Gem runs beginners Photography evening courses at Teignmouth Pavilions throughout the year. With follow up improvers sessions running regularly too. All Photography workshop dates and session bookings are taken by the Pavilions, find out more info and sign up at The Pavilions Website by clicking here.
Here are a few shots from our first ever improvers session:
We had loads of fun on this workshop and everyone worked well together to get the shots they wanted. We went through high key and low key set ups, lighting patterns for portraits and experimented with a single light source too.
Here are some behind the scenes shots that Arkwright’s Photography took on the day which I think really capture the spirit of our workshops:
Now here are the actual ‘proper’ shots taken by Arkwright’s Photography:
I love creative days, which is very fortunately in my line of work!
Today I spent creating props for a couple of my next Conceptual Group Shoots, both based in Okehampton.
The first is on the 6th December and has a butterfly orientated theme, I spent the morning trying to avoid sticking my fingers together whilst at the same time attaching pretty paper butterflies to clear nylon so we can hang them down around the model to create an interesting portrait scene.
Then I cut two shirts in half, one PJ shirt and one standard white suit shirt with the help of my ‘creative assistant’ (boy pictured) then sewed them together to created a half bedtime, half day wear shirt for the concept half awake half asleep that we’re shooting on the 31st January in Okehampton with Diego our model, toothbrush included.
I’m looking forward to my next conceptual shoots so I can make even more props.
I’m going through the archives to find examples of all my clients images taken on workshops to post here as a sort of collective image bank. Work shared with permission includes images by Kelvin Bennett, James Webb, Tony Howard, Graham Dean, David Ballard and me. Click their names to be redirected to their portfolios.
Here’s a selection of different looks that we have photographed on previous workshops, each image is credited with our Stylist, MUA, Model, Hair Stylist, Photographer etc. Quite a lot of work goes into getting the right pieces to work together in our looks behind the scenes. It’s another creative outlet for our team to work with, I’m amazed with what Jo seems to effortlessly put together whilst still making our models look amazing!
Models: Candice Peachey and Nikita Crombie
Stylist/MUA/Hair Stylist: Lady C
Photographer: GemmieV
The Look: This is a dark Boho look, intended to give us a darker, more rock and roll look than flowery and feminine. We shot against fallen trees with spiky branches to emphasize the harsher look. Our Stylist Jo brought some beautiful fabric skirts with her and a vintage jacket to help complete this look. Jo used quite heavy eye makeup to fit the theme of this idea tying the whole look in with the location.
Models: Candice Peachey and Nikita Crombie
Stylist/MUA/Hair Stylist: Lady C
Photographer: GemmieV
The Look: Jo plus two assistants made Flower Crowns and styled the models with sheer floaty material and frilly pastel coloured dresses to give a soft feminine look.
We shot this look in the meadow to match the soft styling with the long grass using a shallow depth of field to give an overall soft image. The warm natural light worked beautifully with this look and the makeup was kept natural to suit.
Candice and Nikita kept their expressions and poses soft and feminine also.
We also took Nikita’s top dress off and just worked with the sheer material and a silky play suit underneath, Jo added a chunky coloured beaded necklace to give us yet more variety by slightly changing the look.
We changed Candice’s look by taking off her top layer leaving her in a silky vest which we then coupled with a pink fluffy jacket to add another element to work with the look.
Models: Candice Peachey and Nikita Crombie
Stylist/MUA/Hair Stylist: Lady C
Photographer: GemmieV
The Look: Using the crowns again but in a different location with different dresses, this time quite a simple but playful style. We used the lines of trees to create a vanishing point in our images and got the models to move up and down the scene so we could experiment with depth of field.
Nikita swapped her plain blue dress for a floral print dress and we shot against some reeds just down from this location too, again with the crown. We shot down the reeds to get the depth of field obvious in the image, this really highlighted Nikita and her head dress.
Models: Candice Peachey and Nikita Crombie
Stylist/MUA/Hair Stylist: Lady C
Photographer: GemmieV and Kelvin Bennett
The Look: The lumberjack look was inspired by our main prop, a huge timber crane truck that we borrowed for the shoot. We opted for plaid shirts and cut off denim shorts with boots. The girls had natural makeup and plaits for this look. We had the odd useful prop to work with too such as hammers, chainsaws, diesel cans and axes!
Model: Candice Peachey
Make up/Hair: Trude Bosence
Photograph by: Kelvin Bennett
The Look: This look was intended for a colour finished image with more focus on the hair and matching eyeshadow and lip colour to the simple styling. As we were shooting beauty I didn’t want to detract from our models face by dressing her in anything too flamboyant so I have opted for a muted colour leotard.
Model: Candice Peachey
Make up/Hair: Trude Bosence
Photographer: Kelvin Bennett
The Look: We wanted a subtle, classy look so opted for hair up, simple make up with a slight bit of colour and a neutral coloured patterned jacket to add texture and some detail in the bottom half of the frame. We used a clam shell lighting set up to achieve this look and pulled our model away from the white backdrop and did not light the backdrop so it faded into a darker tone.
