The gay area of Manchester is on my door step, yesterday saw the area I live in transformed, over the weekend tens of thousands of people will descend and party the night and weekend away.
In the evenings I am working for various venues capturing the atmosphere and vibe for them, really looking forward to it, will be long days for sure as I have studio commitments during the day also...
The low light setups will be tricky, they always are, so high ISO, wide apertures slow shutter speeds will be the order of the day, lots of miss shots but the opportunity for some good character/ atmospheric shots.
Enjoy your weekend whatever your doing... J
Saturday, 28 August 2010
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Photography as your business
All businesses need work > cash flow in order to continue to be viable, cash is king.
New photographers don’t be tempted to plough heaps of money in chasing the dream of instant wow, its experience you need and to develop quality work that is commercially viable if you are to exist entirely on photography alone.
As I reflected recently on myself I decided there are three things that you need to do, shoot as often as possible.. Look at areas you are weak in so critically appraise yourself. Try as often as you can to undertake personal projects this will stimulate you and take your work in different directions. Finally take time out to look at other photographers work or sit in with other photographers if you get the opportunity.
Professional photographers hold workshops that cost from £40 to £100 per day per delegate most class sizes are ten or so, jump in them, from time to time I do...leaving my camera at home (personal choice) its the little gold nuggets they throw away in general conversation that are the reason I go.
When you sit with other photographers it’s a double win, you see new techniques and you can see what they do good/ bad.
What does this have to do with photography as your business, it is about making your images the best they can be and constantly evolving your busines into something stronger ...more diverse. This kind of attitude helps keep me motivated and making changes in technique and direction year on year.
Set yourself high but realistic targets, i.e. clients to work with and income targets, monitor and review how your doing, if you think it helps ask a friend to review your performance periodically to see if your doing what you set out to do. As with all plans constantly review to make sure that's the best plan for you.
New photographers don’t be tempted to plough heaps of money in chasing the dream of instant wow, its experience you need and to develop quality work that is commercially viable if you are to exist entirely on photography alone.
As I reflected recently on myself I decided there are three things that you need to do, shoot as often as possible.. Look at areas you are weak in so critically appraise yourself. Try as often as you can to undertake personal projects this will stimulate you and take your work in different directions. Finally take time out to look at other photographers work or sit in with other photographers if you get the opportunity.
Professional photographers hold workshops that cost from £40 to £100 per day per delegate most class sizes are ten or so, jump in them, from time to time I do...leaving my camera at home (personal choice) its the little gold nuggets they throw away in general conversation that are the reason I go.
When you sit with other photographers it’s a double win, you see new techniques and you can see what they do good/ bad.
What does this have to do with photography as your business, it is about making your images the best they can be and constantly evolving your busines into something stronger ...more diverse. This kind of attitude helps keep me motivated and making changes in technique and direction year on year.
Set yourself high but realistic targets, i.e. clients to work with and income targets, monitor and review how your doing, if you think it helps ask a friend to review your performance periodically to see if your doing what you set out to do. As with all plans constantly review to make sure that's the best plan for you.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
LUXOR video
Ok where do I start with this one, first of all it was great to work with the LUXOR people. They are all individually strong in their own field and came together under the LUXOR name as a music/ art/ dance collaboration.
If you haven't watched the video already here is a direct link
http://www.jasonharry.com/luxor.html
Initially I was asked to photograph this event, arriving at The Lowery on the day the girls told me how disappointed they had been with other video productions made for them, they desperately wanted a edit they were happy with for promotional purposes. Something that accurately reflected the show rather than a chippy choppy affair.
Thinking like you do on your feet I suggested we use the opportunity to make them something special, simple front (standard) view of the performance with stills set to a heart beat starting from the bridge to the room, heart beat end into a flat line sound to intro with the girls walking on stage mated to the mix kicking in...Do it they said.
Apologies if you found the above difficult to follow, that’s how the design process was ...fast with both sides nodding. NOW I have to get on with the capture... luckily I had a heap of memory cards on me, video data capture on the 5D mk2 runs about 8mb/sec so were into a heap of cards for an hour production.
The performance was an hour, the cameras record 10 min slots so this meant quick card and camera resets, my camera was being used for stills so we used a pre firmware updated Canon 5D mk2 to video capture, grrr auto ISO.. Yuk, were putting this together in real time you have to compromise!!!
During the performance there will some people using flash which you can see messing up a frame here and there, which I used to my advantage when bringing Williams Orbits mix in, simple time stretch that split second, nice abstract frame and hey presto you got the ideal window to edit in the mix.
