Jackals finished filming on Friday night (well, Saturday morning at 3am!). I wasn't able to be with them every day but I got some good shots over the weekend and night shoots.

I finished editing my short film, "MAF 1A", yesterday and uploaded it to YouTube. It will be very interesting to hear what people think of it!

On Saturday I got to work with Ginnie Gould again, this time on a hillside overlooking Bath - I wanted to try some fashion type shots with Bath in the background. The weather wasn't ideal but the sun did come out to play every so often - it's quite a challenge to create good lighting when the biggest light source pops up randomly!

Last week I was asked to take some promo shots for Playing Up Theatre Company's production of "Abducting Diane" which will be on at the Rondo in Bath 24-27 Feb 2010. The director had eight setups (scenes from the play) in mind which we ran through in about half an hour - which meant I was shifting my lights around pretty quickly to get each group lit appropriately! The play looks pretty silly and I'm looking forward to shooting the dress rehearsal!

Spent the whole of this past weekend working as the stills photographer for a low budget film (Jackals the movie) being shot in and around Bristol. Excellent experience - good group of people, fun to work with. Still plenty of filming to do, in a few week's time.

Got to take a ride on the Watercress Line to Alton yesterday, along with lots of 1940s reenactors, mainly in military uniforms - Tommys, GIs and Germans.

Those of you who follow my blog may have noticed the lack of entries over the last couple of weeks - was this due to lack of work? Nope, I've been very busy but haven't had finished work to show off.

First, I was asked by Judgeday, who produce live music and manage some musicians, to video Nicole Fermie and her band, first at the Embassy, Mayfair in London, then at Real World Studios in Box. In between those they also asked me to video a show reel of David Rhodes who is doing some solo work (he's been Peter Gabriel's guitarist for 25 years, amongst other things).

Second, I've been doing some family portraits in the run up to Christmas.

Third, I've been shooting a short film with some of the actors I know. I'm now editing this but it won't be ready for public viewing until sometime after Christmas (and probably New Year).

Not a bad way to end a year!

A couple of weeks ago the Rondo Theatre Company performed Jim Cartwrights' 1987 play "Road" at the Rondo Theatre in Bath. I got to do both promotional and production photos. Unusually, the promotional shots were taken during a rehearsal - I set up three speedlights (because the ambient light in the theatre is horrible flourescents) which worked surprisingly well.

This Saturday was a washout but on Sunday I met Andy Liszewski (of the band Roadshow) busking by the new Southgate buildings in Bath. Used a new shotgun mic (because the stereo mic picked up too much background) but I made the huge mistake of not listening on headphones while I recorded, so I didn't notice until later that I had picked up lots of wind noise at one point (because I was moving around to get different shots). This is exactly why I'm putting in all this practice - try to get all my mistakes out the way before I shoot the short film I'm working on. Of course, it won't work - I'll just make different mistakes when I shoot the film :)

Roadshow are playing at Moles on Monday 23rd Nov 2009, at 8pm.

Shot on Canon 5D Mark II with 50mm f/1.4 lens, hand held. Uses the Zacuto Z-Finder (for focusing and stability), FaderND 58mm so I could shoot at 1/100s shutter speed and f/1.4. Rode NTG-2 mic on the hotshoe but plugged into my Zoom H4n.

More video practice. Wandering around Bath on Saturday I found a group of lads busking (guitar, drums and violin) so I shot lots of video from lots of angles, ensuring I recorded the entire audio for at least one song. Then I edited the video and showed it to the lads. They liked it but asked if I could use their studio track instead (much better audio quailty, of course). This made for an interesting challenge because the live performance was 1 minute longer than the studio performance! I'm not entirely happy with the result (some of the video is clearly out of sync) but I promised the band I would have it up by the end of yesterday.

I learned a lot more about editing video in Premier Elements 7, including that I needed to convert the 5D Mark II video from H.264 to an uncompressed format. I tried Cineform NeoHD on some of the video and it works wonders, so I'll be using that for everything in future!

Once again the Zacuto Z-Finder helps enormously when focusing and in keeping the camera stable (though an image stabilized lens also helps, of course).

