A Fabulous Wedding

Pior to heading out to Dubai I had the priviledge of shooting Jadye and Adam's wedding. I have shot about twelve weddings as a second shooter so this was my first on my own and i was very happy how it all turned out. I had Rebecca Robson of Lil'B Photography help me out. I spent the full day starting out with the girls getting ready and left after the Bridal waltz.
It was a full on day and the most stressful part was the drive .the Brides place to the venue for the ceremony...especially when the limo was two cars behind me. Thankfully the guests were late and the limo did a lap of New Farm Park. Here are some of my shots.

Return to Dubai

My Favourite Camera Store

Firstly I must apologise for not keeping my blog more up to date....okay apology over lets get down to business. I thought I would restart my blog with my return travels to Dubai.  We flew out on Emirates Airlines early Sunday morning and I must say with  alot of anticipation. Sadly Emirates disappointed me with their service..their staff were very snooty and appeared to lack teamwork I was unable to work out who the leader was in the cabin but sadly felt that if we were to have an emergancy I doubt they could get their shit together.

Anyhow I digress we touched down in Dubai early afternoon we arrived at Katrina's and Costa's had a shower and set off for Mirdiff Shopping Centre. Katrina and Costa have moved but still a short stroll and now the weather is cooler no effort to walk there.

The shops are displaying winter clothing which is a bit unreal as their winter is very much like our Summer but Katrina assures me the girls dress in the long boots, scarfs and fur coats....

Those of you who know my wife know she loves bling and whilst checking out the homewares shop I had to hold her back from bring these two items back....

Actually the $2500 price tag held back...Phew...

Mind you in another shop I did wonder..am I too old for this bed?

Su managed to make a beeline for Forever 21 and buy an outfit for Christine ..infact I could go wild myself in this shop so many clothing options for photoshoots including accessories..Su is worried about me but you just dont see this stuff in OZ and the prices are so cheap. The shopping centre has a few empty spaces confirmation the GFC has made it to the UAE not that any one talks about it. Anyhow must sign off as we are off to Al Karama  to haggle with the local traders..Su just loves this.





Shout out for Foxton Danger

Went  last week to MODA Creative  Launch showcasing designers here in Brisbane. The Styling was done by Elisha Casagarande who I have just found out will assist in the Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival in August. Congratulations Elisha, a well deserved honour. Anyway I digress.. one of the designers showcased last week was Foxton Danger. Now Foxton Danger is not unfamiliar to me, why? Well I work with the Mother of the designer, Emma Mclean, who is the real person behind Foxton Danger. In fact I bought..well all right  I stole  her old Canon 20D.  Emma I love that camera and it is still going strong by the way.  Emma is a proficient photographer in her own right having studied photography and puts together the photoshoots of her designs for the web, brochures and advertising. I can see how the fashion bug and the lure to design can come about in fact maybe there is still some of that in her old camera and that's why I have a keen interest. From my wife's point of view perhaps too keen an interes,t as when I was wanting to bring stuff back from Dubai but that is another story.

Okay back to Foxton Danger, Foxton Danger has probably been around about two years and Emma designs a beautiful range of clothing primarily Kaftans out of beautiful silk and cotton blends. Foxton Dangers collection are exciting, vibrant and different. They seem to appeal to women of wide age ranges and her designs also seem to take in those plus size ladies as well. Foxton Danger featured earlier in the year in New York with G'day USA Australia week ...a sign that this fashion label has gathered respect very quickly. Accompanying me the other night was Miss Emmajane Phillpotts a  young fashion design student herself (more on EmmaJane in another post) as well as a fellow student Watson. Certainly EmmaJane's favorites were the Foxton Danger designs and in particular a number called Andromeda. I have attached a few photos from the night and given the location.lighting and the fact I carried minimal gear not exactly my best work but gives you an idea of what we saw on the night.

Stockist for Foxton Danger can be found on their website

Self Portraiture

Self portraiture by photographers is nothing new and I thank Mel Sinclair for arousing my interest in this subject. She pointed me to a very talented photographer on Flickr Miss Aniela who has an outstanding portfolio of work on display. She is one gutsy girl and seems quite comfortable in front of the camera as she does behind it. She even has the guts to stand nude in front of the camera. Now don't worry I wont be doing that...not yet anyway. In looking and reading more on this subject an article came up on the Digitial Photography School Blog offering a book on Self Portraiture by Anna Gay. So I downloaded a copy of this book and printed it out. It is interesting to see what one can achive, how you can experiment with light, flash, camera settings and the like. And if you get it wrong your model is hardly going to get upset are they? In studying Miss Aniela work she also has a whole album on Multiplicity. This kind of work intrigues me also, so here is my crude attemps of self portraiture and multiplicity. By the way check out  Mel Sinclair's work she has some awesome work in her portfolio. She is a Brisbane photographer, a Nikon girl but don't hold that against her. Thank you Mel for sharing with me.

