A star turn from the Bui brothers

I know that in all probability this Vimeo/Nikon beginners guide for shooting video on your DSLR is not aimed at you.

But perhaps someone in you circle of friends or family might find it useful.

Either way I still find it disappointing how few people actually shoot video with their DSLR and anything that can change that, even at a beginners level must surely be welcomed.

Do More with Your DSLR // Trailer from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo.

'A Holiday in Cambodia' or how tried to kick start my career - Part 2

Lying in my hotel bed, I started to imagine what it would be like to go home beaten, broke and having to face my colleagues and telling them I had gambled and lost was one of the darkest nights of the soul I have ever faced.

To lose a love is hard, but to lose one's dreams is difficult to recover from.

What to do?

All sorts of crazy options ran through my head and I drifted off into a somewhat troubled sleep.

It was the middle of the night.

The phone rang.

I picked it up, somewhat dazed.

It was difficult to believe but it was the picture desk of 'The Sunday Correspondent' newspaper.

'Oh hi Drew, we have a journalist over there who is trying to get into Cambodia, would you like to meet up with her?'

I really could not grasp it but needless to say I said 'yes'

Morning came and after a memorable tuk-tuk ride I met journalist Amanda Mitcheson on the other side of the city.

Amanda was a talented, clever, very experienced and tolerant journalist, the tolerant part was particularly important as she had to cope with possibly the greenest photographer in the history of journalism.

She and I had to come up with a game plan to get into Cambodia.

Simple, right?

Wrong.

Firstly, we needed a journalists visa from the Cambodian embassy and there was no embassy in Bangkok, as Cambodia was not formally recognised by the West and Western aligned countries, the nearest embassy was in Laos, so we had to get a tourist visa for Laos, to cross the Mekong river as tourists and apply for a Cambodian tourist visa in Vientienne (as they did not issue journalists visas) and on arrival in Phnom Penh the plan was to throw ourselves on the mercy of immigration in Cambodia and declare ourselves as journalists, we knew this was possible but it was rather a hit and miss affair by all accounts. (Don't try this at home folks, I tried this in Mozambique and was deported straight away....)

It was a real education for me in so many ways, the labyrinthine task of getting visas took many days and as I'm always saying in my blog just goes to show that the photography is the easiest part in many ways.

So after a somewhat epic journey to Laos to pick up our tourist visas we set off for Cambodia, not knowing what awaited us on arrival.

We were met by smiling officials, it was almost like they knew we were coming but perhaps that was just my paranoia, I do recall that another couple of people on our flight were not so lucky and were turned straight back.

We were taken straight to the ministry of the interior who gave us a minder who was never very far from us at all.

Cambodia may have been liberated from the brutal Khmer Rouge regime but it was a country that had a long way to go, with very few cars and sporadic electricity.

But to say a civil war was raging, with the remnants of the Khmer Rouge being supported by the West (difficult to believe but true) the people were open and remarkably friendly.

On the first day we were shown the train which was frequently attacked with mines and RPG's by the KPNLF and Khmer Rouge insurgents.

I took this shot from the roof of the train as it pulled out of town.

Shot with a Canon F1N with a 20mm F2.8 on Ilford HP5 (I think)

I had a huge bundle of Cambodian money (Riels) stolen from me while I was on the train, it nearly filled the camera bag, really it did. I was gutted until I realised it was worth less than $50 dollars....hyper inflation has its bonuses.

The minder actually was pretty good at taking us around to all sorts of things that you would think would be out of bounds, such as army training camps and various areas which you would think would be considered as sensitive.

At the end of the day though I suppose it was about conveying their message to the outside world.

I shot this rather interesting portrait of an Army conscript during his lunch break who really started to fool around for the camera, to the great amusement of his mates.

The impact of the war on the rural communities was hard stuff.

Lots of injuries from land mines and gunshot wounds from exchanges between the sides.

Seeing the impact of war on innocent bystanders for the first time left a lasting impression on me.

Th government took us on a flight to the besieged town of Battambang, to prove that they were firmly in control. The Russian pilots had to make a very interesting approach over the mountains so we avoided ground fire. That banished any fear of flying, forever.

