Let me introduce you to the models I'll be using next week...

Well I'm back in action again, I had surgery last friday, just a little op nothing serious, anyway I'm getting back into the swing of things again now. I'd made sure that I kept this week free to recover and had worked like a demented beaver last week to get all my client work finished. So now I'm thinking it's coming up for marketing time, my portfolio is heavily weighted towards product shots, so I've decided to mix it up a little bit. Meet my models...

Okay they're Lego Hero Factory toys, I've had an idea to have an interesting composite cover shot on my next mailer, something dramatic, these guys are pretty funky, colourful and with the addition of some fireballs, smoke, and creative lighting these could be just what I'm looking for.

I'll get started next week, I'm still not supposed to be lifting any heavy lighting kit, but will be able to next week. Though I might have to leave Wednesday free as I'm hoping to go down to the NEC and wander around the Focus-On-Imaging show having missed last year.

Sensor cleaning...

A few weeks ago I decided my sensor needed a clean, it's one of those necessities that rolls around a little to often, I had a few jobs booked in that really warranted a clean sensor. Now in the past I've used H. Lehmann Ltd in Stoke, Calumet in Liverpool (now closed) and Calumet Manchester, but I thought I'd give Cambrian Photographic in Colwyn Bay, 1) it's only 25 minutes away, 2) it was cheaper by £10. 

After having the sensor cleaned I put the camera in the camera case and the next day headed to Blackburn to photograph a coach for Volvo. Didn't change lenses during the day. Two days later, and the reason for the sensor clean, I had a product shoot, radiators, mostly white, grey and bushed steel. Shoot went well and I still hadn't swapped lenses. It wasn't till I started processing the images the following day that I noticed the dust, a large hair and a small smear on every image. I went back to the coach images and processed them, the same. This has cost me a lot of time to spot in photoshop, exactly the opposite of what I was hoping would happen after a sensor clean. Now I'm not blaming Cambrian Photographic, though I wont be using their services again, but next time I'm going to take a quick test shot and run it through the mac before going off and shooting a big job.

Yesterday Simon from Bob Rigby Photographic in Macclesfield popped in and picked up my camera, it'll be cleaned and back to me by Friday, which is fine as I'm recovering from a small operation I had last Friday and am taking this week off to recover fully. The guy who does their cleaning also works for Canon and Nikon when they have any of their event days, so I know he's good and he checks the sensor by taking a shot and running it through photoshop, just to be sure.


Update: 02/03/2012


My Canon 1Ds MkII came back today, sensor as clean as a whistle. Thank you Bob Rigby Photographic, now I can get back to work.

Blackburn Coach Shoot...

So this Thursday I took a trip out to Blackburn to photograph a coach for Volvo Coach and Bus. The agency that books me sets a standard brief for these shoots, here are a couple of images from the session. I was so lucky that the sun was shining, though it was bitterly cold, still that's what thermals are for...

A Late Happy New Year to you...

So I know I've been pretty quiet on the blog front since Christmas, it's mostly because I got very sick Christmas day and didn't really get right again for a week. Plus my Uncle died of leukaemia on Boxing Day, which didn't help. I managed to fit in some work between New Year and the 11th January, then it was down to Swindon to see my Uncle off in style.

This week I've been tiding up a few lose ends, I've got five more products to shoot this week, outside, in the dark, it's high-viz clothing, and then I'm about done for the month. Thursday I'm dropping off a heap of products to one client, as well as a trip to the hospital (hearing test) and it's my birthday, wahoo!

Next month I've got shoots for Volvo Coach and Bus, more radiators, some showroom shots, and an incentives product catalogue to start. So all in all a nice start to February...

Christmas Eve in the photoshop...

It's Christmas Eve and I'm still sat here working on the Mac to make sure a client have there work when they start back after the holidays, also have a shoot on next Wednesday to finish up another job. The new year has already got a few bookings in, location work and product shots.

So Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year to one and all.

Bowens Pro Heads, fire and fail...

