Yesterday we taken by the owner across the water to Fife to a ruined house to add more images to our NAKED RUINS PORTFOLIO which we started way back in 1988. We have 2 images processed already with more in the pipeline and thanks to A for being such a wonderful model as always. It was hard to wrench ourselves away from the sun drenched shoreline but we had to travel up to Perth to give a talk to the Perth Civil Service Photographic Club the same evening. The club had also kindly extended invitations to the members of some local photographic clubs so we had a good audience to work with. After our talk we were treated to a sumptuous buffet supper which, have spent the afternoon at the beach, was very, very welcome. We had some interesting conversations with some of the members afterwards and look forward to seeing them all again at some time in the future. As Faye and I are receiving frequent invitations to give talks to Camera Clubs we have decided to ask for a fee for the evening, £50 for up to 40 members and £100 for over 40. This money will be donated to Alzheimer Scotland as we both have family members who have experienced this devastating illness. In addition if you are some distance from us we may ask for our petrol costs to be covered as well as a dammed good cup of coffee! This is only relevant to amateur registered camera clubs.

So here we have 2 totally different images from yesterday as always one from me and one from Faye.  My image is a toned black and white with a edge border added to finish the image. Shot on the D700 with 85mm lens with only available light. No supplementary lighting or reflectors were used in the making of this image.

This is Faye’s image taken from inside the ruin and not the easiest area to work in with all the broken glass etc lying around. In fact A was very brave even to take her shoes off and stand! Faye has created a colour image for a change that shows the beautiful stone work of a home created in a bygone era.

Many of you will have seen 6 images from this series which were exhibited on the BOWENS stand at Focus earlier this year. We have done more sessions since then and have several more images to add to the portfolio which will hopefully be complete by the end of the summer. We have a couple of places left on our Fine Art Nude workshop which takes place here at Claremont on Sunday the 27th of June so if you are interested please drop us an email. We will be shooting in the woods and at a ruined mansion so it promises to be a great day. The model for this image was Holly.

Its been a busy few days, my daughters wedding on Sunday having a lot to do with it! We are almost back on track, the Boudoir workshop we are hosting here at Claremont on the 4th of July is now fully booked and the BRIDAL BOUDOIR down at Maunsel House on the 8th of June has one place still available. The Lighting and Posing workshop on the 25th of July has only one place left, limited to 4 delegates, and we will soon be in a position to confirm the 2 dates for our HOLLYWOOD BOUDOIR workshops later this year.

Today’s image is one that Faye found yesterday while looking for some images for a feature in ‘What Digital Camera’ and which I have done a quick rework on. Just shot with daylight and a reflector during a workshop for the MPA. This months What Digital Camera has a feature on us as well so if you don’t have a copy yet have a look in your local newsagent or supermarket.

We have had a busy week with more to come including my daughter’s wedding this Sunday! Today’s image is a simple studio portrait taken a couple of weeks ago using our faithful, 25 year old+, Bowens softbox.

A couple more images from Sunday’s workshop here @ Claremont. This time 2 images, one of Faye’s and one of mine, both taken at the same location which is one of the hallways in our house which we always use in a Boudoir session as it provides masses of beautiful, soft daylight.   Faye’s image first today.

And this was my interpretation.

Sunday we hosted another of our highly successful Boutique Boudoir Academy workshops here @ Claremont. Our normal number of 4 delegates was regrettably due to family illness reduced to 3 however that only meant more shooting time for everybody. Our model for the day was the beautiful Aicha, one of our brides from 3 years ago and who had a Boudoir Book done for her husband obviously an ideal subject for our delegates. The first part of the day was spent looking at the business part of running a successful Boudoir Business and as always we have test marketed all of the marketing and promotional ideas that we suggest so that way we know what did and did not work for us. Our first promotion produced over 380 leads of which we converted in to over 80 paying sessions! If you want more information then you will have to come on a workshop, sorry. After a couple of hours devoted to the business of boudoir we met up with Faye and Aicha to start the first of several location shoots both in and around our home and into the studio in the afternoon. We always begin, as we would with a client, with simple daylight shots usually in a man’s shirt before we progress to the lingerie part of the session and after a wonderful lunch we moved into the studio where we demonstrated the various light modifiers that we use on Boudoir sessions. The standard soft box, Bowens Beauty Dish and of course our favourite the Bowens Fresnel spotlight. As always Aicha was a star, very patient and understanding with our delegates and I am sure they all left with some stunning images. All our images were shot on Nikon D700 & D300 and post processed with Kubota DASHBOARD.

