First & Last

I'm sitting here writing this feeling throughly ill and have been feeling so for the past couple of days. Anyway, yesterday was my first shoot in my new studio and my last shoot of the decade!

It had been booked for a while and despite how I felt, I wasn't going to cancel. I had the pleasure of shooting Vanessa from 'The Fuel Girls'. We had a great day and got some cool images. We're hoping to work together a lot over the next few months!

Merry Crimble!

Just a quick one to say Merry Christmas to all my friends around the world from a very wintery and white UK.

Max Power : January 2010

Ok, so we're still in 2009, but the January 2010 issue of Max Power is out now featuring my shoot of Richard Padley's Ford Focus from back in July.

Mackenzie 2010 Calendar

Last June I had the pleasure of shooting Mackenzie White's 2010 Calendar. Was a great 3 days shooting with an awesome team! This years calendar was based on Fairy Tales, but with Mackenzie's own dark twist!

The calendar is for sale and can be bought online from Mackenzie's shop.

New Studio

Signed the lease on a new studio yesterday. Quite excited to get in there and start shooting. The lower floor has really nice shooting space that is perfect for shooting people in. There's also a mezzanine level that will be used for editing and client meetings.

Based just outside London, it's got good train links from both London and Birmingham and easy to get to by car, and has decent parking.

There's a few little bits and pieces it needs before I can start taking bookings in it, but they should all be sorted by January.

SHOWstudio

For the last few days I've been watching legendary fashion photographer Nick Knight shooting his '100 Portraits' project for ID Magazine. How have I done this? They're streaming the shoots live over the internet from Somerset House in London! Nick has been shooting a wide range of people from Lady Gaga, to Boy George and Jedward. Watching other people shoot is always a great way to learn, or reaffirm that what you do is right. They've got multiple cameras so you can see both the studio setup, and the final images as they come up on the tethered computer screen.

To see the stream, click here.

Expect the Unexpected!

One of the things I love about being a photographer is that every shoot is different. Sure, you get some that are similar lighting setups, or you'll be creating similar scenarios, but often the people will be different, or something will happen that sticks in the memory. It's what makes photography so interesting.

Well a couple of weeks ago I was booked to shoot some "fashion style" images for a client's portfolio. Nothing out of the ordinary there. She'd sent me some samples of what she was after, and I'd met her previously while I was shooting for another client. Everything was pretty straight forward.

I always have a rough idea of poses and shots in my head before a shoot. They're only rough ideas, and I rarely write them down as I don't like to be too regimented in my work. I prefer my shoots to be more fluid. Anyway, one thing I hadn't planned for was that the client would be 4 months pregnant!

As well as the fashion shots, she now also wanted a few maternity shots, which I wasn't a problem...



The client still wanted the same fashion shots she'd booked me for, that didn't make her look pregnant. I'm not a fan of sitting in front of Photoshop for hours and hours retouching and liquifying people. I find it incredibly tedious! I always prefer to make people look their best in camera. So with a little rethink on posing and lighting, this was the result...

Modified Motors : November 2009

Here's a couple of pics of Danni in the November 2009 issue of Modified Motors. In total the feature covers 5 pages, plus a small pic on the cover.

LinkedIn

More online networking! Just setup my page on LinkedIn after a friend of mine said she was getting lots of enquiries though it. Will see if I have the same response, but it's always good to be present on all these sites as it's another way of people finding you and getting in touch!

So if you're on LinkedIn, lets get connected...

#ipict Photo challange

Over on Twitter, we've (Me, RVDS, Adam Robertson, and Benjamin Venegas) been discussing and have come up with a good fun way of using our iPhones and social media to be creative.

So here are the rules for the #ipict Twitter/iPhone photo challange!

1.No talking about #ipict (hehe, couldn't help myself)
2.Only iPhone's allowed (shooting and post production)
3.Shoot has to be arranged and planned using Twitter.
4.Only models that you have never worked with in the past allowed.
5.No studio lighting.
6.Closing date, end of Dec 2009

Starting date: NOW!!!

All photos will be posted and voted on by all the followers of those
taking part! This is just for fun and the prizes will be a couple
extra followers if we are lucky and hopefully some really cool and
creative images.

When posting images please make sure to add the #ipict tag and a short
explanation of what apps where used in the post production.

Get creative peeps!!!!!

Canon Vs Nikon

The war has raged for many years, and will continue to rage for many years to come. That said, Joey Lawrence has an interesting take on the problems associated with 2 photographers joined by love, but separated by their equipment... hahahaha!