I've been trying to focus this blog more on the photographic content and fewer articles. Mainly as a result of not enough time, too many other areas vying for my attention, and often by the time I get round to posting a news item, most of the other photography blogs have already beaten me to it. Today though, I'm going to break from that as I've a few new news articles to post. I've just had some photographs in print. Manchester United Supporters Trust have used 9 of the images I shot outside Old Trafford on the night of the Champions League final in May. They've used a selection of these images. Calumet have announced a new service via their website whereby you can order online and collect in-store. Thus saving yourself delivery costs, and waiting around for the delivery van (that never arrives when you need it to). www.calumetphoto.co.uk Magnum have gathered together some "advice" for some of their members for new and aspiring photographers. Quite an interesting read. Thoughts from Martin Parr, Alex Soth and many others. Read it here A new forum has launched for film and darkroom enthusiasts. www.fadu.co.uk already has a great many informed posters detailing thoughts on everything from darkroom process to gear reviews. The Royal Photographic Society has announced a new competition based on Rejlander's "Two ways of life". When this work appeared in Victorian times, the 32 negative "debauched" composite caused a scandal. One of it's few alleged admirers was Queen Victoria herself. The RPS's competition asks entrants to combine and alter images to create a modern interpretation of this masterpiece. www.rps.org
Check out this behind the scenes video by Vincent Laforet and here's a link to the final video. It was shot using a pre-production version of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR - in a similar vein to the new Nikon D90. But for me, the question has to be why? Why do you need to have video on a high end DSLR? It cheapens the whole thing in my opinion. I mean if you shoot video, then you use a video camera right? And, if you're a stills man (or woman), then you'd use a stills camera. I just don't get it...  Now to kit, my favourite choice of topic ;-). I just got a very jazzy email from www.lensbaby.com which will appear here shortly (though this page doesn't work in Chrome, Firefox or IE7!). Basically they've re-launched the range and added a new product called the "Composer". The words smooth & precise "describe focusing the new Composer selective focus SLR camera lens. With this lens, you don’t compress to change your focus. The Composer’s ball and socket design allows you to just tilt and then rotate the barrel focus ring with one hand, providing an unprecedented level of ease and precision."
The Original Lensbaby, 2.0, and 3G have been reintroduced as the Muse and the Control Freak, updating our classic lenses with the new Lensbaby Optic Swap System. The optic swap system "lets you change your optic to get the look that fits your creative vision. When you want to change the look of your photographs, simply pop the optic out of your Lensbaby and drop in a new view. The Lensbaby Optic Swap System includes the Double Glass (the optic from Lensbaby 3G), Single Glass (update of the Original Lensbaby optic), and the all-new Plastic and Pinhole / Zone plate Optics." .
I've long been an admirer of the Lensbaby products and the results that these remarkable lenses can produce, but I've never actually gone down the path of owning one - though I think that may be about to change!! For more info, go here
I've been a bit remiss on the blog posting front lately I'm afraid, but hopefully I've got time for a quick one this morning before heading up the M6 again... I stumbled across the work of Chase Jarvis the other day, and I was really impressed. He's been a pro since '96, and is inspired mostly, ironically by painters! Chase's images breathe a compelling freshness - sometimes technical or conceptual, other times authentic or raw. Some of Chase's clients are Apple Computer, American Express, Helly Hansen, Kodak, Microsoft Corporation, Nike, and many more. He was voted a Hasselblad master in December 2007 and reportedly uses an H3D - check out his work here - www.chasejarvis.com Another photographer who's recently caught my eye is Zoriah Miller. Zoriah is an award winning photojournalist whose images of conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, The Gaza Strip and Lebanon have been widely published. His style of dark and moody imagery has become a trademark and he often releases feature stories containing graphic imagery of war, disease, social issues and strife which are considered both powerful and compassionate. His main site is at www.zoriah.com - but be warned - you could be there a while! I've been going back for days now, and I still haven't been right through all his work. Finally, if you've not yet upgraded to Lightroom 2, then check out this article on DPS. It's a concise list of the main selling points, and yes the upgrade is really worth it. Though I was a bit miffed that $99 mysteriously transpired into about £90 (I'm sure the exchange rate is better than that - couldn't be Adobe trying to make a few extra quid out of us poor Brits could it??)
