Wolverhampton uni exibition hall – 31st of May

On the 31st of May 2009 we will be holding a group shoot at the Exhibition Hall in the Millennium building at Wolverhampton University.

We will be the only people using the building on the Sunday, so we will get access to the main Exhibition Hall on the 4th floor, as well as the rest of the Millennium Building (class rooms will be locked), so this means corridors, foyers, lifts, brightly painted pink and yellow staircases, etc.  Weather permitting we will also be able to use the outside courtyard which is surrounded by the university buildings and closed to the public.

The group shoot will be limited to 40 photographers.

The shoot will start at 10am with a quick health and safety briefing before you’re all let loose, with a finishing time of 5pm.

The attendance list for this group shoot will be added to the flickr group at 8pm on Thursday the 16th of April.  For photographers, you can only add your own name to the list by posting a reply with your full name and it’s first come first served.   Could all models who want to attend please contact one of the group admins to be added to the list.  If anyone knows of any new models who would like to attend, then same applies, please contact one of the group admins, preferably Richard or Claire.

The attendance list will be open for 7 days.  When it is closed, the cost per photographer will be calculated and then you get 4 days to make payment by paypal.  If after the 4 days anyone on the list hasn’t paid, then their place will be made available to other photographers who didn’t make the initial list.  Once payment is made, no refunds will be given.  If you cannot attend the group shoot, then you can either sell your place to a photographer who couldn’t get on the attendance list or simply loose your money.  Given a full attendance of 40 photographers, you’re looking at £7.50 each.

The Location

The location is easily to get to by train and is only a short walk from Wolverhampton train station. There is also a close by car park which does cheap all day parking rates.

Local map can be found on Flickr here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolves_tog/3563835035/

Info for your GPS devices:  Wolverhamton, WV1 1LY

Tividale Community Arts College – 8th of March

On the 8th of March 2009 we will be holding the next group shoot at Tividale Community Arts College.

We will have use of the main hall including balcony, foyer and cafe area.   This means that the group shoot will be limited to 30 photographers.

The shoot will start at 10am with a quick health and safety briefing before you’re all let loose, with a finishing time of 5pm.

The attendance list for this group shoot will be added to the flickr group at 8pm on the 29th of Jan.  For photographers, you can only add your own name to the list by posting a reply with your full name and it’s first come first served. There is a limit of 30 photographers.

The attendance list will be open for 7 days.  When it is closed, the cost per photographer will be calculated and then you get 4 days to make payment by paypal.  If after the 4 days anyone on the list hasn’t paid, then their place will be made available to other photographers who didn’t make the initial list.  Once payment is made, no refunds will be given.  If you cannot attend the group shoot, then you can either sell your place to a photographer who couldn’t get on the attendance list or simply loose your money.  Given a full attendance of 30 photographers, you’re looking at £5 each.

The Location

Tividale Community Arts College, Lower City Road, Tividale, Oldbury, B69 2HE.

http://www.tividalehigh.sandwell.sch.uk/

The hall will me completely empty when we use it.

RAF Museum Cosford – 19th of April

On the 19th of April 2009 we will be holding a group shoot at the RAF Museum Cosford.

(there will be another shoot on the 8th of March, just confirming details)

We will have exclusive use of a conference room there and also public access to the museum and grounds.  The museum will be open to the public and therefore we have to respect a number of rules which are detailed below.

The shoot will start at 10am when the museum opens with a quick briefing in the conference room before you’re all let loose, with a finishing time of 5pm.

There is an attendance list for this group shoot on the flickr group which is now open.  For photographers, you can only add your own name to the list by posting a reply with your full name and it’s first come first served. There is a limit of 30 photographers.

The attendance list will be open for 7 days.  When it is closed, the cost per photographer will be calculated and then you get 4 days to make payment by paypal.  If after the 4 days anyone on the list hasn’t paid, then their place will be made available to other photographers who didn’t make the initial list.  Once payment is made, no refunds will be given.  If you cannot attend the group shoot, then you can either sell your place to a photographer who couldn’t get on the attendance list or simply loose your money.  Given a full attendance of 30 photographers, you’re looking at £5 each.

Attendance Rules

1. Any pictures taken on the day are strictly for personal use only.  This does allow you to use your pictures on your portfolio website, etc…  however you are not allowed to sell the images.

2. When setting up lighting equipment in public areas you must respect that this is a public museum and do not block any public thorough-fair.

