A fantastic workshop last night on our Get To Know Your Digital SLR evening class in Leeds. Everyone got plenty of top 3B advice on their new DSLRs and prosumer bridge cameras.

Our next evening class is 21st April and we have a few places left – book online here now: http://www.3bmedia.co.uk/index.php/workshops/get-to-know-your-dslr

Wow! where has the year gone. It has truly been an amazing year. We have met so many interesting people and been to some incredible places in 2010. It is difficult for us to thank everyone but first I would like to say thank you to everyone of our couples this year. Every wedding has been great to be involved with and we have been made so welcome by everyone on their special day.

We’re so lucky that we work with some amazing suppliers in the wedding industry so a big thanks and happy Christmas to them, especially Fiona at Firenza, Sally and everyone at Papakata Tipis and all the amazing venues we’ve worked at this year – Allerton Castle, Hazlewood Castle, Ripley Castle (so many castles!), Oulton Hall, Rudding Park and so many others. Also big love to James at Roeni who not only is an amazingly talented designer and all round lovely chap but also designed and produced the Barber Photography Christmas cards again this year.

Thanks to my friends at Aspire up in the Lake District who have continued to inspire me this year. I’m so proud to be part of the team up there and really excited with the projects for 2011. Catherine & Jane we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for you guys.

In the my other world of 3B Media particular thank yous go to Hope & Social Si, Rich, Ed, Gary, Si & James and the peeps involved with them Ben  Mark Roo. You guys have given me the most fabulous experiences this year and long may it continue into 2011.

The lads of Cities Between Us – Josh Nimal Stef Jo & Val – You rock and we are looking forward to the new album in 2011. Skylarkin for allowing us into your inner sanctum to record you guys at work. Mike Heaton for letting us get involved with your exciting project ( More of which in 2011!)

Also of course big big thanks to Rob and Barns, my 3B partners in crime. These two guys have been my biggest inspiration this year. Opening my eyes to new worlds and seeing things that would normally pass me by. They make me as giddy as a kipper. We’ve got big plans for the future helped by the wonderful Hayley who has given us the belief and focus – so 2011 will hopefully be a great year for us.

Lastly a big thank you to my main partner in crime – my gorgeous wife Lou and mother to our fab kids.These guys are the reason we do this. Lou is someone who keeps me on the straight and narrow . Gives me kick up the backside when I need it but allows me to follow my dreams not matter how stupid they may seem at the time.

Lou I love you and you are all I could ask for .

Happy Christmas everybody and have a Happy New Year.

Phil xxxxx

We were more than impressed with the sheer energy & enthusiasm coming from these dudes. They told us their story & how they’d come together from Iceland, New Zealand & Canada (hence ‘Cities Between Us’) and were currently rocking out some new tracks in the UK/Canada, whichever kept them busiest. Here they are are: L>R Valdimar, Jo, Josh, Stefan & Nimal

As with all photography, wedding, music or otherwise, if the other side ‘puts in’, the results are all the sweeter. After they’d left, we were buzzing on their enthusiasm and decided to crank things up a bit for them. Instead of just a photoshoot, we were going to make them a music video. This became my baby (as we’ve found it easier in such projects to take on roles, so I took the role of ‘Herr Director’), I went off and plugged myself into MTV and have never downloaded so many music videos in all my life.

Meanwhile, in July they began work on their debut album, with star producer Matt Hyde – the grammy award winning engineer who’s worked with Trivium, As I Lay Dying, Bullet for my Valentine & Slipknot – and came back to us with a tasty number called ‘Dirty Money’.

We had a good listen, booked a date, hired a warehouse & some pokey TV lights & settled in for a day’s filming. This was a long and intense day. Barns had another job on so Rob & I asked aboard the helpful hands of James Lester (an ace tog pal who manned camera B & shot the images in this post) & Hannah Reynolds (James’ art college pal who manned the mac desk & file conversion).

Here’s a view of the warehouse, from the back looking towards us (you can see our macbook pro desk between the left guitar & bass amps) and below is a closer shot of mission control we had set up. Far right is the sound desk which was used to play back the track. Next table in had all the memory cards (Unused / Used / Downloaded etc) and then you see the two MacBook Pros that were converting footage all day and being backed up.

