A steep curve to learn.....

A steep curve to learn.....

I was primarily a Nikon shooter for 20 years or so, that is a long time to invest in a comapany and a brand. Over the last few years though I had begun to look elswhere, to stray from my preverbial marraige to Nikon. My first daliance was with Fujifilm, and this has blossomed beyond a romance and into a full fledged relationship, no one makes a sensor like the X-Trans and my X-Pro2 is easily the best street and travel camera I have ever owned or used.

It was the introduction to a mirrorless sytem that got me over the hurdle and open to the possibilities of moving away from the traditional mirrored systems I had been using for so long. There has been a new player to the pro camera market really making splashes over the past 5 years or so. It's a huge company with plenty of history in image making, but never before had I really considered it a true rival to Nikon or Canon until the A7 range landed. Yep, I am talking about Sony. With the release of the A7RII I was convinced and then the A7RIII arrived and I was sold completly on the new system in my arsenal.

It isn't just the cameras but also the GM glass that Sony has begun to produce that totally conviced me that now was the time to invest. So at the end of 2017, I sold all of my Nikon kit bar a couple of nice lenses (which I adapt to my Sony bodies) and invested in a A7RII and an A7RIII. Why get both you may ask, well a couple of reasons. I always want a back up body and as the new model was iminant the RII was at a good price, I also want to start to video my shoots and either camera is capable of doing this. Along with the bodies I splashed out on two GM lenses, a virtical grip for each body (I have big hands so better ergonomics and want longer battery life), and I also bought a Sony speedlight. I don't do things by halves, I went all in.

Wanting to test shoot as soon as possible I organised an editorial and on a rainy day made the first leap toward really learning the Sony system.

As you can see the condidions were somewhat tricky but we pulled together and got some good shots in the bag. All the time I was fumbling about with buttons and the menu, but I had to learn, and to learn you have to know what you need to learn. First thing I did when I got back was customise all the buttons, now both of my A7R's are set up the same and are feeling more familiar and natural everytime I use them. 

I shot in mixed light, including daylight, strobe, flurecents and tungsten all in one day, my A7RII handeled that superbly. 

My concern about using flash and the EVF (Electronic View Finder) where allayed, as soon as I attached my Cactus V6IIS the auto realtime exposure overide kicked in and the viewfider was bright and beautiful to use. Also the EVF is so nice to review images, much easier than squinting at a screen on the back of the camera on a bright day.

I only could find a couple of drawbacks, the first was a shutter lag issue, which was later cured with a firmware update for the RII and never a problem for the RIII. The second was with the 24-70 2.8 GM lens; teamed with the 42mp sensor the images were so detailed it meant I had to do more work in post production to hide that our lovely model had not shaved her legs haha. Even in the shot from above looking down at a distance I could see that much detail, amazing.

And so I picked up the A7RIII the day after it's release and made a more determined editorial, this time for HUF Magazine.

I am so proud of this editorial, and all of my team who worked on it, Zoe Chen, Eddie Shi, Queena Tsai, Anjen Lee and Kazuki Itchinose, great work all of you.

So that was the end of  2017 but the start of a new relationship. The begining of 2018 would see me take the Sonys into battle on the commercial stage. It was a running start to the new year and a very happy one to boot. 

The title to this blog is not just refering to the learning of the new system, but also my return to film making and the world of moving images. I haven't shot moving images since the early 90's but now I have started again and am excited to be doing so. My intention is to show all of my videos via a Youtube channel. I want to help others learn and see that it is ok not to be perfect straight away. It is indeed a steep learning curve, a curve I am embracing by scripting and planning my first micro move to be shot on the 22nd of March, a total commitment as always. I also want to have my shoots filmed and let people see exactly what a crazy day shooting editorial can be, so keep an eye out for that all coming up.

I hope you enjoyed this episode, and got an insight into the work that I do, and effort that we all put into it to produce beautiful images.

If you want to book me for work get in touch so we can discuss your needs and get started making a great project together.

You can also check out my Instagram , Tumblr, Twitter and Linkedin. Remember to LIKE COMMENT, SHARE and FOLLOW.

Thank you and love to all.....

Where does the time goooo.......??

Where does the time gooooo....??

Can it really be so long since I wrote my last blog, please forgive my absence. Things were great last year and levelled up towards the end. The start of this year saw me shooting two commercial projects in the first two weeks, hopefully a good omen for the year ahead. I can't really talk about those as the agencies haven't published yet, however I can talk about last year.

Take a look at my last blog and can see that my team and I risked our lives in the heat on the beach to create a beautiful editorial for Féroce Magazine. As I sit here writing this and looking at the grey overcast and considerably colder day outside I am longing for those hard light, sunny days by the ocean. Currently in Taiwan we have had persistant presipitation, some snow on higher ground and more seriously a series of earthquakes. 

