Motor Cycle Show Birmingham

Yesterday I was lucky enough to be offered a VIP ticket to the Motor Cycle and scooter show at the NEC in Birmingham.

It was a terrific day with stacks to see and loads going on. Many thanks must go to Yamaha for the excellant food they put on on the VIP area, very much appreciated.

Now to own up. I'm not particularly into bikes and at times was having conversations with some big names in the racing world without realising it. You can see some more images of the motor cylce show by clicking here (perhaps you can tell me who some of them are).

All in all a great day out and if anyone was thinking of going I highly reccomend it although it may be alittle busier when its open to the public.

Subscribing to my blog

A couple of days ago I received an e mail from someone who pointed out to me that they had tried on several occasions to sign up to have my blog sent via e mail and it had failed on several occasions.

After investigating and trying everything I could, I couldn't get the subscription service to work. There was no contact or useable help with the last company so I have decide to try a differant company. If you do attempt to sign up and it doesn't appear to have worked please do let me know and I can try and sort it out straight away.

I have no idea how long the last one hasn't been working for, but all those people who had signed up will still recieve this blog via email. This new company seems straight forward so hopefully there shouldn't be any problems .......... just add your e mail address in the box on the right. Oh and your details are sacred and will never be passed on to anyone else.

Wedding photography

I saw this and it made me grin. I guess i'm not the only person who gets this happening to them.

Portrait Training Day Next Date Announced

Just a really quick note as I've already received a few e mails from people who couldn't make the last training day. So for those people (and anyone who wants to come back again) the next "Day of Discovery" where you can learn the tricks of great lifestyle portraits will be on the 4th March 2007.

There are also some other plans in the pipeline that those of you who came last weekend will know a little about so keep your eyes peeled to this blog. As soon as possible an anouncement will be made but pencil the 23rd and 24th April into your diaries and keep that date clear.

Be aware this could just about change your life forever!

Feedback From The Portrait Training Day

I have received some really great e-mails over the last few daysand i thought I'd share a few of them. This is a snippet of one sent by Karen Petry who attended the Lifestyle Portrait Training Day at the weekend. Karens a real star in the making she had travelled down to be with us in Essex from Carlisle (our second furthest travelled attendant Keith Bott flew over from Germany). Any way here's what she had to say ....


Apologies for the delay in sending you email. I would just like to thank Doug, Toni, Viv and yourself for the truly fantastic day on Sunday.

It was a real pleasure to meet you all and i thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of the day. It was 2.30 am when I eventually walked through my front door on Monday!! I had to stop off on route and sleep for 3 hours in a service station car park!! (it was well worth it though!!)"

Here's a comment from Anthony Phillips who also has a great look on life and will no doubt succeed ......

Hi Martin
Just a quick line about Sunday. Really enjoyed the day, I have already started to put your methods into action. I now have the confidence to photograph families and children, to a high standard. Thanx very much.

Don't leave it to long for your next training day"

Davide Palisciano sent me a dvd of images he had taken on the day which were completely outstanding, here's some of his comments ....

" First of all can i thank you for an enjoyable and educational day. It's hard to quantify how much one has learnt, however if all i gained was more confidence in my own ability thats priceless.

I took around 300 shots! That says it all. I have narrowed them down to about 40 I like, that is subjective. I will send you a copy in the post.

As a relative newcomer to photography other than family, I thouroughly enjoyed it. Please pass on my thanks to Doug and toni. Dougs enthusiasm is infectious and you can see the passion that drives him.

I would again like to thank you for your patience and obvious understanding that there are a lot of people about who just need to be nudged into the right direction and off they go.

If there is a follow up course keep us informed.

Adrian Smith is already running a succesfull photography business and came to our portrait training day looking for a differant approach, here's what he had to say .....

Hi Martin

Just a quick note to say thank you for a great day yesterday.

I have been through my images and i am delighted with lots of them - also learnt an enourmous amount from the failed images about me and my cameras capabilities. Need a faster lens too much camera shake on some images!

I have no doubt that yesterdays course will help me raise my business to the next level.

Please pass on my thanks top Doug, Toni, Viv and of course the brave families that modelled for us"

Catherine Thomson wrote

Thank you

I had a great time, i think you made a great job of engaging a very diverse audience with the obvious enthusiasm and undoubted skill you are both abundant in.

I was impressed with that last presentation of images, it so splendidly sealed the day and the music was a great touch.

