Hi everyone

Sorry I meant to leave this note ages ago - the blog has now moved to www.redshift-photography.co.uk

You'll see the blog section at the top of the page.

Please keep following us!!!!

Thanks

Dave

Pictures!

Well it's the busiest I've ever been and taking a few days off to go to Euro Disney last week has proven to be a bad idea!.

NHBC Model Shoot

NHBC Inspection Shoot

We had four nights over there and came on on Sunday then on Monday I had a shoot down in Exeter followed by a shoot in Evesham yesterday. Today it's been meetings, office work and some studio work too!. Tomorrow I'm working in Clacton and Ipswich and have a meeting in the morning too!.
We had to pass up a lovely job to shoot a designer shop in London this week too which was painful as I'd love to have done it but we just couldn't fit it in and we never let our clients down by delivering late on a deadline. It really hurts to lose out on a well paid job like this but it's better to be honest with clients than promise what you can't deliver!.

Aston Martin Showroom

Holophane Lighting

We are now booking into October which is a real bonus as it means we don't have to worry about paying the bills for a while and I can concentrate on the work we have in now rather than worry about filling the diary!. I've uploaded a few pictures from some recent jobs which I haven't had time to do for a while. I must update our Flickr and website too but there aren't enough hours in the day right now.

Working like a mad man!

Apologies to our followers for the long delay between posts but we've been busier than ever and for the past few weeks I've been doing two jobs a day at times to keep up.
Luckily our fantastic team at Redshift who work so hard behind the scenes have kept things going like clockwork in the office. Melanie Ani and Toni are true stars and keep me organised and focused even when things are manic. Having some help with the post shoot processing has been a massive help and has taken the pressure off me big time.
I'm writing this entry on my iPad at home so can't attach any pictures at the moment but I'll add some recent work to the blog entry tomorrow.
Many thanks to all our clients for keeping us so busy!.

Olympic Torch Relay

The Olympic Torch came through Winslow today (the small town in Buckinghamshire where we are based) and it was a really exciting event to be a part of. The High Street was packed with people and I had some fun taking some pictures as the morning unfolded. I didn’t expect so many people to turn up so the crowds were a surprise but the rain held off and everyone seemed to have a great time!.

It was nice to have a morning in the office as I have been working really long hours lately and even spent Sunday morning in the little studio upstairs as I had some product photography to do that was needed urgently. I’ll post some pictures in the next blog entry as they aren’t processed yet.

Over the past three weeks or so since the last entry I’ve photographed quite a few products in our new studio so that’s proven to be a good investment and long may that continue. I’ve also had the great pleasure of photographing the new Aston Martin showroom at Newport Pagnell and a lovely restaurant in Covent Garden called Hawksmoor. I haven’t had any of the pictures from these projects approved by the clients yet so I can’t blog them but I will as soon as I can as both jobs look great.

I’ve had some event photography to do which is always fun especially as this event was on a boat at the Henley Regatta!. That was a great day and Melanie came along too as the client was Chameleon Events who we are very close to and it was part work and part day out. I also photographed the launch party for the new HQ of Zumtobel Lighting in Chalfont St Peter which was also a great job as the Zumtobel guys are great to work for and their new lighting showroom is superb.

Fingers crossed for some nice weather now as I’ve got quite a few outdoor commissions coming up and we’re supposed to be going camping for a few days at the end of July. At this rate we’ll need a hovercraft to get there!.

The Ritz and Cardiff Castle

Me Julia and Roy (of Philips) having lunch at The Ritz

I can’t believe it’s the middle of May already!. This year has flown past and we’ve been lucky to have stayed really busy throughout. All this talk of a double dip recession has been unhelpful to say the least but fingers crossed things are still going well. Speaking of politics I was supposed to photograph David Cameron last week at Milton Keynes where he was due to visit an innovation centre but unfortunately he didn’t show because of problems at the House of Commons!. All the press photographers, security guards, PR people and even a sniffer dog showed up but unfortunately Dave had to pull out at the last minute!. It’s a shame as I was looking forward to photographing him and I’d love to have posted one of the pictures in the blog.

