What's for dinner?

whats for dinner?
Originally uploaded by Rob Johnstone

Todays theme is "Whats for dinner?" We have just had a new kitchen fitted. What better time to take a few cooking related snaps. I persuaded my long suffering wife to pose for me in a fifties style outfit. We did have fun though. I did a bit of post processing to give it a bit more of a retro theme.

Empty Chair

bulb and chair
Originally uploaded by Rob Johnstone

Not very well executed. I was taking advantage of having half and hour to myself in our now gutted old kitchen. I wanted to get the light bulg illuminated whilst the room was dark. Some very ropey photoshopping was involved. I wish I had changed the bulb for an incandescant one. I think that might have suited the theme better. The bulb and the chair were lit with a canon 430 ex, and then composited. I did experiment with a male nude, erm me, but it didn't really work, and to be perfectly honest the world does not need to see my flab!

Canine Companion

Canine Companion
Originally uploaded by Rob Johnstone

Todays theme is 'Canine companion'. Saturday and the carpenter is in sorting out our floors. Our dog lady has tolerated the building works since they started in September, and now has a resinged look on her face. The end is in sight, and I think she will miss the builders when they have packed up and left.

9am

9am
Originally uploaded by Rob Johnstone

This is the year my efforts in photography go up a gear. I have embarked on one of those dreaded 365 project. Mine revolves around a list of themes I downloaded from a website sometime ago. Todays theme is '9am'. I thought I'd start off with an easy one, the only constraint I put on myself for this one was I wanted the time in the image, so I had a sixty second window to take the picture. I had a snack on me so I thought I would put that in the picture. Quite often people have to eat on the road. It is only a secondary subject so thats why it is out of focus.

I'm really liking the square format. I think I will try to keep it as a format for this project.

WFK Benefit gig Jan 2012

WFK Benefit gig Jan 2012, a set on Flickr.

I haven't done one of these for a while. My friends from the band 'Waiting for Katherine' asked me to cover a local charity gig for them. They were playing to raise money for the Winstons Wish charity which supports bereaved children and their families. The lighing was pretty tricky at the venue which was a local school, but a great time was had by all!
http://www.waitingforkatherine.com/
Winstons Wish

Circus

Circus, a set on Flickr.

Le Monnier Promo shoot

Le Monnier Promo shoot, a set on Flickr.

Ok this is my first commisioned photoshoot, and I was extremely nervous. A local band, Le Monnier, had asked me to shoot som promo shots for them. This came about after seeing some photos of them performing live at my local music venue, The Horn, in St. Albans. Why nervous, well this is the first time I had to be responsible for images soley for other people. I didn't know the band personally, and I didn't know what their expectations were. Another reason for my nervousness was my woeful efforts at practising with my family, as you can see on my flickr photostream.

I asked my stepson, James, to come along and assist. This was a smart move as he was keen, and was an extremely capable helper! We met up with the band in a pub in Welwyn Garden City, and short of a location we asked the landlord if we could borrow the function room to do the shoot. This is a music venue called The Green Room. The band is a rock power trio. Alex is the singer and bass player, Matt is guitarist, and Josh then man on drum. So we got started. There were few oportunities for plain backgrounds in the room, as it is decorated with garish cuban comic style depictions of music paraphenalia. However the was a corner with plain black walls, which is where we started. A quick funble with gear to get around a wireless trigger problem, and we started shooting the first group shots. This were ok, but the background was distracting, with a grill, and mismatched colours. A slight turn around, and we got some face on head shots of the band. Next we moved over to a fire escape, which gave some scope for the band to stretch out a bit and get more relaxed. The next group shots we tried some mixed stitting and standing poses, but these were not too sucessful.

To round off I took some individual shots of each of the band.

Overall I am happy with my first go, but there are some mistakes I would want to correct next time. The biggest one is look for shadows. Some of the shots have glaring shadows where I used just the one strobe. A reflector would have filled in the dark areas just enough. Secondly I think I should have been clearer about what poses I wanted the band to try, even to the extent of demonstrating. Thirdly, do more practice beforehand.

On the whole I really enjoyed the experience. The band were wonderful, and put up with my bumbling lack of experience with good grace, and with my bad jokes even more. Would I do more shoots like this? Yes like a shot! I am quite please with the results, despite being accused of being overly self critical. I hope the band like the images I took, and I would like to say again a massive thank you to them for the photoshoot, and of course to James for being my very able assistant for the afternoon!