A few little system changes before I can download Lightroom5

It was bound to happen, Lightroom 5 beta has been dropped upon us, with new and improved features, YouTube is already littered with peoples videos on the best bits that the new software has to offer, and quite frankly they do look great. So have I downloaded the beta software yet... 

Errr no! 

Why?

Well I'm still running Snow Leopard, I know, I know, should have upgraded ages ago, but I had some software on the MacPro that I just wasn't prepared to see disappear, at least at the time that Lion OS 10.7 turned up. So now with 10.9 probably looming for release and my MacPro being long in the tooth, and a new MacPro impossible now that Apple don't sell them in Europe, I think it's time to jump on the Mountain Lion wagon. 

So long story short, new main drive going into the MacPro, get Snow Leopard up and running on it and then upgrade to Mountain Lion, we'll see how that pussy cats purrs along, oh yes and I'll download Lightroom 5 and see what all the fuss is about.

Of course I'll be keeping my old main drive as a back up, with Snow Leopard waiting to jump back into action, if needed. I always hedge my bets...

Photoshop vs Lightroom

The image on the left is the original that the client received a few years back, the one on the right is a reworking in Lightroom4 very recently. I do like Lightroom it feels more of a photographers software, where as Photoshop has always, and probably will always feel to me at least, like a designers software. I'm finding that I'm opening Lightroom and running work through that, only opening Photoshop when the inevitable cutout or multi-layer work is called for. Right enough of this I have cutouts to do tonight... Typical.  

Skateboarding - Bristol - 1982/3

These images go back to 1983/4 I think, at the time I lived in Frome in Somerset, yes where Jenson Button comes from, no never met him. Back then the nearest skateparks were in Bristol, Bedminster and lockleaze, lockleaze consisted of a deep bowl with between 3 and 5 ft of vertical and a tight capsule halfpipe, it was also in one of the dodgiest areas of Bristol. The pictures below were taken at Bedminster, it's changed a lot since these picture were taken, probably for the better.

This is Dave 'Spex' Agg, he was one of the hardcore locals, with a huge bag of tricks that he could throw down on any given day, Dave was always performing for my camera. Invert Air. Most of the riding went down on this metal quarter pipe, the run into it was a steep slope made from pathing slabs, the rest of the park was either very mellow or completely useless.

The park was a throw back of the late 70's skatepark explosion, built by people who hadn't a clue about skateboarding or skatepark construction, but who built them anyway. Dave Agg, frontside air.

These were taken on one of those days when hardly anyone turned up at the park, there were damn few skaters then, as the craze had passed and the death of skateboarding had already been proclaimed at the end of 1979. We kept skateboarding, we loved it, we really didn't give a monkeys what people thought or often said to us about our 'toys'. Dave still skates, he must be in his mid to late forties, his son skates, I know of a few others from that time in Bristol who never truly put away their toys.

More shots from the scanner - skateboarding 1987

More images from 1987, but this is all folks, nothing left to scan

So we start off with Sean Goff, he's down at Bondi Australia this weekend waiting for the rain to stop so he can compete agains the rest of the Masters at the Bowl-A-Rama .

Sean again in mid backside air.

Lucian Hendricks, invert

 Hate to say I've no idea who this is, old age is playing tricks on my mind.

 Nice Invert

 Failed backside air over the channel

Finishing with Phil Burgoyne, invert

And continuing on the scanning theme...

As I have been scanning some old film shots for a Mountain Bike article, I thought I'd flick through my old B&W film negs and see if there was anything worth posting here... Warrington, England, 1987, the Easter Egg Plant Competition, the cream of British skateboarding was in attendance and I was lucky to be up on the platform of the half-pipe with a Nikon full of film...

Danny Webster, invert 

Phil Burgoyne,frontside air

Not sure who this guy is, great invert though

Phil Burgoyne, frontside air, boning it though

Lucian Hendricks, backside air

 Lucian Hendricks, tuck knee invert

 Danny Webster, backside air

 Neil Danns, invert

Finishing with Danny Webster, anti-smith invert.

Just as well I've still got a scanner... Errr or have I?

So I get a request in a text message from a guy I used to collaborate with for articles in Dirt Mountain Bike magazine, could I supply some images from way back when, 1999-2002, of him downhill racing. He's doing an article for online mountain bike magazine WideOpen Mag and needs a few images to fill it out with.

