Photography of special needs students

Today I was photographing a group of special needs students for a brochure. I was a little nervous before we started, basically because I had no idea what to expect. Once we got going it turned out to be a good shoot, fast paced with little time to give too much thought to lighting but I enjoyed it. The students were all great, very keen to be photographed and willing models.

For obvious reasons I cant put any of these shots here but once the brochure is printed and in the public domain then I'll be able to publish photographs here.

Multiple enquiries

It is so frustrating, today I have had 3 enquiries for Weddings, 1 for this year and 2 for next year. I am already booked on all 3 dates! If you are planning a summer Saturday Wedding then please do decide and book a Photographer soon, most decent photographers will be booked well in advance.

When I get enquiries I send back details of other photographers whose work I admire but I expect they will be booked already too.

Pre Wedding Photo Shoot

2 weeks ago (sorry, I am behind with the blog) I did a Pre Wedding Photo Shoot with Caroline and Adam, Caroline was keen but Adam was a little reluctant, that's an understatement. We met for a quick drink and chat in Twin City Cafe, Dundee, to try to put both if them at ease and let them see that I was not scary after all. It transpired that Adam and I had actually met before anyway. Adam and his father run a Wedding Chauffeur business called Angus Wedding Cars they have a lovely old Rolls Royce for hire. Anyway, we had both been involved in a Wedding last year so after a chat we realised we already knew each other.

After a bit of chat and a drink we headed out to the city square to do some shots, the weather was reasonable kind to us (well it was dry), but it was windy and Caroline has quite long hair so I knew that finding shelter was the order of the day. They agreed that the rather grotty steps down from the city square might look quite interesting so off we went.


We did a few shots round here in different parts and in different areas. Oh, for the people interested, I have underexposed ambient light by 1 stop then filled in Caroline and Adam with off camera flash shot through a softbox to camera left. This creates a bit of separation between them and the surroundings.

After that we drove up to Camperdown House, having  lived and grown up here for almost 15 years I knew the area well. We started at the front of the house round the pillars, as the house is currently closed down it was quiet. So we did a bit of shooting round the front portico area.



We then had a walk up towards the golf course and took a few shots of them walking through the paths there.


Caroline and Adam, you were both a pleasure to work with and I am glad that you are happy with the photographs. Best wishes.

Positive Feedback

I just love getting positive feedback, thankfully it does happen quite often. I received this letter today:

 

Just a quick note to say thank you,
We are delighted with the photos which arrived today, just as you promised. None of the family have seen them yet but I am sure that they will be just as pleased as we are ourselves.

Mucking about in Photoshop

Wednesday was such a nice day, I had to go to Arbroath to see a potential new client, the sun was shining, the sky was blue it was a lovely day. After my meeting I wandered round the port for a while building up my stock photography.

 

Not overly creative and will never win an award but it fills a gap in my stock library and hopefully will sell and give me a bit of an income.
 

After such a hard day of photography, well an hour walking about the port, I really needed a break - it's such a hard life being a photographer! I found a nice little coffee shop and had a drink and a cake, did a little work on my laptop then headed back.

As it was such a nice day, I'd rolled the old Toyota out to have a little fun on the country roads, I stopped in Glamis Castle to take the shot below, I had wanted to try a digital zoom burst. I set the camera on a tripod on the timer, got in the car and let the camera take the shot.


This is the result after a little mucking about in Photoshop, it was actually much easier than I thought it would be.

Phil and Jo at Castle Menzies

I’ve just finished processing and proofing the photographs from Jo and Phils Wedding 2 weeks ago. The service was held in Castle Menzies, near Aberfeldy and the reception was in Kenmore Hotel. Although Jo and Phil live in England, they both have a love of Scotland, in particular Perthshire. I had met them once before when they were up so I know the day would be a good laugh, they are both full of hilarity and really photogenic. I had Caroline with me to assist me which was a great help as the day was not great and I needed flash for most of the shots, Caroline is an expert at holding and setting up my speedlights and diffusers.  Jo and Phil really wanted snow, it’s a pity they had not been up the week before as the snow was very high but today it was just wet.



