Stubbington 10k – 2012

It’s that time of year again where the warning signs go up on the surrounding roads, the weather gets colder, and the Stubbington 10k is held. It is also the time if year when I take the opportunity to test out some of my kit with thoughts to the year ahead. Last year I was checking the repairs to a camera body and lens that had been dropped in late December and fixed just after the new year. This time I was testing a recently acquired lens for some specific jobs which I’m hoping I’ll be shooting in the late spring. For those who are interested – single point follow-focus of runners using a very shallow depth of field on a long lens.

So it was down to Titchfield Haven, at about the 7km mark, for 30-40 minutes of sports photography in the bright but very cold January weather. On arrival I had a brief chat to the official event photographer who had also arrived at the same time, and I set up my kit checking for exposure and framing so that when the runners came through I was ready. I got some of the lead runners with the Titchfield Haven Visitors Centre as a backdrop, and then switched to the other side of the road mindful of the position of the official photographer who was set-up behind me – I didn’t want to be in his shots and so positioned myself next to a signpost out of the way to capture some close ups of runners faces – framing some of them between other spectators.

With those shots captured I then crossed back again and headed towards the Titchfield Haven bridge a little for a different viewpoint and knelt down, again to reduce my visibility to the official photographer, and to shoot slightly up at the runners. My timing was good as several runners passed in fancy dress, a gorilla suit, donkey and teddy bar in a fireman’s outfit and then as the field began to thin out I broke down my kit and walked back to the studio – pleased with the results on the back of the camera and keen to check them on the larger computer monitor.

I didn’t get the variety of images I would have liked on a normal job because I was specifically testing my setup, and because I was restricted in where I placed myself so as not to spoil the official race images. That said I’m very happy with the results and really looking forward to some more sports photography over the coming months.

Here are some of the images I captured

2012 – Personal Photographic Projects

I’m firmly of the belief that it is critical for professional photographers to shoot personal photographic projects.

I’m not in anyway suggesting that they need to be charitable, life-changing, in South-America, only in Black-and-White, or using some vintage or toy camera. Just that they need to be divorced from an immediate or existing client, direct payment, and on the terms of the photographer within the reasonable constraints of the subject matter/sponsor.

Over 2012 I’m planning on shooting several personal projects, some of which will be an investment to develop skills which might turn into payable work, that I would look to prove or push some of my equipment, some of which will be good for my soul, and some are just interesting subjects I’d like to tackle over the next 12 months.

I’m not going to lay them out in detail in this post, some of them are just ideas at the moment, and there are always limited opportunities for everything. But I’m going to outline some of them them as a record of what we are planning – some/most/all of which will hopefully end up as more detail blog posts in later months once I have completed the personal project.

  1. I’m looking to do some work around motorsport, not just on the trackside – I’m likely to be doing that anyway as I do every year but also behind the scenes and away from the actual race-day. I’d love to hear from anyone who owns or manages a motorsport team (I’m not necessarily looking for F1 BTW) or does their PR, club racing or the lower formulas would be great as would any of the powered water-sports – powerboats, jet skis, waterskiing, zap-cats.
  2. I’m looking to shoot some work around horses. Stable owners, owner/riders, polo club, working horses are all candidates. I’m not talking about event photography here, definitely not on my agenda.
  3. I’d like to take some experience I have in shooting performances and develop it, and also prove some newer equipment. Ideally a local theatre company or a national/international company performing in the Hampshire/West Sussex/Dorset counties in the first 8 months of 2012, a theatre itself would be great. Musicals, ballet, stand-up, drama, children’s theatre all considered.
  4. I’d like to do something around the Olympics or Para-Olympics, it is such a massive event in 2012. Almost certainly focussed either on the athletes who live or train in the Portsmouth/Southampton area or a supplier to the Olympics from this area. Of course I’m highly unlikely to be unique in this personal photographic project…. and their will be other demands on their time.
  5. I want to shoot some Hockey and some Beach Volleyball, local teams and events – both sports I have played competitively at either club or county level.
  6. I’d like to do a project around fitness and well-being. It could be associated with a gym, a personal trainer, competition, manufacturer of equipment, clothing, or health products, healer, physio, or a combination of them all.

That’s a fair start. Of course those are all going to be balanced off against the portraiture and commercial work which we shoot for daily fees, and orders week in – week out.

If you have any responsibility for, or contacts in any of those organisations, and you’d be interested in some collaboration then please do get in contact or pass on my details. I’ll be reaching out to my own contacts in the new year to kick off some of these and I’ll likely add some as well as the year progresses.

Editorial Shoot for High-End Lifestyle Magazine

This morning we completed a commissioned editorial shoot for a series of high-end lifestyle magazines. The publisher was looking for some specific images to accompany a feature article on families with siblings that have a large age gap between them. With no available images it was down to us to create a set of photographs that fitted the brief and gave the designer variety and layout options.