I had that Roy Scheider moment from Jaws, when the camera does the "Dolly Zoom" effect where the camera moves forwards whilst zooming out (or the camera moves backwards whilst zooming in), which leaves the person the same size and increases the amount you see surrounding them. If you have no idea what I'm talking about it's about 2 minutes in on this clip from Jaws . That's what it felt like anyway.

I suddenly realised that far back all the images would be on 120 and 35mm transparency film, luckily I've got everything boxed up and in date order, still it meant going through several boxes filled with sheets and sheets of transparencies. It also meant a trip up into the loft to find my old light-box, luckily the tubes were still working, found my linen tester (suspended magnifying glass) too. Now I don't know if you are familiar with Downhill Mountain Bike Racing, but every rider wears a full-face helmet, goggles, body armour covered with race shirts, picking one specific rider out from the 300+ competitors that I used to photography at the race events was a bit of a tall order. Still I found 12 images. Only one problem, no scanner! At least no scanner that would work with the newer OSX software on either of my Macs, to the rescue my Dad, he's got an Epson Perfection V500 scanner with a transparency hood, saved.

So I hope you like them Jim.

I might have a softbox problem...

I was sorting out my lighting equipment today and for some reason I counted the number of softboxes I've got, it came as a little bit of a shock that I have 13 of them...

2 off 30cm x 40cm Calumet Nova

1 off 60cm x 60 cm Bowens

1 off 60cm x 80cm Redwing (very old)

2 off 60cm x 80cm Bowens 

1 off 80cm x 100cm Redwing (very old)

1 off 100cm x 140cm Bowens

1 off 120cm Octabox

2 off 22cm x 90 cm Strip-boxes

2 off 35cm x 140cm Strip-boxes

13 softboxes, I might have an addiction to buying softboxes...

I am a photographer, I have a problem, isn't 13 supposed to be unlucky? 

I might need to buy another softbox!

Update 30/1/2013: Problem solved, just picked up a 95cm Octabox... And does anyone have a phone number for Softboxes Anonymous?

A tale of cameras...

I've been using Canon cameras for a long time, a good 15 to 16 years, my first was a EOS650, quickly followed by by an EOS 5, that was joined by the brilliant EOS 3 soon after its launch. An EOS1N and an EOS1V have also graced my camera bag, that 1V was just the best 35mm film camera I think I ever owned. All gone now, except I managed to pick up a 1N off ebay a few years ago, in mint condition for £100, and I still put a few films through it every year.

My first digital camera was a Canon D60 just as I went freelance, and just as digital was starting to take a slice out of the film camera market, £2000 at the time and just 6 megapixels on an APS-C chip, it served me very well for three years. I still have it, it still works, but it hasn't seen professional action for a very long time. I bought a Canon 1Ds MkII about 6 months after it was launched, I was lucky to get one at the time as they were rarer than hens teeth. I just happened to pass by a local camera shop in Chester and cast my eye though the window, as I usually do, there it was, £5000 worth of loveliness waiting for me. The camera had been ordered in months before apparently, but whoever had ordered it didn't want it in the end, my good fortune. I snapped it up there and then. This camera has shot everything from portraits to product shots, cars, vans, buildings, it's always produced the right image quality, even now that it's getting a bit long in the tooth.

So now I've moved on again, finally, to the 5D MkIII, 22.3 megapixels, a good 6 megapixels more than my trusty 1Ds, and HD video, I'm really very pleased with it, handling and build quality are great, that big screen on the back is just amazing, at least coming from the small screen I've looking at it is. The 1Ds is going off to have a new shutter fitted soon, so then it should be fine as my back up camera for a good time to come. 

For all you Nikon owners out there, yes I used to use Nikons, my first was the tiny EM, FMs followed and F3s, but when autofocus came along Nikon were struggling in the catch up game and Canon were winning at the time, it wasn't an easy decision but I switched. I still have an EM and an FM with a few lenses, they still get outings when I'm in the mood to shoot film, but my investment in Canon glass has me tied to their cameras for the moment. Who knows though what will turn up from the camera companies over the next few years to tempt me away from Canon, those Fuji X series cameras look very tempting at the moment...

And the winner of the Holga 120N is...

... drum roll please, 

leave a suitable lone pause like all those awful talent shows do on tv...

So the winner of the Holga 120N competition, with the correct answer of "Bob Carlos Clarke" was...

@Lo - LoneyJane

The Holga 120N camera, cable release accessory and a bonus prize, in the spirt of Lomography, of two rolls of Fujicolor 160S 120 film (out of date by a year, but they've been kept in the fridge so they'll be fine), will be winging their way to LoneyJane a.s.a.p.

