Visit to Studio in Belper

Well what can I say. The visit just reinforced my feelings about the whole business of photographic studios. A very workmanlike place, just as I had expected,. and the images produced were at best excellent from what we were shown.

I cannot express my pleasure at seeing a master in his own environment. Adrian was like a breath of fresh air, and very easy with his comments. I would imagine he is a joy to work with, once you really got to know how he works. The little nuggets of information passed over could easily have been missed. As he described it was a jobbing studio, but I am sure he was being very modest about his talents.

I realise that there is 40+ years of experience going into the studio, and I would not have a hope in hell of getting anywhere near to the quality that Adrian can achieve.

The earlier group who went on Wednesday had a longer and more informative visit, which unfortunately for those of us who have to work for a living have missed out on. It would have been nice to see some action, even a demonstration of the lighting techniques. I am sure that may have been possible to see the effect of this when we were there, perhaps I should have asked!

I personally got  a lot out of the visit, but unfortunately, and sadly, it only reinforced my belief that with my current abilities and time commitments and experience and cost and age and expense and contacts and lack of structure on the current course is preventing me from pursuing my passion to create the images I feel I can do.

But I did hear the mantra yet again of if the work does not suit or you have an awkward client or you can't cover you costs then do not do the work, in addition to clients always wanting to get more for less! This I have heard from many quarters in this profession, and I think you have to be very strong to exist, and Adrian has achieved this, even if in quiet periods he has done other things.

But this is a business first, and photography second (but the quality counts beyond the ordinary), and that is the biggest disappointment for the current course, and to be introduced to environment we were in, is that the importance of business has not been placed at a higher importance level, bearing in mind the expertise available.

It is with much regret that I will have pull out of the current course, as I received no assurance on the day that the structure of the course would improve in that direction. Having worked in private companies on a very business like environment then I am disappointed that progress has been so slow in this direction, only highlighted by the visit today.

But please keep in touch as I will continue to update this blog.

London and Paris Nov 2011

Hi folks, back from my travels. A few pics that what I tooked whence I was there.

LONDON

One sunny and misty morning, new architecture arising into the sky. going to be the tallest building in London, for a short while anyway.

Architectural symmetry

PARIS

the butt end of France

Not what you expected ! BUTT they are everywhere, butt everywhere, this is neat!!

In no particular order

After the fire back to base

Alternate forms of wheeled transport

you know where these steps are

Well I had to didn't I

My after dinner coffee

Nijinksy's grave in Cimetiere de Montmartre

Another well known landmark

to tie to

a demonstration outside the Palais of Justice

Now for the non-holiday stuff

Mr Pi and guests

street performer

Henri my waiter at lunchtime, a lovely man

Of course the whole purpose of going to Paris was to carry out this fashion shoot which I had been asked to do, mainly handbags, but the by product was the clothing as well. This is Sami and she was getting a bit chilly at this stage although the sun was still out, and it was mid afternoon.

Here are a few of the images from the day, love the bag.

This was her first outfit, looking very glamorous. those shoes.

Ha Ha  If you believe this then I have lead you astray. But I did take advantage of the situation at the Sacre Coeur, until they politely asked me not to. But I was standing next to the photographer!!!!!

Learning photography techniques

I went to see Southampton FC play Coventry FC, and the match was good with the first away win this season for Saints, but I was also watching how the pro photographers were operating. Hey, not only do they seem to get to the right end for the action (depending on the client) they are very well versed in the action and manner in which the game is played. Knowledge is vital of the subject that you are photographing, be it football or interiors for example.

It is the understanding and knowledge of the the environment that counts so as to enable you to get the correct image. Several of the photographers were editing the images as they took them, while the action was elsewhere. I have seen the resulting image on the Southampton web site and can relate them to what I saw them doing.
For instance they were editing the images whilst the players were returning to the centre circle after a goal was scored. Making best use of the time available whilst on the job. This cuts down post editing time.

Therefore the lessons learnt from these 90 minutes were :-
Know your subject in depth
Know the enviroment that you are taking your images in
Assess the lighting difficulties that you are going to encounter
Be prepared to adjust to the conditions
Make the best use of the time you are on the job
Edit where necessary as you can going along, where possible
Save time on post production where possible by pre editing
Taking the best shot you can at the time
Keeping up with the action