This was one of the more experimental photographs that came out of Tuesday fashion photography workshop and was taken as more of a test for future shoots than anything. The idea of using bubbles in a portrait was going to be difficult for a number of reasons. Firstly the bubbles move, so focusing on them would require a lot of trial and error. For the camera to focus and the shutter to be pressed before the moving bubble hit anything or exploded would be more difficult in my opinion that the exploding paint balloons we had just finished shooting.

However, despite my doubts we tried it, there were two people blowing balloons towards the single studio flash we had being using through the last two days photography. Out of about 30 – 50 attempts the camera only managed to find a focus and take a picture six times and this was the only picture that came up on screen with the bubbles sharp rather than the balloons. With the bubbles being so see through the camera’s sensor didn’t pick them out most of the time. Perhaps next time I could try manual focus but this might be even more complex with the bubbles moving constantly.

This is probably the final product photograph I will put online but it is another photograph that was challenging to take so I felt that it was worth explaining. Firstly, this item is very small, the bits are less than two inches long but more obviously it is quite a lifeless subject. The clear plastic container slides inside the black plastic to hold the ten tiny drill bits in place and without taking them out like this, it is impossible to clearly see what the product it, ideally there would be an action photograph with one of the these drill bits being used but that is out of the question at the moment.

Because the item is so small it was really pushing the close up limitations of my Nikon lens, an ideal lens is a dedicated macro lens but as some of you may know, all my photographs are taken with the same lens (however, this may change in the not to distant future).

Lighting wise I feel this is spot on because you don’t notice it, there is no shadows because a three flash set up was used to light the subject from all angles. Compositionally I think that the two drill bits out their packaging should be facing the same way and that my camera should have been a little lower on the tripod but apart from those two small problems this is one of my best product photographs in my opinion.

Although Claire and the group had inflated a lot of balloons yesterday (many with powder paint inside) we ran out of time to try the above photograph. This morning we started by testing how the paint would explode outside before bringing it back into the studio. Like with the previous days shoot there were five of us involved with creating this image today, the task to capture the paint explosions was given to me. To start we made sure that there was a white sheet on the floor to try and protect the floor and white Colorama background from the paint. This helped in capturing most of the paint however we some of the explosions we did get some on the background, which it turns out is not a probably because the background is basically thick card and we simply cut it off where we had been stood at the end of the shoot.

Obviously, the timing with this photograph was extremely difficult. I have no idea how fast a balloon explodes but it is much less than a second and with the camera captured just 125th of a second it was down to luck what I would capture. In the end we managed photograph four balloons, the above photograph shows the third and most favorable result.

*Image Spoiler Alert*

This image is however two photos blending together using Photoshop. The main image was the first take just after the explosion with the green paint and falling balloon (it might look like a green banana to some but that is a balloon). The second image was taken a few seconds later when the smoke and paint had disappeared and in this one Lizzie had a much better expression and wasn’t masked by the paint from the explosion, so I made a selection around her upper body (including arms, face and shirt) and then blended between the two photographs. This is why the explosion seems to be going straight down rather than all over her arms and face. Maybe I shouldn’t have let you into this secret but the more I take pictures, the more I learn and the more I wish to share with my visitors (that’s you).

Today I attended a fashion photography workshop led by London based photographer Julia Kennedy. We were split into teams of five and the above photograph is one of my fellow students as the model. I took the picture but others assisted with the setup, styling, make up, art directing and lighting. It was difficult to minimise the shadows behind Lizzie, but I think that the colours work especially well against the hat and colour of the hair. With the shirt being white it was difficult to get the white background to appear completely white, although we were taught that the closer the model is to the background the lighter it would be (we quickly found out this would mean harsher shadows). In this image we all feel that the balance is about right.

The lighting setup was one strobe, not reflector. Camera was hand held and set at ISO 100, 1/125th of a second exposure at an aperture of f/22 – the light was extremely powerful compared to my own studio lights which I previously used for portraits. This was also the first time I have properly shot tethered to the computer, in other words the files went straight onto my laptops hard drive and came up full screen on there rather than on my camera into a memory card. This made it much easier to see what was going on, check for sharpness and let the model clearly see what we were capturing. Tomorrow is my second and final day of this fashion photography workshop, our plan is to make a mess (you’ll see).

Last week I showed you a much wider photograph of the newly built main entrance to the Trafford Centre. Obviously I feel that it is over the top for a shopping centre, but when using a zoom lens to focus in on the details, it is possible to find something a little more pleasing to the eye. Along the top of the building there are around two dozen of these statues, all very similar, but when I remove all but three I feel that it makes for an interesting photograph.

The light was certainly on my side a week last Saturday because it was warm, late afternoon winter light and this helped light up the gold and marble details. Hopefully next time I go to the Trafford Centre on a sunny day I will take my tripod which will enable me to get even closer and sharper photographs of the building and its more interesting details.