Bank Holiday? What Holiday?

Its just a quickie today.....

We've had a very busy few days and we are now catching up on editing.

We've worked with many different people this last week ranging from Oriental Brides through to Russian Mail Order Brides.....and The Iron Lady!

I'm sure over the next few weeks images will be revealed... but until then....wait and see.

This Thursday is the first of our club meetings...we cant wait to meet everyone and get the club well and truely on the map!

Come and learn with us.... 6 week course - 'a beginners guide to Photoshop'

TipTop Photography is holding a 6 week course - 'a beginners guide to Photoshop'.

The course will take place on a Tuesday evening - the first night being the 15th September 2009 - arrival at 7pm for refreshments with a view to starting at 7:30pm -8:30pm.

The 6 weeks will cover amongst other things:

Understanding workflow(from camera to print)
The photoshop desktop - making it personal
Layers
Basic editing techniques (levels, saturation, curves, black & white, filters, selection, masks etc)
Basic skin editing
Creating a white background from a studio shoot
Understanding and creating basic actions

Each week images will be provided for you to take away and edit in preparation for the following week - you will be encouraged to put your own spin on the images provided and share back with the group.

The 6 week course fee is £65 - (there is a 10% discount available to TipTop Photography Club Members)

The cost of the course also includes a photoshoot with a model on week 5. You will have the opportunity to take images of a model on a white background with full professional studio lighting setup - you will then be able to take images home and put into practice your new editing skills.

The course will be lead by Steve, TipTop Director/Owner - Steve is not a qualified Adobe instructor however he has extensive knowledge in Photoshop built up from many years in the design industry.

Places are limited to 5 people. Please get in touch at tiptop-photography@live.co.uk if you would like to reserve a place.

A blast from the past - Thru the decades workshop

On Saturday we had another fantastic day at the studio - we held a photography workshop where 3 togs had the opportunity to photograph 4 models.

Duane wore clothes from the 60's

Penny strutted her stuff in fashion from the 70's - a very hippy chic

Emma-Louise was a glam 80's girl

Rob was mean and moody with his current day look

The togs, Simon, Darren & Simon had a great time working with the models and sharing ideas with eachother.

Viewing some of the images on the laptops they looked as though they had really captured the day well.

Inbetween listening to the themed music from each decade, munching on the goodies and drinking coffee.....everyone got some great shots.

There are more workshops planned for the rest of the year, please get in touch if you would like further information.

48 hours away

Steve and I took 48hrs off and headed to the Cotswolds.

In need of a break, we booked a lush hotel, packed a bag, charged the camera batteries and set off for some serious chillaxing.

Arriving Sunday morning we headed to Bourton on the Water where we spent a lovely afternoon wandering up and down the very pretty streets, paddling in the river, taking candid images of passers by and generally enjoying ourselves.

We then headed to our hotel http://www.cotswoldwaterparkhotel.co.uk/ where we checked in to our room - what a view we had. Our private balcony overlooked the lake - swans, ducks, birds galore.

After a gorgeous dinner, we enjoyed a walk out by the lake and enjoyed a beverage or two in the night air.

Today, we came back via Broadway - a beautiful village, one we will certainly be visiting again.

Tomorrow its back to real work!

Is white and vintage old school?

Are white backgrounds old school? Is retro furniture not so cool anymore?

These are two questions we were faced with after we had spent endless hours setting up our amazing studio, The Loft.

Some people may think that shooting on a white background is very commercial, dated and has no place in fashionable up to date photography. The use of props such as vintage chairs etc.. are out of place and add no quality to an image.

Not us.. We made a decision that we were right to go with our gut instinct and are very proud of our studio...(which includes not only white background rolls but grey, black, crimson, blue, yellow, green plus more)

Today, we had a little smile and chuckle to ourselves when we saw this image.....Sienna Miller sitting on a vintage peacock chair shot on a white background. (The image was taken by Simon Emmett)

So there is a place for all types of photography - Hollywood has spoken!

Its all in the planning

Whether you are organising an event, a lesson or a photography shoot.... its all about the planning.

Today we have been planning, number crunching, planning some more etc.. Its an exciting time for Steve and I...the club is almost up and running, the studio hire is going well and our workshops are usually sell outs.

