News Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Richard Spurdens Photography

2014 Edition – Sensual Photography

A website that I post on from time to time and use as a resource is Sensual-photography.eu

If you don’t know it, this is a French based participatory photo gallery based around a single theme of sensual photography and the sensuality of the woman. The images are chosen by the editors Nicole Fily and Francois Rommens so each image is validated by them to ensure that it fits with the theme.

For the last 2 years they have published a limited edition book with images that have been published on the site, and that they selected to make up the book. The 2014 edition will be their third book and as the saying goes: “good things come in threes”!

So in the 2014 edition I was really pleased to find that one of my images had been selected to be included in this 3^rd edition from Sensual photography.

I think I was one of only two image makers from the UK members to be accepted this year. It was really pleasing to have had an image selected. The book which is 200 pages in full colour has already sold out too.

At the time of this post I didn’t know which image had been selected but now I know that it was this one of the model Helen Diaz. Shot using a Lensbaby composer.

portrait photographer - portrait photography - monochrome portrait of model helen diaz shot with a lens baby — Richard Spurdens Photography – Helen D

Events, FIAP, News

The Trierenberg Super Circuit gala dinner and awards evening

Part of the introduction on the Trierenberg Super Circuit website states that:

“It is the aim of this competition to find out the very best photography from different styles, techniques and genres. The Trierenberg Super Circuit has established as an international benchmark of perfect photography. Not only amateur photographers, but also internationally well-known artists and professionals have been participating.”

And on Monday of this week (13/10/2014) I was among those photographers at the gala dinner and awards evening held at the Design Centre in Linz, Austria. One of my 8 accepted images had been awarded a gold medal for best colourprint image in the Feldkirch salon. (Expression on red Pointe).

Dance Photography - Dance Photographer - red pointe expression — Richard Spurdens Photography – Red pointe expression

As medal winner you get an invite to attend the Gala Dinner and awards evening, and as I have known other UK and Irish photographers, (Ron and Maggie Tear and Ciaran Whyte) to name but two, who have attended in the past and talked about the event being impressive, so when the invitation came I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to attend.

I was not disappointed as it was certainly an impressive event, well organised and with a well curated exhibition of a large number of the accepted prints. To have one of your images on display with all the other impressive work and to stand on the stage in front of all those other photographers and creative artists was a good and humbling feeling.

There were a few other UK photographers attending too – Tim Pile and Brian Hooper were two whose work I know.

They were also there to collect medals for their work so it was good to meet up with them and also spend time with photographers from around the world, the furthest being one from Australia and the other from Brazil.

Thanks to Brian Hooper for the the next two images, which are me collecting my medal; and the other guests on our table (myself and Ro, Lotta van Droom and partner, Brian Hooper, Jalal Sazeli and Jack).

Then we have Tim Pile been interviewed on stage.

bph6874 — Some of the other award winners

Travel Photography - travel Photograher - Linz photo awards — Richard Spurdens photography Tim on camera

Three photographers who I met at the event and whose work is worth looking at are :

Lotta van Droom (Ireland),

Jalal Sazeli from Singapore, and

Mohammadreza Rezinia from Iran is also an impressive creative and it was good to meet and talk with him about the challenges he faces in creating his work.

Have a look at their websites if you have the time.

To sum up the Gala evening – it is just amazing. The presentation of the images, awards, and company made it a special event, and if you ever get the invite, then GO.

General, News

Urban Ballet with Kayleigh Lush

Having finally managed to process some of the urban ballet images from my recent shoot with the dancer Kayleigh Lush .

I thought it was worth sharing a few of them in my blog.

The idea of the project was to shoot a set of ballet themed images in a urban setting.

First of all I needed a good location, which also needed to be fairly local to me.

That choice of location was Saltaire, which is near Shipley and very local to me.

Because I have been there a number of times I knew that it had some really good locations which we could to shoot ballet against.

