MSW-Design Blog

Monkey Business

2009-09-10T09:13:00.003+01:00

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

2009-09-02T10:25:00.004+01:00

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

2009-08-25T10:11:00.002+01:00

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

2009-08-13T18:20:00.003+01:00

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

2009-08-03T19:29:00.005+01:00

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

2009-07-20T16:52:00.005+01:00

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

2009-07-08T10:16:00.005+01:00

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.

Wolfe's Obelisk

2009-07-08T10:05:00.002+01:00

The recent heatwave has made for a hot and humid past week or so, and in the eye's of a photography, sunny summer evenings make for great sunset image opportunities.

So, one evening last week my partner and I trekked up to Stowe Gardens on the Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire border, where there is a fantastic sunset viewpoint at the location of Stowe's Wolfe's Obelisk.

Wolfe's Obelisk is a monument to Major General Wolfe, an army man who achieved fame in the American campaign against the French in the Seven Years' War in the late 1750's.

The Cleopatra's Needle style monument made a great silloette in front of the sunset, helping to show the beautiful orange to blue gradient of the sky.

Blackpool Holiday

2009-06-25T12:14:00.003+01:00

British holidays are reportedly on the up due to the current economic crisis, as families look to cut costs and stick to British resorts for their annual breaks, so my girlfriend and I decided to join in the fun with a short stay in Blackpool.

Known for its Tower, Pleasure Beach and Kiss Me Quick Hats, Blackpool stands for everything that a great British holiday should be. The weather isn't always perfect - far from it - but when the sun shines the beaches and promonades are packed with both locals and holiday-makers, and when the bad weather sets in, there is still plenty to amuse yourself.

Despite not being a great fan of heights, I managed to drag myself up to the top of the tower and sample the great views over the UK's west coast, before then heading back down to watch the world famous Blackpool Tower Circus.

The highlight for me was all the great photo opportunities Blackpool provides - the tower rising above the horizon, the donkeys on the beach, the Fish and Chip shops and the flashing lights of the arcades.

However, to allow for less baggage to carry around, I left my Canon 30D at home and instead decided to record the holiday on my FujiFilm F50 compact camera, and whilst I forfited some manual control with this decision, the FujiFilm still enabled me to take some great shots of what is one of Britain's great historic holiday locations.

Thame Carnival

2009-06-25T12:06:00.003+01:00

Despite only living 3 miles away from Thame in Oxfordshire, I have never been to Thame Carnival before. Not through not wanting to go, but just having not known too much about it and when it was taking place.

However, this year I was invited along by Tanya's School of Dance to cover their presence in the carnival parade, so I went along armed with my Canon 30D and rode on the float to get some great coverage pics.

With political correctness having gone mad these days, most groups, clubs and organisations had turned their backs on the traditional lorry floats due to high insurance risks, but TSOD managed to get past this and boast the only proper carnival float in the parade.

Decorated with balloons and banners, and manned with several of the school's dancers and teachers, the TSOD float was by far the loudest, most colourful and entertaining part of the carnival as it passed through the high street of Thame, and the school rightly won the award for the Best Carnival Float.

TSOD Leaflet Design

2009-06-10T12:13:00.002+01:00

TSOD - Tanya's School of Dance, are now one of my regular clients, having carried out a number of shoots and press coverage for the Haddenham based dance school, and my latest project was the design and print of their summer workshop leaflets.

Using images from our previous shoots, the leaflets are to be used to advertise TSOD's summer workshop tour.

MSW-Design took on the job spec and the information the leaflet needed to contain and come up with a double-sided A5 design, which after proofing with the client, was printed and delivered in time for this weekend's Thame Carnival, in which TSOD have their own float.

This project is a good example of MSW-Design's design service. Design is often a forgotton part of photography, as today's digital revolution has forced photographers to not only be photographers, but designers also, and having carried out many design projects, these leaflets are a good reminder of the design service I can offer.

Press Coverage

2009-06-10T12:00:00.002+01:00

Following my redundancy from image presentation supplier, Spicer Hallfield, back in April, and turning to MSW-Design as my new venture, the Bucks Herald ran a story in their monthly business magazine, which distributes along with their weekly newspaper.

My ex-employer, Spicer Hallfield, unfortunately went in to administration due to uncontrollable debts, and the result for me was redundancy, as the administrators moved in and dramatically cut costs whilst they looked for a new buyer for the business.

The latest news is that unfortunately a new buyer hasn't been found, and the administrators are now in the process of liquidating the business.

