The last time I picked my camera up must have been at Christmas and it showed as I was a little rusty to begin with, but as the day unfolded I became familiar with my old friend.

Last weekend just gone I shot my fourth wedding for a friend. I was a some what joint first shooter with a photographer I had never met before, Ben Gatley. It was a great chance to use all of my new gear, including my bag and my 24-70mm f/2.8 Nikkor. Both tools were well worth the money and I’m glad I purchased them.

While shooting this wedding I started to realise just how much people rush in life. It seemed that no sooner had the pastor said “I now pronounce you…” that the couple had finished the kiss and then within what felt like seconds the rest of the service flashed by. People may say that they rush so that they can get things out of the way, but why can’t we slow down our lives a lot more for special days like weddings, birthdays and anniversaries? It’s strange to believe that for all the money you hand out that, the day actually seems as rushed and urgent as the rest.

Anyway towards the end of March I will be photographing at another wedding for a friend except this time I will be the main photographer. A obstacle I have only faced twice within the four weddings I have photographed for. I was originally going to invest in a new computer, preferably a mac but after a problematic battery grip at the weekend a new camera body may come sooner than once thought. Stay posted for an update within the weddings category and a blog post with photographs from my day photographing headshots at UCB.

Thank you for reading.

Adam.

Yesterday I visited the Stoke-on-Trent, Hanchurch branch of United Christian Broadcasting to attempt to photograph head shots. Good news ensued on arrival when I was told we would be able to use the TV studio all day! Their TV studio is complete with a fully interchangeable lighting system so I had no need to use any of my speedlights well I was there. One of the very kind staff members helped us to set up a great three point lighting system. Using this system was incredibly easy as I only had to interact with the people and make sure the framing was correct. I could definatly see myself investing in a proffessional lighting system if I ever had a studio of my own. Me and the organiser of the day decided upon a low key background over soft greys so that the photos were warm and inviting. The edges of the lights create great darker edges in some of the photos which can normally be applied within editing software. I feel this definatley worked better than just a high key white background as the warmth and different tones provided great definition to the photographs.

The photos will be used on their new look website to come in the new year and in any promotional material that the company produce. I am absolutely thrilled that my work will reach such a vast amount of people and there is even the possibility of being linked in an article on the UCB official site/Twitter page/Facebook page. Who knows it could even overload my site!

For my first time taking any sort of professional head shots, I feel that I performed well and wouldn’t mind the experience again if I had a studio and lights, but for now it’s something of a distant future in my photographical career. I plan to upload a selection of the photographs to my site in the coming weeks or the new year under a section to be listed as recent work, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading.

Adam.

I recently invested in a iPad Camera Connection Kit, and I just thought I would shout it’s praise from the rooftops. It dramatically improves an almost perfect device. My iPad 3G 32GB was my first investment from my new job. As well as being a useful planning tool it’s also now been converted into a storage and upload platform for my actual photos.

This device has two connectors, one for SD cards and one for USB. I currently use a Nikon D90 so the SD card reader is the tool I use. For example I am at a shoot and am wanting to showcase a sneak preview by Twitter or my website then I can upload a photo via the card reader and have it on the net in minutes due to my iPad’s 3G capabilities. Or another example could be that I am on the job and have a little time between wedding ceremony and reception, I can use this time to back up the shots from the wedding ceremony providing security for my shots and your perfect day.

The investment in my iPad I think will definitely be a beneficial one come future events and jobs. If only it’s editing application capabilities were that of computer program quality.

Thanks for reading.

Adam.