14th FEBRUARY 2010 - Out early this morning to do a recce in readiness for the Viewed from above concept shoot. Very icy and amused myself no end sliding down the ramps of the bridges over the Newcastle central motorway! Not strictly part of the deal but I was asked some time ago to photograph the new Northumbria University building by the lead surveyor. An exterior image has been added to the commercial gallery.
13th JANUARY 2010 - Happy new year everyone. It's that quiet time in and around xmas and things haven't been helped by the atrocious road coditions that have made travel for pleasure unwise. Nevertheless I have been planning my concept shoots for the first half of this year and am delighted to be hooked-up with Sarah who will be working with me on my first - "Viewed from above" - scheduled for 14th March.......be sure to check back for that one, it promises to be quite special.
23rd DECEMBER 2009 - Well the year is nearly over and it has gone right up to the wire with a shoot in the last few days running up to Christmas. Amy Graham is a new model who approached me for some portfolio work. Amy brought loads of ideas with her and was a pleasure to work with. A small selection of the images are on the first page of the models gallery. Almost 1,200 unique visitors have visited the new site in the two and a half months it has been running. These from 44 countries across every continent. All that remains for me to say is enjoy the holiday and remember to check back in 2010. Kindest regards.
15th DECEMBER 2009 - A new and hopefully very interesting section has been added to the site today..........videos. Just a couple to start things off but more to come in time. Another model shoot this weekend coming so hopefully some new images in time for xmas but, in the meantime wishing everyone a very happy and enjoyable festive season.
3rd DECEMBER 2009 - Photos from the TMM Moderators group shoot at Banana Studios have now been added to the model gallery. A video is also featured in the videos section, so you can get an idea of what it all looks like 'behind the scenes' Thanks to models Charley, Claire, Debbi, Emma, Jilly, Jordan, Marlena, and Nikki plus make up artist/stylist Lucy.
23rd NOVEMBER 2009 - Gypsy didn't stay long on the top of the pile. Replacing her today is young James Colledge on his first shoot. Strong winds and failing light didn't deter us for this black and white special shoot. Enjoy the pictures. Big Banana Studios Group shoot at the weekend so expect even more images in just over a week's time!
17th NOVEMBER 2009 - Well, sorry for the longer than expected delay in having some new images to share with you, but sat-nav-itis prevented one of my models managing to find me at break of day the other Saturday! Never mind I have added some really glamorous ones to the gallery this week. I have worked with the stunningly beautiful 'Gypsy' before and we promised each other a studio shoot now the weather has 'gone beyond reasonable limits' Enjoy the pictures.
22nd OCTOBER 2009 - Very peculiar, there seems little let-up in the pace of the model shoots still being requested - normally by this time of the year things are closing down for the winter. But no, I have 4 shoots arranged plus another couple I am trying to squeeze in before mid-December. I have models rushing out to buy long fur collared coats!! I think the fingerless gloves Helen knitted me last year might see some shoot action at last - cashmere and full-frame just seem so right for each other dahlink! I've also got a shoot planned-in already for next spring down in London so I don't think the winter lay-off will seem so long this year.
EQUIPMENT UPDATE - I recently made the upgrade to a full-frame digital slr - the Sony Alpha 900. I have used it on my last 3 shoots - the Tyneside Metro, the woodland art nude and Nikki at The Sage. For the first two, where I was often shooting at iso1250, the huge bright viewfinder really helped with the dark conditions. I also combined this with the wonderful Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens to give even more in the way of low-light capability. The very popular image of Leah Baskaran in the black tunnel at Haymarket metro station saw this combination help pay for its keep! The creamy bokeh of the Sigma also got a good testing. Very happy with my current line-up! A feature that is both a downside and upside is the image filesizes generated - 35Mb per RAW - which means I now have approaching 100Gb of compact flash cards for my camera bodies and a typical day in the studio can produce about 30Gb of images from just that one shoot. The plus side is your native filesize is more than 6000x4000 pixels so there is massive scope there for cropping and still be able to produce filesizes as big as those from the Alpha700 - you can almost literally chop the A900 files in half!
