Forced chill out time...

Following a stressful week from all angles I woke up this morning determined to not push myself particuarly hard. It sounds so easy but I really am work-a-holic, not just becuase I love doing what I do but because I always strive to be better.
Just looking - this is actually my 50th blog, which has got to be the longest I've kept a record of what i do. I suppose this gives me something to do on days like today.
Anyone that knows me will know that I love my own space and time on my own, and the last few days i've had just that and I've loved every minute of it, except, ofcourse missing my gorgeous girlfriend the whole time. Oh well, I have the week alone with her next week whilst we're on holiday so plenty of catching up to do, but for now - I'm just taking my time by wrapping up a few recent shoots. Due to numerous cancellations from the agency, I've actually had chance to get some editing done and get all the recent shoots finished before I go away on Monday.
I'm sat in the garden at the moment, theres some crazy lady 3 doors down screaming at her cats, im pretending I cant hear her but she's really going for it lol! the suns just going behind the houses next door so I can actually see what im typing now.
Only real news today is that I have found a second printing agent to deal with client prints at good prices. Which means that there will be a Chris Barber Media 2009 calendar for sale later this year, I'm gonna hold off designing it till I've got some more creative work done but it should be a great calendar. I'm not expecting anyone to actually want to buy it but it'll be nice to see my photos in printed format on the walls.
I don't think i've mentioned this before but me and Dani are finally moving in together. It's been a desision we've wanted to take for ages but the time seems right now, we've actually suprised ourselves on what we can afford, really looking forward to having my own place. We've already decided on the names of our cats for when we move in. That's another story though, there's the slightly more important obsticle of actually buying the house rather than worrying about our future cats names lol!
Anyway im going in - the suns gone in and now its cold.

Chris

Tom Brom Photoshoot!

This was never going to be a quiet, uncreative and easy shoot.
I was so psyched about this shoot, it'd be my last with Emily Jane until late this year/early 09.
I personally know that I work best with Emily, she takes a massive amount of pressure off me during the shoot which allows me to really concentrate on the shot itself. I am totally in the zone when I work with her.
So it was Mr Brom who fell victim to our creative "last chance to make something amazing" frame of mind. "I look like a girl" was a frequent yelp from the poor lad.

We spent most of the day in the studio, which has suffered in appearence but boy... it's so much more efficient now. The opportunities to create amazing photos are there, and all I have to do is use it all correctly, which is an amazing a rewarding feeling when I've worked so hard to financially pull it off.

Tom wanted the photos for a portfolio, we wanted him to go away with as many looks as possible, I think we got through about 6 different looks - plus an extra 5 or so that we didn't get time for.
I'm extremely proud with some of these shots, especially as most of them are a result of good technical photography rather than post work.
Massive thank you to Tom for being so open to different ideas, as a result - your portfolio will show fantastic versatility (Which he has) as well as the more obvious attributes to anyones portfolio. All the best in future Tom, I think you'll go far in the right hands!
As for Emily.
Arh, I'm gonna miss ya sibling!
Have an amazing time over the next month!

Thanks for a great shoot!
P.S - It wouldnt be a great shoot without aweful behind the scenes shots of Emily (Y)

Early Start

Sorted out the studio yesterday - it's less presentable now but a LOT more efficient and will provide us with more space to work which = GREAT SHOTS!
Bit gutted about the presentation of the studio - but atleast now it's far more organised and will makes my job alot easier.
Bank Holiday Monday and I'm up at 7am prepping an early shoot today, it's my last shoot with EmilyJane for a lonnnnnng time and my first shoot with a male model that is using a make up artist. Should be a great shoot, really psyched about it but I'd like to see the weather perk up abit.
Had my first night in weeks to sit down and do some work last night, I feel good about myself this morning for allowing some time to catch up on work, although I miss Dani like crazy - I know I can relax tonight knowing that I've got a fair bit of work off my shoulders.
Wish me luck today!
Chris

Mel's Photoshoot

The weekend is here and following a fairly emotional fueled morning, I've snapped out of it and decided to knuckle down and get some work done.
Along came Mel, with friend and mum, ready to shoot. As with everyone, Mel was very nervous on the taxi to the studio but was a total natural infront of camera.

