This is just a quick post to say I am back from the French Alps after a weeks snowboarding in mostly white-out conditions! Not the beautiful blue skies I enjoyed this time last year… I did improve my boarding a lot, but I think skiing is still the best way to keep your equipment out of harms way on the slopes! No damage done though, the weather sealing on the Canon 580EX MKII flash seemed to keep the snow out! Above is a quick shot of one the the lifts (70-200mm) at the top in a rare glimse of blue sky! I will post up some more of the shots from the week once I have finished editing them.

Experimenting with repeating objects in Photoshop

I have been teaching myself Cinema4D which is a really fun program once you get your head round it a bit… I finished it off in Photoshop.

I had a couple photos in this months RideBMX magazine from the Chertsey trails fancy dress jam. Here Lima does a ‘1 footed x-up seat grab’. Try saying that all at once. Lima is way too good, and is probably the most famous person ever to come from Grove/Wantage!

I am going snowboarding next week in Val Thorens, France from the 12-20th of December, I can’t wait to go! Apprently there is loads of snow, and I get to catch up with old buddies! Hope I will get some good snow pictures too.

The Cardiff University magazine Quench, of which I was photo editor has won the prestigious Guardian Student Media Award for best Student magazine! A lot of people worked really hard to produce this fantastic publication on a bi-weekly basis, along with the student newspaper Gair Rhydd on a weekly basis.

To the left is one of the front covers of Gair Rhydd featuring my photo.

Here’s a link to the other winners, congratulations to all.

A few weeks ago I had a fun fashion shoot with Caleb in the streets just outside of the centre of Oxford. This shot was lit with one Canon 580ex flash through a shoot through umbrella to the camera left, and then a Vivitar 285 also to the left but further back as a rim light. I used a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second to reduce the background light as much as possible, just leaving the moody lighting setup.

To try and explain this here’s a little lighting diagram:

Caleb bridge photography lighting setup shot

The flash Speedlites were trigger by Elinchrom Skyports, shot on Canon 40D.

I used one Canon 580ex flash through a shoot through umbrella to light this one. I really meant to take some setup shots for this shoot, but I forgot. I really need to remember to do that more often! The flash was to the camera right. Anyway here’s another flash lighting diagram.

Caleb photography lighting setup shot

I used a slightly longer shutter speed of 1/100 of a second this time to allow a little more background ambient light to come through and light the pillars around Caleb, yet retaining the moody feel to the photo.

So this is the first time I have posted lighting diagrams, feel free to leave comments about them.