One thing to remember, it was well and truly the days of film, so 36 exposures on a roll and what on earth to do with all those shot rolls? Leave them in the hotel? Put them in a camera bag that could get stolen? I would keep them in the pockets of my combat trousers, looking like a circus clown.

During the two weeks on the ground in Cambodia I could see the spectre of my day job looming on the horizon, and I wondered how on earth I  was going to fit back in shooting Golden Weddings and kids parties.

As I left Cambodia for Bangkok I vowed to return, never having seen some of the great sights of the country like Ankor Wat but so far have not, it would be great to see the country now, though I hear progress has swept away much of what I saw.

On our return to the safety of Thailand,we had a chance to view the refugee camps on the Thai side of the border where the KPNLF were operating from. But it would mean missing my flight home to life on the local paper, needless to say I came up with some half baked excuse which the paper did not buy and headed off to the refugee camps where I shot this pic of Cambodian kids kick boxing, while their dads were over the border fighting the very people whom I had befriended in Cambodia.

That is the thing with photojournalism, it enables you to live many lives which are not actually yours.

All too soon my time was up and I had to return and face the music, I had returned to my day job a whole week late.

I brought back a ton of fake Rolex watches for my workmates who had done their very best to cover for me and my unauthorised one week extra holiday.

I nearly pulled it off too, but one person ratted on me and the game was up.

I was called into see the Editor who was understandably not quite so keen on my approach.

He threatened to fire me, but before he could I handed in my notice and quit.

There and then.

You see on my return to London I was called in by 'The Sunday Correspondent' Picture Editor Michael Cranmer who told me that my pictures were so well received they were running a whole page on them, and more besides.

He then broke the news to me that the safe pair of hands who he had previously chosen for the job had quit, and he asked me if I would like to fill his shoes.

I have no need to tell you what the answer was.

And that is how I got into the world of British broadsheet national newspapers which made me much of who I am today.

As a footnote I was at a party a few weeks after my return and another photographer said 'I was just lucky' he had been to Cambodia and the papers did not run with his stuff.

It was luck, yes.

But you make your own luck.

As my good friend Andy Morgan who became a colleague on the 'Sunday Correspondent' would often say 'Fortune favours the brave'.


Part 3 to follow in the future.....

'A Holiday in Cambodia' or how tried to kick start my career - Part 1

I had worked on the local papers since 1979, officially employed at the age of 16 as junior photographer on the Spalding Guardian, though I had worked there for a year before in the summer holidays and at weekends, getting around on my bicycle with a Rollieflex, before going back to the studio to shoot flat copies on a Speedgraphic.

Me in my 20's 

God it makes me sound old.

The weekly newspaper was a great place to learn but I yearned for bigger and better things, so when I was 25 (I think?) I landed a job with the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph in Kettering.

Not exactly the big city but it suited me at the time.

The local papers were a fantastic place to learn about photography news but more than anything it taught me about people.

I made every kind of mistake you can make in a job without getting fired, god knows how I didn't.

My photography was variable to say the least and my people skills were.....well lets just say I was young and the editors phone rang a coupe of times with helpful and illuminating comments from members of the public after I had paid them a visit......

A great experience that I would not trade for anything.

Just don't ask me to go back.

The excitement of working in a town of 60,000 at the Northants ET began to wane after a while and I decided I wanted more.

I was lucky enough to work alongside some very talented photographers, John Robertson was notable amongst these in that we would 'compete' with one another to see who could get a photograph in the National Newspapers first.( Our contract with the local allowed us to do this, not because they welcomed the idea but because I don't think they thought any of us would actually do it..)

I seem to recall that John was the first of us to score a hit, he got a picture in 'The Guardian'

Not to be beaten I managed to get a photo or two in 'The Independent'

Here is one I have managed to dig out from 1988, where I went out with the British divers who were rescuing seal afflicted by a canine virus.

I shot this with a Canon F1N with 200mm F2.8 on Ilford HP5 (I think??)

