Vogue Acceptance!

My latest self portrait got accepted by Vogue! Happy days :)
Here it is:

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Self Portraits.. DID THEM ANYWAY.

The other day I moaned a bit that my hair wasn't doing what I wanted..
But then I thought..
MAN UP, it's your flippin' hair.

So with a powerful bit of window light, and a bit of reflecting, I created these headshot self portraits.
Got a good idea for my self portraits from this too, inspired by Rankin :)
But here are the pictures I took anyway!

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www.tomkeenanphotography.co.uk

www.facebook.com/tomkeenanphotography

www.twitter.com/tomkeenanPHOTO

Well that's a pain.

Bit frustrating really.
I'm as cool and calm as a cucumber at the moment, just a bit disappointed:

- Original model for latest idea had another shoot option arise, so because I didn't have all the details confirmed she went for that shoot.
- As lame as it sounds, and feel free to laugh, my hair isn't doing what it's supposed to so self portraits aren't happening right now!
- Location for latest idea wouldn't let me shoot there.

So what am I doing to sort it out?

Well firstly i'll pray, but i'm gonna give these steps a go:

- Find a different model through the agency.
- Wait a week or so for the mane (hair) to sort itself out (the more I say this the more stupid it sounds!).
- Really try and find a suitable/good location instead of the beach parlour.

Man, such a pain, cos' I don't want to just take pictures of any friend, I want to set out to produce my best work each time. So with this mind set it takes a lot of variables to go right.

We'll see eh?

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www.tomkeenanphotography.co.uk

www.facebook.com/tomkeenanphotography

www.twitter.com/tomkeenanPHOTO

Beach Parlour Shoot

I'm in the process of confirming a test shoot, for my PT4U portfolio, at Deal Beach Parlour!
Here are the photographs that have inspired this shoot:

Actually, it's a bit of a white lie (sinner...), I had this idea in my head but couldn't find anything that originally inspired me to put forward to MUA's/Agents etc, so I had to go out of my way to find pictures that sort of illustrated my plan.. And here we are!

Also, im going to, from now on, sign my blog posts with my website, Facebook & Twitter, along with my cheeky Jesus in there too ;)





www.tomkeenanphotography.co.uk

www.facebook.com/tomkeenanphotography

@TomKeenanPHOTO



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NEW Wedding meeting.

Since the last wedding I shot, i've had interest about another wedding and have now received a deposit from another couple!
This wedding I have offered 2 shooters - this will help me get twice as many images.
Also what i'm gonna do is give a set of proofs of all the images to the couple once the wedding is done, so then they can pick their favourite 100 images for me to fully edit.
I'm also offering a custom album for them too! They are going to decide on a style for this.

Exciting stuff!

Still love my fashion though ;)

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Agency Success! (Praise God..)

I just thought i'd update you on my situation with models recently.
I've been quite blessed to have made a break through to my first modelling agency, Sapphire Models. This happened by being involved with a shoot which was planned by Lucy Jayne with one of their models, and then the owner of the agency taking a liking to them, and sending a pair of models my way for potential testing!
Amazing opportunity.
Hoping to keep building on this, and hopefully have similar things occur with other successful agencies.
Here are a couple of screen shots of the models sent to me, and the owner of the agency's comments.

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First wedding: Pictures

I've now finished my first wedding :)
By finished I mean the client now has the photographs.
Happy
Days.
Not stress free, but I just hope they are happy!
From now if a client enquires about a wedding I will 9 times out of 10 say yes to it.
Here are a selection of the images I gave to them!



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Now part of Art & Commerce! In association with Photo Vogue!

Praise GOD.

Haha.

It's taken a little while, understandably because of all the photographers A&C have had to deal with, but it's official: I'm now on Art & Commerce where my photographs can be brought for editorial purposes!

Such a blessing.

I'd really like to add more high fashion images to them, but at the moment I am not quite catching the vogue style with my fashion photographs, so hopefully I can learn how.

Here are a few screen-grabs I took of it :)

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Rankin Inspired Shoot

During my second visit to PT4U we were told we had to do a photo shoot in the style of Rankin...

YES

WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF RANKIN IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Bit silly really...

So, praise Jesus, I have come up with quite a good idea...

These are the images that have helped stimulate my idea:

So, the plan...

Male model.

In a mechanic's garage.

In a suit. Maybe even a walking stick.

With slightly strange Make-Up, maybe even a hat.

Going to try and use up to 4 lights, and really push myself out of my comfort zone.

Maybe even two assistants? CRAZY

Really excited about this!

Maybe i'll settle down when I start contacting people about this.

I love you if you have read this.

