The Human Element

WOW! It’s been a very long time since my last blog update! As usual, I’ve just been too busy to do it!

My blog is automatically posted all over the place when I do an update. For example it appears on Facebook in form of a “Note”. Chances are then, that you’re not reading the actual blog, so head over to here: http://www.paul-gardner.com/blog to see it how it was meant to be seen.

A lot of people are asking me lately if I’m “still doing the ‘old’ photography?” and I can see why as I’ve not really been promoting it much, it could look like I’ve moved on to something else. The answer though is yes! I’m still very much doing the ‘old’ photography, and here’s the proof.

As it’s been a long while since my last update, I don’t want to do a bit about everything I’ve been snapping, so I’ve chosen a nice (but still large) selection of what I think are the more interesting bits n’ bobs I’ve been up to.

Here’s what’s in this update:

• Cherylanne in the Studio
• Kirsty in the Studio
• Sam Naked in the Snow!
• A Trip to Norfolk
• My Cousin’s Baby
• Bar 29 Calendar Shoot
• Jenny in the Studio
• Too Damn Glam
• Laura in the Studio
• My Little Niece
• Fake Wedding
• My Garden
• Emma in the Studio
• Louise in the Studio
• Emma’s Canvas
• Prague

So here we go…

Cherylanne in the Studio

I had a shoot coming up and I wanted to try out a new lighting technique. Cherylanne was kind enough to volunteer to be my guinea pig, here’s a couple of really nice shots from the test.

Hopefully Cherylanne and I will be hooking up for a proper shoot soon, so watch this space!

Kirsty in the Studio

This is pretty much the same story as above. I’ve shot Kirsty before, we did an awesome shoot a long while back, so when Kirsty said she was up for testing something out for me, I knew we’d get some great results. Can you believe she was pregnant when we did this shoot?

The full album can be found here on facebook.

If you’re interested in being a test model for me, drop me an email and I’ll take a look at your pics, I’m always up for trying out my new ideas on people with the right look!

Sam Naked in the Snow!

I’ve known Sam for years, and when the snow was in full force, I suddenly had a cool little idea for a shoot in my back garden. I did a quick little facebook status update asking if anyone was “up for getting naked in my garden” and Sam was the first to say yes, without knowing what the shoot even was!

The shots came out spot on:

And yes… she got very cold!

A Trip to Norfolk

This trip will forever be special to me now, as it’s the only time I ever took Leia away on a holiday with me, and sadly she had to be put down several weeks later. Unknown to me at the time, she was very ill while we were on this trip, but I hope she still enjoyed it as much as Louise, Jed and I did.

Here’s a few cool shots from the trip:

The full album can be found here on facebook.

My Cousin’s Baby

I’m not sure how you describe the family relationship when it’s the child of your cousin? Does it make them your second cousin? Or is that not your cousin’s cousin?

Anyway, I popped round my Aunties to take a few shots of My cousin Rachel’s family while they were down for the day. Here’s a few of my favourites:

Bar 29 Calendar Shoot

Blimey, this was a long shoot. I turned the camera on at 11am, and took the last photograph at 11pm!

I love these photographs, and it was a nice opportunity to try some new things. It’s really hard to keep a flow and feel through 13 photos, but still make them all different in order to stand out individually too.

I went for a really moody and strong editing style with these, this is to represent the underground but stylish and unique feel of the bar. I didn’t want them looking like all the other bar and club calendar photos out there, or just some tacky glam calendar, I wanted them to have an element of art, and style to them, while still being very sexy too!

The full set can be found here on facebook.

Jenny in the Studio

A friend of mine Jenny asked for a shoot this year, she’s the owner of the stunning legs and bum in front of the sign in the calendar shoot. Here’s a few really nice shots from the studio shoot:

Check out those dirty feet! It’s not Jenny’s fault, it’s the floor in the studio… lesson learnt, make sure they wear shoes until they’re in position!

Too Damn Glam

As many of you will know, I gave nightclub photography the boot last year after a 10 month stint working for 1 nightclub every weekend. Well the reality is, I’ve not totally stopped taking photos in clubs, because once or twice a month I still take photos for Too Damn Glam when they head out of Southend. I’ve been taking photos at Pacha in London and Warehouse on the outskirts of London for them. It’s good to keep touching base with nightclub photography, it’s one of those things that you lose the edge on if you don’t keep up the practice.

Here’s an couple of albums from this year that I like:

• Warehouse 1 and 2
• Pacha 1 and 2

Laura in the Studio

My friend Laura came into the studio for a shoot recently and I got some lovely shots of her. I tried out a few new lighting ideas I’d been coming up with too, with great results!

Here’s a few of my favourites:

My Little Niece:

2 days before my own Birthday, my sister had the audacity to give birth to my wonderful little niece! The cheek of it! Pia is so beautiful, and these photos were taken on my first trip down to Hove (actually) to see her. These are a few of my favourites from the visit:

Louise and I visited Pia and family last weekend in Hove again, and it’s amazing to see how she’s changed, she’s now a very cute and chubby baby that sits up on her own, chews things and watches you with her big eyes! Sadly I didn’t take any photos to show you, I was too busy holding Pia, chatting to my sister or eating pizza, doughnuts, cookies and jammy dodgers!

Fake Wedding

A local casino are starting up a wedding service and wanted some nice shots to use in publications of the casino in use for a wedding. This was by no means an easy task. I had only a handful of wedding guests available on the day, the venue is quite dark and, well, un-wedding-like, and let’s face it, it was a fake couple, they weren’t in love or actually getting married.