We started off with a few shots in the studio which just gave us abit of a chance to have a chat. The photos from the studio look great but were surpassed by the shots we got of Mel when we got outdoors and started shooting. The location we used was being used a wedding location (for the couples photographs) so I hope we didn't end up in the couples wedding photos as we seemed to have to work around them alot (Even though it's a public space).
Anywho I had a great shoot and was a nice addition to my weekend, you all brightened up my day after a miserable start this morning so thanks alot!
All the best at college Mel, good luck with your film course (It's NOT easy, mum! haha) and let me know when your able to teach me to read minds with your psychological powers :D

Difficult day

Had my mum in tears.
Had my wonderful girlfriend by my side.

right now i'm sat on my own though.

I hope I make you all proud. That's it.

STOP!

Woke up this morning with a plan.

Put EVERYTHING on a hault.

It seems crazy but I woke up a little earlier than Dani this morning, and realized that there is something a lot more important than a few of my plans.

To cut a long story short, I've decided to call off the refurbishing of my studio. Explanations will come, just not yet.

Slave to the Machines...

Today I've managed to finish off a total of 4 photoshoots in one morning, which has to be a personal record. Most of them just needed to be burnt to Cd as they have just been waiting around whilst I get a chance to burn them off.
Even managed to get Matt's shoot finished from yesterday, I still have alot of catching up to with other shoots and planning needs to be done for the next 2 weeks worth of photoshoots.
Busy bee today so gotta get off here and finish off editing.

Chris

Matt's Shoot

Just got in from a shoot with Matt Farley, a garage and house musician from near Wolverhampton. Wasn't exactly sure of what look to go for but was very happy with how they've turned out. We drove up to Dudley and went to an abandoned warehouse which has seen it's fair share of vandalism and abuse. I always categorized the place as "It's bark is worse than it's bite" - that was until we noticed 3 or 4 junkies passing through into a small part of the building and leaving about 10 minutes later.


I promise that's the first time that's happened, I knew the place was run down but this was pretty bad news. As I said to Matt - "It's bad news when there's "Pound Generator" bags everywhere" lol. The place gets used for alot of photoshoots, I'd personally advise anyone who goes to this location in Dudley to avoid it. The group saw us as they were leaving and said nothing (I was bricking it), I just kept thinking - "It's cool - I have a camera, i'll threaten to take their photo and give it in to the police" - then I thought - "Chris, they'll just steal or burn the camera." Once I'd finished talking to myself in my head I couldn't help but be nosy to see what they were doing. All that remained was a few dodgy containers, odd bits of foil and packs of matches, needless to say - we left straight after that.
Other than that it was a great shoot! Lots of new promo stills for Matt to use and hopefully help him to get to Ibiza for the closing parties this year! He also goes to Wolverhampton Uni - which is where I went for 3 days (Haha), so my support goes out to him. Go check him out now, www.myspace.com/djmattfarley

Marcus and Jess

Arrived in Birmingham ridiculously early regardless of Dani telling me that I was leaving too early. I was expecting a major rush hour trip into Birmingham at about 8am, but by the time we got to central town - the roads were strangely quiet. I got to birmingham for about 9:30am which meant I was a good hour and a half early for the shoot. Anyway I managed to kill some time and grabbed some breakfast and a coffee and went location scouting so that passed the time.

Jess had the shoot booked as a present for Marcus. It was a for a portfolio that he wants to put together, so today was about building the foundations of that portfolio and get some shots of him and Jess later on. The agency were kind enough to lend us their studio for the afternoon so after we raided a few locations (*cough* without permission *cough*) - It was time to head back to base and get some studio shots.


