John Wood Photography

Maternity photoshoot in Borehamwood - some pictures

2011-04-11T12:51:00.000+01:00

Following on from my last post a few weeks ago about Tanya's maternity photoshoot with Bump2Baby Portraits, I'm happy to report back that she and her husband Gary love the photos I captured for them and they've agreed that I can post a few of the shots in this blog.

1. We just used a large, brightly lit patio door window with a voile drape for the backdrop to this natural light shot.

2. Tanya and Gary who are expecting their first child any day now!

3. I bring a variety of backdrops to photoshoots so we can get as many different looks in the time we have available.

All of the shots above we captured in the client's living room where I was able to set up my 'home studio'. There's no need for you to travel to a distant photo studio, worry about finding somewhere to park and being in unfamiliar surroundings. Having me come to you usually results in a more relaxed photo shoot and a selection of wonderful photos for you to cherish.

For more information on my maternity photography service, please have a look at my dedicated maternity photography website: Bump2Baby Portraits

Maternity photoshoot in Borehamwood

2011-03-14T12:58:00.000Z

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of photographing a lovely couple from Borehamwood - Tanya and Gary, who are expecting their first child in the middle of next month. Tanya had contacted me a couple of months ago via my dedicated maternity and baby photography website Bump2Baby Portraits to arrange a photo shoot in her home.
We had a really good session in both their garden and in my home studio setup that I am able to take to clients’ homes. Despite being slightly nervous at first, with my calming reassurance, they both soon relaxed and we were able to capture some lovely images which I’m sure they’re going to love when they see them and will give them a lasting memory of this special time. Hopefully they’ll agree that I can post a couple of the shots up from the session here once they’ve had a chance to see them for themselves.

I really do find that being in surroundings that you are used to helps clients to relax and enjoy their photo sessions a lot more. There’s no need to worry about arriving at a studio late, having to find somewhere to park, forgetting something and generally feeling rushed and flustered. I am able to set my equipment up in most locations and situations, whatever the space available. I will generally travel to clients within a 20 mile radius of Watford, Hertfordshire, though if clients live further afield, we can normally work something out.

Some autumnal parkland and urban portraiture - part 2

2010-11-12T19:00:00.002Z

Following on from yesterday's post which covered the first part of my recent shoot with AnneT, here is your final installment from the session.....

As we were finishing up in the park by the 'green wall', the weather took the turn that it had been threatening all morning and it started raining. Luckily we'd got all the outdoor open air shots we were after so we dived into the cars and headed into Watford's town centre to our second location. I'd got the inspiration for this location from a fellow member of the Watford UK Photographers flickr group who had posted a shot taken there a few weeks back. Knowing that my shoot with Anne was coming up I went down and checked out the location a few days before we met up to make sure it was what I was after. It turned out to be even better than I was expecting with lots of potential areas to shoot in for a good range of looks. Best of all - especially given the weather we were now experiencing, the area was totally under cover and allowed us to stay dry! The location was on quite a busy route from the town centre to one of the main retail parks in Watford so we got our fair share of interested onlookers here too but Anne took it all in her stride!

Once I'd worked out where we were going to shoot first of all, I went about setting up a couple of flashes on stands - one of which I was using a red gel on to give a bit of interest to the flyover we were shooting underneath. This gelled light also ended up giving a very funky red 'rim light' to Anne in a few of the shots to balance the light from the main flash I was using.

Anyway, here are a few of the shots I captured:

Anne gives a moody look to the location

A gritty urban location brightened up by Anne and a splash of flash

Just enough of a hint of the red glow behind Anne to give added interest to this shot

By moving Anne just a few yards to one of the other pillars, I was able to take advantage of the little ambient light that was available to get some great, naturally lit portraits of her. A simple boost of the camera's ISO and a bit of exposure compensation let me achieve the look I was after - beauty in the urban chaos:

A simple mono conversion gives this shot the look I was after.

A bit of cross-processing to give more of a gritty, urban look.

Overall I was really pleased with how well the morning went and I know that Anne enjoyed the shoot and loves the pictures. Mission accomplished I guess!

My recent urban portraiture shoots have given me added enthusiasm for getting out of the studio setting and experimenting a bit more with what is there on our doorsteps. Hopefully I'll be able to undertake a few more of these style of shoots soon and I already have a couple more potential locations to scout out which I think could give really interesting backdrops.

You can view a complete set of my favourite images from the shoot with AnneT on my flickr photostream.

Some autumnal parkland and urban portraiture - part 1

2010-11-11T19:18:00.002Z

I've just finished editing a set of photos taken at the end of last week from an outdoor portrait shoot I had arranged with AnneT.

With potentially quite a wet day forecast, I was quite relieved to find just an overcast morning as I arrived at the first location in Cassiobury Park, Watford. As I was a bit early I had a quick chance to recce a couple of locations in the park before Anne arrived. The area I had hoped to use which I'd come across the week before and which had a lovely carpet of fallen autumn leaves had been all cleared up so there were no leaves at all!! Thinking quickly and taking into account the ideas I'd got in my mind for the shoot, I was able to come up with an alternative location in the park which would fit the bill just fine.

Once Anne arrived, we headed up to the area I had in mind and talked over the look I was trying to create. Anne had brought a selection of outfits and footwear so we'd be able to get a good variety of looks during the session. Our first location was a long avenue of trees which gave a wonderful autumnal look and just what I was trying to create.

Our first location

We got a few frames here before just a quick and simple switch from one side of the tree to the other gave a bit of a different perspective. Here's a shot from just the other side of the tree:

A simple change for a bit of a different look

Next we moved just 50 or so yards from our initial location and I was able to get this wonderful warm looking shot under the canopy of trees - even though it was a grey, overcast, cold November morning!

Recreating a sunny autumnal day on what was an overcast morning

After getting a few shots of Anne walking through and kicking up the golden leaf fall, we headed over to a more man made backdrop of a vibrant green wall on one of the park buildings. I've been wanting to get some shots at this location for quite some time now and this shoot was the perfect opportunity to try out some ideas.

Anne created more of an 'urban chic' look to complement the new location and after setting up some off camera flash, I was able to get shooting. We got a few bemused looks from several of the dog walkers visiting the park and a group of school children also took a bit of an interest in what we were doing!!

Here are a few shots from the 'green wall' location:

Anne struts her stuff!

A simple splash of off-camera flash to give a bit more kick to the image

For our final location shoot of the day, we headed into the town centre of Watford for an altogether different look but more of that in the next couple of days.......

London Strobist Photoshoot

2010-11-04T23:57:00.001Z

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to get myself a place on the monthly London Strobist Meetup Group's photoshoot. Due to overwhelming demand the shoot filled up within 2 hours of it being announced and I was originally number five on the reserves list. I gradually worked my way up the list as people dropped out and eventually I was in!

The organisers had hired a nightclub under the arches in Vauxhall for the day for us to use. The ambient lighting was going to be very dark to say the least so photographers were even advised to bring small torches to aid focussing in the challenging conditions.

Upon arrival the photographers started sussing out potential areas to shoot in and teamed up into pairs to begin setting up. I teamed up with fellow group newbie Jon White and we discussed lighting setups before we started shooting a couple of the models who were free.

As the day progressed, our confidence grew and we tried different lighting ideas and techniques and got to shoot a selection of models. I was keen to try out my Orbis Ringflash adaptor which I've had for a while now but not got round to properly using. I ended up getting some great results from it and am sure that it will now get the use that it deserves!

I'm definitely going to make it to some more of the groups shoots as it is a great way to share ideas and learn from other photographers.

Urban Portraits Workshop

2010-09-23T00:52:00.008+01:00

I'd been wanting to attend one of Damien Lovegrove's workshops for some time now and when the opportunity came along for me to get on one of his Urban Portraits workshops down in Bristol, I just had to grab it with both hands!

The day promised to show us how to make the most of natural light and also introduce the use of just a single off camera flash. I've got a few of Damien's dvd's and this day enabled me to put a lot of their content into actual practice.

We met up with Damien at the Costa Coffee in the @Bristol development down by the waterfront and were also joined by our model Stina Sanders. After a quick get to know each other and kit check, we got straight down to the shooting. Damien's endless enthusiasm shone through all day as we moved from location to location and he was constantly challenging us with different ways of looking at scenes and how to get the best from them. Learning how to use just regular, everyday locations ranging from access pannelling and hoardings to what seemed like dark corners you'd never normally consider shooting in was a real eye opener.

Our model, Stina was totally professional throughout the day and was extremely patient with us throughout. Her rapid outfit changes enabled us to get a wide range of shots of her in different settings which helped give different 'looks' to the photos.

Below is a slideshow of 30 shots from over 150 that I would call 'keepers'. They show the different locations we covered (all within probably a 20 minute walking radius of our meeting point) and just how much variety can be gained from such a small area - both outdoors and indoors, in full blazing sunshine and under cover in dark corners.

The wide variety of locations we used kept us on our toes and thinking about the light all the time. Occasionally we used off camera flash and luckily for me, being the only Nikon shooter in the group, I had the use of my very own dedicated SB900 flash and could shoot at will, whilst the other Canon users had to share flash triggers and wait their turn. Result!! The Nikon CLS triggering system certainly proved itself to me and I found it superb in even strong sunlight with reliable firing for at least 99% of the time. This is something I'm definitely going to be making more use of in the near future I hope.

