Nice light....

Nothing much doing, but my girlfriend asked me if I wanted to go to an all you can eat carvery. I said yes of course and the food was lovely, but I saw it as an ideal chance to test some high ISO flash with a wide aperture so I could retain the backdrop rather than loose the background to under exposure of lack of light. It worked a treat....I suppose this is what we call balanced flash.

Ideal for corporate brochures, pack and product shots. Ideally a soft box or perhaps a silver brolly would have been set up to help with some bounce back, but for a quick grab it works nicely.

Indian Summer....

Here we are then in late September and finally the sun decides to come out and play. 

I hooked up with some friends yesterday and had an amble around Bristol where the aforementioned sun was beating down. At @ Bristol it was causing long shadows which are nice to frame in the corners. It really was a bright day yesterday and even shooting at a low ISO and stopped down caused the camera to get to 1/8000th so a little bit of exp. comp was applied in camera. 

As ever nothing revolutionary, just some snaps to pass the day.

The Wedding Ringer....

About 9 months ago I was asked to shoot a wedding. Nothing out of the ordinary there as I get asked to shoot weddings two or three times a month. Until now I have always declined as it has never interested me. However, this shot was personal to me so I agreed to undertake the task. Overall, objectively, it went well. There are a couple of things I could re do and a couple of shots I would like to try again but thats weddings - you cant. When I first got back to HQ I dumped about 8 gig of NEF files on my imac and had a quick look. I was not the eneamoured by what I saw. Yet, oddly enough, I have been back out to the evening do, come back and had another look over the 5 folders and I now thinking 'Yeah, there is some tidy stuff here'.

So, there you have it. After all this time I finally shot my first big wedding, though it was a low key affair. I think the rules of engagement are the same what ever the size of the do. I did learn that sport in what ever guise comes a lot more naturally to me but then I am built for comfort not speed. Also, credit to my good friends Guy and Joseph who do this week in week out....and thanks to my very good friend Gary who advised me on some wedding bits and bobs over the last two weeks.

When I left tonight the Bride and Groom said everyone was impressed by my stealth approach and management of the group shots. I thanked them, but did not say that I was already wishing I had charged them twice as much. Still, I am happy that they are happy. I have a week to PP some work and get a decent coffee table book printed as per the contract.

All the best for now,

Pete  - a.k.a 'Robbie Hart.'(google it).

A united Bristol at Bristol United.

A reserve fixture in awful light. A new kit and at least 6 or 7 first team players on display. All giving it 110% to get back into the first team and bed down in the top 15 at the club. One wonders how hard it must be for these players as being a professional sportsman requires some serious dedication and commitment to the cause. From playing in front of full houses to an empty reserve ground. 

You could not get a better juxtaposition of the two teams than this, one at home to a big crowd and international stars, the other with perhaps 50-100 people in attendance to watch the 'Monday night game'. 

Still, credit to all of the club who push on, despite there being a severe lack of Money in English top flight rugby.

The light was awful and the D3 was pushed to 6400 which crushed some of the detail. Roll on Nikon D4 or D5 I say.

Better than sunlight.....

Flash. Will save everyone of us. My continuing adventures of flash. A shoot with clients 'Better than Avalon'. Still feeling very ill but got the job done and happy with the haul, though tonights light was so much better than this afternoon. For reference, the shoot was with 2 x sb600's to my left and right, triggered by a sb800 on the D3. Shot through translucent umbrella's to soften and spread the light as not digging snoots. I did not feel very confident with the flash today and testament to how much I still need learn about flash.

Driving Mr. Tiley.

Silverstone is one hell of a place. 

Seriously, it is like a mini city and I am sure there is more expanse than some of the towns I visited in Australia. 

This was a PM shoot and the light fell away somewhat lovely. Managing expsoure and using the photographic brain I managed to get the job done and score some tidy images. In the end I left around 10pm and ended up getting lost in the maze that is Silverstone and at one point thought I was going to end up on the track! Roll on 2009 where I think I will stay the night and shoot 24 hours.

