Merry Christmas!!

Well my blog is almost 8 months old, and I've racked up an impressive number of posts, I'm really proud of myself, I wouldn't have been able to reach that number without the support of you, my followers, so here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!!

Picture from a recent photoshoot with el-Rhey!!

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All packed and ready to shoot

I've just finished packing my bags, I'm ready for my shoot tomorrow with El Rhey, we're looking to go to Moors Valley and capture some pictures for their Christmas promotions.

I'm taking gear which I know will be best for shooting portraits

Hopefully the weather holds out and we capture some great shots!!

and in a few days I'll be doing another shoot with them, photographing a cute little 5 week old black and white kitten! I'm really excited to see what we produce! 

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New Lenses!

I brought home my contact lenses yesterday, managed to lose one behind the radiator, then find it 2 hours later, 
now I've put them in it's like I'm seeing in RAW, my eyesight has gone from f1.8 to f22 and the Clarity has been bumped up to +100!!

I think it's time to bring out my macro lens for a bit of fun!

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Follow Up on the Rogue Flashbender + Diffusion Panel

Yesterday I sat down to write up a follow up blog post about using the Rogue Flashbender with the diffusion panel; I have been using them together over the past few weeks now but mainly last weekend when the whole family ventured to London for the day so I was mainly photographing some formal family portraits as my uncle is visiting us from the States.

We met up with a few family friends and relatives, so there was plenty of opportunities to set up the flashbender and test it out. I tried it a few times in different locations on the camera on the flash, and I have to say I LOVE THE CATCHLIGHTS in the eyes, they are so big and bright and really bring the viewer's attention to the eyes.

However, I was not pleased with the light spread of the flashbender and diffusion panel, I found it to be a little bit dim and a little bit flat, I'm so used to shooting on camera flash with the Stofen diffusers, that this is going to take some time to get used to.

Then today (I'm writing this on Tuesday,) I was helping out my sister with her photoshoot and I took some headshots of the model, my friend Immy with my 85mm lens, I set up the flashbender and diffusion panel off camera to the right of my model, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the results, with the light being more directional and with the flashbender and diffusion panel acting as a softbox it was easier to direct the light where I wanted it and the fall off from the flash was pleasant and visually pleasing.

I'd love to hear some feedback about my blog, please comment and if you've found this useful please share it with your friends!

and before I forget, you can check out My Sister's blog - Here!

Two Years Together

This is more of a personal post, just over two years ago, at the beginning of my third year of university, something amazing happened, I met a wonderful human being, little did I know, that encounter was the beginning of something beautiful.

We became good friends within days and great friends over the following weeks, then one day something changed, sparks flew, fireworks banged and I know it sounds corny but there really was magic in the air.

The Night of Our First Date

Two Years later...



Shanice and I celebrated our Two Year Anniversary on Friday, she came down to see me and we spent the last few days together, over the weekend we enjoyed each others company, took the dogs for long walks, and exchanged I Love You's.

The Night of Our Two Year Anniversary

This is just a little insight into me aside from being a photographer, I hope you have found this interesting, please leave me some feedback either on my blog or on Facebook or Twitter @JamilTeja

Stay Tuned for New Updates, Pictures and Videos!!

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Til' Next Time,

See Ya Later!!

Forgotten Moments

Don't you just love it when you're going through your old pictures from photoshoots, reviewing what you've done in the past and seeing what you can bring into the future with you?

Well last week I was looking through a photoshoot I did while working with a talented Make Up Artist - Tanveer Khatri, in Leicester during the beginning of my third and final year at De Montfort University.

You can see the blog posts for these photoshoots here: Armina and Siobhan.

But I was looking through the pictures and I saw these pictures that I felt I hadn't seen before, and it stood out to me, 

I was shocked that I hadn't picked up on these pictures sooner,

I'm so glad that I went back through this folder and found those pictures, It's gone straight into my portfolio!

The lesson I've learned from this is to firstly organise my pictures better and then secondly, review my pictures more often, you never know what you could have missed.

If you have any questions for me, you can contact me on facebook at www.facebook.com/JamilTeja

or you can hit me up on twitter @JamilTeja

Til next time, see you later!

So you're thinking of buying a camera??

