When I’m out shooting it’s pretty much guaranteed to be one of the first things people ask me. It’s an incredibly tricky question to answer because there’s a million other questions that need answering first. I have tried to give my professional (non technical) approach to helping your wade through the minefield of photography. This is a really quick rundown of personal comments and options – I am not affiliated with any manufacturer or website. I am a Canon shooter and very familiar with their kit – so I tend to mention them more than other brands.

There’s clearly been a massive surge in popularity for photography over the last few years. Mainly this is due to how accessible it’s become. People have really taken to wanting to produce much better images and do fun things with their photos.The major manufacturers have done a great job at bringing the cost of entry level DSLR (digital SLR) cameras down to a really affordable price- it’s clever pricing and marketing that is driving this forward at a sweltering pace.

The 2 main players- Canon and Nikon both have great offerings at the sub 400 pound level- both produce fantastic results- in the right hands.

This nicely leads us to the first point about the famous ‘what camera’ question.  Here’s something for you to chew over. It’s not JUST about the camera- it’s about a culmination of things that all work together to produce good or great results. I’ve said before how irritating it is when people see my camera and say ‘oooh you must take great photos with that camera’.

From the cheapest point and shoot to the top of the line pro DSLR will not yield you the results you want if you don’t know what to do with them- or have a cheap lens on the front. Similarly knowing every button on a camera doesn’t make a good photographer. I’m not going to discuss this in detail right now but in my opinion it’s a series of many factors that contribute to getting great photos. Sure knowing your camera is important- but so is composition, exposure, focus and the personality of the photographer. If the photographer can relate to the subjects then the chances are the resulting images will be a lot better. Regardless of how expensive the camera is.

So, back to the question. Clearly budget is a main issue for many people and with most things- the more a camera costs the more bells and whistles it has. Again this may not actually be as important as you’d think. More later about this.

The next decision which usually comes after deciding a budget is whether to get a point and shoot or something with more manual control- or as I like to think of it -creative control. Many high end compact cameras do have manual modes. Top end compacts have similar controls to DSLR bodies albeit sometimes not as accessible and hidden away within menus.

The question to ask here is ‘what do you want to do with your photography – and what will you be shooting?’ If you fancy building up a hobby- and it can become very expensive, do you want to invest in a particular range or manufacturer of camera and kit. Do you see yourself really getting into the hobby or are you just looking to take photos at a night out on the town and pass the camera to people to take snaps?

You also have to think about how much weight and bulk you will want to carry around. If you’re off on holiday then camera kit can really get heavy quickly. Perhaps you need a  a pocket camera for when you don’t want to carry the ‘kit’. Another thing to consider is quite important. Will you take the camera off full auto mode? Especially with DSLRs- lots have ‘easy green square’ mode which does everything and is great if you’re passing the camera to someone to take a pic of you but generally should be avoided by any photographer. If you never want to leave the green square behind then you’ve spent money on a camera that is essentially performing like a regular compact camera. Save your money and buy a compact point and shoot.

So formats- it’s not just DSLRs and compacts anymore. There’s a new breed of camera that has the ability change lenses and also keep the body small. Both Olympus and Panasonic both have micro four thirds systems – which look nice- and you can start collecting lenses etc for them. Here’s another decision though- if you buy loads of gear for those cameras you may decide to change to another body at a later date so you could end up with stuff that’s devalued a fair bit and you can’t use on other systems.

This is why it tends to come back to Canon, Nikon and slowly creeping up Sony. If you buy their kit there’s a better chance of compatibility within their ranges.

Let’s assume you have decided you’d like to get some better results than the point and shoot camera you’ve had for a few years and you settle upon a SLR.  What next?

Chances are that if you’re spending  below 500 pounds on a kit then the lens that comes with the camera is going to be fairly lousy. If the body only sells at 400 but with a lens it’s 550 its not hard to see that even with a discount on the lens then its not going to be that good. My tip. Buy a body and lens separately. You need to factor in spending as much on the lens- or more- than the cost of the camera. The lens is the most critical part of the camera. A poor lens is a poor lens whatever camera you use it on. Don’t worry about megapixels or resolution. Look at buying the camera model below the one you were looking at but spend the difference on a better lens. You’ll thank me for it later.