Back to last year though and work. My year was predominantly taken up with shooting content for ASUS, laptops and mobile phones. It was solid and continous, I am not going to complain about being tired from work, the busier the better and I love the challenge. Over the year I made images for the ZenBook Deluxe 3, the ZenFone 3 Zoom, UX430 and UX530 laptops, VivoBook S and Pro, ZenFone Max and Max Pro, ZenFone 4, ZenFone 4 Pro, ZenFone Selfie and ZenFone Selfie Pro. So quite a lot of images to produce and original content to create. Here are some examples.....

Along with making the still images for ASUS, they requested Cinemagrams/Cinemagraphs. For those that don't know what these are, they are still images with a moving compnant within them.

These were certainly a challenge and something new for me to learn, improve on and understand. The other thing they did was get me thinking more about creating moving images, and so the seed was sewn.

I had been shooting with Nikon for nearly 20 years, Fujifilm joined my arsenal 5 years ago and I am now a Fujifilm X-Photographer and love the cameras they produce. It was not an easy decision to make but I came to the conclusion it was time for the Nikons to go. The cameras that had been catching my attention for a while were all coming from Sony and their A7R series. I knew the A7RII was a little old and due to be replaced, as a result the price was very good, I also heard that a deal was available for early buyers of the A7RIII. Both cameras offered so much more than the Nikons. The other thing that interested me and possibly even more important was the Sony GM glass (lenses), they are not cheap by any means but now, having used them I see why. The clarity and sharpness are strides ahead of the Nikon glass I owned, and I owned the top of the range from Nikon. So far I have the 16-35mm GM and 24-70 GM for my A7RII and A7RIII. I did keep my Nikon 50 1.4 and 85 1.8 which I use via an adaptor and manual focus. The Manual focus action on the Sony is very similar feeling to the old manual only days, and with focus peaking is a doddle. I have made a few shoots with the Sony's, and am gradually learning the new system. I have also recently bought a Zhiyun Crane 2 gimble, so this is the year I re-learn film making. I'll move onto the Sony Images in my next blog, and talk more about my experience with them, I may even have a bit of film footage shot to show you, but don't hold your breath on that as I want to get it right first.

So that summed up 2017 and now I am looking into 2018, getting Chinese New Year done with a little holiday to Japan (film making practice haha) and then getting busy image making. I am already working on the next couple of commercial projects, one here in Taiwan and another in China. I have started a personal portrait series which is coming along nicely and have the plans of two fashion editorials begun.

2018......BRING IT ON!!

I hope you enjoyed this episode, and got an insight into the work that I do, and effort that we all put into it to produce beautiful images.

If you want to book me for work get in touch so we can discuss your needs and get started making a great project together.

You can also check out my Instagram , Tumblr, Twitter and Linkedin. Remember to LIKE COMMENT, SHARE and FOLLOW.

Thank you and love to all.....

Heat Strokes - A Fashion Editorial for Féroce Magazine...

Heat Strokes - A Fashion Editorial

Fashion was on my mind, I had had a meeting with a prominant New York Agent and gone through my portfolio sorting the wheat from the chaff. Fresh and experienced eyes always help this process, it was a most positive and constructive experience.

Having spent the majority of this year shooting purely commercial campaigns, which has been great,  I needed a creative break and a different focus. Fortunately a fabulous stylist was back in Taiwan, Tess Chung spends her time between Taiwan and L.A. she is super busy building her clothing brand Agameartists (get over there and check out her store), so I was blessed that she had time to style a shoot for me. Good wardrobe stylists are tricky to find, and especially here in Taiwan, it is a shame as unlike some other photographers, I feel that they are an imperative asset and invaluable on set. Luck seemed to be on my side for this shoot as Jordan Mcewen a fantastic Canadian model was back on the Island. She had reached out to me and asked to shoot as soon as she had landed, I was thrilled as having worked with her before I know she is really talented. So the team was coming together, Tess got her friend and hairstylist Queena Tsai onboard, I rounded it off with make up artist Eddi Shi. I also have to say a big thank you to my two great and hard working assistants that day, Christy Lin and Edison Tang.

As Tess pulled some looks together it was over to me to head out and location scout. I had been thinking of a beach on the west coast, but after further contemplation and searching on Google Earth decided to check out a place I had shot at before. There seemed to be an area I hadn't explored that looked like it had great potential. Jumping on my scooter I headed off on the 20km ride to check it out. That is the benefit of living on a small island I guess, everything is relatively close, however the traffic is usually heavy as it is quite densly populated here so it takes a little longer than you may expect. About an hour later I rolled up and wandered down to the place I was thinking about, it was perfect for us.

