Lauren Rutherford Photography Blog » Newborn, family and wedding photography in Northern Ireland.

Being a photographer is a funny old thing, because your job is also your hobby. So in my spare time, when I’m not doing photography for a living… I like to do photography for fun. I love meeting up with other photographers and messing about, trying new techniques and learning from each other. This weekend my photo buddy Colin organised a shootup for 5 of us in a cool studio in Belfast. I don’t do studio photography professionally, but it’s always nice to play, and there are lots of principles from studio work that can be transferred into my shoots and weddings. Of course I couldn’t resist the huge windows in the studio, so I had to do some natural light work too : )

Here are some behind-the-scenes shots from the day, including Colin’s impromptu off-camera flash workshop! I know we slagged him off for shooting with the model facing the wrong direction, but I definitely learned some new tricks from his speedlight skills. As you’ll see we also like to use each other as models (but let’s face it, we’re rubbish!). All in all it was a real laugh, thanks to Colin, Matthew, Cai and Emma for making it a great day, and to Niamh for being gorgeous, braving the freezing studio and putting up with all of our inane ramblings – we should do it again soon : )

I wrote a post here a few months back about how sad it was that photographers in Northern Ireland didn’t really socialise as much as they should, and how I didn’t really know many others at all. I’m happy to say that since then I’ve met loads of local photographers, through many different circumstances, and discovered that they’re all looking for excuses to get together too : )

So on Sunday a small group of us headed to a cool location in South Belfast to chat photography, share tips and photograph our lovely model for the day, Debbie, who also owns the local beauty business Dazzle Me With Your Tips.

I love shooting with models, not only because they know how to pose (making our job a lot easier), but also because it gives me a chance to have fun with the processing of the images. I like my portrait and wedding images to look timeless, but for fashion and model shoots anything goes!

Here’s a little selection of my shots from the day…

Big thanks to Debbie and the other photographers who came along – hope to see you all at another shoot-up soon! : )

Landscape photography isn’t really my thing, I find people much more interesting – they interact, and smile, and move where you want them to (usually!). But when you become a wedding photographer suddenly landscape, architectural and still life photography become part of the job description too. So I take every opportunity I can to practise these skills, because they’re not my first love.

Today I was out for a walk with my better half, which ended up being at least twice as long as we expected because I (sort of, only briefly) got us a bit lost. “Where’s your sense of adventure?” I asked when he raised doubts about veering off the beaten track. Turns out iPhones aren’t so good for directions when you’re in the middle of a field : )

Anyway, it was all good exercise and an opportunity to get some landscape snaps, including this one. Who’d have thought we’d have views like this just a couple of minutes outside Belfast?