1,000

Stilts2
Originally uploaded by Nostromoo

It turns out that this is my 1,000 image uploaded to Flickr. I kind of thought that I would do something special but I'm not convinced by this whole arbitrary importance of 'round numbers'. Why is 1,000 and more special than 916? Why is age 30 so stupendously different than being aged 29 or 31?

So I didn't mark my magic 1,000th image, but just in case I'll make it retropectively.

Oh I did do one for 500 too, doesn't seem that long ago really but you can find it a-ways back..

Cider County

Cider County
Originally uploaded by Nostromoo

So anyone who follows cricket, particularly Somerset, ought to recognise a couple of these faces. Of course it's Andy Caddick, who also played for England, and local lad Keith Parsons. Both really big names in the region. I thought I'd share the story of how I cam to take this photograph.

It all started long ago. Well perhaps not that long. As regular readers of the blog may know (if such people exist), I occasionally have images printed in the local paper, the Somerset County Gazette. Generally they are in the leisure section, although I'd had a front page before.

One of my more recent pictures was used without attribution. Now I realise that attribution isn't worth a dime, but frankly it's all I get. I don't get paid by the Gazette, and I seldom get paid by the person I am promoting (either the band or the venue) so to lose the attribution as well is too much. And my mom likes it that I can get in the paper and she can read my name.

So because I was rather annoyed I wrote and complained, and sure enough with my next image my name was printed. And to show my appreciation I wrote to the journalist who "wrote" the story that went along with my image to thank her. (Yes someone else gets credited for the words I write too because presumably they edit them to fit the space available and sometimes they add a paragraph to publicise future events.) And thus we've had a little dialogue going now. And in fact I just send my stories and pictures direct to her now anyway.

On my last submission, I included a line, something like "I'm available for freelance commissions, I don't only do bands." A few days later I had an email out of the blue from a P.R. agency in London. They asked if I was available that Friday for a freelance commission as they had received my details from the Gazette and they needed a photog at short notice.

COOL!

So of course I accepted. The story unfolded that Blackthorn Cider (Gaymers) were planting a tree at the County Ground as part of the redevelopment at the stand. As sponsors of Somerset CCC, they had a little plaque with the tree and they wanted a PR shot of the orchard manager with a couple of the cricketers they could use.

I was really thrilled to be asked to do this shoot, and I had a lot of fun doing it, despite the fact it was actually raining very slightly. In fact I submitted my final images just today and uploaded a zip file they could download there and then from my website. TIFF files come out somewhere in the region of 250MB so I'm offering to supply them on CD if they need or want them, the JPEGs were only 30MB so it's much easier to download.

For the record I supplied a contact sheet of the 19 'best images' within 3 hours of the shoot. I then supplied at request quarter resolution copy (i.e. somewhere like 1600 pixels long edge, with a faint watermark) for their further review, and submitted full resolution images (including hdr processed versions - to tone down the sky from the solid white overcast) less than 24 hours after their final selection. I think that was pretty good service myself.

I hope they are please with the results. The Gazette man visited the shoot and took a couple of images quickly. The one they printed in the paper was very nice, and he didn't lie, like Arthur Dent, in the mud (as I did). I kind of which that I took that image myself, but I am still happy with the ones I did take. I think it's a good start and certainly stretches my comfort zone for photography and honestly makes me want more.

Feet don't touch the ground

This are mental at the moment.

Just got back from my first commission at The Perfect 5th. This was a booking made by the local college to cover one of their music evenings. The idea is that the students studying music perform various gigs over the year, which are videoed, and they choose the best 3 to be submitted as course work. The college marketing department wanted a few shots, I was told "a shot of every performer, and 5 to 6 group shots" of the evening, and someone told them that I was a photographer. I'm still not 100% sure who it was yet, all I have is a first name which still leaves two possibilities.

This was booked a couple of weeks ago, along with another booking for a larger event called Rockfest 2009. This again is a college event, but showcases a larger selection of bands.

Based on these two bookings I'd already initiated a web site design, and designed some Moo photo business cards. It's still early days, the website is coming along and already looking great, and the business cards are apparently printed but could take up to 5 more days to arrive.

But when I was shooting tonight, one of the heads of music, who was there to video the event for their coursework, asked me if I wanted to do the video as well, asked me if I had some business cards, and promised me lots more work in the future. That was before he even saw the video I shot, or any of my pictures.

It's all snowballing out of control! :)

I've just got back, and I'm so tired. I'll let it sink in while I sleep now I think.

Strange Weekend

I'm having a strange weekend so far, strange in a good way perhaps, but certainly unexpected.

Friday (of course) we were at The Perfect 5th. 3 Bands were playing, neither of whom I'd heard of, or particularly wanted to see necessarily, but it's a night out and an excuse to use my camera. I had planned on Saturday to take some pictures anyway, so Friday I could treat as a little warm up.

So the first band on Friday were The Hitchhikers, who are a local band. They are a four piece that have been together for about 2 years, and two are now in college, one is taking a gap year and the other (I think) works in the region. They were pretty good, and still young, I quite enjoyed it. So of course I tried a few shots, different angles, some experimentation.

Once the set was over, I was standing by the bar waiting for the next act, when this lady came up to me and asked who I was taking picture for. After a little conversation it turns out she is the mother of the lead singer, and didn't bring her camera and wondered if she could see my pictures. Sure why not? If she'd never asked me they still go on flickr just the same so why not send her the link?