3. You, your equipment and the models are not allowed to cross the exhibit barriers.  If you are found doing this, the group will be escorted off the premises!

4. You do not take any pictures of the public.

5. this is not an exhaustive list of rules, there may be some more to be announced on the day.

The Location

The museum has it’s own website at http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/cosford/

The museums are split between several buildings, and also scattered throughout the grounds.

Museum Floor Plan:

You can take a virtual tour of the main exhibits and details of how to get there

A models guide to group shoots

Each time I approach a new model about attending a group shoot I get asked the same questions, “What do I need to bring with me?”, “Is there a particular theme for the shoot?”, “What is expected of me on the day?”, etc…  So for this reason I’ve decided to create a guide for new models which should hopefully answer these questions and give a better insight of what is expected of a model at a group shoot.

6th Group Shoot (Mailbox)

6th Group Shoot – 07/12/08

The 6th group shoot was held in December in private offices at the Mailbox in Birmingham.   This was an unusual place for us to hold a group shoot and everyone was very excited to be doing a shoot somewhere so different.   Rob Owen kindly asked his bosses if he could use their office for a photo shoot, oh yeah and bring along another 20 photographers and 10 models.  Thankfully, and very kindly, they said yes.

As with all of the group shoots so far, the photographers made the most of the location and created some very creative and visually stunning pictures.  It always amazes me how different and varied the pictures are, given that everyone has the same set of models and location to work with.

This was the first time that the attendance list was limited, with a maximum of 30 people, due to restrictions placed upon us by the owners of the office.  It was decided to split the numbers up as 20 photographers and 10 models and place a first come first served attendance list up on our flickr group.  Within less than 24 hours, the 20 photographers places were filled and we had 4 reserves!

Pictures and video after the jump

5th Group Shoot (Studley)

5th Group Shoot – 26/10/08

The 5th group shoot was held in October at Studley Village Hall in Warwickshire.  Another 10am start on a Sunday and lots of keen photographers and models turning up as early as 9am!   The village hall is a large modern building and essentially a blank canvas.  Photographers came prepared with an array of backdrops, from standard black or white, to a large home made newspaper backdrop, while others improvised and used some of the interesting props backstage and found unusual (yet brilliant) old fashioned brown wallpaper backdrops.  As it was a nice day, there was even some overspill into the car park and grounds for more varied photo shoots.

Pictures after the jump

4th Group Shoot (Rookery House)

4th Group Shoot – 07/09/08

The 4th group shoot was held in September at Rookery House in Erdington, Birmingham.  It was a quirky old country house which was a little run down.  There was an eclectic mix of rooms and corridors, including “the DANGER room” which was an old storage room with broken windows and bits of wood and metal everywhere, which of course meant that most of the photographers were flocked towards it.

Some people even explored the grounds of the house which is located in a park.  The most unusual find of the day was 4 miniature dogs in camo outfits being walked by a man who had a lot of tattoos!  As you can imagine, the dogs got involved in some shots with one model and even the guy got photographed.

Pictures and video after the jump

3rd Group Shoot (friends institute)

3rd Group Shoot – 26/06/08

The third group shoot was held in June at the Friends Institute in Moseley, Birmingham.  It was a more basic venue than the 2nd group shoot (which had lots of funky grafiti on the walls), however the photographers who attended were not put off by this and simply came with their own portable backdrops, or got creative with what the venue had to offer.

Pictures and video after the jump

2nd Group Shoot (rainbow warehouse)

2nd Group Shoot – 27/04/08

The second group shoot was held in April, and was an indoor shoot (lesson learnt from last shoot…brrrr).   Held at The Rainbow Warehouse in Digbeth, Birmingham.

The Rainbow Warehouse is a bright and vibrant location for a group shoot, with lots of graffiti on the walls and props to use.  This was also where John’s homemade ring flash was unveiled, aptly nicknamed ‘the coffin’ due to it’s size and shape, you can see it in use at the bottom of this post in the behind the scenes shots.

Pictures and video after the jump

1st Group Shoot

1st Group Shoot – 07/01/08

The first group shoot was held on a very cold and slightly damp day in January.  Starting off in the underpasses under the Aston Expressway in Birmingham and then moving on to the Custard Factory grounds in the afternoon.

Considering it was the first group shoot that any of us had ever organised and the unusal location, things went considerably well and I think most of us came away with some pretty good shots, plus a few lessons learnt.  Like weighing down your light stands when you’re using a shoot through brolly on a windy day. 

Pictures after the jump