I spent far too long walking in an ever increasing spiral around this building.

I’ve been taking some catalogue shots for an online retailer that is expanding the range of clothes that it sells. After a couple of practice shoots it was clear I wasn’t getting the depth and dimension in the clothes that was needed to make them stand out. The problem, after moving the lights, adjusting the lights, increasing them, decreasing them, feathering them and directing them, was, that they were too big. I gradually moved from a 135cm Octabox down to Portalite softboxes, and then removing the diffusing material from the front of the softbox and using a silver deflector disc to bounce the light back into the bar silver softbox interior.

Using this harder light gives the contours and folds of the clothes shadows, that give the clothes depth. Moving away from the thought that the clothes had to be lit evenly and all over to show the viewer all of the details was the key. I was trying to give the best view of every part of the garment. Nicely, evenly lit. Clothes don’t look good like this.

This shoot was particularly easy, however. The family started off only a little reserved, but, they quickly got into it, and once they did almost every shot was a winner. Thanks for making it easy for me.

Glyn had set the task of “Best Bike Shot” for the Oxford, UK competition entry. I was actually quite disappointed when Glyn announced this. I studied photography in Oxford and my lecturer had two rules for all photography assignments, no graveyards and no bike shots. I honestly don’t think that much else stuck with me from this course, but the no bike shots rule did. It’s just too clichéd when you live in Oxford. What I did think I could do was turn it into a “Best Bike Shop” photo and see if this would impress Glyn. Oxford has a lot of bikes and a lot of bike shops, but, there’s a brand new shop just opened in the centre of town and it’s a big hit with the cyclists.

The shop has taken up the space of the old bookbinder’s workshop that has sat empty in St. Michael Street for years. It’s also looked like a great building and The Bike Zone have made a great job of it. I wandered up to the Cafe upstairs and it was packed full of yellow jerseyed, Lycra clad people with calves of steel sipping on cappuccinos before continuing their Saturday cycling.

It’s perhaps fortunate I couldn’t get a seat. I wandered back out into the street and immediately thought of the coffee craving Lycra clad cyclists dashing on their way, which made think of the slower shutter shot I could take. A motion blur panning shot of all the cyclists that dart about Oxford. I took a couple of test shots of the first cyclists that passed and then headed for sunnier spot with a better background. I made my way to Broad Street which is almost pedestrianised and would allow me to sit pretty much in the middle of the road. It is, as its name suggest very broad and was guaranteed to have a lot of sun one side or the other, and, I would probably be able to get some part of Balliol College in the background.

I sat myself in the road outside Castell & Sons, the Varsity Shop, which is just at the end of the public road and were the pedestrianised part of Broad Street begins, and made sure I was as close as possible to the people that cycled by. My motor drive would get 3 or 4 shots as they passed through a particularly sunny part of the road. My shots were taken at f16, 1/20 sec, ISO 100. I was using a 10-22mm EF-S lens and zooming a little depending on how far away the cyclists kept from me while I was practically lying in the road to get a low angle for the shot.

It was fun. More fun than I had first thought a “Best Bike Shot” task would be. And, a week or so later, the walk organiser choose my photo as the day’s winner. You can see his blog post announcing his selection on his blog here. This means my photo goes through as the regional winner as an entry in the main competition.

FYI, you can see some of the many other shots I took trying to work out the right angle, the right position in the frame and right focal length for this shot.

The mountain has two summits, the Grande Aiguille du Dru (or the Grand Dru) 3,754m, and the Petite Aiguille du Dru (or the Petit Dru) 3,733m.

Read more about this and see more of my shots on Google+

The main shot here was taken directly into the sunlight and you can see almost a complete circle of flare from the setting sun. The HDR treatment allows me to put some of the detail back into the tree trunk and the grass and nettles (yes, I was standing in a patch of nettle to take this shot) in the foreground of the shot.

The tree looked great from all angles and these are some of the other shots I took.

Philippa, an Oxfordshire based Alpaca breeder has managed to raise her profile by appearing in a Channel 4 documentary, in a short film created by W+K , Wieden + Kennedy London, and sponsored by Honda. It will be shown during the Cutting Edge documentary that starts on 2nd June 2011.

It's all part of Honda's ongoing sponsorship of Channel 4 documentaries, which we all know as Documentaries on 4, sponsored by Honda. W+K are creating a series of short films that show off Honda's products and the way that their customers use them. Philippa uses her Honda ATV quad-bike to get around her Oxfordshire fields and to herd her Alpacas. Other stories planned include a Cycle Race Escort Rider who uses his Honda Transalp motorbike to keep ahead of the riders and make sure the road is clear, and a Sheep Farmer who uses his Honda generator to power sheep scanners, used at an early stage in pregnancy to tell whether a ewe is in lamb or not. All of these stories can be seen at Honda's Online Hub where the Honda-owners themselves are the quirky stars of the shows. If you own anything Honday, you could be the next subject of a Honda short film as they want to hear from you! Have a look at the Take Part section, where Honda-owners can upload stories and photographs, documenting the unusual ways in which they use their Honda products. The favourite – chosen by Wieden + Kennedy – will be turned into the final mini-documentary. The quirkier and funnier your story the better. Have you turned your Civic into an ice cream van? Or perhaps you use your hedge trimmer to create outlandish creatures? Whatever your story, if it’s unexpected, and just a little bit silly, they want to hear it. — Sponsored Post

Viral video by ebuzzing