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 

If a shutter button is pressed in the woods, does it still click?

Well I was reminded this week that just like plants if you don't work on your "brand" when it comes to photography, strange things can happen.

And by strange, I mean.... well I'll get to that in the next blog post

This is a slightly rambling way of saying that I have been shockingly bad at blogging.... and posting and even keeping my website up to date, let alone my facebook page.

But curiously enough I have no problem with twitter.

( yes I know I'm setting myself up for many, many jokes there)

So this is a quick post to basically say, yes I know I suck at keeping things up to date but things are going to change.

No really they are......

Please stop laughing ;-)

Looking for inspiration in all the wrong places

So with 2014 already in full swing I have been pondering where my photography adventures have taken me over the past year.

But looking back can only get you so far, what about moving forward?

Well my skills have been improving but there is still more to do and learn. Fortunately the studio nights at bright lights are continuing, my confidence is steadily improving and I'm even finding myself starting to give not just direction but detailed direction to some of the models who are very pretty and on my first night there were able to inspire such a sense of somewhere between awe/ and a sense of confusion that they were actually talking to me that I might as well have been talking caveman ..." ugg, me caveman press button now to take picture of pretty girly"

(Side note if any of you have a second please go and visit one of the models blogs that I have worked with, Jo Jo  but be warned, it;s not part of facebook so some images on her website and blog are to be considered "adult" so consider yourself warned!" )

So all this studio practise gave me some inspiration. I decided that I wanted to spend some more time in the studio for "me" on my own project as it were rather then a TFP night or a family shoot. I came up with a idea to work again with one of my friends, firstly to take some classy fashion style shots in a ballgown and secondly to take pictures of her dancing as she's a awesome dancer and helped me to produce one of the best images in my portfolio, "dancer in the dark".

Which seemed simple and she agreed but unfortunatly life as it tends to do sometimes interfered and this project is now on the indefinite back burner.

So simple right. I just need to find some more inspiration, come up with a rock solid idea and away we go.

However the only thing that has gone away right now is inspiration.

I have zero, zilch, nada, not a thing.

And it's driving me crazy.

Even looking in magazines and photography books right not isn't help. As it's driving me mad as nothing is firing my imagination and making me sad as I look at some of these shots and wonder if I'll ever be able to do that.

That I remind myself that this time last year I would never have anticipated what I have done in the studio to date so I need to stop worrying about that.

But that brings us back to the main point. Inspiration or the lack of.

Now some people would argue that by looking so hard for inspiration that I might be actually failing to see it. And that may be true.

But like most cliches it doesn't always help ;-)

The only thing that springs to mind is I want to do something that allows personality to shine through.

Hopefully something else will spring to mind soon. And I'm sure some people will argue that with the amount of space in my head, a idea will be in there somewhere.

Later folks

Steam Engines? no.. Steam Pipes? no...Steam what now???

Now at work, or my Day Job as I like to call it, it seems to be sinking in that my photography is not all about the stereotype of taking pictures of scantily dressed girls in studios that may or may not be secret and may or may not be underground ( still don't get that rumour) 

So one of the guys was asking what I have done recently and when I tried to explain about my recent steampunk shoot he got a rather confused look on his face. Or at least he had a confused look on his face until I mentioned it took place at a Victorian pumping station at which point is inner 9 year old boy took over/ he channelled the spirit of beavis and butthead and started to giggle as he only heard the words "pumping station".

Anyway it made me realise that my portfolio is now rather strong in steampunk images (again another wonderful example of how photography and take you to places you never thought of before)  and what is 2nd nature to me now might be confusing to others. Because lets face it when you say anything starting with steam most people immediately start to think of railways.

Which doe conjure a interesting image of stereotypical punks riding a steam train. ( ohh idea for a cartoon) 

But Just what is steam punk? The best and to be perfectly honest simplest definition I have heard ( and lets face it like a certain well known diy item we just want things that do exactly what they say on the tin)  is " Victorian Futurism" .

But lets be honest it I never keep things simple if I can waffle. ( it's my inner historian) 

To put it in a slightly more in depth or complicated way, Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery,especially in a settings that have been inspired by industrialised Western civilisation during the 19th century. Commonly Steampunk is often set in alternative histories of the 19th century's British Victorian era or American "Wild West. Or in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream use, or even in fantasy worlds that similarly employs steam power. And before you ask when they say "wild west" they do mean like in that Will smith film that everyone tends to forget about... other then the theme song.

Right where was I , steampunk features perhaps most recognisably features old technologies or futuristic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them. So you want to fly, you'll need a pair of wings. Want a ray gun? You'll need a lot of wiring and some large tesla coils. Need to see something in the distance, you'll need a lot of lenses arrayed in front of each other, etc, etc, you get the idea.

the depiction of Steampunk is also rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. So if it is Victorian era, you can would see lots of corsets and long dresses etc. If it's wild west, then western frontier inspired clothing and if it's steampunk set in a fantasy world, well the only limits would be the creators imagination.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternative history-style presentations of technology such as airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.