Cardiff Castle

The new website and blog has been really well received and I can fully recommend David Beach of Daxic for web design (http://www.daxic.com/web_development/) as they were very competitive on the price and gave us a great service. The site is based on a Wordpress blog and once you get used to updating it the interface is pretty easy to use. The image gallery is much nicer than the previous one in Blogger and I’ve just started using the featured image option to show a larger picture above the blog text. Let me know if you think this works or not!.

Over the past three weeks since the last blog entry I’ve been really busy with a local shoot in Milton Keynes at the Bensons for Beds store, I’ve photographed two Asda stores one in Sheffield and one in Birkenhead, a shoot for BUPA in Alderley Edge, a health club in Chichester, Cardiff Castle, an office in Guildford, an evening shoot at a wind turbine factory in Wales and an event at The Ritz in London!. I also photographed the final of the Zumtobel Night Geist lighting design competition at The Royal Albert Hall.

Velo Sports Putney

Add to that all the social media that I try to keep up with as well as various meetings with clients and you can see I’ve been running around like a madman. Thankfully we’ve now taken on someone to help with my post shoot processing workload which is just fantastic as that can become a real job in itself and causes me a lot of worry as I really hate getting behind with my work. Toni (Antonia is her real name but I can’t say that very well!) has a degree in photography and is really keen to learn about the business side of photography. Also she’s a very good photo retoucher and a really good assistant too so happy days all round!. 

Zumtobel Night Geist

I’ve recently been buying up more classic lenses to try on my Canon EOS 5D MK2 and in previous posts I’ve recommended the Pentax 67 lenses which can be used via an adaptor. My most recent purchase is a beautiful Rollei 85mm f2.8 lens made by Carl Zeiss. I bought an adaptor for it recently and the image quality is just superb so I can highly recommend these lenses now too. I’ve also bought a 135mm Rollei and 35mm rollei to try too and I’m hoping these will be just as good. I find that it’s really important to try different kit and these older lenses give a softer image (not too soft or out of focus) which looks less clinical than the modern super sharp lenses when used with a digital body.

On the subject on kit I tried the new Canon EOS 5D MK3 the other day at a trade show in London and the high ISO performance is startling. I shot some pictures at ISO 25,600 and the grain was really well supressed and the pictures incredibly clean. I will be buying one as soon as we got some money in the bank!.

Product Photography and Archive Hunting

Ridi ArkTik 600 x 600 LED

Being a short week due to the Easter Bank Holiday (which was wet as usual – what drought!!!!) last week was pretty quiet and it gave me time to hunt through the archive for some hotel pictures and product shots for the new website. I like to put the most current work online but sometimes it’s great to look back and pick out a few favourite shots from the past few years.

SKL Table Lamps

As well as hunting through the archive (see the product shot of the coloured glass table lamps)  I photographed a very sleek new 600 x 600 recessed LED based luminaire from Ridi lighting in the studio. The brief was to photograph the product switched on to show the effect of the advanced opal diffuser and central prismatic strip. The secret to getting these shots right it to ensure the colour balance is correct and to drag the shutter to allow some light to bleed through to show a lit effect. When shooting in the studio with flash heads it’s the aperture of the lens that adjusts the exposure as a general rule as studio flash heads fire at around 800^th second. But by using a slightly longer shutter speed (in this instance 1/30^th second) I can let some light from the luminaire register in the opal diffuser. A standard shutter speed for studio product photography would be 1/200^th second but this shutter speed makes the diffuser look almost unlit.

SKL Table Lamps

We managed to get a lot of planning done as well last week with Ani our office manager scheduling in all the work we have coming up over the next few weeks. Things have picked up nicely and this week and next are pretty flat out.

The new website and blog is working out really well for us and it’s running faster since I deleted the rotating background shots and now we have a static backdrop to the site. The stats for the new site look good to and it’s rated at 75% for web optimisation as opposed to 40% for the old site so the integral blog is definitely helping.

Our sister company Inverse Square Media is also picking up well with a couple of new jobs to schedule in in the coming couple of weeks – here’s a link to the site so please take a look if you get a minute www.inversesquaremedia.com

Fenchurch Street to Sweden

I took my Pentax 67 out for a shoot last Monday which was great fun as I haven’t shot any 120 roll film for ages. I picked up the Pentax 67 camera last year from Dave at the Camera Repair Workshop in Bletchely for a great price and I’ve been using the Pentax 67 lenses that I’ve since acquired on my Canon EOS 5D MK2 with an adaptor. I haven’t had a chance to actually use the camera though so it was good to just head out and fire off a few rolls of film.
A lot of people mistakenly believe that film is dead but it’s making a comeback right now and many established pro’s still use film (David Bailey and John Stoddart spring to mind).
120 roll film and 35mm film is readily available on the internet so why not get a second hand camera and have some fun!.
Work wise we had a pretty good week with a job at Fenchurch Street station on Monday night, a product shoot on Tuesday and a two day shoot over in Sweden at a brand new hotel.
It’s always tiring working abroad what with all the travelling but it was great fun working in Sweden and the hotel staff treated us really well. I’ve worked in Sweden before and the people over there seem to be really friendly and pleasant.
We’ve also just taken on a new member of staff. Antonia will be joining us from April as an assistant photographer as well as working with me and Pete at Inverse Square Media. It will be great to have someone around to help out on shoots as well as with the mountain on post shoot processing that I have to get through.
Even things like burning disks for the archive and keeping the blog, Twitter, Facebook page and Google + page up to date take ages so an extra pair of hands will really help.
I’ve attached a couple of the pictures from Fenchurch Street Station into the blog. We were commissioned by the lighting manufacturer and the lighting designer jointly and the brief was to capture the quality of the new light fittings that have been installed above the platforms and in the main concourse. When you photograph any Network Rail property you have to pay for a permit and send them a method statement and risk assessment for each job. I’ve also got the correct orange hi vis jacket (yellow for motorways and roads etc) and we also have to submit our public liability insurance certificate to them for approval. All this makes sense when you think how dangerous working near a railway can be so we’re happy to comply.
I never use flash out on location anyway but obviously this is a total no go near any railway lines so that’s another thing to consider if you get the chance to photograph any platforms etc.

Hi Everyone - I've decided to keep the Blogger blog going alongside the new Wordpress one for a while!.

Holophane Prismalume

Holophane Prismpack

This week has been relatively quiet compared to normal although it started off with a very early morning for me on Monday when I left home at 5.30am to get to Bracknell for a 7am start. I was photographing a Waitrose store for Edge Lighting (http://www.edgelighting.co.uk/) where they have installed some brand new LED recessed fittings into one of the aisles and the lit effect was very good indeed!.
Then on Wednesday I had a portrait shoot in Oxford with Rob Gregg who works for the Oxford University Estates Dept.The portrait of Rob is for an upcoming issue of Lux magazine and we had great fun walking around Oxford looking for locations outside with some street lighting or other lighting in the background to give some context to the photographs.
The rest of the week has been spent working on the new website and blog and all of today has been about uploading content and minor tweaks to the layout.
Next week is looking very busy though with some photography at Fenchurch Street Station, another Lux portrait shoot, an event in London, some product photography to do and a job in Sweden!!.
Last week I spent the day in the studio photographing the latest version of the classic Holophane Prismpack and Prismalume ranges. Without sounding too much like a lighting geek these are my favourite highbay lights of all time and I really enjoyed the shoot. I love the clean lines and the high quality of the finishes throughout the products from the reflectors down to the suspension loop and fixing brackets. Glass and aluminium products are always a tricky subject to light but I was pleased with the final pictures some of which appear in the gallery below.
Don't forget to check out my video company website www.inversesquaremedia.com if you haven't already. This is another website and blog designed by Dave at Daxic.

Hi - We've now moved our blog to www.redshift-photography.co.uk - please join us there!!!.

