It's been a very busy few weeks at school recently, what with Nativity fast approaching and inspection just put to bed so there's been little time for fun and hobbies! With that in mind I'm going to do my best to keep the blog going but might have to accept that it's going to be difficult for a bit.

I shot a studio session for a friend a few weeks ago and it was a bit of a new challenge. He's started his own bespoke furniture company...

http://www.ejbespokefurniture.co.uk/

...and made some amazing pieces, his nesting tables have already made an appearance on here and I was very happy with how those came out. His two new items are a table and sideboard, both of which appeared at the Arundel Art Trail.

http://www.arundelgallerytrail.co.uk/

The challenging part of photographing these was their size! It's one matter lighting three small tables, and a completely different kettle of fish lighting a large table and sideboard. There were going to be problems with shadows, uneven lighting and all sorts so I was a little bit nervous about this one.

The difficult bit was making sure that the whole item was lit, and it was really complicated to get the front and sides lit without casting shadows all over the place. It took some clever placing of reflectors and umbrellas to bounce the flash around evenly and when all else failed we just had to have people stood on chairs and contorting about to get it right.

There is definitely an argument for hiring lights for the next shoot, it will take a lot of the guesswork and experimentation out of the shoot and allow me to concentrate on taking photos. It's hard to find lighting hire around here but this company...

http://www.stevesphotoshop.co.uk/studio_flash_sets.html

...have what looks like a decent set-up for a lot less than I'd expect. I'm a bit nervous about buying it just yet (the flash units aren't all that powerful) but it's worth bearing in mind if I have to factor in driving to and from London to pick up lights.

I'm happy with the results from this shoot, it's great fun using a studio and always very good to work outside of my comfort zone.

On a very clear but REALLY chilly afternoon Alys and I wandered down to Bosham, near Chichester in West Sussex to watch the sunset and for me to have a little bit of a go at some landscape photography.
It's a testament to the Sigma 24-70 lens that it went fairly happily from being used as a macro a week ago to being used as a landscape lens here and I think they turned out pretty well. It didn't work using a wide aperture, f2.8 looked pretty soft, but I think that's often the case when focusing a long way away. I stopped down to about f3.5-ish and they looked fine.
What I did have a play with was using RAW software to emulate a graduated filter on the lens. I don't think jpegs have the dynamic range for it to work but I shot in RAW (I always do anyway) and decided to see what I could get from these photos.
This one above have a very dark foreground so you couldn't make out any detail on the boat, the water wasn't very bright either. By darkening the sky and then brightening the whole picture it's really showing off the harbour.
I think I may have over-cooked it a bit on the one above but it shows what a RAW can do, I don't think that a jpeg would be as capable of such a change in brightness levels from the sky to the foreground (which really was very dark). It's at least two and half stops and although you probably wouldn't notice a difference here, when printed large there would certainly be some visible issues.
The last is my favourite by far though, I think the boat looks brilliant and the whole image looks right for Bosham.

All in, it was a good day out for the Alpha 700 and the Sigma, this sort of shot would have been improved with a wide angle lens such as the Sigma 10-20mm which could have given the scene a bit more impact but I think my wedding faithful did well.

On a very busy weekend before a truly frantic week at school I decided to take a few minutes away from the horrors of planning and see what I could see in the garden. It looks as though the spider's nest I disturbed when we moved into the house has born fruit!

They're pretty big fellas and there are a few of them around the garden (as well as in the house) making themselves useful catching flies. Normally one has managed to get a cobweb all the way across the garden as well, not the best way to be woken up in the morning as you stumble out in the dark to get the bike.

Because the web was in a really cramped place it was too close to use the Minolta 70-210 "beercan" and the Tamron 70-300 can be a bit soft sometimes. I had to try out the Sigma 24-70 as a macro, in all fairness it does describe itself as a macro lens but it hasn't got the same magnification ratio as the zooms.

I really like this lens attached to the Sony Alpha 700 and I'm getting a bit more brave with the f-stop recently. It stops out to f2.8 which I'm always worried will be a bit soft but the background 'Bokeh' (who came up with that word?) looks brilliant with that wide aperture. I tried the lens wide open for some portraits at school recently and as long as the focus is clear on the eyes they look really effective.

I'll need a different, fairly mental macro lens to get the spider much bigger and maybe a miniature studio so I can play with the lighting. Also, I'm going to get a plant mister to see if that brings out the cobweb.

*UPDATE* (!)

So, inspired by writing the blog above I wandered out into the garden when it was dark and probably weirded out the neighbours a bit by taking the 'Wotan' slave flash out and having a go at a bit of creative lighting.

There was a plant mister in the shed so I gave the poor spider a bit of a spritz to help show up the cobweb and make it look a bit more atmospheric. These first two were taken from standing up so you can see the fence in the background a bit, it's not obvious that it's a fence but I noticed it so it bothered me a bit.

Saying that, I was really happy with the photo below. The shadow picks out the spider really well and I think it give a good line to the photo, if you look at it large the spider's back looks almost be-jewelled with water droplets.

