Into the New Year

Welcome to a belated New Year update, it's been a busy start to the year within my day job as well as my Photography side.  The most prominent event this month was the trip up to London to visit the SWPP convention, in particular the trade show event.  This event is held every year by the SWPP and has a huge training program where new and aspiring photographers, as well as seasoned professionals can meet up and attend various lectures and discussions, as well as just socialising with like minded individuals.  It is the first major event of the year, allowing manufacturers to show there latests gadgets, software, toys and display items as well as informing the future markets of what is available to offer to their customers.  Held over several days, it's a great way to just start the year with new or refreshed ideas of what you can offer your clients.  It's also a great social event for those staying in the area for the duration.  The next big event is The Photography Show held up at the NEC the first weekend in March.  I will be working on The Photographer Academy stand if you are up that way.

Certified Member status

I am pleased to say that following extensive effort and determination, I put forward a panel of over 90 images for review in the Photographer Academy to achieve the Certified Member status.  Whilst the certification is predominately a personal success for me, it reflects the achievement of my Photographic skills to be recognised in 7 key areas of photographic technique.  Now I start the work towards the next level to keep the continuous personal development motivation.

Try The Photographer Academy for 7 days for free

As those of you that have followed my progression will know, PT4U, now known as "The Photographer Academy", have played a very large part of my progress into the Professional arena.  The link below will give you an opportunity to experience the site for 7 days absolutely free, here's what you will get a peak at-


7 days for Free on The Photographer Academy - It’s too good to be true.

We are giving away 7 day all access passes to our award winning training site for photographers. These trial session are a great way to see whats going on inside the site and to get the full experience for free
With over 1400 films on line as well as monthly webinars, photo critiques, featuring 12 photographers sharing their secrets and life’s in a real and raw way.

To get your 7 day all access pass simply contact the PT4U by clicking HERE and use the email box to request your 7 day free access
7 Days for Free Applications end - Monday 20th May 2013 so apply now!

After the 7 days use the code 7DAYS to join for 12 months for only £99 saving you £30
No catches, no T’s & C’s just a promise to change your training.
www.PT4U.tv


So whats inside? 
3 Membership options - £49, £99 & £129 
New Branding 
Cheaper Film Download only £1 
More Webinars 
Extended Discounts for Members 
Access to over 1400 films 
Photo Critiques 
New Studio Watch 
Academy Year eBook 
Qualifications We plan to keep extending The Photographer Academy brand during 2013 in many ways, even our header bar logo has now grown up and will carry The Photographer Academy branding.

There have been some amazing improvements to PhotoTraining4U over the past couple of years but I think you will find these three new subscription options are the most dramatic and beneficial to all our members, old and new.

Focus on Imaging 2013

Well I know it's a little late, but iv'e been busy since returning from the show!  Earlier this month I was helping on the PT4U stand at the Focus on Imaging show at the NEC near Birmingham.  Focus on Imaging is Europe's biggest annual imaging show where manufacturers, distributors and suppliers come together to reveal and show off their products, putting temptation in the way if your are not too careful. As well as a great range of products around the various halls there were frequent demonstrations to be seen.  Over on the PT4U stand Mark Cleghorn along with a couple of his Photography Masters, namely Kenny Martin and Sean McCormack put on a great series of demonstrations that had the crowds building all around and were well received.  The show ran for 4 days which in reality is very exhausting when you consider you are on your feet for the duration of the show being open for 8 hours a day, as well as the 2 days to build and strike down when the show was finished, but I have to admit I really enjoyed it.

Training Opportunity

As many of you know, I was an Apprentice to Mark Cleghorn for a year, during that time I met another phenomenal Photographer in the name of Kenny Martin, he produces these absolutely stunning black and white Portraits that he calls Photo Noir.  I have admired his work for some time no, but as he lives in Peebles, which is along the Scottish borders, I have never got round to actually attending one of his classes, well thats about to change, for those of you who may be interested he's about to go on tour in January 2013 and for a very reasonable price, have a look at the attached link, I can't wait!

http://www.markcleghorn.com/training/seminars/photo-noir-photo-blanc-tour-kenny-martin

MPA Seminar South East Region

I had a very interesting day yesterday, attending the Master Photographers Associations (MPA) seminar for the South East Region.  The seminar was organised and hosted by Claire Hill of Woodland Hill Photography at a location in East Grinstead.  The speaker for this event was Martin Grahame-Dunn who gave a very informative and open seminar on the use of DSLR video footage into a sellable product.  Martin's style of delivery was very effective and is certainly an area I would turn to for future training.  The event continued well into the early evening, with the awards announced for the print competition.  My understanding is that the competition was very well supported and some excellent choices of images from a wide range of photographers.  Well done to all of those who took part.

