Jan marks not only the start of a new year, but also the start of the monthly competitions with the SWPP.  This year the SWPP has changed the judging and scoring of the monthly competition, for the better in my opinion.  Scoring used to be Gold, Silver, Bronze, and U (no award basically).  The difference between U and Bronze caused a lot of discussion and arguments so the societies decided it was time for a change.  This year scoring is Gold, Highly Commended, and No Award.  The judging has also been tightened up with the total number of Golds in Jan being only 46, which is extremely low given the total number of entries.   I, unfortunately, didn’t get any Gold Awards this month but I did get 3 Highly Commended Awards which I am happy with.  All three awards where from the same shoot, so let’s have a look at my Jan Photographer Awards.

Before we look at the images, since they were all from the same shoot, let’s talk about the shoot itself.  I have been meaning to blog about this shoot and will still get to it sometime soon.  I went down to Devon in December to do some promotional and publicity photos for a world champion powerlifter.  We shot all of these in her Gym in Newton Abbot in Devon.  It was a whole lot of fun and everyone involved was extremely happy with the resulting images.  So, now, let’s have a look at the award winning images.

So there you have m three Highly Commended awards for the month of Jan.  They won in the following categories.  Portraiture Environmental, Portraiture Avant Garde, and Media and Publicity.   Seems I always do very well in the publicity category, but that is after all what I specialise in so I would hope to do well in that particular category.  :D  I love doing publicity and promotional photography, and for athletes like this powerlifter it really gives me a chance to do things a little differently and to take some risk as well as letting my creativity come out.  I have a few more from this shoot that I need to do a blog post for and enter into next months competition (the societies also reduced the number of categories).  So, keep an eye out for some new posts soon.  :D

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This last weekend was the annual Societies Convention.  Last year I didn’t enter any images into the 20×16 print competition.  Don’t really have a reason as to why I didn’t, but I didn’t.  For 2011 though, I did enter 3 images into the 20×16 print competition.  Even though I had won numerous awards in 2011 with the societies, I wasn’t expecting much from my entries.  Call me crazy, but I never think my photography is as good as others and always feel that I can improve….and that, in my opinion, is a good thing.

So, what is the 20×16 print competition?  Well, you have to have your images printed and mounted and the images must be 20×16 when mounted.  The images are then judged and scored.  Images scoring over 80 are given a merit award and they are then judged again to determine finalists and then those finalists and then judged again for the overall winners in each category.  Seeing images in print, especially at a size of 20×16 can really take an image to another level, or it can expose flaws in the images.  This is why the 20×16 competition is one in which all award winning photographers aspire to do well in.  I took 3 of what I considered to be my strongest images from 2011 and entered them into the competition.  I wasn’t able to attend the judging at the convention as I arrived the following day so I had no idea on how they had done.  I just knew that if I saw them hanging in the exhibition the following day that they had at least won a merit award.  And…here are the two images that I was delighted to see hanging up with a lovely merit award ribbon hanging from them…..

Most of my regular readers will recognise both of these images.  But, for those that may have never seen them before (or for those that found me as a result of seeing these images in the exhibition), let me tell you a little bit about them and what categories they were awarded merits.

The first image is of former Big Brother housemate Sam Pepper.  This image is not only one of my favourite images from 2011, but has also been one of the favourites from judges and people that have seen my work.  It won a Gold in the April 2011 competition and was my first award for 2011.  I had entered this image into the contemporary portraiture category and was very excited when I saw that it was hanging up in the exhibition.  I had always loved this image and will now have a nice 20×16 print of it hanging up in my house (with a lovely award winning ribbon still on it of course.)

The second image above is from one of the many bands that I photographed in 2011, Solidagoes.  This image was a part of my best month in terms of winning awards and it won Gold in the month of August.  It is an image that has caused a lot of interest, feelings, and conversation.  My mother in law says that it scares her, and others have said that it is either beautiful or disturbing.  Talking with people at the convention that had seen the judging, this image was apparently on the judging table for longer than any other images as the judges talked about it and debated it and it apparently caused quite a stir.  As an artist, this is something I love.  You want your images to provoke thoughts, emotions, and discussing….hopefully all in a good way though!  :D

So there you have it, a couple of merit awards for me to finish off 2011.  2011 was such an amazing year for me and I am looking forward to an even better 2012.  I have lots of amazing shoots coming up, and loads of really good ideas.  This year I am focusing on only shooting in my style so I may be a bit more selective in the commissions that I take on.  I am doing this to ensure that I provide people with my best possible images, something I wasn’t able to do by taking every commission that came my way.  I sometimes took things that I either didn’t feel comfortable doing, or that I didn’t think I was very good at.  This year though, every booking with me you can expect to get your images in my style…after all, you are booking me for what I do and this year I am making a conscious effort to ensure every shoot I do you are getting the images that I create as an award winning photographer.

