Patience is a virtue.....

No posts for a while then, hmmm.  No excuse but I was convinced the new blog would be up and running by now so was saving all the juicy bits for that but seeing as its going to be a while and my last post here was in October (naughty!) I think I better be more patient and offer you guys a catch up on the last few weeks.

  

It has been a busy one which is great news and has included another commission from Vodafone to shoot Sevilla football players / club for an Advertising campaign so that was a fantastic experience and a quick and warm trip out of the country.  I have also been getting to grips with fbml for the new facebook page, shooting a private birthday party where much cake eating and face painting has taken place and even had a really exciting last minute request to shoot a corporate event for Disney.  Unfortunately delegates were not dressed as Mickey Mouse much to my disappointment!

To get things started, more pics to follow.......

Hello boys....

A month or so ago Carli-Art was commissioned to take some images for new Mens Jewellery brand, 10 Sterling.  Based in the UK and offering high quality, bespoke dog tag style bracelets and necklaces for all the boys out there; we had the pleasure of working with Hareth who has helped to make the images and the jewellery look fantabulous.  Most importantly of course the site is now live and you can see all of the pictures plus the lovely bling online.

Fearing six year olds & New Vodafone commission published...

The past few days my mind has seemed unable to concentrate on more than one thing at a time, which is an odd feeling considering I usually have a huge party of thoughts up there!  Anyway, the preoccupation of preparing a thirty minute activity for 15 six year olds has been far more than I imagined and although excited, the nerves are beginning to show.  (I have even been put off eating a delicious looking lemon drizzle cupcake, this is clearly getting serious!)

On a different note I do have something to celebrate as a couple of weeks ago Carli-Art was commissioned by Vodafone to shoot some imagery for an advertising Case Study.  The idea was to demonstrate how useful a new business product called One-Tel had been to a small business (Fit Mama) and helped it to grow and improves its future prospects.  The results are now live to see on Vodafone UK, downloadable on their One Tel Case Study PDF and will shortly be seen in various print forms through national publications such as The Times and The Telegraph and online monsters such as Linked in and Yahoo.  Preview of some of the images that didn't make the final cut below....enjoy!

Goldilocks.....New pictures for Berkshire Salon...

After she'd eaten the three bears' breakfasts she decided she was feeling a little tired.  So, she walked into the living room where she saw three chairs.  Goldilocks sat in the first chair to rest her feet.   

"This chair is too big!" she exclaimed.

So she sat in the second chair.

"This chair is too big, too!"  she whined.

So she tried the last and smallest chair.

"Ahhh, this chair is just right," she sighed.  But just as she settled down into the chair to rest, it broke into pieces!

Breeding guilt babies...

My mother once said to me that the moment she gave birth to me (or any of my siblings I convince myself), she gave birth to guilt.  I think I might know how she feels.  As a freelancer I seem to spend 98% of my time feeling guilty.  Guilty I need a cup of tea and that five minutes could be better spent editing, guilty it took me 5 snooze attempts before getting out of bed, guilty I even went to bed in the first place.  Sleep...what a waste of time I say.  I was discussing this very same thing with another freelancer last night and thankfully his wide eyed giggle gave me the reassurance that it isn't just me & yes, guilt is the baby that is bred by most freelancers and small business owners.  

In a bid to tackle guilt I tend to do one of two things.  Go shopping or pursue the plight of my customer through various forms of internet searching.  Of course Facebook doesn't come in to it, huh hum.

Twitter is great and because its time consuming and it involves you paying attention to others & whats around you, you can enjoy a mini break while at the same time keeping an eye on your market.  Genius form of useful procrastination right there.  Another more recent discovery is something I fear I may be well out of touch with, Google Alerts.  Hit the 'anything results' button and watch some rather odd but strangely interesting articles, bits of information and links just drop into your mail box.  The more diverse one's often lead that train of thought places I never expected but hell, enjoyed!  

Not forgetting the shopping front, I for once avoided the clothes and stumbled across this....The Now Habit.  (I heard that groan, apparently this is far from the traditional self help book and you can appease your shopping guilt as its for the good of your work!)

