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Bobby Shoebotham 29/04/2025 Bobby Shoebotham 29/04/2025

Friends on Film - A Year of Analogue Photography

That’s right, following on from the standout success of my last film blog ‘Australian Aventures in Analogue’ I thought people may be interested to see how the photos have progressed and what I’ve learned by wrestling with the beast of film photography for a whole lap around the sun.

35mm film photograph of 7 men standing by the river thames looking out over the city by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Two things dawned on me recently. The first was that it’s been just over a year since Lauren’s mum very kindly gave me the gift of an old 35mm film SLR camera for Christmas, meaning it’s been just over a year since I started trying my hand as a film photographer. The second was that it’s been basically bang on a year since my last blog post, which, given how helpful they are meant to be for a photographer’s website SEO is potentially pretty disastrous news. However, the useful thing about this dual moment of realisation is that’s presented the ideal solution to the problem posed by the latter marketing crisis… Another film blog! That’s right, following on from the standout success of my last film blog ‘Australian Aventures in Analogue’ I thought people may be interested to see how the photos have progressed and what I’ve learned by wrestling with the beast of film photography for a whole lap around the sun.

35mm film photograph of a mixed race woman smiling at the camera on a boat with tower bridge in the background by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a group of men with beers standing on a london streetby london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a young baby girl looking up off the camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a brindle whippet lying on a bed in the sunshine by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a man with long hair walking in some tall grass with his young son by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a baby asleep on his mum’s shoulder by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of blonde haired man holding his young daughter and laughing off camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a grandma holding her young grandson and looking at the camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a grey haired man with long hair holding a baby in a grassy field by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a brindle whippet dog with it’s arm around a cuddly toy by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a mixed race woman holding a whippet dog close to her fce and smiling at the camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a woman holding an empty bap waiting in a bbq que by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Black and white 35mm film photograph of a man in a checked shirt and a long beard standing in a kitchen by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a mexican man reaching for his beer in an english pub while holding his daughter by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a young boy kissing his baby brother on the forehead by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a very small church in London with a large sign saying ‘The Church’ by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a woman with dark hair sitting at raffles bar in singapore smiling by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photograph of a blonde woman holding her young son and both smiling at the camera by london photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A blonde man in a colourful t shirt holding a young baby in a kitchen by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Since I’m naturally a glass half empty kind of guy, I guess it makes sense to talk about my struggles with the format first. A big thing for me as a professional photographer is sharpness. I spend a good chunk of my time when taking and editing digital photos for work obsessing over getting the focus right and getting the all important sharpness and detail, especially on people’s eyes. With this camera, for a few reasons that ever so slightly goes out the window. I’ve improved on it considerably (as I’ll discuss later), but one of the biggest things I’ve learned during this whole thing which strangely enough has nothing to do with actually taking photos is just to learn to let it go and stop being such a perfectionist photographer nerd. The camera is 35 years old, it has no autofocus and the inherent grain in 35mm film means there is only so sharp things can be, so I’ve just had to make my peace with that, which is almost definitely a good thing for the purpose of the types of photos I take with it.

My second major gripe was actually moaned about in the last blog post and I’m yet to find a way to improve upon the situation and highly doubt I ever will. If you’re a REALLY big fan of my blogs, you may have guessed that it is of course the inability to take a photo with this camera without bringing it up to your eye to see what’s going on. I’m sure there’s some kind of study in human psychology that may discuss this in much more detail, but when using a camera like this I really come up against something I call ‘The Chandler Effect.’ Basically, as soon as someone sees you bring that camera up to your eye they immediately become self conscious and bust out an almightily un-natural smile, which, for someone who has basically made a career out of candid photography is sometimes a little hard to deal with.

