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Aviation Apocalypse – Wrap Up

UPDATE:
Scroll down to see the gallery from the 2nd running of the Aviation Apocalypse in September 2016

Last Sunday (24^th July 2016) was the first Aviation Apocalypse workshop and after months of planning, building and testing ideas and outfits, it was amazing to see it all come together.

The Gatwick Aviation Museum was the location for the workshop and I was joined by 14 enthusiastic photographers and two amazing models. In order to keep the groups small and the shooting time high, I roped in the help of Tommy Reynolds as a group leader who did a brilliant job passing on his ideas and passion for the shoot.

The theme for the morning was aviators. I worked with Roger who took on the role of a fighter pilot. The museums Buccaneer and Hunter aircraft were the backdrop and we were also granted special access to the Buccaneer’s cockpit.

Tommy and Kerry turned back the clock with a vintage, Amelia Earhart inspired look. Once again the museum came up trumps, allowing us access inside the Sea Prince aircraft and the chance to get some really great shots. The group also made great use of the shade found under the massive Shackleton.

After a spot of lunch and a change of look we took on the apocalypse part of the themed workshop.

I took Kerry into the workshop area of the museum where there was plenty of rust and a few ageing vehicles. Smoke and flash combined with a bit of camera know how to create some serious moody images.

Tommy found plenty of post-apocalyptic inspiration at the other end of the museum and Roger unleashed his inner and outer strength with amazing results.

There’s nothing more frustrating to me than seeing a workshop organiser shooting photos for themselves at the expense of the attendees. As a result I hardly have a single “good” photo from the day. Fortunately, the photographers who joined us took thousands of shots and below are a few that I’ve been sent so far.

UPDATE:
We ran the workshop for a second time in September. Once again I was joined by Roger and Kerry as our models and Tommy as my second group leader. This time the weather was a lot more apocalyptic with rain forcing us to spend the afternoon. Luckily the Gatwick Aviation Museum is great inside and out.

Below are a selection of photos from the 14 photographers who came along and made the whole day very enjoyable.

Ambient vs Flash for location portraits

When it comes to shooting portraits on location I know many photographers who love to make best use of the ambient light. I also know lots of photographers who wouldn’t dream of shooting on location without flash. Although I prefer flash, I’m very happy to work with ambient light if it does what I need. If you’re undecided about moving to flash or perfecting your ambient shooting techniques then this video should answer a few questions.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXA-vsOm-mk[/youtube]

I must thank the Gatwick Aviation Museum for the use of their location and the loan of the pilots outfit. Part of the reason for the look and location in these shots was to test out the venue and one of the outfits for my big Aviation Apocalypse workshop. Judging by what we learned on this shoot, the workshops are shaping up to be very exciting!

Flash

Ambient

Aviation Apocalypse Workshop

What happens if you combine a visit to a newly built aviation museum and a love of all things broken and old? Welcome to the Aviation Apocalypse!

This summer I’m running two all day photo shoots at the Gatwick Aviation Museum in Surrey and bookings are now open if you fancy joining me. Full details are on the event page here or if you just can’t wait, you can use the book now buttons below. Places are strictly limited and must be booked in advance.

This workshop is subject to our Terms and Conditions

Building on the success of last year’s woodland workshops, once again I’ll be joined by two models who will each have two looks. Half the day they’ll be aviators and the rest of the day they’ll be survivors in a post apocalypse world.

You’ll be working in small groups with plenty of time to get great photos of both models in their different looks. This is a great opportunity to capture some unique portraits whatever skill level you’re at.

The photos above are from my test session at the actual location we’ll be using. Despite the rather gloomy weather that day I had a brilliant time and I’m really excited to see what suggestions, ideas and images the photographers on the day create.

My 2016 UK Photography Show Schedule

There’s just one week to go until The Photography Show opens its doors at the N.E.C. in Birmingham and this year my free demos are bigger and better then ever. Running from the 19th – 22nd March, it’s easily the UK’s biggest and busiest photography show with 30,000 amateur and professional photographers attending. It’s packed with a great mix of stands from the major photographic suppliers to the small independent retailers.

But this isn’t just another trade show, there’s also loads of things to see and do. There’s a constant stream of free demos and talks on various live stages and that’s on top of all the smaller demos on many of the booths dotted around the show.

I’ll be there for the whole four days giving various talks and demos on Photoshop, portrait lighting and photography. I’ll be dashing from demo to demo (see below) but if you’re coming along it would be great to meet you.

