Lifting the text straight from their website here’s a brief background giving you the who, what, where and when:

The owners of Spillers Farm – Bridget and Keith Trayling – moved to Devon from London in 2005 seeking a simpler way of life and wanting to grow their own food and raise livestock.  Spillers had not been a working farm since the 1960′s but Keith and Bridget have literally brought new life to the farm when their sow Cassie had her first litter of six piglets in April 2008 – the first livestock to be born on the farm in forty years. They have also created a vegetable garden with four large plots which produces vegetables all year round; planted a small orchard with apple, pear and plum trees and planted a soft fruits plot which provides enough strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries and loganberries to make almost a hundred pounds of homemade jam per year!

Bridget and Keith raise their animals using the principles of good animal husbandry. The pigs have a custom-built pigsty with constant access to outside space and they live as natural a life as possible.

The same principles are applied to all the other animals reared on the farm – lambs and poultry. Wanting to offer a good life to as many animals as possible, Bridget and Keith rescued two dozen battery hens in the summer of 2008. The project was so successful and fulfilling that two dozen more were rescued in the spring of 2009. All fully feathered and thriving, the birds are now completely free range.

Strange but I never imagined when I first started in photography that one day I’d be taking the portrait of a fully grown Gloucester Old Spot Pig by the name of Rodney. But, I guess if there’s one lesson I quickly learned in photography it was to always “expect the unexpected”.

I’ll never forget Keith calling out “Rodney, Rodney come on mate, up you come” in an increasingly desperate attempt to wake him from a deep sleep; geez if his own snoring wasn’t waking him up then Keith didn’t stand a chance…or so I thought. Before we knew it up he popped, front trotters on a wall and peeked over and if I didn’t know better I’d be convinced he was was ‘working the camera’ as he turned his head from side to side and struck a pose each time the flash went off

Lighting Set Up:
In all honesty it couldn’t have been simpler; virtually all of the shots where taken using one Nikon SB800 Speedlight and a 46″ Shoot Thru Umbrella, triggered using the Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 and Flex TT5.

This time rather than shooting in Aperture Priority as I did in the earlier Male Model Shoot [Link] I decided to go back to using Manual and for the record, this is where I’m going to be staying. Now don’t misunderstand my reason for this because Aperture Priority works really well, but it’s just that I’m more used to shooting in Manual and don’t have to really think about what I’m doing on the technical side which leaves me to engage with whoever I’m working with. The new Pocket Wizard units work faultlessly in Manual and still allow me to sync at much higher shutter speeds which at the end of the day is all I was really intending to ask of them anyway.

Again, full control of the flash power and the mode it was in was done using the Nikon SU800 attached to the Mini TT1 ontop of the camera. This makes for such a quick way to work being able to make all the changes from shooting position albeit this set up is a little on the bulky side. Sure there’s the soon to be released AC3 Controller for Nikon which is alot more compact but do I really need it yet when this system works perfectly as it is? … I’ll keep you posted

Post Production
Most of the images from this shoot took just a few minutes of editing; starting off in Lightroom and then over to Photoshop to bring out some details, add contrast to the subject’s skin and adjust the colouring.

The image below is the one that took a little more time to complete. Reason for this being that I wanted to get a shot of Keith, Brigett and Meryck the dog from low down to include some of the sky but it was the middle of the day so the sky was fairly bright but also a little on the ‘flat’ side.

The side by side images above show you the ‘Before’ (out of camera) image and the ‘After’ (edited) image and to give you an idea of what editing was done in Photoshop here’s a breakdown…

So what was done?

• Remove Shoot Thru Umbrella and branches from left side of frame
• Remove reflection off the shoot thru umbrella and speedlight from Keith’s glasses
• Use a sharpening technique to bring out a little more detail
• Add contrast to skin
• Replace sky
• Adjust colouring (Add warmth & Desaturate)

•    •    •

So there you have it…a quick run through of a ‘Promotional’ shoot for Spillers Farm, Devon; a wonderful place to stay either in Bed & Breakfast or Holiday Cottage set amongst the Devon Countryside. Owned and run by people who truly love what they do which is clearly evident by the warm welcome and ‘home from home’ feel of the place; I can’t recommend Spillers Farm enough!

Oh and one last thing if you find yourself photographing farm animals and need a little bit of help getting them to “Work the camera Baby!” I’m sure Keith will be happy to pass on any hints and tips

As always if you have any questions or comments about anything in this post then please feel free to make use of the comments section below; it’s always great to ‘hear’ your thoughts.

