Its been a while since I added anything here.

The event season is about to kick off again and we are taking bookings through the year, so if you are organising an event or know somebody who is, get in touch with us to see how we might be able to cover it for you.

The time spent in the Studio in Shrewsbury was a good one and we had many new faces through the doors for some portraits and family photo sessions. It was a good time and I know I will be seeing more of some of you in the coming months.

I will be making a few changes to this website over the coming weeks, new photos and new ideas, but in the meantime, here is a picture I took of Criccieth Castle in North Wales at the weekend. Hope you like it.

Criccieth Castle

We are currently in a unit in the Darwin Shopping Centre, Shrewsbury until the end of the year.

There are fantastic prices on studio portrait prints and the sessions themselves are free. No need to book, just come along and ask.

Photoshoot vouchers are also available for sessions later next year at less than half their normal price, but only available in-store.

Come along and pick up some wonderful Christmas presents that are unique to you. What can better than a picture of the children or family for the Grandparents.

Are you looking for something really big, something unique and special. Well, maybe we have the answer. Having teamed up with a supplier of bespoke wall paper you can now adorn an entire wall with one of your photos. These wall paper photos look great in the home and office and will leave a lasting impression on both your friends or clients alike.

For a limited time we are offering this at a special introductory price of just £60 per square meter before it goes to its standard price of £75.00 at the end of October.

At a couple of shows recently we have been experimenting with a small studio in our tent as well as our normal photography activities. Next year we will be offering this in one form or another at most events, but they are really event dependent.

The first is the trophy shoot, both as a mock magazine cover and second as a more straight forward print.  See the examples below.

Next will be the more traditional portrait and we can include dogs in this too, like these two.

If you would like something like this at the next show we are attending, just come and ask us. Oh, the Little Owl was brought along by the Worcestershire Barn Owl Conservation Trust and is only available at certain shows. Sales of prints featuring the owl also help the Trust.

The other day I was asked to take some photographs for a young musician to use in his promotional material. Ali had the idea of hauling a piano out onto a rise in the landscape close to his home. It was quite surreal listening to him play and sing out in the middle of the field with the lovely Teme Valley as aback drop. He wanted to keep it casual and do something a bit different, so here is what I came up with for one of the shots.

Alistair Webb plays the piano.

We also did some shooting indoors a bit later and here is one of those images taken in the recording studio.

In the Studio

©Michael Martin Photography.

In the past I have taken horses in to the studio as and when I have been asked to, but now I have decided to run some full day sessions as once the lights are set up, they may as well be there for the day. If you are interested in having your horse photographed in the studio, then this is an ideal opportunity. Places for this will have be very limited as it can take time for some horses to settle and allow us to get the best out of them, so book as soon as you can. First come first served.

A booking fee of £75 reserves your place on Wednesday 27th July and will be put towards any framed prints or canvas wraps that you order.

See some more examples here.

On Saturday I had been asked to cover the Rinding Clubs Area 18 ODE in Oxfordshire, but due to a prior booking, I passed the day work over to my friend Simon Coates and he tells me he had a really good time there. All images are on their way over to me now for uploading to my website and should be available for you to view and purchase in the next couple of days.

Yesterday was hot one, very hot and some people I know got rather sun burned. Lets hope they are not too bad today. I was with the Warwickshire Pony Club shooting their One Day Event at Whitfield Farm and we had three photographers their. Thanks to my daughter for her excellent work on the cross country, to Rob Dunsford for coming out of ‘retirement’ and shooting the show jumping and also to our new photographer Beccy Fitter, for whom this is all new.

While we were sweltering in Warwickshire, the Ledbury Hunt had their Summer Horse & Dog show down at Eldersfield and Wendy Lillygreen + one other were covering this for me. Images are on their way to me and will be in the website in the next day or so.

Now is time to charge the batteries and get ready for the next round of events and portrait shoots.

I am pleased to announce the winner of our Spring Prize Draw is Janet Hughes from Malvern. Janet, who completed an order form at the Ledbury Spring Hunter Trials, wins a free photo shoot and a framed print. Congratulations Janet.

Our Summer Prize Draw is now under way and to enter all you have to do is complete an order form at one of the events we are attending. The next draw will take place at the end of July and the prize is once again a free photo shoot and framed print. We already have a number of entries from Sapey at the weekend.

Sapey Mid-Summer ODE was a great success with the weather staying fine all day and plenty of entries. The photographs are all available to view now in our Shop.

This coming weekend is another very busy one. On Saturday there is the Area 51 Riding Club ODE in Oxfordshire and as I can’t get to this one it is being covered for me by Simon Coates and his team, although images will be available from me after the weekend. On Sunday I will be with the Warwickshire Hunt Pony Club for their ODE at Ettington where we will have the full team. Also on Sunday is the Ledbury Hunt Summer Show, which due to a date change I obviously can’t get to in person, but we will have at least one photographer there to cover the showing classes and with any luck another to cover the show jumping. Once again, images will be available from me after the weekend.

Lets hope it is another great weekend for all.

We have just spent a very blustery two days at Berriewood Farm for their first BE in a number of years. It was great to see so many old friends again and it felt quite like past times. The three photographers working for me took many fine photos over the two days and I hope to have them all up and available for you very soon. All being well, Saturday’s pictures will be live in the morning, Monday. Many thanks to Jo, Pete and Judy for their photography and to Steve and Natalie for generally being helpful.

While I was at Berriewood, Abi and Penny were covering the Malvern Hills Riding Club Area show jumping championships for me. Jo, Pete and myself will back at Malvern tomorrow for their open showing and jumping competition and I hope to have the images for the first day of the Malvern Hills competitions online late tomorrow evening. The remainder of both sets of images will appear over the next few days.

So, what’s new.

Well, firstly we have an updated shopping cart system. Much the same as before but with an improved user interface and you now have the ability to crop your images before ordering them. Also, the new Gift Voucher facility makes it easier than ever to buy Gift vouchers for your friends or family members. Just follow the link and fill in the form. Simple.

Later this month we will also be offering you the chance to buy full digital files at events. This facility has been available for a while online, but now it will also be available on the day of the event. You will have the ability to transfer the images directly to your smart phone, or you can bring along a USB memory stick* if you prefer. We will be offering the digital files at the same price as our standard 9 x 6 prints, including the multiples discount. Please note, we have tested this with the iPhone and iPad but not other devices, so they may not all work, but so long as you have the ability to save an image from a website, you should be good to go but bring along a memory stick just in case. Instructions will be given in our tent at the event.

* USB Memory Stick. Please make sure your memory stick is empty before you come to the event as we can not be responsible for any data lost or corrupted during the file transfer process.