But my moment of 'glory' came when I went to the Isle of Harris where my friend Steve McComb was working as a postman and I photographed him walking to deliver the post to the last village in the UK without a road during the Mail strike, I suppose you could call him a strike breaker but the only picket line was some black face sheep which didn't seem too bothered about pay, conditions or pensions.

The photo made 6 columns on the front page of 'The Independent'

I had arrived (or thought I had)

I now had the taste for travel, (to Scotland), and I was starting to live the dream.

Nothing was going to stop me now.

I heard that a new Sunday broadsheet quality newspaper 'The Sunday Correspondent' was going to opening, and I figured that it would benefit from my considerable local newspaper experience and that they should employ me...

So I waited until they had appointed a Picture Editor, in the shape of respected former Sunday Times picture editor Michael Cranmer.

I then subjected him to a bombardment of letters and phone calls until he gave me an interview.

Remarkably my sheer enthusiasm won him over and I was shortlisted for one of the contracts on the paper.

But like a minor team's magical FA cup run, the dream had to end and so it was that sanity prevailed and he gave the job to a much more established and respected name.

It was a blow but the last thing to do was to face up to defeat and reality.

So I decided I needed to photograph a war.

Whilst having a day job on the local newspaper.

I had a fascination with Cambodia ever since reading John Pilger's account of the killing fields, and how the world stood by.

The Khmer Rouge had been ousted by the Vietnamese, leaving a rather interesting situation of the bad guys (in the West's eyes at least) putting an end to mass genocide whilst they stood idly by.

I wanted to experience something amazing and tell the world about it.

So, I booked a three week holiday.

Got on a 23 hour Aeroflot flight to Bangkok, where in the process my fear of flying was replaced by an aversion of truly awful airline food.

Upon landing I checked into a hotel and I phoned the 'Sunday Correspondent' spoke to the picture desk and told them I was in South East Asia and I was available for work (I had told them I was going and they made encouraging noises but I don't think they thought I would actually go through with it)

'Erm Great......(Very long embarrassed pause) we will let you know if anything comes up'.

It was then I faced the true gravity of the situation.

I had sold my car to finance the trip, I was totally out of my depth, I had no plan, I was alone a long, long way from home and at this rate the money would run out in a few days.

What on earth was I going to do?

Find out in Part 2.

Zack Arias - Another Phase One Convert

2012 looks like it could be a very interesting year- in terms of what some of the more notable names on the web are shooting with.

Firstly, David Hobby announced that he had bought a Phase One, and rather eloquently put his case forward as to why he made this choice.

Now, another big name on the web Zack Arias has chosen a Phase One, this time in the shape of the cutting edge IQ140.

Why?

Well, if you read his blog you will see he shares many of the reasons that David Hobby does.

Image Quality, Sync Speed, Slowing Down and 'That Look', amongst others.

Image quality is on a higher plane from anything else, without doubt in my mind and you can reach the heady heights of 1/1600 Sec sync speed with big flash which is unparalleled but I want to take a closer look at the two later points, Slowing Down and 'That Look'

'That Look' is rather difficult to put ones finger on but it is a massive factor for me. I believe that it is a culmination of sheer physical sensor size, dynamic range, 16 bit capture, optics.

There are other factors too, Zack does allude to it but I believe sitters sometimes do behave differently when in front of a medium format camera, even the most non camera aware sitter is often aware that this camera is different.

So, a sense of occasion and the formats sheer difference should be overlooked as in my opinion they are a factor.

Slowing down is such a big deal.

When you slow down you think, when I slow down my attention to detail is greatly enhanced, which makes a massive difference to the final shot.

Great photography happens in the brain.

At the end of this month I have a major exhibition (more details very soon.....), and not one of the prints are  smaller than a meter along the longest edge.

I would not consider anything else other than a Phase One for this.

The photograph of Shala at the top of this blog, taken at the excellent 'Nordlandsdagarna' in Sweden where I was invited to speak at last year, is shot on a (Borrowed) Phase One IQ 180 (and other than downsized is untouched)

The excellent IQ180 is not cheap, by any stretch of the imagination.

