The Oxford Brookes Nurses‘ Graduation Ball 2010 was at the Oxford Thames Four Pillars hotel, in Sandford-on-Thames, near Oxford. The hotel itself is very attractive, and is in a beautiful location on the river.

The ball was much like the Oxilp ball at the Randolph, in that unlike college balls, its more of a sit down meal followed by a disco. At the Oxilp ball there was a large bar area which had space for us to set up in, and after talking to the ball organiser, Sarah, it seemed that this ball would be the same. Foolishly I didn’t visit the venue. The bar area off the main event room had space for us, but there was the bar, a door to the kitchen, a door outside which was a fire exit, and a passage way through to another event room. Unfortunately that meant there was nowhere for the studio to be set up.

After a quick chat to Sarah, and to the hotel staff, it was decided that a few of the tables for the sit down meal would be rearranged, and the studio could be set up in the main room. We didn’t leave it all to the hotel staff, but pitched in to help. Although that pushed us for time a little, we were all set up with time to spare.

Prior to the meal it had been arranged that we would do a group photo for all of the nurses who would be graduating (hopefully – they weren’t getting there results till the Monday after the ball). A little more negotiation with the hotel, and we decided to do this photo in the hotel reception, which was a lovely large room. After a little more furniture rearrangement, all was set up.

We had a bit of a break after that, as there was the sit down meal for all the attendees of the ball. Once that finished, we got down to studio photography for the rest of the evening. Most of the nurses had been reasonably well “watered” during the meal, so the photos were quite entertaining.

The presenter had bright white fluffy hair, a luminous patterned shirt, and pink trousers. During the interviews, he didn’t withhold from making things up. And appeared to have breakdowns which required pills. His name was “Brian Bedonde”.

Alas, what was pitched to us as a serious art slot in a major program was in fact a pilot for a video version of Fonejacker. Needless to say none of those invovled in the exhbition were prepared to sign releases, and we have explicitly withdrawn any consent for the footage of us to be featured. Feeling slightly miffed to have wasted the time.

I’ve got a picture up in an exhibition in Oxford, starting in a few days time. The “press release” details are:

Made In Oxford

Photographic Exhibition by the Oxford Flickr Group
3rd – 31st October 2009 – free entry
(Opening night for press/exhibitors only 2nd October)
The Jam Factory, Holly Bush Row, Oxford, OX1 1HU (near main railway station)

The exhibition is the brainchild of a group of 30 local photographers who live, work and study in the Oxford area, most of whom had only met online before we decided to arrange this exhibition.

We’re here before term starts and we’re here when the tourists have jetted back to their own cities. And whilst it’s an outstandingly beautiful city to live in, it can get awfully boring photographing the Dreaming Spires again and again. So what we’ve set out to do is try and show you our Oxford instead. Every exhibitor has attached a little explanation to their photograph – what it is, why they took it. All the photos are geo-tagged and marked on the exhibition map so you can find out where we took them if you feel like exploring the city yourself.

Garrett Coakley, one of the organizers, said “It’s been an exciting challenge setting up an exhibition when most of the exhibitors have only ever communicated online – it just goes to show that when you have a internet-based community of like-minded individuals you can translate that into a real-world event. We’re looking forward to organising more events like this in the future.”

If you’re visiting Oxford and fancy taking away a slightly more interesting souvenir than the usual set of cheesy postcards and an Oxford University T-shirt then take a card, visit the website link , and purchase yourself a gorgeous shiny new book with all the exhibition photographs in. You can also purchase prints and books at the venue.

Pretty fun stuff. Do go and take a look if you get a chance (like if you happen to be in Oxford for a dedication service…)

I’m generally making the prints I sell at exhibitions as limited editions, but at the moment, that’s pretty much the only way I will sell them. So in the next few weeks (ok, that will probably mean months) I’ll add a new section to my website to make them more widely available – while still being very exclusive.

Brit and Chris got married at St Aloysius church in Oxford. This church has one of the most beautiful interiors in Oxford, and a Priest who was reasonably relaxed about photography during the service. The ceremony was followed by a reception at Somerville college. While the college isn’t completely unattractive, they did have a few achitectural disasters there in the 60’s which crept into the background of a few of the candid photos. The wedding breakfast itself was in the college hall, while the disco afterwards was in a marquee within the college groups.

The interior of St Aloysius

The day went very smoothly, and on time. Brit had everything planned amazingly well and is one of the most relax, yet organised, brides whose wedding I’ve had the privilege of photographing. At this wedding I also had the privilege of accompanying the mother-of-the-bride in the Rolls-Royce from where the Brit was getting ready (The Randolph Hotel, Oxford) to the church, not something the photographer would normally expect. The speeches were very entertaining, particularly the beginnings of a Manga comic about the groom that the best-man had commissioned. The remainder of the comic was going to be completed based on tales collated from the guests. A very novel and fun wedding gift.

I’m working on a community art project at the moment called the Oxford Photographic Grid. The aim is to photograph Oxford in a systematic way rather than focusing only on the tourist attractions. The basic idea is that a grid is overlaid on a map of Oxford, and then a single photo is taken at each node location on that grid. If you’re interested in finding out about this project, please visit the project website.

We are currently looking for Oxford-based photographers (both amateur and professional) to take part. If that’s you, please sign up on the project website.

Thanks to Matt Durber for creating the banner & logos for this project.