SWPP Convention 2012

I have just returned from the trade show element of the SWPP convention.  As always it is great to meet up with like minded Photographers and friends to see what is in the market place and how my friends are getting on in their respective Photographic businesses, share ideas and generally socialise, catching up in some cases on a years worth of activity.  It is also great to observe some of the speakers and what they see as the current hot topics in the industry.  Now back at home, it is time to pick out the pieces of information obtained over the last couple of days and how to implement them for the benefit of my business and my clients.

Business Training

Last week I attended the Business seminar presented by Mark Cleghorn and Kenny Martin. This was an intensive 3 day business seminar program, designed to provide the delegates with the benefits of the tutors combined 50+ years of business knowledge, well the more pertinent points anyway, to ensure the delegates can turn their businesses around. The best way to describe it is-

Informative, Intuitive and Inspiring! it was a truly Business changing experience!

Both of the tutors provided business guidance to ensure that businesses such as my own, will continue to be around and not fold through poor management, inadequate planning or negative customer relations/feedback to name but a few. The feedback from the course highlighted the dedication to delivering facts and techniques that most photographers don’t even know, let alone are willing to divulge or part with, that both of them freely shared with the delegates.

Focus On Imaging 2011

Last weekend I attended this event up at the NEC near Birmingham. It is a great event to catch up with all things Photographic and video to some extent, to see what new equipment, software and presentation media is available within the UK market. Loxley Colour have a beautiful new wall display product, the Alumini Print, which is very attractive. I had a look on the Phase One stand at their camera/back range and that's all I will do is look, clearly not in my price bracket at this moment in time, but the IQ180 digital back at 80 Megapixels is outstanding. There is clearly something for most people at the show with free demonstrations on a number of stands including Phototraining4U, The Flash Centre, The Societies, On One software, Lightblue to name but a few. It is also another opportunity to meet up with old friends and make new ones, a thoroughly enjoyable couple of days and I managed to keep my credit card in the pocket, well almost!

Course update

As I reached the end of my Apprentice period with PhotoTraining4U, I attended a couple of courses run by Mark Cleghorn. I have only just got round to processing the files as I was away on holiday!

First up was the Wedding Photographers Wanted, which was a 2 day event run by Mark but he was assisted by other professional photographers, Gary and Sue Photography and Kenny Martin. The purpose of the 2 days was to allow the professionals to pass on their secrets to the business of Weddings, along with some great shooting tips and tricks to shoot and sell more, with the second day being practical shooting in and around the City of Cardiff with the masters. Here is a sneek peak at what I shot during the second day -

The second course was a follow up to the Wedding Photographers Wanted course and designed to give ideas on how to shoot Bride and Groom out on Location, hence the name Location Location. It was for photographers to develop their creative ideas and how to shoot quickly when getting out of the car when travelling perhaps between the ceremony and reception or looking at it as a follow up photo shoot in a cherish the dress style shoot, where more time would be available. It also included details of Album design and a bit of promotion/marketing. Again it was in and around locations in Cardiff and was great fun. Here are some of my shots from the 2 days.

The Apprenticeship comes to an end!

Well it had to come sooner or later, my year as one of the PhotoTraining4U apprentices came to an end on Friday with our official final meeting with Mark Cleghorn. The year has been truly amazing, my photography skills have significantly improved beyond my expectations! The team at PT4U have been great throughout the year, we have had our ups and downs, but like most things in life, you take the rough with the smooth and make the best of everything. I have made new friends, in particular my partner in crime, Mark Osman who has provided support throughout. I now need to take what I have learnt and progress on with the business side. Here is the final picture of the apprentices with their mentor.