Monthly Archives: July 2011
I’m becoming pretty confident in my ability to shoot people and portraits, but I’m always on the look out for more practice. The great thing about portraiture is that it is so diverse, there are so many different photo shoots you can do, and the possibilities are nearly endless. This summer I would really like to try and improve my experience in any of the following:
- Loved Up Couples
- Outdoor and On-Location Portraits
- Conceptual or High Fashion Portraits
- Studio Headshots, Modelling Portfolios
- Family/Group Photos
As I’m still really only an amateur, I wouldn’t charge a penny for a photo shoot. I do however, work on a TFP or TFCD basis. This is where you will get a CD of photos or collection of prints from the shoot, in exchange for my time. I think that’s pretty fair way for everybody to get what they want.
You can see one of the last photo shoots I did in the Forest Of Dean with Helen here.
So if you have few hours free, and live in the Gloucestershire area, please contact me. You can email me, tweet me or message me on Facebook. We can discuss what photos you’d like and when/where you’d like to hold the shoot. If you have a concept or idea in mind, that would be awesome too. The one thing I’ll try and guarantee is that the shoot will be a whole lot of fun!…
Here are my top 5 most important small things that should be in any photographer’s bag. These are the true unsung heroes of camera gear.
Memory Cards
Get the fastest, get the smallest and get lots of them. I recommend getting 4 or 8gb cards depending on the megapixel count of your camera. Try to avoid 16GB cards or bigger unless you are doing HD Video recording. All memory cards regardless of brand are susceptible to failure, but by splitting your photos across multiple cards; a failure is going to be less of an issue. Go for brands such as SanDisk or Lexar, and get them from Amazon to save you nearly 50% on high street prices, but just be aware of the high number of counterfeit cards available online. If the price is too good to be true…..it probably is.
Microfibre Cloth
Super versatile if you get a decent sized one. (30cm x 30cm is a good size) They can be used for cleaning off the front element of your lens, camera or anything else that gets wet or dirty. They are nice and soft and can be used to pad out the spaces in your camera bag to stop thing moving around. You can also use them to rest your camera on wet or dirty surfaces.
Rocket Blower
This funny shaped device is great way to clean you equipment, including blowing dust and particles off of glass or the sensor of your camera. It’s better than compressed air, as their is no chance of leaving mucky chemical residue all over that expensive glass! Pretty darn essential.
Eneloop Batteries
If you need AA batteries for anything, you need to have Sanyo Eneloops. These high capacity rechargeable batteries are absolutely fantastic. They are a different kind of rechargeable technology that means they retain a charge even when they aren’t being regularly used.…
I had a fun little shoot today with Helen in the beautiful Forest Of Dean, which is a few miles away from my home. There wasn’t really a lot of planning involved, it was just a spontaneous idea and we went with it. Helen did really well considering she has never done anything like this before. Im pretty happy with the results, but just looking back at the images a few hours later; I can already identify what I can improve on. Things like posing, and hand/finger positioning etc are ones to look out for next time.
Today’s shoot was a lot of fun though. I started off using the Nikkor 50mm f1.4 and gold reflector, but as the clouds came in, I started with the speedlights and moved to the Nikkor 105mm f2.8 VR.
Expect to see a few more shoots like this over the next few weeks as I practice doing more portraits!
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
This is the blog of Chris Scuffins, a hardworking, creative photographer from Gloucestershire.
With years of experience in landscape and commercial still life photography, his focus now lies on capturing creative, natural and beautiful fashion and lifestyle portraiture, as well as a fun, relaxed approach to photojournalistic wedding photography.
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