My Blog or more to the point JSM Studio's blog

Every one else is doing it so why not join in. This is my blog.

The studio is still going from strength to strength. A very busy year for JSM Studio, our busiest year yet for Weddings and this year is booking up fast already. Portrait and Makeover continued to grow. A few new additions to the studio included a new floor and various new props.

We continue to push our lighting techniques and knowledge beyond our comfort zone resulting in some fabulous images we now use in our main stream sittings.

Our Photographic Makeovers have steadily grown this year which is really nice as it gives us a chance to spend a lot of time with the clients, do various different sets and lots of interesting images. Unlike most of the photographers in the area we generally don't have any time limits as it is our studio so if it's going well we can take as much time as we like.

More pictures from my shoot with Emma soon, our magic mirror picture is below.

Emma my model for the day came all the way from Middlesex to join me and braved the cold as long as she could before turning blue!

I also had the immense pleasure and honour of taking a Demi Moore style pregnancy shot of a young lady.

February will be a little quieter as I'm treating my boys to a few days in Disney land Paris. So I will be definitely having a few days off then.

January is almost fully booked for me already which is great, I have 1 Wedding, 1 event, 3 makeovers and various portraits to do already.

2009 sees the launch of JSM Confidential, a boudoir package. This isn't just a photo shoot it's a complete experience. It's boudoir/lingerie pictures with class.

I have also set myself a interesting challenge. "One model, One Photographer, One Year" I basically shoot one model 12 times in one year and no two shoots can be the same. They will be inside the studio, outside, fashion, art nude, head shots and some plain crazy shots. The idea is to push my (our) creative side within the constraints of just using one model. Suitable picture will be posted as they are taken

I don't often go to London so I had a good look round at took the odd picture, like a good tourist.

One of my shoots this week was a lovely family wanting a picture of the children for the grandparents. There was only 4 of them but getting all 4 to smile and look at the same time was a challenge! So the answer was to shoot them all individually and merge them all together.... I overlapped the baby's hand to make it look genuine and I think I've got away with it :-)

The studio is getting overly busy for Christmas with lots of family portraits. We also have a few weddings over the next couple of months to squeeze in.

I have still managed to find time to shoot a few models some new faces and some familiar ones. This weeks victim was Lyndz. We've worked together before and she has helped out with a few tuition sessions I've held. This time Lyndz was kind enough to tolerate my mad ideas.

I will try harder to keep things up to date. In the mean time here are a couple of shots from our shoot.

I don't feel this is the place to display topless shots but I will post a few of the lingerie shots we took as they are edited.

Today see my eldest son's birthday party so I'll be snapping a few shots there later and will post some if I can capture the excitement adequately. It's scalextrics party!! so there'll be cars flying around all over the place later!!!!

A 6 lane, 100 foot track,18 screaming kids and one very happy birthday boy

I was still restricted to head shot but at least we could mess around and show some of her cheeky personality in these ones.

I got chatting to her mum and it turns out Elena is a little bundle of talent, she sings dances, plays musical instruments, acts and is just an all round bundle of energy. I think we may see a lot more of her....

After an hour of chatting and drinking tea I thought we better start. I was checking out some new lighting equipment and backgrounds at the studio too. Gemma was a dream to work with, a very beautiful young lady and great fun to be around and very tolerant of my constant switching of lighting effects.

Here is one that immediately caught my eye, the shot has an 80's feel to me and Gemma reminded me of the actress Lysette Anthony. There are  more to come as I edit them

I arrived at Phil's parents house in plenty of time and was there for a couple of hours and the rain didn't stop til the bride and groom were safely at the reception venue!

We were slightly restricted in what we could do at the grooms parents house the available light was just about non existent and I couldn't get the lads outside for a few fun shots because of the constant rain.

For groom and bridal preparation shoots I like to shoot fairly informally. I'll shoot wedding items, shoes, rings, flowers basically anything special to the day and the things that will remind the happy couple in years to come of the small details of the big day.

As I said to Phil and his best man now those shots are in the bag.... No one is safe!

Their eldest son, Liam, behaved brilliantly and we got some lovely natural shots of him.

Here are just a couple of the many pictures taken during that session.

It's quiet limiting what you can do with a baby at that age but the shot of Liam presenting him with a toy is priceless

Immediately back to work with a couple of head shots for potential models. Two very different young ladies but great fun to work with.

The brief for this shoot was very simple, just a straight on head shot of both girls for an agency.

Also I set about revamping parts on my website and knuckled down and designed the new literature for the studio.

Normally I'd put a picture of myself here but lets be honest and say no one wants to see that!

A little about myself first, I first picked up a camera about 17 years ago and was instantaneously hook. This was back in the days of film!! Yes I am that old.

My very first camera was a Practika, hardly the best on the market but still enough to get me hooked. Not content with just taking pictures I went back to college for a few years and studied my craft.

As my skills and wallet allowed I slowly upgraded to Minolta Dynax 7.... "what?" I hear you ask. A fabulous camera that delayed my eventual defection to digital until digital was good enough.

My first venture into digital was a failure, although a high (ish) spec camera we parted company after about 7 months and I upgraded to an entry level DSLR. This kept my interest for about 18 months

On 1st October 2006 I finally realised my dream and opened up my photographic studio in Hopewell Drive, Chatham.

The studio is now heading towards it's 2nd birthday. In the 2 year we been open I have upgraded my equipment to two fabulous Canon 5D's (the twins) and an ever increasing arsenal of lenses, as well as all the toys you'd expect to find in a studio and maybe a few things you wouldn't! ... like a 3 foot high teddy bear.

More importantly I've met some fabulous people, some just passing through and some regulars. Some I have had the pleasure of learning from, while others have made a indelible mark on my life.