I've used Bowens flash equipment since I set up as a freelance photographer just over 9 years ago, I'd used it before that in a couple of studios I'd worked for, so naturally when I was looking to upgrade some older kit about 18 months ago it was Bowens that I went for. The Pro heads, with their fast flash duration, were bought and I put some of my older flash equipment on e-bay. I'm beginning to wish I'd kept those older heads, as over the course of a couple of weeks I've had one 500 Pro head stop working and a 750 Pro head nearly go on fire, the smoke was very black and extremely unpleasant. So today Simon from Bob Rigby Photographic came over and picked up the offending equipment to send back to Bowens, luckily they have a two year  warranty, he did point out that the Bowens range is now made in China, which actually came as a bit of a shock. Chinese flash equipment hasn't got the best of reputations for quality or reliability. 

So now I wait till January to see what has gone wrong with my kit, I've still got 3 working heads and I can borrow up to 4 more at a push, but I really don't like the situation. 18 months use for this sort of equipment isn't that much, the heads I e-bayed were 5 years old and are still going strong at a photography business in Dorset.

Horse and flash...

This Saturday evening I headed out to the Foxes Riding School in Ledsham on the Wirral, to meet up with Cress and his rider Angela. The mission was to get some photographs of them, full portrait, head shots of Cress and action shots.

  

This isn't the first time I've photographed horses, but it was going to be the first using studio flash, I had no idea how the horse would react with flashes popping off all around him.

So whilst Angela schooled him on a lead rope, I set up a Canon speedlight 550EX on a tripod, aiming it at the wall to start with. I fired it, nothing, no reaction from Cress, so moving the 550 around so it was pointing towards Cress, I fired it again, still no adverse reaction, a few more flashes and still no reaction I was good to go.

I unload and set up my Bowens Gemini Pro heads, plugged them into a couple of Bowens Travelpaks and set to work. The heads have a very fast flash duration, even though I was running almost at full power, so there's very little in the way of movement blur in the images, the strip-lights illuminating the indoor arena had no effect on the images at all.

Next time though we will definitely be shooting outdoors in daylight, though I might well use the Bowens heads again to add some dramatic effect. I must thank Angela and especially Cress for the opportunity to get these images, and to Cress again for not taking exception to my equipment or myself. I think you'd agree he's a beautiful horse.

I'm torn between Instagram and Hipstamatic...

I have both apps on my iPhone, as I'm sure many do, but I'm torn between which one to use at times. Still here's a very small selection of images take with the two apps this year. Some have been enhanced using the Photogene app or PS Express app, the rams head was 'enhanced' using the latter app, it all went very Pete Tong, but I like it.

You don't always need lots of room...

... to shoot a job, I used my eldest sons bedroom for a simple product shot, it was for a couple of small products. My home office is in the next room, I actually shot the job from my MacPro with the camera tethered using Aperture, proving you don't always need a cavernous studio, at least if you're shooting small products, now if it was a car...

An avalanche of pdn's...

Well on Monday I finally got the November issue of pdn, quiet late, like 18 days late. Today woe and behold the December issue hit the mat, almost an avalanche of pdn's, very unusual. Well now I've finished my product shots today I think a pot of coffee and my reading glasses are in order.

Another camera announcement from Canon...

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/gear/Canons-Second-Big-A-3979.shtml

Just checked out pdn's website and saw this (above), another announcement from Canon, another full-frame DSLR but with 4K movies capability for next year! Will it be a studio camera replacement for the 1Ds MkIII, or the 5D MkII. Well! Will it?

So in January it's my 47th Birthday...

... and I have a project in mind to go with it. My initials are AK, I'll be 47, so AK@FortySeven, it'll be a series of portraits of friends, family, acquaintances with the above toy AK47, doesn't it look fine in blue and white? You can't sell toy guns that are coloured like real guns any more, the last thing you need is policemen shooting kids wheedling toy guns, you'd never hear the end of it! So I'm hoping to get started on the project soon, I've already got a blog page set up, the images will appear there as I start to make headway with the project. I'm hoping it'll be a bit of fun and it'll produce some interesting images. 

They cannot be serious...

 

I'm really hoping that this is pure speculation, one of those rumours like the iPhone5 will be delivered by Santa Claus at Christmas, or other such silliness. The big desktop units can be seen everywhere, design studios, photography studios, video/TV production companies and a myriad of others. I've been using desktop macs for almost as long as I've used computers, reason, fast, expandable and for the most part damned reliable. I've got nothing against iMacs, brilliant units and thanks to the lack of suitable processors for the MacPro upgrade, they're very fast, if not as fast as most of the current MacPro lineup. I've just always seen PowerMacs and now the MacPro as the backbone of Apples computer products, fingers are crossed that they'll continue to be.