After years of shooting beauty contests, fitness competitions, and commercial portfolio sessions, I've learned that a fashion portfolio isn't just a collection of pretty pictures—it's a strategic document that opens doors. Whether you're a model breaking into the industry or an established professional refreshing your book, the principles remain the same. Start With Purpose, Not Just Pictures Before booking a single shoot, ask yourself: what work do you want to attract? A por

When a client preparing for Miss Swimwear contacted me about portfolio photography in Brentwood Essex, I knew we needed authentic locations that would showcase both competition-appropriate presentation and natural confidence. What I didn't anticipate was turning a quiet gym into an impromptu theatre. The moment I fired the first strobe test, the previously empty gym suddenly acquired an audience. Male gym-goers materialized from nowhere, nonchalantly working out while watchin

John Healy Defense Secretarty in Downing Street on his way to a cabinet meeting. I work regularly in and around Downing Street and Westminster as an NUJ-accredited press photographer, covering political arrivals, meetings, protests, and the routine choreography of British power. This is not glamour photography. It is procedural, time-critical, and often uncomfortable. That is precisely why it matters. Access is the job. Without accreditation, background checks, and an unders

There is a persistent misunderstanding about local photographers: that “local” means limited. In practice, the opposite is often true. I am based in Brentwood, Essex , and work across the county and beyond. Essex is my home base — the place I understand instinctively — while the images themselves frequently travel much further, appearing in national media, commercial websites, professional profiles, and digital platforms with audiences well beyond their point of origin. That

Fei-Fei Li by Ian Davidson Standing in Downing Street at dawn, waiting for an arrival that may or may not happen, I've had time to think about what's coming. As a press photographer with Westminster credentials, I operate in a world that AI cannot easily enter — you need a body present, at that place, at that moment. Yet I watch the stock photography market I also work in being transformed by AI-generated imagery. I find myself living across two realities: one resistant to au