Wednesday 22 June 2011

The past two weeks have been both very busy and very exciting as we've moved into our new office in Winslow and launched a new company called Inverse Square Media which is a company aimed at producing high quality video content for lighting companies and architects. I've been shooting video for a couple of years now and it seemed like the right time to finally launch this new venture. Inverse Square Media is now fully operating and registered and I'm now about to start a new blog and Twitter feed etc so watch this space.
Speaking of video Pete (my partner in the video company) and I shot the teeth whitening advert last week at a salon in Milton Keynes. It was tough but great fun and we shot 25Gb of video footage on the 5D MK2 in a 6 hour shoot. Pete is now editing it all together and I'll post the video here in the blog when it's done.
I've also been very busy with stills photography too and I've been to North Wales, Newbury, London, Leeds and Manchester in the past week or so. The guys at BUPA are keeping me busy (they are a great client and fabulous to work for!) and I've also been doing quite a few location shoots for Holophane Lighting including one late last night in Stratford (East London) at the Orient Way railway sidings which was good fun as I love trains!. I also have a big soft spot for Holophane products as I worked for them for 9 years after I left school.
I know I've mentioned this before and nothing happened but I have decided to buy an iMac and this time I'm definitely going to take the plunge as my fast Photoshop PC has crashed. The main hard drive with all the programs on has corrupted and it's going to be a real hassle to re-install everything so now is my chance to make the change. I've been getting more and more frustrated with the office PC's as one of them always seems to have an issue be it a virus or something else. I guess iMacs go wrong too but I've heard great things about them from other photographers and video editors so my mind is made up. I'll have to lease one as cash flow is a bit tight (as usual!) and I'll post my progress with it once it arrives.
I've posted a video clip in today's blog that I shot last year for Kinnarps which is basically a user guide for operating their superb range of office chairs. It's all made from still pictures that I took in the studio and Pete edited them into this short movie clip.

Sunday 5 June 2011

Another two crazy weeks have passed by since the last blog entry and work is getting busier by the day which is just fabulous!. Since I last blogged I've photographed a railway depot in London, four BUPA care homes around the country, an art gallery in Newcastle, Bemco Wholesalers in Wandsworth (London) and I did a free shoot at an animal sanctuary in West Sussex so all in all pretty busy!.

The animal sanctuary is a lovely peaceful place near Horsham and it's owned and run by a lady called Alexandra Bastido who was in a 1970's TV series called The Champions among lots of other things. I was asked to pop along to shoot some video by Maureen my PR lady who also does PR for the sanctuary. They had an open weekend this weekend and BBC South needed some video footage to show on Friday night's local news bulletin. It was great fun filming Alexandra with the animals and they do a great job there taking in all manner or unwanted pets from pigs and horses to cats and dogs. The footage was shown on the bulletin and it was good to see that the EOS 5D MK2 picture quality was more than good enough for broadcasting on TV. I also took a couple of portraits of Alexandra and I'll post one in the blog once their finished. Here's a link to the sanctuary website - please take a look if you get a minute http://www.abcanimalsanctuary.co.uk/

The railway depot at Bounds Green was great fun to photograph because I have to admit that I love trains (although I'm not a proper trainspotter! - honest!). I photographed the workshop during the day and again at night to show the effect of the new industrial lighting which has recently been installed. I'm doing a lot of night photography at the moment and it doesn't get properly dark until around 10pm so it means long hours but it's all good fun.
I'm still very busy with BUPA too and they are a fabulous client to have as they keep me busy but more importantly they're so nice to work for and they pay their invoices on time!. This is a real problem for us at the moment as some companies are taking 90 days to pay and that creates havoc with the cash flow. It's no surprise that small businesses are going under!.
I was commissioned by Havells Concord to photograph the Laing Gallery in Newcastle which has recently been re-lit with energy efficient LED spotlights. The Concord Stadium fits onto the existing track system and provides a really clean and precise beam of light that can be focused on site. The other benefits of LED lighting is that the UV content is low so there's no damage to the artwork on display and heat output is kept to a minimum. This makes LED fittings ideal for art galleries and I think Tungsten display lighting is really on it's last legs due to the new LED technology.
Due to the extreme workload and the need for more space we've just hired a new office in Winslow which is really exciting. It's a second floor office in a 1700's building just off the Market Square so the location is perfect. I'm looking forward to moving in next week and I'll post a picture in the next blog entry.
We've also just finalised a partnership with Goldmoor TV to create a new company called Inverse Square Media which will be a specialist architectural and lighting installation video production company. I've already worked with Pete at Goldmoor TV on several videos over the past year so I know we can work well together and I'll post a link to our new blog once I've got it ready.
Speaking of video I've got the teeth whitening advert to shoot next week and tomorrow I'm doing a final recce of the salon I've chosen to film the ad in. We're shooting it next Friday and I'm looking forward to the day very much as video is great fun. I'm shooting some of the video on my EOS5D MK2 and some on Pete's DV Cam which is a top piece of kit and I'm looking forward to using it.
I'm also shooting some more work for BUPA next week along with a night club interior and a railway siding in East London so I'll be having a few more late nights this week.