Green Family Photo Shoot

Thought I'd post a few images up from a recent photo shoot with the 'Green' Family. All in all there were 9 members of the family present who were great fun to spend time with.


We started off taking a few variations of a main group photo and then moved onto doing portraits of couples and individuals making sure not to forget the star of the show, their dog George.


Must admit, this was the first time I've used sandbags on a shoot to weigh kit down so it doesn't get nicked by a little dog, rather than stopping it from falling over; small dog, BIG character for sure :o)

Enjoy ;o)

Guildford, UK Photo Walk - Winner

Well I've finally made my mind up and decided on the winner for the Guildford, UK Photo Walk; not an easy task by any means but after looking through the photos that had been submitted many (& I mean many) times the Winner is:

flyjules 1976 (Julia Reichel) with 'Bikes' (See attached photo)

Congratulations to Julia who not only wins a copy of Scott Kelby's brand new book, 'The Digital Photography Book - Volume 3' but also gets entered into the Worldwide Competition and the chance to win thousands of pounds worth of photographic equipment (I shan't list it here for fear of getting a repetitive strain injury from typing as there is so much).

Good luck Jules!
More later ;o)

21st Birthday Portrait Shoot

This past weekend has been a 'photography fest' with photo shoots on both Saturday & Sunday. Saturday's shoot was with Katy Russo who's brother Angelo had paid for her to have a portrait shoot as part of her 21st Birthday Present. I met Katy & her boyfriend, Tom in Costa Coffee Beaconsfield at around 3.30pm where we had a coffee and a chat before heading off to some pre-planned locations that I'd scouted out earlier.



We initially spent some time in New Beaconsfield, shooting in a stairwell so as to keep out of the bright sunlight and took natural light shots and also made use of a California Sunbounce Reflector (Zebra/White) which I'm now hooked on.



I'm guessing that after just short of an hour of shooting in the stairwell, we then made our way off to Winchmore Hill to a corn field, so as to get some images incorporating the beautiful blue sky and clouds. This called for my Alien Bees Lighting rig as the sun was still quite bright so using it I was able to balance out the environment and control the light falling on Katy (& Tom) separately.



We finished off spending some time under a motorway bridge to get some 'urban' style shots and made use of both natural light and a single Nikon SB800 Speedlight fired into a Lastolite Ezybox for a few shots.



BIG 'thanks' to both Katy & Tom for being such good sports and great fun to work with; it really was a pleasure.

More later ;o)

Inspired by the weather ...

The photograph attached to this blog entry wasn't for anything in particular (client or portfolio) it was just something I was motivated to take I guess by all the 'great' weather we've been having lately. Now, don't get me wrong I'm not going through a 'dark' phase, quite the opposite infact, it was more a case of 'if you can't beat them, join them ' so get out and make a photograph and get something positive out of the bad weather. Mind you, I've got shoots booked this weekend and you can bet it'll be bright sun and I'll be wishing it was cloudy ... are we ever happy? :o)


Anyway, the guy in the long coat is my Buddy Vince, who's always willing to lend a hand and only accepts coffee as payment. Thanks Vince for standing there and putting up with all the strange glances from the dog walkers; still, no pain, no gain.

More later ;o)

Happy, Happy, Happy!!!

After a great weekend of photography the new week kicked off to a good start too. This morning, as is normal practice for me I read through the blogs and sites that I subscribe to, only to see that the video of our Photo Walk made it onto Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider Website.


Scott & his team are responsible for putting together the Worldwide Photo Walk - an incredible event which at the final count had over 32,000 photographers participating around the world, so for our video to make it onto his site feels pretty darned good I can tell you :o)

Right, must get on ... lots do to but I'll be back later with stories/shots from upcoming model and family shoots this week.

Enjoy ;o)

History in the making ...

Saturday 18th July 2009 will surely go down in history; a day when 30,000+ photographers in cities around the world took part in a Worldwide Photo Walk. This worldwide photo walk was the brain child of best selling author, Adobe Photoshop Guru and Photographer Scott Kelby and is the second of it's kind. Last year was a huge success but this year saw numbers of photographers becoming involved, far more than anyone ever expected.



