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Elsham Hall

Photoshoots with techy bits No Responses »

Jun 222010

Elsham Hall gardens and country park is a beautiful venue for weddings, I am delighted to be their official photographer and got the opportunity last weekend to take some shots of Laura by the lake. It was an open day for Elsham promoting their wedding facilites and the lovely Laura was on hand in a beautiful Carol Li dress. These were very much spur of the moment shots, I wasn’t using anything fancy just my trusty Nikon D90 and the SB900 flash. I was holding the flash in my left hand and the D90 in my right, one of the reason I like the D90 so much is that I can use it single handed, my old D2x was just too heavy. I have now replaced the D2x but more about that in another blog.

For shots like this I tend to use manual, first I take a couple of test shotsof the ambient light and get it around 1 stop lower than normal then I set the SB900 on manual at -1/8 power as a starting point and go from there.

I wanted a wide shot that showed the beauty of the lake for Elsham to use on their stand at this week’s Lincolnshire show, the 3 white ducks were most obliging and all looked at Laura at the same time – something I can’t get some wedding guests to do!

Elsham Hall gardens and country park

When I got back and started processing the images in Lightroom, I realised how much Laura had a Garboesque (if their is such a word) look, the hair and the dress just begged for something in post process. Fortunatley I had taken a few for Laura to use in her portfolio and here are a couple that have had a little tweaking.

Laura does Garbo at Elsham Hall

Laura does Garbo 2

Elsham is a fantastic location, not just for weddings but all sorts of other events. This year they are having three open air theatre evenings and a fashion show, I’m planning on running a day’s training course for photographers there at some point.

For more information check out their websites, the main one is www.elshamhall.co.uk and for a list of events and details of hire www.elshamhallevents.co.uk or if you are at the Lincolnshire Show tis week pay them a visit on their stand, Jof and Elaine will be delighted to see you and don’t forget to say Andrew sent you.

Blasting the sun

Photoshoots with techy bits No Responses »

Jun 202010

I’ve been asked to shoot a new range of clothing for a local designer, at the moment we are in the test shoot stage but should be in full swing later in the year. This is the first of a couple of shoots I have done this week.

I wanted to show the really vibrant colours in the dress and Becky came up with the idea to shoot it in a field of buttercups. I wanted really strong saturated colours so opted for a few hours before sunset and in true Strobist fashion tried to over power the sun with my small speedlights.

I used 3 lights, 2 SB28s on 1/4 power to camera right and one SB800 to camera left on 1/8 power as the fill. I started using soft boxes to try and get some soft edge to the shadows but it was so windy the lights were either blowing over or rotating like windmills much to Becky’s amusement.

I am using some new wireless triggers that are called iShoot, they are cheaper than Pocket Wizards but more reliable than the old eBay “poverty wizard”. I’ll do a Technology Tuesday blog on these very soon.

This is one of the shots, I’m really pleased with the results, the colours are exactly how I wanted them and I hope it motivates people to go and buy the dress.

Feathers fashion shoot

Xtreme Chainsaw

Photoshoots with techy bits 2 Responses »

Apr 282010

A couple of months ago I shot some promotional images for Xtreme Chainsaw, these involved the lovely Adele posing with chainsaws of various sizes.

Adele of Xtreme Chainsaw

Simon, who is the talented artist of Xtreme Chainsaw, normally carves things like this Heron. Remember this all done with chainsaws – amazing!

Heron carved in wood by Simon Bogg of Xtreme Chainsaw

Well Simon has moved on to bigger things and is currently working on an almost life-size copy of a rider and superbike that will be auctioned at this year’s superbike meeting at Cadwell Park. I managed to get some shots of him in action at his workshops. Apart from getting covered in sawdust and gassed by 2 stroke fumes it was a great shoot. This guy’s talents are amazing, you will be able to see the finished carving at Cadwell Park in August but in the meantime here are some shots of him in action.

Simon Bogg of Extreme Chainsaw

Simon Bogg looking serious while carving

Simon Bogg of Xtreme Chainsaw

You can find out more about Simon on his website www.extremechainsaw.co.uk

All the shots of Simon were taken using my Nikon SB900 and SB800 flashes, for the one of him cutting the tree I used a half cut of CTO on the flash and set the white balance to tungsten, after a little tweaking in Lightroom it gave me the evening sun look I was after.

As always comments and questions are more than welcome.

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Elsham Hall

Blasting the sun

Xtreme Chainsaw

Andrew Appleton

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