Portraiture Photography | Andrew Peach

The photographs that are featured in today’s photography blog post were taken during a recent short visit to Bangor. One of my friends whom I had met through the Bangor University Photography Society asked if I could take some portraits of him. I agreed thinking that it would be a fun project , and it was.

We started the shoot at 3 o’clock and proceeded to traverse up the steep side of Bangor Mountain. Which was a lot steeper that I thought it would be. Once we had reached the top, welcomed by a clear day and a wonderful view of Bangor, Andrew and I talked about the kind of photographs that he was after. What he wanted me to try to achieve with a few of the shots was to have a clear view of Bangor that was below us. And seeming that it was such a nice bright day I was able to do just that. Though it meant going against certain standards of portraiture photography to get the shot we were after.

Most portraiture is taken at a wide aperture, say for instance f1.8. Doing this ensures a low depth of field meaning that only the subject would be in focus and it also gives you a blurry background which draws more attention to the subject. But in this shoot the background was to be included so I took the shots at a range of apertures between  f11 and f32. The only problem is photographing at these apertures lowers the amount of light getting through the lens and onto the film or sensor [depending on the type of camera that you are using] and that is why I was grateful that is was such a bright day. This meant that although there wasn’t much light getting through the lens itself, it was still bright enough outside to achieve fast shutter speeds.

For this shoot I used a combination of three lenses. I used my Canon EF 28mm f1.8 lens, my Canon EF 50mm f1.8 and I also borrowed Andrews Tamron 17-50 f2.8 Canon Fit Lens. On the Canon 50mm and the Tamron 17-50mm I had a Circular Polarising lens on the front. A polarising filter is typically a screw on or slot in filter placed in front of the lens. When the filter is screwed in, it can be rotated to create different effects. It does this by allowing you to choose what light gets through to the film/sensor.  The main effects that can be produced with a polarising filter is the ability to increase or decrease reflections and to darken the sky which is very handy if you wish to retain cloud detail. If you wish to know more feel free to check out this Wikipedia article on Circular Polariser filter.

Wikipedia Article On Circular Polariser
Filters, How They Work And Their Application

If you looked at my previous post that should some of my recent wedding photography you would have seen me put two or three images together to create a new and interesting compostition. I have done that before on a wedding post this blog and have placed a few links below to show where those posts are

Wedding Photography | Lucy And Martin Gunn
Date Posted: Friday, 22^nd October 2010

Wedding Photography | Emma And Liam Jackson
Date Posted: Tuesday, 20^th July 2010

But I haven’t done so on a portraiture blog post [as I am currently aware of] so I thought I would experiment with it.

All the photographs in this post were taken on my Canon EOS 50D and using the lenses mentioned in the paragraphs above. I had a fun time taking these photographs and I tried to experiment with getting lens flares whilst photographing directly into the sun using apertures between f11 and f32. For those shots I used some fill in flash in order to make sure that Andrew was also exposed correctly in the shot and it worked pretty well in my opinion. I was also was happy to hear that Andrew was happy with the images also. In this post I have included 15 images. Enjoy.

Wedding Photography | Lucy And Martin Gunn

It has been noted in an e-mail that I had received recently that the majority of work that has been posted on this photography blog consists of mainly personal projects. The blog seems to mainly be portraiture, travel blogs and things of that nature. So I have decided to place some of my wedding photography up on the site. As well as the e-mail a strong reason for this is because I am photographing a wedding in November in London. I have decided to show some of my wedding photography taken during the summer of this year.

The wedding that I have placed on this particular post is that of a wedding that I photographed in July of this year. The wedding and reception were in Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey. The Isle of Sheppey is a small island situated in North Kent. I found the entire day even more interesting because I had never actually been there before.

For this wedding I was second photographer to Mike Allchin of Spikesfotos [I will place a link below]. But even though I wasn’t main photographer for this wedding I was happy with the shots that I produced.

I have to admit there is a strong lack of my wedding photography on the site and I will aim to rectify this whilst still placing up posts of portraiture work and so forth. One of the things that I have learnt from photographing weddings with Mike is how to control a crowd with seeming bossy. The shots on the beach were my favourite from the day.

For this wedding I used my Canon EOS 50D digital SLR and as a change of tact I used a combination of all three of my commonly used lenses for the canon. Usually I would only use the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 of a combination of the Canon EF 28mm f1.8 and the Canon EF 50mm f1.8 but on this day I decided to use all three. I also used a Nikon D80 with a 70-300mm lens on it as well as a back up camera but preferred the images I got from the Canon. I had my Canon Speedlite 430EX flashgun with me also that day but I find that although a flashgun is an essential piece of equipment for Wedding and Event photography I rarely use them. I have always preferred the photographs you get from using available light. That is just my own personal opinion on the matter.

I may continue using all three lenses in regards to future weddings. This is because, although it was more cumbersome, I felt that I had better control on deciding between the quality of the branded Canon lens over the versatility and focal range of the Sigma lens. As well as that I managed to have a lot of fun with this wedding. Which isn’t highly unusual as I find Weddings great things to photograph.

