THAT tethered set up

This is for all of you who have been asking for part numbers etc of the rather nifty tethered set up I use nearly all the time these days

It was all inspired by something Joe McNally conjured up, with perhaps more than a little help from our very good mutual friend Justin Stailey (formerly of Bogen, now of Leica USA)

I love shooting tethered for many reasons, it enables me to control EVERY minute element of the shoot from a my camera position, lighting and critically when I'm using my Phase One P45+ , focus...my goodness when it is sharp it is SHARP and when it is out it is OUT big time!

My assistants and I refer to it as the 'Helm' (as in the Nautical world)

It means it is off the floor and out of any mud and dust enabling me to keep eye contact with my subject, which is the very essence of a shoot.

It is a Gitzo/Manfrotto Hybrid

Now,I use a Gitzo GT5660SGT, I admit not the cheapest tripod in the world, but this set up works on any good sturdy tripod too

The cross bar is a Manfrotto 131DDB.

I have mounted a Manfrotto 468MGRC2 Hyrdrostatic ball head on each end, as you can see in the pic it enabled me to shoot tethered with my Canon 5d mk1 in Capture One Pro on my Lenovo W700, while I was using my Canon 5d MK2 for 'b' roll 1080P HD on the other end

If the set up is way critical I switch one of these tripod heads out for a Manfrotto 405 geared head....not cheap but wonderful.

And finally the Gitzo GO65 laptop platform, I recommend putting some self adhesive Velcro on the base plate of the Laptop and the platform just in case....

It really does work a treat!

Over the Top

Some time ago I shot a remarkable image for my Guinness world record show of Tony Matia who held (maybe still does hold?) the world record for the biggest barbie doll collection

We hired a very big car studio and shot down thru a hole in the ceiling.

The day was a success but it was not a cheap operation

I then started to think how I could achieve this without going to massive expense

One could use a step ladder but if you look straight down you get the legs in shot

After many false starts I came up with this set up which consists of a BIG high roller stand by Manfrotto Avenger, you Need a stand of this caliber and stability to support a dslr with a good degree of safety

The next component is my good old RED wing boom as it is solid, but importantly also is cantilevered which means if I choose to go higher I can but I still maintain the camera angle

And last but but not least is the Manfrotto 468 RC2.

A great but lockable tripod ball head

Not forgetting a safety line for the camera AND tripod head just in case

Shooting tethered via fire wire to my camera, needless to say I'm lookig forward to trying out Canon's live view with this set up which could be the ultimate, but ants in his pants Gardner has not got round to trying it out yet....in fact I'm writing this on my blackberry as I'm flying to Holland


I have managed to more or less perfect this over the last couple of years

Here is a cover I shot for radio times a few weeks ago

Winter Storms.....

This time not snow but storms of a rather more turbulent nature

Meet Stuart Robinson.

I photographed Stuart the other day for Channel 4 TV in the UK

He was the subject of a Cutting Edge Documentary 'A very British Storm Junkie' as he is an amateur storm chaser who travels the world

The challenge was to create a truly eye catching image, with the aid of photoshop, as twisters are rather thin on the ground in the London area.

I worked very closely with ace retoucher Charlie to create a cohesive and 'plausible' image

The only stipulation was no flying cows.......damn!

Charlie spent many a happy hour creating the 'background' storm from goodness knows how many images

The trick then was to position and light Stuart in a way that worked

This meant shooting him from a slightly higher angle...



Lighting him from the back with 2 Chimera strip lights, to mimic the backlight in the back ground, and a medium Chimera softbox from the front




Then to bring Stuart in, standing him on sheets of plastic so we did not destroy too much seamless, spot the mistake? We used black plastic at first which would have made cutting him out a bit of a mission, so we switched to white.



