New Year Break Activities; Partial break from FMP (18th Dec. 2018 - 18th Jan. 2019)

My main photo-activity of the period was conducting a number of paid shoots for two young clients. Not a lot of daylight to play with this time of year.

George Fairburn instructing his class on a cold windswept winter’s day, Graham Land, 2019

However, a reasonable amount of learning once January got properly going. Quite an interesting talk by Steve Smith at the RPS London AGM. Sort of nice to hear I’m not the onle one who gets a few aches these days from toting their camera kit. The Societies group were having their annual convention from the 17th to 20th Jan and i decided to enrol on their Thursday Masterclass day, a choice of various 2 hour long classes., and take part in a half-day workshop with the US photographer, Tony Corbell. A locations and shoot seminar by George Fairburn was probably the best activity on the Thursday. The weathe wasn’t too good so it put real bite into getting his two models motivated. Not fully successful.

The workshop with Corbell was more interesting. He likes to use reflectors quite a bit as well as strobe lighting for his shoots. Quite a few tips, interestingly he stressed the importance of not relying on the camera’s metering abilities but to use a spotmeter. Obviously really important with the way he uses flash. A good end to a pretty difficult period for me.

Many negative thoughts.