Monkey Business

No matter how good a photographer may be, the massive scope of the photography industry means that you can never know it all - either in technique, business know-how or just shoot ideas, so photographers regularly top-up their knowledge and skills by attending some of the many training days on offer.

In this instance, I went along to a Monkey Business training day hosted by well-known photographer, Mark Cleghorn. I've know Mark for a while through my position at Spicer Hallfield, the wedding album manufacturer that is unfortunately no more, and he always offers really simple but effective advice with regards to all things photography.

Held in Earls Court, London, this Monkey Business session focused on fashion photography, with Mark giving advice on how to not only market fashion photography services, but also going through effective lighting set-ups.

The great thing about this training day was that after seeing Mark demonstrate the lighting, the delegates were invited to have a go with their own cameras, which not only lets you have a go with the lighting set-up, but allows you to bring home samples to refer to at a later date.

On the Set of Hotel Babylon

Having seen an auction of Hotel Babylon props advertised in the local paper, a group of us went along on the viewing day to have a nose and see exactly what was on offer.

What we didn't realise is that Hotel Babylon, the hit BBC series based in a London 5-star hotel, is filmed in a warehouse only just up the road from where we live, and this is where the auction was being held, so we turned up expecting a typical auction room with random bits of furniture and props scattered about, but what we found was the whole entire set for the show!

Being quite a fan of Hotel Babylon, it was quite exciting to be met with the well-known revolving doors, the hotel lobby, the bar, the restaurant, the manager's office, the staff room, the corridors and bedrooms, being able to walk in like one of the many famous guests the programme has featured over the years.

Unfortunately, not knowing just what we'd find, I'd stupidly left my camera at home, but we did have a compact camera with us to grab a few snapshots, with my favourite shot being myself stood behind the Concierge Desk, where Dexter Fletcher's character Tony Casemore frequent resides.

However, although it was great to be able to walk around such a surreal set, in a way it ruined an illusion, as close-up everything is so fake and flimsy. The show really does give you the impression of a real life London hotel, but in reality, it is London skyline backdrops hanging outside the windows, lifts that only open and close and ice that is plastic!

Still, it goes to show how something false and not all that it seems can be made to look real for the camera, which is something I can bear in mind and learn from in benefit of my photography.

New TSOD Teacher

After a summer holiday to coincide with the school holidays, the Tanya's School of Dance team are preparing for the new term with the addition of a new teacher.

Sophie, a recent ex-pupil of the school, is to join existing teachers, Kerry, Nathan and Rebecca, so MSW-Design was asked to carry out a shoot to mark the new addition to the team.

So, with MSW-Design's portable white hi-key background set-up in the local hall, all four teachers got together for a set of group and individual shots, a selection of which will be used to announce Sophie as the new teacher on the dance school's website.

The photo shoot also included a Ghostbusters theme, which will be used for leaflets to promote TSOD's halloween themed workshops in October.

Golf Day at Mentmore

After covering a friend's annual golf day last year in celebration of his 40th birthday, it was a case of "the same again" with another visit to Mentmore Golf Club for his 41st birthday.

Now, I'm not really in to golf...I don't dislike it, but I don't really pay much attention to it on the TV or in the news, and the very few times I have actually picked up and swung a golf club, the results haven't been good, so I have decided that perhaps golf isn't for me?

So when it comes to my friend's golf day, I'm more than happy to attend for the purpose of taking 'shots' with my camera and not a golf club! Having hired a nifty little electric golf buggy, I zoomed about the lovely green course from hole to hole, capturing each group of players as they smashed balls miles down the fairway, read the contours of the green and searched for stray balls in the undergrowth.

The end result is a short video montage of the images, animated to music and playable through a DVD player. If you were a player that took part in the golf day, the video is available as from now, so please feel free to contact me for details.

Back To My Roots

Sorry...a second consecutive motorsport posting! Fresh from my outing in a Formula Silverstone racing car, it got my taste for 4 wheels flowing again and I decided to pop along to a modified car show at Santa Pod to see what images I could grab myself.

Believe it or not, car shows are where I first found my passion for photography. I used to go along as a hobbyist and enjoy recording all the best cars of the day on my camera. Starting off by just taking pics of the cars parked up, I gradually got more and more creative, which tied in with me upgrading my kit as my photography passion envolved.

So, along I went to Santa Pod - one of Europe's best dragster 1/4 mile runway venues, just outside Northampton, which proved to a be a trip up memory lane. I must admit that I felt a bit old walking around amongst the younger generation that I once belonged to, but it wasn't just me that had grown up, the quality of the cars had too.

There were two main areas for capturing action - the 'drift' area and the of course the drag strip. In order to snap the action in a creative way, I used a 'panning' technique, which involves a slow shutter speed and a panning/tracking action to follow the car. This creates a sharp car and a blurred background, thus giving the impression of speed, adding a sense of action to the shot.

Birthday Treat

Another year of my life has passed and to mark the occasion my lovely girlfiend treated me to a Single Seater Racing Car experience at Silverstone.

Anyone who knows me well will know how much I like my cars and motorsport, so the chance to race around in a Formula Silverstone racing car was awesome!

I had been on a similar experience before for my 18th birthday (all those years ago!) and although I enjoyed it, I didn't have much driving experience behind me and I didn't feel I got as much as I could of out of the day, but this time round, having now driven for 14 years, I was determined to grab the car by the scruff of the neck and push it to its limits.

A wet and miserable day certainly made the limits a lot closer than usual, with big puddles on the track and heavy rain making for very tricky driving conditions, and whilst attempting to get to know the car and find the limits, it was sometimes like driving on a skating rink, but what fun!

Whilst other drivers in the group were sliding off and smacking in to concrete walls, I managed to keep it together and put in what I thought were pretty quick laps, but in reality I was probably seconds off the pace of that of an instructor in the same conditions, and I'll admit to a cheeky spin in my eagerness to plant the throttle coming out of the hairpin!

The speed and responsiveness of the car was incredible - capable of 135mph and the closest thing Joe Public is likely to get to driving a Formula 1 car. I certainly now have a lot more admiration for the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button when they are faced with wet conditions - knowing the car can snap away from them at any moment and not being able to see for the spray and mist.

To get back to a photographic nature though, I took the opportunity afterwards to snap a few 'panning' shots of the cars during the session following mine, albeit not the first time I have photographed motorsport at Silverstone, but knowing I was driving the cars just minutes earlier made it even more of a joy to capture.

TSOD Summer Show 2009

Regular readers of my blog will know of my regular projects in conjunction with Tanya's School of Dance, and all the recent projects culminated in the school's summer show, held at Long Crendon School in Buckinghamshire.

The show featured over 200 of the dance school's pupils, all performing on the stage in one or more dance routines, making for a 90 minute show spectacular.

MSW-Design were invited along to the show's dress rehearsal a week before the first public showing to take photos of all the cast, and after a busy day of studio style shoots, turned up at the first showing a week later to sell prints to audience members.

With three shows over two days, it was a busy weekend for not only MSW-Design, but all the hard-working and dedicated dancers and tutors, and the shows were deemed a great success for everyone involved.

Now the summer shows have been 'put to bed', thoughts are now on the dance school's summer workshops and the new term. There are also plans for a couple more dance group photo shoots and a TSOD 2010 calendar shoot!

Find out more about Tanya's School of Dance at www.tanyasschoolofdance.co.uk.