Alrewas wedding shoot

Under construction

I am in the process of producing some really nice images to use in promotional material and to include in a website to promote our wedding photography business.

A colleague of mine James Woodings and I are in the process of setting up a small part time wedding photography business shooting weddings at weekends in our spare time

We both have a passion for photography especially portraiture a field which we would really like to excel in and will endeavour to produce some really outstanding results

These are the first shots of a wedding model shoot that I planned at the weekend. Jim and I hired a local model for a few hours last saturday afternoon to shoot some wedding poses over at Alrewas church 

I pre planned the shoot with Amy weeks in advance and here is a list of preperations that I made to make the shoot a success

1- Advertise for a bride model to pose for wedding photography. I advertised on a national model agency website for models requiring time for prints but not many came forward. I eventually advertised that I would pay the models time which gave me a lot better response

2- Agree a fee for the models time and ask her to fill in a model release form

2- Send the model a brief of the photo shoot  agreeing on clothing, makeup and hair styles,times and locations. I sent the model a list of poses I wanted her to achieve

3- Source a location to shoot my images. I emailed local churches and vicar's asking for their permission to shoot photographs on their property. The vicar of this church was very obliging letting me shoot inside and outside of the church on this occasion. I gave the vicar a donation for his church for letting me use the property

4- Rechie the locations. It was imperative to familiarise myself with the locations I was going to shoot at so I went over to the church a couple of times before the shoot just to pre plan my poses beforhand in my mind

5- Pre check local weather forecasts. I new on this particular day it was going to be cold, overcast but with no rain,not ideal, but ok for a reasonable shoot using fill in flash

6- Health and Safety I had to consider my models safety for the shoot, making sure she was well looked after. The afternoon was very cold so I provided blankets and hot drinks to make the shoot more  comfortable for her. I carried out a risk assessment inside and outside the church making sure there were no trip hazards,trailing leads and cables from our lighting or slippery services that she would be walking on

7- Arrange a changing location for the bride to change outfits and put on makeup etc. I had spoken to the vicar of the church earlier and we were to use the church as a changing room

8- Shoot the images.  We hired Amy on an hourly basis so it was imperative to move on fast, shooting the images as quick as possible

 

The weather was cold and cloudy so the plan was to use lots of fill flash using our Canon 430 and Canon 530 flash units. Amy was our model a 21 year old from Burton

More to follow

       

These are the first shots of a wedding model shoot that I planned at the weekend. Jim and I hired a model for a few hours last saturday afternoon to shoot some wedding poses at Alrewas church. The weather was cold and cloudy. Amy was our model a 21 year old from Burton

More to follow

I used large apertures of F4 or 2.8 which helped me to isolate my subject from my backgrounds and produce the Bokah effect that I am looking for

 

My Model should not be laughing in the shot above it looks to false

Conclusion of the shoot. 

Overall I was pleased with some of the images and the model in question. I was a little disappointed with the models appearance as I asked her to pose with hair up and use a lot of make up but she appeared with hair down and very little makeup. She was a really nice girl, easy to work with and was fairly experienced at posing. I would definightly use here modelling services again

I need to up my game with the next model I use and will make sure I make the model look more glamorous in my end results. I know I can produce better images than the ones I have produced here and feel positive to move forward to the next level

 

The problem with these images, my model is posed ,looking at the camera and smiling,I need to start shooting more natural looking images and to move away from the posed shots

Model Release Form

I am photographing a model at the weekend and it's imperative to consider the legal side of things before you move into any kind of photography with a model or a total stranger


It is therefore important to produce a Model Release Form, this is a form that the model will sign which grants certain rights and permissions to the photographer  to photograph,reproduce,manipulate and sell images produced from the photographic session

At a bare minimum, the release form should state that the model has agreed to be photographed and they have granted permission for the photographs to be used for all lawful purposes including commercial use.

The agreement to be photographed is consent to invade that person’s right to privacy. For this consent to be effective:

1. It must be granted by someone who is capable of understanding the nature and consequences associated with the photography and who has the authority to consent.
2. The release needs to specify the uses for the photographs.
3. The release should include a general comment as to the nature of the photographs taken and the dates of the shoot.

Shown below is a template which I have sourced from the Internet and one which I will be 

using at the weekend when I'm shooting with my model

Business Plans

Creating a Business Plan

What Is a business plan?

A business plan is a written statement of your business and outlines what you want to achieve and how you plan to go about it

It is essential to have a realistic working business plan when you're starting up a business.

A business plan is a written document that describes a business, its objectives, its strategies, the market it is in and its financial forecasts

It has many functions, from securing external funding to measuring

success helping to keep to yourself on track for your goals and steer you along the right path towards success

What a business plan should include

A business plan should provide details of how you are going to develop your business, when you are going to do it, who's going to play a part and how you will manage the finances.

Clarity on these issues is particularly important if you're looking for finance or investment. The process of building your plan will also focus your mind on how your new business will need to operate to give it the best chance of success.

