Thomas Day Photography

We have moved...

2011-02-16T17:42:00.001Z

I have moved my blog to wordpress, please go to

http://thomasdayphotographer.wordpress.com and subscribe, you don't have to be a member!

DinaStar, Cabaret and The Art of Imagination

2010-12-06T13:59:00.000Z

Below are my most recent shots, the Model is DinaStar and the shoot was arranged through Model Mayhem

Dina was easy to work with and fun loving and we created some fabulous photographs

Using Your Imagination

2010-11-18T13:48:00.000Z

People who have no imagination are a myth, without it we are robots and we can't think or analyse what we see. What other explanation could there be for the variety of musical and artistic tastes, differences of opinion and differences in interpretation of everything we experience?

In my upcoming project "The Art of Imagination" I will produce images that will try, test and tantalise your imagination, feelings and emotions.

Keep your eyes on this page for more on this project soon.

Should Models be Size 0?

2010-10-22T10:41:00.000+01:00

In short, no, they shouldn't, but the fashion and media industry has effectively press ganged us into believing they are beautiful and you should look like them.

Through years of airbrushing and bony, skinny models of both sexes in fashion ads and magazines and newspapers jumping on celebrities for gaining half a pound or getting a spot on our bum we have been turned into a self-conscious nation of calorie counters, feeling guilt-ridden for eating anything more than an un-dressed salad of leaves. The thing is, we have now become an unhealthy nation at two extremes, obese and super skinny, the former eating easy ready meals and takeaways and getting fatter, the latter ditching higher calorie healthy foods to lose weight fast, neither of which are even slightly healthy and both are the result of modern and unnecessary pressures on the human psyche, resulting of anxiety, depression and stress.

The media have a responsibility to their readership and should not praise the image of an unhealthy person as an image of beauty, especially in magazines read by impressionable young people and teenagers who need to eat properly and exercise regularly, the image people should aspire to be.

Weddings, What's Really Important? and Don't get ripped-off

2010-05-03T11:39:00.011+01:00

I have been to quite a few weddings (including my own a year ago) and it's a trial of time, patience and organisation for any couple. I have some tips and advice for anyone who is getting married:

Budgets

There are a lot of companies, venues, florists and other service providers out there that push their prices through the roof whenever the "W" word is mentioned. They will then up-sell you with other services, goods and so-on and it's easy to get carried away, then suddenly it hits you, your budget has had the cap blown off and you can't afford things that are important.

Budget tips:

Set your budget, everyone has different circumstances so it's up to you how you set it but don't use it all in the planning stages. Something unexpected always pops up last minute.

For your reception venue, you will pay a premium for a "Summer" wedding. You can save thousands of pounds by booking between October and April. Make sure you check with your venue, and don't forget that summer doesn't guarantee good weather, even in Barbados.

Don't commit to anything on the spot, get quotes for everything and don't be afraid to barter, it can save you a lot of money!

Flowers are very expensive, it's tempting to get arches for the doors, floral table centrepieces, standing bouquets, table ends, cake displays and so on. If it's important to you fine but this little list of extras is worth thousands of pounds with some florists, before your bouquet(s) and buttonholes! Be shrewd and remember, people forget how the table/door/cake was decorated & there are hundreds of other ideas for which are much cheaper, get creative!

Stretch your budget to things which will help you enjoy your big day, the DJ/Band and entertainment is very important. People do remember how much fun the evening was.

It's important you remember your big day long after it's over, pay for a good photographer but I would also recommend a good videographer. Both will capture things you missed and things you will want to remember.

Finally - don't forget that it is just one day, it will go by in a flash and you will be utterly exhausted after it. Book a good honeymoon for as soon after the wedding as you can, it will make it feel longer and help you wind down from the stress.

Planning

Planning and executing your big day can be incredibly stressful, there are things you can do to minimise the strain on you and your relationship!

Planning tips:

Both of you are getting married so share the planning burden. Grooms, don't use the old weathered attitude of 'it's more her thing' & make sure you let your future bride have the final say, she's been planning it since she was 6!

Make lots of lists, and a list of lists!

Get a ring binder and keep all the paperwork together, make notes and keep them in a relevant order.

