benjamin harte photography blog

Another book cover...

2012-01-25T08:01:00.002Z

This one is a collaboration between myself and my fellow photographer, Mark Owen.

I shot the tunnel part and the people in the shot are taken by Mark...

'til next time...

Festival of Fear

2012-01-24T09:56:00.001Z

'til next time...

Game of cards

2012-01-20T09:08:00.001Z

Well, this is the last of my game related cracker posts!

For the shot below, I ran out of hands so the camera was on a tripod and shot with 5 second delay to enable to me to position the light where I wanted it with one hand and drop the cards with one smooth and fluid motion with the other exactly when the shutter fired (this took several attempts!)

Post procesing wise, this is pretty much as taken, unlike my last photo of an exploding joker card....

'til next time...

Dice

2012-01-19T08:18:00.001Z

'til next time...

Let the games commence...

2012-01-18T10:23:00.003Z

Sunday lunch with friends and a few left over Christmas crackers... I never pay much attention to the contents of the cracker once I am comfortably wearing the hat and have read the joke, but when everybody had left and I was clearing up, I had an idea... the contents were all game related, so I thought I would take some photos...

Against a paper background I was about to set up in the usual way, when I decided that the more I got out, the more I would eventually have to pack away, so I went super simple!

The camera I stuck on top of a tripod and the light is provided by a single handheld SB 800 flash connected by a Nikon SC 28 TTL cord so the camera and flash sorted all the lighting in terms of power etc. The light is in fact inside a small soft box which it turns out is pretty good for this sort of thing! Once set up, all that was required from me was to position the light where I wanted it and to press the shutter button!

Let the games commence...

I might add that these are the complete set of dominoes included in the cracker which would have made for a pretty poor game as you can see, there are very few matching numbers!

'til next time...

Short walk in a stormy landscape

2012-01-17T11:19:00.007Z

This was taken shortly after yesterdays shot, shortly before my camera went back into it's bag and shortly before I got back into the car...!

'til next time...

Stormy landscape

2012-01-16T20:12:00.000Z

'til next time...

Cold winter evening

2012-01-11T07:38:00.002Z

'til next time...

iPod nano 1st generation replaced...

2012-01-10T18:45:00.001Z

A bit off topic, but I know that along with many other people who received an email stating that '...in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk. Affected iPod nanos were sold between September 2005 and December 2006', I have been wondering what my potentially fire hazardous 1st generation ipod nano might be replaced with...

I filled in my online form towards the end of last year sent my 4gb 1st generation ipod nano off in the post and have been waiting ever since...

Well, the doorbell went earlier today and I was delighted to receive an 8gb 6th generation ipod from the delivery man!

Couldn't believe quite how small it is and immediately thought I would write a quick post as I know how many other people have been wondering the same question!

A big thank you to the people at Apple for both bringing this to my/our attention and replacing the potentialy faulty untis!

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures that I took. These are on a white paper background with two crosslit SB 800 flashes as the light source...

...and before anyone says they are a bit over exposed, it was my intention for the ipod to blend into the background...!

'til next time...

...and finally, some scientific potpourri

2012-01-06T10:01:00.001Z

'til next time...

Just a bunch of potpourri

2012-01-05T14:57:00.000Z

'til next time...

Costa Book Prize 2012

2012-01-04T09:16:00.004Z

Back in the Summer of 2010, I did a photo shoot for the author, Moira Young. Moira needed new publicity photos to coincide with the release of her debut novel, Blood Red Road.

Well, I was delighted to receive an email from Moira last night with her exciting news - she has just won the Costa Children's Book Prize!

Very many congratulations to Moira on winning the award and I wish her all the very best for what looks set to be an exciting year!

'til next time...

Blue flower

2012-01-04T08:57:00.002Z

Here is the next of my potpourri shots.... I mentioned in the first of this series that these photos 'are taken with a view to adding them to my creative picture library collection, so these are aimed at the book cover market hence the use of 'negative space' in some of them.'

With this in mind, I thought I would give an example of the kind of thing that I might envisage when I am taking and editing my photos...

...for this photo I had imagined a kind of timeless, almost nostalgic feel which I have hopefuly achieved by using such a limited depth of field in camera and by limiting the colour palet and contrast in the post processing - and I like to think that the incredibly deep and meaningful title I have given my fictional book cover ties all those elements together!

'til next time...

Delicate leaf skeleton

2012-01-03T10:48:00.001Z

Here is the second of my potpourri shots...

'til next time...

A week of potpourri

2012-01-02T09:47:00.045Z

Happy New Year to you!

It is now 2012 and my first post is going to be about a bag of potpourri. On the face of it, not immediately what you would associate with a photography blog, anyway...

We were given a bag of potpourri at Christmas...

'Potpourri /ˌpoʊ pʊˈriː/ is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant material, used to provide a gentle natural scent in houses...'

- wikipedia

...and one of my first thoughts once we'd unwrapped the present was 'wow, there are some great shapes, I could take some photos...',
so that's what I'll be doing over the next week (amongst other things, of course!)... a photo a day of potpourri!

These are taken with a view to adding them to my creative picture library collection, so these are aimed at the book cover market hence the use of 'negative space' in some of them.

