| | Kicking off the year with a bang 💥This month has been about secret projects both for clients and for myself. Owwww, it’s so exciting, but alas it’s too early to spill the beans on either …. sorry, not sorry. It’s amazing how a new year restarts you and gets the creativity flowing. One of the new things I’ve started doing this year is writing in a notebook and not just on my Remarkable/Phone. Now I haven’t given up using the Remarkable, but I have defined when and how I use it. And I haven’t given up the phone for tasks, etc., but again, I've defined how I use it and have reduced how much I use it! There is something calming about writing, and I’m sure there are people who can analyse this further. All I know is that I’m enjoying the process of not looking at a screen, and instead sitting and thinking. | | | |
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| | New research shows how AI can close the creative measurement gapI love this article, which was published at the end of last year, and basically says you need to measure how effective your marketing is so you can see if AI is really helping you. I know this sounds simple and obvious, but I bet you just use AI to create your ideas/posts/campaign and not check what the difference in engagement is between those and the ones you put all the hard work into 😳 After all, it’s all about customer experience, and if AI isn’t delivering that for you, you need to rethink how it’s used. | | | |
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| | | | Antiques
Yes, we’ve had some more antiques back in the studio, and I’m still fascinated by the history of the objects and can’t believe the detail that is in some of these pieces, which are OLD! By the way, the last few items which are glass, it’s not dust that is on them, it’s impurities in the glass and something which collectors look for in pieces of this age. | | | |
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| | Retainer Packages
Great content shouldn’t be a one-off. If your business relies on visual marketing, consistency is everything. Our photography retainer packages make it easy to stay on-brand and on-point, month after month. ✅ Priority access ✅ Consistent quality ✅ Predictable costs Let’s make this year the year your visuals work harder for you. | | | |
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| | I’m excited to share a visual storytelling project I worked on showcasing the French Connection brand, where the goal was to create striking lifestyle product images that truly make their candle range stand out. For this shoot, I focused on blending natural and artificial light to flatter the products, capturing both the ambience of the settings and the character of the candles themselves, including beautifully lit shots that brought the scents and style to life. This case study offers behind-the-scenes insights from the shoot and a curated selection of the final images that enhanced French Connection’s online presence. Whether you’re passionate about product photography or eager to see how visual content can boost brand storytelling, this is for you. | | | |
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| | | | Playing with focus stackingSo, what is focus stacking?Focus stacking is a way to create a very detailed final photo from multiple photos, all layered together. Why do we need to do focus stacking?When we are close to a subject, the depth of what we can get in focus is very small for the amount of light we have available (Now we can use mobile phones with their tiny sensors to capture more depth, but the actual images aren’t very good, as they're only as good as the sensor's size allows). What is the end result?The result is a high-resolution image with everything in focus. This doesn’t mean you can’t have shallow depth images, which are very arty, but if you are trying to show every detail of your product, then this is for you. | | | |
| | The image below is a single photograph with just the very closest part of the flower in focus at the bottom of the image. | | | |
| | The next image is the result of 62 photographs, each focusing on a different point of the flower, all merged together. | | | |
| | The following image is my desired crop of the final image. | | | |
| | Finally, this image is just to show you how close we can crop in and still keep perfect detail, all from the one finished focus-stacked image. | | | |
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| | | | Behind The ScenesJust a few photos from on location so that you can have a peek into my world. | | | |
| | Creating the focus stacked image above. | | | |
| | Getting wet to show how the product handles for an upcoming video 🌧️ | | | |
| | Outdoor photoshoots for a photography training session. | | | |
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| | Studio photography training session. Teaching everything from interactions with the models to using the lighting. | | | |
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| | | | | Previous newsletters are available, providing a treasure trove of marketing advice and some delightful pictures, too! Take your time to check them out and enjoy a few extra minutes of reading. | | | |
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| | | | This month's Landscape‘Autumn Forest' I just love the little Silver Birch growing up in the forest, with a scattering of light just making it shine and pop against the autumn colours. | | | |
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| | | | Well, that’s it for this month and I hope there has been something in this which has sparked an interest for you. If there is something you would like to see in future, then just let me know. | | | |
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“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity."
Albert Einstein
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