and then??

Okay, so as regular readers will know, I have crossed off one of my photographic goals as I have finally done some studio work.

And in just under a week I will get a chance to do some more,

So this made me think of what my next goal is for my photography.

And that's when it struck me, I don't have a specific goal right now.

Of course I have the usual ones, such as get a full frame camera and one of every lenses I could ever need but without a magic cash windfall or winning the lottery that's not going to happen.

Now I could blame this on not having a muse, but then I sue that excuse a lot :-)

It could be that I've just never given it more thought, or that I never anticipated just how much my photography skills would jump in such a short space of time.

Or maybe it's just that with doing so much event photography, I've never really contemplated what would I want to do? as I've been doing a lot of reactive photography opposed to proactive. What holes do I want to plug in my portfolio?

and that is question that is probably going to keep me scratching my head until the new year.

Any suggestions gratefully received :-)

the name of the game is resurrection

A great advantage of modern camera's is that you are no longer limited by film and how many shots you might have left one one roll

With memory cards you can keep shooting until it's full and then if needs be, delete any photos you don't want and start filling the memory card again. Now this is something that can provoke long discussions about whether this can help or hinder a photographer, especially with photoshop, because you no longer have to get it right when you take the shot.

But don't worry this isn't going to be a post about that.

Inspired by some recent playing, (now I say playing as honestly that is how I've found most of the useful techniques I know) in photoshop I decided to revisit some of my "in between" pile.

So what do I mean by that? Well that's to do with my technique of sorting photos.Now when I look at the photos taken after a session, I will always delete the ones that for whatever reason I know have failed and obviously work on the ones that have "worked" but what about those that fall in the "between". Well they usually go into the folder to be saved and rarely see the light of day again. Or at least until that point when my hard drive starts overflowing.

So I decided to start by revisting some of the photos I had taken of Marija, a photoshoot with a friend that really surprised me with the results. I went for this photo here. Now this was part of a sequence taken under a railway bridge just after she had started dancing. In a effort to catch her dancing I had boosted the shutter speed, however this meant with a combination of the shadow from the bridge and surrounding woodland when she moved too far back the photos got just a little too dark. As you can see. 

An attempt to turn the photo into colour just didn't work as despite working with photoshop there was just too much noise in the photo for it to look just right. So I decided to leave it as black and white. However this meant that it looked too dark even once I had lightened it. So I decided to go for a middle ground and colour popped her dress leaving me with this.

Now although better it didn't feel quite "right" or to put it another way that it had gotten to the point where I could be totally happy with it. So there justifying my original decision to leave it "alone.

Still it goes to prove that it's always worth having a try as it could have very easily worked and it did teach me a lot. It was also gratifying that although the finished "product" was not what I wanted, six months ago I wouldn't have been able to recover the photo even to this standard.

So I wonder what I'll be able to do in the next six months :-)

Show me yours and I'll show you mine: Adventures in networking episode 1

So after the time for print night, it was time to do what most photographers do these days.

Yep sit in front of a computer and edit things!

If you're not a photographer you might struggle to grasp in this digital age just how much we have to edit. But wait! I hear you cry. Why edit? Haven't you got it right in the camera?

errhh, well yes and no. Yes, you do get it right more rather then less. Editing is just a way of maximising the best attributes of a photo. It can also get annoying as you can spend ages on something that you are convinced is totally and painfully wrong looking but anyone who isn't a photographer will never notice.

This is especially true on a 32 inch screen but hey ho. It also explains why a photographer may look stricken if you simply say " that's a good photo" as they probably spent quite some time in front of a computer.

So once the photos were done it was time to send them to the models. Now previously I have used google docs's to send photos to people but all of the models said they used dropbox. Something I had never used before so I had to download the software and get myself ready to use a whole new program.

