So, I’ve created a new Flickr group to help combine these types of images. Take a look at the slideshow below, or check out the Three-dimensional Repeating Patterns group on Flickr.

Bling bling

Blue skies looking out at work

Whistler 2009/10 – A Season to Remember is a video my brother Miles created after his season in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada for the 2009/10 season.

I thought I would share this because, not only is the video really well put together but, the experience for me was amazing and i’d definitely recommend visiting Whistler and Vancouver again.

The video shows how brilliant the skiing and snowboarding in Whistler is, how beautiful the blue sky is in contrast to the snowboarders below and what an excellent playground for snowboarding Whistler is.

I’m the one in the orange Jacket!! Enjoy!

Scot Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk is an event which takes place each year around the world where photographers come together in groups to take pictures within their local areas. Last year I went to the Bristol event, but since moving to London 9 months ago, I decided this year to take part in the Richmond event on this years photowalk day.

Each event comprises a maximum of 50 photographers, with one leader who decides the meeting point and the general area within which we could take shots, although you’re pretty much free to take pictures wherever you like within the location. There are around 1100 walks taking place across the globe all on the same day!

This year I pretty much used one lens. This is the 35-70mm f/2.8 which contains a macro function. It’s an older Nikon lens which means the motor in my Nikon D90 drives the lens. This makes it effectively a 56-112mm lens on my half frame camera. The macro functionality is great for closeups on product and flowers.

I really like the style that this lens almost forces me into. I tend to try and use the 2.8 aperture as much as possible in order to focus on one detail and then blur the rest of the image into infinity and use that space for colour and abstraction rather than for detail.

Using the different lenses in different situations where you might not necessarily use them normally does mean that you get to try new things. Who knows, next year I might try and take photos in a different country, and also with a completely different lens.

These photos are all by me, and available to view with the whole collection from the day, on my flickr page.

I have a few different cameras. The one I most use is my Nikon D90. I can take thousands of pictures and all it costs me is a little electricity and the time it takes to process them. Since the dawn of the new digital revolution with digital cameras popping out of people’s chests across the world at a rapid rate, the price of medium format cameras have gone down! Which makes it a great opportunity to get into it.

Although there are exceptions to this rule, a lot of the medium format cameras are now significantly more obtainable.

The camera above is a Zeiss Ikon which cost me around £8. Another camera I laid my hands for a cheap price is the Coronet Captain which cost less than the Ikon at about £5. Shown below, it’s a pretty basic box camera, which was made 20 or 30 years ago by Coronet, who are a Birmingham camera manufacturer no longer in operation. It’s dead simple to operate and the photographs which come out are larger than the standard 12 pictures you get on a roll of medium format, and you only get 8. There are two focus settings, the ability to set a timer, or add a green filter – but the best bit are the two view finders which are both waste level. One is for landscape shots and the other is for portrait. Genius!

The cameras which have waist level viewfinders create a completely different photograph to cameras which you hold up to your eyes and point and shoot. Images of people are in the middle of their body, and so produce a completely different sense of that person. The quality of the photographs which it produces is very interesting and completely unique, and unique per camera too. Each one will have it’s own little discrepencies in the manufacturing process and could have slight issues with the light seal, which all makes it very interesting.

So, if you’re after a new and interesting camera which is simple to get to grips with, cheap to buy and you can throw around as much as you like, here are some to look out for: Coronet Captain, Hasselblad 500c/m, Mamiya C330, Yashica Mat 124G, Lubitel 2.

Photos by me: Zeiss Ikon and Coronet Captain

I took some time out to visit the Dieter Rams exhibition at the Design Museum. Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams is in it’s last weeks, an I wanted to take a look before it moved on or disappeared forever. I thought it might be a good place to see some of his products in the flesh and take a few photos.

I’ve been aware of Dieter Ram’s design ethos since studying product design. His ten principles of good design are taught to design students around the world, and provide a firm basis for professional industrial designers everywhere.

Dieter Rams is most famous for working with Braun for over 40 years and developing the unique style within the brand. His aim is to omit everything superfluous so that the essential is shown to the best possible advantage. The instantly recognisable result is functional products with a simple and elegant style.

The range of products Rams designed with the Braun family cover record players, radios, hair dryers, video cameras, flash guns, coffee grinders, heaters, a watch or two and many more. The open, honest and truly functional product designs each have their own qualities and individual personalities. A few of these above and below.

The exhibition at the Design Museum has been a great chance to take a closer look at the products. Many of the little details which can’t be seen in books, photographs and even within videos are clearly visible. Each of the products work on their own, or displayed within a group. It’s clear that these beautiful products have set a trend, philosophy and direction which is used by modern greats such as Jonathan Ive, Jasper Morrison and others.

