On May 8th the TPAS Cymru Awards were held at the All Nations Centre in Cardiff. It was a pleasure to be the attending photographer and hear about community projects from all over Wales. Well done to all those nominated and of course to the winners. Truly inspiring day for me as it always is, just a pleasure to be involved.
On a lovely day this September Emma & Howell tied the knot in South Wales. The weather was perfect for the beautiful service in Pontcanna, a stylish suburb of Cardiff. The sweet shop the bride and groom prepared for their guests was very popular and I have to admit I had to try a ‘flying saucer’ as I’ve not had one of those since the ’80′s. Micheal Bublé started the evening off on the right foot with a perfectly chosen number for the first dance. It was a pleasure to be the wedding photographer for the day.
Sera Barnes from Palomino Photo held another fashion photography workshop by request of Blackmill Camera Club at the end of a beautifully sunny Monday yesterday. Getting to the venue just before the ‘golden hour’ we made use of the light from the setting sun on our model for the evening, the lovely Christy. A good tip if anyone is new to fashion photography is do a little research to find an image or a pose to give you a base to start. Your image will probably look nothing like your initial idea but having a reference point allows for a more constructive session when you are on a time limit with a model and if you don’t have a clue where to start. If you initially try to copy an image, take a shot, and start your own interpretation from there. Ask the model to move, reposition yourself at different angles to see what works best. Make sure you don’t cut off hands and feet and watch the positioning of the hands as they can ruin an otherwise great image. The best tip is practice, practice, practice, develop your own style and you’ll get to grips with it in no time. If you don’t know where to find a local model the website model mayhem will introduce you to a wide variety of subjects who normally work fro free in return for your images for their portfolio. Here is the link to model mayhem
Palomino Photography Fashion Workshop for Blackmill Camera Club
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For more information on Blackmill Camera Club click this link http://www.blackmillcameraclub.co.uk/
I recently went to Poland on a photography trip and stayed in the lovely city of Krakow. During the five days we visited the infamous Salt Mines which boasts the deepest Cathedral underground, you can even get married there! The Nazi’s used the mine during the occupation of Poland to work on engines for their planes. However the Polish resistance fighters were some of the most brave, as they frequently dropped a spanner in the works..literally..whilst working on the engines and did an intentionally bad job at repairs hoping for them to break down, putting their lives at risk. We visited Oskar Schindlers Factory where there is now an amazing museum documenting Poland from 1939 – 1944. It is well worth a visit and so well designed and curated. The day before we left we went to Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. Nothing can prepare you for the sheer enormity and the scale of death, torture and hell European Jews, gypsies and other groups the Nazis considered expendable and not part of the master plan. I will not be posting any images from either of these camps on my blog, but if you have the chance to go prepare yourself for the scale of tourism as well as the horror. If you are in a group with a guide you won’t have a great deal of time to contemplate your surroundings as you are pretty much kept moving most of the time. We had a little more time in Birkenau, which is the bigger of the two camps, and where the vast majority were murdered. I got the chance to just walk around on my own and take in the scale of what had happened there. I don’t think I will ever be the same again.
Leah Millinship from Leah Photography asked me to be her assistant at the wedding of a lovely couple Amy & Jason in the King Arthur Hotel on the Gower Peninsular in Wales. The venue was amazing and the plan was to venture down to the coast for the couples official photographs. Unfortunately the fog made it difficult to see 10 yards ahead leave alone the Irish Sea. Instead we made the most of the fog and went from being disappointed with it to being amazed by it. Really enjoyed the day, met some fantastic people and was privy to amazing scenery and wild welsh mountain ponies casually grazing along the mountain road. Just beautiful. Anytime Leah (www.leahphotography.co.uk) xx
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