Which worked in precisely the same way as google docs ( and with one sentence I make two seperate teams of techie people at two companies go eeekk). so it was fairly easy uploading the pictures. Of course what was not so easy was the gnawing tension waiting for any response from the models, because lets face it was my first time doing "proper" studio work outside of the classroom so I literally had no meter stick to judge myself against.

to my great delight the first model who responded loved the photos and asked if I was on purple port so she could leave a reference. So it was great, first feedback was postive and she wanted to leave a reference. Only one problem.... what the heck was purple port?

Way, way back in the dim mists of time... okay well only two years when I first got a DSLR but you get the point, if a effort to get to know more people and potentially take more portraits I tried to sign up to a site called model mayhem which was recommended by several magazine as a fantastic networking site. However in order to sign up to the site you had to be able to prove photos of at least two different models. Which of course fairly defeats the purpose of signing up to the site to begin with. If I had two models to take photos of, I wouldn't be wanting to sign up to the site to get models now would i?

Okay well purple port is along the same lines, it's a networking site for models, photographers and MUA ( that's make up artists for anyone who is unfamiliar with the lingo :-)

Firstly it was very easy to set up a account, you only have to provide a very small number of images and there's no requirement for them to be of different models. So already a big tick in the plus column. Secondly you can see if people are coming to visit your profile which is handy, i/e if no one is coming to paraphrase a hollywood film " You've built it wrong" or at least spelt it wrong or phrased it wrong. Because for example no matter the basic truth of it saying something along the lines of " I have a camera and want to take pictures of pretty girls" in your profile is just not going to go down very well.

Just like facebook you can tag people in photos, you can also like, ehhh I mean "love" photos and the system for leaving references is very easy.

Now of course with the many and varied portfolios on display, there are going to be photos of "adult" nature but that's no bigge because if you don't want to see them you can engage a filter that will shield said pictures from view.

Now there are also options to list who you have worked with, who you would like to work with and "collect" your favourite photos from across the site to keep in your own collection to help inspire you.

The final two things that I thought were really cool, the first is that when you look at someone's profile it tells you how far they are away from you and secondly you can make "casting call's" where basically announce you are looking for someone to work with either for a specific shoot, specific theme, or just that you feel the need to take some pictures.

Now there are some more features such as articles and forums I haven't yet looked at yet. Forums always make me a little nervous as they can be very much a double edged sword but I think once my portfolio has started to expand a bit I will give them a go

So, I basically now have a profile and my very first reference which made me act very happy and pleased in a not very adult fashion at all :-) I/e happy dance.

Of course this means no pressure for the next studio night.... no pressure at all.

erhhhhhhh................

Teaching a slightly aged Dog new tricks

Ever since I have got my hands on my first DSLR I wanted to give studio photography a go. However to paraphrase kryten from Red Dwarf two problems faced me. Firstly that studio lights are expensive and secondly studio lights are expensive. Which is yes the same problem but so significant I thought I would mention it twice.

 Also where I live there was a depressing lack of reasonably priced studio courses. Most of them cost a fair amount of money for a depressingly short space of time actually in the studio and if I was going to spend that kind of money I would want opportunity to keep doing studio work. Not just do it once and then have to leave it until I had saved enough money to get lights of my own... or won the lottery.

But two things recently changed that allowed me to revisit my goal of doing studio photography. Firstly my parents bought me a studio course for my birthday and secondly I found a studio near Derby, Bright Light studios which runs regular Time for print/networking/social evenings. ( which is a complicated way of saying you have models, photographers and make up artists all turn up, photos are taken, the models get them for free to use in their portfolios if they wish, the photographers also get them to use and basically nobody charges anyone) Still with me? Good. 

So I decided as the next night was only three days after my studio course that it was worth a try. Now the studio was the first "proper" studio I have ever been in and it was amazing. They have several different sets, including a white area, a black area, and a studio "apartment" area. Now for the night we kept to these sets, they do have more sets that I didn't see and didn't really want too, as these are sets can be used for slightly more "adult" photography, which I'm sure most of you will get what I mean. If you don't ask your mother :-)

Now the evening isn't "totally free" to photographers, you have to pay £10, but you do get £5 off if you book the studio or sign up for one of their model workshops within 28 days which considering the size of the sets and equipment you get to play with is more then fair. 

