Archive for November, 2008:
Never work with children and …
Yep, animals! I’m always game for a challenge, providing there’re no expectations and at a recent shoot I was asked if I could get a picture of the dogs. Now, there’s a distinct difference in size between a King Charles spaniel and a 3 year old girl (and her older sister) so the lighting had to change to suit. I kept it simple; maintaining the same ratios and positions, just dropping them down as low as they’d go. The dogs didn’t really want to play ball together, but keeping the camera to my eye, one of the dogs parked itself in a near perfect position and started begging for a treat - snap!
This was the result:
Click it for a larger version…
If the situation was different and I was preparing to shoot the dogs specifically I would have chosen a different background; something to show them off a little better. As it is, the kicker light in the back right of the frame does a pretty good job to define the dog’s outline against the dark cloth. I’ll probably try Photoshopping out the visible folds in the fabric just to see if it improves the image at all. Overall though, I’m happy!
Subscribe to the comments for this postOne Night Stand!
The Children in Need Gala evening was last night at The Forum in Norwich and I was there shooting the formal portraits for the third year. It was a fun and busy evening, thankfully not as busy as last year! Slightly fewer guests made for a totally different atmosphere.
I roped in a couple of photographer friends to help cover the evening, Mike Robinson came along to shoot the candid/social stuff, roaming the floor and the red carpet! Jez Chaplin came and drove the laptop proof and print for the formals, which was a great help to me. At the end of the evening we managed to get a picture of the three of us together - I’m in the middle, Jez on the left and Mike on the right. Thanks to Jas, Mike’s wife, for doing the camera work!
Thanks to everyone who came along, it was good to see some familiar faces from previous events, as well as meeting new people. I’ll hope to see you next year!
More portraits
It’s my busy time of year right now, so without any more ado here are a trio of shots from last weekend in preparation for three more shoots coming up this weekend! I’ve had the honour of shooting this young lady since she was a babe-in-arms. She’s just turned two and did really well posing for her pictures! yes, anyway, ahem, no more ado:
Halloween fun…
We had some friends over yesterday afternoon to ‘celebrate’ halloween. The kids enjoyed the dressing up and trying to scare everyone so it was only fair to record the occasion!
I taped some coloured gels to a couple of flashes and arranged them opposite each other, then I got one of the kids to stand between the two while I snapped a couple of frames. Keeping the main light low gives the scary (unflattering!) shadows and adds to the overall effect.