I had a very strange year as a photographer, and I would like to briefly reflect on it as I’m sure lots of us have years like this. It was a year in which I finally took my skills and carefully amassed equipment and pitted them against a few, three to be precise, weddings, and I am really satisfied to have put these three learning experiences behind me and I am excited about the year ahead as a semi-professional photographer. That sounds as if it is a positive year, but there are some major undercurrents that are worrying me. In addition to my 3 weddings and 2 associated pre-shoots, I didn’t take a lot of portraits. Underpinning my growing photo skills is a deep love of portraiture and a delight in capturing something of people I like or who interest me, if I don’t continue to do that, then I’m afraid I might lose something essential, and even if I become an accomplished wedding shooter, I might lose the style and approach that I have developed naturally so far.

Of course there are reasons, I’m really busy at work and enjoying the professional challenges there. I have also bought a house with my girlfriend which is still sucking up DIY time, although we are almost finished that now, There was Julie’s pregnancy and now the birth of baby Hannah leading to sleep being somewhat disrupted. In short, combining this list with the 3-hour commute Julie and I had to see each other for most of the same year, it isn’t surprising that I haven’t taken enough portraits. What I don’t want though, is for this to become a permanent state of affairs, and that is where I have to confess to my dear readers about a failing. One of my very favourite photographers, David Alan Harvey, when working with a student who wanted to do a photoshoot with someone, give the young man short-shrift and told him to stop agonising about it, and to just push the issue with this potential subject. I agree totally with this approach, most of my favourite portraits have come from me gently “pushing” people who claim not to want to be photographed into working with me. Of course I don’t advocate being too pushy, “no” means “no” of course, but between yes and no lies a whole world of “maybe secretly I would like you to make a nice image of me and social protocol says I have to self protect by saying i’m not photogenic” or similar. These people are absolutely my favourite to work with and my problem is that I haven’t been that guy this year!

So if I am going to keep true to myself and develop my style then, I need to grow that confidence in approaching people and cutting out the small amount of time to meet with subjects and to produce something they love. Expect a pushier Matthew this year. It is an interesting question whether my few years of being pushy and doing projects like my 100-portraits has developed a style that can be seen in my early wedding shoots, or whether they look just like everyone else’s? Like every photographer, I hope that some of my style comes through?

The picture is of my Sister in Law, who I love immensely, and who really didn’t want to have her photo taken!

http://kellymoorebag.com/mens/kelly-boy/kelly-boy-bag-brown.html

I have been using the Kelly Moore “Kelly Boy” camera bag since my girlfriend gave it to me as a gift for Christmas a year ago. In that time I have used the bag a lot. I have carried it casually on social gatherings, shot three weddings with it, and made it my main camera bag. I’ll say it clearly right at the outset, it is my favourite camera bag, and the one I would reach for in most portrait shooting situations. Does that mean I think it is without faults, no! No camera bag is without faults, in fact, I suspect it is impossible for a bag designer to make a perfect camera bag, that is why most keen photographers have a few different designs for different situations. Personally I have a Lowepro camera rucksack, which I chose to take on holiday, but for shooting weddings, it had to be the “Kelly Boy”.

Firstly, the unique selling point of the “Kelly Boy” bag is its appearance. This is a man bag for your camera. It resembles nothing so much as a stylish courier bag or business bag. No one would look at it and think, camera geek, and in fact that is true of all of the Kelly Moore designs. This is its strength and its weakness of course:

Strength because it looks great and you can’t help but feel relaxed about using it at a wedding or social gathering as it looks cool and fits in well.

Weakness because in some ways it places style above function.

OK, so you get that I like how this bag looks, well what else do I like about it? The main thing is the top cover which folds completely back to hang down out of the way of the main compartment allowing you full and unrestricted access to your camera and lenses. In use at a photoshoot this is pretty much the exclusive way I use the bag. You simply reach down and grab the next lens as you chat with your subject without breaking stride or flow, this is priceless in portraiture. As long as you can limit yourself to the camera and three spare lenses, or in my case, the camera, attached lens, two spare lenses and a flashgun, the bag is perfect for being convenient and unobtrusive in use. The front pockets zip up easily and hold enough essentials for a shoot, like cards, batteries, and in my case, my pocket wizards. So in summary this always holds what I need for a portrait shoot, and I can’t ask more than that in a convenient and stylish package. I usually try to have a larger bag handy with my other lenses and bodies somewhere nearby, like in the car, as a base-store, but work from the “Kelly Boy” once I have chosen the lenses for my needs.

