August 21st, 2009
Rebecca & I ventured down to the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway at the Pages Park for this shoot on a very warm sunny afternoon. This place is one of the favourite attractions in Leighton Buzzard. The railway uses restored steam engines and is great fun for steam enthusiasts and children. I am very pleased with the results and thanks to Leighton Buzzard Railway for allowing us to shoot on their property. Becks was just a natural in front of the lens. This place is very photographer’s dream come true for this kind of ‘lifestyle’ portraiture. Here are some images from the shoot.
For the photographers: The equipment used was Nikon D3x / 200mm f/2, 35mm f/2, 24-70 f/2.8. Lit with the fantastic ringflash by Broncolor.
CAUTION: The images shot on and near the railway track were taken under strict supervision of the staff of the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway. Always think SAFETY first.
Oz
September 2nd, 2008
This post is posted via the iPhone while I await another delayed Ryanair flight. Does this airline ever fly on time…ever. Rant over.
A very hectic trip to Dublin at Crooke Park today for the Photovision Roadshow. Great to see meet up with old friends and make some new ones too. Thank you to all who attended my presentation which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’ll be back in Dublin next month with Nikon. For details of the workshop please log on to www.nikon.co.uk
Oz
August 17th, 2008
This course will deal with all aspects of ‘Lifestyle’ Portraiture. You will learn how to use diffusers, reflectors, available ambient light, artificial lighting and off-camera flash photography. You will shoot using your own camera indoors and at a chosen nearby external location. Returning to the classroom, you will learn how to edit the images and how to best make them ready to present to clients. Oz will introduce you to some software tips & tricks and discuss designing albums that appeal to a wide range of customers.
For more info and bookings, please visit Nikon’s website.
Sep 10 – Glasgow : Places available
Oct 14 – Dublin : Places available
Oct 17 – Kingston : FULL
You’ll learn how to shoot images (as below) using a single off-camera flash. Look forward to seeing you there.
Oz
PS. Canon shooters most welcome to attend. I promise you won’t be zapped with 2400000 volts of electricity!!!
August 11th, 2008
Off-Camera Flash Article
A 6-page article has just been printed in the DSLR magazine’s Sept. Issue. The article is about shooting on-location with ‘off-camera’ flash. Thank you to Jesse (my model), Nina for helping me out in windy & wet conditions and to Charlotte (DSLR Magazine) who made a long trip from Cambridge to come down Dorset.
The shoot took place in Poole, Dorset at the beautiful & swanky Sandbanks beach. The idea was to show how I shoot images on-location with minimal of equipment and in adverse conditions. The weather was very windy and towards the second half of the shoot, it poured down and we were drenched by the time we reached the car.The article shows various images, tips & tricks and the techniques I use to shoot my images. This is exactly the same way I shoot my weddings & portrait work too. Hope you enjoy it. PDF attached below.
Oz
off-camera-flash
August 6th, 2008
Thank you to Ivan Finch, Chairman of LPG who invited me to talk at the LPG. Thank you to all who attended and to Anna who was our model for the evening. It was a great pleasure to present at the LPG and I had a wonderful time and also to meet up with some friends who I caught up with after a long time.
Oz
July 27th, 2008
Thank you to all of you who attended the presentation at the Apple Store, Regent Street, London last week. I truly was blessed with some super models to work with!!! Firstly our model for the evening was Katie Green, who has been recently picked for the billboard advert campaign for WonderBra. Secondly, I had Nikon’s brand new D700 and the SB900 flashgun to shoot with. Couldn’t do much wrong with such a great kit in my hands and such a beautiful model in front of me!!
I will be presenting at the Apple Store later on in the year. Please keep an eye out on here or the Apple website.
Oz
June 24th, 2008
Photobox is Europe’s leading online digital photo service providing photo & photo gift items. Recently reviewed my DVD ‘Wireless Flash’ on their website:
“If you struggle to get flash to look flattering in your portraiture photos then you might want to consider getting to grips with wireless flash. Photographer Uzair Kharawala’s DVD entitled Wireless Flash will soon show your how to get a natural and realistic look. There’s also plenty advice on capturing more creative lighting styles, examples include everything from indoor and outdoor portraits, to sports and still life shots. Learn just how quick, easy and effective this technique can be”
Oz
June 21st, 2008
30 Minutes and counting….
Article published in the Nikon Pro Magazine regarding my shoot at the London Eye. This magazine is circulated all over Europe and in 8 different languages.