Having said all that, the photos came out spot on! Here’s some of my favourite shots from the day:

My Garden

I’ve done a lot of work (With the help of housemate Dean and girlfriend Louise) on the garden this year. It now has a lovely pond, and waterfall, and lighting, and so on. For Louise’s birthday this year I cooked her a lovely 3 course meal, including her favourite, Fish Pie. I served the whole thing outside in the garden on a lovely summer’s evening. I even added a trail of rose petals and candles to really make it a romantic occasion.

Here’s a couple of photos I took using a nice long exposure:

Emma in the Studio

I did a shoot with Louise and her twin sister Emma again fairly recently. I really enjoy shooting these two, and will be getting them back in again soon as we had to rush the shoot and finish early. Here’s some of my favourite shots of Emma:

Louise in the Studio

I got some stunning shots of my girlfriend too in the same shoot, and convinced her to go a bit more daring this time. Despite appearances, she can be very shy, so I’m mighty impressed with her for doing this, and here are some of the best shots that she’ll let me show you all:

Alas, there are some more amazing ones we did on the shoot, but understandably they’re a little too revealing for her to share with the world, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that they’re beautiful photographs.

You only live once, and you’re only young once, so I always recommend that people should try something like this. You may never show the photos to anyone, but it’s a liberating experience, and something you’re less likely to do as the years pass by. Nude photography doesn’t have to be pornographic, tacky or embarrassing, it can simply be a celebration of your body, an artistic statement or even just an exciting experience to look back on in years to come.

Emma’s Canvas

Still on the subject of the twins, and their birthday (it was Emma’s birthday on the same day as Louise’s… it’s like that every year apparently!)

Emma had been harping on about getting a nice big canvas print for her and her boyfriend’s flat for a while and she’d mentioned that she’d possibly like a beach shot. Going through my beach shots, they were either a bit too moody for her liking, or in some cases I’ve lost the high-resolution versions so would have been unable to print them at such a large size.

So, for a nice surprise, Louise and I popped down to the stretch of beach at the end of Emma’s road on a lovely sunny day to see if we could get a good shot to hang on Emma’s wall. The tide was out for most of the day, so I had to get a bit creative. I got some lovely shots, one of which I’m considering getting as a canvas myself! But the one we chose for Emma was this one:

Louise couldn’t tell at the time why I was so interested in taking photos of a bit of thistle, but it’s all about the bee!

Here’s some other shots taken on the day. They’re all in letterbox ratio to fit the dimensions of the canvas so make sure you click on them to see the full image:

Louise and her sister Tracy went halves on the canvas and it looks excellent! It’s not really my cup of tea, but I can still appreciate it. Needless to say, they still haven’t got round to hanging it on the wall though!

Prague

I had to pop over to Prague recently for a business trip and I took some time out one evening to wander around the old town section of the city on my own getting some snaps. They’re very much in my night-street photography style, and here’s a few of my favourites:

Well that’s about it for now, I’d promise to update more often, but I know I’ll just break the promise.

I’m off to Ibiza next week, so I might have some lovely shots to write about from there. If not, I’ve got a lot of exciting and interesting shoots booked in for the coming months, so keep checking back!

As usual, you can follow me on Twitter here

Become a Facebook fan here

Check out my website (which needs updating) here

And look at my Flickr (which also needs updating) here

Paul.

This is likely to be a bit of a big blog post, so set aside some time if you’re really going to read it!

Dell have yet again impressed me. The laptop which they said would take 3 weeks to build (due to shortages in certain components such as the fancy RGB screen) has in fact taken less than 2 weeks! It’ll be delivered on Monday! The laptop I’ve been using in the mean time is dreadful. It takes about 3 times as long to process a photo on it, and sometimes it’ll just crash photoshop without any warning or error message.. most frustrating.

That said, I’ve still managed to keep up (Just! Sorry for the delay Sara!)

Southend

On Tuesday last week, due to the laptop death, with no way to do work, I took to the cold winter beaches of Southend, to catch the sun going down. I wanted to do some cross processing, play a little with fill in flash, and play with keeping the sun in shot. all of which I achieved. You can seen the full set on Flickr here. 

Sara

I did a shoot 2 weeks ago with a friend, Sara, as an xmas gift from her boyfriend James. There was no general theme, they just wanted a nice portrait shoot with her looking all nice and pretty. But I’m not very good at sticking to the rules, so I threw in a few more details shots for good measure. The following photo is my favourite:

 

My good friend Mandi was assistant for the day, and was kind enough to climb a ladder and throw feathers about! I love the combination of colours, facial expression, and clothing in that photo. Thanks to Melissa too, the Makeup Artist for the day.

Storm

I don’t often showcase my club photography these days, and when I do, it’s usually just 1 specific outstanding shot that I got in whole night of taking hundreds. However, this weekend just gone, I produced what I think is the best set of clubbing photos I’ve taken to this date. So, have a nose through the 4 galleries taken by me over here on dontstayin.

No doubt my next blog post will be me ranting or raving about the new laptop!

Today, my laptop decided to drop its guts. For the last 4 months the hard drive has been making a strange clicking noise, which normally means it’s on its way out. Me being me, I decided to ignore it, and deal with the problem if and when it dies. Well today is that day.

As a result, I’m without the tools I need to work for at least a week now, while I wait for my new beast of a laptop to arrive. I’ve ordered a new Dell XPS Studio 16 thinggy… should do the job.

The last thing I managed to get done before its untimely demise was to edit the only photo I got of the snow that attacked us this week:

So for the next week or so, don’t expect a lot of Internet noise from me, but please say a prayer, or spare some thoughts for me, as I sit indoors getting Photoshop withdrawal symptoms!