2oo8 A Year in Pictures

Its that time of the year again, as the hours into 2009 slowly tick away we make last minute reviews on our year, was it good? Bad? Will the next year be any better? What will my resolutions be? So I thought it's about time I did the same with my year as a photographer. However if you really aren't intersted in reading my valuable pearls of thoughts, and want to go straight to the images my book, " 2oo8 a year in pictures" is available for sale right here! right now! with prices starting at about 30 quid for a large hardbound book. The perfect Item to help bring you and your coffee table into the new year :).

sample pages from 2oo8 A Year in Pictures:




Hope these will entice you to purchase a copy! To order one just drop me an email, or pop a comment down saying you are interested and a full price list will be emailed to you.

2008 began quite slowly for me as a photographer, but with two particularly important shooting oportunities. One beeing my trip to paris producing a vivid new environment for me to shoot in, resulting in some of my fave images of the year. I was also able to have my first proper photoshoot after having joined the NAPP and benefiting from the ounces of knowledge made available to me. throughout the month the only other memorable shoot was the opportunity to shoot the 3 kings celebrations as they passed the floats through the streets.

three kings/xmas celebrations





Febuary and March were rather slow months for me as a photographer, the only pictures beeing results of "work". In Febuary aside from a party at my dorm that I was asked to photograph and som other random social portraits I was devoid of proper shooting oportunities. However despite that I was quite happy with the results of some of the images from the party proving my slow but steady mastering of flash photography.



March As I mentioned was devoid of photography minus some portraits for Asian woman of Director Imtiaz ali and actress Karen David. which due to ownership issues I cannot at present post.

In April my photography picked up considerably, with some shooting done at the local airport, portobello road market, and of course Photoshop world! bringing to me my latest upgrade in photography my new camera body the 40D! and my Pocket Wizards and additional strobes giving me full power on off camera flash photography, and of course my first oportunity to try it out, the photoshoot I did with my cousin in the tight confines of my room which ended up producing some rather impressive images.



May once again slowed down due to the increasing ammount of deadlines and procrastination, however that didnt stop me from my seccond photoshoot making use of my off camera strobes



June
In June the photos began to pick up once again as I was home for the summer. I also took the oportunity to organise a sunrise photoshoot on the beach which turned out brilliantly!

July Continued with my photography, however this time it was based more on clearing backlog from previous months and some heavy duty photoshop studies. However despite that I managed to arrange a little shoot to help me try and shoot jewellry in a fashion context. This is the month that I also began my travel to the US stopping by LA and in August New York. I was also able to shoot at the salon de comic de benalmadena in malaga extending my networking into the local anime community.



August Began in New York a gorgeous city for photography, with oportunities cropping up left and right. However what followed, the city of pittsburgh proved to be the complete oposite as it always does. However thanks to Model Mayhem I was able to meet with a lovely model who introduced me to an artists hangout, a brilliant photoshoot and her husbant another fellow photographer.


September brought the beggining of the end of summer. I was also able to work under Nacho Alcala a National Geographic photographer who although having only met him twice was able to greatly open my photographic eyes. I hope to meet him more often upon my return to malaga. Aditionally I also spent a weekend in madrid, proving to be very exhausting and usefull as I met Hitesh Sawlani (www.hitkaiser.com) and his merry band of photographers to go and shoot a classic motorbike run and the famous anual white night of madrid!




October brought the return to uni and a frantic house hunt/move in leaving little time for photography except for a shoot for Asian Woman of renowned Bollywood film director Karan Johar
November brought me back to the studio as my friend Lavina volunteered to do a shoot with me, resulting in much better shots than I had anticipated. Certainly since my last time in the studio which was January.

December the last and final month of the year has been quite photo heavy, with me making a trip up to bristol, adn finally making my first trip with the London Photo and graphics meetup group and an anime group which I meet weekly, as their oficial photographer designer (North East london anime society). The London Photo and Graphics meetup went extremely well and I hope to frequent it much more in the comming year.



In Conclusion 2008 has certainly been an impressive year in terms of my photography. With the resources made available to me and the oportunities to shoot i feel I have made leaps and bounds in the quality of my photography. Something that I hope will continue in the comming year.

Tis the season to be Jolly!

Twas the season to be jolly! X-mas has come and gone, gifts have been given, and recieved, and I spent it flying on a plane (thankfully xmas spirit was in order and I got class upgrades all throughout the journey :D) However all was not lost as I took off from Hong Kong, the final leg in my journey (starting from London going via Dehli, HK, and ending in Manila), I was lucky enough to end up in a window seat just as the sun was setting! Fortunately I had also decided prior that I was going to make use of my SLR considering I had a windows seat and was able to get some gorgeous sunsets. However those will not be the pictures of today's post. I felt today we were in need of a slightly more festive environment so I took the liberty of uploading some xmas light shots of when I was in bristol. Enjoy!







