The end of the day, shot from the middle of the lane and left to run. Nobody was posed and nobody was asked to look back.This is what the reportage approach looks like in practice: waiting for the thing that was going to happen anyway, then being in the right place when it does.

A vintage roadster heading away down a country lane with the ribbons still tied to the bumper.

Just Married

A few minutes away from the reception, with a long lens and a lot of space between us. The couple were talking to each other rather than to me.Most of the portraits I take on a wedding day are made this way, at a distance, so the day keeps its own pace.

Bride and groom walking out through beech woodland, photographed at a distance and left alone.

Into The Trees

Shot from the pit, tight in, with the backlight doing the work. The cable running back across the stage is half the picture.Live tour coverage and record cover shoots are both part of the music work.

A singer at the lip of the stage with the microphone held up into the lights.

Arm Raised

Turning round and photographing the audience usually says more about a night than another frame of the band does.Available for live tour coverage and festival shoots.

The room with its hands up, photographed from the back of the floor into the stage lights.

Full House

Studio lighting, a plain grey sweep, and a lot of time spent with the hair and make-up team before the camera came out.Creative fashion photography, model book shots and magazine shoots, on location or in the studio.

Studio beauty shot built around peacock feathers and a painted mask.

Peacock

Part of the personal reportage work shot on the streets of Spain, Greece, New Zealand and Australia. It was this body of work that led to the first wedding commission.Prints from the travel archive start from £95.

A late night in a seafront dance hall, shot on film during a run of personal reportage work in Spain.

Benidorm

Everything except the light was black, so the exposure was set for the beam and the rest allowed to fall away.Record cover shoots, live tour coverage and festival shoots.

A drummer alone in the spill of two spotlights, mid-set.

Nobody had to be told what to do with their hands, which is the whole problem with photographing children solved in one go.Creative family shoots, in the studio or out on location.

Four children photographing the photographer, all of them behind their own cameras.

Four Photographers

One light, one wall, and a make-up artist given room to do something worth photographing.Creative fashion photography and model book shots.

Graphic make-up against a hard spotlight and a plain grey wall.

Colour Block

Shot on grainy black and white film, walking the site rather than working from the pit.Festival shoots are part of the music work.

Two festival-goers caked head to foot in mud, carrying a flag across the site.

Glastonbury

The smoke was doing something the lighting rig could not have done on its own, so the frame was built around it.

Two aerialists working a rig inside a wall of blue smoke.

Aerialists

Clean studio light, a white sweep and a set of old letterpress blocks to carry the name of the range.Commercial work is quoted by the full day or by the hour.

Product shot for a printed accessories range, styled with wooden letterpress blocks.

Lee Niel Photography — wedding photographer in Bath and Bristol