Hi all, I hope your turkey is nearly ready to be eaten!

I've just received by the post a package from Sony with a letter inviting us, me and you guys readers of my blog, to take part to Sony Photo Challenge, an 'Open Category' of this year Sony world Photography Awards.

What's the idea?

Each week, there is a challenge to be taken, our task is to upload our shot to a Flickr page where it will be judge by a pro photographer. The winner of each week will receive a Sony NEX-5 .

So guys, lets get set and here is what you need to do:

1. take a great shot in the subjects stated below.
2. upload your shot on this Flickr page .
3. and VERY IMPORTANT , tag your Flickr photograph with 'SonyPhotoChallenge ' and 'QHPhotography ', this will allow Sony to keep score of each community.
4. Post a link to your image in the corresponding Flickr discussion thread.

Subjects and dates and Flickr discussion thread:

• Nature : entries open from 15/12/10 to midday GMT on the 21/12/10
• Travel : entries open from 22/12/10 to midday GMT on the 28/12/10
• People : entries open from 29/12/10 to midday GMT on the 04/01/11
• Sport: entries open from 05/01/11 to midday GMT on the 11/01/11

Rules:

• Multiple entries will be accepted for each category as will entries to multiple categorie
• Please tag your photo with ‘SonyPhotoChallenge’ and ‘DigitalPhotographySchool’
• Post you photos to the theme you are entering
• The winning photos will be announced on the following week
• Our guest judges know a heavily re-touched photo when they see one.

See the “Terms and Conditions ” discussion thread for more details. All the copyright yours, you allow Sony to use your image for a year from the competition date.

Good luck to every one!

I've been contacted by Tanya to get some portraits done of her and Chinh.
We went to central London by Westminster and started to walk and shoot our way to the London eye passing before Big Ben. As the sun was setting, the sky got interesting when mixed with the Christmas lights. I didn't need to use any tricks to make the sky blue as it was naturally tinted with the late afternoon light. But I used a quarter CTO (orange) gel on the SB-900 to warm up a little bit the skin tones. Anyhow, I then used a full CTO gel and set my camera WB to tungsten to add more saturation to the blue ambient on the last pictures on the alley in front of the London Eye. At some point, we played with a slow shutter speed and zooming the lens to create some effects on the background Christmas lights.
Thanks to Shaun Hodge for giving me a helping hand with the lights.

My original plan for today has been cancelled so I popped down to Notting Hill Gate at around midday to say hello to my fellas from the LPMG at the Tabernacle. There was a fotogym on Lightroom for beginners. And at 1pm I was in Borough Market to meet Dan Davies and few other London photographers for a photowalk. Lunch was a nice mexican wrap at Hobbs, it was just delicious! Today photowalk's subject was to take photographs as if we were shooting with a film SLR, so the rules were:

- choose an ISO setting and stick with it
- maximum 36 shots throughout the walk
- the LCD screen is masked out with electrical tape, no picture review

I thought it could be fun and challenging, but the other challenge was the cold!

My mate, Frank Williams  called me few days ago as he wanted to go out for some evening photoshoot. So today we headed to St Paul's in the end of the afternoon and waited for the sun to set in order to get some nice pictures. As usual, the British weather wasn't very great, we were freezing! Lots of clouds, so no deep blue evening sky as a backdrop for the cathedral. But luckily by the end some of the clouds got a marvellous red tint that come up pretty nice. Another issue was image sharpness, eventhough we brought our tripod with us the issue didn't come from the camera stability, but more from the bridge itself. There was a lot of people crossing it and the bridge just kept moving which didn't help with the shoot when you are trying to get a slow shutter speed to blur the clouds. But I'm not too disappointed with the pictures and some of them came out pretty nicely, I think :-)

Over a year ago, I've been contacted by Andy and Jane. They wanted some photographs of their daughter Kimberly who was 4 months old at the time. My wife and I went to their flat for a great photo session. Kimberly was a lovely baby and she has now grown up into a cute little girl full of energy. Andy and Jane re-contacted me a month ago for a last minute photoshoot as it is rare they can have a free weekend when we can organise a shoot. Again my wife accompanied me, she's great helping me during the shoot, making the kids laugh, checking their hair, chatting with the parents... After fantastic brunch composed of Dim Sum, we started doing some environmental portrait in Kimberly's room and then went in a nearby park. It was such a great experience and you could see how much love there was between the parents and the child.