35mm film photo of a black whippet dog wearing a singaporese jacket sitting on a sofa by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a woman and a man standing in a field with yellow grass and trees both smiling happily by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a man in a wooly hat with a baby strapped to his chest, both looking at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of 3 friends and a child all sitting inside a warmly lit bar and smiling at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a black whippet dog lying on a concrete floor by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a blonde mother and grandmother sitting on a blue sofa with two young boys by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a young couple posing in tiaras in a shop in singapore by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

35mm film photo of a boy in a blue cap kissing his little brother on the cheek outisde by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man holding his young baby daughter with a piece of red pepper in his mouth by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

An older woman sitting at a kitchen table and looking off camera as if listening to someone by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A lemur at london zoo sitting in some green leaves with a blue sky behind it by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young family laughing together sitting in a living room by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A group of five friends on a beach smiling at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A woman in a white and black jacket smiling on a london street by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A group of friends in a pub beer garden smiling up at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A whippet dog stretching out on its back on a green bed in the sun by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

So enough of the whinging, what have I learned since the last blog? Well, in short, a lot. After having literally just been talking about trying not to be a photographer nerd, this next bit is going to be real ‘photographer nerd’ heavy so feel free to skip if you really don’t care.
The main thing I’ve figured out relating to sharpness is picking the right film and/or trying things out with the wrong film. I realised the main reason my photos weren’t sharp enough is because my shutter speed was too low in anything other than direct sunlight, which was making hand shake/motion blur noticable in the photos. This essentially meant I had to up my ISO, so I started picking film that was at least 800 ISO and I think it’s helped with sharpness no end, and also means I can shoot in darker conditions. I also found out you can ‘push’ film to a higher ISO level than it’s meant to be shot at and then ask whoever develops it to process it in a special way. I think this has been the gamechanger for me, as not only does it give you the higher shutter speed, but because you are pushing the film in a way it’s not really meant to be shot it can give you some cool side effects such as more contrast and depth in colours, and I always love trying weird stuff. You can see the contrast especially in all the black and white photos in this blog which was a pushed roll, and about 30% of the other shots have been pushed too.

A man with dark hair and a beard wearing black smiling at something off camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham — This guy is a great example of what pushing film does to a photo. Fujifilm 400, shot at 800. Super contrasty and nice deep colours. The subject is OK too I guess.

Last but not least, I found out you can actually kind of edit analogue scans in Lightroom, which has also been a bit of game changer for me, as I actually started editing photos before I even became a photographer and it’s a big part of my process. I’m sure there’s a few purists out there that will say this is ‘cheating’ or something dumb like that, but the easy answer to that is that photo editing has been a part of photography since people started taking photos. If you see a professional photo anywhere, I hate to break it to you but it has 99% of the time been edited somehow. You’re pretty limited with how much you can alter an analogue scan so you’re basically still retaining all the original characteristics, you can just ever so slightly help them pop a bit more which I think makes all the difference.

A woman with interesting sunlight coming through plant leaves on her face looking at the camera and smiling by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A ginger man in a hat sitting in a pub and smiling by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy dressed in blue kissing his young baby brother who is sleeping by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy sitting on his dads lap looking looking over at the camera and smiling by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young mother holds her toddler sun in a garden on his birthday by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy reaches up to his mother and baby brother as they sit at a kitchen chair above him by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A whippet dog in a purple and yellow jumper lying down looking sad.

A large temple in singapore by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man in a hat and beard holds his baby daughter up on his shoulder by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy with his blonde mother sitting at a kitchen table in a bright room smiling by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A woman with dark skin holding a whippet dog on her lap and looking up at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham.

The turrets of battersea power station on a blue sky sunny day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

So how am I feeling about analogue photography after a year in the game? Well given the amount I just worked out I’ve spent on film and development over the course of the year… I’d say i must be loving it!

You always hear the whole “There’s just something special about film” trope being espoused by analogue nerds everywhere which I always thought was ridiculous, but in a complete one eighty I now totally, totally get it. You’ll notice there’s not many landscape photos here and the shots are made up almost exclusively of people (and dogs) I love and there’s a reason for that. The film seems wasted on landscape or urban shots where I know my digital camera can do better, but when it comes to people there’s something it just can never beat here. Someone said the other day that even photos taken on the newest film cameras that still have that analogue buzz basically take you back to looking at childhood photos even if they’re from present day, and I think that’s a huge part of it. There’s something timeless about the way film will always look which, coupled with moments of family or friends just make you feel warm inside to look at. On top of this, when you know a photo is going to essentially cost you a pound every time you take it you know to make them count instead of shooting off 1000 photos an hour, and you can really tell when you get them back.

