For a professional photographer it is a real thrill to watch things happen through a viewfinder and be ready to freeze that elusive instant in time. The moment at which the shutter is released is indeed a magic moment.
- Portrait photography
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Using available light we'll capture the magic moment for any portrait from a large group to a single sitter, including family portraits and pet portraits.
- Event photography
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We'll cover your special event whether it's a wedding, concert, trade fair, or garden party.
- Product photography
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Whatever you are selling, a professional product shot will say more than a thousand words.
- Landscape photography
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Choose from our existing stock of landscapes or tell us where you would like us to shoot.
- Available light photography
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Using available light gives a natural look to any photograph and is our preferred method of working.
- Choice of format
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Digital or film, colour or black and white, TIFF or JPEG, the choice is yours and we are happy to advise.
- Slideshow
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Recent photographs – this time 'Macros' (extreme close-ups) – taken on the bank of the river Tay during winter 2006/2007.
Good portrait photography requires an easy interaction between the photographer and sitter. We have found that lighting equipment and the use of flash are not conducive to such an interaction and are best kept to a minimum. This is especially the case with small children and pets, who can be distracted easily or even frightened by strange equipment and flashing lights. For this reason most of Genie Dee's family portraits have been shot at the family home using naturally occurring light.
Photographing on location in someone's natural environment or at a spot which has a special meaning for them will usually create the right kind of atmosphere in which to make a portrait reflecting the true personality of the sitter. A good example of this can be seen in the photographs Genie took of Jim Malcolm — a keen fisherman as well as a stunning singer-songwriter — for the packaging of his CD album Home. These photographs show Jim looking very much at home by the river Tay.
What many of our clients have commented upon is the sense of empathy with the photographer which they have felt at some stage during
a portrait photography session. This feeling is also experienced by the photographer (which for Genie Dee is one of the real joys of taking
portrait photographs) and may also be shared by third parties. When the sitter is a newly born baby, for example, the empathy can extend to
the mother and father. Genie's first new-born baby portraits were photographed in Holland, where it is a popular tradition to send birth announcement cards to
family and friends on the occasion of a new arrival, and these portraits would often be used in the design of such cards. We are always
happy to take photographs of new-born babies, finding it a real privilege to share a little in the joy of such an occasion.
With the right photographs of your event you can promote similar events in the future. This was the case with a series of photos which we were commissioned to take at the Heart of Scotland Festival in Aberfeldy, 2002. Genie Dee's photographs of this three-day event were exhibited at various locations to promote the following year's festival. Many of these images were also used in the 2003 festival programme.
For the Women into Business Christmas fair 2005, Genie Dee was asked by Business Gateway to cover the event. This was a great opportunity to show Business Gateway Perth that their training and support had been worthwhile. Without their guidance Genie's business idea may not have become a reality and they would never have been able to avail themselves of our services!
The Big Draw is another event which is benefitting from our services. This yearly event at the Birnam Institute was covered by Genie Dee for the purpose of creating images for use on their new website.
Regarding your special day, we only take on wedding photography as a reportage. The traditional approach — expecting people to stand around waiting for their turn to say "cheese" — simply does not appeal. What is much more interesting to us, and to our clients, is to give an impression of the day which actually tells a story.
The wedding photograph shown here is from the second half of a wedding reportage — the start of the couple's new life as husband and wife (shot in colour).
In consultation with the client it was agreed that the first half of the reportage — the last few hours
of the groom's bachelor life — should be shot in black and white. This series of photographs says much more
about the actual day than the standard posed shots such as The Ring, The Signing, and The Cake.
We aim to show your product in its most favourable light, and the client brief is the key to achieving this. Which customer group are you targetting? What message do you wish to send with these images? Are these photographs going to tell a story? Should we be following a particular colour scheme? Product photographs can be highly charged emotionally, and it is important to know from the start the kind of atmosphere that we need to create in order to decide, for example, the kind of location best suited to the photo shoot.
The photo of the vintage car on the right is emotionally charged, and this is chiefly down to choice of location and framing. The location is a quiet village in the countryside, suggesting the idea of leisure time in beautiful Britain. The framing of this photo tells us that there is ample parking space and that we are miles away from the hectic life of the big city (click on the thumbnail representation to view the whole frame).
