Hull street workshops weekend - HIPfest 2018

Horsing around - Queen Victoria Square, Hull

Its been a long gap once my last blog posting. My only reason for this is simply because I've been chockablock with photography gigs around the UK including my Hull workshop weekend. This is my first opportunity in over a month to sit down, gather my thoughts, review/edit my photos and write a post. So here I am. Better late than never!

As a self-employed, professional photographer, you soon learn the ebbs and flows of work opportunities that come your way. Sometimes the jobs all hit you at once, which is exactly what I am experiencing. Not that I'm complaining at all. I have literally been to a different city every weekend for the past 3-4 weekends, in between travelling back down to London to fulfil more local jobs, then packing and jumping on a train to my next event! Sometimes a little stressful, but mostly I love it. I tell you what, it beats my old office life, hating my 9 to 5 job, just wishing and waiting for my work day to be over!


"Blah blah blah street photography blah blah blaaaah" - Princes Quay, Hull © Barrie Mee


© Elke Vogelsang

So, the HIPfest aka Hull International Photography Festival was a schedule-packed event full of workshops, photo tours, talks & exhibitions by some legendary photographers. I had never been up to Hull before, so that was very exciting. I had 4 x two-hour workshops scheduled. I was a little anxious about a couple of things before I got there, but most of them were soon put to rest once I finally arrived, (long story, don't ask!) and also once I met many of my fellow participating photographers and saw the venue before the first workshop, first thing on Saturday morning.

Thankfully all 4 workshops went well (despite some heavy rain on the first day), which I knew was forecast. I adapted a photo walk with a few sheltered stops to continue shooting from, and the majority of attendees on Saturday braved out the wet conditions and with some rainy day inspiration saw the rainy day as a creative challenge and got some good shots. With day one successfully under my belt, with a bit of relief, I was a lot more in my usual comfort-zone going into Day 2 (Sunday). Luckily for me and the Sunday workshop groups, the sun decided to shine all day and we had a great time light-chasing after my workshop briefings.


It's not every day that the legendary photographer Brian Griffin spontaneously walks into one of my shots - Hepworth Arcade, Hull

Hull is a wonderful city to shoot street photography. Lots of historic architecture, cobbled streets and that old town feel with a few little passageways to wander down and explore. The locals were also super friendly to me and the groups of workshop attendees I had on tow. Some even getting familiar and giving us a history lesson, each time I crossed their paths with each group I took out!

On the last workshop of the weekend, we were lucky and got to gatecrash a christening reception party that was going on. The reception attendees loved the group taking photos and so was a great opportunity to make some candid images of the many characters and moments unfolding in front of us. Sometimes in street photography, it is just fate to be in the right place at the right time. I had a brilliant weekend in Hull, met some great people and enjoyed hosting the workshops and photo tours around a wonderful city.

Thank you to Matt Hart, Alan Raw and the rest of the HIPfest for organising the event.