Salt & Pepa

This weekend I had the pleasure of cheering on and photographing the London Roller Girl's recreational league's bout - PUSH IT REAL GOOD, where team White (Salt) and team black (Pepa) went into battle.
Now as my history of photography revolves around pretty florals, portraits and weddings, my kit is tailored to wide prime lenses around the 28mm to 50mm mark, rather than quick low light lenses that are quick to fire and quick to focus. Shooting in Low light is never a strong point for my Nikon D300s either so Low light and fast moving subjects was certainly a challenge.
I do of course have a flash gun which I was experimenting with swiveling around and failing miserably to bounce off the far away walls and high ceiling, just as I managed to get it to expose how i'd like...dead went my batteries - rookie mistake!
So with what I had this is what I got! I used the blur for motion, the noise for grittyness, played with my signature DoF tricks and went for documentation as apposed to sharp sporty shots. I could do better and I will next time!

A post of a post

check it out :)
http://digital-photography-school.com/depth-of-field-in-floral-photography/comment-page-1#comment-339427

June 6 - 10

Whoo time, for the next 5! This month started off quick but it seems to be slowing down a bit. I have mixed feelings about that!

June 6th - whisky rocks! One of those days where tiredness and time forced me to capture something around the house for my daily snap. I played with reflections and lighting, not my favourite photo by far but here it is:

June 7th - More cocktails! In the cool depth of shoreditch! I liked the not quite symmetrical lay out of this image, the different shaped glasses and the dots on the wall behind. Candid and taken from my lap - trying to be inconspicuous in a swanky restaurant!

June 8th -  Time for a break.Just down from London bridge, a man texts on his break. I chose this one for my day because I liked the lighting and his pose. He seems eager to make contact to his personal life in his few moments retrieve from work life. A bit lonely but connected too.

June 9th - Green! Fighting with filters and browns and dull. I decided on something a little blurred, a pleasant calming colour with some bokeh for today

June 10th - Back to odd lighting and colouring! Again, weather and tiredness has me cooped up inside. After watching more episodes of Grey's Anatomy than I wish to admit, back to back on a Sunday I decided to roll with something more morbid to end the set of five. I used my flash gun and the stove for some kind of plain background to mix up the Cancer Cocktal

June Project - Again

Well June is back and I decided to do another picture a day project. My reason for choosing this month is because there are alot of things happening and so I should have alot to photograph, if I manage to go out and get it. Another reason is pressure, June is the busiest time in the fashion industry and the very core of every moment at work screams SALE TIME, so I am doing it to test how well I deal with photography whilst the rest of my life is swirly whirl wind of busy-ness.

Rather than post one here every single day, or post the whole lot in one go. I thought I would do them in 6 groups of 5 as I go along. So here is the first lot!

Day 1: 2-4-1 cocktails at a local bar meant I needed to snap something before things got to blurry for me to start my project at all. I love this image and chose it because of the bokeh and the colours. I like the brassy tones of the background and how it matches the foreground.

Photo 2: My amazing partner has the 105mm prime macro lens. This lens literally gives me shivers of pure pleasure and delight. Ridiculously sharp, quick and basically orgasmic! Again, my amazing partner bought me the perfect gift of an SB700 flash gun for Christmas. With these two super tools, I managed to freeze and capture drips from the kitchen tap. I did photograph a few splashes and such but I loved this series of images more, which i stitched together using photoshop CS5

Photo 3: This one is pretty straight forward. The beginning of the Queen's diamond Jubilee was marked by a thousand boats down the river Themes. We tried pretty hard to get to the river side to see the celebrations and the Queen herself but failed miserably due to the walls and walls of people. This is all I came away with:

Photo 4: Golden pyramids  - London style. I chose this one because I love the shard in the background and the shape play between it and the foreground. I filtered it slightly in Lightroom to bring out the golden highlights that were already there due to the sunset

Photo 5: The Prime Meridian. A dull rainy Tuesday bank holiday rife with cabin fever, I decided to march out into the rain and claim my picture for the day - just around the corner.

