Creative Light - Issue 13 by Guild of Photographers

Calendar Girls - Julie Moult Spotless - Simon Newbury Natural Hands - Kevin Pengelly Master Craftsman - Panikos Build it - they will come - Gunhill Studios Back-Up - Peter Morgan Placement of Subject - Julie Oswin

Issue 13 Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

Colorworld Imaging, PO Box 2, Norham Road, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE29 0YQ. Tel: +44 (0)191 2596926 | www.colorworldimaging.co.uk | enquiries@colorworldimaging.co.uk 2 : Creative Light Magazine - Issue 13

Contents features 12 16

Simon Newbury Spotless Kevin Pengelly How to make hands look natural Peter Morgan Back-up

20 24

Gold Awards February 2016

Build it and they will come! GunHill Studios

38 46 54

Julie Moult Calendar Girls

58 66

Precept Optimum Performance How to close the Sale

Panikos Successful Master Craftsman Julie Oswin What is composition?

Gold Awards March 2016

Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

The Guild of Photographers W

hat a very busy couple of months we’ve had here at the Guild!

steve & lesley thirsk

Steve Thirsk

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We had a fantastic few days at the Photography Show in March - The Guild stand was literally buzzing all day! Sandra Moffatt flew over from Australia with the StandinBaby prototype to be with us for the 4 days, and our ‘Speakers Corner’ run by Johnson’s Photopia proved as popular as ever. We were joined by lots of members and met lots of new people too including Rupert Cobb who runs Gun Hill Studios – an incredible bespoke studio, which you can find out more about in this edition of Creative Light. We are delighted to welcome all the new members who joined us at the show or soon after as a result of it. We also had a great time at the Gatwick PhotoHubs event in early April, where we were supported by GraphiStudio and 3XM. There was a great vibe throughout the 2 days and the evening social was great fun but the stars of the Show were, without doubt, the speakers. Glynn Dewis, Rossella Vanon, Lisa Beaney, Panikos Hajistilly Beverley Foster, Mark Seymour, Julie Oswin and Kevin Pengelly packed the days with an incredible amount of learning and inspiration! We’ve had other training courses and workshops dotted around the UK including Andrew Appleton’s sell-out Wedding Speedlight days, Claire Elliott’s equally popular Newborn Training ones and equally popular Wedding and Business courses run by Julie Oswin. On top of this we’ve run some overseas Training experiences. Lesley Chalmers organised the most incredible trip to the Northern Lights in March. So they could go off the Tourist trail to see the very best of Iceland, the group had a private coach and a private guide who is normally utilised by the likes of Hollywood stars. Lesley Chalmers will be talking about her trip to Iceland, sharing her photographs

and releasing the details for Iceland 2017 in the next edition of Creative Light which will be published in June. In April Andrew Appleton ran a workshop at the amazing Count Ceconi Castle in Italy owned by GraphiStudio and the group were lucky enough to actually stay in the Castle itself, and Jeremy Price kindly joined the group offering great hospitality! Whilst most people flew there Andrew actually drove looking for locations for another overseas training experience to be held later this year. Member Chris Chambers has run a workshop there recently too, and Catherine Connor from Aspire Training has also scheduled to take a group there in July. All these workshops finish with a look around the fabulous GraphiStudio factory which

can also arrange bespoke training for you in your area. Just contact us and let us know what it is you want and where, and let’s see what we can arrange! Moving away from Training one of the unique Guild aspects we are very proud of is the level of our support. One of our members contacted us this week to say they had won a case we pursued on their behalf, receiving over £3600 in compensation. Justice was done and the process cost them literally nothing (other than their Guild membership). No legal costs at all! Needless to say, feedback like this ‘makes our day’!

Lesley Thirsk

has a ‘wow’ factor itself – just like the Castle. Andrew’s trip to the Castle was followed up by a PhotoWalk and social in Venice itself. We joined a great group for 3 nights there soaking in the atmosphere of this wonderful city and making the most of its never-ending photographic opportunities. The group consisted of some people who had attended Andrew’s workshop and others who had just flown out to join us. Also in April, member Charlotte Bellamy, who is based in Holland, hosted a 3 day photo-walk around the tulip fields and other great locations, whilst back in the UK Michael Rammell ran his annual photo-walk around London - It’s so good that members arrange these things. Looking ahead, there is one room left on a pending trip to the Outer Hebrides organised by Lesley Chalmers, a further trip to the Northern Lights has been scheduled as has our Mock Wedding. We have also rebooked the amazing Crewe Hall for our Awards night on 4th February 2017. Further PhotoHubs, experience days and training events are also being planned – but don’t forget that we

Our professional photographer support package is genuinely quite amazing (even though we say that with bias) … it’s true value you is only known when the ‘wheel comes off’ or even ‘wobbles’! Obviously we hope you don’t ever need our service in such circumstances, but just how reassuring is it to know that you are supported to this extent if something does occur where you need our help? There is no other photographic association where professional photographers get direct personal access to 24/7 legal and PR crisis helplines as well as contract dispute cover, a debt recovery service, tax investigation cover plus much more at no extra cost! Finally, congratulations to our friends at Wilkinson Cameras, the UK’s leading independent photo retailer, as they are celebrating their 30th Birthday - An exceptional company! Do enjoy this exciting edition of Creative Light. - Steve & Lesley Thirsk

Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

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Keep it organic and timeless and your images will withstand the test of time, stop over doing photo shoots and applying the coolest action to your digital images. All of that stuff is trendy and it will die off in no time, keep it simple and classy.” ― Jose Villa

ast week I was driving up the M5 and I travelled through what appeared to be all four seasons of weather within a couple of hours! I had left Glastonbury after my Business Workshop on a beautiful sunny evening; the motorway wasn’t busy and within an hour it was as if someone had emptied a beanbag all over the M5 and I was in a wild hail storm. All the traffic slowed down because of the hazard and within a few miles the road was bone dry and in front was fantastic sunset. As I approached Sheffield warning signs flashed ‘salt spreading’. Must be freezing I thought. Wrong, it was a snow storm and yet another white out. Then just before I got home, there was a flash of lightning and a tremendous crack of thunder followed by torrential rain. So, hopefully, for the next few months at least we will be blessed with good weather and the sunshine. Happy days. In this edition of Creative Light I have featured many of the exceptionally talented photographers we are lucky to have in The Guild including the successful Master Craftsman panel by Panikos, and the Image of the Month Gold Awards for March and April. Don’t forget it is Fathers Day on Sunday 19th June 2016. If you have a story you would like to share to be considered for Creative Light Magazine then please get in touch with me julie@ photoguild.co.uk.

www.julieoswintraining.com © Julie Oswin 2016

- Julie Oswin Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

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front cover â&#x20AC;&#x153;

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m really chuffed Creative Light Magazine has chosen one of my images for the front cover of the magazine. This image is one of my personal favourites! Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a mum of six and became interested in photography when we moved to France, we lived there for five years and I spent a lot of time documenting our experience and taking photos of the children to send home to my family. My passion is newborn photography, I just love everything about it - from getting a few sneaky cuddles in with them to chatting to the parents and making them feel at home! The image of the little girl was taken with a Canon 5dmkiii with studio lighting - as soon as the little one walked in I could see the image in my mind. The little girl just reminded me of the Pears soap advert, I wanted something classical and whimsy! I think she pulled it off amazingly!

fran given

- Fran

Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME WITH JOE CORNISH: FROM LARGE FORMAT TO MIRRORLESS

While the endless months of cloud and rain that have enveloped us here in the UK have left many of us eagerly awaiting the first real signs of Spring, for internationally renowned landscape photographer Joe Cornish, the weather has been a joyous backdrop for his work. ‘Whenever I see unbroken blue sky I put my camera away. Luckily we don’t get much of that here’

‘The beauty of living and working here IS the weather – that and the amazing diversity of our landscape. For landscape photography you need variety and that is the beauty of Britain – we have such a rich diversity in such a small space. ‘Changing weather, changing light and endless beautiful and dramatic natural environments. The geology in the UK is amazing; wonderful for a landscape photographer. And what’s more you can get from one side of the country to the other in a matter of a few hours.’ Born in Exeter in 1958, Joe fell under the spell of photography while studying at Reading University and in a career spanning 30 years has become renowned as one of the world’s leading landscape photographers - a man inspired by wild places and the wilderness, which he has captured to stunning effect. It was as an expedition photographer with Raleigh International on a visit to Alaska in 1991, that Joe’s commitment to the great outdoors was really fired. Since then, he has travelled the world but says the need to travel is minimised by the quality on his doorstep. ‘Scotland is a world class destination for landscape photography so when you have so much to work with right on your doorstep, you really don’t need to go too far afield.’ Whether leading photographic groups – an increasing part of his life – or working on his own, Joe is often to be found clambering over rocks by the North Yorkshire coast near his home, or climing mountains in the Lakes, Snowdonia and Scotland.

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So for a man who loves the great outdoors and spends the majority of his time capturing it – what equipment does he use? While by his own admission, Joe is ‘not great with technology’, he has fully embraced it where his choice of camera is concerned. Recognised as a lifetime devotee of traditional large format film cameras, these days Joe’s ‘go to’ camera is the Sony A7R II and he has nothing but high praise for the lightweight compact system. Its predecessor, the original Sony A7 R - Joe’s first Sony camera – still holds a place in his heart too, and remains a trusted back-up. By placing a 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor into a mirrorless compact system camera, Sony created not one but two world firsts with the A7 and the A7 R.

‘I recall the day I heard the fateful declaration, ‘from today, film is dead.’ These words were uttered by a wedding photographer at a meeting for professional photographers in the mid-1990s. I remember them as if it were yesterday. My initial response initial response to this news was to totally refute it and concentrate on 5x4inch film. It was clear digital was coming, but I was reluctant to follow the mainstream and felt that adopting large format film was a way to be different, even if I was ‘going back to the future’. Besides, most of my heroes in landscape photography both past and present, had mostly used large format equipment. But in the late 2000s I gradually let go of my beloved analogue film cameras and started to use digital,’ says Joe.