The indoor location was the upstairs bar of the Pitcher and Piano and we used just natural light from the full length windows that we could control with blinds. I got one of my favourite shots of the day in here with the light coming from both in front and behind Stina and creating a real glow around her. We really pushed the boundaries of low light shooting in terms of ISO and shutter speeds but the results speak for themselves.

I learned a great deal from the day and am looking forward to putting it all into practice very soon.

You can see all of the individual photos in my John Wood Photography Flickr photostream.

Come and meet me this Bank Holiday Monday - 30th August

2010-08-26T22:49:00.000+01:00

This coming Bank Holiday Monday (30th August), I will be having a stand at the Beechfield Children's Centre Family Fun Day, Gammons Lane, Watford, WD24 5TY. If you're in the area and want to enjoy a free day out for your family, do come along. The day starts at 11am and runs through until 3pm.

As well as being able to come along and meet me to discuss any portrait photography you may want and see a selection of photos from my latest portrait portfolio, there will be lots of fun activities for all the family, with a fire engine, stilt walker, balloon artist, magician, climbing wall, face painting, animal farm, arts and crafts and lots more all happening.

There is also going to be a raffle and I have donated a family portrait photography session with me, John Wood Photography The lucky winner will get a photo shoot and free 10x8 inch print.

Fingers crossed the weather is going to be fine - the latest forecast certainly looks like it will be so with any luck there will be a good turnout.

Hopefully see you there!

Recent activity for John Wood Photography

2010-07-08T22:39:00.001+01:00

I've been quite busy recently and have a few things in the pipeline coming up too!

Last Saturday I did 2 photo shoots. The first was attending a NCT Cheeky Monkeys Tea Party where I was photographing the children as they took part in various taster sessions and then played outside in the sunshine. I got a great selection of shots which are now available in the secure online gallery - attendees would have received a slip with the gallery address and password to view the pictures in their goody bags on the day.

The other commission I did was for my Bump2Baby Portraits arm of John Wood Photography and was a maternity shoot of C and her family. C is 37 weeks pregnant (probably 38 by now!) with a baby boy. We got some great shots in my portable studio set up at her family home. I can't wait for her to see the proofs and I'm sure she's going to be delighted with the results.

Looking forward, in the next couple of weeks, I'll be doing a commercial shoot for one of the banks in Watford that came about via a PR company getting in touch having seen my work. I've also had a couple of calls recently about doing more maternity / newborn photo shoots, so my SEO seems to be paying off at least!

Talking of my website, I really need to give it a bit of a makeover so that it reflects more of the type of work I'm undertaking these days. That's all on the cards for the next couple of months so you'll hear about it here first.

Don't forget you can still become a fan of John Wood Photography on Facebook if you haven't done so already.

New addition to the John Wood Photography Team

2010-04-26T15:30:00.000+01:00

I’m absolutely delighted to announce that there has been an addition to the team at John Wood Photography. Our wonderful new daughter, Isabelle, was born on the 2nd April weighing in at 6lb 14oz. Obviously we’re totally smitten with her!

That’s the main reason why things have been a bit quiet here on my blog as there’s been just so much going on since the start of the year really!! I’ve had to relocate what was my office and kit store to another area and then we had to completely redecorate and set up the new nursery. Still, it gave me a chance to have a good de-clutter and sort through of things.

Fortunately I’ve been able to keep everything all up and running on the photography side of things and deal with orders etc as they’ve come in. I’ve even managed to enter local competitions – winning a set subject round of ‘Inclement Weather’ the other week.

I’ve certainly now got the chance to add to my baby photography portfolio over the coming months and am looking forward to recording Isabelle’s development. Babies sure do change quickly – it is already noticeable how more alert and aware of things she is.

New portraiture lighting equipment – the Orbis™ Ringflash

2010-04-23T15:15:00.001+01:00

To ensure that I can offer as wide a range of photographic lighting options as possible for clients, I decided to take the plunge and buy an Orbis™ Ringflash light modifier. It’s a piece of equipment that I’ve been toying with getting for a while now and having spoken to other users and seen examples of their work, I was sufficiently impressed enough to get one for myself.

The Orbis™ (pictured below) uses my existing speedlight flash guns and turns them into a ring flash unit which can be used to create stunning portraits with a ‘high-end magazine’ and fashion style look.

I’m really looking forward to using the Orbis™ in future photo shoots as well as taking advantage of the better weather we seem to be having lately and doing some more outdoor, on-location portraiture. I’ve got some great potential photo shoot locations lined up that I want to try out soon, so fingers crossed the weather will hold out for the foreseeable future!

As soon as I’ve had a chance to try out the Orbis™ properly, I’ll post some photos up in my flickr photostream.

Time flies by!

2010-02-06T00:03:00.001Z

I can't believe it is already February - this year seems to be rushing by already. This year has so farbeen really hectic for a number of reasons. Hopefully we've seen the end of the snow for now which caused so much disruption everywhere, though it did give me a chance to get out and get some photos which will come in useful for my 2011 calendar!

Around the middle of January I visited the SWPP Trade Show in Hammersmith and met up with some of the suppliers I am planning on using this year as well as attending a few of the workshops that were available. It was a worthwhile visit overall.

There were a few photo opportunites around and I managed to get a short photoshoot with model Katie Green.

You can see some of the shots below:

John Wood Photography is now on Facebook – become a fan!

2009-12-24T22:11:00.000Z

John Wood Photography is now on Facebook and I’d love you to become a fan. Simply click on this link to view the John Wood Photography Facebook page and then click on the ‘become a fan’ icon.

I’ll be posting details of special offers from time to time which will only be available to my Facebook fans and not posted anywhere else, so keep on checking the page to ensure you don’t miss out!

You’ll also be able to see sneak previews from my latest photo shoots and find out about what I’ve been up to with my photography.

Full range of photographic products now available

2009-12-17T12:24:00.000Z

John Wood Photography is now offering a complete range of photographic products from a range of specialist suppliers. Clients can now make a feature wall portrait of their photos with a range of different sized canvases and acrylic prints.

Canvases are available in a wide range of sizes, formats and frame depths from a square format of 12x12 inches up to a portrait / landscape size of 60x34 inches. All canvases are printed onto ultra white cotton weave Matte canvas 415gsm using Epson 9800 professional wide format printers with 8 colour K3 UltraChrome inks. The canvases are printed, hand stretched and constructed in the UK. All canvases include a hanging bracket so it is ready to be displayed in your home.

My acrylic prints offer a new and exciting way to show off your portraits. Giving the impression that your photo is ‘floating’ off the wall, they really are a spectacular sight and certainly a conversation piece for family and visitors alike. The acrylic prints I provide have your photo printed directly onto the rear surface of the 1cm thick acrylic and then an opaque backing is applied. Many inferior so called ‘acrylic’ prints are just printed photos which are either bonded to the rear of a piece of acrylic or sandwiched between two layers of the material. The technique of printing directly onto the acrylic gives a perfect finish with no chance of air bubbles or the print coming away from the material over time. It also gives it a hardwearing finish that can be cleaned with a damp cloth without worry of damaging the picture. Furthermore, to assist with displaying your acrylic print, a computer cut template is supplied to enable you to ensure that the fixings are placed in the correct position before it is fixed to the wall.

I also offer clients the option of having large format prints of their portraits which can be supplied on their own or ready mounted and framed. Prints can be of just a single photo or one made up of multiple apertures (smaller images within the same overall print). Again a wide range of sizes is available from square prints of 20x20 inches up to 40x40 inches and portrait / landscape sizes from 20x16 inches up to 48x32 inches. There is a virtually unlimited range of options in between to get the perfect print to suit your needs and your home.

Finally, I offer you the choice of having your photos in a stylish photobook which you will cherish for years to come. Books come in a range of sizes and finishes. You can have softback covers, hard backed books with photos printed on the cover or hardbacks with fully printed dust jacket covers. The layout of the books is totally customisable with double page spreads possible. The books look great on your coffee table (you won’t want to leave them tucked away on a bookshelf for long!) and smaller format books make great presents for family members like grandparents.

With all of the above range of photographic products, I have chosen suppliers with a dedication to providing the highest quality finished products and excellent attention to detail, all at an affordable price.

Whatever way you choose to display your photos, I want you to be happy with that choice for years to come.

Jane’s maternity shoot

2009-10-15T18:14:00.008+01:00

On Sunday morning I had a maternity photo shoot with Jane who is expecting twins in just over a month’s time. We have been planning the shoot for just under a couple of months now and it came about after she saw some examples of my other maternity photos.

Earlier in the week I had sent Jane a set of posing ideas that I have put together and which would give her an idea of some of the setups that she might want to try. I feel that this is an important step to undertake with maternity (and also boudoir) photo shoots as it can give the client some ideas that they may not previously have thought of trying out.

After setting up my portable studio in their living room, we set went over the posing sheets I had sent her and discussed what she might like to try. We then started with the photo shoot itself. As Jane has a young daughter, I thought it would be good to get some shots of her with her mum and connecting with her soon to be new sisters. Ellie was a star in her own right and we got some great photos – one of which can be seen below.

