greg's blog

Now I'm not normally a football fan - but - the world cup is special - I had a wedding last weekend when England played and another wedding tomorrow in bournemouth (though the groom tells me he might have a big screen to watch the games on ) - even though england aren't playing.

So in honour of england here's a couple of photos from a recent event (one for the ladies and one for the gents) I covered for Solent Studios.

Today saw some sunny weather and a trip to Sunny Brizzle for the inaugural (i think that's how you spell it!) Photography Parlour G2G (get together) - turning up fashionably late I was made Red Team leader (in my head at least) - so it was straight into the shooting with the lovely Siobhan.

So here's a couple of shots from that set:

Then is was time for a snack (and to see the super awesome layout at the captains table (no mssrs birdseye to be seen!)

Then is was a short break and back out for the route march to the other side of the tracks (thanks everyone to not lynching me for the loonnnng walk) - where a couple of people got to play with my PocketWizard FlexTTs. So here's a couple of the lovely Charl (I think that's right).

Then it was back to mission control - AKA the floating palace - AKA a boat where one of the girls started playing the piano

Then we were back out once more - I decided to take us the opposite direction spotting some interesting colours - starting with blue....

Then we headed back to boat where we gave Rosie Parsons a big cheer and headed off to get home / drink / go out for food.

Thanks to Rosie from Photography Parlour - keep your eyes peeled for other G2G shoots and also there will be a flickr group where you can see other peoples (and the rest of mine) - so keep checking back.

Also if you were wondering here's my article on the site -> Greg from TP Photography - stay tuned for more articles

The wonderful suppliers for the day are:

Venue The Harmony II
Dresses
China and table styling
Catering was from McBaile
Cakes: Sheona's of Cake Matters

I met up with Lee and Abbie a couple of weeks back now near Holly Hill. It was a fabulous time - even though we got a bit lost (sorry guys!) we had a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to the big wedding photography day - though I really love engagement photography shoots and everyone feels much more relaxed as a result!

So here's a few photos from the engagement photoshoot.

we had a bit of fun where I showed Lee and Abbie how easy it was to photograph a wedding and how they didn't need a wedding photographer at all!

What a fabluous day! Bournemouth + Sun + Langtry Manor + Wedding Photography = BIG FUN! Here is one of my favourites from todays wedding with Natalie and Graham - we managed to get down to Boscombe pier and we saw the lifeguards hut - see you in just over 2 weeks!

I was in Poole, Dorset to do some baby photography recently - to take photographs of another baby boy (why are they all boys recently) - where i had the honour to photograph a new baby - he's still so little!

Thanks again to Su from Cobweb Company for the loan of the hats. Awesome products! this time I managed to use both the snowdrop hat and the blue/green stripey hat.

Watch out for some more products over the next few weeks!
Feel free to contact Su if you're looking for some great quality stuff for your baby (or even older child).

Photography by Photographer Poole

For those photographers that follow me on this blog - it may interest you to know what i use to process my images and my workflow - this is going to be the subject of some more workshops and articles later this for year.

For now though I'm excited about the latest Adobe release of Lightroom 3.0 - I've been using the Beta versions for a while now - and have used Lightroom 1.0 since it's launch and even it's pre-cursor of Pixmantec Raw Shooter (Premium). It's come a long way since then - and finally there is rudimentary movie support in Lightroom 3.0 - I'd still like to see the addition of basic trimming / editing at least as good as Ahead's NERO product. Maybe if we all feed that back to Adobe it will come in a interim release....

Anyway here's the press release:

Full Press Release

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Now Available

Major Release Advances Image Quality, Performance and Workflow Flexibility for Photographers
London., — June 8, 2010 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of Adobe®
Photoshop® Lightroom® 3 software for Windows® and Macintosh, the essential digital photography workflow solution that allows
photographers to quickly organize, enhance and showcase their images from one application. First released as a public beta in
October 2009, the final version of Lightroom 3 introduces a completely redesigned performance architecture that better handles
growing image libraries and provides an unrivaled raw processing engine with noise reduction and sharpening tools to achieve
the highest image quality. The 64-bit capable Lightroom 3 includes new features that optimise workflows and allow images to be
shared in creative ways, including support for DSLR video files and tethered shooting on select cameras.

Sophie and Martin got married near Romsey at a lovely church, then it was off to Romsey for the wedding breakfast (and a bit more photography) - stopping off en-route to visit the lovely memorial gardens where there were some ice-creams and bubbles. Awesome stuff.

