Babies and kids are always so much more natural when they're covered in food! These are some of my favourites from my great niece's first birthday party at the weekend.
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When it comes to social marketing, it seems that small businesses in the UK just don't get it. Despite all the buzz surrounding social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, a recent study by the Forum of Private Business discovered that many SME's are struggling to see any real value in their inclusion in the marketing mix.
According to the survey of 5,800 small to medium-sized businesses in the UK, around 21% of them rated social networking platforms as "not useful", whilst 6% claimed that they were "useless". So is social marketing really just a box of nail-holes, or are UK businesses just doing it wrong?
Probably my favourite from this morning. The side-light allowed a 3 minute exposure, which pulls out the colours in the sea beautifully. For some reason, the longer the exposure, the more ‘tropical’ the water looks. In reality, it is fairly grey and lifeless.
That’s what I love about this kind of photography - you’re creating something that could never be witnessed with the human eye.
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Another shot from High Force in County Durham this morning. This was a much less imposing waterfall, but a little more colourful.
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Got up at 5am to visit High Force in County Durham this morning. Shouldn’t have bothered, since it’s a dark, dingy basin, so it’s visually flat no matter what light you see it in.
This place reminded me of Planet of the Apes for some reason, hence the quirky angle to give it a slightly uncomfortable feeling. Considered photoshopping some chimps in for good measure, but thought better of it.
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Probably my favourite shot from this morning. Wanted something a little different, and the wedge shaped rocks made this composition work quite nicely.
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Another sunrise shot from Craster this morning.
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Quite happy with this, other than the slight banding on the sun. It was such a long exposure that the sun was actually rising during the shot, so very hard to predict the correct exposure! More from this morning’s trip to Craster here.
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The only half-decent long exposure I managed in Blyth this morning. After my last shot of these posts was ruined by light leakage through my filter kit, I was determined to get a good shot of this today. It’s okay, but lacking atmosphere.
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My long exposures weren’t working out well this morning due to the low tide and a very calm sea, so I focussed my efforts on the dramatic clouds that were building up over St. Mary’s as the sun rose.
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It was raining cats n’ dogs in Blyth this morning, so I took refuge under the pier. The angles and lines are great down there, though the colour is very drab and grey - hence the black n’ white adjustment!
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If like me, you enjoy nothing more than heading down to the beach at magic hour to capture the sunrise (or indeed the sunset), it's helpful to know where the tide will be. I found this excellent iPhone app that can help...
Not only is World Tides 2010 extremely easy to use, you can also bookmark particular stretches of coast that you might visit often. Extremely helpful!
Craster at Sunrise.
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The weather was beautiful up at Craster this morning. This was one of the better shots of the morning - my first trip out with my sister Phillippa. I think I could do with a couple of additional grads to give me more choice - I only have 3-stop Hard and Soft, which means really dark or nothing at all!
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Seeing the new GAP logo, kindly pointed out to me by one of our lead developers this morning, makes me wonder if Riff Raff are in the wrong business. Brand design is clearly a market with more budget than sense!
I'm not sure if this was a tragic case of design-by-committee or some kind of visionary enigma that only the branding elite could possibly appreciate, but I imagine that someone was duped into paying a vast sum of money for what can only be described as 1990's Clipart!
The colour of the sky this morning was so much better than last weekend, which is just as well, since I chose a really crappy section of beach to photograph - I had to settle with a sunrise shot. I feel like I’ve turned a corner; I’m starting to get decent shots like these straight out of the camera now - very little tweaking needed in Aperture.
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I’ve tried photographing planes at air shows, and I’ve never been great at it. Certainly now that I’ve ditched my zooms for a single prime lens, it’s out of the question these days.
But I’d like to point you in the direction of some amazing low-flying fighter jet photography by Stevie Bainbridge. Breathtaking!
The sky was grey and colourless this morning, but this looks nice in monochrome. It’s just a shame about the burnt-out sun. I wish I could blur out the sea like this, but keep the crisp detail in the clouds!
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I recently bought a 100mm Lee filter system for my DSLR. It’s not cheap, but is extremely flexible and offers an excellent upgrade path, allowing you to use the filters with any lens, no matter what diameter the filter ring is. The latest filter in my collection was the Big Stopper; a 10-stop Neutral Density filter for taking long exposures in broad day light.
After taking a bunch of pictures with it, I wasn’t impressed. I was getting a horrible red cast over the image that looked unnatural even after correcting it in Aperture. I called Lee to ask them what could be happening; I had no idea if the filter itself was faulty, or if I was just using it incorrectly.
