1841 miles!In just an 8 night stay, that’s how many miles we managed to clock up in our post WPPI Page, Arizona and the surrounding area.

This years WPPI (an International convention for photographers held in Las Vegas) was attended by over 5000 photographers from around the globe. Some of the worlds leading photographers, such as Matthew Jordan-Smith (Americas next top model) Joe Bussink (top celebrity wedding photographer) gave lectures and presentations at this years convention.

Vegas strip at night

The convention was held at Ballys Hotel, Las Vegas and runs for just over a week. With seminars starting at 8.00am in the morning and the last presentations ending at 10.30pm it makes for a pretty long week. Sandwiched in between is the trade show, where manufacturers and suppliers showcase all that’s new in the photographic world. This year we have been able source new supplies for albums and stationery for the studio - more details will follow when we receive our new supplies.

The Master Photographers Association (MPA), presented the UK’s award winning photographs this year and these were “hung” in conjunction with the WPPI’s own winning images. Mark’s photograph from the MPA awards was well received and resulted in several requests for sales including a five foot print.

Next years convention will be held earlier in the year (February) with a change in venue to the MGM.

Immediately after the convention, we headed off to Page, Arizona to shoot some stock landscapes, for the stock library Alamy.

“The Eagle” Antelope Canyon.

Page is a great place to base yourself, as it allows access to some of the great (and mainly as of yet) undiscovered areas which are sandwiched midway between the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. Alstrom Point, Coyttee Buttes North and South (including “the Wave”, Antelope Canyon(s), Wahweap Wash and Horseshoe Bend are all within a short distance of Page.

View from Alstrom Point, looking towards Padre Bay.

Possible one of the highlights of our stay in Page was being lucky enough to get permits to visit the world famous “wave”. Only 20 people per day are allowed into this protected area. Ten permits are allocated 3 months in advance via the NPS website - but the go almost instantly (we tried this route unsuccessfully) so our only option was to enter the daily lottery where 10 passes are drawn daily( for the following day) - during our stay around 50 people per day entered this draw for 10 passes so our chances were slim, but unbelievable on day 4 (our last chance to go before leaving Page the day after) we got lucky!!!

“The Wave”

The Wave

Page was only established in 1957 and was originally built to accommodate the workers who built the Glen Canyon Dam which formed Lake Powell (one of Americas controversial projects).

Moonrise Monument Valley

During our stay in Page, we were lucky enough to be around at the time of the new moon, so we took a drive up to Monument Valley and I was lucky to get the photograph above.

In addition to the 1841 miles we also managed to clock up another 340 miles on our day trip on the Harley. We went down a section of “Route 66″ and came across the local photographer!

Before flying home and to break the drive back to Vegas we stayed overnight a small town called Overton, which is quite close to the Valley of Fire.

Another photographer in action.

My attempts at “painting” with flash. This photograph was around 2 minute exposure (you can see the moon towards the top RHS of the photo) then you use your flashgun (with multi bursts) to illuminate the foreground.

Now back in the UK I have to edit and prepare around 2000 images to go off to the stock library that sells these on our behalf - as you can image I’ll be pretty busy for the next few weeks.

Well it’s all change - Nicola who is the wedding co-ordinater at Eltham Palace is leaving to go backpacking around the world - after many years at Eltham Palace she has decided on a change of pace and is off on a years trip.

We have always had a good working relationship with the wedding co ordinators at Eltham Palace and hope that this will be continued with Nathalie, Nicola’s successor.

Best wishes from all of us her at the studio and many thanks for all you help over the years. I’m sure you’ll have a great time - and don’t forget to send us a postcard or two!!

After Mark and Jackie’s successful trip to Australia last October, they are getting their bags ready again to jet off to the annual international event for photographers held in Las Vegas.

WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) is attended each year by more than 6,000 photographers from all around the world.

Conferences, lectues and seminars are held over a four day period, usually starting around 8.00am and finishing at 10.00pm. Exhibitors from around the world use this conference to showcase thier latest products to the world and it’s important that we attend to keep up to date with the latest products and techniques available.