18th OCTOBER 2009 - Saturday dawned with a brilliant blue sky - hurried check of calendar because I was sure it was mid-October in the north east! Quick text to Nikki to say we had "an ongoing positive climatic opportunity" as she was travelling all the way from Cumbria, and then showered, breakfast etc. Set off an hour and a bit later and as soon as we got on the open road nothing but black clouds! Nikki already on her way!! Spent a nervous 45 minutes glancing at the sky every 30 seconds. Fortunately the cloud base was fairly high and there was a surprising ambient light level. Nikki turned-up bang on time and stood there shivering while I showed her round the area we would be shooting in. Numerous pauses in the shoot for outfit changes and hypothermia prevention breaks (there are advantages to being 17 stone sometimes!!). Fortunately Nikki suited blue and we got some cracking shots.......a small selection are included in the models gallery and a link to Nikki's portfolio is in the links section in case you want to check out more of her work (and why wouldn't you!). Many thanks to Nikki and Sharon for a very enjoyable shoot. Check back here in early December for more images after a studio session.
9th OCTOBER 2009 - Well, I never thought the new site would be as successful so quickly. In the first 3 days, people visited from 12 countries; spanning the globe from USA to India to Australia and of course the UK. Visitor numbers have increased by a factor of about 6 or 7 from the old site. A great confidence boost for me personally and a good payback for all the effort expended on making the change. I must at this point give thanks to my website development consultant - Marc Melling - who guided me through the complexities of multi-national domain transfers and did all the tricky technical stuff.........top guy, see the link to his photographic site on my links page. As well as taking superb photographs Marc also has a string of successful bespoke website developments behind him - give him a shout if you need a personal showcase.
8th OCTOBER 2009 - My first shoot upload following launch of the site and what an addition it is to the models gallery! I had shot briefly with Leah Baskaran on a previous occasion. Obviously I was blown away by her stunning natural beauty and got some great shots - one of which found its way onto my business card so it must have been good! I had been planning a shoot that would 'Geordify' some of the stunning fashion images we see shot on the London Underground by using our very own rapid transit system - The Metro. This involved a few months negotiating with Nexus who run the system and getting dates suitable for Leah and me. It was a busy day as I was in the office first thing, popped out around 9am to do the shoot, then I had to get back to the office in time for a 1pm meeting with some colleagues who had come up from London.
Leah was a dream to work with as usual. I also have to mention my wife Helen who came along and acted as support.......in such a busy public environment the shoot would have been near impossible without her. Leah had purchased a couple of outfits specially for the shot and they fitted my specification perfectly. This led to me being able to produce 'stronger' more vibrant images than usual and I think you will agree they certainly have punch and impact. Hope you enjoy these latest additions.
5th OCTOBER 2009 - Well hello and welcome to the new site! I always try to respond to the requests from my regular visitors and this switch to a completely different hosting company is to cater for those wishes. People wanted to see more images, have the ability to view a few of the panoramas I have produced and to look at video. Well all of those are here now. The move has taken a lot of work, a bit of money and some incredible global jiggery pokery via UK, German and American servers but I hope the end result is worth it. In the 10 months I was able to log detailed stats on the old site it received visits from nearly 50 countries around the world, covering all of the continents. It will be interesting to see how the new site goes. Please contact me with your views.
One of the main benefits is the size at which you can view the images now. I have been able to greatly increase this without an adverse impact on the speed of the site. All thumbnails are square format for tidiness so if you would like to see one 'properly' just single click on it and you will see a medium sized version at the right hand side of the screen. if you really want to go for bust click on the medium image to get it displayed in a pop-up window.......this gives you the option of viewing it up to 'original' size - can I suggest using the 'Auto' size option as it should expand or contract to fit your own monitor size - clever eh!
13th JANUARY 2010 - Happy new year everyone. It's that quiet time in and around xmas and things haven't been helped by the atrocious road coditions that have made travel for pleasure unwise. Nevertheless I have been planning my concept shoots for the first half of this year and am delighted to be hooked-up with Sarah who will be working with me on my first - "Viewed from above" - scheduled for 14th March.......be sure to check back for that one, it promises to be quite special.
23rd DECEMBER 2009 - Well the year is nearly over and it has gone right up to the wire with a shoot in the last few days running up to Christmas. Amy Graham is a new model who approached me for some portfolio work. Amy brought loads of ideas with her and was a pleasure to work with. A small selection of the images are on the first page of the models gallery. Almost 1,200 unique visitors have visited the new site in the two and a half months it has been running. These from 44 countries across every continent. All that remains for me to say is enjoy the holiday and remember to check back in 2010. Kindest regards.
