Latest photos from Claude Schneider
Patrick and Emma were students in Cambridge a while ago, and decided to get married in Christ’s College as they’re still based in Cambridge. Hidden away at the back of the college are beautiful gardens, and an old unused bathing pool, that made for excellent bride and groom photos.
Next to the statue of a young Charles Darwin
One of my Cambridge-based web development clients, Adder, invited me to photograph their 25th Anniversary Ball, held in King’s College, Cambridge. The weather was perfect for a drinks reception on the backs, between the landmark of King’s Chapel and the River Cam, with entertainment provided by the only Penny Farthing stunt riding identical twins, Felix & Felix.
The magnificent vaulted ceiling inside the dining hall
This is the 5th time I’ve photographed Erica, and you can see why. She graduated from Cambridge this summer, and I thought I’d missed my last opportunity to have a photoshoot with her (she’s one of my favourite muses). So I was pleasantly surprised when she said she was back in town and free for a shoot.
I don’t normally fully-process as many photos as I did this time, so was curious to see how long it took. For those who are interested, here are some numbers:
3 hour shoot, 500 photos taken.
90 photos selected for processing (available on CantabPhotos).
7 hours’ Lightroom processing.
4 hours’ Photoshop retouching (mostly cleaning up the backgrounds).
I did a number of reviews of the photos, and got them down from 500 to 170, then 90, 50, 25, and finally these 14. Each of them is different enough in lighting, pose, and colour-processing, that I couldn’t reduce my selection any further.
The UJC are one of my web development clients, and I attended the CEO’s leaving drinks. I was asked to take some photos of the outgoing chief executive, Yoni Sherizen, with the new CEO, Ian Kamiel, for their press release.
I drove down to London to attend the UJC CEO’s leaving event, and passed by a field of poppies near Foxton that a friend had mentioned to me.
Saba, a dancer with Cambridge Contemporary Dance company, asked for a headshot session to help her promote her consultancy business. As both of us are Johnians, it wasn’t difficult thinking of a location for the shoot.
I’m really appreciating having reflectors for photoshoots, as they’re great for bouncing direct sunlight, and also creating soft fill light from the whole sky.
This is the second photo that I’ve “painted” with additional colours and graphics. The first one was from a photoshoot with Erica last July.
Yesterday’s photoshoot with Samantha produced this wonderful photo with her standing against a tree, lit up against the dark background. There are great examples of designers creating such images for their portfolios or advertising, and while it’s easy enough to learn the techniques, it’s not easy picturing what result you want to achieve, so I tend to build up layers and colours as I go along, and at some point decide when I think it’s finished.
Samantha is a dancer on the Cambridge University DanceSport Team, but I first met her some 5 years ago in an Offbeat dance class. She seemed like a great muse for a photoshoot, and came along with some 30s/40s styled clothes, which worked out really well. Thanks to Jenny for assisting on this shoot.
The rest of the photoshoot can be found on CantabPhotos
For the third time in one week, I found myself heading to the meadows at sunrise to get some photos. This dawn was much damper than the previous week’s, so the damselflies weren’t quite as forthcoming, but I did find one particularly friendly model who posed very patiently for lots of photos and macro video.
Dew rising from the meadows at dawn
I love the striking patterns of the ripples
Dew rising from the meadows at sunrise
Spider’s web at sunrise
These last three photos were taken with my Sanyo Xacti CG65 compact video recorder, which allows macro photography (and video) as close as 1cm.
The damselfly’s eye is about 2-3mm wide.