Blessings,

Tom

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Donikka - Experiment/Collaboration

Apologies I haven't been right on this every day for the past week or two: I was in Devon & then at an amazing Christian festival called 'Momentum'. It's left me feeling inspired and fuelled, which makes me very happy!

So, after PhotoTraining4U I collaborated with a MUA named Lucy Jayne: I've worked with her before, and absolutely love her work. Lucy organised the location, model & styling & I decided on where in the location to shoot, what kind of lighting and what kind of tone the set should have.

Here is the final set: I'm very chuffed, there are around 3 or 4 that are my favourite, because the face wasn't as diverse throughout the set as hoped: having said this, she was still an awesome model, considering this was her first shoot! An added plus is that the director of the modelling agency (http://sapphiresmodel.com) was fond of the pictures too, and wants to keep updating me with new models of theirs. This was a huge step for me! They're a great organisation!

Blessings

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Annoying thing about Published work..

I just want to highlight that this isn't supposed to be a rant AT ALL! Any kind of published work is an absolute blessing on any standard: to have so many people experience and view the work you have spent so much time and effort on is quite amazing, so don't get me wrong I love the idea of it.

I'm just a bit impatient sometimes, and the thing with trying to get work published you have to wait til' you get confirmation from whatever magazine/blog it may be before you can show people your work in the first place.

For example, i've had the PT4U four dress photographs edited for a fair while now, and I really want to be able to just lob them on my blog and the odd couple on my website (www.tomkeenanphotography.co.uk) but in case the magazine wants to be the first to launch the product, I have to wait. And it is the same case with a series I shot with 'Lucy Jayne' - I have just finished editing the photographs, and we want to see if any magazine/blog is interested in featuring the images, so, we have to wait to put them on our sites etc.

Just takes a bit of time I guess?

Psalm 37:7 - "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently before him"

My target before the next visit to PT4U is to shoot at least 3 other shoots (not including commissions etc) to experiment with.

Going to be away for a week at Momentum, and then i'll smash out some shoots :)

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Retouching..

I'm back from Devon!
It was awesome, weather was pants, surf was so-so, but it was great :)

So yeah, got back and went to town (figure of speech) on editing my 'Four dresses' PT4U photographs and managed to get them edited down in one full day - was quite surprised, but I still need to learn a way of utilising my time even more, so I don't spend too much time behind the computer screen.

This leads me to the issue of retouching: I've always done my own retouching, but seeing it takes SO much time, I am considering finding a retoucher sometimes. Only problem is the cost, and knowing that I can do it myself. Maybe i'll just use them for paid shoots? I don't know, i'm still toying with the idea, i'll definitely talk to Mark Cleghorn next time i'm at PT4U.

I want to show you the pictures, but I cant.. I'm not sure if they are being used for the one off editorial yet, so i'll wait and find out :)

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Ideas

I've got a few ideas going on around my head at the moment, and really can't wait to organise shoots for them! But at the moment I'm in Devon, and I have about four days at home before I go away to Somerset for a few days. When i'm back after that, i'm really going to get on to shooting :)

Primary ideas at the moment are using these sorts of locations: cinema, snooker club, beach parlour & ballet academy. Good thing with these is that two of them I would be primarily using natural light, and the other two flash. So i'm constantly going to be experimenting with different kinds of lighting.

I really want to do some studio shoots too, knowing that most of my shoots are on location.

When I get home after being away to Devon, primarily I'm going to be editing the photographs that are due to be in a certain magazine, that i'm not going to tell you about in case it doesn't happen, and I'll also be editing photographs from a shoot I did the day before I went away as a collaboration/experimentation.

Also, because the majority of my shoots are being shot on location, I am considering getting a neutral density filter for my 24-7- 2.8 Nikkor lens. Rather expensive though, annoyingly!

I'm also learning about contacting modelling agencies, I think i've blogged this before mind you, but I feel like I need the guidance of somebody who has worked with agencies before to suggest which photo's I should submit to them.. We'll see.. It's quite intimidating? Going from using friends who have had a good look to them, to using fully aspiring MODELS. I dunno, as soon as I'm behind the camera shooting it's all fine, but before it's quite scary, for me anyway.

God bless you all.

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Mime Photographs - Forgot to post them on here!

My mistake, I've forgotten to post the experimentation photographs on this blog! So here they are.
The theme was 'Mime', the model was Tassja Stanley, and the MUA/Hair stylist was Lucy Jayne.
We shot in a derelict crazy golf park & a fair ground - a bit random, but that's kind of what fashion is like sometimes, and I wanted to see whether I could make it work. And I was very pleased with the outcome! Possible one of my better shoots.
Natural light and flash with the first few shot inside, but then outside it was just natural light.
By the way, do you like my cheeky watermark?
See more on my website: www.tomkeeenanphotography.co.uk

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