Faces...

Don't forget the people.

It's men and women who race cars and bikes; they are the ones who give the machine heart and speed. Anything else is simply design and manufacture, no matter how fine.

Luciano Bacheta (GBR), FIA Formula 2 Championship 2012. The points leader
signing autographs at Brands Hatch, Kent, on Sunday 15th July. He seemed a
little awkward, looking around him as though he was uncomfortable to
be there.  And he is only 22, after all. I wasn't in his face here, either, when he
made eye contact - it was worth standing 15 feet away waiting for gaps in the crowd
surrounding the drivers just for the defocussed background.
 Nikon D3S, 300mm f2.8VR plus 1.4x converter (= 420mm),
1/200th @ f4.5, ISO160.

HOW LOW DO YOU GO?

RagSnapper had a rare Saturday available for a change so I went to the first day of the HSCC Historic Superprix at Brands Hatch, as well as the usual Sunday, with a view to creating some "art"on the first day. Working for a newspaper (especially a local one) can drag you into bad habits, one of which is you give up shooting certain images because you know "they won't run that..."

Playing around with the views and different focal lengths out on the GP circuit, it was good to just experiment again with tilts, leans and particularly, ultra-slow shutter speeds.

The secret weapon I now have to hand is a 2-Stop Neutral Density filter, in 52mm thread, which screws into the slot-in filter holder in my Nikkor 300mm f2.8. (ND filter - basically, just cuts down the volume of light transmitted through it). Straight away, even in sunshine, this means I can use 1/30sec at Lo-1 (call it ISO100) on my D3S bodies. Without the filter there's too much light and not enough small apertures available to give really slow speeds if the sun shines.

The downside is that you'll still get small apertures - f16+ - with the sun out, which means some diffraction degradation of image quality...

...and every last little dust spot on the sensor becomes very visible...!!

Peter Williams, March 78B, Historic Formula 2 qualifying.  Nicely sharp on the driver's helmet.
Nikon D3S, Lo-0.7 (ISO125),  1/30th @ f8, 300mm f2.8 + 1.4x converter (= 420mm lens). Shot out at Hawthorns corner. (not Westfield as I first posted - my fault, couldn't recall corner names!). This is a shot spectators can get without a media pass - I was perhaps 10ft closer, but there's much less fencing out on Brands' GP circuit. It is a bit of a hike, though...

The images made from here required some anticipation and learning, as the cars appear suddenly in sight and the lens needs to be swung smartly to keep them this tightly framed. I started on 600mm (300 + 2x), realised that I wanted the barrier at the bottom to show more and also that I was struggling to frame up that tightly, so went back out to 420mm. As usual, make sure you shoot a lot as this is not an exact science. Just to illustrate: I never did get one I was happy with of polesitter (and race winner) Martin Stretton from here. He was visibly travelling faster through Hawthorns and I just could not frame him properly!

More images after the break...

I THINK I'M IN LOVE....

...with this...

Nissan GT-R (I keep calling it the Skyline but it's not, anymore), run by RJN Motorsport and the winner of yesterday's British GT Championship race at Brands Hatch, by 0.022 sec (a bonnet length!) after two hours of racing...

Nissan GT-R GT3, at Surtees Bend, and just heading out onto the Brands Hatch GP loop.
Nikon D3S, 300mm f2.8 + TC14E converter (420mm equiv), 1/250th at f8, ISO 100 (Lo-1 on a D3S)
Raw file as usual now, processed in Aperture 3.3 but very little other than a modified Auto-Enhance and
Sharpening applied.

The car was driven by Alex Buncombe and a young lad called Jann Mardenborough. Google his name, and you find that last year he was a Gran Turismo player until he qualified for and won the GT Academy, set up by game-maker Sony and Nissan. A year later, he's winning races...

Alex Buncombe, left, and Jann Mardenborough celebrate with traditional Champagne on the top step of the podium.
Mardenborough was "just" a video gamer until he was selected for, and won the Sony/Nissan GT Academy last year.

Red, White and Jubilee Blues

After last year's Wills and Kate wedding, this year it was the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II which tested the nation's media cliches to breaking point...   :)

Once again, it looked like street parties all around if you weren't fortunate (unlucky?) enough to be working for a national or an agency, like Tabascokid. With four days of festivities over the weekend, plus a week-long build-up in schools and clubs, it also looked like a slog. I was allowed the Sunday off, but this was a week of long days and a loooong weekend otherwise. A lot of extra work was done - I personally filed 25% more images per day over the 7 "Jubilee" days.

