Life on a rope.

Here are a few images recently taken from a trip offshore with my little GF1. 

Its was over 40 degrees in heat and hanging from a rope out in Azerbaijan in the Caspian sea, on the BP Shah deniz Gas rig. 

My Volvo V50...

December i bought i brand new Volvo V50.

the previous car was a guzzler and so was fed up of paying through the nose to keep it on the road..... Que the volvo... and being an estate car its a true family work horse, loaded to the hilt with gear and getting away for weekends is fantastic. 

Here are a few images of the car on a great rough location 50 metres from the house, plus some detail images. 

These two images are a mock advert that i made. 

A Brett Harkness training course.

Recently i attended a Flash lighting training course ran by the talented Brett Harkness. 

I throughly enjoyed myself and walked away with a head full of gold and things to try out to my own images. Here is the

training website

There are heaps of amazing courses to choose from, i can see where a lot of my future pay cheques are going.

Brett's bio -

"I have been a professional photographer in the uk now for over 10 years, previously working in the USA in Miami as a cruise ship photographer. In my eyes I am a photographer. I don't see it as a job, but who I am. I could be seen as the "go to" guy for all things people! I love to take photographs; whether it is a wedding, family shoot, commercial or travel assignment, fashion campaign or whilst teaching on one of our many courses."

I booked onto this course as i was blown away by Brett's images, if you want to be the best, then you learn from the best. 

There are so many tutors out there at the moment, who are offering high-end wedding training, and they have never done a high-end wedding -

Where as Brett does day in- day out... 

-The following images were taken on a course, Lighting positions, models, outfits, locations all chose by Brett and his team. -

A couple of days in Amsterdam.

Once again i headed over to Amsterdam to catch up with my family and friends out there for the Queensday celebrations. 

Here are a few images from the couple of days i spent there. 

 Street performers in the main square.

Have you picture taken.. and a beer all for  €4.. bargain! Thats where wedding photographers are going wrong, they dont include any beer in their packages...

One busy party Canal.  

This lady is having a good time. 

Orange! 

They say you dont get anything for free... 

 Street party.

My aunty and cousin rock and rolling.. I love the smile on my aunts face, it shows how happy we all were to be there.  

A Bouncy Castle, a Lion and an African DJ... only in Amsterdam.. 

Night Shift offshore.

Here are some images taken at night while offshore at work. These images believe it or not are taken with the Lumix GF1, i would never have been able to have taken these with the Canon G10. The quality is superb!

A self Portrait.  

An Edit from Glyn Dewis course.

With having a couple of images, one of Dave above and Steve below taken in a studio, i wanted to play and create something a bit different. The lighting and images of the guys were taken on a Glyn Dewis course, but these edits are made up of my own ideas and my own stock images. 

Attending a photoshop based course, you learn techniques, and tips on how to improve.

I find that it also inspires me to push the creativity and want to make up my own images.

Thanks 

Lee

Glyn Dewis Photoshop Course.

I recently attended a second course ran by

Glyn Dewis

and was thoroughly impressed.

Here are some images that were taken and edited on the day.

Glyn teaches you how to take an image in the studio like the above, and then how to edit to the one below 

I have attended a couple of these courses now and throughly enjoy them, No matter what level of "photoshopper" you are, you will learn heaps from the new Kelbyone Photoshop world tutor.

Glyn's style of teaching is fantastic, he has loads of energy and you can feel the passion of what he teaches he clearly loves. I would strongly reccomend a course of his.

At the end of the course Glyn doesnt just shut the door behind you... The majority of the class heads over to the local curry house which is a great way to chill out and chat with like minded people.

The model above is the UK NAPP founder Dave Clayton, who is a great guy. And as you can see likes to dress up and have a laugh.

Cheers Guys, once again another fantastic course, learnt loads, met some great people and had a good crack in the process which is what its all about.

BMW 1200RT

Here are some images of one of my best mates with his beloved bike. 

Bye bye iPhone 3Gs.

With upgrading my phone to the new iPhone 4's. im saying good bye to my 3G's. 

I will certainly miss the little camera, which was hard to focus, most of the time wouldn't expose correctly but it certainly was full of character and life.

Reflections.

Hi all,

Here is a quick post to show you some of my thinking.

The above image i really like, it was taken in the cafe in the Tate Modern Museum London.

I am a big fan of reflections and symmetry in images. I really like how you view the image and if it wasn't for the chairs in the foreground and the table of guys in the background you would probably think that i Photoshopped this image. But it was genuinely taken.

Here you can see my thinking behind the first image.

I was sat at the table drinking my coffee and was viewing the scene in front of me.

I found the guy working was distracting and "in the way" personally,

plus my camera bag was in shot - school boy error.

So moving the bag off the chair in the foreground and waiting for the scene to make itself. I was very happy with the final image.

Not always will things work out for you but it is great and very enjoyable to see something in front of you, and you have to wait for the parts to all come together.

GF1 Adventure.

Hello,

I wanted to post some images that were recently taken on my Lumix GF1

I am certainly loving this little point and shoot camera. I have a fixed 20mm prime lens for it, which i find to be a great tool on improving your photography. When using a prime lens you are restricted to compose by using...- your feet!

