BN Photo Weekend

I spent last weekend helping to run a photography weekend for British Naturism - we had a dozen photographers of varying levels of experience, and we were helping them get more from their cameras, moving away from "auto" mode. I also did a piece on portrait photography (styles, techniques), while m'colleague Steve covered Adobe Lightroom and some Photoshop techniques. On the second day, Steve had arranged for a couple of models to come in and we did some outdoor portraits and a bit of studio work - all very tasteful and artistic. The grounds of the club we used (Oxnat) are a lovely piece of woodland covered in bluebells, which made for a great backdrop. ...
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Hart’s Bakery

On Tuesday I got up at the somewhat unprecedented hour of 5:15 and went to take some photos at Hart's Bakery near (almost under) Temple Meads in Bristol. I'd asked owner Laura Hart a couple of weeks before about going in to take some photos and she was more than happy for me to do so, and was wonderfully helpful throughout. Here are a selection of the photos - I've converted pretty much all of them to black and white, and they seem to work well like that, but I have included both colour and b&w versions of those that work well in both. Hopefully I'll be going back in a week or two to do some more, at a more sensible hour when Laura prepares the bread and pastries for the next day....
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Richard Hawley

We went to see Richard Hawley at the Colston Hall in Bristol last night - I'm not that familiar with his music, but have liked the bits that SWMBO has played, and got tickets on the basis that she'd like to see him. Oh boy, what a good decision that was - a really good concert, and the loudest I've been to for a while. It's sort of hard to describe his music, they're often really nice gentle love songs but with searing guitar solos and occasional interludes of fantastic guitar and bass noise. One of the better gigs I've been to, and even better because it was a pleasant surprise. Thanks to the really rather good Ents24 website, I was very on the ball with regard to tickets, and we were in the middle of the front row of the balcony - a great view. So I took the little compact and took a few photos - I don't think Richard Hawley really...
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Wedding photos

Pretty much the only non-rugby photography I've done recently was at a friend's wedding in February. I wasn't the official photographer or anything like that - I just did my normal thing and took loads of photos. I think it's only the second wedding I've taken any serious photos at - the first was an odd one. I was involved in a sort of informal photography club at a previous job, and one lady in it asked me to go to her wedding and wander around taking photos. It was a slightly surreal experience - you had people asking "do you know the bride or groom", and I had to honestly answer "neither"! The photos came out really nicely and Nicky was happy, so that's the main thing. I don't normally take many pictures of people, so the candid part of it is probably what appeals to me. Caroline & Dom's wedding was at Tortworth Court in Gloucestershire - next door to Leyhill...
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