Natasha Heiss – Portrait in the Park

10/05/2012 by Gary | Leave a comment

Natasha Heiss, she loves to sing, dance and generally act the star she may well one day become (remember your dear old dad when you’ve made it my girl!)  The great thing about having two attractive daughters is the ability to get the to model for me from time to time.

I always feel i should have taken more images of them..more natural ones so I have been working on just documenting the past few months (as Kirsty turned 16 and is soon to leave home). It’s been a job to get the to ignore the camera having told them for years to react to it!!

talk about Pavlov’s Dog syndrome etc… Anyway. I was sifting through a mountain of images on lightroom, trying to pick the best files for my book project when I stumbled across this shot from last year. I like it…that’s good enough reason to post it onto a photography blog (even one dedicated largely to weddings in London).

I am a wee bit cross with Adobe… I bought Creative Suite 5.5 last year to ‘future proof’ myself for a while and now with Lightroom 4 I find camera raw doesn’t work unless I upgrade to CS6! No wonder people turn pirate!! I’m looking at Aperture as an alternative as that supports the new cameras and hopefully ACR 7.

 

Natasha Heiss in Tooting Park 2011

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Smile Portraits- Bromley Photography Studio

18/04/2012 by Gary | Leave a comment

I thought I’d post a portrait from quite some time ago when I worked as a studio photographer in a great little studio in Bromley Glades shopping centre called Smile Portraits.

I wonder if they’ve registered the name?

I shot on a seamless white background most of the time which I gelled with lights and reflectors to flag and mask off areas… shot on a Mamiya 6 x 7 and a Canon Video feed it was a precursor to digital in many ways. We’d shoot a portrait session and then review it on TV with the client afterwards.. order a selection of prints and then sell at a viewing a week later..

I loved working the studio… I had 5 lights on Hi-Glides… all sprung loaded Bowens. 30 minutes a sitting. I do believe we were the forerunners of Venture but without the astronomical price structure (maybe thats why it (Smile Portraits) no longer exists??)

Smile Portraits Bromley Studio

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Landscape: Lake District Forests

12/04/2012 by Gary | Leave a comment

I took a well earned break from pursuing beautiful brides down the altar (well..it IS a fairytale isn’t it??) to lug my camera through the spongy hillsides of the eastern Lake district with Jane and her extended family decamped into luxurious accommodation nearby..
We spent the week in the beautiful ‘second home’ of one of my wife Jane’s friends, a truly spectacular location on the eastern side of the old mountains. Wonderful views and great company! Thanks Mike! we all loved the place!
Anyway, I was simply staggered by the awesome beauty of these ancient woods..dripping with dew and soaked by rain..lots of fallen trees and heavy carpets of moss and lichens. It felt truly like woodlands from a time long past.
I took 1000 images on my D 700 and am only just beginning to cast a curious eye over the results.
Photographing landscapes is a welcome diversion from the ‘full-on’ world of social photography. I make no apologies for including some shots here. I think it helps to show the variety of the work I produce and that’s no bad thing in these tight times!
I only wish I had a month there and not 5 days… I have to go back! I’m hoping to produce a book devoted to landscape by the years end..(self published I hasten to add) at least for the time being.

Landscape photography was something I never really connected with until recently. Until, that is I realised I could harness the geometries and textures to express some inner state of mind (isn’t that what most photography is all about?). There were times when I was on these slopes faced with all that outstanding beauty and variety of form when it felt blissful in the very purest sense. I’m most grateful to still be learning and excited by the moment of capture.

 

Hinninghouse Wood, East Lake District by Gary Heiss See Me Photography 2012

Hinninghouse Wood, East Lake District by Gary Heiss See Me Photography 2012

Hinninghouse Wood, East Lake District by Gary Heiss See Me Photography 2012

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‘From Rain to Shine’ we can make your wedding photographs come alive!

12/04/2012 by Gary | Leave a comment

SMP-JM-437.jpgSMP-JM-460.jpg
So the day can go from good to bad weather wise. Any wedding, be it in London or around the country (this was in Kendal by Windermere) can suffer from the dreaded rain! What to do when it pours?

Actually, any good wedding photographer would be watching the skies throughout a changeable day anyway..keeping abreast of the atmosphere is key (both inside a church or out in a field! ;-) !

At John and Majlinda’s wedding their family had ventured down to the shores of Windermere after the ceremony to have some scenic images done..but almost as soon as we got there the heavens opened. I’m glad I grabbed some beautiful shots of the brides neice and minutes later photographed her and her family being battered by a torrential downpour!

 

 

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Film Portraits in The BAHAMAS

18/03/2012 by Gary | 1 Comment

It’s true.. I shot film! And you know what..it has bite!! A couple of portraits of a very  striking travelling companion of mine from a few years ago. I am going through my portfolio boxes in preparation for a move and decided to breathe new life into some of my favourites by digitising them. That’ll be scanning them in simple terms. I do have the negs..and I could print once again..getting fixer stink on my hands for days afterwards..one forgets the smells of a lab..fixer, stop bath..developer..red wine and (in those days) cigarettes. Lovely!!

The day was a ot one as I reacall..and huge contrast in every frame. I can’t recall the film. It might be T-Max 100 or similar. I used to process in HC-110 or Rodinal. You can see the grain in my originals..but very edge sharp.

 

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The Sculpture Gallery Wedding

11/03/2012 by Gary | Leave a comment

A couple of other frames I liked from the recent Woburn Abbey -The Sculpture Gallery. The first is a grabbed moment of the best man and his family soaking up a splash of sunshine and taking a small breather post ceremony. The light just spilled inbetween the pillars of the gallery and I turned and took three frames of which this composition is by far the best…warm, golden and happy . A family portrait. The second image is of the button holes before the grroms arrival..neatly labelled and waiting for their turn centre stage. Detail makes the difference.

 

Button Holes. Woburn Abbey

 

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