The couple were lovely and I really enjoyed shooting with them. Although I was a little rushed and had to concentrate on making sure Marcus got the looks he needed for the portfolio, I had a really good day. Thanks guys!

Once we'd finished, I stuck around at the studio as I was meant to be there later to do some promotional stills for new marketing material. Dan couldn't make it so we now have the mission of photoshopping him in next to Ilona and Laura - who are two of the agencies recent fantastic models! Can't wait to work with you on your portfolio shoots!

Still having a few problems with people pinching ideas/marketing/logos etc, again (and I've said this a bajillion times already) - I'm just trying to focus on what I'm doing myself right now. It is bugging the hell out of me, but on the surface - I just want to let it all pass over. In my opinion, anyone who's looking to imitate what I do is no friend of mine and certainly not someone I'm happy to even acknowledge. I feel very strongly about this but refuse to let it effect my own work.

I have a creative shoot coming up at the end of the month, the first of many I hope. However, things are always too busy with paid work to get down and think of ideas. I have pages of ideas already scattered across my desk but no time to get it onto camera.

Today is Matt Farly's shoot, a local house and garage musician. Looking forward to todays shoot as always, although I need to get off here and get into the studio and make it remotely presentable. (We've started gutting the place out ready for the builders so it's a total mess).

Chris

Home from V Festival

An eventful weekend at V Festival, arrived home at about 1am yesterday.
Rain, mud and alcohol fueled fun!
Highlights included dancing around like twats to Calvin Harris and Stereophonics and ofcourse seeing the Guillemots and getting their set list :D (I'll upload a photo of it when I get chance).
So back home now and I have a day to get my head together before another 2 weeks of solid shooting!
Tomorrow I have a shoot with Jess and her boyfriend in birmingham which'll be nice - It's been ages since I've done a couples shoot, which is a shame because I really love doing them.
My studio is finally on it's first steps of the refurb, we've cleared all the clutter out and removed the sofa to give us abit more space. Got new chairs on the way this week and the builders move in on September the 1st whilst i'm on holiday
There's alot more work happening than we originally intended - total predicted cost of the refurb so far is around £2000 and that's not including new technical equipment that I'll need to get sorted.
In other news, we're seeking a new make up artist! Emily's moving onto super duper massive things and we need someone to fill her boots whilst shes away. More on that soon!
Anyway, Need to get planning on the shoots for the next couple of weeks.

Chris

Early to bed tonight...

V Festival!
Travelling out at 6am - not that it's going to make any difference.
Still gonna end up waiting around in the rain.
For everyone who went today (Thursday) I hope you had fun putting your tent up in the rain! Haha.
Anyway i'm off to bed and gonna get ready to chill out and enjoy/endure another year of THE MUD.

Late night...

With the recent constant supply of photoshoots (which is set to last now till mid-September) I figured that I need to find time to edit - which sadly, is late at night.
I'm so tired already and I'm less than 3 days into my month and a half photoshoot marathon lol. There's a few breaks in there though so that's whats keeping me going.
Just got round to editing a few photos from a recent shoot with emily and leila. Despite constant threats of rain whilst make up and hair was being done - we were really really really lucky with the weather, graced with glorious sunshine. Which is good - because I woke up at 4:30am before the shoot thinking "Shit! No ideas if it's raining. I jumped out of bed and started thinking of places to ring in the morning if the rain hadn't cleared up".
We finished the most important part of the shoot at Himley Hall and decided to head towards an industrial part of town to get some high fashion contrasting shots. As Emily was working her magic - I was making myself useful by watching the clouds (I do this alot) - I felt a drop of rain and had a bit of a Peter Kay (Dinner Ladies) moment - "EMILY - ITS RAINING - EVERYONE IN THE CAR!" - We quickly seeked shelter in Emilys "porta-make up-o-magic" and watched the rain pelt down. I mean like - real rain, constant thunder and lightning - we got the idea
- It wasn't to be - so we headed back to the studio. At this point we were all pretty knackered and just wanted to get studio stuff out of the way and chill out back home with some dinner.
However, a coffee or two later (I made one of my specialty shitty tea's/hot chocolate for emily - she LOVES them really, the way I make tea or hot chocolate COMPLETELY wrong makes it taste a bajillion times better - right bready?)