Of course the day started off a little more slowly, with bridal preparations near winchester. I love the anticipation that the bridal preparations bring. What better way to have a look at this than the shoes the bride (in this case Sophie) wears all day!

See you when you get back from Thailand!

Pocket wizard AC-3 available soon! I can't wait to get one of these and run a few tests - looks like a great way to control multiple flashes easily from camera position!

I'll be writing my own mini review when this becomes available!

Here's the press release from dpreview.com
For many months, customers have been asking when this unit will arrive, and now we can tell you that shipping will begin at the end of June!

The AC3 ZoneController is the gem of the Control TL product line. Add it to your on-camera Mini TT1 Transmitter or Flex TT5 Transceiver and you instantly have three zones of flash control. Whether working in E-TTL or manual mode, you now have control over all your flashguns directly from the camera’s position. Put your flashguns wherever you want without worrying about having to access them during a shoot. With the AC3 ZoneController, you are in total control of your flash.

Three clearly labeled dials allow you to increase or decrease power to three zones of flash in 1/3-stop increments, with a range of up to six stops. Three switches allow you to change zones between Manual, Auto (Power Tracking E-TTL II) or OFF. Best of all, the design is simple with an intuitive interface.

When matched with the new Power ST5, you can also control Elinchrom RX heads from the camera position.

Key Features:

* Three independent zones of flash control.
* 6-stops of flash control in 1/3-stop increments.
* Works in PowerTracking E-TTL II or Manual mode.
* Turn zones On & Off remotely.
* Works with Canon Speedlites, Elinchrom RX Alien Bees flash. Nikon coming soon.
* Put your flashes where you want, without worrying about accessing them during a shoot.

And the good news is the price £59.99 inc VAT.

I was off to blandform forum proper again recently where i had the honour to photograph a nearly newborn baby - he's only 3 weeks old bless him.

Again thanks to Su from Cobweb Company for the strawberry hat. awesome products! watch out for some more products over the next few weeks! Feel free to contact Su if you're looking for some great quality stuff for your baby (or even old child).

This bank holiday was different - mainly because it wasn't raining! This is always a bonus - we are going out for walks - mainly late afternoon when most people are heading home.

Today we decided to go for a drive - and to find somewhere to go for a walk that we could take the dog. We were going to aim for rhinefield ornamental drive - but - en route through burley we decided to stop off there instead.

So we set off down the hill, where we saw a couple new forest pony and foal

We then carried on with my daugter (violet) taking some photos on the way - she's really getting into her photography - and soon i think she'll be helping me out on photoshoots ( that's a joke honest!)

here's introducing our black labrador - gunn

and buddy camera / trainee photographer

Though i'm thinking the strap might be a bit long

joseph making a run for it as usual - and just after he'd fallen in a massive muddy puddle

violet was wondering what to photograph next

so we decided to attempt a family portrait then realised i wasn't in it!

as you can see joseph is still shorter than me for now

his shoes were pretty muddy though

and finally a restful violet takes a quick nap

Here's a sneak peek from todays wedding with Laura and John.

This one jumped out at me - we took it whilst waiting for some cars to go past :)

Congratulations Laura and John!

I recently photographed a wedding at the Larmer Tree - or more accurately I second shot a wedding with Ben Goode - I love second shooting at a wedding - it lets me experiment a lot more and let my hair down (what i have of it ;) )

The bride and groom - having a quiet moment

Here come the girls!

Some Fun candids from the day.

Some Space hoppers!

Wow!

Cake!

I recently did a Baby Photoshoot of cute little Vinnie - what big eyes you have (and a lot of hair) - I remember my little one at this age - they're so cute!

You see the cute little acorn hat? that's thanks to Su at Cobweb Company. They also sell more than baby hat's - so take a look at her products they're great and the packaging is awesome too! and best of all it's a local company with great products and great service - what else can you ask for! Expect to see more of their baby products on the blog over the next few months.

I love photographing children - it never gets boring - they're all so different and have their own character! Anyway let's take a look at cute boy Vinnie

I met up with Simon and Kate for their engagment photography photo shoot down at highcliffe castle near christchurch - i love this venue for both engagement shoots and weddings alike!

We met up quite early (10am on a sunday!) - and the weather was quite blustery - despite that my helper for the day Andy didn't fall in the sea, drop anything in the sea or do anything that could be bad in relation to the sea.

Anyway enough rambling - lets see some photos from the engagement shoot!

Here's a sneak peek from the wedding photography of Polly and Tom yesterday taken on the cob at lyme regis.

What a great day and check back soon for the full gallery.

Dorset Wedding photography by Greg Thurtle