We then built the series of shots up to include the whole family and brought in her husband to get them all together for a few photos. When working with children, I feel it is very important to get them involved but also to make sure that if they are taking part in the shoot that they take part at the earliest opportunity. They can soon lose interest and want to go back to playing with their toys or watching their favourite DVD! When that moment arrives, there is little point in making them carry on as children will just play up and you can’t easily get what you need. Letting kids do their own thing for a while will usually also mean that they may well come round to the suggestion of having a few more shots later in the session – it certainly worked in this case!

With Ellie off playing, I was able to spend some more time getting shots of Jane using a selection of the different backgrounds and voile drapes that I had brought with me. As the shoot progressed, Jane’s confidence grew and she was up for trying out more adventurous shots. I never push clients into trying things that they aren’t fully comfortable with – hence one of the reasons for sending over the posing ideas sheet before the shoot. That way, clients can get an idea of what they might want to try and what they might not. I very much see a photo shoot as a two way collaboration which needs both the photographer and client to connect in order to get the best from a session. With Jane’s increasing confidence she was happy to try some of the more challenging poses as she wanted to get as much a record of her pregnancy as possible – the twins are likely to be enough to keep her hands full for a while! The following are a few more photos taken during the session.

The last photo in this post (above) showing Jane lying down with her legs pointing in the air to the ceiling really shows off her neat bump and was a shot we obviously had to catch quickly for Jane’s comfort! Luckily the effort paid off and the result is great.

For me (and hopefully my clients!), the real essence of maternity photography is to capture the mum-to-be in her blossoming stage and her bump in the most flattering way when I take the photos. By directing Jane into different poses, with subtle placement of her hands to protect her modesty and careful lighting set ups we have ended up with a set of fantastic photos that I hope she will treasure for years to come and want to show her new girls when they are old enough.

If you are interested in having a maternity photo shoot of yourself, or perhaps you know someone who would be interested, then please make contact with me via the website John Wood Photography and I would be delighted to talk you through the various options and packages I offer - ranging from one off ‘bump’ shoots through to a 5 session ‘Bump to baby’ package which includes a maternity shoot and then 4 shoots during baby’s first year.

I generally find that maternity ‘bump’ shoots are best undertaken during the 34 – 37 week stage of your pregnancy but that doesn’t mean that shoots taken any earlier or later than this won’t capture you at your finest as every woman is different.

Busy times

2009-09-23T00:19:00.007+01:00

Well it's been a hectic couple of months since my last post. I've been very busy with some exciting projects which have turned out very well. I've even managed to fit in a holiday to Cornwall which as well as being a relaxing time, also allowed me to capture some great shots that I plan to use over the next few months and year.

An event of note has been finished off today with the launch of new offices for a local pharmaceutical company which asked me to decorate their walls with several of my photos including a large 56x34 inch canvas of one of my London landscape scenes. I also supplied them with 3 other framed prints from my series of photos taken in London during the twilight time.

Seeing the finished canvas and framed prints on the wall was very satisfying for me and even more so to hear that the client is also delighted with the finished products.

I was kindly invited to the launch party and it was well attended event with several large companies and trade organisations from the Watford area all present. Our local MP - Claire Ward, was also there and she sounded impressed with the new offices, company expansion plans and of course the use of the work of local artists to brighten up the working environment!

Here are a couple of shots of my work in place in the new offices:

The photos are located on the main stairway to the offices in the building so any visitor will pass by them and see my bio which has also been included (you can just see it between the framed prints in the second photo above).

My revised search engine optimisation has obviously started to pay off as the company found me just by doing an internet search. The search engine optimisation I've talked about in earlier posts is an ongoing process but I feel it's making good headway so far.

Another event I've been busy with that is a first for me is the photographing of a large Muslim wedding. I photographed the first ceremony - the Nikah, back at the start of August and now there are two more ceremonies to cover before the wedding is finally considered complete. The final ceremony is expected to have a couple of thousand guests attending so it's going to be an interesting day but one I'm really already looking forward to!

One final upcoming shoot I've got coming up in a few weeks time is a maternity shoot for a friend who is expecting twins. I'm really looking forward to this shoot though it's going to be right at the limit of when maternity photography is considered at it's best - typically 34-37 weeks for a single pregnancy and a bit earlier for twins.

Check back soon for some sneak peeks of some new images I've taken over the last couple of months and have been working on.

Summer dreaming

2009-07-17T14:29:00.010+01:00

Poppies06
Originally uploaded by John Wood Photography

Sitting here today looking out at the rain falling, my mind takes me back to when this photo was taken last month. Hopefully the sunshine will come back - and soon!

Time as ever seems to be running away with me and with over another month's gap since the last post I thought I would post this shot.

I've had a busy month but have managed to get in a couple of shoots ranging from this landscape to a boudoir portrait session. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum!!

I was lucky with the skies on the day I did the poppy shots - they were a rich blue with lovely fluffy clouds dotted here and there. Couldn't really ask for more. There's a few more shots of the poppy field on my flickr stream so do take a look.

As mentioned above, my other shoot was a boudoir portrait shoot. This was my second boudoir shoot so I was a little apprehensive but keen to make sure everything went well and we captured the shots we were after. Looking back, I had no reason to worry as the collection of images we've ended up with are stunning. Joanne (my client), is thrilled with the shots she's seen so far and I've now got the task of assembling a book of her favourite images. You can see a selection of the images that Jo has approved for posting and a write up of the shoot from her experience over on my dedicated boudoir photography site: Beautiful Boudoir Photos
Thanks to Jo for a great photo session.

You can also see a slideshow of the images on my YouTube channel: John Wood Photography on YouTube - just select the show "Joanne's boudoir photoshoot"

Until next time.

Increasing web traffic to my site via SEO

2009-06-09T21:35:00.004+01:00

I'm currently turning my attention to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for my website John Wood Photography . The site has been up and running for over a year and in that time has had quite a few updates to the content as things have progressed and new examples of my work have been produced.

I want to give the site a bit of an overhaul to focus more on the type of work I'm doing these days so a redesign (nothing too major) will hopefully be coming this way in the coming months. In the meantime I want to boost my presence in the search engine rankings. I'm currently in the no.1 spot on both Google and Yahoo when searching for 'John Wood Photography' which I'm really pleased about but I know that there's room for improvement. I want to get a boost up the rankings when people search for more general photography service terms.

Obviously the way to do this is to ensure that the site is being indexed correctly and most efficiently by the search engine crawlers. For that, SEO becomes critical - the combination of key words and descriptions is all important.

I'm making some inroads into this and reading up as much as I can. I've come across some really useful information and articles that I'm going to start to put into practice very soon. Hopefully it will start to pay off.

In the meantime, watch this space and when the site is revamped, you'll find out about it here.

Water drop photography

2009-06-07T12:47:00.006+01:00

After reading another great post on the Strobist blog the other week, I decided to have a go at the water drop photography technique that was shown. Cue Friday evening and the first chance I'd had to have a go at this so I cleared a space on the kitchen table, got myself a glass dish to catch the drips, set up my camera on the tripod, readied the flashes with coloured gels, put up a piece of plain white card behind the dish to use as the reflector and then set about creating a frame from which to hang my water dropping bag.

This latter part of the set up was to prove the most challenging but luckily I had an old support frame that I'd built for another photography project that would do the job just perfectly. Once that was in place, I was able to suspend a small plastic bag from a piece of string on a clamp right over the centre of the dish.

I added a couple of litres of water to the dish so that the water would have something to drop into and create the effect I was after. Then I was pretty much ready to go.

Using my D300's in built Creative Lighting System, I was able to control the speedlight flashes from the camera and vary their power as I wanted quickly and easily.

I put a small pin prick in the bag and then let the drops fall. I had to focus carefully on the point where the water was hitting the surface and then once that was set, start firing off shots.

As the drops are coming down so fast, you need to take quite a lot of shots to get the ones you are after. Guess that's another one of the joys of digital where you can instantly see whether you've managed to capture what your are trying to achieve or whether you need to keep trying to get that elusive shot.

I tried several different angles, coloured gels and positions and managed to get quite a few good shots of different drip formations. In the post processing I was able to tweak those that I really liked and make selective crops so I could show them off to their best. The final shots have been put up in my Still Life gallery on my flickr pages.

Have a look and let me know what you think.

John Wood Photography website update

2009-05-21T16:16:00.005+01:00

Well, it's not spring any more so I guess this could be called an early summer clean! I've updated the portraits gallery page on my main website with some newer examples of my work. I felt things needed a bit of a freshen up and I'm pleased with what I've changed.

It also gave me a chance to fix a couple of small things I'd been meaning to do for a while and correct a couple of links that were pointing at the wrong page.

Making these changes has also got me starting to think about the next redesign of the site as a whole. Plans are already being mapped out on paper for some revised layouts and categories to reflect where my photography is now focussing (no pun intended!). Hopefully I'll be able to get some of the changes I want to make implemented in the next couple of months.

One thing I have been really happy about is that my site - John Wood Photography is the no.1 site in both Google and Yahoo search engines when looking for me. Guess the early key wording and search engine optimisation that was done when the site was built is paying off. Still, there's always more to be done to improve things.

BIG format prints!

