Location Shoot with Chris

Had a great afternoon yesterday working with Chris, doing a location shoot down at Poole Quay, Chris was great to work with and we got some awesome images! As you can see it was a mixture of natural light and off camera flash, to give a variety of styles to the session. I needed to get more male pictures in my portfolio, to show the length and breadth of my photography skills, thankfully this shoot helped that cause of nicely! The sun came out for a while and we managed to make the best of it, I just couldn't afford the boats in the background!

Richard and Michaela's Wedding

I attended Richard and Michaela's wedding on the 13th March 2010, at the MacDonald Botley Park Hotel. The weather was kind to us and with a large number of guests, it was a very special day for them, of which I was pleased to be part of it. As you can see in the video below, it was a very formal occasion, with all service personnel wearing uniform, of particular note was the Guard of Honour who performed admirably, thankfully this was before the drinks started to flow!

Make Over Shoot

I was approached a few weeks ago by a Make Up Artist (MUA), to see if I would do a TFCD photo shoot of some models, after she had done their make up. The MUA was looking to get examples of her work for Bridal make up and to capture the subtle changes that Brides would wish for on their Wedding Day. I was more than willing to do this as I use every training opportunity I can get.

On the day, although 4 models were planned, only 1 turned up Tia, she was great to work with. My daughter agreed to step in and have her's done as well, to give a bit of variety, well a second model anyway. What I was not prepared for was the length of time it takes to do the make up professionally. The MUA arrived with a suitcase of equipment, which included a small make up compressor and associated attachments, to spray on, very finely, several different levels of make up, whilst ensuring it doesn't look plastic once complete, then the eye make up. She then moved onto the hair, a total process time of well over an hour each.

Here are the before and after pictures, both the models and the MUA were pleased with the results. I was happy with that, as it was the first Commercial type shoot I had done!

Focus 2010

Had a busy week this week helping out on the PhotoTraining4U stand at Focus on Imaging 2010, held at the NEC. I was there to assist Mark and Debbie Cleghorn and their team, to promote the PhotoTraining4U brand.

I asked Mark if I could attend with the team for the duration of Focus to help others understand the benefits they could receive from being part of this fantastic resource. I felt that as it is a product I truly believe in, I would be able to give prospective members a true insight into what it is and how I use it, i.e. give the view from a current user.

I also offered Mark the possibility for me to actually present on his stand, conscious that if I messed it up, it was his business I was messing with. Mark and Debbie were more than grateful for me to do this and as such, gave me 2 presentation slots each day. The talks I gave were, one on the PhotoTraining4U site, who am I, how i got into PhotoTraining4U and what the site is all about, including how I use the resource to improve my photography. The second talk was about my time as the PhotoTraining4U Apprentice and how I have evolved since being part of this stupendous opportunity to progress my photographic skills!

The days were long but extremely rewarding, I lost count of the number of people who came up to me and spoke highly of what we, the Apprentices , have achieved with Marks guidance over the last 8 months, many of whom spoke to me and Ozzy as if they know us, as they have watched us within the site so many times. It was a real confidence boost to know that people are learning so much from seeing myself and Ozzy develop, that they are developing with us!

It was also a great opportunity to get to know the PhotoTraining4U team socially outside of the show times, many a great, if not sometimes strange, conversation had, along with a couple of lemonades of course, not to mention the Chinese all you can eat buffet, twice!

See below a couple of images of the stand, we were I believe one of the busiest stands!

The stand ready for the day.

View from a different angle, the PCs gave a live view of the site.

The happy team.

Me in full swing during one of my presentations.