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! ;)

Charlotte

or

“Would you please do for us what you are dying to do in the first place?”

I suppose that every wannabe family photographer has felt a little bit like me before.  You really really REALLY want to photograph the children and babies of your family and friends but it is not always easy to bring up the subject with them.  If you are really lucky, they spontaneously ask you to do so!!!

That’s how I got to shoot Charlotte at her home shortly before her first birthday.  I am really glad I thought of wearing very comfortable clothing as a significant part of the shooting session was spent crawling on the floor following this little sweetie.  And what a sweetie she is indeed!  It was a great pleasure to do this photo shoot and hopefully this will mark the beginning of many great family sessions!

Here are few of my favourite; it was a difficult choice, believe me!

Stuart

The following pictures were shot just for the fun of experimenting with a harder light set up.  I asked Stuart to look scary but that was not entirely successful, to say the least…  Anyhow, I still like it! 

I must reassure potential clients that it is NOT the way I normally do portraits of people.  Unless that is what you want, of course!

Daniela and the Trent Engine

After the difficulties I encountered with my lighting when I photographed Matilda, I compulsively listened to way too many online tutorials studied a bit more before heading to Daniela’s place for her portrait session.

My efforts were definitively rewarded; the indoor session did go noticeably better than last time around.   I even managed some shots using “classic” lighting techniques, some of them producing rather nice results.  The outdoor shots were also nice although I humbly admit that I should put some work to improve my use of natural light.  I should not be too hard on myself though; some of them are still nice.

What’s the link with the Trent Engine, you may ask?

At the beginning of 2011, I revived my old Flickr account and started to post more pictures as they became available.  This includes all sorts of pictures, including some from a visit at Duxford Imperial War Museum.  For inexplicable reason, my picture of a Trent Engine has been hugely popular on Flickr.  It is a nice picture but I am still puzzled at the fact that it was my most seen pictures for a rather long time.

That was before Daniela.  The first picture shown below had more views in its first 24 hours on Flickr than the Trent Engine ever had.  Daniela blushed a little bit when I told her about this; I am not sure she expected so much attention!  Anyhow, here are some of my favourite pictures from this session... as well as the picture of the Trent Engine.

Happy Easter!

I do know there are much more than chocolate eggs (and chicks, bunny, sheep, etc.) to Easter but I thought this was not the appropriate forum to discuss that sort of things.  Furthermore, I find it difficult to get a better subject than mini eggs when comes time to practice lighting and close up photography.

One always ends up taking photographs of what they like…! ;)

Enjoy your weekend and wish you English weather, for once. (It’s absolutely gorgeous in London, and pretty much for the entire 4 days!)

Matilda

A clearly targeted Facebook status is all it took to recruit my first model.  Matilda and I work at the same place and know each other since quite a while now.  We set up a date for a portrait session in the middle of March.  I learned later on that it wasn’t the first time she’d casually modeled for friends so it’s no surprise she was quite comfortable with the camera! ;)

Only days after acquiring a brand new Speedlight softbox, I dragged my stuff across town to her place and we started shooting.  I suppose I should have practiced a bit more before trying to achieve classical portrait lighting on location; watching online tutorials is good but it does not replace practice!  I must give myself some credit though; some shots came out quite nice.  

The pictures we took on our walkabout in the neibourghood were just better tough.  I’ll take some time to practice before next session but this first experience was very nice and extremely useful.  I also quite liked the format of the afternoon: “mini-studio” portraits at her home, walkabout the neighbourhood (with less equipment) then a beer at the pub.  Thanks Matilda!

How did I get here?

I always loved taking pictures.  For all sorts of reasons, I have not been able to explore photography properly while growing up.  You know, these things get costly quite rapidly…

Then came digital photography.  Thanks to my day job, I had a computer and intermediate Photoshop skills.  Santa bought me a nice "point and shoot" camera.  Oh joy!

Then I met that guy…  Among the wonderful things about him was a passion for photography, complete with a DSLR camera.  Soon I had one too.  Of the same brand than his so I could steal borrow all his stuff… 

Curiously, we don’t photograph the same things at all.  He likes landscapes and highly technical photographs.  I deeply loathe getting up at 5 AM to take pictures…  I love portraiture.  He hates it.  In some ways it’s actually a good thing.  We admire and give each other advices, but we don't/can't compare.

You want to know a big dirty secret?  These days, I shoot much more with his camera than with my own.  I am saving my pennies to buy a better one in few months but for now this is my best option.  I keep asking if he minds.  He keeps saying that he doesn’t.  I think it was a pretty good idea to marry him.

I am getting fairly good at grasping opportunity to take pictures.  A baby to entertain for an hour?  Get the camera out.  Christmas party to attend and not in the mood at all?  Just bring the camera.   You see the picture…

(None of them are very recent, FYI.)

My Resolution for 2011?

I am not usually the sort of person who takes New Year Resolutions.  Even less so the sort of person who keeps them.  I do think being too predictable is boring though, and that one should do things boldly or not bother at all…  That is how I ended up making a “Resolution Plan for 2011” at the end of last year. 

1- Take time to develop my photography skills.

2- Focus my efforts on my newly found love: photographing people.

3- Test the waters to see if there were any chance of doing this professionally.

That is how I ended up at the SWPP for 2 days last January.  I spent two 12-hours days attending master classes and exploring all things wedding/portrait photography.  I got so excited that I forgot to feel tired.

I invested my pocket money in a new professional lens and in some rather good lighting accessories.  I took a class on multiple Speedlights (flash) photography.  Then I started to recruit volunteers amongst my friends and acquaintances.  Some even said yes!!!

I spent a little less time than I should tidying up the flat and exercising at the gym.  But on the whole, it’s been a long time since I felt this excited about a project.

I think this is going to be the easiest resolution to keep EVER!