In this post I have included 14 photographs. You may have noticed that they have not been watermarked, this is because I am currently away from my own laptop and as such am unable to sufficiently edit the photographs. I may replace them with watermarked versions in the future. As you probably know, I have posted wedding material on this blog previously so in addition to the link to Spikesfotos I am also going to place links to the other wedding posts for your perusal.

Professional Photography
Spikesfotos

Wedding Photography | Karen And Andy
Date Posted: Tuesday, 11^th August 2009

Wedding Photography | Emma And Liam Jackson
Date Posted: Tuesday, 20^th July 2010

Work on my official photography website has started and I’m very excited about the prospect. Once that is complete I am going to start advertising more and should get a lot more work. If you feel that you would like to get in touch with me for any reason, maybe to do with photography or just general questions. Then feel free to use the methods outlined on the Contact page above.

NOTE: For the images comprised of two or three photographs be sure to click the photo to see it larger and it correct proportion. Thanks.

Portraiture Photography | Faye Oakwell

Regular readers of this blog will know of a new thing that I am trying out. This new thing is basically making a blog post for work that is a little older but I am still happy with to this day. I did it once with photographs of my friend Ashley James [link below]

Portraiture Photography | Ashley Martin James
Date Posted: Tuesday, 21^st September 2010

And so this time I thought I would use a set of photographs that I took of my friend Faye Oakwell in London. Faye is also a photographer so at the bottom of this post I have placed a link to her photographic work and I suggest having a look. The links consist of her photographic website and link to her Flickr account.

The photographs in this post, as mentioned beforehand were taken in London. More specifically the photographs were taken on the South Bank in London near the book market and graffiti wasll which features in the background of one of the shots I believe. They were taken using my Canon EOS 350D with Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens. One of the photographs were taken using flash, one of which I borrowed from my friend James Brooks who was also up in London taking photos with us, and so I cannot remember the model name or number of the flash.

As a side note James Brooks is the person to the right in the first image that I included in this blog.

Before I went ahead to write and post this blog I made sure to ask Faye whether it would be ok to use the old images. The reason for this was because they were taken before I made my standard Model Release Form therefore I felt that I had to ask first [as well as it being polite]. She said it was fine, hence why this blog post is going up. But I also asked if it was at all possible to have a shoot in the near future and she was also fine with that. Which is good for me for two reasons, firstly I have more content for the blog and it keeps it going and secondly it will give me an opportunity to see how my photographing skill has progress since I last took her portrait in May of 2007.

in this post I have included six photographs and I feel that the photographs that I have chosen are by far the best photos of the bunch. This is a short blog that I will set to upload on Tuesday whilst I am away. I have pre-prepared this blog post to keep the blog constant whilst I am unable to create new posts. Like I said before, be sure to visit her site.

Faye Oakwell’s Photography;
http://fayeoakwell.com/
flickr.com/faiifaii

And as I always say, feel free to contact me with the details provided on the contact page and also feel free to comment the blog posts with your thoughts on the content.

Documentary Photography | Dartford Market

As a general rule I will always have a camera on me or in my bag. Ever since I was younger and I saw the most vibrant sunset imaginable. At that time I had a camera but the batteries were dead. This was the kind of sunset that turned white cliff orange. Like I said beforehand, the sunset was very vibrant with a mixture of orange and pink. But I have found recently that although I have a camera on me I am not taking enough photographs for somebody that often considers himself to be a photographer. So this morning as I was getting ready to leave the house I decided that I would take my Canon EOS 50D and take my prime lenses out with me and take photos around the Dartford Market that happens every Thursday. The lenses in question are the Canon EF 28mm f1.8 and the Canon 50mm f1.8.

The market has been around for as long as I can remember which wasn’t surprising seeming that after a small amount of research one website claims that the market has been there since Saxon times. Throughout the market you find a variety of stalls selling a vast variety of goods, from your average household items to fishmongers.

I strolled around the market, first buying some magazines for inspiration as I have a photo shoot on Sunday with my friend Laura Giddings who was featured in a previous blog. Please see below for the link.

Portraiture Photography | Laura Giddings
Date Posted: Tuesday 27th July 2010

After I bought the magazines I took my camera out and had a gentle stroll around the market. It had been so long since I had been there and it was fun to just walk around taking photographs of whatever caught my eye and I was surprised at the variety. But then again that is the beauty of a market. I never got around to using the Canon EF 50mm instead taking all my shots with the Canon 28mm and I am happy with the images that I got. There will more than likely be no posts next week as I am away till next Friday at the very latest. I am planning for this blog to be posted on Saturday the 9^th of October where I would have already have left.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy the photographs in this post. In total there are eleven. My favourite photograph of the set is the one I took of the orange stand. I think I might start taking my camera out more to capture more aspects of daily life like the market. If you are a regular reader of this blog you can probably tell that I put quite a bit of work into it and hopefully it will expand as I hope to have an official website soon and this blog will act as a way for people to keep up to date with my current work and see examples of my work covering a wide spectrum of subjects, genres and techniques.

If you yourself would like some portraits taken or would like to talk to me about any aspects of my photography or you just want to get in touch feel free to use the details on the contact page above. Thanks.