Skip to main content

The Latest on the Studio

Well we made it into the studio this week. It was wonderful. Well not all the work leading up to it was though. Several weeks ago I had gone ahead and made several bookings for this week believing that I had plenty of time to get the studio finished in time. I very naively neglected to incorporate the things I couldn't control into the project plan. But even with a delay to our plasterer, parts for our electrics not arriving, a problem with the glass for our large window and varnish for the floor taking 2 days to dry instead of the stated 8-10 hours, we managed to make just it in time.
At this point I was getting really excited. Each time I walked into the room I could see the finished product getting closer and closer. Of course that's when the worry of staining the floor kicked in. After spending all this money on a great floor I didn't want to ruin it by making a mess of the stain.
And what a mess it started out as too. As I spread the first stroke of stain on the floor I could have cried. It looked like tar sitting on top of my beautiful floor. This couldn't be right. So we read the instructions again. They suggested as an alternate solution that we rub away the excess stain. Thankfully that produced the look I was after. Unfortunately it ended up taking me 5 hours to complete and left me in a whole lot of back pain.



But it was worth it. I love my new floor and it is exactly the look I had in my head right from the start (several years ago when I first began fantasising about my own studio).
This week the long awaited glass arrived as well. This completely changed the look of the studio. If only the view at present was a little nicer. I think I am going to have to be a little more patient there though.
Here is the nearly finished product. We still need to complete the electrics and install the wall booms so we can get the lights off the floor. And then there is a multitude of finishing touchs which will gradually take place over the next couple of months. This will of course require many shopping trips. But this is the fun part.

This week we tackle the outside. The cladding is being delivered today and started tomorrow. Another major transformation I am very much looking forward to. Hopefully next week I will have a new set of photos to post on my blog. Until then...

Comments

Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

Popular posts from this blog

My Work Experience Week by Hester Sharpe

A week in the life of a Photographers assistant, is not all about saying cheese! I’m Hester Sharpe, currently at JCC but took a week out of normal school life on work experience to be a photographer’s assistant and learn the bits behind the camera, photograph and the process to get to the end result. During my week of work experience in photography I have learnt that there is a lot more than just taking the pictures and printing them. The steps in between are the key to getting the perfect photo. For example the photos have to be cropped, tweaked, edited, colour corrected. That is just a taste I have had in the processing of the photos and there is a lot more than just those things. Those processes are the most time consuming part of the photograph and a tremendous amount of detail is put in to the picture but all the hours spent are paid off with the end result; a perfect picture. It isn’t just how the picture looks; presentation is a key to photography too. Selecting the best ...

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well again it has been a while since I last updated the blog. It was just crazy busy in the lead up to Christmas, with completing all outstanding orders and completing work on the studio. It is yet another New Year's resolution that I maintain this blog on a more regular basis. It is my goal that this year there will be no need for apologies for any lengthy absences. Since the completion of the studio I can already feel my life turning around. I feel happier, less stressed and much more organised, both personally and professionally. Our home is becoming a home again, now that all the photography gear has been moved out. And now I am able to store all my photography gear in one place it is making my life much simpler. I now know exactly where everything is and it is at my finger tips. What a difference this is making to my life. As I read the Facebook statuses of friends moaning about Mondays and getting back to work I actually find myself looking forward to going to work. Especial...

My Fellowship in Child Portraiture, Baby Photographer of the Year and All Things Convention Related

Its been a very busy year for me.  Hence the reason I've not been keeping this blog up to date. That's about to change though.  I anticipate this coming year to be even busier but I plan on getting a lot more organised and keeping on top of things like this.  For now though I'd like to tell you all about last week. I keep trying to think of some words to describe this past week and I keep coming back to 'I had the time of my life' and breaking into song in my head.  Apart from when my daughter was born I haven't had a better time in my life. This week was spent at the Societies Convention where in excess of 14 thousand photographers from around the world meet to take part in print competitions, submit qualification panels and join in on various classes and events. The week began as one of the most stressful of my life.  I've never felt nerves like it.  I'd just spent the best part of a year planning and preparing my 20 image panel to presen...

Burbage Carnival 2009

For the past few years my husband and I have been attending the Burbage Carnival and remarking to ourselves at how much better it could be. The carnival seemed to be declining in recent years. Earlier this year I met someone (Harvey) who mentioned that he joined the committe. When I asked him why he said he had been remarking that the carnival could do with some improvements. The response he received was rather than complain why don't you join the committee and do something about it. Its hard to argue with that. The following week I found myself, along with my husband, at the Burbage Carnival meeting. And we've been attending (most meetings) ever since. With this being our first year we didn't want to dive in head first. We contributed where we felt we could but it was great to see that what little we were able to offer still made a difference on the day. We're now very much looking forward to seeing just how much of a difference we can make next year. I just hope it ...

Wedding Workshop in Nottingham

On Wednesday of this week I made the trek up to Nottingham (which wasn't actually much of a trek compared to most of the other delegates who travelled from as far as Glasgow, Portsmouth and South Wales) for a workshop held at Crash Taylor's home. Crash, a very talented photographer, specialising in weddings is someone I can highly recommend to anyone. Apart from spending the morning getting to know the other photographers we then spent the afternoon photographing a hired model, in her own wedding dress, as we wandered through Nottingham Castle. It provided me a chance to see how other photographers handled their weddings as well as a chance to experiment with equipment I haven't had a chance to play around with. Like in this image to the right. Here I used my flash, mounted on a tripod off to the side. This allowed me to achieve studio quality lighting out of the studio, a technique I will be using in my environmental portraiture. I can't seem to make up my mind on whi...