Above are a few shots James caught of the band in action.

Gearwise: We filmed on Canon DSLRs (2 x 5DmkII’s & a 7D for slow mo footage), a gib (a video crane) & a bunch of TV studio lights & a strobe…

…but really the show was run on CBU power! Seriously: all credit to the band, who rocked solidly for like 7hrs.

We felt for Stefan, the drummer, who was in shreds after givin it beats all day

Anyhoos – After looking at some rough footage in the pub that night, Rob & I excitedly rocked up to Barns house with a hard disk full of Hannah-converted-footage & said “there y’are!” and toddled off.

Barns was taking on the role of editor.

That’s a screen grab of the final track, chopped & laid out in Final Cut Pro.

It was a seriously interested experience & learning curve for us all, not just on the day – playing with lighting, slow mo and cranes etc – but in post production – converting, syncing & chopping the footage – to pump the vid with life & pace.

But we’re totally pleased with the final result. Check it out below, in crispy HD:

If you can’t see the vid for whatever reason, check it out on vimeo here.

Hope you enjoyed watching that as much as we did making it! Massive thanks to Cities Beween Us, who are up in Iceland recording the 2nd leg of the album, for being absolute legends on the day and in general. It wouldn’t look anywhere near this ace if you didn’t put in 100% like you did.

If you’ve a commission for 3B Media, or would like a music vid/documentary, don’t be shy – drop us a line here or on info@3Bmedia.co.uk

As part of 3B Media we have tried to immerse ourselves into the world of music videos. This is an area that all three of us are very interested in and with the advent of the DSLR capable of shooting HD video this has made it more of a reality. So when our friends Hope and Social were making a video for one of their tracks off their new album ‘April’ we asked if we could observe the process from beginning to end. Well the end end has arrived with the launch of the ‘James’ video. Shot and made by the amazing Ross McWhannell, who has worked with us on such fantastic videos as 1000 Bulbs and The First Word is the Hardest, this was created using one 5Dmkii and a budget that was about the same size as the loose change you have in your pocket.

What amazed me was how low tech it seemed on the day -’ Are you really only lighting it with 2 B&Q halogen lights? ‘ – ‘ Just you and the camera then? ‘ But what Ross had was an idea and vision on how he wanted it to look. As with photography I am learning that it’s not all about the equipment but the ability to see and visualise images and planning this all in pre-production. So after filming Ross goes back to New Zealand where he is based and a month later we watched emails go back and forth between the band and Ross discussing first / second edits and how the look and feel of the video evolved to it’s final finished video it is today.

The other big factor in producing video’s whether it is a short movie / documentary or music video is the way it is edited. The Edit can make or break a video. What I know of editing, with the little I have done myself, is the way Ross has pulled James together is amazing. To go from seeing how it was filmed to what you see now is unbelievable. The editor is worth his or her’s weight in gold.

If you go to Ross’s blog there is a very big post about how the video was created and is well worth the read if you are interested in this sort of thing.

To see the video click here —> Hope and Social ‘James’ Video

With all this in mind we have been working on first music video with a band called Cities Between Us. We filmed this back in August and the final edit is almost complete so watch this space.

Finally I was in London last week and on the way back to the train dropped into the Luminaire where the band were sound checking for a gig that night. Here are few grab shots

Last Tuesday we ran our first One-Day Wedding workshop at Woodlands Hotel in Leeds

It was an ace day, filling 8 eager minds with details on how we 3B approach wedding photography

Mr Barber kicked the day off with a classroom session on the importance of the pre-wedding shoot

Then Phil & I split delegates into two groups to show delegates how we shoot 2 pre-wed couples, before letting them take turns shooting.

We wanted to use real couples, rather than models, to show the love and also to show how we make real people feel comfortable in front of our cameras.

This couple Jo & Phil are friends of Clare’s who’d recently married and so jumped at the chance to dress up again & party with us.

Laura & Jamie were a former couple of Phil’s & were well up for playing dress up again.

We showed our delegates the kind of details we look for.