If you would like to commission me for your next shoot, get in touch here. I am known as a band photographer and as an urban photographer.  So if you need promotion as a musician, actor, artists and whatever we can help you out.  We also do portraiture, but we offer creative, unique, and editorial styled portraiture that is ideal for couples, individuals, maternity, and model shoots.

Feel free to leave comments below!  :D

Related Posts

• August 28, 2011 -- Rapper Photographer – Winkzy Competition Image
• July 11, 2011 -- Article in Professional Imagemaker
• July 6, 2011 -- Judges Choice Award for June and other photography awards
• January 3, 2012 -- 2011 – Professional Photographer Retrospective
• December 5, 2011 -- November Publicity Photographer Awards

So, unless you live in a cave, you know that the world is going to end this year.

So since the world is ending this year, we figured it would be best to help everyone go out with style.  That is why we are having a couple of special offers and promotions on our fine art photographic prints. Who wants the world to end not only with our homes and offices not looking their best, but also not owning some limited edition fine art?  It’s one of the things that people always say they want to do before they die, and since the world is going to end this year you don’t have a lot of time!!!!  So, we are going to make it a little easier for you to own some fine art.  We are going to give you 20% off any order just by using discount code 2012OMG at checkout.  Yes, that is 2012OMG and you will get 20% off any purchase of fine art from the fine art site. We also offer free postage to anywhere in the world as well, so that’s a real bargain!!

But didn’t I say there were a couple of special offers?  I did!  The other is a money back guarantee.  IF the world does in fact end in 2012, we will fully refund your purchase!!!!  That’s right, if the world ends in 2012, we will refund all of our fine art sales in 2012.  :D

So there you have it.  A 20% discount on fine art with a money back guarantee if the world ends in 2012.  All of our fine art prints are limited edition prints with each image being limited to 100 prints of each size.  Most prints are only offered in three sizes, with panoramic prints only being offered in 2 sizes.  So that means there will be, at most, 300 prints available for each image.   That isn’t a lot, and we not only have great prices, but with the 20% and free shipping you can decorate your entire home and office in time for the world to end and go out with some style!!!

Recap:  Enter discount code:  2012OMG at checkout for 20% off your order.

Full money back guarantee on all fine art print sales in 2012 if the world ends in 2012.  :D

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My week 2 image for my latest project 52 comes very early this week as I am going to be in London later this week through the weekend.  After this week though, they will probably all be posted at the very end of each week.  So, there will probably be a pretty big gap between week 2 and week 3, but hey ho.  :D

So, this week I brought with me all of the little glass objects I am going to be using throughout this fine art series.  I played around with some different combinations of things and then had this idea and ran with it.  I must have taken about 12 or so images of this setup, and this was ultimately the shot I settled on.  Here is the finished image….

This image was a lot of fun to take.  The way the glass ball distorts and warps things is what made it a lot of fun.  Moving an inch to one side would completely change the image and this is why I took so many different shots of this setup.  In the end, I though this shot made for the best fine art image.  You have the old poison bottle sitting behind a clear ball.  What I like about it is that the ball doesn’t show the bottle in it at all, except for the bubble in the middle.  The way that the ball has distorted everything kind of messes with your mind and it’s perception of what you should be seeing.  But it has taken that and, literally, flipped it upside down.  Some nice backlighting gives the bottle a slightly eerie glow as well making this my favourite so far (I know, this is only number 2).

I also decided on a vintage edit for this, and will probably edit this entire series in a vintage fashion as I just feel it fits the theme.  I have added this image to the fine art site as well, so you can purchase it here.

