Thruxton Motorsports Centre ...

[Owain Shaw]

Ahoy and indeed hoy to all,

Just a few from a day's shooting coming on two weeks ago now. They still haven't actually asked me to post them the agreed DVD full of photos from the day or send them my payment details but, whatever.

The shoot was for the Thruxton Motorsports Centre, the driving school end of the Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire, England. Nothing to do with New Hampshire or New England. The originals!

They had had somebody (I've forgotten his name three times now) in to photograph their nice cars and he had done it very nicely, the brochure looks great, except for one thing - there weren't any people in it. Enter me, stage ... left I think, for a change., yeah, stage left, it's too late now, I'm already half on and if I walk back off now I'd look like a complete idiot.

Anyway, I'm not Michael Aspel (I 'Googled' ahead for the US audience: Link (http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39221000/jpg/_39221177_life_aspel203.jpg) - Note "This is your life" on the book) and this is not my life so, here's some photographs.

One. This guy seemed to be enjoying himself and he hadn't even done anything yet!
http://frome.digitalbrain.com/frome/accounts/pupils/owains/web/AP/1.jpg
Canon 20D + 50mm f/1.8 @ Something or other. If I had a mortgage, I'd bet f/2.8 was in it somewhere.

Two. Left on the shelf, as this shot will most likely be!
http://frome.digitalbrain.com/frome/accounts/pupils/owains/web/AP/2(2).jpg
See One.

Three. Caption vacant. Not to be confused with a superhero for the letting agency ... Captain Vacant.
http://frome.digitalbrain.com/frome/accounts/pupils/owains/web/AP/3.jpg
See Two.

Four. Judging by their faces, I don't think they realised they had organised a mock Le Mans start ...
http://frome.digitalbrain.com/frome/accounts/pupils/owains/web/AP/4(2).jpg
See Three.

Five. Four but having traded composition for blowing nose, a fair trade in my book, being thrown out now at all good retailers.
http://frome.digitalbrain.com/frome/accounts/pupils/owains/web/AP/5.jpg
See Four, again.

Six. Finishing on a low note, as I do, we have this. Leave the car shots to people who know what they're doing.
http://frome.digitalbrain.com/frome/accounts/pupils/owains/web/AP/6.jpg
Whatever you do, do not see Five. Canon 20D + 17-40mm f/4L @ f/8 and something.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to post given that they aren't paying me to do it anyway and most of the others don't really have a huge amount of interest to me but, they got the job done.

Thank you for your patience, assuming you didn't skip to the end,

Tschüß!

Owain (John Anthony Cecil Dimas McDougal) Shaw.

[Dennis Murray]

Interesting series (and great commentary!)

How did you decide on the desaturated look for the post-processing? To me, it seems to fit with the skies and the weather you had.

[Owain Shaw]

Interesting series (and great commentary!)

How did you decide on the desaturated look for the post-processing? To me, it seems to fit with the skies and the weather you had.

Thank you Dennis. You enjoyed my ramblings? That's a new one! :)

I tend to use desaturation to suit either the subject (in the case of my other work which revolves around derelict buildings, I like that sort of thing) or, in this case, to suit the mood or atmosphere (weather) of the day.

Pretty much spot on with the post decision, it suits the weather we had which influenced the mood and atmosphere of the day. It also more closely reflects how things appeared that day, which most definitely wasn't bright or vivid. Has a couple technical benefits to these pictures as well, more contrast and saturation would have resulted in less visible detail in the already slightly fragile skies which are part of the mood of the images. These were just for my own amusement/flaunting use, it's up to the client what really happens to them.

Join me next time on "This is your life" where we once more struggle to find something interesting to say about anyone,

Tschüß!

[David Lister]

Owain..

If it's agreed that you will send them a DVD and be paid for it, then just send a DVD and an invoice with it.. Your invoice will include your payment details, of course..

Don't wait for a further invitation, it may never come.. It's not your problem if they have decided not to use stuff or have sourced from elsewhere.. If they have agreed (you have an email or something in writing I guess), then, providing you have the three elements of an offer to supply, and agreement to take and a consideration (fee) then I believe that you have a contract..

Make sure you clearly copyright the DVD contents and make it clear that they have a licence to use the information for the purposes supplied/agreed (i.e. they do not have copyright and can't use the infromation for other purposes..)..

Get tough..

Apologies to the mods if this is in the wrong place..

[Owain Shaw]

I would have sent it first postage day (the next Monday) after the job (a Friday) if I had an address to send it to. I was told that they weren't going to be around the week following the job so they would contact me after that. I'll email them to check what's happening as well as about copyright and usage. I'm not worried about being able to sell the pictures, first things first, nobody would want to buy them (and there aren't any true generic shots that people would want to buy in the realms of the shoot) but, I want to be able to use them on a website and in a portfolio to show my work for my own promotional purposes and I'm going to make sure they know that.