Back to the future....

Well, I also found this today. A little gimmick that allows you to process jpegs into Polaroid style images and certainly very cool. You can find it here -

www.poladroid.net

Give it a go....mac users note that it dumps the processed files on your hard drive, users, your name, pictures folder. It took me and age to find them and did so by accident!

Christmas list....

So I went to see Mum and Dad today and they asked me what I fancied for christmas this year. Aside from a replacement 70-200 VR, I dont want a lot, so I think I have settled on some reading matter.

I have asked for 

David Bailey - Archive 1 1957 - 1969

David Bailey's Rock 'n' Roll heroes

Magnum Magnum

Martin Parr - Think of England

Don McCullin - In England

All pretty essential viewing and reading for me.  I think I have been a good boy this year so budget withstanding I hope to get a couple of those. And socks.

Boxing 101.....

Another local boxing meet and another shift for me to get some pictures in for my ongoing local boxing scene essay/exhibition and possible self publish/blurb type book. But, tonight it was different. I took all of my flashguns and set up at the rear of the hall. Looking at the set up, I had a high silver brolly with an SB800 firing into it. To my right was an SB600 lower down, firing through a tranny brolly. The 800 was set to 1/1 and the 600 to 1/32 on the SU-800. Note that I arrived at these F stops after finding a suitable person to help me set my lights up. Yes, a child! I ascertained that 1/640th at F/5.6, ISO 400 gave me the effect I was looking for with the brollies situated at around 45 degrees - ish. I was not looking for a dramatic back drop which may work outside, just balanced light from the left and right. I changed the brollies half way through the night as I noted that most people stood left foot forward thus exposing the left cheek to more light - which the silver brolly was better suited to.

I then covered the bouts netting some OK stuff.

Then, as the referee was winding each fight up I strolled over to the 'rig' and applied a custom change which I had pre-saved in the D3. I also made a solid decision to shoot all night with my 85mm as I wanted as little distortion in the picture as possible.  I then went on to shoot a series of 'sportraits' in the essence of strobist - low cost light on the move. The thing about light is allowing yourself to let it fall in different places thus creating shadow and light, giving pictures depth or form as a body builder might call it. You can see the shape and tone of the human pyhsique so much better with good light. Looking at the images caught I think 'next time' I wil gel up and snoot the wall with a 3rd full power flash. But, overall delighted with the images. I shot in RAW tonight and processed the set up shots in Lightroom 2 with a preset I have made for this type of event. I am very happy with the skin tones on my mac - cant speak for PC users. A  slight vignette applied to centralise the characters.

The thing that one cannot account for is changes in shape of course. Some are taller than others and this is where an assistant would have helped as a couple of times the ligh source missed the intended target. I could have also used a peli hard case to stand on to get better eye line with the big units boxing later in the evening. Also, managing the poses as a hand to high can change everything.  I also questioned whether a solid black scoop or train/backdrop would have helped absorb stray light and give me a lower key look but I like the wall in the background and like the Larry Godfrey archery shoot you have to use what you have. Contextual photography if you will. The hardest thing was taking a picture of a young guy crying after his fight got stopped. I asked him how he was doing and consoled him. He told me that getting hit in the face was quite tiring. I suspect it is....

Finally, the poses are a bit cliched, but it is boxing after all!

Anyway, more images on flicker here -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolpete

An evening of flash....

Some pictures of my friend Paul.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolpete

Using high ISO with ambient street lighting to obtain a decent backdrop with wide aperture. Pushed through LR2 with a couple of custom presets and a couple of generic presets. On the colour shots I upped the green hue and lowered the green contrast to give a better skin tone. All shot on Nikon D3 with CLS - one flash. Another evening of trial and error flash photography. Getting there day by day. Would like to do these again but with less formal light, perhaps snoots and so on.

Very undemocratic

So, it is here. No, not a new lens, but Guns 'n' Roses new album - Chinese Democracy. 

