So, today is Red Nose Day 2009, in aid of Comic Relief, a UK based charity delivering aid to the poorest people, both here in the UK and abroad.
Group shoot yesterday, we ended up taking Leanne and Lora to Oldbury Court, known locally as Vassalls Park, where you could say it was chilly but it was definitely damp (anybody want to buy me a weather sealed Canon body? No? Didn’t think so!).
The cloudy sky was pretty much one giant softbox, but it was late afternoon and the evening was closing in. A couple of my favourite shots below.
This morning we were hosted at a small studio in Bristol run and managed by the Disabled Photgrapher’s Society at the Vassalls Centre in Fishponds.
While not being very large, the studio is pretty well equipped, and perfectly usable for individual and small group shoots. Out of the studio there are also plenty of opportunities for more urban style shots in and around the centre and its grounds and the more more natural setting of the nearby Oldbury Court (known locally as Vassalls Park).
The Society needs to get some more usage out of the studio to be able to fund it into next year, and it’s available on a donate as you go basis so if you need a studio space every now and again, keep the DPS in mind!
Playing with stop motion, one image every ten seconds, compressed a 45 minute drive into 30 seconds.
Another shoot at the weekend, this time courtesy of the Royal Victoria Country Park who I don’t really think knew knew what thy’d let themselves in for when nearly two dozen photographers and models descended on their museum in the old chapel.
Working around the displays and utilising a number of “found items” as props, the smell of burning ozone filled the air as flashes popped left and right. The day was nothing short of a success and the quality of the images produced using portable battery powered equipment continues to astound me. I’ll blog through a couple of my favourite shots form the other photographers who attended but for now, here are my favourite shots of the day.
So, the Southern Strobist group had a little get together at the old Tudor House Museum on Southampton at the end of October and I went along to see how they do things down there 
From memory, there were some eight models, ten or twelve photographers and dozens of wondrous locations in the museum, which is closed for renovation so we had the run of the place. It’s a pity the weather wasn’t cooperating and put paid to several outdoor opportunities in the gardens.
Not generally being much of a people shooter, I was pleased to find that I was getting some nice shots. Maybe I really can do this after all!
Well, I’ve spent a few days house/dog-sitting for a friend, so thought I’d use his dog for a model, here are some of my favourite shots.
So last week we were having a gear related discussion over at one of the Strobist groups on Flickr and it seems that UK high street photographic chain Jessops is once more in the process of killing off one of its low cost gear selling web stores.
Late last year Tecno fell victim, with customers finding themselves directed straight to the Jessops site, and now Cameras2U seems to be going in the same direction, beginning by limiting the product lists to just refurbished lenses and bodies. Ordinarily I wouldn’t object to a little consolidation within a company’s portfolio, especially when other arms also sell much the same stock, but in this case we’ll be left with a massive price hike. For example, the Portaflash LS2 lightstand, while bulky and aluminium, cost under a tenner at Tecno, last year and was retailing at Cameras2U for the princely sum of £9.49. Fear not, intrepid reader, for Jessops will still sell you the same item from their main store – for £35.95!
For the short term, you can still find the products you want at Cameras2U by using the search function, and they’re still honouring orders for those products. You just can’t browse to them off the front page.
If Jessops are hoping that limiting Cameras2U will push people to order from their main site, they’re going to be sadly mistaken. Given the overheads inherent in Jessops being a bricks and mortar store, a minor price increase is to be expected, but 350% is taking it too far – go on Jessops, pull the other one, it’s got bells on!
UPDATE: I’ve just been made aware (and have verified) that C2U have increased the price on the LS2 stand to £39.99 – slightly higher than the Jessops prices. Looks like that’s one more decent supplier gone.
Links:
www.moo.com have a new product… full sized business cards.
Being inordinately pleased with the moo minis I purchased last year, I thought an update with more recent shots was in order, and I prefer to keep full sized cards in my wallet rather than the minis.