Saturday

11.15 am	PiXAPRO E91	Small Space, Big Impact Lighting
12.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC Hidden Gems
3.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One Flash Lighting
4.30pm	Olympus E31	Losing A Mirror But Finding Focus

Sunday

11.30 am	TPS Live Stage	Fearless Flash Photography
12.45 pm	PiXAPRO E91	Small Space, Big Impact Lighting
2.00 pm	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC Hidden Gems
3.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One Flash Lighting
5.00 pm	TPS Behind the lens	Snap Happiness (Talk)

Monday

11.00 am	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC Hidden Gems
12.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	Small Space, Big Impact Lighting
2.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One Flash Lighting
3.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC for Photographers
5.30 pm	TPS Networking Event	Mega Mess Ups! (Talk)

Tuesday

11:00 am	Adobe theatre	Photoshop CC Hidden Gems
12.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	Small Space, Big Impact Lighting
2.15 pm	PiXAPRO E91	One Flash Lighting
3.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Photoshop CC for Photographers

All my demos are free and available on a first come first served basis. There’s no need to book but as the Adobe theatre in particular has limited seating I’d recommend getting there early!

Show tickets are free for professional photographers and the trade (if booked in advance) and £13.95 for enthusiasts (£18.00 on the door)

Fashion Photography Workshop Wrap-up

Last Sunday I was in London with a great bunch of photographers. I’d been asked to be part of a workshop organised by my friend Robert Pugh and hosted by Olympus UK at their Art Bermondsey Project Space.

The day was themed around fashion photography with Rob running through a fashion set up with Profoto studio lights in the afternoon and me covering as many lighting tips and tricks as I could fit into the morning. Rob had secured the services or Amber Tutton as our model for the day, make-up was in the expert hands of Michelle Court and the clothes were supplied by Rob’s contacts in the fashion world… or so he told me 🙂

I kicked off the session with a single PIXAPRO speedlight in combination with either a MagMod snoot or just random house hold items used as GoBo’s

Next I moved on to a more powerful PIXAPRO flash inside a Westcott Rapidbox Duo softbox. Adding a grid to the softbox made controlling the light much easier and gave some great effects.

Finally I moved from the plain white walls of the gallery and on to Robs roll of black paper. The lack of background shadows makes black a great choice but a little uninteresting, that’s where background lights really help and when you throw gels into the mix, things can get really fun.

With my time up, I had one last tip. Learn the rules of photography so you can break them. My last shot did just that by pointing two speedlights right at the camera. The result was hard to predict but great fun.

You can check out Robs photos and write up of the day on his blog. Thanks to Clare Harvey-May for the behind the scenes photos

Fearless Flash For Speedlights

I love shooting portraits with small flashes and judging by the number of questions I get about the subject, I’m not alone. I’ve run many workshops on the subject, I use speedlights during my live talks to camera groups and yes, I really do use them in my day to day work. But I’ve never made a complete video series on how to get the most from them… until now.

I’ve been working on the Fearless Flash Photograghy video series for the past few months and I’m really thrilled it’s finally completed.
More info here…

If you’re looking to get big results from small speedlights, this course is for you and I’ll walk you through everything you need to know to get up and running with speedlight photography.

In this video series you’ll learn more than just what gear you need, you’ll discover the craft of working with speedlights as I put theory into practice on some simple but stunning shoots. Working with three great models, I’ll share my favourite one flash setups and double light setups that can be quickly reproduced in any studio big or small, permanent or portable.

The course is packed with great information but you don’t need a specific camera or flash brand to follow along. It includes plenty of lighting diagrams and a BONUS video with my quick tips for post processing the images shot during the making of this series.

You choose to either rent the videos and watch online for a month or buy the series and download or watch online at anytime.
More info here…

Wild Woodland Workshop Wrap-Up

UPDATE:
Scroll down to see the gallery from the September woodland workshop

It may have taken months of planning but last Sunday everything came together perfectly for the Wild Woodland Workshop. A group of 12 photographers descended on Driver Wood Paintball for a day of photography among the trees, paths and paint balls.

I was joined by Robert Pugh, who is a brilliant photographer, educator and Olympus ambassador, not to mention all round good guy. Having a second photo trainer on-board gave the day extra value in so many ways, not least that we could split into two groups so everyone got plenty of time to work with both models.

Rob’s morning was spent with model Fern Meaeve in a grassy clearing and some wonderful overcast light. It was the perfect light for a workshop with everyone being able to shoot with ambient light or with a splash of fill flash.

For me it was a little more rough and tough as I worked with model Kerry Allingham at the paintball parks wooden fort. Luckily for us, Kerry is an experienced paintball marshal and knew how to handle the guns. None the less, everyone wore protective eye wear during the live fire session.

The afternoon saw a change of look. Kerry was transformed into an archer and disappeared deeper into the forest. Only the plumes of smoke from the colourful smoke grenades gave them away.

My afternoon was spent with Fern who had a lovely fairy-tale look. We stayed close to the paintball offices and thanks to a lovely long power cable, I was able to run an electric smoke machine to add a layer of mist to the scene.

Finally I’d like to thank the unsung heroes of the day. They include the staff at Driver Wood who allowed us use their facilities as a photo location. Anna Matos and here amazing box of make-up. My friends Steve and Stevie, who assisted brilliantly all day. Finally my biggest thanks goes to Sam, who pulled my crazy ideas together and created a workshop unlike any other!