Secondly I was pleased to discover as I spoke to some of the other photographers I was far from the only "rookie" which was quite heartening as I was worried I was going to be the only one among a group full of expects. Not exactly a thought to put your mind at ease.

As there were several photographers there, we were going to be taking turns in shooting and rotating between available sets and models. So I thought I would take some time to watch some of the other photographers, see how they worked and then give it a go.

Did that plan work?? Erhhh no...  The plan rapidly went out the window as I was picked to be 2nd up and found myself face to face with one of the models with the kind of looks that would usually instantly make me tongue tied and I was supposed to stand there and give her directions?

If this was a cartoon, this would be the point where you would have the sound effect of a really large and loud gulp :-)

However fortunately the models were very patient and I gradually found myself relaxing and starting to have a lot of fun. Well it was hard to maintain a serious demeanour when one of the models finding out it was my first time in a studio started singing about how she was taking my cherry ;-) ( if you don't know what that means either ask your mother about that too :-) )  The staff at at the studio were also very good, giving bits of advice and also constantly moving around to make sure each photographer was having equal chance to work with each model, not just once, but in the different sets and different outfits.

Another thing to mention is that you had all of the lights set for you, so even if I hadn't been on that workshop it wouldn't have mattered that much. Or to put it another way I would have just been pressing the button with no idea whatsoever how certain things worked.

The whole evening blew by far quicker then I anticipated but I was fairly happy with the shots I had taken ( whether the models would be a matter for later and the next blog post)

Now the important points.  What did I learn? Well a lot and that I need to do some work on improving my confidence in giving direction. Not all models are mind readers. ( and every model who reads this will now be going well d'uh!)

Would I go again? Yes, I certainly would, the studio was fantastic, the staff were great and the models and other photographers were all awesome.

Is it worth it? Well let's see £10 for three hours, with a complete studio and three different models who also had a make up artist as well. I think we all know the answer to that one.

In fact the evening went so well that my friend, from Dancer in the dark on the left here, is considering coming to the next one as well.

Now it would be foolish of me to say (and not to mention dishonest) that hey I've had one night in a studio so I know everything. I don't but that's part of the joy of photography there is always sometime new to learn and always ways to improve.

The main thing is that the night has opened up some rather interesting possibilities that I didn't have before so if you are reading this and sitting there wondering if you should try something new with your photography my main advice is to go out and try it.

The worse that could happen is it doesn't work but if it does, well who knows where that will lead.

Lets go to the castle

Having attended the Whitby Goth weekend earlier this year I was aware that there would be a steampunk festival held in Lincoln during September. So what is Steampunk i hear you cry? Well the best description I have heard so far is "victorian futurism" And if you want to know anymore go to wikipedia here :-)

Despite having gone with a large group to whitby I found myself unable to round up anyone else to attend with me, which left me with two choices. Go by myself or not go. But as faint heart never got any good porfolio worthy shots , it was all go.

Now arriving in Lincoln I was faced with my first problem as you can see on the left. To get up to the cathedral quarter where I knew most of the events to be happening I needed to tackle Steep Hill. As you can see from the picture that really is the name of the street. Steep Hill.

And never have a street been more aptly named. Now Whitby although it had the steps going to the churc, at least had steps. This thing have nothing, asides from very smooth pavement and seemingly never ending slope. By the time I got up to the top, the back of my legs were screaming as badly as they felt at the end of the day in Whitby and I hadn't even taken the camera out of the bag , yet alone taken any pictures! I decided I didn't care if anything was happening at the bottom of the hill as I wasn't going to come down again until it was time to go home!

I decided that my best place to spend the time would be inside Lincoln castle, as well that's where everybody seemed to be going, so after getting a entry ticket and politely but firmly turning down the helpful shop assistant who tried to sell me a additional guided tour around the castle walls. ( I was here for people not buildings) I was inside.

