Ryder Cup Celebration at Deeside Golf Club

After the great success of last year’s event at Deeside Golf Club to raise funds for the Maggie’s appeal, the event was staged again at the beautiful setting of Deeside Golf Club. To find out about this very worthy cause, see the blog post from last year by clicking here.

The event kicked off with the clinics at the driving range where Colin’s relaxed style and interesting anecdotes make it a very popular part of the day. Even I picked up a few useful tips. We were very lucky to have a beautiful day, probably one of the best days of sunshine this year.

Colin brought the Ryder Cup with him this year so not only did the teams get photographed with Colin, they also got to handle the famous trophy. For most teams, the individual players also got taken with the trophy. It was not there for the start of the event so unfortunately the first few teams at the 14th tee did not get the Ryder cup in their photographs. The strong sunshine meant I had to use a lot of flash and i was very grateful to have my Quantum lighting with me. I drained 3 high capacity batteries with the amount of flash required (for those interested in photography, the exposure was 250s at f10 – f18 so it was mainly full power flash.

The only disappointing thing for me was that I was feeling very ill and the day after was at the Doctor, and then was in hospital so it was a challenge working all day and then at the dinner at Stewart Milne’s house at night.

All the photographs taken during the day can be viewed here and the shots from the dinner and prize presentation here (separate blog post to follow)

Sponsorship of AECC by Internet for Business

Internet for Business, Managing Director, Graeme Gordon (I photographed Graeme and Susan’s wedding many years ago) contacted me to take photographs of the tower at the AECC to show their branding and logo. I took a range of shots, some of which can be seen below, or the complete set can be see by clicking here. The lighting was reasonable and most of the shots only needed minor adjustment in Photoshop but one or two of the images were created using several exposures so that I could get a beautiful sky but still keep detail in the building.

Beautiful food at The Milton

Last week, I was photographing food from the new menu at the highly regarded Milton Restaurant.  These shots will be used in their new website. The food looked great, and having dined there several times, I am sure it will taste as good as it looked.

I took some exterior and interior shots of this charming restaurant. You can see all the proofs by clicking here

I was commissioned by Jay Emmerson, the restaurant manager, who I had worked with at the Albyn last year when I photographed their food.

I also took a few shots of the view across the River Dee for apart from the beautiful food, part of the attraction and charm of The Milton, is the beautiful setting.

To view all the images, click here.

For many years now we have been involved in email marketing and supply this service to many local companies. I got involved at the request of a client and we then started using it ourselves to promote wedding and portrait services. I never marketed this but starting getting approached to supply this service. Initially we used the system for our clients – loading their database, creating the emails, sending, and reporting back.

However most of our clients now do this themselves and log in using a browser and mange the database, and create great looking emails. One of the unique features is the analysis where you know exactly who has opened your message or clicked on any links etc. It is easy to use but for new clients we include training which takes 1-2 hours. Several clients delegate this task to one person and if they move on, I can train the new user, and provide cover until someone takes over. This is one of the advantages of buying through ourselves. The other advantage is that we are considerably less expensive than if you dealt direct with the company we partner with, and you could get all the features including SMS marketing, at a much lower monthly cost.

The  system has just had some major upgrades and we have updated our website with details and lots of short videos on how to use this incredibly powerful tool. Click here to learn more, and there is one of the videos below. Well targeted personal email is an important part of any marketing strategy and integrates with all digital marketing – Facebook, Twitter, blogging etc.

If you are interested in learning more about this service, please click here to email me.

Building site to finished building with Photoshop

Earlier this week, I was asked to photograph a unit in Westhill that is close to the the end of the construction stage. It was very difficult working around the diggers, workmen, and Portacabins. My angles were very restricted but at least the lighting was good. The client needed the images now before the building was finished so we were asked to remove railings etc. Lukas has done a great job on this very tricky task.

Apart from the obvious railings being removed and grass added, if you look closely,you will see the work he has done on the windows, the sign at the far right, and some of the drums etc. in front of the warehouse. more…

Slideshow for the iPad

I have spoken before about how useful the iPad is as a sales tool and I now have several clients using these as sales presenters. I have just created a slideshow of commercial photography to show on the iPad. I thought about grouping exteriors, interiors, etc. but eventually decided just to mix a selection of shots to give a "feel" for the type of work I do. I created it at 720p and the quality on the iPad is great. The Youtube version below does not look so good as the iPad but if you choose 720p, it will give a good idea.

I have not "blogged" much recently as I have been so busy but I have a lot of draft posts with recent work prepared so all being well there will be a new post everyday next week. I love to get feedback on any of the posts so any comments will be appreciated.