Working closely with a senior member of the publishers staff who provided art direction we brainstormed some scenarios and scenes, and then sourced some models to feature in the shoot and a location. Then this morning we all met up in Hampshire and in the space of a couple of hours got some excellent images. As this editorial shoot is destined for the next issue of the magazines I’m not showing any images but I’m looking forward to being able to blog some tearsheets from the actual feature in about 6 weeks time.

Initial feedback on the images is excellent, and I’m looking forward to speaking to the designer in the new year as they layout the story.

Meonshore Studios – Christmas and New Year Opening Hours

It’s that time of year again, and whilst we are just finishing off the retouching of a newborn portrait session, and preparing a gallery for the family, it won’t be long before we close the studio for the holiday period.

The studio will be closed from Christmas Eve through to the 3rd January 2012 after which we will be open again for business. During this time we won’t be taking any appointments, callers, and it is likely that any phone calls will route to the answerphone. Please do leave a message !

We will be checking emails on an irregular basis, mainly to keep in touch with expectant parents so that we can schedule newborn portrait sessions for them for when we open and not miss those few perfect days – but if we don’t get back to you immediately please don’t worry.

We do have an magazine editorial shoot on the 27th, an album design to post out when deliveries start again after Christmas, and are expecting a courier delivery of one of our couples wedding albums – which is currently on it’s way over from Australia. So it won’t be a complete break for us.

It only remains for us all to wish previous clients, suppliers, friends, and clients-to-be a wonder Christmas and New Year and we look forward to hearing from you and working with you in 2012 !

Hampshire Newborn Portraits – 7 Day Old Baby Girl

This beautiful little girl was only 7 days old when she came in for her newborn portraits to our Hampshire based studio.

We met mum, and gran at the Southampton Baby & Toddler show back in October, and they called us on arrival to arrange a session. With care and patience we found the best poses for her to sleep comfortably and get some lovely images some of which are show below as well as all those little details which so quickly disappear.

She is pretty much at an ideal age to be photographed, great skin, sleepy, and happy to be positioned into these contemporary newborn poses with matching pink accessories !

We do recommend contacting us whilst you are still pregnant for our newborn shoots as we are often scheduling them 2-3 months in advance such is the demand for high quality newborn portraits. We have several booked for January already and look forward to posting some more of our newborn portrait sessions in the coming weeks…

Here are some of the images…

Newborn portrait photography in Hampshire: 19 day old baby girl

We have just uploaded and show the images from our most recent newborn portrait session to her parents and they are very pleased. Having posted a sneaky peek to Facebook a day or so earlier we knew that the images were getting good feedback from the parents, family and friends but they have now seen the whole gallery.

This little girl was 19 days old, although arrived 3 weeks earlier than expected, fortunately mum had planned ahead and we had been talking for several months about her session and it was no problem to bring it forward and still be in the perfect age range for a newborn portrait session. She dozed off after a feed and a cuddle and I got some of the contemporary newborn images we are known for including this one with the little pink hat on the soft pink blanket. Then after some more food, and lots more cuddles we switched to some photographs of this little baby girl with her dad, skin to skin where she happily slept for a while longer allowing us to make some really lovely images.

This was a longer session but baby H, and her parents, were comfortable and happy in our warm dedicated studio.

Here are just three images from the session

Advertising Campaign Photography: Christmas at Marwell Wildlife – be enchanted

Now that the “Christmas at Marwell – be enchanted” experience is pretty much sold out for the second year running at Marwell Wildlife I felt it was a good time to blog this advertising campaign photography which took place some 18 months ago.

I was fortunate enough to meet up with Father Christmas, Mrs Christmas and their attentive elves back in July 2010 – when they were not so busy with their preparations for Christmas that year to make sure that they had lots of images suitable for the website, trifold marketing flyers and all of the online and print advertising campaign surrounding the experience.

Here are a few of the images from the shoot, many used as feature images in the advertising campaign for both the 2010 and 2011 campaigns .

Whilst I’m now on first name terms with Santa, and his good lady wife, I’m also available for all kinds of commercial and corporate PR throughout the year and not just for Christmas. More information about our commercial photography services can be found on our dedicated website.

November update

We are conscious of the fact that it has been about a month since we last posted anything on the blog. That’s a pretty long time for Meonshore Studios to be quiet and we didn’t want you to be worried !

We are simply head down at the moment working through the usual pre-Christmas (yes it is pre-Christmas already) rush which has seen a larger than normal set of album designs to complete as well as portraits and commercial work. We have now completed shooting all of our weddings for 2011, and our last set of proofs will be out to our clients at the end of this week. We have a very limited number of family/childrens portrait sessions available although we will accommodate all of our newborn enquiries.