To be a photographer you need to have confidence and people skills. To be a photographer and then do street photography takes a whole lot of confidence on top of that as essentially you are walking up to people you have never met before and sticking a camera in their face.

Whitby was my first real taste of street photography, but there I was with others. At Lincoln I was on my own, which was a little bit of a scary prospect at first and it took a little time to find my grove and press the shutter button for the 1st time.

However I quickly found my memory card filling up quickly helped by the incredibly cheerful, kind and patience attendees to the festival. In fact not one person I approached to ask for a portrait turned me down which considering the sheer number of photographers buzzing around, it would have been more then understandable for people to start to get very fed up.

Now at whitby the street are very narrow and with so many people in costumes and photographers around it tend to get very busy and cramped very quickly. One of the photographers from our group got cracked on the head by somebody else lens and to add insult to injury he seemed more concerned about his gear then her!

However at Lincoln things were very spread out and although there were a few occasions of "swarming" you felt like you had chance to breathe and think.

Also Unlike Whitby most photographers were very well behaved and I think that in turn helped contribute to the wonderful atmosphere. Plus it wasn't like there was a shortage of photographic opportunities and the amount of costumes on display were breathtaking in their originality and style.

Another surprise was the unexpected opportunity to start chatting and getting to know some of the other photographers there, a unexpected and very nice change from the photographic scrums that seemed to be the norm at the goth weekend.

There were two moments however that stood out from the rest. The first was the wacky races as you can see in this photograph. Emphasis on wacky, I don't think I've laughed so hard at a bike race before.








Now the 2nd moment I caught totally by accident, by being in the right place, at the right time and realising in time what was happening right in front of me. Yes as you may have guessed I managed to catch someone proposing to his girlfriend and yes as you may have guessed from the look on her face she said yes!

As you can imagine both of them were delighted I had managed to capture it, and even more happy that I took the time to give them a card so they could contact me afterwards to get the photos.

Which has lead me to a realisation that I really need to use my cards more :-)
Despite the day moving on people were still more then happy to pose, which meant my memory card continued to fill up with shots that more then compensated for the drive, horrendous car parking charges and that darn hill.

I even couldn't resist visiting one of the stalls and buying myself a mechanical pocket watch which is really rather cool and now graces my desk.

With one final shot of steampunk Batman, yes I have typed that correctly :-) Steampunk Batman, who I had seen earlier in the day and then spent a long time looking for, it had even prompted me to say the line I never expected to say " Has anyone seen batman?" It was time to head home.

Well almost as I couldn't resist a little stop by the cathedral to make use of my wide angle lens, but due to some repairs I had to plan my shots very carefully as one of the towers was covered in scaffolding.

So was the day worth it? Yes undoubtedly, it was a fantastic day and the attendee's were just great. It's provided several more shots for the portfolio and some valuable experience in street photography.

It also proved that old adage that the best way to improve your photography is to go out and do some!

Lets hope the next weekend in Whitby is equally as good.

Roll on November :-)

Right Time, Right place

As a photographer you quickly learn to anticipate and pick up on the little things that give you a hint of fantastic photo opportunities to come. Whether it's that moment that your dogs pauses detecting a scent letting you know he's about to go bounding away through the field or the moment when your niece gets hold of a bottle of bubbles and a mischievous look crosses his face.

Of course no matter how much you try and anticipate, luck will always play a factor. For example at work this week it's not every day that you see Zippy, George and Bungle ( and yes I do mean the rainbow characters) in a life together. And where was I and my camera at this point? Well I was at my desk and my camera was firmly in it's bag at home

The role Luck can play in photography has been especially highlighted in two photos that have been published this week.

Now unless you've been living under a rock i'm sure you'll know who the running chap is. Now from what I can understand the photographer has set several camera's up on automatic but even so, it was luck that the camera happened to take the shot at just that moment. 

Now  if you know who this lady is, I'll be very surprised (and amazed). This photo shows off a prop that only nature can provide and it;s most wedding photographer would give one of their toes for ( I would say arm or legs but then it would be rather difficult to take pictures wouldn't it?)

