Good Morning Guys,

All of us here at Ray Lowe Studios just wanted to say a huge thank you for
the very inspiring talk you gave last night. We have attended many seminars,
workshops and courses and haven’t found anything that moved us as much as
yours did last night. We would all love to come and see you again in the
future and share your passion for photography.

Thank you once again and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

Warmest regards,

All at Ray Lowe Studios.
Kristy Hester-Lowe FBIPP
Studio Manager

It has been very busy recently with workshops, one to one mentoring and of course our talk yesterday to the London Portrait Group. This was the 3rd time we have had the honour of speaking to the LPG and were delighted to see that we had a sell out with 50 or so professional photographers from in and around the London area. Expertly and efficiently organised by Ivan Finch and assisted by Mr Hoss’s easel the evening went well and I hope what we spoke about and the images that we displayed was enjoyed by all? As promised I have posted a couple of the images that I spoke about from our Victoria’s Summer series. Shot on a Contax G2 with a 90mm lens on Ektachrome 200 push processed 2.5 stops and assisted by the ‘item’ we spoke about from Tesco’s! Tomorrow we will have some of the images we shot on the Boudoir workshop on Sunday.

One of the subjects we covered in Monday’s workshop were the pre and post wedding shoots. Now I do know that some photographers seem to think that they invented this additional service however I must disappoint and say that many studio have been offering this add on since the early 80’s and possibly before. Its like the wheel, its been done before, will be done again all you have to do is throw a new twist on it and that will reinvent it again.  Pre wedding, or engagement, or E Sessions were originally simple, studio based sessions that produced a nice portrait as gifts for the immediate family in celebration of the engagement. This, over the years, became an opportunity to work with your wedding clients before the wedding giving you time to get to know the couple and to see how they worked in front of the camera. You could give them tips and pointers for the day, show them how to relax and pose etc. In the 90-‘s we used images from the engagement session for our Romantica Signature Mounts which we then took to weddings for guests to sign. Now these pre wedding sessions are becoming an integral part of any wedding photographers service either as an additional service or as a inclusive part of the wedding package. Now, taking this a stage further we can offer the Wedding Book through suppliers like Loxley. 10×10 custom designed books, image of the couple on the cover, date and wedding info on the inside followed by several pages, some lined for signatures and some left blank for drawings, poems etc. In addition why not add additional images of the couple at random staged throughout the book, some full page some half page some even positioned randomly on the page. On the back of the book have your studio name and contact details discretely but obviously positioned. All wedding photographers should take advantage of modern technology to add value to their wedding packages and profit to their business.

Then we have the post wedding session but we will leave that topic until tomorrow.

Delighted to hear that our talk on the 6^th of July for the London Portrait Group is sold out. Faye and I are very much looking forward to our return visit.

Today’s image is a sample cover for The Wedding Book. Taken way back in 1987 on a Hasselblad with a 150mm lens on T Max 100 and used as the cover shot for a magazine.

We have had so many emails and posts on Facebook about our Monday workshop in Wessex that I thought I would post just a few of them here. Thank you to all who took the time to write to us with such kind and generous comments.  If you would like to discuss our speaking in your region please contact us.

I just wanted to say thank you soooooooo much for yesterday, it was great!  Thank you again for all the information you shared with us I have a least 10 things on my list that I am going to implement for my business within the next month or so.
Hope to see you guys in the near future.
Kindest Regards

E

Hi Trevor & Faye,

Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed your seminar yesterday, I am sure we all learned a great deal from you both.
Thank you so much for being so generous with your time and knowledge.
Hopefully we will meet again.
Kindest regards,

C

Hello Faye and Trevor,

Firstly a very big thank you from me here at XYZ in Salisbury.  I was at your Wessex branch shindig on Monday and believe that I have come away with an awful lot – the main thing being that I should actually do what I preach… more exactly what you preach in fact!  25 years I have been doing photography and have been telling myself to put things into action.  Now it is time and I thank you both for kicking me up the rear aperture of my camera… asante sana.

I have attached a couple of shots which I took on the day and wondered if you could comment on at least one of them.  It would be great to hear what you think of my effort and whether you have any criticism at all.  I know you are very busy indeed and that probably you get this from every manjack (or should that be womanjackie) lucky enough to have watched you work so understand that you may not be willing to micro-critic.  Either way many thanks indeed and trust that we meet up one day sooner or later; if you are ever in Salisbury… karibuni.

Regards,
reflectorholic
A

Thanks so much for such an inspirational and fun day in a train shed – gives a whole new meaning to ‘training’ days! you are incredibly generous in sharing your knowledge and your passion…

Thank you both Trevor and Faye, a truly inspirational day. You both worked extremely hard producing classic, timeless work.

Some photographers and trainers just have it. Unique.

Enjoy your romantic evening together.

Xx

thanks so much for such an inspirational and fun day in a train shed – gives a whole new meaning to ‘training’ days! you are incredibly generous in sharing your knowledge and your passion…

This is just a heads up for the above workshop. Scheduled to take place 30th September – 3rd October 2010 and operated in association with Wild Highlander Events. We will be shooting the first day in and around a simply amazing villa and on day 2 on the beach. There will be a morning session on day 3 for delegates not flying back early. Limited to 14 delegates. More details in the next couple of days, hotel location etc. This will be a workshop to die for as I have seen the location and many photographers would kill for such a once in a life time opportunity.

We photographed a beautiful wedding on Saturday in the house and grounds of Wedderburn Castle in the stunning Scottish Borders. This coming Saturday we have a huge wedding at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh, full choir etc, followed by the reception at the eclectic Prestonfield House. Faye and I are also invited to the wedding breakfast so looking forward to the day. Monday we are down at Exbury House near Southamption hosting a wedding workshop for the Wessex MPA Region so if you are interested in coming along then contact the regional Chairman, Keith Curtis. Business and Marketing in the AM and we will be demonstrating our style in the afternoon and are delighted that one of our models has offered to drive over for the day. So with the model provided by the region and our own Michelle we will have 2 beautiful brides to work with. Today’s image is from a session a couple of weeks ago.

Just a reminder that we will be hosting a workshop at Exbury House and Gardens on the 21st of this month for the MPA Wessex Region. The exciting news is that we will have 2 new products with us which we have been developing with Loxley Colour one of our major sponsors so if you want to see some new ideas that will be attractive to your clients and provide additional income then speak to Keith Curtis your regional Chairman about booking a place. More news on our Studio Mentoring tomorrow and also dates for our talk for The London Portrait Group next month.

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.

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.

Not a good day, very busy getting all the images mounted and wrapped for shipping to BOWENS tomorrow. New backgrounds hanging, steamed and looking wonderful in fact I can’t wait to get a client into the studio. However I was not impressed with a couple of things I found out today, first a photographer offering portrait sessions and all the images sized and burnt to a couple of DVD’s together with a list of shops and websites where to get them printed! Then I came across a site where not only one of our product lines has been copied but on examining  the site further I came across at least 2 other photographers who have been ripped off! Please try and be original!

Today’s image of Clarissa Dickson Wright is from the CITIZENS collection.