2009-05-07T11:42:00.003+01:00

I just received my large format print (above) for a client and I'm absolutely delighted with it. Overall it measures 80x80cm and each picture is 20x20cm within that.

It was the first time I'd used this new supplier and from what I've seen, it certainly won't be the last! The quality of the print finish is superb and it certainly arrived well packed and protected.

I can't wait to see it finally mounted, framed and up on a wall in their home.

I had a few problems with setting up the multi aperture layouts but these have been well and truly solved now and I have created a series of different sized templates with different layout apertures which I can create some stunning wall art from.

I've been having a go with quite a few styles and layouts from different shoots and these test creations are available for viewing on my flickr stream. The large format prints certainly do create an immediate impact and show off the photos to their fullest. Combining several prints in one also shows the wide variety of moods and styles that can be captured during a photo shoot and is good for showing all the family together or for just following a theme.

I think the large format and multi-aperture prints should prove a popular product offering and give customers an innovative way to display their photos for all to see.

Current readings

2009-04-24T23:15:00.002+01:00

I'm working my way through a very interesting book at the moment. The Hotshoe Diaries by American photographer Joe McNally shows examples of his work and how he has achieved the looks in particular shots using just small speedlight flashes.

It is full of inspiring ideas and is written in quite a humourous way. Joe certainly has all the equipment I think he could ever need, including the latest Nikon D3x cameras and SB900 speedlights (several in fact!).
He's been known to use up to 12 speedlights at once to get the look he's after which is more than enough to worry about!

The book is certainly giving me some ideas about how to be even more creative with my photography - I just need to get out there and try some of the things out now. It's a book that I can see myself dipping back in and out of as a kind of reference manual in the future. Should be some fun times ahead.

Bumper pack of lighting gels!

2009-04-24T22:52:00.007+01:00

I want to start experimenting more with flash and learn about colouring my lights with gels. You can use gels to correct white balance, or gel lights to create coloured backgrounds or similar creative uses. I've had a brief go at this in the past and through the very simple use of an old Quality Street sweet wrapper, I managed to turn the whole of my living room red! The effect was way more than I had been expecting and was my first, early foray into gelling.

LEE Filters are acknowledged to produce the best filters in the world, and their range is outstanding. I discovered that it was possible to sample the delights for FREE; using their contact page I requested a sample pack. It just so happens that the sample pack gels are the perfect size for use on my Nikon SB800 and SB600 Speedlights too!

Now I will be able to to add colour into my shots in new and exciting ways. Hopefully I'll be able to get some shots done soon and then I'll post up the results.

Best image in class!

2009-04-15T21:04:00.004+01:00

My shot of Mount Burgess (above) in YoHo National Park received the 'Best In Class' award in the lastest competition I've entered and scored a 20/20. I was really pleased with the result as I had the competition set subject in mind when I took the photo during last summer's trip to Canada.

It took a bit of work to get the right amount of detail in shadow areas of the trees without blowing out the brighter areas of the photo and I think I managed to pull it off OK.

The 'Reflections' competition was the last of the regular print league competitions of the year and all that remains now are a couple of one off competitions in May. I'll hopefully find out how I've done over the course of the year quite soon.

It's a girl!

2009-03-20T11:00:00.005Z

Congratualtions to Sarah and Ben. We got the exciting news in the early hours of this morning that Sarah had given birth to a beautiful baby girl weighing in at 8lbs 9oz at around 3am.

Both mum and baby are doing well and we're really looking forward to seeing them soon.

Looks like the newborn shoot will be in the offing imminently too!

Great news.

Sarah's maternity shoot - follow up

2009-03-11T09:44:00.003Z

Following on from the item a few posts below in the blog, I've now shown Sarah her photos and she's been really pleased with them - something which I'm obviously really happy about! It was a great shoot and we got to try lots of things out on the day, so thanks again Sarah for that.

With her baby due any day now, I hope everything goes well and am really looking forward to seeing your new arrival (and taking your baby shots for you!).

I've put together the slideshow in this post which picks out my favourite shots from the session. I hope you like it. It was put together with my slideshow software - Proshow Gold, and then uploaded to YouTube.

Happy viewing and any feedback is really welcomed.

Bits and bobs

2009-03-10T23:23:00.005Z

Can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. Time certainly flies! It's been a busy month - though not photography wise unfortunately.

I had a week's holiday towards the end of February and spent some time up on the Suffolk coast near to Southwold and Aldeburgh. I had a bit of a foray into landscape work again and also had a try at some more HDR work which was fun. I've posted a few images on my flickr photostream that I took whilst I was away.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't really ideal for photography but I made the best out of it as I could. I got to visit some areas that I went on childhood holidays to and it really did bring back some good memories. Hopefully I'll be able to return at some point in the next couple of years.

Other things that have been happening include the good news that I have been booked to provide the event photography for a charity ball in May with around 200 attendees. My first go at event photography in February this year was a good learning experience and has helped me to refine my workflow and given me a taster of things to come. I'm also going to be offering a chance for guests to bid for a portrait session with me in the charity auction at the event. At least I've got some time to prepare!

Finally for this post, I came across a really inspiring post called "Transform" over on Zack Arias's blog that he did for fellow photographer Scott Kelby over in the States. The post is a video blog that Zack made and really shows some inner feelings of a talented photographer and how even the most dedicated can hit the buffers some time. If you have a spare 10mins, it really is worth having a watch of it here.

That's about it for now. The next post is a follow up to my maternity shoot with Sarah back in early February.

New lens for the collection

2009-02-04T12:04:00.006Z

Well, after much deliberation, I finally took the plunge and bought myself a Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR lens.

It is something I've been considering for quite a while and after saving up, I decided to go for it. The lens arrived yesterday and it certainly is a big beast! Weighing in at just under 1.5kgs it's probably not the sort of lens I'll be carrying around with me day in and day out but for those occasions where it does get used, it's going to be a cracker.

I've only managed to have a quick play with it but initial results are that the speed of focussing and image quality are superb. Having the f2.8 aperture available throught the zoom range will allow for some great creativity with the depth of field.

The lens should compliment my Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 lens and I'm hoping that the extra low light performance will add a new depth to my photography that has been harder to achieve in the past.

Check back soon for some test shots when I've had a chance to get out and about with it.

Sarah's maternity shoot

2009-02-04T11:44:00.004Z

Following on from the trial run back in November, I had the main pregnancy shoot with Sarah at the weekend. We set up the 'studio' in her conservatory and spent a good couple of hours shooting different poses and set up.

I ended up with some great shots that I'm working through at the moment but have been very happy with what I've done so far. As usual, Sarah was game for a laugh and we got some fun shots of her in her partner's Liverpool football shirt along with the more classical shots taken during a preganacy shoot.

The shot below is just a quickly caught portrait from the session and hopefully once Sarah has seen the final images she'll be happy for me to post some of the bump shots so you can see the finished results.

One prop I did find really useful during the shoot was a couple of lengths of voile fabric which allowed Sarah to remain covered up but with careful positioning let us catch the real magic of her pregnancy.

With more and more women wanting to capture memories of the wonderful changes they are undergoing during their pregnancies, this is an area of my photography that I hope to expand into when potential clients see what can be produced.

Thanks again to Sarah for the fun shoot - am sure you're not going to be disappointed with the results.

SWPP Trade Show

2009-01-22T15:40:00.003Z

Last Friday (16th Jan) I attended the SWPP Trade Show at their annual Convention in Hammersmith, West London. The show filled 2 halls of the venue and had a really good mix of quality photographic trade suppliers on hand demonstrating and showcasing their products.

It was a very useful day for me and I made good contacts with several suppliers and discovered organisations that will be of use to me and my photography. I was able to get hands on experience of some of the dye-sub printers I have been investigating and also met up with some quality printing and framing companies whose products were very interesting.

I was also lucky enough to get some time to do a mini-shoot with one of the models (Jade Cartwright) who was on the Photomart stand. The session was being run by pro-photographer Jon Gray and was being used to showcase Bowens lighting equipment. I got a good selection of shots, some of which should be appearing on my flickr pages soon.

Another successful evening

2009-01-22T15:38:00.001Z

Ucluelet Fishing Boats
Originally uploaded by John Wood Photography

Well I had a fantastic evening last night at XRR's 3rd print competition of the year. My shot of the Ucluelet Fishing Boats was chosen as the photo of the night after scoring a 20 out of 20 earlier in the evening. The judge, Dr Robert Mathie FRPS, DPAGB liked the print commenting on the bold colours of the boats and the tonal quality of the shot overall.

The photo has done really well for me in the competitions this year and it certainly is one of my personal favourites at the moment. The HDR technique gives it an added boost on what was a dull and dark early evening in Ucluelet last year. I had always wanted to get some shots of the North American style fishing boats and this location provided the perfect setting for me. It was a shame that we only had a couple of hours at this location on Vancouver Island.

Another of my shots also scored the maximum 20 points last night - this time for the set subject of Person(s) at work or play. My entry was of one of the Covent Garden street entertainers who was performing for the crowds on a tall unicycle whilst juggling a set of clubs at the same time.

All in all it was a very enjoyable evening and the overall standard was again very high.

Nikon Expo - London

2008-12-15T19:15:00.002Z

Last week, Nikon held their 2008 Expo at Olympia in London. This was the third one I had attended and it was another good day. There was a good selection of things going on and whilst I felt that there weren't quite the number of exhibitors there as last year, what was on show, was interesting.