It was drizzling when we started, so showed them how to handle England’s ever changeable weather

A few compositional ideas

And how to communicate with a couple to get them relaxed

A bit of back light flare technique

We’d been supplied a beautiful bouquet, buttonhole & table flowers by our favourite florist in the business, Fiona of Firenza Floral Design

Here’s our 2nd time delegate Natasha photographing our mock wedding breakfast table setup

After lunch the girls donned their frocks & although we like to shoot naturally and unstaged, our makeup artist did a few staged makeup shots.

Laura, looking beautiful.

It’s little wonder why the girls wanted to dress up again when they had stunning dresses like these!

A detail of Phil’s button hole

I like this moment of Jo on the steps.

A kooky compositional bridal detail from Phil.

We really couldn’t complain about the sunlight…

…or the model behaviour we got out of our couples

Jamie even pimped his outfit a with fun footwear

We really hoped we did Jo & Phil proud with a new set of wedding images

They put in so much to help us get what we needed & were very natural in front of the lenses; despite the fact that there were 5 photographers at a time coming at them!

We showed delegates how we like to shoot solo portraits…

…and a bit about depth of field

Personally I like this one of them looking at another delegate

Another moment

And possibly, in my opinion, the most weddingy snap of the day, on the Woodlands steps.

After reading the 3B Feedback Questionnaire it appeared that all our delegates were super pleased with the day and content. We feel we struck the perfect balance to introduce the class to how we approach wedding photography, and how we get the most out of photographing real, non-model couples. We’re excited to do another workshop early in 2011. In the meantime we’re preparing for our Exposing Flash Workshop on November 9th this year! If you’re interested, download the brochure by clicking here.

So thank you again to our couples, Jo & Phil and Laura & Jamie, Fiona from Firenza for the flowers, our makeup artist Lauren & to all our delegates for making the 3B One-Day Wedding Workshop such a great success!

This is an evening not to be missed. If you want to get up close and personal with an excellent band then this is for you. The Hope and Social guys are having a Come Dine With Us evening at the Crypt on March 27th. Billed as a recording event with food and music – the idea was conceived during the recording of their second album which is still being put together. There was a song that James said had the feel of “A french Bistro, in a cave or cellar, with a small jazz band playing, and red candles on the tables”. So the guys are going to turn the Crypt into a French Bistro and invite fans down to get involved with a fun night. The 3B Media boys are going to be there to document the evening and do a little video as well.

Go here for full Come Dine With Us details

This afternoon I headed on down to The Crypt where our good friends Hope and Social are in the middle of recording their second album. I had my 3B Media chums Rob & Barnaby along as we were there to chat and discuss some future projects they had in mind. These are exciting times for these guys and it is great to be involved with them . They have such a great philosophy in their approach. For them it is about getting the fans involved as much as possible. Currently they are asking fans to twitter them names of towns which they are then going to work into the lyrics of one of  their new songs “Marching on through” Check their twitter if you want in – #hopeandsocial #crowdsourcing

Anyhow with the band and Ben Denison @bendenison working on an idea to invite bands to the Crypt to record & film covers! All in one day. Not sure the logistics of it. But will be a great day and everybody can get involved using twitter and facebook and the blogs. More to follow on this and other ideas we chatted about over several cups of coffee.

It is a privilege to be allowed to document a band in the middle of their creative process. What we heard sounded cool and can’t wait to hear more of the tracks that will end up on the album. Spent most of the afternoon chatting but the band did spend some time laying down some tracks – so took a few shots of the guys in action. Check Rob’s blog for more images from our visit.

Thursday night I went to see ‘An Evening with Martin Parr’ – Martin Parr is probably one of the most influential living British Photographers still working today. With over fifty books and countless exhibitions, Parr is known for his lurid and sometimes shocking use of colour in photography and his satirical witty approach to documentary photography leaves the viewer not sure whether to laugh or cry.

The audience was invited to vote on which one of 3 presentations he had put together and they would most like to hear; ‘Parrworld’,  ‘Martin Parr – the story so far’ or Martin Parr my collection of Photo books. After a number of chances to vote the audience selected ‘Parrworld’. This was exhibition that was held at the Baltic in Gateshead. It was an a exhibition  with a difference, less an exhibition in the standard sense – although it’s the largest ever to be dedicated to his work – and more an old-fashioned cabinet of curiosities.