15th DECEMBER 2009 - A new and hopefully very interesting section has been added to the site today..........videos. Just a couple to start things off but more to come in time. Another model shoot this weekend coming so hopefully some new images in time for xmas but, in the meantime wishing everyone a very happy and enjoyable festive season.
3rd DECEMBER 2009 - Photos from the TMM Moderators group shoot at Banana Studios have now been added to the model gallery. A video is also featured in the videos section, so you can get an idea of what it all looks like 'behind the scenes' Thanks to models Charley, Claire, Debbi, Emma, Jilly, Jordan, Marlena, and Nikki plus make up artist/stylist Lucy.
23rd NOVEMBER 2009 - Gypsy didn't stay long on the top of the pile. Replacing her today is young James Colledge on his first shoot. Strong winds and failing light didn't deter us for this black and white special shoot. Enjoy the pictures. Big Banana Studios Group shoot at the weekend so expect even more images in just over a week's time!
17th NOVEMBER 2009 - Well, sorry for the longer than expected delay in having some new images to share with you, but sat-nav-itis prevented one of my models managing to find me at break of day the other Saturday! Never mind I have added some really glamorous ones to the gallery this week. I have worked with the stunningly beautiful 'Gypsy' before and we promised each other a studio shoot now the weather has 'gone beyond reasonable limits' Enjoy the pictures.
22nd OCTOBER 2009 - Very peculiar, there seems little let-up in the pace of the model shoots still being requested - normally by this time of the year things are closing down for the winter. But no, I have 4 shoots arranged plus another couple I am trying to squeeze in before mid-December. I have models rushing out to buy long fur collared coats!! I think the fingerless gloves Helen knitted me last year might see some shoot action at last - cashmere and full-frame just seem so right for each other dahlink! I've also got a shoot planned-in already for next spring down in London so I don't think the winter lay-off will seem so long this year.
EQUIPMENT UPDATE - I recently made the upgrade to a full-frame digital slr - the Sony Alpha 900. I have used it on my last 3 shoots - the Tyneside Metro, the woodland art nude and Nikki at The Sage. For the first two, where I was often shooting at iso1250, the huge bright viewfinder really helped with the dark conditions. I also combined this with the wonderful Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens to give even more in the way of low-light capability. The very popular image of Leah Baskaran in the black tunnel at Haymarket metro station saw this combination help pay for its keep! The creamy bokeh of the Sigma also got a good testing. Very happy with my current line-up! A feature that is both a downside and upside is the image filesizes generated - 35Mb per RAW - which means I now have approaching 100Gb of compact flash cards for my camera bodies and a typical day in the studio can produce about 30Gb of images from just that one shoot. The plus side is your native filesize is more than 6000x4000 pixels so there is massive scope there for cropping and still be able to produce filesizes as big as those from the Alpha700 - you can almost literally chop the A900 files in half!
18th OCTOBER 2009 - Saturday dawned with a brilliant blue sky - hurried check of calendar because I was sure it was mid-October in the north east! Quick text to Nikki to say we had "an ongoing positive climatic opportunity" as she was travelling all the way from Cumbria, and then showered, breakfast etc. Set off an hour and a bit later and as soon as we got on the open road nothing but black clouds! Nikki already on her way!! Spent a nervous 45 minutes glancing at the sky every 30 seconds. Fortunately the cloud base was fairly high and there was a surprising ambient light level. Nikki turned-up bang on time and stood there shivering while I showed her round the area we would be shooting in. Numerous pauses in the shoot for outfit changes and hypothermia prevention breaks (there are advantages to being 17 stone sometimes!!). Fortunately Nikki suited blue and we got some cracking shots.......a small selection are included in the models gallery and a link to Nikki's portfolio is in the links section in case you want to check out more of her work (and why wouldn't you!). Many thanks to Nikki and Sharon for a very enjoyable shoot. Check back here in early December for more images after a studio session.
9th OCTOBER 2009 - Well, I never thought the new site would be as successful so quickly. In the first 3 days, people visited from 12 countries; spanning the globe from USA to India to Australia and of course the UK. Visitor numbers have increased by a factor of about 6 or 7 from the old site. A great confidence boost for me personally and a good payback for all the effort expended on making the change. I must at this point give thanks to my website development consultant - Marc Melling - who guided me through the complexities of multi-national domain transfers and did all the tricky technical stuff.........top guy, see the link to his photographic site on my links page. As well as taking superb photographs Marc also has a string of successful bespoke website developments behind him - give him a shout if you need a personal showcase.
