Sunday 28 August 2011

I tried to upload a picture from my Flickr account directly to the blog earlier today and it worked perfectly but I couldn't add any text!.The picture shows a superb new bollard that I photographed for Holophane last year and I can now show the pictures as the product has been released to the market.
I've linked all my online bits and pieces together so my blog,Linked In, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr are all in some way linked together.Now I can add pictures directly to the blog from Flickr I can update the blog a bit more regularly. This is great as I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to really do justice to the blog which is a shame as I really love updating it and keeping an online diary to look back on.
I've done some interesting commissions since the last entry including a day shooting the BUPA's Best campaign (more info in the next entry), the new crematorium in Milton Keynes for AJM Architects, a week in Scotland for Zumtobel lighting, the new LED test lab at Holophane in Milton Keynes and the new Severn Trent Water HQ in Coventry.I've also photographed another couple of BUPA care homes so I've been really busy and covering some miles in my trusty Ford Modeo (or my Capri Gear as I like to call it!).
The new office in Winslow is working out really well and most evenings after a shoot I head back there and do the post shoot processing meaning that I keep up to date with that part of the job which really relieves the pressure. Having the business outside of our home is the best thing we've done in the 9 years that we've been operating and I've found that I can really focus on work whilst I'm there and switch off more easily when I'm at home.

Taken with an Olympus ELP-1 and old Nikon 28mm MF lens

I like to review kit on the blog whenever I can and I recently decided to buy a new small SLR camera for my non work photography. I've always been a strong advocate of second hand kit but this time I picked up a bargain in PC World and bought new. The camera I bought is an Olympus EPL-1 which has now been replaced by the EPL-2 and EPL-3. They were over £600 a couple of years ago but PC World were selling off the old stock for £279 including a kit lens!. This deal is still available online and I can recommend this great little camera 100%. I've bought an adaptor to allow me to use my old Canon FD lenses and another to allow me to fit Nikon lenses to it.Today I took some pictures with an old manual focus Nikon 28mm lens mounted to the camera and the results were really good!.I've posted a picture in the blog that I took at the Bucks Railway Centre at Quainton today with the Olympus and Nikon 28mm lens.Because the Olympus has a small micro 4/3rds sensor the 28mm lens is effectively cropped in half and becomes a 56mm lens which is a great focal length for everyday photography.
We've just had a scarily large VAT bill and we should know the final Corporation Tax bill soon which we'll need to pay in December so I really hope the current busy workload carries on for a while yet although the economists seem intent on talking us into another recession!. Lets try and keep positive and hopefully we'll all be OK!.






Denver Elite

Friday 12 August 2011

Here's another quick video update. This time it's another Kinnarps job - this one filmed at two schools in Manchester.As always the video is filmed on my Canon EOS 5D MK2.

Thursday 4 August 2011

I've just had my annual week off and we headed off for a few days camping in the Cotswolds where we camped at The Cotswold Farm Park owned by the bloke off Countryfile. We did the same last year and although it's not exactly a glamorous break we did have a good time. I took my old Canon FD cameras along and shots a few rolls of colour film which I picked up from Morrisons in Bletchley for £1.99 per roll as it was a year out of date!!.
Club Helsinki
Now it's back to work and I did a BUPA shoot on Monday in Enfield, a shoot for Collingwood Lighting at Club Helsinki in Leicester where there was some cool blue LED products installed (see picture) and a shoot at the new Museum of Liverpool yesterday. This is a really stunning new building and I've attached a picture of the exterior in the blog. The spotlights were supplied by a very innovative British lighting company called Precision Lighting. Their products are made to a very high quality and the design of the fittings is superb.I met Andy Molyneux (Precision Lighting Design Manager) up on site and we spent a very enjoyable day photographing the building. The museum has just opened and in the first couple of weeks they've had 120,000 visitors!. The exhibits are all things made in Liverpool (including a Ford Anglia!) or things to do with Liverpool. The sheer number of visitors made it very hard to photograph the interior and I was only allowed a short time to use a tripod, the rest of the shoot was taken hand held. Luckily the Canon EOS 5D MK2 is superb at high ISO settings so grain wasn't an issue in the final shots. I used Lightroom and Neat Image to reduce any grain that was visible but it wasn't a problem. After the shoot we took a walk around the Tate Liverpool and the waterfront. The waterfront area and docks are just superb and I'd recommend a visit if you ever get the chance.
I was supposed to be on a shoot for BUPA today up in Derby but the rain has beaten us so we've had to re arrange but that has given me a chance to catch up with myself and tomorrow I'm shooting some portraits at DW Windsor lighting over in Ware.
Museum of Liverpool
Inverse Square Media has really taken off and here's a link to a lamp demo which Pete has created from a series of 16 product shots http://www.inversesquaremedia.com/lampdemo/ . To make it spin around just hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse left or right. We're looking to enhance this idea further with a moving background image too and maybe the option  of changing the product colour etc at the click of a button as it spins around.We think these VR product video clips are a great way to show off products on a website and because they count as video content they're great for optimising a website too.