Another QUALITY gtvone podcast… “Photography Monthly” over a cup of coffee…

Photo of the month came from Colin Millum above is pretty sweet, Nice one Colin! Hope you’re having a great world trip!

www.merrellpublishers.com for Jason Hawkes “London At Night” photography book – shot from a chopper, quality!

Olympus PEN E-PL1, Camera Bags, WorldPressPhoto

There was Anna Evgen (Naked girl + Apple = Winner)

Johnsons Photopia who are most likely glowing from Focus

Martin Middlebrook – Old School Purist

….I won’t list the rest, you can damn Google it!! Nice coffee, good songs – they were playing in the background, so I matched them up  -  Killers, Sam’s Town, Cracking album – please go buy it.

Peace out… Sime

Vitruvian tripod, true genius?

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, the new Giotto’s Vitruvian VGR  tripods are designed to offer photographers not only a truly lightweight and compact tripod, but a fully functioning monopod and ball head too.

The Vitruvian tripods have been designed with “reverse technology” legs so that when collapsed they fold through 180 degrees to “surround” the tripod centre column and head  – folding down into a unit that measures only 40cm long.

There are two VGR models available, both with a maximum operating height of 157cm and a weight capacity of up to 4kg. The VGR9255 is manufactured using aluminium tubing and weighs 1.5kg while the VGR 8255 uses 6 layer carbon tubing and weighs just 1.28kg.

The tripod castings are made from a forged aluminium alloy for strength and the quick action twist leg locks require only 1/8 turn to lock and unlock – making it quick and easy to set the tripod up. VGR tripods are fitted with a compact ball + socket head that offers smooth and precise movement, incorporates independent pan control and has a quick release system.

But its not just a tripod, simply unscrew the tripod leg, remove the centre column and head then join them together to produce a full size monopod with a maximum operating height of 162cm. The Vitruvian comes with its very own carry bag and has a 5 year warranty.

For more details on these tripods please visit www.giottos-tripods.co.uk or contact our Giotto’s helpline on 0845 250 0792.

United Kingdom / Republic of Ireland, 2nd March 2010 – Canon today pre-announces the release of a firmware update for the multiple award-winning EOS 5D Mark II. Originally announced in late 2009, the update adds 24 and 25 frames per second (fps) recording to the camera’s EOS MOVIE video function, and will be available as a free download from the middle of March.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Developed following feedback from photographers and cinematographers, Firmware 2.0.3 further enhances the EOS 5D Mark II’s excellent video performance. The addition of new frame rates expands the camera’s video potential, providing filmmakers with the ability to shoot 1080p Full HD footage at 24fps (actual 23.976fps) – the optimum frame rate for cinematic video. 25fps support at both 1920×1080 and 640×480 resolutions will allow users to film at the frame rate required for the PAL broadcast standard, while the new firmware will also change the 30fps option to the NTSC video standard of 29.97fps.

A new histogram display for shooting movies in manual exposure, shutter-priority (Tv) and aperture-priority (Av) have been added, and exposure modes will also be available in movie mode. Improved audio functionality will allow users to set sound record levels manually using a sound-level meter displayed on the LCD screen. The audio sampling frequency has also been increased from 44.1KHz to 48KHz, providing the optimum audio signal typically required for professional or broadcast material.

With its full frame CMOS sensor and compatibility with Canon’s wide range of premium lenses, the EOS 5D Mark II is already recognised for its outstanding HD video performance. Launched in September 2008, the camera immediately created a wide range of new possibilities for photographers and videographers, and the addition of new frame rates and manual audio levels extends those possibilities even further – allowing movie makers to shoot stunning movies to suit practically any creative purpose.

Extreme sports photographer Richard Walch was one of the first to be given the chance to use the newly updated EOS 5D Mark II to shoot the snowboarding movie “I Love My Friends”. Commenting on the EOS 5D Mark II’s video performance, Richard said: “The addition of the new frame rates opens up a whole new range of possibilities. If you’re a cinematographer, independent film maker or just enthusiastic about making your own movies, get out there and give it a try”.

“I Love My Friends” shot by Richard Walch on the EOS 5D Mark II with the new firmware includes a look behind the scenes video is available to view at http://www.canon-europe.com/eos5dmarkII.

The firmware will be available to download from mid-March from the Canon website http://www.canon.com/eos-d/

* Actual frame rate: 23.976fps*

Formed in early ‘88 – The Grand Majestic (TGM) are a bloody brilliant funky pop kind of band coming from Brighton. I had the good fortune to pop along and photograph them in some pretty low-light kind of surroundings at the Underbelly – a great place for live music if you’re wandering through Hoxton Sq with not a lot to do… You should do your best to see these guys live, quite the sound!

