Nikon Expo - London

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!