Moody

I was going through my photos and I realised that there are a few sets of portraits that i have not publised and not even finished editing, and I am quite pleased with them, so I thought i would air them.
Last year I did a short evening course for using PhotoLibraries and microstock sites, i think! The course content was never really covered and I have to say I came out none the wiser on that aspect, but one evening the tutor gave us a chance to get into the studio and we managed to find some willing victims to sit.

The first guy is Frank, who is actually a hairdresser and was also on the course, but I managed to persuade him to get on the other side of the camera for me, and I was pleased with the results. The girl was the model he brought along with him, for a hair shoot for his shop.
The other guy is actually my brother who reluctantly agreed to model so I could get some shots of his tattoos before he moved away to Australia. Naturally a glowerer I got some good moody shots, and he was chuffed with the images, and the way it showed off his tattoos. He designed them all himself, and the flower one took hours, but looks amazing.

Always Asmartartz

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All that Sparkles

In honour of being chosen to shoot our friends Kerrie and Jason's wedding this October I thought I would post some photos of a jewellery shoot that I did last year.
It was actually done outside, on black velvet and the use of mirrors to reflect the bright sun back on to the rings. i was pleased with the results.

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Random photo Thursday

It is Thursday, and i have thought how can I make Thursday more interesting as it is not quite the weekend, but it is nearly. Why not make it random photo Thursday!

I have decided that on Thursdays (until end of March anyway) I am going to take a selection of photos of whatever takes my fancy. So here are my first collection of random photos from a cold wet Thursday.

Eco glasses

The cat is actually belongs to next door but she adopted us within 3 weeks of moving in, and sits on our windowsill crying to be let in at all hours of the day and night. She is currently downstairs asleep in my favourite turtle chair.

I love VW's and our house is full of them in various forms. unfortutately i dont own a real one!

These are my new glasses and they are recycled! They are made from 90% recycled material including steel and plastic for the lenses!

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Always ...... Asmartartz

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spreading the word of the Blog

It seems that I might be joined online shortly by my husband who has been musing about using Blogland as his own creative outlet. As a cook, who is very good at creating sumptious dishes for friends and family, and constantly creating new taste sensations, and he has often thought about writing a book, but can now see the advantage of keeping it much more live and up to date, where he can inspire and tempt others in an ongoing feast for the eyes and the tastebuds.
Once this is up and running I will let you know the link.

I have been hearing lots of positive feedback from the SWPP convention in London for photographers that took place over the weekend. It was full of new blood and the names that are in the magazines They hold the convention every year, full of demonstrations and inspiring speakers and seminars, and every year I say to myself.... next year, I will have the money and be better organised next year! Well I now have a year to get myself ready and might even book in time. Though to get the most from the day you go it is worth going to at least a couple of talks and a seminar but as I saw the other day, each item you attend can cost up to £200 each! That is an expensive day!

This year I have decided to invest in at least two different photo training sessions, and am trying to keep the money aside for this. It is always good to keep your ideas and styles fresh and get confirmation that what you are doing is OK, so this is the year.

Was very excited last week to have an email from Annabel Williams who is one of the countries top portrait photographers, who kindly took the time out to reply to a query about her new training courses she will be running this year. She took a look at my site and said that I had lots of lovely photos and a great natural style! I was beyond chuffed so will be printing that email out and pinning it above my desk for inspiration when the clouds of doubt come creeping back in!

Well my lunch hour is over so it is back to the grindstone. Must remember to bring some photos to work so I can some more bits up online!
Hope you all have a good week.
Always Asmartartz

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The Canal walk with a cold squirrel and fairy mushrooms

It feels like last year since I posted some photos ;-) so I thought I would pop some up from a walk on the canal we had a couple of weeks ago.

We are lucky as we are just a few minutes walk from town but we are surprisingly surrounded by large areas of open space and beauty. The canal is a short drive, though if we were feeling very healthy it could be walked in a couple of hours!

Armed with my camera and just my new 50mm lens I headed out to experiment with it. Traditionally a portrait lens I didnt see why you couldn't use it for landscape views as well and I was pleased with the results.

We went down after the last of the snows had dissapeared, as I was less likely to skid on an ice patch and land on my bum. I was very surprised that when we got down there the canal was still mostly frozen!

It was a nice walk, but after about an hour I was ready for home again, because even wearing my new fluffy and warm ear muffs I was chilled to my bones. What surprised me though, apart from finding a frozen squirrel in the canal, was a small cluster of beautiful mushrooms/toadstools, by the waters edge. I have to confess that I cannot remember how to tell mushrooms/toadstools apart and havent got round to trying to identify these yet. They are way out of season as it is Sept/Oct time when you find them, and the fact that they seem to have survived the freezing weather was amazing. they were so vibrant as well, and they were tucked away in an idylic situation.

frozen squirrel

ribbon of ice

Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Always ..... Asmartartz

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To tweet or not to tweet

In this digital age, it all seems about communication and being heard. So i have the various email accounts, flickr account, website, blog, Facebook and MySpace..... but not Twitter.

