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.

The Little Princesses

Last Friday I had the pleasure of having 2 little girls in the studio for their photo shoot with their beautiful dresses from a Family event.  Here are the images taken.

Brooke 9 Months

Well I don't know where the time goes, here we are at the 9 Month photo shoot for little Brooke, she is still a little charmer even though her little toothy pegs are giving her grief.  This photo shoot was all done in natural light seeing as we finally had some decent weather to get out in.

Family Shoot

Last month, just before I went away on holiday, I had a family of 8 in the studio, well 9 if you include the dog!  This is the most I have had in for a single shoot so far.  If you look further back through my Blog you will se the pictures of the Octuplets, this was a session I carried out to practice the lighting set up for a large group without actually having that many people in the studio and that was in preparation for this shoot.  The Family concerned have since been back for their viewing and have allowed me to put up their video for others to see.

Final Piece of the Studio Build

Almost a year from the start of construction, the final task to finish the Studio Build Landscaping has been achieved, we have Grass again!  Whilst the actual construction was completed and the majority of the Landscaping done last November, I had to wait to get out of the Winter weather to lay the Turf.  Then with the holiday to Florida last month there was no point in laying the Turf, to then come home and find it had all died, so today was the day, at long last we have a garden ready for the Summer season.  All we need now is some decent weather, well after my Turf has established itself.

Brooke 6 Month Studio Session

Brooke was back for her 6 month photo shoot and the time seems to be flying away.  She was a little angel throughout the session, despite teeth coming through, she was happy and full of smiles.   If you look closely you may catch a glimpse of the front teeth that are already through.

Focus On Imaging 2012

I went up to the NEC a couple of days early to assist the PT4U team to erect their new stand for this years event.  There was quite a lot to do, to get to the final layout/build, not to mention all the preparatory work they had gone before it got to the construction stage, by getting the images designed and printed as well as defining the final layout of the stand.  The stand area they had this year is much larger than previous years, which is just as well judging by the numbers that attended during the 2 days I was there.  To their credit, they had a Sign Linguist for the first day of the show, which proved to be a tremendous success.  Below is a sequence of pictures taken as the stand was built over the 2 days leading up to the show.

 Unpacking the van

 Open the boxes and sort the bits out

 The construction begins

 The main stand area complete

 Outriggers attached

 Lighting goes on during Day 2 as well as sound/video

 Ready for the show

Let the show commence!

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.

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.