Another one from the brilliant Yerbury workshop :)

Many, many thanks to Trevor and Faye Yerbury for a wonderful Boudoir Workshop at their home on Sunday. Thank you not only for the terrific training but the lovely hospitality too. And I can't possibly forget the lovely Rebecca, our very patient model for the day.

Phew, been to Birmingham to Focus on Imaging. HUGE exhibition of the best photographic products available. I was very good! After the major expenditure on the cameras, lenses and flashes I had to. :) But I did sign up for some really rather nice sample albums and I bought a new video light.

A video light is a much under rated piece of equipment, usually by those who have never used them though. The good ones are not cheap being between £200 and £450. What they bring to the party though is instant lighting. At a wedding you don't often have time to set up complicated studio lighting setups. It would be nice but there is no way I can lug it all around with stands, cables softboxes reflectors etc so quick and easy does it ...every time.

The video light can be pulled out, switched on and bingo....instant light. You can direct whoever is holding it to step in, step out, barn doors contain the beam of light so I can get it just where I want it. It comes with a little flip up soft focus attachment and a halogen attachment. That's a really neat little creating trick all of it's own. Pop that on, set the camera to 3400K et voila, daylight just went blue while my subject is perfectly lit. All in a package that fits neatly in a little shoulder bag. A very useful addition to the two flashguns I carry as standard.

New sample album design on the way and two new roller banners to order. I'm away the last two weekends in March with some excellent shooting to do with Trevor and Faye Yerbury and John Baikie. Two trips to Scotland back to back, but these guys really are worth it. :)

Busy again :)

Been working a lot on the website and getting the hang of all the new website settings. HTML meets bludomain template? I know just the wizard to help that go as well as it can so thank you Mr Mark Pearson. Mark runs his photography business just outside Leeds and is just about the most dedicated photographer I know. His customer service is the best you can get and it is real pleasure to spend time with him. And the coffee is good too :)

Booked a wedding fayre with a fresh young company http://www.idoweddingfayres.com/ and ordering some new banners and new albums from graphistudio and a new supplier too. Going to see some new albums at Focus at the NEC on Monday with the lovely Jamie and Sheila so I will be making the decision on a second supplier by Tuesday of next week.

Got some new software for both album design and the design of leaflets, fliers, banners etc so I have some exciting new designs to work on before my new wedding fayre in May. Those few weeks will go rather quickly.

I have a boudoir training day booked with the amazing Trevor and Faye Yerbury, only the world's best photographers of this genre. Really looking forward to spending a day being put through my paces with the new cameras.

Add to that a day shooting with Mr John Baikie at the end of March and it's a busy but very productive month.

Wedding Photography Advice

Neil Redfern who is a very good wedding photographer has recently launched a great new resource for those new to shooting weddings. So when Neil put the call out to his FB photography buddies to write some articles for the new site I thought it would be nice to share some of the things I have learned, even if I don't yet have decades of experience. So I've written one on shooting and practicing bridal prep shots. The new site and my small contribution is http://www.weddingphotographyadvice.com/2010/02/bridal-preparation-photography-by-alison-bailey/

Plans, I have plans...

Got a couple of shoots I need to arrange in the next couple of weeks. One hotel themed shoot with the lovely Branka and Temi that I need a trip into Manchester to arrange for April and I want to shoot some boudoir images. I'd like to have a shoot here at home because it's a great setting anyway and I have a seminar booked at the end of March with the fabulous Trevor and Faye Yerbury who are probably THE finest exponents of boudoir photography I've ever seen. So I'm really looking forward to a trip to Edinburgh in March to do that :)

Also at the end of March is another trip North where I hope to be able to hook up with the inimatable Mr John Baikie. Two northern shoots in two weeks and this is supposed to be my quiet time of year!

Oh who am I kidding? I would not have it any other way! :)

Shiny!

Just had my new cameras delivered and I have to say that I am really impressed! It's going to take me a little time to get used to them but then, that's why I bought them at this time of year. It gives me time to get a few shoots under my belt before they are called into use in anger.

Some fabulous features on them which will bore most but my fellow photographers will understand and nod sagely. I can happily shoot with these at ISO 6400. That means a very dimly lit room to most of us and you can easily see the application for that particular feature at a wedding. It allows me to keep higher shutter speeds and get real clarity in the images and that's what counts to clients and why I've just spent £8.5K.

At the moment it's one body and one lens till I get the hang of it and I'll start adding the other lenses and finally the flashes until I'm 100% with it all. I know of one brilliant photographer who loves this camera so much he only has one camera and one lens and he shoots everything on that one lens. So I'll constrain myself until I'm happy that I can get the results I want in terms of quality before I go off exploring the rest of the kit. It could be a little while!

What camera is it? The Nikon D700. One reviewer cited it as the best professional camera ever built. Good enough for me then! ;)