As you may know, I share the duties with a fellow wedding photographer Tom Arber photographing features for the Leeds Guide Magazine. Every month we get a brief to photograph people, food, products, buildings inside and out & a hell of a lot more besides. One minute you’re trying to get a documentary photograph of a struggling newsagent, and the next you’re trying to figure out how to make a curry look more photographically appetising than a bowl of poo. Then you’re photographing someone’s city centre flat, soon followed by a fashion shoot of a usually inexprienced model in her favourite outfit. It’s great fun and keeps our photographic skills sharp.
This issue was a feature on Leeds Music scene, a vibrant field in which I love to photograph anyway, so I put forward one of the textured shots I took of Dan Wilde playing at my Sunday Service acoustic night, at Verve Bar. Check his myspace cos he’s amazing!
![© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]](https://www.barnabyaldrick.com//wp-content/uploads/2009/04/leeds-music-feature2.jpg "© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]")
I bounced all over photographing politicians, the unemployed and entrepreneurs for a feature on how the recession is hitting Leeds. Two photo’s that caught my eye were this one of a newsagent…
![© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]](https://www.barnabyaldrick.com//wp-content/uploads/2009/04/feacreditcrunchshantilalba.jpg "© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]")
And this one of a closed store on Leeds high street that I just happened to be passing. I like the way both these images tell a story.
![© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]](https://www.barnabyaldrick.com//wp-content/uploads/2009/04/feacreditcrunchleeds.jpg "© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]")
Another shot I caught on Briggate, Leeds’ main high street, was this one, outside someone’s flat. It was the taken on a tasty new16-35mm lens I recently bought. I love how it distorts things.
![© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]](https://www.barnabyaldrick.com//wp-content/uploads/2009/04/clintalbionplacewillba01.jpg "© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]")
I also had two products to shoot – a cocktail at Boutique Bar on Hirsts Yard…![© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]](https://www.barnabyaldrick.com//wp-content/uploads/2009/04/foobcrobboutiqueba03.jpg "© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]")
And later I was given two bottles of Ocho Tequila for a Boozeflash Feature. It’s times like these where you’re wandering the streets with two reasonably unexciting items where you have to get creative. I ended up dropping into Oporto’s Bar on Call Lane while they were setting up and they gave me a lime and let me shoot on their bartop! Happy days.
![© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]](https://www.barnabyaldrick.com//wp-content/uploads/2009/04/foobfochoba.jpg "© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]")
To wrap up I had a My Favourite Outfit feature with a lovely lady from D-Store in Leeds. She got all dolled up in her fave threads but wasn’t best keen on having her photo taken. I chatted her through like I’d do during a pre-wedding practice shoot, but condensed into 10 minutes and got this!
![© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]](https://www.barnabyaldrick.com//wp-content/uploads/2009/04/lifmyfaveoutfitdstoreba.jpg "© Barnaby Aldrick [Not to be reproduced without permission]")
Variety, as they say, is the spice of life indeed.