According to my web stats 61 different people in America viewed my site. I just can’t help wondering…… who are you, where are you, did you have a good day, did you like my website, do you like my photographs???? Drop me an e-mail, let me know.

The internet, biggest shop window in the world.

Not complaining but observing. The time passes too quickly,  so much to photograph  so little time.

Both my exhibitions are up and running and doing well (Le Perroquet Vert in Chalais and Le Collegiale Galerie at Riberac). Wedding season is now in full swing and still some more enquiries coming in for this year, although there aren’t that many free dates left now. The fine art work continues to generate more interest from around the world (what did we actually do before the internet??) Stock work for the agencies continues with some nice appreciation coming in from one of the more arty exclusive agencies I submit to, plus a nice image used for a book cover (Deceptions by Rebecca Frayn).  I am considering a book project for this Winter but we will wait and see how that one turns out…….. Time is something not to be abused.

My little blue book of ideas is now getting pretty busy but it is now harvest time in the garden so that will have to wait a little while as well.

I am enjoying my photography enormously at the moment. The pleasure I get from recording weddings through my eyes is something I am becoming more and more interested in. Technically it is an interesting challenge as my style is very much reportage to “capture the moment”. Walking around with cameras slung around my neck trying to blend into the background and watching, watching all the time for little cameos of the day as they happen or develop. When the moment arrives light, positioning, composition, exposure all have to be taken into account in an instant otherwise the moment is lost. It is tiring spending the day with that level of concentration but when I review the proofs in the evening it is, for me, the most exciting time of the wedding. To replay the day and to have hopefully captured some exquisite expressions and images of that day. The greatest reward though is the reaction of the bride and groom on seeing their day in images. Lovin it.

My more creative photography for wall furniture or for the agencies is taking a slight turn away from my beloved black and white. I am more and more using colour, admittedly in a very subtle way but none the less still using it. Using textures and overlays in post processing is starting to appeal to me more and more and invariably these images are stronger with the retention of colour. It’s healthy to change and move on, learn new techniques and develop (excuse the pun). Healthy from a business perspective and also from a personal perspective.

Anyway had better go now as the sun is shining and I need to learn some new techniques of weeding that vegetable plot……………………………………

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Summer.

As far as life mantras go I suppose I have probably only ever had one and that is to  “just do something”.  It has always served me well. Whenever my life has taken, shall we say, “turns” and one is never quite sure what to do to make things move forward the mantra has always served me well. It never ceases to amaze me that invariably all the new people I meet, all the new clients that come my way, all the many exciting things that happen and all the goodness that comes into my life can be tracked back to some action, usually supposedly quite inconsequential at the time, that has been taken. So, basically things happen if you make them happen. It’s proof for the old saying that one thing leads to another. The more you do, the more stuff happens.

I drove down to Le Perroquet Vert Galerie in Chalais on Monday to deliver my pieces for the art exhibition. The galerie was so friendly and very busy with artists bringing in sculptures, paintings, drawings and of course photographs for display in the various galleries. Amanda, the galley owner made me feel very welcome and introduced me to another artist, Mana. Mana was looking through my photos and rather liked a humorous image of a young child on a chair reading a magazine with a picture of a very old lady on the cover (http://bit.ly/cpn0wz). It then turns out that Mana runs a Gallery in Riberac and was holding a photographic exhibition for four photographers and the theme of the expo was “humour”. Unfortunately one of the photographers had to cancel due to illness and Mana asked if I would like to exhibit in their place! I was very flattered to be asked, and so now I have another exhibition in place for July 2010 displaying 13 more pieces.

So there you go. If I hadn’t found Amanda and Le Perroquet Vert and if  I hadn’t enquired about an exhibition and if I hadn’t gone to the Galerie I would never have met Mana and would never be having an exhibition at Riberac.  One thing leads to another……….