I am always hearing about people tweeting this and tweeting that, but I have looked at it a couple of times, and just cant get my head around it! How do you search for people? How do you take in the enormous amount of information that you are being bombarded with at high speed, while managing to filter the tat from the informative? More importantly... how do you find the time to keep up with all these accounts. Just checking them all and keep them active and fresh on a regular basis is highly time consuming. But I received some good advice from a colleague from one of my old work places, so I have just taken the plunge.
I have just created a Twitter account, well I think I have. I got my username and clicked create account and then it crashed on me and kept saying error on page so if i am feeling brave later I will log back in and see if i can circumnavigate this strange bird-like world! If there is anyone out there who is already on Twitter, and wouldn't mind taking me under your wing (hahha I made a joke and didnt even realise!) while i get my bearings I would appreciate it!

Hope you are having a good week so far. I have started my Business Plan for 2011. Not so sure how acurate I will be able to make this, as I have found out that despite hopes to the contrary my contract at the Uni does not look like it is being extended, so the job hunt has started.
Though having the luck of the gods shining down on me to get me my perfect part time hours once is amazing, having that chance again may be more than i can hope for,( though I am hoping so much it hurts!) and the realism of going back into full time employment in an office is weighing heavily on me! How I would love to say I am a full time photograper. Well you never know what will happen, and if I can get myself into gear and start networking like there is no tomorrow some doors that I wasnt expecting could open up!
Take care
Andrea ..... Always Asmartartz

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Asmartartz laid bare - a year of discovery

A New Year, a new Attitude

So over the Christmas period I briefly mentioned about New Years resolutions, and making changes for the coming year, and so it is time to take a deep breath and admit mine out loud. First a bit of an explanation, I have decided to take the foolish and mildly brave idea of deciding to spend this coming year documenting the rise and fall of Asmartartz Photography as I try and get it off the ground. Instead of trying to deal with the scary bits of learning to run a business, and learning and evolving my photography techniques behind closed doors, and only posting the successes and interesting photos, I have decided to document everything, warts and all. I am very nervous about this as no one really likes to be seen as anything other than confident and competant, but I think it is going to be a journey of discovery, and who knows it might help other people realise that they are not the only ones sat there feeling confused and slightly overwhelmed by the emormity of it, and if I am lucky other people might give me their feedback and their experiences, and I can learn new stuff along the way too, so here goes:

I am scared, not all the time, but a large majority of the time since I decided to become self employed and make a living out of my photography, I have a undercurrent of worry and anxiety running under the surface.

Lots of thoughts regularly crash through my head, and most of them revolve entirely round photography, how to become a successful photographer, how to get good at business, and start making some proper money. This has resulted in me now having a goldfish like short term memory for normal day to day things, much to my husbands annoyance. I am forgetting conversations, why I am at the shops, when and where we are meant to be going over to visit friends and family, the fact that I said i would make tea..... 45mins ago! that sort of thing, while underneath my mind is whirring away 10 to the dozen.

After all is said and done, several things keep coming to the front; how am I going to make this work, what if I fail, or people tell me my photography is rubbish and I am wasting my time, what if I am forced to spend the rest of my life working in an office working 9-5?

After all that, I have becoming annoyingly aware that I like a lot of other people are scared of failure; but this is stopping me from really letting go, and immersing myself, and exploring the unknown, and making me test myself and put myself out there. Learn from mistakes, and ideas and shout about my photography from the rooftops, so every one around knows that I am here! Like they kept saying on Stictly Come Dancing, you have to let go, you have to feel the music and let it fill you up and take you over, surrender to it.

So that is it, I am going to try and surrender to it, not keep playing it safe, not keep missing opportunities because I am scared of rejection (I am still scared but will do it anyway), and not keep standing on the bank, grimly clutching at the tree branch while i tentively test the ice on the pond to see how safe it is! OK this may not be the best analogy, as we did this recently and our feet went straight through the ice and we got cold and wet feet but you know what I mean!!

1) Stop being scared of everything and start pushing myself

2) Become the photographer that I want to be, that i can feel proud of myself

3) Get some self belief, and self confidence - I can do this

4) Take responsibility for my health, and stop waiting around for some miracle to happen

5) Deal with my lack of will power, and stop finding excuses for not doing things

I realise that this is already quite a long post, so will not go on too much more, but it would be great if you wanted to follow my journey, and get in touch if you have your own experiences and ideas, then I will know that i am not the only person starting a business that has the odd panic attack at the enormity of what this could be.

It comes down to the this: I love photography, and have been slightly obsessed about it since I was 17 and first started doing it, and really I just cant imagine not having it in my life, it is who I am so I just got to go for it.

Thanks for listening

Andrea Always Asmartartz

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Clare Maguire - Ain't Nobody

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Happy New Year and a quick catch up

Hello and Happy New Year to you all!

As the evening draws in on the first night of the year, I thought I would wish you all a Happy 2011 and hope that the coming year brings lots of new opportunities, and friendships and financial security.

But before all the memories and comfort of Christmas slowly melts away, and we all start looking forward to the new start, and the sun(!!), I wanted to quickly share some photos from my day out at WinterWonderland with you.

My lovely hubby decided to treat us to a nice day out in London, as I had mentioned how long it had been since I had been to see the Christmas lights in London, so we decided to make a day of it. Unbeknown to me, he got us tickets to go to a circus (Cirque de Hiver) at WinterWonderland in Hyde Park. I think he was also hoping it would help get me into the christmas spirit. So below are some of our day out!