It’s no secret the North East is home to a plethora of beautiful landscapes and architecture. And thanks to some fantastic local photography influencers, it’s never been easier to admire the beauty of our region.
Emma Giles started her Instagram page more than two years ago having always loved capturing photos and moments from days out in local areas. After a big life change, she decided to set up her own business, Northumberland Adventures, providing photography, drone photography and content creation to local businesses.
The content you’ll find on my page is a tourist information-style guide to Northumberland, including the best places to visit, stay and eat. You’ll find beautiful landscape scenery and drone captures, giving a unique angle as well as interior shots of places I visit. My aim is to always show a follower how it feels to be there. I like to capture details and a sense of the aesthetics of a location and almost tell a story through my work.
Since starting my page my content has changed a lot, although the theme has remained the same. My photography skills improve year on year and, when I started my page, I just captured everything on an iPhone, whereas now I have a big backpack which I take around with a camera, drone, gimbal and lenses inside. As much as I loved photography, I was a complete amateur and I’ve learned a lot along the way.
Looking back over the two years I’ve been on this journey, I can’t quite believe the amazing opportunities and experiences I’ve had. I’ve managed to do things I’d never dream of, such as flying in a vintage aircraft across Northumberland skies, model for a local business and stay in some of the most beautiful locations. It’s truly been a dream come true.
I’ve also found some amazing friends through my page, who I now class as true best pals. I started my page in a place of my life when I felt truly lost and over time it’s absolutely changed my life for the better.
Although there have been so many places I’ve ticked off my location list, there are still so many places to shoot. I love capturing our region’s castles and I still have quite a few to tick off – we have over 70. I also have some drone shots I still want to take around Holy Island.
John Robert Charlton grew up in Alnwick before moving to Newcastle to study and first fell in love with photography when his father bought him a compact film camera back in the 90s. Now he shares his love for cityscape photography with his followers.
To this day I never go anywhere without a camera. As a student, I got into digital photography and it all changed from there as it allowed me to experiment more compared to film cameras.
I like to mainly shoot urban and landscape photography, showing an unusual perspective of a familiar location, encouraging people to look at their surroundings in a different way. I always try to get out and take photos at least once a week, whatever the weather. I find it therapeutic taking photos and like it when it’s raining, as the puddles create great reflection shots, especially at night.
Throughout the years, my style has developed into my signature style of low perspective, wide-angled shots, with foreground detail to lead your eye into the photograph. This creates an unusual and different take on familiar locations or landmarks.
As our region has rural Northumberland on our doorstep, as well as city centres like Newcastle, my passion lies in landscape and architectural/street photography. The buildings in town are so varied and provide great inspiration, fuelling my ideas for shots.
A couple of years ago, one of my photographs of the Quayside at sunset won a competition to be displayed in arrivals at Heathrow Airport. The competition was to showcase the best of Britain and I’m proud that my shot represents the North East and thousands of people will see it every day.
Despite there being so many lovable location across the city, one of my favourite spots for photography are the streets just up from the Quayside, where the Tyne Bridge passes over the top of the historical architecture. The streets below the bridge create unusual views, different angles and perspectives, especially when the light hits the buildings.
Full-time photographer and videographer, Ross Johnston, started his Instagram account at the end of 2020 with the idea of putting out images to promote the North East. Since then, he has gained almost 15,000 followers and has turned his hobby into a career.
When I first picked up a camera, the plan was just to get out there and try a bit of everything until I found a particular genre where it clicked. Like most people when you start something new, you’re not sure what might come from it. I knew from the outset I just wanted to take photos of local landscapes as the seasons changed.
I ended up going down the route of sport photography, which has increased my social media beyond what I thought could be possible. I’ve been very fortunate to cover Sunderland AFC, Newcastle United FC and also the England national teams. These days, you’re more likely to find more sport on my feed, however I will continue to throw scenic images in the mix, whether that’s at ground level or in the sky using my drone.
Prior to making photography my career, I used any spare time outside of work to soak up as much knowledge as I could, such as reading or watching videos on YouTube. It’s a constant learning process; some content would take off massively and go viral, while other content that I’d spent a lot of time working on wouldn’t perform as well. However, for me, it’s never been about the numbers. As long as I’m having fun creating and staying true to it, that’s the enjoyment I get from doing this. Anything beyond that is a bonus.
I’ve been fortunate to capture concerts such as Elton John and Ed Sheeran at the Stadium of Light and, along with the sport, I had an opportunity to work on the Netflix documentary Sunderland Til I Die, for which I was asked to record the landscape footage from above using the drone to highlight what the city has to offer.
Overall, my favourite location to shoot has to be at the Stadium of Light (sorry to anyone who isn’t a Sunderland fan). It’s where I noticed my photography really go up a gear. From general match day images to capturing a story of a supporter, photos of the fan base really got my name out there. Away from there, I love to capture the wider City of Sunderland as we’re fortunate to have a developing coastline along with other landscapes such as Penshaw Monument and the Northern Spire Bridge.
