I got ‘the call’ from Calumet on wednesday 10.12.08 to say my camera had arrived and 32 mins later I was the proud owner of one of the few copies in the country 
These images were taken in the family room on a grey thursday morning at ISO 3200 (with very little noise)
I shot some video at Theo’s Christmas Production but have no idea how to view it on the Mac – guess I need to follow my own advice and read the damn manual
Building work is full steam ahead again there’s brick dust everywhere, finishing the visual diary reviews from Masterclass III and with registration opening for People Imagery I’ve not had time to put much together for Foto Friday so I thought I’d just share a few images with you.
Where do you think this is? I must admit that I think its kinda hot
Yep …… Beijing Olympics. There’s been lots of discussion on what this lot would cost?
There’s at least 23 cameras – loads of Canon L-Series EF and Nikkor AF-S 500mm super telephoto lenses—each around £6,000 a pop—, a few 400mm, 600mm, 700mm, 800mm here and there. Let’s assume a conservative average of £4,500 per telephoto lens. Most of them are probably using the biggest and baddest Canon and Nikon cameras, so we can assume an average £5,000 price tag per camera, which brings the grand total to just under a quarter of a million pounds. Crazy !!
Apparently there were 1,100 accredited photographers at the olympics, which we can assume will have more than just one set of lenses and, at least, one secondary camera, just in case the first one breaks or they want to have two different set of lenses ready to shoot at any time. My calculator doesn’t have enough naughts to do that sum.
These shots of the beach huts at Scarborough were taken by Paul on the last Masterclass, he’s a Canon guy but certainly didn’t need anything like the above to capture these awesome shots 
This picture did make me laugh………….
I would like to clarify this lady is not nor has she ever been one of my students
Don’t let this happen to you
There have been a couple of people stopped & questioned during my workshops by over zealous PCO’s – make yourself aware of your rights
Join the petition
A little while back Rosemary asked about what I use for the black backdrops; I have a length of cheap black cloth that is fairly crease resistant. In the studio I attach it to an ikea curtain pole (cheapest they sell) and some B&Q clips. On location I drape it over whatever is available – the back of a dining room chair generally does the trick.
Here is a wide shot from the studio
All I would do is crop the image & tweak the blacks, this add some depth to the image and hide any creases (how needs an iron !)
In PS Image > Adjustments > Selective Colour
Default colour is always Red, use drop down & pick Black, + 6-12 usually works
See you’d never know it was a cheap piece of material – the crop eliminates the edges & any parts of the anatomy that may embarrass the subject in later life
I use large softboxes in the studio but you could always try your hand at making one of your own.
Trusty old black cloth draped over back of kitchen stool, lamp adaptor daylight bulb and paper shade (the larger the ball the further the light will disperse and softer it will be)
If you try this at home – make sure you share a picture have a great weekend, weather forecast is not too bad so get out with that camera !
