Adam + Janine = Engaged!

Janine first got in touch with me a few months ago about shooting her wedding, which is going to be in May next year. We met up for a coffee and a chat at the little-known cafe that is Starbucks - in fact it was pretty funny as neither of us actually knew what the other looked like, so when I saw someone who looked like they were waiting for someone I said, "are you Janine?" luckily she said yes, rather than, "I'm calling security". It was then that I recognised her fiancé, Adam, as a former member of the Preston-based metal band (circa 2004) Asylum. In fact, I think we both competed in the same battle of the bands competition, though they got way further than we did.

Anyway, a little while after this meeting we organised an engagement shoot, which I decided should be in the heavenly resort of Blackpool. Now, Blackpool has many downsides, like the fact that it exists, but as a photographer I kind of love it. Preston, where I'm from, is a bit like Blackpool's more sensible, but slightly more boring (photographically at least) twin, and so I was sure that if we headed west we would surely find some interesting locations.

Arriving in Blackpool, and feeling more than a bit fearful for our lives/sense of superiority, we set about finding some cool backgrounds. Very quickly we found a great yellow wall, which I think was the side of a ropey looking amusement arcade. So, here are a couple of photos from there:

I also really liked the contrast between the red door and the yellow wall.

Anyway, next we headed towards the sea front to take a few more, and as it was windy we ducked in behind a wall. Like this:

After this was a quick outfit change in the pier's loos, going for a more edgy, rock n roll look. I think this was the point where we started attracting a few stares. So we stayed on the pier and found these deck chairs:

Next, I suggest to A&J that they could go down onto the beach while I stayed on the pier. This is when we got this shot:

After leaving the pier I spotted these black and white chequered lights, and got the idea for these shots:

And last, just as it was starting to rain, we had a quick shoot in front of a ghost train wall that I'd seen when we were doing the yellow wall shots:

So, that's the story of our shoot. Comments welcome!

The story behind the picture [Episode 2]

A while ago I posted a photo from Ben and Clare's December wedding, along with a little story of what went into it and the context in which it was taken. I like this idea and I think I'll make a regular feature of it.

Looking at photos is great, but I really think they come alive when you understand the story that is contained within them. Episode 2 of 'the story behind the picture' features a photo from Emma & James' wedding, which I shot a couple of weeks ago.

In contrast with the past couple of weeks, today (30th July) was a baking hot day - probably what E&J had had their fingers crossed for for over a year. I had already photographed all the key moments of the day and they had just cut the cake. The final official duty I had was to capture some images of their first dance as husband and wife. Now, normally I'm a big advocate of using ambient light whenever possible, as I feel that you can really sense the atmosphere in the photograph, whereas using flash can kind of kill the whole mood. This was not one of those times.

For around half and hour prior to the first dance I was trying to envision what I wanted from the dancing shot. Photographically there are a lot of things to bear in mind: firstly, it's almost pitch black so you have to decide how wide you want to open the aperture (which gives a very limited depth of field, meaning you run a risk of not getting the couple in focus); secondly you can lengthen the time the shutter remains open (anything less than about 1/60 of a second leads you open to motion blur); and thirdly you can increase the sensitivity of the sensor (increasing ISO sensitivity gives brighter pictures in low light but also means more noise). Hmmm ... what to do? I decided that the two flashes in my camera bag had been too lazy all day and needed to come out for some exercise. I wanted the couple backlit, but not rendered as silhouettes, which meant that I had to rig up one flash on a stand high up behind the couple and another one opposite to light the viewable side of the couple. The only other thing to bear in mind was how light or dark I wanted the background, which wouldn't be affected by the flash. I didn't want a black hole behind them but I wanted to keep it on the dark side (like Darth Vader). Using my 50mm f1.4 lens I shot in manual mode at 1/125 second, ISO 800, f8.

So, they are the technical details of the shot. The cake had just been cut, but the master of ceremonies tried to immediately go into the first dance (I'd mentioned to him that I'd need a couple of minutes to re-set the flashes after the cake-cutting photos, but I think he forgot) so, very untypically for me I jumped in and asked to delay the dance for a couple of minutes - I never do this kind of thing normally, but I knew that all I'd need were a few seconds and Emma & James would get a far better photograph. Here it is, just how I wanted (after a few tweaks in post processing) - the story completed by Emma's dad watching in the background. So, here it is. Comments welcome.

Lisa & Boo's Engagement Shoot

My friends Lisa & Boo are tying the knot this summer and a couple of weeks ago we went to the candy floss capital of the North-West (Blackpool, of course) to hang out and take some engagement shots. Once the kids (mine, that is) were in bed we jumped in the car and headed to the location. As it happened, this turned out to be one of the funnest shoots I've ever done and was so chilled out I don't know whether it ever was a 'photoshoot' - more just having fun together, with me taking a few pictures.

