Organising a Jerry Ghionis Seminar

Most people don't like, or even hate their 9 to 5 jobs, but I'm priviledged to actually work in an industry I have a personal interest in, and therefore enjoy.

A good example of this is a recent project I have been given by my 9 to 5 employers, Spicer Hallfield - organise a seminar day with one of the world's best and most renowned photographers, Jerry Ghionis!

From Melbourne, Australia, Jerry Ghionis has emerged as one of the most influential wedding photographers of the 21st century. Named as one of the Top Ten Wedding Photographers in the World by American Photo magazine and an ‘Icon of Imaging’ by Microsoft, and he continues to raise the benchmark as an artist who is admired and respected by his peers and loved by his clients.

For me, just starting to take my photography seriously, Jerry is the kind of photographer I can learn massively from, and organising this seminar is not only an opportunity to attend his full day seminar and pick up tips and tricks, but it is also a great opportunity to meet the man personally and have him as a friend, both in terms of business with Spicer Hallfield, and personally with my own photography.

Having spent the back end of last week working with the design agency in producing marketing literature for the seminar, I published details of the event this morning and the response so far has been amazing!

So many people know of Jerry and his work, and want to capitalise on him being in the country and learn from him...I'm excited to be there on the day and experience the Jerry Ghionis experience!

Crewe Cruise

Had the pleasure of being invited to travel up to Crewe in Cheshire for a charity cruise yesterday, covering the event for a friend of mine whose car tuning and styling company, KP Auto of Congleton, sponsored the event.

So, I set off early on a mild Sunday morning and was one of the first to arrive at Crewe Fire Station, where the cruise was being held in conjunction with the local council, with the event helping to raise money for the local air ambulance and awareness for safe driving.

As a 'veteran' of car show photography, I was quickly 'at home' in moving around and capturing the cars, and got to work in helping to document the day.

Much to the frustration of my photographer colleague, who I had arranged to meet up there for the day, with him being fairly local to the event, there wasn't much of the typical car show 'totty' in attendance, but he was much happier when Miss Great Britain 2008 - Gemma Garrett, turned up for some publicity photos.

Armed with her crown and sash, Gemma happily posed for photos with each of the cars and was very co-operative in helping to promote the event, with a friendly personality to match. For her it was then back in her chaffeur driven Mercedes and on to a charity football match, where she was to be playing and not just watching, and just in the few days since meeting her, she's been front page on the Daily Star and Zoo Weekly magazine!

Overall, a nice day out in the north, meeting up with a couple of friends and spending the day taking lots of photos and meeting new people.

More photos to appear in the website gallery soon!

Awards Evening

As Vice-Chairman of my local village football team, Haddenham United, I took along my portable studio to the club's Annual End of Season Awards Presentation Evening, where I offered portraits to those attending as a small fund raiser for the club.

I've not really done too much of this sort of event photography - normally shooting the photos in and around activity in a photojournalism style, instead of being the main photographer with people coming to me.

However, I was able to adapt and I took quite a few orders to help profit the club. Also, it helps me establish myself and MSW-Design in the local community, building the base for a trustworthy and skilled photographer.

I'm therefore hopeful to be invited to other events similar to this in the future.

Kegan Shoot

Having increased my web presence with the new MSW-Design website and posting on various model directories, I was contact by a young local model by the name of Kegan, who was looking for a professional style shoot to kick off her modelling portfolio.

So, she popped over for a couple of hours last Tuesday evening, accompanied by her Mum, who took the role of chaffeur and make up artist.

Started off with some casual, natural photos, with Kegan not wearing any make up, then added the make up for a more glamourous look, with a prom dress, casual tracksuit and party tops providing a good mix of clothing outfits.

I was really pleased with the resulting pics, with Kegan and her mum just as pleased, and Kegan now has a CD of a selection of finished photos to use.

Paul, the owner of the studio I use, and who is practically acting as a mentor to me with each shoot I do in his studio, was really impressed with a few of the pics, which is quite a compliment having seen the pics that regularly flow off his camera.

Full gallery on the website coming soon!!!

Jade Shoot

I was doing photography at a car show in Maidstone back in September 2007, and whilst there stumbled across Jade, a part-time promotions girl from Norwich.

Wanting some modelling pictures taken, Jade remembered me and contacted MSW-Design about doing a casual shoot of her in her nearby woods on the out-skirts of Norwich, as well as then doing a shoot back in her flat with a studio set up.

So, we took advantage of the Bank Holiday weekend and I travelled up to Norwich on a warm Sunday to do the shoot.

Jade has a very natural look to her, so I tried to capture this in the very natural environment of a wooded area, adding a bit of post-production softening to really enhance the photos and show Jade's beauty.

Despite her very natural look, Jade was nervous about the shoot, so I did my best to make Jade feel relaxed and gain confidence in herself and her poses, and tucking my jeans in to my socks so that the bottom of my jeans didn't drag in the mud seemed to help do the trick! lol

Having got some great pics in the wood, it was back to Jade's for the studio shoot, concentrating on some lovely portrait shots and some arty low-key images.

So relaxed was Jade by this stage, she decided to finish off with some underwear pics for her portfolio, which she had never felt confident about doing before, and after a few tasteful underwear shots, it was a wrap and it was left to pack up and make the onward journey home.

Jade was really pleased with how the shoot went, having enjoyed the shoot and loving the preview images as she looked through the images on my camera, and I'm pleased that I was able to offer this experience for her. Jade now has bundles of confidence and I'm sure it won't be my last shoot with her.

Full gallery now available in the website galleries!