Lee’s customer service department told me that 90% of issues like this are caused by the photographer using the filter incorrectly, but told me to send it to them anyway so that they could run some tests on it for my piece of mind. As it turned out, the filter was perfectly fine, and it was a clear case of PEBKAC* on my part.
What impressed me most was, even though it was obvious to Lee that I was the major flaw in the filter’s design, they still tested it and sent it back to me at their own cost, just to make me feel better about it!
PEBKAC is an acronym used by IT people, and stands for Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair!
A first experiment with my new Lee Big Stopper 10-stop ND Filter. I’m getting a weird red cast, which is pretty annoying. Just as well this works in monochrome!
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Further adventures in Zeissland with my 50/1,4 Planar. My decision to limit myself only to a single prime lens is beginning to pay off.
Not only am I starting to take the kinds of pictures I’ve always wanted to take, but I’m beginning to understand my equipment a lot better too. Something I’ve always taken for granted.
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Candids are just as tricky as expected with a manual focus prime, but I’m getting better at it. It’s like learning photography all over again!
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My nephew Cameron enjoying an ice lolly at the English Civil War Re-enactment at Hylton Castle.
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A couple of weeks ago, I took the plunge and sold all of my zoom lenses, replacing them with a single Carl Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 prime. It’s manual focus too, so it really is as primitive as it gets.
And this is key to the idea; bereft of any convenience, I am now forced to consider each and every moment, which is changing the way I take pictures.
For the better, I hope.
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A horse enjoying the magic-hour sun at Beamish.
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I’m falling in love with this lens. Manual focus is taking some getting used to, and rules out certain types of photography, but the colour rendition compared to my Canon lenses is incredibly accurate. Little or no correction required.
First test shot with my new Carl Zeiss 50mm Planar T* f/1.4 prime lens. It’s got real character that I haven’t seen before on Canon lenses. It’s manual focus, which is taking a little getting used-to, but I love that bokeh!
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One More Day is my fourth attempt at directing, and my last film.
Based on a comic strip by Nicholas Gurewitch (and therefore a black comedy), it was the perfect opportunity for me to work on my straight drama. Starring Mitchell Smith in his acting debut, the film was shot on a budget of favours over a single weekend.
A lot of people miss the punchline on this, because they don't watch until the very end. The film was made for festivals, where it would be viewed right through to the end of the credits. So stay tuned or you'll miss the magic!
One of my first captures with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II of a seagull. This Black and White version captured the drama of the moment beautifully.
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I directed this one. Not my best effort, but a great laugh, and not bad for improvisation.
Written, shot and edited (including original musical score) in only a weekend as part of a 48hr Film Challenge, The Last Temptation of Jeff was a pretty accomplished film, all things considered!
All the dialogue was ad-libbed by the immensely talented Colin Cuthbert (Jeff) and the sadly missed Iain Etchells (Tarquin) and the score was written and performed at 3am by Dave the Happy Singer.
This was my graduation film, shot on 16mm film and earned me my first class. I wrote and directed it, with Ellie Land producing, Emma Dalesman as DoP and Mike Pentney editing.
I knew that once I had graduated, it wouldn’t be quite so easy to experiment, so I wrote a script that contained all of the cool stuff I’d seen in making-of documentaries - stunt work, fight sequences, make-up, visual effects, costume design and set-building.
It was fantastic fun, and a real baptism by fire for an inexperienced director!
Test shot taken with my Canon EOS 450D mounted with the Helios 44-2 58mm f/2 prime lens from my dad’s old Zenit E, made in Russia some 50-odd years ago.
This vintage glass really puts my modern Canon lenses to shame. It’s a little tight (about 92mm) on my APS-C camera body, but it makes a beautiful portrait and close-up lens.
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My first short film and directorial debut, shot on 16mm in my second year at University. Michael Pentney was DoP and Emma Dalesman was Camera Operator.
We actually shot the film twice due to a processing blunder that destroyed about 90% of the rushes. Fantastic performances by Adrian Hopper (Dennis) and Colin Cuthbert (Dwayne) hold it together despite the flimsy story line!
Directed by Michael Pentney, Oceanic is a weird art-house film shot on a budget of favours back in 2005, and starred the late Iain Etchells. I Produced the film, and also created the opening titles.
"Intuitive [equals] readily transferred, existing skills."