So you're thinking of buying a camera but not sure which one?
I bet you've been torn by peoples differing opinions, "get a DSLR, they're great," or "just use your phone"

Well in this blog post I'm going to attempt to help you decide which camera you should buy or at the very least just clear up any confusion that you may have.

The first thing to consider is, What is the camera going to be used for?

Now obviously it's going to be used for taking pictures, but what are you going to be taking pictures of?

Is it going to be mainly used for taking pictures of the family or something small for your holidays?
Or is it going to be something you buy for your son/daughter to capture all their memories as they start university?


The second thing to consider is the price,

 you don't have to spend thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds on a camera system if you're just going to use it





I've been asked

Jamil's First Impressions on the Rogue Flashbender

Look what arrived in the post today!!

I've been debating whether or not to invest in the Rogue Flashbender for a few months now, but two days ago I invested in a new Flash Stand, (the review for that will be posted soon) and I thought I'd look into purchasing the flashbender and diffusion panel.

This is my video expressing my initial thoughts on the flashbender and diffusion panel.

  

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A Quick Pic

This is a quick picture of Amy and I from our recent photoshoot together!

Part 1 of the shoot was inside, we just experimented with a few ideas but we were in a cramped space so they didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, but for the second half we ventured outside and got some great shots!

I'll be sharing those with you shortly!

remember you can catch up on Facebook

My First Attempt at Dodging and Burning

So recently I've been looking at different techniques in photoshop, and one technique in particular has caught my eye, it's called Dodging and Burning.

Dodging and Burning was originally a technique film photographers used to brighten and darken parts of the images in an attempt to bring back detail from blown out areas or areas which were just black.

It is highly used by fashion retouchers when retouching images of models, I decided to try it out on this picture as a way to learn more and also prove to myself that I can do it.

So this is my first attempt at Dodging and Burning, please let me know what you think?

if I've over done it, or haven't done enough, please let me know!

Til Next Time, See Ya Later!

LPSA 2012

I've been searching through all my hard drives (I have 12 in total and range from 320GB to 2TB in memory,) looking for this set of pictures, I've wanted to share with you all since I've started this blog.

These are the pictures from my very first Paid Event, I'd been photographing events for free to gain experience since 2009, but as this was the first time I was getting paid it was like a test, to see how well I could perform with people I didn't know, in a location I was unfamiliar with.

I remember I was a little bit nervous as I arrived, but at the reception I was kindly greeted by Gurgeet, one of the pharmacy students at De Montfort University on the Pharmacy Ball Committee, she was very helpful and accommodating, she directed me to the main hall to set up.      

As soon as I set up my camera, lens and flash gun I started approaching people, I was feeling better since Gurgeet had greeted me and now I was ready. 

The group of people in the picture are the first group of people I approached for pictures, I snapped off a couple of frames and reviewed to check my focus and lighting (especially for shadows) and was horrified to see they pitch black, I checked my settings and they were all correct, I then looked up and my jaw dropped. The ceiling I was bouncing my flash off was atleast 20 ft high! no wonder the pictures  were coming out so dark, I asked them for a few more images and changed the direction of my flash and clicked!

This is the image I produced, I'm really happy with it, that was my first test. 

I'm glad that was the first problem I met that night as it made me aware of my ceilings.

I noticed as people started arriving they were stopping on the staircase just before the Ballroom, so I waited there and captured some more pictures,. This time my ceiling was very low making it very easy to light the ladies. 

In the main Ballroom, the ceiling was about 10 ft tall, I tried fiddling around with my flash gun to bounce as much light into my subjects, I'm really pleased that it worked and that the images came out bright and colourful.

Here are some more of the memories I captured on that night.

Overall, I had a great night, it was so much fun, 

I met so many new people and it was an amazing experience.  

The Pharmacy Committee loved the pictures so much they invited me back to photograph their 2013 Ball!

You can see the pictures from the 2013 Ball here.

White Product Photography (part 2)

I've been researching a few different techniques to try out for selecting refined edges when isolating parts of my images and I've come across a technique utilising Colour Range and Refine Edges


Here is a short video I created using this technique!

5 Months!!

Today marks the 5 month anniversary of My Blog!!


