Shooting film...................................Why?

So why go and shoot some film, discipline, it can help you with digital workflow, like you'll learn to look more and shoot less, plus it could be fun! I'm heading out in the next couple of days and the DSLR is staying at home, it needs a break, it's been working pretty hard over the last three and a half years.

Instead I'm packing the vintage Rolleicord and an old Nikon FM, some rolls of film and a hand held light meter. The aim of this little exercise is to slow myself down, take stock of how I shoot and limit myself to using only two rolls of 120 and three rolls of 35mm film, potentially 108 images. Last Friday I shot 749 images in 5 hours for a client that was having a big firework/Halloween party, picking my way through the images in Photoshop it struck me that I'd been a little too snap happy. Usually when I'm shooting in the studio and I'd be more controlled with the number of images that I took, but that assignment on Friday got me thinking.

So I'm going to go and shoot some film, slow myself down, look for the shot rather that snap and pick later, it's just developing good practice. Probably wont get anything posted up here quickly, what with sending away for processing, prints and ironically a disk of scanned images, can't get away from bloody digital these days.....

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.