8th OCTOBER 2009 - My first shoot upload following launch of the site and what an addition it is to the models gallery! I had shot briefly with Leah Baskaran on a previous occasion. Obviously I was blown away by her stunning natural beauty and got some great shots - one of which found its way onto my business card so it must have been good! I had been planning a shoot that would 'Geordify' some of the stunning fashion images we see shot on the London Underground by using our very own rapid transit system - The Metro. This involved a few months negotiating with Nexus who run the system and getting dates suitable for Leah and me. It was a busy day as I was in the office first thing, popped out around 9am to do the shoot, then I had to get back to the office in time for a 1pm meeting with some colleagues who had come up from London.
Leah was a dream to work with as usual. I also have to mention my wife Helen who came along and acted as support.......in such a busy public environment the shoot would have been near impossible without her. Leah had purchased a couple of outfits specially for the shot and they fitted my specification perfectly. This led to me being able to produce 'stronger' more vibrant images than usual and I think you will agree they certainly have punch and impact. Hope you enjoy these latest additions.
5th OCTOBER 2009 - Well hello and welcome to the new site! I always try to respond to the requests from my regular visitors and this switch to a completely different hosting company is to cater for those wishes. People wanted to see more images, have the ability to view a few of the panoramas I have produced and to look at video. Well all of those are here now. The move has taken a lot of work, a bit of money and some incredible global jiggery pokery via UK, German and American servers but I hope the end result is worth it. In the 10 months I was able to log detailed stats on the old site it received visits from nearly 50 countries around the world, covering all of the continents. It will be interesting to see how the new site goes. Please contact me with your views.
One of the main benefits is the size at which you can view the images now. I have been able to greatly increase this without an adverse impact on the speed of the site. All thumbnails are square format for tidiness so if you would like to see one 'properly' just single click on it and you will see a medium sized version at the right hand side of the screen. if you really want to go for bust click on the medium image to get it displayed in a pop-up window.......this gives you the option of viewing it up to 'original' size - can I suggest using the 'Auto' size option as it should expand or contract to fit your own monitor size - clever eh!
14th FEBRUARY 2010 - Out early this morning to do a recce in readiness for the Viewed from above concept shoot. Very icy and amused myself no end sliding down the ramps of the bridges over the Newcastle central motorway! Not strictly part of the deal but I was asked some time ago to photograph the new Northumbria University building by the lead surveyor. An exterior image has been added to the commercial gallery.
13th JANUARY 2010 - Happy new year everyone. It's that quiet time in and around xmas and things haven't been helped by the atrocious road coditions that have made travel for pleasure unwise. Nevertheless I have been planning my concept shoots for the first half of this year and am delighted to be hooked-up with Sarah who will be working with me on my first - "Viewed from above" - scheduled for 14th March.......be sure to check back for that one, it promises to be quite special.
23rd DECEMBER 2009 - Well the year is nearly over and it has gone right up to the wire with a shoot in the last few days running up to Christmas. Amy Graham is a new model who approached me for some portfolio work. Amy brought loads of ideas with her and was a pleasure to work with. A small selection of the images are on the first page of the models gallery. Almost 1,200 unique visitors have visited the new site in the two and a half months it has been running. These from 44 countries across every continent. All that remains for me to say is enjoy the holiday and remember to check back in 2010. Kindest regards.
15th DECEMBER 2009 - A new and hopefully very interesting section has been added to the site today..........videos. Just a couple to start things off but more to come in time. Another model shoot this weekend coming so hopefully some new images in time for xmas but, in the meantime wishing everyone a very happy and enjoyable festive season.
3rd DECEMBER 2009 - Photos from the TMM Moderators group shoot at Banana Studios have now been added to the model gallery. A video is also featured in the videos section, so you can get an idea of what it all looks like 'behind the scenes' Thanks to models Charley, Claire, Debbi, Emma, Jilly, Jordan, Marlena, and Nikki plus make up artist/stylist Lucy.
23rd NOVEMBER 2009 - Gypsy didn't stay long on the top of the pile. Replacing her today is young James Colledge on his first shoot. Strong winds and failing light didn't deter us for this black and white special shoot. Enjoy the pictures. Big Banana Studios Group shoot at the weekend so expect even more images in just over a week's time!
