This time last year, I thought that an interesting addition to srphotos.co.uk might be a blog. My initial thoughts were that I would try to write the odd post about things when they cropped up and seemed appropriate. I started off on a roll, and wrote a post a day for a few weeks, and then found that I was babbling a bit, so reduced the frequency.

So, what have I talked about? A breakdown of the categories show:

• Business startup - 30 posts
• Cameras - 2 posts
• Hardware - 2 posts
• Photography - 94 posts
• Software - 19 posts
• Uncategorised - 2 posts

So what does that tell me? Probably that I need to categorise things better, but also that I think I’ve achieved so far what I’ve aimed to do. I have a regular audience of people who have signed up to my RSS feed, and many, many more who find me through search engines.

Here’s to another year of happy blogging!

I’ve always maintained that wedding photography is more than just taking photographs. A photographer is one component in a team of people who help a wedding to go smoothly, and anything extra they can offer has got to be good.

The sort of soft skills I’m talking about are:

• Helping people to tie bow ties. Lots of people like to have a proper self-tie bow-tie for their wedding day, but don’t have the time to perfect the skill of getting it tied up quickly
• Crowd control. OK, that’s maybe a bit of a harsh way of putting it, but it’s necessary for arranging guests for photos, and ensuring that people are in the right place at the right time
• Pinning flowers. This speaks for itself really. Easy enough to do normally, but with nervous hands, those in the wedding party can appreciate help
• Providing temporary digital storage. Some guests at weddings fill up their camera memory cards, so appreciate being able to download them to a laptop to free up space for more photos

It’s just a case of keeping an eye open, and helping to make the day go smoothly.

I’ve finally received my photos from the wander around Cabot Circus a few weeks ago. Since moving to Kent, I haven’t really done that much creative photography, so I decided to force myself to be even more creative, by restricting myself to one 50mm lens.

Normally when I take photos, I like to have a zoom lens so that I can get a variety of photos, ranging from wide angle to tightly cropped subjects. When presented with a rectangle of just one size, it’s more important to be creative, otherwise you end up with very similar shots. I think that I managed to get a nice variety, with my favourite shot being this shot of the three entrances to House of Fraser.

It was also a good opportunity for me to try out my new camera; it was the first film that I shot with my Canon AE-1 Program, and I have to say, I was quite impressed. It’s given me the motivation to explore Sevenoaks and Kent a bit more though, this time armed with my camera.

I was extremely excited when I changed to a camera with a flash in 1995. It opened up a wealth of new photographic opportunities (like taking photos inside!). The Jessops AW1 35mm compact was my main camera for 7 years, and although it didn’t give me all that much flexibility, it was a solid bit of kit.

20 minutes of searching on the internet haven’t yielded any information about this camera, and unfortunately I didn’t think to keep the manual, so I can’t remember the exact specs. There was no zoom, which was probably the biggest issue, and battery life wasn’t all that great. The autowinder may have contributed to that, but it was a useful thing to have, as was a tiny clear section in the back that exposed the details printed on the 35mm film canister. Annoyingly, once the film was finished, the camera rewound the film automatically, so there were several situations where it was noisily rewinding in a quiet situation.

As a final note, it did occasionally produce some good photos as long as the light was good, as demonstrated in this photo taken in 2001

Today I had the chance to experience, and learn more about another side of photography; the studio shoot. I met up with a few random people, and we had 3 hours at Cheltenham Photo Studios with 3 models. I’ve never been in a photography studio, let alone as a photographer, so I hoped to learn quite a bit.

The lights had mainly been set up already on the infinity curve; a 4 light setup with two lights for the background, and a couple of other fill lights. Unfortunately, there weren’t any flash meters, so it was a case of trying out different shutter speeds and apertures, until something looked vaguely right on the LCD screen of the camera. This worked fine for my DSLR, but it’s not so easy when shooting film, so I have a film which contains photos; maybe they’re good, maybe they’re not! It turned into a case of me working around the lighting rather than using it, and altering it to fit my needs; not exactly what should be done in the studio methinks!

I found that several times I slipped back into reportage mode, and ended up taking photos including the other photographers, and the studio lights, but I guess that’s what I’m used to doing. I enjoyed the shoot in general, but it’s a totally different skill set, and I’m not used to directing people as much as you need to in the studio. One thing I did enjoy though was having the time to compose a shot, and shoot in fully manual mode on my DSLR; something I can’t afford to do at weddings.

