Photokina 2012

I know this post is about 3 weeks overdue but hey, better late than never! This photokina post isn't going to tell you about all the latest gadgets from the biggest companies (Canon, Nikon etc) but it will focus on the things that made me happiest at the trade show in Cologne, Germany.

First stop was Lomography, unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to sign up for the DIY La Sardinia workshop where they were giving away free cameras (I can't be too greedy, I do already have one , below) but was very happy to have a 1 on 1 tutorial with a Lomokino camera (shown above) and be able to play around with all the fun props they had to go with their circus theme. 

Next stop was up the stairs to Samsung and although I've never really liked their cameras I did really like all their displays- breakdancers, waterfalls and lego boats! We also stood in line for 45 minutes to get a photo on a vespa printed on a mug for free but the camera they were using was having problems connecting to wifi and the in camera editing looked very slow going anyway so we abandoned it.

Sony had lots of models to try out their cameras on

The Impossible project was doing demonstrations of their latest technology basically being able to use and Iphone to take a picture, put it on their device and make it an instant polaroid like picture. I'm still not sure how I feel about this- Glad that it opens up more ways for people to use analogue technology but I always loved the feeling of that a Polaroid is like a negative, there is only one of them. 

We also stood in line for about an hour to get these photographs taken of us by photographer Walter M Rammler for a project faces@photokina on a hassleblad camera then printed on an Epson fine art printer. 

I used a CeWe instant print machine to make these glossy prints and was surprised with actually how nice they came out.

On the opposite end of the scale, Polaroids new digital instant camera disappointed me, with a much smaller amount of megapixels than all cameras on the market and poor printing quality, I feel like this machine could have been made so much better had a little more time and money gone into it. (See printed example of me using one above)

And lastly, my next big purchase is going to be an Epson scanner so while I was chatting to the reps about them I got this print done on one of their printers, and I was again surprised at the quality it came out with. Maybe my 'anything printed not in a lab on wet lab paper is crap' mentality was slightly changed. Maybe. 

Tall Ships Shoot

So when the Tall Ships were in town I couldn't let the opportunity pass without collaborating with some local models Matt and Eden, for a shoot. I definitely think that if I'm shooting something like this again I will seriously consider going early in the morning so as to not have thousands of tourists to work around but still, it was a very fun shoot with the beautiful Eden falling through a barrel at one point!

MUA Laken Atwood

Mothers day matching Polaroids

I started this series back in September 2009 and it still continues, this is what I'm saving my very last rolls of real Polaroid film for. Standing in each of my parents footsteps when they were my age in various places in Europe and the UK

Baby Blue Eyes

When I was at the Car Free Festival showing some of my Lomography prints I had asked Jayne and her family if she had wanted to get a photo taken with my little Car Free Festival sign but I saw that baby was sleeping so told them to let sleeping babies lie and handed over my card, a lot sooner than expected we had a shoot planned and as baby Liam had had some cool shades on when I had met them I didn't have a chance to see then how beautiful his eyes were. I seriously have not done anything to these photos to enhance the eyes, thats just the way they are! We decided to shoot with some of my Lomography cameras which was seriously exciting as I had been wanting to use them to do a shoot for someone for a long time. This post is all the digital's and the Lomo's will follow on Saturday. It was great to share an afternoon with the family and hear stories, I always appreciate being let in to people's lives and capturing moments like these to last a lifetime!

I loved it when I said give him a kiss, she thought I meant the baby, how times can change!

I also loved it when the grandparents had just got there and grandma leaned away as if to leave and he did this. Too cute!!

I would love it if you shared this so that I get to make more memories photographing families! Check out my Travel Notice section to see where I'll be for the next little while!