Octuplets

I have been in the studio working with the lighting, working out what is best for large groups and the lighting there of.  Obviously it is not feasible to get a family in and move them around for my practice, no in fact it was much more fun to get Tash to pose for me several times and then blend the layers together to get the final result.  This was achieved by putting the camera on a Tripod for a consistent image view, the lights were set to avoid burn out on the nearest person to the light and then a sequence of images were taken as Tash moved around the Sofa.  She came up with the idea to pull faces at the central Tash, what was impressive, was the poses she pulled for the symmetrical places, particularly the Tash either side of the central Tash.  This was achieved in one attempt, as you go down the set of images you will see at the bottom the completed image followed by a wide angle view of the set up.  Note I am using a Lastolite Highlight as the main light, top right of the setup image you will see the fill light, the background was only lit from light that spilled over from the main light.

February Cold Spell

As we all know it was bitterly cold for a few days at the beginning of the month, we took our dog for a walk down to Sandbanks over the weekend and I was surprised to see that the Poole Harbour side of Sandbanks, where the water is shallow, had actually frozen in places.  Further more on the open sea side of the peninsula, there was what could only be described as a slush of ice floating around as the tide took it out to sea.  Also very randomly on a wall to a property on the road to the beach were a pair of ice sculptures in the shape of Swans, amazing detail in them, especially when you get close and see the ice cracking/markings within.