After parking up we made a beeline for the nearest doughnut stand, before wandering over to the pier - making sure we didn't do an Alan Bradley impression on the way across. We did so many fun things, like shooting targets, playing air hockey, riding kids' rides and playing the racing camel games, before wandering down to where the beach would've been had the tide not been in. The light was amazingly good, with the sun just thinking about setting, giving an almost orangey glow to everything. Boo got soaked, leading to a John Wayne-esque walk back to the car.

Camera geekiness

So, I've decided that a geeky camera blog post is way overdue.

Did you know that there are mobile phones available now that have a higher megapixel count than my main camera, which I use to photograph my clients' weddings? Crazy, hey?

Most normal people (that is, not a geeky camera nerd) are under the impression that more megapixels = better camera, so therefore any 16 mp camera is better than any 8mp camera. Well, this is only partly true. Megapixels do matter, but only to a point. A 1mp camera phone picture nearly always looks rubbish, but does that mean everyone interested in photography needs upwards of 15mp just to get a decent image? The short answer is absolutely not.

My Nikon D700 cost £1,750 (without any lenses) and yet has 'only' 12.1 megapixels, which was actually a downgrade of my previous camera, the 12.2 mp Canon 450D. So why did I bother blowing all that money for something worse than what I had before? The answer is that not all megapixels are created equal. Unlike all but professional DSLR cameras the Nikon D700 features a full frame sensor, which is about double the size of the sensor in most other DSLRs (and many many times larger than the sensor in a smartphone's camera). What this means is that the manufacturer can either pack more photo sites onto the sensor, like the 24.5 mp Nikon D3X, or it can make fewer, but larger photosites. Larger photosites, to cut a long and boring story short, vastly reduce the noise to signal ratio, making clean and beautiful image files in extremely dark conditions (such as in a church) without the need to blast everything with flash. My Canon 450D hit its limit at ISO 1600, and looked absolutely awful at that setting. (ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor - the higher the number, the more sensitive the sensor is, meaning the ability to achieve sharp pictures in low light without the need for flash or long shutter speeds, and with it motion blur). If absolutely necessary, my D700 can be pushed all the way up to ISO 25,000 plus. Admittedly, at this extreme the image quality does suffer, but what it meant in practice was that at a recent wedding I was able to get some shots of the bride dancing with her father in almost pitch black conditions without flash and with almost no motion blur - to use flash would have killed the mood in the picture stone dead.

Anyway, did you know that digital camera bodies these days are only part of the story, and that photographers in the know would much prefer to invest in great lenses, as those are what truly makes the difference in image quality that you see in their pictures. Also, most of the best lenses out there are called prime lenses, which means they don't zoom at all - if you want to get closer you have to move with your legs. The simpler design of these lenses means fewer compromises and almost always a fast maximum aperture (the ability to let in more light per click of the shutter) of f2.8, f1.4, or even f1.2 in some cases.

These professional lenses are really really good, but unfortunately they have price tags to go with it. All of the lenses I want at the moment are over £1,000 each at the moment, used. Here's what I've got in my bag at the moment and how I use them as tools in my photography.

Nikon 28mm f2.8D - this wide angle prime lens helps me get large group shots at weddings, captures great landscapes and enables me to take pictures of a bride getting ready in extremely cramped rooms.

Nikon 50mm f1.4G - a standard prime lens, this is neither wide angle nor telephoto, meaning it roughly sees what I see. The image quality is amazing and the mega-fast maximum aperture means I can shoot in the lowest levels of light and also blur out a background completely.

Nikon 70-200mm f2.8G - this is a professional grade telephoto zoom lens that is renowned for its ability to make amazing portraits. In a wedding I can stand at a distance and record details, emotions, etc, without interfering in the scene. By the way, a tip is never to use a wide angle lens to take a close-up portrait as it will distort the subject's features.

Nikon 105mm f2.8 Micro - This is a new addition to my collection (it's being delivered in the next day or two). A macro lens is a lens that allows the photographer to get ultra close to the subject, making it ideal for taking photos of insects. Wedding photographers use a macro lens to get great, detailed photos of things like rings, which are too small to be photographed well with other lenses without the help of a closeup filter.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll indulge in another geek-out session very soon.
Bye!

P.s. If you have any questions about photography I'd be delighted to help in any way I can.


- Posted using BlogPress

Kathryn & Matt!

It probably hadn't escaped your attention that I'd been looking forward to this wedding for aaaaaaages. A month or so back I went down to Bristol to meet up with our friends Kathryn and Matt, and to do an engagement photoshoot with them. Now I get to share their wedding day with you, as I saw it.

We actually drove the 196 miles down from Preston to Bristol the day before (kids handily dropped off with the grandparents, and took part in a wedding rehearsal, followed by a meal out with Kathryn's family). I should probably mention that my wife Shirah was a bridesmaid!