A few weeks back set up my portable studio at St Aldates Church, Oxford, for their toddler group. There are a range of kids there (including my own) from babies to just pre-school. Some were in the mood for photos, and others were not. There wasn’t much time with each child as there was limited time, and a lot of eager parents.  Consequently I wasn’t able to perserve with the kids not in the mood for photography.

The little chap above amused me, as I’m more used to photographing kids in DJs who are barely able to stand in the context of student balls. A few other children/parents made the effort to dress up for the shoot, while others preferred the more casual look. Hopefully I’ll be able to post a few more photos once I’ve got permission from the parents.

I guess I should thank my young assistant, Joanna, for helping out by; Running into the shot to hug whoever was being photographed, leaving breadcrumbs all over the backdrop, and sitting on her Daddy while he tried to photograph people. Perhaps one day I’ll get her to help…

I’ve got a feeling my blog posts are getting a bit like buses. I think that is because even if I have something to write about, finding time can be tough, and the blog is low on the priority list. But posting get bumped up the list a little when I have a back log like now.

A few weeks back, I did an engagement photoshoot for Paul and Serena. Paul is and old friend from undergraduate days, who like me still lives in Oxford. While they don’t want me to shoot their actual wedding…. in Thailand… I’ll be doing the photography for their wedding party back in the UK.  As part of my wedding package I offer a free engagement shoot when the wedding photography is booked.  I do this to give potential wedding couples a chance to decide whether they like my style and personality. Although Paul knows me already, he and Serena were happy to take me up on “free”.

The mutually convient time for the shoot ended up being in the middle of the afternoon on a very sunny day. That might seem like a good thing, but for portrait photos it isn’t. Despite seeking shade in Shotover woods it was still necessary to use flash to fill the shadows in their “panda eyes”. Serena also struggled with keeping her eyes open for photos, rather than squinting. Hopefully they enjoyed the shoot anyway.

A couple of weeks ago (it takes me some time to get around to blogging) I did a photoshoot for my sister’s NCT group in Bradford-on-Avon, and some of there connections. There were a mix of ages there, from 9 weeks up to a couple of years old. There’s not too much to say about the shoot really, other than it was great fun, and a nice opportunity to play with my neice. But here are a few observations about baby and toddler photography, which although not coming directly from this shoot, were evident during it:

Babies who are six to nine months old are generally the easiest to photograph: they can sit up unaided, but hopefully are too young to crawl/run off; and there attention can usually be held by a few simple toys keeping them happy. If they aren’t hungry or tired, they will usually be reasonably happy and smile/giggle a lot. A really wonderful age. If your child is this age, contact me now to book a shoot!

Really tiny babies can be a challenge becuase they are so very dependent, and usually find it hard to connect to anyone else other than their mother, particularly when the stranger has a black box attached to their face. That is why you’ll see a lot of baby photos focused on cute little features such as the hands and feet.

Joanna decides that the shoot is over and it's time Daddy puts the lens cap back on

Toddlers become challenging again as they know their own mind, and choose not to co-operate if they don’t want to be photographed. By two most kids have also learnt how to acheive a very fake looking camera smile. But that only makes successful photoshoots with toddlers all the more rewarding. My top tips for toddler photography are:

1. Get them involved. Ask them to press the shutter button a few times. It make it more exciting when they feel they can take turns being the photographer. (Or bring a toy camera for them to use)
2. Allow them just to play in the studio (getting mum & dad involved to0), and just take photos of the kids doing what they do best. Don’t expect them to pose.
3. Have ridiculous hair like me, they’ll assume you are a clown and smile! Well, it gets children looking at me in a slightly puzzled way anyway.

The photos in this post are of my children, as I didn’t ask permission of any of the parents there to post their photos publicly. The gallery of the photoshoot in the client-area is password protected for the same reason.

St Hilda’s College ball was on Saturday 8th May. Photos from the ball can be seen in our client area. This Oxford college was the last single sex college, and started accepting men for the first time this year. Although that makes little difference to the ball night, since men attend as guests anyway.

This ball must have been the first that we have attended where we were not pushed for space in one way or another. The room had high ceilings and decent amount of floor space. Unfortunately for the us, we were at the far end of the college from the majority of the ball venues, and less people ventured that far away from the beer tent. I know of at least one person that was unable to find us during the ball. We weren’t completely out of it, as we were right next to outdoor cinema which was screening “Romeo and Juliet” repeatedly.  I guess it gets the couples feeling romantic before their photos are taken.

As a benefit of our location within the college, while setting up for the ball we were treated to a lovely sunset behind Magdelen College tower.

For this ball shoot aCoolDryPlace Photography was assisted by Kate of Paperleaf Studio, maker of handmade stationery

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I finally got around to getting off my first film from my medium format camera developed. The film was a black and white one which came “free” with the camera. I’d realised (even before I tried this film) that I’m not very good at visualising the world in black and white. When converting digital files  I need to give it a go to really appreciate what an image will look like in B&W. Unfortunately, there’s no such luxury with film so I tended to go for high contrast scenes this time around to be on the safe side.

I’ve learnt from playing this way, and now I’m looking forward to trying out the colour portrait film I have sat in the fridge.

Because this was an experiment really, I couldn’t bring myself to spend the £20 to get them properly scanned from the negatives, so I’ve scanned in the photos using my cheapy flatbed scanner at home. That has degraded the quality a bit compared to the prints.