But take a look at David Hobby's approach, he bought a Phase One P25+, he wanted the big sensor and 16bit capture to give his photographs 'That Look'

I shot my 'Alice' series entirely on the Phase One P25.

These backs are available secondhand at very modest prices, if you want a foot on the ladder you could do much, much worse.......

The Raven

I'm going to finish the week with an adventure.

While I had the Phase One Achromatic+ back on loan I decided to do an animal shoot.

I have long had a fascination for Ravens(Corvus corax), the largest member of the Crow family

They crop up not only in the bible but also in Norse mythology, where Odin had two Ravens, one called 'Thought', the other 'Memory'

Ravens are incredibly intelligent, reputed and can even be taught to talk...Really!

But where to find a Raven?

I got in touch with Vanessa Blackburn at Corvidaid, a charity which cares for injured members of the Crow family.

She was more than happy to help but she was not sure how 'Mavis' the Raven would fare, as this was her first big moment as a 'star'

Whats more how would we get her to the location?

Watch the video and see what happened.



We were working right next to a road which had more traffic than we had anticipated, but the location was worth the juggling act, though the warning triangle did come in useful, bear this little trick in mind if you are going to try something like this, for the sake of safety.

I lit the shot with a single Elinchrom Quadra, bare bulb, triggered by Skyport (Lithium Ion batteries for this versatile flash are on the way I hear....)

Without any form of modification it gave off just enough light to give the stark look I was looking for.

The 55mm Schneider lens, with its leaf shutter, was a dream and perfect for the shot, enabling me to get just the right level of ambient light to flash ratio.

It was filtered with a Lee 87 Infra-Red filter which means the only thing hitting that sensor is infra red light(I had the holder on upside down just for good measure.

Interesting to who uses this great filter system, everyone from Joey Lawerence to Diego Huerta.

But this of course means you cannot see anything through the camera which means my tethered set up, made from Manfrotto bits and pieces was the tool for the job.

In case you missed it I did a video for the Manfrotto School of Excellence which explains the set up in detail



All in all it went very well, though if anything the BTS video(shot on the ultimate BTS camera diminutive but super quality Canon XF100) perhaps makes it look easier than it was.....

Just what does it take to shoot 31k portraits?

You may recall I blogged about Diego Huerta's quite brilliant and heartfelt project to photograph '31K Portraits for peace'

The genius of it is it was more about the sheer quality AND quantity.

Check the website out and find your favourite.

But what does it take to shoot 31k projects in a year?

Well, apart from a ton of determination the right gear.

Diego has posted this excellent photo description of all the gear he used.

Would it have been my pick of gear? Well not exactly but darned close.

I was truly inspired by the sheer effectiveness of his set up after shooting an image for 31k in my back yard, it was a multi handed operation which was not entirely successful, though the pic did work out well in the end.

Have a good look at his set up and I would be very interested to hear how your setup would differ.

In the meantime , let's raise four glasses to this fine human being and all he has done with his remarkable project.

My Ten tips for Great food photography.

I was fortunate enough to work on a now multi award nominated food book 'Loose Birds and Game' by Andrew Pern multi award winning chef and co-owner of 'The Star inn'

It was a truly mammoth undertaking, which has opened many doors for me in the world of food and drink, and bringing in a regular amount of work.

I like to think I picked up a couple of cooking tips along the way too.

Its worth bearing in mind if you have an interest in food photography that the self publishing revolution means there will doubtless be some good work to be picked up.

But how to go about it?

Food photography has more associated folklore than any other field of photography with stories of petrol being poured on food to 'give it the right sheen', a smouldering sanitary product placed user food to keep it warm and moist, hollowing out mass produced fish fingers and substituting it with a fine Cod fillet, not cooking the food at all and just using a blow torch, and of course the realms of using things that look like food which are not intact food at all.

All of these are reputed to be true, some I doubt, but a couple I know are.....I wonder if you can spot them?

