
Probably a little early for new year's resolutions, but I think I'll be to busy after new year to write them down. so here they are to take effect from 1st Jan 2011. okay I'll start with the ones I know I'll probably break before 2nd Jan.
I'm often asked what The Works Studio has that all the others don't? Many other studios look much nicer than ours they have fancy laminate flooring and nicely decorated changing rooms, and all the latest Apple Mac editing computers, well the simple answer is ME! okay this might sound incredible arrogant, but fortunately it's true, I have been a full time professional studio photographer for well over ten years, and a semi professional for nearly thirty years. I have served my time in professional studio shooting on most film formats from 35mm to 10x8 plate cameras. I'm a Associate of the Royal Photographic Society I'm not some guy who has decided they would like to do a bit of photography and got a digital camera and opened a studio. I actually understand light, I actually learnt the art of lighting both at Cambridge School of Art under the world famous photographer Hag, and have assisted such photographers as Tony Middleton. I'm know as the professor of lighting by many of our clients and have taught most of the local photographers their lighting skills, but it's not all about knowledge it's about how you can teach it, I'm a qualified teacher and have taught at HND and Degree and supervised at Phd level at Cambridge. Having said that whilst The Works might not have fancy laminate flooring, it certainly has the best lighting around, from it's world beating Elinchrom 1.9m octabank to it's Bowens Ringflash pro. but more importantly it also has someone who knows how to use it. and if you don't like flash we have a complete set of 5 Redheads and a 1Kw Photo-beard broad light the real ones not the crappy imports from China. however the most important thing is our studio is of proper proportions, it's not a room with a low ceiling painted white where it's impossible to produce anything except high key images, our studio has a ceiling over 20 foot high and is dark grey so low key lighting is easy, you can always tell the quality of a hire studio by the calibre of it's customers, and we are very proud to boast some pretty illustrious photographers using us, and have been used by Practical Photography magazine for their 16 page article on nude photography, and have photographers travel from all over Europe to use out space, sorry we don't cater for the so called "guys with cameras". if you want to perv at naked model and take a few snaps you probably won't feel very comfortable at The Works, however if you are a creative photographer you will love our studio.
Any business is based on it's service and it's staff, and The Works is no exception. we know we have the best staff around. in fact we really are THE WORKS!
We have our two-part "Become a Wedding Photographer" course starting in September the first part "On The Day" which covers all aspects of wedding photography from getting the work to taking the images, and includes a practical shoot with a bride and groom; is on Sunday 5th Sept, with the second part "On The Computer" which deals with all the post wedding processing on the computer and album building, is on Sunday 19th Sept, both days start at 10 o'clock and finish around 6 o'clock, the cost of each day is £225 or you can book both days for £400. price includes a buffet lunch and tea and coffee during the day.
Our other courses are
Sunday 12th Sept Studio lighting for Fashion and Glamour Photography £85 inc lunch.
and our five week photoshop evening class starts on Monday 6th Sept 7:30 til 9:30 £85 for all five weeks.
If you require more info please call the studio on 01480 301482 or email Martyn@The-Works-Studio.co.uk
Events, Workshops and Courses for Autumn 2010
Sunday Workshops inc Buffet Lunch
Sun 08-Aug Intermediate Photoshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 22-Aug Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 12-Sep Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 26-Sep Working with Film shooting & procession 09:30 - 18:00 £95+++
Sun 03-Oct Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 24-Oct Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 14-Nov Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 05-Dec Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Five Week Evening Courses Starting on:
Mon 06-Sep Intermediate Photoshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Mon 18-Oct Advanced Photoshop - for people photography 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Other Events
Sat 11-Dec Christmas Party - Bring a Bottle 20:00 - Late Invite Only
We have now finalised the program for the Cambridge School of Photography
Events, Workshops and Courses for Autumn 2010
Sunday Workshops inc Buffet Lunch
Sun 08-Aug Intermediate Photoshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 22-Aug Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 12-Sep Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 03-Oct Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 24-Oct Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 14-Nov Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Sun 05-Dec Studio Lighting Workshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Five Week Evening Courses Starting on:
Mon 06-Sep Intermediate Photoshop 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Mon 18-Oct Advanced Photoshop - for people photography 09:30 - 18:00 £85
Other Events
Sat 11-Dec Christmas Party - Bring a Bottle 20:00 - Late Invite Only
Just started this blog for the studio, nearly August and things are picking up a bit after a quiet couple of months. We have loads of stuff planned for the rest of the year, including a load of different photographic courses and workshops. We are also looking for model wanting to do studio days, and photographers and models interested in syndicating their images. if you are interested please give me a call
The Works Studio is one of East Anglia’s largest hire studios, a fully self contained photographic facility with much more to offer than just a large white studio area, we have a client meeting rooms and a large multi-purpose room, that can also double up as two more studio areas. The studio is available for hire to professional and amateur users alike, whether you are a model, photographer, designer or make-up artist The Works is the perfect place to work. Hire charges start at £25 per/hour, with discounts for students and longer bookings.
The Studio area measures 30foot x 36foot with a ceiling height of 20 foot, (This is no converted spare room or garden shed!) with a 16foot wide x 10foot high infinity cove providing nearly three times more space than the average colorama backdrop studio.
Our studio is quite different from many studios that have been painted plain white. All white studios are great for some types of photography such as hi-key work, but it is virtually impossible to shoot lo-key in one. Whilst hi and lo key lighting can easily be achieved in our studio. The same cannot be said for creating lo-key, lighting with hard shadows in an all white studio. Quite simply, the light gets reflected off all the walls and kills any shadows. At the Works studio we have carefully created the perfect balance of white infinity cove, surrounded with dark walls and ceiling to allow shadows to be created and controlled.
The studio is a converted 1930’s factory and we have left much of the old factory ‘feel’ in the building, we have not replaced the rather distressed old wood flooring with shiny laminate, and the walls have been kept in their original industrial condition, when you first come in to the studio you may feel the building a slightly dilapidated compared to the shiny new studios build in modern factory units, but as soon as you start to be creative the building comes to life. We are a professional studio and do not have ‘room sets’, if you want to shoot in a room set why not just use a real room! If you are looking for an amateur glamour studio The Works is probably not for you, however if you are a creative photographer looking for total control of your lighting, then we feel we are the best studio around, we don’t just have big soft boxes, we also have specialist lighting such as 70cm beauty dishes with honey combs, and Quadmatic spotlights that can be fitted with gobos to create silhouettes and shadows, we have the latest Bowens ring flash pro. Or if you prefer we have a set of five 800w Photo Beard Redhead tungsten lights, and a RRB 1Kw broad light, ideal for recreating the 1950’s feel, from before the days of studio flash. If we were to liken our studio to anything we would say it’s more like something from the film ‘Blow Up’ than ‘America’s next top model'
We understand many of our customers also want to shoot on colour backgrounds, so if it's a colorama background you require we also have them, our system is fitted to our balcony allowing rolls to be changes safely and easily at waist height, (no going up ladders in this studio) at 8feet high the balcony overlooks the infinity cove so can be used to shoot down on to the cove area. Underneath the balcony is a fully equipped model's changing room with four make-up stations and the latest Iwata airbrush makeup system. The studio is all on one level with no steps and has good accessibility through double doors from our large car park making it easy to unload heavy equipment or props directly in to the studio. We have gone a long way to making all our facilities wheel chair friendly and we welcome disabled visitors.