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.

Dr Evil eat your heart out

I have quite a few nieces and nephews. However as a few of them are now firmly in their teenage years the opportunities to buy "fun stuff" are gradually diminishing as no longer are things like colouring pencils or lego high up on the list. Rather it's now vouchers or money to go towards whatever is the latest technological must have.

Wow, I sound old.

Anyway, I decided that I would still indulge myself this year and rather then getting them vouchers or money, I would see if my "cool uncle" powers still worked and get them something they weren't expecting. In the case of one of my nephews I got him a plasma ball, which not only made sure I retained my title of being "cool" but after watching him play with it for a few moments in a darkened dining room, it also gave me inspiration for a quick set of photos unlike anything I had taken before. 

 I started in AV mode but found I wasn't having much luck. I realised that I would need to switch to TV. However with a darkened room, I had no idea what to start on or the best speed. So I simply followed a sound principle that any photographer will employ at somepoint.

 I guessed.

 I also tried some shots using + exposure compensation but curiously enough it seemed to have very little effect.

 For most of the speed I was set around 1/60-1/80. Any higher then that the picture started getting noticeably darker and I was missing capturing the dance of the lights.

Any slower was getting noticeable camera shake and blurring.

Still for a spur of the moment series of photos, they came out fantastically and are certainly a very different addition to my portfolio.

That old double edged sword

Taking photos is perhaps easier now then anytime since photography was invented (must really look up when that was, now that I think about it :-) I mean you could take a picture right now if you had your camera in front of you by just pushing it's big ole button. Of course you would probably only end up with a picture of the wall, your desk or in fact yourself. But you get my drift.

To take a great photograph you need inspiration and one of the best places to get that can be by looking at the work of others.

Of course doing this can lead to you facing the biggest double edged sword in photography. Or the " oh my goodness I can never do that!" moment as I've sometimes called it. Not to anyone mind you but sometimes mentally. But I digress ( and possibly indicate I need to get out a lot more too) 

For example I know several people on facebook who are either "proper" photographers or do photography as a second form of income after their day job.  When I first started looking at their work after I had gotten my first DSLR I found myself somewhat depressed as looking at their work, which to my eyes seemed magazine worthy, I found myself thinking I would never measure up.

However after getting a lot of practical experience under my belt it made me realise ( and not to sound too immodest here) that I could compete with them. Sure in some areas I still can't ( studio experience is still woefully lacking but c'est la vie).

So confidence is just as important as knowing which buttons to push.

Another important lesson is not to accept things on face value as it were. I met one guy who loudly proclaimed his many, many years of experience as a photographer etc, etc, and his grasp of photographic theory was well in advance of mine, leaving me somewhat intimidated. Until I saw his style at least, the theoretical had not come through with the practical. Now to be fair some people might have liked his style but I would tend to assume most people prefer photographs that aren't so over edited and colour boosted that they give you a headache.

So if you are looking at another photographers work remember their style is going to be different from you and their experience will be as well. This was best summed up at a recent course I went on. Five people taking pictures of the same model, all turned out very different. You need to focus on why you are looking at their work to begin with. You're looking for inspiration. 

Take this photo below of Felicia Day, the actress. 

Now, I don't have a internationally known actress, that many bookcases, studio lighting or even a cool ladder, so what inspiration can I draw from this?

Simple really. The books provide a simple and very different backdrop, once we could easily be recreated using a single large bookcase and getting close into the model. Now, I have no studio lighting, but a bookcase next to a window would add a similar effect, getting a model with a glasses and book holding a similar pose gazing out of the window and convert it into monochrome would give a similar look but a very different effect. It would be even better if the book was a Jane Austin as we would instantly get a beautiful lady waiting for her Mr Darcy.

Of course all I would need is a model but then that's a common problem for a lot of photographers.

So, to sum up if your looking at someone else's work for inspiration, don't get hung up on trying to match it exactly as let's face it, the world would be very boring if all photographs were the same. Focus on it's strengths as you will be surprised as to what it could inspire you to do.

Later Folks

the best laid plans of mice and men ( and photographers too)

The only plan is there is only no plan,

The road to hell is paved with good intentions,

Plan for defeat and expect victory,

Proper planning and preparation prevent .....

Well you get the idea.

If there's one thing I have learned over the past couple of years it's that no matter how good my plan, sometimes things are just not going to work out and sometimes you grand plans are going to still remain grand but unfortunately unrealised.

For example after reading a photography magazine on the way up to visit my sister and her brood ( don't worry I wasn't driving) I was inspired to try taking a series of shots involving picture frames ( and would have also involved a large amount of photoshop time but c'est la vie). I invested in two picture frames when we stopped at a shop and was all ready to go.

Unfortunately time, tide, weather and a birthday party all conspired against me and this picture frames are still sitting in their wrapping.

This wasn't the first time mind you, my first offer of paid work would have been photographing a family get together with siblings now spread across three different continents. However as it turned out near enough 2 thirds of the family came down with food poisoning and the get together was postponed until during the week when I was working my day job!

D'oh!

Then at work, I discovered there was a "picture of the week " competition for the company worldwide. I took several pictures after much careful planning.

As it turned out the one that was chosen ended up being a very quick snap taken using my camera phone which I had only submitted to make up the numbers.

sigh...

However this is the thing with photography, if I had gotten disheartened by a failure of some plans and bad photos, my first dslr would have quickly disappeared back into it's box and joined a few things buried deep at the back of a forgotten cupboard.

It's what succeeds that counts and it's the fact that I don't know it all and I can usually always find out something new when I pick up my camera whether it's a new setting or a new way of creating a effect in camera or in photoshop, which is what keeps me going.

Well that and the thought that maybe one day it could be my day job.

It could happen :-)

Later folks

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!