Don’t forget that all fine art prints are limited edition with runs of only 100…so if you like something, don’t hesitate as supplies truly are limited!!  :D

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It’s the first week of 2012 and that means it’s time for the first image of this years project 52!!!  Exciting, I know.  The title for this series is Looking Glass, and there will probably wind up being some sub series out of this when it’s all said and done.  But, the idea for this comes from a photographer named Andre Kertesz.  There is a great book by Andre entitled The Polaroids.  The majority of the images in this book focuses on a couple of glass objects that he placed into different places and situations.  I absolutely love the images he has created in this book and it inspired me to put my own, modern twist on it.

So, throughout this series we will be looking at how different glass objects react when placed in different light situations and how the background they are placed in affects their look.  Completely translucent glass is wildly affected by the environment in which they are placed, especially if the objects has some spherical qualities.  Throughout this fine art series, we will be taking a few different glass objects and photographing them under different lighting conditions in a variety of environments and the results should be amazing.  Here is the first image of this fine art series.

I have titled the first image in this fine art series Sunset Dancers.  A pretty obvious title I know, but that is exactly what it is.  I took a clear, glass sculpture of a pair of ballet dancers and took them out to see a sunset.  I placed the sun behind them to backlight them allowing the environment to curve and sculpt their shape.  The spherical qualities of this sculpture is what really makes it special.  If this were a flat piece of glass, we would have a completely different image, and that is why this fine art series is going to be so interesting.

I have already added a category to the Fine Art Photography for Sale site for this series and you can view it here.  Or you can view this image directly for purchase here. As with all of my fine art for sale, each image will be limited edition to a print run of 100 for each size.  This fine art series will probably go rather quickly I would imagine, so don’t miss out on having some amazing fine art for your home!!

Again, you can purchase this image here.

Next week’s image for this fine art series will probably be a bit early in the week as I will be gone from Thursday on, so expect to see the next image by Wednesday.

Please feel free to leave comments below.

Related Posts

• June 30, 2011 -- Worlds with Holes in them Fine Art Prints
• November 9, 2010 -- Venice Fine Art Photography
• August 10, 2010 -- West Row Sunset
• January 17, 2012 -- Award Winning Photographer – 2011 Merit Awards
• December 5, 2011 -- November Publicity Photographer Awards

Today, more than ever, it is so important for bands of all stature to have good, high quality images.  Have you often wondered why you haven’t had that big break, or gotten the recognition you deserve?  Well, even though the music might be amazing and appealing to a wide audience, in today’s world of facebook, twitter, youtube, and streaming it’s probably because you don’t have an “image”.  This may sound like something a photographer would say, but it’s very true.  Today, everything is about visuals.  Your average internet user will only listen to about 1:30 of a song if there is nothing visual to maintain their attention.  This is also why bands need to be producing more music videos, but that is another page, and another topic.

Right about now, even though the post is still young, you might be saying “well, this is very true.  I have a friend that knows how to use a camera” and I will tell you that with no disrespect to your friend, amateur photos not only will lack the impact, vision, and creativity of a professional but the images may in fact HARM your image.  I have been an award winning professional photographer dealing with bands both big and small for years and have a reputation for delivering images that not only tell your audience a little bit about the band, but images that are compelling and will gran the attention of your audience (or potential audience).  I also know, after working with a lot of unsigned bands, that affording a professional photographer is sometimes out of the question.  That is why I have created this special!!

What is an unsigned band and an independently signed band you ask?

Unsigned bands is pretty self explanatory, but independently signed bands might take some explanation.  What I mean by independently signed bands are bands that are signed to DIY labels, or small labels where the roster of bands is probably no more than 10 other bands and your overall exposure is probably limited to your region in the UK.  In short, if you aren’t signed to a “major” label or your CD and EP runs are probably less than 2000 copies then you are eligible for this special.  If you still aren’t sure, just give me a ring or an email and we will talk through it.

Sounds great!!  What’s the skinny on this amazing deal then?

Well, it’s pretty simple.  If you are an unsigned band or an independently signed band in the East Anglia region (we will get to that in a bit), I will give you a professional photoshoot and up to 5 images from the photoshoot with a commercial use license for £150!!  Think about it, if you have 3 members in your band that’s only £50 ea.  If you have 5 it’s only £30 ea.!!   That’s it, there really isn’t much more to it.  However, if you want a shoot where we have to pay the venue for it’s use then that fee will be on top of the £150.  But, that honestly doesn’t happen all that often.

Awesome.  But what would I possibly need these images for?