Clark Little Photographer

One of the Photographers I follow is Clark Little, surfer turned Photographer. Clark has an impressive range of photos that I know of no equal. When you look on the net at how he captures his shots you can see how dedicated he is. Clark lives on Oahu,  as most of you know Hawaii has some big surf and Clark goes out there to catch the waves with his camera. Many of the images are taken at Waimea Bay in Hawaii the home of Surfing.

He occasionally gets dumped by a wave and he has a sturdy housing for his camera which I am afraid to say is a Nikon. Clark sets out early each morning to try and catch a sunrise. He says he tries to capture the beauty of these monstrous waves from the inside out. I mometarily thought I could do this type of photography....a few  problems though I am not a strong swimmer and know nothing about waves.
Head to his webpage take a real good look at his work he is also on facebook  so you can get your daily Clark Little inspirational photo by liking his page.

Off Camera Flash

f11 100 iso 1/50 28mm Model Leyla

Well Friday night when I arrived home a parcel was waiting for me. It was reasonably big so it had to be my new 400w portable flash kit. I was stoked it had arrived as Sunday was a meet up with the Off Camera Flash Portfolio building group. I was so eager to try this out. I immediately unpacked it and set about charging up the battery. A couple of hours later the battery was charged. I pressed the test button a few times to pump out some light. Cool.
Come Sunday I meet with the group at the abandoned rail yard and with  a guide number of 52 decided to use 1/3rd power. I was very happy with the results. Latter on we crashed another photographers shoot, Helen Graham, she had a softbox and Darren with his  motorbike. So we decided to pool resources, as the sun was dropping I used my flash on 1/9th power being set off by the flash from the soft box. We all got some awesome images and I definately want to get another one before Lynette or Belinda buy them and the seller runs out. Thanks to Beck for organising the shoot.


iso 200 f14 28mm 1/60sec



Soft box to left my flash to right on 1/9th power iso 400 f11 1/60sec

My flash on it's own 1/3 power f10 iso 400 1/60 sec model Emmajane

Working with Flash

Okay so I attended a CPW workshop on flash photography -part one. Many photographers consider flash as the enemy and where ever possible avoid using it. Oh so lucky to have the right light all the time! No doubt, the pop up flash and the flash you place on your DSLR can be unflattering however correct placement and use of this can reap rewards. So too can you improve your photos by taking the Flash off Camera. The thing is there is a bit of Maths involved and you need to know your aperture (f stops). So here we go;-

1.0,1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32 

f/stops are a bit confusing because the numbers appear so arbitrary. This is the standard sequence of f/stops from f/1.0 to f/32. Although it may not seem intuitive at first, in this sequence the f/1.0 setting lets in the most light while the f/32 setting lets in the least. Also, each of these f/stops has precisely the same halving/doubling of light let in.


As Glynn from CPW said think of Aperture as the dimmer  and the higher the number the less light on the sensor of your camera. Your shutter speed controls the ambient light (the Scene) and of course the flash lights your main subject.

Camera flashes normally provide specifications for Guide Number (GN) as a guide to the flash power and its distance capability. Specifically GN is a tool for manual flash power levels.  Typically the aperture for any particular shot can be worked out by dividing the GN by the distance from the object you are shooting. Aperture = Guide Number / Distance

So by rearranging the variables we are also able to determine the following;

Distance = Guide Number / Aperture

Guide Number = Aperture x Distance

If for example, if  the GN is 32 and you place the Flash 8 Metres from the subject then the Aperture will be f/4.   The advantage of knowing this Guide Number constant is that if we then move the light to be 2 metres from subject, then it tells us that GN32/2 metres= f16 will give us correct exposure there too. All Guide Numbers are based on ISO 100. So if you increase ISO what are you doing? You are increasing the sensors sensitivity to light and by each step up in ISO you are effectively increasing by a stop. It is at this stage that you realise a calculator would be handy and this is where a handy app on an iPhone is useful. Thankfully most Photographers own an iPhones and there is a  handy app PhotoCalc which allows you to do the sums changing the variables and also if you are wanting to decrease flash power, increase ISO or use incremental fstops. Whilst this app is handy it is best to understand the concepts. So you know the concepts but nothing beats actually doing it and experimenting with the placement of the flash and dialling up or down your f-stop. Having been on  a couple of workshops I have also noticed subtle differences between Nikon and Canon and from Canon to Canon. Some of this may be to do with the LCD display settings on the back of the camera. One thing you have to watch is the placement of the flash making sure you do not get the light reflected back at the camera. It would seem in most situations placing the flash 90 degrees to the subject works the best. Start practicing with one flash then move up to two or more.

