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.

Getting a Head

Photography is not a cheap hobby.

There I've said it out loud. the big dark secret of photography that everybody knows but don't realise they know until they actually get into it.

In fact when I got my first DSLR I joked that I had managed to find the only hobby that was more expensive then games workshop! Although thanks to ebay that hobby is now helping to fund my photography is some rather strange circle of life thing.

Anyway, one thing I have found is that regardless of the type of photography equipment you are buying, there is a rather large gap in the costs between the "basic" and more advanced items. Which of course leaves you with the inevitable dilemma of whether to buy a basic item now or save for a more advanced item.

I recently was due to attend a photography course and found that I would need to take a tripod, now I did have a tripod but it was quite old and although it worked it wasn't quite the image I wanted to go for attending my first course with a tripod nearly as old as me.

So I went shopping. Online shopping that is back to the same website, wex photographic where I got my 7d from. Now I had made my mind up to go for something "mid range" because if I was going to invest in a new tripod I wanted one that would last me a while. Fortunately as they have a system where you can streamline results both by price brand and customer ratings, I soon found one in my price range that seemed to have a lot of people raving.

A few clicks of the button and waiting one working day, I arrived home to find my new tripod waiting for me. After happily unwrapping it and setting it up in my bedroom ( only space we had in the house at that point thanks to decorators. Goodness knows what the neighbours were thinking), I proceeded to get out my camera to attach it to the tripod so I knew precisely how to do it for my course.

Or at least I tried to attach it to the tripod.

You see in my excitement of buying a tripod and my complete lack of experience with the latest tripods for cameras you see there was one piece of important information I had overlooked.

Most tripods now, don't come with heads, For those of you unsure what that is, it's basically the bit that you attach the camera too.

So now I had a tripod for my camera but no way to attach the camera too it.

When I mentioned this to my parents they suggested to send it back and asked if the website mentioned this. I went back to check and no it didn't mention it didn't come with a head.

But then again it didn't say that it did.

It was simply due my inexperience that I had never looked closely enough at the picture of the tripod to realise that there was no head. It also never occurred to me that tripods would ever be sold without a way to attach it to the camera.

With the course fast approaching and no time to mail order a new head, I was forced to go into Nottingham to a camera shop there to buy a head which unfortunately due to it having to be able to hold a 7d ended up costs more then 2 thirds of the cost of the tripod.

So the tripod wasn't quite in my price range as much as I thought. but at least I now had a complete tripod ready for my course.

If I had needed it mind you because as it turned out the equipment list for the course was wrong. We never needed a tripod at all.

To quote homer " D'oh!"

And I suppose it also highlights a issue buying items online, it may have cost more in a high street store but at least a staff member would have been able to tell me to get a head.

Later folks!