I'm well and truly winding down for Christmas now which is just as well really because I haven't got any more work in the diary until the second week of January!. December is always quiet so it doesn't come as any surprise.

Last week was busy though with the shoot at the Thompson Holidays superstore in Greenford on Monday, the Environment Agency Bristol shoot on Tuesday and a shoot at a primary school in Leicester on Wednesday. I had a meeting in Leeds on Thursday and a day out in London on Friday so all in all quite a busy week.

The Thompson Holiday superstore job went really well and it was interesting as the entire store was lit with LED spotlights made by JCC Lighting http://www.jcc-lighting.co.uk/ . These LED spots are great for retail as they produce very little heat and last for years unlike their old Tungsten Halogen predecessors. They also use less energy so it's a win win situation. Retail lighting is generally on for long periods - sometimes 24 hours - so LED technology really comes into own!. I've included a shot of the store in today's blog.

The Environment Agency shoot went well too and there were two other photographers at work whilst I was there so it's obviously a popular building. The interior was very clean and modern and the Kinnarps furniture (my client) looked fabulous. I'll post a picture in the blog as soon as I've processed them.

The primary school was a tough shoot as the rooms were very small with high ceilings. I was commissioned by the lighting manufacturer but the lights were hard to capture and even with a 24mm Tilt and Shift lens getting a decent composition was difficult. Also there were loads of Christmas decorations everywhere which made things even more difficult. I took a few shots but didn't feel it was worth spending a day there so I'll talk to the client and offer them a reduced rate in return for fewer finished pictures. It's not ideal but I always put my client's first and I'm interested in building long term relationships rather then one off jobs.

I did my final radio show of the year yesterday on BBC Three Counties Radio which I always enjoy and I'm hoping to keep that going into next year. I've been doing the show now for the past 5 years on and off and it's something that I really look forward to!. Radio is really great fun because you can relax in the knowledge that no one can actually see you!. It builds a bit of mystique and I think it's more interesting than TV (although I've never been on TV for very long - just one appearance on a late night debate show many years ago).

I've been out in the snow with my old Canon A1 camera and 35mm lens over the past few days shooting some black and white film which has been great fun and I've stocked up on film for Christmas as I'll be avoiding digital cameras now for a couple of weeks!. I still love working with film and any chance to load up with black and white is eagerly taken. I always recommend that people try the chromagenic films like Kodak BW400N or Ilford XP2 which are black and white films with loads of exposure latitude that are developed in standard colour process machines. That means you can get the films dev'd and printed at Tesco or Asda while you do your shopping.

Lastly I took a picture of a friend and model Annalie a couple of weeks ago next to the London Eye. We wanted to include the Houses of Parliament in the background and I took the shot with my trusty EOS 5D MK2 and 24-105mm L series lens. I used a simple hot shoe mounted Canon EX 550 flashgun with an opal plastic diffuser fitted to soften the light and set the ISO to 1600. I used a relatively slow shutter speed of 1/20th of a second to let some ambient light bleed through and I was really pleased with the results. I've posted one of the pictures in today's blog.

Good news on the broken L series lens (see last post) as my camera repair guy Dave at the Camera Repair Workshop at Wharfside in Fenny Stratford repaired my lens for £25. He's a really good repair man and his prices are very fair indeed. I was fearing a large repair bill or an insurance claim with a big excess so to pay £25 was a real relief.

December is a very quiet month for me and usually results in me feeling pretty down at Christmas as I love to be busy and I need to keep lots of work coming in as my daily rate is very competitive compared to some commercial photographers. I've had a good week so far though with the shoot at the Thompson Holiday superstore in Greenford on Monday, a shoot at the Environment Agency building in Bristol yesterday and today's shoot at a school in Leicester.

Tomorrow I have a client meeting in Leeds and on Friday I'm out with some clients for a Christmas booze up in London starting at All Star Lanes in Bayswater.

Next week is pretty empty though except for my monthly radio show on BBC Three Counties Radio on Monday and a client meeting in Stevenage later the same day.

The show on Monday is about getting good pictures of family and friends at parties etc so if anyone out there has any tips you want me to pass on please let me know!.

I'm really hooked on Twitter at the moment which I find surprising as I never thought it would be my kind of thing but if you'd like to follow me I'm on Twitter as @redshiftphoto.

I've posted a couple of my favourite portraits that I've taken this year on today's blog - please let me know what you think.

Lastly I'd like to say "Come on England" for the third test that starts in Perth later tonight!.

Teeth Whitening

The teeth whitening product photography went well (I mentioned this in the last blog entry) and I ended up shooting individual products and pack shots (a shot that shows both the box and the product next to the box) as well as a montage of all the products in the range. I've attached the montage shot in today's blog entry so if you want to get hold of some teeth whitening stuff cheap just let me know!!.

I had an interesting shoot last Friday night at Coutts Bank in London where I photographed some of the back of house areas such as offices etc and also some of the beautiful client meeting rooms and conference rooms. The building is a 1970's designed concrete structure with a very interesting central atrium with concrete beams reaching up into the ceiling. I will post some of the pictures here in the blog as soon as the bank have approved the shots.

I was lucky to photograph my friend and model Annalie in London yesterday where I took a series of shots of her with the London Eye and The Houses of Parliament in the background. After that shoot I went onto the Zumtobel Christmas party where I was invited along as a guest - thanks guys! - and also took some party shots whilst I was there. As the night went on everyone got pretty tipsy (me included as I was officially a guest!) and I got some pretty lively shots right up until my 24-105mm L series lens fell off of my 5d MK2 camera body for no apparent reason and smashed on the floor. Unfortunately the £900 lens didn't bounce this time (I have dropped it before) and the front element broke off!. What do they always say about mixing business with pleasure?.

So today is all about post shoot processing from yesterday's work and also trying to get my insurance company to stump up the money for a new lens - I wonder which job will prove to be the most difficult!.

It's great to be back blogging again a bit more regularly after a manic few weeks including a bought of the Flu and I'm back up to date with a whole backlog of post shoot processing thanks to a postponed job in London. The snow seems to cause such mayhem in the UK (actually more specifically in England as the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish seem to cope pretty well with it) and the few millimetres we've had around London have caused lots of people to stay at home!.

At least the snow didn't come last week when I was up in Liverpool and Sheffield as that would have been a real problem.

Today I've got some product photography to do which I'm doing here in the office as it's a collection of small items (teeth whitening products!) so I don't need to use the studio. I'll be using two or three Canon Speedlite flashguns fired via the Canon ST-E2 remote flash controller. This is a useful setup for small product photography and the flashguns can be controlled in manual mode which gives me more control of the lighting. I'll post one of the product shots from this setup in the next blog entry.

I finished off the post shoot processing last night for the Unite HQ building in Liverpool that I photographed for the lighting manufacturer DW Windsor http://www.dwwindsor.com/. The building is beautifully lit with subtle LED colour change lighting. I photographed it at dusk to try to keep some blue in the sky and I captured the red green and blue colour change for each angle. The car headlight trails are a result of the long exposure (10 seconds or so) needed to work in the low light of dusk and the camera was of course fixed on a heavy tripod to prevent any motion blur due to the camera moving. I've attached a couple of pictures of the building in today's blog.

LED lighting is without doubt the future of all lighting and within 5 years I would guess that every home in the UK will be using some kind of LED lighting fixture.

Now I'm off to walk my dogs in the snow before it gets dark!.