Greenscreen Unleashed

Friday night saw the launch of our new greenscreen service. Now this has been something I have been contemplating for a little while now but, forever cautious, had decided to hold off until I was sure it would behave itself.

Now Friday night also saw St Vincent's Summer Ball as HMS Nelson.....spot the link here? The greenscreen wasn't meant to be launched, a flipant offer to the organiser had been declined in favour of a more tradtional backdrop....so what changed?

Forever the girl guide i do like to be prepared. HMS Nelson was a venue I had yet to work so I thought it prudent to go visit prior to the event. As my new schools service has also recently been launched, spare time has been few and far between. Two days prior to the event, during a meeting with the events co-ordinator, I am informed in passing that I am in fact providing our greenscreen service ARGHHHHHHH!!!! Why did I not know this? A quick check of students attending tells me that perhaps it may be feesible. How hard can a greenscreen launch be with 95 students? Break it in gently...no sweat......accept I had no backdrops to use.

My photoshop skills are far from perfect but I can generally bluff my way around to get what I want so, upon my return home, I set about designing my 007 themed backdrops. A couple of online tutorials and here is what I came up with.

Friday night was a great night. The kids were great, and the sytem behaved itself. Luckily as it turns out as the 95 students were in fact to 250 on the night!

From this to......

IF YOU ARE HAVING A SPECIAL EVENT WHICH REQUIRES SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT, GIVE US A CALL.

Lessons to be Learned

The Haven seems to becoming more of my second home...a bit of a training ground for family members as they strive for better photographs. It has only been a few weeks since popping down to the Haven with my Dad for a little photo session and it never ceases to amaze me how you can photograph the same location on several occasions and each time come up with something new.

Mum paid me a visit this weekend armed with her camera in the hope of 'bagging' some great shots for her photography course. After having a little confidence wobble, we decided a little 'one to one' tuition was the order of the day. We all have our favourite genres and Mums is landscape photography. If I could rustle up an exotic location...so much the better!
Landscape photography is all about lighting and composition. The best hours of the day to venture out are dawn and dusk. Needless to say the summer is not the best of times to tackle the genre but, summer it is so sunshine was going to play a huge part of our trip.
First stop of the day was a beautiful little village called Bosham. Bosham, has claimed many a car as during high tide, the water rises right to the houses along the water's edge leaving no room for cars. We arrived at low tide but, if you looked around carefully, there were little tell tail signs as to the tides intentions.

Seaweed at the base of household steps make a fine photograph!
I have to give Mum her due, she spotted the next photo opportunity, but I decided to sneak in for my own composition.

Two visions of the same subject. Just goes to show that we all see things in different ways!

Just a little funny from the day!

Bosham can offer fantastic photo opportunities....just less often on bright, sunny days so, uninspired we decided to head off for pastures new.

A little gem Mum....well done!
As I say, there is little scope in Landscape photography but this was a great spot. A quick chat with the model ensured the bottle was in the right place at the right time and a little photoshop tuition and.....BINGO!!

The Haven

Last stop of the day was Titchfield Haven. As the sun began to drop, the Landscape lit up. At last, what we had been waiting for. Finally a chance to bag some great photographs.

Here's the pick of the bunch....mainly Mum's with one or two of mine thrown in for good measure.

Up Up

and away!

Ever been in that situation where you wait....wait....and wait some more whilst swans majestically glide towards you. You will them to take flight.......then wait some more whilst they make their grand entrance? Finally, they arrive and, as soon as you turn your back they finally take flight when you are totally unprepared! Fortunately for us they were in a showing off mood and gave us a double fly past! A photographer should ALWAYS be prepared!

The best shots rely on angles that have yet to be discovered.

Thanks Mum and you took some fab pictures.

Good luck with your remainig college time and I look forward to seeing your travel shots xx

Titchfield Haven

Meet my Dad. I love my Dad Loads. He visits me fairly often and I love his visits. it means we can spend time together and,he also loves to get out and about taking photographs so it is a great opportunity for me to enjoy taking photographs for the the shear enjoyment of it!

These were taken on a little trip out with my Dad. Thanks Dad, I enjoy our trips immensely and look forward to many more.....my pictures are definately better though ;)

First Holy Communion

Sunday 17^th May saw my First Holy Communion in the form of St Vincent De Pauls and The Church of the Holy Families annual first Holy Communion. I am always up for new challenges and this one came at short notice and a bolt from the blue. Their usual photographer pulled out last minute and left them stranded with nobody to record these special moments. I felt very honoured to be trusted with such an important task.