So, the results. There are a few in there that I’m pleased with, and in general they aren’t too bad considering it was my first time. There are a lot of lessons to be learned though; mainly to do with the metering, but I also need to work on directing the models. It might have been easier if it was a commission shoot, because then we would have had a brief. As it was, I was just experimenting through the whole session.

Am I going to become a studio photographer then? It was fun, but it’s still early days, and there is a lot to learn. Maybe it’s something I’ll dedicate time to at some point.

Today I renewed my photography insurance that covers both equipment and public liability. Luckily I haven’t had to make a claim yet, but as the number of weddings I do ramps up, I need to be covered.

When I first set up my insurance a year ago, I was aware that I needed to cover all of my equipment, but hadn’t really thought about public liability. I found that businesslink.gov.uk was very useful for information on why it was important. In essence, it provides cover for a photographer in case they are sued for damage or injury when they’re working. As photographers work in lots of locations and with lots of people, this cover is essential!

The other type of cover that is quite important is professional indemnity insurance. It covers a photographer when they don’t deliver what they promised, or they make mistakes. Unfortunately, as I’ve been in the wedding photography business for less than 3 years, it’s been really difficult finding someone willing to cover me, as it’s more of a risk for the insurers.

Insurance is one of those business expenses that I hope to never have to see benefit for. I hope I never have to claim, but at least I’m covered if things go wrong!

At the wedding I did photos for at the weekend, the couple asked for donations for the NSPCC rather than traditional wedding presents. As they were friends of mine, and it’s a good cause, I decided that I wanted to donate too. I was quite disappointed to find out that as I was donating from srphotos.co.uk rather than as an individual, it wasn’t eligible for JustGiving’s automated gift aid.

With the standard gift aid scheme, as an individual if you donate £1, the charity receives £1.28, as the tax relief goes straight to the charity. It appears that when donating as a company, the tax relief goes to the company, so to ensure that the charity receives the full amount, it’s necessary to give more.

I think that’s how it works, but would be happy for anyone to clarify this, as I’m still learning with things like this!

At the end of September, I had an unsatisfactory photography visit to Cabot Circus. Well, I was back in Bristol today for a wedding, so decided to finish the film that I had started.

When I arrived at Cabot Circus, I went to the information desk to ask about taking photos, and they directed me to the management suite (top floor, just near Frankie and Benny’s) to get a pass. I was very lucky that the person I spoke to was Richard Belt, the Centre Director of Cabot Circus (i.e. the top man). I questionned him about the photographic policy, and he gave me some very good answers, which he said he was happy for me to share.

Firstly, he said that Cabot Circus does have a written photographic policy, and that it is identical to any other shopping complex. Well, I think it’s probably slightly more lenient, because photography is not banned outright. He said that people taking photos were likely to be stopped by the security personnel and asked why they were taking photos; it is after all private property. Mr. Belt then went on to say that it is not just security worries that means that photography is monitored - it is because some shops prefer to not to be photographed. If anyone is interested in taking photos, then the best course of action is just to ask at the information desk, and then you will be sent to the management suite to get a photographic lanyard/pass. In essence, it’s just a way of you asking permission to take photos on their property.

Mr. Belt was very helpful, and even though he didn’t give me a photographic lanyard/pass, he did give me a business card to show any security personnel who stopped me (which was necessary on two occasions). I think that Cabot Circus could benefit from clearer signs about their photographic policy, but once you ask, the response is positive.

I finished my film, and all I have to do now is wait and see how my photos came out!

Before each wedding I do, I like to pray for the couple getting married. In a lot of cases, the couple isn’t Christian, but I’m sure a bit of prayer surrounding both the wedding day, and the couple’s married life won’t go amiss.

About 75% of the weddings that I do are in churches, that aren’t always familiar territory for a couple. But they have chosen to get married in a church, before God, so I’m happy to support them in prayer.

On Monday I received an email from Hollywood (and not the Hollywood in Ireland - we’re talking proper Hollywood!!!). I got extremely excited, as the email opens with the line “I’m a magazine freelancer working in Boca Raton, FL, USA. I’m working on the launch of a new magazine…”. Finally - I’ve cracked America! Well, maybe not totally, but it can’t be bad.

Basically my photos of the cheese rolling in Gloucester had been found, and the freelancer would like to use them for an article in the new magazine. The magazine title? “Cheese Connoisseur”. I’ve been happy to give my photos in exchange for my site being acknowledged, as it’s a great opportunity, and very cool. Who knows, maybe magazine photography is something for the future of srphotos.co.uk?