Easter Well Spent

IN just 15 hours I'll be climbing aboard a giant cigar and flying to the other side of the world. Unlike most people I like nothing more than a good long haul flight, 24 hours of sitting in a comfy seat with a host of entertainment options available and someone who brings you food and drink and when you press a button - I don't see what the problem is? It's also a good time of forced relaxation, where you have no option but to sit there and take stock of life.

However, the forced relaxation this time round will have somewhat less impact than usual due to the fact that the 4 day Easter break was spent doing exactly that - relaxing. Besides a brief trip to the supermarket on Good Friday I didn't leave the flat until I left for work this Tuesday morning. I know what you're thinking, didn't you go crazy? How did you pass the time? This is how.



Oh, and here's an excerpt from my e-ticket for my return flight from London to Sydney

YOUR AIRLINE RECEIPT:
FARE: GBP 15.00
CHARGES/TAXES: GBP 364.20
TOTAL : GBP 379.20

Happy Birthday Simon

Once upon a time birthdays were filled with wonderment, sleepless nights in the lead up, cakes shaped like cats and cricket pitches (pretty sure Mum baked both of these in my younger years - is that right Mum?), fairly bread, parties and PRESENTS. Presents from parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, brothers, friends, you name it.

When you turn 31 and have your first trip home in 14 months less than a week after your birthday it's easy to all but forget you're another year older, what with all the excitement of a 24 hour long haul flight on the horizon. And so it was that when I finally got around to organising a party on the night of my birthday at Bloomsbury Bowl I was far too late to actually book a bowling lane or a karaoke booth. Not to worry, the night turned out to be loads of fun, some good friends, some eats in the 50's style diner, some excellent drinks and some very average games of pool (miraculously I managed to have a 6-1 win loss record despite my best attempts of sabotaging my team mate.) One of the highlights of the night was receiving my first (and only) present, an awesome paint by numbers set of a knight riding a horse from Pam and Jay (thanks guys), it looks pretty hard but apparently is suitable for ages 8+ so I'll see what I can do, looking forward to nailing it over the Easter long weekend.

In order to keep this post vaguely photo related (although maybe this blog needs to transcend the photo pigeon hole it's currently in?) I thought I'd put together a birthday wishlist in case anyone out there has deep pockets and is feeling particularly generous:

Canon 5d II - I think 21mp is a bit of overkill but the full frame sensor would be real nice.

Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8 L MKII USM Lens - A perfect compliment to the 5D II, this puppy would be amazing for shooting a wedding.

Canon EF 85mm f1.2 L II USM Lens - The results I get on my cheap prime lens are lovely, I can only imagine the sort of image quality and low light capabilities this thing would bring to the table.

Pocket Wizard and a few more flashguns - After last weeks lighting course I'm keen to try a ton of new effects, the Pocket Wizard attaches to your camera and transmits a signal to a bunch of remote flash guns. Would be a plenty to learn but it would be awesome. For the record anyone interested in off camera flash lighting should head over to Strobist to get some inspiration and tips, some incredible stuff there.

I think these things would make me happy. Well, until something newer and better and faster and shinyer comes along. Truth be told though I'm pretty chuffed with all the kit I've already got, and at the end of the day the person behind the lens is a lot more important than what they're using.

Here's hoping the next 12 months are as good as the last.

Studio Session

I've been in this photography game for a while now, but up to this point all my work has been shot using available light or on camera flash (with a few brief experiments with taking my flashgun off camera with a 2 foot extension cord.) So it was with great excitement that I ran to catch a bus bright and early yesterday morning to take me to a course on studio lighting and photography.

The course was held by Studio Time and was a great introduction to the ins and outs of setting up your lighting using studio lights, using light meters properly, lighting your subject and your background, high key lighting, low key lighting, the use of gels and a bunch of other useful stuff. I went on the course with my mate Danny and there was just 1 other participant so it was the perfect number, it was very hands on and they had a model in and everything.

Within a few minutes of setting up the lighting I was getting shots like this and thinking that shooting in a studio is too easy.

From Studio Session

We learnt about how light behaves in the studio, how to reflect it with different reflectors and how to absorb it with blacks. From this next shot you'll see how the white foam was used to bounce the light back on the model from the softbox that was pointing down on her. Obviously the actual shot wouldn't reveal the manky looking foam.



The model Jane was incredibly photogenic, if anything this course confirmed my suspicions that it's easy to get stunning results once you have your technical wings and can get the model to pose. The world's top studio photogs have got it even easier, they've have their help spend a few hours setting up all the lights so by they time they arrive everything is good to go, next thing a stunning model who knows how to pose enters the scene, they snap a few shots and send the memory card off to someone else to post process. Too easy.



We learnt high key (whites background, overexposed image with high contrast to bring out the featres)



Low key (dark, moody film noir style shots with just the one directional gridded spot light to light the face against a black background)



Terror photos- Danny was adjusting the light in the background and fired a shot off to see how it would look, when he looked like a menacing silhouette I insisted that he do a threatening pose, the hilarious result can be seen below. We tried a few more time to recreate the shot but with the look of terror on the model's face, unfortunately she couldn't stop giggling and the subsequent photos weren't as good as the first.



And regular looking people photos, like Danny who was a natural in front of the camera with his clearly rehearsed Harris Scarfe catalogue poses.



We even managed to get a semi decent shot of one of the less photogenic people going round, even if it is a bit cheesy.



All round a great experience, I was like a sponge taking it all in as it was all so new. I know enough now to book a few hours in a studio and have a play around, if I ever get round to this rest assured you can see the results here at www.simonbills.com.

Off to do a baby shoot this afternoon which should be great, until next time.