Last Saturday was hectic with another all day model shoot hosted at Superfly in Leicester and then a quick dash down to the Hilton Warwick with the portable studio for a black tie event with Event-Pics. A long day but well worth it as we met some fantastic people and took some great photos.
The Superfly shoot was the busiest yet. The building was jam packed with models and photographers using every square inch of floor space to create amazing photographs. I managed to work with 8 different models during the day and there were plenty of others I didn’t get to see.
These shoots are a great way for models to try out new outfits and poses and for photographers to experiment with lighting setups and techniques. Looking forward to the next shoot already.
There are wonderful locations for portrait shoots in and around where everybody lives. I recently found a fantastic shortcut between my home town of Wigston and neighbouring Blaby which is ideal for a nice walk or bike ride. I took my camera and portable lighting system to grab a few portraits of my daughters along the way.
One of the model portfolio sites I use to source models for shoots is www.purestorm.com , a great site to find models of varying experience in my local area. A group shoot was organised recently at the Leicester nightclub Superfly for a limited number of models and photographers to get together for the afternoon to try out a few ideas. It was a great opportunity to work with several models in one fantastic venue, building up portfolios for both models and photographers. With the nightclub spread over several floors there was lots of different photo locations to choose from. Below is a small selection from the afternoon.
We are now well into the school prom season for 2009 and with my event photography business my business partner and I have been pretty busy travelling throughout the Midlands attending each booking. We have met some great young people over the last few weeks and seen some unusual modes of transport along with the more normal stretched limos and luxury cars. I don’t know about the recession, but the young adults are still spending a small fortune on their outfits for the night (or is it that their parents are). Nevertheless, we can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel and we can shortly breath a sigh of relief before planning for next year. Check out the event-pics blog for more info.
I am keen to start getting some more portrait work done – I am scheduled to attend a model shoot at the Superfly nightclub in a weeks time for a Saturday afternoon which should be fantastic. I need to get some ideas for this in my head now so I can go prepared with some idea of images I am after and what lighting setups I will use. All being well I will get some great images to add to my portfolio and post here.
I did a portrait shoot of Maxine this weekend using minimal equipment to be able to work in a confined space i.e a living room of your average house. Below are a couple of shots from the shoot, using a single light shot through a brolly, grey paper background and a bit of carboard to generate some wind, and for the bottom image a few metres of dress fabric in red and blue. A nice quick setup to include in a portrait shoot.
I had a free Sunday last weekend so took the kids out to Swithland Wood on the edge of Charnwood forest in Leicestershire to scout for new portrait locations for the Autumn season. It was a fantastic day with no rain and a comfortable temperature. Swithland Wood is well covered with large tree canopies which really softens the light as it comes through the top down to the floor level. With the lovely yellow and red colours from the fallen leaves on the ground there was plenty of photo opportunites every few yards.
I brought my lighting stand and shoot through brolly for some off camera flash with my SB800 flahsgun to help the photos come to life. My eldest daughter Bethany is now wise to me and my camera so rarely smiles when the lens is pointed in her direction, but I managed to capture this moment towards the end of the shoot which really made my day.
Mary celebrated her 90th birthday recently with her large family getting together for portraits and a lovely meal. With a large room in an even larger house being made available for the portrait sittings I quickly got a couple of studio lights up and running and the furniture rearranged slightly to get some nice formal photographs in keeping with Mary’s young age. Mary, I’m sure you will stay in rude health for your next 90 years !