Jim's Photography Blog

Comings and goings

2012-01-23T22:44:00.000Z

Just thought I'd let everyone know what I've been doing over the last couple of weekends.....

the week before last I was in London with the Level 4 group to see the SWWP convention, and after some cityscapes:

And this Saturday I've had a great studio shoot with Holly in the Style of the 40s hollywood glamour...

Alice take 3

2011-12-20T22:47:00.000Z

Decisions..... which one is best for the book titles comp?

Alice in Wonderland - my take on it

2011-12-13T01:33:00.002Z

Have been thinking about the next club comp as it's book titles this time...... throughout the year I've looking round open to any opportunity for a book tittle pic, whilst I was at Whitby I saw this girl dress as Alice so I got a image of her . Then months earlier I had some door images from Calke Abbey, my daughter toy bugs bunny for the rabbit and a quick tour of the Burton wash lands one dinner with my flash and voila an masterpiece is born, well maybe. I painted a coat on Buggsy, put my watch pic in his hand some dodging and burning, and some resizing........

what do you think?

I was thinking of putting some cards in there as well but I haven't got round to it yet?

It's Pants! says Steve

2011-10-02T22:20:00.000+01:00

During our trip to Northumbria I noticed this and liked the texture of the peeling paint and wood against the new red life ring, Steve said it was pants! but I not sure if he was jealous because I got it first ........ what do you think?

Kelly's eyes

2011-09-12T22:30:00.001+01:00

Just been looking back a some studio shoots with kelly and I'd forgotten just how sexy Kelly's eyes can be......

Elegant Time

2011-09-09T22:07:00.000+01:00

Just messing about late a night with my 50mm f1.8 prime lens, I had forgotten just how good it is....

Daughters new dress

2011-08-30T23:41:00.003+01:00

Today instead of .... oh no dads got his camera out! my daughter says 'can I be a model'? I thing this had something to do with her getting a new dress and coat and the aquisition of a swivel posing stool (something to mess about on)? well those that know me realise that I never miss the opportunity to take pictures...

200mm at f2.8 ISO400 1/160 sec with one speedlite bounced to fill

And to celebrate they did a little dance

some radial blur and Gaussian blur erased back

Carriages and the Castle

2011-08-25T21:53:00.000+01:00

I've been thinking of what to do for the upcoming set subject at my local photography club competition of 'old and new' Whilst I was on holiday in Weymouth we went to Corfe castle and it's neighbouring train station, now I know steam trains aren't that new but in comparison to the castle I think it will pass as being new enough..... what do you think?

Calke walk...

2011-08-02T00:11:00.001+01:00

5 people turned up for the Ticknal walk, nine miles, 60 shots and probably only one or two that worked, the one below is one of the first. a very hot day, the shop at the reservoir was closed so the cream tea at Calke was very appreciated.

Look a lesser spotted photographer

theres always one straggler

Well you've got to get one pic of the posse

The Lighthouse

2011-07-21T22:52:00.002+01:00

Had another go at editing the Portland Bill image, wanted to have a sort of Velvia film style of effect, and after Steve's advice remove the building etc from around the lighthouse.... comments appreciated?

3rd and final edit

2nd Edit

Original edit

More Alrewas show

2011-07-19T21:29:00.001+01:00

Had a look at my shots from the Alrewas show and I thought you might like to see these:

Not a hells angel in this mirror!

Alrewas show day

2011-07-16T22:58:00.001+01:00

Heres a couple of images from the very rainy Alrewas show day

Saw these ladies rear-ends and wanted to take a shot at them..... and try the Top Gear effect

On the way back stopped in at the arboretum and got this.... as shot

Weymouth Hols and time for some pics

2011-07-06T23:07:00.010+01:00

Weymouth Ho, three families including the mother-in-law and four and a half hours travelling and a couple of wrong turns we arrived at Seaview holiday park, our home for the next week, first things first we unpacked the cleaning supplies and set to on our supposed 'clean' billet, a descale of the cutlery drawer, disposal of the years accumulation for food debris from the fridge and we were ready to start tackling the bathroom.

Once Paula was happy with the lodgings we unpacked and on the kids request headed for the nightlife... or better known as .... children's hour, or five!

The second day arrived and the forecast was fine and we headed to the nearest suitable beach which was Weymouth, that was after loading all three cars with kids stuff, porta-potty, pram, sunbeds, beach umbrella and of course the kids. finding the beach to be shingle... well pebbles we set to in making it habitable ( had we have travelled another half a mile we would have found fine powdery golden sand! (imported).

The first job was making sure everyone was plastered in suncream (except the adults, who said it was teenagers who thought they we invincible! we all paid for it later on), just enough for any sand you could find stuck.

Buckets and spades were also deployed and promptly abandoned when the found that they couldn't dig stones.

Well at least some found something to look at!

In the afternoon after droping all the stuff back at camp, we headed back to town and found the sandy beach and much to the kids enjoyment a fair on it, the adults were hapy to as they had also an open air rock concert on the beach.

Some typical Art deco buildings at british seaside's

On the Monday after looking the weather forecast and was surprised that is was going to be sunny, I persuaded everyone to go to Lulworth bay, about five miles from our site, parking was about £5 for 3 hours, I wasn't happy with that especially after seeing the walk down..... for that price I would have expected a lift, the mother-in-law about had a coronary too!

Here's someone else who wasn't happy!

This one just wanted to make a run for it.... but didn't get far before they dragged him back.

Here's some picture postcard images for you to be going on with:

Man of War

Durdle Door bay

There's always someone getting in the way of the shot!

Bob Moore's not going to be happy there's a person in the landscape..... not sure who it is though

After the long climb back to the carpark and finding that we still had some time left on the ticket we headed to the village of West Lulworth for some cream teas (and the ticket remaining time could be used there) a very picturesque village and a couple of secret gardens

Tuesday came and so did the rain, so what do you do when the going gets tough... you head for the shops, so sorry to say no piccies on Tuesday

Wednesday came and we decided to risk the rain and head for portland Bill and the lighthouse there, very windy but warm and dry (mostly) this is when we arrived

and this is half and hour later!

The lens now electric and automatic

Wednesday came and we all went our separate ways, we decided to go to Corfe Castle, it's National Trust and we are members so it's free and so is the parking so a result for me.... it's about 17 miles from Weymouth so not to far to go.

Corfe is virtually the starting point for the steam railway line that goes to Swanage so another cheap bonus to keep the kids entertained. the track runs straight past the carpark on top of a small embankment and arriving in time to see the 13:35 steaming past.

As you can see a stones throw from the castle and it's village below

With plenty of things to do and see, but only any good at this venue in fair weather, luckily for us it was.

There's always one wanting to pick a fight! and it's always the short ones with chips on their shoulders!

And there always the one with a slogan t-shirt stating the obvious! and hogging the limelight

Down inn the picturesque village were some great watering holes, we didn't partake as we had brought a picnic, but I took the picture as I liked the look of it, what you don't see is the great thundering lorries driving though.

More to follow

Eric's size eights

2011-06-29T22:06:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago I went to Eric's as he had brought a new pair of shoes and as he was that proud of them he wanted me to take a few piccies, just to make it interesting we added a few watches. A borrowed satin top as a backdrop, two speedlites with a snoot on one and an umbrella on the other we worked hard to capture Eric's shoes in all their glory, but alas I feel we did not do them justice.... what do you think?

The Poppy Field

2011-06-29T00:02:00.000+01:00

Whilst driving to Walton for a pub meal to celebrate Imogen's birthday a poppy field on the way caught my eye, this was about 5:30 pm having had the meal and getting home I opened my email and found a posting from David Norton photography called Poppy addiction http://davidnoton.blogspot.com/ one image in particular interested me

So off I went back to the Poppy field a saw earlier and attempted to capture something similar, It was about 9pm by the time I got there with strong sunlight coming in from the right hand side of the field, luckily there was a lay-by right next to the field and a foot path signed posted running right though the middle of the field.

I used my Canon 5D and my Sigma 70 - 200mm f2.8

so here are my images not quite as I had wanted but for a first attempt I think are ok...... What do you think?

This one has had some burning to the bottom right and highlights 200mm at f2.8

180mm at f 2.8

This one had 2 layers of radial blur in different directions and the one flower erased back 180mm at f2.8

90mm at f8.0

Layla revisited

2011-06-07T00:23:00.000+01:00

I have been looking through some of last years images and saw this one taken of Layla during our Newquay, Wales trip.

Thought I would glam up the image, has it worked? not sure feed back appreciated.

The red dress in the Roaches

2011-06-03T22:49:00.003+01:00

Here's another shot from the Wuthering heights set in the Roaches with Sammy, this time she's in a red dress and... as Brucie would say 'doesn't it work well'

Obviously I call it 'The Red Dress'

This is virtually as shot except for my my favourite blending option for this month which is 2 x multiply layers erased back on Sammy and the surrounding area.

I considered some crop to put sammy more on the thirds but I think I prefer the one above more I think the clouds compensate and balance, what do you think?