A young baby boy in a large white sunhat looking at the camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Two Sri Lankan women sitting on a bench in the summer in a sunny park in London by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A woman and a black whipper dog lazing on a sofa in a singapore apartment at sunset by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy with his face painted like a tiger on a leafy road on a sunny day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A brindle whippet dog in a blue jumper sitting on a bed and looking off camera by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

As a photographer who loves trying new things I also love the fact that there’s hundreds of different types of films out there, each with different characteristics for me to try (and potentially bankrupt myself in the process). I think even people who don’t know anything about photography could probably tell which of these photos are from the same roll of film as others, and there’s something pretty cool about that. For anyone thay cares my current fave is Fujifilm 400, but I got hustled hard in a shop in Brighton the other day to try 2 kinds of film I’d never even heard of so who knows, if the guy in there is right I could have a new one any day now.

A young blonde boy coming out of a colourful garden shed holding an inflatable guitar by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Two dark skinned woman smiling at the camera happily by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man in a wooly hat holding his baby daughter in a sling on a grey wintery day in a london park by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A whippet dog sitting in a bed and looking at the camera on a sunny day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

Two young girls and a man playing in a toy car by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

So there we have it; after a year it’s safe to say I’m loving film photography. I don’t think I’ll be offering it in a professional sense any time soon as I’d be pretty worried about charging money for something I’m not 100% comfortable doing, but as a personal passion project I’ll definitely be continuing. The photos aren’t perfect but in a way that makes them more perfect than pristine digital shots, and as a way of capturing life with my family, buds and dogs, and the way the photos make me feel when I look back on them, I don’t think it gets any better. Hope you’ve enjoyed the shots as much as I have!

Five friends sitting around a pub beer garden table and smiling with pints by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A dark skinned woman and a ginger man with a large beard smiling in a kitchen by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A dark skinned woman in sunglasses smiling off camera on a sunny day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man in a colourful shirt and a brindle whippet dog sitting in a london park on an overcast day by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A whippet dog sitting on a bed looking up at a camera in interesting sunlight by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man, dog and young son on a bike walking in a leafy green park in London by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A young boy smiles up at the camera as his blonde mother looks down at him by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

A man with dark hair sitting on a sofa with his two young sons, one of which is wearing a mask

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A young family all with light hair smiling against a cream background by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham

The platform of East Ham underground station in black and white by London photographer Bobby Shoebotham.

Bobby Shoebotham 15/04/2024 Bobby Shoebotham 15/04/2024

The Falklands

A man in an orange coat and hood standing on a pristine white beach with blue skies in the Falkland Islands.

If you’re on a social media account remotely connected to any of mine or have seen me in person at any point in the last 3 months, the news that I went to the Falklands in March would no doubt have been pretty inescable. As you can tell by my complete failure to do so, it was pretty tough not to tell literally everyone I knew about this as it was such a bizarre, amazing and frankly mind boggling experience. Seemingly not content with hearing me rant about it at any given opportunity a lot of people have been asking me what it was like, so I figured I could use a blog post to kill two birds with one stone; write a little bit about it while sharing a few of the hundreds of photos I naturally took of such a rarely visited place. So if you’re at all interested or just want to see some quite nice photos of an absolutely stunning location, keep reading.

For those not in the know; my friend Joe and I got approached by an agency at the start of the year with a proposition to take our slightly absurd country duo to the Falklands for a 40th anniversary party of Consolidated Fisheries: a fishing company based there. As we later found out they were (direct quote) ‘looking for someone crazy enough to make that journey for a show.’ Obviously that was us. We got back to them straight away saying yes, and after a couple of months of thinking we hadn’t got it, we received the big email… We were going to the Falklands!

