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

Fashion images

http://www.glamour-photos.org/?pageID=115

Wedding,fashion and inspiration

Brides

This is another online magazine that I have been studying to help me keep in touch with latest fashions and trends. It's very inspirational for a photographer to look at these types of magazines and websites which can generate new ideas and thought processes

Studying the kind of images shown here can help with composition,lighting and posing of your models which enables the photographer to try out new techniques and contemporary ideas

St George's park (FA Coaching shoot)

The FA St Georges Park photographic shoot

We were commissioned by the Football Association and Burton College to complete a
photography shoot for the FA's 4 day licensed coaches training conference at St Geoges park,Tatenhill last weekend

The training event was organised by the FA who liaised with the college's photography departments to commission students from the college to take on this assignment.The organisers from the college were Chris Beech photography course leader and Steve Davis photography tutor

We were given a brief from Chris and Steve which was passed onto them from the FA

There were about 200-250 football coaches from around the country who were attending the training event

The attendees were all gathered in the main ballroom to listen to lectures prepared by the main speakers of the day.I was asked to photograph some of the audience participation and to try and shoot some candid shots of the crowd,this turned out to be quite a difficult task as there was hardly any light available in the ballroom. I was shooting with very high ISO's on my canon 5d3 at speeds of 8-10,000 which hanled the scenario with out any problems.This is a very good camera to use in low ligjht cicumstances and easily coped with the low light conditions with hardly any noise evident in any of my images

 

We were workng in a team of 4 photographers on a rota basis plus our Tutor Steve Davis who also contributed to the photography for the day

When we arrived at the complex we were met by the editor of the media section for the FA who ran though the photography brief and instructions for the day's requirements

The brief was to shoot and produce a variety of different mages from the FA's coaching day's which would show and represent all aspects of the FA's coaching courses/facilities which the FA want to sell and promote throughout the country

The brief did'nt require any conceptual or creative images but needed to record all aspects of the coaching experience which included,coaches at work,footballers training,spectators and some general shots of the the facilities at the complex. These images would be used to promote the FA's coaching courses and facilities within the complex and also be used in all types of media advetising and publicity to demonstrate what a great product they have on offer. These include websites,brochures,visual presentations etc

Shown below are some of my shots from the day:

I was asked to record some candid shots of the audience who were in attendance  These were shot in a ballroom with very little light and the ordiance were in near total darkness

I was shooting with a Canon5d2 and Canon 5D3 with Canon L Series lenses

The shot above was taken with my Canon70-200 L series zoom lens at 8000 ISO on a 5D3 body which just goes to show the advancement of low light caperbiliities of modern day cameras. This image shows very little sign of any noise at such high end ISO's

The seminar in the ballroom was very quite when the lectures were in progress,we were asked not to use flash in the room as it is very distracting for the lecturers,we were then asked not to shoot al all as it was distracting the lecturers.I carried on shooting using a special silent mode a new feature of my 5D3 camera which I use to shoot weddings where you have to be extremely quiet

We agreed that 2 phototographers would be covering the main speakers on stage in athe FA's ballroom and the other two would shoot some candids of the audience etc

Shown here is a shot of the complex's fantastic full size indoor football pitch

A few teams of 10-11 year olds were being coached throughout the day

We downloaded all of our images from the day to one of the colleges laptop's where they were resized and compiled into a Power Point presentation whch would be displayed later in the day to the confernce attendees in the main ballroom

The shots above were taken to show the audience participation on the training day
One of the main problems we encountered on the day was the exclusion of the use of flash
We were asked to photograph the main speakers on stage in the main ball room which was only lit with spot lights around the stage area. We all had to use high end ISO's to accomodate these conditions or use a tripod to enable faster shutter speeds.

Some of the coaches at work throughout the day

I recorded this shot to show the coaches enjoying the facilities on offer on the day which also shows off some of the complex's facilities and magnificent superior indoor full size football pitch

We were given a deadline to shoot,select and post process our 10 best images each of the day which would be compiled and presented in a powerpoint presentation. This had to be completed for about 4pm.The presentation would then be projected in the ballroom to the audience/attendees of the conference last thing before the conference closed

The shot above turned out to be quite a challenge to balance the light of the dark skin tones against a very bright background

Overall we produced some really good images of the coaching day between the 5 of us and we all covered and completed the brief with a variety of different images to the satisfaction of the editor and the FA staff

Fashion Research

Fashions Styles and Trends

Shown here is some of the research I am carrying out on fashion and styles on various websites and magazines throughout the internet. This I feel helps me to prepare my models  or subjects better which gives me inspiration and new ideas which I put into practice when I am shooting brides and grooms on their special day

Researching this type content helps me to keep up with current trends, styles and influences which change very quickly

This research also gives me a better understanding of the different photography used for posing models, lighting subjects and the different techniques used to produce different outcomes

http://nymag.com/search/search.cgi?t=runway&N=8471&Nao=0&Ns=srt_season%7C1

This link takes you to a site of New York Mag which is a great reference for the fashion scene and everything en vogue about New York 

http://nymag.com/content/thecut/fashion/shows/2013/fall/new-york/bridal/carolina-herrera.html