Thank you all for entering, I'm hoping to do another give away competition soon.

Shut down my Instagram account today...

Finally did it, shut down my Instagram account, I know I said I was going to and I nearly did, but then they came back with a quick back pedal over the T&Cs, but I had a read of those new T&Cs and they still suck, so gone, binned, never to return.

In other news, I'm really busy at the moment, January can be such a hit and miss month for work, but it's been streaming in. Products, location, though the snow is going to put a spanner in that one till it melts away, and I've a heap of photoshop work come in. Creating coloured radiators images from some sample shots I took in November, the samples are of an area only a 15th of a full sized unit, but they are looking good and the client loves the first test images I sent over, just 12 sets of  different sized radiators in 16 different colours to create.

The sample is on the left, the full size radiator was created from this small section, the valves and pipes were added from existing images. All fun. 

Talking of fun, with new snow blowing in all night I think it'll be snowman building time tomorrow, we have one already built today, but he needs some friends. Have a good and safe weekend folks.

Timber! Or how a flash head goes from 5ft to 0ft.

This very set up took a fall on wednesday during a shoot, it went from being just over 5 feet up on the stand to being Zero feet on the floor. I have to admit my heart stopped as I helplessly watched the incident occur, watching the softbox hit first, then the modelling light blinked it's last and the LED dials on the side of the head went dead. It took just over a second, I swore, I swore quite a bit, it would have made a sailor blush. The softbox was undamaged, relief number one, the head looked okay, but nothing happened when I flicked the power switch on and off, so I quickly swapped the fuse in the head, pow, all the dials were back on, relief number two, the only casualty of this episode was the modelling bulb. I'm still not entirely sure why the head went over, a power cable getting snagged, whatever, chalk it up to experience and try to make sure it doesn't happen again. Accidents happen, that's why you have insurance, thankfully I wont be needing that this time. Looks like I need to order some more modelling bulbs soon, just used the last one.

New Modifiers...

Calumet do a 27" Beauty Dish, amongst other sizes, on Black Friday they were half price, so I splashed a little cash. The dish comes with a bonnet diffuser but you need to buy an adapter to fit to your make of flash head, I've used the dish shooting some product shots,  but today, as my son was available, I thought I'd do some head shot tests with it. I used two 200mm x 900mm Strip Boxes, behind and to each side of him to give some rim light.

I have to admit I like this beauty dish, it's a good 10 inches bigger than my present beauty dish, it give a great soft light, with the bonnet diffuser, without the bonnet its a much harder light, coverage is very good, there is a grid available and I'm thinking that'll be another purchase very soon.

This shot is with the bonnet off, previous two were with.

The strip boxes I got off of ebay, £36 each, with grids and postage, and they came from China, unfortunately the seller has changed from photo-equipment too fashion clothing, but the link at the top of the post will take you to an e-bay seller in the UK who is selling the same units for only a little more. They are quite robust and I have been using them a great deal, travelling with them too locations as well as studio work. The grids are a god send, for directional lighting, laying one on the floor, without the grid, aimed at a background gives a great graduation effect. I could have spent an awful lot more on named brand strip boxes, but I don't think the quality can be that much better than these units.

My eldest can ham it up with the best of them, hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil...

WIN a Holga 120N...

WIN a Holga 120N

with the timed exposure accessory and cable release

ENTER BY 12 NOON GMT ON 26th JANUARY 2013

Has it been used? No. Have I still got the box? No, it fell apart, seriously it looked like it had been glued together with spit. So a box-less Holga 120N with cable release as pictured. And what you may ask do I want you to do to win said toy camera?

Question:- Name the author of 'The Dark Summer' : Hint: the photography book not the novel 

The prize draw will be made by my six year old son, he's very excited, all names with the correct answer will be drawn from a policeman's helmet, Oh yes it WILL! On the 26th January 2013.

Leave your name and answer in the comments section below, you might not be able to do this from a mobile device, phone or tablet, I've no idea why you'd need to ask Google. Alternatively you can e-mail your answer too alistairkerrphotography@gmail.com .Your details will not be pimped, sold or horse traded to anyone, I'm not Facebook! I will post this out to ANYWHERE in the world, yes ANYWHERE. Though the further away you are from the UK the longer the wait for it's arrival will be. So if you've always fancied a Holga, give it a try, someone has to win this. No purchase necessary.