Ah yes, now here is where we talk a little bit more about the importance of having good photography.  Not only can these images be used on your website, facebook, myspace, twitter, youtube, and whatever else you have out there on the internet.  But, they are great for using on press releases, magazine articles and features, CD covers or inserts, flyers and posters, mailings to bigger labels.  Basically anything you can think of that will be used to promote your band and your image.  The first thing your audience is going to see these days is an IMAGE of your band, before they even hear your music.  So, make that first impression one that impacts them and makes them want to listen to your music.  Images can also be for a specific song or EP release as well.  We have done shoots that have been themed to specific songs before and those are some of the shoots that are our favourites to do.  We also work closely with a web designer that has packages designed for bands as well.  They are the ones to create our awesome flyer and you should give them a look at retrophonic designs.

Wow.  This all sounds to good to be true.  But would you shoot my band’s genre?

In short, yes.  We have shot bands and musicians from every possible genre you can imagine.  Indie, Ska, Punk, Country, Grime, Rap, Hip Hop, Metal, Death Metal, even DJ’s and Classical musicians.  We do like to listen to some of your music before the shoot to enable us to get a feel for what type of image would most accurately portray you.  So don’t worry about it, this is what we do for a living and we will make sure you get images that best portray you and your music and that you will love.

OK, so where does this special apply?

The £150 shoot will apply for bands and musicians in the East Anglia region (and London).  This includes anywhere in Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex.  Places like Norwich, London, Peterborough, Ipswich, Colchester, Chelmsford, and Kings Lynn are most certainly places that will get there shoot for £150.  Places a little further afield we can still shoot, but for £200 instead of £150 to cover travel costs.  This would pretty much include anywhere else in the UK and England.  We have traveled everywhere from Birmingham all the way down to Devon and Cornwall for shoots and we can travel as far as Liverpool and Manchester as well.  So don’t worry about your location, get in touch and we will talk about your shoot.

So now is the time for your band to man up, get some photos done and show the world that you are SERIOUS about your career as a band or musician.  Grab the bull by the horns and get a photoshoot with an award winning band photographer for an amazing price and get in touch today to organise your shoot.  Don’t forget that we also do music video production and can combine it with a photoshoot as well.  Here are a few examples of some of our band and musician work.

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Right, so yesterday I wrote my blog post looking back on 2011.  This blog post, actually the thought and preparation of this post, got me thinking and reassessing my photography business.  I thought to myself “what do I LOVE photographing?” “What am I best at?” and the answer always came back to my band photography, music photography, editorial photography, fashion photography, and publicity photography.  I look at the awards I have won in 2011, and ALL of them had to do with publicity or promotion images.  None were ever for family portraits, children, or things like that.

So, it’s time to make a change to what I offer.  People that talk about me and my work the last couple of years have always referred to me as an urban photographer.  For a while I fought against this.  It seemed too narrow and niche and I didn’t want to be narrow and niche.  However, I have come to realise that this is actually a good thing and that I should embrace the title of urban photographer.  What do I mean by urban photographer?  Well, in short it really just describes my style.  My images do tend to take place in a more urban setting than a rural setting.  But I think the main thing is that the “feel” and “look” of my images just have a dirty, grungy, urban appearance.  This is probably how the term describing my photography got started.

The main focus of the business now though is going to be band photography and music photography along with anything to be used for publicity or promotion.  This would include, obviously, bands and musicians but also celebrities, athletes and sportsman, artists, and even advertising for things like movies, productions, or any advertising photography.  I do know that I have some regular clients that will be upset by this decision, but I think it’s the best decision for the business going forward.

So what exactly will I be doing in 2012?  Well band photography and music photography are going to be the main focus, as well as advertising photography and celebrity photography.  If you need good publicity, pr, promotional photography for press packs, press releases or your website then I am definitely your man.  Personal portraits I like to pose and theme, so if you want themed and posed portraits that are in the style of everything else I do then definitely get in touch.  I don’t feel that I am very good at lifestyle and non-posed portraits, and that is why I will refer you to those photographers that I feel are good at those style of portraits.

This, I feel, is a win-win change for everyone.  By booking me you will get the services that I am best at, and not the services that I don’t think I am very good at.  By booking my as your photography, you will also known what you can expect in terms of style and not get something that is different to what you were expecting.

In short, this change is defining my photography services and style as the brand.  This makes my name and images more recogniseable as well as giving my clients and customers a more focused and consistent service.

