Monthly Archives: February 2010 I had a viewing this morning with the parents of this little girl Hannah, and they were very pleased. I thought I might use the opportunity to speak about my intent with all of this. Why shoot families? Let’s go back a step…I met up with this lovely family of five early in the…  I’d love to hear from you and welcome you to the BJP Family. Click here to become a fan of BJP on Facebook ®. B …………………………………. To Facebook with BJP or not to Facebook with BJP…that is the question: OK so a while ago I’d been thinking about Facebook and it’s potential usefulness to… Hi Katti! Yes now considere yourself ‘friended’. And thanks for supporting the BJP page as well. I’m advertising BJP in the Facebook space – not so sure what I think about this given I’m putting advertising in a social networking space…mmnn…we’ll see if i keep that up. But yes I totally agree to keep the friend base totally separate. Great advice! B Cool, thanks Ness, good to know i’ll do that from now on. You can thank them for joining by using your BJP facebook page, without them being ‘friends’ because ‘fans’ get your feed put into their own feeds. It’s how the Pioneer Woman does it Hi Beth, Thanks Vanessa, you clearly feel strongly on this! I had thought that seeing as people that I don’t know are becoming Fans of BJP, that as Beth I should friend request them back, because then I can write and thank them for joining…but you are saying you don’t do that to keep it separate…mmnn…it’s started a real conversation on my Beth page at Facebook (not my BJP page)… B The answer is *absolutely YES* you should have a page on facebook. The whole point of Social Media Marketing is to recruit those people who believe in you the most. I for one do not feel obligated to ‘become a fan’ if I don’t want to. It is up to each person to decide for themselves if they can endorse you or not. Effectively Beth, even though we are on opposite sides of the planet, we are in fact competition for one another, however, I can, as a photographer, look at your work, and say, “Yes, this person, has a wonderful eye, great skill and clearly knows what they are doing, plus, I like their style.” Hence it is an easy decision for me to become a fan. People should not feel ‘funny’ about this, we should not, as the page makers feel odd for putting ourselves out there (my nessworld page has but 9 fans thus far, but it’s early days), in the same way that we should not be embarrassed to answer the questions “So what do you do?” in a social setting, with a cocktail in your hand. My only proviso though, is that I’m keeping my NW page and my facebook friends two separate things. It’s possible to have fans and post things into their feeds, but without ‘friending’ them as such. Because I like to keep my personal life amongst people that I know and trust.  There are labs and then there are labs. If you’re not a fussy photographer then maybe you will not realise that there’s much of a difference between a good lab and a great lab. But I’m going to tell you a little story… I shot a wedding just before Christmas. When I started processing the work I realised I… Hi Felica, thanks so much for the feedback! I try to blog once a week, it’s not always easy but I love the writing and sharing process so my intention is to keep it coming! cheers, B Wow, I like your blog ! Hi Trish, yep, that’s definitely the way to go – let the dress fall where it falls and concentrate on getting acceptable skin tones. Lighting will vary and that will change the look of the dress, that’s expected. When I switched to digital and started using Lightroom i had to take a while to let my eye come in, so to speak. It seemed to take a while for me to get jiggy with what i was seeing with onscreen, the subtlety of tone, separation of tones, etc . Do you have your screen calibrated? This means that what you see on screen will match with what the lab produces, it’s based on the International Colour Consortium http://www.colour.org group that standardise colour around the world, so we’re all looking at the same greens, etc. I recommend that you pick ten frames from throughout the wedding and get them test printed without corrections (ie, lab interference!). Then you will be making a genuine comparison between what you’re seeing on screen vs. what you’re getting back from the lab. This is where a calibrated monitor becomes crucial. If you like i’m happy to run a blog post on this collection of ten as part of the learning process, if that helps you. Hang in there, a wedding is a big task, both in the shooting and post production stage! B Thanks for this, Beth. I printed a picture today at Ted’s Camera Store in the city, and although I’m fairly happy with the quality I’m curious to see how much better it would look from a professional lab. I might give these guys a whirl. I am worried that some of my pictures from the wedding aren’t going to reproduce as well in print; I’m mostly worried about the subtle colours in the bride’s dress. Also, as I’ve been tweaking the contrast and brightness in all the pictures, I’m awfully scared that the variation in colours across the range of pictures will be enormous. I was shooting indoors, and in the shade, and in the sunshine, and the bride’s dress is a different colour in each setting (the fabric goes from white to cream to gold to silver… amazing fabric!). So I’ve been trying to keep her skin tone fairly consistent and let the dress become whatever colour it becomes, as long as the bride doesn’t look spray-tanned or anaemic. Anyway… lots of learning… I use three different labs, depending on what I need/turnaround time required etc. Only one of those is a ‘professional lab’. Before this arrangement, I used a ‘professional lab’ in Cape Town, but the KEPT bollocksing up my work. This varied from unwanted colour corrections to TOTALLY incorrect cropping etc. Imagine a client who books an equestrian shoot, and then in the classic head shot, the lab goes and CUTS off the HORSES EARS. This *after* have correctly cropped each shot for each order/size etc. They would also print the wrong amounts of the prints, so if I wanted 3x 4by6 of shot A they would print 5 and then try and charge me for the extra. At first I would point out the mistakes and they would reprint free of charge. Then they started getting pissy about the number of times they had to do this!! Eventually I decided they were not worth the effort and now I use a combination of two local ‘everybody’ labs, and one pro lab a little closer to home that are MORE than happy to do the right thing.  