Paulo Rodrigues Photography

Movember

2011-11-01T09:00:00.000Z

The video was last updated on November 27th This Movember I have decided to shave off my facial hair in the name of charity and grow a moustache. I have no idea how long its going to take to grow fully, but I'd be happy to accept suggestions for style. I shot this stop motion video of myself shaving the beard off and trying out a few different styles in the process. Which do you think I should

A Photograph is just a click

2011-09-24T10:00:00.000+01:00

I was having a discussion on facebook with a friend, who is painter, photographer and film maker. During the course of the discussion he told me that a photograph is just a click. It might be a simple statement of the relative ease of taking a photograph compared to his other artistic pursuits, but there are all sort of other implications that could be read into it. I thought it would be

Sisters.. Triplets.. I'm just watching

2010-12-07T18:00:00.000Z

Recently I was at Ingatestone Hall on a group shoot with the London Strobist Meetup Group. It was a fantastic venue with some wonderful features that I quite miserably failed to fully take advantage of. Early on in the day I found myself in the dining room with the beautiful Stef. But the room was so big it really needed a few more models. But all I had was Stef, so I decided to have a stab at

Where Children Sleep

2010-11-10T22:48:00.008Z

If the Harry Potter's step family the Dursly's were ever to buy him a present then I think it would be the this book, because it would illustrate to him that living in a cupboard below the stairs is the lap of luxury in comparison to the place where many children around the world sleep at night. James Mollinson's book is not meant to be a campaign to raise support for needy children, though it

The Half

2010-11-02T21:53:00.004Z

It must have been two years since I went to see Simon Annand's exhibition at the National Theatre and I was struck by the beauty of the images, since then I have lusted after his book every time I've seen it in a book shop, but never enough to pay the full price. So I when I spotted it in the Book Warehouse on Camden High street for £7.99 I had to have it. There are still a couple of copies left

Loading a Polaroid 4x5 back badly

2010-10-18T09:00:00.001+01:00

The time had come for me to give Philip Payne his 4x5 camera. So I used up the last frame of Fuji FP100C-45 instant film that I had loaded in David Rowland's polaroid back and packed it up. I wish I had made more of the opportunity to use the camera but it was so big and bulky that it was easy to leave it in a cupboard and forget about it. But I did have some fun with it. The big instant prints

Pro Digital Fashion Photography

2010-10-11T09:00:00.000+01:00

Bruce Smith has set out to show you everything you need to set out on the road to being a fashion photography. Whilst I don't think that it gives up all of fashion photography's secrets, it's a pretty good starting point and there is plenty to consider when you embark on a fashion project of your own. The link here is for the US version of the book but I have the UK version. The UK version now

Photography and the art of seeing

2010-10-04T09:00:00.004+01:00

Freeman Patterson's book bills itself as a workshop and like any workshop it has exercises that you can follow to reinforce the lessons. The book is built around three principles of observation, imagination and expression and offers techniques and insight for developing these areas. The section on observation concentrates on overcoming barriers to seeing and the exercises are designed to help

Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers

2010-09-27T09:00:00.003+01:00

I believe this to be one of the best books I have read so far on lighting for portrait photography. It should have a broad appeal to those looking for lighting recipes and also for people looking beyond that. Though it appears to have been written for film users it talks about digital and quite frankly it doesn't make a great deal of difference. It’s also aimed more at studio work and big flash

The War of Art

2010-09-20T09:00:00.004+01:00

In a bit of a departure from the usual fare, I'm reviewing a self-help book. Written by Author Steven Pressfield it is aimed to help writers and other creative people overcome the obstacles that prevent them from doing the work that they love. The book was recomended to me by Kirk Tuck, himself a prolific photographer, author and blogger. He told me that it has saved more creative lives than a

DIY Budget Tripod Mount for a Bowens S-Type Speedring

2010-09-12T10:00:00.001+01:00

Last week I made an impulse purchase. I needed a new softbox and I wanted one with a grid. I had been planning on getting a pop-up softbox, either an EZ-Fold or a Westcott Apollo, but I found the EZ-Fold to be a bit flimsy and some people had told me that they had found that it was tricky to angle the apollo. Not only that, but neither are particularly cheap. So I was procrastinating and then

Beautiful Light With One Flash

2010-07-26T23:51:00.005+01:00

A week ago I went on great strobist meetup in Harold Wood Hospital, a derelict hospital near Romford. Within 5 minutes of arriving, when all the other photographers were racing off, I had already spotted my shot next to the makeup room. There were several holes in the walls and I wanted to use these as a frame for the lovely Emma (aka Darke Mort) who didn't need any makeup. The first series of

