So to end the year here is the back cover of our 2010 Fine Art Nude calendar showing all of the images. We will have a limited number of copies at the SWPP Convention in January and of course you can order direct from us payment by PayPal.

To all of our delegates this year, and every year, we wish you all a happy and prosperous 2010 and may all that you wish for yourselves and your family come true. From Faye and myself have a wonderful, safe and peaceful Hogmanay and raise a glass for those who are with us today and those who are not.

2010 promises to be an exciting and challenging year for all of you who are involved in the wedding and portrait market and our Mentoring Programme is being devised with that specific challenge in mind. So if you are tired of feeling like one of the crowd and seminars and workshops are not giving you the attention you need or covering the aspects of business you need help with then why not spend a day with Trevor & Faye and get the one-on-one you need to succeed!  We will also be launching a new web based Mentoring Programme in the Spring available to all but more of that later.

As we are currently snowed in, trees and hedges down with the weight of so much snow then there will be limited posts between now and January as I will be busy tidying up. We are delighted that Fotospeed have agreed to sponsor several large exhibition images for display at the SWPP Convention in January. Now all I have to do is organise the mounts, frames and easels to display them on! Hope you are all keeping warm and happy?

As I mentioned yesterday we are very excited about our programme for 2010 and how it is developing and evolving. We will launch it at the SWPP Convention in January where we are hosting 2 Superclasses, both long sold out, and a Masterclass which is open to all. We will also have a trade stand looked after by the wonderful Nicola who many of you will remember from last year. Nicola is also our model on the Sunday Superclass. We hope that many of you will drop by and introduce yourselves to us, we will have some of our Fine Art images for sale and some of our 2010 calendars will be available to purchase.

The Masterclass on the Saturday, 12.00pm – 2.00pm will be about Presentation and Perception. Nothing about lighting, posing or PS just all about where a business starts, with YOU. Faye and I would be delighted if you could join us for what promises to be 2 hours of our open honest opinions and advice.

Apologies for not posting in the past couple of days but we have been deeply involved in developing a new and exciting programme for 2010 more of which soon.

2010 promise to be an exciting year for us with seminars and workshops in the UK and overseas and a possible exhibition which we are in the process of finalising.

An image today from the Victoria’s Summer Collection.

Last month I was asked to write the introduction to a one off magazine on the celebration of Fine Art Nude and Glamour photography.

The great British poet and painter William Blake said “Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed”.  But since the birth of photography a hundred and sixty years ago the nude has been the subject of intense examination, controversy, speculation and discussion.

Countless scholars and reviewers have attempted to provide definitive answers to the challenges of showcasing the nude as an art form.

Is the nude to be annotated ‘artistic’ as in classical painting and sculptures? Or, as has frequently been the case historically, dismissed as covert erotica?

This publication is a celebration of the nude and the skills and artistic abilities of all the photographers who have generously contributed their work.

I have had the great fortune and privilege to work as a professional photographer for over 40 years  - and the one constant that runs through my work is a deep passion for the art and craft of photography, combined with an overarching desire to celebrate the beauty and power of the human form.

The nude is a difficult photographic discipline to master. There is nothing to work with other than nakedness itself; the human body, stripped of all outer coverings and devoid of any decoration.

The great challenge is to present that figure, (assuming you wish to stay this side of what is generally considered pornography) in as tasteful and acceptable manner as possible –whilst always being true to yourself as the author.

However, whatever the ultimate intentions of the photographer, he or she cannot predict the visual and mental response of the viewer.

Every observer will experience a very different and completely subjective reaction to a nude image.

Artistic representation of the nude is a celebration of the human form – whether it is a Brandt or a Penn, a Newton or a Blum.

Such outstanding imagery always elicits a reaction in the viewer – and that surely is the mission of photography. It must strive consistently to stimulate the viewers’ visual awareness and trigger reaction.

The use of surrounding environment also adds to the impression of the final image.

A nude placed within the landscape can be seen as a celebration of nature, but that same nude placed within an industrial or urban setting can tell a completely different visual story. And by simply adding some clothes or latex the whole image then takes on an edgier and much more erotic feel.

Model direction is a key element too. The photographer must employ all his or her skills to create evocative imagery that has an in-built and quite deliberate erotic tension – but without the incumbent challenge of allowing the work to hover over the abyss of explicit pornography.

This collection covers glamour, artistic, fetish and erotic imagery and each photograph is an outstanding example of the author’s art.

Ultimately, however it is you, the viewer who will finally determine in which category the work truly belongs.

Trevor Yerbury

As I announced yesterday I have managed to persuade Faye to do a one day workshop on how we post process our images. The date for this is Sunday the 7th of March, 10.00am – 5.00pm, the fee is £250 and includes refreshments and lunch and restricted to only 4 delegates. So first come first served.

The image was taken by Faye earlier this year and shows the before and after so if you want to know how it was done, the actions we use etc. then drop me an email for a place. trevor@yerburyseminars.com