This obviously results in major job loses, but it is also a big loss for the photographic industry. Spicer Hallfield have been an institution in the photographic industry, enjoying 100% brand recognition, but this wasn't enough to keep the company afloat in these tough economic times.

For me, not only having lost my full-time job, I am now having to look for new album suppliers, having naturally used Spicer Hallfield during my time there. I am so far undecided as to which new suppliers to use, but I'll be sure to replace like-for-like, so to prevent any disruption to my existing offers and services.

Portrait Day Success!

2009-06-02T10:07:00.004+01:00

MSW-Design held its first ever 'Portrait Day' last week, inviting everyone and anyone to come along and have their photos taken for free. Attendees only need pay if they wished to purchase any of the phots taken.

Held during the school half-term holiday, and aimed at children, the event saw 8 different sets of families come along and take advantage of the professional set-up, which included both white and black backgrounds, having fun in-front of the camera and enjoying a complimentary cup of tea and biscuit.

It was certainly hard work going from one family straight in to another, and trying to entertain the kids in order to get their maximum attention for the photos, but it was a big success and worth all the effort.

With a large batch of images having now all been edited and tweaked, they have been uploaded in to the 'Buy Prints' section of the website, with a password protected gallery for each family, ready for viewing and purchasing.

Keep your eye out for details of MSW-Design's next Portrait Day...

Rural T.S.O.D. Shoot

2009-05-23T11:12:00.004+01:00

It is due to be a busy summer for Kerry and her crew at Tanya's School of Dance, with a list of summer workshops, a carnival and the school's annual summer show, so MSW-Design has been busy helping T.S.O.D prepare with another set of promotional shots.

In contrast to the studio shots of our past shoots, this shoot was shot on location on a rural farm in Buckinghamshire. Deralict barns, wrickerty gates and wooden lanes, coupled with bright and colourful outfits, made for a great set of funky shots, which Kerry says are perfect for the summer show programme.

Contrary to the look in some of the photos, the shoot was actually carried out in dark, overcast and sometimes wet conditions, but Kerry, Becca and Nathan were the ultimate professionals, toughing it out and ducking out from under their umbrellas for each shot, and the resulting shots sure made it worth the effort.

To find out more about Tany's School of Dance, visit their website at: www.tanyasschoolofdance.co.uk

Tips 'n' Toes Shoot

2009-05-13T11:27:00.003+01:00

This was a fun and enjoyable shoot for a local natural nail care technician, Penny, who operates under the business name of Tips 'n' Toes (www.tipsntoes.biz).

Penny is currently having her website refreshed, so she needed a set of new images for her website, to clearly demonstrate her skills and services and do all her fabulous nail designs and beauty treatments justice.

So, I went along armed with my portable studio lights to get all the shots required, along with Penny's web designer and some willing models, who didn't need their arms twisted too much in having their nails and feet done for free as part of the shoot!

There were a great mixture of images captured - with shots of Penny, her treatment room, all her treatments and products, and even shots of a Tips 'n' Toes Party!

It's now over to the web designer to incorporate as many of the shots in to the new website design, so keep posted on the Tips 'n' Toes website and look out for the new MSW-Design captured images, and if you or a loved one need pampering at all, look no further than Penny!

Fantasy Shoots

2009-05-06T11:25:00.003+01:00

Fancy a bit of fantasy? Well, you're in luck as MSW-Design's latest offering is that of fantasy shoots!

Fantasy shoots enable you to take yourself away to another place - to dreamy and classic locations, away from all things normal.

Similar to the American trend of 'Trash the Dress' shoots, MSW-Design's fantasy shoots involve subjects, usually brides, or brides and their grooms, to dress elegantly in formal dress, for photographs far removed from usual surroundings for such dress.

As the name suggests, 'Trash the Dress' does literally mean that the dress gets trashed - usually either in mud, water or even fire! However, MSW-Design finds it hard to understand how subjects would like to trash their elegant clothes, especially a wedding dress, so MSW-Design's fantasy shoots are designed to be a little less extreme - with woodlands, fields and other picturesque locations making the perfect backdrop for some fantasy images.

The above image is a great example of a fantasy shoot - a bride wearing her wedding dress in the middle of a field. Not something you'd see everyday, and that's where the fantasy part comes in, as it makes for a nice dreamy and romantic shot - something you'd expect to see in a fairy tale.

So, if you have a nice elegant dress you'd like some fantasy shots in, or you are a bride who wants another excuse to pull on your wedding dress (without damaging it!), then let MSW-Design take you to dream land with a fantasy shoot.