Thank you so much to Liz and Maureen for looking after me throughout both ceremonies....I couldn't have done it without you help. Father Louie was a delight to work with. A very welcoming man who made my job so much easier by allowing me the freedom set about creating images. The children were fantastic...so brave to step up in front of so many people and do their readings. It was a real treat to witness their first communion.

Special Moments to Treasure

Adam & Jo’s Wedding

Firstly, apologies for the lack of blog updates in recent weeks. All I can say in my defence is I have been so hectic with the launch of our school photography service alongside my current work load, that there has been little time for blogging. I will update you with how this part of my service is progressing soon but, for now at least, I have popped in to congratulate Adam and Jo on their beautiful wedding last week.

This was to be my first assignment at Portsmouth Registry Office and, having taken a sneak peek around the venue prior to the day, was looking forward to it immensely. On my visit, the gardens were looking beautiful. The ceanothus was blooming alongside the wisteria covered pergolas. I just prayed that they remained this way until the Saturday.

The Gardens
I kept an eager eye on the weather and, in true British weather style; the weather took a nosedive toward the end of the week and, as the wind whipped up, rain was forecast for the Saturday. As it turned out, the weather whipped up such frenzy it blew the rain right past us......fantastic!
Portsmouth Registry Office run a bit of a conveyer belt system and, as the photographer you have to be a bit on the ball or you could easily photograph the wrong guests. Couples seemed to arrive about every 30 minutes and guests arrived in a steady stream. As one couple went up the beautiful staircase to the ceremony room, the previous couple headed to the gardens for the photographs. As the last ceremony of the day, I naively thought that we would have free reign of the gardens until we were done.......seems I was sadly mistaken there as we were chased out the gardens after 25 minutes. A real shame as I would have loved to spend a little more time with all the guests. Fortunately, Adam and Jo are a super couple and were more than happy to head down to Old Portsmouth for some private photographs.

A quick snap as we were leaving

As these have proved to be some of my favourites from the day I have decided to share some of these with you.

Congratulations to you both and I hope to catch up with you upon your return ( I'm not jealous at all!)

Daniel is a little star...thank you Daniel for making beautiful photographs!

Kathy & Kevin

Congratulations to Kevin and Kathy on their wedding on April 4^th at St Mary's Church in Alverstoke. Ordinarily this post would have been posted just after the happy event but, as usual, I am running drastically behind on my blog due to work commitments.

All photos have been posted to the gallery but, for the first time I have been requested to keep them under wraps until the Kevin & Kathy have had time to browse the gallery at their leisure. From what I hear this should prove a lot easier upon their return than using their internet connection in the Maldives! I can assure you that the gallery will be open for all guests VERY soon.

So back to the wedding day, and what a wedding day it was! Who could have guessed that the weather would prove to be so glorious at the beginning of April? They say the sun shines in the righteous and boy, was the sun shining.....in fact shining just a little too perfectly for my liking (photographers are fussy people) The best images are never produced in full sunshine and finding shade was to prove a challenge!

After a lovely ceremony (thank you Father Ted for not banishing me to the bell tower) it was my intention to take a few shots outside the church but, having been greeted by wall to wall sunshine, found it prudent to head down to Crescent Gardens for a few shots. Great little location as it is right opposite the Alverbank Hotel. All guests could pile into the bar for a drink whilst the photo formalities were being taken care of. Thank you everyone for being so patient and for being so receptive to my ideas.....I really hate taking photos of soldiers standing in a row so it was a pleasure to work with you all.

Andrew

HMS Alliance was to be the venue for the reception....a fantastic venue and a first for me. My first visit on a submarine, in fact my first visit to the museum myself which is terrible really as I have lived in Gosport for 23 years. The staff were fantastic.It was lovely to meet Andrew Poole and nothing was too much trouble for him.... I was made to feel very welcome which is not always the case for us lowly photographers lol. I hope you all feel the photographs do your venue justice.

A few Pics in the sub

A fab sunset to round off the perfect day

I should point out that I was extremely lucky to take any of the photographs at HMS Alliance as, a stupid error on my part, meant my much prized lens, was sitting on a bench in Crescent Gardens whilst I was at the Submarine Museum....not ideal I think you would agree. Thank you Kevin for having a hotline to the Alverbank Hotel and a big thank you to the chef who hot footed it over the road to rescue it! That was nearly the most expensive mistake ever!

My first ever HDR photo

I am now looking forward to getting to grips with the wedding album design upon the happy couple's return.

The Little Blue Cart

A little update . Remember the little blue cart that was rescued from a junk shop in Portsmouth? I am please to say that it is now ready for work and has had it's first outing.

It is now already....minus it's handle.......to travel to nurseries with me for our school photography service. A big thank you goes to Ian who has spent hours in his workshop painting and sanding to make it all shiney new again.