Le Perroquet Vert, Place de la Fontaine, 16210 Chalais – 12th June to 7th August

I am exhibiting 8 pieces of my work at le Perroquet Vert, a gallery in the Charente region of France from 12th June to 9th July. After the 9th the exhibition will continue until the 7th August where I will be the featured artist displaying a larger selection of  my work.  But what is it that makes for a succesful exhibition. Well attended? Good press coverage? The comments book filled with nice compliments? Or, maybe all the pictures hanging there with a “sold” sign on them? I suppose I have always struggled when exhibiting my work, there is some sort of conflict going on in me that I could never really properly address.  Yes, I want to sell pictures. After all my photography is my business and we do, unfortunately, need to have money. But I still feel that when I put my work on display what I really need first and foremost is for other people just to “like” what I do. I need approval. Always have and always will.

When I first started exhibiting my photographs I remember my ultimate aim was for some stranger to walk into the gallery, look at one of my pictures and just buy it.  That must be the ultimate recognition. Someone likes my photos enough not just to say “I love your work” or “that reminds me of…..” but likes it enough to give their hard earned cash to buy the photo and hang it in their home or office to gain pleasure from looking at it, everyday. That is the ultimate compliment, that is the ultimate approval of doing what I do. So there you go conflict resolved.  Now back to printing out those exhibition prints……………………..

Well following the last post on this blog about my “lens review” a few things have changed in my opinion!! No problems at all with the 24-70 lens, still works like a dream and the initial review holds firm. However the 70-200 f2.8…………………………….

All was going well after the initial bunch of test shots. I was happy. I took the lens out on it’s first paying job following the initial tests and in post processing I had a series of around 6 images in sequence which were horribly overexposed. Of course sods law states that they would have been the best shots of the session Grrrrrrrrrrr. Following a call to the suppliers of the second hand lens they agreed that this was a lens malfunction and they were confident that it could be fixed. The lens was duly returned and off it went into repair, followed almost immediately by a call from the shop saying the damage was caused because it had been dropped and was not covered by the warranty. Now I bought the lens second hand because the new version just cost so much and even though this lens looked like its previous owner was a street photographer in Beirut I assumed that the lens would live up to its reputation as being rock solid, indestructable. So, to be told that I had dropped it and damaged it when I had treated it with such loving care for the brief time it was with me was too much.  I won’t name the company but suffice to say I think I left them absolutely clear that any damage on that lens was no fault of mine and had occured prior to its delivery to me. I was seething.

5 minutes after that phone call the shop phoned back and explained that somehow it had bypassed their internal process and had not been checked before sale so the fault was all the shops. They replaced baffles and bits on the lens and assured me this would fix the problem. They were very efficient and the lens was promptly returned. However, on return the exposure problem appeared to be fixed but the lens hood just kept dropping of the lens (they had also changed the damaged front end baffle). I took the camera out on an outing and on return the post processing revealed another issue that wasn’t initially spotted! There was a massive loss of focus at the edges of the lens. On many shots this didn’t show up but where the subject covered edge to edge on the same focal plane the results were pretty obvious.

More phone calls to the shop ensued and they offered me my money back or another second hand lens or a new lens. As I had lost confidence in buying second hand (the proposed replacement one was two years old and used by a sports photographer, which just made me think of one very expensive lens being regularly out in pouring rain, covered in mud and generally being abused) I took the plunge, found some more money and bought the new version of the 70-200 f2.8 VR Mk II.

I have now taken a bunch of photos with the new lens and  am not sure if to be really happy at how good this new lens is (sharp everywhere, quick, can’t hear the VR motor or focussing motor whereas the old one sounded like a steam train each time it kicked in) or really dissapointed with how bad the old one was in comparison.  Anyway alls well that ends well and I hope to be producing many photos with this one for many years to come.

I own a number of lenses, all various zooms with the exception of my favourite 60mm f2.8 lens which I use mainly for studio work.  Until recently I have been quite content with the quality of my photography using these lenses.  I started to find that during wedding and event photography where the lighting was poor there were a number of images that were not of good enough quality to deliver to the client, which was a real shame as some of these shots would have been really striking images.