The Roaches & Sammy MK II

2011-06-02T00:36:00.000+01:00

Here's a couple more from the Sammy shoot on the Roaches, one colour and the other in black and white for a more moody look!

I call this one Lost Love, just some multiply on the clouds and burning to the surrounding to add atmosphere.

The working tittle for this one is The Lovers, some tweaks in Photoshop RAW and some burning around the edges. This is exactly the kind of look I was attempting very Wuthering heights?

The Roaches and Sammy

2011-05-23T22:46:00.005+01:00

Spent last Sunday at the Roaches with a lovely model call Sammy, her boyfriend Pete (who I kept calling Chris?) and Steve, what a great day... wet, windy and cold perfect for a wuthring Heights themed shoot. Sammy brought some great clothes that fitted well in to the brief we had spoken about previously (always good to plan). The Roaches had many great location to choose from and after a bit of a scout around we found a great spot.

I used a single speedlite mounted on a monopod held by our perfect assistant and stand in Heathcliff Chris.... er I mean Pete (only joking Pete). Metering for the highlights such as the sky and then letting the flash on ETTL and 3 stops under power to fill.

Here is my first attempt, loved the red dress which had a good contrast with the background lifting the image,

I call this.... 'Where's Heathcliff'

Here two of the same image one with Sammy's dress straps removed to add a more period feel, what do you think?

Cambridge

2011-05-16T00:25:00.002+01:00

Not had much chance to go through the images from the groups visit to Cambridge, It turned out to be a nice day for sight seeing but a little bit contrasty for photography. Anyway here's three to be going on with (some critique is appreciated)]

The Cambridge Transport System

A Slow Day on the River

The Long Walk

Driftwood

2011-04-29T01:09:00.002+01:00

Blimey! left the midlands with a temperature of 23 deg C and arrived at Chapel St Leonards (nr Skeggy) and I'm sure there was a 10 deg drop plus the wind chill factor of another 10, so visits to the beach were in stints of seconds before frost bite set in. This image is one taken during those brief stints where my fingers still worked and either the sand or sea spray wasn't attempting to take my skin off my bones.

I was expecting a bit more scenery than I actually got, you know some dunes, maybe some rocks ....... there was bugger all, nadda nowt ! Ah well the kids and the dog loved it..... and have arrived back in time to see the wedding, that is if the telly works as I haven't checked it yet.

A yellow moon

2011-04-20T00:35:00.000+01:00

Did anyone see the moon the other night I did it was coloured yellow from the sand dust blown over from the Sahara.

I can feel a werewolf image coming on?

Another Pilot + Bi-plane

2011-04-17T22:43:00.002+01:00

Had another go at the Pilot piccy, this time with Pete's idea of a plane added (from Filey) and a hard light blending layer.

The Merry Go Round

2011-04-12T22:39:00.000+01:00

Here's a slice of life ...... the merry go round, the next instalment could be called ' The Rat Race'

It's the merry go round from Bristol with a bit of Whitby sky in there for good measure, I just wished I'd asked him to put the lights on!

The Pilot

2011-04-06T21:05:00.001+01:00

I have been working on this image for a few days now, this is one taken from the Whitby Goth weekend, this girl obviously dressed as a 20s Pilot caught my eye, loved the red hair and rich colours of her clothing and I thought she would be a great base image for the kind of thing I wanted to work on, which was a very dark and moody style almost comic book/ Indiana Jones kind of thing. I saw here at the start of the day and wished I had taken more pictures of her, I kept looking for her throughout the rest of the day but never had the opportunity again when the lighting had been better.

I havent used any flash in this image its all Photoshop.... all 14 layers of it, it was taken with a Canon 5D MKII, and 17-40mm Canon L series wide angle lens

anyway here it is ..... some feedback would be appreciated.

The Pilot

BPS Club Comp night - Documentary

2011-03-02T20:24:00.000Z

It's the Burton Photographic Society Club monthly competition tomorrow night and the set subject is documentary, well you could imagine the questions asked with that one...? What does a documentary image consist of, some say it street scenes of people, some say it an image of an item?

I just took it as the first and use some of my images that were taken during my weddings and the trips to London and Birmingham.

Coffee 99p

The Big Issue - Hunger

Just Passing By

The African Lady

Medusa - The Brides Protectess

The Elderly - On Their Way Out

Trains

2011-02-26T19:48:00.000Z

Here's a couple of shots from the day out with Eric and Steve in Leicestershire these two were taken in the morning whilst at a train station I cannot remember what it is called but they had one steam train come through all day (typically it was a diesel train day) and luckily we were there to catch it.....

And a diesel

Backlighting and rim lighting

2011-02-06T20:38:00.001Z

I have been following a photographer on Flickr I only know as Pnmd, and they have a particular way of producing a style of shot I really like see bellow:(not sure if it is the lighting or the models I like, Lol)

He produces this image initially very simply as bellow:

So after a morning with Eric working on some still life work with his light table and my artificial Spanish wall, I decided to try and recreate his style. as I had only two lights I had to compromise, one bare bulb strobe at the back and the Key light with an umbrella, and a small softbox later on, all set up in my meagre conservatory. The only models I had were my two ever helpful daughters and when they had gone to bed my wife Paula. Here is my initial setup, you can just see the bare bulb strobe on the left

These are the results of my efforts the first three are with the umbrella, and the last with Paula I used a softbox to soften her complexion, I also used a silver reflector to fill the shadows.

One I found Earlier

2010-12-31T17:16:00.001Z

I have been archiving some images from my hard drive and found this one from last Christmas that I had forgotten about and wanted to use, It is Imogen in here new rocking horse, I took it with my Canon 450D and a canon 90 - 300mm EF lens

And the bells we use to pretend that we can hear Santa coming and get the kids to go to sleep, one of us gets the kids to stand at the front door as the other hangs out of a window 'shakin what yer momma gave yer!'

Bristol Trip

2010-12-30T13:32:00.005Z

The annual Christmas outing of the Pixxel8 minus 3 (Ruth, Pete & Beck) was arranged, after some deliberation Bristol was the chosen location, now the next difficult decision was what time to go, I being a lazy B*!@D want a late start but I bowed to the masses so we set of at 06:30 HRS!! me driving and just 2 hours to Bristol in the fog, seeing mist scenes on the Mendips and surrounding countryside on the way.

We arrived and dully parked we search for a cafe to have breakfast and plan the day. one was found by the docks, ordered our food and found that the conveniences were inconveniently out of action, so Sub-Way next door sufficed.

I made a point of just using my 17 - 40mm wide angle zoom on my full frame camera to try and get different images of the same subject as the rest had medium to telephoto lens's, I hope I have achieved this?

It was still misty and overcast so we looked for interesting structure to fill the space of empty skies, we walked around the docks and river frontages all day, up to the Cathedral, with cafe stops along the way. At the Bristol Museum we found a nice bench to rest whilst Eric surveyed the scene (well he was one a Quantity surveyor), back down to the docks and another walk round, stopping at a waterside pub for early dinner of Beef and ale pie (well for me anyway as they had only one portion left) Coca-Cola with not enough syrup! and Steve to pay for a pudding which never turned up!

Out again into the night to get some low light shots, Eric had forgotten his tripod so a rally round to loan one off each of us in turn, obligingly of course.

Turning 8 o'clock we headed back home for a cup of tea and bed.

Icebound at Bristol Docks

Sunrise

Nessie

Little Snow Angels

2010-12-22T22:53:00.002Z

Well that was a surprise, a local amateur weatherman said no snow for us..... A bet he feels a little silly now! I got up this morning to snow, lots of snow, all 6" of it (or 150mm for the metric lot) as it was my day to look after the kids whilst 'er in doors' went to earn a crust I decided that a better way to wear out the little cherubs other than vegging out in front of the telly, was to suggest a winter walk, or in this case sledge ride.

Here are some pics to prove it, all taken wit h my Canon 5D MKII and Canon 17 - 40mm f/4.0 EF L lens.

Carols at St Marys and ISO at 2000

2010-12-19T23:44:00.001Z

Attended a Christmas Carol service at St Marys Church in Stretton, and me being me I took my camera for some low light photography. Knowing that I was taking hand held pictures in low light situation I opened up my latest lens acquisition, a Canon 17 - 40mm EF L, to it's largest aperture of f/4.0 and upped the ISO to 2000 to try and achieve a reasonably hight shutter speed as I possibly could, Luckily it was a full moon....

Here are some images, edited for white balance and some crop.

Kelly Revisited

2010-12-14T23:56:00.000Z

Another blast from the past, here is a shot of Kelly taken during my studio session last year, I thought it too was worth another look.

I used one bare bulb flash with barn door fitted to create harsh shadows and light fall off in the corners.

Talulah revisited

2010-12-12T23:28:00.001Z

Whilst I was editing some images from a recent family portrait shoot I decided to have a look at some of my previous work, I came across this one of Talulah that was taken last summer during a location shoot on the Burton Washlands, this one has the bridge by the library and cherry orchard in the background. I thought it was worth showing off.