Another requirement was a trained ballet dancer, so I contacted Kayleigh Lush.

Now having worked with Kayleigh before , I knew she was capable of producing good ballet poses. Which is what I wanted for this project.

Kayleigh is a trained dancer and works really hard to produce great images, especially dance. So was the ideal choice for this project.

As I mentioned above the choice of location was Saltaire, near Shipley which is a world heritage site and has some interesting buildings to work against.

These include the famous Salts Mill with the Leeds Liverpool Canal running between its buildings.

As well as the impressive United Reformed Church. which is just across the canal for the mill builds.

All these building were built by Sir Titus Salt around the 1850s, and I was sure would give good and different building to shoot dance poses against.

On the day the weather was overcast and grey which was good, but to lift Kayleigh out of the background I needed some extra light.

To provided this extra punch of light, I therefore set up a single off camera flash unit fitted with a 19″ McGillicuddy beauty dish . This is my favourite modifier to use with a single off camera flash set up.

Urban ballet Images

As the day progressed the weather turned to light rain, which made working on pointe and landing jumps tricky for Kayleigh.

This therefore required us to make a change to the location, fortunately there was some local woods near by.

Which would provided some shelter from the rain for a while, but still allow us to shoot the projects theme of dance.

News

A second London Salon Medal

A trip to London this weekend to attend the opening of the prestigious London Salon of Photography. This is third year that I have been down to attend the opening of this Salon. Although it is not a FIAP salon and therefore does not count towards any FIAP awards, I have tried to support it since being invited to submit some images three years ago. It is not an easy salon to get images into as they have a unique selection process where the images are viewed by all the assembled salon members and the images have to be passed by them, which is not easy. The images selected have to show distinct evidence of artistic feeling and execution. It may not be a FIAP salon but it does receives thousand of entries from all over the world.

So to have managed to get images selected for inclusion within the exhibition for the last 3 years I feel is a great achievement. My first image selected into the Salon (2012) was entitled: the Lady and the Lamp.

Fine Art Nude Photographer - Fine Art Nude Photography - lady and the lamp — Lady and the lamp

Last year I managed gain two acceptances into the salon ( this is the maximum anyone can get selected), and “Synchronized Bathing Practice” picked up a Salon medal which is a really great achievement as only 10 medal are awarded at each salon.

So to this year – I again managed to have two images selected: “Perfecting the art of chair hurdling” and “Perfecting the art of table stands” are both on the exhibition wall.

The first image was also award a Salon Medal, which I was delighted with. To hold two London Salon medals is, I feel, a really great achievement.

Events, News

Yorkshire Photographic Union (YPU) Annual Exhibition 2014

A little later than I wanted to blog about this but I have had a busy few weeks since the assemble and opening of this exhibition.

If you are in the Yorkshire area and a club photographer, then the Yorkshire Photographic Union’s (YPU) annual exhibition is the show case for the work from Yorkshire photographers. The Annual Exhibition is the place to be on the opening morning as you get a chance to see the work that has made it to the exhibition wall. This year it is being run by Halifax photographic society and is held in the Bankfield Museum in Halifax.
So how did I fare in this year’s Annual Exhibition? I knew I must have got a few acceptances as when I arrived a number of different people offered their congratulation, but that didn’t really prepare me for the results.
You are allowed to enter 6 prints and 6 digital images. I was certainly very successful with my print entry, as all 6 of my prints made it into the exhibition, certainly a very rare occurrence. I was also successful with 3 of my projected images being accepted into the digital presentation too. So that was another good result.
Having got six print images accepted, I was also delighted to find that three of them picked up Individual awards. Two monochrome prints were awarded trophies: Synchronised Bathing Practice –The Challenge Cup for best pictorial Print Monochrome; and Spotting a Square Landing – the Portrait Trophy for best Portrait or People study Print. In Colour prints general, my image entitled: ‘99 on the edge’ was awarded the Rotherham Trophy for the best sport, action or photojournalism Print.
The Challenge Cup winning image:

dance photographer - dance photography - in the mono synchronized bathing practice — Richard Spurdens Photography – Synchronized bathing practice

The Portrait Trophy winning image:

spotting a square landing — Spotting a square landing

The Rotherham Trophy winning image:

Sport photography - sport photographer - skiing action — Richard Spurdens Photography – 99 on the edge

I also received a number of certificates for the following images: Rainy day thoughts, In Contemplation, and Pillow Talk.