The once reluctant man has however fully embraced the digital format. Joe firmly believes the best camera is the one you have with you. And yes, that may well be a mobile phone. ‘One highlight has been the arrival of the Sony A7 R and subsequently, the A7R II. Both are light and small, with superb resolution (42 megapixels in the A7R II) and work with both terrific Zeiss-for-Sony lenses as well as my older legacy optics via adapters. ‘The A7R II has excellent and easy to use colour characteristics ‘straight out of the box’. In many ways it has put a lot of the fun back into photography for me. I have written an article on the original A7 R, describing it as the smallest, lightest technical view camera in the world (even if that was not Sony’s intention) thanks to the availability of tilt and shift adapters.’

‘I can now climb a mountain without a mountainous load and still produce technically high quality pictures, so it works brilliantly in my world.’ ‘Sony approached me just as I was looking at the A7 R so I guess it was meant to be! However there is no way I would have adopted the camera itself unless it really worked for, and excited me. I really like the way they work – light, easy to carry, great colour and resolution, and most importantly, it all works easily and reliably. ‘The ability to use legacy lenses was absolutely crucial. I do use several Sony and Zeiss lenses and they are great, but the ability to use other optics is a huge part of the appeal and gives it an edge over conventional DSLR systems.

Such is his commitment to the mirrorless system, Joe has now become a Sony Global Image Ambassador

‘Although I do still use other cameras for specialist applications, the A7R II is my Go-To camera, the great all-rounder’ says Joe. High praise indeed for a man who loves film! So what does the future hold for Joe? ‘While still busy doing my own work, leading workshops is increasingly part of my life. For many years I didn’t feel qualified to lead groups. But experience has brought confidence, and I love doing them now, and have learned a great deal in the process, about photography and people. It’s a privilege and pleasure to be involved in guiding, teaching and sharing knowledge and experiences: I consider photography from more than just a selfish point of view.

For more information visit www.wilkinson.co.uk or visit/call any of our 10 stores.

‘Leading workshops has encouraged me to think about the act of picturemaking differently and I am looking forward to doing more of that.’ ‘It’s exciting to see how Sony are developing the system into the future, especially the new G Master lens range, because the lens is still the most important link in the imaging chain. But the traditionalist in me also says film is not dead. There is no film/digital divide, only the joy of photography.’ www.joecornishgallery.com

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Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

Spotless Winning a Gold Award in February’s Image of the Month Competition, Simon’s gorgeous image of the little girl cleaning the spots off the one of the Dalmatians has created a lot of interest. So it was time for Creative Light to catch up with Simon to get a little insight into the thought processes and how the image was created.

“I

simon newbury

am incredibly honoured to have been asked to write about the creation of the ‘spotless’ Dalmation image for Creative Light Magazine and delighted that my image was deemed worthy. Unlike last year’s “End of Year One” Speakeasy image which was born pretty-much out of necessity, this one was definitely an accumulation of work and ideas from an initial idea. At this point I feel duty bound to point out the initial idea was, in fact, my wife Abi’s. We were sitting chatting one evening and she said “I have a new idea for you: One hundred and one Dalmatians!” “Err, Okay...” I said hesitantly, already wondering where the heck we were going to find so many Dalmatians. “So, what do you mean exactly?” And then Abi divulged her idea, or selection of ideas as it was then. So we started discussing and honing the ideas until we came down to two main ones. I admit it took me quite some time to get on board with it. I am always more than happy to use ideas from her but I need to click with it, which I eventually did, and start seeing it in my mind and forming a vision myself. So we eventually came down to two main images: Hers, involving our daughter Scarlett cleaning the spots off the Dalmatians, and mine which was wall-to-wall spotted dogs and Scarlett secreted somewhere in the image in dressed as Dalmatian. Where my idea remained pretty close to my original thoughts, Abi would be the first to admit my interpretation of her idea and her vision of it differed somewhat, but that’s no bad thing in my view. As an artist, if I followed her idea exactly, what part would I have really played in it other than pressing the shutter release? Also, she’s not an artist and I can’t read minds so it was never going to be exactly as she imagined it... Now we had a plan, we posted on local Facebook groups to see if we find any Dalmatian owners locally who would be willing to let me shoot their pets, offering a free print to anyone who took part. We had a fantastic response; it seems Dalmatians are very popular in Bexhill!! We had six ‘definites’ and four ‘uncertain’. In the end I had eight dogs that actually came round to be photographed, one of which was our neighbours and another was our babysitter’s. Who knew? The dogs came to me over a two week period and I got a nice selection of images from each dog which could be used. Each one was shot against a green Chromakey backdrop with an Elinchrom 135cm Rotalux as the key. I used the green as it would make life very easy (well, easy-ish) extracting the dogs from the background and any reflected colour on the fur could easily be removed by desaturating the greens in PS. I don’t have a studio as such so the back drop and lights were left up in our dining room for the whole of the two weeks to make sure the lighting was a perfect match between shoots. Abi wasn’t too happy about this to be honest, but as she started it all, so, she kind of had to agree to it”. - Simon Newbury www.simonsart.co.uk

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Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

FIND AND FIGHT IMAGE THEFT

Contact the Guild of Photographers to get access to Pixsy Premium features for free Sign-up at pixsy.com/sign-up/

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Pixsy helps you track the use of your images online and obtain compensation if your work is stolen. Comprehensive image tracking. One-click import of 20,000 images from various platforms, including Flickr, 500px, Photoshelter, SmugMug, and more. Help of our in-house team of licensing experts as well as a global network of law ďŹ rms for successful case resolution. Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