17th NOVEMBER 2009 - Well, sorry for the longer than expected delay in having some new images to share with you, but sat-nav-itis prevented one of my models managing to find me at break of day the other Saturday! Never mind I have added some really glamorous ones to the gallery this week. I have worked with the stunningly beautiful 'Gypsy' before and we promised each other a studio shoot now the weather has 'gone beyond reasonable limits' Enjoy the pictures.
22nd OCTOBER 2009 - Very peculiar, there seems little let-up in the pace of the model shoots still being requested - normally by this time of the year things are closing down for the winter. But no, I have 4 shoots arranged plus another couple I am trying to squeeze in before mid-December. I have models rushing out to buy long fur collared coats!! I think the fingerless gloves Helen knitted me last year might see some shoot action at last - cashmere and full-frame just seem so right for each other dahlink! I've also got a shoot planned-in already for next spring down in London so I don't think the winter lay-off will seem so long this year.
EQUIPMENT UPDATE - I recently made the upgrade to a full-frame digital slr - the Sony Alpha 900. I have used it on my last 3 shoots - the Tyneside Metro, the woodland art nude and Nikki at The Sage. For the first two, where I was often shooting at iso1250, the huge bright viewfinder really helped with the dark conditions. I also combined this with the wonderful Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens to give even more in the way of low-light capability. The very popular image of Leah Baskaran in the black tunnel at Haymarket metro station saw this combination help pay for its keep! The creamy bokeh of the Sigma also got a good testing. Very happy with my current line-up! A feature that is both a downside and upside is the image filesizes generated - 35Mb per RAW - which means I now have approaching 100Gb of compact flash cards for my camera bodies and a typical day in the studio can produce about 30Gb of images from just that one shoot. The plus side is your native filesize is more than 6000x4000 pixels so there is massive scope there for cropping and still be able to produce filesizes as big as those from the Alpha700 - you can almost literally chop the A900 files in half!
18th OCTOBER 2009 - Saturday dawned with a brilliant blue sky - hurried check of calendar because I was sure it was mid-October in the north east! Quick text to Nikki to say we had "an ongoing positive climatic opportunity" as she was travelling all the way from Cumbria, and then showered, breakfast etc. Set off an hour and a bit later and as soon as we got on the open road nothing but black clouds! Nikki already on her way!! Spent a nervous 45 minutes glancing at the sky every 30 seconds. Fortunately the cloud base was fairly high and there was a surprising ambient light level. Nikki turned-up bang on time and stood there shivering while I showed her round the area we would be shooting in. Numerous pauses in the shoot for outfit changes and hypothermia prevention breaks (there are advantages to being 17 stone sometimes!!). Fortunately Nikki suited blue and we got some cracking shots.......a small selection are included in the models gallery and a link to Nikki's portfolio is in the links section in case you want to check out more of her work (and why wouldn't you!). Many thanks to Nikki and Sharon for a very enjoyable shoot. Check back here in early December for more images after a studio session.
9th OCTOBER 2009 - Well, I never thought the new site would be as successful so quickly. In the first 3 days, people visited from 12 countries; spanning the globe from USA to India to Australia and of course the UK. Visitor numbers have increased by a factor of about 6 or 7 from the old site. A great confidence boost for me personally and a good payback for all the effort expended on making the change. I must at this point give thanks to my website development consultant - Marc Melling - who guided me through the complexities of multi-national domain transfers and did all the tricky technical stuff.........top guy, see the link to his photographic site on my links page. As well as taking superb photographs Marc also has a string of successful bespoke website developments behind him - give him a shout if you need a personal showcase.
8th OCTOBER 2009 - My first shoot upload following launch of the site and what an addition it is to the models gallery! I had shot briefly with Leah Baskaran on a previous occasion. Obviously I was blown away by her stunning natural beauty and got some great shots - one of which found its way onto my business card so it must have been good! I had been planning a shoot that would 'Geordify' some of the stunning fashion images we see shot on the London Underground by using our very own rapid transit system - The Metro. This involved a few months negotiating with Nexus who run the system and getting dates suitable for Leah and me. It was a busy day as I was in the office first thing, popped out around 9am to do the shoot, then I had to get back to the office in time for a 1pm meeting with some colleagues who had come up from London.
