Cotswold Life - November issue

Just a quick blog to tell you all to buy the November issue of Cotswold Life. One of my photos has been chosen and is covering nearly all of a double page spread! It's of Malmesbury Abbey and there's a little pic of me and few short words. Very proud.

Alive and Kicking Trade Fair, Malmesbury

First of all, my pictures are getting 'out there' now - The Town Hall have a display of my landscapes in the Entrance Hall - you can buy them and some of the proceeds go to the Town Hall. This is great for me as, without a high street presence, it's important for me to have somewhere to display my images.

Today, I attended the Alive and Kicking Trade Fair in Malmesbury. It was great to meet so many local people and once again I had a great response to my pictures.

I now have a large framed Malmesbury in the Snow picture (the image in the previous blog) and again, it created a lot of interest. I also have a sepia panoramic picture of Malmesbury, beautifully framed - this proved to be a great talking point as people thought it was an old shot!

The Christmas cards are now ready and I sold a lot of these today; if anyone wants to buy some for Christmas, just drop me line at sarah.photos@btinternet.com.

The Malmesbury Calendar seems to have filled a gap in the market - some people ordering it for Christmas presents and some for business customers. Just let me know if you want to order one.

I've put myself down for other fairs in the Town Hall in the coming months and for the Late Night Shopping event - so hopefully I'll see you there.

So - things are moving on - Sarah Knights Photography is getting out there into the community at last!

Branching out!

Recently I have been going to Craft Fairs and selling my photographs of the local area. It's going very well and one particular photo has generated so much interest it has been astounding. It is one I took of Malmesbury in the Snow - I have enhanced the colours in photoshop and the result seems to be that everyone loves it! Someone today described it as 'Mediterranean' colouring which is quite odd as there is snow in the picture, but I know what they mean! Another very flattering thing someone said to me is that it makes them feel proud to live in such a beautiful place. As a consequence of this, I am in the process of making it a Christmas card, so if anyone wants to buy some cards or indeed the original print, just email me at sarah.photos@btinternet.com Here's the picture anyway!

I also am in the process of doing a Malmesbury Calendar which has also generated a lot of interest. Please contact me if you're interested in one.

Cyprus

Well, I'm off to Cyprus tomorrow; every time I go, I seem to take more and more camera equipment. It's just such a wonderful place to take photographs. The sunsets, the wonderful old faces, the dancing. Can't wait.

I realise I haven't written this for ages; it doesn't mean I haven't been doing lots of commissions. I've just had alot of family things that have been taking my mind off the blog! Fortunately for me, I still seem to be getting work despite the recession. In the last couple of weeks, I've had a boudoir studio shoot; a family portrait and a website profile picture. I've got a family party at Whatley Manor Hotel coming up and a wedding at Northleach; so it's all go.

Thanks for reading; I'll try to update this in Cyprus.

Happy Holidays!

Inspiration and news....

I went to the SWPP convention as planned last week and came back with lots of new ideas and inspiration.  It's great to be with other people who all share the same passion.  You can learn so much from just chatting to people.

I attended several seminars; I found one in particular very good.  It was given by a fashion photographer who just simply showed us some of his shots and explained how he did it.  He was very modest about his great photos and he really made me want to be as good as him!

I'm in the process of setting up a system so that I can sell some photos online; I think this is great for people far away but I still value the human contact side of photography.  I like to sit and review shots with people and show them all the different options.

At the convention I came across a fantastic framing company and I feel this is the way I would like to present my work in the future.  Their framing was so impressive and I feel this would take my photography to another level.  It's expensive but, you get what you pay for in this line of business.

I've also invested quite a bit of money in some new advertising; I'm hoping to be inundated with enquiries!

I've been offered a kind of stall in our local town of Cirencester and I'm thinking of giving it a go; there's nothing like face to face contact to get yourself known.  Will let you know how it goes.

How to look good naked!

Well, as I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to try to create a 'niche' for myself in this area of photography.  Being a woman, I think I'm well placed for 'boudoir' or 'how to look good naked' pictures of women.  I know if I was going to do this type of session myself, I would only feel comfortable with a lady photographer. 

 The type of shot I am going for is 'artistic' as opposed to 'glamour' type images - in other words, not page three.  I envisage probably most people going for low-key lighting, black and white or sepia and some post-production work on the image to help the picture along, in terms of smoothing skin, enhancing eyes and adding shine to hair.  I know there's a lot of controversy around at the moment about air-brushing, but I believe with a bit of subtlety, you can still look a 'real' woman... but just better!

I'm including a picture in the post; this is the sort of thing I'm going for.  I'm going to the Convention in London tomorrow and I'm going to a lecture on this type of photography so I'm hoping for some tips.

Well, Christmas is over... a new year is beginning...resolutions are being made...One of my resolutions this time around is to keep a blog of all the photography news that is happening for me and my business, Sarah Knights Photography.

Next week, I'm going to the SWPP Convention in London, so I'm hoping to come back brimming with ideas and new skills.  I'm working towards my Associateship qualification and I'm currently between two modules of a course which is hopefully going to help me get this coverted prize.

We must have taken several specific type of photos for the next module so at the moment, I'm concentrating on those - window light, topshade, tilts etc.  I'm getting there but need more models!

I feel there may be a need for a female photographer who does female 'How to Look Good Naked' shots .... I've had several enquiries and I'm beginning to think I may have an advantage over your average male photographer - people often refer to the fact that I'm a woman and that their girlfriend/wife would only feel comfortable with a woman.  Gok Wan is no threat I feel!  So - I'm going to pursue this line and see where it leads me.  I'm beginning to experiment - I'm hoping to create attractive fine-art type photographs, not tacky so-called 'glamour' shots.

Watch this space!