On the negative side, I couldn’t live without a good photo-rucksack as they have many of the features that I find missing in the Kelly Boy bag. Padding is an important  missing feature for me, the Kelly Boy compartments can be resized with velcro tabs as in so many camera bags, but they are simply cards covered in the man-made leather style material the bag is made from. They are in short, useful dividers but not padded or particularly protective; thankfully most modern kit is fairly sturdy and doesn’t need extensive padding to stop gentle bumping in normal-photo-session use, so this is a problem but not a major one in practice. It is worth noting that I have seen photos of the “Kelly Boy” bag with a more padded interior, so I am not sure whether there are more padded versions available. It would be worth checking with Kelly Moore about this if you are planning a purchase and this worries you. The more serious issue I have, is that the flap is held down by two unobtrusive magnets which are great in normal use, but let the top pop up too easily if you have picked the bag up at an awkward angle, say from your car boot for example; it is possible to have a lens slip out with potentially damaging consequenses. (This did happen to me, and now I’m super careful about it). I would like to see Kelly put an internal cover on the bag to hold things safely in the compartments during travel, but which could be easily removed in use. Another worry for me in the rainy West of Scotland is the gap left on either side of the flap when closed which can let rain in. I have been caught in a few rain showers and I have been forcibly holding these as tightly covered as I can to minimise ingress, but a nylon rain cover, or a fold out flap on the main cover to deflect rain if caught out would help. Of course I would never take the Kelly Boy out deliberately in the rain, but the reality is that you can get caught out!

The bag has the now obligatory slot behind the camera and lens compartments for a laptop or similar. I have no strong feelings about this, but I can’t imagine that I would use this bag to hold a laptop. The bag is all about casual and handy support of camera and lenses in my view, and with my 5dMK2, 3 lenses and a laptop, this would be an unpleasant beast to carry casually; certainly it doesn’t take up much space in the “Kelly Boy”, and so I don’t think it has cut down on spaces for the main purpose of the bag.

So my summary, if you are a guy, and you want a stylish bag to carry your camera that lets you access your stuff with casual ease, then this is your bag. There are other messenger style bags available, but this is beautifully finished and looks special with it’s detailing and designed appearance. If Kelly Moore was to make improvements to the bag to address my minor concerns, then I would probably want to buy a new one, and that is about as good an endorsement of my experience with the Kelly Boy bag as I can give.

This is a great bag, and I’m happy to endorse it with the minor but important provisos that I have listed.

You will also enjoy Kelly Moore’s excellent website:

http://kellymoorebag.com/

Note: My girlfriend bought herself the Kelly Moore B-Hobo at the same time, and might add a guest review of her own shortly?

(She also supplied the photos of the bag on me)

I will post some pictures of Hannah soon, but this is my favourite picture so far and the one I wanted to share quickly.

This one is from Strachur, and was taken using my friend’s Olympus 135mm prime lens using an adapter on manual mode. There is something so satisfying about these classic lenses, and turning a manual selector on the barrel for the aperture. This lens is so compact for a 135mm telephoto you just wouldn’t believe; perhaps 7cm long without the adapter. You can buy adapter rings for the Sony NEX series, and most of the mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras on Ebay for very little cash. The Sony has had a firmware update which makes them easier to use by magnifying the image on screen to help you see details as you focus.

This is the town where I work, (in as much as I’m truly based anywhere). It was a planned town and has a magic all of it’s own which is seen so well when the loch is as still and dreamy as this. You can see the Christmas tree on the shore. I used the 18-55 kit lens for this and had the delights of autofocus! Check the star (or planet) reflection.

f5.6  55mm(x 1.5)

How time flies, Julie with 6 weeks to go. Julie set me the challenge of photographing her in a black maternity dress. Perhaps madly I used my black background cloth  and ended up using a reflector to try to get some more highlights on the bumplet. My friend Martin chided me for not posting much recently, and it’s true. I seem to be painting cupboards when I’m not working, and it just won’t do; I must try harder, watch this space.

Anyone want a portrait? Email me, I need to get creative again to get the numbing effects of a roller-full of “almond white Dulux” out of my soul:-)

I am delighted to finally post this set of pictures from David and Charlotte’s wedding. The wedding was on the 30th of September and I would have hoped to process and select the pictures within a week or so, but unfortunately I have moved house and into a painting, plastering and carpeting zone; finding time to work on pictures and paint in time for carpet-fitting has been a bit of a juggle.Anyway, all the time critical stuff is done and I can prioritise the photographs again and in nice surroundings with new carpets to boot. Lets start with the pre wedding relaxation at Mum’s house. Dad, Andrew patiently waiting for the dressing up and girlie preparations to be completed.

Mum, Trish relaxing while she can as well.Sporting her best Mona Lisa look.

Anyway, all this peaceful chilling-out is a mere preamble to the main item on the agenda, people, I give you the girlie preps:

Bridesmaid Kirsty:

You might recognise my special favourite helper Amber from the pre-shoot. Amber is in flower girl mode here.

