A walk in the park

Last week My good friend Alan and me decided to head out for a walk with our cameras. The original plan was to make it to the Derby Dales, but for various reasons, this option was soon scrapped and so we decided to head out to our local little oasis of Warley Woods for a couple of hours to stretch our legs and see what we could do with our cameras. Alan was keen to make use of his 14-24mm super wide lens on some landscape stuff, while I was going to use him as a model for me to practise a few portrait shots on. I had at my disposal some of my favourite lenses, the 50mm f1.2, the 85mm f1.8 and the 70-200mm f2.8 which all produce outstanding portrait images, even if you do have Alan as your model! (Only kidding Alan!)

On this first one, I found the roots of a tree made a great seat and when Alan looked away briefly I realised I had the perfect shot. The sky was cloudy and this made the lighting perfect for capturing soft, shadowless images. The 70-200mm lens made light work of this.

On this shot I had my 50mm lens wide open at f1.2 which meant I could get so close that the only part of Alan in focus was his eyes. The extra wide aperture means that the depth of field (the part of the image in focus) is so small that only a tiny part of the image is sharp. Even though his eyes are sharp, just a couple of inches away, his ears are already out of focus. I love this lens!

This one just worked, maybe my favourite image of the day? The walk round the park brought us to some stone pillars which were useful for posing next to. I took a few shots, but again, it happened to be when Alan glanced down at his shoe that I knew I’d got a great image! Black and white seemed the only way forward for this, taking out the colour helps to draw attention to the subject in the image.

This image was taken from barely a metre away, but with the background so out of focus it could have been taken anywhere, which is especially useful for things like shooting couples at a wedding where there is not much of a background to use. This particular lens comes with a hefty price tag, but there is a much cheaper version available, its brother the 50mm f1.8 comes in at a fraction of the price and is a lens I always recommend to people wanting to try their hand at portraits.

Ouch! Getting around just got difficult!

Well what an unusual weekend, not the post I was expecting to be writing! I was woken up at 2-50am on saturday morning by a neighbour who had just witnessed some young lads lose control of their car and launch it onto the pavement and into the side of mine! I was half asleep and trying to comprehend what i’d just been told, and after throwing on some clothes and making my way outside was greeted with this…

It was all a bit surreal, especially as the offending car was still there and the occupants had ran off! The police turned up and took a few details and uncovered a mobile phone left in the car, the fact that they hadn’t been wearing seatbelts and so were likely to have been injured, but more importantly that the car hadn’t been broken into and whoever drove it had the keys and had taken them with them when they left the car. Hopefully the police turning up on the doorstep of the owner will find someone holding the keys and with a bad head to explain!

By the light of day we could see the full damage properly and it didn’t look good. A Vauxhall Corsa had managed to rotate my 1.5 ton Peugeot 407 by over 100 degrees. Wow! That Corsa must have been moving at some speed! I’m suprised the driver lived to walk away, or run as the case may be!

Thankfully for any weddings and photography shoots I have the option of using the better half’s car which i’m insured on, but I don’t think mine will be going far any time soon!

Reflecting on 2011

Tags

half marathon, new years eve, personal celebrations, photographing children, photography business

Well the decorations are coming down, the hangover has gone and the resolutions are in full swing. New years eve was another fun evening of seeing my good friends and spending the evening over-indulging for what will be the last time until after I get married in July. Now 2012 is here it is time to set myself a few goals for the year and look back at was was 2011. It came as no surprise to find that a lot of people had gone through a year they’d rather forget, but I happened to quite enjoy 2011. We got most of our wedding arranged, deposits paid, decisions made and are in a very good position for sorting out the final touches in the coming months. I’ve known at least half a dozen of my friends get engaged, as well as a many pregnancies announced, the majority of which being first time mothers! A very exciting year for a lot of people and some of my own personal celebrations too. I completed a half marathon, a qualification, revamped the website, watched my friend get his photography business off the ground, and made a move in the direction of photographing children in addition to the weddings. All in all, a good year, and a big countdown until new years eve, when it suddenly became “the year I get married”!

