Chillin'

Saturday was one of those days when everything just seemed to go according to plan: I got up, went to the shops, bought some basics, and then set off for the studio.

I spent the next six hours playing with off-camera flash for a still-life set. I didn't even take as many pics as I usually do but seemed, instead, to spend much of the time fussing over shadow-casts and trying out different gels.

When i got home and down-loaded the Raw files, I found I had just one file which was close to capturing what I'd originally intended. But I really enjoyed the day, nonetheless.

On Sunday I had the pleasure of welcoming Brian, Samantha and their little one, Megan, to the studio for a family portrait shoot. Again, I really enjoyed myself and I trust that Mum, Dad and their baby girl also enjoyed themselves.

Today took me to different aspects of Life's vivid spectrum: I attended a funeral this morning - the mother of one of my good friends and, this afternoon, I had the pleasure of having Tom and Scott visit AND the added pleasure of welcoming the vivacious Charlie and her partner Keith who both arrived a little after Tom and Scott. We whiled away the afternoon talking general photography and had a good natter before darkening skies and the sound of rain spitting against the window reminded all that a sodden evening was fast approaching and we all said goodbye.

So. once again, I'm going to busy myself this evening in processing Raw files to Tiff. and then send them of to Brian & Samantha for their perusal.

Weather woes

At the risk of repeating myself - yet again - I really feel I'm deserved in having a good moan about the weather. Honestly, I don't think we've had more than a couple of days in a row where you could actually predict what the weather was going to be like the next day.

Monday was a good example: the weathermen had suggested that we might be looking forward to a few days of clear but cold n' frosty weather. Monday fulfilled that promise and, with the autumn trees looking like they had been spray-painted with such incredible - almost gaudy - golds, reds, yellows, etc, I was savouring the thought of taking my camera and introducing it to fresh-air (it hasn't had much of that this year). I was busy Monday; couple of things in the morning, then coffee with my mate Tom Thomson in the afternoon followed by another appointment in the late afternoon. But the TV weather people had said the weather would remain the same for the first few days of the week, so I planned a walk on the Union Canal for early AM on Tuesday. And what happened: murky, damp and - visually - almost impenetrable fog-come-low-cloud.

It was almost inevitable, of course, as trying to nail down the weather this year has been a nightmare. I'm sure all the weather-boffins at the BBC must be on Prozack, and they do seem to spend the first few seconds of each forecast apologising for the weather.

So, with my trigger-finger decidedly itchy, I packed up my kit - along with some fruit and fruit bowls from the kitchen - and headed off to the studio to indulge my passion for still-life's.

Making up the 'sets' and composing these pictures is, I find, really theraputic; hours seem to slip bye while I'm engaged in this stuff. My thing just now is using a frame to well, I suppose, 'Frame' the picture, then cut out all the exterior stuff in post-processing until it kinda looks like a wall-hanging. Leaving a little of the subject to fall over the physical frame offers the viewer a semblence of a third dimension. I haven't done an awful lot with it yet, but I'm hoping it'll be just nutty enough to rival Tom Thomson's 'Lightbulb' pictures :)

Bridal Couture

Having uploaded my last wedding shots for the scrutiny of the client, I've - at last - had some time to return to the 'Glitterati' bridal gown shoot that took place at the studio a couple of weeks back.

It was my mate Tom Thomson's gig, but I was there to capture a few images of my own - portflio work for my web, mostly. Some of the captures I got were - in my own opinion - pretty stunning. On saying that, I had Charlie, Joyce and Zoe in front of the camera wearing the most gorgeous creations from Glitterati, so it would have been difficult NOT to have got some quality pictures!

I was most pleased with the results I got from my 400D though: Tom and I were sharing the synch lead for the lighting set up so, when I wasn't using the 5D I took some candid shots with the 400d and a Sigma 30mm /f1.4 lens. The only light in the place radiated (rather weakly) from my desktop, low-wattage fluorescent light. The MUA had turned this around to face her client and the light spilled over from the right hand side. There was also a very little ambient coming from the blinded window in front of the models. I shot at ISO 1600, 20-60th sec. at f1.4 with the white balance set at Fluorescent. The result was that the pictures took on a goldish hue which, in tandem with the fact that they were so grainy, I really loved.