Parr has Saddam Hussein watches, a wall of commemorative plates from the miners’ strike, an Afghan kilim depicting a plane flying into the Twin Towers, a Falklands conflict tea towel, a Stalin alarm clock and a roll of Osama bin Laden lavatory paper.

Also there was a collection of his Postcards showing hotel lounges and Butlins indoor swimming poll from the 60′s.

Joining me on the night was my 3B Media chums Mr Aldrick & Mr Booker. But when we arrived it turned out to be a mini Randall Network get together with The Lawsons, Rebecca Honeywell, Oliva Brabbs, Susie Lawrence all being there as well.

The evening was held by Creative Networks at Leeds College of Art and they hold such events every month.

]]> http://www.philbarberblog.com/index.php/2010/01/31/an-evening-with-martin-parr/feed/ 0 http://www.philbarberblog.com/index.php/2010/01/29/urban-portraits-3b-media-%e2%80%a2-inspiring-photography-workshop-%e2%80%93-a-great-success/ http://www.philbarberblog.com/index.php/2010/01/29/urban-portraits-3b-media-%e2%80%a2-inspiring-photography-workshop-%e2%80%93-a-great-success/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:33:16 +0000 Phil http://www.philbarberblog.com/?p=2347 This week Rob Booker, Barnaby Aldrick & myself ran our first 3B Media ‘Inspiring Photography’ workshop, called ‘Urban Portraits’.  We’ve been planning it for quite some time now and it turned out to be such a fantastic day!

At the Round Foundry Media Centre near Leeds’ Granary Wharf we brought together 2 models, a make-up artist & 4 delegates and spent the day teaching them how we shoot portraits in the urban environment.

The delegates had fun shooting our pro-models, and it was so rewarding seeing them grow in confidence through the day.

In fact, some of the images they were getting were starting to make me feel we’d taught them too well!

Here’s one of our shots of Stef, who’s always such a joy to work with.

To start with I did a classroom session  running through exposure and how to shoot manually, Rob ran the mornings ‘finding backgrounds’ and ‘Communication & Etiquette’ practical shoot classes.

We taught delegates how to quickly find & use clean backgrounds, such as this one of Alex.

Here I am teaching the Natasha’s (there were two!) This was up a fire escape over looking the Saw Mill. This place was amazing for loads of different backgrounds and textures. I’m sporting my lovely little Shootsac.

Our long time 3B Media make-up artist also models, so after she’d made Alex & Stef up, she got involved herself!

What amazing brown eyes!

In the afternoon we walked over to new revitalised Granary Wharf to try out some  new backgrounds and I went through composition and finding light with the delegates.

Another shot of Alex trying to demonstrate you don’t have to shoot head on but consider different angles.

Barnaby did a lot of filming the day – a little video will follow soon. But also he spent a lot of the time during the practical classes on hand to help delegates once they got shooting.

This is one my favourite shots that Barnaby took and the one below is my favourite one that Rob took.

These next few shots I took of Alex under the arches behind Granary Wharf. I love these as a group of six. Here we were showing the benefit of using reflective light and using the lines of the lights to add a dimension to the shot

Here is Natasha working with Alex. It was great that by the nend of the afternoon session – the delegates had the confidence to take the models off on their on and start shooting in their own style.

Then back to the Round Foundry forBarnaby’s classroom module on how we bring images to life in post production & Adobe Lightroom.

Check out Barns  looking all teachery!

It was such a awesome day, with everyone getting a set of stunning photos and leaving inspired and in control of their DSLRs!

It was equally inspiring to us as 3B Media, and we’re going to run the same course again in May and start planning further workshops on (amongst other things) flash, wedding photography & post production!

After a quick group shot, we popped to the pub (3B goody bags in hand!) for a cheeky beverage or two…

I’ll be posting more on the workshop soon, once we’ve edited some video and rounded up some images shot by delegates! But keep your eyes on www.3bmedia.co.uk or on our facebook page below to become a fan / get news on upcoming workshops!