Learn Photography Tips Blog

My 1st Off Camera Flash Shot

// August 19th, 2010 // No Comments » // My Photographic Life

I’ve been interested in off-camera flash for a while now, and really fancied having a go, seeing what it could do for my photography – so, last week, I bit the bullet and ordered the Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter (from Amazon UK, also available at Amazon US). It really wasn’t cheap – not by any means! – but it means I can now fire my 430 EX II flash wirelessly, with full ETTL support. While I was spending my hard-earned money (oh, how easy it is to spend too much money on photography!) I also bought a portable softbox kit too (Amazon UK – similiar one on Amazon US).

Anyways, enough of the talking, here’s my first off-camera flash shot, of my dog, jumping. Softbox was camera left, using a 430 EX II flash.

What do you think? Have you tried some off camera flash photography? There’s so much to learn, if you have any tips you’d like to share, please do leave a comment below!

Wedding Photography: What I’ve Learnt Recently

// August 5th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // My Photographic Life, Photography Tips, What I've Learnt This Week

I recently had the pleasure of taking photos (lots of them!) at 2 friends’ weddings over 3 days. Yep, quite exhausting, but good fun and really good experience. Of course, I wasn’t the main photographer at either of the weddings – not even a ‘second shooter’, as both weddings actually had 2 pros at each. But I was more than happy to take lots of shots without the added pressure of actually having to produce the goods!

At the first wedding I was actually an usher (the ‘photogrusher’), so couldn’t actually take as many as I wanted, as I had other duties to do (it’s actually quite stressful in itself, being an usher!). At the second wedding I was free from any responsibilities and so could take more. Over the two weddings, I shot around 500 photos. Anyway, here are a selection of some of my fave shots, and my thoughts on what I’ve learnt from this experience is at the bottom:

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A Dabble Into Wedding Photography

// June 22nd, 2010 // 5 Comments » // My Photographic Life

It’s been a while since I posted some of my own photography on the site, so I thought I’d just do a quick post to show some wedding pics I took recently in Liverpool. I obviously – and thankfully! – wasn’t the ‘proper’ photographer for the day at all, but it was still a good chance to have a go, without the added pressure of actually being asked to do so.

I like quite a few of my shots, and the ones I’ll post below are some of my faves. They’ve all been edited in photoshop CS5 to boost the contrast using ‘Curves’, and I’ve added a vignette to some, using this great quick video tutorial. In the last photo, I also used Photoshop’s brilliant new feature, ‘Content Aware Fill‘, to remove some distracting candlesticks in the background. I’m really, really new to photo editing, and I must say I’m kind of enjoying it!

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My First Photo In The Paper!

// March 17th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // My Photographic Life

Was reading the local newspaper this afternoon, and stumbled upon a photo that looked familiar…a shot I had taken of local cornwall band, Gregor and The Martians! Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled to see one of my photos in print. Yes, it’s pretty tiny (it’s top-right, above); yes, it’s a local newspaper (the ‘West Briton’, found in Cornwall); and no, I didn’t get paid.

But it’s my photo. In the paper! Yay!

By the way, the photo they used is this one:

And you can read my full Gregor and The Martians Gig Shoot post, including info on what I learnt, if you feel like it.

My First Gig Shoot (And What I Learnt)

// March 5th, 2010 // 6 Comments » // My Photographic Life

*Update, 17th March 2010: My local newspaper published one of my photos! More info here.

I had my first taste of gig photography the other night, so I thought I’d share some of the pics I took, as well as my thoughts on the whole adventure, and what I learnt. I definitely learnt a lot! Thanks to Gregor And The Martians for letting me take so many shots of them – be sure to check out this up-and-coming cornish band, they rock!

f/2, 1/160 sec, ISO 1600

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