Elliott had commissioned me to take some pictures of his, awesome and somewhat edgy balloons for use on Amazon etc.
After the initial brief, just product shots, he'd had the brainwave to include human interest in the shots by way of a model, enter the incredible Sophie!!
I'd met Sophie a month or so before on another shoot and knew she'd be ideal for this casting.
Elliott had decided he not only wanted to be on site to capture some clips of the shoot, but, that the site be his home, so I packed up the car with all sorts of gear and head off to meet my client and our model.
Elliott primed us both with coffee as I set up the studio space and off we went, as I thought Sophie was great and really helped capture the essence of the balloons and the tell the story Elliott wanted told.
We took some time after to shoot the balloons alone for future use and composite work. I took care of all the editing too.
This shoot was challenging due to the setup circumstances and limited space and I think we worked through it to produce some great shots. Elloitt took lots of behind the scenes stuff to and put together a short video to share with his customers.
It's definitely not all glitz and glamour ;)
Models everywhere, photographers everywhere, everyone even cooler than the Shoreditch location we'd met at, this whole thing is the brainchild of Vizualography.
So it was my first event of this kind and I was a little out of my comfort zone to start with.
Basic concept runs a bit like this....
- Equal number of Models and Photographers
- Shoots on a 1 to 1 basis
- You bring the gear and they bring the glam
- You stroll up to a model or they approach you and....let's shoot!!!!
Met so many great people and got some fantastic shots, so grateful for the opportunity, the people and the weather, it was FFFFFFFFFFFFF-Freezing but blue skies and no rain, the models powered through the cold too, absolute professionals :)
Check out some of the pictures and see Instagram for more....... Instagram
I know, I know, shoot me, it's been ages, apologies.
So much has happened......
The first big thing after the last blog was the Bridgman shoot, so lucky to have the opportunity to visit some beautiful venues lifestyle/location shooting their amazing range of garden furniture in situ!
Bridgman Gallery for the pics, most of these were shot with natural light or a little bit of flash on the Canon 5DSR using the 24-70L glassI had awesome shoots for Sanggol with Nakita and for Moroccan Naturals too, both were white background style Amazon ready shots
More recently I got to shoot the spacious and available Eastside office space for Hubble HQ
Still shooting Canon and using the 5D mk3 and the 5DSR mostly with that 24-70mm
They all posed different challenges from reflections to angles and lighting and I enjoyed every minute of them all :) Thank you for choosing to work with me.
On to more people based stuff, most recently we've had 3 weddings and 2 shoots for an upcoming DJ/Producer 1 on location in London, we visited Shoreditch and Camden before popping to Soho to wrap.
The weddings have been from Bedfordshire through Buckinghamshire and into Oxfordshire, three great couples and 3 very different weddings, it was lovely to shoot for Selina and Jim at St Marys Church and another visit to The Rufus Centre in Flitwick for the reception. We also had Josh Parker join us that day to shoot video, he's awesome Josh's Site.
Will & Nora came over from Oz to have their wedding with family and friends at the Bay Tree Hotel in Burford, it was such a lovely venue and an amazing couple, they laughed so much all day it was easy to catch those candid moments of joy and emotion.
Will & Nora at The Bay Tree Hotel
New Years Eve we shot for Katie & Paul's wedding, the day was beautiful and despite a spot of rain we were able to get some amazing light and some great shots of them both at the incredibly grand Chicheley Hall.
It's been a great year and I'm sure 2018 will be even more wonderful.
Thanks for sharing 2017 with us, Happy New Year x
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Chandni was due to be married and invited me to come along and capture her Yellow Ceremony and Henna Party on the Friday before the Wedding (Good Friday).
It was pretty much a full day event at her home with lots of family and friends attending, the plan was to get some shots of the guests, posed and candid and of course record all Chandni's special moments throughout the day.
Everyone looked incredible and the day was a privilege to be a part of.
I shot the day on the Amazing Canon 5dsr coupled with the Super Crispy Canon 24-70mm L lens, they were perfect for the job, the lighting was different in the two main room and we had lots of natural light coming in through a big window in the main room too so I chose to use my Canon speedlight with a flash bender to even out the light as I'd be moving around a lot and the light would be changing shot to shot otherwise, it gave me control with speed, I didn't want to miss anything.
I took a lot of shots in the evening without a flash and the lens aperture set to F2.8, it produced some great images of the beautiful henna art that the guests were having and set the difference in mood really well too.
It was a total pleasure to shoot this day, Chandni and her family were great fun and really accommodating too.
We love the pictures and hope you do too.
]]>A trip to Whipsnade Zoo was the order of the day and of course that meant packing the camera and a couple of lenses too.
First stop was the butterfly house always a good spot to start, amazing colours fantastic detail and good light too, I took the 70D and used the great Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 lens, it was perfect for this situation.
Time to stroll and I headed to one of my favourite spots, the Tigers, I took a few pictures at the obvious spot through the fence at the larger end of their enclosure.
