iPhone Photo Gallery - Dorset

A few days ago Anne (aka Mrs D) and me spent some time down in Dorset; nothing planned just an impromptu overnight stay following a photo shoot being rescheduled, but to be honest we very rarely need an excuse to visit anyway.

I'd normally take my camera kit down with me, but this time decided against it, but only because I thought I'd see what I could come up with using my iPhone. Regular readers of the blog and those who've connected with me through Facebook & Twitter will know that I've been posting up regular images to the web that I've taken with my iPhone for some time now; a project inspired by Pro Photographer Chase Jarvis.


The intention is to take an 'iPhone Photo' on a daily basis which I do manage...most of the time and having such an 'ongoing' project has been great for keeping me focused inbetween commissioned & personal work. One rule that I've set my self is that none of the photos are to be edited in the computer; all are edited using applications freely available in Apple's online 'App Store'


Having posted up some of the recent photos onto my Facebook & Twitter pages some great feedback has been sent in; one in particular which I was thrilled to receive was from Tim Wallace...Official Photographer for Aston Martin who wrote:

"I always say at my seminars that Photography is a little like music, give Keith Moon a couple of baked bean tins and he'll bang you out a decent tune, I rest my case. Nice one mate!"


You can check out my iPhone Photo Portfolio by clicking here and to keep up with all the latest photos, news and upcoming events why not join me on Facebook (GlynDewis) / Twitter (@GlynDewis)

Bye for now.

Baby Photography - Imogen

This past weekend I was photographing Baby Imogen - the beautiful daughter of Paul & Erin O'Connell, who's Wedding I photographed back in early 2008. I was originally contacted by Erin's father and someone I'm very proud to call a friend, Frank Samaras (You can read about Frank in an earlier blog entry by clicking here) and we set the date once Imogen had reached around 3 weeks of age.


Imogen was an absolute delight to photograph; in fact I'm convinced that despite her age she knew exactly what was going on as even after having been moved from one position to the next and going through several wardrobe changes she didn't complain once.


When photographing babies or very young children when possible I like to use available light rather than strobes. I prefer this approach for a number of reasons but the main ones being that I don't want to risk the child having an adverse reaction to the light flashing and also the light could startle them and maybe start them crying which is a definite 'no, no'.


All of the photos of Imogen were taken using natural light coming through a large window in the living room where we were set up and also a California Sunbounce Reflector was used on the opposite side. On a few of the shots I asked that Imogen lay down on white towels which look great for a clean, fresh, soft look but also are great for bouncing a little light into the shadows.

Enjoy

Monday Morning News

Hi All,

As it's Monday and the start of a new week I thought I'd kick things off with a little news.

Firstly, I was asked by Erik Bernskiold the editor of Mac App Zone, to write an article/review of my early experiences with Snow Leopard - Apple's latest operating system to hit the shelves. Snow Leopard has only been out a matter of weeks and as expected there's been just a few teething problems but alot of nice surprises. Understandably the review is around my experiences of using the operating system as a photographer and what if anything it 'brings to the party'. You can check out my review online by clicking here.


My first 'Insight' - Photography/Lighting Workshop was originally planned for this month but this has now been rescheduled for Sunday 22nd November because of a very exciting development which I'll let you know about in the coming weeks. I'll be sending out invites via email, Facebook & Twitter (@GlynDewis) so stay tuned.

This week I plan to release Episode 2 of my new video series 'Insight - From Concept to Print'. The shoot is this coming Wednesday and without revealing too much it involves a bride, a wedding dress, a car repair garage, a vintage sports car and a little engine oil thrown in for good measure.

Right, that's all for now as I needed to be out the door 5 minutes ago, but I'll be adding more here later.

Enjoy

The Debonaires - Album Launch Party

I'd been looking forward to Saturday for some time now as we were heading down to the famous Ace Cafe in London for the launch party of the Debonaires first album "You don't know me". Back in February of this year I met up with the guys as they were starting to put the album together and had hired me to take photos for the CD artwork. We immediately hit it off and I'll always remember the shoot for the laughs and for the treat of listening to them play; it was like my very own private concert ... nothing short of awesome!!!


At the party the guys played on an outdoor stage and blasted out sounds faultlessly to hundreds of people. Mick Colley, the bands drummer and a vocalist who originally contacted me, gave me my very own copy of their CD which I'm proud to say looks incredible, and makes me feel very proud to have contributed to.


You can find out more about The Deboanires by visiting their site, and to see some of the images from the shoot and behind the scenes, click here

Enjoy ;o)

Family Photo Shoot - Competition Winners

Regular readers of the blog will know that a couple of months back I held a competition for 4 consecutive weeks called 'Free Photo Shoot Friday' where readers had to answer a question and got the chance to win, as the titles suggests, a free photo shoot. Well, this past Friday I was with the Quigley's over at Epsom Downs for their free 'shoot' after their son, Fionnan answered a question correctly.


Now, I did set rules for the competition but one I didn't think of was 'no helping' and the reason I bring this up is that Fionnan is only 2 years of age and something tells me he was given a helping hand; I guess I'll have to let this one go ... just this once :o)

Insight Photography Workshop - Model Headshots + Editing

Well it's taken me longer than expected but I'm finally able to show you the first episode of 'Insight-From Concept to Print'. This is my new video series which gives you a 'behind the scenes' look at some of my Photo Shoots including the lighting set-up and the editing that I do in the computer.

This first episode is taken from a recent commercial shoot at Oxygen Hair & Beauty, Beaconsfield, UK where we were working with them to produce photographs showing 'before' and 'after' shots of the models once they'd had the 'Oxygen' treatment. The photographs are then going to be used to advertise/promote the salon and also appear in the stylists' portfolios.

In the video you'll get to see how the photographs were lit and why, due to the limited space available and then finishing off showing you an example of the editing I did to produce the final images using both Lightroom & Photoshop. It's worth noting that as the images are being used commercially, the editing involved was considerably more than I would do for a normal portrait (unless of course the client asked for it).

Enjoy ;o)

ps> The editing has been speeded up in the video; I'm quick but I ain't that quick :o)
pps> Credit to Scott Kelby of the NAPP for the idea of the lighting set up and guidance on the editing style.

Shooting a 'Shoot' - The Country Life

Monday of this week I was just outside of Ripley, a quaint little Village in Surrey photographing some personal work to add to the portfolio. I'd arranged to meet up with a couple of guys Mark Powley & Steve Dabinett who are Shotgun licence holders and keen Clay Pidgeon/Sport Shooters cos I had a few ideas for some 'Country Life' style photographs. The day started off perfect for the kind of shots I was looking to put together; cloudy overcast skies and more importantly dry. However, by the time I arrived there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was knocking out some serious rays.



Anyway after a couple of hours or so of enjoying the countryside and being shown one end of a shotgun from the other we were ready so it was 'location scouting time' and out came the camera along with my Alien Bees Lighting.


I've attached some of the 'shots' from the day to give you an idea of what I was looking for; all taken using just one light and on occasion using the sun as a back/rim light.


* Hmmm 'High Speed Continuous Shooting' on the Nikon D3 :o)

Enjoy ;o)