The philosopher AC Grayling, also the first head of a new private university, New College of the Humanities in central London, gave a lecture to the Upper School Scholars, the Philosophy Society, and guests from Rugby High School, Lawrence Sheriff and Ashlawn School and Science College last Thursday evening.

He used his lecture to remind the audience that the average span of human life is less than 1,000 months. “If a third of them you are asleep and a third you’re in Tesco’s,” he says, “the other third, about 25 years, is left to you to live well.”

He expands on this in The Telegraph (yesterday) with an Elizabeth Grice article on being a master of positive thinking.

Being asked to photograph the professor in the Temple Speech Room at Rugby School was a real privilege. A small selection of photographs can be seen below.

Today, I’m showing you how to get great portrait photographs with only one simple change to your camera settings. And this photography training technique can be used in lots of different situations!

Have fun with this video and don’t forget to to share it with your friends.

Being a wedding and portrait photographer is great for lots of reasons but it’s even better when people tell you which of your photographs are the best.

So after running the competition in December 2011 to find the photograph you liked the most, it was good fun to find the winner last night and run the result through video.

See if you were the winner below…

As a wedding photographer in London, some people say how fortunate I am to be in the right place at the right time for my photography, as if I seem to have some kind of luck where all the action happens around me.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Rather, being in the right place at the right time is almost entirely down to anticipation.

When taking photographs and trying to capture that ‘moment’, instead of looking around for the moment that’s already happening look for the moment that will be happening soon.

Because if it’s already happening you’re probably not going to be prepared to photograph it; the camera could still be set for the last photo, the lighting might be at the wrong angle or more simply you might have a zoom lens on the camera when it should be the wide angle.

Instead, look around at what’s going on and try to predict what will happen in the next few minutes. If guests are about to walk into a room and you expect emotion, kisses and hugs, get yourself in the right position now. If you’re walking with the people you’re photographing and you want a specific background, anticipate where they will be in 30 seconds and run ahead to be in the right place.

The two photographs on this page are good examples of this. To capture the photograph on the boat (below) I could see Big Ben was close and would make a good background. I got into position and had to hold the camera with one hand while keeping the balloons out of the way with the other. Then I had to hope the bride would react well to the guests on my right. One made a joke and she turned around laughing. Perfect!

In the second photograph (below) I wanted to get the emotion in the moment of hugging while setting most of the background out of focus. I chose a wide aperture (low ‘f’ number) and got into position, hoping the lady would hug the man in front of me. She did, almost as if prompted by me.

Both examples demonstrate being in the right place and waiting for the moment to happen.

But it won’t always work in your favour. Sometimes you’ll anticipate incorrectly and the picture won’t happen. Never let that get you down and simply move on to the next expectation.

For more details on photography training courses visit www.bonjourphotography.com.