Here are the new pages and services:

Band Photography and Music Photographer information can be found here. I currently quote based on how the images are going to be used.  What this means, basically, is that the bigger the band and the more widely the images will be used will result in a higher quote.  For smaller, unsigned, or independently signed bands I am working on a straight forward single price package to be published later this week.

Urban Photography, Celebrity Photographer, and Fashion Photographer information can be found here. This is a little more complicated as I grouped three things together here.  Fashion and Celebrity photography services are quoted in the same way as my band and music photography.  It depends on the use of the images.  Urban photography is pretty much the same.  What I mean by urban photographer is pretty broad.  It’s a term that has been used to describe my photography by others for a couple of years now, and I am now embracing that title.  Urban photography can really apply to all of the above, and in short it is really a term to describe my style.  Within the urban photographer umbrella though falls personal portraits.  I am currently working on pricing for that, but I think we are going to ditch the sitting fee and just start with packages…the first of which will be £200 and you will get 5 images on a CD.  But, more information will come on this soon.

We are also going to be focusing more time and effort into music video production and film.  I have two projects lined up this year for short films, and both are very exciting and are going to be a lot of fun.  One will definitely be out this year, the other potentially, but it’s a stop motion film and may take a little longer.

Fine art images are also going to be getting more attention.  This week I am starting a project 52, which is one image a week on a theme.  I am making this for my fine art photography and it will be a series when completed.  So, look out for the first instalment of that later this week!!  :D

So, there you have the changes for 2012.  I am now going to officially refer to my services as urban photography and the focus of the business is now band and music photography as well as fashion and advertising and anything for publicity and promotion. Questions or comments definitely feel free to get in touch. I am based outside of Cambridge and cover all of East Anglia including Norwich, Suffolk, Ipswich and down to London all with no problem.  I also cover the entire UK and England, so if you are further afield but still want my urban photographer services definitely get in touch and don’t worry…I can come to you!  :D

Related Posts

• January 3, 2012 -- 2011 – Professional Photographer Retrospective
• July 22, 2011 -- Kings Lynn Rapper Winkzy Promo Photographer Shoot in Cambridge
• September 20, 2011 -- Male Fashion Photographer – Cambridge
• September 3, 2011 -- Band Photographer – Award winning Band Photographer August
• November 17, 2011 -- Fashion Photographer – Intruder Label Shirts

Well, this is a little later than I wanted to do this.  But, the end of 2011 turned out to be a little hectic and very fun.  So, we are a couple of days into 2012 but not too late to do our look back on 2011.  2011 was one of the most fun years I have had as a professional photographer.  I had everything from photographing a former Big Brother housemate all the way to making our first music videos and we can’t forget our hugely successful band photography competition.  So, we are going to take a look back at not only some of my favourite photos from 2011, but also some of my favourite commissions from 2011.  If I don’t mention you in here, I apologise!  :D  2011 was full of so many good assignments that I won’t be able to fit them all in.

Early on in 2011 I was contacted by former Big Brother housemate Sam Pepper.  I was very excited for this as I had actually been a fan of that “final” Big Brother series and had said to my wife that I would love to photograph Sam Pepper.  Thankfully he found me through the internet and twitter and we arranged a shoot in London.  The shoot with Sam Pepper was done not too long after the final Big Brother had ended, so Sam was still pretty well known and we had to keep this in mind when we did the photos.  Basically, this meant trying not to draw attention to ourselves…and this was easier said than done to be honest.  I always have a few speedlights and stands for shooting out and about and the simple act of setting up my lights in a place like London almost instantly draws attention our way.  Thankfully, we were able to find some rather secluded locations that allowed me to fully utilise my lights while not drawing to much attention to ourselves.  So, here are a few of my favourites from my shoot with Sam Pepper….after the jump with the first image also being my first Gold Award for 2011 with the BPPA.

Another highlight of being a professional photographer in 2011 was the band photography competition that I held.  What I did was line up a bunch of amazing prizes and asked bands to enter my competition.  I selected 5 bands from over 100 entries and gave them all free shoots for having been selected for the competition.  Those 5 images then went into the full competition where voting took place online for a month.  At the end of the month, the image with the most “likes” won the competition.  This proved to be massively successful and fun with the winning band Keep It Secret winning it with over 600 likes!  Here, again, are those 5 images from the competition.  I should also state that 3 of these images won Golds in the monthly competition with the BPPA.  This is one of the great joys of being a professional band photographer, you get to really use your creativity to create amazing and unique images and this competition was based around the bands coming up with unique ideas and then me running with that and putting my twist on it.

