Wednesday, 15 October 2008

Digital Photographer Magazine



My work and bio are featured in the current (October) Digital Photographer magazine. 

This follows on nicely from the August Issue where one of my wildlife photography workshops was featured
 

The article showing the workshop can be seen here




Friday, 3 October 2008

Shoot The Homeless

That is what I was asked to do...well I guess not exactly that, but shoot some pictures for a Christian Homeless Hostel in Oxford.



It was a difficult assignment, trying to show off the hostel in its best light whilst making sure those people who did not want to be photographed were not in the scene.

The hostel had a number of rooms as well as a canteen, library, IT training area and a set of massive allotments. The work they do is amazing and they clearly make a massive difference in the community.

All the interior shots were lit with 2 Nikon SB 26 Flash Guns triggered remotely using a "poverty wizard" trigger. I have 3 of these wireless trigger sets, as for £10 a time from ebay if one set goes down I have enough back ups to keep going with the shoot. And if all else fails I can go old school and use a cable!

I chose to use the flash guns opposed to the mains powered studio lights as I only had two hours to shoot 7 or 8 rooms along with the allotments and during this time the hostel was busy serving food, providing counseling etc so having to route extension leads would have been an almightly pain. Yes, I know I could buy some meaty battery packs for larger strobes but I find the smaller flashes work well in this kind of situation where you have to shoot on the fly.

Bedfordshire Beauty Contest




I was asked to shoot the Miss bedfordshire contestants before their big contest at the Bedforshire Eagles football club.

The shoot involved a series of group portraits out on the pitch, then individual portraits in evening wear, home made eco-outfits and their miss bedforshire uniforms. Then there were a series of group shots too!

The outdoor shots were all taken using natural light. The indoor pictures were shot with a pair of elinchrom studio strobes.
 




The main light was a softbox on camera left with a rim (or hair) light on camera right providing separation from the black background. 

None of the contestants had modeled before and none had any experience in front of the camera.