This was taken with my Canon 5D MKII and a Canon 24 - 105mm f/4.0L and I used some fill flash from a 580 EXII speedlite.

Winter Walk at -7

2010-12-07T20:15:00.001Z

What a glorious day for taking images of the winter spectacle, very low temperatures of around - 7 (well for Burton) a low winter sun and a riverside walk, what more could you ask for..... I even had a fellow Tog, Steve to tag along with! so off we set over the Burton Washlands walks by the river Trent during our lunch.

Here are a couple of images (only adjusted for white balance) that were taken with my Canon 5D MKII and my newly procured Canon 17-40mm f/4.0 L EF wide angle lens and of course a polariser fitted for good measure...

Views towards St Peters

The Trent looking towards the Trent Bridge

On the Bend

A Winter Walk to Work

2010-12-03T21:30:00.001Z

I decided to walk to work today as the roads on our estate were like glass, so never wanting to mis a photographic opportunity I took my little 450D. My route took me from Midway along the A511 down to the Swan junction where I then detoured through the Stapenhill meadows and along the viaduct to the college. I got a couple of shots which I like.... what do you think?

Bridge to the washlands from the viaduct

The Trent viewed toward Trent Bridge

Trent Bridge

BPS Club Comp night

2010-11-19T08:35:00.002Z

It's that time of the month again, yes I mean the monthly BPS club competition night has arrived.

All the Burton College group have done well again, Steve (digiphotoman) has moved up to the Advance projected and got a first place for his image taken at the lakes on a misty morning... excellent work Steve. Pip also did extremely well in the beginners prints section, I think a few of them should have moved up to the intermediate section to give me some fair competition, as they are well worthy and the sections are blurring between them all. If they were not tittled as beginners, intermediate and advanced you would be hard pressed to guess which section they are in.

I suppose you want to know how I did.... well OK them you twisted my arm and under duress I will tell you....!

In my section the Intermediate Prints for the second week running I managed a 1st place for my image titled Gunsmoke (and yes it was real smoke from the gun)

And I also managed to get a 2nd place spot for my image titles ' wind farm on the Dee estuary' this was taken from a field overlooking Colwyn Bay in Wales and they had to be about 2 miles from where I was so I used a 200 mm lens to reach them.

Location Shoot with Cars and Emma

2010-11-07T14:51:00.001Z

Had an excellent car and model shoot as part of my college L3 Diploma course, all went well except the college flash equipment didn't have all the cables to allow me to use two out of the four flash units, we had a Rolls and Ferrari and a fabulous model 'Emma' here is a taster of the days shots, I call it 'Hi Rollin'

Here are some more from the day

The Water Bowser

2010-10-20T00:00:00.001+01:00

Whilst on a classic car and tractor shoot, after finishing photographing the cars I decided to have a wander around the farm and tucked away in a field at the back of one of the barns was this water bowser, I just loved the way the light had caught it bringing out it's colour and texture.

Attempt No 2

2010-10-11T23:43:00.002+01:00

Another attempt at my version of a Steven Le Provost pic, I think I've still got a long way to go. Didn't Steven say at the seminar each of his pictures would have upwards of 20 layers! I'm struggling with 7

I call this one Zante 97

I wanted a sharper image of Paula but more texture in the surrounding areas, Pip suggested a square crop like Stevens, But I think I like this crop as Paula has somewhere to look into? I have also used a curves layer to increase the contrast whilst keeping the scene more pastel and light.

MCPF Seminar & Steven Le Prevost

2010-10-10T21:56:00.001+01:00

Had an excellent day at the MCPF seminar held at our Burton Photographic Society Club headquarters in the Priory Centre in Burton.

There were four speakers of excellent reputation and quality, amongst them was Steven Le Provost a creative photographer and digital artist.... wow what great pictures, I say pictures rather that photographs as most of his work is heavily Photoshopped, items dragged from here and there and inserted into various backgrounds, foregrounds and anywhere else he feels would creatively enhance his work. One of the areas that interested me was his use of blurring, texturing and introducing noise to his pictures to create soft atmospheric scenes, as soon as I say them it was like a lightbulb switching on to that photograph that I have from years back when I first got a digital camera... this picture had been waiting patiently for years ready to show it self when the time was right.

Well as soon as I got home I dung it out and set to to bring out my creative side in the style of Steven's.... here it is:

I call it summer days.....

What have I done to it, a bit of dodging, some Gaussian blur, noise and a layer of clouds with the opacity reduced.... what do you think?

My image published

2010-09-25T20:05:00.003+01:00

A while back I was asked by the husband of my friend Pip to take a picture for a book he was writing/ designing the cover for. One of his friends young son was going to be dressed up in some army uniform, his slippers and a teddy.

well follow the link as it is now published so.. this must mean that I've had a picture published too!

Thanks Pip for giving me the opportunity to have a picture published and credited.I shall treasure it as one of 'my firsts', hopefully not my last...

Reversing the inverse square law

2010-09-24T08:08:00.000+01:00

I receive email update of tog techneques etc from a great site called 'Digital Photography School' and thought this one was really boring....... but really useful once into it.

go to this link to see

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/reversing-the-inverse-square-law

In the fast lane with Force India F1

2010-09-16T22:42:00.009+01:00

I won a competition to have a guided tour of the Force India Formula One racing team factory, warts and all. The factory is based at Silverstone which was about one and a half hours away by car. As the I had to be there by 9:30am I had an earlier start that I normally have, the one bonus was not much traffic on the M1 so I was quite a bit early arriving, on the plus side this gave loads of time to inspect the magnificent piece of engineering adorning the reception...

Once all the other winners arrived we were escorted to the boardroom for tea and biscuits before the tour, this was the boardroom where the likes of Schumacher and others have graced.

This series of pics are of last years car that is used for practicing pit stops, the black line is where the tyres should positioned and the pit man kneels readdy to change a tyre as the car is hurtling towards them at 70 mph!

You can't beat a good back shot

Each wheel is £1000

This is the front aerofoil that proves a competitor had chopped them up in a race from last year, It was a famous argument? if you look closely the black stuff is actually rubber from the tyre, It also groves how strong carbon fibre really is, which by the way is what makes up almost all of the car except for the engine and wheels....

The exhaust system all hand built every one exactly the same so that they could use it in any of their cars, each radiator is also hand built from scratch and take three weeks to build.

I had a very good day very informative and a great insight into what it take to build and run a F1 car and team.

The Rat Pack

2010-08-29T00:36:00.011+01:00

Just got back from a great night at Conkers with Dean, Frank and Sammy collectively known as the Rat Pack.

We were invited by Wayne, AKA Dean Martin to come and photograph their tribute band when they played at Conkers auditorium, what a great night loads of atmosphere, good music and a couple of sexy dancers thrown in what more could you wish for..... here's some images, all of them taken without flash and shutter speeds at a min of 1/100 sec, ISO min 800 and a max of 3200:

Dean and the Showgirl Sammy belting it out

Frank making an entrance

Dean and his drink

Old blue eyes

The Showgirl The Rat Pack

Center Stage

A rainy night at Branston

2010-08-26T21:44:00.005+01:00

The day was sunny and bright, I got my camera out to go to the Club meeting at Branston golf club to have a walk along the river.... then getting the car it happened, rain! just a smidgen at first by the time I got to Burton it was truly a downpour. Not wanting to let my comrades down I pressed on to see if anyone was as delusional as me...... you wouldn't believe it but there was Eric, umbrella in hand and camera bag over his shoulder patiently waiting. So now the two of us stood patiently waiting .... and waited ... and waited, and after a very long minute we decided sod it! lets get a drink. just as we were sitting down two other stalwarts, Lu and Ralph arrived and made it four.

We decided that there was nothing better to do that make a night of it me and Eric on the Smirnoff and Coors and Lu and Ralph on the hard stuff.... J2O, well it was Cranberry J2O.

Whilst sitting there setting the photography world to rights we started taking pictures, and blow me Eric gets a kiss from a female and was propositioned... to take some pictures of the newly changed bar area. So off he go's with his trusty 20 year old table tripod and his brand new 5D MKII, sprawling himself across the bar to get 'the' picture.

I meanwhile I, not wanted to exert myself stayed in my comfy chair and put on my f2.8 70-200mm.

Here's some pics to prove it:

The 19th Hole

ISO 1600
f2.8
1/40 sec
180.0 mm

Eric at close quarters

ISO 1600

f4.0

1/640 sec & Speedlite

105.0 mm

Left on the shelf

ISO 1600

f2.8

1/125 sec

180.0 mm

The last Smirnoff

ISO 1600

f2.8

1/10 sec

70.0 mm

City & Guilds College Courses

2010-08-26T13:27:00.000+01:00

Hi all,
I have just been speaking to Chris, who the Program Area Manager at the College, we were talking about enrolment on the up and coming photography courses, which are staring on Sat 18th September for 16 weeks in 4 hour sessions.
During the conversation, it became apparent that there will a few changes to the course program....

The first main one is that you will be able to work on whatever City and Guilds unit you want, independently from the rest of the students.