Having read all the somewhat predictable reviews and cliched hack musings I have to say that I like it, I really like it. The trouble with music is that it has to be pidgeon holed. Bands have to be likened to other bands, influenced by other bands, compared to other bands sounds and in that we end up cliched wordsmiths who all purport the same thing. Of late everyone has been giving Chinese Democracy average reviews and saying the same line 'Music has moved on'. Well of course it has. It has been fifteen years since this records inception and things change. But, and here it is, to me it is classic Guns 'N' Roses. Axl's voice - falsetto at times, indulgent lyrics, piano, guitars and great riffs and solos. That is the essence of a good Guns 'N' Roses album. Stand out tracks include Street of Dreams and There was a time. And, if music really has moved on, surely we should all put away our Elvis, Buddy, Big O, Beach Boys, Beatle's albums and wait for something new? I don't think so.

Guns 'N' Roses are firmly entrenched in my metal past. I can remember buying Appetite for Destruction on vinyl before the record was pulled due to the cover. I can remember going to see Terminator 2 with the G'n' R soundtrack and the Cool Hand Luke samples that the band used, which are again on the new album. 'Appetite' went onto transcend everything and in turn pretty much destroyed the band - which is a rock n roll paradox. 

I used to play paradise city every week when I was DJ'ing on a Friday night and the dance floor used to go mental. Simple.

I like it. So thanks Axl W Rose - even if that is not your real name. I like it so much I bought two copies.

Frustration....

Dont know really, but just putting into words some frustration. Lighting, flash, strobe - whatever we are calling it seems tough again and I think I am trying to hard. It gets to me as give me a 300mm F/2.8 and some sport and I can nail it, but at the moment, not this. Not looking for pats on the back or 'big ups' just trying to convey honesty in that the one type of shot I want to work does not seem to. I have been looking at some of Damien Lovegroves urban portrait work and feel inspired by it, but equally as jealous if that makes sense. 

I can only keep training and absorbing as much as I can really and hopefully put all of my trial stuff into a real world shoot again soon.

Light and everything else.

I am continuing to shoot more flash stuff, hence the purchasing of my SU-800 but it is still on going trial and error. I tend to set up, shoot and see what I like and then shoot what I see. I dont use meters, measure light, I simply use my eyes based on what the histogram is telling me. 

I suppose the danger is that flash work can become hackneyed but it is still good stuff. I am currently using my house mate 'Darren' as a model to use various techniques on, but we always have one eye on the champions league football !

Ideally, I want to start going out on location shoot which is what strobist is all about. Should have nailed some lovely autumn colours by now. One wonders if selling the 70-200 VR was wise sometimes as it is a great portrait/location lens. Time will tell - heck I may even buy another one someday. 

I am covering sports personality of the year for the BBC with a colleague in a couple of weeks time and this may well be the ideal time to set up a strobist studio so these wednesday evening practice sessions are good.

I would only be going to Scouts other wise. 

After all, I still need my photography badge.

Cut me Mick.....

Cut me Mick as I cannot contain my excitement at the moment. I have just got my new Nikon SU-800 from Ed my contact where the pro's go and going to have a play with that over the next few days. I want to take some really bland photographs which I will explain when I take them. I have soooo many ideas in my head and so little time to put them into practice. I suppose that the problem with being a genius (ha). I have been playing with pocket wizards but as much as I love them, they seem like a very expensive option so the SU-800 will do for now.

I am also counting down the days til the new Nikon 50mm F/1.4 is  released. Really I cannot wait and wish it was coming out this week.....time to get rid of the other one - still a great lens, but I need the new one for boxing and in the words of Chris Eubanks - 'I like boxing'. If it is a stinker then I may well move back to Canon but it looks like it could be a great addition to my kit bag. Watch this space.

Its grim up North....

So Bristol Rugby travelled to Gloucester as did I. Gloucester is a funny place. Neither here nor there. Famous for a few things -

Dr. Foster.

Fred West and his missus Rose.

The Worlds largest ice cream factory.

It has the largest stained glass window in Britain in situ.

Gustav Holst composer of the planets lived near by.

Double Gloucester Cheese.

And finally, at the moment, they have a shit hot rugby team.

