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Time for a change

This has been quite a big decision for me but i am doing it. I have decided to move my blog! (dum dum duuuuuummmmmm haha)

There are a few reasons why i am moving, the first and most important is for you guys. Since i have been with Blogger people have constantly been telling me its impossible to leave comments and subscribe which is no good. I know they have made a few changes to make it easier but too little to late!

I have also changed the name from Creasy Photography to just my name, James Creasy, i was looking through my blog the other day and because i am currently working for Colorbox who own the copy rights to the photographs i have all these logo water marks all over the place for different companies and it felt a little confusing! I don't think this is going to be the last time i will be working for another company though out my photography career so it just seems like more sense to make that correction now.

The Word Press site also seems more set up for people just to come across your blog which i like.

So i am really hoping that you will follow me across and keep on reading, hopefully it will be easier for everyone.

Just want to take this opportunity to thank you as well the response i have had has surprised me allot!

Views to date from all over the world!

http://creasy-photography.blogspot.com

http://jamescreasy.wordpress.com

See you on the other side ;)

Play everyday!

I have been accused by Ferg that every wedding i shot isn't really a wedding its just one big experiment! To start with i was a little offended until Ferg told me that it is a good thing! 

The fact is that statement is true. Of course i always make sure i get my safe shots done but i want every couple that i meet through my photography to go away with something different! I have this nightmare that i will get two sets of friends one day and they will be like "oh we had that guy, lets have a look at your album... oh... its the same as ours!" I also think if you don't experiment you don't improve and i really want to improve! 

Its been a little quite Barbados way this past week, all the kids have gone back to school and no one is getting married which makes the place feel like a ghost town. Its very strange. 

To keep us all busy we have been given odd jobs todo, mine was to go and take photos of Almonds new show suite. I have not really done much of this stuff before so i thought it might be a good idea to have a play. So i got to the room, which was very nice,  with my mountain of stuff namely my camera bag, tripod for the camera and a light stand and started shooting.

Used my 10 - 20mm to get as much of the room in as i could

I set my camera up on the tripod and started shooting some long exposure shots, the room has nice big patio doors that let allot of ambient light in. This was a good start but half of the room (camera left) was still dark and the dark wooden TV stand was just sucking up light! So i dropped a light stand with my flash and a bare bulb adaptor on it (its the studios so it did not quite fit so i had to tape it on but its all good!). This is a light modifier that basically takes the very directional light from the strobe and spreads it all over the place in all directions. (David Hobby calls them bits of tupperwear and gets very cross if people buy the real thing rather then make your own!) I had this pointing up which meant the light would bounce off of every wall in the room lighting up that half. I tried to get the stand as close to the TV stand as i could with out it getting in shot. The shots where looking better but the flash light was allot whiter then the ambient light and i wanted the room to look warm and cosy, a place you would want to sit so i put a warming gel on the flash to. (Mr Hobby would be proud!)

Now see if you can guess where i have put the flashes in these! Look for the tell tell shadows  that should give you a hint (as much as i tired to get rid of them!)

10 points if you can tell me why i had to open the patio door in this shot ;)

Very jealous as it had the nicest mattress 

This one is my favorite, mixing ambient light with flash

Sorry had to be done ;p

Thanks for reading, there might be some big changes soon so keep checking in!

Loving where you are!

Taken on my iPhone with a slightly wonky horizon and everything, Sian will be mad :)

This is where i live right now! I am not posting this blog to show off (or be a bit preachy) but to make you think. Living somewhere means working, deadlines, food shopping, cooking, driving through traffic, putting up with people that you don't want to and so on. With all of this going on on a day to day basis it can be easy to forget where you are. The beautiful places that people may come from miles around to see and you see everyday, the reasons why you moved there. I had to laugh i had been stuck in a traffic jam because a yellow bus (also known as reggae busses who's drivers are insane!) had crashed into another car. I was sat in my car huffing and puffing and getting really quite mad and i turned to my left and sore this and i was a bit like "oh yeah thats right this is awesome!"

It used to happen to me when i lived in London to, rushing around from meeting to meeting and i know some of my old colluges must forget where they are from time to time. 

It also makes me think of my sister, she is out in Australia at the moment. She has just moved into a flat and she is working in a pub and i am stupidly proud of her! It makes me wonder if  she ever has the same problem??