How to make hands look natural Panel Member and Chairman of the Judging Panel talks you through simple posing techniques to make hands look natural and what you should look out for and avoid, when photographing couples at a wedding.

kevin pengelly

ne of the most overlooked aspects of portrait and wedding photography is the positioning of hands. The correct placement of hands can either make or break an image. Hands when incorrectly placed and can look large, ugly and unfortunately dominate from what would have been a superb image. It is and often an oversight when we are busy capturing photographs under pressure, especially at weddings. Posed hands for women should look graceful and elegant, posed hands for men should show masculinity. So often we see the backs of hands placed across the brideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tummy area and hands that are positioned too close to the face resulting in the hand looking twice the size of the subjects head. Be careful when placing hands on hips, it is very easy to make the brides hands look like claws; they should look soft and elegant. What often feels natural does not necessarily look natural or flattering. One of the most common mistakes that we see is the missing or amputated arms and hands, cut off or are missing altogether.

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Grooms-men often look like they are on a free kick at a football match with their hands on their crutch or clasped behind their backs. Also, when the guys pose with their hands behind their backs remember to get quickly the jackets undone to avoid the fabric being pulled showing phones and wallets in the pockets. Photographs start to look messy at this point. Men look a lot better with their hands in their trouser pocket, ideally showing some cuff. Thumbs in or out? I like to keep the thumbs in, left out they look like they are going for the John Wayne quick draw! When positioning a couple together, it is very easy to pose hands that look natural and comfortable. At weddings make use of the brideâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bouquet to hide hands, simply place the groomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hands underneath the bouquet. To recap make sure the hands look elegant, position them, so they are not showing the back of the hands to the camera. Pose hands naturally so that they express emotion and can often give context to a pose or an expression. Take care when positioning hands, and before you take the shot, a few extra seconds to check that they are correctly placed in the image will make all the difference to your images. Those few extra seconds at this stage will take hours off your editing time! - Kevin Pengelly www.pengelly-photography.co.uk

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http://www.graphistudio.com/en_GB/gobook

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=560YqVKh1mo

Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

The Importance of Back-up “O

k so you’ve just finished editing possibly the best wedding of your career. The location was awesome, the lighting was perfect, you had a photogenic, bride and groom and inspiration. You go to take one last look at your photos on the external hard drive and ……… Oh god it’s disappeared. It won’t mount or load and there’s no power in the unit. • No problem as you backed up. • You did back up didn’t you? • Did you remember to do it?

peter morgan

• Fortunately for most of us these days we see the benefits to backing up. Most people will buy a backup drive or possibly use a cloud based service.

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• Trouble is how reliable are all of these and…. How many do you use? Do you backup online and offline? Everyone knows about cloud storage don’t they? • Would it surprise you to know that most commercial disaster recovery (DR for short) plans include 3 levels of backup security. • Onsite, Offsite, Cloud • Why 3? Why the need for 3 backups. Surely this is not only time consuming but expensive. • Maybe…… But maybe the cost of losing potential clients photographs outweighs this. • Let’s look at the options

ON-SITE Literally wherever you work, this is the backup drive you have on-site. Maybe a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive that sits on your network or a small external drive attached to your computer. Buffalotech make excellent NAS drives (I have 2 Terrastations myself) The larger network drives tend to be RAID (Redundant array of inexpensive disks) - which essentially uses 2 or more disks in a single box to create a more resilient backup. Wherever you backup and it’s at your place of work, this is your on-site backup. (Don’t get this confused with your working drive if you store your catalogue on an external - this is simply a backup like time machine for Mac or Windows backup for PC’s. PRO’S Fast, generally quick to retrieve data from if your computer dies. Large sizes and certain drives and configurations available with redundancy and fail-over. CON’S If your building burns down its gone. Large units can be expensive initially NAS drives can be slow if your network speeds are slow. OFF-SITE Literally a backup taken off-site - either nightly, weekly or monthly this is normally a physical backup like a drive or a tape moved to another location. Big businesses do this on a nightly basis and historically someone was asked to take the drive or tape home that night and bring the previous nights back in swapping them over, with several tapes being in place e.g. Mon, Tues, Weds etc. PRO’S Store large amounts of data off-site so that in the event of a fire or burglary your data is safe. Go back 7 days if you have 7 tapes/drives etc. Works well as part of a disaster recovery solution CON’S Relies on someone to take it home and swap it over. Without regular integrity checks the only way you’re going to know it isn’t working is when you need it to be working. Can be expensive and not designed to be the main backup solution CLOUD Dropbox, Google Drive, and the Guild’s Free backup service. These are all backup cloud solutions. Normally incremental with history storage. Accessible from pretty much any internet capable device, they require one large backup and additional small backups as time goes on PRO’S As long as your internet connection is live then it’s going to back up whatever you tell it to. Fast backup and restore of your backups if your internet connection is good. Backups can generally be accessed on different devices (including mobile devices) from anywhere. Hosted solutions like Dropbox and The Guilds backup service are stored in multiple data-centres in different continents giving near 100% reliability. CON’S NO internet connection = NO backup. Large sized backups are generally ongoing costs either per GB or monthly cost. Slow internet connection may mean it could take days to do the first large backup So your solution should be a combination of all 3 ideally with no one solution working on its own but more of a combination of all 3.