So what does 2012 hold in store apart from the obvious of my own wedding that I have already mentioned? Well I have some lovely weddings lined up, and have met some wonderful couples already, but before all that I want to take a step back and look a bit closer to home. I have set myself a few resolutions which include cycling instead of taking the car, and spending at least the first month of the year alcohol free, yes you guessed it right folks, I need to drop a few Christmas pounds for the wedding! But forgetting all the negative for a moment, the DON’T take the car, and DON’T drink in January, I also want to look at the positives, my goals for the coming year. First of all, I see a lot of photographers taking part in projects, such as a 365 project where they take a picture a day for a year, or a 50:50:50 project where they shoot 50 portraits in 50 days on a 50mm lens. These sound like real fun things to get my teeth into, although I know I just wouldn’t have the time, but there is one thing I wanted to try my hand at, street photography. Its essentially photojournalism, documenting things on the street as they happen. For me, i’m hoping it will make me look at things differently, see things differently and be able to catch the moment more decisively. Henri Cartier-Bresson was the master of this and one of my goals is to read his book that I bought before Christmas, before I go out and hit the streets.

One of my other goals is to get more into photographing children, I was lucky enough to have a couple of friends volunteer their children for a few shots and I definitely want to be capturing more of this…

My friends have some real cute kids and I can’t wait to shoot a few more in the coming months. I have my next shoot set up for a very handsome little man and i’ll have a couple of the photos up here as soon as they’re ready.

Thanks again to all those who have supported me, encouraged me and believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself!

Happy new year to everyone, have a great 2012!

They grow up so fast

I’ve known my friend Dave for over 20 years now, and I was honoured when he asked me to photograph his wedding, so when he told me that he was expecting their first child I was over the moon! Poor little George unfortunately had to have many trips to the hospital in his first year, but is now a picture of health and the happiest toddler I know! When I made the decision to start including baby, toddler and children’s photos as part of my library George was my perfect first choice. I’d acquired some new kit including an extra studio light, a new backdrop and a cream fur rug which I couldn’t wait to try out!

This first image was exactly the kind of shot I was looking for, and with George approaching nap time and starting to fidget I was only going to get a few more shots in, and so had to remain patient as kids aren’t as easy to pose as adults and sometimes you just have to wait for the right moment!

Thankfully, although the grumpy hour was due, it hadn’t kicked in yet and George was loving the wicker chairs I’d brought round as props. This shot was just perfect, I knew I’d be seeing this on the walls in years to come! I wanted to get some more though and had a couple of ideas, although the next one was not quite what I expected, but still a great image in my opinion. No smiles, but it worked really well in black and white.

Without the wicker chair in place, that little boy wanted to crawl and crawl and crawl! I wasn’t sure i’d keep him still enough to get another shot in, but I got a couple more chances and this one was the one that worked for me.

It was a fun shoot and I can’t wait to capture him again next year. Kids grow up so fast, and change day by day. I always wished there had been more photos of me growing up as a child, and this may be part of the reason I find it so important to capture these images. I’m going to be almost obsessive when I have my own children, I just know it!

I really can’t wait to arrange the next shoot with another friends toddler this year, and I’ll be shooting it between Christmas and new year, my favourite time of year! I have asked friends to put their hand up in the air if they would like to have a few shots taken of their kids, and so i’ll probably be seeing a few more of you in the coming weeks while I stockpile some images for the website.

Brushing up the website

Okay, so its a job i’ve put off for a while, I admit, but finally the website has had the changes I felt it has needed for some time! The wedding season has drawn itself to a close for me for this year, which is great while I am planning my own wedding for next year, but I would like to add some new content to the website over the winter months. I really want to move forward with toddler and children’s portraits and hopefully will have a few up on here soon to show off. If you are interested in some beautiful images of your little ones, let me know. I’m doing a handful of free shoots for the rest of November, but only for those who leave a comment on this post! Sadly this will only apply to those who live in Birmingham, due to the costs of travel. Please don’t include personal details in your comment, I will reply to you by email.

Oh and one last little thing, for those of you getting married in the near future, all bookings taken before December 31st 2011 will get 20% taken off the total cost of their wedding! Thats up to £200 discount on the Big Day package! Even if you’re not getting married, don’t forget to tell your friends!

A new direction

So, while I may have mentioned some time ago about the desire to shoot more childrens portraits, I have now acquired the props to help me do so. I’ll be looking, over the next few weeks, for a few parents who want some images of their child and wouldn’t mind me putting a few on the website. These will be mostly indoors using lights, a backdrop, some kids wicker chairs and a fake fur rug. I’m hoping for some positive results.

Anyone interested?