So i am putting a challenge out there to my readers (this is me assuming i have some of course ;) this week if your feeling a bit down just stop and have a think about where you are. Take your phone out. Take a photograph. Upload it to somewhere like Facebook or Flickr or something and then post the link onto this blog with a little description of where you are! I would be very interested to see if other people have the same problem and see if we can rectify it.

Thanks for reading and i am looking forward to seeing your photographs :)

Blog 22 - Dub Step Barbados

Sorry its been such a long time but i have been very busy over here this end so i thought i would take a little time out to share what i have been doing with you all. 

I have been spending allot of time working in our studio over the last week and i am trying to raise our profile with in the local community in Barbados. This has meant strangely that i have spent allot of time on Facebook, legitimately, while being at work... Facebook is big all over the world theses days but no more so then in Barbados where everything gets advertised via pages. Business, nights out, everything and there is a stronger presence on Facebook then anywhere else! Back in the UK if i wanted to find something it would be a quick google search, here its a quick Facebook search!

Last week a very excited Ferg found me and told me he had found a Dub Step page that was advertising a dance night on the Saturday! This is massive as there is not many dance nights out here and those of you who know me, know i like my dance music! So we went along and it was a top night, the guys did a great job with a great line up! I had a small disagreement with a massive speed bump (which resulted in my big toe having no skin left) but other then that a great night!

While we were out we met some great people and had a huge amount of fun so please do check out the pages and show your support as we really want them to do another night very soon!

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Like us at the Colorbox Studio Facebook Page

Blog 20 - Just Married Magazine

Well this is a very exciting day for me as one of my photography dreams have come true. I am getting some of my photographs featured in... a WEDDING MAGAZINE :D

The magazine is called "Just Weddings" and it is doing an article on weddings abroad, the magazine approached one of the couples i shot back in June, Sarah and Lee. (a big thank you to Sarah for keeping in touch and keeping me updated)

and well... here it is... :D

This is just a proof at the moment and will be coming out in September so keep your eyes pealed!

Massive thanks again to Sarah and Lee

Blog 18 - Crop Over

Ok so over this end of the world we have had a 4 day weekend! (Well more like a 3 day as I have had 2 afternoon weddings which has been cool and they are coming here soon i promise!) Crop Over is a festival that celebrates the end of the sugar cane harvest and basically there is 4 days of parties and people going mental!

Blog 17 - Domino - Competition Entry

Just thought I would very quickly share a competition entry with you guys, I have never entered a photography competition before and i was quite pleased with the results. I have been following the stobist blog recently and he sets boot camp competitions every so often. These are tasks to get you thinking about the way you light your shots so I thought I would give it ago.

Blog 16 - Overpowering the Sun?... again with pictures :D

I have been lucky enough to shoot another wedding at one of Elegant's more exclusive hotels called the House, it is very small and kind of looks like a castle from the outside. It also has a small mote (well two ponds at the front) and the entrance is light up with several fire torches. Through the main gates there is a beautiful Garden with ponds and a load of outside sofas where you can sit and relax, you then walk through the dining room and then you are pretty much directly on the beach.  

Blog 14 - West Indies vs India 2011

Today has been one of those rare occasions that i have had some time off and it just so happened that it was the last day of the test between West Indies and India. We arrived in the morning and to our surprise the tickets were free for the last day and it was sunny, perfect!

Blog 13 - Soft Light on the Beach

Since i got here i have never been able to shoot in the sugar mill and now i have had 3 weddings in there in a little less than 2 weeks. 

On my last wedding on Tuesday i had been using an umbrella on my off camera flash, something i did not mention on that last post was that while i was on the beach the wind caught it and knocked it over to my horror. (I think that is the first time that flash gun has been dropped since it was new) Trying to act all cool about it i picked it up, took of the now bent umbrella and put it in my bag and continued. I fired off a few shots and went to review it and the difference was unbelievable, i had gone from really nice skin tones to hash shadows in a drop of a flash. I went straight back to my back unbent the umbrella and stuck it back on the stand. 

Blog 12 - Sugar Mill

I have made an exciting discovery today, I found out that the remote triggers that we use in the studio also work with my camera. (the studio use Nikon cameras and i have a Canon so i did not think it would fit) A remote trigger sets of your flash when you push the shutter button, a transmitter goes in your hot shoe on your camera and the receiver goes on the bottom of your flash. This can then be attached to a tripod so you can position your flash away from your camera and have more control over the light. The 7D does have a built in inferred system but you have to have a line of site to the flash which is limiting, the triggers work on radio waves so you can be much further away and also hide the flash away some where. 

