Tag: hotel

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A Wedding Photography Bonanza!

To complete a trio of consecutive wedding-related posts, here’s one about my latest wedding adventure… The Rob Pugh Wedding Photography Bonanza!

I first met Rob back at the Gadget Show 2014 when we were both running Olympus cameras.  Since then we’ve both moved onto the Sony platform, but that’s a story for another day…  I did a photo walk around Bristol with Rob later in 2014, where I learned ways to set the camera up in the most efficient way using quick access buttons.

The Wedding Photography Bonanza workshop was a three day event to learn all about the wedding photography business.  From running a business, workflows for editing, albums and printing, lighting, and of course some shooting practice. Again Rob’s expertise in efficiencies shone through.

I learned so much, and realised the stark difference between a serious hobbyist like me who does the odd paid wedding or shoot, and a full-time pro who’s invested the time to get all their processes the most efficient and effective way they can be.  A good example of this is photo editing…  For Silvia and Dave’s wedding I spent around 40 hours editing the photos, whereas Rob would have spent less than six.  Using presets he’s built in Capture One his editing is so fast, and the results so good, he has more time for other income-generating work. 

A few other bits I learned were…  Using Rotolight kits to light brides and grooms and using the clever adjustable colour temperature to match other light sources and make the light look so natural (many of the photos below used Rotolight Neo 2 and Aeos lights).  Using Shootproof to build photo galleries for happy couples with print fulfillment using Loxley Colour.  And using Fundy Designer to design albums, again with print fulfillment by Loxley.

The day I enjoyed the most was shooting with three models, Sorcha, Jessica, and Marc, in wedding clothes.  We did shoots in a church, on the street (with lots of bemused looks from passers by), in a park, and in the hotel where we set up for the three days.  The models were all great, even with a chilly wind blowing outside, and assisted by make up artist Katie. 

These are some of the best photos I’ve ever taken, and it’s spurred me on to think about doing more photos of people with some proper lighting, and maybe more weddings too. In fact, after posting a few photos from the day I had a wedding photography enquiry! With The Photography Show coming up next month I’ll definitely be looking out for Rotolight and Capture One deals.

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A sunny Sunday in Manchester

My day job has recently taken me to Manchester a few times.  The usual routine being get into Manchester, get work done, get home.  But on this occasion I had a little free time to explore the city, with the camera of course.

Walking around Manchester with no plan was unlikely to lead to any good photos, so with a bit of research I found a website called Ready Steady Pro which had published a Google Map route for a photo walk. 

Luckily I was staying in a hotel just off the photo walk route, so picked the nearest point and had a six mile anti-clockwise walk around the city.  For those that don’t know Manchester, it has a reputation for always raining there… but it’s not true, the weather I had was good and I even caught some sun.

Manchester has some stunning architecture and does a great job of embracing the old and the new.  

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Scotland (part 1 of 2) – Lochs and Travels

As readers of the Just 10 Photos tweets will know, there’s two posts coming up from my recent trip to Scotland.  This first post focuses mostly on the Lochs, with a few other photos thrown in for good measure.

The five day coach break with Bakers Dolphin involved two days of travelling to and from Scotland, and three days exploring the Trossachs national park and Edinburgh.  Coach trips aren’t very relaxing as you’re always on the move, but it’s a good way to see the area and let someone else do all the driving (a good opportunity for a nap on the move!).  

Although lots of miles were covered and lots of stops were made, none were long enough for me to fully explore and photograph in detail.  But I had long enough to get a good feel for the area and get few photos of Scotland’s stunning scenery.  This was my first trip to Scotland, and I’ll definitely be retuning one autumn to capture the autumnal colours which I imagine will be amazing.

The weather was a mixed bag although I only got wet on a couple of occasions.  For anyone who like to see or photograph landscapes and never ending greenery you must add a trip to Scotland to your list!