Leah was a dream to work with as usual. I also have to mention my wife Helen who came along and acted as support.......in such a busy public environment the shoot would have been near impossible without her. Leah had purchased a couple of outfits specially for the shot and they fitted my specification perfectly. This led to me being able to produce 'stronger' more vibrant images than usual and I think you will agree they certainly have punch and impact. Hope you enjoy these latest additions.
5th OCTOBER 2009 - Well hello and welcome to the new site! I always try to respond to the requests from my regular visitors and this switch to a completely different hosting company is to cater for those wishes. People wanted to see more images, have the ability to view a few of the panoramas I have produced and to look at video. Well all of those are here now. The move has taken a lot of work, a bit of money and some incredible global jiggery pokery via UK, German and American servers but I hope the end result is worth it. In the 10 months I was able to log detailed stats on the old site it received visits from nearly 50 countries around the world, covering all of the continents. It will be interesting to see how the new site goes. Please contact me with your views.
One of the main benefits is the size at which you can view the images now. I have been able to greatly increase this without an adverse impact on the speed of the site. All thumbnails are square format for tidiness so if you would like to see one 'properly' just single click on it and you will see a medium sized version at the right hand side of the screen. if you really want to go for bust click on the medium image to get it displayed in a pop-up window.......this gives you the option of viewing it up to 'original' size - can I suggest using the 'Auto' size option as it should expand or contract to fit your own monitor size - clever eh!
13th JANUARY 2010 - Happy new year everyone. It's that quiet time in and around xmas and things haven't been helped by the atrocious road coditions that have made travel for pleasure unwise. Nevertheless I have been planning my concept shoots for the first half of this year and am delighted to be hooked-up with Sarah who will be working with me on my first - "Viewed from above" - scheduled for 14th March.......be sure to check back for that one, it promises to be quite special.
23rd DECEMBER 2009 - Well the year is nearly over and it has gone right up to the wire with a shoot in the last few days running up to Christmas. Amy Graham is a new model who approached me for some portfolio work. Amy brought loads of ideas with her and was a pleasure to work with. A small selection of the images are on the first page of the models gallery. Almost 1,200 unique visitors have visited the new site in the two and a half months it has been running. These from 44 countries across every continent. All that remains for me to say is enjoy the holiday and remember to check back in 2010. Kindest regards.
15th DECEMBER 2009 - A new and hopefully very interesting section has been added to the site today..........videos. Just a couple to start things off but more to come in time. Another model shoot this weekend coming so hopefully some new images in time for xmas but, in the meantime wishing everyone a very happy and enjoyable festive season.
3rd DECEMBER 2009 - Photos from the TMM Moderators group shoot at Banana Studios have now been added to the model gallery. A video is also featured in the videos section, so you can get an idea of what it all looks like 'behind the scenes' Thanks to models Charley, Claire, Debbi, Emma, Jilly, Jordan, Marlena, and Nikki plus make up artist/stylist Lucy.
23rd NOVEMBER 2009 - Gypsy didn't stay long on the top of the pile. Replacing her today is young James Colledge on his first shoot. Strong winds and failing light didn't deter us for this black and white special shoot. Enjoy the pictures. Big Banana Studios Group shoot at the weekend so expect even more images in just over a week's time!
17th NOVEMBER 2009 - Well, sorry for the longer than expected delay in having some new images to share with you, but sat-nav-itis prevented one of my models managing to find me at break of day the other Saturday! Never mind I have added some really glamorous ones to the gallery this week. I have worked with the stunningly beautiful 'Gypsy' before and we promised each other a studio shoot now the weather has 'gone beyond reasonable limits' Enjoy the pictures.
22nd OCTOBER 2009 - Very peculiar, there seems little let-up in the pace of the model shoots still being requested - normally by this time of the year things are closing down for the winter. But no, I have 4 shoots arranged plus another couple I am trying to squeeze in before mid-December. I have models rushing out to buy long fur collared coats!! I think the fingerless gloves Helen knitted me last year might see some shoot action at last - cashmere and full-frame just seem so right for each other dahlink! I've also got a shoot planned-in already for next spring down in London so I don't think the winter lay-off will seem so long this year.
