More about the £250.00 photography session:
I can come to your home or you can come to my studio in Battersea. I find that children are always much more relaxed in their own environment and we can mix up a session to include some fun photographs outside as well as the studio style photographs we take inside.

You’ll get a mix of colour and black and white photographs on a DVD, the high resolution photos are all yours to keep and you don’t have to come back to me and pay for extra prints. I will of course be delighted to print any you want me to.
Three prints up to 12”x8” are also included in the package.

We have teamed up with a local company who are going to produce our large wall prints, and they are offering us 5 wall prints free as part of our ongoing deal with them. The wall prints measure 900mm x 700mm and are stand alone contemporary pieces. You choose which photograph from the portrait session you would like to print and we’ll do the rest. We normally sell these large prints for £565.00.

Read more about the family portrait photography session here.

Portrait Photography London

Do you want to give your relatives and friends some fun natural photos of you and your family?

If the answer is Yes then you need to be booking your session now.  We get so busy in the run up to Christmas with the various things that we do that we not only run out of time but run out of availability.

THERE ARE ONLY FOUR WEEKENDS LEFT BEFORE WE CLOSE BOOKINGS IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS!

Call us today on 020 8333 0151

More about Portrait Photography Here.

Over the weekend at my stall on Northcote Road dozens of children and adults took part in our ‘Best Halloween Costume” competition. It was great fun and there were some amazing costumes. The photography sessions were free and the prints if the participants want to buy will be very reasonably priced. You can find out more about my weekend street studio here.

The stall and ‘Street Studio” will be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in November for free portrait sessions and then in December we’ll be open every day. The sessions are free, all you pay for are the prints from £19.50. This is ideal for children because as we all know sometimes it simply doesn’t work when you point a camera at them, sometimes though the results are superb. Many families come again and again throughout the year and then order the best photos across the several sessions they’ve taken.

You don’t need to book, just turn up. You don’t need to dress up either, just be yourself and we’ll take relaxed and natural pictures of you and your family.

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You can read all about it on the weddings site, go to www.weddingphotographerslondon.uk.com

I try and use natural light indoors and outdoors wherever possible. For the shoot on Thursday I was very keen to stay away from artificial light and the photograph above was taken outdoors using a reflector to even out any shadows.

Autumn is a great month for wedding photography, it’s also a great month for landscapes and outdoor portraits. The light is often best at the beginning and at the end of the day, and at midday in autumn the light is not as harsh as it can be in summer. Take a look at more information on weddings here.

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One metaphor often used is to imagine your camera is like a window with shutters that open and close. Aperture is the size of the window. If it’s bigger more light gets through and the room is brighter. Shutter Speed is the amount of time that the shutters of the window are open. The longer you leave them open the more that comes in.
Now imagine that you’re inside the room and are wearing sunglasses, your eyes become desensitized to the light that comes in (it’s like a low ISO).There are a number of ways of increasing the amount of light in the room, or at least how much it seems that there is. You could increase the time that the shutters are open (decrease shutter speed), you could increase the size of the window (increase aperture) or you could take off your sunglasses (make the ISO larger).

How does your camera know what the perfect exposure is? Your camera is pre programmed by the manufacturer to let an exact amount of light in for the perfect exposure, which is 18% of the light reflected form a grey surface.

Shutter Speed:
Shutter speed is measured in seconds – or in most cases fractions of seconds. The bigger the denominator the faster the speed (ie1/1000 is much faster than 1/30).
In most cases you’ll probably be using shutter speeds of 1/60th of a second or faster. This is because anything slower than this is very difficult to use without getting camera shake. Camera shake is when your camera is moving while the shutter is open and results in blur in your photos.
If you’re using a slow shutter speed (anything slower than 1/60) you will need to either use a tripod or some some type of image stabilization (more and more cameras are coming with this built in).

Shutter speeds available to you on your camera will usually double (approximately) with each setting. As a result you’ll usually have the options for the following shutter speeds – 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8 etc. This ‘doubling’ is handy to keep in mind as aperture settings also double the amount of light that is let in – as a result increasing shutter speed by one stop and decreasing aperture by one stop should give you similar exposure levels.

Some cameras also give you the option for very slow shutter speeds that are not fractions of seconds but are measured in seconds (for example 1 second, 10 seconds, 30 seconds etc). These are used in very low light situations, when you’re going after special effects and/or when you’re trying to capture a lot of movement in a shot). Some cameras also give you the option to shoot in ‘B’ (or ‘Bulb’) mode. Bulb mode lets you keep the shutter open for as long as you hold it down.