There will be fixed 1-hour tutorials in each Saturday class these may be on techniques or other artists in the style of etc etc.

Lastly, Chris suggested that he might participate in the classes/ tutorials thus giving a broader range of teaching input.

If you want to enrol just turn up at one of the enrolment days, alternatively as a last option turn up on the course day and enrol then. If you are not sure which units you want to progress, you will be sorting this out on the first class, for more information have a look at the city and guilds website for 7512 photography

Looking forward to this next course and … the new BPS club year!

Lhotte take 2

2010-08-17T22:08:00.000+01:00

I've just finished editing the final images from the Lhotte summer location shoot at Calke Abbey.

All the images were taken with my Canon 5D MKII, my Sigma APO DG EX f2.8 lens and I used a 580EXII speedlite and a circular reflector to fill some of the shadows and it was a very sunny day I positioned Lhotte in the shade under trees and bounced light with the reflector, in the event of the sun going in I used the speedlite...... here are my favourite shots

North Wales coast

2010-08-14T01:19:00.003+01:00

Another family holiday in our trusty caravan, staying at a lovely CL site in Old Colwyn. As always my camera in hand to capture those precious moments, sadly though I can never be in them, Secretly I'm hoping my eldest daughter will show an interest in taking pictures, I have given her my old 2MP Sony Cyber-shot digital camera we'll have to see how she develops. Apart from staying in Old Colwyn we visited Rhyl, Llandudno and the Great Orme and Conwy. Heres a few images to be going on with:

This is the view from the CL site, which is the wind farms out to sea in the Dee Estuary.

This is the disused and derelict Colwyn Pier.

And this time with a sunset.

Views from Llandudno.

A Hawk over Conwy Castle.

And lastly one of those precious moments on Conwy harbour front just outside the smallest house in Great Britain. At least the golden rule of portrait composition is right, three is an odd number isn't it?

Sewerby Hall Children's Zoo

2010-08-04T22:00:00.001+01:00

Whilst on my holiday at Filey we visited Sewerby Hall and Gardens, it also had a children's zoo too, the following images were all taken with my Canon 5D MKII and my Sigma 70-200mm APO GD EX f/2.8

leading lines....

2010-08-04T19:51:00.001+01:00

Having seen Eric's leading lines I decided to have a look at my images from the holiday to Filey to see if I had subconsciously or consciously included any leading lines in them, whilst going through them it became apparent that there was some attempt to include leading lines into some images, have a look at the following images and comment on whether:

a) they constitute a leading line
b) the leading line improves the shot
c) the line should be leading towards something

some post today he hadn't gone away!

2010-07-14T19:53:00.000+01:00

Had my C&G L3 course certificate today through the post of course... a credit for my presentation! and a distinction for the studio work! not sure how you get a distinction in presentation (well done Eric, I'm copying you next time) as Mr Steve said on a disk is good enough?

College photo blog link from Mr Steve

2010-07-14T19:46:00.000+01:00

Hi All please follow the link to Mr Steve's/ college blog

http://cityguildsphotographycourses.blogspot.com/

The Wedding of Angie & Kev

2010-07-13T22:20:00.004+01:00

It's only five days to Angie and Kev's wedding day, as I have been asked to capture those special moments I asked Angie to provide me with the rings and the order of service so that I could take some images prior the the wedding, It would also be one thing less to think about... Here they are:

Moira Furnace

2010-07-09T21:35:00.003+01:00

There I was sitting on the fence, wondering if anyone one was coming to my first visit to Moira Furnace, I was a bit early at 6:45pm so `i thought I give it a bit longer. I sure everyone was waiting round the corner for the clock to strike 7 and dead on Pip, then Lu and Ralph arrived, and finally two more for the pot made 5.

we wandered around watch the skies become more overcast as the seconds ticked by, oh well time for some close crops again.

A fox at 200mm on the left,

and the cropped is...... on the right

Finally Pip 'Checkin' it out"

Newton Park & a July 4th Wedding

2010-07-05T23:37:00.001+01:00

Just started to edit the images from this Sundays wedding at the Newton Park, It would be rude to post any images on here before the happy couple see them. Just to say I have captured some wonderful memories, with assistance from Joe (thanks Joe). a full days shooting starting a 10:30 am and finally going home just after 8pm. here's a couple of tasters I can post.

Flash and max shutter speed

2010-07-01T22:57:00.013+01:00

I have started reading a book by Neil Van Niekerk, a South African wedding photographer based in New Jersey USA (see Blog link: Planetneil).

The book explains techniques on use of 'on camera flash' in which he explains the benefit of using the camera maximum flash sync speed, on my canon 5D MKII this is 1/200 sec, as the datum then adjusting the other parameters to suit to enable the ambient background light to be seen whilst using the flash in TTL mode to fill in at it's optimum efficiency, thus improving battery life, recycling speed and a fast enough shutter speed to reduce camera shake.

in the following Images which I have taken to show this effect I used my ever willing model (my daughters make up doll) with one 100w bedside light set at 90 degrees to the models left (right of the images) creating some tungsten side and ambient light. all of the following image are uneddited apart from converting to Jpg. As I always shoot in RAW I have plenty of scope for editing for white balance etc.

F/4.0
1/4 sec
ISO 800
3100k / cloudy

we can see here a warm colours prevailing in the ambient light, with no flash and plenty of modelling on the face. a slightly soft image even with the help of IS on the Canon 24-105mm lens

F/4.0

1/200 sec

ISO 1600

5550k/ Tungsten

we can see not much change in ambient lighting, but because of the the faster shutter speed I think a noticeably sharper image and better modelling because of the bounced fill flash

the following set shows that the only changed parameter is the shutter speed, the fill flash is taking up the slack filling in / adding to the ambient.

f/4.0

1/8 sec

ISO 2000

5550k / Cloudy

no flash

f/4.0

1/8 sec

ISO 2000

3100k / Tungsten

no flash

F/4.0

1/200 sec

ISO 2000

5550k / cloudy

bounced fill flash over my left shoulder and 45 degrees up, again I think noticeably sharper. You will notice that the ambient lighting is still present in the background.

F/4.0

1/200 sec

ISO 2000

5550k / cloudy

bounced fill flash over my left shoulder and 90 degrees across

I will be using this in my flash wedding photography along with other tips from Neil's book, more to come.....

Lhotte

2010-06-27T23:26:00.009+01:00

Had a great location shoot with Lhotte, the location was Calke in the grounds of the tree avenue leading up the drive. I had a glamourous assistant called Eric who was in charge of the lighting. As it was a bright sunny day and we were shooting at 1pm I knew that shooting in full sun would be a no no, so I positioned Lhotte under the trees and bounced in reflected light, we had various types of reflectors we tried gold first but that was too much, white was too subtle so we settled on a mix, one of my Lastolite tri-flectors panels has a gold and silver mix and this seemed to work well. Lhotte came with a couple of dresses as I had briefed her on the style of shoot which was a sort of editorial, summer long flowing dresses kind of thing, she came with a make up artist, but we wanted subtle make up, a kind of natural look.

I was using my Canon 5D MKII with a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 lens as I wanted to use maximum aperture to blur the background. the following images have been edited for white balance and a small crop only, I will be editing further when I get chance.

This first one started off leaning on the fence but the fill in was catching the fence creating and unnatural look. so we brought her forwards and this was the result

A change in location and pose on this one on the right, as the sun was in and out of the clouds we tried some fill in flash, I don't think it has quite worked

This one was taken from a series of shots where I asked Lhotte to stroll towards the camera this was in full sun with no fill.

Another change in tree with a better less distracting background and back to reflector fill.

A change of clothes and the other side of the tree away from any dappled light again with fill from a reflector which was about 20 foot away.

And finally a tribute to the dress, a lioness pose, Grrrr...! again making sure she was in the shade with some fill. Reminds me of the Austin Powers shoot video

all parties left happy with a suggestion of another shoot this time down by the lake/ ponds.

Ashend House Farm

2010-06-27T00:21:00.007+01:00

We decided to have a day out to celebrate Imogen's 3rd birthday, which is on Monday, Paula had heard about this farm with lots of things to do.... like feeding the animals... and feeding some more animals and.... looking at animals. So as Amelia is Coeliac we made our own packed lunch, ham sandwiches, crisps and strawberries and cream all packed in a coolbox and off we set. Ashend Farm is at Middleton near Tamworth about half an hour away. the kids were ecstatic as we arrived.

Of course I took a camera, this time I used my Canon 450D at it was light and small, I also decided to use a prime lens for the same reason, my Canon 50mm f1.8 fitted the bill as the 450 has a cropped sensor 50mm becomes approximately 70-90mm, I'm not sure exactly. Because I wanted to remove any background images most on my images were taken with an aperture of f1.8, f2.8 and a couple of f4.0.

Feeding time

I'm not sure about this?

Yoda says let the force be with you!

strutting her stuff

But some ones giving her the evil eye!

That old chestnut

Wild hair 1

and 2

Picnic time

Wheres Mum

On the bench

A pig

Pull the Udder one!

