Playing with flash

This morning I took my beautiful wife to Norman Court to have a play with flash and ambient light balance. We only had a few minutes before we had to rush of to take my son (Alex) to his football match. I wanted to try a few things with off camera flash and balancing it with the high contrast of the sun on the background using a hand-held meter and manual exposure.
I am pleased with the results and certainly the images with the building in the background are very well balanced.
Camera sensors cannot balance this type of scene as they will either bleach out the background to expose the subject correctly or expose for the background and leave the subject in darkness. I will be trying other things with off camera flash in the coming weeks and will post some more images showing the difference between the camera's metering and using a hand-held meter and setting the camera manually.

Professional Development

On Monday I spent the day in the company of 5 other professional photographers on a professional development day. The training was provided by Damien McGillicuddy in association with the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP).

The training took place in Warrington at Damien's studio, and is the start of a continuing professional development (CPD) and mentoring programme I will be undertaking throughout the rest of this year and next. I am a firm believer in CPD as to continue to give my clients the best service I need to continue to improve and master new techniques. A brief synopsis about Damien can be found here.

The next session will be in about 8 weeks and I am now impatiently awaiting our homework as we have no idea of what will be set and will be specific to our own needs as perceived by Damien.

Here are a few images from the day, the model is the lovely Lozzie, and these images are set up shots to show different aspects of lighting and posing the model.

The tree climbing photographer

This image was captured by one of the guests at Sarah and Simon's wedding and shows some people will do anything to get your attention. The other person in the picture is my son who is looking embarrassingly down at the ground worried, I am sure, that if I fall he may not get paid.

and this is the image that was captured by my antics.

A few favourites

A few favourite images; enjoy, and leave a comment.

Vicki and Brad

Yesterday I was in Steeple Langford at the wedding of Vicki and Brad. The weather was beautiful and only out-shone by the bride, who was stunning. The reception was held at the Milford Hall Hotel, Castle Street, Salisbury. The speeches were very moving and many of the guests were tearful, I hope you all gave generously to Cancer Research UK.

Thank you to Vicki and Brad for having us as their photographers, to Carol (mum) for her kind words, to the Milford Hall for being so very helpful (and for the wonderful food), and finally the ushers for there organising of guests during the photos.

Sarah and Simon

On Saturday I was in Winchester Baptist Church at the wedding of Sarah and Simon and then at Norman Court School for the reception. This was a great day, the weather was lovely the service joyous and the people such fun.

Sarah and Simon are just a great couple, and Michael, the best man, was a riot. We had so much fun during the day that it is impossible to pick a high spot. Sarah's dad gave a great speech, as did Michael, and Simon's speach had us all near to tears.

One of the highlights has to be the walk down Stockbridge high street where Sarah and Simon were being congratulated by the passers by while I was snapping away and we just had to make use of the red phone boxes. I have to say a big thank you to Sarah and Simon for one of the best weddings ever.