Sunday night fun

 

Sunday nights are often a little dull.  All the fun of the weekend has been had, and nobody is relishing Monday morning when work and school come around again.  So what better than to break out the studio gear, throw in some silly costumes,blue plastic toy guns, and a whole heap of teenage imagination.  Of course this mainly involved violent scenarios of shootings, stabbings and beheadings.  Oh to be young.

My fifteen year old got right into the spirit of things, and as well as showing a great skill in acting, spent a good amount of time rooting around the Man Cave to put together this outfit. It does make him look a good deal younger than the ones where he is posing as a villan.  The kids enjoyed it so much that they proposed we have a different theme each time, the next one being, yes you guessed it, Zombies.  Expect face paint next time!

Not wanting to miss out on the whole thing Jane decided she wanted to do a bit of acrobalance.  James valiantly helped despite having an injured wrist from a moped incident earlier in the day.  There will be more images from this thoroughly enjoyable, and crazy session on flickr soon!

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St. Albans Trapeze

I was recently invited to photograph the trapeze/acrobalance group that my wife belongs to.  I have done this before, which I have previously blogged.  I have deliberately not read my previous posts, as I would like to see if I write similarly about the experience, and if I actually learnt anything from the previous time.

The group is now run by a different leader, Kate who welcomed me to the first session of the evening.  The premise initially was to get shots for their website to help promote, and then to get shots for people to use for prints, social network profiles, that sort of thing.  Now regular followers of this blog will know I am not a professional photographer, however I do take like to achieve results I can take pride in, whilst giving those who are kind enough to pose a set of images that make them smile. 

I unpacked my eclectic array of gear, and set about getting some shots of the class in progress.  We decided to try and get some shots of trapeze moves that started at the basics.    I could not dream of doing even the moves that they assure me were the simplest to achieve.  My setup was my trusty Canon 60d and 17-55mm (ish) f2.8 combo with a 480ex flash on camera.  I try using a lastolite eazybox, but neither me nor my camera really gets the exposure right doing this dynamic sort of shooting.  As a consequence these shots had massive shadows, and were a little harsh in places.  More practice needed I think.  We shot for about an hour, before the members of the second session began to arrive.  This session was to be more structured so as to be able to improve and control the lighting.

I set up a background behind a low trapeze.  This was the single biggest mistake of the evening, and I regret doing it.  The cloth was far too small for the performer to keep within, and so I have ended up with numerous shots of people bisected by the backdrop.  Some I have been able to salvage in Photoshop, but this is time consuming, and to my self critical eye not the most appealing way to present the work of the performers.  If I get the opportunity in future I will not use a drop at all, and keep the environment as the background, despite it's busyness.

Having said that we did have a lot of fun as people had brought stuff to dress up in.  This added a dimension to the shoot, and the images which was a lot different to last time.

I had a fantastic time with the group, and we did make some great images together. If I was asked to go back again, I would in a heartbeat.

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Belinda and Hazel (and Jane too)

Another mother and daughter shoot, this time with the slightly crazy Belinda, and her well ok, slightly crazy daughter.  I posted a facebook message inviting people round for an impromptu session. We met Belinda and her husband Allan via friends, at a pub of course.  Sadly Allan was away for the weekend on a Jujitsu contest, or something like that.  Belinda and Hazel arrived armed with an array of colourful hats, and even more colourful homemade Rhubarb wine.  They very quickly got into the spirit of the session, and got some fab shots.  Many thanks go to these two super girls for volunteering to go before the lens and being such great sports.

 

Belinda and Hazel (and Jane too), a set on Flickr.

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Carol and Kelly

Carol and Kelly, a set on Flickr.

A smattering of photos from a recent mother and daughter session I was asked to do. We had great fun. This is the first session like this I have been asked to do, and so was a little nervous. I set up a white background in their lounge, however I wish I had taken all my lights rather than relying on the speedlights, I could have achieved a whiter background.  It’s all a learning curve though.  Onwards and upwards.

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