I was practicing shooting video yesterday, mainly of buskers, when I came upon this girl in front of the Abbey. She said she's fairly new to the instrument but it still sounded lovely. I edited a bit of the video and put it on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wiRNZnMOoA

We had a fun time on Saturday thinking up ways to use the fabulous foliage in the Westonbirt arboretum. Two good looking people and rich autumn colours made it easy to take good photos. I'm looking forward to photographing their wedding next May.

Just had a few days' holiday in Switzerland, staying with a friend half way up an alp. Gave me a chance to practice landscape photography, which is not my forte! Luckily, despite the fog, rain, hail and snow, there was some good evening and morning light so I got a couple of reasonable shots - certainly better than my usual landscapes.

I took a few photos of the local inhabitants as well.

I was asked to photograph indie-pop band Catmandu at the Chapel Arts Centre in Bath on Saturday. With varied, colourful lighting the band looked great as well as sounding great.

I got to shoot some video as well, which I'm currently editing together. Not easy to shoot an entire song from multiple angles with just one camera. I'll blog again once the finished video is up.

You can watch the slideshow at www.owenbenson.co.uk/sets/ian_kelly/ and photos are available at www.photoboxgallery.com/owenbenson.

With fabulous weather, a lovely down-to-earth couple, their two charming children and over 100 guests all in Regency dress, Lisa Pettitt and I had a wonderful time photographing this unusual wedding in Bath today.

Following on from the morning's successful world record for the most people in Regency dress in one place at the same time (something like that - don't quote me on the wording!), the bride was escorted by soldiers and sailors from Queen's Square to the Guildhall where she met up with her intended and the 120 guests who packed the room. There were two readings, one from Pride & Prejudice, the other from Beau Brummel, and music provided by two women - a pianist and a singer - with songs appropriate to the period. After the ceremony the couple left the building through an arch formed by the military escort with their muskets.

The final cherry on top of this feast of delights was a group photo of the couple with all their guests (well, perhaps not all) in front on the Royal Crescent, then five musket salutes by the military personnel - yes, real firing of real weapons (though without any bullets).

Now Lisa and I have to process the 2000+ photos we took during the whole day and get them up here for the world to enjoy.

This Saturday (19th Sept) is the annual Jane Austen Festival Promenade in Bath, in which hundreds of people in Regency dress walk the streets of Bath to the delight of the hordes of tourists (and, hopefully, the locals). But this year is special - in the afternoon there is a real wedding taking place, with over 100 of the promenaders as guests, all in costume, and I'm the official wedding photographer! With Lisa Pettitt as second photographer again. So watch this space for some pretty special photos!

On the bank holiday Sunday, the Amoeba bar in Clifton, Bristol, organised a street party and asked me to photograph the music, food, grass and acrobats. I counted nine bands, all of which I enjoyed but my favourite was The Chandelier Falls.

On the bank holiday Sunday, the Amoeba bar in Clifton, Bristol, organised a street party and asked me to photograph the music, food, grass - and acrobats! A group comprised of students from Circomedia and friends set up a trapeze and tight rope and put on three performances during the day and night. As well as performing on the aparatus they did comedy acrobatics on the ground. Interesting group of people - one of whom is about to move to Italy for two years to train at a circus school in Turin, even though she doesn't speak Italian!

Over the bank holiday weekend there was a "river festival" in Chippenham, which included dragon boat races on the Saturday. Tricky to photograph well because (for safety reasons) everyone was kept at least 2m from the river bank, and the bank itself is covered in tall grasses and trees with just the odd gap down to ground level. Still, it was fun and some of the teams really got into it - serious determination on their faces! Being a charity gig (organised by the Chippenham Rotary Club) there were also some fun 'costumes', including Viking helmets which make an odd contrast to the chinese-style dragon boats!

This past Saturday I photographed Ciaran and Carolyn's wedding in Bath, with Lisa Pettitt as second photographer. The ceremony was held at the parish church in Twerton with the reception at the Lansdown Golf Club.

You can see the slideshow here.