New website and blog

Luckily I'm back to full health after a few weeks of feeling really tired and flat due to Bronchitis. I think the down time might actually have done me some good as I feel refreshed and full of enthusiasm again. Photography is my life and I love my job so much so it's good to be firing on all cylinders again.
We are in the process of launching a brand new website and blog. It's been fun looking back through the archives and selecting some pictures to put on there and I've attached a few that we've picked out for the site here in the blog today.

Georges Quay Dublin

Ropemaker Street London

We will probably redirect this blog to the new address as it's a Wordpress blog that we are having designed but if we can't do that for any reason please keep checking www.redshift-photography.co.uk as this is where the new site will be. The old red and white website is still at that address at the moment and the new one will look totally different.

Selfridges London

Also please check out our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Redshift-Photography/195658090518532 as we are starting to use this more often.

I'm also getting more into Google+ after struggling with it for a few weeks.Our page is https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/100203869197364017505/#

I've just downloaded the latest version of Adobe Lightroom (version 4) which is very impressive.There are quite a few improvements over the previous version and it's a lot cheaper to buy so I can recommend it highly for post processing RAW files. This version can also handle video and gives some basic video editing tools which is handy for anyone shooting an EOS 5D MK2 etc.

30 Great Queens Street London

Canon have just announced the new Canon EOS 5D MK3 which looks very interesting too. The body is priced at £3000 and we'll be ordering one as soon as the cash flow allows. The resolution is pretty much the same as the MK2 but it has some very useful additions such as a digital level to show if the camera is dead straight on the tripod and also automatic HDR blending. This won't provide finished print quality HDR pictures but it is a big step ahead and will make my workflow easier and faster.

Many thanks to everyone who's read my blog over the years and please do follow me on my new Wordpress blog and I look forward to blogging to you from Wordpress really soon.

Rugby School



Rugby School Chapel Panoramic

I've been so poorly over the past two weeks with Bronchitis and Flu that it's been tough to keep things going. I've had lots of work to fit in and I've tried to keep working as I never let our clients down but on the days between shoots I've been lying on the sofa with my two dogs watching The Sweeney and Minder on UK Gold!. Last week when I was really suffering I had a shoot at Rugby School where I photographed their chapel. The lighting in the chapel looks stunning and was designed by DPA Lighting Consultants. I really enjoyed the shoot despite feeling terrible and my favourite shot is one made up of three pictures taken on the 24mm T/S lens stitched together. To achieve this I shoot one shot with the lens fully shifted down, another with no shift and a third with the lens fully shifted up. Once stitched together the result is a lovely super wide view without too much wide angle distortion.


Rugby School Chapel

After the Rugby shoot I drove down to Wales for a shoot at the Millenium Stadium and had another shoot the following night for Philips Lighting where I photographed some old SOX lanterns soon to be replaced by LED street lights for a before and after case study.
Yesterday I managed a shoot in Brighton at the Rendezvous Casino but felt really tired and hot/cold so had a day off today to try to recuperate once again.
I've had to postpone some product photography for tomorrow as I still feel unwell but hope to be back out again later this week. I am definitely getting a Flu jab next year!.

Retail Photography Projects

Time has flown since my last blog post and I've been meaning to write an update for a few days now.

Nick Farraway - Havells Sylvania

Last week was very busy with a shoot in London for Willmott Dixon on Monday at a beautifully refurbished office near Farringdon.Then I headed down to Barnstaple on the train for a shoot at a new Tesco Extra store on Tuesday for Whitecroft Lighting for a feature in Lux Magazine. I love trains and really enjoyed the trip down and the shoot itself.
On the Wednesday I had a meeting with my partner in the video company we've set up called Inverse Square Media. we've just launched our new website so please take a look if you get a minute!. The web address is http://www.inversesquaremedia.com/

Tesco Extra Barnstaple

On Thursday I photographed a new Morrisons store in Peterborough for Philips Lighting which is lit entirely by LED lighting and on Friday I did a portrait shoot at the HQ of Havells Sylvania in London.
This week has been much quieter because I've had two jobs postponed due to the weather so I've spent all week working on the Inverse Square website and social media as well as taking some product photographs in the studio for Tridonic of some super slim LED panels.

