I have many more to add on weddings, commercial assignments, websites, and on new equipment purchased so hopefully there will be something of interest for all the regular visitors and for new visitors I hope to attract with a mail shot, and more effort on Facebook and Twitter.

(click to see a larger version of the posters)

Posters – Design and Print

Although most of the page layout, design, and print work we do is for our commercial client’s, (click here for blog on this) we are often asked to create posters for personal use. Above are three different ones done recently.

Eastenders: One of my best friend’s son’s- Barry, Jordan, and Josh Clarkson were in restaurant in Spain and had their photograph taken with Kara Tointon who plays Dawn Swan in Eastenders. The photographs were not great and had red eye and were low resolution. The mutual friend who took the photographs wanted to give a framed poster size print as a gift so we enhanced the images, added The Estenders logo and background, and added text to create a nice poster, which when framed looked great. Click the thumbnail above to view it.

Old Trafford: Barry Woods took his Dad to Old Trafford as part of his 50th birthday celebrations and wanted to give his Dad something to commemorate this. He had taken photographs on his phone but they were no use for a poster size print so we got a shot of Old Trafford on-line and scanned the ticket and added it, the phone photographs , and text to create something to frame and keep as a memory of a great Father and son trip. Click the thumbnail above to view it.

12 portrait display: This was done for my daughter (so not very lucrative). A friend of hers had bought a frame with 12 apertures for prints and when I saw Natasha trying to fit the small prints into the flimsy mount, I suggested creating the same effect by adding the images to a 20inch x 20 inch layout and printing it as one print to fit the existing frame. Click the thumbnail above to view it.

If you need to present something or create something with artwork and photographs, call us and see what we can do for you.

Lukas, our photoshop genius has just had his amazing skills certified. On Monday this week he went to Edinburgh to sit an exam for the Expert certification for Photoshop CS4. He said it was very tough but knowing his incredible skill and knowledge of Photoshop, I was not surprised that he passed with flying colours.

Photoshop is a key element for every photographer and although nothing can replace the skill behind the camera, we can correct, enhance, and create stunning images with Photoshop, and there is very little Lukas cannot do.

What is an Adobe Certifed Expert?

“An Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) is a person who has demonstrated proficiency with one or more Adobe software products. ACE is recognized as a worldwide standard of excellence in Adobe software knowledge.”

Lukas working on his high spec Macpro with 30 inch screen (and 22 inch Lacie screen) and a recently added A4 Wacom tablet which has made editing more efficient and accurate.

Certificate awarded on Monday, 19th October, 2009

Chancellor Alistair Darling with Catriona McPhee-Smith, Chief Executive of Inspire

Last Friday (16th October), Chancellor Alistair Darling was in Aberdeen and visited Inspire at the Beach Boulevard. We were asked to take photographs but were sworn to secrecy for security reasons. Greig took a series of photographs of the Chancellor while he was there – click here to see the images. These images are for Inspire to use in promotional material and their website.

Inspire is a charity that aims to offer opportunities for an excellent quality of life to people with learning disabilities in North East Scotland. The Chancellor met with the team at Inspire’s new multi-resource centre on the Beach Boulevard, Aberdeen. Included at the new centre is Café Coast, a social enterprise operating under Inspire Ventures Ltd. They provide training and employment opportunities for people with learning disabilities within Café Coast and its partner enterprise, Inspire Conferences.

Click here to visit the Inspire website.

The Chancellor is no stranger to Aberdeen. He was educated in Kircaldy and the private Loretto School in Musselburgh , then attended the University of Aberdeen where he was awarded a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B). He became the head of Aberdeen University Students Union. He entered Parliament at the 1987 General Election in Edinburgh Central defeating the sitting Conservative MP Sir Alexander Fletcher by 2,262 votes, and has remained an MP since.

In June 2007, the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, appointed Darling Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Wikipedia entry for Alistair Darling here.

Our Studio at 256 Wellington Road, Aberdeen

This is the first post in our new blog which I hope will become a useful means of communication with clients, prospects, and friends. It is a cliche but I feel very fortunate to earn my living doing something that I enjoy so much and photography has been a lifelong passion. Therefore the bulk of this blog will revolve around photography, but will also have posts on my other passions – technology, music, and fine dining. I have been a keen photographer for 39 years and had my first darkroom at home when I was 11. I have been working as a professional photographer for 32 years and this is the most interesting time I have experienced.

Digital imaging has matured and completely taken over from film and this is a very exciting transition for my profession. This blog will hopefully give an insight into how powerful a tool photography is both in it’s traditional role of recording life’s big events but also as a selling and communication tool in business and industry. aberdeenphoto.com has developed and we are involved in creating websites, email marketing campaigns, sales presenters, point of sale displays, and wall decor for hotels, offices, and restaurants. Hopefully it may be of interest to see some of the projects we are involved in e.g. supplying building wraps, images printed as wallpaper, themed display projects, creating websites, e-mail marketing, and everything that uses images to communicate.

People photography and weddings in particular are still a major part of our business so you will regularly see what we are up to as this field of photography has seen dramatic changes. The biggest change is in how we present our photography producing beautiful bound books – click here for an example.

Wellington Road Studio

The other important area that we are going to develop is studio portraiture as we have a superb new studio. We offer a wide range of style, both the creative modern style and also the more traditional portraits which is neglected by a lot of studios. As one of the founder Venture Studio members, I have extensive experience in offering innnovative portraits and I am looking forward to developing this part of the business.

Look out for special portrait promotions before Christmas

Technology will feature in many of my posts as I am a self-confessed gadget fanatic. I am a huge fan of Apple and having converted from Dos/Windows, I never cease to be impressed by Apple’s hardware, software, and innovation. My favourite gadget is my iPhone 3Gs and I will feature some of the amazing apps I have on my phone.

I hope that you will  choose to read at least some of the posts and find something of interest.

Neil Gordon, LMPA, LSWPP

Before I start with posts about assignments, projects, and technology, I would like to introduce you to aberdeenphoto.com. We are a small team of five key people and two additional photographers, both of whom have worked with me since 1980.

Our team

• Neil Gordon, LMPA, LSWPP  – Managing Director
• Sandra Rae  -  Director  and responsible for accounts and administration (part time)
• Lukas Smolaga – Photographer and Photoshop guru
• Greig Wallace – Photographer and post production
• Natasha Gordon – administration and computer systems (part time)
• Andrew McLean – Wedding and Portrait photographer (part time)
• Charles Morrison – Wedding and landscape photographer (part time)

Our premises are an old community centre which was completely refurbished and custom designed to give us great facilities for our clients and for us to work in. The images above show my office where I meet clients, the studio which also has a client area and image viewing facilities, and the post production room. The complete facilities include:

• Waiting area with gallery
• Changing room and toilet facilities
• Store
• Filing and library area
• My office/client meeting room
• Studio/client meeting area
• Post production and printing room

In the future there will be more information about our team. There wil be posts with more details and photographs of our facilities and equipment, but this will give you an introduction to aberdeenphoto.com.