If you’d like to know more, check out the design museum or Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams the book. Exhibition is on until the 9th March 2010.

All photography by me.

On Saturday 6th of February I attended a photographic workshop organised through the London Strobist Meetup group on Flickr. This is the second event i’ve been to and from the pattern so far, the events are as broad and wide as you can want in a strobist photographic group. The workshop is an extra event in addition to the tour of universities throughout the country Tom Miles has been doing. Read on to find out more about the day.

The day began at 10am, kicking off with Tom Miles talking the group, of around 20 amatuer / semi-pro strobist photographers, through how he got into professional photography, who he works with, how he works and also how he gets his work. Tom’s photos are mainly editorial, focusing on sports and active subjects. Many of the attendees had some experience with strobist photography.

Shortly after talking through plenty of different work scenarios including problems encountered along the way, and giving the audience a better idea of how a pro works every day, we had our assignment handed to us.

We had to choose from five topics: Portrait of a Business Person, A Sports Shoe, Family Group, A Retail Park/Industrial Estate/Shopping Mall or The Hat. We then had 3 hours to go and shoot between 4 and 10 shots with our chosen subject. I chose Portrait of a Business Person, mainly to work on my skills in approaching strangers to take their photo.

So I wandered from Calumet Photo in Drummond Street, where the event was held, all the way down past the British Museum and onto Holborn, looking out for what I immediately thought of as a business person. As it turns out, this part of London has absolutely no men or women dressed in shirts and suits on a Saturday!!  So, with a little creative thinking, I expanded my search to include people who ran their own business.

First stop was a flower shop, but they were a little too busy. Next stop was Ruaraidh Murray (pictured above) at Folk Clothing who although wasn’t a business person, he did work in a business. He was kind enough to pose for a couple of shots, also incorporating ‘The Hat’! He recommended that I go and pay Tom Bodaly a visit down at Oliver Spencer. Tom was running Oliver Spencer, and although pretty busy agreed to stop for a few shots (picture at the top).

As we had to have our photos in by 3pm, i had a bit of lunch, headed back and handed my photos in with an invoice. Overall there wasn’t much criticism, except a few points about watching items in the background intersecting people’s heads! Something to definitely watch out for in the future!

The other photos taken by the London Strobists were also pretty good, with plenty of people approaching random strangers and pushing their own personal boundaries.

All in all, a very interesting day. A big thank you to the two guys who posed for a few photos, as well as Tom Miles, Emma Taylor, David Robbins from Nikon, and the guys at London Strobist Meetup group on Flickr for arranging the whole event. Tom’s report card on the day is available here.

Since the end of July, I have been much more interested in improving my technical and creative skills when it comes to photography. More specifically to this, off camera flash photography. The end goal is to be able to create a wide variety of creative photos which show character, depth and emotion. It’s a long road, but as with everything, you’ve got to start somewhere!

So my first port of call was the internet, and two main resources in particular, Strobist.com and Flickr. Highly useful info on getting started with off camera flash photography, and plenty of examples too.

Joe Mcnally’s book, The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes: Creative Applications of Small Flashes (Voices That Matter), is the perfect extension of that. And, as a body of examples specifically put together to showcase the extreme versatility of Nikon cameras, speedlights and accessories, it really inspires me towards what can be possible.

After attending a few group strobist events through Flickr groups, and tackling some if my own ideas, the book also helps to bridge the gap between what I’ve learned and where I want to go.

As a professional photographer who has spent the last 30 years behind the lens, Joe Mcnally puts literally tonnes if information into this book. Plus, unlike the free information available on various blogs, including Joe’s own, the information contained within is grouped, well thought about and presented with big colour images of each photo shoot. The other bonus is that you don’t have to spend days in front of a computer screen to get through it all.

The main thing which I have learned is that the creative idea behind the shot is the most important part, the lighting is secondary to the concept. Highly recommended to anyone interested in off camera flash photography, and even worth a browse just for the pictures.

J7M4SU86T6ZP

This is one of my photos from this years Scott Kelby’s world wide photo walk. I went along to the Bristol event along with a number of other bristol photographers and had a very interesting time.

My photos from the event can be found on the Flickr website in the World Wide Photo Walk set if you would like to have a look.

Here is a map of the photowalk:

View Scott Kelbys Worldwide Photo Walk – Bristol EN, UK in a larger map

The walk was made by around 30,000 people in approximately 900 cities all over the world, all on the same day. Peraps next year i’ll go to a different city somewhere else in the world.