Give it some Bowtime....

Bowtime Tent, Creamfields.....an unexpected but excellent weekend working with the team at RPM in the Strongbow tent at the festival.  Great event, loads of fun, awesome crew and a good all round vibe.  Plus I still got my drum and bass / dance kick that I was aiming for this bank holiday weekend!  For all the pictures from the weekend plus their other festival activities such as V, visit the Strongbow facebook page.

MTV presenters & chocolate dipped strawberries......Commercial fashion shoot and the ideal corporate gift.

I am starting to become disheartened by Apple.  First the iphone 4, now repeated problems with Snow Leopard....is it that they really were this troublesome before but their big shiny Apple shaped exterior & genius marketing just plastered (very well I might add) over the cracks?  I am beginning to think so and now that plaster is cracking....is this the beginning of a few tainted experiences and now questioning consumers who before, would have stood bare chested in a sand storm for the brand.  Is anyone else feeling the strain or is it just me?

Anyway besides my Apple related issues this week I have also had a chance to collect some of the images from the 10 Sterling shoot, an up and coming mens jewellery brand providing high quality, bespoke accessories for men including sterling silver dog tags and bracelets.  The images below are unedited so be kind but they give you a glimpse of the hard work put in by the team (thank you Clive, Hareth and Ilona...not Lloyd who didn't turn up, why do people do that?!) and an insight as to whats to come.  Final images and previews of the 10 sterling site to follow.

On a different note, yes, below is a picture of cupcakes!  We all know I love a good cupcake and even better if sprinkled with sweets so I was very excited that Susie at Angelic Cupcakes put together these beautiful edible delights for a friend and colleague who is leaving their current role at an Events agency to move onto another events agency and a change of scenery - Good luck Claire!

I thought they would make a great gift and am delighted with the results....even if i didn't get to sample them!  There will also be cupcakes in association with my rebrand....exact logistics and plan yet to be decided but there will be sweetness and mid afternoon sugar rushes so keep those kettle warmed!

Happy First Birthday & even more Frappachino....

Great start to the week with some corporate portraiture at Landmark, beautiful offices in Henley and some wonderful people so that was great fun.  I even got a decent lunch break and my favourite....squeezed in a trip to Starbucks!  (Honestly I should get shares the amount i drink there)

Last night was the first Anniversary of Windsor Business community, a focussed networking group held in association with bar Ha Ha and Sharon from Kiereen designs and a really great evening.  BBQ with decent vegge food which means they are already onto a winner with me but also some regular and some new faces.  The evening had a great vibe, probably helped by the free cocktail making bar, and a sneak peek at some of the pics are below.

Later in the week....fashion pics from todays shoot with an up and coming mens jewellery designer.  Girls..... (ok and boys)...get ready!

Weddings, Corporate Portraiture & what not to wear....

Another busy week lays behind me which is fab news as another one also stands in front.  What scares me is my busy as a bumble bee schedule has left little time for that all important CRM so am looking forward to getting back on it and as a result hopefully filling more of that diary as Christmas (yes I said it) approaches.

Still to come also is the rebrand...new name, new logo, new site and new blog.  Very excited and just tying a few final ends before it all goes live, late predictably but it will happen so please - watch this space!

Last Sunday I got together with some old Uni friends and we worked on our first shoot together in 5 years!  Vintage themed images coming soon and to appear in 'Frock &Roll' Readings new, exclusive Vintage boutique.

My wedding portfolio (as a second shooter) is getting ever fuller which is great so thinking I will put some of those up in the coming weeks (a few above to get you started) plus my corporate portrait skills are being tested with an abundance of requests, must be that time of year which is fantastic.  I always like to learn more and more and more and....well you get it but came across some great sites for portraiture so have put below in the hope you find them useful.  Good for tog or sitter, enjoy.

Photography Posing

Digital photo school (includes lighting set up diagrams)

Mansurvos

What not to wear

Ehow

Photo Tips

PS: Coming soon - downloadable Bright Ideas guides including Tog Talk explained, Understanding imagery; In front of the camera, having your corporate portrait done; Knowing what to ask for, getting the best bang for your buck... plus many more!

Some tog terms explained_understanding your imagery....#1 File types

If you don't have the advantage of a web designer or an image savvy marketer or a Dave in the office who knows everything these is to know about IT then it can be hard to understand what exactly your photographer is supplying you or what you should be asking for.

Weather you are working on printed brochures, website updates or an e commerce site you may like to know a few things about the types of files being provided to you so hopefully this and on going posts will help to shed some light on the RGB, CMYK, JPEG jungle......

#1 File types

More often than not your images will be supplied to you in a digital format and there is a range of file types available which offer various quality, colour saturation and compression.  The most commonly used file type is JPEG but its an advantage to know about the others so here it goes.

• TIFF: Large file types that your JPEGS may have originally come from, offers no loss of quality and is not compressed.
• GIF: A compressed file often used in web applications, not great for colour reproduction.
• RAW: This is the biggest file type and is the extension, which is used by most photographers to actually shoot your products or event etc.  It maintains very high quality and will need to be compressed in some way to use across media, as RAW files are not viewable without specialist software.
• JPEG: Optimized for photographs and can handle a range of colours and achieve a high quality even though compressed.  Accepted by nearly all web programs or print houses.

Short, sweet but a little bit handy!  To come....part #2 Colour profiles.

Schon! Party and Louis de Gama designer sale....

The weekend just gone was a busy one for me but very enjoyable.  Friday night saw me in Brick lane (I do love it there!) taking some pics of the Louis de Gama sale.  A celebrated and awesome designer he creates beautiful womenswear in delicate chiffons mixed with structured leathers.  After a painfully long walk to The Bathhouse (I had no socks on, bad shoes and even worse directions) I was at the Schon! party which celebrated their seventh issue launch which has some amazing images in it by some of the best talent out there.  Lots of fashionista's darling so enjoy the photos....