Edenbridge Car Pageant

Where and When

On Monday 26th May I drove a few miles south to Edenbridge to see (and hear) for myself what the car pageant I had read about had to offer. The weather was overcast and wet, not ideal for such an occasion. The event was organized by the Eden Valley Chamber of Commerce as part of the Edenbridge Fun Day. As a member of the Oxted Chamber of Commerce I caught site of an email from our chairman letting us know what another local chamber were up to over the Bank Holiday weekend. I’m very glad I took note of this because what unfolded filled me with delight and added so much to my visual and mental portfolio of cars! All on my doorstep in Fircroft Way, Edenbridge, Kent.

John Surtees OBE

Edenbridge is the hometown of Motor sport legend John Surtees OBE.

This year John is celebrating 50 years since he won his Formula 1 World Championship title as well as his 80th birthday. John Surtees OBE is a one off; the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels. John proudly showcased his F1 bikes and cars outside his Bradford shop, Station Road, the Surtees team factory and business base for the past 56 years. The cars were built at this address and mainly by local residents. Edenbridge High Street was closed to allow the parade to take centre stage. It was led by John in the Ferrari 158 which he won the 1964 Formula One Driver’s World Championship, and was followed by Team Surtees Formula 1 cars of the Seventies driven by Scott Malvern and Robbie Kerr.

Exhibition and Book

John will be launching his book "My Incredible Life on Two and Four Wheels" on June 19th 2014. The book contains over 250 photographs some of which were on display at TOPFOTO Gallery also in Fircroft Way. The photographs are an incredible account of an incredible man. The majority of the photographs were taken by John Topham a documentary photographer who lived in Edenbridge until he died in 1992, please follow the link to find out more about him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Topham_(photographer).

The book can be ordered from Evro Publishing.

The exhibition was an added bonus to my afternoon as it showcased some of John's finest moments, even better, it was an opportunity to own a limited edition print signed by John Surtees and very reasonably priced too, £50 for an unframed A3 print.

Fund Raising

The event raised funds for the Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Association and The Henry Surtees Foundation.

The foundation was set up in memory of John’s son Henry who was tragically killed in a freak accident at Brands Hatch in 2009 aged just 18 years, whilst competing.

The Pageant

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many owners turn up with their cars and bikes, they had travelled from all over the country to take part in this prestigious event. I chatted to a few of them who were happy to tell me the history of their cars, one man told me he bought his MG when he was just 18 years old and has owned it for the past 36 years, and was passing it over to his son to enjoy.

Amongst the parade were Ferrari, Aston Martin, MG, Corvette Stingray, Lotus, BMW, Morris Cowley to name just a few. They followed John's parade of cars and gathered at the Lingfield Road recreation ground, the other end of town, for all to enjoy as part of the fun day.

It was a very enjoyable Bank Holiday Monday afternoon, thanks to all involved who made this the great success it was, despite the great British weather.

All part of my other passion in life photographing Classic and Super cars. You can see and read a bit more about this on my website www.stellascordellis.com

If you would like to commission me to take photographs of you, your family, or your cars, then please get in touch.

Bye for now.

Stella

Fish Master Class Browns Mayfair

A Wonderful Evening

One of my passions in life is food, having been born into the restaurant industry it's in my blood. I love food markets, cooking with good quality fresh produce that I can feed my family and friends, after all it's all part of my Greek-Cypriot roots to feed and entertain en-mass.

Even more, I like to take the opportunity to combine two of my passions in life, photography and food! When I'm not photographing people or classic car collections I like to indulge in some fine dining and to capture those moments forever (give me a commission to photograph food from field to plate and I'd be one happy lady).

Brown's, Mayfair

On Wednesday 21st May I went to Rocco Forte’s Brown's Hotel in Mayfair, London's oldest luxury hotel for an entertaining evening with Mark Hix for his Fish n Hix master class. My photographs show an account of what happened next, this may inspire you to try it too.

Mark Hix

Our host Mark Hix owner of Hix Oyster & Chop House and Tramshed entertained a group of nine of us, on how to prepare and cook some of his signature dishes. Located in the plush surroundings of the Niagra room he took centre stage at the head of the table with one cooking ring armed with the appropriate knives, scissors and tweezers.

What’s For Dinner

We were wowed with the quality of produce and the attention to detail that Mark is known for. He explained where he likes to source his produce from and uses sea vegetables where possible, in particular samphire, stonecrop, sea purslane, sea beet and sea aster, which really complemented the flavours of the fish.

We were served by a group of discreet and efficient waiters who made sure our wine and water glasses were always full, and service swift and attentive.

