I ended up purchasing a vintage light meter called a Weston Master Series 3. These are American made. Weston meters were made by Weston Electrical Instrument, started in the late 1800s by Edward Weston.

The Weston Master 3 were made in 1956 and was the last series to be made before the company went bust in the 1960′s. They got bought out by a British company, who continued to make them until the market for external light meters dried up. As light meters were introduced into cameras around the late 1960′s early 1970′s.
The Master III  is the first of the Masters to have the exposure index scale calibrated in ASA, not Weston, so it could still be used today without having to adjust for it (Weston EI numbers are about 1/3rd stop slower than ASA).

The light meter is in good working condition for its age and comes complete with a case and strap, however sadly it’s not for me. It’s a preset for my friend Zoe, who has a fair few vintage cameras but no light meters. But best of all I even for a Manual for it online. Saved here (Weston Master 3 Manual).

A few days ago I worked up London, Bank with a friend of mine called Alex, she’s a Photographer/Model. We worked together to Photograph a model called Amy in clown make up and smart clothes in and around London, Bank. The idea of the photographic shoot was to poke fun at Business people and Banks. Hence why we Photographed at Bank. The shoot went well, we got a fair few people stopping to have a look and laughing etc. Only got moved on once, and that was only because apparently we where standing on some private company steps. So we just moved off the steps and on public property. They where very understanding, just asking us what we where doing, and said your fine to photograph as long as you don’t stand on the steps.
The Makeup, Location and Clothes combined very well. The make up was for a traditional clown. With a white face, blue eyes, red smile, the clothes where all smart business woman like, so black pencil skirt and smart blue top. Then the scene was a mix of Central Bank and other traditional style London roads with banks nearby, of course keeping in the Bank area. Alex applied and designed the style of makeup, she’s really good and creative at makeup.
All the equipment we used was mine, so that included Light Stands, Two SB800 Flash Guns, remote triggers and a Nikon D200.

I hope to work with Alex again on this idea, and hopefully expanded it a bit further. I hope Alex agrees, as it could turn into a really fun project. Mostly because you can poke fun at things but still keep it in the context of the original idea and still portray the same message through the images.

For the first time in a while, mostly due to Operation recovery and other things I finally got back into my Photography. I was invited out by Alex & Greg to help out with equipment and take a few photos, as they where doing a few shoots. Needless to say one can’t exactly be nimble after recovering from an operation. So it was a real challenge for me. As I can’t exactly easily bend, twist and move etc, something which I like to do when Photographing. I managed to fire of a few photos with one of the models, no idea how they came out because I was only just testing, and because Greg and Alex still have my Photography Equipment for other shoots. I’m slowly getting back into the grove of Photography again. Just don’t want to push myself to far at the moment!

Don’t get me wrong it was a lovely warm sunny day, heck even walked down and bought everyone some nice refreshing drinks and I enjoyed the company of my friends and the models who came. The models where really good and I hope to at some point quite possibly work with them. Of course before anyone asks the models get full digital high quality prints that can basically be printed into insanely big pictures, and if the timings right they may even get a few prints if I just happen to be doing a print run at the time.
I have never really worked with outside models as such, so it will be a learning curve for me I suppose. My models have all been my friends, mostly Alex and Zoe. So it’s really interesting working with different people, and maybe at the same time make some new friends! But also hope to learn a few things in the process.

I’m also trying to do alternative Photography, by that I mean taking pictures that have a specific meaning and lots of emotion. As it’s all fine and dandy doing Photography, but at the same time I want my photos to have feeling, maybe even a bit of personal influence. I like photography a lot but also want to inject some of my feelings and personality into my work. Basically adding your own little signature mark to an image etc. It’s something I hope to talk over with a friend of mine called Aimée. Who’s work I really like, mostly the way how she adds emotion and feeling to pictures. Check here and here.

I also did try out the whole expression theme as well, and I hope to continue and expand on that.

I’m in the market for a new tripod. I did have a really old one that was crazy cheap. Bought it from a company called Index a while back, but it finally gave up the ghost when I accidentally dropped it and the handle snapped. Then since then I never really used it, and just binned it because it was sharp and dangerous, and only cost me like £15 lol.

So I’m currently looking for a brand new tripod as I now need one for the type of Photography I’m currently doing and will continue to be doing. I am doing a lot of Landscape and Nighttime Photography, and that will continue as I have a fair few projects that I’m slowly working on, which are in the planning stage.

The Tripod must however allow me to pan on it’s axis, be very flexible and sturdy. I guess I will see what’s around and get some ideas.

I currently own a Nikon D200 with a selection of lenses and other equipment. However one thing I am lacking is filters for some of my lenses, mostly my new wide angle lens which is a Tamron 18-50mm f2.8 and has a thread size of 67mm. Checking around many sites and seeing what was for sale, I finally found a filter I liked. I have bought filters before but most where for a selection of old lenses which I have since sold, and where made for those thread sizes. I originally did have a Circular Polarising Filter for my old Nikon Nikkor lens. However they wont go to waste as chances are I may end up getting lenses that fit them or just selling them.Filters also offer extra protection for the lens glass as well.

The filter I chose is a Hoya 67mm Pro1 Digital Circular Polarising Filter. As it’s in Hoya Pro range it is of better quality and overall build quality. The frame is low profile, so at extreme wide angle you wont get any shadows caused by the filter frame. The filter has better quality glass and better quality coating on the filter, than that of the lower starter ones. The use of Circular Polarising Filter’s is essential for outdoor photography. It deepens the intensity of blue skies; reduces or eliminates glare. Which overall aids to a better quality image. I managed to purchase this lovely little gem for a very nice price of £46. It was on sale from £120, so that’s like  a massive saving of around£70!!

Really can’t wait to get this filter and try it out.