Also if you have been paying attention to my flickr, You may have noticed some recent pics I uploaded of the Malaga Mountains, these were just some old pics I had lying around that I finally decided to get around to processing.

Merry xmas and a happy new year!

Double update

Well here I am yet again with another fun filled blogpost maintaining the regularity of irregularity that makes this blog special. Just as it seems that the blog is about to curl up and die from inactivity here I come returning to the scene with yet another over written post trying to mention everything I have to say without boring my fellow fans. (those of you that do actually bother to read what I write). Now just because I haven’t been blogging (a nasty habbit I hope to extinguish once Juggling Dissertation and pre production become a bad dream) doesn’t mean I haven’t been processing and shooting as you will clearly see below the latest images from my last studio work.

This one may have been a bit overexposed with the light but I still love the overall look of the image :D


After that though I did manage to join the London Graphics and Photo meetup group to go out on a night of shootin around London producing some of my more impressive shots in a while :D. I am very pleased and hope to maintain or improve upon the standard.





Of course X-mas season is coming up (meaning I need to shoot xmas lights and head out to hyde park to shoot the xmas thingy mabobber), but for those of you still looking for that uber last minute x-mas gift I will be making available a photobook with some of my Best Images, and a Calendar to take you into the new year which will be available from my deviantart page for purchase.

News, News, News and....a photo!

So as you know from my previous post, I had the joy of recently working with this lovely lady in a photoshoot, which looks like it may be proving to provide some very promising Images like this next one and I'm just getting started! More to come soon I promise. Its difficult to find time between writing a 12k word dissertation I am extremely behind, and researching and prepping for two movies I will soon have to Direct and D.O.P for..... Oh yeay is the joy of beeing a student...

On another note I have some very interesting news tidbits that I've come accross recently.

- Firstly I've taken the time to update my RSS feed with a variety of blogs from my fave photographers including Joe Mcnally (who has a new book!), Scott Kelby, Strobist and a few others

- Joe Mcnally has a new book! OH JOY! To those of you who have read his previous book the moment it clicks, know the joy of having read what could pretty much be considered his photographic history, taken the joy in analysing his images, reading his wacky stories and just soaking in the value of the inspirational information that this great photographer has to give.

- For those of you who are using off camera strobes, particularly Canon systems know the agonising pain it can be to shoot Manually using pocket wizards or other forms of radio slaves. Wouldnt it be so much simpler if some little techie somewhere decided to invent a system where ETTL information COULD be carried through radio waves? Well feel the pain no more! I have recently discovered the advent of Radio Poppers, nifty little devices that like the pocket wizards, use radio wave's to transmit the flash signal. but not only do they do that, they also transfer ETTL! No more will you have to worry about your flashes having a direct line of sight from your master unit to you slaves, never again will sunlight get in the way of successfully using ETTL! however whilst its still a littel expensive at the moment, I'm eagelry awating the amateur and prosumer version the Radio Popper Jr!

On a further note one of the many meetup groups I have signed up to is doing a london lights night photowalk on the 7th which I am eagerly looking forward too, hope to have new pictures by then!

Photoshoot today

Had a photoshoot today, after a looooooooooong absence in the studio or any kind of photography! i'm quite happy with the results, here are two samples, more to come after photoshop ^^

Late breaking news! oh wait...thats from a month ago...

I'm sure all of you London residents remember about a month ago the sudden onslaught of cold joyfully forgotten from our heads by those few glorious hours where we actually had snow! Well of course one of the first things I did was whip out my camera to document said event...I just (as usual) simply forgot to upload the images. Most of them I was unhappy with and feel they are more for my personal blog than my photogrpahy one but none the less I did manage to produce one i'm quite happy with. It almost tells a story even and there is a very...soft feeling to it. Anywhoo here it is for your enjoyment! I have also decided to opt for the photo a day project and pending that i will also be doing the weekly theme project (and as usual I shall begin projects with much vigour! the hard part is of course mantaining that, so any comments or signs of enthusiasm are much appreciated ^^.

Well as promised here is my snow pic



and for those of you interested in following my photo a day project the page can be found here:

http://photoinday.blogspot.com/

enjoy ^^

a new project

In light of my recent shooting...or better said lack of theof, I have decided to begin a project where either I will shoot an image a day of ANYTHING or challenge myself weekly with a theme of which I will take pictures of during the week and pic the best 5 to display on the blog. I'm still deciding on which one however any comments or recomendations to either or are greatly appreciated adn your contributions towards my greatness as a world class photographer will be remembered.....when I get there :D

Yet another week of edits! but not for long!

Why hello again my blog followers! here I am at 3 am editing pics to present you with this weeks blog post, because I know most of you dont even bother to read my blurbs, you're all just here for my pretty pictures lol.

However I would firstly like to announce that This weekend is the guy fawkes fireworks and Mayor's show to which I will be running around with my camera. I have plans for the fireworks, but if any of you fellow photographers out there would like to join me for the mayors show, just give me a shout! I will most probably be joining the London photography meetup group.

