Winter in the Peaks

Last Saturday a friend of mine and I ventured out into the peaks to capture the essence of Winter on camera.We set out early in the morning to capture an early morning sunrise

 

We had planned to go up their on numerous occations when it had snowed but we have never had access to a 4 X 4 in the past which is essential in these kind of conditions.

This time we had a Land Rover Discovery at our dispossal which enabled us to drive in really trecherous conditions and to visit some of the highest points in the peaks 

 

 

 

It essential to comepnsate with your camera metering as readings taken in bright white snowy conditions give under exposures which result in in grey and under exposed images

 

A camera sees everything as 17% grey and sees bright white snow as a very bright exposure and so under exposes the shot to compensate,this can normally be remidied by

over exposing to bring the shot back to a normal exposure

 

I use a Canon 5D3 and to remedy the under exposure of the metering I compensate by over exposing by 1 and 1/2 stops which brings back the true exposure

 

Some of the shots above are a lttle blurred due to the wind movment while using a long zoom in extreme weather conditions

 

 

I was uing mainly a 70-200 mm L Series F4 zoom lens for alot of these shots but even with IS and USM some of the shots were a little blurred. This was due to a very high wind which was a challenge even at quite high shutter speeds

 

Shown in these two shots which demonstartes the grey effect of the camera underexposing the metering

Selling Tools Zen Folio

I have purchased an online website/hosting product to market my photography and part time wedding photography business. The product I have purchased is produced by a company called Zen Folio, this is an excellent photography website builder and the product is aimed specifically for photographers

This is an award winning photography presenation product that markets and sells your business and and products over the Internet to a collosal audience

Zenfolio is the ultimate destination to present your photos and video clips online. Your online galleries with the web’s best photo viewing experience will keep your visitors' eyes glued to the screen.

Shown below are just some of the features of this product

• Truly unlimited storage for your photos & videos
• Professional layouts with large beautiful images
• Point-and-click customizations; no coding required
• Batch editing and intuitive organization tools
• Slideshows with music
• Flexible access control and image protection tools
• Contact list and visitor tracking
• Integration with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and other services
• Fully integrated and customizable photo blog
• 500+ photo products to order

I have paid for a premium package with this company which cost approx £90.00. This package comes complete with easy to use website production software and a host of other business features and selling tools,including blogs and online backup and online galleries

I use the selling tools,which enable me to set up slide shows and present my images where visitors can view,buy and have photographs printed and delevered straight to their doors and all from a few mouse clicks.There is no imput by myself as this process is all fully automatic and the products are dispatched with very fast turnaround times from the print companies

This is a great business feature of Zen Folio which free's up more time for me to consentrate more on producing my images and photography and and not worrying about emailing,sizing, posting images to my clients which is very time cosuming for a business

The package I have bought includes a website which is easy to customize to your own requirements,selling tools,which enables me to setup my images to be bought directly from my website. You set up online galleries that people can brose at their liesure. This I find is a great way to promote and sell off your work and is extremely professional

A built in blog which enables me to publish regular updates of my business and it's interests, this helps me to keep past and potential clients updated and interested in the products I am marketing

The product is the complete package for any photography business and includes everything a photographer needs to market, sell and get your business up and functioning It's very easy to use and very user friendly,I would recommend it to any photographer starting up and setting up a business and website

SWPP Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers

Last Saturday I visited the the SWPP convention held at one of the biggest hotels in London theThe Hilton London Metropole Hotel ...

This is a 3 day photography convention and covers everything that a photographer needs to to help with setting up a business,keep them in touch with new trends,idea's and new quipment.  There are approximately 150 trade stands selling every kind of photographic products on the market.The event also showcases numerous training demonstrations and photography talks and courses on most photographic subjects.

It is important to visit this kind of event whcich enables photographers to keep up to date with trends and changes in the industry

Shown above are just some of the free events that are on offer during the 3 days. I visited 2 of these free demonstrations/courses during the day and picked up a lot of new knowledge,tips and tricks which has helped me gain a better understanding of these subjects

Shown below here was a class on using printed back grounds which produced some really outstanding
results. The backgrounds are printed onto a fabric canvas and are portable and easy to transport. These are great for setting up a realistic mockup of a buildings,walls,landscapes etc and can be used anywhere
in your home,studio,spare bedroom etc and all give very realistic results

This class demonstrated the technique called"Noir blanc" which is basically just one light source,recorded in black and white and in this case using just 1 studio flash

These were the end results using just one 100 watt studio light, the image above shows Kenneth Martin demonstrating the technique's he uses to produce the photography below