreneurs (like me) through the early stages of the startup of their businesses. 18 other businesses and myself took over a disused warehouse, 51 Lime Street in Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley and converted it into an exhibiton and performance space for 9 hours of Thursday 1st May, 2008. All in all it was a great success and great fun was had by all.