Now like most people we had only really heard of the Falklands in connection with the conflict there in the 80’s, and I don’t think either of us fully appreciated just how far away and remote it is. It’s an 18 hour flight and is only accessible via an RAF flight from an airbase in the Cotswolds. On the way you stop to refuel at Ascension Island; another mind numbingly remote island smack bang in the middle of the Atlantic ocean about 1000 miles from the nearest significant land mass (Africa). It’s also a military base and American space program site, so unfortunately our hour long stay there had to remain completely undocumented, as photography is illegal there. However if your vibe is going to places not many people on earth have been, I’d certainly recommend it.

7 hours later and there we were, landing in the Falklands being greeted by lot of big men in military uniforms and our lovely host Sharon, who was not only responsible for making the whole thing happen but would also spend the next 6 days driving us round, providing us with everything we needed and in general just taking fantastic care of us, in keeping with the amazing Falklands hospitality we soon discovered was everywhere on the Islands. Let the adventure begin.

So what is it like there? Well as you can see, it’s beautiful. Absolutely insane landscapes, white beaches, shipwrecks and stunning wildlife are all around you as soon as you leave Stanley, which is where we were staying. Then there’s Stanley itself which is a super cute, colourful and quaint little place which is the capital city of the islands. Only about 3000 people live there, so it’s really not big and as you can imagine is pretty oozing with history, both from the war but also the preceeding 150ish years of colonial history there. It’s also windy… in fact it’s hard to convey just how windy. It’s basically as close as you can get to the Antarctic without actually being in the Antarctic, and the wind sure makes you realise that. I got specifically warned not to spend too long out in the wind, because ‘it’ll tire you out’. It did. Thankfully after about 4 hours of walking around Stanley I think I’d seen (and photographed) most of the town, and some of the highlights are pictured above and below.

And then there’s the penguins… did I mention the penguins? If I wrote a blog about the Falklands without mentioning the penguins I’d probably tick off a few of the locals somewhat, as penguins are basically the national symbol of the Falklands. It’s a wonder they’re not on the flag, and this is hardly surprising considering apparently there’s about a million of them on the islands. That’s about 283 penguins per person that lives there. Can you imagine anything better?

I didn’t manage to get too many photos of these little chillers as I went out with a wide angle lens on and didn’t want to get too close so as not to scare them, but the few I got are below. It was on the beach pictured where one of many ‘what the hell is going on and how has learning Nirvana on my mum’s old guitar when I was 14 lead me here?’ moments on the trip struck me. Needless to say, standing a couple of metres away from wild penguins on a pristine white beach 8000 miles away from home has a way of generating a certain feeling of wonder in a person.

So enough about the place, how was the whole experience? Well at risk of getting too gushing, it was incredible. Obviously we were there first and foremost to play shows, and I’d say they were among the best we’ve ever done, especially the first night. If you’re interested you can see some footage of these here. I don’t think I’m too out of line to say that things like this don’t happen too often in the Falklands, and you could really tell this by the level of energy and all out joy the crowd brought to both shows. They pretty much started dancing right out the gate, and let me tell you, people in Stanley can really dance! I’m talking ballroom dance. It was quite a bizarre moment when we started playing a slower number only to see everyone couple up and literally start waltzing around the dance floor, complete with spins and twists. It was also great to get off stage and meet the locals, all of whom were just lovely. There was a slightly hairy moment when we went to play the matinee show on Sunday afternoon only to discover that both of us had almost completely lost our voices, but even this was met with nothing but warmth from everyone in the place. One phrase that really sticks in my mind was ‘If you make any kind of noise at all we’ll count that as a success,’ and that sure is how it felt.

It also feels hard to do the trip justice without mentioning the chaps in the photos below. Up until about 3 weeks before the trip we thought we were the only band crazy enough to be making the journey, but we then discovered some guys called ‘Pat Winn and the Western Stars’ would also be playing. We also didn’t realise we’d be sharing a house with the guys, which I guess could end up being less than ideal if you didn’t get along, but thankfully from the word go that wasn’t really something we had to worry about. All absolutely lovely guys, phenomenal musicians and would you believe it, they liked a few beers just as much as us. We ended up getting on like a house on fire and having some very funny times, and it was great to get to dance to some proper country music played fantastically by great musicians. Thanks for a great trip fellas, hope you’re all well!