Image of the week 20.09

Tags

grooms, Wedding, wide angle

Well I missed a couple of weeks, that can’t be denied, it has been a busy few weeks and trying to keep on top of everything can remain a challenge at the best of times. I’ve had a very positive few weeks though, some fantastic weddings and some great images that I can’t wait to share. I’ve caught up with some lovely couples who were full of praise for their albums, which always makes me smile. Plus, my own wedding has moved forward considerably now, and being far more organised than I thought I ever would be, i’m shocked to find that the majority of things are now done! We’re well ahead of schedule!

So this weeks image of the week is one I chose from July, around the preparations at the grooms house, as these can be often overlooked. As I arrived at the house, things started to get busy and shooting wide angle I managed to capture the action from two rooms showing the action in both and the look of concentration in one, and moment of reflection in the other. This photo had to be black and white to focus on the actually content of the image, which for me really worked. No flash was used as all subjects were suitably lit from the windows in each room, the day proved to be perfect weather for the couple as the sun shone all day.

Image of the week 31.08

Tags

birmingham, bride, preparations, wedding photography

I look back to the days before the internet, and sometimes wonder how we managed to cope. For me, this amazing concept opened so many doors, and one of the best features was reconnecting with so many people from school that i’d lost touch with. Its something that is lost on kids who are still at school and already using social networking sites and applications, but catching up with old friends and being able to photograph their wedding day is a double bonus for me. Its reconnecting with friends on a whole new level, and there is already a level of trust there , which makes working with a couple so much easier.

Recently I was asked to help my friend Phil, who I also went to school with, to shoot the wedding of Rob and Laura. Phil and myself knew Rob from school and were thrilled to find he’d met a fantastic girl like Laura, a gorgeous girl who was very easy to work with, making the day an absolute pleasure. We started the day well in advance of the service spending time with both the bride and the groom who were getting ready only feet away from each other in neighbouring houses. When so much thought has gone into the day, and every single little detail has been considered, it seems wrong to miss out half of the day by not capturing any shots in the morning. Sure, its great to get a lovely shot of the bride looking fantastic in the church, but we all know, especially you ladies, that it didn’t take fifteen minutes to look like that! Wedding photography has changed massively over the years, and only for the better. Long gone are the days of dull and military poses, and here are the days of documentary. I like to photograph the day as it unfolds, this is where a couple start their new life together, where a father has to say goodbye to his little girl, and it is full of emotion, from the minute the bride opens her eyes!

I like to think that this weeks picture captures some of that emotion, it is another black and white taken on my favourite 50mm f1.8 lens, shot wide open to allow for foreground and background blur. Whilst having her hair done and her tiara put on, you can see the emotion in Laura’s eyes knowing that the dress is next and then its time to leave for the church!

Rob & Rachael pre-wedding shoot

If I am going to get an image of the week up regularly, then today is the day to do it. Firstly I want to focus on a shoot from the weekend where I met up with Rob and Rachael who are getting married in a matter of days now. I used to work with Rob some years back, and was delighted when they asked me to shoot their wedding. As part of the deal I agreed to shoot some pre-wedding pictures, it helps the couple relax in front of the camera a bit and gets them used to how I work, while I get to understand how they react in front of a camera. Not everyone feels comfortable posing for pictures and it doesn’t help when people have only ever had bad pictures taken of them on cheap digital cameras or phone cameras. Seeing what can be produced from a good camera with high quality lenses in the right light can make people feel a whole lot better about their wedding day. Rachael managed to find a lovely location for us where we got the chance to shoot in a variety of spots, and even the weather stayed nice for us! I was very pleased with the results and I’m really looking forward to their wedding day!

I’ll update the image of the week later, but for now here are some of the images from Sunday!

Image of the week

While I have been busily working on a variety of projects this year, including planning my own wedding, sometimes things have to give a little, and the blog has been the victim of neglect yet again.

Thankfully I have been able to photograph some fantastic weddings, with more fantastic weddings ahead! One of the most recent was that of my good friend Sharon and her new husband David, I was really happy with the photos, but some stand out more than others, and when they say a photo speaks a thousand words, it is certainly true when you can see every ounce of emotion in a bride while her father is making his speech.

This image was taken using the Canon L 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens on full zoom with the aperture wide open to create as much foreground and background blur as possible, and a colour image would not have done this justice, black and white was the only real option here. I think it creates a prefect record of how emotional her fathers speech was to her. For me, it represents how I like to capture as much as I can without getting directly involved in certain parts of the day. Perfect timing!