I made some quick reference shots on my phone as you can see and sent them to Tess so she could get a better idea of my direction and thoughts, she really liked the location too and so we were now pretty much set. Speaking to everyone we found a day that fitted, there would be no chance of a reshoot if anything happened as Jordan was flying out the next day so all fingers were crossed for good weather, little did we realise what we would be faced with.

Since moving to Taiwan I have made photoshoots on blissfully nice days, days with rain driving sideways in off the ocean, days with mist rolling over us on a mountain side and days with a typhoon heading in and facing the winds that brings to mention just a few. This day was something else though, we have had a hot summer, many days have been mid to high 30's (96+ in fahrenheit). On our shoot day we had got ready early starting at 07:00, leaving Taipei and heading out we were on the location around 09:30 and began to lug the kit down. The temperature was already hitting 30 degrees, and there was not a scrap of breeze to cool us, it was going to be hardcore and I was already slightly concerned for the team. I had brought water for everyone, I had also brought a cooler with ice and beer so we could hit the beach after the shoot and chill together, that plan was not to come be.

The first victims were Tess's shoes, they simply melted in the hot sand and decintigrated, Eddi had stripped to his shorts and was regularly getting in the water, my reflector was deployed to bounce the sun off the kit and offer that some protection. Shoot through umbrellas were handed out for shade and used to shade my light which was baking. Anything we could do to try and keep ourselves and the kit cool was already happening by 10:30 and we were scheduled to shoot until 14:00, this was not good.

Gradually Tess started to look like she was really suffering, I have experience of heat stroke and how dangerous the heat can be so I urged her to get into the ocean and try to cool down. Christy went and got the cool box and we all took turns to place the ice bags on our necks, anything to find a bit of relief. I was ringing with sweat, I may as well have been in the ocean, worse still I was starting to shake from the heat and my head was pounding but I had no choice other than to press on.

I had brought my Mamiya RZ67ProII along with the intention of shooting some rolls of film. I shot one roll per set, so 30 shots for the first three looks, but after that I had to forget about it. I couldn't risk the team or myself by taking time to load film and shoot. I did get some lovely images with the Mamiya and there is certainly a different feel from both film and medium format.

I will for sure be bringing it out on set more regularly in future, preferably when I am not in a situation where the sweat dripping off me is obscuring the viewfinder!

Jordan was a trooper and just kept going as we were falling by the wayside. The ice bags had melted by then and been cut open to share the cool water between us. By now it was midday, the sun was relentless, beating down mercylessly. I was wearing a pair of Vans shoes and the sand was burning my feet through them, it was rediculous, I was later to find out that the temperature on that beach had been an estimated 45 degrees (113 degrees fahrenheit). Here we are battling the heat for this shoot.

Dispite everything we completed the shoot and then it was time to pack up and drag the kit back up the hill to the car. Tess's first pair of shoes had been abandoned, I had given her a pair that I had brought for the shoot but by now they had melted too. She headed off to the car ahead of us dragging her suitcase of clothes. Edison, Christy and I were left to pull the kit out, on the way up the path we found Tess, she was exhausted. I too was exhausted by the time I made it to my car, I really felt like I was about to pass out, Edison saved me though delivering a cool sports replenishment drink. He had gone to the vending machine and bought one bottle for everyone, it was a real lifesaver the hero of the day. Needless to say any plan to hit the beach was abandoned and we all headed home to recover.

So was the shoot worth it? Damn right it was, it went straight into Féroce Magazine, we produced some killer shots and as always the challenge made us push our limits and reach higher.

So I have to say an extra special thank you to all the team, Tess, Queena, Eddi, Christy and Edison. Also a special thank you to Cactus Image for producing super reliable kit that can handle these torturous conditions, it is great to be an Ambassador for such a good company who genuinly want to make the right product for working photographers such as myself (check them out for good kit that works).

And so I suppose you want to see the final results from the days shooting, well I hope you enjoy these.

There we are, a fashion shoot from start to finish pretty much. Thankfully conditions aren't always as demanding as this, but shooting on location you have to take the rough with the smooth. I am shooting two more editorials over the next two weeks so will see what is thrown at us for those, I could of course simply head in to a studio, but where is the fun in that.

I hope you enjoyed this episode, and got an insight into the work that I do, and effort that we all put into it to produce beautiful images.

If you want to book me for work get in touch so we can discuss your needs and get started making a great project together.

You can also check out my Instagram , Tumblr, Twitter and Linkedin. Remember to LIKE COMMENT, SHARE and FOLLOW.

Thank you and love to all.....