21st April: 69th BPSA Ball

Back to the 7 Boathouse on Good Friday to photograph the Pharmaceutical students ball - this group appeared to grow a little weary of waiting for some friends to join them.....

 

 The studio setup was my standard 4 light arrangement with a lastolite

white paper background - although I would have used another softbox

if I hadn't managed to break it earlier ! Doh moment....

Hair Ott 35th Birthday party 16th April

Joined 100 plus stylists from the Portsmouth branches of Hair Ott at the 7 Boathouse to photograph the 35th birthday celebrations of the company. The very popular owners - Otto and Barbara - were welcomed very enthusiastically and everyone had a great night with entertainment from a Bavarian oopah band...

Bath 17th April

We've just had a couple of days in the beautiful city of Bath. The B&B was great  ( Paradise House ), weather good too. To cut down on weight I didn't take my main cameras - just the Lumix LX5 again which again took some pretty good photos. Could have done with a Gorillapod twisty camera support in the Roman baths though as, oddly, it's a bit dark in places !

Christina & Nick's wedding

Last Friday I enjoyed photographing Christina and Nicks wedding at Petersfield Registry Office. It was an intimate family occasion, very relaxed and everyone enjoyed themselves. Here's a few from the selection:

Best wishes to you both.........

Darcie-Mai today......

Looking after my beautiful little granddaughter Darcie-Mai today. She's a bit poorly with chicken pox but seems happy enough at the moment. Her day so far has been sleep, eat (and poo !), short modelling session then sleep again....

This was shot at f2.8/ 1/30th with an off camera speedlight and softbox and reflector then tweaked in Photoshop

playing around with a fisheye lens.........

After meeting Suzie and Sam at the Botleigh Grange Hotel for a pre-wedding planning session I decided to do some test shots with my Sigma 10mm f2.8 fisheye lens. I've had this lens for a while now but haven't really tried it out so I had a brief walk around Old Portsmouth and took some shots....

Interesting effects I guess - colour rendition is pretty good with nice deep saturated colours and it handles flare pretty well considering the bulbous lens. Might do it again soon when I've got a bit of time.

Old Winchester Hill 8th April

Took advantage of the great weather today with an 11 mile walk around East & West Meon calling via Old Winchester Hill. I had my Panasonic Lumix LX5 with me which I've said before is a great little camera - see the examples. Very sharp lens and great saturation. If you want a compact camera that does it a little better than most have a look at this one - £345 at Amazon

....best part of the walk. The Izaack Walton pub at East Meon

Meon Valley Trout fishery

West Meon

er....me (once I'd worked out how to set the self timer for longer than 2 seconds ! Lol) Look at that sky !

HMS Victory Dinner 1st April 2011

At last nights dinner on HMS Victory there was a Mess Beating ceremony from a small detachment of Royal Marines on the Quarterdeck which was a great subject photographically. After a very impressive display the guest of honour at last nights dinner, Cmdr R Cox RN took the salute and shared a tot of rum with the men.

On HMS Victory's quarterdeck in the area where Lord Nelson fell

HMS Victory dinner

Off to Nelson's flagship this evening to photograph the dinner guests. Fantastic location for the event...

Bournemouth 10k/half marathon to photograph for Sussex Sports Photography on Sunday - weather forecast looks OK at the moment....

Family shoots

I did the Crosland family shoot a couple of weeks ago over at Stubbington which was fun.  I set up a 7 x 6' Hilight background and a couple of lights and I also used the vinyl train which Lastolite sell as an optional extra but I'm really not sure it's worth it -  it's just too small. The 7 x 6' size is a good size for peoples homes - the 8x7' is just a bit TOO big and might take out a few light fittings but is great for events. Anyway a family of four can squeeze onto it and some great effects can be had - here are some shots from the session:

Wish I had thought up the Hilight idea ! So simple and so effective. If you're thinking about getting one - do it ! It's not too bad to fold afterwards, just watch the Youtube videos. Think Pringles and it all falls into place.....lol