Sneaky Peek & working Purple...

Celebrating in style below are images from a birthday party I photographed at the weekend at the boutique hotel, The Bermondsey Square in London. Purple Grape provided the delicious food and did an amazing job, I understand plates came back licked clean which can never be a bad sign! 

 So here is a sneak preview and Happy Birthday Tim!

56% spam, 44% after party...

Who would have believed just 4 days out of the office & I am literally swimming in emails, admittedly at least 56% (rough estimation of course) are spam or newsletters or various info I am signed up to but the others must be answered.  Therefore anybody still waiting for a reply I apologise and promise I will get back to you as soon as I possibly can.  

Being busy is fab, I will never complain and its when I perform best.  Eating Snack a Jacks and Snickers in the car, reaching insane sugar levels with Lucozade energy tablets every time I manage to return to my camera bag and grabbing 5 hours sleep before up to do it again.  It fills me with a little dread before I have a mad run like this but I love it when I am there and the time flies by.  Clearly, hence the increasing back log I am now faced with.  When its quiet it suddenly becomes very difficult to focus on whats important and all those really vital business running things that I should be doing fade from memory & I find interesting industry articles to read, new blogs to code (another excellent procrastination tool, I am learning HTML) and of course editing.  This week, editing is the name of the game and the laptop is suffering as much as me with a corrupt hard drive and yet another full external drive already.

On the picture front, which I suppose is why you are really here; as promised below are some of the Bryce Aime After Party images.  Hope you enjoy.  To follow.....A test shoot and me playing with various effects on some events photography.

 

Bryce Aime @ LFW and making friends with the enemy...

Being ill sucks.  It does. Not only does the drone of Jeremy Kyle, Loose Woman and 60 minute makeover offer a torture only known by those sitting long enough to endure them but you also, as I have found out, miss out on some great opportunities....so far for me these have included the Venue and Event show in London, lunch with a lovely friend / client and a job offer.  This is where knowing other quality photographers that you would be proud to recommend are vital.  Knowing your business competition not only helps you in terms of your marketing and general business planning but it helps your business, I tend to get the feeling that some freelancers avoid their peers...I say get up close and personal!  Know them, love them and build alliances!

On a different note before the cold managed to produce a sea of tissues in my otherwise tidy bedroom, I had the pleasure of attending the After Party for Bryce Aime this London Fashion Week.....Pics to follow and for the moment, some of his lovely designs!

Extending the exclusive...

Besides the obvious cakes and sweet goodies, exclusive viewing galleries are an addition to my services I have really enjoyed offering recently.  They offer a fantastic way to showcase your event or project within a bespoke designed website, giving your guests, delegates or employee's am opportunity to remember their event in style.  Its a great way to spread the love and of course the PR.  

For those of you that don't want the world and its mother to know about your event, your not alone and its not a problem.  The galleries can be designed without any SEO or optimisation making them darn near impossible to find unless you have the web address.

This was a service I originally offered to Toyota Lexus when I covered their Hybrid Sport launch in August and have had the pleasure of extending the fun to Ernst & Young, Jalouse and Competitive Events.    

Want to see a site?  Want to see my experiences last night at the Jalouse club in Mayfair?  Check it out: HERE 

OK, who blinked....

Hands up who likes having their picture taken?  OK, no one, anyone?  Thats because very few people do, I am not even sure pro models like it they just aren't too bothered.  This of course always make corporate portraiture a little bit tricky and something I have had a little bout of recently.  (Not like about of holiday tummy, this is a purely positive thing.)

I was asked to provide some advise to my sitters and I always tell them to think about what they wear and exactly what they want to say about themselves and the company, the rest in all honesty is my job.  I need to make the person sitting in front of me usually sweating and laughing uncomfortably, less so.  I tried memorising jokes for this purpose which went horribly wrong & dancing like a fool is not an option while trying to take pictures so I now stick to two key rules.....always meet the sitter before the shoot.  I know its extra time out of my day but its important to me and I feel its important to my clients. It just takes the edge of and they can then ask you face to face anything they may be worrying about.  The second, have someone else in the room with you from the office.  This could be the receptionist, the person who made the booking or a fellow colleague but if the sitter is ok with it then so far, it seems to have worked.  Portraits are more relaxed, natural and ultimately honest which can only be positive things for the person or company representing themselves through the images.

