Category: Portraits & Studio

Maternity Photoshoot

Maternity Photoshoot

Last month I did a maternity photoshoot. I’d had an offer on and a lady at 39 weeks contacted me requesting a shoot that week.

I’ve done many maternity shoots over the years, but obviously none in the last 2.5 years and this was my first big shoot in about the same time frame too. So, understandable I was a little apprehensive about getting back in the studio.

I needn’t have been, everything came back to me very quickly and we started the shoot with my usual low key styled images.

This mum to be was really interested in my material images, many are, so after a range of shots we moved on to these covering my normal styles.

and then some draped versions with mottled backdrops.

We also shoot with some lovely lace.

I wanted to try a couple of new things with the materials and created some nice stretched wrap images.

If you live in Devon and are expecting, please give me a call. I often have offers on for my maternity shoots and if not, they are still a good deal.

Sports Portraits

Sports Portraits

Are you a sports person or do you have a Son or Daughter who is a sport person? I do!

My three children all love cricket. My son loves swimming, athletics, but mostly cricket as does it more seriously than the other two. So, I take a lot of sports photos of him.

If you or your children are involved in a sport have you thought about getting any photos done of them in their sports gear. I offer great studio sports portraits. I tend to just do studio sports as then it is just concentrated on your child without worrying about how else is in the photos.

If you are interested for yourself or your child, please get in touch to book a session. Then if you like, as I have done, you can come back over the years to show a progression.

Over the years, I’ve taken photos of my son as he has progressed with his cricket.

He started playing softball matches a couple of month after turning 7 and his first hard ball match a month later.

At the end of every season I try and put together a compilation of images from that year.

Every Year I like to update the photos I take of him in the studio.

and get creative with them

Another end of season composite

As he progresses and learns new shots we also incorporate them into the shoots.

And I’ve got more creative with the photos too.

2021 season

Although he didn’t grow out of his gear for a few years, each studio session has shown a progression in him and his style.

He also is a good bowler

As well as the yearly composites, I’ve also created a few match montages.

Please get in touch if you would like to book a sports portrait.

Wine Bottle Products

Wine Bottle Products




Over the past few years, I’ve been taking photos for a local vineyard. (See Life of a Grape link below).

I spent a year photographing the key stages of the work process, from the initial pruning of the last years vines, through to harvesting and bottling.

Then, of course, the all important bottles shots.

I’ve taken some nice on location images,

plus standard products shots.

I’ve varied the style over the years based on requirements and needs for that photo.

The first photos were full product images, inline with an existing lighting style of past photos.

I’ve also taken some more ‘interesting’ photos with coloured background to match the bottle labels.

This year a new wine was produced. This came in a different style bottle and was sparkling. So I used a different setup to show off the colour…

and the bubbles, by adding to glasses to the shoot.

The latest wine, I was asked again to show the colour, so I used the same lighting, but on a normal bottle.

If you run a vineyard and would like a free quotation for some product photos, process photos or a ‘Year in a Vineyard’ shoot, please contact me using the link in the Commercial Work page below.

LOP CV Photo Challenge Wk 16 – Beverages

LOP CV Photo Challenge Wk 16 – Beverages

If you are still doing my challenges, you deserve a pat on the back and a drink!

This week is then Beverages!



or something non alcoholic

I hope you are enjoying them!

Then as usual, show me what you’ve taken via the challenge tag #lopcvphotochallenge

Past challenges and results can be viewed here.

LOP CV Photo Challenge Week 15 – Black and White

LOP CV Photo Challenge Week 15 – Black and White

This is week is all about Black and White. Ideally this is monochrome or black and white images taken straight in the camera and not vivid colours converted in photoshop. Minor tweaks are allowed though.

So look for objects that are primarily monochrome black and white and see just how many you can find. I have a feeling this could be quite abstract too!

Then as usual, show me what you’ve taken via the challenge tag #lopcvphotochallenge

Past challenges and results can be viewed here.

LOP CV Photo Challenge Wk 12 – The Elements

LOP CV Photo Challenge Wk 12 – The Elements

Ok, this week challenge, is a real challenge!

It’s the elements, the 4 elements, Earth, Water, Air and Fire.

I’d like to see photos of these elements, but all taken in the same style, so not just photos of each one.

Photoshop, is allowed as long as it’s using your own photos for minimal editing and joining the images together.

It’s a toughy, it’s new for me too, so I’v had a challenge this week to create a sample image and here it is.

Then show me all your interesting challenge photos this week via the challenge tag #lopcvphotochallenge

Past challenges and results can be viewed here.

LOP CV Photo Challenge Week 6 – In The Kitchen

LOP CV Photo Challenge Week 6 – In The Kitchen

Wow, I’m finding that the weeks in lockdown are actually going by quite quickly. Once again it’s another Sunday and time to set another challenge.

I found choosing this one a little tricky. It maybe overlaps a little with some other weeks, but it should then also allow you to get creative.

So, week 6, In the Kitchen. Anything goes that’s in the kitchen!

I had a root around my 100,000 photos for examples and couldn’t really find any that related to ‘In the Kitchen’ apart from my Soup photos from 2 weeks ago.

So, I quickly grabbed a few bits and took some shoots as examples.

Hopefully this will give a good diverse arena for some interesting subjects.

Happy shooting and remember to use the hashtag #lopcvphotochallenge in any social media platform.

Past challenges and results can be viewed here.