Those cameras may not have all the bells and whistles as the newer ones- but they were and still are very very good solid cameras. Again with Canon they sell B stock which are cameras that have been returned as unwanted, or old stock but they are usually guaranteed and come in less than new entry level bodies. The best thing about this approach is that those cameras which are now ‘obsolete’ were aimed at the semi pro photographer. The quality of the components and build of the camera is very likely to be far superior than the current entry level ones. Here’s an example.

I bought a Canon 30D as a backup camera last year. This camera (and it came with a really crappy lens) was in excess of 700 quid when it was launched – as a semi-pro camera – but now is  no longer on the market – BUT I bought B grade stock – camera, battery and charger with all the gubbins in the box for 285. You won’t get better value – and in terms of image quality it was great – and was built SO much better than the current entry level bodies. So my top tip – go for an older body – spend the same or less and then get a jolly nice lens to go with it. Sorted.

Also – don’t think that because you have Canon or Nikon or Sony you have to buy their lenses – there are alternatives – Sigma have some great lenses and they are a fair bit cheaper than the Canon ones – likewise Tamron have a good selection – but with any manufacturer there are some not so good ones – so make sure you read up about them on the web.

Nicely leading onto my next little tip – get involved with forums. Ask questions, look at other peoples work. Why not see what you like – and try and copy their style. Look at the data on photographs and see what settings were used. All digital cameras have embedded data in each file – it has all sorts of geeky information but you can get an idea of the settings people use in a situation – so its well worth looking. Photo sharing sites usually make it easy to see the EXIF data.

Staying on the theme of photo sites this is also something worth considering. I use a few but by far my favourite is pix.ie

Its a FREE site and really does your photos justice. You can upload your full resolution images and then they are online and safe. You get the benefits of a backup and also you can email your images – send people to the gallery and get involved with the community of other photographers. Again – look at their work – there’s a lot of very very good photographers out there on Pix.ie and it would be well worth spending some time clicking on their images.Of course you can make the galleries private too so perhaps only your family can see the pictures. Just a point to reiterate – BACKUP your images- don’t ever forget. If you forget you can be sure that you will, at some point lose a LOT of your precious memories.

Of course – you have also to factor in a bag for all the gear, possibly a spare battery, and certainly some memory, so expect to spend another 100 quid or so on all this.

I think that’s just about it for now -I’ll be back with some explanation of how to get your head around your cameras settings soon – but in the meantime here’s some top pointers to think about:

-try and avoid ‘kit’ lenses

-look at second hand, refurbished or ‘B’ stock

-will you want to expand your photography kit over time

-don’t use ‘green square’ mode

That’s all for now. Here’s some handy links to check out..

great photo storage/sharing site pix.ie

good site for cheapest camera gear www.camerapricebuster.com

great for information and forums www.dpreview.com

good for buying advice (quite techie) www.the-digital-picture.com

good for reviews www.steves-digicams.com

Satureyes was hired because of the proven track record in shooting medical conferences and was there to capture every aspect of the event including  poster sessions, trade exhibition, seminars and learning zones, opening night reception, Exhibitior party, & Delegate party with a live band.

200 Innocent people arrived at Longleat Center Parcs for a weekend of fun and games – and lots of smoothie drinking. Center Parcs commissioned Satureyes because of their event photography background.

The images will be used for Innocent & Center Parcs PR as well as the cover shot and double page spread article in Conference & Incentive Travel magazine.

More images coming soon!

The conference attracted over 8,000 visitors from around Europe. The European Academy of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (try saying that drunk) hosted the event.

Satureyes worked with the Congress team to deliver photos each day of the event, turning around the images in super fast time and uploading them onto a custom website where visitors could purchase and download images for free.

