Why yes, I am the lead photographer in this brand ( a tale of a epic fail)

As much as I would like to be a photographer 24/7, like a lot of people I am not in wonderful position of being able to fulfil that dream ( as of yet but in the future who knows). So I do have to have a "day job" because lets face it, all that pretty camera equipment is rather expensive and no one is going to buy it for me.

Not that I would mind at all if someone were to do that or give me free stuff... hint, hint :-) (worth a try).

Now some people might remember where back in the dim mists of time when I first got a camera, okay, maybe not so far back but we're in the digital age now people, even a few months can be a long time to some, let alone trying to explain to some of my nieces and nephews that when I was at high school I didn't have a mobile phone. Which did prompt the response of " I had no idea you were that old".

But I digress.

Yes, when I first got a camera, a friend helped me with some shots to start my portfolio. Which thanks to that awesomely entertaining device which can be found in every workplace, school, or building that contains more then one person, yes the rumour mill,  quickly turned from something innocent to me taking nude photos of her in my secret underground photography studio.

Quite why I would have a secret underground photography studio that I would tell everyone about was never explained, and I thought like most rumours it had died a peaceful death and got to that quiet place in the sky where dead rumours and conspiracy theories go when people stop talking about them.

Or so I thought. As it turns out it hadn't died, more mutated into a totally different monster.

Cut to last week, when travelling on the bus from work to the car park at the end of a long shift, I was talking to one of my colleagues in the new department I joined a few months ago and happened to start talking about photography. At which point they asked a very earnest question

" So do you do anything else asides from the topless model glamour photography that you specialise in?"

What.............? Was my first thought. No, actually it was more like

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!

My response was to ask them" I'm sorry what?" They responded by saying that they had seen some of my "other pictures" but doing the topless model glamour photography, that's what I specialised in wasn't it?

What was originally funny mind you, rapidly turned depressing when I related the story to some other people the next morning as that was what everybody all seemed to think my photography was about.

Topless model glamour photography.

Okay, before anyone thinks I am particularly slamming this kind of photography, I am not. It is more just amazing that people were thinking that because it's about as far from the kind of photography that anyone who knows me as a person should expect me to do. 

So after asking a couple of questions, it rapidly became apparent that nothing else about my photography was really known or talked about. No rumours about steampunk, nothing about cosplay, zombies, family shoots, parties, general studio work, weddings or even landscapes ( okay last one is a little bit of stretch as landscapes are not my thing, but there are some in my portfolio, if you get the idea). 

Nope, my photography is apparently famous for the one kind of photography, I have not actually done.

Which is massively ironic.

And also shows that my "brand" might need some serious work.

But this does mean if you now put all of the rumours together, my kind of photography is one where I specialise in topless model glamour photography in my secret under photography studio that apparently I tell everyone about.

So it does make me sound like a bit of a super villain actually.

Which is cool.

Maybe I can get some minions and sharks with laser beams :-)

Later folks 

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 :-)

Is technically correct always correct?

I am due to shoot a wedding next March so I am currently into the depths of some serious studying.

However one thing that has cropped up several times in many articles is that it is not always best to get photos technically correct.

Wait? What?.... I'll just say that again.

It's not always best to get photos technically correct.

Which on the face of it seems a rather bizarre statement. If you're expected to be taking high quality photos of the day, why would you not want to get crystal clear, technically perfect photos of pretty much, well everything?

Well that my friends is best summed up with one word. Atmosphere.

Take this picture for example. Taken at a birthday party using my Canon 7D, it is far from technically perfect, mainly due to me suiting in AV mode and forgetting to change the Aperture (d'oh!), so most of the photo is not as sharp as it could be.

However I like this picture because I feel it portrays the fun of the party, the action and also not least it portrays my nieces personality. AS far as she is concerned the doughnut is the only thing in her world right now ( to quote homer, mmmm Doughnuts) and she's having fun. It's also a great example of the "what happened next" . You can look at this photo and wonder, did she get the doughnut? A little? A Lot? Or did she miss it, as it swung away.

In contrast to that my Mother received "official" school photos of my niece and her Brother and Sister. Now taken using a camera that was undoubtedly full frame and shot with a full lighting kit that would make me drool with envy ( and experience that right now I don't have in studio lighting) I totally cannot argue that the photos were totally and technically correct.

But... ( and this is the big but) when it came to my nephews photo something was missing. Taken with his whole body and face flat, stiff and straight  onto the camera it reminded me more of a mug shot, but more importantly "he", as in his personality just didn't seem to be there. Not like in the photo below,

Not that I am advocating that school photos need to be taken with hanging doughnuts mind you. His Sisters photos were much better mind you, slightly tilted heads, big smiles and catch lights in the eyes, they had captured "them" even if the photos were not perfectly correct.

Now reading that I'm sure some of you are starting to wonder if I am advocating that we don't need professional photographers or it's fine not to get everything right.

But that's not what I'm saying.

I'm just trying to show that old maxim that taking a photo is easy, getting is right is hard, is a maxim for a reason. You need atmosphere in a photo to turn it from a good one into a great one.

Don't believe me? Well just consider the photos on your facebook page and the ones you look at on a regular basis and the ones that you don't ( or untag yourself in pretty quickly :-) What brings you back to them time and again?

I'm sure we both know the answer there?

Later everyone!