When considering what shutter speed to use in an image you should always ask yourself whether anything in your scene is moving and how you’d like to capture that movement. If there is movement in your scene you have the choice of either freezing the movement (so it looks still) or letting the moving object intentionally blur (giving it a sense of movement).

To freeze movement in an image you’ll want to choose a fast shutter speed and to let the movement blur you’ll want to choose a slower shutter speed. The actual speeds you should choose will vary depending upon the speed of the subject in your shot and how much you want it to be blurred.

Use motion to your advantage. For example when you’re taking a photo of a waterfall and want to show how fast the water is flowing, or when you’re taking a shot of a racing car and want to give it a feeling of speed, or when you’re taking a shot of a star scape and want to show how the stars move over a longer period of time etc. In all of these instances choose a longer shutter speed. However in all of these cases you need to use a tripod or you’ll run the risk of ruining the shots by adding camera movement.
Focal Length and Shutter Speed – another thing to consider when choosing shutter speed is the focal length of the lens you’re using. Longer focal lengths will accentuate the amount of camera shake you have and so you’ll need to choose a faster shutter speed (unless you have image stabilization in your lens or camera). The ‘rule’ of thumb to use with focal length in non image stabilized situations is to choose a shutter speed with a denominator that is larger than the focal length of the lens. For example if you have a lens that is 50mm 1/60th is probably ok but if you have a 200mm lens you’ll probably want to shoot at around 1/250.

What is Aperture?
Put most simply – Aperture is ‘the size of the opening in the lens when a picture is taken.’
When you hit the shutter release button of your camera a hole opens up that allows your cameras image sensor to catch a glimpse of the scene you’re wanting to capture. The aperture that you set impacts the size of that hole. The larger the hole the more light that gets in – the smaller the hole the less light.

Aperture is measured in ‘f-stops’ for example f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6,f/8,f/22 etc. Moving from one f-stop to the next doubles or halves the size of the amount of opening in your lens (and the amount of light getting through). Keep in mind that a change in shutter speed from one stop to the next doubles or halves the amount of light that gets in also – this means if you increase one and decrease the other you let the same amount of light in – very handy to keep in mind).
One thing that causes a lot of new photographers confusion is that large apertures (where lots of light gets through) are given f/stop smaller numbers and smaller apertures (where less light gets through) have larger f-stop numbers. So f/2.8 is in fact a much larger aperture than f/22. It seems the wrong way around but you’ll get the hang of it.

Depth of Field and Aperture
Depth of Field (DOF) is that amount of your shot that will be in focus. Large depth of field means that most of your image will be in focus whether it’s close to your camera or far away.
Small (or shallow) depth of field means that only part of the image will be in focus and the rest will be fuzzy. Aperture has a big impact upon depth of field. Large aperture (remember it’s a smaller number) will decrease depth of field while small aperture (larger numbers) will give you larger depth of field.
It can be a little confusing at first but the way I remember it is that small numbers mean small DOF and large numbers mean large DOF.

The best way to get your head around aperture is to take lots of photos and experiment. Set up a shot outside and place some items near the camera as well as far away and take a series of shots with different aperture settings from the smallest setting to the largest. You’ll quickly see the impact that it can have and the usefulness of being able to control aperture.

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The corporate events were good fun. Novotel, the hotel group, hosted a fancy dress party for its staff. It was actually their Christmas party. They are so busy during December that there isn’t time to throw a party for the staff so they all dress up and have their end of year blow out in January.
My assistant, Jimmy and I set up a portrait studio in the ballroom where the party was held to photograph the guests in their fancy dress. While Jimmy photographed the guests I produced 7″x5″ prints for them which they were able to pick up shortly after the photographs were taken. This was a huge hit and is always very popular. So much so that they asked us to stay for another hour.

Producing prints on the night and staging ‘real time’ slideshows is great for the guests as they don’t have to wait to see the results. Also from the host’s point of view, particularly if is is a staff or corporate event it is a great opportuninty to give something fun away. There is also an opportunity to associate your brand or corporate image with the fun event by printing your logo discretely somewhere on the photo, all good stuff for you, your staff, and your clients.

We also photographed Stacy Solomon, the X factor contestant at an event this weekend. I have to admit I didn’t know who she was as I’ve only watched X factor a few times but my eight year old daughter thinks she’s the greatest and I managed to get an autograph for her.

