Wow, i finally made it into the papers!! and for the right reasons!! ;)
For other pics from the series check out the gallery on my site here
Enjoy!
Go West!
Here is a job i recently did for a large commercial property owner in Central London. My brief was to visit some of their properties, traders and the people of the area, to capture 'What the West End means to me'. I had great fun doing this job, but was often tricky convincing people on the fly that i was for real! People are very suspicious of you when you stroll towards them brandishing a camera, a smile and a printed bit of paper! :)
Hope you enjoy the results and hope you like the final artwork. My fave shot was the mad 'red hairdressers'! Bonkers![slideshow]
Beautiful East Sussex
I had to visit Robertsbridge in East Sussex again this Summer, to work for 3 days with the lovely people at Community Playthings I have produced their catalogue photography for the last 3 years and its one job i always really look forward to! The people are great!, we get a lot done, but we still have fun and they always make sure i am fully lavished in food and drink all day, not to mention the amazing home made cookies they send me off with ! :-)
I also get to stay in this beautiful part of the world and explore a bit in the eve's. This year i stayed in a beautiful B&B called 'The Old Courthouse' down the road in Hurst Green. I have to say it was amazing!! Tim and Julie Weare who run this beautiful place are the best hosts going... i even had my full English breakfast brought into my room! now that is service! ;) so ... if you want a nice little get away in the most historic part of Britian, get in touch with Julie on 01580 860080 and she will be glad to look after you! enjoy...
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Lis came down and stayed with me for 1 of my nights so we took the opportunity to visit Bodium Castle which was literally 10 mins away. What a stunning Castle it is too!
Tall Ships ...
Myself and the Harvey Juniors were up at Nanna Harvey's over the Summer Holiday in Thirsk, N. Yorks. I love it up there, totally diferent vibe to London, people actually smile and say hello up there! :-) Whilst visiting, my good old ma told us about the 'Tall Ships' setting sail from Middlesborough and Teeside, so off me and the Juniors went in serch of some big old ships!
I have never driven through such torrential rain as we did on the way... kids faces were long and i knew i could be in for an afternoon of self harm!
The ships, well, they may have been tall, but were nowhere near our bit of the coastline, so i took to catching a few snaps of the Juniors instead ... Happydays! :-)
Wireless Speedlights - Strobist Softbox Technique Tutorial
YouTube - Strobist Softbox Technique Tutorial. http://www.youtube.com/v/w0g63DggyzQ
Ok, so for a while i have wanted to use my speedlights a bit more creatively, so I bought the Nikon SU800 Commander which allows me to control as many speedlights as i like remotely. I invested in a couple of popout softboxes and off i went.... straight round to my kids and got them on the trampoline to see what we could get!
Watch this space....
The Finishing Touch
A quickie here... i recently did some event pics for a great client ~ Mr David Key of Finishing Touch Events at a wonderful venue... Lincolns Inn - the Barrister capital of London and the UK. David runs a great event, and had me on hand to capture the guests enjoying themselves... i just wanted to show you the beautiful old banqueting hall ... what a venue! :-)
This guy was once of the best magicians i have ever seen ...
I had a lot of guests to get into a group shot, so went on a 2 min scout of the surrounding area and found this great clearing with a stone staircase in front of it that i was able to get upto and shoot down. This is also a good way of making sure all faces are brightly lit as they have to look skywards ...
Flower Power!
My new girl Lis, is somewhat of the 'green fingered' type, and whenever i popped round throughout the summer, was often pottering about in her garden planting , watering or shaping something ... i grabbed ye old Nikon Macro 105mm f2.8VR and started snapping ...and loved it! I've not really done much close up stuff, but i do enjoy the abstract shapes and textures plants and flowers give when seen under close quarters! I think you will agree, some of the colours are stunning! a lot of these images are from Capel Manor Gardens near me in Enfield.... Stunning!
Wireless Speedlights
Well, here are the results of my first play with wireless flash. I hooked up 2 Nikon SB800 Flash units onto some small light stands with my great new fold out softboxes... All was quite straightforward.... only limiting factor is that you have to angle the flash to make sure its 'infrared' sensor window can see the SU800 commander on top of your camera... if it can't - NO flash! I am really pleased with the ease of use, portability and quality of light you can get using this set up ... throw them into Lightroom and job done! :)
The Harvey Juniors are both great guinea pig models and always on hand for a bit of camera fun...! :(
I love this shot of Daisy, she has such a great sense of humour in front of the camera.... her 'casual' expression and mad pose looks brilliant! Go Daisy! ;)
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This is my fave shot! Love Daisy's body language and face in the background! Gabe doesn't seem to be noticing her annoyance at the amount of time he has been on!
Canal side Capers with my new Lumix
Well, its been a while since i posted anything here, simply because i have been too busy! :-)
So excuse the dates all being off from the actual events, but thought it best to get it all done and up, out the way before its the end of the year! wow, this year has flown!!!!!
Anyway, this little update involves my new Panasonic Lumix snapper i wanted to test out!
I'm only 10 mins from the canal side, so took advantage of the weather and got on my bike for a 26 mile ride from Enfield to Hoddesden and took a few snaps on the way with the Lumix. My main reason for wanting this camera was for casual days out like this where i wanted to get some good 'snaps' but them still be crisp and of good quality... The Lumix has a Leica lens so i was interested to see how it compared ... in all honesty i think its only 'ok'. Thats more down to 'noisy' sensor than the lens quality .... its fine in bright weather but anything 800 iso above gets reeeeeeally fuzzy!
Still, its only a snapper, but at £350 i was actually expecting more...
My first 'Civil Partnership' wedding
Not many of you will know that i have a weddings business that i run separately to blitzimages... I don't normally rave about the wedding work, but this was something a bit different! When one of my clients and good friends - Matt, asked me if i would be his photographer for his civil partnership, i was rather nervous in all honesty.... but only as i wasn't sure how i was going to style the shots!!? No big wedding dresses or detail shots here!? I was chuffed he asked me and accepted happily... but knew i would have to get my thinking cap on!
I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised at how good the day went! It was a glorious sunny day, Matt and Jeff were getting hitched at Stoke Newington Town Hall, and the day went like a dream .... Great guests, fabulous venue and some beautiful natural light all went to make my job a dream ...
Please check out the book preview and do leave me a comment if you like the work...
All the best, Simon.
http://www.blurb.com/books/1456152