Here are some links to some of the better solutions:

• www.dropbox.com Dropbox - (Cloud based backup online storage service) • http://www.buffalo-technology.com/en/ (Raid enclosure and storage solution manufacturer) • www.qnap.com/i/en/ Qnap - (Raid enclosure and storage solution manufacturer) • www.drobo.com/ Drobo - (Raid enclosure and storage solution manufacturer) • www.sugarsync.com Sugarsync - (Cloud based backup solution similar to Dropbox but not quite as good) • http://www.code42.com/crashplan/ Crashplan - (Free software for offline and offsite backup with paid option for cloud) • http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive - Multimedia drive configurations - very expensive but also very good

- Peter Morgan www.morganjamesphoto.co.uk

Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

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Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

Gold Awards

february 2016

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Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

Gold Awards

february 2016

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12 months cover for the price of 11

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lash & the team at Infocus are always looking for ways to improve our insurance, we’ve recently launched our new website, making it easier than ever to view our packages and start your insurance journey. Check it out for yourself http://www.infocusinsurance.co.uk/

As a thank you to all the wonderful members of The Guild for your continued support we are offering 12 months cover for the price of 11. Every year! What you get when you insure with us: • Interest free instalments • Worldwide cover for your photographic & technical equipment • Include Professional Indemnity cover and you’ll automatically get PR help with our ‘Crisis Containment cover’. We’re the only specialist Photography insurer to offer this cover! • Policies underwritten by Hiscox Insurance • Your own personal handler • Also Available: • Home Insurance, designed with you in mind: • Business & home contents • Client home appointments allowed • No Claims Discount up to 25% • Interest free instalments • Low excess • Home Emergency & Homecare included as standard • Pensions • Critical Illness cover • Cyber & Media

Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Build and they will comeâ&#x20AC;?

A LITTLE BACK STORY Whilst earning our living as musicians we have always been photographers, starting out on a canon AE1 with 35mm film. Digital cameras were a thing of the future like hover cars and spam. Even when we were on the road we used to carry a small dark room. Well not the room, more the equipment within it, realising that certain times of the day provided the necessary darkness and everywhere we travelled there seemed to be a fresh supply of rooms. After many years of travelling and playing live worldwide always with a camera slung over our shoulders we found ourselves heavily involved in the studio end of the music and film industry. Creativity, to us, is about observation and always being ready for what it calls for you to do. Whilst Rupert was recording Live From Abbey Road, Boo Hunnisett our chief photographer took on the roll of capturing those intimate photos of musicians deep in thought both on film and in digital format. Spam had arrived although still no sign of hover cars. When the show was being mixed at our other studio in Sussex, being a musician also, she took on the roll of sound design for the theme of the show. We have always felt that the mediums of sound and picture embrace each other so well and as changes in the music industry came about we started looking towards new ventures. It was then that the opportunity came up to take on a relatively unknown studio and breathe some fresh air into it. This studio had been built for car photography and housed an impressive infinity cove in a very desirable location. However with clients coming in from other industries, particularly the music industry, and with a move towards TV and film work, it became clear that many changes needed to be made to accommodate our wide range of clientele. Time to make a bold move...

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BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME When the decision was made to relocate we were determined to work through our wish list of what an ideal studio would be like. For starters let’s vary the light sources. Some modern, some old school. We were determined to build somewhere that addressed the shortfalls of other studios and yet was flexible enough to bend to the needs of an extremely varied client base. Last summer we found the ideal premises just a few miles down the road and began work in earnest. We had given ourselves just five weeks to complete our build; floors needed to be raised to level them out, areas needed to be excavated to allow turntables to be sunk in and rooms needed to be built to house the kitchen and dressing room / vocal booth. Not forgetting of course that the infinity cove needed to be built, plastered and painted too. It was only during this building work that we discovered just what a unique setup we were improving upon. Wheeler Dealers had been filming part of their last series in the old studio and they had to film one of the episodes in the down time when we were between premises. Despite a thorough search of the UK they couldn’t find another facility like ours. When we reopened they continued to film in our new cove. What makes Gun Hill Studios unique? Apart

from the massive 10m x 10m white infinity cove with 5m high walls and floating ceiling we have not one but two industrial turntables sunk into the floor. One in the infinite cove and one at the other end of the studio where we have painted the floor and walls black. Both turntables are fully motorised and make photographing cars and motorbikes a breeze! Any angle at the touch of a button and our 5m turntable is big enough for even the largest of wheelbases. We’ve also found the turntable very useful for filming music videos and capturing high quality zoom-able spins. But it’s not just the fabric of the building or the design of the interior it is also the strength of our team. Whether we are shooting for clients or providing a blank palette for other photographers or film makers to go wild, we pride ourselves on going the extra mile. Why do average? It’s not stimulating and it doesn’t pay the bills. Our enthusiasm isn’t meant to sound like an advert more an attempt to describe something you need to see in the flesh and also to encourage others to strive to be creative. Not by being “jack of all trades” but by embracing that whatever you do there are no limitations other than those put upon us. Everywhere you look there are great compositions waiting to be photographed, filmed or serenaded”. - Rupert Cobb