Thanks once again

Catherine.

Lifestyle Portrait Training Day Part 2

Just a quick note to mention some of the excellant images the people from the photography training course that Doug and I ran this weekend have started sending. The couple i've put on here were taken by Catherine Thompson. Great job Catherine you should be extremely proud of the results you have achieved here.

It was a real pleasure meeting with everyone on the course and I know it's not the last time alot of us will meet. I truely expect to be reading about some of you in various magazines in the near future.

After the course finished Myself Doug Toni and Viv discussed when we could do it again and decided the next one day course will be in March so keep your eyes peeled. Also another thing we discussed was a longer more in depth course over two days ..... we are in the very early planning stages for this but keep your eyes peeled as we will be announcing dates very soon.

As soon as the pieces are in place i'll anounce it on here and my portrait website also everyone who has signed up for my free photography tips via e mail from my lifestyle photography web site will also be informed as soon as we are ready to make the announcement. You can sign up for the free tips about lifestyle photography by going to the tips section and adding your email adress. if you have a problem signing up drop me an email to martin@martinwilmottphotography.com and i'll add you manually.


Lifestyle Photographer Lifestyle Photography Professional Photographer Photography Training

Lifestyle Portrait Training Day part1

Yesterday was a FANTASTIC day. It was great fun meeting with everyone who came along for an insight into the way Doug and I work.

I know from the e mails I have already received you all had a great day too. I've added a couple of images and will add some more as I organise them and when the people who attended the course send them in including a slideshow.

Check out the top image of Doug getting attacked by one of our fantastic younger models ... can there be any doubt that the tricks we discussed and practised yesterday work?

It was a truely great day yesterday and I would like to thank you all for coming and sharing your time with us and also a big thankyou to our fantastic models throughout the day who were all incredible!! I can't wait to see some of the images you guys send.

Lifestyle Photographer Lifestyle Photography Professional Photographer Photography Training

Sandisk Memory Cards

This arrived in the post this morning so I now have a little more capability when shooting with my new D2x. Aparently this is the new extreme 4 version that reads at up to 40mb a second.

Sandisk have also just announced a 16 gig memory card ... now that's huge. Whilst we're on the subject of memory cards i must warn everyone to never buy any cards from ebay.

I have received e mails from several people who at first think they are getting massive savings only for the memory cards to give up working halfway through a job with all the information being lost. A large price to pay for saving money! Here's the link to the details from e-bay in case you think you may have bought some of the fake memory cards.

Looking forward to meeting with everyone traveling to the lifestyle portrait photography training day this Sunday.


Lifestyle Photographer Lifestyle Photography Nikon Professional Photographer Photography Training Nikon D2x Sandisk Memory Card

My New Nikon

Ok so i've moved to the dark side of photography!! About time I hear you say. Lets first say that in a way its something that has been half forced onto me and i'm not sure yet it has been the right move. Only time will tell. For the time being my F5 and other film cameras will still feaure heavily in my work.

So why change? Well part of the reason is the upcoming training course this Sunday. On previous courses i've always hired a D2x so students can see the images taken on the day. This time I decided the fact that the D2x has been out a while and the D2xs has just been launched there was a high chance of picking up a good second hand body for a fair price. So I check out e bay and sitting there was a Nikon D2x being sold by someone in Colchester (30 mins drive from me). To make a long story short, I bid and win, then drive out and inspect the camera, perfect condition exactly what i'm looking for so payment was made ... job done.

So far I haven't used it in actual work but a couple of things i've discovered from playing, the screen protector (see image) is pathetic. I have no doubt it pops off as soon as the camera is slung around someones kneck to be lost or trodden on. Also when will Nikon make the flash synch cover attach to the camera body!! I have lost count of the amount of those annoying little covers I have lost after using a flash synch lead.

I have no doubt the D2x is a great camera, but for me it's too early to judge. It has a hard act to follow as I believe the F5 is probably the best 35mm camera ever made ....... the jurys out.

On anopther note I had a long chat with Doug earlier re: the training day this Sunday, It's going to be great and i'm looking forward to meeting everyone who's coming. If you want to check out the details of the training day check out my lifestyle portrait website under the tips section (look for training). i'll add a few pics of the day on here after the weekend.


Lifestyle Photographer Lifestyle Photography Nikon Professional Photographer Photography Training Nikon D2x