In the past I have had a couple of different blogs, but I haven't really found them to be very useful, however with this blog, I've been inspired to update it at least once a week, and the feedback I am receiving from the blog has been highly beneficial to me in seeing what people like to see from my blog, what really works with the blog and what doesn't work with the blog.


Within the last 5 months, I've successfully updated atleast once a week, racking up a total of 3552 views on my blog, 65 blog posts and 6 comments.

Hopes for the next 5 months:

I'd like to reach 5 digits in views, that would be an amazing accomplishment,
also to reach 100 blog posts and to keep going strong with the blog and finally, I'd like for more interactions with my audience using the blog, that way we can both work towards the blog becoming more helpful for my audience.

anyways, to all reading, thank you for sticking with me for the last 5 months and I hope you've found reading my blog interesting,

please leave some feedback in the comment section!!


cya l8r!

Spiders' Webs!!

I guess I've always had an interest in Nature, going camping in the Summer, riding bikes or just exploring the wilderness, this year has been no exception, but I've been taking my camera out more often.

Over the last few years I've always tried taking pictures of spiders' webs but to no success, now I realise how my technique was wrong, I was trying to shoot the spiders' web and get a black background, instead I now realise that it is very important to include the background in the images!

Here are a few examples of the images I've captured recently1

Shot with 60mm f2.8 Macro

Shot with 60mm F2.8 Macro

Shot at 60mm f2.8 Macro

Shot with 70-200mm f4

White Product Photography (part 1)

I've I am currently working with a client to photograph some products for her business, she owns a hair accessories business and we are currently working together to produce these pictures to help promote her business in magazines and on her website.

Here is my first video in which I attempt to create a clean white background in photoshop!

This is only part 1, in part 2 I will be trying a different technique and experimenting to see which one will give me the best results!!

Mum's Orchid

Last week my Dad bought some orchids for my Mum, they look lovely so I thought I'd bring them into the studio and take a few pictures and see what I got,

I set up my lights, using a 3 light set up and took a few images, then thought about putting in a fourth light on the background to add some dimension to the orchid.

 Here is the flower with the 3 light set up.

and here it is with the four light set up.

Which picture do you prefer?

Comment below!

Portrait of Scrappy

This is my second image from the project, looking at the life of my dogs.

Scrappy has always been a little bit bigger than Scruffy and is a bit more stubborn but his Achilles Heel has always been food!

Getting him to pose was one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do on a portrait session because he just would not listen!

The only way I could direct him was to bribe him with food!

Anyway, I fired of a few frames, found I was a little overexposed and then refined my settings and captured this.

Captured with Canon 7D with 70-200mm f4 

at 1/100 f5.6 ISO 100

 I'm really happy with this image, it really captures Scrappy's personality, you can't see it in the frame but I'm actually holding a little treat for him to catch his attention.

Stay tuned for more pictures!!

It's 2 o'clock in the morning...

It's 2 o'clock in the morning and I'm just getting everything prepared for tomorrow, I'm going to be working with Georgie from Beauxoxo, we met a few weeks ago and discussed ideas for tomorrows product shoot, we're going to try taking pictures with a 3/4 light set up of the various hair accessories Georgie produces.

I'm really excited as the client is really nice and friendly, which always helps, and I'm going to hopefully try a few different lighting set ups, see what works, what doesn't work and hopefully we will produce a great series of images!

It's also exciting to be trying new things, I've dabbled with product photography in the past,
My First Attempt at Product Photography, but I've never photographed hair accessories so it should be very interesting to see how the results turn out!


I'm gonna try and get some sleep now!

Wish Me Luck!!

Portrait of Scruffy

I've been wanting to try to take some portraits of my dogs, We've had them for over 10 years now and I haven't taken pictures of them properly, so I decided by the end of the year I'm going to produce a series of images capturing their lifestyle, their habits, in an attempt to depict their personality through the images.

This is the first picture from that body of work, it was a real struggle getting him to look into my lens, I had a box of treats at hand in an attempt to draw his interest back to the camera. However I found the pictures of him looking off into the distance work far better than the ones of him looking into the lens.

I shot the picture in colour and really liked it that way, then I looked at the tones and the lighting and thought it would look pretty good in black and white.

