Creasy Photography: 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!)