Chris Kenworthy – Embodiment facilitator & coach in Leeds

Category: Photography

  • Welcome to clarity utopia

    Cast your mind back to the last time you made up with someone. Perhaps you fell out with your partner over something trivial. Or couldn’t find common ground on a point of difference with a colleague.

    Now picture clearing the air. Between you, you agreed that the end result, be it cooperation, progress or the very relationship itself, was worth more than a petty squabble.

    Do you remember that lovely warm feeling after you came clean with one another, by explaining your side of the argument? Remember how good it felt to realise you pretty much wanted the same thing? Albeit for different reasons; ones you both found hard to express in the heat of the moment.

    Now dwell on that deep feeling of relief and contentment

    Because that’s the effect I want my copywriting and event photography to have on people – a feeling of complete satisfaction when we address that most basic of human needs: to understand and be understood.

    Put simply, I’m in the business of helping people exchange ideas clearly. So they form more meaningful bonds, and make better informed decisions – without the need to ever fall out in the first place.

    In real terms that means helping your customers or clients ‘get’ what you really stand for, by writing engaging case studies on your behalf. Or solving their problems with enlightening insight I write, so you’re front-of-mind next time they need to call in the experts. Speeches I edit do the very same – captivating people’s attention so, if only for a stolen moment, they too see the world through your eyes.

    The same goes for event photos. Suppose you host a lively, engaging event that brought people together and made your industry that little bit stronger. What’s the best way to share that electricity than with natural, honest photographs that capture the day’s activities truthfully. Much as I favour the pen, pictures transport people to different ways of thinking, far faster than words.

    As you can see, honesty and straight-talking are at the core of everything I do as a freelancer

    No matter what the subject matter, copywriting or event photography, that vision of humans understanding and being understood is what keeps the pride and joy in my art.

    This rosy world I dream of has people saying what they really mean to, and that only comes from being honest to yourself and others. It’s where people feel fulfilled from articulating themselves clearly, their truth transformed into terms others can relate to. No obstacle is too complex in this clarity utopia – everything can be taken to bits, to grasp how it works, then reassembled and made better than ever before.

    Misunderstandings only happen when people aren’t being honest with one another, and so fail to get their point across clearly enough. Sure, you can get by gesticulating and yelling ever louder – like a sunburnt Brit abroad. But that’s not a sustainable way to live and build trust.

    Instead, I propose we stride forward together towards my clarity utopia – one word and photo at a time.

    Care to join me there?

  • Living in a box

    Us humans love putting things in neat little boxes. I’m talking about mental shortcuts, like categorising, analogising, generalising and labelling. They help us make sense of a complex, noisy world around us, and simplify our decisions.

    You see this behaviour when sales and marketing tries to persuade someone to buy something.

    People seem to more readily understand a service if it’s described as a outcome or result; a neatly commoditised and parcelled-up ‘thing’ with features and benefits. It’s why products are so much easier to write about and sell – they’re physical, real things – people get that much quicker than they do nebulous services like ‘management consultancy’.

    It’s also why savvy marketing departments know to give their service a snappy name and brand it like a product, with options and pricing tiers (especially if it’s just money for old rope).

    I’ve been pondering this for a while, now that my own services have evolved over the best part of a decade in freelancing. Event photography has always been a steady success because people get what it is – there are clear inputs and outputs and a going market rate. In fact it may as well be a product. When someone hosts an event in Leeds, they know that a key component of it involves hiring a photographer to capture what happens.

    Not so with copywriting though

    Not only is copywriting a service (or more accurately an art form), the term itself sounds vague enough, but its output, words about anything, can go practically anywhere. So promoting my copywriting service is more nuanced than event photography. So far I’ve unwittingly relied on people making the connection between what I do and what it is they have in mind, that they want to produce – be it a brochure, web copy or case study (notice: these are all outputs).

    In essence it isn’t always clear what the copywriting produces – words, obviously, but for what, where? A website, a blog, an email? It suits all of these places of course, but coming back to my introduction; it’s not neat enough. The reader has to know where they want to put those words in the first place. Then they have to find a copywriter, see if they’re up to the job, then ask if that’s what they do.

    So what I’m getting at is a form of specialising. I need to commoditise my service, copywriting, into a product – an outcome or result that’s easier to understand and makes clear what I specialise in.

    The plan is to specialise in two, eventually three strands

    One is event photography in Leeds, another will be speechwriting (in time). But the second, copywriting case studies, is the strand in question.

    I’ve been writing case studies for five years solid now – so I’ve got plenty of experience. But I’ve never really pushed case studies solely as my core offering, and marketed myself as ‘the case study guy’. Until now I was just another copywriter – words for hire, anywhere.

    I accept this sounds obvious, and it’s clearly something I should have done years ago (looking back I should’ve been a journalist). But I’m happy with the way this has developed organically.

