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.'

Not one of mine but it did inspire this blog. Been here before!