Morrisons LED Lit Store Peterborough

I've recently been buying up second hand Pentax 67 lenses which I now use on my EOS 5D MK2 via an adaptor. These lenses are currently very cheap on the used market and provide top quality images on the Canon. I'd really recommend this as a way of getting some super prime lenses at silly money. Let me know if you'd like to see some sample pictures taken with this combination!.
Please do check out the Inverse Square Media website and let me know what you think.





                                          

Busy 2012!

2012 is off to a great start and we've had a very busy January so far. We've also got some nice work in the diary for February so that keeps the wolf from the door for another month!!. We're also about to start work on a brand new Redshift Photography website which is long overdue to be honest. The current website is looking dated and we can't update the gallery anymore so the content is old too. In the past we've had crazy prices quoted for a new site but I've finally found a company that can offer us a reasonable price for a site based on a Wordpress template. As soon as it's up and running I'll post a link to it here in the blog.

Just before Christmas I took a portrait of Rowena Preiss (Creative Director) of Philips Lighting on location in London. We met at he Hospital Club in Soho for the shoot and took some pictures in the art gallery area. I've worked with Rowena before and she's a really lively and energetic person so I knew we'd get some good shots. I've included my favourite picture from the shoot in the blog.

Last week I had a shoot at the new Gordon Ramsay restaurant near St Pauls in London called Bread Street Kitchen.I was commissioned by Hoare Lea Lighting to capture the effect of the lighting throughout the restaurant. The functional lighting was taken care of by some LED spotlights on a grid system up in the ceiling and the decorative lighting consisted of reclaimed glass pendants and Anglepoise table lamps. I love the staircase lighting too where the warm continuous LED lighting really accentuated the gold metal finishes.

Another fun shoot I did last week was for JCC Lighting at the Marussia F1 team HQ in Banbury. JCC have supplied LED lighting products throughout the factory including the downlights in the main reception and it was really interesting to see the cars being hand built in the workshop and also to see the model shop and other technical areas. The LED light panels in the office and corridor areas looked superb and provided a beautiful soft light for photography. These panels would make great studio lights in their own right!.


I had another shoot for Hoare Lea last Wednesday at a beautiful office building in Holborn featuring a huge atrium area and I've got another shoot for them tonight in Canada Water at the new library thats just opened there. I'll post some pictures in the blog next week.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!.

We're back at work today after a fantastic Christmas break so we're all refreshed and ready to go.

Me with Grumpy Mug

The diary is looking pretty busy already for January with three more night shoots in London with Architainment, two interiors to photograph for Hoare Lea and two jobs in Manchester - one a private house and the other a Herts Rent-a-car office. We've also got a couple of exciting video jobs bubbling away so it should be a good start to 2012. It takes the pressure off knowing that we've got some work in the bank so to speak and we're lucky to be in such a good position.

Philips Lighting Standard

During the office party we had a secret Santa and I was delighted to get a large "grumpy old git" mug with a rant about Reality TV printed on it. I drink loads of Tea and I hate Reality TV with a passion so it was a perfect pressie. Here's a picture of me with it taken by Ani!.

During the past year we worked on the new Philips magazine called The Lighting Standard edited by Jane Hart at Philips HQ in Guildford. Here's a page of the brochure with some of our pictures in place. These were taken at Bemco wholesalers in London last summer. This type of reportage work is great fun and I really enjoyed working on the Lighting Standard. I'm hoping to get involved in any future issues planned for 2012 too.

I'm off now to meet Pete my partner in Inverse Square Media to discuss taking the video company forward this year. There's definitely a growing demand for video content and Inverse Square did really well last year despite being a new start up company with no advertising or promotion other than via word of mouth. We've produced some very neat desk calendars to give away so if you'd like one please drop me a line and we'll post one out to you!.

Happy New Year once again - lets hope 2012 is a good one for us all.