I haven't really started working with the pictures I took with the 5D yet, but these are a few of those I got from the ambient/flurescent set.

A Circuitous Process

It seems that all I’ve been doing over the last week is processing Raw files and my heads rattling with the shrapnel of reordered bits n’ bytes.

I shot my wedding last Saturday at Howgate Church. It was a lovely service, held in a comfortable and cosy old church set just off the main street. Unfortunately, while the day stayed dry it was also pretty cold, and there wasn’t much in the way of grounds in any case, so most of the traditional family & group shots were taken inside where the poor autumnal light forced me to compensate with flash. Fortunately, my daughter-in-law and occasional MUA, Joanne was there with me. I’d armed her with my 400d set on full auto and she got some excellent candid pics with it. I’d always recommend a second shooter at a wedding; the very fact that Jo has a different style from me, along with the fact that she has a woman’s eye for wedding detail, means that the final crop of files we got offered good coverage of the day.

By the time we’d worked through the hurriedly compiled tick-list of family members, the Bride wasn’t up for going back outside for long – poor thing was shivering in her wedding frock. We got a few shots outside before returning indoors again for a Bride & Groom set.

When the guests filed off to the reception hall for the wedding breakfast, Jo left for home and I took a break to check my efilm and battery levels. Both the 400D & 5D seem to run on and on forever with a double cell pack in their respective grips, but shooting in Raw does require a few changes of efilm.

I stayed for the cutting of the cake and then left for home where I down-loaded the cards and burned the files to DVD. Then I had to put the wedding out of mind and get on with processing the final few files from the Debenhams shoot.

I finally delivered these to the store on Tuesday and took receipt of my fee. I’d printed 10 pictures and enclosed a dvd with 70 high res. files. I’d also posted a copy of the DVD to the P.R. company.

The rest of last week was then spent processing the wedding portfolio. I eventually got 110 images posted to a private flickr folder and invited the bride and groom to view them. I said I’d leave them up there until they had made their choice. Flickr allows you to monitor the sets, and this one has been viewed 135 times since Thursday.

Tomorrow I’m having coffee with my mate – Fashion Guru, Tom Thomson. He’s just opened a new site dedicated to his fashion work and I imagine that’ll draw a lot of attention. You can view it here, and there’s also a click-through on my links list.

Coffee with Tom is at 2pm, and then I have a family coming through from Edinburgh for a portrait session at 5pm.

I’m still not overly busy but now, in my fourth month of operation, I am beginning to get a little more custom and I’m still positive about the future. However, I don’t think we’ve felt the full impact of the financial crises yet, and I think that is going to hit spending on luxury items like restaurants, holidays and photography first and foremost. So, if I can manage to get through the next year without going under, then I think I’ll do just fine.

Debenhams Pictures:

Debenhams

It's Saturday already! Where does the time go.

I had a pretty relaxed week of things until the Debenhams opening. Since then, I've been processing file after file and now have a crop of 78 useable pics which I'm busy converting from Canon Raw (.cr2) to .TIFF and, finally, to .JPG; it's a mind numbing task at any time, but made a little more difficult by the store lighting; the scattering of low wattage, fluorescent and LV tungsten around the store meant that the colour temperature kept changing - and I'm loathe to use Auto White Balance in those circumstances. I began by shooting with a fluorescent setting, but it worked out a little purple, so I changed to Flash (which I was using in any case for fill - and tweaked the files in processing from Raw.

Before going on though, I should mention that I had the real pleasure of meeting sisters Shona and Sarah-Jane at the Nasmyth Studio on Wednesday evening; two astonishingly beautiful girls, there to do a shoot with West Lothian's top fashion Tog, Tom Thomson. The girls were happy for me to hang around during the shoot, and I came in handy as tea-maker. Tom also employed me in my usual role as 'Tripod'. It was a nice, relaxed shoot (as ever with Tom) and I'm looking forward to seeing some of the results.

So, to Thursday at Debenhams. I got there early enough to take a few test shots - the manequins apparently having no objection to me using them as subjects (they're great models, but very poor at following direction!) As I said, the lighting was all over the place, but I did eventually settle for 'flash' as a WB setting and, generally, it worked pretty well.

