However I don’t want Dimensions to be the only thing I do in my life,  but when I read scary stuff like this you realise that a photography career is probably not going to pay all the bills in the short term.  Which got me thinking about how do I make some money from photography, be creative and juggle the day job which pays the mortgage.

First thing to work out is what do you want to take pictures of, as most photographers specialise.  I’m not any different.  I like taking pictures of people and I’ve got to the level where I’m starting to take good pictures consistently. Subject sorted…lots of options with people photography – formal portraits, children, events, editorial, corporate shots etc. I can also do still life and more commercial type shots and then there is potential print sales of scenic images I’ve taken, but that’s for a future blog.

Next stage if I was 20 years younger would be get an assistant job and learn on the job, someone else takes the flak if it goes wrong on a shoot. Obviously that’s not going to happen with the day job, so I’m learning the hard way, by diving in the deep end and trying to get clients from my contacts and by building a portfolio. Which means I need to get my skill level up to pretty damn good from its current good but could be a bit quicker. At the moment it sometimes take me about 15 -20mins before I nail the shot which isn’t quick enough in the editorial world, need to nail them in 5 -10 mins. I’m also doing this in a age where anyone who picks up a digital SLR thinks they can be a photographer so there is a lot of competition out there and I need to stand out.

Which leads on to the meat of this post,  I need to build up my portfolio and also get quicker at finding the best image in the shortest period of time. Best way to do this is practice. It struck that me that my wide and varied group of friends (and friends of friends) with interesting careers, hobbies, children would make excellent subjects. Now combine this with everyone’s increasing online presence -  their own websites, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, dating sites etc etc  – all of which need populating with decent pictures in my opinion if you want to impress your audience.

That’s where I come in, for the next 12 months or so I want to take lots of portraits, both studio and environmental ones to build up my portfolio. This is going to free of charge to friends, unless its for an actual business where I think its only fair that I charge a little bit. The kind of shots I want to take are best illustrated by the shoot I did with my friend Peter. He’s a keen gardener and has an allotment where he grows fruit and veg. I’d scouted the location and spotted some great sheds that would make excellent back drops for environmental portraits. I wanted to take a profile portrait that could be used to illustrate a newspaper article on people and their allotments.

We spent a couple of hours creating the shots below and enjoying what turned out to be the last of the warm autumn sun. Now that you all know what I’m trying to achieve, please get in touch if you have any ideas for photoshoots over the coming year. I’ve also got few of my own ideas and will be approaching some of you… you’ve been warned.

All the best…Robbie

Mel writes are blog called London Digital Mum – “Digital media bird, working in London, commuting from Watford and juggling toddlercare whilst trying not to spill the sauvignon blanc”

They are wonderful couple and I thought it would be good to start a long term portrait project featuring Eleanor. I’m aiming to photograph her a minimum of once a year until she tells me to piss off.  Hopefully that wont be anytime soon as she loves posing for the camera! Its a nice project for me, as it will slowly build into a story as she grows up… hopefully she wont get bored or think I’m uncool as she’s get older.

The first two shots she about 1 year old. In these next two she’s 27 months and look how she’s grown and started to chat back and give me grief. NO MORE photo’s I was told in no uncertain terms after an hour or so, though it was time for her afternoon nap!

More to follow in the new year

My initial set up was a small Lumiquest 8″ x 7″ softbox camera right and reflected brolly camera left but its wasn’t working, the softbox was too directional and i needed more light across the whole subject not just the head.  So i quickly resorted to the tried and tested shoot through umbrella’s as shown in the diagram. I liked the results and the bright red background adds a nice hard graphic quality which compliments the outfits and gestures. The final lighting set up diagram is further down.

This is Harvey who supplied the tunes for the night as the late great Heath Ledger managing to mash up Brokeback Mountain and Batman into one costume.

Matt had come as the soon to be assassinated Barek Obama. Its a joke before anyone gets on there high horse, but you do have to wonder given some of the right wing crazies that are in ascendancy in the US at the moment.

Lauren and Frankie came as Cher and Audrey Hepburn. Cher would have one a prize if she hadn’t left before the end!

Friend of friend who name i didn’t get but she new how to pose! Three frames shot taken all of them good… thats what you want in a model.

Matt kept it simple but carried off a very good Freddie Mercury

Lighting diagram tool from Kevin Kertz its a layered Photoshop file with lots of different lighting sources and modifiers which you can create your own set ups quickly.

last night a filter saved my wallet from a broken heart……, originally uploaded by yellobagman.

…or the importance of ALWAYS sticking a UV filter on the front of that expensive 24 – 70mm f2.8 lens.

Stupid me perched the camera with a SB900 in the hotshoe on the arm of armchair whilst shooting Callum a few weeks ago. It fell about 2 feet landing lens first. The impact point is pretty obvious. Now I’ve just blown about £30 on the filter and I’m know shitting myself as its £1200 lens and the filter is refusing to come off, the thread being crushed. I drive home in crappy mood.