For a while now, following a conversation on facebook, I've been thinking about taking commercial assignments. I've had a front page on the gazette, a half page inside and three other smaller images, so there must be some value in my shots. But does this 'value' translate to people actually handing over money? After all it's easy to like something free. So I've been wondering about trying to recoup some of my costs, especially as I've started taking film pictures now. (Which reminds me I must blog about the F5 story). So this lady coming up to me gets me thinking, firstly I decide to ask her theoretically speaking, would she considering commissioning someone to do a shoot like this, how much would she be happy to spend, and if she had commissioned me under those circumstances would she be happy with the images I've supplied? Secondly, can I try and make a little money selling her prints. Even if she does download from flickr, they are still inferior images to what I could supply Peak myself, so there is still a 'value-add' in coming through me. And if I can make a few pounds it's all good.

So I process the Hitchhikers images first and let her have the link. I know so far that she like them, and given my visitors tripled today after a stagnant week, I'm thinking she must have shared the link. So earlier today I'm was happy just to let that run and see what happens.

Now of course it's Saturday, and earlier tonight Harry and the Hecklers were scheduled to perform at the 5th. I saw two of them, just Rupert and Tom, play at the Open Mic months ago when it first started. Their music is maybe not mainstream, but they do sound good and Rupert has an undeniable personality. And they have absolute bags of style and persona. So I really want to get some shots, and some film shots. I bought some Ilford Delta 400 with them in mind actually. If I can get it right, I think the images would look awesome.

We got the the 5th and I let them get a couple of songs out. I always prefer to miss the first couple of songs and just let the band get settled in, and build a bit of rapport with the audience. I was spotted by HATH once I did approach though, and Rupert played up to the camera a little. But some of the images should look great I think. I was using the 85mm and got some nice tight framing. I just hope the exposure was good enough. I really miss chimping.

After HATH had finished, Rupert came up to me and gave me his 'card'. Which was basically his MySpace URL on a bit of paper. He asked if I worked for the 5th. Said "I don't know how this works, do I give you money now," which taken out of context would probably sound pretty strange.

I explained I was just freelance and it was more of a hobby really. And he said he'd like to see my pictures. I said no problem and if he liked them perhaps he could donate something to the Jamie Gordon lens fund, or consider me if he wanted any photoshoots doing. "How about one now?" he said? "A shot of the band we can use as a better profile image" he continued. Okay sure, why not.

So there I am, with three uniquely dressed performers, standing in a stairwell, with a lens I wouldn't have chosen for such a confined space, with no strobe, no reflectors or umbrellas, doing what could well be my first paying job.

We'll just have to hope that I got something they can use, and would be happy to contribute towards a future 24-70 f/2.8 or something.

It's all a bit of a blur now really. And I'm tired and I'm going to bed.

Flickr Stats

Oooh, there's a "So far today" in flickr stats now. So I can upload and hit F5 all day instead of needing to wait whole 24 hours to find out how people came to find the image!

Not that with "3 views" it really matters I suppose :p

New Lens

Café Culture
Originally uploaded by Nostromoo

I've recently enjoyed taking photographs in The Perfect 5th club in Taunton. But the lighting isn't great, it's pretty dark, so one needs a fast lens. The first time I went I took my 85mm f/1.4 which was acceptable. I only had to drop to 640 ASA ish and got some nice sharp images. But the focal length was a bit restrictive. It was fine if there was only one person on stage, but there was no hope of getting a whole band in so I needed something wider.

I trawled eBay for some cheap wider angles, I toyed with the idea of the AiS 28mm or 35mm f/2.8 lenses but a gig was coming up and I needed something now and I kept loosing auctions, so I plopped for a brand new 50mm online, but I went for the f/1.8 rather than the 1.4 for price reasons (I needed it the next day really, and could find a reasonably priced 1.4 in time). 50mm it turned out was actually wide enough for my needs so I was very happy with it.

So of course I took the lens to Spain, and I've almost fallen in love. The lens is just amazing. It focuses so close you can almost put the camera in someone's face (if you wanted.) This shot I took across the table from Pixie when she was having a cup of coffee. It's sharp beyond belief, this is wide open at f/1.8 too! Stopped down a little it's unbelievably good.

The things I don't like about it are that it feels like it's made of plastic - it feels very cheap (which it was). And it's actually such a short lens I have trouble sometimes focusing because I can't get my fingers on the focus ring - it's much nearer the body than I grab for after using my 85mm, which is monstrously large in comparison.

But I adore the results. I'm so tempted to get the 50mm f/1.2 AiS now, or maybe the equivalent Zeiss ZF mount.

50mm is actually a really useful focal length, even on DX sensors, and this baby is real pleasure to use. And this lens, even shooting MF and MA, which I do a lot now, you can get some cracking exposures from it.

Photo Journalism

It seems the Somerset County Gazette will print any old rubbish these days. I sent some pictures of snow men to the gazette a couple weeks back, on the advice of one of my friends, and as an aside I also included some pictures I took during the Open Mic Night at The Perfect 5th in Taunton. I never heard back from the Gazette so I just forgot about it, until the other night when Martin (of Butterscotchworld fame) asked if I was pleased with the gazette photo. This greatly puzzled me, because Martin didn't know me when I did the Royal Marines photos, so surely he didn't mean that. So he explained that my picture of Dave Marrow had been included.

When he told me this I was in fact watching Ryan Inglis performing so suddenly fired up to take loads of photos. I sent these in also, and I even wrote a little story to accompany them.



I got no attribution sadly, not even for the story which, although was edited somewhat from my original words, is still substantially mine. I think they added the comment about Bryher being from Richard Huish themselves, these rest was just editing to make it shorter.

I shall have to remind them about the lack of attribution for my next article.

The Dave Marrow picture appeared on page 31 of the Feb 12th 2009 issue of the Gazette. The "Perfect Night Out" story is the bottom of page 87 of the Feb 26th 2009 issue.