...and like most weekends recently, the weather has been awful, but it doesn't stop me coming up with other ways to keep my 3 year old daughter occupied, instead of watching endless episodes of Peppa Pig.
So the sequel to the recent "beast from the east" returned, bringing cold, gusty winds, and plenty of snow....and lots of different lighting scenarios for natural light portraits. Time to empty the large window sill of vases, pots and flowers, open up the blinds, grab a reflector and sit my daughter on the window sill and an impromptu mini photo session just using natural light.
My trusty Nikon D7000, along with a 50mm f/1.8 lens, makes for the perfect combination for some wonderful portrait shots.
After a bit of gentle persuasion, and bribery consisting of crisps and sweets, time to get Kaylee sat and maintaining interest and attention for at least 2 minutes while I get some shots. Shooting with one hand, and balancing a reflector with the other hand, isn't always an easy process, but I'm a bloke and can multitask...right????
With these set of shots I decided to use the silver side of my reflector, knowing that I'll also be converting the shots into black and white, and the silver gives shots that extra bit of contrast, as well as filling in the shadows. Metering for these kind of shots is straight forward.....spot metering. Filing most of the frame with my daughters face, and spot metering, means you get the face exposed correctly, and the background overexposed, exactly the look I was going for in these shots. For the camera settings, hover over the pics for more details.
Kaylee GraceISO 200 50mm f/2.8 1/640sec
Kaylee GraceISO 200 50mm f/2.8 1/640sec
With the lighting changing quite quickly within minutes, overcast with menacing snowy skies one minute, to bright sunshine the next, I was especially careful as to where I placed her on the window sill, as there were occasions where the sunlight was coming across the left hand side of her face and giving some harsh shadows. By moving her slightly to her right, I was able to then manipulate the bright sunlight to create a hair light on her left hand side.
Kaylee GraceISO 200 50mm f/2.8 1/640sec
Thankfully Kaylee is more than used to daddy getting his camera out at any opportunity, making get shots of her having fun and generally showing off quite easy.
Kaylee GraceISO 200 50mm f/2.8 1/250sec
Kaylee GraceISO 200 50mm f/2.8 1/640sec
After quite a bit of deliberation and thought, and also watching other amazing photographers be successful at it, I've decided I shall soon be launching my own YouTube channel.
Over the past couple of years I've found myself moving more into the tutoring side of photography, which I do love doing, and thought that it's high time I followed others and progressed further in the world of social media.
Now when it comes to photography I'm certainly no expert, and have no formal qualifications in photography or teaching, but just seem to have a natural way of passing on what I've learned over the years to others (well so I've been told anyway), so the content on my channel will be my own interpretation, whether that is right or wrong...but that's what I love about this wonderful art....there's no right or wrong way and everyone has their own take on pictures.
Also this year there will be more landscape shoots added to my portfolio, which will enhance the content on my channel.
So what kind of things can you expect on my YouTube channel???? Well there will be tutorials, behind the scenes footage on various shoots, from model shoots, portrait shoots, street photography, cityscapes to landscapes, and quite a bit of vlogging too. From time to time I will also produce videos showing the complete process from taking the picture, the thought processes behind it, to the final post production of the image in Lightroom or Photoshop. There will also be quite a bit covered about working and creating professional and studio quality images but without paying hundreds and thousands of pounds on equipment, and how you can capture some amazing pictures with just a basic set up.
The first video is currently under production, and should be realised within the next 7 days or so, and will basically be a short introduction about myself, my photography and what to expect from the channel......you may even get a "what's in my bag" video to start off with as that seems to be quite popular.
So once the first video is produced and released, there will be links posted on my website, and no doubt a short blog done about it too.