A fair bit WD-40 and elbow grease later I manage to get the fiiter off. The zoom action is no longer smooth either. Stick the lens back on the camera fire a few shots off it seems OK. Phew…big sigh of relief. A few week later the zoom action is also back to normal after being used a fair bit. Pro lens – tough enough to handle a serious knock and I’m super grateful to Calumet for making good filters.

Strobist info – Filter is sitting on a piece of black acrylic, SB900 TTL +0.7 in softbox bouncing off a sheet of blue polypropylene camera left another SB900 TTL -1.3 with a snoot and two cuts full CTO aimed at the front of the filter also camera left

Her friend Preya modeled the jewelery to convey scale, and also what they actually are, without some human context the pieces are quite abstract.

105mm Macro lens was used for most of the shots, mix of ambient, softbox and bounce reflectors for lighting.

Strobist info – SB900 in 60cm softbox RHS as close as possible to the pieces to create as big a light source as possible compared to the subject which make the highlights nice and big. Bit of corex to the right providing bounce fill which created the mid toned reflections on the RHS of the ring.

That black blob is me in the middle of the focused part of the shot. Wore a dark t shirt and just desaturated the red, yellows and oranges in Lightroom to make my arms less obvious in the final shots

I finally succumbed to the iPhone 4 the other week , after my old Nokia finally died. Initial impressions are -  its a bloody brilliant bit of kit.

The user interface is intuitive and simple to use unlike most other phone I’ve ever had. I knew it would be, since I’ve been using Apple products since 1992,  which also explains why I’ve only now succumbed to the iPhone. I know NOT to purchase the first couple of versions of anything new Apple releases. They are inevitably still working on the best design for the product at this stage and I refuse to be a beta tester.  The camera wasn’t that great either on the iPhone 3G, so i decided to wait for the fourth version.

Well worth the wait IMO. Messaging is quick and easy with the touch screen QWERTY keyboard, means all my friends will now actually get texts from me. Camera is reasonable in daylight and there are loads of Camera Apps which make it fun to use. Works well as Phone – as it should – and as an iPod, which means one thing less to carry. The real eye opener is the screen, its size, colour rendition and contrast and more importantly the resolution are fantastic. It make games ( how addictive is Angry Birds !) and web surfing fantastic. It also means I can carry a photography portfolio in my pocket, which can be very useful. e.g the other night I met this fantastic photographer Lucy Helton at my friend Gem’s 40th birthday party. I was able to show her some of my images and view her website on the iPhone  which allowed us to discuss each others work.

Customising the phone with my own wallpaper images,  it occurred to me to give a few images away as wall papers so I’ve re-sized some images which I think work as wall papers to fit the Retina screen for the iPhone 4.  Resolution is 960 x 640 at 326dpi

Here is one of them, the rest are here, click through to the image and then drag them on to your desktop to download.

If you like them leave some feedback or send me an email.

fairy light whisky ~ 078/365, originally uploaded by yellobagman.

Photopuddle blogged this image and she was accurate in her view that I was trying to imitate a bar or club. I though it would be good to show her the set up shot which probably spoils the illusion of the shot, but also shows the trouble i went to fake a nightclub interior in my back room.

The trick with this shot was using my 105mm macro lens at f4 to create a smallish dof and bokeh the background. 1 sec exposure in a darkened room for the fairy lights and snooted strobe camera right illuminating the whisky glass which is sitting on sheet of glass. it took me an hour or so to figure it out.

Will #1, originally uploaded by yellobagman.

A very quick ( by my standards – less than hour ) portrait session with my friend Will. Getting quicker is a good thing i suppose. It helped that he’s a good looking chap and its very  hard to take a bad picture of Will.

I wanted to practice corporate type head shots for a company website. Trying to get a job for a digital agency to re-do their head shots which are currently against white and a bit conventional. Simple light set up SB900 camera left high just out of frame in a 60cm softbox manual 1/8 power probably. Pointed down in front of Will so it feathers light on him and falls off on the background. I think with this one i filled with a Trigrip camera right, on the later ones i used an Orbis ring flash which you can spot by the slight shadow on the LHS of face.

Started off trying to use the new 43″ Westcott that David Hobby recommends but you need a bit more room than i had and there was to much light spill onto the background wall. added a gradient in Lightroom to darken the LHS a little bit more to add to drama.

http://www.robbieewing.com/index.html

zoom that wheel, originally uploaded by yellobagman.

i did a photoshoot recently for a musician called Tom whose partner is good friend of some old friends of mine. A very talented man who can play piano, compose and sing. He needed some photo’s for his website so i obliged in return for a nice bottle of whisky.

Strobists info SB900 +1EV in 60cm softbox at the end of the keyboard quite low facing the camera just out of shot to get the low raking reflections of the smooth surfaces to create some depth and bring out the detail in the keys. SB600 -2EV in snoot over my right shoulder sitting on the mantle piece over fireplace aimed at the centre of the key board to add fill light on to his hands. Triggered with on board flash TTL exposure.

The softbox is positioned just above the 110cm x 150cm piece of black velvet I’ve got. Very useful bit of fabric I’ve stapled it to a strip of thin MDF which I wrap it round when not in use. The MDF is a stiff enough to jam one end in a superclamp which is on a light stand. hey presto instant mini back drop which can be placed where you need it.