New years honors list announced!!!

Sadly I didn't make it this year.. Next year maybe.

A real blog post coming up soon. Promise.

Two months without a post? It must be the height of the wedding season!

BIG update coming soon. Its just I`m a really really busy boy at the moment - and I am sure my clients would be happier me putting my spare time towards designing their album than waxing lyrical about rather tenuously related subjects.

But a quick brief on whats new.

Rebranding.
Phototeach.
New team members.
Queensberry updates.
Wedding exhibitions
THAT back injury.. again.
Adobe Lightroom 3 and how I have pretty much kissed goodbye to Photoshop! (not quite, but its been feeling a bit left out recently) - with examples of its awesomeness.
Lots and lots of lovely photos! I know I have said that before, but seriously - these are very pretty indeed.

I also recently succumbed to the marketing-men and Steve Jobs relentless drive to make me indulge in all sorts of tax-deductible purchases.

I`m actually rather looking forward to writing it now.

Words fail me....

No comments needed really!!

More wedding shots.

First off apologies for the terrible formatting of the last post - not sure what happened but some of the text got a bit squashed up alongside some of the photos - I`ll try not to let it happen again.

So this weekend we was over in West Wales (Aberystwch) for the wedding of Jenny and Dylan. Had a great time and managed to get some lovely shots. I actually experimented a bit with something a wee bit different and tried to capture a few of the formals in a  1970s lazy summer quality. So the lens flare* in the following image is wholly intentional and the post-processing is kept to a minimum.

We (Kevin & I) stayed until 11pm for some great fireworks shots then decided we would chance the drive home instead of checking into a Travelodge or similar five-star establishment. So I finally rolled into bed at around 04:20 this morning - very tired but dosed upto the eyeballs on Redbull and ProPlus.

I also notice in the last thread that I said I was going to show you an example from Susan & Jonas wedding at Crondon Park Golf Club. As mentioned we didn't have favorable conditions to replicate the silhouette, however with a bit of creative thinking and off camera flash we did manage to pull of this little beauty.

All it takes is an (under)exposure off the sky, a couple of 580ex MKII flashguns and use of the spot meter to tease just enough flash onto subjects. A great effect achieved with the minimum of ease!

*Lens flare is the light scattered in lens systems through generally unwanted image formation mechanisms, such as internal reflection and scattering from material inhomogeneities in the lens. These mechanisms differ from the intended image formation mechanism that depends on refraction of the image rays. For good optical systems and most images, flare is a secondary effect that is widely distributed across the image and thus not visible. But when an image includes a very bright lightsource, flare generated by a bright image region can have enough intensity to become very visible. The light produced by flare mechanisms superimposes broadly across the image, adding light to dark image regions and reducing image contrast.

Lenses with large numbers of elements such as zooms tend to exhibit greater lens flare, as they contain multiple surfaces at which unwanted internal scattering occurs.

Quick update.

Just a post to show off a few of my favorite images over the past few weeks. All images are clickable to see larger versions.

OK, First we have this great silhouette from Crondon Park Golf Club in Essex, this is actually an image from a pre-wedding shoot for Susan & Jona (married on the 5th June) - taken at around 7pm the sun was just in the right position to use their head to block it out, creating a wonderful halo of light around them.

 Using a small aperture and fast shutter speed allowed me to shoot directly into the sun bringing out all the details in the sky you can't usually see - contrary to several comments from friends, the couple were not superimposed over the sky afterwards - in fact there is minimal photoshop work on this image - the main thing I had to do was tilt the image slightly as Susan & Jona were standing on a hill - this is evident in the slight slant of the clouds. This is a lovely shot and something we wanted to replicate on the wedding day - we didnt manage it, but we got something a whole lot better! More on that later.

Next up are a few shots from a recent Wedding at Mulberry House in Ongar. Marelize & Colin were married on the  29th May and the weather inthe morning was frightful - the heavens opened at 10am and it continued on until about 3pm that afternoon - thankfully we managed to get enough of a dry spell to get outside and grab some lovely portraits - we even had a chance to try some off camera flash for something a bit more dramatic. Here are a few shots from the day. 

