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

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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.

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.

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 !

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…

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

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.

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.

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.

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.