We have managed to post process a few of our images from yesterday and first we have an image of mine from the very start of the day, husbands white shirt and beautiful soft window light makes for a gentle start to any Boudoir session.

Then we moved into one of our bedroom where Faye captured this very sensual image of Aicha again light by windowlight and a small reflector as a fill.

The it was on to another of our bedrooms where Faye got this very sexy and provocative image of Aicha. This image was lit with only window light.

During the shoot I always remind delegates to never forget the ‘detail images’ from the session and Faye’s example of the legs and shoe shot is a prefect example. What lady does not love her Jimmy Choos?

And finally for today an image of mine after we had moved into the studio after lunch. Scatter cushions on top of a bed spread give a Boudoir feel to the images and light with my favourite Bowens head and softbox.

Of all our studio styles the one that retains its popularity year in year out are our classic Black and White Signature Portraits. They still make up to 60% of all our sessions and despite the ‘white’ wrap round so popular with many photographers our clients still love our distinct and different approach to the portrait market. In other words we set the trends and don’t follow like sheep. Its all about a personal style or even a studio style, many photographers tell us they can spot a ‘Yerbury’ portrait a mile away because of the strong classic element that has a timeless quality unlike some of today’s portraiture which, though fashionable, is, like fashion offering clients a product of a limited lifespan. Regrettably in this day and age many photographers are failing to find a personal style preferring instead to latch onto the style and technique of others. If you have no personal style then you will always struggle to achieve success so you will always find us reinforcing this during our workshops where we ask delegates not to go away and copy our style, or indeed any other successful photographers style, instead take what we do, what others do and go away inspired to develop a unique style that you can be proud to call your own. You want your clients to look at your work as unique to you and not available anywhere else. As I always say, whatever other photographers are doing in your own vicinity don’t make any attempt to copy them or undercut their fees but simply run at 100 miles an hour in the opposite direction.

Today’s image is from a recent Yerbury Signature Portrait Session and we will be running a workshop in July here at Claremont, limited to 4 delegates, on classic posing, studio lighting and how we present our Signature images.

Tomorrow we will see a return to our classic, signature portraiture.

Well today we have managed to process a few more images from Sunday’s workshop and once again we are showing a couple of images from each of us to show the different post processing techniques.

First this time is Faye’s image taken at the pillars of the Scottish Records Office, a former church, in Charlotte Square in Edinburgh. As I mentioned yesterday when I saw the image on the back of the camera over lunch I though it was the shot of the day. Beautifully post processed with Kubota DASHBOARD and some PS. After lunch we moved down to the Leith area of the city for some urban images.

Now my interpretation of the same location. I have used a bit more of the Kubota actions when processing but it does give a completely different feel to the image.

We found a beautiful blue wall, well Leo actually found it for us, and despite who ever was holding the reflector being in mortal danger of cars passing Faye managed to capture this beautiful image reminiscent of a Mediterranean location.

Then we found our favourite graffitti doors where I shot this image of Aicha walking through the shot with Steven adopting his ‘lounge lizard’ look at the door. Lit with a Quantum pack and head through a soft box diffuser. Slight shutter dragging as well.  Faye did the post processing on this image.

Sunday saw another in our SHOOT IN THE CITY workshops in and around Edinburgh. We were delighted to host 6 delegates and our bridal models for the day were Aicha and Steven who were both stars, patient and very understanding. As always on these workshop we try to incorporate a variety of locations and we started with contemporary modern in the financial area of the city before moving to a more bridal traditional venue in Charlotte Square, pillars and all, where Faye possibly got the image of the day, we will post tomorrow Then up to the High Court buildings with beautiful archways and cloistered areas where the images below were made. After a pizza and pasta lunch at Giuliano’s down by the shore area of the city we found a couple of urban, ‘grungy’ locations to work in. More of those tomorrow. Our only problems during the day, apart from the appalling Edinburgh tram works and resultant traffic, was the security guard from the Standard Life building thinking we were terrorists with a bride and groom as decoy’s and the same at the High Court though he did kindly relent and allowed us to use the area so long as we did not photograph the door!….. (don’t ask!)

I am sure all of our delegates had a great day and left having some ideas of how we work with a bride and groom and how we are always on the look out for new and exciting locations to shoot in. We have managed to process a few images today and these are from the cloisters in Parliament Square. One from each of us just to show how differently we produce our images and one of all the delegates working at the location.

First my image, post produced with KUBOTA actions and some PS work as I saw this very much as ‘Wedding Art’ suitable for a wall portrait.

And Faye’s image post processed in PS with some additional KUBOTA actions to create a highly colourful and seductive image.

Aicha put into the pose by Trevor allowing the delegates to create their own images.