Now, I can’t mention my band photographer competition without now mentioning the greatest month I ever had in the monthly competitions with the BPPA.  3 Gold in one month and a Judges Choice award for the month as well.  It was a great honour and achievement for me and all of the images were from my band photographer commissions…though two weren’t from the competition!  :D  Below are 2 more images that won Golds for me, with the first image here being awarded a Judges Choice Award for the month of June.  This is of Cambridge band Sachanovak and the second image is of Norwich band Solidagoes.

You might be asking yourself by now, how can this get any better?  :D  I know, I often ask myself this quite often.  :D  In all seriousness though, 2011 was an amazing year and we still have some more images to go.  I know I have said it before,

but being a professional photographer in 2011 was simply amazing.  I had so many great opportunities and commissions that this blog post is turning into quite a long one, so hopefully you are still here and reading along and enjoying a

recap of my favourite images from 2011.  Since we are still on a band photographer kick (seems that all my best images come as a music photographer), we are going to post a few more of my favourites from 2011 before moving onto some

others.  I think the best thing to do here is to stick with the competition bands because there were some great images created here that weren’t used as the entries for the bands.  One of these was from Kings Lynn based rapper and hip hop artist

Winkzy.

Winkzy was the first musician photographed for the competition and was the first hip hop / rapper that I had ever photographed.  I had one idea in my head in particular that I wanted to create after seeing an image of Dizzy Rascal.  It was a

simple image taken with an ultra wide angle lens from above.  We played on the name of Winkzy here to make the image complete…and here is that image.

Now, we have already seen one image from competition winners Keep It Secret.  As part of their prize for winning the competition, they won more images from the shoot.  I’ll be honest here and say that I still haven’t finished editing some of their images, but the couple that I have edited for them and given them have been awesome.  So if you haven’t seen these images before, here you go!!

OK, so we are nearing towards the end here.  Well, we are nearing the end of the band photography at least.  One more set of musician images I promise!!  :D

Another really great and fun commission this year (and again thanks to twitter) was London based DJ TDK.  TDK is a DJ for Deja Vu radio in London and had contacted my through twitter to get some good PR and Publicity photos.  I always love working in London, and this was no exception.  We headed out to one of my favourite areas to shoot in as a professional photographer, Brick Lane.  The brick lane area has so many hidden little gems to shoot in, that I could easily use that area alone for all of my shoots!!  :D  Here are just a couple of my favourite images from my shoot with DJ TDK.

Right, I think we are now done with the band photographer images!!  But, there are plenty more commissions that I had as a professional photographer in 2011.  Another one of my favourites was for clothing label Intruder Label.  We did a lot

of your standard clothing product shots using a model and a simple grey background, but we also did a few advertising shots as well.  I have been meaning to write a post for those images, but haven’t gotten around to it yet.  So, this may be the

first time some of you have seen these images!!  :D  Here are a couple of my favourites from the advertising photography that we did.

So, there you have it.  My favourite shots taken as a professional photographer in 2011.  There were so many done this year that I couldn’t possibly put them all here, the post is long enough as it is and I hope that you are still here reading at

this point!!  But with such gripping and awesome photography I am assuming that you are.  :D  Looking through these images, it now makes sense why I am often introduced to others as an urban photographer.  It’s something I never really thought about until recently when I have been repeatedly introduced this way…and now in 2012 I am fully taking onboard that title!!  :D

Lastly, 2011 saw us make our first couple of music videos!!!  I don’t want to load this page up with more information by embedding the videos here, but if you go to our music video production page you can view them!! 2012 already sees us

having a few music videos to produce and we are very excited for this as they are a LOT of fun to make.  So, keep your eyes peeled for those coming soon!

2012 is already shaping up to be a great year again, and I think tomorrow I will write a post about the changes taken place with us.  Basically, after seeing where I win most of my awards we are now going to be focusing more on the band and

music photography.  But, that is all for another blog post…hopefully coming tomorrow.

So, definitely feel free to leave some comments below or ask any questions you might have!  If you want to hire my professional photographer services definitely get in touch and we will gladly give you a free, no obligation quote!!