And that’s it! I’m sure I’ve missed out a lot. It turns out summarising 6 mindblowing days of surreal fun in a single blog post is a little trickier than I thought, but hopefully the photos can give you some idea of what the place is like. Suffice to say, we had an absolute blast. There’s not much better than travelling to exciting new places and playing music you love with great friends by night and walking around taking photos by day, so this really checked all the boxes. Huge thanks to Sharon, Trish and everyone at Consolidated Fisheries for getting us over there, singing along and looking after us so fantastically well. The same goes to all the people of Stanely we met who made us feel so welcome and had a great laugh with us. I know we said it a lot while we were there, but this really was a once in a lifetime experience for us so it really means a lot. And of course to Joe, Pat, Glen, Dave and Stu for such a blinder of a time! This wont be a trip I’ll forget any time soon!

Bobby Shoebotham 29/01/2024 Bobby Shoebotham 29/01/2024

Australian Adventures in Analogue

35mm photograph of a beach on an overcast day in port Phillip, Australia.

As some of you may know, Lauren and I went to Australia at Christmas to spend my first ever warm Christmas with the Australian fam. What you may not know though, is that I was very kindly gifted a mint condition, 37 year old analogue 35mm film camera by Lauren’s mum when we arrived. In quite a cool full circle moment, the camera was originally bought by Lauren’s dad before she was born to take pictures of her as a baby and at some point got resigned to the store room. Fast forward 37 years and it’s been given to me, who will use it almost exclusively to take photos of Lauren. As I say… full circle.

Now as a disclaimer, I have never used an analogue SLR camera. I had to look up how to load film, how to expose photos, heck even how to focus. For this reason if you’re expecting arty, well taken photos, you may be in the wrong place. This is the first two rolls of film I took with this camera and I was totally getting to grips with it while documenting the trip, so they are very much holiday snaps. However, I thought people may want to see what we got up to in all it’s grainy analogue glory, so here we go:

35mm photograph of a beach in Dalmeny, New South Wales, Australia

35mm photograph of a woman with brown hair wearing a blue shirt smiling as someone off camera.

35mm photograph of a black dog standing on a hard wood floor looking up at the photographer

35mm photograph of a couple smiling at the camera in a brewery with the word ‘beer’ written in large lights behind them.

35mm photograph of a man in a pink polo shirt in a brewery smiling at someone off camera.

35mm photograph of a black dog on some grey decking looking up at the photographer.

35mm photograph of a woman with dark hair and pink ribbons on her shirt smiling at the photographer.

35mm photograph of a woman and her grown up nephew on a beach smiling at the camera.

35mm photograph of young girl at a table in her living room playing a game with a woman opposite her with her back to the camera

35mm photograph of four people raising their drinks and smiling the photographer.

35mm photograph of a man in a blue shirt and a woman with dark hair in pub with pints in front of them smiling at the photographer.

35mm photograph of a woman and her mother sitting on a deck doing some watercolour painting with each other.

35mm photograph of the Melbourne skyline through a chain link fence on a sunny day.

35mm photograph of a young girl with red hair watching a street performer in Melbourne, Australia

35mm photograph of a woman with white hair on a boat smiling at someone off camera.

35mm photograph of a woman with dark hair and a dark dress on next to a railway track at Flinder’s street station, Melbourne.

35mm photograph on a man on a boat holding a beer and laughing at something off camera.

35mm photograph of a laughing woman holding up a mirror to show someone off camera in a brewery in Sydney, Australia.

35mm photograph of a red glowing satanic looking symbol in a dark bar in Melbourne, Australia.

35mm photograph of a group of young people walking down the street on a pub crawl in Sydney, Australia.

35mm photograph of a woman with dark hair wearing sunglasses and a dark dress on a boat in Melbourne, Australia

35mm photograph of a couple smiling at the camera on a rooftop in Sydney, Australia

35mm photograph of a red haired Brittany Spaniel looking out over some bushes in the Australian bush.

