Zoe's Photo-Electric Blog

Zoe is shooting her friends wedding today (there are only around 10 people there so she is doing it by herself) so I thought I’d bring the blog up to date.

Early August seemed to be a succession of family shoots, all with small children.  I must admit that its one area we are good at.  The nice thing was that some of these were returning customers from last year.  Returning customers and word of mouth is my favourite way of getting business.

Last Friday was eventful, to say the least.  It did not stop raining all day.  We had a wedding in the afternoon – and an ball at night.  After shooting the wedding, saving and backing up the pictures, and getting packed I just had time to walk Bruno, my dog.

It was continous rain so I took my brolly.  Bruno ran around the park as usual, but then while he was out of my sight, he followed another guy out of the park – about my height, similar clothes, with a brolly.    He’d gone through a tunnel under the railway line, across a main road and another quarter mile before he sussed out he has following the wrong guy.  Very confused he started running about looking for me, including running up and down the dual carriageway.
I was still wandering around looking for him.  I finally went to the police station where some folk had phoned in about him.  I phoned Zoe and she went off on her bike to see if she could see him.
Finally I get a call from Zoe that she had him – he’d found his way back to the park!  But when a well meaning policewoman had tried to get a hold of him he had bit her!  A warning nip I think, but still painful.
So we had to give all our details to the policewoman (who said I may be charged for having a dangerous dog out of control), then phone up the person in charge of the evenings event to say we’d be late ( I don’t think she believed me), then off to get Zoe changed (after 45 minutes riding a bike in the rain)

We arrived at the event 45 minutes late with our shiny new dye sublimation printer ready to do print sales and then found we had left the card reader behind!  A phone to Zoe’s partner Gavin, and he was on his way with a card reader on his motorcycle (it was still raining).  Anyway, the event was a great success (pics here ) and we left around midnight.

As we did not have a shoot on Saturday, we managed to get the wedding pictures and the ball pictures on line within 24 hours.

On wednesday we had a commercial shoot for Advantage PR.  This was for a local firm of surveyers.  An outside group shoot (it started to rain again as I raised the camera to my eye!) and thirty portraits all finished in about 25 minutes (before lunch began).

On Friday, the sun came out occassionally and we managed to update pictures for “Fabric” a wonderful drink and diner who are actually our neighbours.  Pictures are here

In between weddings, events, and commercial shoots we get the usual steady stream of passport photos.  We get quite a few US passport and visa pictures to do, as well as lots of children.  Basically all the stuff that can’t be done in a booth.  But we also get visits from adults who think that its worth paying the little extra to get a picture they like, which has to last them for the next ten years.

I thought today I’d show you how random the job of a photographer is, the photographs in this post were a selection of the of the shoots we did in the last month.

Lets start with Fabric, a new style bar in Dunfermline (great food and a laid back atmosphere)

then we have a wedding,

I’d never been to a wedding where they have goldfish onthe dining tables, I have now, they all went to a good home by the way.

Next we have a promo photo shoot for a play that’s going to be on in The Fringe in Edinburgh in August

The name of the play is (A tall tale from the) Fame Factory

next we have one of our many family shoots, this is probably one of our most popular packages and to be honest it’s one of the most fun to do

next we have a shoot from Alhambra 3, the new theater space in the Alhambra, and on this night was A Slice Of Saturday Night another show which will be on in The Fringe this time by the local theater group Why Not

A great production and well choreographed, recommended if you like comedy musicals

Next we have these characters

These little sweethearts all had their faces painted by Maria,  She’s a local make-up artist who also does face painting for kids parties.

Next is Buddy Holly

This of course is not the real Buddy Holly though he does a great impression this was Rave On which was on at the Alhambra,  if you are a fan of 50’s music you would have loved this night as Billy Fury and the Everly Brothers where there to…well not the real Billy Fury but……..oh you get the picture

Then we had a couple some local models in the studio updateing their (and my) portfolios

both these girls where at least 5 foot 10 …….I felt tiny next to them….not fair I only ever wanted to be 5 foot 7 and I only reached 5 foot 5,  good job I have high heels

That’s a wee glimpse as how random it can get we have to be versatile,  it’s fun though you never know what you’ll get asked to do next.

