A Week-ish in Photography

May 27, 2015

Some photography related stories from around the globe that caught my eye:

Vincent LaForet's Air

Vincent LaForet is a Pulitzer winning photography and has influenced the lives of many photographers around the world. His latest project is called Air; he gets into a helicopter at dusk, goes up, keeps going up and comes back with some amazing images!

He has recently shot London and created some jaw-dropping images. Belowis a video from the London shoot. The full photographs can be seen i n this pos t..... If you have a super-large monitor, then you are in for a real treat!

Our flight over London, May 2015 took in some of the most iconic sites of the city. We were lucky to have great weather and visibility from 6000ft on this 2 hour flight over the city.

Lily Camera

Most people will be aware of the drone cameras, like the DJI Phantom. Well, there's a new drone on the market and it is called Lily. What makes this drone different is that you do not need to need a radio controller for Lily. You simply wear a GPS tracker and the drone will follow you. There are different settings you can choose, like have the drone follow you around, do a loop, hover and follow, take slow-mo video, etc. These can be controlled from the tracker. Check out the amazing video and wait to see what happens when the guy throws Lily into a river!

Lily is the world's first throw-and-shoot camera. It lets anyone create cinematic footage previously reserved for professional filmmakers. Lily is waterproof, ultra-portable, and shoots stunning HD pictures and videos. Pre-order now at https://www.lily.camera/

It does not ship until next February but if you order now, then it could be yours for around £325 (half of what the price will be at launch), which in drone prices, is a steal! Check out more features on the Lily Website.

Douglass Sonders

Douglass Sonders is an american commercial photographer. He recently wrote a post on Fstoppers about a campaign he shot for owners of Jaguar and Land Rover (Tata Motors). On the webpage there's a lovely animation of the retouching that they did. I guarantee you will watch it many times looking for changes they made!

Jaguar Land Rover USA Photoshoot - Behind The Scenes from Douglas Sonders on Vimeo.

Cricket Match at Coombe Lodge Playing Fields, South Croydon

July 10, 2014

Recently I had the opportunity to photograph a local cricket match at Coombe Lodge Playing Fields in South Croydon. It wasn't quite an international test match but was still an exciting game. The weather was nice and warm and overcast, which is actually great for taking photographs. Most people think that the sunnier the day, the better but this isn't the case. The last thing you usually want is a really sunny sky as it causes very harsh shadows and highlights. We've all seen photos of friends and family where one part of the face his bright white and another part is really dark.

Nothing like a fist bump to keep the runs flowing!

There are a couple relatively easy way to resolve this issue including; finding some shade, either from a tree or a building; using a diffuser of some sort; or by turning the subject round until the direct sunlight is off them. I did a post about shooting in harsh light, which goes into the issues in some more detail.

However, there are times, like a sporting event, when you cannot control where you shoot from or where someone is standing. My cloudy, overcast day was giving me soft, even light and so it was really an issue for me.

Here are some shots from the day. They were all taken with a 70-200mm f2.8 (click to see the images full screen):

Family Portrait in Surrey

February 28, 2014

Recently I was lucky enough to be asked to take a group family portrait. The photos were going to be used in a collection along with other families shots from around the world and presented to the grandmother on the other side of the world for her 80th birthday!

I'm sure she will treasure them for years to come. Here are some of the images captured.