Can you help score my latest short movie?

I never cease to be amazed by the power of the blog

So, I'm trying it again (previously I asked for help with making a TV programme and I received some very promising leads....)

Last weekend I shot a short self funded 60 second movie

For a joke budget - sub $1000

I will tell you all about it in due course but it is being premiered at Converge.One

If you check the line up it really will be well worthwhile attending if you have any interest in the DSLR HD revolution (and it seems everyone does these days)

Which leads me to my appeal

I shot a vaguely period piece at a cool location and I'm now seeking help with the score

Here are some screen grabs from the project








So, is there a musical genius out there who is willing and able to do this?

There is no budget.

At all

But I could work a ticket out for my collaborator, along with a credit of course.

Come along with me on my next shoot too if you like?

The short will be premiered on the 11th December at the National Film Theatre, so my friends, time is of the essence

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE! I'M leaving the post up, but I now am receiving help from one of the blog followers! So, no need for anymore help, I do not want to waste anyones time

Thank you

'Strictly Come Dancing' Made Simple

Regular readers of this blog will by now be aware of one of my 'tricks'

Keeping it simple

I was recently commissioned to photograph Ali Bastion and Brian Fortuna of The hit BBC programme 'Strictly Come Dancing'

You maybe aware there has been quite a lot of speculation regarding them in the press

To be quite honest with you I could not care less if they are or not other than to say they were both absolutely charming, lovely people, when I mentioned to Brian that my daughter Georgie, aged 7, was a big fan he wrote her a message, completely unprompted.

We were, as usual working with very limited time.

So, it was a matter of turning in a simple but impressive shot with the very minimum of fuss

The big danger is trying to be too ambitious and simply 'drowning' in a ton of gear that may or may not be useful in the circumstances.

The biggest single leap forward one can make with your art is to........

STOP BUYING ANYMORE EQUIPMENT UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR EXISTING EQUIPMENT DOES AND THEN MASTERING IT!

For this shot I used one light, an Elinchrom 1200 style, but with one killer light modifier an Elinchrom Mini Spot



This is an accessory I seldom use but when I do, it is fantastic

A simple solution, giving me the look and feel of the dance floor with a minimum of fuss, and a ton of showbiz 'sparkle' to boot

I shot this with my Phase One P45+ 80mm lens 125th Sec at F9

So a one light solution to what could have been a fraught scenario

It is always good to have an idea just what you are going to use BEFORE the assignment

I have added the Black and White version which I actually prefer, I think

Jazz Voice - Celebrating a Century of Song

Yes, this is generally a photography blog, but it is actually a pretty accurate reflection of what is happening in my world one way or another.

Last night I went to 'Jazz Voice - Celebrating a Century of song' at London's Barbican

I confess I'm by no means a Jazz aficionado (in fact the first full on Jazz gig I have been to!) the only reason I went was to see Natalie Merchant, the incredibly talented singer song writer , as it was her first appearance in London for 10 years. If you are not familiar with her work and would like to listen to something which takes you to some other magical place, do check out her music ( my favourite album of hers is 'Ophelia' )

Needless to say I, nor the rest of the capacity audience were disappointed

But like so many things in life, you go looking for one thing and you find quite another

The line up included Cibelle, Kirsty Almeida, Kurt Elling( who was amazing and as smooth as you like), Natalie Williams, Roachford, Krystle Warren, Sarah Jane Morris, Sheila Jordan and the London Jazz Festival Orchestra (40 piece!) directed by Guy Barker.

The star of the show if there did have to be one was Sheila Jordan aged 81. She has the most beautiful voice and bursting with such warmth, enthusiasm and passion

Something to aspire to

A perfect Winter warmer on a cold rain lashed November night

It is being broadcast on BBC Radio 3 17/11/09

Stay tuned for more photo stuff soon......



PS Went to see her solo a couple of nights later at the delightful venue the Conway hall in London, which holds around 300 people. A more stunning intimate gig it is hard to imagine. Acoustic and soulful. Her new album is out in March and she will be touring the UK again, check her out if you have not done so already

Blinkbid-Software For Idiots

I can almost hear a collective groan go out from you, a blog which is about Invoicing and bidding software and not some groovy lighting trick or about some photo of a naked woman riding a water buffalo.......

Well guys I'm sharing this with you because it has made such a difference to the thing I'm really bad at- the paperwork

Recently I have started to do my own invoicing

I struggled for a day before remembering I had Blinkbid sitting relatively unloved and alone on my hard drive.

What I had been struggling with for hours I achieved in minutes without resorting to the 'help' menu, well not too much anyhow

It does many ,many things including working your VAT out, telling you when you have not been paid, and it looks SO professional

It is funny , we are all about image, yet we often pay no heed to the way our invoices or bids look, it is in-fact another opportunity to show the client we ARE a little bit better than the competition

It is the brain child of a passionate friendly guy called Lou Lesko who is a pretty bloody handy photographer too (well as he says on his own website 'Always serve chilled, safe with most medications')

So, software by a photographer for his fellow photographers

Blinkbid is as he says himself 'Shockingly easy to use bidding and invoicing software for creative profesionals'

In other words, use this software and your quotes will look way proffesional and your invoices like lightning.