Model: Candice Peachey
Make up/Hair: Trude Bosence
Photographer: Kelvin Bennett
The Look: We wanted a more Gothic look so opted for a spiky metal necklace, black ruffled dress and dark make up. Trude did the make up and hair to suit. We shot in high contrast black and white to help emphasize the harder look. We used a high key set up to get the contrast between Candice’s skin tones and the black of the dress and makeup.
We experimented with different modifiers to get interesting catch lights to draw the viewers eye into the image.
Here’s the about me continued on from the BIO page, I hate sounding all formal and serious so here’s my extended ramble for those who are interested!
I’m one of those imaginative creative types who likes to scrapbook, learn, draw and create beautiful, elegant images. Picking up a camera felt so natural to me, before my camera I used to spend hours drawing but now I can create images quickly and get just as much satisfaction in doing so.
I am formally trained and hold a Triple Distinction in Photography from College and a Certificate of Higher Education in Commercial Photography from The Arts University at Bournemouth.
Photographing people is my passion. I’ve previously worked for a multinational child/baby portraits company where I was held in the top three photographers in the company, I learned SO much from working with those guys, the training was fantastic and I learned how to sell my work and how to communicate with members of the public too. From there, at age 22, I went on to start up my own photography business, GemmieV Photography, where I concentrated on photographing babies and families throughout Devon on a part time basis.
In March 2013 I was approached by a local businessman with a studio space, he was looking for someone to take on the studio full time. I took the studio on and built it up, learning along the way about all the key aspects of running a studio, organizing shoots, networking, etc then in December the Owner decided to sell up so I moved out of the studio and started again, thankfully I had built up quite a client base.
Rather than starting up a new local studio and competing in an already saturated market, I decided that I would become mobile and offer Photography Workshops throughout the Southwest of England to teach new photographers everything I had learned from College, University, Employment as a Baby/Child Photographer and through my experiences as a Self Employed Photographer and Studio Manager.
I love inspiring people through photography, helping people understand how to use their cameras and lighting to create images they are proud of makes me happy. Although I do take on the odd family/baby portrait here and there my true passion is teaching. I believe that to be the best photographer and tutor I could possibly be I need to keep an open mind and regularly learn new techniques, I’m often found with my head in a book or watching online tutorials, I have a stash of photography magazines that I trawl through for tips and have many full journals with notes and drawings from helpful articles I’ve picked up along the way.
This job has led me to work with other creatives too, both as a commercial photographer shooting others artwork and also as a tutor to explain lighting, composition etc. for artists creating lighting setups for drawing and painting. In relation to this I hold a monthly Life Drawing class where I set the lighting up appropriately for our session.
My workshop stylist introduced me to a fantastic, award winning makeup artist Sally Orchard who teaches in Falmouth, I taught her how to light her makeup effectively and she taught me how to apply makeup properly, this was great for me as it means I can use what I learned on my workshops when creating new looks with Models and it also means if anyone wants to shoot boudoir or a beauty session with me I can offer to do their makeup too! It also means I get to scrapbook makeup styles and practice yet another creative sideline!
As a member of the guild of photographers I regularly enter competitions and take part in discussions, find links from training exercises etc, it’s great! The guild is a fantastic support network and I can learn loads with them too. They keep my standard of work high! Here’s my profile with them: http://photoguild.co.uk/member/gemmavarney
I just have to share my latest edits, as a part of the services I offer I retouch other photographers work and one of my lovely regular clients, David Ballard, shot these images recently which he then asked me to work on. It was so much fun to work on them and I’m really please with how they came out and wanted to share so here they are… Let me know what you think with a comment?
As the title suggests one of my images has won a bronze award in the image of the month competition and I’m so happy that I wanted to share it with you all:
With thanks to Jenn Davies for modelling.
As part of the research for my workshop ‘Marketing and Branding for Photographers’ I put together this colour palette template which allows you to drag and drop your image in to the Photoshop document (drop it at the top of the layer stack) line it up over the big black image space, right click on the image layer and click ‘create clipping mask’ so it fits within the blacked out space and then from there you can go down to the adjustment layers, double click on the left hand black box (in the layers palette) and the colour picker will appear, pick a colour from your chosen image and it should fill one of the boxes below with that colour.
You can download the template below.
Repeat for as many of the boxes that you wish to fill to mix and match colours originating from your image. You see these templates being used on www.Pinterest.com and I think they are great for helping to get your businesses branding and colour schemes sorted.
Share your new colour schemes in the comments below and a link to your website.
We had a lovely day for photos and Claire’s family were very hospitable and friendly. We got a good variety of shots of the group and also of Claire’s little boy, who gave us some very cute expressions to work with.
colourpalettetemplate.psd