Related Posts

• January 4, 2012 -- The times they are a changing – Urban Photographer
• December 5, 2011 -- November Publicity Photographer Awards
• November 17, 2011 -- Fashion Photographer – Intruder Label Shirts
• August 28, 2011 -- Rapper Photographer – Winkzy Competition Image
• October 5, 2011 -- Editorial Photographer – September Awards

November, sadly, was the last month of competitions with the SWPP for 2011.  So, with it being the last competition of the year, it’s always a nervous time as you want to submit your best images.  This, however, is also a drawback as you want to enter as many as you can and sometimes try to squeeze images into categories that they may not be best suited for.  I think I may have done that this month, but still took away 2 silver awards for the month of November.  1 for the publicity photographer category and 1 for the Family and Groups category.  To be fair though, and you will see this when you see the images, both were taken with my publicity photographer hat on as both were publicity commissions.  Anyways, let’s see the images and talk about them.

You may recognise the handsome chaps above from a previous publicity photographer post.  These are the boys from Keep It Secret, who were the winners of my band and musician competition. This was an image I worked on as a result of them winning the competition and I have to say I was quite pleased with the results.  It won Silver in the Publicity Photographer category for the month of November.  Why didn’t it win Gold?  Well, I like to break down my images after the competitions to see why (at least why I think) they didn’t score higher.  With this image, I think the slight lens distortion is the main culprit to it not being a Gold Publicity Photographer winner.  You may not have even noticed it until I pointed it out, but I always knew it was there, but thought it added to the image.  But, the slight lean inwards that they all have is probably what kept it from being a Gold.  Other than that, I can’t see anything wrong with it.  I had the lighting spot on in this image and was able to use three lights here (the sun being one) to give it drama and mood.  This image was a lot of fun to create and I used a method I use a lot when doing publicity work involving more than 2 people out on location.  I did something called a single space composite here.  What that means is that I put the camera on a tripod, took an image of the scene without anyone in it, and then shot each person individually.  The reason I did this is so that I could get them all lit the exact same way.  This is probably the easiest form of compositing to do as when I combine them all in Photoshop, since it was shot on a tripod, it’s just a matter of masking back in each member, and voila!

This image you may also recognise, as I only just recently did a blog post on it here. While this was an image most certainly taken while on a publicity photographer commission, it won Silver in the Family and Groups category for the month of November.  To tell you why this image wasn’t Gold is a little harder.  Strike that, not really harder, but to have fixed the problems with it would have been much harder for a number of reasons.  I think the reason it wasn’t Gold is probably again down to slight lens distortion, and maybe a little something that did bother me with the lighting (and that one I could have fixed).  The lens distortion, well this was taken in such a small space that I had to use my ultra wide lens and really didn’t have any other choice…so that was always going to be an issue.  The lighting issue?  Well, I don’t want to point out what it is as you will be fixated on it, but I had some light spill from one of my backlights.  It was something that could have been fixed in Photoshop, but I didn’t…for whatever reason, and I only have myself to blame there don’t I?  :D

So, there you have my 2 Silvers for the month of November.  I like to think that they were both for being a publicity photographer, as they were both for publicity commissions, but you can only enter 1 into each category.  :D  If you are a corporation, business, band, musician, or anyone that needs a good, award winning, publicity photographer be sure to get in touch. I am always happy to give a free, no obligation quote, but feel free to read more about our publicity photographer services here. We are based between Bury St. Edmunds and Cambridge and cover all the UK and East Anglia including Norwich, Ipswich, London, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, and the rest of England.

If you have any questions or comments about the above images definitely leave a comment below!!

Related Posts

• September 3, 2011 -- Band Photographer – Award winning Band Photographer August
• August 28, 2011 -- Band Photographer Competition Images Voting
• August 28, 2011 -- Band Photographer – Solidagoes Competition Image
• November 25, 2011 -- Food Photographer – Sumo Sushi Cambridge Mildenhall
• September 26, 2011 -- Music in Focus Band Photographer Exhibition

Firstly, I really need to apologise for the lack of Image of the Week posts.  Things have been a bit manic and crazy here at George Fairbairn Photography, which is good, but also means that the blog has been neglected.  :D

Anyways, we are going to kick off this Image of the Week with a food photography tutorial.  I picked this image, and subject, because it had gotten such a huge response when I posted them on here and on my Facebook page.  I originally had something else in mind, but food photography it is for this week….so sit back, grab some food or a drink, and enjoy!!

