I met Ed at Exeter Tog Up which is a creative's networking meetup running on the first thursday of the month at Samuel Jones on the Quay. Ed's face shape interested me and he has a great, warm personality. I asked if he would sit for me in the studio and thankfully, he agreed on the condition that I would sit for him too. The images he got of me will be posted on my next blog post (I love them!) These are the shots I got of him from our session together. 

Book yourself or a loved one in for a shoot with me for facebook, professional or dating profile pics or just for a fun shoot and to have some nice images of yourself. Find out more about sessions with me here.

I love shooting film, knowing that each shot is precious, you have to get it right to get the best exposure, composition and ultimately the best image in each circumstance. You really have to focus and think whilst you shoot. Digital has allowed the point and shoot attitude, resulting in hours narrowing down images post shoot if you're not selective when capturing. I find my film shots personally have something about them that digital images don't, maybe it's the physical negative and print in hand that makes them more valuable to me.. anyway, enough pondering, here are the pictures;

Over the last week I have been on a mini tour of the UK. First, I drove up to Birmingham to stay with Family and to attend this years Photography Show at the NEC in Birmingham (twitter #ukphotoshow) I've never been before but found the information gained from going invaluable and I highly recommend the show to anyone interested in photography. The problem is, now I have lots of photography tools, software, equipment and professional organisations I would like to invest in but I will need to save up my pennies!

Over the four days that I attended the show, I met up with some contacts I have been chatting to on a networking site called Purpleport, it was great to finally put some faces to the names of the talented individuals I have been following and chatting too for some time now. I will post more about the show and the talented individuals I met there in another post soon enough, for now I am excited to show off my street photography that I took on Thursday in Gloucester with fellow photographer Chris Cook. 

I decided to take my 35mm film camera and my simple point and shoot with me on my mini tour so I didn't have to worry about damaging my main camera used for studio work. I'm so glad I shot on film (although some was expired and one was accidentally cross processed by the lab) because there are so many cameras and lenses out there that cost thousands of pounds that can do the same things as a cheap £40 quid set up bought from a local charity shop; to be honest, I think I actually prefer the grittiness that film gives you, it's much more atmospheric straight out of camera than shooting digital, in my opinion of course. Anyway, enough of my rambling, here are some shots I took with my 35mm Slide transparency film that was cross processed and actually came out in black and white!

Above, notes: This was shot with the fab contrast of the brickwork and pavement in mind, the leading lines of the alleyway draw your eye in and the subject looks as though he is planning something. This is one of my favourite shots from our shoot. 

Above, notes: After attending a seminar with Simon Young at the photography show I was inspired to think more about contrast when shooting, so when I saw this pattern in the gates and the contrast of Chris' black jacket I just had to take a shot.

Above, notes: Whilst wandering around Gloucester we came across this quirky market stall selling herbs, seeds, nuts and olives, I photographed the labels with the bright colours and a shallow depth of field in mind, even though the cross processing produced the negatives in black and white, I still like the shot as it is with the shallow depth of field and contrast in the products.

Above, notes: This lady was wearing the perfect coloured coat to fit against the bright blue and green background, I built up the courage to ask her to pose for me and she gladly obliged, this was her saying she would pose 'this way' for me now, a natural shot in between poses. Again, the shot was taken with colour in mind and I think it would have been stronger in colour, but I do love her expression and the reminder the shot gives me to not be afraid to ask people to pose for me when shooting street photography.

Above, notes: We found a great strip light that was in the shopping centre wall, again, I asked Chris to model for me and I framed it so the lights in the background would show but be blurred with the depth of field to add some contrast to the image. There's not a huge amount of detail in his face and this shot always reminds me of the character Data from Star Trek on board the enterprise, not that I'm a sci-fi geek..

Above, notes: A quick selfie taken in the mirror of the lift in the shopping centre, it was tricky trying to manual focus and get my framing right whilst having to repeatedly press the button to keep the doors open!
I love the lights in the top of the lift and the reflective surfaces inside the lift too. Looking at it now, it might have aided the composition to get more of the arrow to the right of my head in shot to emphasize me as the focal point.