The following day I had another wedding in East Sussex, a smaller affair so I was on my own for this one (I usually have an assistant on hand to get drinks, take abuse, stroke my delicate ego, carry cameras and even take some photos). Whilst there I bumped into Emily whose wedding I shot last year and as I mentioned before in this blog, Emily has her own company designing and create custom bridalwear.  She was wearing one of her own creations (as was the bride) so we took a few minutes out for a quick impromptu photoshoot in a quiet corner of the garden. I have attached two images from the day, one of Gemma & Mike (Bride & Groom) and one of Emily looking FABULOUS DAHLING! I guess I should link to the Emily MacDonald Bridal website here..

Album proofing.

Again, another apology for being so quiet, but the wedding season is upon us and I am inundated with work - I have three albums I need to design and get out to clients - I have photos from two weddings and a corporate event that I need to sort and colour correct - and I also have changes to make to a number of other albums before they are sent to Queensberry.

When it comes to proofing albums the way I used to work was to run off the album layouts as JPG files and email them across to my clients - which worked well but sometimes things seemed to get lost in translation and it would take extra time to fully understand what changes were required. However, recently I signed upto a new service called Album Exposure which allows me to publish the layout on the web and the couple add their comments directly onto the page where the changes are required. The comments are then downloaded into my album layout software (Photojunction) which makes things a lot clearer and allows me to make the changes a lot quicker.

You can view how this works as Laura & Alex (Wedding at Bradbourne House, Kent, October 2009) have very graciously allowed me to use their album layout as an example to show people. To see how it works, navigate to http://albumexposure.com/EyecandyPhotographic/laura-alex-sample-album  and when asked for a password type in `eyecandy`.

As you can see, this makes the whole process a lot smoother and it integrates into my workflow seamlessly.

Anyway, I have loads of images to post on here, some really fab stuff from the past few weeks, so I might get around to putting some up later today.

Adios mi amigos!

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd, Screamadelica - Primal Scream..

Abbey Road - The Beatles, Nevermind - Nirvana, Sgt Peppers - The Beatles, Born in the USA - Springsteen...

What have these all got in common? They are all classic albums memorable not only for their music, but also for their album covers. However, none of the above hold a candle to the musical extravaganza that is

 20 REDNECK COUNTRY HITS!!!!

Oh yes, I hear you laugh, but really this is possibly the finest example of album cover design I have ever found...

Ahem..  OK, this is actually one of my images that has been used in the US for this memorable compilation - I took the shots many years ago when I used to photograph bands - these guys signed a model release which allowed me to use the image on several Stock Photography sites. Using a website called `Tineye` you can actually trawl the internet looking for  images that you own to find out where they are being used (and if they are being used illegally) - it works pretty well and you can imagine my surprise when this little beauty popped up here on the Walmarts site. I feel it has all the makings of a classic album cover and fully expect it to feature in any future "100 best album cover" listings.. Remember, you saw it here first!

It is selling for a whopping $3.96, so might be worth me buying a copy just for the fun of it!

New project takes shape... finally!

OK I have loads of updates today, however I will probably spread them over a number of postings as I am sooo busy at the moment.

OK, first off is that our new project PHOTOTEACH has finally reared its head. This is a collaboration between Kevin and I that we laid the groundwork for over the past year with a number of our Wedding Photography Workshops - however we have now moved this forward into an official business venture. Our website is not yet complete but taking shape nicely. Initially we are only going to offer three or four courses, but as we gear up and possibly bring more people on-board then we will really push the boat out - we already have heaps of ideas about what we want to do but they need to be bought online gradually. Please note this will not be affecting my wedding work at all - the two sit very comfortably next to each other.

So, pop over to the new website and take a look, like I said, its still early days but we have been asked to exhibit at Fords in Dagenham next week for their EDAP project (staff self improvement initiative) and will be offering a number of courses there - which will certainly get us a lot of exposure and hopefully business.

Jump to Phototeach Website

Dates for courses should be posted in the next few weeks.