We can generally produce finished photographs from an event between 24 and 48hrs which means that you can use the images to your advantage while the event is still fresh in everyone’s minds. We generally produce two sets of images supplied on DVD; a high res set for prints, and a low res set for web and email use. Go to our events and party photography page for more details.

Event Photographer London

At my stall in Northcote Road we see the agonising over ‘what to get you know who’ first hand. It might have been decided that a framed or mounted photograph is the ideal present for ‘you know who’ but will ‘you know who’ like the image you’ve chosen.
The relief is palpable sometimes when a gift voucher may be the answer. OK, its not the ideal solution as you would much prefer to give ‘you know who’ something to unwrap rather than a voucher but ultimately ‘you know who’ will get exactly what they want rather than a near miss.

We can send you your gift voucher through the mail or by email. You can see the selection by going to the following page;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/vouchers.php

You can use the voucher to purchase or put towards any of the framed and mounted prints we have on offer as well as any of the services we offer.
Below is a list of links to the relevant pages. To buy a voucher just go back to the voucher link above.

Portrait photography;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/porgallery.php

Event photography;
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/eapgallery.php

Wedding photography;
http://www.weddingphotographerslondon.uk.com/portfolio/

London photographs, Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

London Photographs, Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

London Panoramic photographs
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New York photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New York photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Paris Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Paris photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Prague Photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Prague photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Sydney Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

Sydney photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New Zealand Photographs Colour
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

New Zealand Photographs Black & White
http://www.photoarte.co.uk/galleries_index.php

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Photographs of you and/or the children are great Christmas present for relatives. We can frame the prints, produce canvases, supply them in mounts or just as prints. We take the photographs inside the stall using a white background and studio lighting. It’s fun, relaxed, and contemporary.

The session is free, you pay for the prints if you want to order. I’ve found over the years with children particularly that studio sessions sometimes just don’t work. The children may be tired, somebody bursts into tears (not just the children!), the youngest has just been punched by the eldest, etc, etc, you know what it’s like!

So, as we are at the stall anyway why not do it for free and if it works well you get some fantastic photographs, and if it doesn’t nobody is out of pocket. If you want to buy a 7″x5″ prints costs £19.50, 12″ x 8″ £25.00, up to a large wall print for £375.00. They can be ordered online, by phone, and at the stall the following weekend.

Last year we got very busy in December so if you can, or are very well organised please come in November or as early in December as you can.

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The children were all given a disposable film camera, yes a film camera, and were asked to take photographs covering the following themes: Common Life, City and Town, Animals, Scenic/Landscape, Humour, Family Group, Portrait, and That’s Life.

Anita not only spent hours of her time on the competition she also paid for the cameras and the prize money. She also gave up most of the table space in her house for a number of weeks so that the photographs could be displayed. So from the children and parents who participated, and myself, many thanks to Anita.

Here are the prize winners and the photos that they took. 1st prize category winners were awarded £5, second £2.00
COMMON LIFE:
1st Prize: Madelaine Leggett aged 10
2nd Prize: Emma Whyte aged 13

CITY/TOWN:
1st Prize: Robbie Whyte aged 11
2nd Prize: Amy Smith aged 6

ANIMALS:
1st Prize: Tom Sheldon aged 8
2nd Prize: Emily Sheldon aged 9

SCENIC/LANDSCAPE:
1st Prize: Madelaine Leggett aged 10
2nd Prize: Bella Stevens aged 6

HUMOUR:
1st Prize: Dan Smith aged 9

FAMILY GROUP:
1st Prize: Amy Smith-Cornfield aged 6
2nd Prize: Nicholas Legget aged 8

PORTRAITS:
1st Prize: Emma Whyte aged 13
2nd Prize: Madelaine Leggett aged 10

THAT’S LIFE:
1st Prize: Nicholas Whyte aged 8
2nd Prize: Robbie Whyte aged 11
THE MAJOR PRIZES
FIRST PRIZE: £20.00
Dan Smith aged 9

SECOND PRIZE: £10.00
Bella Stevens aged 6

THE JUDGE’S FAVOURITE:£5.00
Emily Sheldon aged 9

THE SPONSOR’S FAVOURITE: £5.00
Robbie Whyte aged 11

Merits (£1.00) were also awarded to: Emma Whyte, Tom Sheldon, Madelaine Leggett, Nico Whyte, Bella Stevens, and San Smith.
Overall Effort Prizes (disposable cameras) were awarded to: Amy Amith and Robbie Whyte.

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