Now like all photographers I read articles and reviews of new equipment just to keep up with where things are heading. However, I am a commited cynic regarding the vast majority of these equipment reviews as to me they always make this months exciting new lens/camera/card/toothpick etc etc etc sound like you must have it or else you will never, ever, be able to take a decent photograph. From my part whenever I make a new purchase I normally end up feeling slightly dissapointed as I feel it doesn’t actually deliver what it has stated in all the exciting reviews.  So, after much thought I came to the conclusion that in order to resolve my issues I needed to invest in some f2.8 professional lenses, specifically the Nikon 70-200 f2.8 and 24-70 f2.8.  I did not take this decision lightly as these things don’t come cheap. I started reading the many reviews of these lenses on the internet and sure enough it was difficult to find a bad one, every review promised fantastic images, vibrant contrast, super fast focussing, wonderful low light abilities etc etc In short if I bought these lenses I would never, ever take a bad photograph again

Back in the real world my cynicsm had kicked in could these lenses really be that good? Did I really need these lenses? Would my problem be resolved by buying the new lenses? I compromised. I decided to buy a second hand 70-200 f2.8 (as with the recent release of a VRII version of this lens the second hand prices of the VRI models had dropped slightly) and a new 24-70 f2.8 as there was little difference between new and secondhand prices (this surely had to be a good sign of the quality of the lens).

Well the lenses arrived on Friday and even though the secondhand 70-200 f2.8 looked like it had been used in a war zone it was in good working order with no marks on the optics. The 24-70 was all shiny and new and waiting to be mounted up and start working.

So lets start with the Nikon 24-70 f2.8:

Immediately didn’t like it. Damn this cynical thing. It just didn’t feel right as the zoom ring was situated right at the bottom of the lens barrel next to the camera. It didn’t sit easily in my hand with my camera holding technique. I did realise that this was just something that I was not use to so a slight change in my normal camera handling was required. So, from initial dissapointment I moved on. Was it fast, yes. Did it focus faster than my other zoom lenses, yes. Would it make a difference to my photography? I won’t know until the wedding and event season starts. For sure it won’t make a difference just because it focusses faster to my fine art or product photography. Tried some indoor, poor light shots at f2.8.  I did manage to get a decent shutter speed out of the camera with the lens which before I wouldn’t have managed to get. I also took a lot of handheld shots  at 1/20s and 1/30s and couldn’t help feeling that VR would have been a useful addition to the lens.

Now, when I got the images out of the camera and into post processing I was a very, very, happy photographer.  I compared the images with similar images taken with my other zooms and they are indeed significantly better. The first thing to stirke me was sharpness. This lens is sharp, so sharp I think I can do away with the unsharp mask! Secondly the images have a lovely contrast and last but not least bokeh. Beautiful bokeh, I think I will shoot at f2.8 now forever So, overall on a satisfaction rating from the initial experience I would go for an 8/10 for this lens.

Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VRI:

It’s big, it’s heavy, it looks knocked about but it’s solid. First thing I noticed about using a lens of this size is how conscious I feel when I point it at somebody, it just feels so intimidating! The handling of the lens for something of such gargantuan proportions felt just right, the zoom ring was exactly where my hand felt it should be. All the zooming on this beast occurs inside the barrel so there are no bits of lens moving up and down on the outside. So, off I went to take pictures. It zoomed, it focussed it all seemed to work.

Back in post processing and ………………………………. WOW!!!!! This lens is good. How good I hear you ask? Damn good! Wonderful, wonderful colours (and that is from someone who loves black and white!) and a soft creamy bokeh that is indeed exceptional. Absolutley no vignetting and as sharp as a very sharp pin. I was taking handheld shots at 1/20s of people (ie things that move) and 90% of these shots were absolutely spot on, clear and vibrant. With my old lenses these shots would have been lost or I would have had to resort to flash.

As for a rating I’m going for a 9.5/10 as nothing is perfect.

In summary, am I happy. Yes and I can’t wait for the wedding season to start to use these two lenses for real.

Sitting here once again at the computer post processing images surrounded by digital junk. I have an ever growing number of external hard disks packed high on my desk as I search for archived images to print, I have three printers aligned in a row waiting for the various different print outs required for each of them, I have a multitude of very expensive software programs to edit, sort, store and keyword and of course the Computer which I swear gets slower every day!