Fine Art Nude Photography - Fine Art Nude Photographer - figure shape through the rainy windows of a door — Richard Spurdens Photography – Artistic Nude series

fashion photography - fashion photographer - colour image of model seated on a wooden chair wearing an white top and pants looking off into the distance — Richard Spurdens Photography – In contemplation

fashion photographer - fashion photography - pillow talk — Richard Spurdens Photography – Pillow talk

Ilkley Camera Club also picked up two Society awards – The JE Barker trophy for colour prints and the Keighley Challenge trophy for monochrome prints, so we may well be going to represent the YPU in the PAGB Interclub Championship for 2014.
The exhibition runs until the 31st May 2014.

News

Kayleigh Lush

The last time I worked with Model and dancer Kayleigh Lush was in August 2012 when I was working at the Para-Olympics in London and with a day off I arrange to shoot with Kayleigh. She is certain a great model and dancer. I am still working with and processing images from that shoot, as we seemed to produced so many good ones. So quite why I had left it so long to book to work with her again, I am not sure, but when another few day together can about during a visit to London, I decided it was time to see if I could work with here again.

I used the same studio location as I usually use when in down there and that is the studio run by Adrian Pini .( as I have mentioned in my post First shoot of the year) it a studio close to where I am usually base, and Adrian is a good owner and helpful if you need an assistant.

So here are a few of the images that we produced on the day, Kayleigh was a star again and produced some great shapes and moves.

So thanks again to Kayleigh she works so hard to produce great dance shapes and has great athleticism.

I will be booking her again soon.

Dance Photography - Dance Photographer - contemporary dance shapes — Contemporary Dance shapes

dance photographer - dance photography - in the mono — Richard Spurdens Photography – In the spot light

dance photographer - dance photography - red flame — Richard Spurdens Photography – Red flame

dance photographer - dance photography - in the blue — Richard Spurdens Photography In Blue

Dance Photography - Dance Photographer - colour image of dancer doing a small jump with a chair in the near back ground with her hand held out to the side she looks if she is levataing around the chair — Richard Spurdens Photography – Perfecting the art of chair leviation II

Fine Art Nude Photography - Fine Art Nude Photographer - muted colour image of dancer leaning against a wall with hard shadows of her figure and the chair and stool she is stood between — Richard Spurdens Photography – Kayleigh_Lush shadow play

Dance explosion

Dance Photography - Dance Photographer - monochrome fine art nude image of dancer captured in mid air making a forward leep — Richard Spurdens Photography – Kayleigh_Lush (6 of 7)

News, Photography

First shoot of the year and first post too

My first shoot of the year and my first post of the year too, it seems to have been a long wait to get back to shooting with a model again, in fact it was back in late September that I last shot with a model.

So it was really good to get a chance to work with Lulu Lockhart. When a trip to London came up and Lulu was available for a shoot I booked her I knew Lulu was a good versatile model who could turn her poses to good shapes and expressions, and that proved to be the case.

I tend to use Adrian Pini studio when I am London as is it not too far from where I am usually based, and also its well priced, a reasonable size and Adrian is a good owner and helpful if you need an assistant. Worth a look if you are wanting a studio when you are in London.

So here are a few of the images that we produced on the day, so thank you again Lulu.