“The London Eye, towering 135m over the south bank of the Thames, was originally intended as a temporary attraction for the millennium year. But with demand for its 30-minute ‘flight’ over the UK capital
hardly wavering in six years, British airways’ enormous spinning observatory has become a permanent fixture.
With today’s super-fast nikon gear, would it be possible to light and shoot a beauty commission within a single rotation? Uzair Kharawala thought so. armed with a pre-production D3, a bagful of creative Lighting system gear, a model, a stylist, an assistant and a timekeeper, he booked a pod for 16:00hrs one sunny
november afternoon.
Having spent a couple of hours on hair, make-up and a quick rehearsal of poses with the model, the team was ready to disembark. ‘It was crucial that there was a good understanding between me and the model,’ says Kharawala, ‘because there would be no time to explain.’ The target was 60 images, comprising 12 good frames from each of the five poses. ‘The capsule looks a bit like a tunnel,’ he says. ‘I wanted dynamic
poses, and I wanted to shoot most of the images at the highest point.’ That meant cramming most of the shoot into five minutes. at 16:00, an hour or so before sunset, the team escaped the winter
gales and boarded the Eye. once inside, the hair stylist set to repairing the damage done by the wind while Kharawala’s assistant set up the flashes. The pair had been practising and recording the time it took
to set up two sB-800s with battery packs on stands and an umbrella, and had it down to below two minutes. The timekeeper started the stopwatch and prepared to shout out as each five minutes passed.
‘i wanted to capture the rich colours of the winter dusk,’ says Kharawala, ‘so I selected a manual exposure that would underexpose the sky and checked it on the back of the camera – ending up with about 1/1000sec at f/4.5 on iso 320. i then set the flash to expose the model at about 1/16. ‘We were up and running in 3 minutes, 40 seconds,’ he says. ‘This is the beauty of the system – the set-up speed is amazing. ‘I used two flashguns pointing into the umbrella to spread the light and help with the recycling time – using two flashes with the battery back at a lower power would recycle quicker than just using one. it worked very well throughout the shoot and the flashes fired every time. Both flashes were part of the same group, which I controlled through the commander Unit in the hotshoe. ‘of course, I did have to adjust exposure as the capsule and the sun moved, but the equipment worked absolutely brilliantly. The D3 can synch flash at any speed – without that feature i couldn’t have exposed for the sunset.’ at 17 minutes, with 117 good frames on the card and another 13 minutes left of the flight, Kharawala was finished. ‘it was such an exciting shoot,’ he says. ‘all of us were buzzing.’ and they even had time to enjoy the view. ‘Working with the d3 was an absolute joy. Just really, really good. Because it was a pre-production model, i didn’t even have a manual,
but i could just pick it up and shoot. and the flash system works brilliantly – so quick and easy.’
Attached is the PDF
london-eye-d31
April 24th, 2008
20 April 08 – Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dublin hosted the Photo Fest Trade Fair. This is one of the biggest trade fairs in Ireland and was hosted by Irish Photo News (www.irishphotonews.com). I was invited by Bermingham Cameras to showcase Foto SF to their clients. The day was very very busy with over 1000+ visitors attending the show. There were also many seminars presented throughout the day which included 4 presentations by John McDonald of Nikon UK.
Bermingham Cameras are the sole stockists of Foto SF and my Wireless Flash DVD in Ireland.
Oz
February 22nd, 2008
Birmingham NEC 24-27 Feb 08
Focus on Imaging is Europe’s biggest annual imaging show. Over 32,000 visitors attended this event last year, it looks to be bigger & better this year with over 200 exhibitors showcasing the very latest in digital cameras, software, lenses and anything and everything to do with photography.
I will be at present throughout the event and am presenting my seminar ‘Flashes of Brilliance:D3 and D300′ at the Nikon stand D40. Here is the schedule:
Sun: 10.45 to 11.30am & 2.00 to 2.45pm
Mon: 2.00 to 245pm
Tue: 10.45 to 11.30am & 2.00to 2.45pm
Wed: 10.45 to 11.30am & 2.00to 2.45pm
Look forward to seeing you there.
Oz
4 Comments
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August 23, 2009 - 10:36 am Jodie says: Brilliant. Love the theme and the location. Absolutely lovely work.
August 23, 2009 - 11:04 am David Terry says: The last two are my favourite photos. Super work.
August 23, 2009 - 11:08 am Fran Shaw says: Love, love, love the first shot. Oz, Can you do some for me like that!! Its amazing...
August 23, 2009 - 6:00 pm Julia C says: Wow, these are looking pretty good! thanks Oz! great work!