General Photography | Snow

It is getting to the last ten days of 2009 and with that you have Christmas drawing ever closer, now as I write this it is the 21st of December. And nothing says Christmas to me than snow. And recently there was a snowfall in Bangor and I was able to get a series of shots as well a couple of portraits.

I love taking photos of snow and I love snow itself. These photos were taken on my Canon EOS 50D with the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 lens.  One of the photographs in this post looks more like a snapshot which to be honest it was, but, I like it enough that I have decided to include it.

In this post there are seven photographs that were taken whilst my camera was in manual mode. The last photograph is my favourite of the set.

Portraiture Photography | Rafaela Sakoyianni

I have recently moved to Bangor. An area in North West Wales. There is a University here and although I am not a student at the university I am able to take part in the societies that are based there. One of the societies that I have joined [unsurprising] is The Photographic Society.

Every month the photographic Society picks a theme to lead the photographers in a particular direction and help grow and develop their skills in the photographic sense.

This month the theme for the society is portraiture. Which is where I now believe to be where my photographic strength in lies.

We had a portraiture session and I used a girl from the society called Rafaela. And was able to produce the four photographs that I have included below. All these photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 50D using the Canon 50mm f1.8 mk1 lens and using the camera on manual mode whilst having a single light source to the side in a darkened room.

Portraiture Photography | Amy Simpson

These photographs were taken with a camera that I bought was made in 1934 and uses 120 film. 120 film is a type of film that can produce negatives of square format and because of this I like to use it from time to time. Most modern cameras [film and digital] has in built meters in them to let you know what exposure to use to get a good photograph, because the camera that took these shots is  about 75 years old, it does not.

And at the time I took these photographs I did not have an exposure meter available to me so I had to guess my exposure for these shots and given that, these photos came out very well. They are also some of the most popular shots on my personal flickr account.

In this post I have included three photographs of that day. I would also like to add that this was not a photo shoot it was just a day with a friend and a new camera that yielded positive results. All these shots were taken on Ilford Black and White HP5 400 film. These photos were taken in a square format and I placed my name to the side as to not ruin that.

Portraiture Photography | Steve Davies

You may have seen in a previous post that I took some portrait photographs of a girl named Azita. Well the guy who set that up saw the results and wanted some done for himself. So we met up in Bromley and started taking photographs. It then emerged that he also wanted the photographs to pursue a possible moddeling career. But wanted the photographs to be out of the ordinary and completely different. It was a fun day in general and I was actually quite glad with the photographs I achieved.

In this blog I have included five photographs from that photo session. I would also like to take this time to apologise for the lack of post recently for I have moved and I am just getting settled.

You may have seen in a previous post that I took some portrait photographs of a girl named Azita. Well the guy who set that up saw the results and wanted some done for himself. So we met up in Bromley and started taking photographs. It then emerged that he also wanted the photographs to pursue a possible modelling career. But wanted the photographs to be out of the ordinary and completely different. It was a fun day in general and I was actually quite glad with the photographs I achieved.

In this blog I have included five photographs from that photo session. I would also like to take this time to apologise for the lack of post recently for I have moved and I am just getting settled.

Equestrian Photography | Novice Show Jumping at Polhill Stables

This was my first attempt at equestrian photography, the event was set up by Chislehurst And District Riding Club. The event was the ‘Novice Show Jumping Event’ that took place at Polhill Stables on the 31st of August 2009, which was also Bank Holiday Monday. And although it was my first attempt I eased into it quite well and in my opinion achieved some very good photographs. These photographs are available for order and below I have placed links to the contact sheets where you can have a look and choose which ones you want. And I have also put up a price list for prints.

Contact Sheet | Page One
Contact Sheet | Page Two
Contact Sheet | Page Three
Contact Sheet | Page Four
Contact Sheet | Page Five
Contact Sheet | Page Six

Price List:

6×4 – £7
7×5 – £10
8×6 – £12
10×8 – £15
A4 – £20

If you require a print contact me via the email address on the ‘Contact Me‘ page of this blog.

Experimental Photography | Self Made Holgaroid

The photographs in this post were created with a camera that I made myself using parts of other cameras and basic tools. I wasn’t exactly sure when I was making if it would actually work. I vased the idea on the Holgaroid, a camera that in esseces is also comprised of two camera parts. The front part being that of the Lomo Holga and the back being taken from a Polaroid camera.