One of the casualties of this has been the update of the website to detail our 1:1 training which we have been running for existing clients this year and had planned to have available to new clients by now. I’m hopeful that this will be live by the end of November with pricing information and some example topics from “understanding your DSLR”, “processing and workflow”, and then specific tuition around types of photography. Please not we do not train wedding or portrait photographers – our training courses are for those wishing to improve their photography as beginners or enthusiastic amateurs.

This personal, bespoke training makes for a perfect Christmas present for a partner or loved one, or even as a prize (we often sell companies and organisations vouchers to place into prize draws at this time of year). If you are thinking of buying a DSLR for a first time user this could combine with it to make a treasured Christmas present.

More information will follow once we get the site updated – but if you are interested in finding out more please contact us for details.

Once we clear our current to-do-list we’ll also be updating the blog with everything we have been up to over the last few weeks.

Hampshire Baby & Toddler Show 2011: Review

Well I just got back from the Hampshire Baby & Toddler Show in Southampton.

The show started very busily, and the large cruise centre terminal filled with prams, toddlers, expectant woman and friends, dads, husbands, partners and parents. Our stand drew lots of admiring glances, and wonderful comments and we spoke to lots of people about our fine art newborn photography and also our childrens portrait photography.

Our feature canvas wrap was once again one of the favourites of the visitors, and we had a large number of entries to our competition to win a childrens or newborn portrait session and a £50 credit. We will be drawing the winner on the 17th October.

It did seem like most of the visitors came in the morning, and then headed out in the sunshine, and the afternoon wasn’t as busy but it did mean I got to speak to some of my friends, and the other companies we work with including Jessica our account executive from Little Media who was at the Baby Hampshire stand just across from us.

Here is a quick iPhone image of the stand – it might jog your memory if you came to see us, or if you were unable to talk to me while I was busy speaking to another visitor.

Thanks also go to Rebecca, Jane and all the event staff on the day for organising the show. I hope everyone that came today enjoyed themselves and I hope to see some of you in the studio or out on location for your portraits soon.

Hampshire Baby and Toddler Show 2011 - Southampton

Hampshire Baby and Toddler Exhibition 2011

The second annual Hampshire Baby and Toddler Exhibition takes place this weekend on the 2nd October at the City Cruise Terminal. It runs from 10am to 3:30pm and should, based on last year, be an amazing event.

We will of course be attending again and will be in our regular position at stand B12, close to the refreshments area.

On the stand we will be showcasing our fine art newborn portrait photography, featuring 3-21 day old babies. we will also be showing some of our location maternity shoot work, and some of our childrens and family portrait photography. Visitors to the stand will be able to enter a competition the winner of which will be entitled to a free session and a £50 credit towards any purchase which has a value of £145.

We really look forward to meeting all of you who are expecting, and who have young families – please do pop by the stand to find out more.

New Place Wedding Photos – Debra and Matt

This was the last of our weddings for 2011, and it started at New Place to meet Matt and his family rather than with Debra for her preparations. It was another lovely September day in a year which will be probably remembered for a seriously hot October, but once again September delivered with perfect weather for such an occasion.

I started with some bright overcast sky allowing me to photograph Matt, his family, and best-man in perfect light in the driveway area of New Place and in front of the house, before heading out to find some guests arriving, touch base with the coordinators from New Place, and get a view of the wedding ceremony room and plan my angles. It wasn’t long though before the guests were ushered in, and Debra arrived in a lovely old Riley wedding car which eased it’s way through the large feature gates onto the drive stopping near the house and allowing a reflection of this stunning property in the chrome of the bodywork.

Whilst Debra went in to see the Registrars I headed into the ceremony room, took my position on the squeaky floorboard between the registrars table and the fireplace and readied myself for her arrival into the room. It was very warm in the room, with the unseasonal weather, and as expected Debra found it near impossible to get the wedding ring onto Matt’s finger – but eventually it made it, and shortly afterwards they were married !

The sun was out in full force, and whilst the guests mingled on the terrace with drinks and canapes we worked through the formal photographs and family & friends groups heading over to the large flight of stone steps leading to the croquet lawn for the large groups. We had a few moments to get some relaxed portraits before heading down to the Arden Suite to photograph the cake and the room, and then it was on to  a receiving line which delivered some lovely and amusing images.

Dinner followed, and I was able to grab some water, and a snack before heading back in to cover the speeches, and the cutting of the cake, and then shortly afterwards once the room had been turned around and the band set-up there was lots of dancing. Having covered the first dance, and some of the next few songs, as well as the band in full swing I made my goodbyes and headed off to backup the images.

