Much of April was miserable for me. Easter weekend, and most of the next 10 days, were spent in bed with a dreadful virus and a throat so sore it felt like I was swallowing razor blades. Then I had a 2 hour root canal which became infected and at 3am one morning if I’d known how to pull my own molar out I would have done 🫤 I admit there have been tears of self pity.

However, as always, life is a never ending ebb and flow and this week has been absolutely joyful. It began last Sunday when my dear friend was awarded his DPAGB photographic distinction and was followed on Tuesday night by the last of my spiritual classes. I’ve loved every minute and was delighted to hear that there will be further courses which will build on what we’ve learned.

The bluebells are currently in full flower, so mid week we had a blissful walk around the local bluebell wood. Lee had never been to a bluebell wood before and found it enchanting. I didn’t take any photos, instead just drinking in the space, so here is my favourite from last year.

I’ve had a friend staying for a few days and the weather could not have been more perfect. We’ve been to the fell top and immersed ourselves in the mystical energy of Long Meg & Her Daughters stone circle. Lunched on a wisteria covered terrace overlooking stunning gardens. Swung on the garden swing seat, sipped tea and watched the birds come and go as the sun set. Last night we spent the evening badger watching (more on that in another post). We’ve dipped our toes in Ullswater Lake (brrrrr!) and finished the week with a beautiful group meditation, led by my friend (a meditation teacher) on the theme of love and nature.

She very generously agreed to let me take some pictures of her in my new studio while she was here. Two I’m hoping to use for creative images and haven’t had time to edit yet, but I also took a more straight forward portrait. Most people, sadly, don’t much like the photos I take of them. I’m not a commercial photographer and don’t produce standard smiley pictures. I have a feel for a person’s energy and instead try to take images which match that feel. I think this is a gorgeous photo of my friend and sums up both her strength, her serenity and the wisdom of her years. I’m going to call it The Sage.

Photography is all about light and the success of close up studio portraits like this are determined by the lighting used. There are several important lighting arrangements in respect to studio portrait photography which I completely ignore because I’ve always photographed intuitively rather than following set rules, but if you are new to portrait photography and have no idea how to light your subject they make a good starting point.

Most portrait photographers use flash to light their subjects but I much prefer continuous lights. Firstly I can see exactly how the light falls on my subject, whereas with flash you have to take a photo first then check it, and secondly continuous lights are much easier to work with than flash, IMHO. For this photograph I had soft overhead spotlights to add light to the fabric folds, a left hand continuous light with large rectangular soft box set to 50% brightness and a 45 degree angle as my main light, and a right hand light with large soft box set to 10% brightness and a 45 degree angle as my fill light. It would be lovely to have the option of octagonal soft boxes but there isn’t enough room in my little studio.

Knowing how to edit your portraits in post production is vital. No matter how well you light your subject the iris in the eye tends to be too dark and, as eyes are the first thing you should look at in a portrait, it’s important to know how to lighten them. Bringing out the the light on the folds of fabric and hair has been done with dodging and burning in Photoshop.

I personally like portraits, particularly of older subjects, to look realistic but not harsh. This is especially important when photographing women. I want to see my friend’s wisdom etched in the lines on her face, but female skin is soft so I need to be mindful of harsh, dark shadows. I’m personally not a fan of flat ‘beauty’ lighting over the entire face because shadows give the face a more 3D effect but we don’t want our subject to look like they’ve only had 2 hours sleep!

Colour in a photograph dictates the mood. If the scarf around her head had been vivid red the photograph would have had an entirely different feel to this soft grey/blue. In real life the scarf I used was actually purple, but that was way too dominant for the mood of this picture so I’ve changed the colour in Photoshop to match her eye colour, which in turn makes the eyes pop.

There can be a misconception that portrait photography is simply a case of plonking someone on a chair in front of a flash light and clicking the shutter button and while for commercial photography this is a possibility once you know the camera and flash settings which work for you, when we want to produce pictures with mood or feeling it needs more careful thought and pre-planning.

Right, I must crack on! I am at Broughton Sanctuary today for the opening of the Centre for Liminal Studies, an exciting new initiative studying consciousness and liminal experience, we need to set off in 45 minutes and I’m not even dressed yet. I’m sure I’ll write more about the Centre on my Soul & Spirit blog.