When you're standing on the ice, waiting for the snow mobile......
However, that’s a relatively rare set of conditions and this Rab’s drawbacks are significant. First off [click to continue…]
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Which is the winner? GT3RS vs Ferrari 458 Italia
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I’m a huge fan of Capture One software for processing RAW files. For sure, Aperture and Lightroom may have more ‘bling’ and Capture One doesn’t have image archiving without buying the additional Media Pro, but I love the files it produces, having used it since 2003 when I moved to digital with Canon DSLR’s.
This year, I plan to try out the Phase One camera system. I miss my Mamiya 645 film system and as the latest DSLR’s are going for higher and higher frame rates, that’s not what I need in my work. On location, I rarely need more than 5 frames per second, even when shooting aeiail photography or car to car, plus this post by David Hobby voiced what I had been privately thinking myself this past few months.
Take a look at this video showing photographer Eric Schmid shooting wakeboarding action, managing just fine with a Phase One 645 system.
There’s only one part of this video that makes me cringe. Helicopter pilots and aerial photographers may want to look away at around the 1:02 mark. A Robinson R22 at low altitude, low speed, over water is not my idea of fun at all. For that shot, I’d be a damn sight more confortable with a turbine for the extra reliability and power under the pilots left hand….
A Phase One camera system in an aerial photography environment should produce some stunning results, even without the latest IQ180 back, so I look forward to seeing what this might bring clients looking for very large files for advertising and display.
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Lightning Jet decaying beside the A1 near Newark
If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here’s how I recall it, [click to continue…]
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iPhone - Ferrari 358 Italia
I’m a great believer in Chase Jarvis’ mantra of The Best Camera is the one you have in your hand when you see the image, but sometimes, it’s best to just sit and take in the whole scene, instead of trying to frame it through a tiny LCD screen. And that goes for other things to. Over the Christmas period, I zoned out of my social media connections and deliberately resisted the temptation to swipe my screen every time there was a pause in a conversation, or the little device ‘bonged’ a push notification. I did the same with my email, only checking it once or twice a day and having Mail turned off in between. This removed the time thief temptation of breaking off what I was working on to read emails that could wait. And I felt better for it.
iPhone is a great personal device and I’ll be writing more shortly about some of the useful apps I use for my work and others that I find entertaining. But just like Nick, while I won’t be giving up my iPhone and other technology entirely, I will be setting it down in another room for much longer periods than before. Twitter can wait for an hour, can’t it?
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This is a very simple, but strangely moving video. Taking clips we’ve all seen before and using that editing skill that the BBC seem to have a unique handle on, creating a compelling video. Watch this an enjoy the voice of Sir David and the camera work of some of the world’s finest.
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Oh dear, it seems that UNISON fell for it. Just at the time of year when Clarkson has another POOWWEERR DVD that needs pushing, they get him on prime time TV and let him lose on his favourite target. And they bit. So today, the union are calling for Clarkson’s arrest for ‘hate crime’, they’re taking, no doubt expensive’ legal advice and manage to score a great PR own goal. If you missed it, Clarkson called for striking union members to be executed ion front of their families, which went down really well, as you can imagine.
Cue uproar, a UNISON press release demanding his summary dismissal and prosecution.
“Public sector workers and their families are utterly shocked by Jeremy Clarkson’s revolting comments. We know that many other licence fee payers share our concerns about his outrageous views. The One Show is broadcast at a time when children are watching — they could have been scared and upset by his aggressive statements. An apology is not enough — we are calling on the BBC to sack Jeremy Clarkson immediately. Such disgusting statements have no place on our TV screens.“
And, as The New Statesmen points out, there’s something rather ironic about a trade union calling for someone to be summarily sacked…
The Twitter hashtag of #clarksongate trended and The Daily Mash, as ever, hit the nail on the head. Sadly, what the union people failed to realise was that firstly, Amazon sales of Clarkson’s DVD, aptly named Powered Up, are now surging forwards.
Secondly, Clarkson is a caricature of a motoring journalist. His cartoon like reviews are entertaining, but in my view, he’s a far better TV presenter when not discussing cars. His programmes about Brunel, the St Nazaire raids of WW2 and his superb Victoria Cross documentary are far more worthy of the man.
But it’s so funny sometimes just to watch as someone wheels him in, lights the fuse and stands well back…
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Restoring my faith in quality programming - BBC's Frozen Planet
I’m truly blown away by the quality of the camera work on Frozen Planet. The dedication, skill and patience required to achieve the footage can only be imagined. The BBC Frozen Plant website has a whole section dedicated to showing how the programme was made, showing the producers, directors and cameramen who are undoubtedly at the top of their game.
People I know who have no interest in photography, film making, wildlife or cold temperatures have all been talking, without prompting, about how much they enjoy Frozen Planet. And the one thing they all comment on is the quality of the camera work. It’s gratifying to know that in these fast moving times of camera phones and grainy YouTube videos people still recognise great photography.
If you haven’t seen it, Frozen Planet is syndicating it’s way around the globe. Reality television at it’s best.
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One of the things I love about aerial photography is how it’s nearly always a snapshot in time. We’re constatly changing and re-developing our landscape and even buildings and structures I’ve known since I was a child don’t escape this process.
Anyone flying in or out of Teesside Airport, or Durham Tees Valley as it has now been rather clumsily renamed, will be familiar with the large green buildings just off the eastern the end of the runway. The aluminium smelting plant has been there for many decades, a rather grim looking place that the brightly polished main entrance constructed relativley recently didn’t really conceal.
But now, it’s gone. Over the last few months, the demolition crews have been in, slowly dismantling the huge steel buildings so that now is is no more. I’ve not flown over recently, but this image from 2006 shows the final days of the plant in operation, before it was mothballed, then closed entirely.
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