UPDATE
Such was the demand, we ran the workshop for a second time in late September. Once again I was joined by Rob Pugh and Fern who worked just as hard as ever to make the day as brilliant as before. Joining us was model Charlotte Baker and make-up artist Alex Vleck.

Below are a selection of photos from the 12 photographers who came along and made the whole day another massive success.

Food Photography Workshop

One area of photography that you may not know that I work in is food photography. You’ll rarely see any food photos on this blog but there’s plenty over at Sams Kitchen, which is the blog run by my wife Sam.

Sam is a food writer and recipe creator and also a darn good food photographer. Her work regularly appears in various foodie magazines as does her (and my) photos.

A few weeks back we ran a food photography workshop and will be running it again on the 13^th June… Details of the next food photography workshop are here.

The workshop was aimed at bakers who wanted to improve their food photography and photographers who wanted to learn the real basics of how the camera worked whilst photographing some great looking baked goodies.

The day was great fun with Sam demoing various food set ups and style tips, whilst I ran around answering camera questions and running through some really quick and simple post processing trick in Photoshop Elements.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziA0gCr2X28[/youtube]
It was really great to see people getting excited about food photography and discovering how really simple changes in styling and shooting made huge improvements to the photos.

If you’d like to get involved in the next workshop visit www.samskitchen.net/?page_id=1682 for more information.

My Photography Show 2015 Schedule

There’s only two weeks to go until The Photography Show opens its doors at the N.E.C. in Birmingham and I can’t wait. Running from the 21^st – 24^th March, it’s the UK’s biggest and busiest photography show and it’s packed to the roof with major photographic suppliers and small independent retailers.

But this isn’t just another trade show, there’s also loads of things to see and do. There’s a constant stream of live demos and talks from some of the best photographers in the UK and beyond, there’s also hands on workshops and masterclasses.

I’ll be there for the whole four days giving various talks and demos on Photoshop, Lighting and Photography. If you’re coming along it would be great to meet you and the best place to find me is at one of my talks either in the Adobe theatre, the Guild of Photographers “speakers corner” or in the Behind the lens theatre.

Saturday

10.15 am	Adobe theatre	Video Editing In Photoshop
1.00 pm	Behind the lens	Take & Make Great Photos
2.30pm	Guild of Photographers J75	Fearless Flash Photography
3.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Make your photos look amazing with Photoshop

Sunday

10.15am	Adobe theatre	Video Editing In Photoshop
2.30 pm	Guild of Photographers J75	Fearless Flash Photography
3.30 pm	Adobe Theatre	Make your photos look amazing with Photoshop

Monday

10.15 am	Adobe theatre	Make your photos look amazing with Photoshop
12.30 pm	Adobe theatre	Hidden gems in Photoshop for photographers
2.30 pm	Guild of Photographers J75	Fearless Flash Photography

Tuesday

11:00 pm	Adobe theatre	Make your photos look amazing with Photoshop
1.15 pm	Adobe theatre	Hidden gems in Photoshop for photographers
2 pm	Adobe theatre	Video Editing In Photoshop
3 pm	Guild of Photographers J75	Fearless Flash Photography

All my demos are free and available on a first come first served basis. There’s no need to book but as the Adobe theatre in particular has limited seating I’d recommend getting there early!

Show tickets are free for professional photographers and the trade (if booked in advance) and £13.95 for enthusiasts (£18.00 on the door)

Summer Workshops

With summer just a round the corner I’m really looking forward to getting out and shooting some photos but I’m also excited about teaching photography and meeting photographers at some of the workshops I have around the UK. These all day events are on top of my usual evening camera club talks and are either practical workshops or all day demos, either way if you’re coming along do bring a camera, a note book and a willingness to get involved!

DATE: 15th June 2014
LOCATION: Foxton, Nr. Cambridge
DESCRIPTION: A day photography and Photoshop tips, techniques and demonstrations.
ORGANISED BY: The Royal Photographic Society
WEBSITE: http://www.rps.org/events/2014/june/15/taking-and-making-creative-photographs

DATE: 28th June 2014
LOCATION: Chester
DESCRIPTION: Create amazing photos by pouring, splashing and adding things to water
ORGANISED BY: Welshot Imaging
WEBSITE: http://www.welshotimaging.co.uk/event/make-create-water-workshop-gavin-hoey

DATE: 29th June 2014
LOCATION: Chester
DESCRIPTION: A day of photo challenges, fun and learning around the city of Chester.
ORGANISED BY: Welshot Imaging
WEBSITE: http://www.welshotimaging.co.uk/event/gavin-hoey-chester-challenge-photography-post-processing-day

DATE: 20th July 2014
LOCATION: Gatwick
DESCRIPTION: Get up close and inside some classic aircraft at the Gatwick Aviation Museum,
ORGANISED BY: Gavtrain
WEBSITE: https://www.gavtrain.com