I am certainly no expert at this so if you have any more tips or advise regarding corporate portraits or a niggle or treasure you want to share...please feel free!

Feeling mobile? How much time do you spend on yours...

Yes its almost midnight (23:56 to be exact) and I am awake working having just got in from an event in Bloomsbury with Hotel Russell and Genie.  Pictures are required for PR first thing so typically, my card reader is taking its time & stopping at Bognor Regis for a holiday before completing its upload.

On another note though I sat there on the train on the way home & started thinking about just how much I used my mobile phone, so were talking 85% of my life really.  Text, call, internet, photos, maps, whatever. if I can find an excuse to use it I will.  It got me thinking as to if I used it more to view the web than my actual computer which lead me to thinking my new website (coming soon!) really should be mobile optimised.  I-phones of course fail miserably as they cant read flash (I hope that decision maker was fired in the world of shiny silver Apples) but otherwise were all good & I have for once been relatively sensible and have a html only version of my site available.  Yay for old school.  

So the post was leading somewhere...oh yeah...this rather interesting article & some scary facts such as we spend almost 7 hours a day on our phones or using media content!

Give it some Bowtime....

Bowtime Tent, Creamfields.....an unexpected but excellent weekend working with the team at RPM in the Strongbow tent at the festival.  Great event, loads of fun, awesome crew and a good all round vibe.  Plus I still got my drum and bass / dance kick that I was aiming for this bank holiday weekend!  For all the pictures from the weekend plus their other festival activities such as V, visit the Strongbow facebook page.

MTV presenters & chocolate dipped strawberries......Commercial fashion shoot and the ideal corporate gift.

I am starting to become disheartened by Apple.  First the iphone 4, now repeated problems with Snow Leopard....is it that they really were this troublesome before but their big shiny Apple shaped exterior & genius marketing just plastered (very well I might add) over the cracks?  I am beginning to think so and now that plaster is cracking....is this the beginning of a few tainted experiences and now questioning consumers who before, would have stood bare chested in a sand storm for the brand.  Is anyone else feeling the strain or is it just me?

Anyway besides my Apple related issues this week I have also had a chance to collect some of the images from the 10 Sterling shoot, an up and coming mens jewellery brand providing high quality, bespoke accessories for men including sterling silver dog tags and bracelets.  The images below are unedited so be kind but they give you a glimpse of the hard work put in by the team (thank you Clive, Hareth and Ilona...not Lloyd who didn't turn up, why do people do that?!) and an insight as to whats to come.  Final images and previews of the 10 sterling site to follow.

On a different note, yes, below is a picture of cupcakes!  We all know I love a good cupcake and even better if sprinkled with sweets so I was very excited that Susie at Angelic Cupcakes put together these beautiful edible delights for a friend and colleague who is leaving their current role at an Events agency to move onto another events agency and a change of scenery - Good luck Claire!

I thought they would make a great gift and am delighted with the results....even if i didn't get to sample them!  There will also be cupcakes in association with my rebrand....exact logistics and plan yet to be decided but there will be sweetness and mid afternoon sugar rushes so keep those kettle warmed!

Happy First Birthday & even more Frappachino....

Great start to the week with some corporate portraiture at Landmark, beautiful offices in Henley and some wonderful people so that was great fun.  I even got a decent lunch break and my favourite....squeezed in a trip to Starbucks!  (Honestly I should get shares the amount i drink there)

Last night was the first Anniversary of Windsor Business community, a focussed networking group held in association with bar Ha Ha and Sharon from Kiereen designs and a really great evening.  BBQ with decent vegge food which means they are already onto a winner with me but also some regular and some new faces.  The evening had a great vibe, probably helped by the free cocktail making bar, and a sneak peek at some of the pics are below.

Later in the week....fashion pics from todays shoot with an up and coming mens jewellery designer.  Girls..... (ok and boys)...get ready!