News
Happy
New Year !!!
Newsletter January 2012 See Previous newsletters here.
First of all let me wish you all a fabulous 2012 and photographically speaking a creative and maybe even a prosperous one! Stick with me and later on in this newsletter you'll see how both of those wishes could come true.
Across the course of 2011 the fame of the Pixel 8 newsletter seems to be spreading far and wide and I am delighted to say that I now have readers in New York, Miami, Montreal, Columbia, Argentina, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Spain and Germany, as well of course the UK and Ireland. If you read my newsletter somewhere else then do let me know so I can say Hi!
Over the course of 2011 during hiring's, group shoots, locations shoots and training I am asked a myriad of questions to do with with photography, so I have been keeping a note of the more interesting ones. I appreciate they are probably questions a few of you may have and across the course of 2012 I will be tackling them with examples and ideas.
I have begun the year creating group shoots and model days that fit together and work as a creative piece rather than just offering models because they are free or available. You will see as you peruse the opportunities how each model day and group shoot compliments the other allowing for genuine diversity in your portfolio and different challenges in the shoots.
A great many of you have said how difficult it is to keep the creativity going all the time, and how you want to improve your photography, but it's expensive to keep hiring models and studios. This is one of the reasons I offer such excellent value model days, groups shoots and location shoots. However there are many occasions that you have camera and time on your hands, but don't feel inspired to use them. One of the main things I try to teach is that understanding what your camera can do and do well and what it does not do well helps so much when you have a paid model in front of you at a location. It is such a shame when trying to capture a certain lighting, look, atmosphere and it will not come together, especially at £50.00 per hour.
So it really is important to practice with your camera as much as you can. So over the course of 2012 I will be setting tasks for each of you to try if you want to, I'll be joining in and I do hope that you will send me your results and I will post my favourite each month with my own effort. It certainly helps to have a goal in mind when picking up the camera and heading off into the wilds. I guarantee that all the tasks I set will enhance and help you to improve your glamour photography so what you teach yourself through the tasks will help when you have the model in front of you.
With the fear this could become a novel instead of a newsletter I better make a start.
Up coming Group
Shoots
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The gorgeous Ashlea caused a massive stir at our group shoot in December and this is your chance to shoot with her for only £50.00. The usual 2 x 2 hour sessions of 5 photographers. Lots of different outfits and styles definitely not to be missed if you're serious about having a great portfolio. Ashlea will be modelling many styles including figure nude. Session 1 is sold out but there are 3 places left on session 2, but not for long I suspect. |
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Sunday 19th February 2012 The very lovely Onabella was a huge hit at her model day and this is your chance to shoot with her for only £50.00. The usual 2 x 2 hour sessions of 5 photographers. Lots of different outfits and styles definitely not to be missed if you're serious about adding to your portfolio with different styles. Onabella will be modelling many styles including figure nude. |
Studio Days
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Sunday 29th January
2012 As far as I am aware Laura has never done a studio day before. I've worked with her a great deal and she is fun and easy to work with. If you are looking for a 'Suicide Girls' style shoot, or maybe burlesque Laura is comfortable with both styles. She has some fantastic costumes and happy to take direction, or come up with loads of ideas. As an alternative she presents some exciting and new opportunities if all you have done to date is glamour. All inclusive Laura, Studio, and any help required with lighting for the paltry sum of £40 per hour. I make no promise of what colour Laura's hair may be on the day! |
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Sunday 5th February 2012 Elle is a regular here at Pixel 8 Studio, but this is the first opportunity for photographers to shoot her on a 1 to 1 basis. Elle is very professional and loves to be in front of the camera and exclusive to Pixel 8. She can take direction, or you can leave her to it. Working to implied nude she is very comfortable and capable as the classic page 3 shoot. You will be guaranteed a wonderful session as her ability and variety will delight any photographer. All inclusive Elle, Studio, and any help required with lighting for the paltry sum of £50 per hour. |
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Saturday 18th February 2012 Charley has been a regular on our location shoots, and our studio group shoots and has starred regularly in our workshops. Very professional, but friendly and fun too Charlie is really looking forward to this opportunity to shoot with a selection of photographers on a 1 2 1 basis. You can give direction, or leave Charley to it and she will happily pose all day. As you will see Charlie is truly comfortable in any genre and happy to work up to figure nude. All inclusive Charley, Studio, and any help required with lighting for the paltry sum of £50 per hour. |
Intermediate Training Day 28th January 11am to 5pm
The next training day will be for intermediate level is on Saturday January 28th. Details available here. Don't leave it too long as these days fill up quickly.
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The intermediate course is designed specifically for those that are quite experienced with photography and quite on the ball with the knobs and dials on their DSLR and for those that are returning to photography after a break and could do with a refresher digital course. The day starts with an outdoor location where I quickly run over the basics of taking good images in daylight situations. Once we have covered the basics of depth of field, focus, metering, camera settings using manual mode I move on to explain in depth how to improve the pictures using professional methods. |
Don't forget I am delighted to provide 1 2 1 training in the studio, or
out of doors, I can provide a model and in depth training for 2 1/2 hours
for only £150 inclusive of model and studio. The time will naturally
be tailored to your requirements as we are all different. Naturally I
can offer longer sessions whatever you require training wise please just
ask.
