New Architectural Images
Got some great light for shooting two buildings for LSI Architects this week. This is Crome Court at UEA:
This is UTC Norfolk:
Latest Images January 2015
Recent shoots have included: London, Perthshire in Scotland, many around Manchester and the Peak District, Thetford Forest and Waxham in Norfolk.
Thetford Forest. Phase One IQ260, Cambo WR-S 1250, Rodenstock Digaron 28 Lens.
Cheapside, London - testing out the Sony A7R on a walk through the City of London. Results? Pretty good I think. Certainly my shoulders thanked me for the light weight of the system!
Blackstone Edge Moor, Peak District - Zero degrees C and got this in between the snow showers! Phase One IQ260, Cambo WR-S 1250, Rodenstock Digaron 28 Lens, doubled ND grads.
Birks of Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland. Stunning place - and stunning weather! This dell, with the Moness Burn running through it, was as magical a place as any in Britain. Lord of the Rings territory! Sony A7R Panorama - 15 shots stitched (crop from full image).
Waxham, Norfolk - Beautiful end to a beautiful afternoon, just after Christmas 2014. Some of the seals from nearby Horsey were on the beach with us. Sony A7R.
At The Digital Coalface
Three months of processing and we have some interesting new aspects to the image collections. It's very satisfying to finally have images even from mid-2012 finally available such as these studio shots of fruit and veg:
And these studio shots of flowers:
I'd added many new panoramas of Blackpool, Lancashire, Pembrokeshire and Suffolk:
Lots of new Details of Nature
Quick Update September 2014
Part of the reason I started a career in photography because I was spending too much time at a computer. Alas, I find myself in exactly the same position as I started - a single 24 hours of shooting can lead to about 2 weeks image processing. Here are some of the results from my recent tortuous ordeals at the digital coalface. Some of the shoots are recent (North West England, Crete, Wildflowers), some earlier in 2014 (Wales), and some from late last year (North West England again). Enjoy!
Click on this photo to view latest images:
And click on this photo to view latest panoramics:
About Time!
OK, so, 10 months between blog posts is lax even by my shoddy standards, but I do have some excuses! First, we've been busier than we've ever been, installing record numbers of artworks, shooting a very large number of new images, upgrading and bedding in new camera equipment, and altogether taking things to another level.
A few new shoots first of all - these are the ones uploaded so far: Wayland Wood, Alderfen Broad, Bretts Wood, all for Norfolk Wildlife Trust.
And what of the installations? Well, here's the one that has taken most of our time: 300 artworks installed in UHSM Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester. As part of making wards more accessible and navigable for the increasing numbers of dementia patients, UHSM commissioned us to put artworks in all 28 wards of one of the North West's largest hospitals. Many new local city and nature images were required - something of a challenge in Winter, with just 1 month to plan and shoot! Many spontaneous visits to Manchester and environs were necessary, no small matter when it's a 250 mile drive each way.
Each ward has a selection of nature images, local nature images and local city images. A month was spent photographing and processing images from around Manchester. Then another month selecting images and artworking so they can be made into our PhotoPanel, PhotoWall, PhotoWindow and PhotoGlassWorks products. Finally, we spent another month - the whole of March - on site installing all 300 pieces - which included driving 700 miles per week and a lot of nights in hotels.
The responses to the work were overwhelmingly positive. The words 'calm' and 'bright' were used a lot - very much what I'm aiming for with all our installations. Patients, nurses, doctors, cleaners, porters, visitors - all appreciated the improvement in the quality of their environment. It's my sincere wish that the artworks make what is an intense and sometimes frightening place to be into somewhere a little softer and more friendly.
Of course, that wasn't the only installation we've worked on over the last 10 months. Salford Royal, also in Manchester, have kept us busy. One our widest panoramic glass artworks went into the refurbished Irving Corridor - a mammoth 9 to1, 8.1m x 0.9m PhotoGlassWork!
And Trinity Hospice in Blackpool got some interesting PhotoWall laminated wallpapers and PhotoGlassWorks as part of their refurbishment programme:
I should mention the amazing new camera(s) that arrived in January. Based on a Phase One IQ260 60Mpixel medium format digital back, I'm now using a beautiful Cambo WRS 1250 technical camera and a Mamiya 645DF+ and the results are startlingly good. It's a real pleasure to be using such high quality equipment, knowing that every shot is as good as it can be - apart from when the clown behind the camera gets it wrong of course!
It's always a bit of an ordeal getting new gear. There's the hardware side, getting to know how to use it in the field but then there's also the software side - tweaking Capture One to give the best results is a process of trial and error. Every digital back and camera is different and moving from the P45+ (which I still think is very special indeed) to the IQ260 was quite a jump as the IQ260 is more neutral out of camera. More MPixels also means all the existing lenses come under scrutiny - which takes time and can be a bit disheartening. So far though, the investment has been more than worth it, so, onward!
Finally, I should mention that there are a spectacular number of new images to be processed and uploaded soon - shoots in Lancashire, Manchester, Cheshire, Pembrokeshire, Norfolk, even fruit and veg shoots in the studio. Watch this space!