Enjoy

Links:
www.spillersfarm.co.uk
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To answer that I thought I’d put together a short review but do it in such a way that is relevant to how I work and the way I use ‘Off Camera’ Flash…

When using ‘Off Camera’ Flash I can safely say that for 90% of the time I’m shooting with the camera and flashes in Manual; be that with my Nikon Speedlights, my Elinchrom Ranger/Quadra or Profoto Heads in the studio. This is something I’ve always done for the main reason that I like the consistency of exposure that it gives me from shot to shot.

Up until now when shooting with my Nikon Speedlights I’ve used Pocket Wizard Plus II’s which I absolutely love for their reliability and range of use but with the introduction of the new Mini TT1 and Flex TT5 things have changed…BIG time and I’ll explain why as we go through.

Shooting in Manual Mode
Using the new Mini and Flex in straight forward Manual Mode is no different to how it’s always been with the Plus II’s apart from the fact that now there’s no danger of poking your eye out with a big aerial sticking out the top of your camera. Also there’s no wires connecting the transceivers to the Speedlights so no worry of them coming out during a shoot; so straight away things are looking alot more compact and ‘user friendly’.

There’s a couple of ways to mount the Flex TT5 to a light stand; the hot shoe adaptor (but this has a very ‘plasticy’ feel to it and feels as though with a bit of abuse may end up getting damaged) or my preferred method of screwing in a spiggot which can then drop into the umbrella bracket as shown below…

I’ve been really impressed with the build quality of these new units. Despite being plastic they feel solid and very well made, in particular the aerial on the Flex TT5′s.

The Nikon Creative Lighting System
I’ve always been a big fan of the Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) for it’s ease and speed of use but that’s ok so long as I’m not shooting in bright sunlight or the flashes are positioned in such a way that the ‘line of sight’ signal isn’t blocked.

If only there was a way to combine the Nikon CLS with Radio Waves/Signal so that the ‘line of site’ issue was a thing of the past…

Well, that’s exactly what we can now do when we attach the Nikon SU800 Commander Unit ontop of the hotshoe on the Mini TT1; all of a sudden we can now take complete control of a number of Speedlights and all in different groups if need be…

Experience from shooting in Manual has meant that each time I set up the lights I have a pretty good idea of what power settings I need to put them on and what camera settings I’ll be working with. However there are the times when adjusting the flash power by opening up or closing down the aperture isn’t enough; sometimes I’ll have to physically return to the flash and manually alter the power setting. Now though, by mounting the SU800 ontop of the Mini TT1 I can do all of that from camera position which means I can again work alot quicker, I don’t lose my shooting position and so on…

Hyper/High Speed Sync
Without question the big interest in these units evolves around the apparent sync speeds that can be used. Syncing a DSLR and a Speedlight at up to 1/8000th second and not the standard 1/250th second as in my case, have been mentioned across the internet many times, but is this really possible?

Well in a word…Yes! The image below was shot in the middle of the day with a fairly bright sky and just a few clouds but nothing worth shouting about, but when shot at iso 100, f/2.8 and 1/8000sec things certainly take on a whole new look…

A single bare Nikon SB800 Speedlight zoomed to 105mm was used for this shot. Incidentally before using the Mini and Flex units, to get anything near this look would have meant shooting later in the day if I was using Speedlights or bringing along more powerful packs such as my Elinchrom Ranger. In the case of using Speedlights, shooting later in the day might have meant losing the shot as the clouds may have completely gone by that point and that’s happened to me on more than one occasion.

Below are some more examples of shooting the same scene but at varying shutter speeds:

Another big advantage of being able to shoot at higher sync speeds means that wider apertures can be used. By this I mean that before I could only use a maximum sync speed of 1/250th second so to darken the scene down a touch more would mean closing down the aperture to maybe f/8.0, f/11 and so on. The problem here is that the narrower the aperture becomes the more depth of field there is in the shot, but now with the Mini and Flex units we can shoot alot wider and at higher shutter speeds which in turn will give us that beautiful shallow depth of field.

So what next?
I’ve not had a chance yet to try these units out on Studio Strobes or my Elinchrom Ranger/Quadra Packs but I’ve heard on the grapevine talk of being able to sync at 1/500th second. Needless to say this is something I need to check out asap and once I have done I’ll be sure to let you know what I find out.

Final Thoughts
Overall I’m extremely pleased with the new Mini and Flex units. They appear to do everything that was claimed and in true Pocket Wizard style are proving 100% reliable with not one misfire or failed triggering of the flash. The ability to use the Nikon SU800 on camera to control the power of the strobes in the same way as the Nikon Creative Lighting System but without the need for ‘line of sight’ is a big plus! Build quality is in my opinion very impressive. The Plus II’s I’ve used for some time, despite doing a fantastic job, always felt very fragile but these new units feel like they could certainly take some abuse. Being compact and no need for wires to connect to Speedlights too is a very welcome advance as is the fact that they can be used in conjunction with other Pocket Wizard units such as your Plus II’s.