Here are some of them, the full gallery will be available soon and guests and friends should have the password on a small personalised card provided at the wedding.

New Place wedding photos

 

Newborn Baby Boy Portraits: 15 days old

Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing this little one for his newborn baby boy portraits. He was 15 days old and with the cutest little mohawk head of hair I have ever seen.

It took a while to settle him, which is common at this age, and for boys it has to be said, but once asleep he was perfectly well behaved, giving a range of lovely expressions, and patiently sleeping whilst we worked some different poses, and a couple of little hats as well. We finished up with some images of him in his dad’s arms which were really beautiful images.

Here are a small selection of the images from the session.

 

Marwell Hall Wedding Photos – Wendy & Martin

Wendy and Martin wanted their day at Marwell Hall to be a party with a wedding also happening, and it certainly was that.

We started in the Marwell Hotel, in a bridal room I’m very familiar with, capturing Wendy’s preparations with her hairdresser, bridesmaid and make-up artist and her mum. Both of the other bridesmaids made an entrance via the balcony, and it set the tone for a wonderful day. Having photographed Wendy, the dress, shoes and preparations I headed over to Marwell Hall and met up with the boys. Resplendent in turquoise waistcoats, top hats and canes the guys were all wearing different  feature shoes as well.

Arriving road trains with guests quickly followed and it wasn’t long before Wendy herself drew up with her father and went into the hall to meet the registrars. The ceremony room was flooded with light as this early September wedding became blessed with good weather and soon they were married, and the party started. Groups were completed quickly, and after some mingling with the guests which I captured, along with the room details Wendy and Martin headed off to the Lemurs for a private feeding. Deep in the enclosure we got some great images, with these fearless little creatures and then it was back to Marwell Hall for some more drinks.

Guests made their way up to the new marquee site, and we were soon into dinner, and speeches from both fathers, Martin and his best-man, and then Martin, Wendy and I slipped off for a few moments for some time alone to get some more relaxed images in the feature areas of the grounds surrounding Marwell Hall. On our return some of the guests made their way up to the marquee having taken advantage of the face painting in the zoo – fantastic art, very funny, and the first time I had ever seen this at the many weddings I have photographed here. More photographic opportunities came as the guys broke out a box of cigars and as the light levels dropped everyone was chilling around the marquee.

As the evening reception began my coverage drew to a close as I captured the first dance and some of the partying immediately afterwards.

Here are a selection of images from the day.

St Boniface Church and Winchester Guildhall Wedding: Becky & Ian

Last Saturday we photographed Becky & Ian’s wedding at St Boniface Church in Chandlers Ford followed by a reception at the Winchester Guildhall.

Typically it seems for August weddings it started raining during bridal preparations at Becky & Ian’s house but this didn’t affect the mood as Becky, her bridesmaids and lovely flower girls got themselves ready. I left and headed up to St Boniface where an earlier wedding was just clearing the grounds, and having popped in to speak with the church officials I spotted Ian and his groomsmen walking up the road.

Arrivals were conducted in light drizzle, and then the sun came out blowing away the black clouds and exposing a bright blue sky ready for Becky’s arrival. The ceremony was an emotional one, a theme for this wedding, and the happy couple exited the church into a stunning summers afternoon. Family groups were conducted in the small patch of open shade afforded by the sole tree and then we all headed off to the Winchester Guildhall for a large group shot on the main steps whilst I briefly held up Winchester traffic by shooting across the high street !

The main room in Winchester Guildhall, Bapsy Hall, is impressive and looked stunning after it’s recent refurbishment as did the rest of this lovely building. The room was movie themed, with purple accents and I spent while photographing it whilst Becky and Ian prepared for their receiving line.

After dinner a set of emotional speeches ensued, followed by the cutting of the cake and I them managed to get a few moments with Becky & Ian alone to shoot some more relaxed portraits of them in the local grounds before the evening reception started, and some relaxed groups of their friends in another of the stunning halls. Becky & Ian surprised everyone with a Grease themed first dance before we got into the expected barn dancing and a planned shot of them happy couple in the middle of their dancing guests.

Here are some of the images from this lovely day.

Grease themed wedding first dance

De Vere New Place Pre-Wedding Shoot: Debra and Matt

This evening I met up with Debra and Matt at the De Vere property in Shedfield – New Place – for their pre-wedding shoot and meeting. Whilst we hadn’t had the torrential rain forecast it was a little misty and drizzly and so we worked as much of the venue outside as possible to give a good flavour of this lovely old house and it’s grounds. We started on some formal portraits before getting some more relaxed and contemporary images.

Then it was time for an opportunity to catch up about their final plans for the wedding day.

Here are some of the images from the shoot, and I’m looking forward to seeing them both again this autumn for their wedding.

new place pre-wedding shoot

 

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