Over the course of the years, our photographic adventures have brought us into contact with many wonderful, delightful and some downright-spankin’-fabulous people. We’ve shot some; shot with others; and even more again we’ve shot for. Hell, some of these people we’d take a bullet for, or very possibly go Polar Bear wrestling™ (again). It’s nice to think that, in return, we’ve also managed to touch the lives of some of these people, be that with our words, or our images, or possibly by introducing them to the magical wonder that is the game of Buffalo™. It stands to reason that when your kids grow up and find responsibility, you can’t help but feel a bloom of photo-paternal pride as they spread their wings.

So step forward Mandy and “Meandering” Paul Charlton. Friends, colleagues, teammates, informants, drinking buddies and partners in crime, the pair of them! Tomorrow afternoon, Mandy & Paul celebrate ten blissfully happy years of marriage together by renewing their vows in front of family and friends. In recognition of the fact and also in recognition of our friendship, Mandy & Paul have asked the 4 Togs to step up to the plate and bat the photographic events of the day right out of the park. We pondered such a request long and hard… “But Mandy”, we said, “We’re not sure the universe is capable of containing the sheer levels of awesome sauce that the four of us, firing in unison, might produce.”. Thereupon, Mandy turned to us with large, liquid-filling eyes and pleaded with us on her very knees to make sure that even if our awesomeness was to cause the end of the world; she wanted it to be at her very own vow renewal.

Faced with such a dilemma, between the devil and the deep blue sea; between a rock and a hard place; between the Real Mark Scholey™ and his favourite tilt-shift lens – what could we do? There are none more loyal than we to our friends and rising as one we told the Charltons that we would accept the task, even if it proved to be the undoing of the very fabric of the universe.

Alas, almost immediately, tragedy struck and Ade was struck down with a case of the Scholeys. Being unable to fulfil his pre-ordained role, we searched for someone magnificent enough to return our number to the nearly-magic foursome. Rising from the flames, like a veritable phoenix of photographic philanthropy, arose none other than Jamie Emerson – a talent so deadly that even Chuck Norris fears him.

Tomorrow, dear friends, the (nearly) 4 Togs fight, photograph and drink, as one. What will occur? Can the world survive such a monsterous outpouring of talent? Will anybody ever know?

There’s only one place to find out. Right here, when the 4 Togs come to town on bizz-nizz. Mandy & Paul: We who are about to shoot, salute YOU!

Bookmark This:

We at the 4 Togs Blog are sympathetic to your feelings. We don’t want you to feel lost and alone, cold and unhappy. First of all, we’d like to remind you that there is a cause to celebrate in January – My birthday falls fairly squarely in the middle of the month and I’d like to invite your participation in celebrating with me, no matter where you are! However, with a view to the fact that a birthday is but one day, Matt has devised a plan to keep you occupied and happy the whole month through: The return of the 31-day Photo Challenge.

The premise is simple: Pick a camera, pick a lens. Take a photo each day for all of the 31 days of January and upload them, daily, to our Facebook group. Beyond that, there are no rules other than the ones that you choose to impose upon yourself. Some people like to try and maintain a theme through their images… Others are just happy to maintain the goal of taking one picture a day.

So, think of it as an early gift for you all. Please take a look at the Facebook page and sign up – we’d love to have your participation!

Bookmark This:

If you love the text on my website sooooo very much, how about when you copy it into your own site, you at least make some tiny attempt to change the words about some, so that it’s not so flinkin’ obvious?

Seriously… The only reason that it’s taken me so long to find, is because it’s for an old domain that pretty much looks after itself. The reason that it looks after itself, is because the copy text is well-written, specifically with a view to making it easy to find from a search engine. I suppose you at least had the good grace to just steal my text, as opposed to lifting my actual photographs too, but it’s nothing more than laziness and theft.

You’re supposed to be a photographer… Maybe you should take some time to learn about intellectual property rights? Failing that, you’d be well advised to investigate the Copyscape search engine and realise how simple it is to find people who do this. I have better things to do with my time than starting to organise more take-down notices with webhosts.

