I've been working on the photography for a new web site winepsych.com due for launch in the next year. The author of the site is Miles Thomas, Psychologist. Spend an hour with Miles and his wife Sarah and you'll soon see where the idea for a wine psychology web site came from, as both are big on wine.
This portrait is from the first sitting to establish a look and feel for the site's photography. Their house makes for an easy shoot, with its large windows, clean decor and some impressive paintings that make excellent backdrops.
Lookout for the winepsych.com launch on the web sometime in the next year.
Thursday, 28 August 2008
Winepsych.com
Friday, 25 July 2008
Childeren of the Corn
My little nephew is a photogenic little man. This summer I went camping in the Canadian Rockies with my my brother, sister-in-law and my nephew. I carted my photo gear and lights into the wilderness to get a portrait of them all together on holiday... as with most kids, my nephew likes getting his picture taken and this one was taken while we were waiting for dinner - only 20 mins earlier the little man had a bath - he's your typical 4 year old, if there is sand or dirt in the vacinity he will find it.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
Niki DaRold
While I have been living in London UK, I have been lucky enough to meet many interesting and talented individuals. One of which is Niki DaRold whom I met while taking a Photojournalism Course at the London College of Communication/University of the Arts London.
Originally from Italy and living in London for the past 2 years, Niki is an accomplished photographer who blew me away with his photo story of the alternative bike courier scene in London and his self portraits.
A couple of us photography geeks got together this last weekend to play with flash and share some techniques, the above photo of Niki was taken with the camera on manual, with an aperture of F8 for good depth of field in the foreground, and the flash unit on ETTL off to camera left (using the Canon off-camera shoe chord OC-E3).
Many would argue that the shadows cast by the flash from the nose and glasses takes away from the image, but I kind of like the effect. These shadows can be easily filled in with a flash unit on manual to camera right, if so desired.
The image is a good example of how manual exposure and ETTL flash can work together to create a dramatic lighting effect (Ive included the straight exposure, without flash below for reference). Now I dream of some high powered studio lighting units to enable me to light full body portraits and street fashion photography in the field... I will have to keep buying those lottery tickets for now.
Before Exposure Adjustment and Flash...
After Exposure Adjustment and Flash...
Saturday, 14 June 2008
Copyright and Photo/Image Licensing Enquiries
All the photos on this site are copyright and should not be reproduced without prior written consent. All my photos are available for license... for more information, please send your enquiries to gwlad(at)hotmail(dot)com. Please provide details of the desired license usage including whether the image will be used on the web, in print (brochure, magazine etc), intended use (marketing, editorial etc) and for how long the image is required.
Monday, 26 May 2008
Tracey and Chris
I've known Tracey since 1994 when we worked in the same office. We had lots of fun in and outside of work and we have remained friends ever since. Our lives have changed a great deal in the past 14 years, and we were living on two different continents for over 10 years, but we have managed to stay in touch and she an important person in my life.
Tracey met Chris in High School and back in 1996 they started dating again, its all a bit of a fairy tale and I wanted to take their portrait for one of my photo assignments. I am very happy they agreed, which I think shows how proud and good they really are together.
Thanks guys for letting me take your photo and for being excellent hosts as always.
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Dan Jones - Human Rights Activist and Author
I have been lucky enough to have been working alonside Dan Jones, veteran Human Rights activist and author. Dan has been with Amnesty International since its beginning and he has been host for the City and Tower Hamlets Local Amnesty International group in London since 1980 (see http://www.towerhamletsandcityamnesty.blogspot.com/).
I joined Dan's Amnesty Group earlier this year and have been overwhelmed by the generosity and passion that all its members bring to the group. Regular fixtures include annual fund raisers at The George (on commercial road, London), an annual Summer Festival near Spitalfields and special events coordinated to highlight specific Amnesty campaigns.
Dan kindly agreed to sit for a portrait for another one of my assignments and we spent about 40 mins setting up, shooting and talking about his involvement in Amnesty and Human Rights activism.
As is proving to be tradition, my preferred final image was different to Dan's preference. I wanted to show Dan as a strong character so I chose the more traditionl portrait and I hope the final image achieves this (above). Dan's preference was for one that showed his softer side and a more contemporary camera angle(below).
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
Self Portrait
Self portraits have always fascinated me. However, as I am not as photogenic as I would like (woe is me) I've steered away from my own self portrait in the past.
Recently though, I had to produce a self portrait for my coursework so I finally had to turn the camera on myself for a change. I originally planned a bit of a protest by using high key lighting and as much in the image as possible to distract attention away from me... time limited, I settled on water meaning I had to find a way to take pictures while I stood in the shower.
I covered my camera in a plastic bag, with a hole cut out for the lens, and sealed the bag around the lens with an elastic band. Placed two flash units either side of me and dialed up the flash until I got the lighting I was looking for - enough to blast the background and provide some depth to the image. Then it was a matter of setting the camera on timer and standing under the shower, taking as many pics as I could until the lens steamed up. I eventually ended up standing in a cold shower as the steam was getting out of hand.
Post processing was a little brightness and contrast adjustment and adding a blue filter to my eye to give the image a bit more pop... my eyes are probably the only part of the physical me with any real merit... but then I'm more than a little colour blind, so they probably look better than they actually work.
The experience was all a bit narcissistic and made me feel more than unconfortable at first, but I'm quite pleased with the outcome, and eventually had some fun with it, so I will definitely be doing more self portraits in the future.
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