But lets be honest here, there are two different types of food photography, one where you have a team, including a food stylist, who's services can be worth their weight in gold, the other kind a more 'real word approach, rather like the excellent series 'Heston's Feasts' on Channel 4, where a more real world aesthetic take precedence (I wonder what they filmed it on? some shots had a DSLR look to them but I suppose it could have been a Sony F3, though it would have been a bit unwieldy in a kitchen)

So this is post is not for you if you are about to shoot a major food campaign, it is aimed ay the smart one man shooter who has been asked to undertake a food photography project for the first time.

1. As I so very often say 'Shoot what you Love, Love what you shoot' if you have no interest in food at all and you try to convince the client you do, despite your lack of experience you are playing with fire. If you have no interest at all consider declining the assignment.

2. Try to get some sort of idea of what dishes/food you will be photographing, go away and research what it SHOULD look like, if cooked and shot well, this will give you some sort of target to aim for. Ask the client what sort of food photography he likes, will it be something like Jamie Oliver's photographer David Loftus? Or do they like the very clever and different food photography that one sees in Pret A Manger?


3. Work closely with the chef who is preparing the dish, perhaps spend time with them as they cook the dish for you, building great relationships is all
 This too will give you an idea of what the food should in fact look like and make the most of the that time to come up with a plan of how you both think it should look. Yes, have some sort of game plan, even if you don't stick to it.

4. You will need some sort of space, no matter how small, so work out where you are going to shoot it. It should be close to, or in-fact IN the kitchen for reasons I will come to shortly. And it should be near a window....

5. The cornerstone of good food photography is to shoot with natural light. Natural light is just that, and it has a look and feel which is very difficult to achieve by other means. You can, and I have shot with flash but the nuances of lighting food are not to be taken lightly. Lighting with natural light with a series of homemade reflectors to add or subtract light from areas of a dish will take you a long way. Make sure there are no artificial light sources anywhere even close, or at least that they absolutely cannot influence your dish, imagine the shadow areas of your beautiful dish filled in with the green of a fluorescent or the yellow of a warm plate....

If you have never ever used a grey card in your life, this it the time to start using one, at regular intervals throughout the shoot too. You know that that colours of the food are spot on

6. Timing. This is the big one that no-one talks about. It does not matter about anything else if you keep hot food hanging around on a plate, everything you will have done will be for nothing.
The food will flag, sag and the fat and juices will congeal and no matter what you do it will not look right.
Sometimes you will have minutes, sometimes only seconds.
When we shot the Gull's egg I reckon we had under 60 seconds to get the egg yolk running just right before it congealed. We shot six gull's edges which cost £80.00 from Harrods and only one shot worked out. Gulls edges are so delicate, cutting the top off ruined many and then we over cooked some too.
I'm very pleased with this shot though.

7. Find the way in to the dish, don't be afford of moving the plate around, there really is no hard and fast rule, the view point might look good from overhead but it really is down to you to move the camera around and find the 'right angle' but be aware that if you have shot all the dishes from overhead and you choose to shoot one at just below eye level it might look out of place.

8. Keep it simple. Don't go for the overcomplicated look. It can look fussy and down right messy.
With food photography, less really is more, I'm a big exponent of the simple white plate.

9.Invest in a good quality tripod and precise head. I favour a Gitzo, with the brilliant Manfrotto 405 geared head, perfect for food photography with its precise adjustments (the Manfrotto 410 is much cheaper but nowhere near as good ), if you are shooting for a more depth of field you will be using a slow shutter speed if you are going for long exposures it is advisable to lock the mirror up and, you would be amazed at the amount of vibration mirror bounce can cause.

My well used 405...

10. Get a good macro lens. In my opinion there is simply no substitute for a really good prime lens for food photography. I shoot with Phase One and Canon and I have a macro lens for both.

The 120mm F4 Phase One Macro lens was used for all the plated dishes in 'Loose Birds and Game' while my Canon 'L'series 100mm F2.8 Macro with its very handy hybrid IS system was used for detail shots on the fly in the kitchen.

I reckon both of these lenses are some of the sharpest currently available anywhere.

So there you have it, if you would like to see the fruits of this project I have a limited number of books at a very special price available thorough my blog.


A mere £15.99 plus postage for a seasonal taste of the countryside.

I'm considering doing free webinar about food photography, if there is appetite for one, do let me know.