If you have had a browse at the images in the portfolio, and fancy a photograph for your wall, then you can now order one on line.

Simply click on an image, then select the 'buy print' option below it.

The first in a series of photographic books by Craig Holmes is now available.  The 'Relationships book' is limited to fifty copies, and if ordered directly from me using the option to buy below, will come signed and numbered.

The book itself is a small (7 inch by 7 inch) softback book, self published by me, and contains a collection of twenty four black and white photographs taken over the last ten years.  The photographs themselves feature various relationships between people from around the globe.

For a signed and numbered copy, the price is £13.50 + postage (added at checkout, and varies depending on your location - UK postage is £1.50 for a single copy).  Payment is via Paypal, although you don't need a Paypal account, you can also use your credit card.

I am asked this question a lot by new clients.  The answer varies on the customer and what their needs are.  They have options!  Everything I photograph is for commercial and editorial clients on location, so the options are:

1. You can have the photos immediately – after they have been edited on-site using a pretty powerful laptop (I carry two laptops, just in case).  This is a fairly rare request, but if the images are going to the press, urgency may be the order of the day. 
   
   
2. You can have the edited photos emailed to you along with a contact sheet on a web page. 
   
   
3. You can have the edited photos sent to your FTP server (a very popular request nowadays).  For those of you who don’t know what FTP is – essentially it is a method that allows one computer to transmit all the photographs on to hard disk space on a clients computer. 
   
   
4. I can send the images on a DVD. Very rare now – it just takes too much time for the images to arrive. 
   
   
5. I can place the images on my server space (using PhotoShelter), and you can download them within a few hours using a web link and password I will email to you.  This is used daily by my clients and is now perhaps the most popular method of image delivery. 
   
   
6. You can have a set of prints - although this hasn't been requested for about 5 years.

Essentially, for all commissioned photographs, clients will receive the photographs within 24 hours – realistically, all photography leaves this office the same day that it is taken, meaning clients have their images available to them when they get to their desks the next morning. 
 
The best option? Number 5.  For the client this means the images are available very quickly after a photo shoot (usually a couple of hours), they are archived on my server space (actually on PhotoShelters server space – but the site is fully branded, so as far as everyone is concerned, this is my company space), they can be downloaded by the client, their design team, PR’s, the press (if the client grants access), and anyone else who needs them and has the password (all this can be done simultaneously without any work on my part, meaning the client doesn’t have to wait for me to send the images), the images can be sent from my server space via FTP should the client request it at a later date, and finally, I can rest assured that the photography is backed up on several machines – again, just in case.

 
The long and short of it – online delivery of images is the best way to get photos to clients.  With image files now exceeding 60MB, email is becoming less of an option, and with the need for archiving, an on-line storage/delivery system is by far the best option.

Visit: Images of Birmingham Archive & Stock Library, Photoshelter

As from today, and for the next ten years, the Images of Birmingham photo library, owned and operated by Craig Holmes, has become an official supplier of tourism photography to Marketing Birmingham, the organisation responsible for promoting the city worldwide.

Until 2020, Marketing Birmingham will have access to five hundred photographs of the city and its surrounding areas to use in promotional and marketing material.  In addition to this, there will also be a significant amount of new photography commissioned in order to raise the profile of Birmingham.

The library presently has approximately 6000 images available, with a further 1000 added every year.  Having access to the library over a ten year period means that Marketing Birmingham will have a constantly updated selection of new photography to choose from - so gone are the days when images start to appear outdated.

As a trusted client, Marketing Birmingham have direct access to the images in the library, meaning they can download at a time to suit themselves. 

The Images of Birmingham Photo Library has been in existence since 2003, and has doubled turnover every two years. Supplying stock and commissioned photography, as well as prints, by Craig Holmes and seven other photographers. Images are available for purchase online.

Some of my photography is on the new Survivors (Series 2) DVD cover.

Photoshelter has written a rather large informative guide on social media for photographers, and how they can be used to promote the business and make sales.

I was interviewed on my usage of Twitter for the three aspects of the business - commissioned photography (@craig_photog), stock images (@ImagesofBrum), and black and white prints (@crowdedgallery).

A PDF of my interview can be seen here.  If you want the full social media guide, visit Photoshelter.

 The online photo magazine, Photopreneur, has featured Metro Photographic today.

Commercial photography various enormously day by day, but I have always fancied doing a bit more (extreme..ish) sports photography.  So, I was quite pleased to get a commission to photograph Matt Simmonds, a well know mountain bike rider, as part of a wider commercial job.

In less than an hour we had to scout locations, set up flashes, select various camera lenses (and keep removing dust).  Once complete, the photography took a while in post processing to provide the client with the final images.  Nice job to do.