I'm not a big fan of turning colour photos black and white, simply because we see in colour and a lot of my work depicts the mood and the atmosphere my subject, however the lighting on Scruffy interested me and made me curious as to how it would look in black and white.

I'd be interested to know what you think, Do you like the lighting?

Does it work in black and white?

To see the colour version head over to My 500px Portfolio

Need a photographer for your up coming event?

The Bournemouth Air Show 2014

I've lived in Bournemouth for almost 20 years now and every time I see the red arrows (it must be twice a year atleast) I still get that tingly feeling, it must be such an amazing experience being a pilot for the red arrows, the sights they must see but you never think about all the training that goes into it, all the hard work that draws the crowds back, year after year to see these magnificent planes perform death defying stunts is something very special to all of us in Bournemouth.

Apart from seeing the Red Arrows, I'd never really paid much attention to the Bournemouth Air Show, however this year is different, I guess over the last few years I've always wanted to go and take pictures of the Red Arrows but something has always come up, well this year I finally did it!

Here are some of the pictures I captured of the weekend!

My 5 Tips For Taking Better Pictures at Events

I was at my friend, Tom's Birthday party at the weekend and everyone was taking pictures, I was reminiscing on the times I had photographed his birthday parties and remember all the tips and tricks I've learned from photographing events, so I decided to produce a small video giving you my 5 tips for taking better pictures at events!

If this has been useful for you please don't forget to Like, Comment and Subscribe to My Channel!

and if there are any videos you think I should produce, please let me know in the comments!

A Big Thank You

The Girl in the Pink Coat

So I wrote this blog post up last night and I guess I was just so tired that I forgot to schedule it for next week and accidentally posted it; don't worry, I'll have another blog post for you next week!


This is a project I created at the beginning of my first year of university, we were given the brief that we had to create a series of images of the same subject and within the series we had to be creative and use a variety of camera angles and depict our technical skills.

I asked my friend, Priya if she would model for the project and she agreed, as I was new to Leicester I did not really know what there was to shoot, so I went scouting around the university and walked up towards the shopping centre. There was a walkway on the way and both walls were covered in mirrors, I thought this would be a good starting point for the series.

Reflections

Panning

Fast Shutter Speed

Slow Shutter Speed

Large Depth of Field

High Angle and Frame within a frame

Shallow Depth of Field

This was a really fun and interesting experience, it was my first time shooting with the same model the whole way through the project; the model was very fun to work with and took direction very easily, which made my job easier too. 

It is always good when you and your subject can work together with the same image in mind, this way you produce better images with both of you working towards the same goal.

If you would like to see more of my work, head on over to my blog at

www.JamilTeja.blogspot.co.uk

You can also check out my Youtube Channel where I'm currently producing a series of informative videos about photography for beginners!

You can check this out at Here

My First Attempt at Product Photography

During my third year of university I was approached by my friend, Jai Mistry, a graphic design student who was working his final year project and was putting together a portfolio of work. He was working on the branding for two different products and wanted some pictures taken for his online portfolio.

Initially when he came to me we were thinking of photographing the objects in a classroom with lots of lights and a shallow depth of field, however this would have distracted the audiences attention away from the objects.

A few days went by and I saw that we had a table in the photography studio for shooting objects, I proposed this to Jai and we both agreed it was a better option.

Here are the final pictures I submitted to Jai.

I used a range of apertures varying from f9-16, 

as I wanted to retain as much detail as I could in the objects.

This shot of the cups is probably my favourite from the whole shoot, 

I love the strong shapes we displayed the cups in and also the way the gently fall out of focus.

I wish I could shoot this one again, I would give myself a little bit more room at the top of the frame and also I would adjust my shadows, having them fall to the left of the cups.

The second series of products are a set of greeting cards.

I really enjoyed this experience, I was able to experiment with new lighting set ups, I learnt a lot about working with a client and meeting their needs; I would love to photograph more products as it is different from photographing people or landscapes, it's enjoyable just to set up the products the way you want and work around them.

If you would like to see more of my work, head on over to my blog at

www.JamilTeja.blogspot.co.uk

You can also check out my Youtube Channel where I'm currently producing a series of informative videos about photography for beginners!

You can check this out at Here