OFFICIALLYSCRIVNA

Woo, so finally had a chance to blog about FOWA, the last few days have been pretty crazy. FOWA was brilliant, big thanks to all the guys at Carsonified, I'll be there next year for sure!

I spent most of my time in the pretty huge developer hall (see the videos here) where there were some pretty big names like Tim Bray and Blaine Cook, along with loads of other Web 2.0 guys.

I have to say that out of all the talks that impressed the most were Tim Brays "The fear factor" talking mainly about the global financial crisis and what we should expect in the web app world, along with some real plain good advice for web startups.

Francisco Tolmasky (280 North) spoke about Cappuccino and Objective J, that was especially good, giving plenty of techy talk along with some ideology of his own.

Bret Taylor from FriendFeed gave a good talk too, I've not used it much but it sounds like they are doing some really impressive work in the background to give just the interesting results from your friends online activity.

Mark Zuckerbergs interview towards the end of day 2 was a bit of a let down. Mainly a kissing arse session.. but that was to be expected. Mark spoke a lot about the new Facebook Connect platform, not totally outlawing the possibility of using OpenID and OAuth in the future, but he openly said that there platform was better.

While most people there were pretty normal, there a few stereotypical geeks, I thought there might be a riot when a "geek rush" surrounded the stage to get TechCrunch t-shirts, they almost had to batter them away with a stick. I think everyone benefited from having the chance to network with like minded people; there were tons of ideas floating about, not all of them good.

Carsonified hosted a few Dragons Den type sessions on stage, where developers got 60 seconds to pitch there ideas and win prizes, most of the ideas were pretty pants, one caught the attention of the dragons, an online strategy game that seemed to be growing immensely fast. Sounds like that guy is going to get very rich.

The University (read Expo) part of the show was a bit pants, there were a few big names as you'd expect, I think the £2.5k entry price drove all the small guys away.

A great show, everyone that didn't go should definitely go check out the videos on the website.

Over the weekend I took some photos of my friends and there new born baby Joshua. It was the first photography "shoot" I'd done outside of my own immediate family, and with the confidence I'd gained from doing plenty of reading on the net, and the knowledge that I can always rescue photos in Photoshop I set out to capture images of this tiny baby forever.

The tips below are what I think really helped me out as a first timer, and are therefore aimed at photographers in a similar situation.

1) Be Patient

Babies scream and squirm a lot. Fact. I was at the shoot for a little over 2 hours, and a good 50% of that time was spent crying. Just chill, the parents will be stressed enough without having you breathing down there necks and getting all stroppy.
Relax; the baby, the parents and you will perform much better in a calm, quiet environment.

2) Plan the shoot with the parents

Talk to the parents about any particular photos they want to capture and the best time to do the shoot as you'll want the baby at there most placid. Before you arrive make sure you have a good idea of the photos you want to take, search through Flickr or your favourite site and find images that you like. Look at the angles, the poses and the lighting used, this will give you a great starting point to expand and improve upon.

3) It's all about lighting

Babies are soft and smooth skinned, I'm sure that you and the parents will want to capture this. The ideal lighting (in my opionion) would be a soft even light. Obviously this depends on the mood of the photos you want to capture, nothing spoils a nice photo like a harsh shadow across someones face.
I have a flash with an umbrella and a few other bits of equipment to achieve this, however a few lights bounced off the ceiling can do a pretty good job too.
Check out Strobist for a fantastic resource on all kinds of lighting setups and ideas.

4) Keep it simple

The best baby photos are the ones of the baby, I know this sounds simple but you need to take care to minimise "noise" in photos, you don't want lots of props or a busy background. The simpler the better.
I use a black or white bed sheet held up between 2 lighting stands as my backdrops, they're cheap, readily available and come in every colour you can think of.

5) Boost the parents confidence

Give loads of feedback, then give some more. Little bits of advice like "move that arm down a bit", "you're doing great", "that's a really nice shot" will relax your clients and make them feel like they are doing a good job. Don't be afraid to show them the pictures you've just taken, people really like to see what's going on behind the camera too!

While I'm sure there are a million other points worth while putting in here, I think these are the points that I needed most. Keep everyone smiling with a positive atmosphere, they'll be happier, there will be better results, and you'll want to do it all over again!