Sleeping Beauty

Levitation

Time for home

and one last treat

A good day had by all and I think another visit could be on the cards as it's a good place to visit even when it's raining as most of the animals are in sheds.

A day at the races

2010-06-22T13:05:00.002+01:00

Today's the day we!, well Amelia has been training for, It's the annual school sports day, Amelia's first. I booked the day off, Paula was going to work late to cover her hours and Imogen.... we she was just happy to be out of nursery with her parents. Me being me I took my Canon 5D MKII and my Sigma 70-200mm set at f/2.8.

We dropped Amelia of at school for 9 and the three of us trundled round to the park, that is next to her school and were they were holding the sports day. the lines were marked and the markers were set.

With just enough time to take Imogen to the swings,

The slide and the climbing frame

and a quick run around

Before the start of the races at 9:30

out they came the children on one side and the spectators on the other, there were cheers from the parents, I though at one point there was money on the game the way they were egging their children on!

There were bean bag races and jumping through hoops , for a moment I thought I was back at the office!

then time to relax and applause at the next batch of competitors...

and a wave goodbye from little sis back they went thought the school gate.

The Stag, Hen and Fathers day

2010-06-21T12:15:00.010+01:00

Well the Stag night arrived for my future brother in law. Unfortunately the best man didn't.... so on we soldiered to ‘The Mill House’ and finally to the hip and happening’ ‘Beeches’ at Stretton. The usual copious rounds of lager, shots and Smirnoff’s were consumed followed by a few rounds of pool, and nearly ended the night with a fight between the locals and the newcomers, I wasn’t sure if they thought their women folk were more interested in us! I cannot think why they would consider this an option having seen their women folk even with our beer goggles on!

On the flip side, the next morning I had a meeting with Tricia the Bride to be at the Newton Park Hotel in Newton Solney. I arrived early and ordered a cup of tea with one lump of sugar, nursing a small headache from the previous night. I waited for the happy couple to arrive, Joe had agreed to be my second shooter (thanks Joe) and was coming to sit in the meeting, A total opposite to the previous evening, well mannered and civilised.

We discussed their photo requirements, special arrangements such as the Nan in a wheelchair complete with oxygen cylinder, and finally conducting a tour of the venue to specify locations. I must say you cannot beat a good venue; it definitely makes a wedding and definitely helps the photographer, plenty of space, plenty of location to take photos (weather permitting).

The Bride and Groom departed leaving Joe and me to have one final tour of the venue taking some test shots.

On arriving home, I was greeted by my two children, who I had left peacefully sleeping two hours earlier, who were now full of energy and mischievousness dragging me to see my presents of a jumper, some cards and a pile of half eaten home made cakes, swigging grape cordial from a previously emptied half wine bottle, arguing respectively when the other had a drink.

Lunch was provided on the patio, a visit to Branston water park, and Doctor Who on the telly finished off an eventful and pleasant weekend.

The Tutbury Skirmish

2010-06-13T21:35:00.004+01:00

After the BPS digital morning, which I thought was a reasonable success (well nobody complained and they were still awake at the end) I had heard that there was going to be a rumble at Tutbury Castle between the Redcoats and some others not in uniform, so off I trundles me, my camera in the trusty Picanto, running around 55 mpg and £30 tax, to Tutbury Castle to shout scramble then shoot the pursuing scrap. I though that it would be rained off looking at the oncoming clouds but it held off just in time for the skirmish and my battery failing on the last shots (mine and theirs).

Here's a few pics for those who didn't make it:

Jack Time for action

Lone Watch

At Arms

Go on men!

In my sights

Fire at will

Fire

The Queen Vic

Those left behind

A day in the Dales

2010-06-10T22:42:00.002+01:00

A trio of lads had an idea to go a wandering.... one said theres gold in them thar hills, fields full of it, buttercups and things! so the three set off in search of golden moments captured on premium circuitry. 70 miles, numerous stops and a watering hole called the Bluebell and 7 hours or so later they came home, defeated. bad light and overcast skies had set in for the day.

here's some pics as a record....

Cool Waters

The three came a thundering

Through the arched window

Man down

L3 Reasons for choice of presentation media

2010-06-08T09:35:00.013+01:00

I have decided to use a double pronged attack on my choice of presentation. The first thing I would like to say is that you just cannot beat having a real tangible photograph, a piece of paper with an image on it, you can feel it live it move it, It's a tactile thing and seeing images that have not been electronically backlit in natural light presents the image always at its best. The down side is, in this day and age everything comes down to one thing cost versus benefit.... its a sad way but a fact, therefore I have decided to pick my two favourite images and get them printed by an online printer, they will be in a matt sheen or their description 'Lustre' which has a slight sheen with a dimpled effect, this has a quite pleasing appearance neither full gloss and not totally flat. I will be mounting these prints in a 400mm x 500mm mount, cut with an aperture to suit the image. This is standard practice for national and international competitions and presentation. Moreover, of course it preludes people handling the print itself as obviously the prints being only paper are very fragile and easily permanently damaged. The major downside of prints is storing them their size alone takes up space and eventually they will degrade, fade and fall apart.

I have yet to calibrate my home printer to achieve its best printing. So I use an online printer called DS Colours labs in Manchester, they are very reliable, with excellent quality and fast with an almost next day service with the benefit of also being cheaper that home printing, aside from the postage, to offset the postage I always try to get as many images printed as possible within the postage price. For an example of their cost, a 16”x 12” print in gloss costs £1.05. As for the rest of my images I have put all of them on to a CD saved as a high quality Jpg file, I have numbered each image #001 to #010 with either a P= Product or F = Fashion to signify their respective theme. In my blog entries, I have named each image to represent the style theme and subject matter, such as F001 the white hat.

I do feel that this medium is inferior to the printed medium; I have also found that in internal club competitions my projected images never score as high a mark as my printed. However the digital method of presentation does have some positive attributes, such as the can be reproduced at a touch of a button, sent to a third party or exhibition easily and quickly. They (once backed up and copied) are very durable and the most important one in my opinion is that they can be seen by many people in different places throughout the world if you so desired by the medium of the World Wide Web. Finally, you can store unlimited amounts of digital images on a small hard drive.

I did have a thought of putting my images onto a slide show or DVD show as I would for one of my wedding presentations, I personally dislike videos and slideshows as they tend to be longwinded and always have excessive fade ins or tacky fade in effects such as blinds or dissolve, it is also difficult to linger on an image that the viewer likes. The only time I think they work is if it's a very short and fast presentation with a variety of images to keep the viewer interested, and it would need some decent music, but as music tastes are a personal thing getting it right is very difficult. the only pros I can think of is that you can set them going and walk away.

Haddon Hall and the Peaks

2010-06-01T22:54:00.002+01:00

Had a wonderful long weekend in the Peak district staying in our caravan sited near Baslow, we visited Haddon Hall one day, what a wonderful place, here's some pics,

Branston Memorial Cup

2010-05-23T12:30:00.006+01:00

Had a wonderful afternoon and evening at the Branston golf club, thanks to Eric for inviting me, it was in aid of a wonderful cause..... 18 holes, a red hot day and a close match..... to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Kev cup.

Eric's new club!

one, two cha cha char....

Clubs

Bets action shot of the day, for me anyway!

Lining it up

One small step

One small slip...

The Moon over the ninth

Talula (Stage Name)

2010-05-19T08:33:00.002+01:00

Talula and I had a meeting in the meadows.... all was comfy cozy then Eric rang! DOH!

No seriously, me and Talulah did a location photo shoot on the Burton washland meadows yesterday evening, just accross from the library starting off in the trees, progressing to the open meadow grassland and ending up on the tree avenue path (litterally) by the iron bridge.

Here's a taster of one I've edited (slightly).

Fashion Photography and its inception. Incl my influences

2010-05-13T08:18:00.050+01:00

Fashion photography

Fashion photography is a genre of photography devoted to displaying clothing and other fashion items. Fashion photography is most often conducted for advertisements or fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or Allure. Over time, fashion photography has developed its own aesthetic in which the clothes and fashions are enhanced by the presence of exotic locations or accessories.

History

The Countess in a photo by Pierre-Louise Pierson (c. 1863/66)Photography was developed in the 1830s, but the earliest popular technique, the daguerreotype*, was unsuitable for mass printing. In 1856, Adolphe Braun published a book containing 288 photographs of Virginia Oldoini, Countess di Castiglione, a Tuscan noblewoman at the court of Napoleon III. The photos depict her in her official court garb, making her the first fashion model.

In the first decade of the 20th century, advances in halftone printing allowed fashion photographs to be featured in magazines.

Fashion photography made its first appearance in French magazines such as La mode practique.