EQUIPMENT UPDATE - I recently made the upgrade to a full-frame digital slr - the Sony Alpha 900. I have used it on my last 3 shoots - the Tyneside Metro, the woodland art nude and Nikki at The Sage. For the first two, where I was often shooting at iso1250, the huge bright viewfinder really helped with the dark conditions. I also combined this with the wonderful Sigma 50mm f1.4 lens to give even more in the way of low-light capability. The very popular image of Leah Baskaran in the black tunnel at Haymarket metro station saw this combination help pay for its keep! The creamy bokeh of the Sigma also got a good testing. Very happy with my current line-up! A feature that is both a downside and upside is the image filesizes generated - 35Mb per RAW - which means I now have approaching 100Gb of compact flash cards for my camera bodies and a typical day in the studio can produce about 30Gb of images from just that one shoot. The plus side is your native filesize is more than 6000x4000 pixels so there is massive scope there for cropping and still be able to produce filesizes as big as those from the Alpha700 - you can almost literally chop the A900 files in half!
18th OCTOBER 2009 - Saturday dawned with a brilliant blue sky - hurried check of calendar because I was sure it was mid-October in the north east! Quick text to Nikki to say we had "an ongoing positive climatic opportunity" as she was travelling all the way from Cumbria, and then showered, breakfast etc. Set off an hour and a bit later and as soon as we got on the open road nothing but black clouds! Nikki already on her way!! Spent a nervous 45 minutes glancing at the sky every 30 seconds. Fortunately the cloud base was fairly high and there was a surprising ambient light level. Nikki turned-up bang on time and stood there shivering while I showed her round the area we would be shooting in. Numerous pauses in the shoot for outfit changes and hypothermia prevention breaks (there are advantages to being 17 stone sometimes!!). Fortunately Nikki suited blue and we got some cracking shots.......a small selection are included in the models gallery and a link to Nikki's portfolio is in the links section in case you want to check out more of her work (and why wouldn't you!). Many thanks to Nikki and Sharon for a very enjoyable shoot. Check back here in early December for more images after a studio session.
9th OCTOBER 2009 - Well, I never thought the new site would be as successful so quickly. In the first 3 days, people visited from 12 countries; spanning the globe from USA to India to Australia and of course the UK. Visitor numbers have increased by a factor of about 6 or 7 from the old site. A great confidence boost for me personally and a good payback for all the effort expended on making the change. I must at this point give thanks to my website development consultant - Marc Melling - who guided me through the complexities of multi-national domain transfers and did all the tricky technical stuff.........top guy, see the link to his photographic site on my links page. As well as taking superb photographs Marc also has a string of successful bespoke website developments behind him - give him a shout if you need a personal showcase.
8th OCTOBER 2009 - My first shoot upload following launch of the site and what an addition it is to the models gallery! I had shot briefly with Leah Baskaran on a previous occasion. Obviously I was blown away by her stunning natural beauty and got some great shots - one of which found its way onto my business card so it must have been good! I had been planning a shoot that would 'Geordify' some of the stunning fashion images we see shot on the London Underground by using our very own rapid transit system - The Metro. This involved a few months negotiating with Nexus who run the system and getting dates suitable for Leah and me. It was a busy day as I was in the office first thing, popped out around 9am to do the shoot, then I had to get back to the office in time for a 1pm meeting with some colleagues who had come up from London.
Leah was a dream to work with as usual. I also have to mention my wife Helen who came along and acted as support.......in such a busy public environment the shoot would have been near impossible without her. Leah had purchased a couple of outfits specially for the shot and they fitted my specification perfectly. This led to me being able to produce 'stronger' more vibrant images than usual and I think you will agree they certainly have punch and impact. Hope you enjoy these latest additions.
5th OCTOBER 2009 - Well hello and welcome to the new site! I always try to respond to the requests from my regular visitors and this switch to a completely different hosting company is to cater for those wishes. People wanted to see more images, have the ability to view a few of the panoramas I have produced and to look at video. Well all of those are here now. The move has taken a lot of work, a bit of money and some incredible global jiggery pokery via UK, German and American servers but I hope the end result is worth it. In the 10 months I was able to log detailed stats on the old site it received visits from nearly 50 countries around the world, covering all of the continents. It will be interesting to see how the new site goes. Please contact me with your views.
One of the main benefits is the size at which you can view the images now. I have been able to greatly increase this without an adverse impact on the speed of the site. All thumbnails are square format for tidiness so if you would like to see one 'properly' just single click on it and you will see a medium sized version at the right hand side of the screen. if you really want to go for bust click on the medium image to get it displayed in a pop-up window.......this gives you the option of viewing it up to 'original' size - can I suggest using the 'Auto' size option as it should expand or contract to fit your own monitor size - clever eh!
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