35mm photograph of the Melbourne skyline on a Sunny Day

Now make no mistake; anyone that has ever talked to me about photos, cameras or photography will know that this is pretty much a 180 degree turnaround. In fact since getting this camera I’ve even had friends screenshot old messages from me saying that analogue cameras were obsolete, unnecessary and anything you could do with an analogue camera could be replicated with a digital one. All I can say is… I was wrong. I absolutely love how these have come out, and could not have done it on my digital.

I still don’t think I would have ever been interested if one hadn’t fallen into my lap like this (which is a really great twist of fate) and there’s still a lot of things I don’t like about this camera. My biggest gripe is that you need to bring it up to your eye to see what you’re shooting, read the light meter and focus. This takes away any opportunity to shoot from the hip, which I’d say about 70% of my photos of people are. It sounds creepy (maybe it is?) but I think portrait shots are so much better when the subject has no idea there’s being a photo taken, as they’re actually just acting how they would and there’s a lot more scope for natural, beautiful moments between friends and family to be captured. However, I’ve found with this that the second you bring a camera up to your face people start posing and doing that weird forced smile that we all seem to do whenever we know we’re having our photo taken, which I do feel takes a lot of the actual spontaneity out of the photos. Also very unsurprisingly given it’s nearly 40 years old this camera is disastrous in low light (again, where I take a lot of my photos) but I’m hoping with some different film and lens choices down the line I can slightly sort this issue out.

But these don’t detract too much from the upsides. Namely, knowing you only have 36 photos so really making each one count as opposed to taking 1000 shots a day and never doing anything with about 95% of them. Plus of course the true sense of excitement you feel when you’re waiting to get the photos back which is something I don’t think I’ve ever even come close to in the digital realm. And of course… that grain! The thing that numerous instagram filters and Lightroom presets are trying to imitate but can never really compare to is just right there on every shot.

Double Exposure 35mm photograph of a fishtank in a Chinese restaurant super imposed with a smiling dark haired woman wearing sunglasses.

My absolute favourite part of this whole process was learning about double exposures. I’d kind of heard of these through weird photoshop tutorials in the past but didn’t really know what they were or why I’d want to do them. However at the end of the YouTube tutorial I watched to learn how to use the camera (because obviously that’s how everyone learns how to do everything nowadays) the guy mentioned this fairly advanced technique called double exposures which, even though I didn’t even know how to take a single photo on the thing yet, I knew I’d be trying out before long. For those who don’t know, they are basically two photos in one photo. You take a shot of something, then without winding on the film take another photo and they will be kind of blended together to create what can be a really cool effect. In the one above I took a shot of a fish tank that also doubled as a window in a pub that also doubled as a Chinese takeaway (I know, bizarre) and then took a photo of Lauren to come up with this shot. There’s a few more examples in the shots below, although I think this is probably my favourite. For anyone that wants to try these, they are tricky concept because you’re exposing the film twice which means it needs half the amount of light on each photo to be correctly exposed; so maybe if you want to try it… y’know, YouTube it first.

Double exposure 35mm photograph of a woman in a wine bar in Melbourne, Australia.

Double exposure 35mm photograph of a woman in Bob Hawke’s Leisure Centre in Sydney, Australia.

Double exposure 35mm photograph of a woman with dark hair smiling at the camera with blurred lights as the second exposure.

Double exposure 35mm photograph of a woman in a blue hair and sunglasses on a beach in Vincentia, Australia.

Double exposure 35mm photograph of a dog mixed with the Australian bush in Narooma, New South Wales.

So there you have it, my first forays into analogue. As I’ve said above, I really enjoyed taking these (and most importantly not having to edit them!) so I hope you’ve enjoyed them too. I’m planning on doing a lot more of this if the cost of the film doesn’t financially cripple me, so assuming I don’t need to sell my laptop to afford it I’ll keep posting the best of these, so keep an eye out. The future is analogue!

35mm photograph of a woman about to board a very small plane at an airfield in Australia.

35mm photograph of a woman in a green dress and Christmas head dress on a deck in Vincentia, Australia.

35mm photograph of two friends smiling at the photographer in a brewery in Sydney, Australia.