Tineye reverse image search

2010-05-20T09:00:00.001+01:00

There will come a point when you will ask yourself, "How can I find out who is using my images". Most search engines are keyword searches so you are only going to find your image if a keyword has been used or if the person using your images has linked to you, then you might be able to use a google search, but its not something you can easily do. However there is a search engine called TinEye

Dean Collins: Live at the Brooks Institute

2010-05-13T13:02:00.001+01:00

Since getting a smartphone, I have finally come to grips with instructional video. I have bought videos but not watched them because there is always some celebrity reality show or other on that my family want to watch and I if I try to watch them on my laptop I am easily distracted by the chaos at home. But with my android I can now watch them at leisure and on the move. One of the videos I

Composition: David Prakel

2010-05-06T18:00:00.001+01:00

Composition is another book by David Prakel in the basics photography series and as with the previous book that I reviewed Lighting, the organisation of the book, in common with others in the series, is very well thought out and logical. The book is broadly split into six areas: The Basics, Formal Elements, Organising Space, Organising Time, Application and Originality. Starting with the basics

Confused about Metering?

2010-04-30T09:00:00.002+01:00

I've noticed that there is a common mistake that people make about metering. You'll quite often hear people say things like: Caucasian skin is +1 stop over 18% grey so you should take a meter reading and increase your exposure by one stop. There's nothing wrong with that statement at all, until you start using an incident meter and that's where the confusion starts. People start to worry how they

48 Hour Interview

2010-04-25T09:00:00.000+01:00

What did you do with your weekend? This was the question posed by Reg Gordon on the strobist forum a couple of weeks ago. My weekend wasn't all that, I was recovering from a chest infection, but Reg's weekend was spent putting together an extraordinary project. Reg pulled together a team of people to create a magazine from scratch in 48 hours. It was such an inspiring project that I decided to

Sonia Hotshoe With 3.5mm Jack Socket

2010-04-19T22:00:00.001+01:00

When David Hobby started his campaign to abolish the PC connector over on the strobist blog a while ago. It prompted me to contact the manufacturer of the Sonia brand of hot shoe adaptors to see if they had any plans to include a 3.5mm jack socket in their product. The Sonia All Purpose adaptor is a rock solid adaptor with a cast metal hot foot, two female and one male pc connector,plus a test

Martin Schoeller

2010-04-16T18:34:00.000+01:00

I was out wandering the streets one lunchtime and wandered into a... ahem...bookshop in Soho, where I found this wonderful book of Martin Schoeller's images. The book is about A3 in size with high quality printing. The books starts with a short biography of Schoeller and then goes straight into the photographs. The first set of images are from his documentary work with the New Jersey police who

Medium format strobist on the cheap

2010-03-25T09:00:00.000Z

There is a stall in the stables market in Camden Lock that sells old cameras and other nicknaks. I managed to pick up this lovely old Agfa Isolette I for 20 pounds. Built in the 1950s it sports three shutter speeds and a flash sync connector. It takes 120 roll film and like my Hasselblad it takes a 6x6 square negative. The lovely thing about this camera is that it folds up small enough that you

Polaroid PoGo Printer Review

2010-03-18T13:01:00.007Z

Every time I saw one of these tiny Polaroid PoGo printers in the shops I was reminded of David Du Chemin's book, Within The Frame. One of the things that he finds useful to break the ice when he wants to photograph people is to make a small print from a portable printer. I have no idea what printer David uses, but this little polaroid camera is now at the right price point to make it worth giving

You gotta fight for your right

2010-02-20T08:06:00.006Z

Its bad enough that the stock agencies are devaluing photography and that thousands of amateurs are simply giving their photographs away for bragging rights or even that companies are blatantly stealing photographs and hoping that they won't get caught, but now the government wants to further devalue photography by making it much easier to take your photographs. The Digital Economy Bill intends

Irving Penn at the National Portrait Gallery

2010-02-18T09:00:00.001Z

The National Portrait Gallery is showing an exhibition of over 120 Irving Penn portraits. The show opens today but you will need to book a slot. Head over to the National Portrait Gallery to book s slot

Photosmudger Workshop

2010-02-12T09:00:00.003Z

Last weekend, I arranged for London based editorial Photographer, Tom Miles, to deliver just one more of his excellent seminars from his tour of UK universities. I had been following the seminars on his blog and feeling extremely jealous of the workshy soap dodgers who were getting this amazing educational opportunity. So I contacted Tom and begged him to do one final workshop for the London

Photography Inspirations: The World is the Human's Project

2010-02-05T09:56:00.007Z

This is just a quick headsup to say that this book is currently on sale at the Book Warehouse on Southampton Row and I have also seen it in the new store on Camden High Street. I picked up my copy for £19 and its list price is £69.95. Whether you think its a bargain or not depends on your taste in photography. I would recommend that you head down to your nearest Discount Bookstore and see if they