30 Days of Blogging

About the many things that photographers are advised to do, blogging regularly comes pretty high on the list.  I think I am not doing pretty good on the whole but regular blogging is not my forte, obviously.

Since I am the type of person who strives to improve herself, I thought I’d do something about it.  It is also said that it takes one month to get into a new routine, whether it is a new exercise routine, a new eating habit, etc.  After a month, it becomes natural and part of your life. 

So for the next month I will blog every day. Promise!  And if I don’t, feel free to drop me a line to remind me! ;)

This is a photoblog after all, so I leave you with this dreamy spring picture!

The SWPP 2012 Convention

Today, I am not the most productive person.  There is a good reason behind this: I spent the last three days in what is best called “Masterclass Marathon” at the SWPP convention.  Masterclasses start at 8:30 am and finished at 19:30 earlier on Sunday though).  They last 90 minutes each.  Hour-long breaks between classes are very useful to visit the trade show and re-fuel as needed.  On the whole, this rather exhausting experience is totally worth it.

The plus side:

- Getting input by many experts.  Often there is more than one way of doing things and no unique answer to a problem.  Taking a look at how different experts produce their art and lead their career is not only interesting, it gives you a much better perspective.

- You get to pick and choose what you want to hear about.  No point sitting through classes that are of no interest to you.  (I am allergic to horses.  As interesting as they surely are, why on earth would I want to know more about shooting equestrian events?)

- If a class does not meet your expectations, you loose very little in the grand scheme of things.  It happened only once to me this year and I “minimised the damage” by leaving and going to another class.  Best move ever.

- Sometimes, it’s just plain fabulous.  Inspiring speakers who make you feel that you’re not alone with your fears about your new photography endeavours (Anurag Sharma), some with great style to admire and advices to follow (Nikki Hill, Jo Hansford), others with mesmerizing knowledge on difficult techniques (Andrea Nielsen) or invaluable business advices to help you get started/established (Michael Turner, Joe Photo, Martin Oliver).

The less nice side (no name this time, no worries!):

- Some speakers tend to use their masterclass as a platform to advertise their training products.  While this is perfectly legitimate and somewhat useful (in small dose!), I did not go to any of the session planning to buy anything and sometimes found that this time could be used better.

- Some talk title and description were rather vague to say the least.  You may be a well-known photographer but not everybody knows that you focus on one specific aspect of portraiture and that you will talk exclusively about this for one hour and a half.  This is especially unfortunate when that subfield appears to be the one that I have NO interest for…

The outcome:

- The best part of a A4 notebook jam-packed with aspects of my photography and business to work on, strategies to implement, plans to make (and execute!) suppliers to check out, samples to order, people to get/keep in touch with, etc…  Just when you think you are done with your mad 3-days session, you realise that you now have to get back to work very soon!

- A great sense of excitement about what I plan to/will achieve in 2012.  This will be a great year!

- The sense that I now have a clue on how to get where I want to go.  But also the sense that I have so much more still to learn… ;)

OK, enough said… I must get some beauty sleep if I want my productivity to be back to normal tomorrow! ;)

An inspiring picture to finish:

May 2012 be a year of growth and success for all of you! ;)

Change!

Things have taken an exciting turn as of late.  Not everything has been rosy, far from it, but the outcome is promising.

Last July came the end of my work close-end contract.  It has been a very demanding job and came with a sizeable commute.  My passion for this type of work had died some time ago and I was ready for a change anyway.  Deep inside I was hoping to find less-demanding employment in a different field so I would have more time for photography.   Dream big, as the say goes!

What was for sure demanding was attempting a career change in the middle of an economic recession.  This is not for the faint of heart!  But I did eventually find suitable employment.  I now have a part-time position very close to where I live.  While the work itself is not the most exciting, I have great colleagues and time flies while I am there.  The good news is that I now have plenty of time for my photography!

The idea of starting my own photography business was laid on slightly uncertain grounds.  However, stars have aligned for this to happen, it seems.  I couldn’t be more excited!