Tanya's School of Dance Editing

2009-04-23T15:11:00.003+01:00

Following on from the recent shoot with Tanya's School of Dance, I've just spent a few hours sat at the PC, final editing a few of the shots.

With shoots such as this, despite using my black and white backgrounds in a studio set up, there is still editing required to 'perfect' the shots - not only taking out the edges of the background that may be in shot, but colour correcting and taking out any other imperfections.

Within the world of photography, there is a debate as to how much a PC should be used to edit digital photos, in contrast to the film days where only limited editing could be carried out at the dark room processing stage, but one of the advantages of digital is that the shots can be edited freely, using various software packages to tweak shots and in some cases edit them beyond recognition in to a new work of art.

For me, editing is not a case of transforming the photo in to something too far away from what the camera sees, only refining the image to make it cleaner and more professional. Whilst the well known phrase of "the camera never lies" cannot be said for today's digital images, and whilst it is not strictly true for my images, I do like to think that my photos are a good representation of reality, unless of course the purpose of the shoot is to create unrealistic images!

So, all I've done for the Tanya School of Dance images is clean up the backgrounds and tweak the odd colour to make the colours more representative of real life, making for clean and professional images, and then adding the Tanya's School of Dance logo for a final touch.

Parent's Albums

2009-04-17T15:10:00.003+01:00

Following the handing over of Sam & Michael's wedding album, reported on the blog a few weeks ago, not only were the bride and groom elated with the album, but the bride's mum was so impressed she just had to have one too!

However, instead of going for a full-size version exactly the same as the bride and groom's, the beauty with digital art books is that they can be scaled down to create smaller versions, either in this case as a parent's album, or for a small copy for the bride to carry in her handbag, to save carting the full-size version about.

So, a half-size 7"x5" version of Sam & Michael's wedding album was ordered and produced, featuring the same cover and page layout designs, but just a scaled down version.

Sam's mother now has her own copy of the album to proudly show family and friends, helping to further spread and recreate the mood and atmosphere of her daughter's big day.

Tanya's School of Dance Shoot

2009-04-15T16:34:00.002+01:00

This shoot, for a local dance school, was a very enjoyable shoot, as it was packed full of energy, movement and attitude.

Tanya's School of Dance is a village based dance school, holding after school and weekend classes for kids in and around the surrounding area, catering for various dance styles such as street, disco, tap and ballet.

The dance school's owner, Kerry, was on the look out for a photographer to help promote the dance school and cover workshops and shows, and having been personally recommended to her by a previous client, booked me for a shoot with her and two of her dance teachers, Nathan and Rebecca.

We started off with a casual tracksuit look against a white hi-key background, which I had set up in a local hall, and as well as the usual posed shots, also did some action shots with the help of some dance moves and a mini trampoline!

The trio then changed to High School Musical themed outfits for the second part of the shoot, with the High School Musical theme proving to be a massive hit with kids these days, and also moved location in to a dressing room, with the resulting shot due be used by Kerry for leaflets and the school's website to promote the theme.

The shoot was such a success that I have since covered an Easter half-term workshop, capturing the event as a 'fly on the wall', helping to document the workshop on the school's website. News of this to follow...

For more details on Tanya's School of Dance, please visit their website at www.tanyasschoolofdance.co.uk

Louise & James' Wedding

2009-04-15T16:11:00.003+01:00

It was again a great honour for me to photograph the wedding of one of my friends, this time for an old school mate, James, and his bride Louise.

Held in Aylesbury's Registry Office, it was a nice and personal service for family and friends of the couple, with the reception back at the Holiday Inn, Aylesbury.

The couple didn't want much of a fuss and only wanted a few photos to remember the day by, but I still captured over 150 images from the ceremony and the reception, which I think do well in capturing the mood and atmosphere of a great day.

Congratulations to Louise and James on their marriage, and I hope the images I captured help you to cherish the memories of your big day.

Sam & Michael's Wedding Album

2009-03-27T16:14:00.004Z

Since having shot Sam & Michael's wedding back in February, and designing their wedding album shortly afterwards, both myself and the couple have been eagerly awaiting delivery of the finished product from my album supplier.

After what seemed like an age to the expectant couple, the album finally arrived a few days ago, and I arranged to meet Sam & Michael to hand over the album.

The result was a very happy couple! I've often thought that the best thing about photography - carrying out shoots and presenting the results, is seeing the reaction clients have to seeing their photos, and this certainly wasn't any exception, with the bride, Sam, constantly looking through the album time and time again, giggling with excitement.