I was on site from 7.45am till 1.30pm and the time seemed to fly. In the early stages, I was directed by Debenhams own PR people to capture pictures of the staff (I stopped two escalators and line all 110 of them up there) and the management. I then got some formal pictures of the management team, and some candid shots of the various entertainers who were there to provide entertainment.

This amazingly well appointed and richly furnished store was officially opened by Miss West Lothian, Jane Gray. Following the official cutting of the ribbon, I had the opportunity to walk around the fashion / perfumery sections of the store to take some pictures of Jane with the staff.

While there, I also met a lot of people I hadn't seen for a while including West Lothian's most famous journalist and PR man, Eddie Anderson who, as well as running the Miss West Lothian competition from its inception, is also working with West Lothian Council in keeping the community informed of all things worth knowing through the WLC Website.

I still don't have lowres pics to post, but should have some by the end of the weekend.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Carol Gall, a lovely girl who was a colleague of mine at Livingston FC. She's set up her own Bridal Couture business and we're going to arrange to meet for a catch-up chat once she returns from holiday at the end of next week.

Today I have to prepare for a wedding I've had in the diary for a few months now; a young couple from Howgate who are to be married in the local church. Right now the weather looks awful, but it has stopped raining, and the forecast isn't too bad. Fingers and toes are crossed.

Time goes bye

It's almost a week since I last blogged, and I can just sense the increased levels of tense excitement building as my wordless hours wear on.

Well, ne'er mind. Here now!

Last Friday night was spent with a good friend at his caravan which is currently sited at Coldingham. Getting there was torturous: blustery winds whipped heavy rain into a crescendo which jostled the car all the way from Edinburgh to the Borders.

We got the gear in and then settled down to enjoy a glass of wine (or two); chatting until we retired to our respective beds.

Despite the gloomy conditions of the previous evening, the weather decided to follow the weather forecasters scripts for a change; the sky was deep, deep blue, dobbed only by the very occasional fluffy wee cloud which wandered over the otherwise clear vista.


We did a circuitous walk of just about 3 miles, but that took us almost four hours, with both of us stopping on the beach at Coldingham and at the harbour in St. Abbs. Picture opportunities materialised with every few paces, so a lot of time was spent setting up the tripod and getting the right capture.


I've been to Eyemouth before, and I really have to keep the promise I made then to get around that area of the coast. The problem is that the scenery around there can be so breathtaking that you can't help but spend hours in the same location.

Having harvested all we could of the tiny little strip of coast that we could cover in the time we'd given ourselves we returned to West Lothian. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching Laurel & Hardy movies with my Grandson Duncan - he's only just discovered the warm comic magic of 'The Boys' - while my Granddaughter Jodie chummed Grandma on a shopping expedition.

I had breakfast with the kids on Sunday morning, but had to leave early to meet my fellow photographer Tom Thomson at the Studio for a pre-arranged bridal shoot on behalf of 'Glitterati', a bridal gown design and hire company run by Moira and Bill Withers.


This wasn't my shoot, but Tom had offered me the opportunity to join him and indulge my thirst for more portfolio shots. In exchange, I hosted the group and waived the studio fee for the shoot - which lasted from 10am till 6pm.


I had a great time shooting the gorgeous Charlie, the beautiful Joyce and the youthful (and very professional) Zoe in a selection of startlingly wondrous gowns. But this was one of those very rare occasions when the camera's myopic, 2-dimensional eye just fails to do justice to the exquisite scene presented to it. The girls were transformed into goddesses of classic Greek magnitude when enveloped in these astounding examples of bridal couture; their own natural loveliness enhanced by the shape, colour and finest details of these 'art-piece' gowns.


I took so many pictures, but I haven't had time even to appraise them yet, much less process the raw files, but I will post a selection as soon as I do.


Today, I have to process some of the pictures I took during a commission for the McAdam family and, tomorrow, I'm going to the opening of the new Debenhams store; they have commissioned me to document the staffs' first day, so I have agreed to be there at 7.30am and get some formal staff pictures before going on to collect some more candid shots of both the opening, and the first few hours of the day.