Both photos show that with being in the right place at the right time you get something that will elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary. In both photos it has been the weather that has added that final touch to the photo. Now the wedding photo would have been awesome in it's own right but the photographers quick positioning of his subject has taken advantage of something that he could never have planned to get.

Now this is a round about away of linking back to the last portrait session I did along with my wonderful model, who was a colleague from work. Now I had imagined that most of the photos would be pretty much standard "portrait" shots. What I didn't realise was she had trained as a ballerina and started having so much fun she started to dance around.

Anticipating her moves was a interesting learning experience but the luck came in with the photo above, which is one of my favourites from that shoot as I just happened to be perfectly lined up to grab this shot as she paused before setting off on another dance sequence.

So anticipation and luck are indeed two important factors in getting a great photograph.

But you know what the most important factor is? Taking the photograph to begin with!

Later folks

I'm over here by the way

With my long rumoured but still yet to be seen website hitting another delay due to some programming bugs, mainly due to me trying something clever but it turning out of course it turning out to be the polar opposite, I've decided to move to something else that I've long been thinking about but never quite got off the drawing board.

I've created a facebook page.

Okay so on the grand scale of all things internet not exactly earth-shattering news but still a rather large step for me in the my grand scheme of things.

Oh and what schemes..... grins to himself, and mutters under his breath about how I'm about to get up to something fun!

The benefits of course is that it will enable me to start showing off my photography more outside of my circle of friends (hopefully) while still maintaining the ability to control feedback at least a little if it gets especially negative. I'm firmly of the opinion that if you're going to feedback to someone at least make it constructive.

It's not nice to be on the other side of negative feedback as the last time I answered a question in a camera group forum can atest.

Which also leads me onto another issue facing my photography right now. The Photography club I had joined as suddenly closed. I had only attended one meeting but it was still annoying mind you. So if anyone has any suggestions for a good camera club in the east midlands area, please let me know

Anyway, I have already placed a little easter egg as it were on it, displaying some photos that haven't gone on my main facebook page.

I wonder if anyone will notice :-)

Dancer in the Woods

Whitby wonders

They say weddings can be good for networking. Well the wedding I shot back in March certainly lead to one payoff that I certainly hadn't been expecting.

The bride put me into contact with another photographer she was friends with who attends a club in the Nottingham area. Now I have been looking for a decent club for a while, the first one I had attempted to join  was a bit of a disaster and the only other club nearby well if I joined that I'm certain I would have lowered the average age by about 30 years or so.

So this photographer was running a trip to the Whitby Goth weekend, now although this would be a bit different for me as I didn't know anyone from this club and I haven't really done any street photography before I couldn't resist the temptation as it would give me a chance to network and also get some rather different shots for my portfolio.

Mind you there were some bad sides. Firstly it was a long trip to whitby made longer by multiple roadworks and secondly it was a early start. A Very early start. In fact so early my first thought on waking was " Shouldn't it be illegal for this time to exist on a Saturday morning?"

Still arriving into whitby we moved down into the town centre seeing in the distance the church and the abbey where we felt fairly certain we would find some attendee's of the weekend. Now for those who don't know the weekend is held twice a year and has become a major draw for photographers. However this is somewhat of a double edged sword as a lot of people complain about the swarms of rude photographers sticking lenses in their face! So we were all determined not to be one of these sets of people. 

However we were quickly taught why these complaints are somewhat justified as when we stopped and had our first bash at politely asking people ( a whole family in steampunk costumes) we were stunned to suddenly find ourselves surrounded by at least half a dozen photographers who had appeared out of nowhere, swooped in and promptly disappeared without saying a word to the subjects. In fact one of the firls from our group got smacked over the head by someone else's lense, who was then promptly more concerned about his gear as opposed to her head!

Now the swarms of other photographers really, really got to each of us at somepoint because it was just getting well stupid. See this is a photo I took of the church, what you can't see is the young girl posing in the door. What you can see is the dozen or so photographers all trying to take pictures at the same time!