Don't take my word for it, here are a few satisfied customers

Leaving you and I, the bleeding heart creatives, with more time to shoot instead of being buried for wasted hours sorting out our paper work

So ladies and gentleman, this leaves me doing my own bids and invoices, and you know what? I actually enjoy it!

Pass the medication.......

Capture One 5 - High 5!

Capture One 4 has been replaced by the rather predictably named Capture One 5

I have been using it for a little while as a beta tester and while my excitement upon down downloading was followed by being rather underwhelmed initially at least, because it does, at first glance look exactly the same as Capture One 4

In addition to a host of new and improved features I can tell you that even in beta version this software is SO stable, not a single crash or hiccup, ever, once.

You can read about the full feature set here

And Michael Reichmann's review here

I'm just going to share with you my very own personal highlights, but there are many, many more!

1. The Focus Mask

This is a killer feature, enabling you to quickly and easily cast your eye over a gallery of hundreds of RAW images and tell at a glance which images are sharp (the green area denotes sharpness)

Out of Focus......



In Focus..........




I have been using this feature extensively, saving myself a whole ton of time, works amazingly well on a two monitor set up


2. Spot Removal


As it would imply, gives the user the ability to remove spots, wether they be dust, gloop or whatever, and apply the correction to lots of images. Other competitor have boasted this for a little while now, but Phase have done an especially good job of implementation


Here we have an image marked for correction




3. Enhanced Colour Editor and skin Tone adjustments

Just brilliant control of skin tones, better and more accurate than ever before, yes folks, the best in my opinion.


This is just the tip of the iceberg, try the 30 day free download though here

Now, god knows I cannot think of a trade which moans more than photographer's, and I should know!

But in answer to the question 'is it actually worth buying?'

I can say a whole hearted YES! Upgrade from Capture One 4 is only $129 or €99

(Actually I got it wrong! It is even cheaper than I thought $99 or €69, so a real no brainer)

You get a whole host of improvements and new features which have transformed it into a joy to use

So congratulations Phase One, it took a little time to get there but I feel this is the BEST version of Capture One yet, not to mention the king of RAW software

Science IS fun!

I was recently commissioned to photograph the opening of the Young Science centre at the Royal Institute in London.

Now as you can see it looked like it was an awful lot of fun and indeed it was.

Just look at the faces of the kids!



It was another reminder to me of just how vital it is to get the first response, expression or emotion when you have set up a shot, keep the subject hanging around and take the picture again and again and again and it does wear thin, they get a frozen expression, no matter how good one is at direction, so the shots you see here are, needless to say amongst the very first frames shot, I'm not quite sure what the 'foamy' experiment was, but it did involve liquid nitrogen.
And of course we have the photographers trusty favourite the Vandergraph generator, which is an electro static charge
generator



Now for the lighting.....

The Young Science at the Royal Institute is a great facility but the room is, from a photographers lighting point a bit ordinary, we have all been there before haven't we? relatively low ceiling with fluorescent lighting great for experiments and education but a bit bland for the likes of 'us'

So to add a bit of drama and excitement I gelled up an Elinchrom Ranger Quadra with red and blue gels to give a groovy mauve background, placed the backlight behind the pillar to conceal it, this time using a Speedlight zoomed to 80mm (ish), and then of course the lighting the girl an Elinchrom Ranger with a Chimera Medium softbox all triggered with pocket wizards



Try as one may it is impossible to lose the reflection with retouching but I decided to embrace it, and ended up quite liking it

I used a very similar lighting setup on the bubbles pic but i had to use lower output on the gelled light at a slightly different angle, as it was spilling onto the kids in the background

My blog has been a bit thin of late. I have had quite a lot going on in my life but normal service has now been resumed, whatever normal is?

Phase One master class with Drew in California!

I have just finished a mini tour of Scandinavia with Phase One, Showcasing the P40 and the P65+ Backs along with a sneak preview of their new Camera, complete with its in lens shutters and a highly responsive shutter release.

Now it was fun, and I will be sharing some of the pics we shot there soon, but as with all day long workshops they are over all too soon.

I often have thought how great it would be to let people into my world, in a small and select way, using the equipment I use on a daily basis, both cameras and lighting, not to mention a download of my crazy mind!

Photographing a range of subjects in a beautiful location....showing fellow photographers exactly how I create my 'Forest' series and recreating similar shots



The good news this is no longer a mere thought but a reality

This year on 25-30th October I will be at the Phase One Master class held at Paso Robles Workshop

In addition to Phase One technique, the workshop will cover lighting on location and production planning for field shoots. Students will work in 3-person teams for the first half of the week. On Thursday, the class will work together on the production of a Drew-sized location shoot in the oak forest surrounding Paso Robles, in the heart of California's wine land


All this and supported by Phase One with one of their technicians in attendance along with 5 Phase One P45+ cameras for the class to use


I'm looking forward to what will be an outstanding and memorable workshop