Go the extra mile

Sometimes just going the extra mile makes it really worth it when doing a shoot. Whether you are being paid or not, in the end if you need that elusive shot, you may have to work for it, in miles, time and petrol.

I find the more photographs i have taken, the harder it is to either, get a new one for the portfolio that is unique from the rest or indeed just get one that is of a higher quality than most other photos preceding it.

Anyway, the other day, it was worth travelling 2 hours and back to get to Flamborough Head, awesome place for a shoot, must go there again some time. Awesome day, but really hungry when I got home at 10pm!

See more of the image(s) on my gallery page.

Studio space available to rent

Contact me if you are willing to share a space in the centre of Leeds with a photographer (me) and a fabric artist. Rent is £135/ month and includes all bills. Its, warm, bright and in the centre – LS1 near leeds train station. Call 07710 055318.

District six choose Band Photography Leeds

District six

Well of course they do, and a great day was had by all – we nearly ran out of petrol and got a bit lost. Sams (make up/hair) GPS on her phone was running out of battery so we stopped. While there I decided to walk to the top of a small hill and lo and behold in front of me was a gigantic deep quarry with young guys going about on scrambler bikes. We had just stumbled on an awesome location somewhere around Denholme, West Yorkshire.

Band Photography gets a MySpace

You know how like I said in an earlier post that the rivers would need to run dry before i got a MySpace account, well I maybe didn’t flower it up that much but I have succumbed and Band Photography now has a MySpace account – take a look if you dare – i updated to MySpaces Profile 2.0 system so its all a bit of an improvement over there – if you care to take advantage of it.

Sarah Mitchells new album

Nice to see her release her album on Candid records. I of course did the photography, nice to see it on the cover, thanks Sarah. If you are into soulful jazz then take a look, Michael Parkinsons recommendation soon got Jamie Cullum on his way, hope it does the same for Sarah. She is playing the album release gig in Leeds in May, see her website for more detail. Album is available at Amazon, HMV and Play.com.

Sarah Mitchell waiting for a bus

Well done Sarah!

Credit crunch or not – D90 here i come

I’m excited today – just bought a new camera – the Nikon D90 and a Tamron 90mm macro lens – looking forward to the results.

Just feel I saved myself about £400 – nearly bought the superior Nikon D300, but didnt think the more rugged construction and weather seal was something i can justify – the rest of the specs of the D90 seem to have been pretty much copied from the D300 anyway, especially as to the quality of the image capture. Main difference to me seems to be the 100% frame coverage you get with the D300 and the slightly faster flash sync, not too mention a flash sync socket. But i think the fact that the D90 can actually take HD quality video is going to more than make up for that. better return to using the old hot shoe adapter.

Main improvement i will get after using my D70 will be the added pixel resolution, the much bigger screen preview, the noise reduction technology and the dust removal capability.

It was worth checking out the arguments on line between the D300 andthe D90 though.

Cant wait.

Work,work,work, ditto

Aargh, everytime I do a shoot I seem to be taking pretty good photos, but this just means loads of work to do post production after each shoot. For instance I need to put the new fab photo or photos up on this blog, Jamuse.com – a portfolio based website, model mayhem(if its fashion work), Facebook, Flickr, oh and of course my fashion web site at www.simonmurray.com. Thats a lot of duplication – can anyone post some good ideas?

Lisa Pang

Thank goodness i don’t bother with mySpace!!

Steve Chan

Steve Chan looking mean

I like this shot – took it last week

Off to Scotland

OK people, will sign off now for probably about 2 weeks as I’m off to Perth, Scotland for Christmas, and I think New Year, have been doing quite a bit of fashion photography in the studio off late, so pop along to www.simonmurray.com and send me a comment, take care and merry Christmas.

Well, the studio seems to be working out

The studio in the centre of Leeds has signposted a new, or rather resurrgence of my love of fashion photography, the people, the industry. There has been quite an influx of models coming through the doors recently and together we are taking some great photos. Its early days yet but a number of these photos are starting to appear on the gallery page of BandPhotography under its own section – Fashion.

Many thanks also goes out to Sam Myers who is doing the make-up and hair, Sam is fantastic to work with and has a wide experience of make-up from fashion, to makeovers to sci-fi/special fx.

Long may we have this working relationship – or at least until her big move!! Look forward to the Sushi Sam.