Delights of Tuscany

I have recently enjoyed working with a lovely new client, Deborah of Delights of Tuscany.  Having lived in Italy for many years, Deborah uses her local knowledge to source the most delicious food from the Tuscan hills, including fresh truffles, pasta and wonderful liqueurs.  She creates amazing hampers for dinner parties and supplies local restaurants and delicatessens.

The shoot included product shots in my studio as well as hamper shots using my garden as a backdrop. The images will be used on the Delights of Tuscany website, and as a new service, I also created a booklet for Deborah to use with her clients.  I very much enjoyed working closely with Deborah to create the book, and we have built a very friendly working relationship.  I look forward to working with more delicious food from Tuscany in the future!

Untitled | Make Your Own Book

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Conference Photography

Creative Commercial Photography has been very busy recently and this week I was very lucky to be invited to shoot a conference for a large pharmaceutical company at their London seminar for medical professionals.  The seminars took place over two days in a London Hotel, and I really enjoyed meeting the attendees and even enjoyed listening to the presentations!  My background is in Biology and so some of the seminars on viruses and vitamins really reminded me of the work I did many years ago, and it was fascinating to see how technology has changed since my laboratory days.

The venue was perfect for the seminars and for event photography - the lighting was good and the client had large logos placed over the podium and so it was easy to include the branding in all of the shots - ideal for publicity!

When photographing a seminar or conference I prefer not to use flash as it is very distracting for the speakers and for the audience.  I do like to move around as much as I can, but again I take care not to disturb the proceedings or get in anybody's way.  Many people don't like to have their picture taken so if I encounter objections I will try to avoid including that person in shots wherever possible.

I enjoyed capturing a wide variety of shots with a couple of cameras and selection of lenses including a telephoto lens to catch close up shots of the speakers and a wide angle lens to include all of the audience.

I will post a blog soon giving more tips on event photography, and if you have any queries please don't hesitate to contact me!  I am always happy to chat about cameras and photography!

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Sue Ryder Hospice

I absolutely love event photography - it’s a great opportunity to meet new people and a fantastic source of portraits - generally I prefer to work inconspicuously, blending in to the crowd to take unposed, natural shots.  As most people are not very comfortable having their portrait taken, when they are enjoying themselves at an event, chatting to friends and colleagues, they are at their best and I love capturing moments showing how much the guests are enjoying their event.

   
Recently I volunteered to take photographs at the Sue Ryder Midnight Walk, raising funds for their Nettlebed Hospice. I support several charities and was very happy to be able to help out and provide some publicity shots for such a great cause.

The event was very well organised, and the turnout was impressive - around 800 women all dressed in pink, with flashing headgear were an amazing sight in the middle of the night!  You can see more pictures from the evening in my Facebook Gallery.

The shoot was quite a challenge as of course the light was very poor - the moon was beautiful and bright, and Green Park had turned pink for the night, lit by pink and white lights.  I took several long exposures to get a feel of the movement and energy from the walkers, as well as lots of group shots of the ladies having a great time together before setting off.  As I was using my flash I mainly took posed portraits but the ladies were very happy to pose for me and show off their flashy outfits.

It was a fantastic night, and I was so impressed by the number of people giving up their sleep to help people at the end of their lives to achieve some dignity and comfort.

If you have a summer event coming up for your business, please contact me to book comprehensive coverage to use in your promotions, or simply to record a great time!

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Wallingford Food Festival

This weekend I was very pleased to be involved with the first ever Wallingford food festival - a celebration of local food and produce.  Held at lovely Bridge Villas campsite in Wallingford, the event was hosted by Gerald Dickens, great grandson of Charles Dickens.  He entertained the crowd with stories from his ancestor’s books demonstrating his love of good food.
Excellent cookery demonstrations by The Late Chef and Stirring Stuff made mouths water, and we learned lots about vegetable gardening, beer brewing, bread baking and organic food.  

Kids had a great time decorating cakes and bags and having their faces painted, and everybody enjoyed sampling the delicious food.

The festival combined my love of great fresh food and event photography - I really enjoyed photographing the delicious food prepared on site as well as the producers who are so passionate about what they do.  Luckily the rain stayed away but the light wasn’t great for photography - I had to use my speedlite quite a bit but on the whole the results were pretty good.

I am sure that this will become a regular event for Wallingford, and I’m already looking forward to the next festival in 2012.

You can also see more photos from the day on my Facebook page

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Wallingford Food Festival

Creative Commercial Photography is proud to be involved with the first Wallingford Food Festival on May 14th 2011 at Bridge Villa Campsite, and hopes that it will be the start of an exciting new venture for local food producers in the area. The Wallingford Food Festival is a celebration of the wide range of quality food produced within the south Oxfordshire area and aims:

• to promote the value of “locally” produced food from meat, vegetables, fruit, eggs, etc and processed food such as bread, cakes, jams, preserves, beers, wines, meals etc.
• to show the sustainability of locally produced food and the part seasonality plays in food availability
• to educate people on how food is produced
• to promote Wallingford as a key market town in South Oxfordshire
• to demonstrate how to use the available produce