Relaxing in the sun!

Hello!
Well I am not really relaxing but I do live in the sun so its part true :-)

I woke up this morning feeling that I really need to get started or should I say finish my new website design soon for some reason I am just fed up with the way it looks right now. I have been on the task of changing it for a while now but am working very slowly on it and never really finish it always a photo shoot or something else coming in the way.
www.shippeyphotography.com
I shot this image the other afternoon while the sun was setting behind me. My model Nicci was great she did loads of different Yoga positions like the Warrior among others I do not know the names of on this rock it looked a bit dangerous at times to see her stand on one leg on the rock but she was definitively in the zone or had the proper Yoga concentration going on. It was brilliant to photograph.  Thank you Nicci for the help. I would love to do it again next to a pool in the morning sun I think that would give a very relaxing feel to the image. Or another afternoon it is always easier to persuade a model to work afternoon than really early mornings ha, ha ;-)

Well I just thought I should say hello to let you know that I am still around. I better get back to my website now and see if I can finish it soon. I will keep you posted.

My images have been in a few sports and travel magazines this month which is always fun to see. I have also sent images to a Garden and Home Magazine that requested some of my images so we will see how many they will choose to use. Lets hope its many ;-)

Yesterday I did an interior shoot at a hotel so I also need to get them edited and delivered to the client. I have another one scheduled for tomorrow. I saw last night that I had some dust specs on my censor so better schedule a cleaning of it today before the shoot tomorrow. No need to take extra time in photoshop for silly things like that.
Over and out for now.
Helen

One of the more relaxing images the model is looking out at the Red Sea.

Portrait photo shoots

On my recent trip to England I brought back a soft-box for flash, I have since then tried to get hold of a light stand and that is not as easy as it sounds when you live so remotely as I do. But I managed against all odds at least that is what it felt like :-)
I am so happy with my new setup, I asked one of my friends the other day if she could model for me so that I could try out my new gear. I did not only buy a soft-box I also got a new lens 50mm f1.4 and a reflector and some other bits and bobs to fill out my camera bag with.
We planed the shoot to be straight after her work so that we could get the photo shoot under way and then afterwards meet up with some other friends for dinner.
I had in my head a photo shoot plan of what kinds of shots I wanted to do. I needed a chair as a prop and since I don't have one (I know it sounds silly but I do not have a chair in my house, I have bar stools but not a normal chair) anyway my model does so I thought, great I will come to your house then. In hind sight it probably would have been better if she would have brought the chair to my house. I have more plain walls than she did...as well as her ceiling is not white! I had planned to bounce one of my flashes against the ceiling and I think it got drowned due to that the ceiling was not white but peach.... ha ha but in the end we managed to get some great shots. The chair did not play a large role in our photo shoot as I had originally planned. I wanted to make very bright portraits so that the face is almost washed away only leaving some contours. That is not what I did not in camera at least I did more of that in Photoshop afterwards. I learned a lot by looking at the images afterwards of what I would like to do different next time with the light set up. So I would like to make another photo shoot and make some changes. My model is soon going away on holiday unfortunately so either I hurry up and get this next photo shoot underway or I will have to change model. I luckily have another model coming in a few weeks time. That I can use as well. I'll keep you guys posted :-)

I have for a few weeks now been waiting for a sunset with no wind you know when the water reflects everything like a mirror. I have another shoot planned in my head that I would like to do and it would be ideal to do during those circumstances but I am thinking I might be waiting in wain it being winter soon and all and more wind in the afternoon to come. Should have done this shoot during the summer! The greatness of  hindsight again. So I might just have to try and do the shoot now and see how it goes with wind. I will let you know how I get along.

Portrait Photo Shoot, Egypt

I have been traveling a bit lately, one of my travels took me to explore Petra in Jordan. It was amazing and definitively worth a visit if you have not been yet. I will show you some images from that trip a bit later not today. 
I have also taken quite a few event photographs of golf presentations but none that are very interesting to publish here so I will spare you that.

Today I will show you a few images from my portrait shoot I did yesterday with a family. We did an afternoon photo shoot at the resort which means that it is more calm and tranquil around us than if we had done it a bit earlier also the light has a very pleasing effect for portraits in the afternoon. The calmness of course suited us very well since a child's attention is very easily distracted if there are a lot of things going on around them. We had a few on lookers at times but we managed great even with that.
Even though we were outside and there was plenty of available light at least in the beginning of our shoot the sun did drop behind the Sinai Mountains quite quickly in the end. But as I was saying we had plenty of natural light but I still used a flash to get those nice catch lights in the eyes. I had the flash positioned straight up and used only the little white plastic card to direct the light towards the person I was photographing. When you are photographing outdoors make sure that you position your subject on the edge of the shade if possible also make sure that you do not get any dappled light in their faces, from tree leaves etc. Dapples in the face or hair can easily ruin any portrait so try to stay away from it unless you are trying to do something creative and work it in. But in general for portraits stay away from dapples in your objects faces the images will turn out a lot better and you will be able to sell your client more prints which is probably what you are after -Sales!

Portraits

Here are two portraits that I took of a mother and her two sons while I was in Sweden. I had scouted the location prior to the photo shoot we had to wait almost two weeks to do the portraits because the weather conditions were not great for portraits outside. It was raining everyday then finally there was a dry morning and we hurried outside to do the shoot it was still not very warm it was an early morning shoot with the sun on its way up. One of the sons, not the one on the picture above kept on complaining that the grass was making his feet cold and I agree it was nto the warmest of days even if it was summer. But the little guy above didn't complain much at all as long mommy was near by. He did start sticking his tung out on lots of pictures and it wasn't much I could do about it lucky for him he is so little and cute and can therefore get away with it on a picture. His parents will still hang the picture on the wall and think its adorable. I have done a soft focus filter retouching in photoshop on both these pictures.

Portraits

I did a portrait session with a guest at the Sofitel Hotel Taba Heights recently. After a cup of coffee discussing what kind of pictures she would like to bring home from our photo shoot, we came up with a some what arabic theme. Hence the scarf she is wearing but we still wanted the pictures to be a bit glamourous and sexy therefore  I took the pictures so that it looks like she is not wearing anything beneath the scarf. But I can assure you she was fully dressed we took the pictures in one of the walkways at the hotel so we had a few people walking by wondering what we were up to. But Maria was doing great she didn't mind at all. 

We started the photo shoot with a few traditional portraits so that she has that with her in her portfolio home as well, when we were finished with that we became more creative and did quite a few more fun and crazy pictures. Since we had done the traditional ones we could get away with putting the scarf on and take our arabic theme pictures because after you take the scarf off you have to remember that the models hair will not look the same. So when you take a series of photos with a client or friend you always need to have a plan in your head so that you take the pictures in the "right" order. So you don't end up spending too much time on styling after every "photo theme" you take.

Otherwise I have been very busy making a promotional DVD of my photography that will be playing at the Taba Heights Golf Clubhouse. I am also working on a DVD with pictures of every golf hole on the golf course that will be for sale in the Taba Heights Golf Resort Clubhouse.

Portraits

Child Portraits

I love to take pictures of children they have so many funny ideas of their own that are great to capture. I like to photograph children outside with as much natural lighting as possible. 

Family portraits

Visiting a local Bedouin Tribe in Taba, Egypt

I went with two photographer friends to visit a Bedouin Tribe in Taba, Egypt. Here are a few pictures that I took while we all sat down on a red carpet drinking Arabic Tea.