The Annual and Fabulous Societies Convention 2016 Wrap Up Post

(Awards Night by Aled Davies)

Each year this event highlights for me just how fast time is passing. Its a milestone marker a bit like a child's birthday. It seems like it will be forever for the next convention to come around as we say goodbye but before we know it we're hugging everyone hello once again in the halls of the now very familiar Hilton Hotel on Edgeware Road in London. We've spent so much time there that place now feels like home for one week every January.

(My masterclass on Photoshop - I was quite pleased with the turnout)

This year I presented 2 talks, one on Photoshop Tips and Tricks as well as one on Lighting. Both of which were well attended and well received. I'm often amazed how many people turn up to hear what I have to say.

For those in the Lighting Superclass I wanted to share a few of the images created during that session. In hindsight I wished I had asked someone to make notes of the noteworthy images so that I could show everyone the differences in the resulting images as we made changes to our setup. If I am invited back I intend to do just that next year. But I have what I have for now and hopefully that is enough.

(This was shot using a large Octobox with a reflector for a fill light from below)

(This was shot with the Bowens 21" Beauty disk with grid and sock attached. We also used a reflector from beneath to fill in the shadows under the chin.)

(Here we used black flags to block some of the spill light from our background lights so our subject had more defined edges creating separation between our subject and background)

(For this one we used 2 strip softboxes and a single small softbox)

This year I decided to get more out of this event for myself than I usually do. As a speaker my energy is usually divided between my commitments and socialising at the bar, not taking the time to participate as a delegate myself. Attending for 10 years now sometimes we can feel like there isn't much more we can see or learn from our peers. But in reality there is always lots to learn and I'm crazy not to take advantage of the opportunities this event offers. So this year I did more than I've done in years. I attended several hours of print judging and 3 masterclasses, time very well spent. I was also privileged enough to receive a critique and a brief mentoring session with this year's amazing 20x16 overall winner David Edmonson (author of the stunning family portrait that scored the elusive 100 points). Some of his work you can find here.

This convention provided a fantastic and much needed kickstart to my year. I've come back armed with fresh enthusiasm and plenty of ideas I now need to implement. I've even come away with my ideas for next years talks. My proposals are being written as we speak even though they won't be required for several weeks still.

If you attended one of my classes and felt it was really worth your while, please pass on your thoughts to the Societies so that they know I'm worth having back. I'd really appreciate it.

I hope to see you all next year.

Comments

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 ...

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...

More Newborn Baby Portraits

This time we worked with a more alert baby, even though she was within the 2 weeks we recommend for newborn sessions. But to be honest, I do like getting a selection of both. Its nice to get the chance to see their eyes as well as those beautifully peaceful sleeping portraits. Making eye contact is just difficult and smiles are nearly impossible, which are only wind related if we managed them at all anyway. I always try to get a few detail shots in order to capture their tiny little fingers and toes. These can be quite difficult with an awake baby as they move so much and I need to rely on autofocus to make sure these details are in focus and with such a narrow depth of field this can be difficult. And rather than just a hand or a foot I like to get some of baby's face in the shot as well which poses another problem with an awake baby, they just don't stay still for very long so their hands and feet aren't always in the right place....

I Shot My First Wedding

I finally did it, my first wedding. After years of saying I would never do a wedding I finally decided to have a go. I don't know what convinced me. Maybe it was the thought that if I did one I could say with authority that I don't do weddings. My husband had been on my back for ages trying to get me to give one a go. For me I would have to say that the most difficult aspect of wedding photography is the pressure and stress caused by the importance of the day. I worried about this since the day Dawn emailed me to say they had decided they wanted to book me. I hadn't expected to get this wedding given that I had no samples to show them. And I certainly didn't give them a hard sell as I still wasn't convinced that this was something I wanted to do. I kind of figured that if I got this wedding, with no samples and no experience then it was meant to be. Well I have samples now. In the weeks prior to the wedding I read and I read and I read. I read books, magazines and ...

Portraits of a Newborn Baby Girl and Her Family

Its always so nice when a family return to have their latest addition photographed in the same way as their first child. Its a great feeling knowing they cherished my work so much the first time that they want to come back to continue the tradition. I also love it when I'm given permission to share the portraits I've created. Its not often that I'm asked not to share but I never take this opportunity for granted because I know how sensitive people can be about sharing personal moments. And I'm especially grateful here for being allowed to share some of the more intimate ones. Although I always ask permission to share the standard stuff I create, I always make it known that I am fine with and fully understand if there are any private portraits that should remain so. In this case I was given full permission to share everything and I'm so pleased to get the chance to show some of the other work we can do for families. I really love how skin tones turn out ...

Christina Lauder Portraits

Search This Blog