Blog 11 - Church Wedding

Yesterday I shot my first off resort wedding over here in Barbados which came as a nice change. It was in a church called St. Francis which was 20min down the coastal road from where I am based at the Village. I was accompanied by Ferg who was shooting video and Shamar who was doing some training. 

The church was a simple but pretty church which had two giant windows at the front over looking the sea which let in tons of natural light which was handy as the Father was not too keen on flashes so I took this opportunity to shoot with out flash as much as possible.  It was going to be a catholic ceremony for the Irish couple, they spent the majority of the time sat down in front of the alter which is a little different to what we are used to but they were sat on these beautiful wooded chairs that matched the rows of seats behind. 

Blog 10 – Thank You and Clouds

Wow I can’t believe I have got this far, after I wrote my first blog about my journey I really did not think I would have much more to talk about but yet here we are, Blog 10 in only 3 weeks!

I just want to say a thank you to you all for taking the time out to read my thoughts on what I am doing. In this short space of time I have had over 400 page views which I know might not seem loads in the grand scheme of things but I am really chuffed.

Blog 9 - A Flash Theory

Over the past two weddings i have been trying to concentrate on my flash theory, when i normally shoot i am of course putting this into practice but i tend to just do it rather then think about it too much (some people may say that i do that in other parts of my life a little to much to...) so these two shoots i made a very conscious effort to review my settings.

Blog 8 - Gun Hill

Did the touristy thing today and went on some site seeing. I went to a spot called Gun Hill (clue is in the name) which is where a military signal station built in 1818 was located. The top of this hill was used to spot approaching enemy ships and then signal to other stations using a series of flags to keep them informed with whats going on and of course to blow things up with its massive cannons!

Blog 7 - Wreck Diving

This is not a photography related post so I apologise in advance but it's been a very exciting day and I really wanted to share with you all.

Today Ferg organised for Sian and myself to go on our first scuba dive out in the sea. We Arrived at the west coast scuba centre and got kitted up.

Blog 6 - Silhouettes

I shot a wedding today at 4pm this afternoon but at around 2pm the heavens opened and it rained, it rained hard! As I am sure some of you have seen on my FaceBook page when it rains here in Barbados it really rains but only lasts for around 20min. Unfortunately when it comes to getting married this does leave massive puddles every where and our two main wedding locations on the resort flood. 

Blog 5 - Horse Shoe Bay

Today was my second day off and I wanted to explore the island. I am currently living in a hotel called the Almond Beach Village which is on the West coast of Barbados, the majority of the hotels that the company I work for do weddings at are along the West coast and there is a couple on the South. This means I spend most of my time either driving up and down the coast road on the west coast or on the highway down to the south. These are both very beautiful places to be driving to and from so I am far from complaining but I thought I would take this opportunity to check out the north coast of the Island. 

Blog 4 - SOL Rally Barbados

I am at the start of a well needed 2 days off, now the rush of May has died down today Fergus, Sian and I went down to see the SOL Rally. We picked up the action on SS21 - Lime Kendal South 1 stage on a bend down one of Barbados’ back roads in Horse Hill (which is on the East coast of the Island) along the stage.

Blog 3 – The Details

Over the past two days and the past two weddings I have been experimenting with my new 50mm 1.8f lens, I was going to challenge myself by trying to shoot an entire wedding with it on my 7D but as Fergus suggested it might be better to take my spare 400D out with it on so I could shoot the majority of the wedding on my 18-135mm. This of course was a very good suggestion as the 7D is not a full frame camera so the 50mm would be come more like a 75mm and you would not be able to get the wide shots you would need through out the ceremony. So I did it, I shot both weddings with 2 cameras over my shoulder, which I found strange at first but the results were totally worth it.

Blog 2 - Small Change

As i have not been able to get a steady internet connection i haven't been able to up load the previous video until now which is why its so out of date. Allot has also happened since then... 

I have had a fantastic, nearly 2 months, on the Destiny but on our last stop in Barbados i disembarked and i am now currently living and working in the hotels of Barbados as a wedding photographer. 

Here is a quick look at what happened over those two months, i had a great time and i very much miss all you guys. Big shout out to Simon, Quaren and Kamana for really making my time special!

Blog 1 - A little late but Travel

For all who don't know my name is James Creasy and around 5 months ago i gave up my job in London to go back to my love of photography. I have got myself a job on a cruise ship as a Photo Gallery Manager and have set off to the Caribbean to start my new life. My intention is to keep you all up to date with my adventures via this Blog.