Portrait and Bridal shoot in the gorgeous City of Amsterdam, Netherlands | www.gavinconlan.com

Last week I had the absolute pleasure of spending a couple of days in the beautiful City of Amsterdam with some great friends.  Myself, Bandele and Evette had travelled from the UK (London and Birmingham respectively) and Tasha travelled in from the States with her friend and now our friend too, Alisha.

Special thanks go out to Tasha for organising Charlotte our amazing model and the fashion outfits and Evette for bringing the bridal wear and being our make up artist, she is an amazing beautician as well as a photographer and Bandele for booking us into a great boutique hotel with not only free wifi but also free drinks sadly for me no alcohol....

If you are thinking about having a break in Amsterdam then I recommend you check out this place its called the Hotel Hermitage (click here) it's really close to a metro station and is walking distance to all of what Amsterdam is famous for - a word of warning though keep your eyes on them bikes they seem to ride them everywhere.....

I had so many great laughs while I was there, learnt loads and generally just chilled out for two days.  Walking through the red light district was an eye opener I'd heard the stories but to see it in person was slightly surreal I've gotta give the girls credit though they were looking damn fine apart from one or two that I'm still trying to forget about...... On the last night we all took a canal boat ride all joking aside it was pretty good just a shame we chose a boat with no bar and a sexist driver, still can't believe he would only allow the girls to steer the boat. Seeing the narrowest house in Amsterdam and quite possibly the world with the width of one meter (3 1/2 ft) was my personal highlight of the canal tour.... 

Here are the links to my friends websites, please check them out they are all amazing photographers;

Bandele - www.bandelezuberi.com

Evette - www.evettechiverton.com

Tasha - www.tashawalkerphotography.com

I have selected a few of my personal favourites from the shoot with Charlotte, I hope you enjoy them and please feel free to post a comment.

Anyways enough of me, here is the imagery;

Rocking it again in Bermondsey Village | www.gavinconlan.com

If you’ve been following my journal over the last couple of years you may have noticed that there’s one place in particular I love to shoot, since first visiting back in the summer of 2008 I have been blown anyway by it’s potential as a location.  It’s got everything you could wish for plus it’s extremely quiet so you can just get on with shooting without any distractions and the odd tourist getting in the way….

This shoot with the stunning Dina was a follow up (http://gavinconlan.xanga.com/720596087/photoshoot-with-dina/). The first shoot was cut short due to the weather being so damn cold and you know what women are like they can’t handle it as well as us men ;) seriously though I remember getting to a point where I thought my eyeballs were freezing over so I was well chuffed when we decided to call it a day ....

The weather this time around was a lot kinder to us (thank god) and apart from a heavy downpour an hour or so before we couldn’t have asked for more.  As I love shooting in the village I am always on the look out for new interesting locations places I haven’t used before, we definitely found a great one in particular with the tunnel shots…

I love photographing Dina, frame after frame we were rocking out some wicked shots, the camera was working overtime on this one.  We had a great laugh which made the shoot really easy and if it weren’t for the fact we both seemed to find it impossible to direct ourselves to the meeting point it would have been the perfect 10 :)

Right enough of my ramblings lets have a look at some of the shots we produced, I hope you enjoy..!!!!!

So if your ever around the London Bridge area then I’d recommend you take a stroll down to Bermondsey Village, they have a pub there called the Woolpack which has the most amazing art decor upstairs… 

Have a good day!!!!!

personal shoot with my little cousins.... | www.gavinconlan.com

something different for today's post.  I thought I'd upload a selection of photos taken from two seperate shoots with my little cousins over the last few months.  The first selection are of Aiden who was busting out all the poses for his own personal Christmas cards which were great and the second part of this selection are of Lenny and Albie which I had so much fun producing, except for the Man United ones being a Liverpool supporter - the things you do for your family aye ....

I hope you enjoy them..!!!!

Take care, Gavin ....

photoshoot with Sabrina in Halstead, Essex | www.gavinconlan.com

Over Christmas I was out walking my dog when she discovered a hole in the fence leading into the grounds of what used to be an adult education college... I had walked past this building loads in the past wishing I could get in there to shoot, it never looked possible as security was really tight until now. Finding the way in I've now promoted Holly (my dog) to chief location scout, i'm not sure she's that bothered by the promotion though ...lol...  

I decided to run an advert via the starnow website & get a shoot planned for sometime in January, you'll see by the images below the shoot went ahead and I loved the results Sabrina and myself achieved.

Another location we used was the church at the bottom of town, it opened recently for people to visit, its no longer a working church but the interior is still stunning.

The day of the shoot we started in the Church and finished in the derelict building, I loved the shoot it was a great day even though it was bitterly cold we produced some great imagery that I love...

For your enjoyment (hopefully :) I have selected a bunch of favourites to give you a flavour of the shoot ....

January = An educational month for me.....

So it's February already, this year has started off at a wirlwind pace, it's crazy how fast these years are going....

I dedicated January to learning and improving my skills, I attended two location seminars and the trade show run by the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers) as well attending the awesome Adam Alex Workshop last week.  I met so many wicked people on the workshop and learnt so much in the three days, I've come away with a massive to do list, a more focused approach to lighting and posing which I can't wait to implement in future shoots.  The way Adam works with light is stunning and anyone who has an interest in portrait photography should study his work and if you want to take your photography to the next level then book yourself a place on his next workshop.

The two seminars I mentioned were run by John Denton (see images below) and Damian McGillicuddy, two outstanding photographers and great teachers in their own right, this was another great investment and I learnt so much just by watching how they work. 

The closed London Underground station - Aldwych, was the location for the John Denton seminar, the location really intrigued me as it was like you were stepping back in time.  The station closed in 1994 due to lack of passengers and at the time they needed to replace the lifts so it was deemed to expensive in relation to the income generated by the station therefore the decision was made to close it.  The station is now a popular filming location and has been used in such films as Atonement, 28 Weeks Later, The Krays, Patriot Games, The Good Shepherd, and Creep.

I would love to do more shoots in the station, as a location you really couldn't ask for more it just oozes creativity - a photographers paradise....

I hope you enjoy the images I personally love all the old posters on display....