 

Bokeh- The Beauty of Blur

When you hear Photographers talking about Bokeh one could be mistaken to think that they are refering to some quality of a wine. The term bokeh comes from the Japanese word Boke which means haze or blur. This word is usually used to describe the aesthic qualities of the out of focus areas of photos. There is also passing reference made in the quality of a lens when tested. In most cases bokeh occurs when using a shallow depth of field with a lens that has an aperture opening of say f1.8 or if you are lucky and own a lens of f1.2 which has a wider aperture again.

My thanks to a Magazine ct Digital Photography which has a very good article on Bokeh and some of the material especially the illustrations are drawn from this magazine. I suggest if you want to learn more you read this magazine as it has the most comprehenshive coverage I have ever read.

Basically Bokeh is produced by the circles of confussion - confussed? well perhaps this graphic will help


From c't Digitial Photography 2 2011 page18



So the circles of confussion are basically the shape you see in bokeh from the aperture blades and some manufacturers of lenses  will delibrately round the blades to get a  more pleasing effect.

from c't Digitial Photpgraphy 2 2011 page 18

Now as those of you who read my post regularly know I have won a Bokeh Masters kit which basically is a set of discs with various shapes cut in them that can influence the shape of the Bokeh patterns in your image.



From c't Digitial Photography 2 2011 page 19



When you read this full article in the magazine you will find that people buy certain lenses for the Bokeh. In fact I was unaware there was so much to it. I can't wait to experiment with my Bokeh Masters Kit when it arrives.

Family Snaps

Film Star - Jacob

Okay one of your toughest assignments as a Photographer is family and friends, Su's sister wanted some shots done of the family especially as Su was around. Now I brought a limited amount if gear and because of the weather whilst I would love to take a photo outside against say a brick wall, everyone standing with coats gloves and hats is not quite the look everyone wants. Inside the houses it is very small so when going to Wendy's house she had some seating set up against the stairs...the background perhaps is not the best and on reflection looking around the walls (by the way heavily covered with pictures, photos etc) I see a better spot after thee photos are taken but that would have involved rearranging the furniture...hmm not my best work but the client is happy. This is where my Photoshop skills need to come in so guess what I am going to learn in 2011?

Emma & Fran

Fran, Su & Wendy

Wendy & Mark

Wendy

Abby



Jacob



Mason



The Clan



Mason & Isaac

Glamour and Nude Photography Course - UK

On Monday I went to Reading to do a Glamour and Nude Photography Course with Paul McLachlan of http://www.pauls-studio.co.uk/. Paul is well known in the UK and frequently features in UK Photography magazines such as Digitial Photographer Magazine. He runs courses on Portraiture,Lighting, Glamour and Nude, Boudoir Primer, Art Nude Creative, Nude Erotic & Adult. Paul has  a studio set up attached to his house and it is an impressive little studio and I have taken notes for when I build my studio. Paul started out with the basics of studio lighting and I was happy to build on my earlier course with Creative Photo Workshops. Ashlea was a great Model and she is Paul's resident model and has appeared in Playboy. We started out with one light then built up the lighting using softboxes, Beauty Dishes, Barn Doors and the like. I was happy with the nearly three hours of one-on-one tution I recieved from Paul. Paul is happy to share his knowledge with you and is easy going and is full of info.  After attending this course I now have GAS (Gear Accumulation Syndrome), and one of my first items will be a light/flash meter, I can really see the benefit in having one. Of course I want  Studio Lighting and feel more confident in purchasing an outfit now. After Paul's pointers I now  know what to look for. I had booked another session with Paul prior to Christmas but have decided to postpone this till the New Year, hopefully weather conditions will improve and it will be alot easier to get to. I may even drive  there from Retford. So if you are visiting the UK and happen to be in London I would highly recommend doing one of Paul's courses. The full images may be viewed at my website  and I warn you they contain Nudity and are not Work Safe.

Photography blogs to Inspire You

One of the Pubs here in Retford

Okay my blog is suppose to have a Photography theme but lately has been a travel log so thought I would throw in some Photography tips.