Well here is your daily dose of Images fresh out of photoshop. I'm still working on the pictures from the photoshoot in pittsburgh, in between having written my script and dissertation for uni and developing a website for a magazine back home...just for you my loyal readers so I hope you enjoy!

Quick announcement/Casting Call

Hey to all! just posting out a quick announcement! I'm currently looking for any Models who mighte be interested in doing some head-makeup trials/shots, Elemental themed shoots and a saree shoot.

for the head-makeup shoot any female models are fine

For the elemental shoots (i.e fire, forest/green, ice, sun) I would prefer a blonde,redhead and/or oriental model

For the saree shoot of course I'm looking for an asian continental model (i.e. Indian, Pakistan, Sri Lankan, etc)

If you're interested just drop me a line, email, comment or post it on my wall to let me know availability. You never need to have done modeling before.

Also if anyone does makeup or styling and is interested in helping out in the project feel free to drop me a line. These shoots are for portfolio purposes so all those involved will get copies of the images for their own portfolio, and if any further uses are found, particularly commercial you will be informed :)

Hope to hear from lots fo you soon!!!

Sorry for the delay

Aha! I finally have found time to write on the blog, so this is actually last week's post, and another one this week will shortly follow.

Unfortunately for those who read about photomonth, it has been a crazy heck month for me, between finding a flat mate, a social life and writing my script(which I am avoiding doing by writing this.

Also! i am now on facebook!Thats right I have a fan page now, so if youre on it Join me! i will be sending out regular updates about blog posts and any other notices. the address is http://www.facebook.com/wall.php?id=61001487&banter_id=36700613&show_all=#/pages/Sharan-Balani-Photographer/34393581020?ref=s

Now onto the important part! this weeks photos that I have slowly and steadily begun editing from my piles of backlogged photos were taken in Pittsburgh where to pass the time in this lonely town I met up with a model (who is coincidentally the wife of a fellow photographer whose work is incredible). I didnt particularly have any idea's in mind when I came to the shoot, since the model brought all the dress and had a friend of hers, a makeup artist come to the location to help with the makeup, so the concepts for the shoot were made up on the fly.

this first one after seeing her try on the dress I thought a Doll look/theme would work so as the makeup artist go to work I found some chains which I felt might add some contrast to the pictures.








I would also like to mention the previous week on Friday I had the happy oportunity to photograph the infamous Bollywood (or Indian Cinema as he likes to call it) Director Karan Johar for one of my clients. Unfortunately Pics wont come up till after the pictures have been published. But for all my asian fans, keep an eye out ;)

Comming soon: (once I manage to liberate enough space on my laptop for it) CS4 Reviews!

News Bits Tuesday (Or possibly wednesday by the time I finish reading this)

Firstly I would Like to mention the new Change of Name to the site. The blog has oficially changed regimes! It is no longer the painstaking www.pandamonium-arts.com. It has now merged into what I hope will be an easier address to remember, and one more relevant to myself as a photographer. I am proud to take live blog.sbalaniphotography.com. However I wont bore you with too many details, considering I have plenty of news to impart today.

Firstly to enrich your already presumably bored eyes, a few more Images of Manhattan that I forgot to upload from my recent adventures in the land of the Hot Dog and the European Rip off's.






Okay so now that youre eye buds have been satisfied on to the important news:

- It turns out that this last month of October in London is known as the photomonth. Turns out there are a variety of photography based events all over london, particularly the East side. Events including photowalks, Talks, Seminars, Shows etc, and of course I will be trying to keep a track of whats left of it on this blog, so keep an eye. Below I'll list some of upcomming events, and if any of you are interested leave a post and we can link up :D. Keep an eye on this space for future details on the rest of the events of the month:

- 18th October Photowalk @ Bank Street Tube from 10.30am to 1.30pm. (This event is free, you just need to show up at the event)
- 19th October Spitafield Shoot photowalk. (This event is a little more monitored by professionals so it costs 11 pounds per person, and basically they give you a photo treasure hunt with objectives and tasks to push your creative limit) This one is done in groups of four so if its of interested PLEASE contact me because I'm looking for people to photograph with.

More Comming soon... :)

Catching up

Prior to my trip to the United States I had attended the Benalmadena Anime/Comic/Roleplaying convention in Malaga, Spain. I find cons are always a fun and interesting event as there are always people dressed up as cosplayers more than happy to pose for photos



Although I've been to cons before, this was my first one as a photographer resulting in more challenges than I had anticipated, and coming to realisations that some things could have been done easier than the way I had done it. However its always a learning experience. I took the oportunity to get to know people within the communities making it, of course easier for me to get what I needed done for future cons.



My next challenge is to attend one of the UK cons, which are considerably bigger, and of course brimming with quality cosplay's just waiting to be photographed. I was planning to go to the upcomming london expo, but with recent developments I may find myself that weekend in Madrid attendind a photo marathon. We'll see how things turn out