Here is Stuart getting into the swing of things



Leaning into the 'wind' direction of the model is all important

Now for the fun part......spraying him with water, now before anyone writes in the lights are battery powered so pretty darned safe, behind softboxes, and further away from the very gentle mist spray, to give a further authentic look



This is the shot we used in the end, and this is how it looked on the Channel 4 website

'Ele' video

Sorry this is coming out in dribs and drabs but I could not upload it in time before I left my hotel this morning

Another great piece of editing work by my good friend Jonathan Laurence



It shows the fun and games we had leaving snowbound Heathrow.....and the excitement we had in Thailand

It was a Trip!

Focus on Imaging 2009

From Thailand to Birmingham....

I always enjoy 'Focus On Imaging'at the Birmingham NEC

It serves as a great barometer of the Photographic world, seeing new trends, which companies are on the way up and which ones are having a harder time in this current climate

Overall I got the feeling that the recession in the photographic world is not as bad as it could have been

Midway through the show I have been struck by what seems a renewed interest in RAW imaging solutions

I only say this as I have been presenting on the Microsoft and Phase One booths and I cannot recall seeing bigger crowds nor a bigger demand for trial software

I think it could be down to photographers wanting to explore other ways of processing RAW images, in search of higher quality and an improved workflow

At the Microsoft stand I have been showing stills from my latest 'Forest' shoot

And today I will be showing the video teaser too

So, here are a few of the stills....

I will save tech spec and chatter for another time as I'm dashing out of my Hotel for my first presentation of the day.....excuse me!

Avoiding the big Freeze

This shoot has been sometime in the planning.....

I decided to push the boat out in the depths of the English winter and undertake my latest 'Forest' shoot

This time in the rain forest of Thailand

And to think we missed the biggest snowfall in the UK in nearly 20 years...sigh

I'm not going to show you the finished image just yet, you will have to wait until it is rolled out at 'Focus on Imaging' at the end of the week

You can see me on the 'Microsoft' stand as well as with my old friends at 'Phase One'

Needless to say it was a great deal of fun, if rather down to the wire

As for the animal in question this time I will give you one very 'BIG' clue

This big boy is transporting all of the gear to the location.



I shot this on the now ubiquitous Canon 5dmk2, a truly amazing camera

We missed our elephant out of the forest (I just love saying that!) and I can say Hannibal had it right! Let the Elephants carry the hardware if you can

World Press Photo, Pulitzer-Winning Photographer Struggles to Find Work

I have just been the reading on 'Editor and Publisher' a challenging tale of the times we are all living at the moment.

Winner of 'World Press Photo' Anthony Suau recounts his unsuccessful battle to get his excellent photo essay on the economic crisis in Cleveland ,Ohio, published in 'Time' magazine.

Any regular readers of 'The Dark Art' will know that I have considerable sympathy with this situation.

What I find truly disturbing though are the comments attributed to Suau in the 'Editor and publisher' story


The last two months have been especially bad, Suau says. He hasn't had a single assignment except for covering the presidential inauguration for a Japanese book publisher.

"If the situation continues like it has in the last two months, down the road I would be in danger," Suau says. "Do I have to get another job to do something? I don't know. I may have to do something else besides photography."


Anthony, who has won a total of two World Press awards and the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography,is a seasoned pro with 20 years experience,covering conflicts and human crises around the world.

Judging from the experience of many of my peers, Anthony is not alone in these particularly trying times.

It brought to mind an experience I had in 1993 when I won the 'Nikon Feature Photographer of the year award'

I really thought I had arrived, lots of Picture Editors came up to me at the awards and complimented me on my work.

So I waited for the phone to ring......waiting for that call for some big gig or another.

Waiting for the magic wand to be waved by someone, anyone, but myself

I was to wait for some time, as 'The' phone call which I waited for never actually came.

I never did quite work it out

But I do have a theory..................

I reckon that when one wins a prize or an award, be it big or small, it may be best to consider it as a tool with which to promote oneself with, nothing more, nothing less

I wonder what would have happened if I had been more proactive after my small piece of success?

What I do know when I have had success subsequently I have used it as a license to be a right royal persistent pain in the backside to any art director or commissioning editor who will open the door to me.

I wish Anthony all the best with his career and hope he gets the work he so richly deserves.

The photographic world would be a poorer place without him.