Dancing Through Time!

Having photographed the cast of Twenty Twenty Seven over the last few weeks, I was asked by Heidi, of Stage Door Theatre Company, if I would photograph some of their dancers.  I've got to know some of them from the show rehearsals and happily agreed to get them over to the studio for a photo shoot. 

The session, a couple of weeks ago was great fun and I took lots of photos.  See more photos in my portraits gallery!

Twenty Twenty Seven

I've been busy over the last few weeks, taking photos of the cast and rehearsals for a new musical that was staged at the Gulbenkian Theatre in Canterbury recently. The show was written and produced by friends of mine, Heath and Glen, and was very enjoyable.  

Although I knew the story and had seen the whole show at rehearsals (through the lens of a camera!), seeing it as part of an audience was a pleasure! 

There is a rumour that the show will be presented in Thanet in the not too distant future, so make sure you go and see it!  

For more information about the show, visit  www.twentytwentyseven.com You can join an e-mail list on the site to get news about the show and future presentations...

The cast range in age from young teenagers to 50+, which made the photography interesting and I have had great fun photographing both the cast and the rehearsals for the show and have learnt from the experience.  Oh, the image on the poster is one of mine!

Bluebells at Hole Park....

Today we went to Hole Park, which is near Rolvenden in Kent.

The reason for going was to see the bluebells....

Hole Park has gardens which are open to the public on certain days during the year.  

Today, they were open and as they have many thousands of bluebells and this is the time to see them at their best, we decided to go.  The gardens were delightful and the bluebells were incredible, I have never seen so many in one place before!  

It also helped that the weather was fantastic, the sun was shining and it was warm, probably the best day of the year so far.  In fact I think I have a little sunburn on my head!

I took many photos, but am disappointed with the results. I have not mastered photographing large areas of flowers - yet!

Photoshoot - Hailie and Kelly

Yesterday evening, I had the opportunity to photograph two gorgeous young ladies, Hailie and Kelly!

The shoot was organised by Sarah, who is keen to learn more about lighting and I had offered to teach her the little that I know.... I only have one studio flash and so that is what we worked with - I had intended to use my Nikon SB-800 as well, but due to triggering issues, I gave up.

The cheap eBay bought trigger set I have work fine on my D2Xs, but for some reason will not trigger from either a fellow photographer Gordon's D100 or the D40x that Sarah had to use. Both cameras will trigger my Pocket Wizards, so it appears to be an issue with the cheap triggers.... Unfortunately I only have one pair of Pocket Wizards.....

In the end, I used the cheap trigger to fire both the studio light and the SB-800, while Sarah used the camera's flash, turned down to 1/16 power to slave trigger the studio light. Not the best solution, but it worked.

The studio light had a softbox fitted, although it is old and only has a single diffusing layer, it does the job. As fill in we used a silver / gold reflector. I used the SB-800 with a red gel to light the white backdrop some of the time, but felt it was unfair that the other's could not take advantage of it, so put it away.

We had a great evening and took many photos between us. Once my website galleries are working, larger images from the shoot will be available for viewing.

New Website

I now have a new domain and new website, which is almost up and running. The main pages are in place, but I haven't yet added the galleries of my photographs as the server side software has to be installed before I can create them!

I am hoping to be able to start creating the galleries next week and to finish switching from my old site to my new one within the next week.

Yesterday was a good day!

Yesterday was a good day! Mid morning there was a knock on the door and a Post Office parcel van was outside. I opened the door, got my parcel and found it was the copy of 'The Moment It Clicks', the great book by Joe McNally, that I had ordered from Waterstones last Friday. Less than half an hour later there was another knock on the door and another Post Office parcel delivery. This time it was my Pocket Wizards! Needless to say I was very happy to get the book, but getting both the book and the Pocket Wizards on the same day was great!

I didn't know which to look at first, but once I opened both, I knew it had to be the book - the Pocket Wizards didn't come with batteries and I didn't have any in the house!

I picked up the book and flicked through it. On seeing Joe's great pictures, I knew that I was going to enjoy the book and hopefully learn from it. Instead of my usual skipping back and forth through books of this nature, I decided to read it properly and I sat and read the Foreword, Ackowledgements and About The Author sections. Unfortunately by the time I'd read those it was time for me to go out, but at least I was ready to start on the book proper on my return!

While I was out, I picked up some batteries for the Pocket Wizards and when I got home, I fitting them, turned them on and checked they worked by pressing the 'test' button on one and watching the LED flash on the other. At this point I realised that the wizards were supplied without cables, so I couldn't connect them to my flash guns..... Now I was getting frustrated!

Then I realised that I did have some cables I could use. I have two sets of the cheap eBay bought radio flash triggers and they are supplied with a lead for connecting the transmitter to a flash sync socket, for those who don't have a hot shoe connector on the top of their camera. It so happens that the cables have the 3.5mm jack plug that the wizards use - problem solved! I wandered round the house testing the wizards and they didn't fail to work wherever I was. In comparison the cheap ones fail as soon as I put one wall in between the transmitter and receiver! I have yet to try the wizards in a real situation, but I'm very confident they will perform as expected.

In the end I didn't start reading again until the evening and as I write this, I have read almost half the book. It is very well written and is easy reading. Fortunately there are footnote explanations of the terminology used by Joe, otherwise I'd have been stumped by terms like 'gatefold' and 'double truck', never having heard of those expressions before. I'll continue to read this evening and when I finish it, I'll re-read it, slowly, studying the images and making sure I understand how Joe achieved the images - ensuring it clicks!

Focus On Imaging & Pocket Wizards

Sunday was the first day of Focus On Imaging, 'Europe's biggest annual imaging show' and I went, as I do every year, together with two friends. As always the show was interesting and I came away having learnt new things and having wished I had a bottomless pit of money to buy the things I wanted!

I went to the show with the intention of checking out scanners as I have a Hasselblad 503, so want to scan 120 roll film (I can't afford a digital back). I also want to be able to scan up to 5x4, as one of my projects is building my own view camera - more on that in another post, when I finally get round to making it.... Anyway, on the long drive to the show, I thought long and hard about what I wanted and the priorities and I decided not to pursue the scanner at this time.

I have cheap remote triggers for my flashguns bought from eBay. Although they are reliable in the studio, they do not have the range I require for location work and, as I am giving up the studio, so all my work will be on location, I decided that it was more important to have reliable remote triggers!

I had already looked at the available options and I believe the Pocket Wizard is currently the most likely to suit my requirements. At the show I looked for the best price, but was disappointed to find that very few exhibitors had them in stock and that there were no deals to be had at the show. So yesterday I searched eBay - you can usually get what you want there - and I now have a pair of Pocket Wizard Plus II's on their way to me. I'm waiting impatiently for them to arrive and I'm looking forward to trying them out!

Once I have tried them out, I'll let you know what I think of them. Unfortunately, I can only afford one pair at the moment, but if I'm happy with the results, I will be saving for another pair!

Strobist

Hey, any of you out there that are into photography, go and check out Strobist...

I currently have a studio that I share with some friends, but it's too expensive to run.  Our photography is a hobby not a business, so we're going to have to give it up.  From what I've learnt already at Strobist, I won't miss the studio, but will make the best use of wherever I am instead of being tied to a specific location.

Strobist discusses and teaches how to get studio quality images using flash guns designed to be fitted to the top of your camera, but using them remote from the camera....

It is a great site and I can thoroughly recommend it! I keep going back to it and I learn something new each time I do!

Sunset Over The Bush

This was taken on the 1st January 2008, looking across the bush opposite my niece's house in Port Kennedy, Western Australia - a great place to visit!