Having used them a number of times now I’m liking them more and more and have actually struggled to come up with a negative but in an effort to balance this out I’m going to say the price as at around the £400 mark (roughly £200 each) for the Flex and Mini it is quite an investment.

•    •    •

Got any questions about the new Mini and Flex units? Thinking of getting some for yourself? If so feel free to make use of the comments section below and if it’s something I can answer for you from having used them then I’ll do so otherwise I ‘know a man who can’.
Enjoy

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Photoshop.com Mobile as the name suggests is Adobe’s contribution to editing applications for mobile phones and with a price tag of ‘FREE” it’s a must have.

As you’d expect it’s an incredibly easy App to use offering all manner of editing tools such as Exposure, Contrast, Soft Focus and a number of ‘one click’ Special Effects. Be warned though…it’s addictive. You can download it direct from the iTunes App Store here.

* To give you an idea of the kind of editing you can do with Photoshop.com Mobile here’s a ‘before’ & ‘after’ photograph I took using my iPhone of the nose cone of Concorde which took about a minute.

Strobox is an iPhone App’ for generating and sharing Lighting Diagrams.

For regular followers of this blog and for those who’ve attended some of the InSight Workshop ‘Testers’ over the past few weeks I’m sure will agree that my drawing skills leave alot to be desired when it comes to lighting diagrams, so this great little App has been very well received. An incredibly easy App to use, you can create lighting diagrams by placing all sorts of objects (camera, softboxes, people and so on …) and save them to show others or even email them all from within the App itself and again with a price tag of ‘FREE’ for any photographers out there who use lighting diagrams it’s a must. You can download a copy from the iTunes App Store by clicking here.

Enjoy ;o)

Anyway, 2009 has been quite an eventful year in both a personal and business sense so I thought I’d take this chance to write a few lines and mention just a few things from the past 12 months:

Zack Arias – OneLight Workshop
* During November I got the opportunity to fly out to Atlanta, USA to spend time with Zack Arias on his OneLight Workshop.

Zack is an amazing ‘teacher’ who just keeps on going until you can take no more. I think we finished just before 2am on the final day having been at it from 9.30am the previous morning; a truly unforgettable experience for a whole host of reasons not least for the generosity of Zack & his wife Meghan.

Visionmongers by David DuChemin
Just had to mention this book! This is the bible of ‘how to’ when it comes to running a photography business. Seriously I could go on and on, even dedicate a entire blog entry to this book but all I will say is that if I had to throw out all the business related material I have and could only keep one…this would be it! Check it out here on Amazon.

Most memorable Photo Shoot of 2009:
Hands down this has to be the ‘Trash(ish) the Dress’ Project with Dave & Michelle Caton-Richards which ended with Michelle waist high in the River Thames wearing her Wedding Dress on a freezing, and I mean freezing cold November afternoon. If you missed it you can see some of the photos and a ‘behind the scenes’ video by clicking here.

Other Stuff:
Moving into 2010 there’s alot of ‘stuff’ in the pipleine. I’m real excited to be working with San Francisco, USA based ‘LiveBooks’ who are designing us a brand new website.

One of the big learning points for me during 2009 has been not to ‘skimp’ out when it comes to a website and to go to the professionals.Without doubt there have been a few missed opportunities during the past 12 months because of having a website that just wasn’t ‘working’ for me as it should have been. Thankfully that’s now being rectified so I’m real excited to see how the new site will be received. Talking of the ‘web’ we’ve also got a completely new blog coming in the near future, so I’ll be sure to keep you posted re the progress there.

InSight Workshop
We’re working hard behind the scenes on the new Workshop which I plan to launch this Spring.

We’ve already run a couple of testers with a number of photographers for honest feedback, and this has been incredibly useful. I’ve got another couple more testers running this month and then we’ll be working on finalising content, workbook, locations etc…

In conjunction with the Workshop I plan on getting stuck into doing more videos alternating between photography tips/techniques that I use and editing techniques using Photoshop / Lightroom. I want to keep the videos short (3 minutes-ish) so that they cover one quick tip on a regular basis. You can check out some of the videos we’ve already published on my YouTube Page by visiting http://www.youtube.com/glyndewis Oh, and we’re also looking at starting a newsletter to keep you informed on what’s going on, tips & techniques and so on, but I’ll let you know more about that at a later stage.

So we’ve plenty to be getting on with and I’m guessing there’s going to be quite a few late nights coming my way but hey what’s the worst that could happen? … lose my hair?

What have you got planned for the new decade and what are you going to be working on? Dare I ask what your ‘New Year Resolutions’ are? I’d love to hear so feel free to post a comment, drop me an email or get in touch through FaceBook or Twitter.

Happy New Year & Thankyou for your friendship and support during 2009