As part of the website creation process for my fencing clubs new site I’ve taken several head shots of the coaches.  It’s the first time I’ve used a 3 light setup (having just picked up another 580 EX II while back home), and it wasn’t as difficult as I was expecting.  I think the trick is just to add one light at a time until everything looks the way you’d imagined.  The setup shot is here, where the tripod in the middle is where I had the subject stand.

In this case I wanted to use the colour of the walls in our gym to add a warm, orange-ish background and use a fairly fast shutter speed to kill any ambiant light and make the rest of the image darker.  In this way I could get an orange/black look that would match the colour scheme of the website and I’m quite happy with the results.

A couple of examples are here, and the rest are in the gallery.

I’ve mentioned it to a few people, but for the most part I haven’t really talked much about my new regieme.  For the past couple of months, I’ve basically cut out all of the booze I drink plus any food that I didn’t prepare myself (apart from the occassional night out with friends on both counts), in addition to going to the gym.  There were a few reasons for the switch, but for the most part I was just trying to keep my mind occupied and stay busy and this managed that all quite nicely.

I had a lot of help from a personal trainer as I’m not really a gym guy, and recently I’ve been working with a nutritionist as I’m well aware I need to put on some weight (10kg according to my nutritionist!).  It seems like a lot of weight and I’ve been struggling to eat as much as I’m supposed to each day, but I’m trying!

Anyways, I did a couple of self portraits that are a bit racy!  A lot of the look is done with the lights so I’m not quite as these seem (yet!) but I’m getting there.  No real photoshoppery apart from the black & white conversions.

A few of us wandered out to Sandwich, Kent for an evening of off camera flash shooting.  It’s something I’ve been trying to do a lot more of as I really like the looks that can be achieved.  I’m still a long way off from where I’m happy with the shots I’m getting, but you’ve got to start somewhere right?

There’s a few shots here and a couple more in the gallery.

I’ve had a bit of a summer funk and haven’t bothered to take many shots.  I think my motivation and inspiration took a bit of a summer holiday, but I’ve promised myself to change that in the coming weeks.

Some of you may know already, but I’ve been putting together a website for my good friends who’ve recently bought up our fencing club.  It’s going through a general rebranding and concepts are still being finalized, but the club name and website address have been decided upon.  From now on, I’ll be fencing at the Central London Fencing Club.  The website should be up and running before the end of September, assuming we get completed designs in time.

Part of that process has involved me taking a few more fencing photos which I’ll get online soon (I can feel your excitement).

In addition to all of that, I decided to take a few self portrait shots this past weekend.  Mainly because I really want to start doing some more portrait style shooting and I don’t have a willing model these days, but also because I hardly ever photograph myself.  It’s challenging if nothing else.

This is sort of how I’ve been feeling over the past 2 months, although no tequila was harmed in the taking of this shot. (setup is here)

Simple 2 light setup at home for this one. I took an awful lot before I finally managed one I like.

There’s a new self portrait section of the gallery with these and future self portrait images here.

The London Roller Girls hosted the European championship tournament this past weekend with 12 teams (10 UK, 2 German) descending on Earls Court for a bit of a brawl.  Obviously we (being myself, Mitesh & Neal) were there to take some shots.

The venue was huge compared to what we’re used to, so there was lots of room to move about and the lighting was much more even.  Also, since there were so many matches to watch there was plenty of time to fool around with camera settings and get everything just right.  All of that resulted in what I feel are some of the best Roller Derby shots I’ve taken so far.

Here’s a couple of my favourites.

In addition to the usual “rest are in the gallery“, I’ve gone ahead and set up a Flickr account so that I can post a few more shots that I think derby fans (or the skaters themselves) may be interested in seeing.  Stuff that I wouldn’t normally post to my gallery in other words.  Anyways, those photos are located here.