Images were also sent to Plasma displays as the event progressed, and for the closing ceremony a video was created by Satureyes showing the highlights of the conference which was shown on a giant screen in the  main hall.

The event featured parties, boat trips and award ceremonies and Satureyes was there to capture it all, showing the diverse skill set of Rick Bronks.

Of course, some of these observations are not all about one venue or show – but an amalgamation of years of research and trawling through Trade shows and expos around the country.

You’ve got your pass in the mail, you’ve consulted the ‘seminar guide’ and circled the talks you want to go to.. so its time to hit the road and spend 3 hours travelling to the venue.

I love the walk from the over-priced car park where you’ve already been in line for 20 minutes behind overly excited sales-people and visitors to pay for your car park space.

Then there’s the delighful walk miles to the main door, around the back of the exhibiton centre, whilst you desparately try and mind- map the route to the front door so you can get back there later. You could of course wait 20 minutes for the shuttle bus which is caked in leaflets and plastic bags that people have deposisted there because they dont want to take them home- and feel a little disappointed that you’ve seen some leaflets that give away some of the secrets of what lies within the big doors to the exhibition halls.

You’ve inevitably chosen the wrong day to visit. Its ‘student’ day so you have to push past loads of Indy kids and teenagers smelling of Joss-sticks and Patchouli oil.

You eagerly attach your lanyard to the pass- and wonder why you have a green band on the badge whereas everyone else has yellow, what DOES it mean, I think I’m special because I have green. I am the best. Green means brilliance. The reality is probably that green meens ‘waste of space, dont even talk to me’

So you collect your show guide from the self-tanned brunette in tight black trousers and flat shoes, and decide ‘This year, I’m going to have a system, I’m going to walk up and down each aisle so I see everything.’

This lasts approximately 5 minutes before you’re distracted by a fire-breathing woman on stilts or a giant teddy bear handing out candy.

Once you wade past all the students looking at kit they can’t afford, you then walk up to stands displaying kit you have been reading about (but can’t afford) have a visit onto the stand that has the MOST expensive kit in the universe on, and watch men take photos of an oriental lady in a short skirt for their ‘special’ collection, whilst they pretend its for ‘testing’ purposes.

You become very disappointed with the lack of ‘free stuff’ at the stands. Surely it’s not already been given out. You manically collect plastic bags hoping there’s something other than a pen inside…perhaps a keychain, or a torch, or a torch keychain. Something. Not JUST leaflets. PLEASE!

A few stands grab your attention – but loiter at your peril. You’ve only just arrived and not in the mind-set of wanting some sales-person to chat to you.. so you loiter slightly further from the stand – ‘dont make eye contact’ you tell yourself.. dont.. make..eye..contact. DAMMIT she’s seen you..cue fake smile while she tries to see your name badge. You can hear her brain computing.. ‘name… occupation.. are they worth talking to?.. OH NO HE’S GREEN’ she stops smiling and looks away. WHAT? not even offer to scan your badge.. the ‘green line paranoia’ builds. Not even a M&M from their stand to keep your energy levels up. Anyway… Where’s the free booze?

Twenty minutes later you’re still trying to pry some cheap champaign off a stand. You know the only way you will get some is if you hide that damn badge and pretend you are responsible for a multi-million Euro budget and you may just consider booking their hotel for 5000 people and a 6 month conference.

Mission success! You have a glass of fizz and meander happily to the next stand – now you’ve got your patter sorted. Time to try and get pissed. Four glasses later, the heartburn has started, you’ve lined up for 20 mins to get a scoop of free ice-cream and you’re on top of the world.

So – seminar time. There’s only one, possibly 2 seminars you think are of real interest, so you make your way over to the pre-fabricated ‘seminar room’ located somewhere between the male toilets and the area where they push massive bins full of empty bottles past at regular 2 minute intervals. The only problem you’re not the only person who thinks that this seminar is going to give them the secret to unlocking your sales potential, or indeed how to do something on a shoestring budget. The line extends around the corner, past the stand giving chocolate hearts wrapped in red foil…you’re not going to get a seat.

