27/52 - Fishy bench.

Treated myself to a fisheye lens the other week and this is the first chance I have had to get out and play. It's nothing fancy just an 8mm Samyung full manual fisheye, which is interesting but fun.
Being laid up with a bad back this week, there was no funky angles or high vantage points to make the image that much more dynamic, just a simple grab whilst on a slow walk along the tarka trail. In an attempt to spice it up a little I pushed the exposure 2 stops above and 2 stops below in lightroom, then run the 5 images through Photomatix HDR software to create this tone mapped version of the original shot.
Very pleased with the final result and had forgotten how good a well done tone mapped image can look. Might have like a bit more contrast on the wood of the bench if I had to be picky, but over all I'm very pleased with the result considering the circumstances.

For full impact of shot - View On Black

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New Moo business cards.

A quick blog post today, I took delivery of my new moo business cards this morning. it must be a slow day in the office if I'm blogging the opening of the post, well far from it. Loads of stuff going on at present including a feature in a national photography mag in the near future, but more of that in another post. This blog post is about how impressed with www.moo.com I am. I placed the order at the end of last week, got email confirmation that it would be 7-10 days before they got dispatched, which was cool. 3 working days later they are on my desk, in my wallet and ready to be distributed. Fantastic customer service in my book. Plus the quality is second to none and the price was spot on.
I think the part that attracted me most to Moo was the fact that I could have multiple images on the rear of my cards, so I have tailored this batch of cards to suit my wedding and portrait needs. Next time they will be based on some commercial and event work I do. Every card can be different but I went with just 10 designs, 3 portrait and 7 wedding. Looking forward to dishing a few out at the next wedding.
Well done Moo crew, you just made a new customer for life. Many thanks.

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26/52 - More of Alice.

Some of you may remeber my shots, back in the early part of this year, of Alice a new young model from North Devon. Previous Alice post
Well her friends sent a few of the shots I took into miss teenuk comp and she has been selected for a photoshoot in London next week. So in order to prep her for her 5 mins of fame in the big smoke, we set up another shot to give Alice some more practice, this time we took the shoot outside. Apart from forgetting half her planned wardrobe we managed a great fun little shoot.
Shot on my 7d with my 24-105mm f/4 L and single 580 exii speedlight on light stand fired by cactus v4 camera front left. If memmory serves me correct this was shot with flash at 1/8 power 50mm zoom on head.

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25/52 - Sunset couple.

A good friend of mine got married and as my gift to them, I gave them my wedding photography skills. This was shot on the lower beach at Ilfracombe tunnels, where they got married. After this shot I ended up doing a heap of couple portrait shots based on the same set up. Very pleased with end results. Just they are too.

Shot on my 7D with my 17-40mm f/4 L, single 1/4 power 580exii fired by cactus v4 on VALS to camera left.

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24/52 - Spring bride?

Shoot a great fun wedding yesterday for Katie and Eugene. Lovely day, stunning weather and so intimate with just 60 guests. Folowing on from a chat with the local bridal magazine looking for a spring bride shot, I jokingly suggested a bride on a trampoline. Katie and Eugene were up for up it, so why not. It's the kind of thing I love to do, something out of the ordinary.

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23/52 - Wedding workshop.

Had an amazing two two days with Lovegrove consulting. First day was a business of wedding photography seminar, which was an real eye opener. Then the second day we went up to Stonehouse court near Stroud for a wedding shoot with Damien and Juile Lovegrove. I could ramble on for pages about how good it was and how much I learnt. But I won't. I'll just leave you with one shot for now and the rest of the set to follow later. Huge thanks to Damien and Julie for all the guidance and support and Franko and Sarah for an being excellent couple for the shoot.

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22/52 - The happy couple.

Had another great pre wedding engagement shoot today with Charlie and David. Despite overcast and foggy weather we managed to get out in the grounds of Pickwell Manor for a few shots. Lovely couple with so much love, I know that the wedding imagery will convey that.

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21/52 - Withypool Bridge.

Back to reality with a bump this week. Decorators in doing loads of work in my house so a spot of peace and tranquility at the spot is what's the order of the day. Still can't put down the iphone..

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20/52 - Whitehouse revisted.

Still keeping with my Jersey theme, I have re tweaked an image already uploaded, original was editied on my laptop which has shocking monitor calibration. Have edited now on main machine to achieve the look I was after. Still might lack sky details for some. but hey ho!!

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19/52 - Moo you looking at?

Out here in Jersey for the week visiting family. Got my full camera gear but went a wandering with my iphone and my beloved hipstamatic app. Seemed fitting to choose a Jersey icon as my first shot.

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18/52 - Becky and Tom.

Had a fun engagement shoot with some wedding cleints today. Weather was great, overcast, windy and slight chill in the air but we made it fun none the less. If the shoot is to go by then the wedding is going to be great day.

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17/52 - Roll of the dice.

Taken for a comp entry on the theme of numbers. Can't remeber exact settings, but it's bounced on camera speedlight with dice placed on lid of my laptop. Tweaked in lightroom to give it a little more punch.

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Vicky and Dom -22nd August 2009

Coming to the end of my 2009 wedding season review now, with only a few more notable weddings to post. This retro is from Dom and Vicky's wedding. Shocking weather in the run up to it, but on the day someone was smiling upon us. Shame the entrance to field didn't think so. Plenty of mud. But aside from that it was a lovly wedding. Very relaxed with the groom and even the bride taking a few swings with the golf clubs in a pitching comp between the lads. In the evening the marquee was rammed and it created an excellent atmospshere. A great way to start your married life together.

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