There were several 'Action areas' as in the past with events such as fashion photography, wedding portraiture, Chinese circus acts and ballet all throughout the day with the opportunity to try out Nikon's new cameras or even shoot with your own. I picked up some useful tips during the day so it was certainly worthwhile attending.

The range of talks this year wasn't quite as good as last years - given that I think I spent around 3 or 4 hours in sessions last year, I only went and saw just the one at this event. I guess it was down to the topics covered.

I did get to have a go on the Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens which is likely to be my next purchase so that was good. It certainly is a fantastic bit of kit - pin sharp, solid and dependable. the only downside is the weight (and the cost!!). I think it's one of those things where when you've decided to take the plunge, you'll never look back - well I hope so!

I'm sure I'll go again next year - assuming the event is run again. I think the funniest sight this year was a guy wandering round with a Canon camera hung round his neck. Wonder if it was a dare?!?

Selena

2008-12-15T19:11:00.001Z

Selena
Originally uploaded by John Wood Photography

After the maternity shoot with Sarah a few weeks ago, it was back to more regular portraits and this shot is one from a session with a couple of my wife's university friends.

I caught this when Selena wasn't expecting me to take a shot and I like the way it leaves you thinking about what was going through her mind at the time.

I post processed the shot in Photshop CS3 and ran it through the Nik Silver Efex Pro plugin which I'm using more and more for my black and white work these days.

First maternity shoot

2008-11-13T22:54:00.004Z

I had my first maternity shoot at the weekend - courtesy of Sarah. It was really good experience, no doubt aided by the fact that Sarah is a very good friend of ours and was happy to try out lots of poses.

We set up in a small area and made the most of natural window light with a small bit of fill in flash through a Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe to light up any shadows. I mainly used my Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens at it's widest aperture so sharp focussing was key.

Here is an example of one of the shots from the session:

I'm really pleased with the results and I hope Sarah will be too when she sees them all. Thanks for letting me capture you at your finest at this special time. Am looking forward to our main session in late January.

Exhibition news

2008-10-27T13:29:00.006Z

We have another exhibition running this month - this time it is at Watford Museum in their new gallery space.

The private viewing evening went very well with a good attendance and we've had a good write up in the Watford Observer as well. The link to the story can be seen here and there is also a full page article in the paper that came out on the 24th October.

Here is a scan of the article from the paper itself:

First competition of the season

2008-10-01T23:41:00.002+01:00

Spirit Island, Maligne Lake
Originally uploaded by John Wood Photography

Had a good result tonight at the first competition of the year at XRR. I came 4th overall which was a good start to things and one of my shots - Spirit Island, scored a maximum 20 out of 20. It is a shot that I worked on a fair bit after processing a single RAW image through my Photomatix Pro software and tonemapping it.

The shot was taken in Jasper National Park in Canada during my visit in June this year. It is an iconic view of the park and can only be reached by taking a boat trip along Maligne Lake.

Hopefully tonight's result is the start of another good season in the competitons.

Joanne

2008-09-30T23:46:00.017+01:00

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to spend a few hours photographing a very good friend of mine - Joanne. I had done a portrait shoot earlier in the year with Jo and her family but this time the photos were just of her.

We had discussed the various ideas we were thinking of trying out and found ideas for poses from lots of different sources.

It was my second opportunity in the space of just a week to put my new backdrop support system through it's paces and thanks to a bit of furniture shifting (cheers Jo and Simon!) we had an impromptu studio in her living room! There was just enough room for getting full length portraits and floor shots but I think it was at the limit of what was ideal. It was also a great opportunity to try out the extra studio lights I've acquired during the year.

After 4 hours of shooting, 5 outfit changes and just over 300 shots we called it a day! I've been really pleased with the results and have made initial ratings to narrow the selection of photos to work on down. I've already posted a selection on my flickr site and one is shown here in this post - you can view the others by clicking the link.

I'm really pleased to say that the feedback I've had from Jo is that she likes what she's already seen. There's plenty more to come whilst I finish working on the other photos.

I'd personally like to thank Jo for being patient whilst I moved lights around, tweaked settings and generally tried to get things right. You were a real star, looked stunning and no-one I've spoken to thinks that this was the first time that you'd ever really done anything like that before! Thanks a million!!

UPDATE: I've now added a slideshow of some of the photos I took on the day. See here:

Camera club news

2008-09-30T23:00:00.003+01:00

Well, the new season at XRR has got underway and tomorrow night (Weds 1st Oct) is the first digital competition of the year with the set subject of 'Structure'. My entries are in so all I've got to do now is see how they do!

The other great surprise I had as the season started was that I found out that I'd won the Glover Progress Cup for showing the most improvement over the last year. I was really pleased to be selected by the committee to receive this award at our prize giving and open evening and it has certainly encouraged me even more to improve further in the future.

Hopefully it will be the start of things to come!

The book has arrived!

2008-09-30T22:51:00.003+01:00

Well the photobook from Blurb arrived a couple of weeks ago now and I'm really impressed with the finished product. It is very well constructed with it's stitched hardcover and printed dust jacket. The photos have turned out very well and the quality of the paper is very good inside.

All in all, as it was the first book I've produced, I'm very happy. There are no doubt things I could do differently next time and will bear these in mind when I produce another. I might consider a different cover like a softback, if I was producing one with any fewer pages in the future.

Would certainly like to try the larger formats on offer to see how they look and feel. Hopefully I'll put together a portfolio book of my portraits soon so I should be able to put some more ideas into practice.

Getting published

2008-09-11T23:38:00.002+01:00

Well, it has been a while since the last update and I've certainly been busy over the summer (what there has been of it!). Time just seems to have flown by and I can't believe we're heading into Autumn.

The D300 has been getting some serious use over the last few months and I'm really pleased with it - though with the battery grip in place, it certainly does weigh you down! The image quality has been outstanding and I've got to use it in quite a variety of situations. The large file sizes that it outputs though are going to require some careful thought on future storage and backup facilities.

Anyway, back to the subject of the post. After the trip to Canada way back in June, we decided that it would be great to get a photo book made up to illustrate our journey. So, 268 photos and 78 pages later, our book is now winging it's way to us from Switzerland. I really can't wait to see how it turns out and it should arrive early next week with any luck. I decided to use Blurb to create the book and have settled on a 10x8inch hardcover with wraparound dust jacket. If it looks anything like it did on screen then I think I'm going to be really pleased with the result. There's certainly something nice about having a hard copy record of your own photos that you can show around and I think a proper bound portfolio will be soon on the cards!

Assuming all goes well with this trial run, then I can certainly see photo books becoming part of my list of services.

It was quite a time consuming process getting it all ready and laid out - choosing from over 900 photos was a task in itself and then there were the different layouts to choose from for each page. All in all, it probably took about a week's worth of evenings sat down laying it all out until we were happy.

I'll update things when it arrives!

Getting used to the new toy!

2008-07-05T20:16:00.003+01:00

Well, I finally did it. I've got myself a new Nikon D300 and MB-D10 battery grip!

We were going to Canada in early June and the opportunity arose that was too good to miss out on. It had a great two and a half weeks shooting in western Canada and I'm really pleased with the results so far.

It feels absolutely solid in the hand and the controls are pretty easy to get used to. Having used the D70s for a few years now the controls and settings are in similar places but there are just so many more of them!

The camera was put through it's paces over the trip to Canada and was used in a complete range of locations for photography ranging from the Pacific Rim National Park on the west coast of Vancouver Island, through to the downtown streets of Calgary and just about most places in between!

The 3 inch lcd screen is a real bonus at checking detail of shots and the 51 point AF system is pretty mad too!

I've only had a quick scan through the images I took and processed a couple which are already up on my Flickr pages. I think it's going to take me some time to go through them all and do final edits.

All I want to do is get out there and use it now - all the time!!

Competition news

2008-04-11T09:36:00.004+01:00

Had a great result this week at my camera club, XRR Photographic Society, when I scored my first 20 out of 20 in our print league competition and got chosen as best print in the set subject of 'Still life'.

My winning shot was of the Gerbera flower below:

Later in the evening I had even more success with my black and white version of my Millennium Bridge photo also scoring a 20. I've been waiting ages for a score of 20 for my photos entered into competition and lo and behold, I get 2 on one night! I've had more and more 19 scores recently but that elusive 20 has been missing. Not so any more.

The result gave me first place overall in the competition on points. Shame it was the last print competition in the league for this year. Still, it gives me added impetus to get out there and get more shots and to get working on next year's set subjects.

Focus - the aftermath

2008-02-26T15:28:00.003Z

I visited Focus at the NEC on Sunday and still have mixed feelings about it I guess. It was very useful visiting the show in some ways but in others I didn't feel that it was much different to previous years.

On the plus side I did attend some very interesting talks on Photoshop, ProShow Gold and portrait photography and also got to get my hands on some interesting bits of kit to try out. I also made a few useful contacts which I perhaps wouldn't have made elsewhere.

The lighting for portraits talk given by Mark Cleghorn on the ePhotozine.com stand was very interesting and showed some great examples of working in challenging conditions and details of the set ups used. Jim Mark's talk on celebrity portraiture on The Flash Centre's stand was more of a showcase of his work but again, it was well presented in a fast paced style with good info on how the shots were created.