Three and none.

Another shoot at Bristol Rugby who played their third game of the season and lost again. However, it was a very tight match and to be fair to Bristol if they could have taken possession over the line then they would have won fair and square and been called the better team. In a game that ended 9-6, all the points were kicked, but it was still classic ruck and maul rugby. Bristol next face Newcastle and then Saracens and I think the win is ebbing ever closer. 

D3 - Ultimate power.

Today, I am going to write about my love for my camera and the passion I have for the Nikon D3. After recent announcements in the press about other camera's coming to the market, I can safely say that I will be a Nikon shooter for life. There are many reasons. First up, the D3 renders quite incredible images. This is due to the wonderful colours that the camera can catch as well as tone. Detail is second to none and like all good camera's it loves good lenses. 

However, for me, it is the build and workmanship that sets the D3 apart and the fact that I can go to shoot after shoot and nail  shot after shot means everything. This weekend I have a busy schedule.

I am covering Bristol Rugby on Friday night, I am off to Silverstone on Saturday daytime, evening and night and on Sunday I have a site location/promo shoot with a local band. What's nice is that I know all I need is a charged battery, my glass and some memory and the D3 will get the job done as long as the rain stays away !

Sunday. A day for all the family.

After shooting the half marathon, I went onto another job, which was shooting some family portraits at a wedding celebration. Nothing 'flash'.

To start I used the old 1/125th, F/8 trick and then let the camera see by triggering one light off camera. Once I saw how the light was falling through a soft brolly I used exposure compensation to bring my highlights up in the histogram on the back of the camera - basically to the point where I was happy with the shoot. 

Overall, the images work very well. Considering the small amount of room I had its another job well done, though I would have liked to have seen the subjects about two feet further from the wall to help minimise shadow. 

Once downloaded, the images were pushed through Lightroom 2 and I gave them a nice high-key look, which was todays remit amongst other things.

Abject failure...

So I covered the Half marathon today, as mentioned in my previous post. Personally, although the offer will be there, I think that this will be my last for a couple of years as whilst it is nice to cover things and get good images, today the whole thing felt like a shambles. 

First all of the position of the start was dreadful for photography. The runners were back lit due to the sun and does not make for nice images, which at the end of the day is what the corporate sponsors want. 

Secondly, the race is getting bigger and bigger yet paradoxically, the organisation gets worse and the crowds get smaller and smaller. 

Finally, with it being a tellingly hot day for running, some entrants were ill prepared and many fainted off and needed full on medical assistance, which whilst harrowing to see does lend itself to the camera.

Still, job done and another customer happy.

The hat-trick....

Come Sunday 14th Sept 2008, I will be once again covering the Bristol Half marathon for the BBC. Marathons are a funny business in that I only enjoy covering the elite finishers coming home. I am not really interested in the comedy, fun and charity runners as whilst it is a good cause they have gone some way into turning most half marathons into an overly long fun run. However, it is a good excuse to top up some stock/folio stuff and get the odd image away to various magazines in the hope that someone will buy a photo or two. The girl shown above went to Beijing 2008 and beat Paula Radcliffe - but I cant recall her name !!!!

Let the game's begin...

And so the Guinness Premiership season starts with a crunching home defeat for Bristol Rugby as they loose 33-20 to Bath Rugby. Bristol look hard and up for the coming season, but the deft play of some of the southern hemisphere players saw Bath dominate the second half. What was odd is that Bath appeared to be a very different team to seasons past in that they were overly physical and I saw punch after punch thrown in the scrum. 

As a shoot I was pleased that the rain stayed away. I shot with the D3 at 600mm and then 300mm in the second half. 

Still, one game down and the season as they say is a marathon, not a sprint.

Better than ever...

Another successful shoot in low light and testament to the power of the D3 as I had to ramp up the ISO here. Crazy spot lights all over the stage but I used them to effect and generally shot under rather than over to maximize the low key effect. Better than Avalon are getting better and better and the appointment of a new lead singer has helped with the melody and vocals too. I am sure they will continue to get better and better.