Elinchrom D-lite 2 studio flashes

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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.