The downsides for me were that it was really busy after about 11.30 in the morning and for the rest of the day. There also didn't seem to be that much in the way of bargains available but as I wasn't really after anything in particular, that didn't matter too much.

Would I go next year? Not sure to be honest; having now been to the Nikon Expo and SWPP Trade Show, I felt that there was a lot of repetition going on. Still, it was worthwhile for the hints and tips I picked up during the day.

Focus on Imaging at the NEC

2008-02-22T13:54:00.003Z

Well, the weekend has finally come round and one of the largest camera events in the UK is about to open at the NEC in Birmingham.

Focus on Imaging has been around for a good few years and has gradually built in size and following. Having already been to the SWPP Trade Show earlier this February in Hammersmith, it will be interesting to see how this year's Focus lives up to expectations.

There are a few stands I'm looking forward to visiting to see how they can take me forward with my photography - particularly on the event side of the business. Dye-sub printers are featuring now quite high up my desired kit list. The offerings from Mitsubishi and FujiFilm are definitely the front runners at the moment.

No doubt some other stands will grab my attention too! Just wondering if anyone will be offering the Nikon D300 at the sub £1,000 mark yet!! I can wish I suppose!

Shoot London and HDR photography

2008-02-22T13:35:00.007Z

A few weekends ago I went into London with a fellow photography friend. We spent the day travelling around looking for suitable subjects to cover.

First stop was Speaker's Corner by Hyde Park. I've not been there before and it was quite an experience! Seeing the different speakers up on their soap boxes with the crowds gathered around was a great photo opportunity and kept us busy for an hour. Next stop was SoHo and Chinatown where the Chinese New Year decorations were up in preparation for the big event later that week. We moved on down to the Embankment before heading down towards the GLA building and Tower Bridge.

Luckily we were at the GLA Building for one of their weekend openings so we got to head up to the viewing platform to take in the sights. The best opportunity for shots though seemed to be inside the building on the way down the long spiralling staircase. As the light was fading, everything was lit up and gave us some great shots. Below is an example looking back up from where we'd come down:

We then headed across Tower Bridge to get some shots from the north embankment. My friend got me interested in taking some HDR (High Dynamic Range) shots which I gave a go. Not having tried the technique before I was keen to see what I could achieve. So, setting the camera in bracketing mode and firing off 3 shots on the tripod at 2 f-stops either side of the regular meter reading, I ended up with my photos ready for the post processing.

Back at home and using Photomatix pro software, I ran the HDR generate feature and ended up with the shot below. Not bad for a first attempt I think!

The technique allowed me to capture pretty much all the detail that would have otherwise been blown out in the highlights or under exposed.

Elinchrom's in use

2008-02-22T13:27:00.005Z

Well I've done a couple of shoots using the new Elinchrom Dlite 2's now and I've been very impressed.

My first go at using them properly was for a family portrait shoot just a few days after getting the lights. Everything was really easy to set up and I was up and running pretty much straight away.

As the shoot was in a regular sized living room of someone's house, the lights were barely set above half power for the settings I needed to use. I can see that these are going to get more and more use over the coming years.

Below is one of the photos that I took on the day and has had a bit of post production applied.

The clients are really happy with the images I captured on the day so hopefully this investment in new kit will pay off soon.

Elinchrom D-lite 2 studio flashes

2008-01-24T14:12:00.001Z

Well I finally took the plunge following the SWPP trade show and bought myself an Elinchrom D-lite 2 kit from GW Digital and Photo who seem to be offering the best price for these lights that I could find anywhere.

The kit comprises of 2 x 200w D-lite studio flash heads, 2 x softboxes (one 65x65cm and the other 53x53cm), 2 x lighting stands, 2x sync and power leads, a DVD lighting guide and all fitted into 2 soft shoulder bags.

The lights were smaller versions of those I used on my studio portraiture course but should give plenty of power for the situations I'm planning on using them in.

I got them set up in the living room last night and gave them a quick testing. They were very easy to set up and in under 10mins I was ready to start shooting. I triggered them via my existing SB600 flash set on minimum power as the units have a slave sensor on them.

Once the settings on the flashes had been tweaked after a few test shots, I was very happy with the results in the short time I tried them. The immediate benefit of the digital controls is that the power of the units can be varied in 1/1oths of an f-stop to enable immediate and accurate settings to be made. I'll be having another go over the next couple of days so I'm fully prepared for another portrait session I'm doing on Saturday morning. Watch out for some shots taken with these over the next few weeks.

Got to get round to doing this more often!

2008-01-24T13:51:00.000Z

Can't believe that it's been a couple of months since this was updated but it has been a busy couple of months for sure!

The latter part of last year was busy with quite few things photographic going on. In early November I went to the Nikon Expo in London and got to have a go on the new D300 at one fo the fashion shoots. The camera blew me away with it's capabilities and the way it handles noise at high ISO ratings. I was able to shoot without flash and just using ambient light at 3,200 ISO with very little noise appearing in the shots. You can see some of the results on my Flickr pages. One of the shots is shown below:

In December I did a portrait session with a good friend who had a 2 month old baby boy and wanted to get some photos for the family album. It was a good shoot, though attempts to keep a baby still in one place were certainly interesting!

Christmas has been and gone and the new year has been in full swing for the last few weeks.

I went to the SWPP trade show in Hammersmith last weekend where I picked up on lots of ideas for the future and got to see some hands on examples of dye sublimation printers which will certainly come in handy if I get into the event photography side of things. This is what I'm also considering following some very interesting talks at the Nikon Expo that I went to.

Competition news

2007-11-07T23:51:00.000Z

Well I had a really good night tonight in the second digital projected image competition of the season. I managed to get the highest score on points overall which I was really, really pleased with.

The set subject was 'people or person' and I entered a portrait that I took a few weeks ago and which I titled 'Mischief making'. The shot is below:

I love this shot and feel that it really captures a special moment. The portrait session itself had been really hard work and at first I was a little dis-heartened with the results but after taking a step back I saw that I'd caught some really good shots in the end. I just love the little girl's expression. In the competition it scored 19 out of 20.

The 2 shots I used in the open category were one of my new shots taken in London one evening a few weeks ago, down by the River Thames and shows the Millennium Bridge and the other entry was of St Patrick's Cathedral in New York taken with my wide angle lens. I got scores of 17 and 19 out of 20 respectively, which I was more than happy with.

Hopefully the success will continue......

Studio portraiture course

2007-11-07T23:48:00.000Z

I've got a studio portraiture course coming up this weekend that I'm attending down in Laycock, Wiltshire and which is run by Chris Burfoot. The course is in association with the Royal Photographic Society who get members a discounted rate on the normal fees.

I'm really looking forward to getting an even greater understanding of studio lighting and portrait photography which should help me even more as I continue to gain experience.

I'll report back on how the course went after the weekend.

Processing, processing, processing!

2007-11-07T23:40:00.000Z

Well that's what it feels like all I've been doing every night for the last couple of weeks. I've finally finished the photos from my friend's (Simon and Jane) wedding and have sent them their photos. I'm still finishing off the photos from another couple's (Kirsty and Josh) wedding which was a couple of week's ago now but am making good progress. Will hopefully have all the shots ready for them for when they get back off honeymoon early next week.

It's going to be nice to be able to get round to sorting out the backlog of my own shots which has been building up slowly. I had a really good early morning shoot down by the Grand Union Canal in Watford a few weeks ago now and managed to get some great sunrise / mist / frosty morning shots before work one day. Just need to go through and sort them out. Also have a few shots taken on our studio night at the camera club that I want to get over to Sarah who modelled for us.

Hopefully I'll be able to catch up in the next few days!

Up and running 2!

2007-10-19T23:19:00.000+01:00

My website (John Wood Photography) is also now live. We were able to launch it on the same day as the exhibition opened so the timing was rather handy!

I've had a lot of positive feedback from site visitors which has been really encouraging and there was a steady stream of hits when the launch was announced to everyone. Thanks folks!

It's been a while in the planning and set up but I feel that it has definitely been worth the wait. I'm really pleased with the look and feel of it and will be adding to it over the coming weeks and months - so check back regularly for updates.

Up and running

2007-10-19T23:10:00.000+01:00

Well the launch of the exhibition went brilliantly with over 40 people attending during the opening night. It was really good to see around 14 of my friends make the effort and come along to see it all set up in it's glory! Thanks to all of you - you know who you are.

We got some really good coverage in the Watford Observer with a great write up - the Arts correspondent even bought a couple of my greetings cards that I'd had produced.

The exhibition really does look good and a fantastic job has been done by all involved. Hopefully it will inspire us to keep the momentum up and do something like this again in the not too distant future and hopefully on an even bigger scale.

Just over a day to go!

2007-10-06T23:52:00.000+01:00

Well, the exhibition has been fast approaching and it's felt like a lot of my spare time has been getting to grips with cutting mounts and framing photographs, sending out invites to friends and family and sorting out my greetings cards.

Finally they're all ready to go and tomorrow (Sunday) is set up day. I'm really looking forward to seeing my prints on display at the exhibition and also to welcoming everyone to the preview night on Monday.