Your plan should include:

•  An executive summary - this is an overview of the business you want to start. Many lenders and investors make judgments about your business based on this section of the plan alone. These are the key elements to include:

•  A description of your company, including your products and services

•  Your mission statement

•  Your business’s management

•  The market and your customer

•  Marketing and sales

•  Your competition

•  Your business’s operations

•  Financial projections and plans

The business plan should also contain all of the following to give potential investors an insight of what the business is aiming for

•  A short description of the business opportunity - who you are, what you plan to sell or offer, why and to whom

•  Your marketing and sales strategy - why you think people will buy what you want to sell and how you plan to sell to them. How and why are you better than your competition

•  Your management team and personnel - your credentials and the people you plan to recruit to work with you. Your skills and expertise

•  Your operations - your premises, production facilities, your management information systems, equipment and assets etc

•  Financial forecasts – Including Financial planning, financial forecasts, profit and loss, sales forecast and cash flow etc

Wedding Photography Market research and feasibility study

Wedding Photography Market research and feasibility study 

(Unit 5) Outcome 1, 2, 8

I have been carrying out some market research lately on the wedding photography business in and around my local area. I have visited many local wedding fayres to find out more information and to gather further knowledge of the local competition I would be facing should I decide to continue and set up a wedding photography business

I have deduced from my research that the town is absolutely saturated with wedding photographers in and around this local area. I have counted approximately 25-20 wedding photography businesses around this area, which can be found on web pages, yellow pages and local phone directories

There are various standards of photography offered by these photographers and prices range from some of the cheapest at £400 to the top end £1500-£2000

Most offer different tiers of service for eg: bronze, Silver and gold packages and many offer a bespoke service especially tailored to suit your needs

The competition is huge and you have to be a good photographer to stand out from the rest. There are a lot of “weekend warriors” out there who have bought a couple of 5D’s or equivalents and produce wedding photography that is far from inspiring. The budget market is out there and there are people willing to pay for a budget wedding on the cheap. You get what you pay for and they are obviously  not bothered about a high standard of quality. They will undoubtedly receive budget standard photography and budget standard photos

I have looked at the top end of the market around here and there are one or two excellent wedding photographers. Their prices are quite high well over the £1000 mark but they do provide high quality photography

Not only do you need to be a very good photographer to succeed in wedding photography but you also have to be a very good businessperson

Not only does your standard of photography have to be very good but your business skills are paramount. You need to be good at Marketing, Finances,

Management, admin and IT, etc. Looking at research statistics on the Internet, you need to be 30% photographer and 70% businessperson to be a successful wedding photographer

I’m confident I have a lot of these skills, and want to expand them further. I’m positive and focused and like the buzz of the competitiveness. This I believe pushes your standards even higher. It’s imperative to have an excellent website built up front that show cases only your very best work. Potential clients get their first impressions of how good a photographer you really are while looking at your first 6-10 images. Produce a sub standard website with sub standard images and you will ruin your photography reputation for ever

I am not ready yet to complete a good website at the moment and my images are not at a high enough standard to show off my skills . I will be working with different models over the summer period to improve my wedding photography, better my skills and give me more experience of the industry

Magic Attic (Old images)Brewery Exhibition

I contacted a place in swadlincote called "The Magic Attic" that has archives of old images of Burton and its breweries. Shown below is the reply I received. It seems like we have to pay to receive copies of these old images which would have to be scanned from old glass plates etc

Steve

Many thanks for your enquiry.  Your email was unclear - are you intending to exhibit at the Town Hall or the Brewing Centre or both?

Indeed we have hundreds of these sorts of photos in our archives from 1890 onwards which would be suitable for your exhibition.  Many of these are from our collection of original glass plate negatives which we have been given or purchased and subsequently we have scanned them into our on-line database.

We are always willing to assist in these projects but we do have to be careful – in the past we have been let down and despite verbal agreements some of what we have supplied has made its way into the public domain and we have examples that some copies have been sold on Ebay.  Because of this we now supply all photo with a signed and legally binding contract regarding copies etc plus a prominent display on any exhibition board that the images have been supplied by The Magic Attic Archives.  We also charge a fee for supplying any copies and in some cases we may have to obtain the permission from the original supplier which can take a few days.

I would suggest that you visit the Attic (address and open times on the internet - www.magicatticarchives.org.uk ) on a Monday or Thursday evening when we are less busy to discuss your exact requirements and you can also see all the photos we have in our in-house database (not accessible via the internet). During the daytime when open we are exceptionally busy.

You may also like to try the Bass (Coors) museum who probably have their own collection.

Regards

Keith Foster

(Secretary / Trustee of The Magic Attic)

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The Magic Attic - a Registered Charity that relies completely on donations from visitors and income from the sale     

of our items such as copies or photo copies.  We are run entirely by volunteers and without any financial assistance

from either the Burton Mail or any Local, District or County Council,  We have to make a charge for any quality

copies that we produce and have to make a charge for dedicated and requested research by our researchers.