It just remains for me to wish you all a wonderful Christmas and hope 2012 will be your best yet photographically.
Thoughts from the White room
As you will see the group shoots and model days I have organised over the next 2 months allow you to cover a huge spectrum of styles to both excite and challenge your creativity. From Playboy centerfold Ashlea Louise through page 3 style Elle, classic beauty Onabella, Charley's stunning figure and finally body art and the very beautiful Laura K. Naturally all these models are highly professional and are quite capable of over lapping styles, I'm just suggesting which each is ideally suited for.
At the beginning of this letter I promised I would help you with your creativity and ideas and practice if that is what you want, so let me begin by discussing the most expensive photograph ever sold which happened in 2011.
The image, which captures the silvery river, planked on either side by
green grass under an overcast sky, became the world’s priciest picture
ever when it was auctioned at Christie’s for a price of $4,338,500.
“Rhein II” was created in 1999 by famed
German artist Andreas Gursky, who’s known for his large, colorful
and richly detailed photographs. The 81- x 140-inch print far exceeded
the estimate of $2.5 million! When I first saw this picture my immediate
thought was what would all the old fogies sitting on the different photographic
societies judging panels make of it. Sky's boring so horizon should be
higher remembering the rule of thirds. In fact I doubt it would get passed
the first round photographically speaking. The 'how much' it made in auction
is far less important than the question why is this a work of art?
When I visit any art, or photographic exhibition I have been taught to
stand and look and then look again.
If I was in Ikea watching people buying prints and the picture above was
on a shelf next to the picture of a jetty at a lake the latter would sell
as being a far more attractive picture. I doubt many of Rhein II would
sell if any. It's not somewhere you would want to be particularly and
it doesn't make you feel warm and cosy. Are you starting to get it now?
The horizon is perfectly straight, rare in nature and the horizontal lines
are all exactly that. We have only 2 colours, green and grey with shades
of the two, but no other colour. Again the texture of the sky, the water,
grass and tarmac path all work together. The texture of the water is particularly
interesting against the grass and in contrast to the sky and the path.
Now imagine standing in front of this at full size and I imagine it would be quite affecting. When I look at a great photograph I generally think, what a lovely photograph. It might inspire me to wish I was there, to love the light the colours or whatever appeals. The longer I look at this the easier it is to see it in the abstract, in its parts although it's not absract. It's made me feel a bit uncomfortable and that's what art does these days. Has it been Photoshopped to get such straight lines? Especially on the far bank!!! Who knows!
Now let me show you a picture that is very similar to Gursky's in so much that it is colour yet monochromatic in style.
The picture below was taken by Les Edmondson and is a beautiful picture.
Truly classic in so much that we read left to right and the picture leads our eye in to the picture left to right allowing us to enjoy the scene, and there is just enough ripple on the water to give the reflection that movement. As you look at the picture you see more and more which is what a good photograph is all about. The shape of the trees just to the right of the boat house, allowing the sky to show opens in just the right place and that bush far right. I'm convinced Les must have run round there and pushed that bush into the water as it makes a perfect full stop. A great photograph and I'd be happy to have this on my wall to enjoy, but sadly it is not worth $4.5 million. Let's rephrase that and say it will not sell for $4.5 million. Sorry Les!
So what is the point I am making you are probably asking
as my guess is most of you would prefer Les's picture to Gursky's? My
aim has been to get you to think about what you are trying to say with
any picture you take.
Well I promised a challenge each month to test your skills with your camera
and to get your creative juices flowing. So in reverence to Les's picture
above this months task is to submit a picture which the title is reflection.
I'll be joining in too, yes honestly I'll be taking part and please send
me your favourite picture and I will publish my favourites from those
submitted as well as my own. Please have any submissions with me by 28th
January. 1000 pixels on the longest edge is plenty big enough.
I have a task each month so why not join in and find a reason to go out with your camera and practice practice and please experiment.
Prime lenses.
A few of you have purchased 50mm f1.8 lenses and I know you are having fun with them, so I had time over christmas and dug out my own and mine is fully manual from the early Nikon film days. Amazing it fits my new Nikon body, although as I say fully manual aperture and focus, but what fun.
Something else I'll offer as a suggestion to help with the creativity. You are all I hope used to taking pin sharp pictures, colours spot on, white balance set to within a micro mill of its life, and rightly so. Ok buy a really cheap filter UV is best, the cheaper and more plasticy the better. Ebay is perfect. Now take pictures of your subject with the sun behind them/it! Effectively into the sun and don't clean it! In fact a few finger prints may help. What you are looking for is that random colour cast within the image that plastic gives, the slight blurring in points and something a little different.
Finally and well done if you got this far!!! I know there are a great many of you with hard drives full of images of beautiful women, many thousands and the question is what can happen to them? Well you could open a Yahoo flikr account and join the many other photographers on there sharing images and ideas. Of course this doesn't earn an income of any sort. I have an idea where it may be possible to recoup maybe a small proportion of the model fees you have paid out through a photographers collective. So do any of you have web building experience. I don't mean just html, but able to build a website based on HTML 5 and php with a MySQL dBase. If you can and you are interested in being involved please get in touch.
So on this subject I hope I may have some news next month. In the meantime get booking on our fabulous model days, workshops and don't forget the intermediate course.
Until Next Time
Paul