Above, notes: Another shot in the alleyway of Chris taking a photo of the subject at the end of the alley (too blurred for viewing in this shot as Chris was my focal point) The leading lines and contrast in the shot make it work for me. 

Thanks for reading my post and taking a look at my work, I will definitely be shooting more street photography and I have a couple more films to develop so keep an eye on the blog for more pictures soon!

Any comments are welcomed and if you would like to chat about street photography or photography in general come say hi on my facebook page.

My awesome new promotional tshirts have arrived today! 
Self Promotion just got easier :D Modelled by Me :P 
I have recently bought myself a lovely new compact camera, a Panasonic DMC-FS45 to be precise and it's a lovely piece of equipment to have in my bag when out and about. I can scout locations and take some decent reference pictures now without using the memory on my camera phone and the super wide angle lens means I get the most of the scene with the pictures I take. There is also an awesome panorama option on this camera which I will be experimenting with over my next couple of days off.  This little compact camera fits wonderfully into my handbag and will be a great tool to help build an idea of all the resources out and about in Devon. I'm as happy as Larry. (Well, I think I am, I've never actually met the bloke). 

This photoshoot was booked through www.purpleport.com and was with the lovely model Megsy Green. We shot for a good 4/5 hours on different locations with plenty of different clothing changes and backgrounds to get the variety needed for the shoot. Megsy is a fairly new model who has only undertaken a handful of photoshoots, her versatility and willingness to explore ideas, locations and styles has the potential to make her a very good model. We visited the local sweet shop in south molton named bon bons and took some location shots there. The colours in the shop were great to go with the models styling and we got some lovely images whilst having loads of fun in the process. To see more of the pictures go to my flickr page by clicking here. If, like Megan, you are new to modelling or simply want some nice photographs as a keepsake contact me at gemmiev@gemmiev.com and we can chat about ideas for your shoot and what kind of images would suit your style.

Yesterday I shot with this lovely family in Barnstaple, Devon. We took some photos in the home and then we went to Instow beach. 
We spent 5 hours shooting with baby breaks for feeding and changing, we got a great variety of images with different poses, outfits, and lighting.
I am so happy with how these images came out. You can really feel the love within this family through the pictures and they were a delight to photograph.

There were a trio of storage trunks in the front room which looked very treasure chest like. We took them to the beach with us and shot the above in the dunes. 

To book your babies photoshoot with GemmieV Photography email me at gemmiev@gemmiev.com

After watching the walking dead religiously and my partner being a huge zombie film fan we decided to collaborate and create a photo project on zombies. This is our first shot from this project. I cracked out the makeup kit and did my best with what we had and the fake blood we had stored away in our prop box. Creative lighting and a bit of Photoshop retouching later we had this image and ironically missed the first ten minutes of the walking dead to shoot this in the dark!

Want to take part in a fun project like this or have any ideas for one but need help? Chuck an email at me: gemmiev@gemmiev.com

I took a lovely portrait of Suzi whilst we were out today. I had my 50mm 1.8 lens on my camera and was experimenting with shallow depths of field so as we stood by this fence disappearing into the background, I asked Suzi to model for me and I'm glad I did. This shot looks much better in black and white than in colour, mostly because of the light levels and bright colours from the trees which was a little distracting. I also love how dark the fence is behind her in contrast to her great skin and the light on the right hand side of the image. 

GemmieV can provide you with gorgeous portfolio images for serious models
and those who just want to give it a try. Email gemmiev@gemmiev.com with your
requirements today for a free quotation.

Something a little out of the ordinary for me this weekend. I attended a 4x4 event with my other half. He is the official photographer for 4x4 adventures and I like to support him on his days out. We took loads of pics together and I have helped him set up a website so he can sell prints to participants in the 4x4 challenges. I did however get a couple of nice portraits at this event. 

One of the marshalls and his friendly dog.

One of the marshalls little boy.

Amelia was brilliant at her first photoshoot, she was smiling quite a bit and posing well, Amelia's gorgeous complexion needed no smoothing in post production and the natural light in the main bedroom was great at providing some gorgeous simple lighting.
We also got some lovely family images which are completely natural and relaxed, by shooting with my closeup lens the images are intimate and really show the love from mummy and daddy.

We were really lucky to get so many smiles for such a young baby. I'm really pleased with the photos.