Bristol came and went without troubling Dean Ryan's men who asserted free flowing, incisive pass and move rugby over Bristol. From a photography point of view, the two clubs seem poles apart. The ground 'Kingsholm' is superb. The light is great and I was able to drop the D3 to 3200 ISO and nail around 1/1250th with a 3rd of a stop under exposed to aid that.  The one let down was that the SKY boys were in town so I was told where to sit and had to remain static, so shooting across the pitch rather than up it. Overall, through a lens, the way the teams play seems miles apart. Whilst the Gloucester men rifled the ball about, Bristol look labourious, slow and nervous on the ball. The slight and speed of hand is missing from their game though as ever the introduction of Shaun Perry did help.

Still, as they say in Wales, if the truth be told, not many teams will leave 'Helms Deep' with a win or indeed a tidy scoreline. Credit to Bristol then as they stopped Gloucester from playing in the second half with success and once again David Lemi scored for Bristol. It can only be a matter of time before a London club come calling for Lemi at this rate.

But, onwards and upwards and there is a lot of Rugby to be played yet and after listening to Richard Hill in his post match brief, it is clear that Bristol consider themselves to be alive and kicking both on and off the pitch.

Oh -  and the highlight of the night? Why I met Zara Phillips and held a door open for her. I am far from a royalist, but yep, as the papers say, she is a bit fit.

Words and pictures here - www.bristolsport.net

Fit girl in the ring tralalalala.....

Back to the boxing tonight. Another complete success for all concerned and some more nice stock work for my project. Photography wise, the light was odd. Once again over two or three frames the D3 outguns the mhz of lights which can lead to rather odd white balance performance. However, I shot in RAW to optimize processing and my options. and when desaturated it becomes a moot point. 

As ever I tried some new things, slow shutter, second curtain synch and so on and yielded some reasonable results. 

As for the title of todays blog. Yes there was and she looked fine, but there was no way I was going to take her photo - I am the consummate photographer it is not the done thing. I wonder if anyone else did. Lets hope so eh? 

Some jobs you just cant turn down....

So I was asked to shoot some portraits of a local mobster and duly obliged for fear of my safety. These are prep shots really so I can show the 'client' what I/we can do.

I hope he is happy or I will be wearing concrete slippers.

Gas, Iron, glass and newspaper....

So, last Friday I covered a two newspaper wireless job.

To enlighten the new sports photographers out there looking to do this, I was shooting live with images being FTP'd to a picture desk. I was on a twin deadline. First batch of images with all data written in by 10.15 so half time was ideal. The first paper is due out in the South West Saturday am. 

The second deadline was 11.15pm as this was Bristol Evening paper which actually hits the shelf AM and has three incarnations during the day. So, speed the essence of the evening here. All shot on a D3 @ 6400 ISO with a 300mm F/2.8 lens which netted average shutter speeds due to poor light. However, work with what you have. Though I did have one card slot capturing JPEG, the other RAW in case of emergencies such is the D3's ability.

Overall, job done but entirely frustrating in that you have a camera as capable as the D3 and you have to drop you res and file sizes soooo much just so they can be sent on the UK's sloooowwww wireless service. Talking about editing these images down to under 1mb as they would simply take forever to send. To some it is a moot point as 72 dpi (newspaper print) renders it irrelivant but I would rather see these standing up as best they can.

Funny thing about shooting FA Football is the foibles involved - for example very few newspapers want take stock/individual images for print as this is classed as an icon image and the FA suggest that it costs revenue as fans cut them out of the paper. However, papers and clubs can ask for stock of certain players which they can reuse and never pay you for. It is a funny old game to paraphrase a once famous pundit.

Anyway, another shift in the bank and pennies towards a holiday - or a Canon 5D Mark II......? Nice to get some back pages again, it has been a while.

Clone wars....

So this week I mused over my new found love of the square format with my good friend and photographer Gary Bray. In passing I mentioned to Gary how I found David Bailey to be a big inspiration of late - especially when I read about Bailey's rock/fashion star theme of using a Hassleblad and shooting 6 x 6 negs as was - with no cropping. 

I thought about it led in bed and it seemed that to me,  Bailey had stumbled upon a winning formula in that portrait squared off worked a treat and allowed the top of the head to be missing, which set the eyes on the thirds.  