Make sure you allocate jobs to willing friends & family. What little help they can offer will alleviate your stress levels tenfold.

If you're paying a premium for your reception venue, make sure they will set up your tables. The last thing you need is the stress of setting up the tables the night before/on the morning of your wedding.

Allocate someone to make sure you're watered for the whole day, usually someone from the venue will do this, but you'll be too busy to think about getting your own drinks.

Speeches:

Traditionally speeches and toasts are made by the father of the bride, the groom and the best man, in that order, but who toasts who?

Father of the bride - toasts the newlyweds health and happiness, usually after some reflection on his daughter growing up.

Groom - Toasts the Bridesmaids, after complimenting his bride (profusely) and thanking everyone who has helped make the day what it is and thank everyone for their gifts. They may also mention absent friends and family.

The Best Man - toasts the couple again, the speech should be humorous and interesting but don't make it crass, it's a family event after all.

I hope this helps, good luck and happy planning!

Tom

If haven't made it here via my website, please go to http://www.thomas-day.co.uk
I am a great value wedding photographer from Essex, England and open for bookings - if you haven't got that bit sorted out yet!

Business Vs Environmental issues

2010-01-25T23:39:00.009Z

It's been a while since my last instalment, it generated a good month long debate on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com). But as much as I love debating photography, it means nothing to anyone but photographers! It also keeps me from doing what I love, taking photographs...

This time, I have to raise a bone of contention and one that affects us all. Through studying Earth and Environmental Science over the past four years, I have drawn a few conclusions, ones which have been clouded by our ongoing struggle for wealth, and ones that I would like to bring to the world's attention:

It is true that throughout our modern bureaucratic world, too much faith is put into paper trails and meetings, money, meetings, budgets, meetings, business and meetings. If we spent less time talking about how we can move forward and more time actually moving forward the world would be an easier place to abide.

Unfortunately we take the same approach to all issues that face us including major environmental ones. Such issues do not wait for us to make a decision and continue evolving without our intervention.

24 hours a day, 365 days a year we are destroying the habitats of some of natures most incredible and yet fragile creatures, their ecosystems, homes, food and breeding grounds taken or cut off from them through deforestation, surface mining & building, leaving their species' survival hanging by a thread then hunting & poaching until there are not enough individuals left to guarantee their kind's survival. Although worldwide, our social environmental consciousness is being raised, we pay too much attention to the Global Warming issue over which, despite copious amounts of propaganda, I believe we have little or no influence and control over (perhaps a later issue on which I shall blog), taking our eyes off of where we can really make a difference.
Physical commodities used in everyday products like fossil fuels, packaging, computers, pencils and even additives in foodstuffs are full of materials exploited from the physical earth on which we stand. The environments that nursed and raised us from our primordial being to our current homosapien form, the Earth that survived long before us, we tear to shreds for money. We are slowly but surely destroying the precious, delicate environments around us for petty financial gain. Even farming for our foods releases masses of chemical nutrients into water systems causing widespread fish kills through excess plant growth!
What has financial gain brought us? Nice houses, nice cars, watches and exotic foods, overcomplicated lives, stress and has even poisoned our perception of beauty and nature. Maybe we can look to some of our more "primitive" cultures and yet find wisdom, from the groups of people who live off nothing but the land, only taking what they need to survive and forsaking the need for money, taxes, deadlines and the unnatural amount of stress we, and the environment undergo with it.

There's no doubt that money is the root of all evil and it would be hypocritical of me to say I do not desire it and the things it can buy me. But I do not and will not forget that it is possible to survive without it and will forever do my best to support preservation of ecosystems even through such simple things as recycling what we have already taken from our mother Earth, a service that our local councils have, under much criticism, strived to provide.

Never forget, humans are not the bigger picture, but we have the ability to both destroy and to save it.

Photoshop/HDR rant

2009-08-22T14:58:00.004+01:00

Today I have to expand on something I have recently written.
I had a miniature rant published in the September 2009 edition of "Practical Photography" magazine and wanted to expand on its content.

Photography is an art form and it's literal meaning is drawing with light. To me this means that a photograph is an image composed and created using a camera - film or digital.