The idea of the photo walk was to get a group of no more than 50 people together in a City, anywhere in the world and go on a photo opportunity 'hunting' exercise for 2 hours. Having been contacted by Scott several months previous, I had the opportunity to organise and lead a UK based leg of this record breaking event. The city I chose to do the walk in was Guildford, Surrey so at 1pm a group of keen photographers all met in Starbucks for the obligatory caffeine hit and then made our way off around a pre-determined route taking us through cobbled High Streets, to Castle Grounds and then ending off near a lock on a canal.


It really was a great day having the opportunity to mix with people from all backgrounds but with one common interest...photography. Walking round it was really intriguing to see what members of the group were photographing; things that others just hadn't considered or seen but then that is what's so intriguing about photography and how we all 'see' things differently.

At the end of the walk we 'debriefed' and took a quick look at what photographs had been taken whilst sampling some of the local ale. All that remains now is for me to pick the winning photograph from what was taken by everyone, and whoever took it wins a prize and the opportunity to win many thousands of pounds worth of photography gear as the overall, wordwide winner.

Kudos to Scott & his team for planning such an enormous event that was clearly enjoyed by everyone involved; many new friendships have certainly been made.

Officers' Farewell

I took the two photos attached to this post a few days ago whilst working down at Heathrow Airport. The two guys concerned are soon to be retiring after 30 years service as Police Officers and I was asked (not at gun point I hasten to add) whilst down there if I would take a photo of them both that could be presented by their team members as a momento of their time at Heathrow.

Time was limited so there wasn't the opportunity to get the necessary permit to photograph within the airport itself, so we made do in one of the car parks and I allowed myself a little creative licence by adding in the distant aeroplane.

Enjoy ;o)

Time Out ... well, sort of

Every now and then I need a little 'time out'; time when I just go for a walk, camera in hand with no real purpose and yesterday was one of those days. I met up with my buddy Vince at the usual haunt (Starbuck's, Windsor) and after downing a bath full of coffee went for a stroll.

Armed with only a little kit (camera, couple of lenses, tripod) and no plan as such we walked around taking shots of whatever took our eye.

As usual, I couldn't resist taking a portrait; this shot of Vince is a HDR image (High Dynamic Range) and is a blend of five (5) differently exposed shots combined together.


... and this shot of the Windsor from across the River Thames, I took with my iPhone.


All in all, a much needed couple of hours; very relaxing and great for clearing the mind.

* Note to self: Don't drink too much coffee before going for a walk!

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Finden.

Last Sunday saw me packing the car full of photog' gear and heading to Somerset for the wedding of Gary Finden & Louise Fursman. The ceremony & reception was being held at the delightful Hornsbury Mill; a beautiful location with it's own lake and landscaped gardens full of all manner of wild birds, peacocks, swans etc ...

A great day was had by all and thankfully the weather behaved itself, with the heavens opening almost as soon as we'd finished taking photographs outside; talk about lucky :o)

I'll post a few more images once I've had time to do some more editing but in the meantime,

Enjoy ;o)

The name's Bartlett ... Danny Bartlett

One of the shoots from this week was with male model, Danny Bartlett who you'll remember I photographed a few weeks back in a local garage to emulate a classic shot by Herb Ritts (Image below)


This time with Danny we wanted to go for a completely different look so I asked him to wear a tuxedo complete with 'Dickie Bow' and to bring along his BMW M3 which I wanted to include in some of the shots.


I had in mind quite a few different looks that I wanted to achieve so this meant bringing along quite a bit of kit ranging from Ring Flash to my Alien Bees Lighting Rig.



I'm guessing we were 'shooting' for around 2 hours making use of strobes and natural/ambient light but making sure to give ourselves plenty of breaks to take in some water cos despite it being quite late, it was still very warm.



All in all, a great evening. Big thanks to Danny for being such a great talent to work with and for being prepared to wear a tuxedo in the heat, and also a big thank you to my buddy Vince for assisting with setting up the lighting and keeping an eye out for the b&£$*&d 'clampers'.

More later ;o)




* NB ... this final images was actually taken during a lighting set up before the final front light was added but to be honest I quite like the 'edgy' feel the rim lights give on their own.