Designing albums.

No news really today - broke ground on Ellie & Marcus` album (one of my Weddings at Mannings Heath Golf Club 20th Feb 2010) Managed to get five layouts done which is pretty good going, however they are, as always, subject to change - I find when designing albums I will start with a very rough proof, no more than laying out the key shots in a chronological order, then flesh them out with the other shots of the day. However the OCD in me will usually come rearing to the surface and I will end up scrapping multiple layouts as the album progresses and starting them over - its possibly the most time consuming part of the job for me to be honest.

Anyway, attached quite a cutesy shot from the day (click to view a bit larger).

ABIPP Panel

Just a quick update - I have an appointment at BIPP HQ on the 23rd of this month to present a preview of my potential ABIPP panel - its not the actual assessment, more of a chance to get some feedback from some of the guys who are on the grading panel and hopefully they will be able to tell me if its worth me putting a print panel together for one of the real assessments later this year.  The problem is, I am not entirely sure what they are looking for - I think its more a case of defining a style, both compositionally and the actual processing of the image - I like to think my work is quite distinctive in its general "ambience and feel" but its hard to second guess what`s `en vogue` with the panel this year - I don't tend to go for what is `current` - I`d rather my images look and feel timeless - nothing too quirky, images that couples will look back at in 10 or 20 years time and not feel embarrassed about.  Who knows?!    Saying that I have some great ideas I want to try this year - one idea in particular involves a unique group shot, but its going to be a big ask - it needs a large group of people who are willing to take 5 mins to pull off what could be an awesome shot - not giving anymore away in case I never get to do it.

However I will leave you with a shot I took in December at the wedding of Mr Pip & Lady Boo - the styling of the clothing on the day was very Edwardian, so for this shot I tried to process it to look like a hand-coloured photo of yesteryear - I had to do a bit of research on the whole colourised B&W style, but I think I came pretty close with this.  Awesome couple as well!  

Subnote - the dress was designed and made by one of my brides from earlier last year (Emily) who has now started out in the wedding dress business - all are original designs by Emily and look amazing - check out her website 

www.emilymacdonaldbridal.co.uk

Gallery updated!

A HUGE update to our gallery page with lots of new images to view. Lots of our 2009 shots (and some of my older favourites) , have a look and be sure to tell us what you think! I dropped around 200 other images I had picked to keep the gallery at a manageable size - so much great material from last year, it was so hard to pick what to keep and what to reject - however I think this body of work better demonstrates what we at Eyecandy are all about - 100% reportage is soooo 2000 - 2009. Thanks to all our couples - we had so much fun when taking these photos - this job ROCKS!!

If you have viewed the gallery before you may need to refresh your cache before the new gallery will show - to do this, hold down shift and press F5.

Click here to be magically* transported to the gallery.

(*disclaimer - its not actually magic, its just a standard HTML link... I get carried away sometimes..)

UK Wedding Show 2010

Just got back from the UK Wedding Show at Excel in Docklands- a very busy weekend and now my legs feel like they should drop off and my voice is all but gone - still - we met loads of great people (and other photographers) and the new albums got loads of interest. Will no doubt be spending the next few months going out to see couples at home to discuss things and get some bookings.  Next wedding is Ellie & Marcus at Mannings Heath Golf Club on the 20th February - really looking forward to it.

The new gallery is due on-line in the next few days - the redesigning of the website is on hold - because you know what - I don't think there is really anything wrong with the current one. It just needs a bit of a makeover than a redesign - some new sections and a bit more functionality - but I think the beauty is in its simplicity.

Picture below is of a wedding at Gosfield Hall in Essex that I shot back in January, the very lovely Kim & Sandeep - managed to grab some great images - its a beautiful venue with the most amazing bridal suite - its HUGE!!!
(oh and blogger have finally sorted out their `add image` facility so its a lot more useful now - so expect more photos soon!)

AWOL.

I am still about - just REALLY REALLY busy with albums, preparations for the show and generally businessy  stuff.

There really will be a proper update in the next week or so.

Normal service will resume shortly.