Mark started with a demonstration on how to prepare ceviche using fresh whiting fillets, a fish often under used but very tasty and lends itself to this recipe using the acidity of the lime to ‘cook’ the fish.

Followed by smoked salmon, we had a go at slicing under Mark's guidance and watchful eye, super sharp knives guaranteed you could glide the knife diagonally through this slab of heaven. The fillet of salmon once pin boned is smoked on site at Brown's. For his restaurant in Selfridges he told us he has a shed that sits on the roof where he can smoke his salmon to perfection. The salmon was moist, not oily, very lightly smoked and served with soda bread.

The red and white wines accompanying the courses were sourced in Portugal by Mark and his friend, restaurateur, chef and food writer Mitch Tonks. They have named their wine 'Tonnix' a combination of their surnames, the labels on the bottles designed by friend Tracey Emin.

We were also shown how to fillet and bone fish with a few tricks to make this less time consuming. Take a look at the menu below to see what followed, each dish was light and flavoursome and relatively easy to prepare at home. Mark is a lover of rapeseed oil, we were encouraged to drizzle this on our fish, in particular the salt baked sea bass and chargrilled brill.

The gurnard was prepared and cooked in paper pouches and was a tasty conclusion to this gastronomic event.

Photographs

The photographs I've taken are a snapshot of the evenings events over the two hours showing Mark at his best, he was entertaining and happy to answer all our questions and share his culinary experiences. I used my Nikon body with a 24-135mm lens and a mixture of daylight and bounced flash with a high ISO.

Thanks Mark for a great evening, next on the agenda is to try your meat master class.

The Menu

• Marinated Newlyn whiting with chilli and plantain crisps

• Albemarle smoked salmon 'Hix cure' with Corrigan's soda bread

• Isle of Barra cockles with Burrow Hill cider and smoked Orkney bacon

• Salt-baked St Margaret's Bay sea bass with buttered seakale

• Chargrilled whole Start Point brill with aura potatoes and béarnaise sauce

• Paper-baked Lyme Bay gurnard with steamed coastal greens

• Strawberry jelly and fool

We left the evening feeling comfortably full with a generous goodie bag containing a signed cookery book, an apron and a bottle of rapeseed oil. Not forgetting lots of inspiration for future cooking .

I can highly recommend a Fish Master class Browns Mayfair.

Anyone for fish?

Bye for now.

Stella

Wedding Photography Tips

This is how I do it!

First of all to be a great wedding photographer you have to have passion and buckets of it helps, a passion for the art of photography and a passion for communicating with people, this is a winning combination. I’ve been photographing weddings for over 35 years and started with a twin lens Rolleiflex using four rolls of film with only 12 exposures on each, so every shot counted and you had to get it right!! Let me tell you how you can do it with these wedding photography tips.

Passion

Passion isn’t something you can buy you need it to be able to get the results as this is probably one of the hardest genres of photography but probably one of the most rewarding, after all you have been entrusted with a very special day there really is no margin for error. Location Always make sure you have visited the location the wedding is taking place at so you are familiar with the best spots for group photographs, bride and groom shots and where the sun is positioned at the time of day you’ll be shooting. A plan B is a must in case rains prevents any outdoor photography, so check the inside of the venue too (especially if it's a church ceremony).

My Kit Keep it simple!

You have a lot to think about on the day - who’s who, what’s the weather doing, am I in the right place at the right time, the names of the people you are interacting with, is my exposure correct with the changing light. Knowing your kit inside out is crucial to be able to make split second decisions. I carry two D700 Nikon bodies with additional battery attachments that way I don’t have to worry my batteries are going to die, after approximately 1000 exposures the second battery automatically kicks in. One body is fitted with a 70mm-200mm lens and the other a 24mm-135mm lens. I use a Nikon speedlight attached to my shorter focal length lens body as a fill in light source and also as a main light when shooting inside. I carry a foldaway reflector too, you never know when you might need it, especially for natural window light shots. In reserve I carry two more bodies as backup and a wider focal 18mm lens should I need to introduce this lens for the back of the ceremony wide angle shot. I often shoot with a second photographer as it’s impossible to get all angles covered, especially during the ceremony when roaming photographers are a big no no. I carry a sturdy tripod to prevent camera shake if I need a slow shutter speed in the church, as any supplementary lighting is often forbidden and natural lighting is far more complimentary. Make sure your 32gb memory cards are formatted and ready to go. I carry a light metre with me so I can get an accurate reading, I check this with the histogram on my camera too. In my kit bag I carry two spare flash guns with charged batteries and lens cloth cleaners.