For these last two images I managed to get behind and underneath the cobweb, it was a bit of a nightmare seeing as I was sat on a plant and wedged into the corner of my fence under the apple tree. They came out well though, it was the look I was hoping for with the spider picked out against the dark sky.

The hardest part of all of this was trying to focus on a little spider in the pitch black (the flash auto-focus lamp was no help at all) which kept moving around whenever the wind blew. I ended up using a torch to pick it out and using manual focus to try and get it.

All in all, I enjoyed taking these photos and will have another go at insects at some point during the holidays when I can be up early in the AM to get some good misty morning insect macros.

Camilla and Simon's Wedding

The happy couple were married in All Saints Church in Catherington, which was a brilliant venue with loads of space outside and a very pretty church to photograph as well.

http://www.allsaintscatherington.co.uk/

They both had a really good eye for the look of the day and I did my best to record a mixture of the wedding details and the atmosphere of the day.

It was the reason behind buying an Alpha 700 and the Sigma 24-70 EX DG finally proved it's worth. They're a great match-up if you're looking for reliable kit and pictures taken outside were tack sharp. Indoors, the fast f2.8 lens and decent iso were very useful as I wasn't able to use the flash during the service. Inside a big church with few reflective surfaces the flash could have resulted in fairly soulless photos anyway. I can handhold down to about an 1/8 second with 'Super Steady Shot' anyway and combining some long exposures with faster high iso shots got the ones I needed.

They had great flowers for the day and used a florist who also works for the church and did the flowers for the service as well. It's always important to get some good pictures of the flowers, they can be one of the big expenses of the day, but I wanted to make sure I recorded them individually as they knew the florist quite well (the groom's mother was the vicar of the church!).

The shoes were Rainbow Shoes [http://www.rainbowclub.co.uk/] and very well colour matched to the bridesmaid's dresses. It was a good colour for the bridesmaids as well!

I've often worked as an second photographer so I'm used to taking the 'less-stressful' photos such as the details and guests laughing and joking around. Getting photos such as the one above involved a lot more running backwards than I expected! As a picture though, I'm very happy with it, it had just started to drizzle a little bit so the light had dropped of and I was worried that it would come out dark. Thankfully, because I was shooting on manual, the shutter speed stayed quick and the camera coped very well.

There were a few minutes at the Groom's house but we didn't have very long until he was needed at the church, there was enough time to head into the garden and try a few different group photos. The one above was the most successful out of a few fun photos.

It was great to take some photos of Camilla and Simon away from the guests, we went for a short walk around the churchyard and took some pictures around the side of the church but it's the picture above I'm most fond of. Pictures taken whilst walking can often look unnatural, people spend more off balance than you would expect! They look really relaxed and I think I got a good angle.

Finally on to the confetti photos, always very tricky to get looking natural and relaxed but luckily, as well as the weather turning up trumps, they had more confetti than I've seen at any wedding yet! The photo above shows why I like to shoot in raw, I was on manual and as I walked backwards into a porch it became dark and the photos off the camera looked too dark to use. With an exposure boost in Lightroom it turned out well and turned into one of my favourite photos.

The whole day had an excellent atmosphere and it was an honour to be part of the event, this made getting pictures of the guests and family enjoying themselves so much easier because everyone was having such a good time.

www.edwardbryan.co.uk

Ferric Birds

On a busy weekend Alys and I popped up to Wales to see a couple of friends and for me to have a go at running in the annual Race The Train 14 mile race they hold there.

http://www.racethetrain.com/

It was a bit of a giggle, being Wales it rained obviously but it stayed warm enough and I slogged through the mud to a "not all that bad" finish time of two hours and eighteen minutes. The train itself finished in one hour and forty eight minutes so there's a bit of training to do for next year but they sent out a few trains while we were running so there was a bit of banter between the runners and trains to keep you going.

Apart from the race, we also saw Fergus and Rick who are hard at work making a series of sculptures from copper wire and mesh. There was a element of concern amongst their friends that a self-imposed exile to Snowdonia would send them both a little bit strange, and it probably has to be honest. But they have produced these incredible and amazingly life-like bird sculptures so it's more than worth it.

The two of them have already had a piece commissioned and now in place at the Manchester Eye Hospital. There are pictures somewhere in the ether and I pinched this one from Fergus' facebook page to upload here. They have a blog and website on the way but being a busy pair of welders it's not all quite up and running just yet.

The deer really are brilliant and watching their development was very interesting, to get the animal's structure and stance correct took them a very long time to perfect and it involved a lot of research, books on anatomy and even a stuffed deer's head.

This crow was finished a few weeks ago but illustrates their attention to detail, the poor thing's been stripped right back after they discovered a better way of making the feathers look realistic so it's all being done again. It's hard to see on this picture but it's all getting put back on again, starting at the back the feathers are going along with all of the little downy feathers under the wings and above the legs.

Here we have their collection of Wrens made so far, they are just a fraction bigger than life size and utterly charming! They are going to be cleaned and polished up to finish them and will look incredible once done.

The branch is all created from copper wire as well and it's brilliant to see them as a set, they all have a slightly different pose and that gives them each a little bit of personality.