This is what makes all the noise…

Lizzy Littlejohn – Lead vocals
Charlie Myers – Keyboards
Duncan Howlett – Guitar
Andy Lynn – Bass guitar and BVs
Dom Clare – Drums
Damian Mclean-Brown – Trumpet
Ellen Campbell – Trombone
Chez Harper-Grimble – Tenor sax

You can see more from the evening here – The Grand Majestic

And you can check out TGM on their website, myspace or facebook.

I had this email from a friend at G-Tech, This was following the question of “Do I upgrade my 1TB G-Safe or do I go for something else”

Interesting thought train. Some price changes coming which may alter your
perspective a little! Budgets are always a tricky issue so I’ll assume less
£ is better!

So your library is 1.2TB and growing at around 25GB per week*. Will you keep
everything in the library indefinitely or is there a timeline beyond which
the images are no longer required? Can you envisage a library size which
will never be exceeded? (I think I know the answer).

Upgrading the disk on your older G-SAFE is a good idea and one that many
follow. 2TB is currently the largest HDD (3TB will come next but is still a
way off).
Assume 2 x 2TB drive modules is £340 today. You will need a 3rd drive
module to archive 4TB (whilst leaving 1 drive as a slave to mirror your
archived drive back to) so cost could be £510?  You could probably buy bare
2TB drives more cheaply in the open market but reliability and warranty may
be compromised.

Stand-alone, a 2TB G-SAFE is only going to back-up half of your G-RAID.
Your G-RAID will be half full in 7 months so G-SAFE strategy will only buy
you a relatively short term solution before needing to add more 2TB
modules.  I’d also be slightly concerned about bare HDD stored in a
cupboard for long periods. HDD need to be run up occasionally and at the
same time, physical handling should be kept to a minimum. How about a
different approach – Another G-RAID 4TB is about £440 (and will fall next
week). Mirror your two G-RAID’s and you are good for 2 years. During that
time, you can develop your back-up / archive strategy
further. Have you considered tape for archive solutions? Relatively low
cost cartridges and long shelf life (maybe 30 years?) they make sense
although good mechanisms  (LTO for example) are expensive.

*assumed working photographers data usage

So, there you have it… More questions to consider and decide upon.

Watch this space!

Sime

Digital Photographers are continually wondering how to backup their photographs, and then how to back-up their back ups. I visited the whole back-up issue a couple of months back and now, here I am, still struggling with ridiculous amounts of data. And you have to be prepared because you never know when you’re going to have a brain melt and empty a cup of water into your laptop, right?

Make your data swim!

So, I’ve located most of my image library files (largely Canon RAW) on a 4TB G-Raid3 drive… A great drive, but, to buy them over and over as the library grows is just silly. So I was thinking about a backup drive that will take all and more, the drive needs to be fast, upgradeable, flexible and cost effective… The only solution I’m hitting on time after time is a Drobo, but then I’ve heard reports that they’re a bit buggy – so, there’s a V2.0 out – which is bound to be buggy too… THe only consolation being that the bugs are within the firmware / controllers – so the data on your disks is still going to be OK if the unit fails…

Why Drobo? There’s nothing else… Simple… I’ve searched for ages and there’s nothing that is as streamlined and easy to use… (It’s not just for me)

More on this tomorrow…

So, I love cupcakes, Red Velvet Cup Cakes are win win!! So, as I had no spare time up my sleeve, I thought I’d try my hands at baking me some!!

(I’ve since renamed mine “Red Velvet Disaster that tastes pleasant”)

This is a stella example of how they’re meant to look (click)

This is what you could have won! (cc image - thank you!)

Here’s the ingredients that I used for starters…

60gms of unsalted Butter at room temperature (An average British room, smart a**!)
150gms Caster Sugar (Like what fisherman use, Caster, geddit)
1 Chicken Egg (As opposed to dinosaur, right?)
10gms of Cocoa powder (If you use original, organic unprocessed Cocoa, there’s a chance you won’t need red colour due to a chemical reaction with the buttermilk, innit!)
20ml of horrid red Food Colouring (That stuff will kill ya!)
1 healthy tsp of Vanilla Extract
120mls Buttermilk (Who the hell keeps Buttermilk! Use this)
150gms of plain (not snazzy, plain) Flour
Half a tsp of the queens finest Salt
Half a tsp of Bicarbonate Of Soda
1 and a half tsp of white wine Vinegar (Fail on my part, didn’t have any oops)
Cream Cheese Frosting (I used Mr. Worrall Thompson’s recipe)
A muffin tin / Baking Tray
12 little Baking paper thingies

And this is what I did with all that stuff!…

1. Preheat the oven to 170′C (325′F) Gas 3.

2. Put the butter and the sugar in a bowl and stir / beat etc until light and fluffy and well mixed (If you’re pathetic, use a mixer, but if you’re a bloke, use a wooden spoon you girl!)  Turn the wooden spoon up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well mixed. (Try do this with one hand! Physical challenge!)