I even saw one photographer massively overstep someone's personal space and had his lense almost touching the poor girls Face!

Still as always it's the bad things that people complain about, or bad photographers in this case and not the good ones. I'll admit I was a little nervous at first about trying to go up and ask people for shots myself and used one of the girls from the club as a "in" until I had built my own confidence up.

 Initially I thought we had a lot of time in Whitby but it seemed to just shoot by. We didn't even really stop for lunch. We just grabbed a quick drink and some rather yummy homemade gooey cake that really gave us a needed sugar boost for the afternoon.

We found most people were up by the church which is famous for having a staircase with 199 steps that you have to climb to get to the top which doesn't sound like a lot and it didn't seem like a lot until my 4th or 5th time heading up there when my legs suddenly decided to protest. Which although bad then was nothing to the next morning when I ended up walking like a complete and total zombie.

Still no pain no gain as it was this last trip up the stairs that gave me the last three shots which I consider to be my "shots of the day"

Now the next weekend is in November which I seriously want to attend as I am now much more confident in my skills in street photography and I really want to get some more shots for my portfolio, as short of several sgteampunk and goth obsessed people joined my work or church, there's nowhere else I'm going to be able to get shots like that! 

Revamp, renew, reschedule

After my fun trip to Whitby I realised that it was time that my portfolio needed a serious revamp, which would in turn enable me to finally "launch" for want of a better term my website.

However this is not as quite as easy as it sounds because I have a lot of photos.

And when I say a lot, I mean a almost full external harddrive packed with pictures.

So it's taking sometime.

However it has also taught me something interesting. That my skills have seriously progressed since I got my 500d, which I'll admit doesn't seem like that much of a revelation really as it's kind of the level of look the grass is green or the sky is blue! But even though I knew that it took me actually comparing some of my first portraits with what I've taken recently to realise just how far I have come on.

The short list I have come up with my new portfolio is suffering from two problems mind you, the first is that for a short list it's not so short. The second is that I have no idea what format to present it in. 

Of course I have the website but it's the actual physical presentation of the portfolio that is stumping me a little bit right now. Now I was leaning towards a photobook format but then of course the problem there is in order to update it you would need to get a whole new book printed.

So I was thinking about a folder but looking at some prices it would cost more then getting a photobook .

Of course the last option would be to use a ipad or other tablet but then again I don't know if that would really work showing photos in a electronic format.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll solve it eventually.

In time for the next revamp, he, he, he, 

Learning curve

It has been a busy few weeks for me photography wise.

Mainly due to three reasons, firstly a wedding where I was the lead photographer for the 1st time, however I suppose that's technically not true. It would be more correct to say I was the main photographer. Secondly I visited the whitby goth weekend which provided a whole host of photography opportunities (As well as material for a forthcoming blog post) and thirdly and by no means least I have joined a photography club which has a outdoors model shoot at the end of the month in the same place, they filmed the manor scenes for the batman films.

So what have I learned?

Well firstly I still have a lot to learn about photography. However not to sound totally immodest, despite finding my skills severely tested and being pushed further then I have done before, I feel that I have rather successfully risen to the challenge.

Secondly it can take time to edit a lot of pictures. I have to admit with the wedding photos I was rather behind target in getting the last of them finished because mainly I filled two 16gb cards of pictures and even shooting in raw that is a lot of pictures and I was rather foolishly optimistic with how long it would take me to edit them.

Thirdly, my people skills are good, but they need to get better in the sense of being more pro active in direction. The whitby weekend was a fantastic learning experience especially in this area but more on that later.

Lastly, my porfolio and by extension my website is in serious need of a revamp

So keep your eyes peeled as there will be more on that soon.

Like Paper beats rock, practical beats theory

There is a lot of theory when it comes to photography. It you pick up any one of a dozen photography magazine you will see that they are usually packed full of lessons and tutorials on how to take certain shots or create certain effects.