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360Ë&#x161;industrial turntables are used to create these spin images

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Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

NE W

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Calendar Girls O

ut for a Christmas meal with the midwives from the scanning clinic, I am linked with we were chatting about photo-shoots that we could do. I suggested the girls did a fine art nude photoshoot for the clinic. Just a bit of fun. As they are all different shapes and sizes, and I thought as they see women at their most vulnerable it might be fun to turn the tables. By the time that the girls had consumed a fair amount of Prosecco they were really up for the idea. Jo, the owner of the clinic, wasn’t going to let this opportunity go and announced the fact that we were going to do an art nude shoot for The Down’s Syndrome charity! Well, a couple of images soon became a calendar as people just assumed that’s what we were doing, so its was to the drawing board for me. Now I’m no artist; that’s why I am a photographer, what I imagined in my head never quite made the transition from brain to paper! But, undetermined by my ability to sketch, I put a few ideas out for each month. The girls soon knew what they were letting themselves in for and the day was set!

julie moult

A pram, bloomers courtesy of eBay and a canvas backdrop for all the images to keep the same look. Soon the calendar was in full swing, I worked in the aperture of F8 and a shutter speed of 1/125th.

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I am a massive fan of Annie Leibovitz who has been a huge inspiration for my photography and I just loved her Pirelli calendar, so I chose a large soft-box to light most of the images and used a small backlight or strip light as I wanted to achieve a soft but flattering feel to the photographs. When the babies arrived, they were so happy and smiley which resulted in such a fantastic day and the photo-shoot was so much fun! One of the girls wasn’t keen when it came down to it, so the Mums stepped in which was just perfect. I always shoot nervous people in black and white, to be honest, we all look good in black and white. I have

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found it certainly helps when and showing the back of the camera and once the first shot with the bench was done, the girls loved it! Jo wanted to get as much publicity as possible as it was Downs Syndrome Day on the 21st March. We did the photo-shoot on the 17th March, had to get them edited for 18th March and get them out to the various people involved in the production. I was up all night editing. But it was worth it. It was the best day Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d had in a very long time, we laughed all day and had such a lovely day. - Julie Moult

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“So myself and the other midwife clinic staff spent a day with award winning Jules photography and created our calendar girl shoot for Down’s syndrome awareness charity . To say we were all nervous was an understatement , worried about stretch marks , being over weight , not having the perfect body etc! Then 2 amazing babies joined us , one who has had major heart surgery and wow did they smile for the camera :) even their mummy’s joined in!! We are really hoping that we can get as much awareness out as possible and would love you to buy one of our calendars as every penny is donated to the charity”. Thank you, Joanna Proud Midwife /Director Miracle in progress To support this wonderful charity please purchase the Downs Syndrome Awareness Calendar by following this link: click here

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ÂŠ Julie Moult Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

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Free Beauty Dish. Buy the B1 or B2. Get the OCF Beauty Dish for free. The new OCF Beauty Dish will bring out the beauty of your subject like no other Light Shaping Tool. Buy a B1 or B2 Off-Camera Flash kit at your nearest dealer before June 7, and get the OCF Beauty Dish White 2â&#x20AC;&#x2122; and an OCF Speedring for free. Find dealer: profoto.com/offcameraflash Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

panikos hajistilly

Master Craftsman

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utting the images together for my photography qualification has been a very challenging, yet an enjoyable journey. I have learned to pay much more attention to detail and to take control of almost every aspect of the images created, especially regarding the printing, presentation, posing of the subjects, expression, and the lighting. I have come into contact and worked with some truly inspirational photographers and educators who have given me the motivation to push on to bigger and better things. I have been forced to think more deeply about what Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m creating and what I am trying to say with the works I create. I would like to explore more themed and carefully styled shoots, containing more of a storytelling aspect, prompting the viewer of my photographs to think more about the content of the images and what thoughts, emotions and even which memories they trigger within themselves. Putting together this body of work has proved truly challenging, and I am very proud to have been awarded Master Craftsman by The Guild of Photographers. - Panikos

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ZENFOLIO IS YOUR GREATEST BUSINESS PARTNER. Ask any photographer running their own business how much time they actually spend behind the camera, and most will respond with “not as much as I’d like.” Despite the public perception that a photographer’s time is mainly spent shooting beautiful images, the reality is that the administrative tasks of running a successful photography business can consume the bulk of your working hours. Martin Hobby, a commercial photographer from Kent, knows this challenge all too well. As a full-time professional photographer with an expanding client base, the last thing he needed was for the task of designing and managing his website to become another time-consuming chore.