Leave you with this little treat.


Anyhow - Emily cracked on with making Leila look like she'd been struck by the lighting outside and eventually we got some lovely studio fashion shots.
I rarely do much full length work. I find it more challenging to pose a model in full length and to make the photo look top notch. But everything came together and the full length stuff looked great. Will be far better when the studio is refurbished and then the worlds our oyster :)
Finally got a date from our half drunk builder after he spent a while mumbling on about why he doesn't keep a diary - not very reassuring when you expect to come home from Holidays to have the work done.... But I have every faith in him and i'm sure the studio will be amazing come the winter months.

Moving Around...

Spent a whole 30 minutes at home in the last 48 hours, managed to shower, get ready and charge a battery then head straight back out again for todays shoot.
Yesterdays shoot was alot of fun, went out to Himley Hall with our model and emily and got some funky shots which I'll upload when I get a chance to edit them and get them online. We've got some lovely behind the scenes photos as well which i'll upload when the edits are ready.
I'm really behind with my work at the moment, trying to juggle being fully booked with shoots everyday with actually editing the photos from the shoots which is proving difficult.
Finally taken a stand against a couple of photographers whos clearly mimmicking my business ideas/marketing/logos etc like i mentioned in the last blog.
Decided to just move on and concentrate on my own work than wasting my time arguing and complaining over it. I've figured it looks hilarious for him because i've had so many emails saying "look at this guys profile! hes totally copied your ideas and design, how pathetic" (actual quote).

You know who you are. Be original and bold, I'm not gonna ask you to stop it because it 's your own choice and I respect that, but, jeez, come on, your in a creative business - represent yourself like it.

Sitting in my studio

Bored and thinking about how I wanna knock it all apart.
Woke up this morning at 4:30am to the sound of really bad rain, not good when you have some great ideas for an outdoor shoot today.
I've been frantically ringing around remotely interesting locations all morning trying to sort out a good place to go as the rain has scuppered my plans.
As I'm typing the suns coming out :D So maybe if i try....
I wish i was a millionaire.....

No that didn't work - and now the suns gone in. Jeez.
Also had enough with people blatently stealing my ideas/logos/marketing ideas and pretty much anything that's available for them to look. I bet they'll copy this blog lol.
Anyway fuck them I've actually had enough of this person and now I'm just gonna get on with my job, which is to take great photos.
Emilys just pulled up at the studio so time to say goodbye now and get on with my work.

Ciao!

I'm sending this with no wires at all

Whereas most people caught onto the whole wireless thing about 5 years ago. Here I am, going on about how great wireless is. I'm so slow it's pittyful.

Just come home from

Resurrecting my girlfriends Mini.
It sadly died (again) on the way out shopping today. The clutch stopped working as we were going up a hill which was mildly entertaining until we began driving backwards down the hill :D
Also just got in from a photoshoot. The guy who was meant to be having a shoot never showed up (thanks for that...) and I had a call a few days back from an insurance company asking to me get some shots for a claim.
As I was representing the insurance firm, I had to wear something not-casual. I hate wearing suits these days and felt very odd going to a shoot wearing a shirt and smart jacket. Anyhow, it was something different I suppose.
So I've just been down there, nice lady with a poorly finger. Had a chat about family etc and hopefully shooting her son and fiance in a couple of weeks.
Had a great day at the agency yesterday working on some test shoots for new models. Some great people applying, can't wait to get working on some portfolios for these applicants :D
On the studio front - I've finally brought my backdrop this afternoon which has left my wallet feeling considerably lighter. Can't wait to receive them :)
Anyway, im off out to tie up some odd bits of work etc.

