A Photosoc trip on Sunday took me to Westonbirt Arboretum, which apparently is “one of the most spectacular tree gardens in the world” (The Forestry Commission). I can definitely confirm that it had some of the most stunning trees I’ve seen, and was undoubtedly beautiful at this time of year.

In the afternoon I got to take part in a lighting workshop run by Charlie Clift. Charlie was an awesome teacher, in fact I’m finding the Photosoc committee in general to be really really helpful. Joining Photosoc was definitely a great idea even if just for all the stuff I’m learning.

Both Charlie and Olga (pictured) stressed the point of interacting with your model and trying to help your model relax. At the moment I’m far too busy worrying about camera settings to get onto that! I suppose that’s why you’ve really got to get the technical stuff nailed for this kind of thing; you’ve got a million and one other things to get right, so the technical stuff has to be second nature.

Some basic lighting equipment (a speedlight, shoot through umbrella, transmitter/reciever, stand) has shot up my to buy list. Still, not quite as a far as a monitor, which I purchased last night; a 22” E-IPS panel from Dell. I’m very excited about it. I think an HD movie and some photo editing will be a must when it arrives.