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.

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 hope you’ll forgive me, but I’m spying on you! Well, sort of, in a very anonymous kind of way. It’s helpful for me to know what visitors are looking for when they come to my website, and how many visitors I’m getting. That kind of thing. So to help with that, I use Google Analytics. That tells me most of the things I’d want to know about visitors to this website.

The number of visitor is always  quite interesting. Peaks in the visitor rate, as shown above, can normally be correlated to events or Oxford college balls that I have photographed, and are people who have coming looking for their ball photos. These peaks often start building during the ball – people expect me to work fast to get the photos online!

The more amusing details that Google Analytics tells me are search terms used to find my website. As expected there are are lot of “acooldryplace” and variations on that them. My favourite of those was “the pretty cool place photography” – obviously I don’t come across as very cool. My site is also popular for those searching for “trash the dress” photography, “ball photography oxford” and even engagement and wedding photography in Oxford, but the rarer hits are the more interesting  – “screen printing wedding stationary”, “bean time lapse” & “tutors at Oxilp” have all been used and followed to my website. I know why I have come up for all of them, but I can’t imagine I rank that highly in any search engine for those terms.

If you’re looking for screen printing wedding stationery or bean time lapse I can help. I have no idea of the tutors at Oxilp, but I hope to see you at one of their balls.

On Saturday I attended the The Oxford Union 1950′s Ball (Hilary, in the title, refers to Oxford University’s name for the term between Christmas and Easter). The Oxford Union is Oxford University’s world famous debating society, which is regularly attended by famous politicians, both as students prior to their careers in politics, and working politicians at the height of their careers. None of the latter were at the ball as far as I was aware, and if any of the students there have serious political ambition then I imagine they will have avoided my studio if too inebriated (but I’ll hang on to the photos just in case the Daily Mail should ever need them ).

The photography for this ball was requested last minute, well more precisely on the Monday before.  Unfortunately this meant that Julian, my usual assistant, was unable to be there. Some good friends, Matt & Jo, bravely agreed to give me a hand. Jo got stuck in helping with the photography, and Matt acted bouncer for a lot of the evening – leading him to believe that he needs to be balder and fatter.

I’m amazed that so many students openly tell me that they intend to try to rip off the photos rather than pay for them, or ask me to use their camera to take the photos. I guess many (mistakenly) think that I’m being paid as part of their ball ticket cost. I don’t know whether I should be more surprised, or less, when this occurs with a bunch of wannabe politicians.

If you are looking for photos (to buy!), please visit the client area.

The theme for Wolfson Ball was the Titanic, as I discussed previously in my post about possible poses. Nobody requested either, despite the ball committee thoughtfully providing a couple of plastic replica “Coeur de la mer”s. As is typical with most Oxford college balls, the theme is only loosely associated with the event and very few guests dress in any way even remotely associated with the theme. The chap above has to take the prize for the best themed outfit I saw on the night.  If he comments on this post in the next week I’ll send him a free 6×4 of his choice from the ball photos as a prize. Hmmm now I have to think of some ingenious way to confirm his identity….

Group photos at college balls tend to make me mildly stressed. Some of the attendees may have had one or two drinks and find standing up tricky. More so, when there is a group of them. Things tend to get broken. At the 2007 ball, a backdrop got ripped and a light smashed (although the light had nothing to do with the guests ). As always we tried to limit groups to 6 or less people, and we were pretty tight for space this time around too, so more than 6 was near impossible anyway. As always people tried to push the limits. When a group of about 15 turned up, I tried a new approach to dealing with the situation. I asked if any of them had £100 as a deposit against potential damage, hoping they would all sheepishly go away. One chap merrily piped up that he did and handed my five £20′s from his wallet. He didn’t seem short of cash after that either. I relaxed knowing that if they broke something I’d at least have £100 towards it. They paid more attention to what my assistant said when arranging them. It worked really well. If the chap with £100 in his wallet comments on this post in the next week and gives me the £100, I’ll send him a free 6×4 of his choice from the ball photos as a prize. I don’t think I need to worry about confirming his identity!

Having provided photography for their summer ball, I had been asked to setup my studio for the Oxford Institute Of Legal Practice Christmas ball which took place last saturday at Eynsham Hall. However, I was already booked for Susie and David’s wedding (details to come later on that one). So an associate, Tony Culshaw, stepped in to do the photography on behalf of aCoolDryPlace Photography.

Please visit the client area if you’re looking to buy prints or download the group photo.

If you remember much about the film, I’m sure you’ll be aware that the second of those poses isn’t normally one you’d do at a college ball. Photos by Matt Hintsa & Erling A on flickr, reproduced under creative commons license.

If you are in Oxford and wanting more information about the ball please visit the Wolfson winter ball website

The Oxford Institute of Legal Practice (Oxilp) Ball took place at the Randolph hotel in Oxford. The students of this ball were celebrating the end of their legal practice course, and it was nice to see a few tutors joined them. Being a friday night, I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare after getting home before going out again, which meant I forgot a number of things – like the gels we used on the background for the previous ball (St Hugh’s & Corpus). However, we did have a new set of lights with us enabling us to do a 4 light hi-key setup, as shown below. I don’t really like this style much personally, and have shyed away from it because so many other event photographers use it. I like to offer something different. But the clients seemed to like it, and the results were pretty good.

4-Light setup for hi-key at the Randolph

Julian Simpson, who assists me at such events, put in an heroic effort for this ball, driving from south-west Wales to make it to Oxford by 17:30. He also worked tirelessly throughout the night, and uploaded all the images to my sales area. If you’re looking for a photographer in the Bristol or south Wales area, I’d highly recommend him.