You may have noticed the brand new website (if not, try www.mellypotter.com).  We offer a Christmas promotion at the minute (see “Promotion” on the website) and I prepared wedding packages (available upon request) for summer 2012.  Please have a look and spread the word!

On this, I leave you with an inspiring photograph of one of my favourite mini-models.  Enjoy!

Momentous

This was my very first try at commercial photography.  I have heard before from other photographers (who don't do commercial work, obviously) that commercial photography was repetitive, not creative and downright boring.  Now that I have tried it, I must say that this is absolutely not true.  While certainly not as free as fine art photography, I did not find the experience any more constraining than a portrait session, for example.

Momentous is a moving, removal and storage company.  They are present is several locations in the UK, including London.  They are also part of an international group of removal companies and they wished to have photographs clearly showing their presence in London.  So early on a Sunday morning, we headed down to town and took pictures of some of their vans with easily recognised landmarks.

The photo shoot itself did not take long at all, even though we took photographs at three distinct locations.  What did take a long time, though, was the scouting I have done during the preceding week.  This made a huge difference; I knew exactly where to position myself on the day of the shoot and I could even direct the drivers appropriately as to which lane to use in order to get the best angle of their vans.  So if some of you ever find that the rates for commercial photography are high, please do remember that there is usually more work done after and before the shoot that is included in the price.

I was told that their new brochure, that will include many of my photographs, will be available soon.  I just can’t wait to see it! ;)

This is exactly the type of “Lifestyle” commercial photography that I want to offer to some of my customers.  As a portrait photographer, I can of course do professional headshot and group shots of you and your staff as well.

Many thanks to Brent Borough Police!

This photo has got an interesting story, to say the least.  As London and other cities in England recover slowly from the recent riots, I feel lucky it didn't affect me neither anybody close to me.  Actually, North West London has been more or less spared altogether.  One of the reasons, I was told, is that the police acted as soon as they could to kill the trouble in the egg.

This is a small subset of Brent Borough Police.  They went the extra mile and then some more to keep their area safe last week.  They were rewarded by praises from the Metropolitan Police and by a well-justified feeling of a job well done. Their supervisor wanted a group picture and was struggling to find a photographer on such short notice. (I got their call on Thursday evening)

The photo session occurred at dawn on Friday morning but was plague with technical difficulties with the lighting set up.  I am quite happy that the resulting picture still reflects their spirit though!  I know some of them are now on Holiday and truly wish them a good one!

In Construction

Following my natural tendencies, I have tried to do things a little too fast…  I obviously underestimated how long it would take to improve my (very basic) Dreamweaver skills and to design my website.

Apologies if you were hoping to see the full fledge Melly Potter website on this occasion.  It will be ready in a week or two (maybe even earlier!).  Until then, I leave you with my current promotion for family photography.

If you own a small business and need/wish to have pictures taken, please get in touch with me.  I can do individual portraits, group portraits, location photography and product photography, all on your premises (or wherever is appropriate).  This area of business is new for me and I therefore offer unbeatable prices… for a limited time only!

The Standards

or

“Get out of that comfort zone NOW!”

During my search for models to practice my skills, I encountered some interesting replies…  One of them was: “You have to come take pictures of the band I recently joined!”  Now, I am not a rock and roll-type of girl.  But since I seem to get along with the majority of human beings I encounter, I felt compelled to give this a try.

That’s how I met The Standards.  I attended their last practice session before they played in a charity gig late June.  The studio where their practice took place is an interesting space, if a little dark for photography purpose.  That makes you love your 50mm f1.4 lens… and wish your camera (D200) could go to higher ISO without too much problems!

I felt a bit bad for them, as they played better at their practice session than they did live.  They were still good though and I found myself swaying gently to the music as I walked around them to shoot action shots.  Below are some of my favourite shots.  Of course I took some more "classic" ones too; you know, the type of pictures where you can see the musicians' face properly... ;)

Any rock band (or any musician) reading this?  Let me know if I can “invade” your practice session or your next gig.  Just don’t be offended if I put on some earplugs; it’s just so I can stand comfortably in front of those blazing 7 feet high speakers, where the angle is just perfect to shoot you! ;)