35mm photograph of a brother and sister cutting a ham on Christmas Day.

35mm photograph of a man with a black t shirt and yellow christmas cracker hat on smiling at the camera.

35mm photograph of 4 friends smiling at the camera on a rooftop in Sydney, Australia.

35mm photograph of two cousins both dressed in green play wrestling on a sofa.

35mm photograph of two cousins both dressed in green laughing together at a kitchen counter.

35mm photograph of a woman in green smiling at the camera with a drink in the foreground.

35mm photograph of a couple sitting at a dining table both laughing at the camera.

35mm photograph of a family on Christmas Day listening to a story being told off camera

35mm photograph of a father and daughter playing in the sea together in Vincentia, Australia.

35mm photograph of a family sitting at a table in a restaurant smiling ash the camera.

35mm photograph of a group of friends all smiling at the camera in a brewery in Sydney, Australia.

35mm photograph of a group of friends smiling at the camera at an outdoor table in a hotel in Sydney, Australia

Bobby Shoebotham 18/04/2023 Bobby Shoebotham 18/04/2023

Jack and Lisa’s Wedding

A couple kissing on their wedding day under a large ornate arch in London

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I was on Facebook the other day (I know right?… Old) when I noticed it was the anniversary of Jack and Lisa’s wedding, meaning it was also the anniversary of my first wedding as a photographer. Aside from reminding me of a great day, this also prompted me to think “My god, it’s been a year and I haven’t really posted many pictures of that or done a blog post about it on my website or anything. How am I so bad at the internet?” So at that very moment I vowed to right this wrong and here we are a week (and a few hundred swear words directed at my computer) later with a blog about the big day.

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As just mentioned, this was a big for me. I’d only done one other wedding before this (big shoutout to Jules and Caroline) and that was a ceremony only shoot at a registry office during covid, meaning due to various rules and an upcoming proper wedding day with a proper wedding photographer, the whole thing was over in about half an hour. While this was a great day and a lovely opportunity to be handed, it was quite a far cry from a full day, whole event wedding like the pros do. For Jack and Lisa’s, it was time I put on my big boy pants, face my fears and go for the big time.

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I’ve known Jack since my very first day at uni; in fact he was quite literally the very first person I met on my first day there. There I was, sitting alone at a table having just arrived at the bar, silently contemplating the utter horror of trying to make friends when this blonde haired guy who looked like a James Blunt fan (and it turns out was… in a BIG way) asked if he could sit down. Fairly unbelievably, it turned out that not only was he in the room two doors down from mine in halls, we were also essentially the same course and, fairly bizarrely, our dads came from the same town. The rest, as they say, is history. However at no point during that meeting or on any of the many nights of student drunken debauchery that followed did I ever, ever see a scenario where one day I might be taking this man’s wedding photos. Nonetheless, a good 18 years later I got a call from Jack asking if I could do it and was absolutely honoured for the chance.

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It was a full on day. Post ceremony taxi ride around London, followed by reception, group photos and then everyone’s favourite; the party. On top of all that, I was obviously also a guest, so as well as making sure I captured every moment and kept all batteries etc. topped up, I also had to adhere to Jack and Lisa’s ‘most important instructions’… i.e. to ‘put the camera down and have a good time.’ It was a fine tightrope to walk, but thankfully I think I managed to succeed in both jobs, and I’m really happy with how the photos came out. And I definitely had a good time!

Huge thanks to Lisa and Jack for taking a punt on an as yet untested commodity for the biggest day of their lives. It was an honour to even be invited, but it also felt pretty special to have that level of faith put in me. Big thanks also to my special assistant (who can be spotted in one of the below photos) for helping everything come together, and to the one and only Simon Smith for making day two of the wedding so unforgettable!

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If you need a wedding photographer for your big day or any other big events coming up please don’t hesitate to get in touch to see if I can help.