The problem with street parties, nowadays, is that people don't associate with their neighbours so much (this is a polite way of putting it!). The gut feeling amongst my colleagues after last year's royal wedding knees-up was that it was like turning up to a succession of family barbecues to get pictures... Even with the roads closed, families were just sitting in little groups or in their front gardens.

However, perhaps it's the practice we've all had now but this year didn't seem quite so bad. There was, I think, a missed opportunity for me locally, with an excellent "500 Years of History" parade (yay, not a street party!) from local groups on the Saturday that I should have been able to spend longer at, and get there earlier, but with the piclist I had it wasn't to be. Once again, after the jubilee was all done I wasn't really happy with what I had shot and filed, either.

But, with a week's distance from the actual moment of pressing the shutter release, there's a few images that I'm now warming to, and hopefully you'll like too...

Kids in Schools... With the jubilee a part of the National Curriculum, the primary schools
were all holding events of one sort or another. I'll not put names here, or locations, just in
case. We have to have permissions for photography in schools, and it's a nightmare elsewhere.
I still believe the obsession with kiddy-pix vs paranoid child-protection concerns is a minefield
newspapers (local ones particularly) have not yet properly addressed - not the least because editors
are expecting (demanding) to have them, but you try finding somebody to give
parental permission at a street party...

Face-painted. This school had been making crowns as part of their take on the monarchy
and its history.

Behind a cake at a street party. I had to get her to hold still to line it up, as the wind, light and point of view
weren't co-operating. Luckily, she understood from a distance and held her pose...

At the 500 Years of History parade, a bystander becomes a subject himself. Warwick Neech captures memories in Tunstall Road as the groups go past. I could (should) have spent longer here, and arrived earlier - I got there just as the parade was moving off, but had to leave before it reached it's destination. Note to stewards: a somewhat offhand "Better late than never", when I rush up and ask what the route will be, is not a good phrase to use when my picture list is as busy as it was...

Part of the build-up in the week before; a 40's and 50's - themed jubilee tea party with a singer, Annie Love, at the Leysdown Over 60's club.  Rose Overland as a Pearly Queen sings a duet. Shot at a slow shutter speed with them walking and me moving to keep up; as is the random nature of such things, the singer is sharp but the Pearly Queen has some movement. She's sharp enough, thanks to the flash, for me to like it.

A Jubilee Fish and Chip supper at The Freedom Centre, Sheerness; a meeting place for those with disabilities to socialise and get creative with art and games. Claire Barnes in patriotic garb and gear. 

Young DJ at a Street Party on the Saturday, under a Union flag gazebo. This was the best picture from this job, and pretty much the only one that I took a liking to on the day itself...

A young man makes a draw at a game at another street party on the Monday. 

And finally, the traditional street party table. Not a great pic, but one I was pleased to get, as I wasn't seeing this anywhere else...  Whilst it might jam the kids and food closer together, I think the pics from the 50's coronation celebrations work better as their parties were mostly only one table wide...

"Multi Meeja"

(Updated: corrected some layout errors; and a clarification - this isn't "new" to the world of photography. A/V is what it's been known as in the past (multi-media is just a catchy phrase used by suits and others who want to to appear trendy and cutting edge) but it is new to me. It's also, despite it's trendy title, still rare in local media...)


Apologies for the blog posts being very thin on the ground over the last few weeks. I know that all seven of you ;-) miss these words of wisdom (!!) but I tend to write if I have something to write about, rather than thinking “I must post” and looking for a subject. Perhaps that needs to change.

However, here’s a little something that’s been bubbling under for a while...

Those of us in the photographic section of the media know that there’s been much talk about the growth of video and other media in our job specifications. A growing on-line presence - necessary because of the decline in newsprint itself - means that the Powers That Be have latched onto the moving image because of the web’s ability to play such things.

There is evidence about which shows that things aren’t as simple as “shoot a video, people will watch it”, and I speak from personal experience when I say that I’m not a big web news-video watcher. It needs to be REALLY, REALLY eyecatching or a big story to make me hit “play”. It seems that still images can be assimilated quickly whereas, even with short video clips, the viewer is at the mercy of the shooter/editor for the length of time they must watch to get the gist of the information.

