I had a really nice break from the studio last week when I went for a woodland walk with the Broomfield family. I work with mum, Marie, who wanted some natural looking, outdoor shots of her children, Isobel and Lucas.

Isobel, who is nine years old,  was no stranger to the camera. She’s been snapped countless times recently and appeared on BBC’s newsround after a drawing of herself was chosen as one of 13 to be used in a new animated film as part of the Tate/Ardman Movie Project.

Shooting this way was a first for me with anyone other than family. We agreed to meet in some local woodland that I know very well and just go for a walk and see what happened. I had a few locations I wanted to try but other than that everything was pretty much on the fly.

As it worked out it was a very productive, if tiring afternoon. Some of the locations worked really well and some didn’t. Both Lucas and Isobel were really good models although I wore Lucas out long before Isobel. Even Marie and Mike posed for a few shots and they turned out really well.

The two hour walk filled two 4GB cards but I found post processing the images a lot easier than my studio shots. Marie ended up with over eighty images in the proofing folder and I was pleased with all of them.

Having asked Marie for some feedback a few days later she seemed really pleased with the shots but felt the session went on a bit too long and I’d agree with that. The paradox is that some of my favourite images on the day came from the end of the session.

This was a learning experience though and with what I took away this time I think I could easliy compress the next session down to an hour which would be more than long enough for most children, and me!

All in all a great days photography and I’m now on the look out for some more willing stooges.

Studio Work

I've had a busy few days in the studio with three sessions in the last few days. All were different, which was good for me, ranging from professional promo shots, family shots with seventeen and five year old boys followed by a final high and low key prom shot session.

I had access to a studio room that's qite a bit larger than the room I normally hire and its suprising the difference that made. It certainly made for a more relaxing environment and gave me more room to experiment with the lights. I'm finally getting the hang of the high key lighting in order to get the look I'm after. It seems like everyone has their own way of setting the lights. I've experimented with three or four different setups now but I was really pleased with some of yesterdays results.

I've resorted to using a large softbox as my key light, used close in and at forty five degrees to my subject. That's balanced by a second light set further back, fitted with a large shoot through umberella and metered at one stop below the key. I'm using the new Bowens High Performance reflectors to light the background, set at one to one and a half stops over the key light. I've tried two stops as recommended by lots of people but I just end up with horrendous flare problems. Some of the backgrounds need a bit of whitening in post process but I'd rather that than trying to fight the flare.

All in all though it was a great weekend and I'm really pleased with specific shots from all the sessions. My posing skills are developing although I still struggle a bit with the family groups. I'm not sure if that's me or just trying to get young kids into set poses that never really work. I'm more inclined these days to set the parents and let the youngsters do their thing around them, within reason. I think the end results look a bit more spontaneous and fun. It was quite the opposite with the prom shots, I had two willing models and felt like I guided it through from start to finish, balancing what I wanted with some input from them as to what they were looking for. I think I provided a bit more than they'll get from the standard events shots on the ir prom night, which is what I was hoping for at the start of the session.

Weddings

I photographed my first wedding last weekend after being asked by friend and wedding photographer, Glenn Blakeborough of Focus14 Photography to act as second photographer on a wedding he was booked to shoot at Thornbury Golf Club just outside of Bristol.

I didn’t have to think twice when Glenn contacted me with the offer to shoot with him. This was a fantastic opportunity and It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time after following the articles of some of the countries top wedding photographers in the pro mags I subscribe to.

My remit was to capture guests arriving whilst Glenn was busy with some pre wedding shots of the bride and general scene setting. Following the ceremony he wanted me to capture candid shots of the guests, working around Glenn as he got on with the group shots the bride and groom had requested.

I thoroughly enjoyed my day although it was hard work. We were shooting for four and a half hours and I was so wrapped up in what I was doing it wasn’t until we were leaving that I realised we hadn’t even stopped for a drink during that time. The pint we had just before we left was one of the best ever.

However I was really pleased with what I came away with and I was able to supply Glenn with just over 200 shots. I’ve been left wanting more and wedding photography is something I definitely want to do again.

Photo Noir

Back to some portrait work this week. I took advantage of a visit by Reuben to grab some shots of him in the garden and have another crack at the 'photo noir' stuff using one studio light against a black velvet background. All in all I was really pleased with the results.

The black and white conversions worked really well. I used a couple of photoshop actions I downloaded for the outdoor shots, Lightroom took care of the indoor stuff. Photographing a one year old was quite an experience. They don’t stay still for long and move really quick. All good fun though.

Photoshop Actions

Having spent the last few months following the PhotoTraining4U Photoshop tutorials I've become quite wrapped up with the programme. I still use lightroom for my initial RAW processing but I'm now using Photoshop for everything else. As part of that process I've made a few of my own simple actions for speeding up my workflow but I've also just discovered the vast amount of free actions available on the internet.

I've just spent a few hours this afternoon downloading a few and running them through some pics. Some are good, some are not so good but its amazing what's out there. It's also quite good to pull them apart and see how some of the effects have been achieved. I've no doubt there must be an action for just about everything, I'll continue my search for some cool portfolio borders.

Ducklings

After spending most of this year developing my skills in the studio it was really nice to go out on Saturday and get back to what I enjoy most. That's going out with the camera with a rough idea of what I want to get and seeing what happens. With that in mind I decided to call into where I work, the Police HQ in Portishead and try to get a few shots of some ducklings which are currently being reared on a small pond we have set in amongst a group of offices.

I got lucky when we got there as mum and the ducklings were sat out of the pond and resting in the warm sunshine. Using my 2xSigma converter on my 70-200 lens I was able to get in quite close without upsetting them, they're quite used to people but still wary. I tried to sell the converter last year as at this time it was manual focus only on all my lenses. In fact the only Canon lens it will autofocus with is my new 70-200. I'm really glad I hung on to it now, especially for this sort of stuff. It makes for a heavy combination on the end of the camera but combined with a higher iso in reasonable light it works really well.

There's still quite a few ducklings in the group. Most of these will be taken by crows in the next few weeks, sad but just the way it is.

Animoto

I signed up with Animoto last week after being more than impressed with the video service they provide. It’s an excellent concept and I’d produced my first effort with fifteen minutes of joining. Here’s a short example from last Saturdays shoot with my sister and her family, make sure you switch the volume control on: