Tony Dorey "Doing pretty good"

Following the last blog update, I was delighted to get an update from Tony Dorey, a student from the first course in April 2010......

> I think it's about time I filled you in on progress since the course - and the good news is, I'm doing pretty good!

As you know, I came to the course as a home studio photographer with little experience in any other kind of photography. If I didn't have studio lights, I wasn't in my comfort zone. Your course took me away from that kind of thinking, to stop specializing and to try different aspects of photography. Now I really enjoy macro work and architectural photos! (Macro sample attached).

I of course still do the studio side of things but your course inspired my studio work more than I thought possible. I think about the images I take now, and the results are astounding to say the least. I have 12 family sessions booked in, 2 local bands, and more to squeeze in somewhere along the way. I have covered weddings with great success and even my partner has taken up an interest.

Big news is I am having a large studio built in my back garden for a more permanent place to work and I am having large schools asking me to quote for their prospectus photos.

I have attached some jpegs to show how I have progressed with photography (and the business behind it). Without this course, I'd still be 'snapping' studio shots instead of making photographs. You opened my eyes, made me think a little more and whilst I have no prints sold to the papers or mags, I have sold thousands to peoples homes for hanging. I now have the end goal in sight and it's looking very good.

Thanks Andrew!

Andrew replies: Wow! That's amazing, well done. Now everyone.....check out these fantastic photos Tony has sent me......

The Daily What? Surely not?

Hi everyone, I wanted to write a little bit about another great website you should be looking to now and again for inspiration. It's a site that has started using photography in an interesting way, having the occasional gallery of cool pictures to admire and aspire to.

Astonishingly, it's the Daily Mail. Here are links to a couple of excellent recent showcases:

Dog Photos

Bird Photos

Kingfisher Photos

Nick Morgan and Mediafox

On a job last week, I bumped into another ex-student from the first course - Nick Morgan - who was telling me about what he's been up to in the past few months. Here's the email he sent the next day with full details......

New site here, www.MediaFox.co.uk, it's early days but work already coming in. Doing filming for www.lookandfeelyounger.co.uk and www.bigleapchallenge.com and building a few websites. I charge £20 an hour, so buttons, but at this stage it's building things up.

I started with a Flip video recorder and have now just sold my 50D to buy a Cannon 550D - much higher quality.

Of course much of your teaching naturally applies to video and I wouldn't have been taking photos as good as these http://www.mediafox.co.uk/fox/Photography.html without the course.

Cheers

Nick

Really good stuff, Nick. Thanks for letting me share it with the others, who I feel sure will find it interesting as well. It's good to hear that students can take aspects of the course and bend them ever so slightly to their own advantage. Well done!

Nigel's spread in the Washington Post

Ex-student Nigel Goddard was sent a tear-sheet from his recent successful spread in the Washington Post. I'm sure he won't mind me sharing it with you here.

Nigel says in his email: "I have just received a paper copy of the article in the Washington Post. Thought you might like to see what pictures they used. They are all my pictures except the smaller one on the first page. The lady who wrote the article and supplied these tear sheets said in her note to me, "it's unusual to see any photographs get this prominent display".

Fantastic stuff. You should be very pleased! I am very pleased for you.

Vini Pereira exhibition in Norwich!

During the Norwich Dragon Festival 2011, ex-student Vini Pereira will be having an exhibition in the city.

Exhibition open
February 11 - 27, 2011
Noverre Gallery,
The Assembly House
Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 11am-4pm

If any of you find yourself up in that part of the world, drop in and let us know all about it.

Sorry I can't make it myself Vini. Good luck!

JAlbum

Hello all

I did a wedding recently, the first one in a long time and it was a lot of fun.

Anyway, I was looking all over the web for some way to upload the pictures and take print orders from customers. I was looking to buy some software but could find nothing that felt right to me. Then I found this free program called JAlbum which I think you should check out. It could prove to be a useful commercial tool for some of you.

(This sound like an advert, doesn't it? Honestly, I am not on the Jalbum payroll.....sadly).

Anyway, here is where you can download the software, which takes no time at all. I found tutorials on YouTube that showed me how to use it and I am very happy with it so far. I found it pretty easy to use and highly adaptable (ie loads of different background skins and so forth).

Here is a link to the wedding I did and the design I chose. Click on a picture for print options, slide-shows etc. In case you're wondering why there are no outdoor shots, it was just before Christmas during the snow chaos, and didn't start until late afternoon by which time it was dark, freezing and knee-deep in snow!

If any of you go for it, I would be interested in feedback.

Nigel: Classy!

Andrew says:

Nigel got in touch to let me know that while he was shooting the bloodhounds (see post below) he was asked to supply pictures to no less a publication than the Washington Post. Yes, that's right, the same paper that broke the story of the Watergate break-in in the early 1970's!

Let's be under no illusions here; this is quite some achievement. Congratulations!

It's all online too. Go here and launch the photo gallery. It looks brilliant! Some of you who were on that particular course might recognise the low-angle technique Nigel and I worked on (he says, polishing his nails and beaming!). I see the Sydney Morning Herald has picked up the story too, Nigel. I hope you're being paid for that.

Nigel: It's all bullocks!

Hello Andrew,

Now that winter has arrived I have turned my attention from horses back to cats.  Although I did go to see the Coakham Bloodhounds (http://www.coakhambloodhounds.com) in action and got more action than I bargained for!

First, somebody fell off at the first jump and knocked themselves out, so I found myself taking pictures of the air ambulance rather than horses and hounds, then I went into a field to get a good position to photograph the hunt and got chased out again by a herd of bullocks!

Last month I was official photographer at the Supreme Cat Show at the NEC.  So I have now had photos published in both of the leading cat magazines, Catworld and Your Cat.

Photography is anything but dull!

Andrew says: 

Brilliant stuff! I would also add, completely unnecessarily, keep it up!