David Wagstaff-Myers Photography

One of the joys of photography is discovering stories that quietly challenge our assumptions. Spend a day at a clay shooting ground, and you quickly realise this isn't about stereotypes. It isn't about men in tweed discussing cartridges over a bacon sandwich. It's about people who love a sport that demands concentration, discipline, patience and respect. On this particular day, what really caught my attention wasn't the shooting itself—it was the women. Hence the slightly tongue-in-cheek title... Girls and Their Toys. Before anyone reaches for the comments section, no, these aren't toys. They're beautifully engineered sporting firearms, treated with enormous respect by the people who own and use them. The title simply reflects the enthusiasm we all have for our hobbies. Photographers become obsessed with cameras and lenses. Cyclists with bikes. Anglers with rods. Clay shooters? They appreciate a beautifully balanced shotgun just as much. And that's perfectly...

"It's not just about capturing what something looks like. It’s about capturing what it *feels* like.” An Inspiring Day with Patrick Legard of Legard Furniture Today, I had the privilege of joining Patrick Legard, the artisan behind Legard Furniture, for an inspiring photoshoot to showcase his stunning handmade wooden furniture. Patrick isn’t just a furniture maker; he’s a storyteller. Each piece he creates tells a tale of patience, precision, and passion.   As a photographer, capturing that story is just as important as photographing the piece itself. This blog offers a behind-the-scenes look at the day’s journey, from setting up the perfect shot to capturing the soul of Patrick’s creations. The Setup: Welcome to the Workshop Every photoshoot has energy, but walking into Patrick’s workshop was special. The space hummed with quiet creativity. The air was tinged with the fresh scent of sawdust and varnish, and large windows framed streams of natural light that danced across t...

Today I will discuss the importance of background in photography composition illustrated with some examples of mine. Part of a larger series covering elements of composition in photography for which you’ll find links at the end of this article. I taught myself photography in quite a specific order, I navigated / progressed through various urban photography genres: Graffiti Photography > Urban Landscape Photography > Street Photography It’s the reason I realised early how important an image’s background really is, allow me to explain: I took-up photography as I used to have an obsession with graffiti, around 2006. I was like a trainspotter but instead of obsessively shooting trains, I’d hunt for new graffiti art around London which would be cleaned or gone just as fast as that elusive locomotive. I had to find them. After exclusively shooting graffiti up-close, photography itself became my passion. I realised I loved graffiti because of how it sat within its surroundings and its e...

                                                                                                             Catchlights are the lights reflected in a subject’s eyes. I normally use strobes to capture them. Catchlights add life and sparkle, while their absence can result in dull, lifeless images. There are no hard and fast rules, and sometimes you may want dead and lifeless. It’s all about knowing what you want, why you want it and how to create it. But portraits are almost always better with catchlights. Single vs. multiple catchlights Regardless of the light source used, the goal remains the same: replicating what exists in nature. In nature, we have only one light source, the sun, and there’s only one....

Inspiration The most exciting kinds of artificial lighting are those that mimic natural light. It’s not easy to recreate nature’s subtle, atmospheric qualities. Beginners make the common mistake of throwing way too much light at what they’re shooting. Whether you’re shooting people or products, less is more. The more focused the lighting, the more interesting and visually compelling it becomes. If there’s light everywhere, there’s no direction for the viewer’s eye to follow. If there’s a scarcity of light, the areas that are illuminated become the focal point. We see this kind of subtle light in nature. Lighting geeks like me love nothing more than watching the way sunlight behaves as it streams through a narrow opening, moves across the sky or scatters into beams of light as it breaks through clouds or strikes the leaves of a tree overhead. It results in unique shapes and patterns. These magic lighting moments give me pause and remind me how powerful light and shadow can be in...

QUICK TIP: USE TENT PEGS TO STOP YOUR LIGHT STANDS FALLING OVER ON LOCATION One of the most common questions I see on social media, especially just after somebody’s posted an image shot on location with flash, is “How do you stop your light stands from falling over?” – which isn’t an unreasonable question to expect. When it’s just you and your subject, how do people stop their light stands from falling over? Well, you could carry a bunch of heavy sandbags around with you, or make sure to hire an assistant for all of your location shoots, but photographer Wayne Speer has another idea – especially when shooting in locations with soft ground. He uses tent pegs and rope. It’s a great way to keep your stands pegged down – quite literally – so that they don’t fall over due to being top heavy or during a bit of a breeze. I’ve been using this technique myself for about a decade now, although I strap mine down slightly differently to Wayne. You can see in the images above that Wayne ties his...

There is a recipe in everything we do as human beings, one that incites some type of emotional response no matter where we are and what we are doing. It involves the senses—whether a single one or multiple at the same time. In the artistic realm, part of the goal is to generate a response based on a recipe that engages sight. This requires a process that will make your vision come to life—from formulation to actualization in creating images that inspire and elicit joy when viewed. The creative process and the steps we take to achieve a goal are similar across many genres. In this case, they are similar to the process of a chef who specializes in a specific set of culinary delights. This is how I approach creating my images, whether in a studio or out on location. There is more than one recipe, of course, but I will go over the five key steps that structure how I approach creating my own imagery. There are several factors to take into account: Location, Lighting, Colo...

Finish What You Started It is so important that, as artists, we finish our final images before delivering to our clients. The images we create are more than just a snapshot in time; they are truly a representation of how we see the world around us. These images will live on for generations to come. Shouldn’t we polish them before we deliver them to our clients? Now, in the world of post-production, we tend to see two camps. There’s that of purists, who believe in just delivering images as they were captured, reminiscent of the days of film before we had Photoshop. And then there are those on the other end of the spectrum who believe in using software to shape, alter, and polish their images before presenting to their clients. I’d like to think I live somewhere in the middle, which I am sure many of you can relate to. What I would like to do here is explore how the right amount of post-production can help you and your business stand out. First, let’s start with thi...