We found Phil in Kenmore hotel trying to figure out how to tie his fancy tie, I was of no help in that department so he went and found someone that knew how to do it.

Surprise Surprise, Phil and Rory (best man) in the bar, I was allowed behind the bar to get some shots that set the scene of what was going on.


After they finished their pints we took them outside for a few shots under the portico of the hotel reception to keep the rain from their suits.


We drove along to Aberfeldy where Jo and her entourage were staying, things were a little behind schedule so we waited around to be let into the room.  Not sure what that woman is doing under the dress though.

 


Jo arrived in the car with her Brother Chris who was giving her away, the Wedding car is a classic Citroen supplied by avant garde cars – I know these people well and can recommend them.

 

During the service Jo and Phil had a hand fasting ceremony using a tie of Menzies Tartan
 

There was confetti afterwards, not many venues allow confetti anymore so this was nice, it was designed to stay fluttering longer and it seemed to work, it allowed me to get the shot I wanted anyway!

 

The beauty of a place like Castle Menzies is that there are loads of free rooms with great architectural features to use in photographs and they are totally deserted so no guests sneaking round and getting in the way, it was just Me, Caroline and Jo & Phil.

Back to Kenmore Hotel for the meal, Audrey and her staff had the room looking lovely, the cake was a collection of cup cakes which I have seen more and more recently, I guess it makes cutting it easier!

To Jo and Phil, thanks for being such great sports and great clients, nothing was too much hassle for you and I really enjoyed working with you – all the best for the future.

I hate Microsoft

For 2 days now I have tried to figure out why some emails are bouncing back to me as undeliverable, I eventually realised that it was all hotmail addresses. Digging deeper and searching round the web for information I have discovered that I am most likely on a Hotmail black list which means that every email I send to a hotmail address will bounce back to me – great.

Every day I receive enquiries about Weddings, many of these are from hotmail addresses which means that replying to them is difficult, I need to reply from another email address which looks unprofessional.

I have emailed Microsoft to try and figure out why this has happened but I can only get an automated reply. There is a possibility that this will eventually sort itself out but in the meantime I am stuck.

Not a happy bunny

Fiona and Mohsin, Braid Hills Hotel

I’ve spent the whole day today processing and editing the photographs from Fiona and Moshins wedding which was a week past Saturday at Braid Hills Hotel, Edinburgh. It was a great Wedding, I really enjoyed it, Fiona looked stunning, she told me that she had done some modelling before – I was not surprised.

It was Rugby weekend so I was concerned about parking in Edinburgh near the Church, I need not have been as it was all ok. Paul the Minister was very laid back and casual, he gave me permission to do pretty much as I liked which is very refreshing. It was  Brethern Service, a first for me, very upbeat and musical but longer than most services these days.

I started off at the hotel photographing Fiona and her Bridesmaids then a little bit of detail shot of the room which was not quite finished. I took a lift with Mosh and his best man to the Church and we shot off a few frames there as we waited for Fiona to arrive.

 

Fiona did arrive, bang on time.

She looked very nervous as she came in with her father, come to think of it he looked pretty nervous too!

Mosh was delighted to see her.


After the service, we did a few shots in the Church as it was quite spacious and well lit. The hotel had me under pressure to get them in their seats for 4.30 as they had another function on. I was pretty sure that would be impossible and we negotiated a bit and I had until 4.45 so I had to rattle through the shots as quickly as I could. This is the point of a Wedding that sorts the Men from the Boys, not only do you need to think about which lens to use, what the ISO setting should be, is the background ok, will the highlights be blown out by the window, should I balance to ambient or let it provide the key light – or (unlikely) kill the ambient and use flash for the key light, what about shadows if I use flash, you also need to do it all in a tight timescale, making sure that the next person to be photographed is available and not wandered off, trying to make it look like you have it all under control when your brain is working out a hundred different things – and you need the toilet!

After the Church I was given a lift back to Braid Hills and then I had all of 20 minutes to do the group shots that were asked for as well as take the Bride and Groom away for some personal shots – not likely!