3. In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract together to make a chunky dark paste. Add in the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until everything looks the same, I used a rubber spatula to scrape the sides and make sure I got it all. Turn the mixer (Wooden spoon) down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the pretend buttermilk. Beat until your arm is sore, then add half the flour and beat it all until everything is mixed up like that awesome album the Cure released in 1990 (Am I that old!) Repeat this arduous process until all the fake buttermilk and flour have been added and your arm is proper sore. Scrape all the wannabe escapees down from the side of the bowl again and give it the good news with the old wooden spoon until your arm really truly hurts. Slowly add the salt, bicarb and vinegar (Which I forgot I didn’t have). Beat until Beaten then beat a little more… What’s that, your arm’s sore? SOFT!

4. Empty your precious mixture into the little paper houses until they’re about two-thirds full and whack in the lovingly preheated oven for 20-25 minutes** (I chose 20, who gives a bloke cook a choice, I mean really?!), or until the spongy goodness bounces back at ya when touched. A skewer (I used a spear like thing used for fondue) inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning loose onto a cooling rack (The bench really will do)

5. You made your icing when I told you to, right?** When the cupcakes are cool, spoon the Cream Cheese Frosting on top.

Yeah, so, well… mine, they taste awesome! They just look crap…. C’est La Vie!

Oh, here’s a STONKING great recipe for them from pickycook actually, it’s probably best you avoid using my recipe for anything other than a laugh at a party!

I had fun though… Sime

Interesting really, the day after I decide to stop shooting music I get some feedback from a major band / asked for images and then I get emailed an offered a press pass to another large gig – but you know what, I’m just not there right now. I might be some day, but I’m not now.

I’ve shot boxing two days in the last seven and it doesn’t really do it for me either – the live action bit, but what did bring some sparkle was a couple of portraits I’ve shot during the last week – I’m still learning and experimenting, But I had a hell of a lot of fun shooting this stuff.

Today was a shoot with a young British Flyweight boxer named Ashley Sexton, Flash Ash if you will… Very basic set-up…

Set-Up

Very Simple Photographic Portrait Lighting Diagram

Stuff I used for the photograph below.

Elinchrom 400 FX Studio light
Stand for the light above
60cm Elinchrom Soft Box
Canon 5DMk2 (Setting below the photo)
Canon 24-70 L f/2.8 Lens
Alien Bee Radio Control

Flash Ash Sexton - British Flyweight

I love my music, I love my photography and for the last two years I’ve been combining those two things in my quest to become a music photographer… Well, I got what I wanted and I’ve had an amazing time doing it! I wanted to be that guy, the one in the pit in front of the crowd, nothing to distract me from the band, just me and them and my camera and that was that.

My very first music photograph - The Rushes

I’ve decided to give my little project the weekend off, let it out to pasture. I’m done with music photography for a number of reasons and I’m very happy with what I’ve achieved in the last two years.

My highlights, well… Alice in Chains was special, Metallica was powerful, NiN was sombre, Counting Crows was electric, Dave Matthews Band was invigorating, Lou Rhodes was emotional, U2 was large… The list goes on and on (well, for another 90 or so bands)

Further down the track - Stefan | Dave Matthews Band

What did I learn? Most bands don’t even know you’re there, PR agencies think they’re god and are part of what is wrecking the music industry, You don’t need a really good camera but it helps, It’s hard to focus sometimes when you’re singing, Alcohol and photography are not friends, Photographing festivals is tiring and inspiring and some artists, the ones that do see you, and encourage you and engage you, they’re awesome. (There’s one like this, I’ll be shooting her again – but for the love of it)

Like I said in podcast four, Maybe it’s time to check out other areas of photography, I don’t like being stuck on the one country road for to long, so maybe it’s time to get that baking book that my friend Nicki gave me out and start baking and snapping – though, we already know just how good I am in the kitchen!

I'm awesome in the kitchen, awesome...

It started out with a kiss
How did it end up like this
It was only a kiss, it was only a kiss

I’m not Mr. Brightside, and it started out differently…