Colin Montgomerie forum for Deeside junior members

Last Thursday, Colin Montgomeris was back at Deeside Golf Club with the Ryder Cup. He had kindly agreed to have a question and answer session for the junior members at Deeside Golf club. Colin established a relationship with Deeside last year when there was a special tournament at Deeside with Colin to raise funds for the Maggies appeal. Click here to find out about the event and the appeal.

The junior members had some great questions and Colin is very articulate and gave them a great insight into his amazing golfing career. Doug Watson, the club captain, made a very good job of hosting the session and finished up with a rapid fire series of either or questions so all the juniors and members present could find out more about "Colin, the man, as well as the golfer"

After the Q and A session, all the children and a few of the members there lined up to have their photograph taken with Colin and the Ryder Cup. When Lucinda, his assistant saw the number in the queue, she said it would be impossible as he was on a tight schedule but we started and went very quickly and took 64 photographs in well under 10 minutes. Colin was very complementary about how quickly it was done and although I would have liked longer, at least everyone got their photograph taken. I had a background set up which was only big enough for a tight shot of 2 people so Lukas had a lot of Photoshop work to do to "add background" where required. I have already had some very positive comments about the images (see below) which we are selling on-line with 50% of the sales going to the Maggies appeal.

Click here to view all the images.

Good Morning Neil,

The photos from the Colin Montgomery Juniors session at Deeside GC are superb.
……
Would you let me know sizes and prices please? I’ll probably go for standard sizes for all of them apart from the threeshot (NWG2816) which we’d like enlarged – it’s brilliant.

Many thanks, Kirstin

Kirstin Gove, Communications & Media Training Manager
AVC Media Enterprises

Lamination work by Nu-Style

As part of an ongoing project to supply images to show lamination work done by Nu-Style, I was photographing Cocoa’s, a stylish Bistro and a chic bar just off Union Street.

I was featuring the work done by Nu-Style which included the table tops in a light cream coloured laminate, a table top area as you go i the door in a stylish black laminate with a pattern, which is also used in the cubes beside the lounge seating.  I really liked the black textured wallpaper beside the top at the door and as the architect was there, I was able to ask him about it and he is sending details and this may eventually be on a wall in my office as a backdrop to new samples I am about to order.

The laminate in the toilets is very impressive and gives the toilets a wow factor. The highly reflective panels and the bright spotlights does not make this an easy subject to photograph, but I have now photographed several toilets for Nu-Style so I know how to tackle this which often involves positioning the camera and tripod so the reflection does not show, and then using the self timer so I can be out of the room when the camera fires.

To see some of the work done for the metal fabrication services supplied by Nu-Style, click here, and for previous lamination photographs, click here. I am still working on a list of projects, studio shots of laminates, and photographs showing the workshop, and showroom, so there will be more posts showing the wide range of services and facilities, Nu-Style has to offer.

Photography for re-branding

Last week, I had photographs to take at the Holiday Inn Express in Chapel Street after a recent re-brand from Express by Holiday Inn to Holiday Inn Express. The hotel has been upgraded with new signs, new flat screen TV’s in the bedrooms, and many other upgrades. I have photographed the hotel several times but obviously the recent changes meant new images were required.

With the Brentwood Hotel being photographed last week, and photography booked for the Bauhaus, and more shots at the Brentwood for later this week, I am spending a lot of my time in hotels.

Photography for Website and Marketing

Yesterday (Tuesday 25th January, 2011) I started on the photography for the Brentwood Hotel, a very popular and busy hotel on Crown Street, Aberdeen. A complete set of photographs are required to show the work done refurbishing the hotel, and the facilities the hotel can offer. The first shots taken were a conference room set up, private dining, the dining room, the lounge, and a selection of the different bedroom styles. For the conference set up shot, we added the hotel logo to the TV, and text to the whiteboard (better than my handwriting) using Photoshop – see the before and after above.

For the private dining shot, I added an image to the TV screen.

For this dining room shot, I framed it with the mirrors which "leads" you into the shot. This shot and most of them were taken using a Quantum Trio on the camera, and 1 or 2 radio triggered Quantum Qflash T5DR. This set up is superb as wherever you place the lights, they fire every time. Apart from a much better quality of light, and more power, the radio triggering is so much better than the infrared line of sight Nikon CLS system.

The Brentwood has 66 very nice and well equipped bedrooms and I photographed a few of the different bedrooms so guests can see the different sizes and layouts.

I am back tomorrow evening to take shots of the bar and restaurant areas while it is busy, and then again on Monday to photograph the reception, food, the chefs at work, and a range of detail shots.

The shots taken yesterday can be viewed by clicking here.