And of course, there are the local issues, such as how are the huge files generated by video actually sent around (if you don’t have one of the TV companies’ satellite vans), who is putting these together, who is posting them and who, given the local snapper is frequently covering many jobs a day, is actually shooting the footage? I personally believe that if I’m shooting video, I’m missing out on stills and vice-versa when my days are so busy. You end up covering neither base in a satisfactory manner.

I’m also not sure every stills photographer is a cinematographer, and every movie cameraman a stills snapper either - there are some similarities but many, many differences. I remain unconvinced that grabbing quick clips on an HDSLR will make the grade, quality wise, sufficiently to satisfy the viewer or the shooter too. Much more time needs to be devoted to lighting, for one thing.

But a SLIDESHOW, a multi-media blending of stills and sound (and maybe those short video clips)? Now, that might be worth trying...

More, including a very-much-Mark-One effort, after the break...

FLASH!! AAaaAarghhh!!!

(Sorry...)

One of the things that puzzles non-photographers, and causes much apprehension amongst new photographers, is the deployment of a flashgun or two, even in "bright light". Watch the frowns and head-tilts as you put a Speedlight on your camera when "it's sunny, what's the problem?"

It's one of the things (I'm told) that isn't taught well, if at all, at colleges, and thus becomes a mountain to climb when faced with the real world and its frequent lack of "good" available light. There's often plenty of light washing about, sure, but if you are trying to make an image for a newspaper, the aim is always to think "tight and bright" first. (Even if we might mentally add "and sh*te!" to that...)

Luckily, the 'net can come to the rescue with a wealth of information now on-line, from people who have made a career from doing good lighting. I certainly owe pretty much all I know about Flash; Use Of, to the blogs of David Hobby and Joe McNally. You can do a lot worse, if you are new to the idea of lighting being something you need to manage, of reading Strobist's Lighting 101 and 102.

And you do need to manage it, as a jobbing pro, because you are expected to come back with something satisfactory from every job.

One of the greatest things to learn about flash is that there are always two exposures taking place; one for the flash itself, and one for whatever ambient may be about. Appreciate this for the first time, and you suddenly open up some creative doors...

A London Marathon runner, Jodie Allchin, photographed at The Leas, Minster. There are two exposures in operation here;

One, the ambient, was deliberately underexposed by one stop, which cut down the glare of the concrete and improved the detail in the sky. This left her face and t-shirt (important because of the charity element) a bit dark - though the bright concrete actually gave back some helpful fill-in through reflection - so an SB900 was deployed, feathered off so that it wasn't aimed straight at her, running at +1.0 EV (I think!). The feathering means the light that hits her isn't quite so harsh, as her face is lit by the more diffuse edges of the flash beam. It's only a small difference, but in the absence of, say, a softbox it does help a bit.

More after the break.

D4 Pondering, Part 2, and more...

(Even less sure, now...)

(Usual Disclaimer: No, I still haven't got hands-on with one. This further ramble is based on what I read from sensible pro-users and commentators around the 'net. I think I'd still like one, but...)

A bit more information has come to light since I wrote my first pondering on the new Nikon D4, though the actual launch date has been pushed back into March since I wrote the post. Nikon have possibly discovered something they want to correct when the pre-production samples were getting their work-out here, and here, for example. Or maybe they wish to build up launch stock availability. Either way, I don't think this is any big deal.

However, what seems to be clear (or becoming clearer) is that the overall image quality is a "D3s but with more pixels". I did ponder this and decided that it was a possibility (though I bottled it and plumped for "more like D3"...!!!!), though Nikon still don't say this outright. But various commentators who have seen images side by side from the D3s and D4 say they couldn't be more similar.

Which strongly suggests two things: one; that Nikon have managed to increase the resolution without increasing noise and other issues with their flagship sensor, and two; just how extraordinary the D3s sensor was at launch in 2009, and how good it remains.

Nikon D3s.
I've not much use for Nik Color Efex Pro 3; I have it because it was cheaper to buy the complete set of products than pick the ones I do use (Dfine, Sharpener and Silver Efex) but here I've had a play around to be a little creative with what is, really, a dull image to illustrate the page. Shot on my D3 with 60mm Micro, the raw is processed with the Polaroid Transfer preset, then the Pro Contrast preset, in Color Efex 3. There's a small levels adjustment to lift the whites slightly.

More after the break...