Based in Bristol, UK, Damien Lovegrove originally trained as a BBC cameraman and lighting director. He took the world of wedding photography by storm with his own unique style of photography back in 2000 and has since become one of the biggest names in wedding and portrait photography.

Alongside a range of exclusive photography services, Damien also lectures; offering workshops, seminars and even mentoring. As well as face-to-face sessions, Damien’s teachings are available in two tutorial style DVDs; Using Natural Light on Location and Using Flash on Location.

In his DVD, Using Natural Light on Location, Damien talks through a number of portrait sessions with a variety of male and female models in various locations. As the title of the DVD suggests, the sessions use natural light only and Damien, very openly, provides plenty of insight into his methodology and techniques as he goes along.

From choosing suitable locations to posing, lens choice to exposure settings. The viewer is provided with a rare opportunity to not only watch over the shoulder as shots are being composed, but also get to find out the thought that goes into each one.

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The weekend just gone was the first opportunity I’ve had to shoot a wedding with my new digital SLR gear and boy was it a lot of fun! I didn’t have the responsibility of being the couple’s main photographer. Instead, that role was filled by a couple who were friends of the couple getting married. However, since they were only asked to cover the formal shots in and around the ceremony I more or less fell into the role of reception photographer.

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If you’re the type of person who would judge a book by its cover then you’d probably never buy a copy of this!

Check out the invisible elbow underneath the Aces…

This week, I’ve taken delivery of a new Canon Speedlite 430EX flash gun and a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce flash diffuser. The purpose of the Omni-Bounce is to provide a bare bulb effect. This means that light will be scattered in almost every direction with some reaching your subject after having been reflected off another surface. This ought to provide similar results as bouncing a bare flash, but throwing light directly onto your subject can help to distinguish it from the background as well as provide a catch-light.

Today, I set about testing different flash photo set-ups with my helpful test monkey.

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Imagine losing all of your photos, videos, music and documents stored on your computer

At right this very moment, your data is at risk from any number of different ways of being destroyed, lost or overwritten. In an ideal world, computer hardware would never fail, laptops would never get knocked onto the floor and burglaries would never happen in your neighbourhood. In reality, these things can and do happen, often with serious consequences.

Fortunately, making back-up copies of your important computer files is easy and having a back-up can mean the difference between days of lost work and a few minutes of restoration time.

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