And her sister Grace.

Bridesmaid Kathryn:

Bridesmaid Donna managing her stocks and shares as one of course must!

And the main actress in the girly preps, the bride Charlotte; check her lovely relaxed smile.

Some bride’s get treated to a visiting hairdresser, but poor Charlotte is a hairdresser and her sense of duty clearly trumped her sense of decadence. Who does half a dozen hairstyles just before their wedding? impressive!

I just love the rose in Donna’s hair.

Of course Donna helped with the hair too.

More pictures of the girls getting in the mood:

Charlotte and David’s daughter Katie prefers getting in the wedding mood the modern way; ipads are the only choice.

My colleague and friend Maggie comfortable in her casual togs, prior to the girly-dressing-thing that she was kind-of dreading…

and Maggie’s new hound, the gorgeous Shelby hoping the wedding will bring bones or other celebratory largesse.

Katie steps up the preparation pace, by taking her ipad to the dressing table, she really means business now..

Eventually there has to be a first all-scrubbed-polished and ready Princess, this time its Grace…

Get that dress..

Talking of striking outfits, isn’t Trisha’s amazing, just love that fascinator..

Kirsty modelling the amazing black bridesmaid’s dresses, very striking.

But speaking personally, seeing Maggie dressed up and girly, with good grace too, was a real highlight; Maggie looks great! (I had to tone down the red though as my Canon Sensor was totally saturated in the red channel, really).

Exhausted from all the hard work, cinderella finally gets that dress on, and isn’t it beautiful…

And talking of beautiful, Katie is all ready and dressed here too..

Oh, almost forgot, brother, David appeared looking the biz, no fuss, no hassle, i’m just saying….

Anyway, over to Helensburgh where groom David was all ready and looking great.

As was best man Ian..

Anyway, enough of the photographs, “I have a bride waiting”…

With the registrar at last.

All is ready.

David’s wait was not long, Charlotte arrives..

A quick moment with Dad.

But now, down to the happy business.

The ceremony over, many gathered friends and well-wishers delivered the traditional confetti, you would be amazed how many photos it takes to get one without confetti in front of the couple’s faces.

I know, it’s cheesy, but it’s fun as well, it could have been worse, look at the restraint I showed with Charlotte’s hair rose!

One happy bride, looking amazing.

Anyway, at this point, Charlotte’s plan A, the public park which I had recce’d earlier to scout locations, took a bit of a hit as the heavens opened up and the inevitable rain began, plan B was Gran’s house for the formals.

But plan B took a hammering too as the rain, turned particularly nasty, nothing like the traditional wedding-double-garage-waiting-ceremony:-)

The formals almost scuppered, the enterprising gentlemen present produced a plethora of brollies, and unorthodox or not, the show went on!

No brollies though for this posse of real men, unflinching but soaked, they really earn the right to sport sporrans here.

But, the rain got still heavier and plan D, subsection 4, paragraph C was executed, Gran’s house proper!

However, all weddings start with panic and fun for the bridal party. It would be unprofessional of me to mention the exciting game of “hunt the missing earrings”. Oops….

Some of Petrea’s younger supporters:

Back to the pampering.

Of course, meanwhile the men were looking after each other’s preparations.

But eventually all were ready and Petrea emerged, looking amazing..

And here’s one of Steve looking equally great, ready to meet Petrea.

Assisted in last minute good wishes by sister, Ginny.

The ever so girlie bridal party prepare to accompany Petrea into the marriage room.

And, finally, down to the business in hand.

It wouldn’t of course be a Petrea event without a musical element, Petrea and the registrar, a friend from Edinburgh celebrate the union with an Operatic duet. So classy and so beautiful..

Safely married and looking delighted, these pictures show the details of Petrea’s dress.

And so to the formals, struggling as I was with the tail end of a chest infection, marshalling the troops by power of voice alone was never going to be easy, mercifully Petrea and Steve had pre-selected all the guests for docility and obedience……

Eventually the guests were left to relax and enjoy the castle setting, while Petrea, Steve, Julie and I went to a local beach in Cove. The wedding was held in Craigrownie Castle in Cove, Rosneath Peninsula, Argyll. Somewow an Irish/Scottish wedding was set of by the very Celtic setting of Loch Long and the Cowal hills beyond. Enjoy these:

We loved photographing Petrea and Steve on the beach and hope you like the images as much as we do. However, if the Celtic theme was to continue, it needed music:

“Ah, if only someone would dance with me, my pumpkin will be here soon”

Apparently wallflowers were sprouting all over the floor…

However, this girl didn’t have too long to wait:

More ceilidh music supplied by an excellent trio:

And more dancing, some cruel guest even made me join in.

One of the most lovely moments, was Petrea dancing a waltz, with her mum. Boy did they know how to Waltz.