Last weekend I had a brilliant time photographing Minni, she is a lovely dog and clearly loved having her picture taken!

She's got a few tricks and even has a bit of a name for herself as a skateboarding dog so we brought along a few props to show some of what she can do. The weather was absolutely perfect and the shoot couldn't have gone better.

The owner ended up with a strong selection of colour photos and as always I converted them to black and white so they had the option to print those as well.

We had a lot of fun with all of the props and Minni's getting prepped for dog shows so she is very well trained and was very happy to run about on demand. It took a couple of runs to get the running shots right but I'm happy with how they turned out.

We changed location half way through to bring a bit of variety and although the bluebells have gone, we found a little patch of blue flowers and some buttercups.

I think that I would have liked a denser patch of buttercups but they turned out well, and at the end of this shoot I was really happy with almost every photo taken!

We wandered to the woods near West Stoke last weekend and had a great time taking a few shots of the wee ones. The old adage about not working with children or animals rang true once or twice but they were (mostly) fantastic and we managed some good shots.

 I didn't take much equipment beyond the camera and a few spare lenses, I really couldn't see the camera staying on a tripod! Some extra light could have helped and I'll think about an wireless flash next time. It'd help fill the shadows a little.

 It's true, actual sun in the uk! We did take a few props such as the balloons and chair etc.

 These two turned out really well :) Just having a few clicks after we thought we'd finished and they turned out to be really nice shots.

 The Sony alpha 77 and tamron 17-50 are turning out to be a solid partnership, I don't think that lens has left the camera in a long time now. Fast autofocus, very reliable and great IQ at all f-stops.

As always, I'm finishing with a personal favourite!

Who'd believe that it's already March! It's been so busy with house moves, Christmas and all sorts going on that the blog's been somewhat neglected. But anyway, here are a few pictures of two lovely (and pretty lively) Labradoodles shot a short while ago.

It was a busy shoot as they were very enthusiastic dogs, but we found a dark bit of curtain to shoot against and lots of doggy treats to distract them. Getting the lighting right was the hard bit as they were so mobile but with the flash on remote and off to the side pointing at the ceiling it worked fairly well.

As always, I was using the Sony Alpha 77 matched with a Tamron 17-50 and it's performed a sterling job, you need a fast and reliable auto-focus with animals and I have to say that it performed very well!

These last few images are my favourites, the lighter wall works really well with the dogs and gives them a great colour.

Lordington Lavender

During a twenty minute lull in the summer's rain we piled into the car, grabbed a few props and joined friends already at Lordington Lavender...

http://www.lordingtonlavender.co.uk/

Due to the fairly miserable weather we've had this summer the lavender wasn't as thoroughly in bloom as it has been in previous years but we were very keen to take a few nice pictures of the wee one.

We had a vintage suitcase, a home-made quilt and a few balloons from a party as props; so it would be a little bit staged but a great opportunity to try out some family portrait ideas.

We had time to take a few for our friends as well, the balloon worked very well as a fun prop to play around with and both of the boys really enjoyed themselves.

It was lots of fun and although they both insisted on eating a fair bit of lavender I took a good few photos that I'm happy with.

 After a short while it really turned into an 'eat the lavender' competition and although no one is looking at me I like the two pictures above.  It's relaxed and almost looks like a sunny day!

 I contemplated a speedy lens-swap as the girls went for a walk but shot this with the sigma 24-70 and cropped in a bit.  The Sony Alpha 77 has such a loopy resolution (24mp) it allows me to crop in a fair bit before loosing resolution.

 It was all very relaxed and we managed to get a fair few pictures shot before the clouds began to threaten again.

 The suitcase worked very well, he could almost be about to catch the train and head of on his holidays here :)

 When they weren't industriously munching on lavender flowers (he's also pretty fond of clover) they both pulled out the smiles and generally made it all lovely and easy. 

 There was a little hedgerow of wild flowers next to the field so for variety we took a few of our props (and a child) of for a few pictures.

It was a brilliant afternoon and well worth re-visiting next year.  There are already a few families booking similar shoots so drop me a line and we'll book in a day!  www.edwardbryan.co.uk

The new alpha 77

Well, an investment was made and a new camera was purchased!! I went for the Sony Alpha 77 in the end after so many good reviews and reports.

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/sony_a77_review/

It's only been with me for a short while but has been used already for a few practice shots at work and around town. I haven't shot a wedding with it yet, frustratingly it turned up in time for a wedding, but I didn't want to risk using a brand new and untested camera on the day.

It's brilliant to use though and will be out and about in time for the next wedding, above is a quick shot from Priory park in Chichester (in March, where's that sun come from?!). I'm fully used to the EVF (Electronic ViewFinder as opposed to an optical viewfinder) already, and although I wasn't sure at first I'm coming around to it. The image above was shot as a jpeg and I've changed the contrast in photoshop because it was a very hazy, warm day (again, March!!). I would agree with a lot of reviewers that the jpegs are a little over-sharpened out of the camera but I will be shooting in raw anyway for assignments so that won't be an issue.

I've already found it really easy to use, partly because I've come from the Alpha 700 (the successor to the Alpha 77) but mostly because it's very well thought out. It appears to work perfectly with my Sigma 24-70 EX DG and communicates wirelessly with my Metz flash very well. The 'focus peaking' feature is already becoming VERY handy for manual focus and I've surprised myself by enjoying the various creative styles it has, which I normally ignore on a camera :)

In short, watch this space for more photos from this camera!

Rob and Alison came to visit.

We had a fantastic day when Alison and Rob came to see us a while back in February and we even got to meet the lovely Joseph again. He's the grand old age of 9 months now!

After a busy day looking around Chichester, catching up and generally chatting we thought we'd missed the chance to take some photos of him. There were a few short minutes before Alison and Rob had to go so I grabbed the opportunity then.

These are all taken with the Minolta 50mm and I thought I'd go all out on the aperture and take them all at f1.7. It's resulted in some really nice portraits and these really show of the best of the camera.
He was a bit tired but pulled it together for these pictures!