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. 

Today I've been mostly exploring radiators...

Further to photographing CCTV cameras...

I got a request from my client almost as soon as he'd received the original set of CCTV images, could I superimpose a clock face over one of the images. 

This morning I was out nice and early...

... to get some images of CCTV cameras, it's for an article in a security industry magazine. So armed with my trusty Canon and the 70-200mm lens I ventured forth into the chill of a late October day.

Do I care about the new Canon 1D X...

... no not really. I'm more concerned with getting the next job in, shot and off to the client. New kit can wait till we see if the great world consumer lead economy will keep going or falter and die. 

You might be able to tell I got out of bed the wrong side this morning. I'm sure it will be a great piece of kit, but it doesn't tick all the boxes I had for my next dream camera, I'll see what the 5DMkIII brings to the table in 6-8 months time...