I was reading a post on Facebook this morning from a lady who was looking to have some photographs taken of her child and realised that whilst the vast majority of my portrait work is of adults, I’ve also done some recent work with families… I guess I really should get around to marketing myself properly!
Anyway, here’s a couple of recent ones to whet your appetite… If you’d like some family portraits taken, please feel to get in touch via the contact page on here.
First of all, a belated Happy New Year to you all.
I treated myself to a Fuji X10 for Christmas… What an outstanding little camera it is! I’ve been after something small enough to fit in a pocket and to take with me when I’m in work and after doing a considerable amount of research, the X10 was the most suitable candidate.
So far, it’s been used for just about everything from landscapes right through to staged portraits. In case you think that a little compact camera can’t be used for anything other than snaps, hopefully the image below should make you think twice!
Here’s the info behind the shot…
Canon 580EXII from right through 42in Octabox at 1/8 power on manual
Canon 430EXII from above left through 24in softbox at 1/2 power on manual
Fired with Yong Nuo RF-602 Poverty Wizards
The second new toy was bought for my birthday by Ayesha… I’d been looking at the Canon EF50mm f1.4 for a while but never got around to acquiring one. I was torn between the Canon and Sigma versions and the reviews I read seemed evenly matched. In the end, it was a combination of price and availability that clinched the deal.
It’s been a while since I had someone new to shoot but I recently found Georgina on Purestorm… After a few emails and an initial meeting, we organised a shoot to get to know each other. Nearly five hours and a lot of laughs later, I had some cracking shots in the bag and made a new friend in the process… Not a bad afternoon’s work by any standards!
Georgie was great fun to work with and even though it was her first ever shoot, her professionalism and effort paid off big time!
The 'Look'!
Funny things fireworks… Beautiful to watch but can be a bit tricky to photograph. A big display with a decent backdrop is always preferable to something plain and boring – like a local football ground! Aberystwyth is a beautiful little town but for some reason, the main display for the place is always held inland! Fortunately, the students and locals know how to throw a decent party!
A crowd of us headed down to South Beach last night ‘cos Aber Sailing Club, the Archery Society and the Dancesport Society had all got together to arrange a display of their own. Various other groups had also bought a large number of fireworks so the whole length of the beach was lit up at one point.
A couple of weeks ago a couple of friends were given the gift of a healthy baby daughter named Ella… Ayesha and I were really looking forward to visiting them to see the new family member but both of us had been suffering from a bout of the ‘flu and didn’t want to pass it on to the little ‘un.
I’d offered to get some pictures of Ella and her parents and so on Sunday night after the Ffotaber thing was done and dusted, we headed off to Clint and Izabela’s. I was worried about little Ella coming into contact with too much light from my strobes so we kept the session short.
I meant to update this last night but ended up being far too busy…
“Be at the Morlan Centre on Queens Road for 5pm” we were all told. The results and prizes from the photomarathon were due to be announced so Ayesha and I headed down and met up with Matt, Mark and Tony to find out how everyone got on.
I don’t generally ‘do’ competitions but even I couldn’t help feeling a little apprehensive as the results were announced. Halfway through the proceedings and they got to the award for the best picture on the theme of ‘secret’ and guess what, I won! Apparently, my ugly mug will be in tomorrows Cambrian News which is something I could have done with avoiding! I hate being in front of the camera so I guess it’s lucky that I’m a photographer!
On a far more important note, there were 37 other images that were short-listed as ‘highly commended’. Of the six of us who entered as a kind of ‘group’, every one of us had at least one image in that list. For Natty, Ayesha, Matt, Tony and Mark, I’m really chuffed!
According to the Ffotoaber organisers, there’s going to be a meeting soon to decide how the festival goes forward next year. I’m hoping that next year I can be on hand to help the people who want to learn a bit more about photography and I’ll only shoot the marathon for a bit of fun. As far as I’m concerned, there’s a serious lack of assistance available to anyone in Aberystwyth who wants to enjoy the art. Aberystwyth Camera Club were conspicuous by their absence and only one current member got involved. I can’t believe that only ONE member was available that day!
I think there’s a need for a more informal (and therefore a more inclusive) club within the area that’s more welcoming to people from absolute beginners right through to professional photographers. We need a club where there’s no such thing as a ‘stupid question’ and where as many people as possible can be involved!
Maybe one day soon! 
Ffotoaber is a new organisation set up to showcase photography within Aberystwyth and the surrounding area. I was a little unsure about whether to enter the marathon but a few friends were doing it so I decided to give it a bash.
The photo-marathon consisted of six unknown themes given to us two at a time at two-hour intervals. The themes were; ‘Patterns’, ‘Community’, ‘Secret’, ‘Move’, ‘Age’ and ‘Freedom’. All images had to be taken between 10:00 and 16:00 and the themes were to be shot in order of their release. All images had to be shot in JPEG format and no post-processing was allowed… All images had to be right ‘in camera’.
The six images below comprise my entry into the competition. I prefer to edit my work (‘cos it’s fun), so I’ve included my final variations rather than the in-camera versions.
It’s been a while since I shot my last wedding (doesn’t that sound like a confession?).
A friend of mine emailed me to say that his daughter was getting married and asked me if I’d be able to cover the event. It gave me an opportunity to finally meet someone I’d known on Flickr for over four years so I readily agreed.
With a seriously dodgy weather forecast looming, I was worried about how I’d manage to get everything done but after a visit to the venue, a wet-weather plan was agreed. As it turned out, we dodged the bullet and managed to get all of the group shots done outside… Phew!
Here’s a taster from Nichola and Rhys’s wedding…
It’s been a good few months since Steff and I took a drive up to Low Fly Area 7 to photograph the RAF’s finest… This time, we took Mark up for his first visit and I think it’s safe to say that he loved it.
If you don’t know what the deal is with CadWest and the low-fly scene; it’s essentially a bunch of photographers who climb the side of a mountain (or hill) in order to get above some of the best front-line fighter aircraft.
This is apparently the ONLY serviceable Tornado GR4 currently in the UK… All the others are on front-line service at the moment!
I’ve decided that I need to add more individual pages to the site. To that end, I’m creating a set of pages that will showcase a selection of portrait images taken at various locations…
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