Another use of the BOWENS ring flash. This image of Ulorin Vex was made back in one 2008 in one of the suites of the Glasshouse Hotel in Edinburgh. She is actually perched on the edge of the bath! I must say we do love the effect the big ring flash gives to some of our images though we have not used it recently.. However it must be used with discretion!

This is an image from our archives, circa 1988. One of our all time favourite models, Alison photographed around 8.30am on a beautiful Saturday morning on the steps of the Royal Scottish Academy on Princes Street – Edinburgh. Hand held.Hasselblad with T Max 100. The original 20″x24″ print was made using a 12×10 DeVere cold cathode enlarger printed onto Kodak Ektalure and finished being toned in a bath of selenium.

I see some talk of different types of ring flash recently so I though we would share this image from 4 years ago. Taken in our studio with Christian, Ulorin Vex, as our model. Shot on the D3 with the BOWENS ring flash on their battery pack. This is the grown up ring flash and no additional lighting was used to create the image. It prints beautifully on Fotospeed Fine Art Paper giving the images the look of a pencil sketch. This is one of a series that we did with Christian, Rebecca Amy and Anita, some 25 images in all and titled The White Nude Collection. We may consider publishing a small Limited Edition book of this series.

We are delighted to add a new date to our Fine Art Nude schedule. Taking place here at Claremont and then traveling to our location, a ruined mansion, with one of our favourite models. Limited to only 4 delegates and priced @ £395.00 inclusive of model fee and a picnic lunch. The date is Sunday the 14th of July 2013. More details on the Calendar page.

This is a new palladium print done from one of Faye’s recent images of Raphaella made while we were at Pipewell Hall last summer. The image is around 16″, museum conservation mounted, studio stamp and signed and then placed in a frame which I hand stained. More of these to follow.

Faye and I had a wonderful 7 days at the SWPP Convention this year held for the first time at the London Hilton Metropole. We were delighted to be given the Presidential Suite for the duration of our stay and this was also where we hosted all of our Superclasses. Though a large suite once you added 16 delegates, oversold 2 places, model’s and our helper it made a total of 21 people in the room! As one delegate posted on Facebook the following day it was the ‘Presidential sauna’.  However all 3 workshops were a great success and thanks to our models, Ella Rose, Mina, Lucy, Mackenzie and of course our model delegate Andy.

Our Masterclass on the Saturday was a huge surprise.  We were  only expecting around 40 or so delegates so imagine my surprise when we arrived at the room, I thought Melissa’s G’s talks had just finished and the delegates were all leaving. Not so, there were around 150 delegates in the room, so to all of you who attended Superclasses or Masterclass thank you for spending your time with us and we hope to be back next year with a new and exciting programme which we are already working on.

We stayed in London for an extra 3 days as we had an all day mentoring session on the Wednesday. Tuesday we spent at the V&A, stunning and a must for a revisit. The 2 photography exhibitions were well worth the visit.

Now busy downloading images from the Convention before getting ready for our trip to Lanzarote for PTO. Our model will be Rebecca Amy and Faye will be leading a Boudoir workshop, while I will cover the Art Nude. However for those who know us we will be working together on all sessions. We are looking forward to meeting old friends and I am sure making many new ones as well.

We have also been invited to be platform speakers at the bi annual  Groupement National de la Photographie Professionnelle. 

This is the French association for social photographers affiliated to the FEP and this year over 500 of their members will meet for 3 days in the beautiful city of Tours. Faye and I are very much looking forward to this visit and we have also been invited to do several workshops following the convention around France.

Before then of course we have FOCUS at the NEC in Birmingham. We will be there from Monday the 4th March through until Wednesday the 6th demonstrating some of our lighting techniques on the BOWENS stand and perhaps we will be on the SWPP stand as well but that is yet TBC.  You may also catch us on the FOTOSPEED stand talking about our favourite Platinum Warm Tone paper.

Both of our Fine Art Nude workshops at Pipewell Hall have sold out so we will shortly be announcing 2 new dates, one up here @ Claremont and one down south. If this is of interest keep checking back as places go fast. Also keep up to date with Faye and I on Facebook.

This image was made during our Lighting Superclass at the SWPP Convention using the BOWENS Fresnel spotlight. It is one of my images and post production done by Faye with her usual elegance and style.

We had the pleasure of working with Raphaella a few times last summer. This image was made while we were hosting a workshop for the Smethwich Photographic Society.

We are now looking forward to the London Convention next week and preparing our talks and exhibition of images sponsored by FOTOSPEED. If you are at the convention please drop by, say hello to Nicola and browse through some of our work, both vintage and current, which will be for sale at special discounted Convention prices.

I should perhaps mention that our first Art Nude workshops of 2013, both @ Pipewell Hall in Northamptonshire, are booking fast. The 119th of May has only 1 place available while the 23rd of June has 3 places available. See the calendar page for more details.

The first of our New Workshop Programme for 2013. All you ever wanted to know about Black and White portraiture. No fancy names, no gimmicks just simple classic portraiture that we have been producing for over 40 years. Its not new!

We will look at how to market the concept, how to brand it as a niche product. We will look at styling a session, lighting etc. and then the post production techniques we use to create beautiful black and white prints.  Then we will demonstrate how to print the image and  how to achieve better results than any lab can produce in the surroundings of your own workroom. Finally how to present your images to your client, pricing structure to achieve maximum sales etc. This workshop will run at several locations around the UK. Dates will be announced mid January. If you wish to receive advance notice of this and other workshops then simply join our newsletter and ensure you are among the first to be notified.

While we are rebuilding our other website we have decided to list ALL of our workshop on this site for the time being. So here you will find dates and locations for our 2013 workshops, art nude, children, lighting, boudoir etc.