I have joined the SWPP less than a year for few of the advantages they offer to their members such as discounted insurance rates and discount on annual convention. But finally I submitted my work for assessment applying for the Licentiateship qualification. I wasn't rushing for this as I joined the Society as receiving distinctions or qualifications doesn't prove a lot, what's more important is that your customer are please with your work, receiving an email from them saying how please they are with your work is way more satisfying than any distinction from any society you can be member of. But nonetheless, after a while I just wanted to see how fellow photographers would perceive my work. So few weeks ago I submitted a set of photographs for appraisal and accreditation. This week I received a certificate attesting that I was awarded with the "Licentiateship of photography" distinction, this is recognising me as producing images of professional standards and of consistent quality.

Here is the set of photographs submitted in the Portrait category:

This is a preview of my photoshoot earlier today.

I've been introduced to Jane and Andy via a colleague. Last year Andy called me to see if I could come over to their place to take some shots of their 4 months old daughter, Kimberly. They were such a nice people, my wife and I really enjoyed their company and the photoshoot went great.

Earlier this week, Jane sent me an email telling that Kimberly is now 18 months! Wow, time really flew by so quickly. Jane invited us to come over for a chinese brunch (Dim Sum!!) today and asked me for another photoshoot to update their family album. Again it was a real pleasure to see them again and see how quick Kimberly has grown up.

After some shots in house, we went in a park nearby for a little walk and some autumn shots.

Additionally to my photography work, I'm also giving one-to-one photography courses and hold workshop and lectures to photographic societies and camera clubs in London. My most recent workshop was organised by the London Photographic Meetup Group (LPMG). It was a very fun day and we all have enjoyed it, the LPMG managed to organised the workshop at the Tabernacle near Notting Hill Gate. It's a fantastic place and very suitable for lectures but also workshop as it has both nice indoor and outdoor locations. The LPMG is a very big club with very friendly members that goes from the complete beginner to the very professional photographers in all kind of photography subjects. As a lot of members turn up at the workshop, we decided to split the group into sub-groups and have each sub-group handled by some helpers. This is where I would like to thanks my mates from the EHHPS and London Strobists group .

Thank you to you guys who answered for my call for help:

• Martin Creedy (EHHPS)
• Emil Lanos
• Dan Bachmann
• Jonathan Dawes
• Rajesh J. Taylor

I also take the opportunity to thank the previous helpers:

• Paulo Rodrigues
• Ramesh Sure
• Ritz Patel
• Masood Sharif

Two years ago I asked my wife to marry me, and fortunately she said 'Yes!' :-D At D-Day -1, we met our neighbor on his door step and told him we were going to get married tomorrow. To his surprise and then to ours, he told us that we are sharing the same wedding date and that on our wedding day it will be their diamond (60th) wedding anniversary! What a coincidence, isn't it?

Mr & Mrs Greengrass are a lovely couple, but very sadly Joan, his wife, passed away about a year later.

This year, for our second anniversary we started the day by bringing some cakes and knocked on his door and proposed him to share a breakfast with us. We stayed for couple of hours before heading for our afternoon with some friends.

Ron then has invited us to join him for a lunch one Sunday at the West Middlesex Golf Club. I took the opportunity to take a headshot of him, something I should have done few years ago, and offered him some large prints for him and his family and friends. Ron was very pleased with the result and saying it is "the best portrait of me". Which pleased me a lot, not because I took it, but because I was able to bring a smile to his face and bring something pleasant to him. Last Friday we were invited to the Golf Club race night, it was the first time my wife and I were betting on horse and dog races :-D we brought back £4 lol... Ron was showing his portrait to his friends in the membership, proud.

Have any of you have similar experience where you have done some little things that brings a lot to someone?

I just came back from a fantastic workshop with the LPMG , for some it was their first go with flash photography and more practice will be needed but they have good potential. Would like to see how far these guys will go. As already mentioned in another pos t, joining a camera club of a photographic society can really help you improve your photographic skills.

My friend SnapperJack has put up for me a really great showreel video of my photography work. He's shooting and editing video so if you need a videographer then pop down to his website and blog (see below).

Have a wonderful Sunday and see you soon.