Great to meet you

One of the best things about photography is that it provides opportunities to meet wonderful people.

I spent most of today in Birmingham taking photographs of members of a Christian community. They were great hosts, treating me to a delicious meal, and made every effort to accommodate my (sometimes demanding) photographic requests.

They even agreed to go out onto the streets of Aston and carry out a litter-pick so that I could get pictures of them working in the community.

But while we were doing this, we met other local people, who were so warm and friendly. The chap pictured above actually called me away from what I was doing and asked me to take his picture with a buggy-load of items he was taking for scrap.

I returned home boosted by the day and with a lot of strong pictures for my end-of-year show.

Hair we go...

I had to rig up a temporary studio today to take some photographs and ease the pressure on a colleague shooting in the main studio. It was all good experience.

I had to photograph models who had been adorned in whiskers and wigs by media make-up students. It was fairly straightforward, although I did find it slightly problematical working with continuous lighting rather than flash.

I had a couple of Bowens lights, but they were not exactly the most powerful ones. It meant that I had to increase the ISO to a level that was uncomfortably high for my liking.

But the images came out well and I was really pleased that I could approach something like this with far more confidence than in my early days on my course. Setting up the equipment and managing the shoot was actually an enjoyable - rather than slightly stressful - experience!

Multimedia

If there's one piece of equipment that has repaid the original outlay umpteen times over it is my 10-20mm lens. It has been so handy during the past few weeks and has turned some unpromising scenarios into decent final shots.

I used it again today for the latest in the series of photoshoots for the college prospectus - this time featuring multimedia students.

Again a fairly difficult situation greeted me because it was a room mainly taken up with computer screens. But the students had rigged up their version of a 'green room', with a film camera, microphone, lights and reflector, so I focused on this.

The extreme wide angle managed to include the whole of the team... and introduce a little drama at the same time.

I'm glad to say I've seen some of these recent shots already being used by the college in the 2015-16 prospectus, so it's all very worthwhile!

More prospectus

There's nothing like a 'proper' job to get the creative juices flowing.

In the past couple of weeks I have been part of a small team taking photos for a college prospectus. Some of the locations were pretty dull, so we had to think quickly to get eye-catching shots.

And we had to work fast because the photos were needed by this weekend. But all went well, and I have learned useful techniques for shooting interior scenes without flash.

Textiles

I was given another excellent challenge today - take photos of the textiles students for the college prospectus... without making the students identifiable.

It was difficult to preserve the anonymity while making the photos attractive to look at. But slowing the shutter speed to introduce some motion blur did the trick.

The picture above was one of the most successful of the series. The tailor's dummy and the trays of implements let the viewer know this is a fashion and textiles department, while the student on the move adds some drama to the image.

Light fantastic

I took this shot of my college for a new prospectus. Hopefully it will be used in the final version.

I was pleased with the way it turned out because I had never experimented before with light trails and it took a fair bit of experimentation to get it looking right.

My tutor showed me the best way to tackle it. And when I say that, I don't mean simply the exposure times and the art of getting smooth light trails. He also remembered to switch on all the lights in the college building and open all the blinds so that we didn't have to carry out hefty Photoshop work afterwards.

That's what I call covering all the bases. Incidentally, the picture was shot through a 10-20 wide angle lens, at an aperture of f22 (ensuring maximum sharpness throughout), with an ISO of 200 and an exposure time of six seconds.

Festival action

I went to a race meeting for the first time in my life today. Not any old race meeting, mind, but the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival.

I've lived in Gloucestershire since 1990 and it has become something of an embarrassment when I've had to own up to never having seen its number one sporting event. I put that right today.

And what did I make of it? Well, people wax lyrical about it, but I thought it was a bit of a curate's egg - good in parts. Yes, there was a good atmosphere and the event attracted all sorts of characters. It was also wonderful to get close to the racehorses themselves - slightly smaller than I imagined, but such lean, super-fit creatures. But there's lots of booze, lots of money being frittered away, lots of pushing and shoving, extremely expensive food... and I didn't actually find it hugely exciting, even though I had wagered money on all the races.

I went there also hoping to get some good shots with my camera. I saw a number of press photographers, bedecked in cameras with massive lenses. It's only when you start taking your own shots that you realise why they need such heavy-duty equipment.

Future imperfect

I took a trip to a nearby pub that was featured last week on a TV programme, in the hope that I might be able to start a new photography project.

The programme told the story of the Spa Inn at Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, which its brewery owners wanted to shut and sell off to housing developers. Pub regulars wanted it saved... but then were filmed leaving a council meeting and heading for a completely different pub for an evening drink. I think that just about summed everything up.

I trawled the internet to find out if the Spa had closed down in the four months since the programme was filmed, but none of the three local papers had followed up their reports on the planning battle.

So I had to find out for myself. Alas, when I arrived, I discovered it was well and truly closed. But I enjoyed a little gallows humour when I spotted a blackboard outside advertising a clairvoyance evening in months gone by. I wonder if the pub's fate was seen in the crystal ball?

Oh no, not again....

I think I'm going to have to write a list of things I have to check before pressing the shutter.

I took another trip to the William Tyndale Monument at North Nibley, Gloucestershire, today and climbed to the top of what is a rather tall tower on a very high hill.

But I discovered later that the photos I took from inside the top of the tower were shot at a very high ISO. It's an old mistake that I keep on repeating and I'm just kicking myself that I've done it yet again. The problem, of course, is that I get a lot of noise in the final image.

I just wish the camera would re-set itself to something like 100 or 200 ISO every time it is switched off. Instead, it retains the ISO setting from the last time it was used.... and then I forget to check it when I pick the camera up again.