Happy New Year! I can’t believe it is now 2019 and what a year I think it’ll be. 😛
Before 2019 came to be I worked with Trevor, an amazing photographer based in the Midlands who has brought out an amazing concept for portrait photography. As it’s now a New Year, I thought it would be great to start my first 2019 post off with a bang and talk about his company, what he does and why YOU need to get yourself a portrait photo and why!
Trevor runs TV TREV Photography, where he provides the service of affordable portrait photography for students, graduates and young professionals. When he shoots his photos he offers a natural approach, which is he speciality.
He states on his website, “I’ve realised that we are increasingly judged by how we present ourselves. This is most true for students, graduates and young professionals who have to navigate the interconnecting paths of social media, dating and job hunting. This is where my style of natural, and authentic photos comes into play.”
On Trevor’s website you can find out more about him, his social media handles, his blog, contact details but most importantly his previous work! This includes various photographs from his event, portrait and street work. There’s loads of photographs to browse through, so depending what you might want from your shoot with him, you can have a peek at what he’s already done. He has loads of variety on his website, which I loved seeing before working with him.
I loved the look and sound of what Trevor was doing with his portrait photography and it is something I really do feel like we’re missing from our social media platforms… A decent photo! We always do selfies, or use photographs from nights out with friends, or events with families. It always looks so much better and professional when you have a professional photo.
I was so excited to work with Trevor, as I wanted to share his amazing work with you guys and encourage you all that getting a portrait photograph taken should be on your goals for 2019, especially if you plan to try for a job, meet someone online or even just want to get something a bit better as your Instagram pic. 😛
Me and Trevor met up in Coventry town centre and headed to a lovely coffee shop near the train station. May I just add what a lovely, patient and funny guy Trevor is! I was running late due to a delay on my train to Birmingham and I felt so guilty. Bless Trevor, he waited for me in the train station and when I arrived we headed to the coffee shop. On the way there we chatted about what my blog and his company are about and Japan. It really relaxed me into the photo shoot, as I was feeling a tad on the nervous side. I’ve only ever had something like this once and that was almost 10 years ago!
Trevor had come up with loads of ideas for photographs, which was amazing! Due to the fact my blog has coffee in the title he suggested the coffee shop and had already come up with loads of prop ideas for the shoot in there, including getting a cup of coffee to drink from and hold. I LOVED this idea! The mini consultation we had previous to the shoot was perfect and as stupid as it sounds, I don’t think I’d have even come up with the whole, “Hey coffee in the blog title? Let’s work with that!” 😛
We sat down at a bar section in the window and I grabbed a coffee. After a bit of thought about how to do the shoot there and getting the camera set up, we were ready.
The coffee shop is a photographers DREAM as in the window there are various lights hanging from above, which make for a gorgeous sight during the winter when the earlier nights are upon us. I’d never ventured to the coffee shop before but I loved it so much! It’s the kind of place I’d venture to for a coffee and to read a good book, or catch up on some blog work.
We took loads of photographs from various positions, including from outside, which was really fun to do but at times I felt unsure what to do with myself but this was just due to the nerves. It’s hard to try and look natural at first when you have a camera pointing at you. We’re all so used to smiling and pulling silly faces!
We used the coffee cup I had my flat white coffee in as a prop and I really love how the photographs turned out for these too! When Trevor originally suggested this idea to me in our consultation I was so excited to try it out. I was meant to take a prop with me, a takeaway coffee cup but I completely forgot it at home, which annoyed me. 😦 We worked with what we had however, which was great.
One of the props we used during the shoot was a pot with some poinsettias in. This is actually one of my favourite photos from the shoot due to that prop, as well as the pose I’m doing. It has now become my blog photograph for social media, as well as for my blog! I’m so thrilled with it. 🙂
As I mentioned earlier Trevor was so patient and very encouraging as to what could be done and how we could do it. I kept smiling and it didn’t look natural so he was great when it came to the sort of photos we could take to get a more natural feel.
After each mini shoot that we did in the coffee shop, Trevor would sit back down with me and show me the photographs, which I think is such a good thing to do! I mean, if you want a surprise of what the photos are like then fair enough, but it’s really nice to see the outcome of a shot! I know whenever I do my photography for people, I always love to show them the shot I’ve taken, especially if it’s a really good one!
I honestly love the outcome of all of the photos we took in the coffee shop as they have such a natural and relaxed feel, which is perfect! You can really get the feeling of me watching the world go by, with one coffee sip at a time. 😛
I absolutely adore this photograph that Trevor took of me and I’ve now started to use it on my personal social media pages, as well as printed it off for my parents as it’s such a gorgeous picture for them to both have.
The coffee shop was pretty busy and we felt we’d taken enough photographs there, so we left and headed for the town centre to try and get some more photos. I had taken my Elodie light up umbrella with me to try and get some photographs with it, but due to it still being light and not being able to find any super dark places to shoot, it wasn’t as successful as we’d hoped.
Instead we ventured into the new eateries in Cathedral Lanes, including Cosy Club and The Botanist. There were very relaxed and fun shoots to do! We did various different things, including posing with the Christmas tree inside Cosy Club, me playing on my phone and answering messages, to me watching the people of Coventry start their Christmas shopping!
The German Market was also on in Coventry town centre, which was really cute and if it had of been darker, we would have got some awesome shots there too.
Oh by the way, it was bloody freezing sitting on the metal chairs outside The Botanist! My bum was very, VERY cold! xD
After an hour and a half, me and Trevor decided we had taken enough photographs and it was time to end the photo shoot. I had such an amazing time throughout the shoot and was so excited for the finished photographs to be sent over to me from Trevor. They arrived during my work Christmas party and I was so excited to see them!
I’m so chuffed with all the photographs that Trevor took and the amazing job he did on them. He’s such a star and I honestly can’t thank him enough. He was such a friendly and approachable guy and if you’d like to do something like this, but feel anxious or nervous, honestly don’t! Trevor is so down to earth, a laugh and just a great photographer to work with.
So, down to the pricing information and how it all works!
Pricing starts from £25 for 3 finished photographs after a consultation to find out what you would want out of the shoot and determining what location would work best for yourself. Of course there would also be a non refundable deposit, this you would of course discuss with Trevor.
If I had of paid for my shoot it would have cost me £25 with my 3 finished photographs*. There would be a £5 deposit and the price is based off the fact it was shot in Coventry.
As someone who has charged for their photography in the past, this is such an amazing price to be honest with you and is such a friendly and affordable price for students and graduates! I spoke with Trevor about getting a couples natural photo shoot done in the future for either mine and Dane’s anniversary or his birthday.
I know Trevor expressed how much he would love to do a shoot in the snow, SO if you’re based in the Midlands and it snows soon, get in touch with him! 😛
I’ll pop all of Trevor’s social media handles down below, and although I linked it at the start of this post I will also include his website again! You can also find his email and telephone number on his website. I won’t link them here due to privacy.
What do you think of the photoshoot I had with TV TREV Photography? Would you look into getting yourself some portrait photography done for the New Year? If so what would you want it for? Social media, personal? Let me know in the comments!
I hope everyone had a fabulous New Year’s Eve and I hope everyone the best year for 2019!
There Might Be Coffee 