This is the kind of photo I find iconic.
A couple standing on their car, waving over the Berlin Wall in 1961. Was it genuine; was it a set up? I’m not sure I care. It’s a photo with a story.
I would love a big print of this, but it’s a bit out of my league, so I’m hoping that blogging this tiny version isn’t a problem. And if you click on it you’ll be directed to a place from which you can buy it. Just don’t tell me if you do, because I’d be jealous!
This week’s lesson was so much better!
A ten minute run through on fstops and apertures and knowing the setting your camera uses to synch with flash (surprisingly fast at 1/200 of a second on my Canon). Then into the studio to take photos, and lots of light readings.
As usual, we shot each other, because we were there. There are two studios and we used black backgrounds in one and white in the other.
Here’s the link to some of what I got… the heads aren’t cut off in the full shots, just in this preview!
p.s. no homework this week!
I am so glad that I got off my butt at the end of last year and started joining in with a couple of groups of photographers that organise shoots. It’s the single most useful thing I’ve done for having opportunities to take portfolio shots. And get my course homework done in complete and utter style. 
Yesterday we shoot in the City of London. And quite apart from the models (who were fab as you can see below – thanks guys!), my group was such a laugh that we had a really fun afternoon with 4 different models – though I think there were 8 around – and ended up, unsurprisingly, in a warm pub swapping facebook and flickr addresses.
You can see the collection I got by clicking on the mosaic below, though I’m really interested to see what everyone else got, so I am hoping they post fast as I’m pretty impatient!
The other little side event was small parade taking place involving some WW2 troops and a marching band (etc) going to St Paul’s Cathedral. They were nearby getting ready so we asked if we could take some photos of them. They asked if I would take some group photos and send them to one of the gentlemen. Of course I said yes and took his address. Then they asked how much they owed me… yes, really! Anyway, I think fighting for your country kinda entitles you free copies of photos that cheeky photographers ask if they can take!
p.s. If you are looking for photo groups, start with Google, move on to MeetUp.com, run through the local Camera Club, contact local courses, find a photography gallery, etc…
Went to the 2nd night of the course last night. The project for this weekend is as follows.
Photograph people against a background: pick the background first and then position the person in front. Frankly, I’m adding to the blandness of this project and saying “and make the background relevant to the person standing in front of it.” I’ll post what I shoot – if you want to play along, feel free to do the same!
I felt there was a bit of a problem at the end of last nights ‘lesson’ in that we hadn’t really been taught anything. We’d all done the first project and lecturer was so keen not to hurt anyone’s feelings that there was little judgement on honesty. There was no hard teaching being offered up at ll; he seemed to want us to discuss a lot but our group seems to want to be taught. And why shouldn’t we – it’s not a cheap course at the local college, it’s an expensive course at the best art school in the country for goodness sake. In the end, at an obvious loss to know what to do with us (“There’s an hour left, there’s 40 minutes left, what do you want to do” is not what you want to hear from your lecturer…), he had the bright idea of setting up a studio light and the flash trigger and show us how to take meter readings and fire the flash. I think we felt that could have happened first thing last week and this was progress at least. What would have been useful too would have been if he’d been reviewing our photos in camera at the time and helping us improve as we went along: e.g. mine were all underexposed and had to be fixed in Lightshop when I got home.
Tony and I stayed behind at the end and – hopefully, kindly but directly – fed back that we were a bit bored and for the cost of the course we needed more robust teaching. The lecturer shared that he found us a tricky group because we were quiet whereas his other group this term had spent the whole session discussing their own work from the previous week. I suggested he let us know what he needed from us and we would try to help, but I thought he could help by being more bossy and instructive. I hope this is resolved next week.
Here’s some of the results from the studio below; all with the exposure increased in Lightshop which leads me to the question:
If you know the answers, please do post!!!
I might change the backgrounds in photoshop if I get time at the weekend.
Well, that’s the claim of this website: Photo Competitions (click link).
Once you’ve scrolled past the Google Ads it’s a nice little resource!
Also, while I’m using this blog to dump links I want to be able to come back to (again!), here’s some blogs I have been back to a couple of times:
These are the last headshots I am going to blog before the next project begins. But I’ll let you know what happens with them after the verdict..!
For non-followers of the blog, this week’s class project was to present 20 headshots. This is the next batch in that project and probably my favourite set so far. I like the first one best (in b/w) but I also like the last one very much, despite the fact it was a mistake!
I popped into the (free, if you pre-registered) photography convention at the Novotel in Hammersmith, London today.
It would definitely have been a good thing for an ordinary working photographer to go to, most particularly if they do weddings – never seen so many (often truly tacky) wedding albums in my life – nor did I realise just how many thousands of decisions require serious consideration before buying…… paper.
For me personally, the useful things were:
all looked the same and frankly, a tad dated in many cases, (why so many??) this was refreshingly different. The papers used are gorgeous and range up to really unusual papyrus-y stuff, lots of matts which I think are so much nicer than standard glossy, and a fair number of full bleed options (i.e. right to the edge of the page). Yes, of course they are expensive! (Runner up prize goes to Spicer Hallfield Ltd purely because they packaged their leaflets in a pretty striped paper sweetie bag…) 
If you’ve been reading this blog over the past week you’ll know the first Weekend Project from St Martin’s is to present 20 headshots. I promised I’d post the first batch asap and here they are…
We only submit the colour ones for the project and I still have no idea how they will be judged so… 
Met up with some friends to avail the Rathbone Gallery of their offer of coffee and bagels while checking out their gallery. B and L were briefed not to let me buy anything. They failed, and again Richard Heeps won. The gallery offered coffee and bagels, we looked, and I asked about a photo I wanted but luckily they didn’t have. Only they did: there it was hiding 
right at the back of a box: “Call Box” taken at Salton Sea. 30 minutes later it was framed, wrapped and in a bag. Oops.
Next stop was Getty Images, near Oxford Circus. They have a 50% sale on at the moment so it’s a good time to browse and thankfully B and L didn’t even have to try to stop me buying anything. The sales is obviously designed to get rid of some of the less desirable stuff but what was most striking was the staff, or lack thereof. Getty has an office visible through the back of the gallery, and not one of the staff bothered to get up, say hi or ask if we needed anything. Ok, so we had just come from a place that treats everyone like their friend but still, Getty, you could learn from the smaller players here. 
I also bought the Dummies Guide to Lightroom. I know, I should buy shares in Dummies Guides (and Rathbones and Jessops and Amazon and Foyles…) but I like their style. I do find it weird when people are happy to spend a couple of hundred quid on something and then fuss about £15 on a decent book to show you how it works.
Digital Photography School BBC i-player