The image.  I had a bit of a hard time trying to decide exactly which of the images from my Sumo Sushi food photography post that I wanted to use.  Did I want to use something more broad and open, or something with a bit more detail?  In the end I went with something with a bit more detail and chose this image.

The Setup:

The setup all around is one of the most important things to consider when undertaking food photography.  The food needs to be the focus of the image and there are a lot of things to take into account with the food itself.  It’s colour, shape, texture, size, arrangement, and distractions play a major part in the setup of food photography.  Even though this image is a close up, almost macro, shot I needed to take into account other elements that could potentially be distraction or distract from the food itself.  I could have gone with a simple backdrop, but the interior of Sumo Sushi has such a nice bar that I decided to use that.  Using that though still posed it’s own problems.  Firstly, the bar area is a bit narrow so I had to keep that in mind, and it’s in a bit of a tricky location in terms of placing my lights and staying out of peoples way.

Composition with food photography is probably the hardest aspect.  Luckily, I have always worked with extraordinary chefs and food stylists that have arranged and displayed the food in a pleasing manner.  Even with that though, I still spent a lot of time moving things around to get it just right.  This included changing my shooting angle, focal length, and angle.  I also spent a lot of time rotating the plate around trying to find that perfect setup.  Food photography takes a lot of time, and patience.  But, if you are patient you will find that perfect shot.  It just takes a lot of experimenting with angles and moving things around.

Lighting:

Lighting is arguably the most important aspect of food photography.  Lighting can make or break the image, make the food look dull and flat, or make it look fresh and enticing.  What’s the secret?  Well, it’s really quit simple in theory.  The main factor that will make a dramatic impact to your food photography is to backlight it.  What I mean is to have your main light coming at the food from behind.  This let’s the light scrape across the food, highlighting all the raised textures on the food and is what gives the image it’s texture.  Now, exactly where to place that light is going to vary greatly depending on the type of food you are photographing.  For this image, sushi is a very low profile food, so my light was positioned only very slightly higher than the food itself.  Now if you are photographing something like a mound of pasta, you would want that light higher coming down onto the food to get the texture along the from side of the mound.  This all takes experimenting and practise and is one of the reasons that food photography takes a lot of time and patience.

Now, having our main light behind the subject does introduce a lot of shadows onto our image.  Now, we do want to keep some of those because they help with the texture, but we also want to lift some of them as well to give us a more pleasing image.  For this image, I was able to achieve this with only 1 more light positioned camera left, high above the food through a soft box and set about 1 stop less than the backlight.  This gave us shadows in the texture areas that we want, but lifted the overall brightness of the image enough to make is pleasing on the eye.  Again, depending on the food that you are photographing this will vary…in some cases you might need a total of 3 lights, or even 4.

I should also point out, that with this image I set the back light low to also enhance the salmon roe in the middle of the image.  These little beauties are translucent and I knew the right light would make them sparkle a bit and it’s one of the highlights of the image.

Settings:

For this image, I didn’t really want the ambient light to play much of a role and I wanted to have a middle of the road depth of field.  I didn’t want it sharp form front to back, but I also didn’t want only one piece of sushi to be in focus.  So with these things in mind I set everything to….

ISO: 100

Shutter: 1/250th

Aperture:  f9

This ISO and shutter completely eliminated the ambient light within the restaurant.  f9 gave me a reasonable depth of field and also allowed me to position my lights at a good distance from the food itself.

Post Processing:

This type of image doesn’t need much post processing at all and what I have done here is quite simple.  Curves adjustment to improve contrast a bit, cleaned up little things here and there on the food, sharpened, and a more pleasing crop.  That’s it.

So there you have our latest image of the week, and our first food photography tutorial.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed shooting it!  If you own a business, or are a marketer and need images for your projects, please be sure to check out our commercial and advertising photographer page and we will be happy to give you a free no obligation quote.

Any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below.  I will be happy to answer any questions you have.

What images would you like to see in future Image of the Week posts?

Related Posts

• November 25, 2011 -- Food Photographer – Sumo Sushi Cambridge Mildenhall
• September 28, 2011 -- Image of the Week #1 Photography Tutorial
• September 3, 2011 -- Band Photographer – Award winning Band Photographer August
• July 14, 2011 -- Commercial Product Photographer ELBA Filing (Cambridge, Norwich, Ipswich)
• June 30, 2011 -- Worlds with Holes in them Fine Art Prints