Well... after a busy week of my normal day job with little time for photography, today we made the most of the sunshine we had and went and made ourselves a nice picnic at the local park. I can honestly say that Ryvita + Philidelphia + Raspberry Jam = The best snack known to man. Hmmmmm

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Right, been an interesting couple of weeks and only now am I able to get around to explaining it. I do unfortunately mean ‘able’ as my Macbook Pro has gone to rest with the fishes so to speak. The day we where off to see my Granddad it just wouldn’t start, so as we where going to meet my Mum and sister in Milton Keynes city centre, we popped into the Apple store first. Basically, from a cold start, it doesn’t even go to the famous mac ‘chime’ (for those who don’t know what that sounds like cos you are still struggling along with some Windows based, its the same sound Wall-E makes when he is done charging his solar cells up). The very helpful genius went through several possibilities and came to the conclusion that motherboard itself was to blame which meant a repair of more than I wished to spend. It being out of the warranty it was going to cost me heftily, and as I possibly had a photo shoot that Sunday, I needed a computer of some sorts, so on the way out of the store, I picked up a 20” iMac. And boy am I chuffed! I haven’t lost any files (I will have to explain my backup system as some point) but the offline version of this site which works with Rapidweaver was the only thing I hadn’t copied over, so it has taken me a week to get the MBP open to pull out the HDD which means I am now back to normal.
Thanks for prayers for my Granddad - he is past the immediate danger although of course he is ultimately still very sick.
Onto some photography for today then. Firstly onto my favourite muse: my wife! These where taken just after she got back from Brazil as she was really chuffed with her nails which she had had done just before she came back here and the pyjamas I had given her for Valentine’s day. These where very simply done with just the flash bounced off the ceiling in our living room, and in the first one I was also holding in my left hand a 9” Nikon branded reflector under her chin.



The next three where inspired by some of the latest video tutorials from Squeeze the Lime with regards to the engagements sessions. These where taken near the section of Canal near my house as we had gone out to feed the ducks. We went exploring off a little bit and found another way out of the area back to ‘civilisation’ but with a nice bit of fencing and a few cool trees around to add interest to the photos.



These where all fairly quick edits, I think I can play with them a bit more, so this post might get updated at some point, but I am pretty happy with them. There seems to be a pretty good chance of us moving closer to Coate Water in a couple of months, which will be nice for even more outside work.
Unfortunately, the shoot I was hoping to have last Sunday fell through. Firstly a guy offered to do it for free, then he couldn’t so it looked like I might be back on, but then he was able to do it again before they marked me for definite. I didn’t mind the messing around so much as I minded what I was replaced with. The guy apparently had ‘all his own gear’ including studio lights. Having seen the photos on my mates Facebook page I feel really bad. I had plans for great artistic photos, whereas this guy just stood a single strobe about a metre to his side, I would have to guess with a reflective brolly from the harsher light and type of shadow cast. The poses just don’t seem to have much life except one which my friend tells me was actually a happy accident caused by them and not the photographer. I know I could have done so much more for them for the pittance I was charging them (being for a friend and with my still limited portfolio) than what they received. I wouldn’t have minded if I had been replaced by a better photographer, perhaps a more experienced one or something like that, but I feel really sorry for them with the fact that their adverts are being made with these very bland photos.
Nevermind, we have a couple of family/couples type shoots we are sorting out terms on, so you can expect some other new stuff to fill out my portfolio - and who knows what else we might have! Read More...