However, recently an odd attitude has spawned from our digital age, a "snap now fix later" mentality which is leading to the deteriorating quality of images on sharing sites and the like, as people would rather take time in photoshop than learning to take a photograph correctly in the first place. The influx of such techniques as HDR is a true killer of photographic competency. For those not in the know it is a photoshop technique for manipulating an image to give a "high dynamic range", which is to show every little ounce of detail in every shadow and highlight which looks very dramatic but unrealistic when done well, but awful for everyone else who gives it a go! There are several techniques which have a similar effect and it drives me up the wall.
I will not launch an out and out rant about photoshop as it's a fantastic piece of software and a great aid in little touch ups to photos, but that should be all a photographer uses it for.

There are some seriously skilled photoshop imagers out there and the same in the photography field but very few have managed to blend these into an new art successfully.

I have a plea to all budding photographers, amateurs please, get the photography bit right before you even consider photoshop; you will find it a much more rewarding hobby if you do! I for example love the feeling I get when a photograph I have taken and not manipulated in any way looks fantastic and the satisfaction of NOT spending hours touching up bits of it afterwards, allowing me more time to do what I love - taking photographs.

Heat

2009-07-01T17:48:00.001+01:00

Is it me or is it far too hot?

New Exhibit for Thomas Day Photography

2009-05-28T14:02:00.005+01:00

Good news for me, I am exhibiting a selection of my work at the upcoming Hatfield Heath Festival Art Exhibition. All exhibited work will be for sale and the festival is full of activities for all ages. Why not come and make a day or even a weekend of it.

The festival runs from 20th - 21st June 2009 at Hatfield Heath (Near Harlow) in Essex.

I look forward to seeing you there!

I have also just published a book of wildlife photography which is available from the wildlife gallery in My Shop

Photography, Police, Anti Terror Laws and Misinterpretation

2009-05-20T17:51:00.013+01:00

Forgive me for opening my new blog with such a heavy subject, but this is close to heart and I need to vent.

A heavy bone on contention among photographers:

There is a tedency for UK police and PCSOs to misunderstand anti-terror statutes in relation to photography in a public place. They belive they have the right to stop anyone from taking photos in a public place in the name of national security. Although I have no personal experience of this, it has made it very difficult for anyone to take photographs of architecture and landmarks, especially in UK cities, without harrassment from the police forces. I have heard one story of an old couple on a day out in Cambridge being asked to stop taking pictures, quoting terror law as the reason, someone please tell me the harm in snapshots...

The law is that they can only stop people taking photographs if they believe without a shadow of a doubt that the pictures taken are a part of terrorist surveillance activities. They can not force you to delete photos and in fact their guidelines state not to do this as it destroys any evidence, they have to take the camera as evidence and turn it in. They cannot even ask you to turn it on in order to view the pictures forgoing the same risk.

It is said that if the guidelines are correctly followed then it provides an extra element of protection from terrorists, but is this not what the terrorists want? For us to live in fear and change our way of life as a result? Maybe we should think about whether such sacrifice is for the common good. We are slowly losing our rights to freedom and privacy in the name of terror, is this really what we want for us and future generations? I would say no, why should we change because an extremist cleric thinks we live in a way that defies his method of worship? If we can learn to live in harmony with every other culture why can't they?

We have fought for our freedom from repression several times in the last 100 years and we shouldn't be just about to roll over in the face of terror, my grandparents and yours fought for the freedom of our generation and theirs and their blood will have been spilled for nothing if we do.
In my humble opinion, I think we should be more vigilant, but why change the law for us, the people who live, work and play in this country to stopping us enjoying our lives the way we want to when it is people from outside this country that are the problem? If we improved our immigration law then we would all but solve the issue, but as our border controls continue to fail us, it is easy for would be terrorists to come to our shores, again thanks to our perennial do-gooders who, incidentally, always seem to do us the most damage.

Start of a new blog

2009-05-20T09:49:00.004+01:00

So here it is, my interactive blog. Now I can receive feedback and you can comment on my posts!

I wanted to use this as it allows direct feedback, not only on my comments but on my work and thenew site. Let me know your thoughts - good or bad, it's all useful feedback.

I hope you like the new layout and I look forward to your feedback.