I'd just finished and Botzman decided to stroll down, pick up a bag, have a little play and take a dip! How lucky to be there at that moment and the light was great too, late afternoon/early evening on a lovely April day. Quick switch to the incredible white lens the Canon 70-200mm F2.8 L. Took a few shots from above then headed quickly down to the viewing windows.
I missed the framing of a couple of my shots and had I not checked the screen on the camera I would have missed the amazing reflection completely, doh, I had concentrated on getting the detail in his head! Buzzing that I got that reflection shot now though.
I then moved on to the Lions that were making some fabulous roaring sounds and were a joy to photograph, caught the zebras and a few other bits before heading home at closing time.
Hope you like the pictures :)
We arrived and were treated to a reserved table, beer and Wursts, now that's how I'd like all my shoots to start :)
The place was loud, live and totally rocking, standing room only, literally!
Before we'd even opened a bottle, taken a bite or unpacked a camera a conga ensued and we just managed to break out the 60d with fab and verastile Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 lens in time to catch it.
That was it there was no stopping us, two shooters in full swing, The 60d as mentioned and the 5dsr with the Canon 24-70mm L lens.
These produce warm pictures in low light, we used flashes, Canon 550ex, no modifier as the modifier hadn't arrived yet on theh 60d. And the Yongnuo 568EX II with a cap diffuser on the 5d.
Settings vary loads but we try to keep the flash at about 1/16 so they don't overpower the picture and it saves power too.
Camera settings, usually f4 to f5.6 maybe f8 for the bigger shots, mostly at about 35mm but this job called for some wider shots because the action was constant, the place was big and we wanted to capture the mood.
Shutter at about 1/30 this lets the flash freeze some elements and allows for ambience too.
ISO left at 400 to be safe, not too high as to compromise quality and not super low so that ambience was maximised.
The customers and entertainers were amazing, the whole night was incredibly good fun to shoot and we can't wait to do it again.
Hope you like this selection from the hundreds we took Oompah Madness.
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I got tickets for a race meet at the world famous Brands Hatch Race Circuit, courtesy of my cousin Mike and The YPM racing club.
What an awesome opportunity to learn/practise panning :)
I took along the amazing Canon 5DSR and the 70D, The Canon L series 70-200mm and my trusty 50mm too.
I made a schoolboy error of fixing my aperture at f2.8, next time I'm definitely going to play with that some more, f4 may have been a better starting point. I set the shutter speed at 1/80 so I could get some movement and have a chance of getting some details too, ISO was adjusted as the cloud and drizzle came and went. I used AI focus and set the L lens to stabilise option 1.
I wasn't able to get really close to the action so had my cousin help me choose a great spectator spot, I followed the action down a fast sloping corner to a nice straight.
The idea of this shoot was to get as clear a shot as possible whilst capturing the speed and drama, I used a slow continuous setting and a bit of a 'spray and pray' method. I picked a rider at the top of the corner, set a spot on the bike and tried to move at the same speed as they did whilst popping of shots along the way.
It was great fun and I got some exciting shots too. I've got the bug, love that fast action look.
Hope you guys like the pictures as much as I liked taking them.
]]>Every time I get a chance I have them in the studio and we are capturing moments.
On this occasion they decided to dig out some tiny pots of bubbles they'd acquired over Christmas, me being me decided to grab the camera and try some pictures. We've not tried this before, but hey, I'm game.
We had a little play with the Lastolite Hi-Lite, that wasn't particularly successful if I'm honest the bright background blew out the bubbles and didn't give us anything to see, we pulled in the black background and boom, we could see bubbles!
The bubbles were extreeeeemely small, we'll try with bigger ones next time! But they definitely added a playful element to the pictures and the kids were able to relax and that allowed me get some more natural/candid shots. We had a bubble stuck to the lens hood for a few shots which gave us that great light effect.
The energy and fun element got the kids thinking and they decided they wanted some pictures of them jumping, of course I was happy to oblige.
These were all shot on my Canon 70D with the Sigma 18-35mm f.18, black background: Aperture F8, ISO 100, Shutter at 1/250 a studio flash to add some fill behind and a speedlight softbox as the key light.
The jump shots were with two studio flashes inside the highlight and the same key light, same settings on the camera though.
This was a great fun rainy day shoot, it took about 30 mins max and we are really chuffed with the energy in the final pictures.
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We'd suggested an outfit change and some simple colour schemes to help keep the shots timeless and they'd done just that, a quick change into their photo ready outfits, they looked fantastic and the shoot got underway.
It was so much fun shooting with the guys(and girl) they all had so much energy and really got involved with poses and ensuring they all got what they'd hoped for from the session.
We shot in the home studio with a Lastolite Hilite and Lastolite Vinyl train, used a soft box as our key light and a reflector to add a little fill.
All shot using a fantastic Sigma Art Series Lens on Canon.
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