Happy Birthday to Me

Today was my birthday and I had to work. It was for head and shoulders shots at a medical centre. The nature of medical practices is that they never have everybody there at the same time so I'll have to make one or two trips back to complete. Its not far from me so its not an issue, though parking is a nightmare.

Walking along I did spot The Saints car! A Volvo 1800. Wonderful looking car so I had to photograph it, though I used my little snappy camera not the bulky professional one.

Wedding Photography Course Part II

More on the Jeff Turnbull course. The length of the course allowed for some experimentation. One of the things about photography is that photographers have different styles. These styles change over time and develop from experimenting during shoots and looking at other photographers work. Now you're not going to develop a distinct style during one course but the encouragement to experiment during the training helps build your confidence when shooting real weddings. I came away with some non-standard shots I preferred over others and now have a clear idea of how to develop that over time.

Obviously when it comes to an actual shoot the client won't always agree with me over what are the best photographs.

Here's a couple more from the shoot. Again a straight shot and one that's not quite a straight shot.

Wedding Photography Course

On Saturday I went on a course to learn wedding photography. Although I've been doing photography for years now, wedding photography is a different skill set so wanted to learn whats involved from a good wedding photographer.

I found Jeff Turnbull's site, liked his work, and booked up on a course. He's based near Braintree in Essex, so a nice easy drive. Its a long day, with 7 other photographers. We got lots of instruction and tips. Jeff uses a real couple as models, got a limo and arranges access to a local church, so its close to the real thing. Definitely worth doing.

I've finished processing the 100's of photos I took and am really pleased with the results. There's a couple of pics here, a nice traditional shot and an arty one.

Contrasts in The City

I was having a wander around the City the other week. It was a nice sunny Saturday so all the City bankers would be at home making it peaceful.

I found this place near London Wall. A classical looking building (its not really that old) with an unimaginative glass box tower over it and two slightly more imaginative glass and concrete buildings next to it. It made an interesting image, I didn't want to get the whole of the modern buildings in as doing it this way exaggerates the crowding in effect.