LOP CV Photo Challenge Week 4 – Bottles & Cans

LOP CV Photo Challenge Week 4 – Bottles & Cans

Wow, week 4 already of my Covid19 Photo Challenge. I hope it is keeping you busy and testing your photography skills.

So, this week is Bottles and Cans. How you choose to photograph them is up to you.

I’ve made a start on Bottles and even incorporated some of my Water Challenge photos into them as well.

I then tried a different way of photographing bottles. Learning something new.

And tried a similar method on a clear bottle with white background.

Now, I’ve photographed some Cans

and I couldn’t resist adding in some water!

I had great fun working on all of these, now it’s your turn.

Happy shooting and remember to use the hashtag #lopcvphotochallenge

Past challenges and results can be viewed here.

LOP CV Photo Challenge – Week 3

LOP CV Photo Challenge – Week 3

Now, I been so excited about my week 3 subject, that’s its only Monday and I’ve done it.

Week 3 is Water

With the help of my 8yr old Son, his first time behind the camera, we created this image from a few shots.

I then took these photos with my Son dropping the tomato. We made quite a mess, but it was great fun and we plan to do some more.



Again, You can find peoples entries on social media using the hashtag #lopcvphotochallenge

You can also view all my images from my challenge here, with link to the social media feeds too.

LOP CV Photo Challenge Week 1

LOP CV Photo Challenge Week 1

So, last week I set a challenge to try and keep the boredom away while everyone is in lockdown. They challenge was to take a photo (or 2) on the topic of Games. Thank you to everyone who took part. You can find peoples entries on social media using the hashtag #lopcvphotochallenge

These were my photos




I will be setting a new challenge every Sunday, so keep you eyes peeled.

Cosplay – Clown to Harley Quinn PT.2

Cosplay – Clown to Harley Quinn PT.2

So last month I wrote about a shoot I did, that started as a Clown shoot and progressed into a Harley Quinn shoot.

The reason behind this was partially to do with the makeup that was being worn, but also because I had planned to do a shoot a couple of months earlier for which I had bought a Harley baseball bat. Sadly, that shoot didn’t happen, but this was a great opportunity to use it and get the shots I had in my head.

Now Harley had great colours in her costumes and I’ve seen some great photos that incorporate these colours and I wanted to do a similar thing, but in my style and setup. So we set about creating some Harley Quinn style poses which I then edited in Photoshop afterwards to add in different backgrounds and smoke effects.

I created a couple of smoke effect images with the ‘classic’ colours of pink and blue in the smoke.

Then I wanted to to try and added some different types of backgrounds to the portrait. Using a background I’d made for the clown shot, I changed the colours and orientation so it followed the bat line.

Too me, a Harlequin brings to mind diamond shapes, so I create a diamond background and made a grunge version, I also whitened her face a bit in this one to make it a bit different.

and finally a sitting portrait with bat and diamonds.

One of the issues I had, was I had so much fun creating these and doing different processing, I could decide which versions I liked the most. For example, I have 4 versions of the last image.

Now all I need to do it do a Batman and or Joker shoot, that would be cool!

Valentines Maternity Review

Valentines Maternity Review

It’s Valentines Day, Happy Valentines! and what better day to review a few past Maternity Photoshoots.

I’ve been doing these types of shoots now for many years and they are one of my favourite types of shoots to do. Partially because I have 3 kids, and enjoyed shooting our own maternity shoot and partially because I get to combine my 2 main styles and create lovely shots with floating materials.

My maternity shoots are a combination of black and white images and colourful materials.

As it’s Valentines Day, let’s start with a classic black and white image. This one shows both Mum and Dad to be with a classic hand Heart pose.

or another classic low key colour side lit image.

I like black and white photos, I think they create some lovely images with great lighting and I love my material wraps. So here an image combining both.

Saying that, you just can’t beat colour and my wrap really adds colour! Here is one, a lovely golden orange wrap, taken on a dark background.

Just a simple draping of the wrap creates a love image.

I have lots of wraps, so you can choose your favourite colour and have a lovely floating wrap photo, or go for a classic blue or pink.

Or some with a bit of punch!

It doesn’t have to be on black either to have an impact. If you prefer something slightly soft but still impressive, it can be shot on white with a slight colour added to the background but still in a classic pink…

…or again something a little brighter!

I have so many variations on these styles to choose from to put in this post. If this is something that interests you, please visit my Maternity pages to have a browse, oh and Happy Valentines!

Lee Orchard
North Devon Maternity Photographer

Cosplay – Clown to Harley Quinn pt.1

Cosplay – Clown to Harley Quinn pt.1

Recently I got to shoot something quite topical. With the release of the new Harley Quinn film, I had the chance to do a shoot along that sort of style.

However, that is not how the hoot started out. We began with some cat eyes, stripes and a lovely colourful corset

Then with some clown styled clothes we created some poses that we thought would make some clown styled images!

Clowns like to play with balloons, however, as anyone who’s tried to photograph some balloons can tell you, it’s not that easy! Especially when they are old and pop when you touch them!

However, with some perseverance we got another shots to create this photo.

I created an interesting background and produced a circus feel photo.

I noticed that the styling of the clothes looked very ‘Betelgeuse like’ so I processed an image to give that effect.

She also had a very scary looking bunny!

With a slight addition of another striped piece of clothing and a hat I created a very eye bending image with a checkered background. I really like the effect of this photo.

Now came the idea to make this into a Harley Quinn shoot, which I will write about in part 2 of this post.