Inspiration
Little Brown Mushroom Blog
Lord Loftus
The Year in Pictures
The Turning Pro Editors blog

Technique
Guess the Lighting good for lighting techniques
Strobist - off camera flash techniques
Victoria Bampton AKA Lightroom Queen- Lightroom tips
A Macro a Day our friend Michelle Legg - Great Macro tips
I Still Shoot Film- Inspirational film techniques
Photoshop Tutorials Blog- Learning developing photoshop skills
The Still Image with Crash Taylor- Finding out how an image was taken and processed

So that should keep you occupied for a little while my thanks to Turning Pro magazine for some of these links too good to keep to myself.

Steve

Where is your Art?

A couple of weeks ago I had the guys from Creative Photo Workshops, Glynn Lavender and Shelton Muller around for dinner. One of the first things they did when they walked in my house was say 'well where is your art?' Hmm I was rather sheepish and said I have not printed anything out really. Well I have complied a couple of photo books mainly to test out various printers. I have tried  Clickonprint who are Brisbane based. I have found their service and quality excellent and as I pass then on the way to work very handy to pick up the books from. The other service I have used is Snapfish I have got books printed and recently got a couple of canvas photos. 
I was blown away how good the photos came up. So I am making a New Years resolution now to spend less money on gear and more on getting my Art printed and mounted. I have just recently signed up with Nulab so am looking forward to trying out there services. One thing really worth considering is you are doing yourself a dis-service if you supply your clients with only a disc of images. You need to supply prints and I think if you can have  a selection of prints of different sizes I am sure you sell more if printed out. Certainly digital photo frames, iPads and the like tend to make you go digital put I still think you cannot beat a photo in a frame or on a canvas. I really wonder how many people who get a disc get prints? Or for that matter actually look at them again. I also wonder if in years to come the digital prints will be in the abyss where as those printed out will survive? So next year make your resolution to print more of your art! Leave something for history don't rely on digital images.

What Lens Should I Get?

One of the hardest things to decide when you first get into photography is what lenses you should have in your camera bag? In most cases the lens you have that comes with your Camera is very basic. Mine came with a 18-55mm f4-5.6 I very quickly acquired a 50mm 1.8 Fixed lens (prime)most likely the best lens for the money. I then got a 70-300mm Sigma, A 55-200mm Canon and then a 17-85mm EFS Canon. I was buying up lenses like they were going out of fashion. eBay loved me and it was interesting smuggling them past an all knowing and curious wife but that is a story for another blog. I also read the reviews on DPReview but seriously they won't say don't buy you don't need it.
Now I have been doing photography for a  while and attended a few courses I realise I have gone totally down the wrong track.
Firstly the 50mm f1.8 is an excellent lens in your bag...anyone like myself wanting to do Portrait work the Bokeh is exceptional and capability in low light great. Now the next two lenses worth considering are the 70-200mm f2.8 IS or 70-200mm f4 IS. For me the opportunity to hire these lenses and try them out allowed me to use them and decide what one best suited me. I can throughly recommend http://www.rentalens.com.au/ Bjarne is very knowledgeable and hires both Canon and Nikon lenses at very reasonable prices. I rented the various 70-200mm lenses until finally deciding on the 70-200mm f2.8L IS. Now I wanted image stablisation if this was not an issue for you I must admit trying out the 70-200mm f2.8 Tamron lens at a Creative Photo Workshops I am convinced  that for the money it represents great value against the Canon Lenses.
Once again having the opportunity to try out the lenses allows you evaluate them and see if they suit your style and type of photography. It was through using Tamron's at CPW that my next lens a 28-75mm  f2.8 was purchased. I realised I needed the fast lens but at about a third of the Canon equivilent price having not long ago shelled out $1600 for a secondhand L lens, I could not see the Manager of War and Finance letting me spend $1200 on another lens.  My next lens will be a 90mm Tamron 2.8 Macro lens once again the Canon 100mm Macro 2.8 L IS is an awesome lens but is a big spend for a hobbyist. When starting out I think you need to be realistic and whilst I would like to own all Canon lenses until I can get more paying jobs I will use my third party lenses...by the way I will be offloading a few lenses on Ebay in the meantime just dont let the potential buyers read my blog. Seriously though if you are considering investing in a lens do yourself a favour hire it first. I think it is well worth the money and may prevent you spending money on what, could turn out to be, a waste of money. The other thing is Rentalens has tilt shift lenses and other speciality lenses that sometimes it may be better to hire rather than buy if you only have the occasional use. I certainly know that you don't impress anyone with a bag full of lenses..quality over quanity is my lesson here. Till next time

Captured by the Light

Captured by the Light: The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography

I am excited. Not only is it two weeks before I fly of to the UK but also because of a book I started reading this morning. I have already read about 1/3 of it just in the space of commuting to work and home on the train today. Captured By the Light, The Essential Guide to creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography by David A. Ziser is a must read.
It has to be one of the best books on photography I have read outside of Scott Kelby's books. To my photography friends if you have attended a Creative Photo Workshops course on flash then this gives you the written along with some visuals to reinforce the ideas. It also has  a section on posing as well as tips all throughout on getting the right composition. He gives tips on workflow for  a Wedding all the way trough there is a series of  photos reinforcing the poses, the lighting.
I have read Hot Shoe Diaries and whilst an interesting read is perhaps not as instructional and I may now benefit from rereading it after attending a few workshops and reading this book. A word of warning to my Nikon friends David is a Canon shooter so tends to talk more from a Canon point of view but don't let that put you off as there is plenty of info in this book for Nikon shooters.
I think if you are serious about your photography and want to do weddings then this is an essential read and one you will continue to refer to until it all becomes second nature. So whilst you can read about it practice, practice is what reinforces it.


Till my next post.

Canon Powershot SX30IS

One of the things I dread is being asked the question "you know a bit about cameras can you tell me what camera to buy?"  It is  a bit like being asked how long is a piece of string? I usually ask how much are looking to spend and what sort of photos do you want to take?  I am no expert and most compact cameras these days produce some awesome photos. I have a Panasonic Lumix that would be smaller than a cigarette  packet and it  produces great images.
Recently  whilst looking at a photo shop catalouge I came across the Canon Powershot SX30IS. It retails for $649(but I have seen it cheaper) and yes you could get an entry level DSLR for that sort of money but let me tell you this Camera has a 14.1MP sensor, a 24mm to 840mm lens....yes you read that right  840mm (35 times zoom) fstop from 2.7 at 24mm to f8 at 840mm. Features a viewfinder as well as a swing out LCD screen, built in flash with option for hot shoe flash. It takes HD video, has image stablisation  as well as a full set of shooting modes including manual. Perhaps on the down side it does not shoot in Raw.
One of my work mates bought this camera on my recommendation and took it to New Zealand on her holidays. The shots are sensational and that zoom.... mind blowing. In one of my follow up blogs I will see if I can have permission to publish a couple of her photos. On her buying this camera two other work mates are now buying it. We had great fun one day when she brought it in standing buy the windows  zooming in on Kangaroo Point Cliffs. It was also great from the eighth floor reading the bus stop when zooming down to street level. The camera is a reasonable size and feels good in your hands. It weighs about 550g and would easily fit in a womens handbag. It is a tad too big to fit in your pocket and I believe the ability to shoot manual would ideally suit the enthusiast wanting a walk around camera giving quality without drawing attention to yourself.
For me I am now trying to decide on a Powershoot SX30IS or Canon 7D? yes I know should be the 7D but I really have got lens envy now.
In a follow up to yesterdays post on the Hoodman Loupe something I did not make clear is it has a magnifying adjustable lens similar to what you find on binoculars. This means you can adjust the image on the loupe to your eyesight. My thanks to my friend Karen Cougan from Above See Level Photography for asking me that question.


Till next time...

Welcome to Through the Loupe

Welcome to my first Blog post "Through the Loupe". Why Through the Loupe? Well all the other names were taken and given my liking for gadgets why not after one of my most useful photography gadgets? The Hoodman Loupe retails for about $118 in Australia and I must admit I looked for cheaper alternatives and even had ideas of making one myself. However since receiving my Loupe in the mail I can see it is worth every cent I paid for it. I wear glasses and don't have the best of sight but I defy anyone in the strong Australian sun being able to read the back of a LCD screen on  a camera. This device makes this so much easier when in the field and you can turn your LCD screen down. This must save battery power and stop you burning out your screen.
Today I was surprised to see a similar product from Genus-Tech in a UK photo magazine but at $A199 a bit expensive but it seems the drive for Loupe's is more to do with the use of DSLR's for Video production and both Hoodman and Genus make other adaptors to make filming with a DSLR easier.  By the way, using your Loupe on an iPhone screen is cool also although you might get some strange looks if you wore your Loupe all the time. In fact with the Loupe I can't help imagining myself as some famous film director scouting for the next location shoot!
Well I must pay tribute to my fellow photographer Melanie of A Surplice of Photography for inspiring me to do  a blog. She was going to help me out but being an impatient fellow and not wanting to take up her valuable time I have pressed on and developed my own blog. No doubt in the next few days she will run her critical eye over it and you will definitely see some improvements. It is a steep learning curve for an old dog like me.
I intend to give you my quirky view of the world and of course plan to have plenty of material whilst in UK to write about. So until my next post....bye.