Lets talk business.

So, I have had a camera for four years now.

Dabbled in this and that, been in the studio a good many times, photographed a wedding or five, a children's party, hens weekend, a gay parade X2, family portraits and enough 'picture a day' projects to make paint peel, it's time to go pro. Or try, cos you know this industry isn't all cupcakes and rainbows (ponders colourful tasty photoshoot idea - anyone keen to be covered in rainbow coloured cupcakes?)

 Getting into it involves a good camera, learning how to take good pictures, surrounding yourself with photography friends, youtube videos, blogs etc. You then need to know how to edit those images so fork out and master photoshop/;ightroom. Set up a decent filing system and make sure you back it up. Figure out where you want to publicly show your hard work - facebook, flickr, google plus or picaso...ensure your rights are right!

 So now you're a hobby photographer. How to become someone that gets paid for pointing and shooting? I have no idea, but this is my plan.

 Step 1: Build a website to display your work

 Step 2: Build a strong portfolio to display on your website

Step 3: Figure out prices for what service you're giving

Step 4: Market yourself and then market yourself some more - twitter, facebook, flyers, word of mouth and

Step 5: Business cards

 Setting up a domain name is the easiest bit - actually building a website, well I am no web dev! But i have awesome people around me who are willing to help, so take a blog and a domain name and hey - we have this: www.kiriphotography.com

A portfolio seems the simple part right? I mean I have done all this photography and have all these pictures (on a broken hard drive in the current possession of one of that awesome people) But it isn't so straight forward, there is no point in putting a pretty picture of a squirrel on your portfolio if you are aiming to do wedding photography. So you need to ensure your best work is displayed in a eye catching way that related appropriately to what you are marketing to offer.

Pricing is a tricky one too, but the best way I have figured it out is to check what others are charging, check how much your equipment is (or if you are hiring anything) and how much time it takes you from beginning to end. And go from there.


Marketing plans include; word of mouth from one wedding to another. Posting projects and random photographs on facebook, google plus and twitter. Spreading the word as much as possible. I plan to go to a wedding fair or two and hand out business cards and an attempt to opening up a stall at a market, which i'll write more on later, will help market me too.

Business cards is the fun part and I am waiting on my delivery for them. I used littlemoo.com. Laying out your design is pretty easy with them and you get to upload all your own pictures, which is important for me. I came up with the below.

So with all my planning in action, let the fun begin!

Did I say Space?

I did, and I told you to watch it! Well here it is... I can only describe this space I have found as a blessing from the Photography Gods! Take a dip into Southern London culture and you’ll find behind the African markets, the trendy pubs and the quirky restaurants, a small pristine, cozy studio perfect in every way for what I need to use it for - Here I can make my models feel and look amazing – my ultimate goal realized! With excellent lighting, wonderfully helpful and friendly studio managers and a lay out that suits my needs to the T – expect my portfolio to BOOM! And it will…Maybe you should keep watching ;)

The Studio is equipped with: 3 Bowens Gemini 750 flash heads Softboxes/umbrellas and accessories White, black, red, green, blue Colorama backrgounds Redwing counterweighted boom stand Natural lounge setting with coffee table and sofas Blonde wood floor Posing blocks Assorted chairs and stools Changing room with make-up mirror Mounted flat screen television I've been to the studio twice so far and am now familiar enough with the space to work/learn and create! A few of my fave shots:

Sarah - sunshine and frost

Once again, I am putting myself and whoever is watching through a 'picture a day' upheaval. December Madness is under-way! If you recall the sunny, blue skied month of June, you will certainly remember the beautiful Sarah and her soft silky sunshine:

Now I introduce you to winter Sarah, 6 months later. Bringing Russian chic to the streets of London.

 Both of these were shot using natural light, the first near a window allowing the sunlight to do it's wonderful diffusion magic to create a soft and dreamy effect. The second is a bolder image with stronger light contrast, a higher ISO creating a somewhat harsher effect. 

From window light to alleyways, Sarah is my favourite model thus far!