The album takes the form of a Digital Art Book, sourced from the UK's leading album supplier, Spicer Hallfield. Digital Art Books are ultra modern when it comes to photo albums, with flush mounted photographic print pages, and no matter how well I try to explain them to clients, not seeing them 'in the flesh' never does them justice.

Sam & Michael had previously seen a Digital Art Book sample I had shown them, but the impact of seeing their own wedding photos in their own Digital Art Book still amazed them, and this is the challenge I have when trying to convince clients how much they need a Digital Art Book of their own photos!

As well as Sam & Michael's album, I have also had my own copy of the album manufactured as a sample album to show to potential clients, so if anyone would like to see it, just let me know.

Album Restoration

2009-03-23T10:57:00.003Z

MSW-Design isn't just a photography service - it also offers album design and restoration as one of its main services, as a recent job highlights.

Dawn & Colin were married 29 years ago, back in the good ol' days of 1980, but for one reason or another, the wedding album they put together shortly after the wedding was never really exactly what they wanted.

With a friend of their's taking the photos, the square format photos were loaded in to a cheap W.H. Smith album, creating what was always planned as a temporary album.

29 years later, MSW-Design have been able to recreate the album and restore it as a modern, but still traditional, wedding album. The result is a set of old photos with a new breath of life, with a brand new, clean and tidy album complimenting the valuable memories the photos hold for Dawn & Colin.

The couple still have the original album, un-touched despite the restoration, to hold even more memories of their big day, but they now also have the new album to complete the wedding and proudly show to family and friends.

Christening Shoot

2009-03-10T14:04:00.003Z

Regular viewers of my website and blog will no doubt be familiar with baby Ethan, my girlfriend's nethew.

Ethan is now nearly 6 months old, and with his Christening having been scheduled for June, I was asked to take a few recent photos of him and design the family a Christening invite to send out to family and friends.

I obviously see Ethan quite regularly, and I've carried out many shoots of him for my girlfriend's family, but instead of using an 'archive' image to decorate the invite, decided to carry out another quick shoot to get a nice and recent photo to use.

This shoot literally only took 30 minutes to complete. I set up one of my studio flash lights in the living room of my girlfriend's house, drapped one of my black velvet backdrops over one of the armchairs, and got the shots needed within minutes.

Ethan is now at the age where he responds to fully grown adults pulling funny faces and making silly noises, so it was nice and easy to make him laugh and look in certain directions, adding to the speed of the shoot.

Photography part done, it is now over to the design stage, typifying how MSW-Design is not just a photography service - from photography, through to design of albums, invites and other forms of image presentation, MSW-Design is a 'one stop shop'.

Winter Fashion Shoot

2009-03-06T13:02:00.007Z

It's been a long and cold UK winter so far, with extremes of severe snow, but as reported in a previous blog entry, the cold weather does make for some interesting photo shoots.

My latest shoot was a winter fashion shoot, shot at a farm just outside Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, with my models for the shoot, Livvy and Charli, dressing in some stereotypical winter clothes - wrapping up warm in woolly coats, scarfs and gloves.

When planning this shoot, I had visions of how I wanted the photos to look, and I'm really pleased how the resulting images matched my visions.

Shot against a backdrop of rural farm buildings and a quiet country lane, the images typify a modern and contemporary portraiture style, with a saturated and contrasty effect applied to the images.

Not only were Livvy and Charli really pleased with the shots, but I'm loving them just as much, as they are a really good example of one of the varied portraiture styles I can shoot. The same style works with families, couples, children and individuals, so if you fancy some portraits of your own in a similar style, please feel free to contact me.

As a singer, Livvy will use the images to promote herself on her website, whilst Charli is a dancer who is also considering starting a modelling portfolio, so images from this shoot will be her first entries.

A full gallery of the images from the shoot is available on the main website.

Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers Membership

2009-03-04T08:33:00.002Z

I've recently joined the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers, or SWPP as they are more commonly known within the industry.

Membership of the society has a number of benefits for me and my clients. Being a member of the society should help assure clients that I am of a professional standard and operate to the correct industry codes and conducts, and for myself personally, the society enables me to strive to improve myself further, gaining levels of qualifications, the offer to attend training and seminars, reaching out to a wider audience and providing me valuable advice in how to succeed as a photographer.

Having only just joined up, I'm only an associate member at the moment, but I'll be quickly looking to gain my first qualifications and move up the ladder, so to further assure my clients of my competence as a professional photographer.