In case you are interested, they will all be taken using the same simple setup - against a plain paper (either black or white) background and lit using a single SB-800 flash (quite close... 1-2 foot away from the subject) then some textures added in photoshop in the editing stages.

Here is the first...

'til next time...

A winter wedding at Leez Priory, Essex

2011-12-30T09:50:00.002Z

Having accepted a winter wedding earlier in the year, I kept a close eye on the 14 day weather forecast building up to Chris and Alex's wedding day as we had more than our fair share of snow last year!

Snow would have made my trip to Leez Priory in Essex somewhat difficult!

As it turned out, it was a beautiful, cold crisp winter's day - perfect for a winter wedding!

When shooting weddings, there are key moments and events during the day that one has to capture, but otherwise I like to keep out of the way so as to allow events to unfold and flow as the couple have planned rather than turn the day into a photo shoot!

You can see more of my wedding photography on my wedding site- Benjamin Harte Wedding Photography.

'til next time...

Happy Christmas!

2011-12-24T09:52:00.000Z

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and see you in 2012!

'til next time...

Music workshop photography

2011-12-20T12:50:00.000Z

I seem to have been working flat out for the past couple of months and when I haven't been working, there seem to have been a lot of things that have needed to be done, which means I have not had much of a chance to get anywhere near my blog - apologies!

Anyway, the photos below are some reportage photos from a couple of recent music education workshops held at Wigmore Hall.

These were both slightly different to the usual format in that they were more a kind of informal classroom setting. One of the workshops was for composers and the other was for producers....

'til next time...

Portraits

2011-11-25T17:40:00.000Z

Portrait photography is obviously a core part of my photography work, as is my creative stock photography, but I rarely seem to combine the two...

~~I was~~ My wife was recently tidying up the nursery (for our new baby) and I asked her if I could take a couple of quick shots...

She didn't mind, so I quickly set up a flash in an umbrella amongst all the baby clothes and took a couple of quick portraits which were then edited in the style that I often use for my library work using different textures etc...

Anyway, I'll stop rambling now! Here are a couple of my favourites...

'til next time...

More ink in the pot...

2011-11-14T08:47:00.001Z

Last Tuesday, I posted up a picture of an 'ink pot' on my blog.

I tend to leave my photography bits and bobs around the house and the ink pot (complete with feather) is still in exactly the same place that it was almost a week ago...

I thought I should do some tidying up, but that got me thinking about taking some new photos of the pot and feather...

This time, for interests sake, I thought I would add a few books into the mix... you will also recognise the old red books too - still lying around!

As with all of the similar photos to this that I've posted in the last few weeks, these were taken using

a single off camera flash (a Nikon SB 800 to camera right and slightly behind the subject)
the occassional use of a white piece of paper as a reflector (to camera left to throw a bit of light back into the shadows) to augment the ambient light .

In the editing stages, I have added a little texture to achieve the feel/look that I was after!

(The pot is still in the same place)

'til next time...

BMW

2011-11-09T08:45:00.005Z

'til next time...

Ink pot

2011-11-08T08:42:00.003Z

'til next time...

Wigmore Hall Learning

2011-11-07T09:13:00.004Z

Was working in Wigmore Hall over th weekend doing another one of my education shoots and picked up the latest brochure from the Learning department - January-March 2012.

All images are taken by me...

'til next time...

Screws

2011-11-06T08:27:00.001Z

A couple more library photos taken the same time as the 'old books' - this time though, clearly nothing to do with my music photography!

I have just put up a new gallery featuring some of my recent library work on my website - this I intend to update reasonably regularly!

Until now, I have only really posted my 'creative library work' either in the library or here on my blog, but it is a pretty big part of what I do, hence the new gallery which I hope you'll find the time to visit!

Both these pictures and the old books are lit using a single SB-800 flash (off camera of course) and a sheet of white paper I happened to have lying around that I used as a reflector!

Can't quite decide which one I prefer...

'til next time...

Audio Rokit

2011-11-05T09:02:00.000Z

Ever wondered how to get into the pop music business and don't fancy one of the many X-Factor or Britains Got Talent type shows?

If you are looking for a song pitching service to help your career 'lift off', you might want to check out Audio Rokit.

Despite the rather obvious pun, Audio Rokit really does have a refreshingly simple solution for an age old problem, or rather an age old frustration.

Musicians know how hard it is to send their demos to record labels and other music companies. Aside from not knowing which companies are actually looking for new acts, the sheer effort involved in getting A&R to listen makes pitching music a constant struggle for manty bands and artists.

Audio Rokit has quickly made it's mark on the music industry by simplfying the communication between the musician and the industry.

Darren from Audio Rokit explains;

"We needed to fully understand what the industry wanted so we could develop a solution that works well for them and for musicians"

Audio Rokit allows A&R to 'request' music for their current projects whilst offering a range of tools to simplify the audition process. The musicians benefit from an incredibly simple song pitching platform that focuses on quality and usability."

"The Audio Rokit 'song pitching platform' is the cheapest in the world to offer guaranteed feedback for it's members. This means that for just £6.99/month you can audition your music direct to the top industry professionals and know that you'll get a response!"

"Audio Rokit is a service thet ALL serious musicians should use!"

You can learn more by clicking the link below

This all sounds pretty good to me but if you need more convincing, here are a few of their testimonials.

'til next time...