Bookmark This:

There are some incredibly inspiring shots on there, not to mention winners from previous years to browse through if you have the time.

Bookmark This:

Take the above picture of Ade, you might recognise it as the full version of the one that I’ve used as his avatar photo at the very top of the page… It actually came about as a discussion on an online photography forum. A bunch of people were discussing the influence of films on photographs, at which point someone else chimed in wondering how to get a “Sin City” effect on their photo’s.

A long discussion followed, most of which dealing with the processing after the the image had actually been taken. Hardly anybody, other than myself, made any mention of the lighting involved. In order to give myself a bit of a challenge (and also, I admit, to make a point) I set about taking a photo to see if I could replicate the style. I used this poster from the film as my starting point.

By dissecting the lighting used, we can see that Hartigan (played by Bruce Willis) is lit from behind and from either side, creating two strips of light down either cheek and backlighting the hair, but leaving the majority of the front of the face in shadow. I replicated this by using two speedlights 45 degrees to Ade’s back and above him. Another speedlight on-camera provided some fill to keep detail in the face and give catchlights in the eyes.

The resulting image was then processed to black & white, with a slight red tone added to maintain the feel of the film production.

So there’s today’s challenge: Find yourself a film poster or another image that you like (or find inspirational). As part of your ongoing photographic education, attempt to determine the lighting used and then go off and attempt to replicate it in a shot of your own. If you have the time, leave us a comment with a link to the original, and a link to your take on it.

Bookmark This:

Mark has already mentioned one great blog post from Chase Jarvis: Shake Your Tree. It’s something that I’ve referred to a couple of times myself… Whilst my video-making antics in Cornwall might have seemed like I was solely looking to ridicule Mark (as if I would!), another part of it was curiosity to see if I could adapt to a different medium other than stills photography. Another good project that I’ve only just remembered is Learning to Love You More, which features a wider range of 70 different assignments for you to attempt.

It’s said that familiarity breeds contempt. My own personal opinion is that the best way to avoid the contempt is to move away from your familiar comfort zone. You love landscape photography? Then book a model and try some portraiture. Find yourself fixated by your histogram? Then tape over your LCD display and shoot fully-manual for effect (Hell, you could even shoot some film!)…

Ultimately, photography is a creative art and unless you actively challenge the boundaries of that creativity, then you’ll become stuck doing the same-old every time. Push yourself harder, reap the rewards…

Bookmark This:

That’s right! 4TogsBlog, in association with Bearded Productions (Scholey Division) Ltd, are soon to release a new epic: “The Many Faces of Scholey“, in cinemas this summer. It’s going to be an action-packed thriller full of low-speed chases, big waves, hot sun and cold cyder. It’ll be the most fun that you’ve never had.

To whet your appetite, it gives me enormous pleasure to bring you a sneak preview of this awesome cinematic experience. Please sit back in your seats, pump up your volume and take a hold of your bladder!

(Please also note, that due to the size of the movie, and the crap-ness of our server, this may take a while to load!)

The Many Faces of Scholey (Trailer) from James Burns on Vimeo.

Edited to add: I’ve just noticed the poor audio quality during the first half of the trailer… I’ll fix that tonight… Sorry!

Bookmark This:

Tilt-Shift Lens from James Burns on Vimeo.

Bookmark This:

Speech of Scholey from James Burns on Vimeo.

Bookmark This:

It’s that time of year when the 4Togs (well, the 3 least-hairy 4Togs, anyway) like to pack up their bags and head for pastures new.

So, whilst Mark is chained to his desk (which he quite enjoys, apparently), the rest of us are upping sticks and heading to Newquay for some sun, sea, surf and shandies. You can expect a variety of daftness over the course of the next week as we share our adventures with you all.

We welcome audience participation, as always, so if you have any suggestions on where to go, what (or who) to see, or adventures to have – please let us have them. So far, all I’ve managed to come up with is a day out as the Pyrites of Penzance

Watch this space… The frolics start Sunday!

Bookmark This: