Simply stunning photographs from Timothy Allen. Thanks to Mavis Ord for pointing me towards Tim’s photography. How I’d love to take images like this!

A World on the Brink.

For some time our friend Tim has been evangelising about the environment and how we can lessen our impact on it. He has recently released an online book “A World on the Brink” which really puts the situation into perspective. Many of the photographs are Tim’s own I believe. He’s wasted as a Doctor!!!

This book stemmed from an interest in urban decay and dilapidation. I wanted to record the decline of the North East’s traditional seaside resorts. Little did I know when I started this series of images back in the early part of 2008 that the World economy was about to plunge into recession. My original premise that such resorts were in decline due to the Brits favouring sunnier foreign climes was soon to be turned on its head as those same holidaymakers tightened their belts and started to frequent British resorts once more.

Thus, in the course of this study the emphasis has changed from one of neglect and decline to one of regeneration. Yes there is still plenty of dilapidation but there is also hope for the resorts as the excavators move in to refresh the sea defences and to knock down the eyesores. The North East remains a depressed economy and without significant global warming there is unlikely to be a huge growth in home based beach holidays but at least these resorts may find a new niche as short break destinations.

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.

So I selected a landscape that I thought would work well and started a dialogue with Dan of MCanvasPrints.co.uk about what options were available to me. He was extremely helpful in explaining the “wrap options” to me and emailed examples of what the various crops would look like.

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.