Beat the VAT increase and sharpen your business image

VAT has increased and the Government cuts are beginning to bite.  Businesses everywhere are feeling the pinch at the moment, but this is not the time to cut back on your marketing budget.  

Customers tend to judge a business on its image, and the first place most customers will see you will be your website - make sure that they can easily see what you can do with some professional images.  

Fresh imagery will enhance the look of your website - out of date and unseasonal photographs can be off-putting for visitors, and of course a regular update to your web content will help to raise your online profile.

Stock photography may be cheaper in the short term, however in the long run customers will want to see your products and will be disappointed if they receive a service they are not expecting.  Bespoke photography might seem to be a luxury now, but in the long term you will see the benefits through more effective visits to your website leading to increased custom.

Why not also decorate your premises with unique, bespoke and original artworks?  I am happy to discuss commissions for paintings and photography to match your surroundings and create a talking point for your clients.

This January I am holding my prices and do not charge VAT, so please don’t hesitate to contact me soon for a free, no obligation quote for your project.  So I wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year, and hope to speak to you soon.

Christmas Cupcake Recipe

Christmas Cupcakes
 

1-Mincemeat Cupcakes                        2-Fig and Ginger cupcakes
100g butter/margarine
100g caster sugar
100g self raising flour
2 eggs
pinch salt
2tbps mincemeat                                   1 crystallized ginger stem finely chopped
1tbsp finely chopped candied peel        6 chopped dried figs
4 chopped dried figs                              1tbsp finely chopped candied peel
pinch ginger                                           pinch ginger

      
Beat the butter/marj until soft then add the sugar and salt and beat until smooth and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat until smooth.  Then add the sifted flour and combine evenly.  Add the mincemeat, peel, figs and ginger and mix thoroughly.

Divide the mixture into 16 cupcake casings and bake at 180ºC for twenty minutes until golden brown.

For the icing, make butter icing with brandy and a pinch of ginger:

150g butter
300g icing sugar
1.5tsps brandy
1 pinch ginger powder

Beat the room temperature butter until soft then sift in the icing sugar and mix carefully to a smooth paste and add the brandy and ginger.  Spread or pipe onto the cupcakes to decorate.



Fig and ginger cupcakes

Chop the stem of crystallized ginger extremely finely and add with a couple of teaspoons of the ginger syrup to the basic cupcake mix with the chopped peel and figs

The Techy stuff:

For the photographs I set up my mini studio with two strobes at minimum power (one with softbox and the other with an umbrella), set the camera to f1.4, 100ISO and 1/160s for the ingredients images.  For the main cupcake image I just used one strobe aimed at the wall to reflect low light onto the table, and had two sets of fairy lights in the background.  In order to blur the background, the aperture was f1.4 again, 100ISO and 1/125s.  Camera is Canon 5D mkii, with a 50mm f1.4 Canon lens.  I also adjusted the white balance to warm the tones.  Props include old crockery from various junk shops with dried orange slices, tinsel, fake ivy, old books and fairy lights.
 

Art direct from the artists

The Rising Sun Arts Centre in Reading will be holding an art market on Saturday December 4th from 10.30-5.30.  This is a great event, with affordable, original art available directly from the artists.

If, like me, you have been putting off your Christmas shopping, this could be the ideal event!  There will be a wide variety of paintings, photography, jewellery and crafts to suit all tastes, and of course you can warm up with a lovely glass of mulled wine and home made cakes and mince pies.

The Rising Sun is a short walk from the Oracle Centre in Reading, and well worth a visit.  Please pop in to say hello - I will have a stand with my abstract paintings and photographs, and would love to meet you.

Happy shopping!

Why use a Professional Photographer?

A helpful insight from the Association of Professional Photographers:

As cameras grow in digital sophistication it is becoming easier for everyone to get pleasing results for apparently little cost. However, using an amateur to take an important picture can be a false economy. The impact a professionally taken image has on a client’s market is far stronger than that of a quickly grabbed snap from a digital camera. Professional photography will sell your product or your company, amateur photography will not.

Photographers are not just technicians. A professional understands how to capture images that are right for a client’s business and convey the message required. Their experience enables them to obtain successful results in any situation. It is as important for the photographer as it is you that the images are right for your business and convey the message you require. As a proportion of your media/print budget, the cost of getting the original imagery as good as it can be is tiny.

When commissioning a photographer the images they produce will be exclusive to you. Images bought from a photographic library will only be exclusive for the specific area you have bought a licence for. Unless you negotiate an exclusive deal with the library other companies will be able to licence the same image and use it for their own products or company. Negotiating exclusivity with a library is often more expensive than commissioning a photographer.

National Baking Week

Recently I have rediscovered my love of baking as well as picking chestnuts!  I was pleased to hear that this week is National Baking Week, giving me an excuse to dig out my apron and get into the kitchen.  Of course I can then use the results as practice in setting up images and lighting for my food photography. 

One of my favourite cakes is the Tort di Castagne made from chestnuts collected in Bracknell Forest.  It's the perfect time to collect chestnuts right now - they are plentiful and big and juicy and taste absolutely delicious. 

I will be uploading some of the photos this week to the Food Gallery.