For a while on Friday I didn't think the greetings cards were going to make it - the printer had a bit of a nightmare but at 8pm I received delivery of 8 of my 10 designs. The remaining two will have to be printed on Monday - hopefully!

I spent a lot of Friday night and Saturday packing them up with their matching envelopes and sliding them into their protective cellophane pouches but I'm really pleased with the final result.

Roll on Monday!

Competition news

2007-09-19T22:37:00.001+01:00

I got some great news from my camera club tonight that one of my prints which was selected to go into the Harrow Camera Club Annual Exhibition and the Ron Wake Memorial Trophy towards the end of last season - story here, made it into the final 10 out of around 60-70 prints submitted!!

The photo was the one of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York that I took with my Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens. Unfortunately it didn't win the trophy but it did receive favourable comments which I'm really pleased about. Hopefully the external competition success will continue.

Back to reality - unfortunately

2007-09-19T22:15:00.000+01:00

Well the holiday in Greece is finally over and it's a bit of a shame to be back here in the UK after a week of glorious sunshine and relaxation.

We went to Tsilivi on the island of Zakynthos and were pleasantly surprised by what we found. Our apartment for the week was set back up the hill from the main centre of Tsilivi and as a result was quiet and away from it all. It also had commanding views across the bay and up towards Kefalonia and the Greek mainland. The accommodation was really well presented and very clean.

Luckily we got the chance to explore the Island on a Jeep Safari day trip with Zante Insight. The off road trip took us to places that there was no way a hire car could get to, let alone find! There were photo opportunities around every corner from the stunning countryside, the small villages we passed through down to the rugged western coast.

We got a chance to see the famous shipwreck at Navagio Beach near Volímai. It is one of the top 5 most photographed beaches in the world and it was certainly easy to see why. The viewpoint is on a very precarious metal platform sticking out from the cliff edge - it only takes 4 people at a time and the cliff drops away vertically beneath you! The colours of the sea and the stunning view have given me some great shots - will get some posted up soon.

It never seems that a week is long enough but at least it left us with things to go back and see sometime. In the meantime, its back to the old routine again!

What is it they say about working with children and animals?!?

2007-09-02T23:44:00.000+01:00

Well I managed to do both yesterday! I did a shoot for some friends in the morning - Lindsey, Steve and their baby - Emma. We had a good hour and a half or so getting a whole variety of shots of the family.

Straight after that I went and photographed Ben - a border collie cross. Ben is used to the cameras - he starred in a forthcoming information video that was being shot and his owner said that he was very well behaved and did exactly as he was told and when during the shoot.

On his home ground, he was also well behaved but seemed to want to spend more time rolling in the grass having his tummy stroked than having his picture taken! With a bit of perseverance and bribery in the form of Digestive biscuits, we were able to get a selection of good shots.

Have just got to sit down and run through all the processing now! I think I rattled off over 300 shots over the 2 shoots so it will take a bit of time editing out the ones that don't make the cut and then processing the ones that do into a variety of different formats and styles.

Still, it's all good experience! As far as the title of this post goes - I think I understand what was meant now!!! Only kidding!

Monitor calibrations

2007-09-02T23:34:00.001+01:00

I've just received my Pantone Huey Pro monitor calibration hardware. I decided that it was time to get my monitor properly calibrated as I think I'd been relying on the Adobe Gamma setting a bit too long. Getting the monitor profiled correctly is the first step in ensuring that colours of prints come out exactly as they should. You've got to see the photo displaying correctly on your screen before you send it to be printed.

The Huey pro was a breeze to set up after cleaning the lcd screen first with the cleaning kit and installing the supplied software. The calibration process takes around 2 or 3 minutes and then lets you create a profile which can be saved and applied each time you use the pc.

The calibration hardware sits in it's stand by the screen and constantly monitors changes in ambient light in the room and adjusts the display accordingly.

I've only been using it for a day and just for viewing photos, it seems to make them more accurate to how I actually remember it when the photos were taken. I'll have to see how things go when it comes to getting round to editing some photos and the results that are achieved. Things are definitely looking promising so far though.

Nikon D300 has arrived!

2007-08-23T23:12:00.000+01:00

Well after months of speculating, rumours on specs and general gossip, Nikon have launched their follow up to the well received D200 - the new D300. Nikon say it sits in between their pro and amateur range line up but initial reports give it a leaning definitely towards the pro feel.

Has the 2 year wait been worth it? Specifications include a 12.3 mega pixel sensor, 51 point auto-focus system, a 3 inch LCD screen on the back with 'Live view' along with a whole host of other improvements and additions.

A more detailed review can be read here on Digital Photography Review

My first impressions are that it looks fantastic - it shares pretty much the same body as the previous D200 model but is marginally lighter - though not on features! It would certainly be worth splashing the pennies, though at an RRP of £1,299 that's a lot of pennies!

The D300 is going to be available to buy from November, with detailed kit options available in September 2007.

Perhaps this will have an effect (downwards) on the prices of the D200's that are available at the moment but we'll have to wait and see.

Personally, I'm rather looking forward to seeing the new D300 in the flesh and giving it a try.

Time goes by!

2007-08-22T18:48:00.000+01:00

Well it's certainly been a busy old month since the last post! I've been pretty busy with things and have a lot of photos to process. Managed to get up to Crosby to see Anthony Gormley's 'Another Palce' statues on the beach. They were certainly quite a sight - seeing 100 life size statues all facing out to sea in different positions on the beach. Got some good moody shots as the sun set with stormy skies approaching. Just need to sort out and tidy up the good shots.

I've also been to a wedding in the Lake District - first time up there for a few years. It was one of my wife's uni friends who got married and I managed to get a lot of great photos throughout the day. I got all of the photos processed in Photoshop and sent up to them before they got back from their honeymoon. I'd also taken the plunge and bought the Proshow Gold AV creation software and this gave me a chance to put it through it's paces and create a finished project. I was certainly very pleased with the end result and by the sounds of it so were the new happy couple - we got a message to say that she had cried throughout the whole DVD I'd created for them and it brought back all the happy memories. I hope that's a good sign!!!

Being in the Lake District gave me a good chance to get some photos while we were up there. Although the weather wasn't generally great, I did get some good shots at Stockghyll Force and down at Lake Windermere as well as a few other locations.

Here's a shot from Windermere:

A couple of weeks ago I also managed to get out on one of the camera club's summer walks to the Withey Beds Nature Reserve near Rickmansworth. Was really please I went along as it was well worth the trip. Got some great macro plant shots and even a stunning close up of a stag beetle with my Sigma 70mm f2.8 lens.

Last Saturday, Caroline, a friend of my wife's was over and the two of them were heading out for the night. She asked if I could take a couple of photos as she wanted a new Facebook profile photo. Not to waste an opportunity I put the Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens on the camera and snapped away for a few minutes. I got a good selection of shots that I was able to play about with in Photoshop and give her a cd when they got back from their night out. Also had another go with Proshow Gold to good effect. Here is one fo the shots of Caroline:

All in all it's been a good but busy month.

Weekend photography

2007-07-12T13:58:00.000+01:00

I went to Shugborough in Staffordshire last weekend whilst visiting the in-laws. They've currently got a photography competition running to capture the essence of Shughborough - the stately home of the Earl of Lichfield.

It was great to wander around the grounds and get some photos - just need to sort through them now to see if any are worth entering.

The closing date isn't until the end of December so there's plenty of time to go back and get something different as the seasons change.

Struggling retailers

2007-07-12T13:46:00.000+01:00

Jessops has been in the news a fair bit this last fortnight. It seems that they've really been hit by the on-line merchants and have announced that they are closing over 80 of their high street shops and making many staff redundant.

To some observers this might not have come as a major surprise given the several profit warnings that they've issued recently.

From a personal perspective, I've had a mixed experience with the company. They've always been useful to go and physically look and get the feel of photography products which you simply cannot do with an online firm. However, their pricing has been less than competitive at times! Sometimes they offer price matching and other times they don't. At the end of the day, if there is something you know you want to get but you can get it elsewhere for less, then in most cases you'd take that option. Looking at the prices they charge for memory cards, when you can get a 2gb Sandisc card for £17.99 including delivery from an online store but Jessops still insist on selling it for c£60, it's no surprise they're in trouble.

The worst experience I've had though was when they lost all of the films from my engagement trip to Iceland that were being processed. It seemed that the loss was down to sheer incompetence as I kept on getting told different stories. First the films were in the store, then they were still with the processors, then they'd been sent to another branch by mistake. They just didn't know what had happened. Unfortunately this really was the last straw as far as I was concerned. I soon went to owning a digital slr after that event!

Would I be sad to see them go from the high street? In some ways yes but in others, no. the jury is still out so we'll have to wait and see.

Mount board and prints

2007-07-12T13:37:00.000+01:00

Last week I got the chance to pop into Lion Picture Framing in Birmingham and happened to visit on their 30th anniversary celebrations. It turned out to be a very worthwhile visit as not only was I able to purchase a good supply of mountboard for my photographs but was able to see their new digital services team - Lion Fine Print and also stay for a couple of talks which were being offered to visitors.

The team at Lion were extremely helpful and I found them more than willing to offer lots of useful advice and assistance. They've certainly gained me as a satisfied customer.

