What to wear for your Engagement Portrait Session

Now I'm not a fashion expert, (just ask my girlfriend) but I'm going to give you my tips on what to wear for your engagement portrait session.

Firstly we need to address the basics, you want to wear something that you feel comfortable wearing and also something that will help convey your personality through the images we produce.

I want you to be yourself and the best way to do this is for you to feel comfortable in what you are wearing, you don't need to put on a show for anyone!

The second thing I'd like you to consider is the season; the time of year, even the day in question, if it's snowing please don't arrive in shorts and a t-shirt, that will just look ridiculous and we'll probably have to cut the session short due to frost bite!

If it's a beautiful sunny day, please bring shorts, a nice summery dress and casual shirts, if that's what you feel comfortable in then we’ll make it work.

Thirdly, Dress to impress, I like my couples to bring at least 2 outfits for their engagement sessions.

One casual outfit that you can arrive wearing and get comfortable in front of the camera in, then when you're relaxed you can change into your smarter attire for some more formal portrait ideas.

Number 4: Bring an item of clothing that means something to you; If there’s a special jumper you always wear when he's away, or that special shirt she bought you for your birthday, any items you have some emotional attachment to then please bring it along.

They'll be appreciated by both of you and we’ll be able to incorporate these items into your portrait session and they will be saved in your memories for years to come.

Number 5: Spoil yourselves a little

This is your first chance for professional pictures of the both of you together as an engaged couple, it's always a nice touch to get your hair and make up done professionally too!

And if he needs a trim, remember it’s as much his celebration as it is yours!

Number 6: Co-ordinate with each other, it’s going to look really weird if he’s wearing a tux and you’re wearing your summer dress, obviously you shouldn’t dress exactly the same either.

It’s often when a couple is wearing similar/matching colours it helps to depict the special connection between the two of you.

Number 7: Use your location - make it relevant

Similar to number 6 – coordinate with your location as well, when deciding on your outfits think about the style and colours of your location.

I will be able to help you out prior to the day – I’m just a phone call away!

Number 8: Layers and Accessories

Giving you choice as well as flexibility – if you’re deciding on an outfit with bare arms that is great, but think about a cardigan or a wrap that matches with your outfit for when it gets a little colder. 

Number 9: Don't wear big logos or clothing with writing on - loud clothes can often detract attention from yourselves and we want to avoid this as much as possible.

Number 10: Remember to launder and iron your clothes - Even photoshop won't get rid of those wrinkles.

Bonus - Tips

1)   Don't get a spray on tan right before your session

2)   Get your nails done too!

3)   Bring Props - I love including items that as especially thing that are meaningful to you, your pets, an instrument you play, an item from your hobby, or something significant to your story, how you met or how they proposed

Oh Yeah, talking about things we want you to bring,

YOUR RING and the box your ring came in.

Jamil Teja

| Twitter | Facebook | Blog | 500px | Linkedin |

They say never work with children of animals...

Well over the last 2 weeks I've done both!

Let me give you a little backstory, I've been working with a Bournemouth based business - Beauxoxo, they produce and sell hair accessories and distribute all over the world, and last week Beauxoxo and el-Rhey another Bournemouth business collaborated together for a fashion cat walk at the Parkstone Yacht Club. 

el-Rhey were looking for a photographer for the fashion show and then some follow up photoshoots shoots to promote their Colour Me Wellies and their new colour changing umbrellas which will be released early next year!

The fashion catwalk was a great event, the kids pranced up and down the catwalk showing off their wonderful colourful wellies and their unbelievable colour changing umbrellas.

Long story short, el-Rhey loved the pictures and we began working together on two further projects, one was a fashion photoshoot and the other a photoshoot featuring the boots and the cutest little 5 week old kitten.

Here are a few pictures from the photoshoot with the kitten!

This is Jessie, she is a 5 week old black and white kitten, sadly she was orphaned weeks ago but luckily she was brought in to the Margaret Green Animal Sanctuary in Wareham.