If you want a tighter crop then walk closer, and so it is certainly making me look at things differently.

Having a little point and shoot on your person is great so you don't miss anything when you are out and about conducting your day to day business.

The Above image is a great example of this, I was out in Cambridge to get a spot for lunch, and walking towards the restaurant we walked past this tiny alleyway. I stopped,

I took a step back and loved how the light was playing a huge part in making the contrast you see. I took a quick shot and off for some grub.

Over time I will be adding some more "snappy" shots that I take with the GF1. I hope that you enjoy it.

Police Composite image.

Recently I have had a play with a large composite.

I have for some time now wanted to have a play trying to blend multiple images into one image.

Now my attempt is not pixel perfect, by any stretch of the imagination,

but it was certainly a great learning curve. And something very enjoyable.

I have previously posted in my blog, it’s a great way to keep up to date with the tools of Photoshop

and to try and keep your work flow fast.

It is amazing how quickly you can get skill fade, and end up doing things the long way round.

Your selections, dodging, burning will come on leaps and bounds the more practice you do.

I have included some screen grabs to show where I started and what I have

added.

A starting place of a background from iStock photo.

Straightened the lines and cloned in more of a foreground.

Started adding some elements to the image, i didn't like some in the end and so didn't make it to the final image.

Happy with the placements of the elements. Added a texture over the ground. Just need to render the image with shadings, colouring and few little bits which certainly take the most amount of time in the whole process.

I have enlarged some of the small details so you can see.

I must of been in a real dark mood when i designed this image ;0)

Compositing.

Here are some images from the Oliver Neville shoot that i wanted to play with and do some composites. 

I really enjoyed using studio lights but i do like to try and create fun images. The idea behind this shoot was to show that come and have a studio shoot with myself, and i can make some images to help your business. Ill show some examples of this in my next blog post. 

Oliver Neville - Studio shoot.

Last sunday i tried out my first studio shoot, and i thought it was fantastic.

My good friends over at

MelenStudio's 

let me hire out their studio for the day.

I had a plan of what i was wanting to achieve before i arrived, and was more then happy with the results.

For a living Oliver is an estate agent. I wanted to do some images of him in his work wear, and then some fun images. The goal was to show businesses that with a little thought you can spruce up your websites with some professional looking images of the employees, and with most businesses these days having facebook pages, why not have some fun images of the work force?.

Happy Christmas.

Happy Christmas from Me,

I hope that you are all having a great festive period while im away working.

Catch you in the new year.

Lee

Glyn Dewis Workshop

Well the other week i attended my first studio workshop ran by a Glyn Dewis. (UK's version of the photoshop guys) and i was highly impressed.

It was a half day workshop titled

"a workshop full of character"

and the aim is to give you the tools needed to try and create a fun image like the one above. Glyn sets up the lighting but gives you pretty much a free Raine to move the model where you want to in the light, and to pose him on how you see fit.

Once you are happy and have the image that you are after, you all then go through some photoshop techniques on how to create something different. Glyn shows you how to improve an image up to a nice respectable standard... and then the fun starts and you are taught how to push things and come up with great concepts and the fun really begins...

The day is broken up as follows-

• RAW Conversions

• Cleaning up your images (Dust spots etc…)

• Removing Blemishes

• Eyes (Brightening, add contrast, colour and sharpening)

• Creating Texture/Adding Details

• Dodging and Burning

• Cut Outs (Getting the most out of Photoshop CS5 Refine Edge Command + Extracting using Channels for those using earlier versions of Photoshop)

• Adding in the Background

• Creating ‘The Look’

• Special Effects and lots more

My finished image, I can not take the credit for the lighting on Dave Clayton, who was a fantastic model. Or the style he was dressed. But i did really enjoy finding the stock images and coming up with a theme to produce the finished result.

Garage MK, Knight racer.

I have recently taken some images for the guys over at Garage MK and Knight racer.

I was very impressed with some of the services that they offer, one which certainly does appeal.

If you are having work done on your car, from a service to a personalisation body kit or modification, they guys will come and pick up your car if you are in the Milton Keynes area from your home or work. So no hassle or inconvenience.

Garage MK and Knight Racer, also sponsor SSDA drift team and are at the drifting meets and competitions.

facebook page

website. 

Jay picking up a car from a customers work place.

Facebook pages for

Knight-racer

and

The Garage MK.

and

website

for Knight-racer.

The Art of Photography Podcast meet up

As a regular viewer of Ted Forbes "

the art of photography

" podcast and a fan, i was excited to see that Ted and his good lady were coming over to London for a meet up/ photo walk.

We met up some great photographers, some of who had travelled a great distance to partake. 

Here are some of my favourite images that i took from the day. 

Camera's and beer... A quality afternoon if you ask me :0) 

Night Photography.

Friday evening, myself and Phil Richardson of

YellowMelen Studio

 headed out upto Dunstable Downs for a play with some night photography.

What good fun. Setting up a camera for 2 minute + exposures and running around with torches and setting off speed lights and awaiting to see the result was something very new and interesting. 

This image is hard to believe that it was taken in total darkness. 

4 minute Exposure.