Still no further work of my own to post on here yet I'm afraid. Although I have put some time into formulating ideas for my next project. I've decided that it's going to be along a "Still Life" theme - I've never really done any "proper" still life before, one of the reasons being is that it doesn't really float my boat to be quite honest. But I figure that you never really understand something until you actually give it a serious attempt. I've been looking at quite a lot of work in this area lately, especially the earliest stuff - the work of Florence Henry, Berenice Abbott and Irving Penn. Some of which I was really quite taken with. Here are some examples:
Irving Penn - Cigarette No. 37: 
Berenice Abbott - Soap Bubbles, 1940s 
Karl Blossfeldt - Poppy Seed Heads 
Florence Henri - Composition with ball and mirror, 1930 
I'm particularly impressed with the work of Florence Henri, and considering how long ago she made these and how many images since draw references from her work, they really are seminal works. Finally a couple of news items.
If you're a follower of Scott Kelby or any of the NAPP guys, then you can't failed to have noticed that the PhotoShop World expo is on at the moment. Whilst there, Adobe have started teasers for the new CS4 suite. They're going to do a special webcast on Tuesday 23rd September, and you can sign up here.
If you live up North (in the England), then "Ways Of Looking" - a new media festival kicks off in Bradford and Leeds this weekend coming. There's a whole raft of shows scheduled to run right through to January next year - Check out the schedule here.
Apologies for the current irregular posting schedule. I knew that life was gonna get pretty hectic when this new webdev contract kicked in, but I don't think I quite realised how busy I'd be. But I never seem to get enough done! Anyway I'm in the process of fine tuning details of a project I'm going to get started on in the next fortnight or so, but more of that later this week.... I'm also about to start on a new workbook, basically a photographic "stream of consciousness". I'm going to include workings / thoughts for the projects I'll be working on, and also some notes of the more relevant information that I come across on the web or in books, or from exhibitions. I've learnt a lot from doing the last one, and have a much better idea how to improve on my technique. I think that this can be an invaluable tool for any artist and its a great way of consolidating your thoughts and ideas.
In the meantime, a few links for you. 1) Joe McNally is writing a new book due out in December titled "The Hot Shoe Diaries, Creative Applications of Small Flash". "Basically, it will be an irreverent brain dump of my whole history using small flash, back from when I first got my hands on flash powder to the SB-900. There will be sections on buttons and dials, batteries, flash attachments, light shaping tools from gaffer tape to umbrellas, and sketches" ... sounds like it'll be a useful resource and undoubtedly a right riveting read. - Read more about it here 2) Photopreneur have done an interesting article, "Put your Picture on the Cover of a Lonely Planet Travel Guide". The goal is obvious, but the methods are more interesting. The service the article is trying to promote uses geo-tagging (which I've yet to get into) and was released into beta last year. Pikeo is a "photography site for people on the move" and is currently running a competition in conjunction with Lonely Planet with some cool prizes on offer. Read more here 3) Scott Kelby's guest blogger last week was David duChemin who contributed a great motivational article about what he would say if he could have a heart to heart with a 14 year old version of himself just at the time he was getting into photography. It's a great article - read it here. 4) On the topic of project ideas, Thomas Hawk has written in detail about his $2 Portraits - a great idea if ever I head one - check it out here 5) Finally, if you occasionally read articles on sites like Strobist, but often struggle with some of the jargon (What's the difference between a snoot and a gobo??) , then Beyond MegaPixels have compiled a list of the most popularly used terms and what exactly they are - check it out here.
I came across a post on Strobist titled "Keep a lighting file, version 2" which got me thinking that I really should start to keep an inspiration file of some description. It would consist of images and probably some text about the images and it would be something I could refer to every now and then when I'm feeling that I need a little creative input. It needs to be something I can add stuff to relatively easily and also something that I can easily copy onto and update on my Windows Mobile phone. So a folder of images just wont work. I could possibly create a Word document, but it could get very large very quickly! I'm not quite sure how I'll work this, but I'll post back when I've decided how to work it. (read the original Strobist article here) Photopreneur recently published a very interesting article titled "Edgy photos sell in the art world" (read it here). The article describes the changes occurring in the art world as far as photography and the influences the emerging markets of the Far East particularly China are having on the market. It has to be every photographer's dream to see one of their photographs changing hands for a six figure sums, but unfortunately for most very unlikely to happen. But if you don't get your work out there, you'll never know.
 Crikey, what a week! What with the wedding last weekend, my trip to London this week, and the family holiday which starts tomorrow, its all been a bit manic! 