I've also had back a selection of prints for the exhibition in a couple of months. They look really good and I can't wait to get them framed now. I still need to select some more for the exhibition and also arrange to get the cards printed off too.

Time flies by

2007-07-12T13:32:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since the last post and I can't quite believe just how fast time seems to have flown by. I've been on holiday to Ireland for just under a week and got the chance to get a few photos fired off. I've also had a weekend on Dartmoor in what can easily be descibed as the worst weather conditions I've been our in.....ever!

New equipment

2007-06-19T11:49:00.000+01:00

Well yesterday was my birthday and I was lucky enough to receive quite a few photography related presents.

I'm now the proud owner of a Logan 301-S mount cutter which will allow me to create my own mounts for photographs and give me greater flexibility in choosing what format and size I want to display my photos in. I just need to make a visit to Lion in Slough to get myself a supply of quality mountboard.

A new Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens is also sitting in my camera bag and initial shots that I've taken have come out really well. The lens itself is pretty small in size but is perfect for portraits and creating fantastic depth of field shots where I need the creative control. I'm really looking forward to using this lens a lot over the coming months and years.

I also received a couple of books which will really help me to improve my photography further and provide a great source of reference.

Slideshow / DVD presentation software (2)

2007-06-15T16:01:00.000+01:00

Having tried out the Proshow Gold software for a couple of weeks now and created a few slideshows for viewing on a PC and also a DVD for viewing on a regular TV, I've been very impressed.

It's a really easy process to just drag and drop your photos into the show and do the same for your audio tracks as well. You can even automatically synchronise the length of the slide show to the length of your audio and it works out the duration each slide is visible for and it's transition.

It certainly looks like it will be a very worthwhile bit of software to have.

What a wonderful weekend!

2007-06-03T17:19:00.000+01:00

Had a great weekend so far. I went up to London as I wanted to visit an exhibition at the OXO Gallery on the South Bank. The exhibition was called 'Ocean' and was a display of the work of the famous marine photographer Philip Plisson. There were some stunning and inspiring photographs on display, really capturing the changing moods of the sea and coast. It was well worth the visit.

Going into London also gave me the opportunity to get some photographs along the South Bank. Around by the Royal Festival Hall I was able to get some great action shots of the trick riders on their BMX bikes as they rode around under the concourse. I also got a selection of shots of the London Eye and tried various techniques with exposure compensations to counteract the strong sunlight. I've just got to sit down now and do the post-shoot processing.

Website progress

2007-06-03T17:15:00.000+01:00

The re-design of the website is coming along well. My good friend (and web designer!) Nolan, has shown me a mock up of the home page and one of the subsequent linked pages and I'm really happy with how things are progressing.

We decided on a couple of tweaks but it's coming along very nicely. I'm just sorting through the pictures to include in the galleries so people can see the standard of my work. Not an easy task trying to whittle things down to a manageable number really!

I'm really looking forward to getting it all up and running now.

Portrait feedback

2007-05-23T16:48:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I sent the final edited versions of the photos of a friend who I did a portrait session for with her and her little boy a couple of weeks ago. This morning I had an email from her to say how much she loves them:

"All I can say about the photos is.....wow! They are amazing, thank you so so much.
Simon will absolutely love them and you are right, I don't know how I am going to pick which ones to blow up!........
.......Thanks again, I am so pleased with them and I actually think you have captured him much better than Venture did a while back."

The feedback gave me a real lift and confidence boost. So thanks - you know who you are!

Here are a couple of the shots I took:

The shoot was hard work at times but very rewarding overall and I felt like I captured some great shots during the session. Striking the balance between what you want your (young) model to do and keeping them entertained is absolutely key. A bit of friendly bribery worked a treat in this case and we just took our time and knew when to call it a day.

Slideshow / DVD presentation software

2007-05-23T16:33:00.000+01:00

I downloaded a trial version of ProShow Gold last night and first impressions are that it could be really useful for me as a photographer. The software allows the user to create slide shows of photographs, set them to music and change the way that shots are blended in and out. You can then either burn them to DVD for viewing on a TV, create a self running exe file on a PC and even make available via email and on-line web slide shows. Am sure it does a whole lot more but these are the main things.

I put together a quick show of a recent portrait sitting I did for a friend and was really impressed at what can be achieved very quickly. I'm sure that with practice, there will be loads more to discover.

It would certainly be an advantage where I could create a slide show of the shots I've taken during a portfolio shoot and use it for selection of prints if clients aren't able to meet up for a viewing. The photos would be secure on the DVD or embedded in the exe file so the potential problem of copyright issues would be removed or minimised to say the least. It's also possible to watermark the images for added security.

I'm going to try it out with a few more sessions and see how it develops. Could well be worth offering though.

It would also be a great promotional tool - it would enable potential clients to see examples of my work all displayed in a professional manner.

Safe as houses?

2007-05-23T16:30:00.000+01:00

Well, after the scare the other weekend, I can now say that everything critical has been safely backed up to the new external hard drive and DVD.

Must admit that I certainly now feel a lot happier knowing that if the worst happens, I should be able to get everything back quite quickly. Fingers crossed I'll never need it but it's good to know it's there.

Backup solution has arrived

2007-05-21T15:50:00.000+01:00

Well it's finally arrived; my Freecom 400gb hard drive was delivered at lunchtime today. I'm now looking forward to getting it set up and everything critical copied across to it as soon as possible. It certainly looks good but I was quite surprised at just how much the thing weighs - 750g to be precise.

Still at least it should be solid and dependable - well I hope so at least!

Website - redesign

2007-05-21T15:31:00.000+01:00

A good friend came round on Thursday evening to go through what exactly I want out of my site. He's going to be designing my site for me over the coming few weeks to replace the existing site I've got there as my first temporary presence on the web.

I've spent several weeks scouring many photographers websites to see what designs appeal, work well and what would fit in with what I'm trying to achieve. Sometimes trying to remember which ones I've seen and ones I haven't seem to blur into one big mass!

I think that it's certainly going to be something that evolves over time and gradually builds up as my photography grows! The idea at the moment is to have seperate galleries of my work as examples of what I can do to really showcase my photography.

Hopefully I'll be able to announce the re-launch soon!

Frames!

2007-05-16T19:23:00.000+01:00

Heard tonight that we can now collect our frames for the exhibition being held later in the year. Looking forward to seeing the final product as we've only seen a sample frame which looked a bit the worse for wear really!

Will be fantastic to get my prints mounted in the frame and ready for display.

Last week's competition

2007-05-16T19:07:00.000+01:00

Had a really good evening a week ago when I entered my prints into my camera club's Print of the Year Competition. We had a top judge - Chris Palmer (ARPS, AFIAP, DPAGB and APAGB), marking the prints. He's been a judge at several top Salons including the Southampton International Exhibition of Photography.

I received some great comments and even had one of my shots held back for consideration later in the evening.

Here it is:

It's also now being included in an external club competition over the summer, so I may not get it back for a few months yet - hopefully in time for the exhibition though!

The evening certainly gave my confidence a bit of a boost too.

Exhibition time

2007-05-15T11:08:00.000+01:00

I've signed up to take part in my first exhibition during October. It's being organised by fellow members of the XRR Photographic Society and is going to be held at the Newton Price Centre in Watford, Hertfordshire between the 8th and 28th of October 2007. This is the link for the exhibition information

There should be space to display about 4 or 5 photographs for each exhibitor, so I'm now putting some serious consideration as to which ones I think will display well (and hopefully SELL!).

Valuable lesson learnt!

2007-05-15T11:01:00.000+01:00

Had a bit of a fright over the weekend when my PC refused to progress past the initial BIOS checks. Spent a day or so worrying that I'd lost a whole load of my work as it had been a while since I last ran a backup of everything.

To my great relief, I was fortunately able to get the machine up and running again on Monday morning following a bit of a reset with the brilliant assistance of Dell's tech support line. Felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

The big lesson I've now learnt is to back everything up much more regularly and as a result I'm now awaiting delivery of a 400gb external hard drive to do just that. Will also be burning files to DVD as an extra insurance policy too!

Getting qualified

2007-05-09T12:12:00.000+01:00

My wonderful wife bought me membership to the Royal Photographic Society last week to help me further myself in this field. I'm now going to start preparing for and undertaking the Licentiateship - hopefully later this year or early next year. I need to build up a cohesive panel of 10 prints to get judged.

Think I'll be attending one of the preparation workshops that the RPS organise to assist those undertaking the assessment.

Learning new stuff

2007-05-09T11:58:00.000+01:00

Had a really good evening last night learning how to cut my own mounts for displaying my photos with a fellow member of XRR Photographic Society. Didn't realise quite how easy it really is! Now have 3 of my A3 prints all mounted and ready to be entered into tonight's competition at XRR. Hopefully they'll do well!

Have got a Logan 301-S mount cutter added to my wish list of equipment I want to get now!

Let's get it started!

2007-05-08T17:21:00.000+01:00

Just launched this blog which will hopefully follow me as I build on my photography skills and undertake more commissions for clients. I'm currently building a portfolio of my work, some of which will be showcased here and on my own website which is also under construction.

No doubt there will be highs and lows along the way - preferably more of the former though! Hopefully this will be a long and successful journey.