Website Index Page Photo Change

Changed the index page on the website this morning, because I can.... I've been shooting a lot on location recently, buildings all over North Wales. I've been doing head-shots too for the same company, can't let you see any of them, if I did I'd have to kill you, lol...

A hand of cards...........................

Shot this as a test for an ad for a fine ales brewery, it's a two part comp with a few little touches like the company logo appearing on the top of the poker chips, we required plenty of dark edges and the top of the image turning to black for the strap-line.

Beer, beer and more bottles...............

I've been in the studio shooting beer bottles for a micro brewery, I have to say that it's been an enjoyable job, I've not touched a drop.... Honest..... YET.

Dual Apples............ Screens that is...

I saw an Apple 21" Studio screen on e-bay, it was up in Wallasey so I put a bid in, as it had no reserve and a starting price of just 99p I placed the bid and forgot about it. So imaging my delight when I got an e-mail from e-bay confirming that my bid had been successful, I'd got it for 99p. I was stunned, I use a 21" Apple screen that I got about 4 years ago, they're wonderful screens, heavy, no sorry bloody heavy but easy to calibrate and they seem to stay in the colour space that you set them up in, without wandering to far. You'll have to forgive the quality of the image above, it was shot on the iPhone in difficult conditions. I've got to re-organise my desk now but I've got to admit working with dual screens is just bliss.

Shoot the band.......................................

The Livewires approached me to shoot some promotional images for their band, a session in the studio produced these, next it's some location images, when the sunny finally comes out to play.

Having a beer...............................

Shooting some beer bottles today, the client wants dynamic images for advertising and web use so I'm exploring a few different avenues......

Okay so I got myself an iPhone..........

Okay so I got myself an iPhone, figured that communications wise I was stuck in the dark ages, my old phone couldn't do much more than text and make calls, so the iPhone has come as quite a revelation. I'm finding that I'm not turning the MacPro on in the morning to grab e-mails or surf the web, so that's got to be saving me money and I can wander around the house or office while I'm waiting for stuff to up-load. I've used the camera, got a few of the apps to be a bit creative with the images I'm taking. I'm really just marvelling at the simplicity of the phone, the brilliant linking of all the applications, mail, messages, safari, iCal etc. I shouldn't really be that impressed as I've used Apple computers for as long as I care to remember (the nightmares of using windows machines have long since dropped out of my memory) and I know how well everything works with their products. I've also developed an iron grip with the phone, as dropping it will cost a nasty £130 for a new glass screen, my old Nokia had more dents in it than a Parisian taxi cab, that's not going to happen with this bit of now essential kit......

So where did May go................................

Was it just me or did May pass by in a flash, excuse the pun, I was so busy that I didn't have time to sit down and update my blog. No seriously after a pretty slow April, May just took off, instead of ringing around trying to get work the phone was ringing constantly with quotation requests and work offers. June has started off well to, I'm hoping that this is another sign that the wheels of commerce are starting to turn in a more positive way.

So here are some shots from one of the jobs I had in May, all shot on white backgrounds with a lot of help from some white perspex to produce the reflection, except for the belt shot. Most of the other work was shot on location, in Wakefield, Manchester and locally, only one other shoot was based in the studio, due to the late release of the new products I'm unable to post any images from that job, just yet.

Cinefoil........................ A must have.

This stuff is a must have, it's used extensively in the TV and Film industry and it's got numerous uses for light manipulation, flags, gobos, snoots. It's basically a stiff tinfoil with black paint covering both sides, comes in a couple of widths 1 ft or 2 ft and 25 or 50 Metre lengths, either from Lee Filters or Rosco. Whatever you do, don't use it to cover the Sunday roast, the paint will probably kill you. It's really useful stuff, instead of using a snoot that just give you a round aperture the foil can be moulded into any aperture shape you want, within reason. A quick snip with a good pair scissors and you can create godos, hang a sheet of it from a stand and you've got yourself a light weight flag, it's just a great shadow FX product. I've always got some with me, whether I'm in the studio or on location, it's one of those essentials like gaffer tape or blue-tac, it's always in my accessory kit.

www.leefilters.com/lighting/products/finder/act:colourdetails/colourRef:C4630B29462927/
http://www.rosco.com/us/video/cinefoil.asp
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Lighting-Camera-Grip-Shop-Uk

Extracting the dust......