Portait Photography - Portrait Photograher - threequarter muted colour image of subject standing up and looking directley towards the camera wearing a white blouse and holding it in the center — Richard Spurdens Photography – Lucy L 6

Portait Photography - Portrait Photograher - colour image of sudject side on looking towards the ligth with both hands holding her shoulder — Richard Spurdens Photography – Lost in thought

Fine Art Nude Photography - Fine Art Nude Photographer - monochrome image of artistic nude model holding a standign pose with net material stretched across her body — Richard Spurdens Photography – Lucy L nets and light

I have now booked Lulu again for later in the year.

Events, FIAP, News

Exposed Salon 2013

In 2012 as part of my project to obtain my EFIAP award I entered the Exposed salon in Slovenia.

When the results came out I was delighted to find that I won the FIAP Blue badge for best author in the Salon.

The Salon is organised by Foto klub Kamnik, and has run for 5 years.

During which time it has built up a good reputation as a Digital photo salon.

It also provides entrants with a good printed catalogue too.

However what I had not realised was that they have a policy of inviting the blue badge winner from the previous years salon to be one of the judges at the folowing years salon. So in early June I received an email from Klemen Brumec, one of the salon organizers inviting me to come and be one of the judges the next salon.

Which of course I was delighted to accept.

Now I have entered over 74 FIAP Salons around the world and pick up over 35 awards, but I had never been involved on the other side i.e. judging.

I was honoured to be invited to judge, especially in a foreign country, but I was also very interested to see and experience the whole process.

So in mid-December I drove to Stansted and flew direct to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. On arrival I was met by Klemen who then drove us to Kamnik a small town about 20 miles outside the capital and home to the Kamnik Foto club.

The judging weekend

Now as I mentioned above Exposed is a digital salon, which means all entries are submitted digitally and to judge them they are displayed/projected.

So two days in a darkened room was ahead. On the day of judging I was joined by two other judges, both from Slovenia, Domen Dolenc, (F1 FZS), and Matej Peljhan, (KMF FZS, EFIAP) – so it was prestigious company to say the least.

Richard Spurdens Photography - Judging 2 — chard Spurdens Photography – Judges at work

In terms of entrants, whilst I don’t know the exact figures there were around 9200 images. These were from around 800 different authors from all over the world.

It was going to be a busy two days of judging with that amount of images.

Judging wise, we were asked to score each image out of 9, using the full range from 1 to 9.

After the first round it is the highest scoring images that went forward to the awards selctions.

These images were then reviewed again with the judges discussing and sometimes debating the merits of a particular image.

I think for me a good point to keep in mind when entering FIAP salons you need to make sure that the images you submit have a high impact. They need to get the judges attention immediately.

As a judge you have a few seconds at best to determine if an image will be accepted or not. More subtle images are less likely to make it through.

Travel Photography - travel Photograher - the judging — Richard Spurdens Photography – Judging 2

Thoughts

As a photographer, I have to say that I felt privileged to see the work of so many different photographers from around the world.

However it was noticeable in a number of the sections that the almost identical image appeared.

It would seem that these were all shot at the same time by multiple authours.

Either at a workshop or staged shoot with each person standing next to each other.

I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard work, getting through that volume of images in two days was quite tiring.

Especially when I wanted to make sure that every image I viewed had the same amount of attention.

Irrespective of whether it was shown at the start or at the end of the judging process.

Travel Photography - travel Photograher - the judges — Richard Spurdens Photography – One of the album

The Exposed salon certainly now has good memories for me. In 2012 I won my first Blue badge and now I had the pleasure to meet the organisers and judge the 2013 salon entry.

The hospitality of Kamnik Foto club was excellent and I was made to feel very welcome.

Save

News

A New Start

A new start is need:

Follow a bit of a disaster when upgrading to WordPress 3.6 I lost my site, and posts and just ended up with a white screen.

The learning from that is don’t assume upgrades work all the time read the support forums first before pressing update now.

So I decided to take on a new challenge of working up a new site.

So hopefully a website will appear in the next few days – weeks !!

Stay with me if you can and see it develop.

1 23