We made it, just. The meal was served and I had a meal in the bar sorting through the shots just to make sure I was happy with them. I photographed the speeches, Mosh made a very moving speech that had everyone laughing, especially Fiona. His best man was Japanese and he sang a Japanese Wedding song, he provided sheets for the guests to sing along – that was a laugh.

Then the dancing then I headed home – a long day but very enjoyable.

Deerstalker Photography Scotland

Last Friday I was on a Highland Estate (actually where Monarch of the Glen was filmed) with one of my PR Company clients. They had to write a story on 2 deer stalkers for a magazine, I have done work for this magazine before and I do a lot of work on highland estates of various sizes. It’s good work to do, I love the outdoors and it’s always a good laugh as I understand the rural life well.

We drove up to Loch Laggan and met up with the 2 stalkers, the story was about the fact that they are Father and Son, and they are both called Dougie. We sat in the Estate office whilst they were interviewed then we went and did a couple of shots on the estate. In hindsight we should have done the shots first as the rain came on just as we started.

It was a quick job and fairly easy, I used off camera flash with my ezybox, perhaps looking back I should have used hard light rather than soft given they are rufty tufty mountain men but the ezybox gives a really nice quality of light, totally shadowless.

Photographing Bags

Not the most exciting or challenging job I have done but today I spent the day photographing jute bags, the kind of thing that you get in Tesco and other supermarkets. My client imports these from India, prints them here and then sells them on to other retailers. They needed some shots for the web site so I opened a box of about 40 of these bags in various colours, sizes and shapes, set up the studio lights and got started.

I had agreed that we'd use some props for some of the shots so I went to the local butcher and borrowed some nice jars of chutney, cakes and things to put in the bags.

For the technical minded, this was a standard HI Key shoot, the bags will likely be cut out in Photoshop by the designer so a white background makes this easier. Hi Key photography is easy to do, the background is lit to 1 f stop more than the foreground, thats pretty much it. I used 4 Bowens G500 digital lights, 2 with small reflectors to light the background and 2 with softboxes on to light the items.


This is what it looks like, the 2 soft boxes are hiding the 2 back lights, you can just see the stands. The camera is a 5D mark 2 and I used my 70-200 f2.8 IS lens as I wanted to shoot from a little way back and create a bit if depth of field, on a more practical level, this meant it was easier to get into the area and change props.

So, as I said, not the most exciting job but that's the life of a self employed photographer, you take the business that comes along and be grateful for it.

University of St Andrews Rectorial Drag

Yes I know it sounds like a medical procedure but it isn’t. On Monday I was in St Andrews for the Rectorial Drag, this is when the new Rector is dragged through the town in an old carriage, he stops at various student places (mainly bars) where he introduces himself to the students in advance of his formal inauguration the next day. Traditionally the new Rector arrives at the drag in an unusual way, in the past new Rectors have been delivered by the Royal Mail, arrived on horseback or sailed into the port. Kevin Dunion, this Rector cycled in on an Ice Cream Bicycle.

Holiday

We had been planning a holiday this week, Susan was off work for a week and we had hoped to go away. Alas, too much work on so we could not get away. Our second choice was a 2 night break at our favourite hotel in Scotland - Monachyle Mhor, however they only have 2 rooms that take dogs and both of them were booked. We ended up at the Royal Hotel in Comrie, we have been there before and it is a nice hotel, it also takes dogs and allows them in the main rooms too.

We could only manage one night but it was very nice. The weather on Tuesday was terrible, rain and wind but today was so much better, the sky was clear, the snow that had fallen last night had frozen so it was a great Scottish Winter Day.

  


Just a little while back I had photographed a Wedding on Loch earn and I had the photographed the Bride and Groom on this pier, it seems to have fallen down - glad it did not happen when they were on it.

We drove along Loch Earn, up to Killin, along the top of Loch Tay and up through the snow to Ben Lawers.
  

This friendly sheep posed to be photographed, Susan was making comments about wellies and velcro knee pads.