In 1909, Condé Nast took over Vogue magazine and also contributed to the beginnings of fashion photography. Special emphasis was placed on staging the shots, a process first developed by Baron Adolf de Meyer, who shot his models in natural environments and poses. Vogue was followed by its rival, Harper's Bazaar, and the two companies were leaders in the field of fashion photography throughout the 1920s and 1930s. House photographers such as Edward Steichen, George Hoyningen-Huene, Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton transformed the genre into an outstanding art form. Europe, and especially Germany, was for a short time the leader in fashion photography. But now with the change in time every country has taken considerable measures to promote the field of photography. The artists abandoned their rigid forms for a much freer style. In 1936 Martin Munkacsi made the first photographs of models in sporty poses at the beach. Under the artistic direction of Alexander Brodovich, the Harper's Bazaar quickly introduced this new style into its magazine. In postwar London, John French pioneered a new form of fashion photography suited to reproduction in newsprint, involving where possible reflected natural light and low contrast.

In the mid 1940s as World War II approached the focus shifted to the United States, where Vogue and Harper's continued their old rivalry. House photographers such as Irving Penn, Martin Munkacsi, Richard Avedon, and Louise Dahl-Wolfe would shape the look of fashion photography for the following decades. Richard Avedon revolutionized fashion photography — and redefined the role of the fashion photographer — in the post-World War II era with his imaginative images of the modern woman. Today, his work is being exhibited in the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, FL. This exhibition features more than 200 works and spans Avedon’s entire career, including vintage prints, contact sheets, and original magazines from Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and The New Yorker.

By the 1980's, mass market fashion photography was clearly defined in the genres of fashion, accessories and beauty. The same photographers who were shooting the editorials also began crafting editorial-like ad campaigns. The emerging power of the photographer and the supermodel, resulted in their higher salaries and greater influence in fashion. The enormous investment of time and money into fashion photography and its social value, can be compared with studio painting in prior centuries. Since the 1990's, the photographic style of luxury realism has transformed into a more everyday naturalism, making fashion photography relevant to art and history. The 1980's were marked by high glamour typified in Herb Ritts, who continued through the 1990's. After the deaths of Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts, some of today's most famous fashion photographers are Patrick Demarchelier, Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh and Annie Leibovitz.

References

History of Fashion Photography at aidan.co.uk". http://www.aidan.co.uk/article_fashion1.htm.

Some of my Influences:

Horst P Horst

Most often known as just Horst, (August 14, 1906 – November 18, 1999) was a German American photographer best known for his photographs of women and fashion taken while working for Vogue magazine.

The younger of two sons, Horst was born Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann in Weißenfels-an-der-Saale, Germany, to Klara (Schönbrodt) and Max Bohrmann. His father was a successful merchant.
In his teens, he met dancer Eva Weidemann at the home of his aunt's, and this aroused his interest in avant-garde art. In the late 1920s, Horst studied at Hamburg Kunstgewerbeschule, leaving there to go to Paris to study under the architect Le Corbusier.
While in Paris, he befriended many people in the art community and attended many galleries. In 1930 he met Vogue photographer Baron George Hoyningen-Huene, a half-Baltic, half-American nobleman, and became his lover. He traveled to England with him that winter. While there, they visited photographer Cecil Beaton, who was working for the British edition of Vogue. In 1931, Horst began his association with Vogue, publishing his first photograph in the French edition of Vogue in November of that year.
His first exhibition was hung in La Plume d'Or in Paris in 1932. It was reviewed by Janet Flanner in The New Yorker, and this review, which appeared after his exhibit was over, made Horst instantly famous. Horst made a portrait of Bette Davis the same year, the first in a series of celebrities he would photograph during his life. Within two years, he had photographed Noel Coward, Yvonne Printemps, Lisa Fonssagrives, Natasha Paley, Cole Porter, Elsa Schiaparelli, and others.
Horst rented an apartment in New York in 1937, and while residing there met Coco Chanel, whom Horst called "the queen of the whole thing". He would photograph her fashions for three decades.[1]
He met Valentine Lawford, British diplomat in 1938 and they would live together as a couple until Lawford's death in 1991. They adopted and raised a son, Richard J. Horst, together.[2]
In 1941, Horst applied for United States citizenship. In 1942 he passed an Army physical, and joined the Army on July 2, 1943. On October 21 he received his United States citizenship as Horst P. Horst. He became an Army photographer, with much of his work printed in the forces' magazine Belvoir Castle. In 1945 he photographed United States President Harry S. Truman, with whom he became friends, and he photographed every First Lady in the post-war period at the invitation of the White House. In 1947, Horst moved into his house in Oyster Bay, New York. He designed the white stucco-clad building himself, the design inspired by the houses that he had seen in Tunisia during his relationship with Hoyningen-Huene.

Horst is best known for his photographs of women and fashion, but is also recognized for his photographs of interior architecture, still lifes, especially ones including plants, and environmental portraits. One of the great iconic photos of the Twentieth-Century is "The Mainbocher Corset" with its erotically charged mystery, captured by Horst in Vogue’s Paris studio in 1939. Designers like Donna Karan continue to use the timeless beauty of "The Mainbocher Corset" as an inspiration for their outerwear collections today. His work frequently reflects his interest in surrealism and his regard of the ancient Greek ideal of physical beauty.

Herb Ritts
(1952-2002) Born: Southern California

Based in Los Angeles, Herb Ritts is very much an image maker for our time, a photographer whose assured eye, fertile imagination, and affirmative spirit translate our culture’s dreams and desires into strong, memorable pictures. As a photographer of fashion and celebrity, Ritts has created memorable covers and spreads for Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stone, among others, as well as album covers, movie advertisements, music videos, and commercials. Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, The GAP, and Giorgio Armani are among his many corporate clients. In the past decade,

Ritts has also published several books that bring together photographs around a particular theme. His images capture the beauty of strength and youth, the appeal of the human body, the radiance of California sun and sand, the maniacal grin of Jack Nicholson and the tattooed torso of basketball star Dennis Rodman. Many of these photographs were created independently; others arose from Ritts’s commercial assignments, chosen from the hundreds taken on a given shoot or made at his own initiative immediately after a job. Fine art, design, fashion, photographic media, and global marketing are all dynamically connected in today’s complex culture, and Ritts’s work exemplifies our broadening notion of artistic activity. Born in 1952, Ritts grew up in southern California, and his career began in the late 1970s with informal portraits of friends in the movie industry.

The photographer himself attributes his first success to shots of actor Richard Gere taken on a desert excursion that ended with a flat tyre. Ritts mastered his craft and developed his personal aesthetic photographing men’s and women’s fashions, often for Italian magazines, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His sequences frequently had a narrative theme and a specific period setting. A fashion spread on jeans and overalls echoes the early Gere portrait: Ritts rented a fifties garage in Los Angeles and cast his muscular models as greasy garage mechanics. Ritts' s eye for period style and his instinct for the timing of fashion revivals enhance his ability to make pictures that fire the imagination. Ritts is drawn to clean, pure lines and strong forms; the graphic simplicity of his images allows them to be read and felt instantaneously. In Backflip, the somersaulting body folds into a flat, symmetrical shape; we enjoy recognizing it simultaneously as a weightless abstract design and as a solid athletic body suspended in space. For Ritts, as for many photographers, the nude is a central subject. Ritts’s images—of models, of athletes and bodybuilders, of Maasai women in Africa—celebrate the human body as strong, sensuous, and beautiful. He takes pleasure in evoking the tactile appeal of surface textures, showing the body flecked with grains of sand, veiled in sheer fabric, caked with drying mud, or exposed to cascading water. While some figures exult in their male or female identity, in other images the emphasis is on the shapes of limbs and muscles or the tender connection of intertwined bodies. A recent series of the dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones suggests a classical frieze, as Jones’s powerful body moves through poses that are, like dance itself, both abstract and expressive. Among Rifts’s books, Men/Women (1989) is an expression of his feeling for the beauty and sensuality of both sexes. Duo (1991) is a sequence of studies of a gay couple, one a former Mr. Universe. Many recurring themes in Ritts’s work—bold simplicity of form, the nude, the rich and varied textures of the human body and the earth, the links between human beings—are explored in a new context in the book Africa (1994). Travelling to East Africa, Ritts savoured a working situation unconnected to fashion or fame. His photographs of the Maasai people, of animals, and of the landscape they inhabit create a timeless world of vast spaces and ancient ways.

Ritts’s portraits of famous figures, from Madonna to Dizzy Gillespie, often have a whimsical quality, creating the sense of an intimate encounter with a larger-than-life personality. The subjects may spoof their public personae or "play themselves," reminding us of the degree to which celebrity in our media-saturated culture decrees constant performance. Ritts presents some subjects in terms of trademark features or associations, transforming a personal detail into an emblematic symbol: Elizabeth Taylor' s eyes and diamond, Mick Jagger reduced to the word "MICK" spelled in studs on an old stage outfit, comedian Sandra Bernhard represented by only her open mouth. At other times, Ritts catches us off guard with an unexpected twist. Madonna is renowned both for her glamour and her outrageousness, and Ritts captures these elements in pictures of her vamping as a classic sex goddess and mugging in Mickey Mouse ears. But his images of the famous blonde stretched and distorted by fun-house mirrors or in eighteenth-century powdered wig take us by surprise. Ritts' s portrait of Glenn Close partially made up for her role as silent film star Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard is an image of illusion and role-playing stripped bare, while close-ups of politician George Wallace, choreographer Merce Cunningham, and director John Huston confront us with the tracks life has left on these faces. As critic Ingrid Sischy says in the exhibition catalogue, to create the celebrity images Ritts makes, "you have to be savvy on all fronts . . . you have to be a diplomat, a psychologist, a playmate, and a great persuader . . . Because he has such a natural grasp of, as well as of all the technical aspects, Ritts can pull off the equivalent of miracles—photographs that become icons."