You get a seat. At the back, in the corner, so you can make a quick escape. Seminar starts. Guy in ill-fitting suit on stage with a neck-mic set too low. He asks if we can hear him. ‘No’ we say. Mic volume is put up. Feedback through the speakers. Mic level turned down. Time to check Twitter on the phone.

You then realise you’re sitting in a plastic rectangle with a roof made from strips of material. This has the accoustic properties of a ruler and a piece of string. Coupled with the catering staff pushing bins on wheels full of empty beer bottles past the side of the seminar space you realise you’re on a hopeless mission- but you stick it out. You may learn something…

The presenter informs you he realises you’re all tired after walking round all day. He then makes you stand up and ‘get interactive’. He needs to demonstrate that you can communicate and win business without talking, so proceeds to make monkey sounds and wave his arms furiously. You leave.

For the photo shows, perhaps visit a seminar at Canon or Nikon where they show you the most ridiculously well shot images and try and convince you that with this camera you too can achieve images like that. They dont tell you its been taken by a photographer with 60 years of experience and processed using NASA kit, in zero gravity.

Lunch time.. whoa what a choice.. you’ve spied out the ‘eateries’ while you’ve been wandering.. you’ve tried in vain to get satiated by eating chocolates and canapes from as many stands as possible but you are weak. All this walking has made you hungry.

Why not grab an over-priced dry sandwich and a coke and not get change from 20 quid- OR spend 30 minutes waiting for a 6 inch Subway sandwich and not have anywhere to sit and eat it.

There’s always Pizza Express.. you have a voucher for that somewhere.. you check the small print.. ‘not valid in the Pizza Express you are currently standing next to.’ Of course its not. Dry sandwich it is.

A moment to contemplate the day so far.. and how long you can bear to stay for the afternoon..There’s a load of stands you haven’t seen, and you never know – THEY may have some good freebies.

3 hours later, laden with plasic bags and nothing in them apart from a mouse mat, pink stress ball and a badge. You make your way back to the exit.

Will you do it all again next year? OF COURSE you will!

More and more the use of ‘social media’ is becoming some sort of ‘bargaining chip’ to get free work.

I’ve noticed this becoming more of a trend in the event & creatives industry. I’ve had chats with a few people and it seems it’s not just me who has experienced this. Basically each month I have a load of people asking me  for something  and and they don’t want to pay for it. It usually is followed by a ‘promise’ of something in return.. ‘I’ll twitter about you’ or ‘I’ll put you on my website’. You get the idea.

Then there’s the ‘showcase’ events. We all know these.. ‘If you give us a load of free stuff you can come to the event’ Promises of ‘exposure to new clients’ is a favourite one.

I had a great offer last year – In return for photographic coverage of an event, I was offered ‘membership’ of this collective of venues. I asked if this would enable me to be a preferred supplier to the venues- no it wouldn’t. I was offered the membership which had the cost of 1500 quid..but in return for this I had to do 1500 quids worth of work over the year for these people NOT including the event I was asked to shoot! What tosh.

I am known to be a bit of a grumpy old man, but think about how ridiculous this is. Imagine going into Tesco and telling them that you only want to pay 2 quid for a 10 quid product, or buying a DVD and telling them in HMV that you’ll talk about them on your blog. It’s just stupid!

Yet.. here we are in the event industry and it seems to be becoming the norm that clients ask us for something for nothing.. I don’t mean a discount (which I often give) but totally free.. and worse of all they think its totally fine to ask.

‘Can you throw in another 2 days shooting within the budget?’

‘Can you do it for 50 quid and some tweets?’

‘Can you do 10 days edit and we’ll pay you for 5?’

‘You have a camera, so can we borrow it for a shoot? You don’t need to be there. We’ll pick it up and return it the next day.’

The worst thing is that we are made to feel guilty if we decline the ‘offer’. It becomes OUR issue that the event can’t be shot, or covered, or catered for within the budget that the client has.

Why has this madness not been stopped? We all seem to get suckered in time after time.