I always thought that things were supposed to be made easier in this digital age for photography? Easier maybe to take pictures, easier maybe to see the result of the picture, but easier to keep track of it all? Mmmmmmmmm…. maybe. One thing is for sure it is absolutely more expensive than using film ever was. I have to update cameras more frequently than before, I seem to be needing new storage on an increasingly regular basis as the files get increasingly larger, whenever I have an idea to improve the way I work it invariably needs some new or upgraded software to accomplish it.

Of course I have conveniently forgotten about spending hours inside the darkroom breathing foul smelling chemicals to produce my prints and then leave them hanging by clothes pegs on a piece of string over the bath to dry. Oh yes and having to write down all the developing instructions for each image so I could reproduce it consistently (expose for 4 seconds, dodge top left hand corner for 2 seconds etc etc etc….). Oh yes and my favourite of having to use spotting pens on the final print before matting as no matter how hard you tried there would always be some piece of dust on the paper during exposure.

Give me digital every time!

Anyway back we go to Photoshop and it will be all worth it when  I see the prints pop out of the printer

Photography for me is a passion, a pleasure. I just love images that are  evocative, moving, imaginative, creative, exciting, that tell a story, that inspire me.  However, I find that photography is not something that one can just put more time into and you will automatically start taking better photographs. I suppose the law of averages will dictate that the more you take the more likelihood you have of actually taking a good photograph will rise. But chances are it will be by accident. No, perspiration is not the path for me in photography. For sure you need to take more photographs to learn how to be able to take a technically good photograph, composition, exposure, lighting etc etc. Problem is I don’t think I have ever seen an image and said to myself  “wow that photograph is technically perfect, it’s brilliant”, I just kind of take it for granted that it will be or should be of a high technical standard. That’s not to say that all good photographs have to be technically OK, I have seen many photographs which are bordering on embarrassingly bad technically but which have something in the subject which can still move me.  So, perspiration is not the route to photographic brilliance.

The trick with photography is inspiration. Once youv’e got the technical side sussed the difficult bit is then being able to see the image or the potential for an image or have that buzz for an idea for an image. Once that inspiration kicks in that’s when photography takes hold for me, that’s when everything comes alive. That is when being a photographer allows me to take the time to really look at things around me to find that picture that I want.

Inspiration or perspiration? Inspiration every single time.

....29, 30 - ready or not here I come

First new post since October of last year. I am really not sure about this blog thing after all, it is very difficult to maintain enthusiasm for writing in this vacuum bubble on the internet. I had to turn comments off as the Spam comments were becoming soooooooo annoying.

Anyway, new year, new attempt at blogging. Figure I will try and update it every weekend and stick to the photography side of my life and leave the smallholding self sufficiency well alone.

I haven’t been taking many photos (read nearly zero) over the last two weeks as we have been busy preparing the land for this seasons planting (damn there goes the rule of no writing about self sufficiency smallholding stuff) and just general maintenance around the house. However, the good news is that my little blue book of photo ideas has been slowly filling up with potential shots for the future. We have had a litter of rabbits born recently (damn damn damn more smallholding stuff) and I have been putting off taking photos of them for some while now. So yesterday I did actually manage to persuade my youngest daughter and a few rabbits to have a few studio photos taken for stock agencies.  Here is one I quite like when she started playing hide and seek with the rapidly moving rabbits………………..

Since august I have been with a new hosting company for my website and one of the reasons for the change was to get some good reports from the website to see who is using it and how they are using it. I am now in the 3rd month of reporting and it is showing some ineresting stuff. The good news is that each month there are more and more viewers of the Website and more and more views of the images in the fine art galleries. So, I must be doing something right there.

The most interesting fact that I have unearthed is that the most popular country visiting the web site is from addresses in Israel. Unfortunately Israel is one of the countries that I have not sold any fine art images to,  consequently I am left slightly bemused as to why people in Israel appear to have a liking for my photos but not enough to actually buy one.  So, if there is anyone from Israel reading this please drop me an e-mail just to say hello and let me know if there is any particular photograph in the gallery that is your favourite.