    Someone told me years ago, when I first went freelance, that I should specialise as soon as possible – get good at something and do only that. That’s the route to fiery growth. Thing is – I’m not all about growth, at least financial. I’m into creative growth – that can’t be rushed. Freelancing should be a steady, evolution of art and character, a journey through trial and error.

    What next?

    So this is a natural juncture to focus on doing more of what I enjoy most – learning new things, meeting new people, and helping them tell their story. Event photography presses that button and so will case studies, ones that impart valuable insight and advice, and tales of triumph over adversity.

    Next step is to get my offering straight, refresh this website, then approach the sort of companies in line with my ethics. I plan to write cases studies that help promote causes I believe in, like renewable energy and sustainable business. And 10 years’ natural progression in freelancing has given me the experience and confidence to realise how to put my talents to responsible use.

  • Finance Innovation Lab leadership retreat in Ambleside, University of Cumbria

    It rains in Cumbria.

    A lot.

    That’s why they’ve got all those bloody great beautiful puddles over there. So imagine my elation (and The Finance Innovation Lab‘s) when the photos came out this good, after a bright and balmy summer’s day in Ambleside.

    You’re not supposed to have light like this in Britain! (Just check out those outdoor group shots…)

    Anyway, here’s a gallery of select shots from their leadership event at the University of Cumbria in Ambleside. The event photography brief was to act like a fly-on-the-wall, documenting their guest speaker, audience, group activities plus some group shots.

    I aimed to capture photos that convey a sense of lively engagement; diverse people connecting, collaborating and sharing ideas. The Finance Innovation Lab want to show that all this is what they do best.

    And that’s what happened – and doesn’t it show?

    Want lively photos like this to promote your cause? Hire me as your event photographer.

  • Event photography: Joe Root @ Dreams store, Birstall

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    Dreams (the bed people) invited England cricketer Joe Root along to their Birstall store in Leeds on 17th September 2016, to promote their MLine range of mattresses. They needed a local freelance photographer to capture the event, and show Joe engaging with fans.

    It was a three hour job, demanding attentive patience and an eye for spontaneous interactions – as and when they happened. The results will be used for an image archive, online promotion, sales, marketing and PR.

    Here’s a selection of the best photos from the Leeds event:

     

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  • Here’s a handy checklist for your upcoming event photography shoot

    You’ve booked a freelance photographer and your event is imminent. We’re talking a day, or only hours before everyone’s on location and your shoot takes place – all captured with glorious reportage photography.

    Everything feels ready to go. But is it really?

    Here are a few oft-overlooked items to remember, which I send to my freelance photography clients before we shoot an event together in Leeds:

     

    • What about permission? Generally, it’s polite and sensible to ask people’s permission when you photograph them. You could do it explicitly with release forms, though usually it’s sufficient to assume permission implicitly with a poster warning people they’ll be on camera. Whichever you choose, have someone ready to handle questions (and objections) from subjects. That said, in my experience most people are quite obliging.
    • Are contacts on the ground ready? Your representatives and freelance event photographer should exchange numbers, synchronise watches and share a rough timeline of the event.
    • Any fussy celebs in attendance? If a demanding celebrity is coming to your event, do they have any unusual requirements for your freelance photographer? Have you shared that information? Have you asked their PA what mood they’re in today?
    • Who’s keeping an eye on the weather? They say if you don’t like the weather in the UK, wait five minutes. So when it inevitably changes for the worse, do you have backup locations indoors? Remember good light is everything in event photography, and daylight is precious.
    • Are your staff clued up? Who’s on shift? Will they be dressed appropriately for camera, with uniforms? Will the areas in shot be clean and tidy?
    • Are props in place? Many a time I’ve rearranged objects and branded bits and bobs to give character to a photograph. Not all freelance event photographers are quite so diligent though, so check that important objects are ready and in shot (and hide the bits that aren’t)
    • Have you finalised your shot wish-list? Like all humans, us freelance event photographers perform best when we have a clear vision of success in mind. So scribble down your ‘must-haves’ and ‘nice-to-haves’ of photographs, and if possible be on-hand for helpful artistic direction. We’ll always try our best to capture what you ask for, but events often take on a life of their own.

  • French gite

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    Though I’m usually a freelance event photographer in Leeds, occasionally a brief comes along that’s too temptingly different to turn down. In this case it was some interior photography to market a gite available for rent in rural France, near Bordeaux.

    Unlike event photography, the pace of work is far more relaxed – you don’t have to think on your feet quite so much. There’s time to plan your shots in detail, repeat and refine, and set up proper multiple light stands – a luxury you can rarely afford when there are countless people milling around at a launch event, for example.

    I’ve always been inspired by airbnb’s interior photography of houses and apartments so that’s the look I’ve gone for. It’s bright, vibrant and clear – thanks to high-key photography (almost overexposing shots) which makes spaces look fresh and clean. Using this style of photography, rooms seem to ‘pop’ out of the screen, emphasising modern, contemporary space. There’s some stunning vistas thrown in there for good measure too.

     

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