A bit closer up and you can see a little bit of the construction and work that goes into even these smaller birds.

All of these pictures were taken in Wales on the Sony Alpha 700 with the Sigma 24-70 EX DG lens. The two slightly more reddish birds are due to taking the photos using a copper sheet for a reflector, it looked great at the time after a few beers but didn't help the white balance one bit.

www.edwardbryan.co.uk

I've had the chance to assist at a few weddings since the summer started and the Alpha 700 has proved very useful, and more dependable than the Alpha 200. As camera's go, they're a world apart. It's still very useful practise to assist another photographer and I'm putting the hours in, ready for my solo wedding coming at the end of this week! I'm feeling confident in the camera and have now visited the venue twice to make sure it's been scouted sufficiently!

I had a bit of time spare today and thought that I would visit the very lovely village of West Ashling near Funtington, and not all that far from Chichester to photograph some swans that have taken up residence.

http://www.westsussex.info/west-ashling.shtml

It's a black swan that's living there and it's recently had some Signets (or Swanlings, which I think is a lot cuter). The pond's very close to the road and all of the resident wild life is clearly very used to people floating about. I got mobbed by some Geese for a short while until they realised that I had no bread on me. I was surprised at how vocal the Geese were about it and even felt a tiny bit intimidated for a short while.

But, as loud as the Geese were I wasn't there for them and after getting a few shots of them squawking past I went looking for the swan. It's on Alys' commute to work so I knew it was there somewhere but was a bit worried that it might on the other side of the pond, which looks to be part of someone's garden. I had fitted a Minolta 70-210 "beercan" zoom lens to the Alpha which hasn't got the range to get the photos I wanted on the other side of the pond.

Luckily, the swan and signets had decided to have a nibble at the bank on the side of the pond closest to me, they seemed extremely used to people and I was able to get really close. The lens worked well, it's always had very good reviews and with the Sony A700 seems to peform really quickly.

This is a review of the lens, worth reading if you're interested in it.

http://reviews.ebay.ca/Maxxum-70-210mm-f-4-Telephoto-Lens-quot-The-Beercan-quot_W0QQugidZ10000000000751723

The swan and family eventually became a little bored of me taking endless photos and swam of together, the photo above shows of the red beak very well and I was trying to keep the focus on the swan rather than the signets. I'm not sure why one of the signets kept it's leg up like that but it kept it's leg on it's back the whole time.

I'm really proud of the last two photos, the picture above is framed well by the mother's neck. She was digging grass out of the bank and throwing it into the water for the signets to eat. I snapped this while she was leaning forwards. The photo below shows them all paddling off, although you can't see the beak, I'm fond of the shape that the signets are making behind the swan.

Well, it's been a while and as predicted, going back to school for the last term pretty much killed of any blog activity for a couple of months...shocking.

That's certainly not to say that it hasn't been exciting though! I've finally gone and acquired a Alpha 700 which has helped me step up a gear with the photography and matches up extremely well with the Sigma 24-70 i've had since Christmas. Getting it now has got me into a tiny bit of trouble (!) but does give me enough time before the upcoming wedding to get some practise in and become familiar with the new camera.

The series that follow weren't taken with the Sigma but with a Tamron 70-300 which I bought with the previous Alpha 200 and is a bit of a cheap zoom but works well enough and has a macro setting which is a nice bonus.

Stopped out to f8 it works well enough and the a700 helps it focus a little closer, making the pictures a little sharper. These are pictures of the wildlife pond at school http://www.oakwoodschool.co.uk/ which was looking pretty fantastic in the sunshine.

The bee is a bit soft for my liking but I'm a big fan of the weeds around it and like the way the patterns contrast between the pond weed and bee's (or wasp?) body. The ever so slightly lazy photoshopping brings out the colour of the bee quite well I think.

One from the archives here and these photos were taken on a walk around Chichester, it was a bit of a dull day but definitely felt a bit more like spring so I thought I'd have a go at getting some pictures of spring on it's way.

Always keen to try out the macro settings on the Sigma 24-70 EX DG it seemed like a good chance to get up close and personal with the moss and try and get some of the different colours and textures it has. There's a little bit of post-processing in lightroom going on there, I've boosted the vibrance because it was a bit of a grey day and turned up the yellow and green a teeny bit to give it a little bit more colour.

This one represents a bit of a crazy moment seeing how far I can go making a black and white image, it's a bit too saturated and the contrast slider's pretty much gone to 11 but it started out as a so-so picture of a leaf so at least it's got a bit more interest now.

This picture was more about the out of focus areas than the railings themselves, I wanted the spring colours to pop out a bit from the blurred areas. As above, I've boosted the yellows and greens and upped the vibrance a little to enhance the colours. Next time, I could find a bit more interest on another railing, maybe a sign, or bit of different coloured moss to give the picture a bit more drama.

These flowers were just starting to peek through, a little bit of tweaking in lightroom has made the flower heads glow a little, I could have added a bit of diffuse glow but that sometimes looks a little bit Disney for me.