Camera Settings

I choose to set the shooting control on my camera to manual so I can have full control of any given lighting. I have my flash set to manual too and set to two stops under the exposure of the camera so it should deliver the correct dose of light to fill in the shadows of group photographs or, for when your subject is backlight, full flash is best. This is something that over the years becomes second nature as does the camera settings. I generally set my ISO to 400 but change to 1600 for internal shots in low lighting and often use a low dose of flash too, this all depends on what my experience is telling me. I always set my camera file size to JPEG normal and RAW so I have two files of each image. A typical combination when shooting on a bright day is shutter speed 250th and aperture f11. When using my camera fitted with the 70mm – 200mm lens I don’t use flash and sometimes set this on aperture priority of f4 or f5.6 so I can shoot on a fast shutter speed in bright lighting. The image below is an example of this, I have used the backlighting and flare to my advantage, as usual these shots are rarely planned and capture the moment. I have my white balance (WB) set to auto, this is fine tuned in post production. Another crucial thing that makes life easier when you are sorting all the images from two or three memory cards together in one folder, is to set your cameras all to the same time, otherwise you’ll be doing lots of sorting to get everything in chronological order. You don't want to put yourself in this position.

Post production

Once I have downloaded the images usually between 1000 to 1500 images the editing takes place, this is a lengthy process and often takes place over two or three days. All images I take whether in the studio on location or weddings go through a fine tuning post production process prior to printing to ensure they are true in colour, this too is a lengthy but necessary process to ensure optimum quality. The RAW file (up to 10mb each) records maximum data, this helps if you are caught out and have over or under exposed your file, the RAW file will allow you to retrieve the data that a JPEG wouldn’t. Don't rely on this as it's always best to get the exposure right to start.

What Next If you would like your wedding photographed please call the studio to check we have your date available I am only taking 8 wedding commissions a year to ensure I can give them the time and attention they each deserve. To learn more about photography and understanding your camera, my masterclasses with give you the confidence to take better photographs.These can be small group classes or on a one to one basis. My classes will give you valuable wedding photography tips that you can use whatever you are photographing.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now.

Stella

SMS Creative Photography 17th Birthday Celebration

On Monday 10th February we celebrated 17 years at SMS Creative Photography here in Oxted and wanted to mark the occasion to thank our customers past and present for their custom so we commissioned BistroDirect to bake some beautiful cupcakes so we could share them with all who visited us.

I'll be taking a photograph a day and posting on Instagram and Twitter (@StellaSMS) and Facebook (SMS Creative Photography) until the 18th birthday,  please feel free to follow to watch the year unfold.

If you aren't already on our mailing list please fill in the box on the left of the screen where you'll be able to download ten top tips for understanding your camera better resulting in better photographs (how can you resisit) I'll also be keeping you up to date with promotions, offers and more tips.

Looking forward to keeping in touch and getting to know you better.

Thanks

Stella

Looking Back at 2013

What a year 2013 was. There was so much variety from photographing landmarks at the top of Reigate Hill to vintage cars in Naples, Florida and a beer festival here in Oxted, all very thrilling stuff. Not forgetting to mention the weddings, studio and location photo shoots and my photography masterclasses.

Last year I was delighted to receive an email to confirm my membership to the Association of Photographers  a prestigious organisation that represents a wealth of talent. To qualify I had to submit a variety of published and commissioned work that was put before a board of twelve independent judges from the world of art, media, publishing and advertising all of whom have to approve your portfolio. I am now a bona fide member and am enjoying the fruits of my labour. You can take a look at my profile here.

From the many weddings from last year I'd like to share this one taken at Penshurt Place in October, a stunning location for any event.

I'll be back with an update next week with commissions lined up for 2014.

Thanks

Stella

Meissen Porcelain Masterpiece Chelsea

Meissen Porcelain Masterpiece Chelsea

Masterpiece in London brings together collectors, exhibitors and curators from around the world for an unparalleled show of fine art, antiques and design. Set in the spectacular South Grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. My clients WW.Warner from Brasted are amongst the exhibitors. I have been photographing their beautiful pieces for many years for reproduction in magazines and catalogues.

Meissen porcelain the first European hard-paste porcelain that was developed from 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger, continued his work and brought porcelain to the market. The production of porcelain at Meissen, near Dresden, started in 1710 and attracted artists and artisans to establish one of the most famous porcelain manufacturers, still in business today as Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen GmbH. Its signature logo, the crossed swords, was introduced in 1720 to protect its production; the mark of the crossed swords is one of the oldest trademarks in existence. It dominated the style of European porcelain until 1756.

The last day of the show is today until 9pm, if you have time it's worth a visit.

Thanks for reading

Stella