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!

It sometimes only takes you being in the right place at the right time

As much as I would like to say that all of my pictures are perfectly planned and executed their not. In some way's that's the advantage of the digital age, you can just keep shooting and if you don't like something just delete. Unlike the old rolls of film.

Although some "old timers" might argue that this is also a disadvantage too.

Anyway, I have found that two of my favourite photos in my portfolio now were far from the planned. The 1st was catching the moment when somebody decided to propose to his girlfriend at a steam punk event.

The second was this one. At the time I hadn't even realised what I had captured as I was firing off a whole series of shots during a family photoshoot in a studio.

It was only later when I was editing I found what I had captured. A shot that probably said more about the relationship between a Father and daughter more then anything else I had captured that 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 :-)

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.