Of course sometimes when I try to explain steampunk people look at me slightly weird and obviously imagine me getting dressed up ( although lets never say never though people :-) ) So I suppose the next best question is why do I like the photographing steampunk?

Well firstly the costumes are amazing, you can guarantee that all are very unique and allow the persons individuality and personality to shine through. Secondly the level of skill and imagination that goes into this costumes is outstanding as most costumes are hand crafted and can feature some surprising components which leaves me in awe.

And lastly but by no means least one of the main things I enjoy is the sheer welcoming and happy nature of the people who attend the conventions and events as they attend to have fun and have to put up with photographers they don't know sticking cameras in their faces. They are also so patient and kind and great fun to talk too.

Of course a handful of photographers can fail to realise this and forget there is a person behind the costume in the rush to get a photography and it's that attitude that will set a lot of photographers teeth grinding as it gives the rest of us a bad name.

But that's their loss as their are missing the chance of getting to know some of the most interesting and fascinating people you are ever likely to meet.

Because there aren't many places where you can get hugged by woman wearing body armour after all :-)

Rumours, secrets and lies

I've been reminded today of a story from way back when I got my first DSLR  , ( I say when back when but it was only two years ago but oh it seems longer) that I thought was too good not to share

Oh and no names have been changed to protect the innocent/guilty/ or passers by because I'm not going to say any :-)

Anyway, yes it was way back when I had my first DSLR, my kit could fit in only a small bag and studio work was still a distant dream, I was trying to decide on a direction for my portfolio and what kind of photography I wanted to get into.

There was a girl who worked at the same place I did who was into modelling and offered to do some photos with me so I could improve my portfolio, get some experience and she could get some shots too ( hopefully).

So we had two shoots, one outside at a ruined abbey and one inside. I was happy with the results and both shoots were perfectly innocent.

However I had forgotten how quickly things can change in the workplace rumour mill.

So I was surprised to hear that the shoots had turned into "artistic" shoots.

Which seemed strange to me, but then things got weirder.

They then changed into me taking nude pictures of her. Which I found astonishing but the rumour mill upped the ante.

The final complete rumour was that I had been taking nude pictures of her in my secret underground photography studio.

Of course what no one was ever able to explain to me when I pointed out the flaws in the scenario was

1. If I had a photography studio why would I be working at my current workplace?
2. If I had a photography studio why would it be secret?
3. If I had a secret photography studio why would I tell people I was doing work in a secret photography studio?
4. Why would I have a photography studio underground?

It was probably the one time I ever wished a rumour about me was true!

I would love to be doing regular work in a studio anyway, let alone own my own studio!

Maybe one day!

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 :-)

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 :-)

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, 

That there chicken and egg

Okay, so wayyy back, well not that far back but it seems like it just after I had got my canon 500D, I was deciding on how to start a portfolio/expand my bank of images as it were.

My Dog Owen, well he had proven very useful and to this day he remains the most happy of models I have "worked with" to be photographed ( if somewhat uncontrollable but that's a different story.) However I was more interested in taking pictures of people.

Now of course irony being what it was, if I had got my DLSR just a couple of years earlier I would probably have had more then enough opportunity to practise taking photos of people. However with most of my peers at church now happily married, options were not as forthcoming as I may have hoped.

So after reading just one or two ( or a lot if I'm honest) magazines I decided to follow some advice that there are several websites out there such as model mayhem where aspiring photographers, models, make up artists etc can link up as it were and use it's others skills for free ( or time for print) and help each other expand their portfolios.

Now I tried one and immediately ran into a road block as in order to join you had to have pictures of two different models. So basically a website where you were recommended to go to help expand your portfolio or even help start it, insisted you needed pictures of two different models to join.

Hmmm, seeing where the title of this blog post has come now?

It I had pictures of two different models I'm not likely to be wanting to join this website now am I?

Now admittedly, this may be intended to keep any tom, dick or harry with a camera joining the site but it does kind of create a large hurdle for anyone with genuine interest.

And before you ask, no they wouldn't accept pictures of Owen, as it was adult human models only, not dogs..... ( oohhh, gonna step away from the obvious jokes there :-)

But in hindsight this is a issue that must face every photographer when they start out. In order to create a portfolio or get work, you need to have pictures. But you're only going to get a pictures to go in your portfolio if you get work.

Talk about a catch 44 situation. (it's like a catch 22 but only twice as bad :- )

And don't even consider the issues of trying to be a wedding photographer!

It was suggested to me that I could try street photography, but I had a feeling trying to photograph random women in the street who I didn't know, was a scenario which could only end in tears.

However, maybe it was time, tide, the fates or just one of those things but I was soon presented with a opportunity to work with one model.

Still waiting on number 2 though.

Any volunteers?? :-)

Later folks

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!