I liked the way the light was coming through this sculpture. You can see the whole sculpture in one of the photos below.

If you look closely at the bottom right of the photo, you can see a couple of sneaky Canadian geese creeping into the shot…like they didn’t know what they were up to!

At first I wondered if the windows being dirty would ruin the shot but then I think I actually quite like how some of the panes are a bit misty and some are quite clear…makes the view through the windows look like patchwork!

No sneaky Canadian geese on this one (as far as I can tell!)

A few days ago I was about to make Gordon Ramsay’s cod and tomato chowder recipe, and I thought, ‘Why not make a short video of it at the same time?’ It took me twice as long as normal to actually make the chowder- having to think about things from the director’s point of view, having to do things in one take (given that you can only chop a piece of celery once, so you have to do it right the first time!), ‘pulling’ focus, all the while making sure you don’t overcook the food while you’re busy with the camera! For the benefit of those without the knowledge of videography speak, ‘pulling’ focus is basically just the process of keeping focus (manually) as you move the camera around. And it’s not easy, especially when the plane of focus can at times be less than an inch deep at wide apertures, and all you’ve got is a 3″ screen to monitor the video. If you watch the credits at the end of films and you see the job of ’1st AC’ ( 1st Assistant Camera) or ‘Focus Puller’, you now know what they do….the cameraman (or camerawoman!)  shoots, and his/her 1st AC is stood at the side of the camera watching the scene on a monitor and focusing the lens manually as required. Generally, people shooting film on their SLR cameras have to do all the various jobs themselves- shooting the video, pulling the focus, recording the sound.

So anyway, I thought I’d post the video here. I edited it down to just over 2 minutes thus the title, ‘Cod & Tomato Chowder in 2 Minutes’. I thought it might get a few more people reading this post if they saw the title in disbelief at somebody who could make cod chowder in 2 minutes! The video was shot with my Canon 1D MkIV with my 50mm f1.2L set at an aperture of f2.0. Shutter speed was kept to 1/50 second to fit the frame rate of 25 frames per seconds, as shooting at 25 frames per second creates the classic look of video shot on film. The few bits of live sound were taken from a separate Zoom H4N stereo sound recorder, later synced to the video using DualEyes. Video editing was done in Apple’s Final Cut Pro, and then finally a few effects added in Photoshop CS4 Extended. I was amazed that you could process video in Photoshop and I’ll be adding a tutorial to the blog to cover just some of the things you can do in Photoshop with the video you shoot with your SLR.

So- popcorn ready, and roll. (You can view this video full screen to get the full high definition effect- just click the little icon at the bottom far right).

We’ve been waiting a while to share this good news because we wanted to wait for the actual issue of the magazine to be published, but finally we can now reveal that Christian Ward Photography has been chosen by Brides Magazine to to be their one and only wedding photographer for Derbyshire county in their 2010 wedding directory! It’s a big deal for us on four counts.

1. Brides Magazine is the UK’s no.1 bridal magazine.
2. Whilst the vast majority of wedding directories feature long lists of suppliers in each category, Brides Magazine this year have chosen to pick exclusively just one supplier per category, per county.
3. This wedding directory has been put together based on quality. The magazine employed a team of researchers who trawled websites across the UK looking for the best.
4. It’s only been a few months since You & Your Wedding magazine asked us if they could feature our photographs of Fran & David’s Northamptonshire wedding.

Seeing the satisfaction of our clients when they see their photographs is the greatest reward for us, but it’s like the icing on the cake when we also get recognition from the wedding industry itself!

Don’t miss out on future posts, interviews and features- get instant, free reminders: Sign up to our blog, follow us on Twitter, become a fan of our Facebook page, and you’ll automatically receive an update!

Check out our wedding galleries                    See our info and prices                 Contact Us

Don’t miss out on future interviews and features- get instant, free reminders: Sign up to our blog, follow us on Twitter, become a fan of our Facebook page, and you’ll automatically receive an update!

Check out our wedding galleries                    See our info and prices                 Contact Us

Check out our wedding galleries                    See our info and prices                 Contact Us

This shot was taken just after the sun had dipped beneath the horizon. This particular place was in Tofino on Vancouver Island.

On our journey from an old ghost town where we stayed the night, we were passing through an old town called Hedley. On the way out we passed some abandoned vintage cars at the side of the road, so I decided to turn around and get some photos.

This was one of the other cars. As a number of people who have seen this photo have thought it’s a picture of an old advert, I thought I’d better point out that this actually is one of my photos- one that I made up to look like an old advert for the car!

This last one was taken on our journey through the interior of British Columbia on our way to Lillooet, a small logging and ranching town in the Fraser Canyon with a strong native American community and culture, being one of the main population centres of the St’at’imc (Lillooet Nation).

First up is a cool character who Chris met in Merritt, which is a really fantastic city, and Canada’s country music capital.  He was just sitting on a street corner watching the world go by, and Chris asked if he would mind having his photo taken, to which he said a very obliging yes and told Chris some tales of his time working as a logger and rancher.

We made a brief stop at tiny Cook’s Ferry en route to Merritt.  This is the home of a First Nations band of the Nlaka’pamux people.  The church was absolutely beautiful and the crisp autumn weather was just gorgeous.