However at the end of the day, theory is just that. You can read all you want but unless you actually put things into practise you'll never know if you can actually do it. Or to put it another way, reading pilot manuals doesn't automatically make you a pilot.

Having been asked to be the lead photographer at the wedding, I was determined that I needed to get some practise for want of a better term. However weddings by their very nature don't come along very often, so I realised I would need to find a training course.

After much searching I eventually found one that seemed to have good write ups and fitted in quite nicely as the only other courses I found were not going to be held until either after, or the week before the actual wedding which was far too close to be helpful. So I decided to go for it.

Which is how I found myself driving down south at a rather early time on a Sunday morning. Now the course was taught by a Elizabeth Melvin of strangely enough Elizabeth Melvin Photography   . Now firstly her studio based at greatworth hall was totally gorgeous.

Secondly as this was going to be my first photography course, I wasn't sure what to expect. Fortunately the number of people attending the course was quite small and secondly, Lizzie the teacher was fantastic, very funny and soon had everybody at ease.

Now the morning was all theory which was actually quite interesting, which seems a strange thing to say mind you as I was going on about how I wanted practical experience and I was happy with theory. however it did give me a lot to think about that hadn't occurred to me before which was to prove important later ( more on that later too)

Mind you, once the models had arrived everybody was fairly itching to get outside, especially as after weeks of rain we actually had a day with bright blue skies and sunshine so we were all desperate to make the most of it.

Now initially I had forgotten one of the most important things and that was to dial in some positive exposure compensation to help the dresses appear white. D'oh! However after some feedback from Lizzie that was soon solved.

My second problem was that I was feeling a little bit nervous as well, as having only having experience with friends and family directing a stranger was a new experience.

However that was quickly knocked on the head when I noticed the models seemed a bit more nervous and lets face it they had more right to be nervous then me. I didn't have several people who I had never met before sticking camera lenses in my face!

Now the exposure compensation was only one thing to bear in mind. The next was lighting. No bride is going to want a picture of her squinting!

Equally as important thought is giving direction and as I went on, I felt my confidence growing. I suppose the best way to put it is, that I knew what to do and now knew that I knew it!

Still with me?

Lizzie was a fantastic teacher as she seemed to be keeping a close eye on everyone in the group without being overbearing as it were.

The next important thing we were taught was to make good use of your surroundings. Now I severely doubt that before the course any of us would have considered asking a Bride to perch on a fence but this is what what member of the course suggested and the results proved to be well worth the effort.

Even if at one point I was lying down on the floor to try and get a unique viewpoint. This lead to one of my favourite images on the left here which my Mum thought was taken by somebody else rather then me.

The trip across the fence also highlighted one of those differences between men and women. The women on the course were about having a panic attack at the marks getting on the dresses. The guys were simply shrugging and though they would need to be cleaned then :-)

Keeping with the theme of using your surroundings, take a look on the picture on the right. One of my friends thought I had got this by getting them to peer down the lens??

But it wasn't. It is actually a reflection of them from a bottom of a well they were peering down. I'm sure you'll agree it's a interesting and very different shot that would never have occurred to me before.

 By this point we were all having a tremendous amount of fun and as we moved round the hall we were all starting to recognise and use different locations to make some fantastic photos. However the interesting thing was looking quickly at some of the others shots was that we were all taking pictures of the same people in the same locations but were were coming out with some very different shots 

However I was also learning another good rule for shooting weddings. To keep on your toes!

One of the models saw they had a visitor and promptly ran across the car park, giving us a opportunity to capture a rather unique set of shots of a running bride. I think she might have regretted the sprint mind you as we then asked her to do it several more times.

Now unfortunately I can't show even a tenth of the photos I took that day simply due to the fact I took so many, and don't even ask how long I was processing them for.

However the processing gave me a chance to experiment with a very different styles as below and is still causing some great debate with my friends as to which style is better.

This would be female friends mind you. The guys tend to look at them, shrug and say cool.

All too soon though the fading light, forced us back inside. However what was nice was that the course ran on for sometime after the official "finish time" as lizzie continued to give us more hints and advice.

Now like most things to do with photography the course was a bit(iittttttt) expensive but was it worth it?

Yes without a doubt it was. It helped give me some practical experience and gave me lots of useful advice.

Which I was recently able to put to very good use when I visited the chapel where the wedding is due to be held. Scouting the grounds, I found myself quickly compiling a list of useful locations of where certain shots could be taken, thinking of certain areas in ways I wouldn't have done before.

Also when meeting with the Bride and groom I was able to make suggestions when talking about the shots they wanted taking and assure them that I was more then happy to adapt and change to their suggestions but also that I was fully aware of what they could want for me. For example the Bride wasn't sure if I would be able to come and do shots of her and the bridesmaids getting ready and was greatly relieved when I explained I had already planned that as a given.

So that highlights the final and most important lesson of the course. Anything you can do to lighten the stress on the happy couple, do it!

However despite singing the praises of this course, I have been rather overtaken by events in that it was a course organised by jessops academy which unfortunately closed along with the rest of the jessops chain.

But I do know that Lizzie does run other training courses herself and if you have a chance to go to one I would recommend that you do.

Because I certainly will if the chance and the right course presents itself.

Alas poor jessops

Well Jessops has gone to that great high street in the sky to join Woolworths, ottakers, Virgin, Borders and Somerfields.

Now I'll admit I have been buying my last few major additions to my kit from online, but it was nice to have a shop on the high street where you could pop into, to get any little odd's and ends like filters or a new cleaning cloth.

And lets not forget getting your photos printed as well. I know actually printing photos instead of just putting them on facebook. How old school 

Then of course there's always that "play before you buy factor" which you just can't get online. Now with the big stuff like lenses it doesn't really matter that much as lets face it, if you want a macro lens you'll buy a macro lens.

I was more thinking about the stuff like camera bags. However can you know before hand if you're going to like a camera bag? It might look great on the website but feel the most uncomfortable thing ever where you put it on.

Although last time I went in jessops store and I was trying to look at bags no staff member approached me at all to ask if I needed any help. Okay, technically I didn't so I would have just politely declined but that's not my point.

Plus it seemed strange to me that after Christmas they had lots of offers on full camera's but nothing on lens. I really wanted to go to one of them " Hello?? People will have got camera's for Christmas and will wanting new lens? Where are the offers on them??"

Still what's done is done as they always say. There is now no major camera shop on the high street. 

So I guess I'll have to buy online from now on.

But as a added ironic postscript to the above blog post, I was just reading a new edition of  one of the photography magazines I read and they had just rated jessops as producing the best photobooks around.

C'est la vie I guess. C'est la vie 

Snow Day

My Dog Owen loves his walks but there is only one thing he loves more then a good walk ( or running around like a lunatic in his case) And that is a walk in the snow. Seriously when it snows he would be more then happy to spend all day out in the stuff. Forgetting mind you that no everyone has the benefit of thick layers of Fur and "four wheel drive".

Now with the speed he charges around at I already knew that I was going to be spending most of my time in TV mode. The trick however was finding the right speed to freeze the action because the way his fur can react is somewhat unpredictable.

I was also using it as a good opportunity to test out my new L series 70-200mm lense which had unfortunately not seen much daylight since I had purchased it.

Now when using camera lenses a good rule of thumb to prevent camera shake is making sure your shutter speed is no lower then the length of your lense. So I knew I was going to be starting around 1/250. 

However after some trial and error I eventually found that 1/1000 was the best speed. 

 Now I was also concious that I would need to dial in some exposure compensation to try and get the whites looking "white".

However the problem with Owen ( and I'm sure my Dad could tell you he has may more as well :-) Is that he has a lot of black fur, a black nose and black eyes. So in order for that detail to come out I had to use a lot of fill light in the processing stage.

So the snow has coming out quite as white as it could have done. But as it brings out more of the detail in owen's fur and allows you to see his face clearly, bringing a lot more punch to the pictures I think it/s a more then acceptable trade off.