Later

Zoe

ok so we end up spending a lot of time in the studio, so I thought I’d get all the equipment i needed and would venture outside, now this is Scotland I don’t ever expect good weather but I was determined to take some photos no matter what

This is Ruth in this photo, she’s been helping me out by modelling for me.  As you can see there are some angry clouds up there but I felt they added to the picture.

Here she is again out of the studio but sheltered in a stair well

On Sunday I went out by myself and had a wander around the Glen, I took with me my D80, SB800 flash, a white brolly, a stand and a tripod and set myself the task of using the flash outdoors.   I took a brolly for myself too as again the weather just does what it wants and went to find something that was begging to be photographs…..I eventually found a wee bee sitting on a giant daisy.

wee bee

I’m not usually one for taking photos of flowers but I was trying something new.  This flower and the bee were both taken with a 50mm lens with a an off camera hand held flash the natural light was overcast.

And then I thought that since I had carted the tripod, and the stand, and a white brolly out with me I should a least take a photo were they are all used,  so here is a self portrait it’s taken under my favourite tree (yes I have a favourite tree).

If you know the glen it’s the one that you can stand right underneath and the branches reach the ground all around you and it’s on the way to where the monkeys used to be.  I’m reading over that description and it’s quite surreal I’m also showing my age as the monkeys have been gone a long time.

and to finish up I had a look round for these guys,  I love that there are peacocks in our public park .

Later

z

it doesn’t look sunny but, boy, is it hot!

we’ve been busy as normal, which is good in this finacial climate but in this is not the kind of climate I’m used to living in sunny Scotland, I’m used to rain and clouds and the cold this heat has just managed to confuse me.

what have we been up to lately?

well if you are local to Dunfermline you may be aware that Jimmy Carr was doing his stand-up at the Alhambra,  David was there camera glued to his hand as usual,  here’s a taste of what we got

I’ve also been working on a some of sarahs photos, one of which was in our last post, here is sarah sporting a completely different look

it’s amazing what a difference change of clothes, make-up, hair-do and setting can make.  We had a great time and created some brilliant images.  We even managed to venture outside and get some pics outside of the studio.  I’ve been eyeing up this wall for a while and I hope you agree it makes a great backdrop for Sarahs striking outfit.

Again I was very pleased with this shot but then again excellent models with brilliant wardrobes always helps

toodle pip!

z

It’s the longest day tomorrow, and fathers day.  Hmm, that explains the run in framed pictures of late.

A fairly average week.  From boudoire to rock and roll, along with lots of kids along they way.  Par for the course for us.

We started with  a private makeover portrait boudoire style  session, We can’t show any pics of the shoot I’m afraid, but here is a picture of the beautiful flowers that the clients sent to Zoe, (who did the make up and some of the photography).

These shoots are quite popular. The end result is an album with 20 photoshopped (airbrushed) pictures in an album. In this case, our clients husband works in the middle east, so the pictures were a something to take with him

Then we had Biffy Clyro at the Alhambra

Biffy Clyro at the Alhambra

Its the second time that Biffy have been to the Alhambra.

Than we had Sarah’s portfolio shoot

In this case we supplied the outfit including the wig.

Then some great kids, for a family pic

Family shoots are a major part of our business.

Then a fund raising preschool shoot.  We don’t post pictures from preschool shoots for pubic viewing on the web.  This is around the fifth time we have been booked by this local parent and toddler group.  They know us now, and parents bring their children in knowing they will get great pictures, for a lot less than they would pay at the local travelling photographesr in the precincts etc.  We allow parents to buy as much or as little as we want. We don’t charge for the shoot, and we give 15% of all earnings back to the nursery as commission.  To be able to do this, and make a profit, we have to get a lot of sales.  The only way we know how to do this is by producing top class pictures that the parents can’t resist. This gets easier after you have worked with over a thousand children.

Then we had a headshots shoot for a local actress/singer

Its maybe time we had a dedicated web page just for headshots.  This part of the business seems to be growing,as most of our business by word of mouth.