Earlier on I told you the performance was an hour, and we wanted an edited version. This caused me a headache, the girls were like you do what you want....cheers. I have a choice do I edit Williams mix or select a section ... well I decided to chop about with Williams mix wasn’t an option so selected a part that would work best, in the end a slightly modified beginning section including intro was THE choice I made, music producers naturally build up so that’s that job done, as I wanted it to work with Pauline’s art work at the back coming to a finished piece.
Now I am left with the really easy part of editing an hour of dance and the artwork production into some thing... that was the task, task wow.
Took a while sifting through the footage while listening to the music for that section and mating the two best as I could.
Would I change anything if I did the edit again, maybe add in some different angles and still... not sure. It’s done now, LUXOR people love it.
What do I remember about this job?
How quickly I came up with the concept,
How do I cut Williams mix?
Endless hours or watching clips to nearly have a useable section then the tempo of music or dance not match towards the end of that section then rethinking
Taking about 8 hours to render the fully edited production, and realising I hadn’t checked the audio box... its rendered with NO sound ...CRAP!!!!
This is probably the biggest in terms of length I have worked on... some people like this part or that, to me watch the whole thing reflect at the end...personally I dig it a lot.... different.
If you haven't watched the video already here is a direct link
http://www.jasonharry.com/luxor.html
Initially I was asked to photograph this event, arriving at The Lowery on the day the girls told me how disappointed they had been with other video productions made for them, they desperately wanted a edit they were happy with for promotional purposes. Something that accurately reflected the show rather than a chippy choppy affair.
Thinking like you do on your feet I suggested we use the opportunity to make them something special, simple front (standard) view of the performance with stills set to a heart beat starting from the bridge to the room, heart beat end into a flat line sound to intro with the girls walking on stage mated to the mix kicking in...Do it they said.
Apologies if you found the above difficult to follow, that’s how the design process was ...fast with both sides nodding. NOW I have to get on with the capture... luckily I had a heap of memory cards on me, video data capture on the 5D mk2 runs about 8mb/sec so were into a heap of cards for an hour production.
The performance was an hour, the cameras record 10 min slots so this meant quick card and camera resets, my camera was being used for stills so we used a pre firmware updated Canon 5D mk2 to video capture, grrr auto ISO.. Yuk, were putting this together in real time you have to compromise!!!
During the performance there will some people using flash which you can see messing up a frame here and there, which I used to my advantage when bringing Williams Orbits mix in, simple time stretch that split second, nice abstract frame and hey presto you got the ideal window to edit in the mix.
Earlier on I told you the performance was an hour, and we wanted an edited version. This caused me a headache, the girls were like you do what you want....cheers. I have a choice do I edit Williams mix or select a section ... well I decided to chop about with Williams mix wasn’t an option so selected a part that would work best, in the end a slightly modified beginning section including intro was THE choice I made, music producers naturally build up so that’s that job done, as I wanted it to work with Pauline’s art work at the back coming to a finished piece.
Now I am left with the really easy part of editing an hour of dance and the artwork production into some thing... that was the task, task wow.
Took a while sifting through the footage while listening to the music for that section and mating the two best as I could.
Would I change anything if I did the edit again, maybe add in some different angles and still... not sure. It’s done now, LUXOR people love it.
What do I remember about this job?
How quickly I came up with the concept,
How do I cut Williams mix?
Endless hours or watching clips to nearly have a useable section then the tempo of music or dance not match towards the end of that section then rethinking
Taking about 8 hours to render the fully edited production, and realising I hadn’t checked the audio box... its rendered with NO sound ...CRAP!!!!
This is probably the biggest in terms of length I have worked on... some people like this part or that, to me watch the whole thing reflect at the end...personally I dig it a lot.... different.
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Cocktails anyone?
Yesterday I photographed a number of cocktails for Manchester cocktail maker and designer Nathan McDowell.
We shot six in that session after discussing the look and feel he wanted before we did the shoot.
The images can be viewed in the commercial section of my website, or the direct link is here http://www.jasonharry.com/commercial2.html
Nathan was clear he wanted a classic and high end feel to the images so we agreed a black background, the reflections on the glass top are from capture rather than post production.
The setup was smooth I used a simple tungsten lighting setup, approaching the shoot I was concious that reflections can be a pain in the ass with glass. In the end the setup produced a look both Nathan and I were happy with, so were shooting a full menu of his some time soon.
I can imagine sipping a few of them some time soon...
We shot six in that session after discussing the look and feel he wanted before we did the shoot.
The images can be viewed in the commercial section of my website, or the direct link is here http://www.jasonharry.com/commercial2.html
Nathan was clear he wanted a classic and high end feel to the images so we agreed a black background, the reflections on the glass top are from capture rather than post production.
The setup was smooth I used a simple tungsten lighting setup, approaching the shoot I was concious that reflections can be a pain in the ass with glass. In the end the setup produced a look both Nathan and I were happy with, so were shooting a full menu of his some time soon.