When I was in South Africa I was asked by Chenara to create some promotional images to help her along with her music. She’s working towards a CD and currently recording. She has a very feminine style in her singing and performing so we thought it might be an idea to try to inject that idea into… yes, thanks Trish, interesting she picked that one for her myspace page. I wondered if cropped squre her face might be too big for the frame, just because i’ve come so close to her for that frame. That’s why i was inclined towards 4 because it’s set back a bit and she’s framed a bit more by the umbrella. She’s got an amazing spirit and it comes through a lot in that one…plus fabulous lips! B I like 2. Makes me wonder what she’s looking at. Yes I know it’s hard isn’t it!!? These were definitely my favourites, but we had many great images. She’s such a dynamo. I quite think that 4 would take the square dimension quite well. I wonder what marketing people in the music industry would say. And I wonder what the artist herself will choose! B Love the 4th one – number 3 is a favourite too.  In April this year, here in Canberra, I’ll be holding an exhibition. The opening night is Thursday 15th April, 6-8pm. It will be at The Front Cafe and Gallery in Lyneham. It’s going to be a collection of images of People and Places. They’re images from all over the world, mostly from the trip… Thanks Kathy! It’s thanks to people like you in far away lands that this exhibition is coming together as well as it is. cheers! It just sounds lovely. I look forward to hearing about and hopefully seeing the final outcome. Good luck!!!  I ran a competition while I was away last year, and the prizewinners were three families drawn to be photographed by me. Ant, Cilla, Alani and Maya were one of those families. I’m really so pleased by the depth in the images we achieved, and on reflection now I can see that something must be… 
Hi Jonnie, Your comment has intrigued me as i’d love to know what you have to say in more details! But never mind, i’m pleased to know my website is in your bookmark list. You can always subscribe to the blog and then when I post you get an emailed version of it sent straight to you (I don’t administer the addresses, so you don’t need to worry about your email address and privacy, it’s handled behind the scenes by wordpress). Thanks for reading, come back anytime you’re always welcome! cheers Your website came up in my search and I’m impressed by what you have published on this topic. I am currently expanding my inquiry and thus cannot contribute further, nevertheless, I have bookmarked your website and will be returning to keep up with any upcoming updates. Just love it and gives thanks for tolerating my comment. |
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Well I found more then 400 entries for “Beth Jennings” but then looked onto your website and found out that you established that “fan” page. I did not hesitate or further think about it but just became a fan. 
Hi Kathy! I can’t tell you it’s so lovely to hear from you, and I’m so pleased with your feedback, it’s good to hear the details. For those reading this, Kathy and her family and I met up one afternoon in Toronto last year and captured the current chapter of her Family Story. We went with Mark her husband, and Jessica and Ben to the local baseball park. Yes, Jessica did have a few flying moments there and I’m glad I was at the ready for those. It’s interesting that it came out actually because initially when we met up she seemed a little wary of me or something?…And then Ben, wow, what a lovely chap he is, such a thinking man! Stay tuned Kathy as Ben features in the exhibition, such a fascinating person, he has a lot to say and a lot going on. I can’t tell you it makes my day to receive feedback from happy families like yours.
Best,
B
You know, having been in the same situation as Hannah and her family, I can say that we were so pleased with how you captured our true personalities during our photo session. Jessica was acting like such a nut that day and thinking back to it – that’s who she really is. Often her teachers will tell me how polite and quiet and serious she is and they are always surprised when I tell them that I regularly find her dancing and singing and swinging her arms around in the living room – just enjoying the moment. I think you captured that during our photo session.
Ben on the other hand. Who really knows what a teenage boy is thinking? While he can be a bit of a nut sometimes himself, the older he gets, the more introverted he becomes, although he also is becoming more comfortable in his own skin. Again, I think that the images that you captured of Ben, show this sort of “transitional ” period he’s going through – half child/half adult.
Gosh Trish, what a wonderful set of comments. Stunning, freakishly good, authentic – I’m so pleased that you’re seeing all of this in the work. It’s a funny thing really, that I didn’t know this family and then after 1-2 hours of shooting we ended up with those frames. Sometimes I think I must be possessed because I look later and wonder how some of them came to be…and yet there was a moment when I was there, and they were there, and the moments happened, and we got it! Yay! I love this game. Quality intent = quality output.
many thanks Trish,
B
I know this family well – well enough to be given the password to see the whole slideshow.
Beth, these are just stunning. In my opinion you have absolutely captured this family, their individual personalities as well as the different relationships between each and all of them. Seriously, some of those pictures are freakishly good. It looks as though you’ve known them forever.
I adore that third pic of Hannah – that one leapt out at me in the slideshow. And the pics of Lauren under the plants, and all the shots of Sam and her attitude. Wow.
The joy of photographing people comes in hoping to capture something authentic about them, something that they may not recognise about themselves until they see the image. The subtle ways in which people communicate with each other – a look, a stance, the placement of a hand on a shoulder or a knee – these are all fleetingly quick moments, barely a flicker – and yet when you freeze it in a photograph it’s completely unmistakeably ‘them’. Photography is magical like that. And yes, utterly addictive.
These are stunning. I’m not surprised at Darren’s reaction. Daddies and their daughters… gets me every time, too.