Top Portrait Photographers 2012
Over the last couple months we’ve been asking you to nominate your favourite portrait photographer. With the help of the folks at Time for Mums, we’ve waded through all the family portraits and cute newborn pictures to narrow it down. It was a tough job— but someone had to do it! Choosing the right person to photograph your family can be a tough decision, hopefully we can help you find the right match.
This year we’re shaking things up and asking you—our fabulous readers to vote for your favourite photographer. Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be showcasing the nominees and finally opening up the polls for you to vote. You can check out last weeks nominees here.
The next two photographers to be featured are Natasha Wiening and Ben Carpenter.
NATASHA WIENING
South African born Natasha Wiening is an award winning international photographer who specialises in high end, luxurious portraiture, maternity and newborns, “Rather than formalising my photography, my ethos is to capture the essence of fun. I have been photographing families exclusively for the last 8 years and take the relaxed, gentle yet creative approach when photographing newborns while the more fun and adventurous when photographing toddlers upwards.”
Natasha uses both natural light as well as studio depending on the mood she’s creating and is also very well versed in handling very tiny babies as her own daughter was born at 31 weeks. “I was excited to do my daughter’s first photo shoot when she was only 2 days old in the Special Care Unit and as soon as she came home I introduced her to my studio. These photos are the most precious photos I have today. I completely relate to the statement, they are only small for a short while.” For this reason, she treasure the images of newborns and photographs them before they are 4 weeks old.
Natasha’s studio is based in Ealing, West London.
To see more of Natasha’s work, please visit:
BEN CARPENTER
Ben Carpenter specialises in creating beautiful, spontaneous and informal portraits of children and families. He has been photographing from a very early age and professionally since 2008. “I’m a firm believer that the best images come when the children (and parents) feel comfortable and are having fun. This is why my shoots take place outside, using natural daylight, in a place where the family feel relaxed rather than in a conventional studio with a white background and using studio flashes. Examples of the past locations include parks, woodlands, fields and gardens. It’s also nice to find somewhere that is a special to the family to give the photographs even more meaning.”
He enjoys the stories which are told through his photographs, and because of this he gives little direction during the shoot. Ben also shoots commercial work such as food, productions, interiors, but starting doing family portraits after his friends started having children and asked him to ‘take a few snaps.’ Their friends then started using him and it just grew from there, “I now pride myself at producing beautiful images that really tell the story of each individual family.” A session can last up to four hours so he has enough time to really capture the essence of the family and get a wide selection of pictures. Ben produces prints, framed prints, canvas’s and handmade albums.
To see more of Ben’s work, please visit:
