New camera for Glastonbury

I’ve just got back from Glastonbury and have finally got rid of all the mud in what’s left of my hair.

Before I went, I bought a new camera to take with me, a Panasonic LX5. Now, I’m not normally a techie kind of bloke; I don’t sit around discussing f-stops and lenses and resolution. The last time I was asked how many megapixels one of my Nikons had, I had no idea. I still don’t.

However, this camera has impressed me like no other, so I’m going to write a little bit about why, and show you some examples of stuff I shot at Glastonbury with it.

The last pocket camera I had was a Ricoh GX100, which I ended up hating. Sometimes it just refused to take a picture for no real reason. The flash was utterly inconsistent, the colours were weak and the digital noise was crazy. If that’s tempted you, it’s going on eBay next week. I think I might re-word the sales pitch though.

So, I got the Panasonic. Google told me that this is actually the exact same camera as the Leica D-Lux 5, with one minor difference and one major difference. The minor one is that the Panasonic has a slightly different shape to the body, with a curved handgrip in front. No big deal. The major difference is the price. The Panasonic retails for about £450. The Leica, however, is about £200 more. That’s a lot of money to pay for a nice little red badge.

Before I went off to the mudfest in Somerset, I spent a week or so playing around with it, just testing as many options as possible. I wanted to be really familiar with it, so that I would be able to react quickly.

I realise that for many people, the word Glastonbury is the very definition of hell on earth, but myself and my family love it, even when it's wet and muddy. I wanted good pictures, but if I wasn't actually working, I didn't want to lug around my Nikons. This Panasonic appeared to be the perfect compromise.

I need a pocket camera that can do several things. It must be able to shoot RAW files, it must have a manual setting and an accurate flash. I need it to feel solid and I need the digital noise to be minimal. This camera does that and loads more stuff, all too technical and dull to go into.

I’m going to shut up and let the pictures speak for themselves. Now, these were all shot in the RAW format and there has been some post-processing; they didn’t just pop out of the camera looking this way. But they are an accurate representation of what I saw at the time and this brilliant camera was able to deliver the goods. I am a happy customer.

P.S. I shot them all in the 16:9 format as I like this shape. It's especially good for audio slideshows on a widescreen TV.

 

 

I have included the last two to show just how well the camera can cope with low-light levels. Both were shot at ISO800. The one of the chap in the hat was shot in almost pitch darkness, balancing the camera on my knees for a quarter of a second. 

Audio Slideshow or Photofilm?

Hello everyone

I recently completed a little film I've been planning for a while. I've been planning to make this kind of thing for a while, but I never had the right subject matter until recently.

Some places on the web call them Audio Slideshows and others call them Photofilms. When I was at college, back in the time of pre-history, we called them Audio-visual displays. They used slides and projectors and it was all a bit clunky. People actually used to study how to make them. For two years!

I've been intrigued by the idea of these movies for a while now, ever since I first saw examples of them on a cool website called Duck Rabbit. I particularly like the ones called "Fairground Attraction" and "Imber". Check them out.

Anyway, I was invited to take some pictures of a sculptor called David Nash. There was no fee involved and no commission either, but I was hoping there would be the potential to make some kind of feature. The first set of pictures were great, and I realised this would be just the thing for a film, but I needed a proper soundtrack.

I went back to show David the pictures and record his thoughts on a sound recorder as he looked through them. Then I made a few ambient recordings of wood burning and birds singing in the trees and so on.

I came home and edited the sound and pictures down to a manageable 4 minutes. There's a brilliant free sound editing program called Audacity you can download to do this with. I made the actual 'film' using iMovie, only available on the Mac, but I'm sure you could do it just as well with QuickTime or something like that.

I'm still not sure if there are any commercial avenues open with this kind of thing. The BBC uses them on their site, as do The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, all to great effect. Getting paid for them, however, is a different challenge altogether. I was unable to persuade anyone at all to give me any money for my efforts :-(

Let me know what you think....leave comments, click on the 'like' button, knock yourselves out.

Hmm, that's smaller than I would have hoped for, and I can't figure out how to make it bigger. Have a look on my website for a more normally-sized one.....but leave any comments here.

Until the next time!

Judith celebrates!

Hi everyone

Judith Ricketts has had her first set of pictures published, so a massive well done to her for that. That first one can be the toughest. Mind you, the second one........

Still, that's not the point. The point is, she found out about an event, got out there and shot it and then submitted her work to outside scrutiny. And that's one of the hardest things.

Thankfully, the pictures were good enough to be used on the website The Kemptown Rag and I'm sure that seeing them online and in context was a real buzz. It's a good feeling and one that you could easily develop a taste for.

A big round of applause please, ladies and gentlemen!

If you want to see the pictures on the actual website, here's the link.

Hello Patrick!

Hello all

I had an email from Patrick Kneath last week with a bit of his news; he got a picture in Hello! magazine. It's the Stephen Fry picture below. How brilliant is that?

I see from the photo credit hidden in the corner that his pictures were marketed through Barcroft Media of London. Well done Patrick! Keep supplying people with your pictures.

What's happening with the rest of you? Got anything published lately? Let us all know.

Royal Wedding special...

You might have heard there was a wedding last week. Rather a big one.

I had been booked to be one of a team photographers to cover the royal wedding by one of the nationals.

I was excited in one way but dreading it in another. How so?

Well, I knew that all the decent photographic viewpoints had been taken and allocated weeks before. I also knew that any publicly available viewpoints will have been been nabbed by royal fans camping out a couple of days in advance. Wherever I went, I would without doubt be in a large crowd, all desperate for a view.

I knew too I would need at least three cameras round my neck at all times, with a couple of spare lenses in my rucksack, as well as my laptop and an array of spare bits and pieces, like batteries, a dongle, a couple of flashguns and so on.

I would need clothes that could keep me warm and dry if it rained and clothes that could keep me cool if it was hot. I would need some food and drinks in case there was nothing to buy in whatever area I ended up. It would feel like I was going to a football match dressed as a Christmas tree.

I couldn’t drink too much of course while I was there, because I didn’t know if there would be toilets nearby. Even if there were, I would be risking losing my place by using them.

So, when the call came through at 8.30 on the night before the wedding, I was relieved to be told I was being sent to Bucklebury, near Reading, where the Middleton family home is.

I was also aware, of course, that the chances of any pictures from there being used in the weekend’s coverage would be slim, but you just never know. In those circumstances, you have to shoot as if something will definitely be used.

So, I got up at 5am and drove to Bucklebury. I was delighted to find I could park right next to the village green, where a marquee had been set up with a huge TV screen. There were cake stalls, a hog roast and other refreshments available. The pub even had a wi-fi connection. Result!

TV crews from around the world were there but it was all very civilized. Too civilised. Everyone was very restrained, in a Home Counties way, so finding interesting pictures was tough. There was no-one dressed in outlandish style and very few union jack flags. Well, that is until the people from Heart FM turned up and started handing out flags to everyone. The trouble was that they all had “Heart FM” written across them so were pretty much unusable in photos.

It was all very like a jolly village fete, with duck-racing and morris dancing, so trying to find a picture that said very loudly “This Is The Royal Wedding In Kate Middleton’s Village” was really, really hard, despite the fact that the morris men had cracked open a bottle of gin at 8.45 (see below) and the duck-racing was being broadcast live in South Korea. Myself and other photographers from the nationals worried that our pictures were all looking a bit ‘local paper’.

In circumstances like this, you have to keep your eyes and ears open for potential pictures. You need to be ready for the big moments and try to foresee what might happen. For instance, everyone’s first view of the dress could potentially result in some good facial expressions, and the moment the couple say “I do” could result in some flag-waving or clapping or something. You have to be ready for these moments, because it’s over and gone in an instant.

None of my pictures were used in the Sunday papers and it wasn't until I left that the action kicked off, apparently. Some local grievances plus stacks of booze plus hot, exciting day equals.....you've guessed it, a punch-up in the local pub. I was long gone by then and, although predictable and humourous, pictures like that would never have been used in the Royal Wedding supplement, so I didn't miss out.

Here’s some of what I submitted anyway......

 

Course Number 4 Finishes.....

Another successful course!

Last Sunday saw the completion of  the fourth course to run at Brighton Journalist Works. The 'graduates'  are now left to figure out what they are going to do with the knowledge I hope I've been able to  give them.

What a great bunch of students they were……..as usual, of course!  Everyone bought something interesting to the party and all of them gave their all. What more could I have asked for?

Well, actually, I could have asked for  Danny to have been able to do the second weekend course with us. Danny won his place on the course as part of a photography competition we ran with 'Silicon Beach' last year.

So, thanks to Danny for schlepping over all the way from Barcelona. Yes, that’s right! - Barcelona in Spain!

Thanks to Catherine for her difficult journey from Oxted each day and introductions to some splendid wedding websites. I’m still trying to work my way through Rock My Wedding.

Thanks also to Roman, for his technical expertise and unrivalled, infectious enthusiasm.

Thanks to Judith for her willingness to learn and keenness to see things from a different perspective.

Thanks to Brian for his clear commitment and understanding of what’s needed in this business.

Last but not least, thanks to Miranda, for struggling in despite firstly, having her bag nicked last week and secondly, having an attack of the lurgee that would have felled any one of us.

Thanks, collectively, for some fantastic pictures. I think you all realise that you still need to up your game and all seem willing to do just that.

I look forward to hearing from you all with news of your progress. Make no mistake, I expect to be told if and when you get anything published or commissioned or any general successes. I shall upload to this blog any of your news.

Now that you’ve had time to recover and gather your thoughts into a coherent strand, perhaps you’d like to have a look at a few pictures taken over the weekends......

Andrew's Working Stories, number 5

I was sent on a job in Worthing last week, about a couple who felt that their electricity company had not been serving their best interests. That’s a controversy-free way of saying that they felt ripped off to the tune of £500 after a cock-up involving the meter.

The figures that the meter had been reading were faulty, but it was entirely the fault of the company, who had installed this meter despite protests from the couple (who didn’t want it changed in the first place) and were now claiming compensation for THEM having installed a faulty product.

This was due to be the lead story in The Times’ Money section, so I was asked to be “Nice and creative with this one. Feel free to experiment.” Very specifically, the paper did not want just a straight shot of the couple.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? However, on arrival, there were a few difficulties….it was 7pm and there was therefore no natural light at all…..the meter in question had been taken away…..the flat was, er, cosy and busy…..my mind went blank.

The only uncluttered location was the stairs, but how could I illustrate this dissatisfaction the couple felt with their electricity supplier?

Suddenly, before I could even think about it properly, I blurted out “Have you got any candles?”  “Hundreds,” they said. “A-ha,” I said, as an idea formed.

I broached the subject of lighting a whole load and putting them and the couple on the stairs, lighting the whole picture by candlelight. They said okay, so I headed back to the car to get my tripod. ISO 800, and a half-second exposure at f5,6 did the trick.

The paper ran with one picture in the print edition and a slightly different one for online, as you can see below. For the technically-curious among you, the one that ran in the paper (the top one) used a bit of torchlight too, bounced off the wall behind me.

Andrew's Working Stories, number 6

I had a job for the Daily Telegraph last week in New Romney, just over the border in Kent; a fairly standard financial page story needing an interesting portrait of a man who happened to live there.

It’s a long drive from Brighton to New Romney; out past Eastbourne, through Hastings, then Rye, and on past Camber. I had come straight from a Guardian job shooting portraits of Sally Gunnell in Steyning so, after the second job was finished, I didn’t fancy just getting straight back in the car and heading home. Neither job was needed until tomorrow, so there was no pressure on that front.

When you finish one assignment, why not look around you and see what else there is to shoot. Is there anything that could be useful for a stock library?

New Romney is just five miles from Dungeness so I decided to pop down there and see what I could see, wander about for a while and stretch my legs.

I love it at Dungeness…it’s the very strangest part of this country in my opinion and, when I got there, the light was really interesting. I pulled out a camera to take a few shots for myself; if I happened to see something saleable, then so much the better.

I took some shots of the power station and the lifeboat station nearby. On the way back I stopped and shot a load of pictures of the electricity pylons stretching off into the distance, and a wind farm / pylon combo. That kind of generic thing is great for stock so don’t just drive past it…get out and shoot it.

Andrew's Working Stories, number 4

Here’s a picture I took for The Times at very short notice. I got the phone call at 5pm and was asked to be at the lady’s house, in Hove, no earlier than 6pm. The paper needed the photo in London by 6.45. It was for the following morning's paper, or 'on edition.'

Working backwards, this meant I knew I had to be out of there by 6.15 at the very latest, before getting home, editing the shoot, ‘finishing’ the picture and sending it down the line.

It can be a challenge knowing that you have to arrive, introduce yourself and make friends, choose your locations (you have to have a strong variety), set up your shots, shoot them, check they’re all fine, complete the niceties by offering your thanks and goodbyes, and getting out. All in less than fifteen minutes.

The flat was difficult to shoot in; it was dark and the background was cluttered. My flash chose this moment to really play up as well, so it wasn’t exactly going brilliantly! The subject was a lovely, bubbly girl but the story was about financial hardship, so we had to work on her serious face.

As you can see from the 'before' shot, it was heavily cropped but it was taken with the possibility of that happening. The next day, it had a big ‘show’ on page three, an important page in all newspapers (not just The Sun!).

Andrew's Working Stories, number 3

Here’s a portrait of comedian Jo Brand, shot for The Guardian. It was for a weekly feature called “Portrait Of The Artist”, which always uses a landscape-shaped picture.

I was given a couple of hours’ notice for this and I went along twenty minutes earlier than arranged to figure out a couple of spots that might work. The venue was The Dome cinema in Worthing, a marvellous art-deco cinema where Jo was having a public question-and-answer session, and signing some books (she’s written loads!), rather than doing a stand-up gig.

The challenge here was balancing the lighting in the beautiful, but relatively dark, auditorium, with Jo’s face. I used a diffused flash, but I still had to use a long shutter speed to soak up the rich reds in the room (I'm posting one of the leftovers for you to see as well).

I had to tell her to keep still and stop talking. That’s not very easy for comics to do.

With celebrities like this, I’m always aware that I don’t have long. Some of them will let you have about two minutes if you’re lucky, but Jo was lovely and couldn’t have been more helpful. In the end, I think I probably got about 30 minutes, she was great company and, needless to say, very funny.

I wish there were more like her.

Andrew's Working Stories, number 2

Browsing through some property websites, I noticed an unusual property for sale in Hastings. I forwarded the web link to a contact at the Daily Mail and was given the nod to follow it up. I had to go twice actually; the first time I went it was impossibly foggy, so I returned a few days later when the weather was brighter.

I had made contact with the estate agent and arranged to meet them there, where they allowed me to shoot pretty much as I pleased.

It was two weeks before the story was published, on Monday February 7^th. At 9.30 that morning, I had a call from ITV who wanted to use a couple of the shots on a programme I’d never heard of, called “This Morning”. I had the odd sensation of emailing the pictures at 09.45 and then seeing Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby discussing them live on TV less than half an hour later.

Yahoo UK also wanted the picture, for their home page. We are not talking big money for these shots….£60 from Yahoo and £50 per picture from ITV.

Here’s a link to the Daily Mail’s web version of the story, with different pictures used.

Andrew's Working Stories, number 1

I've been thinking maybe I need to write a little about jobs that have come my way since you all came on the course. I think these will illustrate points I made to you all at the time.

To start off, I wanted to talk about something I shot a fortnight ago in Midhurst, on assignment for The Times. They run a regular feature, every Monday, in their T2 supplement, called “How We Met”, where a couple write in to the paper and describe exactly that.

The feature usually features a cut-out shot of the couple with the words wrapped around them. This means I had to be very aware of the background, to make it as easy as possible for the sub-editors to cut around their shape.

Inside the house was impossible; it was a tiny cottage with dark furniture, knick-knacks and pictures everywhere. The garden was quite small as well, with high walls and trees, which made it difficult to get a clean-background shot, and the weather was miserable and damp.

Nonetheless, they had to be shot against a background that contrasted with their complete outline. Here’s the result, before and after the background was stripped away.

 

Tony Dorey "Doing pretty good"

Following the last blog update, I was delighted to get an update from Tony Dorey, a student from the first course in April 2010......

> I think it's about time I filled you in on progress since the course - and the good news is, I'm doing pretty good!

As you know, I came to the course as a home studio photographer with little experience in any other kind of photography. If I didn't have studio lights, I wasn't in my comfort zone. Your course took me away from that kind of thinking, to stop specializing and to try different aspects of photography. Now I really enjoy macro work and architectural photos! (Macro sample attached).

I of course still do the studio side of things but your course inspired my studio work more than I thought possible. I think about the images I take now, and the results are astounding to say the least. I have 12 family sessions booked in, 2 local bands, and more to squeeze in somewhere along the way. I have covered weddings with great success and even my partner has taken up an interest.

Big news is I am having a large studio built in my back garden for a more permanent place to work and I am having large schools asking me to quote for their prospectus photos.

I have attached some jpegs to show how I have progressed with photography (and the business behind it). Without this course, I'd still be 'snapping' studio shots instead of making photographs. You opened my eyes, made me think a little more and whilst I have no prints sold to the papers or mags, I have sold thousands to peoples homes for hanging. I now have the end goal in sight and it's looking very good.

Thanks Andrew!

Andrew replies: Wow! That's amazing, well done. Now everyone.....check out these fantastic photos Tony has sent me......

The Daily What? Surely not?

Hi everyone, I wanted to write a little bit about another great website you should be looking to now and again for inspiration. It's a site that has started using photography in an interesting way, having the occasional gallery of cool pictures to admire and aspire to.

Astonishingly, it's the Daily Mail. Here are links to a couple of excellent recent showcases:

Dog Photos

Bird Photos

Kingfisher Photos

Nick Morgan and Mediafox

On a job last week, I bumped into another ex-student from the first course - Nick Morgan - who was telling me about what he's been up to in the past few months. Here's the email he sent the next day with full details......

New site here, www.MediaFox.co.uk, it's early days but work already coming in. Doing filming for www.lookandfeelyounger.co.uk and www.bigleapchallenge.com and building a few websites. I charge £20 an hour, so buttons, but at this stage it's building things up.

I started with a Flip video recorder and have now just sold my 50D to buy a Cannon 550D - much higher quality.

Of course much of your teaching naturally applies to video and I wouldn't have been taking photos as good as these http://www.mediafox.co.uk/fox/Photography.html without the course.

Cheers

Nick

Really good stuff, Nick. Thanks for letting me share it with the others, who I feel sure will find it interesting as well. It's good to hear that students can take aspects of the course and bend them ever so slightly to their own advantage. Well done!

Nigel's spread in the Washington Post

Ex-student Nigel Goddard was sent a tear-sheet from his recent successful spread in the Washington Post. I'm sure he won't mind me sharing it with you here.

Nigel says in his email: "I have just received a paper copy of the article in the Washington Post. Thought you might like to see what pictures they used. They are all my pictures except the smaller one on the first page. The lady who wrote the article and supplied these tear sheets said in her note to me, "it's unusual to see any photographs get this prominent display".

Fantastic stuff. You should be very pleased! I am very pleased for you.