The weather on the day was a bit crappy, but that didn't spoil a thing. Luckily the B&B we were staying in was only a 5 minute walk (or as I found out also a 5 minute run, with all my camera gear flailing around) from the church. Note to self: must get fit if I'm not to have a premature heart-attack. While Kathryn went off to get her hair done I had a sneak around the B&B looking for good photographic opportunities, then when they went off to get the flowers I set about photographing the dress, tiara, shoes, and anything else I thought told the story of the day. The rings were AWOL and it was only when I legged it up to the church that I managed to track them down to photograph - all of which took about 1 minute, but luckily within this minute I managed to find a great background for them (well, I thought it was great. the best man probably thought I was insane).

After some portraits of Kathryn with her bridesmaids it was time to get to the church. Now, it turns out that M&K have some super-cool friends, who'd really done so much to help make their day run without a hitch. Ross, I think you should be a professional wedding co-ordinator! The rest of the day ran really well, with some great speeches, a song performed by Matt to Kathryn, and some of the funkiest dancing I've seen since I was at the primary school disco 20 years ago.

Hope you like the photos - I'd love to hear your comments, and, if you were there too, your memories from the day! I'll be posting more images when M&K return from their honeymoon :)

One year on ...

It seems hard for me to believe, but it's now just over a year since I set up my 'other baby', Philip Bamber Photography. So much has happened, so much has changed, that i'm struggling to keep up - looking at my website now you'd probably find it strange to know that i originally had no intention of doing anything besides kids' photography. No weddings. Never. So, what changed? Well, what didn't?!

Though I'm still on the world's steepest learning curve and I'm only taking baby steps, I can't help but be pleased with how things are going, especially considering I have to work another job as well. I've spent countless hours wrestling with questions like "who am I, not only as a photographer, but also as a person?"' and not necessarily getting many clear cut answers. In fact, just as I think I'm closing in on the answer there is a shift in what I want, my artistic tastes, etc, etc, so I feel a bit like a greyhound chasing a mechanical rabbit at times. The CEO of Starbucks has also had at least 3 cruises, paid for entirely by my Latte purchases, as i try to put all my fragments of ideas and concepts into a tangible business plan - this still evades me, as my original 2 million page plan (for the kids' photography) is now utterly obsolete.

So where did the wedding photography thing come from? You know what, I honestly don't know. As I say, I'd never had a wedding enquiry before and wasn't even advertising this service, when a friend commented on some pictures she'd seen on the ubiquitous Facebook and mentioned (I think she was joking at the time) about maybe doing her wedding. So i thought, you know what, this could be fun, and as it was almost 2 years in the future it didn't stress me out too much. Since then I've shot 2 weddings (both such great experiences in such different ways), with several more booked for the coming months. Honestly, though I've enjoyed many of my jobs in the past, nothing fulfils me and makes me want to push myself as much as my little photography business. I have no desire to create a world-wide franchise, and most of the most inspiring photographers I have seen and heard have been the most humble.

So who am i now? I want to be:
Creative; honest; ethical; artistically uncompromising; down-to-earth; friendly; approachable; efficient; respectful; passionate; utterly referrable

I guess this is my 'to be' list, which is something I have got from one of my favourite photography professionals, Mike Larson. I know that I am never going to be all of these things at any one time and I will probably fail many times, but it is something I strive for at all times - my perfect future self, if you will.

My hopes for the next 12 months are to give my all to my clients, not just in terms of taking beautiful and artistic photographs, but in creating a generally wonderful experience all round. I want to make a move towards including slightly quirky, individual weddings, as well as classical ones. I want I want I want.

So yeah, happy birthday to me and thank you to all my clients, both past and present, I'd be nowhere without you guys.

All the best,
Phil


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Matt & Kathryn's Engagement Shoot

1) I love engagement shoots
2) I love Bristol

It goes without saying that when both of the above combine it makes me happy. Matt and Kathryn are good friends of mine and are going to become Mr & Mrs in May. This was my 4th visit to Bristol in about 9 months, and I love how artistic and alive it is, with all kinds of people doing their thing.
 
For the shoot I was totally relying on M&K to help me out with locations, and they took me to a couple of really nice places - Matt was keen to avoid the typical graffiti'd wall backgrounds so we headed to a cool park with some secluded little areas. Now, here's where I should probably admit that I HATE having my photo taken, and generally look like either a terrorist or a village idiot (or a combination of the two, which is worrying). Luckily, M&K really helped me out and at least pretended not to be too self-conscious.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how edgy the background, how sublime the lighting conditions are, and how well composed the pose it, if the couple are tense and not having fun the photos will simply not be any good. I'm really happy with the way the shoot went and I dare say we even had a bit of fun along the way, too.

Anyway, here are a few photos of this most excellent of couples, and I can't wait till May!

Phil