As the one I constructed was made with basic tools it had a few problems. For one it would only focus on objects that were about 30cm [one foot] away from the back of the camera. And it would also not expose the film like it would do normally. These were both caused because the polaroid back wasn’t level to where the film plane was originally on the original Holga model which I started with.

Below I have included seven images from the camera I created. A few of these are blurry so I have given each photograph a brief description. All the photographs were taken with either Fujifilm FP100B or Fujifilm FP100C film and the locations for them vary. Also some of the film was expired which meant that it behaved differently than it should have but it also added to a few of the photos I feel.



First photograph – This shot was taken in trafalgur square. The building that shows a
resemblence to the Parthenon in Greece is actually the church of St. Martin-In-The-Field.
The steps of this church is feature in another blog on this site with some recent portraiture
work that I did. [link]

Second photograph – This shot of my trainers on the south bank of London was the
first photograph that I actually acheived that was in focus and with this I was able to
accurately judge the focusing distance that the camera can do.



Third photograph – This is a portrait of my friend Andrew Murrock standing in
a shop in Bluewater shopping centre in the photograph he is wearing a sling as he
had fractured his elbow the day previous.



Fourth photograph – This is a portrait of my friend Holly Hang.



Fifth photograph – This is a hallway that I had found in central London. This was a
12 seconds exposure and because the film was out of date it affected the developing
process and gave a green tint to the image.



Sixth photograph – This was the first time I had taken the camera out to solely take portrait
photography. This image is comprised of the four best images of the day. The model is my friend
Alicia Moore. Who you may recognise from a previous post on this site. [link]. As with the fifth
image you can see that these shots too were also affected by the age of the shot. Which I felt
added to the overall photograph pretty well.

Portraiture Photography | Azita Mehdinejad

These photographs came about because Azita needed some photographs done and my friend Steve. Put her in touch with me. The day I photographed her was in fact the first day I met her, so we didn’t actually start taking photographs straight away. But instead, we had a sit down and a talk and I was able to gain a fuller understanding as to why the photos were needed. We also went over some ideas and chatted in general. We got on pretty much straight away and this made the whole experience better as it also allowed her to feel more relaxed seeming that we had only just met and she had not had her photograph taken professionally before.

In this blog I have included seven photographs from the photo shoot which were taken in and around different locations in central London.

Portraiture Photography | Alicia Moore

The photographs below are from a recent photo shoot that I did with my friend Alicia. This wasn’t the first time I have photographed Alicia and photographs from the earlier shoots will appear on this blog at a later date.

These photographs were taken in the Brick Lane area of London. This area features a lot of graffiti which led to some very interesting backgrounds in some of the photographs.

This photo session also allowed me to experiment with touching up my photographs in post production. Something that I had been apprehensive to learn because I started my photography with film. So I was used to taking a photograph and that would be that. No further adjustments needed. But I have found that not knowing this hindered me slightly when it came to portraiture so I used this photo session to gain a bit of experience with it and it worked pretty well.

All these photographs were taken digitally and enhance later on a piece of  image editing software. And there are seven photographs in total.

Portraiture Photography | Holly Defroand

Below are a set of photographs that I took of a friend of mine called Holly Defroand. These photographs were mainly taken in the centre of London, UK. And they were produced on both film and digital cameras on different dates.

The first photograph that shows a white border around it was taken with a Polaroid film camera. A Polaroid 600SE, which is in the range of professional Polaroid cameras. The other photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 50D, which is a digital SLR. Overall I am quite glad with how the photographs came out.

All of these photographs were taken with no particular theme in mind. We went up to London and took the photographs as the ideas came to me. Like I said before I’m actually quite glad with the photographs.

Wedding Photography | Karen And Andy

For this wedding I was working as an agent of Spikesfotos. The wedding was at a small church in Gravesend and was quite a nice service and I enjoyed the wedding very much. Alot of people who photograph weddings say that they find them stressful, but I do not share this view and I generally have a good time as well as being able to get those all important images of that all important day.

As with most weddings that I have done so far, this was photographed digitally on my old digital SLR which was a Canon EOS 350D. I received compliments from the bride and groom during the reception [that I also photographed] about how they usually found photographers at other weddings to be quite rude and how they were pleased to have a polite one for theirs.

I have included six photos in total.

I was working as an agent of Spikefotos for this
wedding and I have placed a link to their website
below

http://www.spikesfotos.co.uk/