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Bobby Shoebotham 05/01/2023 Bobby Shoebotham 05/01/2023

The Best of 2022

2022 was a strange, often not very pleasant year for a number of reasons, and until I started putting the photos together for this blog I was ready to write it off and consign it to a history I didn’t want to remember. However, looking back at what I’ve done this year and particularly recognising a few pretty huge leaps I’ve made professionally has made me realise that actually, it wasn’t all that bad.
This year I’ve learned a huge amount, continually finding out ways to improve how I take and edit photos and perhaps most importantly realising I actually knew nothing about filming videos and taking big steps in both equipment and skills to remedy this.

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It should also probably be mentioned that I’ve been lucky enough to go to Australia twice in one year, which I realised half way through my ‘woe is 2022’ mini-rant is probably a lot of people’s dream.
Despite both trips being pretty whirlwind affairs with not a great deal of free time, I obviously managed to find some to take a lot of photos, a number of which I’m fairly proud of. These included a whole gallery from my brother Austen’s wedding to his beautiful bride Nicole, which was definitely one of my highlight days of the whole year and an absolute joy to be a part of.

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While we’re on the subject of weddings, I’d have to say this was probably my biggest breakthrough of the year. In my career up until now I’d always seen weddings as a terrifying prospect far off in my future that only ‘real’ photographers could hope to achieve, mostly because of the level of organisation involved and the pressure that you really only get one shot at the big moments.
Before this year I’d done one half hour civil ceremony wedding that was a lot simpler that the full day monoliths in my nightmares, but thankfully this was enough for my good friend Jack to take a punt on me and ask me to do his whole wedding day. Let’s just say I’m very glad he did, as at the time of writing I’ve now done 3 full weddings, each of which seemed like a monumental achievement and taught me an incredible amount about taking photos, handling pressure and what I could actually do if I had the self belief to just go for it. So big thanks Jack and Lisa!

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2022 has also been a year of milestones in all other forms of media. As mentioned, I’ve taken big leaps in the world of video; filming my first corporate promo video, filming/being in 3 music videos and most importantly realising just how little I originally knew about the format and particularly what can be accomplished with a decent camera.
I also achieved a lifelong dream this year of recording and mixing a full length album, which as well as being an absolute blast has again taught me a gigantic amount about something I already thought I knew everything about. Big shout outs to Tim, Joe and Ed Ripley for making all that happen.
Last but certainly not least, I joined the wonderful Our Own Brand as a part time content creator this year. From past experience it’s pretty rare to find a company who not only value you and nurture your skills, but are also a hoot-a-minute blast to work with, so big thanks to Sarah, Rich and everyone else on the team for having me!

Here’s some particular highlights of 2022 in photos:

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So in summary… I guess I was wrong, 2022 wasn’t all that bad.

And the final icing on the cake? Right at the end of the year I decided to throw all caution to the wind and hit the credit card hard with a brand new Canon EOSR6 Mark 2. This is the only time I’ve ever bought a brand new camera, much less one that is so up to date accessories for it don’t even exist yet, and I could not be more excited see how it impacts my work. Far more than having a new toy to play with, a purchase of this magnitude seems in my mind to be a real commitment to photography and to my own career, which is something I’ve never really done before and therefore is a pretty exciting thing to have done.

Happy New Year Everyone, for once I truly cannot wait to see what this one holds!

Bobby Shoebotham 28/05/2019 Bobby Shoebotham 28/05/2019

Austen and Nicole’s Wedding

‘I come from a land down under’

One benefit of having a younger brother who’s a professional photographer is that you’d hope to safely assume you’d be able to get some good wedding photos out of the deal, and possibly even save a few thousand pounds on another photographer in the process.

While Austen and I did briefly trifle with the idea of me doing all his wedding photos for him and my lovely new sister-in-law Nicole, we both decided that if I was flying half way around the world to celebrate my big bro’s big day, it’d be a little frustrating for me to have to work the whole thing and not be able to have any fun, so we decided against it.

However, I knew there’d be no way I’d be able to resist taking a few of my own, and it actually turned out Austen didn’t have a photographer there for the groom prep so it made sense for me to go down and take a few snaps of that and then take my camera to the wedding. Here’s a selection of my photos from the day. Big love to Austen and Nicole for such a beautiful day and a great trip all round!