We also got the regular stream of clients in for passport and visa pictures. We always point out that we are dearer than the booth  in the post office.  If I had a video camera pointing at the booth I could make a good living sending the attempts of parents with young kids to “You’ve been framed”

Of course it’s not all taking pictures.  When we are not behind the camera, we are usually in front of a computer, preparing pictures for printing, designing albums,  generating previews (e.g 240 different images for the preschool shoot above).  And we get our share of hassles too – the Royal Mail were the main one this week, which resulted in us having to deliver some pictures two days late. We hate that.

Good Grief, its almost six weeks since Zoe’s last post.  What have we been doing?

Let’s see, there was Suzi’s portfolio shoot.

Then there was an environmental study in Gavins garage

Then a makeover portrait shoot

Then a shoot for Envy Hairdressers

Then another  makeover portrait shootHows that for a Mae West look?

Then there was Pamela and Ians wedding

Then the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra at the Alhambra

Kelly and Nicky’s wedding

Then Paulo Nutini and supporting bands at the Alhambra

Then this wee fellow, and family

Then the very beautiful Jane, for a makeover portrait session 

Then this chappy and family

Then the amazing Jake and Elwood (The Blues Brothers!)
at the Alhambra

Then Lorna and George

Then headshots for the talented Actress Jemma Carrol

I between, we shot half a dozen other family shoots in the studio, around 120 children at a Local Parents and Toddler group, and a private makeover portrait session.

And we have been experimenting with different lighting techniques.

So we have not been completely idle since Zoe’s last post

David

We’ve been busy lately doing all different types of shoots,  we had another model shoot he other day for a model from Dundee, Cat, she really is a brilliant model with lots of ideas, she already has a lot of exceptional photos in her portfolio so we wanted to do something a little bit different.

I’ve got some peacock feathers that I’ve been desperate to use in a shoot for a while and this was the oppurtunity

If you want to see more of the photos we took of Cat they can been seen on our photogirls site www.photogirl.co.uk

Aside from model portfolios we have also been taking photos of the views from the outskirts of dunfermline for another client,   we had to wait a few days for the right weather but it paid off, we got a day with blue skies and little fluffy clouds.

Here is Dave getting the photographs we needed

Also this week we went to the Alhambra to capture Rumours of Fleetwood Mac,  for this we were provided with very low light conditions but we managed to get so good results after quickly adjusting our cameras and holding very still and hoping for the best.   I’m a fan of the Peter Green era myself and sure enough they launched into some classics in the second half of the show…..excellent!

More of the Alhambra photos will be up on our site very soon.

The life of a photographer is not a predictable one but it’s that’s what makes it interesting…. wonder what next week will bring.

I am currently studying to get a make-up qualification and as a result I have been practicing on all my friends and anyone else who stays still long enough.  It’s seriously taking over my life – every film I sit down to watch, not only do I examine how the shot has been set up (thats the photographer in me) I now examine the make up on all of the actors and actresses – it’s starting to ruin my cinematic experience.

Last week we had in a local fashion model Louise, she was willing to let me practice my make up skills on her which was great.  Louise also has the most amazing collection of clothes which she brought along,  she was a great model and between us we managed to get some stunning shots.

Here is one

If you want to see more of the photos we took of Louise you can see them on our Photogirl site www.photogirl.co.uk

Well it feels like summer is finally arriving which is good because I feel like winter is never ending.

Over the weekend myself and David did some experimentation with colour filters and flash photography it was fun and we came up with some new techniques that we can put into use into the studio.

This photograph of myself and Gavin, was taken on a time release (1..2..3..jump) using coloured filters to make the sky pink but keeps us in reality.

lots of fun in the sun

Hope you all had a good easter and didn’t get too ill eating all that seasonal chocolate.

We had a good Easter weekend here at Photo-Electric, we were at the Austrailian Pink Floyd performance at the Alhambra.   Excellent venue for an amazing show, lots of lights lots of energy, stage sets, costume changes and, of course, brilliant music.

From a photographic point of view it was exceptional, usually at a gig you have to battle with the ever changing lighting conditions – trying to position yourself to get musicians in and glare out, and lets not even start about smoke machines.  This show was different – it is designed so the whole audience (about 2000 fans on two levels) all get a good view.  Highly recommended go and see them if you can.