The trip to London revolved around a visit to the Tate Modern to see the "Street & Studio" Exhibition. The trip was worth it for this alone - a tremendous show featuring work from artists ranging from Charles Negres to Philip-Lorca diCorcia and from Brassai to James van der Zee. While I do like a lot of studio work, my heart is really with the street stuff, and trust me there is some fantastic work on show. I was especially taken with Cindy Sherman's Bus Riders series from the 70's in which she photographs herself in a series of portraits recalled from characters she has seen on buses. She makes no attempt to hide that these are staged studio shots, as she has left the shutter release cable evident in each image. Very imaginative work indeed. I didn't buy the accompanying book as I couldn't be fagged carrying it around all afternoon with me, but as soon as I return from my hols, its going straight into my cart.  Whilst in London, I took the opportunity to get as much street and urban landscape photography in as possible - which basically consisted of two 12 hour days! Despite a run in with security and the press office on Canary Wharf (they wanted £200/hour so as I could just get my camera out of its bag), spending the "golden hour" on Wednesday morning getting lost on the tube, getting seriously blistered feet and sunburnt, I had a whale of a time! I filled 2 and a bit 8GB memory cards and I've only just got round to going through them (I've really gotta get my hit rate up - plan to use film again for my next project so as to discipline myself a bit more). I'd post more details of my trip, but I'm quite literally nodding off as I type. Maybe tomorrow if I get the time...  I've been using a trial of Lightroom 2 to process the London and wedding shots, to see if I can really justify the $99 upgrade fee (still quite pissed at this!), and I'm really impressed. The dual monitor functionality, I find is marvelous and makes life a great deal easier. I'm also seriously digging the Adjustment Brush which also improves processing time. It has crashed once on 2 separate XP machines, and there also appear to be some difficulties launching into Photoshop, but its a thumbs up so far. Slightly off topic, del.icio.us have relaunched a new and improved service - see delicious.com/fabfilippini And to finish off the week a few links for you:-
1) Came across this site in Prospect Magazine - guerillaphotography.co.uk. I quite like the concept of this kinda thing, though don't know if I would have the balls to venture into some of the places myself.
2) This week in photography - twipphoto.com - a great podcast and great site.
3) And finally, the Aperture Nature Photography workshops have just been announced, but wait for it, they're invite only..."This is a year-long adventure and TWIP audience members will have the opportunity to enter a contest that might win them more than $2500 worth of prizes and an all-expenses paid trip to one of these parks." Read more here. Can't type any more, zzzzzzzzzz........
Surprise Surprise. Son pleuvoir! Still, a little water never hurt anyone, did it??? Shot in Asda's car park in Stockport. F5.6 @ 1/13sec using the Sigma 10-20mm F5.6 at its widest. 
This second one was shot facing the M60 which is why you can see the blurred truck in the background. Shot using the 18-200mm VR at F22 & 1/20 sec so I could get the blur. Quite a challenge to find anything inspiring in this weather, but I think the top one does it for me. I like the sense of tension the black and white conversion adds. Off topic: Another utility I happened across yesterday was a little program called Digsby. It allows me to combine my MSN accounts, gmail, Facebook and Twitter all into one pretty smart looking application. Previously I had to use a hack for Live Messenger in order to have 2 separate instances running which I was never really all that keen on. This new find just rocks and is sooooo easy to use. Also Kodak's T-Max 400 has been voted as the Best Film in Europe 2008 by the Technical Image Press Association. The award recognises the fast ISO, sharpness and fine grain offered to photographers. Read more here That's it for the week now. Have a good weekend all.
A very dreary gray and miserable day again. Am I ever going to get my calendar update finished?? Sure ain't gonna get too many money shots in this weather! Above was shot at F5 at 1/400 sec at ISO800. I shot at this high ISO in order to get the high shutter speed to capture the rain drops falling. It's raining on such a regular basis that I'm seriously toying with getting a rain cover. A bit of investigation required first. I've seen the AquaTech’s Sport Shield Rain Cover highly recommended on several blogs, but its about £150! Though I think I'd really quite like to try before I buy. I can feel a trip to Calumet coming on.... Off topic, I stumbled across the PicLens add-on for Firefox this morning. Ooooh! What a cracker. It really is a very cool tool and probably one of the best add-ons I've seen for a browser to date. Check it out here.
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