The funny thing is that my recent batch of 6 x 6 work was shot sight unseen with regards to Bailey's work - only when a friend likened it to his did I google it. However - and here is the rub, it seems that it had all been done before Bailey by a photographer called John French who was an iconic sixties photographer who ironically enough 'trained/mentored' the very same David Bailey. French was doing the very same thing ten/twenty years prior. I wonder who influenced him?

In the words of my friend Gary, 'In a nutshell the best we can hope to do is re-discover styles and genres and introduce them to a fresh audience. We can add our own slant on them as technology develops....but as for giving birth to them, cameras have been around far too long now for that to happen...'

Good night irene....

You have to laugh, the week I decide to hang up some glass I get a call from two newspapers booking me for FA Football this Friday. Shooting live with 10.15pm deadlines. A bit like the old day's really when going to the paper shop was a trip to see what was mine in print !!!!

End of an era....

So, today I put my 300mm F/2.8 VR and my 70-200 F/2.8 lenses up for sale as I am retiring from long lens based sport. I have been shooting sport for some time now and as much as I enjoy it, I find the cold weather hard due to historical operations, which I really feel in the cold. I think that shots wise, I have everything I need as a set of pictures and to be fair, I dont want to fill the hard drive up with gigs worth of sports photos. It has been a blast however and I have been to some amazing places with the lens.

The lenses are advertised privately, but if you are interested drop me an email at bristolpete2002@yahoo.co.uk

*The 70-200 VR has now sold*

The Square crop.

I have never been a fan of the square. Many reasons - the main one in being that it is square. However, of late, I have come to note how it can aid composition and framing. Therefore, I am going to start using it in the right context. I like it if it suits the sitter or the subject, but sometimes it does not work. I think this may be as I tend to see everything in 3rds which may mean retraining my eye. Graphic novelists use the sq. format, 120 users use squares, fine artists use it and architects use it. So, with Joanna's new fringe comes my first sq. crop. I think the frings suits that shape. A radical day.

Titan Images featured in Amateur Boxing's national newsletter...

Some more nice news in that some boxing images were used in the national Amateur Boxing newsletter with credits. Nice work for all involved. As ever I see no need to charge or attempt to charge these kids, of whom most come from under privileged backgrounds. 

If I can get a decent photo of these guys boxing and make them feel like stars, then thats payment enough for me. There are some long term plans and commitments to the local boxing scene taking place which will hopefully result in an exhibition of some sort.

Sports news....

Scored a nice feature on Bristolsport.net again today.

Worth a look, just here -

www.bristolsport.net

Better believe it....

Good news in the world of music. My recent clients Better than Avalon have just been awarded a three year record deal which is nice. Rumour has it that the bands promo photographs convinced the label to sign them.

In all seriousness, great work by the guys in the band. Onwards and upwards...!

Of course, if Carling made photographers, they would probably be called Pete. (joke..dont take my irony to seriously)....

From the jaws of victory....

Another session of Rugby at the Memorial Stadium - and a repeat of Bristol vs. Saracens. 

This time a nothing to play for game for Bristol rugby, though a good account was required as they prepare for the next Premiership home game on 15th Nov. As ever a strong squad started the match. 

Camera wise, despite preying for a bright November day so I could shoot at 600mm, I got flat, over cast skies that warranted 300mm F/2.8, 1600 ISO from 2.30pm onwards. The ISO was tickled up through out the afternoon to deal with the motion and rain, which adds atmosphere to the shots. The D3 as ever did not miss a beat.

Sadly, somehow Bristol conspired to present Saracens with a win after leading by ten points. Recent signing Mat (one T) Turner was sin binned - albeit somewhat harshly and Saracens took control with Farrell, Jackson and Goode all keeping the ball moving. Saracens are coached by one time Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones and they are already starting to look like a better drilled side with great running, timing and superb handling opening up Bristol time and time again. 

One suspects that Richard Hill will look at the way Saracens moved the ball and take a leaf out of Eddie Jones coaching manual as Bristol continue to play the obvious ball and not use the blind side to great effect. However, with the imminent return of Shaun Perry Bristol could start to find the holes they so very nearly have done this season and turn 'almost' into 'win'. 

C'mon Bris.