Cindy Crawford

I like the lines in this picture, simple plain background emphasising the shape of her body ad the texture of her hair.

Madonna (True Blue)

Another iconic image of Madonna, Ritts uses a wall to reflect light and create a line mimicing the flow of her body and head angle, again a simple bacground whitth some highlights which I think almost looks like and extension of her hair texture and highlights.

Stephanie Seymour

I particularly like this shot again it seems a straight forward shot, possibly outside with natural sunlight creating a shadow or either a reflector or fill flash to soften the shadows. This is something I would like to emulate in my wedding photography, and of course during the course

Cindy Crawford

This has a similar feel and pose to the Megan fox, Armani shot that I copied for one of my fashion shot poses. A very simple shot natural diffused lighting with possibly a bit of fill light. Would we be looking at this image if it wasn't Cindy Craford? perhaps for a moment because it's a scantily clad woman, but not remebered.

Patrick Demarchelier

Born near Paris in 1943 to a modest family, he spent his childhood in Le Havre with his mother and four brothers. For his seventeenth birthday, his stepfather brought him his first Eastman Kodak camera. Demarchelier learned how to develop film, retouch negatives and began shooting friends and weddings.As a teenager Demarchelier used to charge his friends and family a few centimes each to take and retouch their photographs. Today, a portrait by Demarchelier – if he’s inclined to take it – will set you back tens of thousands of pounds. But don’t expect the blemishes to be airbrushed away: Demarchelier has now tired of what he describes as today’s “perfection-obsessed” society and the photographers and image-makers who “want to turn all women into models”.

In 1975, he left Paris for New York to follow his girlfriend. He discovered fashion photography by working as a freelance photographer and learning and working with photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Terry King, and Jacque Guilbert. His work drew the attention of Elle, Marie Claire and 20 Ans MagazineHe later worked for Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, first in September 1992 which resulted in a 12-year collaboration. Demarchelier shot international advertising campaigns for Dior, Louis Vuitton, Celine, TAG Heuer, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Lacoste, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren.Demarchelier has lived in New York City since 1975. He is married to Mia and they have twins. Since the late 1970s he has shot the covers for nearly every major fashion magazine including American, British and Paris Vogue. He has also shot covers for Rolling Stone, Glamour, Life, Newsweek, Elle and Mademoiselle. He has photographed many advertising campaigns, including Farrah Fawcett shampoo in 1978, the Brooke Shields doll in 1982, Lauren by Ralph Lauren, Cutty Sark, and a Calvin Klein ad with Talisa Soto and Giorgio Armani, Chanel, GAP, Gianni Versace, L'Oréal, Elizabeth Arden, Revlon, Lancôme,Gianfranco Ferré. He was also the primary photographer for the book On Your Own, a beauty/lifestyle guide written for young women by Brooke Shields. Since 1992 he has worked with Harper's Bazaar, becoming its premier photographer. Demarchelier was awarded the contract for the 2005 Pirelli Calendar.

Over the years he has catapulted the careers of many make-up artists like Laura Mercier, Jason Marksand Pat Mcrath.Demarchelier is referenced in the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada, when the "dragon lady", Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), asks Andy (Anne Hathaway), on her very first day on the job, "Did Demarchelier confirm?", leaving her utterly confused. The first assistant Emily calmly jumps into action and calls his office, replying, "I have Patrick!" Demarchelier also made a cameo in the film version of Sex and the City; he can be seen taking pictures during Carrie Bradshaw's fashion shoot for Vogue magazine, In 2007, Mrs. Christine Albanel, Minister of Culture, honoured Patrick Demarchelier as an Officer dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

This one make you look again, why is she posing like this? then you see the tittle and it looks like she's holding up the letter, very clever I wonder if I could try this in one on one of my images.

Simple beauty lighting, hair lighting, clever pose .... what else can you say .. nice lipstick?

This one is a bit darker, perhaps sensual or seductive, a bit of film noir look about it, it looks like it has overhaed lighting to give it that dramatic look and a good pose, I thik sometimes this is the hardest this to get, perhaps its the model with a natural or experienced style helping the photographer, or the other way round, I do think it take two to tango.......

Richard Avedon

(1923–2004) revolutionized fashion photography starting in the post-World War II era and redefined the role of the fashion photographer. Anticipating many of the cultural cross-fertilizations that have occurred between high art, commercial art, fashion, advertising, and pop culture in the last twenty years, he created spirited, imaginative photographs that showed fashion and the modern woman in a new light. He shook up the chilly, static formulas of the fashion photograph and by 1950 was the most imitated American editorial photographer. Injecting a forthright, American energy into a business that had been dominated by Europeans, Avedon's stylistic innovations continue to influence photographers around the world.

Born in New York in 1923, Richard Avedon dropped out of high school and joined the Merchant Marine’s photographic section. Upon his return in 1944, he found a job as a photographer in a department store. Within two years he had been “found” by an art director at Harper’s Bazaar and was producing work for them as well as Vogue, Look, and a number of other magazines. During the early years, Avedon made his living primarily through work in advertising. His real passion, however, was the portrait and its ability to express the essence of its subject.

As Avedon’s notoriety grew, so did the opportunities to meet and photograph celebrities from a broad range of disciplines. Avedon’s ability to present personal views of public figures, who were otherwise distant and inaccessible, was immediately recognized by the public and the celebrities themselves. Many sought out Avedon for their most public images. His artistic style brought a sense of sophistication and authority to the portraits. More than anything, it is Avedon’s ability to set his subjects at ease that helps him create true, intimate, and lasting photographs.

Throughout his career Avedon has maintained a unique style all his own. Famous for their minimalism, Avedon portraits are often well lit and in front of white backdrops. When printed, the images regularly contain the dark outline of the film in which the image was framed. Within the minimalism of his empty studio, Avedon’s subjects move freely, and it is this movement which brings a sense of spontaneity to the images. Often containing only a portion of the person being photographed, the images seem intimate in their imperfection. While many photographers are interested in either catching a moment in time or preparing a formal image, Avedon has found a way to do both.

Beyond his work in the magazine industry, Avedon has collaborated on a number of books of portraits. In 1959 he worked with Truman Capote on a book that documented some of the most famous and important people of the century. Observations included images of Buster Keaton, Gloria Vanderbilt, Pablo Picasso, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mae West.

Around this same time he began a series of images of patients in mental hospitals. Replacing the controlled environment of the studio with that of the hospital he was able to recreate the genius of his other portraits with non-celebrities. The brutal reality of the lives of the insane was a bold contrast to his other work. Years later he would again drift from his celebrity portraits with a series of studio images of drifters, carnival workers, and working class Americans.

Throughout the 1960s Avedon continued to work for Harper’s Bazaar and in 1974 he collaborated with James Baldwin on the book Nothing Personal. Having met in New York in 1943, Baldwin and Avedon were friends and collaborators for more than thirty years. For all of the 1970s and 1980s Avedon continued working for Vogue magazine, where he would take some of the most famous portraits of the decades. In 1992 he became the first staff photographer for The New Yorker, and two years later the Whitney Museum brought together fifty years of his work in the retrospective, “Richard Avedon: Evidence”. He was voted one of the ten greatest photographers in the world by Popular Photography magazine, and in 1989 received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London. Today, his pictures continue to bring us a closer, more intimate view of the great and the famous.

This exhibition is the most comprehensive exploration to date of Avedon's fashion photography during his long career at Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, The New Yorker, and beyond. Working closely with The Richard Avedon Foundation, ICP curator Carol Squiers and guest curator Vince Aletti present new scholarship on the evolution and extraordinary, ongoing impact of his work. The exhibition features 175 works by Richard Avedon, spanning his entire career, and includes vintage and edition prints, contact sheets, and original magazines.

To Summarise, I suppose the ingredients for a good fashion shot would be a particular theme in fitting with the (current) fashion clothes worn, a beautiful model to show off the fashion clothes, lighting again to suit the style. taken by a famous photographer with connections, with a bit of sex thrown in for good measure. The image can be either a part of a person, some of the person or all of it.

*A daguerreotype (original French: daguerréotype) was the first large scale commercial photographic process.

It was developed by Louis Daguerre together with Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. Niepce had produced the first photographic image in the camera obscura using asphaltum on a copper plate sensitised with lavender oil that required very long exposures.

The image in a Daguerreotype is formed by amalgam i.e. a combination of mercury and silver. Mercury vapor from a pool of heated mercury is used to develop the plate that consists of a copper plate with a thin coating of silver rolled in contact that has previously been sensitised to light with iodine vapour so as to form silver iodide crystals on the silver surface of the plate.

