Yorkshire Dance and Portrait Photography

Professional dance and portrait photography in Leeds, Yorkshire

Competition winner

June 18, 2013

Very happy to show you all the portrait from the competition I ran at a talk I gave earlier in the year at the Harrogate Photographic Society. The talk involved doing a live model shoot and has been discussed in earlier posts. I presented the mounted images from my Fellowship and put the question to the audience of “which image was created with the superb Hasselblad H3Dii-31?” Well I am pleased to say that it took a number of guesses before Kathy here won. Why am I pleased you might well ask? Surely I would want the most expensive camera with the highest resolution to clearly be superior to all? Well I suppose yes and no. I, like all photographers at some time, have gone through the gear lust stage. More lenses, more megapixels, more dynamic range etc. Glad to say however that this (at least for me!) does pass and one eventually views the camera as a tool. Different jobs require different tools and so the fact that I can print to A3+ prize winning images from a medium format digital and a micro 4/3rds camera pleases me no end.

So onto this image. I believe the essence of taking a good portrait is in the preparation. What is it about your subject that they wish to portray? In this case Kathy loves this part of the world (but then Yorkshire is God’s own country so who wouldn’t?) and textiles are an important theme running through her life. Of course the last challenge relates to the fact that Kathy is of course an accomplished photographer herself – so no stress there then!

Technically this was taken with two lights (Elinchrom Rangers) plus the ambient. The day was wonderfully windy however this presented a few problems when it came to using a soft box (100cm deep octa). Not to worry though as I once read that there are hundreds of photographic assistants wherever you go just waiting to be asked. So thanks to the chap who very kindly interrupted his walk to hold my light standTouch of post processing in Silver effex pro and here we are.

Of course if you ever fancy assisting me or fancy some more formal training then please get in touch.

DrF

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RAW vs jpeg

June 18, 2013

What a funny photographic world we live in nowadays. There is so much snobbery around and perhaps one of the leading controversies is always the RAW vs jpeg one. I do not wish to open a can of worms here other than to say that I believe there is room for all here. Yes I love RAW – the ability to pull back the highlights and the ease with which I can process them in Adobe Lightroom is a real game changer. I find myself almost never shooting jpegs only. However it is easy nowadays to shoot both and the size of camera memory cards means that I rarely run out of space. As an aside I have changed my practice here also – I used to always go for the biggest cards available but now prefer using multiple smaller cards – cheaper and safer from a backup point of view – were one card to go down it is just the one card’s worth of images that I will lose.

Back to the RAW vs jpeg thing though. The Olympus OMD is an odd little camera in many ways – it has some superb pro features for sure but then it loads on a lot of other stuff that some may consider somewhat amateur. What do I mean by this? Well specifically the processing presets. I almost never do nothing in post production with an image – this is no different to the “old days” of film where decisions were made in the developing process and processing a raw file involves at least some decisions. Typically I will shift between LR and PS until I am happy and to an extent this depends on the final output size and presentation of an image. For that reason I do not really believe in the phrase “straight out of camera” when it comes to digital – unless I suppose you are only shooting jpegs.

This image was taken using continuous light (HMI) in a studio setting and the ability to see the final image in the viewfinder of the OMD with the picture style (soft and light) was second to none. So happy am I with it in fact that while I have the RAW file, I have not used it, instead preferring to edit the jpeg. As for quality? Well those who have looked further into my site will know that I also shoot with Hasselblad and Canon digital cameras. In the next post in fact is a location portrait taken for a competition winner from a talk I gave earlier in the year at the Harrogate Photographic Society. The winner correctly selected the printed image that was taken with the Hassie – after some 7-8 others had failed.

Bottom line it is NOT all about the kit, rather the creative decisions you take to get the images.

Thanks for reading and if any of you are interested in some training then please get in touch

Kind regards

DrF

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Angela Adams - Nicely written Simon, the Olympus is an odd little camera, with some annoying little features, that said the good points far outway the bad points and I now use it at all my weddings and on portrait shoots. Why… the file quality is outstanding. These days I find myself using kit that cost me £1K instead of the kit that cost me £5K. Why? Pure and simple. Quality!

Recent success in portraiture competitions

May 3, 2013

Very happy to share with you the images that were recently successful at the annual prize giving awards of the Harrogate Photographic Society. Building on from last year I managed to come home with three certificates and the Brotherton Trophy for the best Portrait of the Year.The certificates were awarded in the Form and Figure category (for Jumeaux Siamois), the Sport and Action category (for Caveman Joe) and Portraiture for Surgical Spirit. To see more winning images from this year click here.

Those observant readers will see that there are more than three certificates on the table – one being in addition to the trophy for Castle on a Cloud (portrait of my daughter) and then the icing on the cake being the Fellowship certificate from the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers.

All in all as I file my yearly returns and look back – not a bad year at all. So what about the year to come? Well I have some pretty exciting shoots lined up as I type and I am looking to formalise my teaching – Mum’s the word at the moment but watch this space

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Memories

February 6, 2013

What do I reckon is the most powerful effect that photographs have on the viewer? The power to create memories. I do not know about your earliest memories but one that stands out in particular for me relates to being in an old style pram, being in a park and having squirrels throw nuts at me and my Mum. How could I possibly remember that? I am guessing that there is an element of a storyline created by my subconscious but in essence the memories are created following a photograph of me in a park in the pram. Lots of cultures have a primarily aural history but my life has certainly been far more visual.

My kids are probably as fed up of having photos taken of them as those of the next photographic family – but I know that they will value these images when they are older. Indeed the digital age has allowed us to take far more photos and therefore potentially create far more lasting memories than ever before. Equally the way in which these memories are shared is totally different from the album and projected slides of my past. Indeed I recall one birthday party where the treat was a film (Mako, Jaws of Death!), where the movie was projected in traditional cinema style and therefore allowed us to watch it in reverse!

Any-hoo this brings me to these images. My eldest daughter has now been the longest serving member of her Brownies pack and is but one evening away from finishing and becoming a Guide. To mark this occasion I took two photos of her and her best friend, Izzy. These images have been mounted and will be taken to her last evening where the rest of the Brownie pack and of course the Owls will be able to sign the mount board prior to the final framing. Thus forever creating these memories for both girls forever. Wonderful and surely what this photography lark is all aboutA photographer said to me recently that if my house was on fire would I consider rushing in to save my wedding photos – and if so did I consider these memories priceless? ( the final element being a business lesson to me that if I did consider them priceless the should I also not expect them to be expensive…..?)

For the geeky amongst us (and that certainly includes me) these were lit with one 19 inch beauty dish, speedlite and Olympus OMD with the fantastic Oly 45mm f1.8 lens. Should you be interested in a portrait of your child or other loved one then please get in touch – should there be a story behind the images then the experience will surely be a treasured one for all involved (me particularly).

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Angela Adams - What a lovely idea… a photo signing board for the brownies. And love the idea of priceless equating to expensive – if only!

Keep up the good work Simon.

Trophy winning photograph

January 30, 2013

Very pleased to announce that I was very successful at this year’s annual print competition of the Harrogate Photographic Society. In the Portrait and Figure category judged externally by Erica Oram, I was awarded a Highly Commended for my portrait “Surgical Spirit” and the Brotherton Trophy for “Castle in the Clouds”. As you can imagine I am pleased as punch.

Brotherton Trophy winning image at annual print competition