I can imagine sipping a few of them some time soon...
Monday, 9 August 2010
Nightclub Video
I opened up the video section of my website again yesterday, today I have added one more video which was made in 2009.
The reason the video section went down was to allow me to restructure the site with a clear focus on the images for a time.
The equipment used to capture the footage was the Canon 5d MK2 before the first firmware update, it only worked in AE mode, and the ISO was controlled by a small brain in the camera…not good which meant the ISO was probably higher maybe two stops than I would set it to now, in manual mode.
As a result the quality suffers a little but that little negative is (I think) lost in the video because of the good tempo and feel of the production.
Even now I really enjoy watching it, it’s one of my first attempts that really worked for me, I still regard it as perhaps the one where I sit back and think I would not do much different.
If I am being honest some of the opening shots didn't have the extra lighting in them and that bugs me... you learn by making mistakes.
The video was for the Manchester superclub Essential which has since closed and reopened under a different name although the vibe is very much the same.
When the venue closed (for a short time) with its future not certain it was nice to look back at the video from time to time, it was a lot of fun to make, and I liked making it …from capture to edit.
Learning curves in this game are generally steep, we just get used to them, view the video at the link below if you have not seen it already.
http://www.jasonharry.com/essential.html
J
The reason the video section went down was to allow me to restructure the site with a clear focus on the images for a time.
The equipment used to capture the footage was the Canon 5d MK2 before the first firmware update, it only worked in AE mode, and the ISO was controlled by a small brain in the camera…not good which meant the ISO was probably higher maybe two stops than I would set it to now, in manual mode.
As a result the quality suffers a little but that little negative is (I think) lost in the video because of the good tempo and feel of the production.
Even now I really enjoy watching it, it’s one of my first attempts that really worked for me, I still regard it as perhaps the one where I sit back and think I would not do much different.
If I am being honest some of the opening shots didn't have the extra lighting in them and that bugs me... you learn by making mistakes.
The video was for the Manchester superclub Essential which has since closed and reopened under a different name although the vibe is very much the same.
When the venue closed (for a short time) with its future not certain it was nice to look back at the video from time to time, it was a lot of fun to make, and I liked making it …from capture to edit.
Learning curves in this game are generally steep, we just get used to them, view the video at the link below if you have not seen it already.
http://www.jasonharry.com/essential.html
J
Sunday, 8 August 2010
London Fashion Week Video
Today I have opened up the video section with a web video made for the designer label JEREMPAUL that made it's first debut at london fashion week earlier this year.
The brief from the client (web at http://www.jerempaul.com/news.htm) was to capture the events of the day as the happened in stills and video, then compose a documentary style production for promotional purposes. That I did.
The music used in the video was from the catwalk to keep the theme.
More videos for other clients will be viewable at a later date.
The camera used to capture was a Canon 5D MK2.
The brief from the client (web at http://www.jerempaul.com/news.htm) was to capture the events of the day as the happened in stills and video, then compose a documentary style production for promotional purposes. That I did.
The music used in the video was from the catwalk to keep the theme.
More videos for other clients will be viewable at a later date.
The camera used to capture was a Canon 5D MK2.
Saturday, 7 August 2010
photographer techies.. beware of them
A friend of mine is a new enthusiast and a techie; every time we meet he baffles me with chatter about various camera gadgets and whether this is better than that.
No matter what I say the next time we meet we have the same (ish) conversations which I have nothing much to offer other than simple stuff that works... for me.
In all honesty early on I was obsessed with what equipment I needed and spent silly amounts on this and that when I should have been taking more pictures.
That’s the only advice I can offer really, new photographers save yourself a load of head ache and keep your kit to what you need, keep it simple.
The majority of the time my kit is two camera bodies and two lens, a 70-200 and a 24-105 and they cover a lot of work.
Calumet are a pro store and offer rental of equipment, the guys at the Manchester store are there to help and they hire all the gear you can ever need.
Maybe try a weekend hire before you buy? Before you buy ask yourself how many times will you use it, do you really need it?
No matter what I say the next time we meet we have the same (ish) conversations which I have nothing much to offer other than simple stuff that works... for me.
In all honesty early on I was obsessed with what equipment I needed and spent silly amounts on this and that when I should have been taking more pictures.
That’s the only advice I can offer really, new photographers save yourself a load of head ache and keep your kit to what you need, keep it simple.
The majority of the time my kit is two camera bodies and two lens, a 70-200 and a 24-105 and they cover a lot of work.
Calumet are a pro store and offer rental of equipment, the guys at the Manchester store are there to help and they hire all the gear you can ever need.
Maybe try a weekend hire before you buy? Before you buy ask yourself how many times will you use it, do you really need it?
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