Quick rant.

There's a girl who's meant to be having a shoot with us over the next couple of days. She's never done a shoot in her life and seems to have no previous experience in modeling. All over her page she has "Hollywood material"/"I enjoy Moddelling" (yes like that).

I have no problem for this but this individual can't even show up to a photoshoot. That annoys me. Please don't claim "Super model" status on your own profile if you don't show up to your first shoot. Wannabe. Stop watching TV.

Also, I hate people that pose with slr cameras. Noticed recently alot of really forced behind the scenes photos, a couple which are literally just posing with new bits of kit. It's very funny. Quit taking geeky gay photos of yourself and get some proper photos shot.

/Rant.

Plans and Problems....

As I've mentioned once or twice, I've been very quiet on here the last few weeks. Partly because of some slight technical difficulties as we re-arrange the way we work.
I've purchased a lovely new laptop as I've started to notice the need for it the last few weeks. I'm traveling around alot more now so being able to do my work on the move is really speeding things up.
My desk is currently filled with bits of paper EVERYWHERE, endless empty coffee mugs, not to mention 3 computers and various bits of kit. It's a total mess so I need some time to sort everything out, I don't like working in a mess.
Our studio has still not began building work. We have finally concluded what's happening though, it's a big job and our builder isn't being very co-operative. Should be completed by the end of the summer as we hit the winter months (handy - well organised for a change). Although I'm not a fan of studio work, it certainly helps when you live in Britain.
Bit of exciting news, I've been registered to another agency sort of out the blue which is great. I've been speaking with these guys since the start of this year and never really saw it heading anywhere. They're very different to the other agency I work for - they specialise in music artist/entertainers/dancer promotion so it's a fresh challenge.
Going on abit of a mega spend over the next few weeks whilst I refurb the studio - buying lots of new kit and essentials, when I really need to be saving for other endeavors right now.
Got a shoot with Emily on Tuesday - Finally! It's been ages, she's been away on hols and I have like a million ideas I need to get off my chest - then she's leaving us again till September - I'm gonna collapse - she normally does all the work for me - I'm just there to press the shutter - but shh.
Which reminds me, I have some big news (photos-wise) coming up for 2009. It's going to be quite large. Every year I set myself a bit of a mammoth task - 2008 was Departures (Which still isn't finished - Damn work!!!) and I'm just in the process of preparing 2009's "Big thing!"
I'm also in the process of planning a calendar for a local tshirt company. We're "touring" over the Black Country and Birmingham area over two days sometime this summer in my girlfriends little red mini - So if you see us by a landmark near you, come and say hello and I'll take a snapshot for you haha.
Finally, as if there isn't enough going on with work etc. I've made a pretty big decision over the last couple of weeks and can't wait to share it all with you. I'm honestly not trying to hold you in suspense, I just can't say what it is yet.
Anyhow - just to let you know that I'm still here - just working very hard behind the scenes at the moment :)

Chris!

Woweeee

Something wicked this way comes...

Had some time to chill out recently, and anyone who knows me will know this - A day to me simply means a day when I'm not actually out there shooting something. I'm still here working away at the computer, editing and planning shoots etc.
Anyhow, I have some fairly big news on it's in the next few days which boils down to how tonight goes. It's major but won't have any effect on my work.
Last shoot was with Steph, which was just an all-out "lets just have fun" shoot. After throwing paint around fields we decided to drench her with some make shift rain.
Photos look great though can't wait to share some more with you.
Had a meeting with the Tshirt company about producing this calendar, it's going to be alot of hard work but hopefully it'll all be worth it. Lots to organize though! Anyway busy man here so I'll be dropping a more in-depth blog soon. Chris

Hello hello.

Not alot has happened recently hence the quietness on the blogs.
Things are very great right now.
I can't wait to say why :D