Recently I did a video piece for a client. TOTALLY for free. I was promised the world in returns of PR, exposure (no pun intended) and getting my company name around the internet. This was a video for a campaign that was going to go places.. people will love it.. it will be all over the web, you’ll get press coverage, loads of hits to your site.

What do you think happened?

In short – they got a free viral that would have cost several thousand in pre and post production.. squeezed every ounce of patience out of me, then complained when I raised the issue that their campaign was a pile of piss and no one cared enough to even watch the film. 200 views on YouTube doesn’t constitute a successful campaign. I’d have got more hits in a videoof me dangling my testicles over a fence.

So good people my new years resolution is that I’m done with free. Its time we took a stand and did the same, or we will be perpetually made to feel guilty for not doing everything for nothing.

Wishing you all great business for 2010.

Here’s a video that sums it up perfectly.Enjoy!

This week has seen me move into the wonderful world of wedding photography.

The main issue for me not doing this years ago was that it’s an area of photography steeped in mystery – especially for the clients. There’s a whole bunch of wedding photographers out there that really should not be there.. and certainly not charging what they charge for what is quite average work. So I’ve set out to revolutionise this, and I really didn’t feel comfortable being labelled as ‘one of them’

However, over the last 12 months I’ve seen my portfolio grow substantially with work for magazines, interiors food, live events and travel, I believe that the wedding world is ready for my new ideas!

I actually thought that a new wave of young creative photographers would have emerged onto the wedding scene by now but it seems not. On a recent trip to a photo expo in Birmingham I wandered around and noticed a LOT of wedding snappers there they generally were older chaps with their wives, meandering from booth to booth drooling at kit they would like to buy but probably not be able to operate. It didnt seem like the industry has moved on in years.

It’s absurd how some photographers operate. Just because you live with someone you automatically have the ability to absorb a skill set. We’ve all seen them – these photogs who bring their wives along on a job who stand there snapping away – either its an amazing co-incidence that the couple are BOTH pro-photographers.. perhaps they met at a local photographic club.. or perhaps they didn’t. More like  they are over-charging and not actually having the skills to do the job. Does the wife of a cardiac surgeon assist her husband in the operating theatre? Of course not, so why does the wife of a photographer become a professional by proxy?

Much of the wedding photo world still bases itself on the fact that people who are organising weddings have buckets of cash to spend and they are VERY anxious about their photos and choosing the right person for the job – and quite right they should. Some prices that are being banded about are insane. Much of this is based on the vulnerability of people  at a time in their lives where they are about to embark on a massive adventure.

What also gets me is the ‘extras’ such as the additional prints.. It harks back to the days when getting prints made was a time consuming process that needed many days or weeks to finish, so charging a premium for prints and not releasing the negatives was another way for the photographer to make some cash  and covering his time and costs of getting prints done. I think this model needs to change. Its out as out dated as the people taking the images.

YOU pay for the photographer and their time.. YOU have a right to those images.. they are YOURS.. its outrageous that some photogs keep them and then charge and charge again for the prints. Its unfair, and greedy but its almost universally accepted. Why? Well because people don’t challenge it.

Many of my clients are more than happy to get their prints done themselves or on a canvas or in a photo-book that they can order online. Of course I offer the usual trimmings.. albums, canvases and other items of memorabilia but I believe that the client can get it done cheaper and think it better value for money that they do. I want to concentrate on my work as a photographer, not as a money leech for vulnerable folk.

My rule is simple. I  Charge a fair and competitive price for the work – and offer the finished images in all their glory on a disk for the client afterwards. I process every image, select and sort, putting care into each one.This is how it should be. My corporate work follows the same model and all my clients come back to me tim and time again.

So.. here’s the offer.. for £750 I will shoot the WHOLE wedding (none of this running away at the cake cutting) up and including a good stint of the dancing. I will then process every image and all the useable ones will be available in their highest quality on a disk for you to keep. No hidden charges.. just great photos!

Feel free to drop me a line for more information

click here to email me for more information