Today I've been to Manchester, to Calumet, to get my dusty chip cleaned, by a lovely man named Chris. Every Friday he sits and cleans dozens of camera chips, he's cleaned mine at least three times now and I'll tell you it beats trying to do it yourself. I've had a go at the chip cleaning lark, but to be honest I much prefer someone with the skill and knowledge to do it for me. Dust is becoming a bit of a bug bear with me, it just seems that I'm being forced to change lenses in some pretty crappy environments. It's down to the type of work I'm getting, a lot of industrial settings that are inherently dusty. So what can I do to keep the visits to Chris to a minimum, I always take the lens off the camera with the camera pointing down, so nothing can drop into the shutter-box, I try my damnedest to keep my lenses clean, especially the rear elements, I give the shutter-box and chip a good blast from the pocket rocket blower after every shoot. What more can you do. I know that the latest and greatest Canon cameras have the shaking filter that should get rid of most dust, but it's not going to get rid of sticky pollen dust and a myriad of other types of dust that stick like glue to the filter. I think the dust problem will be around for a good while yet.

Tablets tablets tablets...........

I've been using a Intuos 3 tablet and pen for about 6 months, I like it, it's helped speed up my retouching and cut-outs are just so much quicker. One bug is the buttons on the left, I'm left-handed and so I'm forever brushing the left hand buttons with my little finger when I'm working. One moment the screen image is at 100% the next it's at 25%, aaaaaaaah, it's the one major design fault of an otherwise great piece of kit.

So what happens, they bring out the Intuos 4, it's pen tool is more refined and all the buttons are down one side of the tablet, so you can spin it around to suit, right handers or southpaws, brilliant, one Intuos 3 will be appearing on a well know auction website real soon.

Toys, toys and more toys!

It's been a slow day, so I made use of it, my eldest son has plenty of new wall space in his bedroom for some framed prints, so as he's two and a half the images need to be of toys. First up was his favourite orange dinosaur, using a pair of Bowens Gemini 500 heads, both with Calumet Nova small softboxes, one as a bit of back light and a fill to front left and a couple of silver cards on the right just to put some detail back into the tail and legs. In photoshop I've cut out the dinosaur then played with the background colour and lastly given the dinosaur a ringflash shadow, I've darkened the layer in levels so it's nearly black and with a mix of various blur actions created the shadow. I've got four frames to fill and have shot a robot, below, a train, below that, and still need to shoot a car, my son is just crazy about cars.......

Elephant Prints for sale Limited Edition

You've got the chance to buy a set of my limited edition 150 sets of 12 x 10 prints, they are on e-bay, are printed on photographic paper and come as a set of 3 signed and numbered. They're un-mounted. So if you like Elephants, go on treat yourself. The Auction goes live at 12 noon today.

For the link click on the title.

A Dad again, what an Easter break...

Well on the 8th April I became a Dad again, at 11:43 pm my second son was born, Jamie Alistair Kerr weighed in at 6lb 15oz. I am on cloud nine again, my first son Cameron has taken a great liking to his new little brother and can't help us enough looking after him. We've had a procession of visitors over the Easter break, all bearing gifts and wanting to get a cuddle and a photo with the latest addition to the family. It doesn't get much better than this.

Film Labs disappearing

Years ago I use to run a Professional E-6 film processing lab in Chester UK. We processed C-41 to and printed RA4 and R3 reversal prints. I was the manager for about 10 years, we use to process for almost every pro in the area, providing anything from a 1 to 2 hour turnaround on most of the rolls. I hate to think of just how many rolls and sheets of film passed through the chemistry in that time. The rug was pulled from under me by the owners of the company (Chester's largest Ad agency) in July 2002, though the lab remained open till the beginning of October, they'd lost a major client (about five million pounds worth of turnover) and because of the fall in film processing due to the fast take up of digital in the area, they decided the lab had to go. I used the picture above as the notice to clients that the lab was closing, it was taken on a Toyo 5x4 view camera with a Schneider Symmar-S f5.6 150 mm lens, Fuji Provia F 5x4 film in a local Victorian Cemetery on a very cold frost morning it was digitally scanned and then heavily played with in photoshop. I wanted something that conveyed how I felt about the closure and the real reason why the lab was closing, digital. I didn't hate digital imaging, in fact we were was using scanning backs for copy shot work, printing digital prints on an early 44 inch HP ink-jet printer but the missing ingredient was a decent scanner, the company wouldn't stump up the money for a high quality scanner for the lab. They bought one for the art studio in their Advertising Agency, though the rep who sold them it must have been laughing all the way to the bank as it was a pretty poor unit for the price they paid for it, with output resolution well below the standard of the time. So the lab had no way of linking film processing to digital printing and as such we alienated a good portion of our clients. Ho hum, death of a lab, now it's so difficult to get E-6 film processed, almost everywhere I know of has gone. The writing is on the wall for film, they may keep producing it but if you can't get it processed....