The print competition allows us to compete against the leading photographers in the world - and to date we have fares well - fingers crossed for this year!

January is normally a quiet month when we take stock of last year business and see how we can improve our service to customers during the next year.

However, this January has been very busy. Mark has worked every day (yes including Sundays!) since we returned to work after the Christmas and New Year break.

We have been shooting a lot of portraits in the studio, as well as model portfolios for which we have had to “call in” our favourite makeup artist from Toni and Guy in Knightsbridge.

We have also been needed by our regular corporate customers for PR shoots.
All this together with the wedding fayres, seeing new clients and the general day to day work has made for a very busy month.

Mark acts as a mentor for photographers from time to time. One of his recent photographers called ‘Big Al’ visited the Studio to shadow Mark and to learn some new photoshop techniques and imagery.

Big Al’s visit conincided with have attended the SWPP convention in Hammersmith during January so as part of his visithere accompanied Mark to the trade show.
Many new suppliers were there who are offering new acrylic albums and frames with different styles and designs.

Al has now returned to the west country and is putting into practice some of the new techniques!

Mark has finally relented and given in to the pressure to have his own photograph taken.
Often clients that visit want to know what he looks like and what can we say ……..
It is important to include this in our publications too.
He has asked his friends and fellow photographers to take his mug shot and will choose his favourite. Watch this space because I promise to blog the final image. (will he enhance it, I wonder?)

Last week we had a bit of variety in the studio as we were asked to shoot some photographs for Toni & Guy Knightsbridge - who were entering a Wella colouring competition.

Here’s a few pictures of what we came up with.

The background colours and accesories were chooen to complement the hair colouring.

Control of lighting is very important with these types of shoots.

No retouching is allowed, so these photographs are “straight” out of the camera.

Good luck with the competition girls !

The last weekend in February is the weekend of the UK’s biggest trade show for Professional Photographys - FOCUS. It’s held at National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Birmingham.

On Wednesday, Mark drove up to the NEC, to meet up and see some of the new products to the photographic industry.

One of the first stops was the Master Photographers Association (MPA) stand. The MPA is the only fully qualified organisation for full time professional photographers in the United Kingdom.

Throughout the exhibiton Apple were hosting numerous seminars and providing “hands on” training for many of thier excellent products. (Read on …)

With Christmas and the New Year well and truely behind us now, the Studio is back in full swing. Our new viewing room is now finished and looks great (we’ll post some pictures here shortly). January has flown by, Mark only managed to have two days off throughout the whole of the month - with all bar one weekend taken up with wedding fairs. Almost all of the of the late night appointments in January were taken up meeting prospective wedding clients.

This month, is a busy again. We have back to back weddings this week- on Friday the 9th Mark is at Langshott Manor for Graham and Sema’s wedding and the following day Mark and Gareth are at Kingswood GC for David and Louisa’s wedding.

We also have two open days at the Alexander House on Sunday 25th and Kingswood GC Sunday 18th (Mark is the recommended photographer for both these venues) so feel free to pop along and say hi !

Our “Baby books ” continue to be very popular, with numerous enquiries and sitting this month, in addition to our regular portrait work.

We will be adding some new products and pages to our website over the next week, so remember to check back and have a look at the changes

Normally the early part of the year is a quiet time which allows us to catch up on a few things such re-painting the studio, designing new display albums and working on our brochures etc.

This year so far seems to have carried on from the Christmas rush. We shot three gigs between Christmas and New Year, THe Bowie Experinece, Rolling Stoned and Four Bills & a Ben (see below).
We’ve had a lot of enquiries for our new “Baby Books” and I am pleased to say we’ve booked a number of sessions for these over the coming weeks. Our valentines sessions begin over the next week or two and we have been asked to shoot “Red Carpet A” look for Avorm salon this weekend.

We’ve had to prepare a whole new set of display prints for our wedding fair stand (we have three wedding fairs this month), so it looks like the painting may just have to wait a week or two.