The girls at Margaret Green were very accommodating and helpful which made our job very easy.

Like Me on Facebook || Tweet Me on Twitter

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!!

Like Me on Facebook || Tweet Me on Twitter

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! 

Like Me on Facebook || Tweet Me on Twitter

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!

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

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

Portrait Session with Emjay

I met Emjay during my first year of university, one evening a few of our friends were having a flat party, we were all in the car park for one reason or another, I went over to say hi to my friends and she must have seen me with my camera so she came over and asked me to take a picture of her and her friends. When I showed her the pictures she was ecstatic with them and asked for my business card!

She came back to me a few weeks later asking me if I was interested in photographing the De Montfort Pharmacy Ball, or course I was interested! We then negotiated times and prices. When it came to the event it was a complete success, and the students loved the pictures so much I was asked to return for the next year!

I worked with Emjay frequently during my time at university, she got me my first paid event, and I wanted to say thank you to her for all the help she had given me, so I asked her if she would like to come in for a portrait session in the studio, we had always said we should do a session together but we never had the time. During my third year we both found the time and we collaborated together.

Here are some of the results.

If you want to see more work, take a look at my blog at www.JamilTeja.blogspot.co.uk

and check out my youtube channel too!

Portrait Session with Armina

This is another portrait session I worked on in collaboration with Tanveer (the make up artist) back in October 2012. I asked my friend Armina, who was also studying photography and video to be a model for us. The concept behind the session was to create a Autumny/Wintery scene for the session and to accentuate this by using brown colours which are the colour of leaves towards the end of Autumn.

We decided to conduct the session in the gardens near the university, thinking that it would be covered in leaves and be very colourful, however the day of the shoot it was very dark and gray, I used 2 flash guns to pour even light onto the model. In hindsight I would have added a third light to illuminate the surroundings, I would have also brought my reflector along to help light up the surroundings.

Behind the Scenes

I am very happy how these pictures have turned out, If I could change anything I would have liked to have more time with the models and experimented with a variety of different locations to achieve a better variety of pictures.

Hair and Make Up by Tanveer Khatri

Want to see how I get blurry backgrounds? take a look at this

Portrait Session with Ahmad and Shahid

When I moved to Leicester for University Ahmad and Shahid became part of my regular uni group, as Ahmad had graduated the Summer before I started at DMU and Shahid was still in college. As soon as they found out I was a photographer they begged me for a photoshoot, I said yeah definitely, but my first 2 years of flew by and we never got round to it; but as my third year was coming to a close I thought I had to get these guys into the studio as a way of thanking them for everything they'd done for me over the past years.

Fashion Photo Session with Siobhan

This is a diptych from a fashion photo session I worked on last year during my studies at university,

I was collaborating with a make up artist to produce a body of work that would be used in marketing their products and services and could use in my portfolio too!

I asked my friend, Siobhan to be the model,  the make up artist and I decided we wanted more of an editorial feel to the pictures we were producing for this series of images and decided to take this photo session out into the open. 

I had done photo sessions in the open before and had a few locations in mind for the shoot, I am a big fan of using flash in my photography as I feel a bit of flash can make an image pop from being boring or dull to full of life. 

I decided to go for a 2 light set up using external flashes either side of the model, using one as a key light and the other as a fill in light.

I had recently added a new lens to my arsenal, the 70-200mm f4 and decided to take it out for a spin, I love the images I captured with this lens and in this shoot! 

Hair and Make Up by Tanveer Khatri

I will be posting more pictures from previous Fashion Sessions soon!

Fashion Photo Session with Kiran

This is a diptych from a fashion photo session I worked on last year during my studies at university, 

I was collaborating with a make up artist to produce a body of work that would be used in marketing their products and services and could 

I asked my friend, Kiran to be the model  the make up artist and I decided we wanted more of a commercial feel to the pictures we were producing and decided to use the photography studio 

and use a variety of lights and lighting set ups. 

Hair and Make Up by Tanveer Khatri

I will be posting more pictures from previous Fashion Sessions soon!