‘Faces’ was the subject for this week’s fantastic Practical Evening, where we shared and learned from others. We saw lots of new faces, young faces, as well as many regular ones. With all of this, we had one of the biggest turnouts we have had in a long time. As a result, the hall was packed with people shooting, talking, learning and watching others. It was great to see people having a fun time, in a relaxed atmosphere sharing ideas, knowledge and know-how. This made for an extremely interactive session.
Faces, Snow and Laughs
Firstly, we organised two lighting setups, one in the main hall and another in the rear room. As we are still in winter, Jo Thompson, one of our committee, conceived the idea of creating a snowy portrait. So, off she went, to find some false snow, a scarf and woolly hat, to create the winter wonderland for us! Mike Kirby directed the creative side on how to toss the snow over Jo and helped with capturing her image. As a result, with Jo as our amiable model, everyone had fun in creating and shooting in the evening!
There may be one point puzzling you looking at the shots to the left if have a giant as a member. It did look that way. Bernie is tall although he was just standing on a chair following instructions on how to sprinkle the snow! And, for the record Jo is not that small either! I never realised that there were so many ways to throw snow over someone and with different effects.
In the Dark Room
The main lights were switched out and the speed-lights switched on in our second setup in the rear room. Adrian Court led this session, he helped members, in small groups, on flash portraiture and the use of the studio lighting. There was a range of diffusers, softboxes, snoots and a beauty dish, which were used to great effect. To add to all of that, we had a fantastic range of models willing to pose for a range of different shots. The small group environment, for this session, allowed us to relax, learn, improve and ever practice past skills. This all added up to an extremely enjoyable evening where everyone was involved, helped and took something away. This couldn’t have been so successful without the models for the evening. A special thanks has to go to John Goldsworthy for his moody poses shown in this article.
Even the next David Bailey visited….
Even our youngest photographer of the evening got stuck in photographing our models. Picking up his Dad’s camera there was no stopping him and he became involved straight away. Here he chose to photograph one of our more eccentric models, David Smith. David wore one of his many whacky guises to be photographed in and loves the celebrity status when we have a portraiture evening!
Thanks to everyone that attended the evening, helped out and shared knowledge with others. We look forward to our next Practical Evening where the subject is “Places’. This will be another chance for you to practice and improve your photography skills.
Photo Credits: Special thanks to Adrian Court for the providing the lead image titled “The Retired Hipster” of John Goldsworthy.
Wow! This looks like it was great fun!
It was Colin. Maybe you could come and join us next time.
As usual with these practical evenings it was fun, friendly and really good experience. Thanks again everyone