Martin Hobby is a commercial, music and wedding photographer based in Kent and a member of the Zenfolio Pro Team. Check out his work at: martinhobby.co.uk/home Image credits clockwise from top left: www.conceptaphoto.com, danballardphotography.com, www.jerryghionis.com, www.blakegardner.net, www.shelleypaulson.com, www.jerryghionis.com, www.damontucci.com, www.loufreeman.com, kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk, ericapeerenboom.com, ©Andrew Peacock/www.footloosefotography.com

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PHOTO CREDIT martinhobby.co.uk

“Zenfolio makes it so simple to set up and maintain a great looking website that impresses new clients when they see it. I’m a photographer, not a web designer, but I do want to be hands-on with the site and have the ability to update my pictures as often as I like. Not only is Zenfolio easy to set up and manage, but my clients love the ease of use on the site too. They can view every photo large and clear regardless of the device they are on, and can download high-resolution files directly without the need for sending countless emails and file names back and forth. The site also makes it easy for clients to buy prints, which go straight to the lab for processing before being sent on to them directly. I don’t need to do anything—I simply collect the profit and enjoy the positive feedback from satisfied clients. Zenfolio has helped me grow my business in many ways, but what impresses me the most is the time it saves me by speeding up my workflow. My site also gives me and my clients peace of mind knowing the images are stored in a secure off-site backup. What I love most of all besides that is that my website is making me money while I sleep.”

Voted #1 by professional photographers year after year, Zenfolio is the premier place to display, market and sell your work online. With beautiful responsive galleries, unlimited storage, an integrated blog, mobile apps and a comprehensive suite of marketing & selling tools, Zenfolio offers the complete all-in-one solution for managing your photography business online with no coding required. Visit www.zenfolio.co.uk to join our growing family of more than 100,000 photographers, and find out for yourself how Zenfolio can be your greatest business partner online.

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ÂŠ Tina Stobbs QGNBP 52 : Creative Light Magazine - Issue 13

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Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

What is Composition? “

Photography is all about light, composition and, most importantly, emotion”. - Larry Wilder

The term “composition” has two distinctive, yet relative meanings. Firstly, composition describes the placement of the subject and elements in an image not only in visual arts but to dance, music, and literature. The compositional elements in writing are important; every book has to have a start, a middle and an end. Without the compositional element of literature in a book then the story just wouldn’t make sense. Secondly, you cannot overemphasize the importance of composition. Any aspiring photographer should learn to give the composition and focal point of their work a lot of his/her attention. A camera simply doesn’t discriminate between the elements that it captures in front of it. When we view a photograph with the naked eye, the brain quickly picks out subjects of interest and searches for a focal point. Make sure that all the elements of your pictures come together and present themselves with a focal point and a story that the viewer can read, understand, and quickly appreciate the photograph that you have created. Since the birth of digital technology, the focus of photography has been directed towards the technical aspects, and not so much attention has been given to the artistic and creative side of image making. Simply buying a digital camera and then expecting to be able to take great photographs straight out of the box doesn’t happen. You will, of course, be able to take acceptable pictures because of the technology built into the camera but the ability to take good photographs comes from the skill of learning the craft. Composition. Where do you start? Experienced photographers will tell you the best place to start is the basic rules of composition. Like all rules, they are made to be broken but before you can make that decision you need to understand how it works.

julie oswin

For centuries, the Rules of Thirds is probably the most important part of all composition techniques.

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Divide the frame into three horizontal and three vertical sections. A ‘hot spot’ is where the lines intersect and cross. The composition is the placement of your subject within the frame, and your subject should be placed in the strongest part of the photograph and not smack in the middle.

The grid is a good technique to help you to compose and create a picture. Once learnt, composition will then give you the confidence to decide when you need to apply the rules and when you can get by without it. Take one of your photography books and study the photographs, are the Rule of Thirds applied? You will find that the majority of the images do contain the elements. When you can see composition applied to an image, you will start to realise that the composition is one of the core elements of a photograph. Watching the television, the same rules apply, you will see leading lines, shape and direction which are techniques used by the Director to take the viewer’s eye along and around the screen. When two people on the screen are in dialogue the cameraman will focus on the person talking so that our eyes are subconsciously guided from one person to the next. A photograph has the framework similarly to that of a film or TV scene; the object is to hold the viewer’s attention and therefore create congruence to the brain. Learning to ‘see’ a photograph, how to light it, correctly expose it and compose is where we start to build ‘the story’ of an image. A computer doesn’t take the photograph, you do.

Spending hours on the computer editing is not photography. There is a misunderstanding of today’s technology that photographs can be ‘fixed’ on the computer; of course, photographs can be, but you will spend hours, sometimes day’s doing it. Photography is a combination of technical expertise as well as creativity; there are no short-cuts; no quick fixes; just sheer hard work and determination. Learn your craft, and use the main elements of composition to guide your photography to the next level. We all remember the photograph that simply took our breath away but very seldom do we remember the ones that don’t. Start looking seriously at composition and the placement of the subject within the frame, build your images. The results and the rewards you will start to achieve will pay dividends. - Julie Oswin

www.julieoswintraining.com Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

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spotlight Congratulations Tina Stobbs Qualified Newborn & Baby Photographers April 2016

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Hempstalls Lane, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs, ST5 0SW. t: 01782 753304 e: sekonic@johnsons-photopia.co.uk w: www.johnsons-photopia.co.uk

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spotlight Congratulations Heather Burns Qualified Photographer April 2016 Issue 13 - Creative Light Magazine :

Closing the Sale precept optimum performance

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ttracting enquiries from interested customers is hard enough. But how many of those interested customers then decide to buy from a competitor, or not at all? All our marketing effort and sales time is lost, and often for reasons that we just don’t understand. Effective selling is about so much more than the simple benefits and pricing that you can offer. The decision to buy from one person or another is based on extremely subtle, often subconscious decisions. The good news is that there is something that you can do about it. By understanding the unconscious drivers of our behaviour, you can adapt your sales technique to increase the chances that people will choose you. None of the ideas we propose are foolproof. However, they have been scientifically tested, and are proven to work in the majority of cases. Here is the next of our “Jedi mind tricks”

Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable feeling we get when we act in a way that is not in tune with our beliefs or previous actions. We can use this to ensure that our customers act in a consistent and predictable way when we are not in a position to influence them directly. David Greenwald, with a number of colleagues, set out to measure the power of this principle in 1984. Ronald Reagan was competing with Walter Mondale in the hope of winning his second term in office. Greenwald arranged for a number of his students to be called by telephone the night before the election. The researchers explained they were conducting a poll and asked the students only one question; “Will you be voting tomorrow?” Now, this was 1984, and these were mature students, and so they all said they would do

the responsible thing – turn out and vote. Greenwald was then able to measure the turnout of these students and an equivalent group who hadn’t been asked that same question. Amazingly, the turn-out rate from those who had committed verbally to vote was almost 50% higher than that of the group who had not. Even though the voters had made only a verbal commitment, to a complete stranger, who they knew they would never see again, they felt obliged to act in the way they had said they would. Gordon Sinclair, the owner of a Chicago restaurant used this principle to reduce by two thirds the number of people who booked a table and then didn’t show, without calling to cancel. Not only that, but he did it by changing only two words in the script that his receptionist used to confirm telephone bookings. Gordon was experiencing 30% noshow rates when his receptionist confirmed the booking with these words – “If for any reason you have to cancel please let us know.” The dramatic two word change that reduced Gordon’s no-shows to only 10% was “will you”, as in “If for any reason you have to cancel will you please let us know?” Now, that requires an answer’ to which the diners (obviously) always answered “yes”. The simple fact of making that commitment had the impact of reducing by two thirds the level of no-shows. Now, that is when people make a verbal commitment. What do you think will happen if we get them to make a written commitment? The effect of Cognitive Dissonance has been shown to even more powerful when you get someone to make an active, rather than a passive commitment. So, now you know why the bank make you fill out your loan application yourself, rather than just sign one that they have prepared for you. They want you to be truly committed to paying them back. We can use this principle too. Have you ever had to deal with the hidden decision maker? You know how it goes, you have made a really good sales presentation, you have identified all the customer’s needs and concerns and provided a solution to every single one, and then they tell you they will have to consult the boss/husband/wife. All of a sudden you have another customer to convince but you have no way of talking to them directly. By applying a little Cognitive Dissonance you can significantly improve your chances of getting the business. If you ask your customer “when you talk to your boss/husband/wife will you be recommending this purchase?” They are going to say yes – because you have done such a good job of selling to them. Now, when they speak to their boss/husband/wife they

are going to feel obliged to act in accordance with what they said they would do. In fact, the pressure will be all the greater as they know they are going to have to come back and tell you they were unsuccessful. The chances are that they will argue your case even more strongly than you would have had you been there. Like Gordon Sinclair, you can use this principle to reduce the number of no shows at your meetings or events, simply by asking the people to confirm to you in person that they will be there. If you can make the act of confirming involve more effort, such as filling in a form, writing an e-mail, or even suggesting topics they would like to discuss at the event or meeting you will enhance the sense of commitment that they will feel. By the way, this principle doesn’t just work when you are trying to close a sale. There are many ways in which you can use Cognitive Dissonance to make your sales process go more smoothly.

For example: Do you ever have sales meetings that end with – “Let me think about it”? What if you agreed with the customer at the outset that you would discuss their needs, recommend solutions if you felt they were appropriate and that the customer would tell you at the end either yes or no? Do you think that would reduce the number of “think about it” responses you would get? Especially if you reminded them of that commitment towards the end of the meeting. Some sales processes require the customer to test the product in between meetings. Ensuring the customer agrees to a specific time that they will do the test (and agreeing to call to discuss the results) will make a big difference to their actual doing the tests. - Ginny Atherton Precept Optimum Perforance

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Gold Awards

march 2016

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Hempstalls Lane, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs, ST5 0SW. t: 01782 753304 w: www.johnsons-photopia.co.uk

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We want your image!

e are going to add an “Image of the Day” post to the Guild’s external Facebook page. Some posts on that page can attract in excess of 100,000 views so it’s an opportunity for you to get some great publicity and/or share images that mean something to you. We will use IOM Golds/Silvers to kick it off and generate interest but once launched it will be open to ANY image. An ideal “Image of the Day” will consist of an image with some information about it (how was it achieved, what kit was used or why it is important to you...a combination of an image and text in other words). So, here’s what we need to select an image of yours... 1. The image (1000 pixels is fine - no watermark to distract please). 2. A little text (as above) or a link to a video of how you achieved it etc.. 3. If you entered the Guild’s Image of the Month competition then please state what grade it got. We obviously can’t show everyone’s images and the text will be as important as the image so please drop a line to nik@photoguild.co.uk with the above if you want to be considered. Once we have a decent number of images (with text) stockpiled we will start this. - Steve Thirsk, The Guild of Photographers

PS - If you don’t already ‘like’ our public page please do so (and invite others to it)

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