Practice, practice, practice

As with anything in life, if you want to get better at something you have to practice, whether that be playing the recorder, (I was rubbish on the whole, but could do a good rendition of London’s Burning) honing your butterfly technique ready for the 2012 Olympics, or shooting in manual with your camera. Practice is definitely the way forward. Andy and I only ever shoot using manual. Not because I think you can’t get amazing photos in, say aperture priority, but mainly because I’m a bit of a control freak. I want to know exactly what I’m doing with my camera, it’s the way I learn and try to improve my technique. It’s hard, because you have to think about all your settings to get the right exposure, at the same time as interacting with your model or client, whilst also trying to compose an interesting shot. And if you’re shooting outside in ever changing weather and the sun bursts through the clouds, you have to up your game and compensate your settings to re-correct the exposure. Lots going on and lots to think about. The more you practice the easier it becomes. I’m hoping that one day it will be like driving a car, my hands will just do what they know is right, while I concentrate on the client/model and the composition.

So with practice in mind, I asked the ever-lovely Kelly if we could do a little photo shoot with her. Kelly is such a kind and generous person, she was lovely to work with and a natural model. We had a lot of fun together, and even though it was really cold and windy Kelly didn’t complain once. I had an idea for the shoot in mind and after discussing it with Kelly she didn’t disappoint.

After a small rain shower, which we worked our way through, the sun came out. As it was later in the afternoon the light was beautiful, so we did a bit of experimenting and here are the results.
Kelly you are so beautiful. (Above) The shot on the left is my favourite of the day, the one on the right is Andy’s favourite.
I love the light in this last set of images, they are definitely our favorites from the shoot. Thank you Kelly for being so generous with your time and for making the afternoon so much fun, you’re the best.