The young woman shown on the right clearly feels like a five-star celebrity modelling these sunglasses. This photo is much more than a straightforward product shot, as the sunglasses are represented as an intrinsic part of a lifestyle and in particular of a certain youthful attitude towards life. It was shot in black and white with an old-fashioned studio backdrop for that retro look.
There are times when nothing can beat a good straightforward product shot. If you are planning to produce a printed catalogue or show a whole range of products on the same web page, you will probably need a non-obtrusive background which is consistent throughout the photo series. This is the classic studio shoot where consistency of light and shadow is guaranteed by the use of well placed studio lights.
Another method of showing your clients what you can do for them is by way of a QuickTime Virtual Reality tour. The QTVR movie is an excellent way for architects or estate agents,
for example, to give a virtual tour of a building or site. These movies can be optimised for delivery on CD-ROM or on your own web site. We will be adding example QTVR tours to this site in the not too distant future.
Landscape photographs can be employed in the promotion of holiday destinations and leisure activities such as walking, cycling and horseriding, or simply to brighten up an office or living room. Many of us have taken photographs of the most amazing landscapes on holiday only to be bitterly disappointed with the results. So what is the key to taking a good landscape photograph?
There is much more to getting a good result from your landscape photography efforts than having a decent camera with an appropriate lens and having access to a beautiful landscape. For Genie Dee, intuition plays as important a rôle as her technical knowledge and choice of equipment.
"The time of day will play a large part in the success of a particular shot. In the summer, for instance, it may be preferable to shoot in the early morning when the light is soft, or to wait until early evening when shadows will pick out the details in a hill or mountain. But the best shots always seem to be the ones that I kind of know will be right. There's a particular detail in the landscape, say, that I feel is asking to be featured, or an old gate that will be just right for a foreground. I usually carry a compass with me so I can estimate where the sun is likely to be at a particular time of day. You have to be patient and be willing to come back at a more suitable time if you're serious about getting the shot you have in mind."
As can be seen from the examples shown on the right, some cloud detail will enhance most landscape photographs. Slowly moving clouds are ideal for the creation
of panoramas for which several overlapping photographs are to be sewn together, as was the case with the Tower of Babel landscape. The latter was used to create part
of a series of linked QuickTime Virtual Reality movies, which allow the viewer to take a virtual tour of the site and to virtually climb the steps which spiral up the outside of the structure. We intend to incorporate these QTVR movies into the website at a later date.
Using only the light which is naturally available at the location — often referred to as "available light" by photographers — gives a photograph an atmosphere which you don't usually get with studio lights or flash.
Available light may only be that afforded by the artificial lights of an outdoor light show, as demonstrated in the photo on the right (the Enchanted Forest, Fascally, near Pitlochry), or the on-stage light at an indoor event as seen in the Lee Perry concert photo (live at the Paradiso, Amsterdam).
There are many advantages in using available light: someone sitting for a portrait, for example, won't be distracted by bright studio lights or blinded by flash — indeed, they are less likely to be aware of the moment at which the picture is taken, and will look more natural and at ease rather than tense and posed, which can often be the case in a classic studio environment.
Genie Dee's on-stage and back-stage photos of reggae musicians such as Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Anthony B, The Skatalites and Mr Vegas, many of
which were featured in Dutch style magazine Touch, were all taken using only available light. Performers can easily be distracted by people taking photographs using flash, and Genie would probably
not have been invited backstage on so many occasions if she had been using flash for her own photos of the performances!
Photographs will be used for many different purposes. Depending on the use to which you want to put your photographs, we can offer digital or analogue photography. Whether we choose to shoot in a digital format or to scan a negative or slide, your publisher or printer will most likely ask you for a particular file format — just let us know and we'll provide it, or advise you what would be the best solution for print or screen depending on how it will be processed by third parties.
When it comes to publishing on-line, our image optimisation is second to none. Take a look, for example, at the website we designed for E&A Flooring. You'll see that our photographs load very fast, despite their high image quality,
as they have been properly optimised for the web. Can you say the same for your own website? See also the slideshows we produced for Shedu and Claire Hewitt.
