Scott Ellison

Yesterday I met the O'Connor family at Walton Hall Gardens at 10am. Kathryn is an old school friend who saw I wanted some practice and stepped into help with her family, hubby Ian, Jack and Ellie. No sooner had we walked into the park when the heavens opened up taking shelter under a tree until it let off enough for us to walk back to the cars calling it a day. On our way back the rain stopped so we decided to go for it and take a few photo's so it wasn't a complete waste of journey for the family. About an hour later we stopped taking photo's and here are some of my favourite images from the day. Kath and Ian have two great children and I hope they like the photo's.

I learnt a few lessons yesterday

1. Always have a back up plan - especially in the North of England you can't rely on any number of weather forcasts so make sure there is a back up, a studio to use, cover to shoot under or just prepare with umbrella's for the clients.
2. I need to be faster. Jack was rapid and I'm sure I missed some really nice moments by playing with the focus. Children are fast, photographers need to be faster.

Hope you like the photographs and I hope to be working with Kath, Ian Jack and Ellie again soon.

Copyright Scott Ellison Lifestyle Portrait Photography - WarringtonCopyright Scott Ellison Lifestyle Portrait Photography - WarringtonCopyright Scott Ellison Lifestyle Portrait Photography - WarringtonCopyright Scott Ellison Lifestyle Portrait Photography - Warrington

I was down in Southsea this weekend for my friends hen party - yes yes a male on a hen party, I loved it! As I am going to be doing the Wedding photography for her we went for a wander about the town to look at the Church and different locations and talk about different kinds of photo's we could try.

Very excited for the big day now and I hope Michelle and Chunk have more confidence in my photography than I do at the moment because I am very scared... and excited about my first real photography challenge.

Here are a couple of lifestyle portraits of Michelle from our little trip out that day in Southsea.

Also please check out and join my Facebook Fan Page.

Lifestyle Portrait Photography in Warrington and other areas by Scott Ellison See www.scottellison.net for more informationLifestyle Portrait Photography in Warrington and other areas by Scott Ellison See www.scottellison.net for more informationLifestyle Portrait Photography in Warrington and other areas by Scott Ellison See www.scottellison.net for more information

The kind people at moo.com have printed me off some new mini cards to help promote the lifestyle photography I want to do in and around Warrington. The cards are half the height of a usual business card and have a mix of images on the front and the website address on the back. Check out the photo’s and let me know what you think about them. Is the website enough info or should the next batch have my phone number on them?

They look a whole heap better in real life

moo mini cards for Scott Ellison Photography lifestyle portraits in Warrington

After years of thinking about it and months of waiting for it I finally did the 2 day Portrait Workshop with The Trained Eye. I can honestly say that it was well worth the money and the wait.

The first day was spent in the studio looking at the theory and business side of Lifestyle Photography. I kind of wish they had included a bit of a shoot on the first day as I'm not good with classroom learning, I switch off, I wander into my own little world. But shocker, I kept may concentration in this classroom as it was pretty interesting.

Over the next few weeks I will want to get out, if the weather lets me, and experiment with the photography elements we spoke about within the classroom and I'll write some post's about them such as lighting, background and subjects.

On the business side of things, I was not sure I wanted to go professional in the photography business but this course has spured me on to think about it a little bit more and since the course I have a couple of Photography sessions planned in the Warrington area which I'm looking forward to.

On the second day of the course it was a full on day of Lifestyle photography shoot's. Starting at the studio at 9:30am we were photographing pretty much all of the way through to 4:30pm. I'd never realised how tiring this game could be. To start with we were in Henley with two young female models. Very pretty and great to work with. We had about 45mins - an hour with each model in our small groups. It took a while to get use to working with models and talking to them and I felt that just as I was getting use to the model we were swapping and needed to build a rapport with the new model. But then David did say that we just had to get over this barrier and force our personalities upon the models and it would get easier the more photography sessions we got under our belts. We moved location working with a couple and ended with an amazing family to take photo's of.

The equipment that I used was my Canon EOS 400D. I mostly used the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM which I hired from the amazing Lenses For Hire. This company was great, after a little slip up on my part with the dates they worked hard to get me the lens for the dates I needed it and they are cheap with no need for a deposit. As my camera is a crop sensor I was glad I kept my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II to hand as the 70-200 was a little bit long at times and I was even allowed to have a go on David's Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L USM this was a great lens with a real nice look to it's images.

Some examples of the images are here in the post for other's check out the Portrait portfolio.

Over the next few months I want to increase my portfolio and get some well earned practice in prior to my mates wedding that I'm shooting in September... nerves are high more so because it's my mates and I want them to have the best photo's ever!

Next week, Wednesday 30th June and Thursday 1st July 2010 I'm on a course with the Trained eye on their two day portrait course. It look's amazing. For the occasion I've hired a Canon 70-200mm f4 L lens I wanted a 2.8 but I'd left it too late to get one so close to the Grand Prix date :( but the guys at Lenses for Hire have been amazing and told me that they already have people on the same course with the lens... so if I use my good ol' northern charm I might still be able to get a go on one. Even so the hire is so cheap that I could get one out another time for a good play around. So... This course will get me back in the groove of portrait photography work and hope to keep my jaguar skills going after the course.

If your in and around Warrington or Oxford and Southsea when I'm around there and if you'd like some nice portraits of you, you and your better/worse half, kids, family, bump (baby not hernia please), band or darts team then give me a shout because I'll try my hardest to get the best photo's I can for you and best of all... for now it's... FREE!