Exposure times were later reduced by using bromine to form silver bromide crystals.

The image is formed on the surface of the silver plate that looks like a mirror. It can easily be rubbed off with the fingers and will oxidise in the air, so from the outset daguerreotypes were mounted in sealed cases or frames with a glass cover.

When viewing the daguerreotype, a dak surface is reflected into the mirrored silver surface, and the reproduction of detail in sharp photographs is very good, partly because of the perfectly flat surface.

Although daguerreotypes are unique images, they could be copied by redaguerreotyping the original.

The daguerreotype was the first publicly announced photographic process and while there were competing processes at the time, the accepted scientific etiquette of the time was that discovery was attributed to first published. All of the initial photographic processes required long periods for successful exposure and proved difficult for portraiture. The daguerreotype did become the first commercially viable photographic process in that it was the first to permanently record and fix an image with exposure time compatible with portrait photography, but this was after extra sensitising agents (bromine and chlorine) were added to Daguerre's original process.

Frog

2010-05-12T21:11:00.001+01:00

Found a frog in my garden so I took it's picture, someone did say I was good at portraits, this time I think I've found my match....

L3 Fashon Finished Images

2010-05-10T08:33:00.005+01:00

Here are my selected final images, they are not quite finished being edited or cropped so stick with me on this one..... all of them were shot with the same lighting setup of a single side lighting at 45 degrees to the model, close to a white background to produce a shadow, all were taken in the College studio except No6 'Red Dress' this was taken at the models home with my studio equipment. all the shadows will be edited to enhance the definition of them and some crop, No 9 The gun will have a gun photoshopped in her hand, I thought it could have a bit of a James Bond look about it.

1. the white hat

This has been cropped to close in to the product , it could be advertising Jeans, Boots or could be a background image.

2. the white hat take 2

Similar to above

3. tippin the hat

Mmmmm. there getting a bit samey now!

4. check shirt 'n' denim skirt

?!

5.me and my shadow

OK here's a different pose, could be used for a tight/ boots ad.

6. Red Dress

A similar shot to the Holly Willoughby series as seen on a previous blog entry.

7. Hitchin' a lift

again not much done to this except a tighter crop

8. black Dress

Exactly the same treatment as above. but with a different pose.

9. my name is Bond

this one I wanted to have the look of a james bond girl style complete with add in gun

10. legs

This one was intended as a tight advert and to emphasise Kelly's legs I have lengthened then, not much else done except a tighter crop.

L2 & L3 Exhibition prints

2010-05-09T21:50:00.004+01:00

As discussed with Mr Steve here are my 10 images that I am suggesting he pics one from, they are not all directly involved in my course but have been taken during my course and influenced from it.

Level 2:

Level 3:

Still to be edited and finished

Victoria Reprise

2010-05-07T22:37:00.001+01:00

Here's some more images that I'm toying with the possibility of further editing:

Victoria and the B52

2010-05-05T22:28:00.001+01:00

This is one of the trial images that I have been trying to achieve it's victoria depicted as one of the B52 plane paintings not sure if this works, again it's a rough piece as a trial.

this is basically three layers, the aluminium silver base layer, the blue coloured panel, which has been erased back to the silver with a low opacity and Victoria's image again her white background erased back to the blue. A final text layer added fractionally dropped on opacity.

What does everyone think?

Red

2010-05-04T21:21:00.001+01:00

Here's one from the Sunday shoot, no Photoshop yet, but lots more to come with loads of Photoshop.

This is Victoria on her stairs reaching toward the window light (and two speedlites too!) no editing this one straight out of the camera that's why it's a bit soft (some would say blurred) I say almost a 40's film like quality, suppose it would work better in black and white.

ISO 1000
f/4.0
0.4 sec shutter
Focal length 47.0 mm

Yellow

2010-05-04T20:37:00.000+01:00

On the way to Derby on Sunday coming across Swarkestone bridge and looked across towards Weston on Trent and saw this I've created two layers one exposed for the Rape field and the other for the sky then put them together and erased part of the top layer to reveal the other layer underneath creating the perfect exposure without a graduated filter, do you think it works?

ISO 400
f/11.0
1250 sec
focal length 75mm

L3 Watches & Wine

2010-05-01T14:17:00.007+01:00

To finish off my final images on my products theme I decided to get some images of my watch which would link in to one of my fashion shots where it would be included in to it. The other image would be of a wine bottle again as I has some bottles of wine this helped enormously, it came in a wooden box as well (there were three bottles of wine but we had drunk two).

The original shot along with the process flow in photoshop's Camera RAW editing, this is ideal for quick tweeks such as white balance and exposure

I quite like this inverted image as well an alternative look, different from the norm, maybe I can inverse a fashion shot to match?

This is one of my shot that I concidered as one of my final 10, but after studing it I didn't think it was strong enough a composition, I think the bottle was too close to the back ground and the lighting was a little flat with no life in the image.

this was the process flow of my editing all to no avail, oh well it's good practice

L3 Products Finished Images..... Almost

2010-04-28T22:46:00.022+01:00

Here are some of my finished images, I haven't quite finished my final selection or editing yet and these could be replaced.....

Products:

1. A New Generation

even though this wasn't taken in a studio or even taken as an intended for one of my selected images, though after messing about with it that maybe this could be included.

I like this image mainly because

a) it has a Coca-Cola bottle in it, and obviously links in with my other Coca-Cola product shot.

b) it has a similar theme to some of the adverts I'd seen on other Coca-Cola adverts, I think it has a summery, fresh feeling. It was taken against the sun with a fill in flash.

c) It has my daughter in it.
The text is used was to give the idea that the product was to be used by a new generation of consumers, namely a new generation of young people whilst still keeping in with the older generation as it has still the same old taste.

2. It's the taste!

I obviously had to call it that, it's synonymous with this brand, and the word 'drink' was also a Coca-Cola strap line in the 50's. This was the type of image I was striving for, although originally it was a can of Coca-Cola. I positioned the glass and the bottle so that the opposite curves mirrored each other, and they are positioned on a thirds line within the image, along with the text they are also loosely working with Fibonacci's Spiral.

The lighting used in this image was positioned at the side almost 90 degrees to the glass and bottle, this emphasised the shape and texture of the products by creating highlights and shadows, along with the ice cool droplets creating a depth to the image. I was also intending to create some energy within the image by putting splashes and droplets of Coke on top of the glass, I still may try to achieve this as at the the moment the image lacks something and is very static. I decided to just have a crop on the glass showing the logo? which I think better emphasises the product.

3. Emirates

As it says on the tin, this is a product shot of some of the Emirates airline handouts (Thanks Pip) a straight simple shot with a reflection to add depth to the image, simple flash through umbrella lighting to the left of the image, a flash with a softbox underneath, perspex on top of the softbox and a reflector on the right to fill shadows.

4. Dolce & Gabbana

This was another simple lighting setup similar as the Emirates image but instead of a softbox back lighting the product this image needed to create an alluring dark style and by putting a black background under the perspex I think this has been achieved.

5. The Watch

This image is a crop from a head and shoulder shot taken during the practice session before the main studio shoot, it was taken with this end image in mind, this is one of Kelly's own design of watches and may hopefully make it onto her website selling her products.

Again very straightforward lighting one softbox up high at the front and a Tr-flector reflecting the light from underneath, after a bit of work in photoshop to emphasise the watch as the main product it was finished, I feel this image has a high quality classy feel to it

6. Tiara by Kelly

Another product from Kelly this time a tiara, same process as the two above, similar feel and look, I think this would look at home in a wedding accessories brochure.

7. Citizen on black

This was the first subject I had after I had decided to have products as one of my themes, I have a passion for watches anyway so the natural thing for me to do was to take a picture of one. It was taken in my softbox with a card background, natural light with an ajustable halogen table lamp putting a bit of fill in on the lower text of the case. again the shadows and highlights create depth to the image. I think this would fit nicely into one of Citizens catalogues.

8. Citizen

This is a crop from a fashion shoot image. The watch is taken from the above image and pasted in along with some text. as the original image didn't have enough space for the text and watch the extra was cloned in.

9. All on the thirds

These last two I have chosen to show example of different techniques in lighting other than studio lighting

This one was taken in my little light box and the light use was a halogen desk lamp, I used a shallow depth of field to emphasise the front sweet, each sweet is placed on a line of thirds.

10. The Vase

This image was taken using a speedlite flash ti fill and tungsten room lighting, the vase was set up on a black card and both images were adjusted for white balance and crop in photoshop

L3 Shadows

2010-04-26T23:04:00.001+01:00

Another mess about of ideas this one suggested by Bec, does it work? It's a rough piece just for feedback.

Stapenhill Gardens on a Sunny Saturday

2010-04-26T00:20:00.002+01:00

Here's a few pics from sunny Stapenhill, Flowers of course but no idea what they are called?

Of course I know this little flower

And this one...

Here's one for you Joe, just a mess about, shot from the footbridge with this image in mind.