I've been planning workshops for the next 6 months, making sure that we have covered all types of events that our customers want.

We are going to have workshops based around fashion, alternative, art nude, outdoor location shoots, indoor location shoots etc.. but also sessions based for smaller groups and individuals.

If you are reading this and have any suggestions as to what you would like us to include in our schedule, please drop us a line at tiptop-photography@live.co.uk - we are always wanting to hear what people want.

On a side note, below this text is an image of model Penny, having her bottom patted by a man on the wall!

After another long day at work...its time to go to bed. Adios.

Forthcomming events

Autum will soon be here :-( and TipTop Photography have lots of new events planned for the months ahead.

Saturday 22nd August is a workshop based on 'Through The Decades' where models will be styled from the 60's, 70's 80's & current day...1 place is remaining if you want to come along (get in touch via our website http://www.tiptop-photography.com/)

September will see a whole new set of learning activies in 'The Loft', the TipTop Studio, ranging from 1-2-1's, group shoots, etc.. along with a host of other things.

Watch this space for a list of dates.

'2009' v 'Old School'

WOW! What a response we have had to our posts about the TipTop Photography Club!

We woke up this morning to emails, comments, posts on forums etc.. all from fellow photographers who want to put a bit of fun back into photography.

I think we just need to make things clear that Steve and I are not anti societies...I think there is a lot to be learnt from going along to regular society evenings which are on a larger scale. We certainly did when starting out and learnt some great stuff.

The TipTop Club is going to be about having fun. Putting the enjoyment into photography. Sometimes its easy to forget why we all love taking pictures so much - we all get carried away with taking the shot, editing it etc.. without remembering why we took the shot in the first place.

So... to all of you who have contacted us - check your inbox in the next few days for the first of TipTop Club communications.

I'll also be setting up a Flikr page for us - to showcase our work but also as a way of introduction to everyone... so we can all see what floats your boat in the way of an image.

Its time to hit the sack now...tomorrow is another day for planning in the mind of a TipTop Photographer :-)

Over and out.

Lovin' the lighting

Today inbetween shoots we asked model 'Pippa' to join us in the studio to try out our new beauty dish. Its not very often that we get to 'play around' in the studio so to have a spare couple of hours was a luxury.

WOW! I am impressed with the new piece of kit... Steve and his dad have worked wonders.

We tried various set ups... against brick, natural light, fabric, general background etc. all proving to have amazing results - the variation by moving the dish just a fraction was awesome.

Pippa.. if you read this, thank you, you were so patient but as always gave us some exceptional results.

Here is one of the first images we took, I am sure you will agree, the lighting is stunning and Pippa even more so!

New toys

Steve has a new toy!

A beauty dish.....after a day at the weekend spent with our new strobist friends admiring their home made beauty dish, Steve and his dad have designed their own and its now being tested - Molly our lovely dog is posing for Steve. Poor Molly is going to be star struck.... I hope she doesn't expect to be photographed every day of the week!!

Here she is, Molly, 13 years old - her teeth and eyes are looking a little tired but she can give our 2 year old terrier a run for his money.

Custard Factory 1960's shoot

Well...today has been a great day.....up there with some of our best shoots!

This morning, Steve and I opened up our studio to a selection of photographers and models to use our facilities before moving on to the Custard Factory, Birmingham.

The 1960's day was organised by Duane, a model from Purestorm. Duane had co-ordinated the day to allow models and togs to be able to shoot in a great setting....with a retro 60's feel.

We had 8 photographers and 2 models in our studio - all lovely guys. We chatted, drank tea and shot some great images before moving on into the city at mid-day.

Here we met Duane, Mel and all the others. All of the models had made a huge effort to recreate the feel of the swingin' 60's. Short skirts, pyschedellic dresses, kinky boots and sharp suits were all being worn.

The weather was pretty poor but it didnt dampen anyones spirits...having full access to the Custard Factory (including all the little corridors and behind the scenes areas) were priceless.

Both Steve and I made some new friends today, people had travelled 100's of miles to get to the shoot...it was certainly worth while.

We've already looked at our images and cant wait to edit them. As a little taster... here is one of them: