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Mark Blezard

An old trick in portrait photography

By Mark Blezard


Portrait photography was never my strong point, but my early career forced me into dozens of shoots with celebrities. Working with a journalist, I shadowed the writer as we covered assignments for various magazines.


I soon realised that even celebrities can pull that special 'photo face' – a most awkward pose – the moment a camera was pointing at them. The only exception was Phillip Schofield, who proved a natural model and was a delight to work with. So I started by requesting that we don't end the interview with the shoot, and that I would just snap away whilst they were interviewed. This proved enormously successful, especially as I knew when my business partner was about to pop specific questions!


But then I was thrown into another world of portraits – en masse – as I took up the photographic franchise on one of Butlins biggest holiday parks. All of a sudden I was photographing holidaymakers 2-300 times per night, 6 days a week!


So my tip from the top, infamous photographer Lord Litchfield (not in person!), was to take two pictures. One on cue and another a couple of seconds later, just as the group relaxed their 'photo face.'


Portrait photography by Mark Blezard
Not one of mine but it did inspire this blog. Been here before!

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