On the move...........

The blog has now moved to my portfolio site, which is..........

www.sewellshouse.co.uk

LamboGenie Promotion Evening

Saturday the 19th September (Still catching up!!!), and LamboGenie (the parent company of Lotus Car Hire) is holding a promotional evening to showcase the various companies and their abilities. Following on from the track day, I was asked to photograph this event. The remit was very simple, "Make us look good!"

Hmmm, ok.

Besides the Lotus cars, they also deal in exotic car hire for events and more. With an events co-ordinator on board now (With vast experience, I might add) they are able to manage those events too, if required. Part of the promotion was to show the various aspects and abilities of the various team members, including the likes of John, the lighting guy. He spent three days lighting the premises and erecting the rather exotic looking marquee and the final effect really was quite magical. The above shot of the marquee details are as follows:

Nikon D3 24-70mm 2.8 @ 24mm f2.8 1/15th sec ISO 3200 hand held

 

Of course, the preparation for the evening needed to be duly captured, with the above image useful for the event co-ordinator's portfolio as it shows their attention to detail. Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 38mm f3.2 1/50th sec ISO 1600

 What would LamboGenie be without their cars. This particular shot was a nightmare. Yes, a nicely lit floor. Yes, smoke to help distinguish the light and add atmosphere. Yes, the car's interior was nicely lit too. BUT, the damned floor was strobing about once a second. It was supposed to be constantly lit, with an option for variable speed strobing. It just wouldn't switch over to constant, and the slowest it would strobe was once a second. Oh joy of  ruddy joys!

No point in whining, you have to work with what you've got. Took a total of eight shots, five missing the lit floor and three managing to catch the strobe. Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 58mm f4.5 1/13th sec ISO 1600 hand held (yep, proud of this one due to the lack of tripod).

 

Another of their cars, again beautifully lit. Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 42mm f3.5 1/13th sec ISO 1600 hand held. Not as pin sharp as I would like, but perfectly usable for their publicity literature and website etc. (actually, good for an 8x12 print).

Different view of the marquee, taking in the woodland backdrop which had also been painstakingly lit to enhance the overall effect. (John is a bit of a fanatic, to say the least!). Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 27mm f2.8 1/15th sec ISO 6400 hand held.

Final shot of the night, requested by the lighting guy (John) as he particularly liked the view whilst tampering with one of the lights during the evening (he spent most of the evening fine tuning the lighting). To be honest, I have to agree with him, it's a really nice view that non of the 50 or so corporate guests got to see, which was a shame really. Nikon D3 24-70mm f2.8 @ 32mm f2.8 1/60th sec ISO 6400 hand held. The higher shutter speed was chosen as there was no need to capture internal detail within the marquee or people etc, and I also wanted to saturate the light on the trees and bushes, keeping the sky black.

Adendum - Lotus Track Day

Remember the Lotus Track day article? Well, this is a small update to that entry which I should really have mentioned long before now. I mashed a quick slideshow for the company to use with a promotional evening (more on that later!).
For those that want to know more of what they do, visit their website

Just For Me

Yep, still playing catchup.
So what was I to do with two cancelled regattas and five days between them in Wales? I made it a weeks vacation instead, and photographed anything I fancied. Just for me. No editors, no clients, no one. Just for me.
So, pretty much a week in Betws-y-coed with pretty good weather and a motorhome stuffed to the gills with gear and no deadlines. I felt 18 again! It was great.
er........... what now!
No deadlines means no pressure, no editors means no agenda, and no clients means no subject. Hmmm, that means I have to find something all on my own. Strange how all of a sudden there is nothing to photograph.
Walking along the riverbank, I came across this solitary toadstool/mushroom thing on a log. With not alot else to occupy my time, I dropped anchor and set about taking a few snaps to check the lighting and overall feel of the composition. I felt there was a little too much ambient lighting, giving a rather flat look to the whole image. I took a single SB-900 and put it on its little footstand just out of picture left, basically crosslighting the toadstool thing. The flash was co-ordinated and commanded by an SU-800 and utilising Nikon's CLS.
Nikon D3 24-70mm 2.8 @ f4 1/320th sec ISO 800
This was actually done as a test run after getting my D3 back from service.

Portpatrick Weekend

A bit of a disaster really. Arrived on the evening of the 26th August, and looking forward to photographing the jetskiing and spending time with good friends. Well, the friends were great, the jetskiing was short lived (very!) and the weather was tripe!
Wondering why this entry is regarding August but filed in September? just too damned busy! Got back from Portpatrick, a bit of rushing around and then off to Wales.
Oh yeah, remember those two regattas I was looking forward to? they both got binned. I was gutted to say the least.
I have to say, I felt particularly sorry for the club and it's members, as this had taken a lot of organising and was to be their first National event for the CYRC. However, the water board had other ideas.
The above shot was taken with D2Hs Sigma 120-300 f2.8 + 1.4TC @ 1/1600s f4

Lotus Car Hire Trackday

Sorry for the absence, but work has been a little busy of late (woohoo!)
Yesterday entailed an assignment I'd been looking forward to for some time. Lotus Car Hire provide trackday events for corporate clients and individuals. The day includes full tuition from some of the best mentors available with tangible results. My remit was very loose, simply capture the day with images that could convey the essence of the day's experience to potential clients.

Did the usual reportage thing of capturing the events as they unfolded, along with detail shots and the sort of stuff to add interest. However, I wanted a few shots that would grab the imagination of the potential client, and what better than a racing image of one of their cars gaining ground on another Lotus, which just so happens to be one of their other cars (no point in giving away free advertising to another trackday organiser!).

Once the day with the clients finished, I set about organising this shot. Before I begin to explain, have a close look at the shot and write down whatever you believe the car speed was, and the camera settings used before reading any further.

Done the writing down thing? ok, lets move on -

The total time, start to finish, including set-up and pack-away time for this shot was a shade under 10 minutes. Oulton Park was closing shop, and I had very little time to get it organised, set-up and shot, before we were likely to get thrown out.

I attached two suction mounts to the rear deck of the car, before zip tying (cable ties) a tripod to them both. The tripod head was swapped out for a pistol grip quick set type head, onto which I attached a D3 with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens, which promptly caused the quick release plate to disengage, allowing the camera and lens to fall the 3.5 feet to the track, with the fall broken by my foot (ouch!). No damage to either camera or lens, but my Calumet pistol grip is destined for the bin. The problem was down to a worn locking lever, and a new grip will now be ordered (and it won't be a Calumet model).

To get around the problem with the quick release plate, I zip tied the locking lever in position and that seemed to stop the problem. The car was then pushed by three members of staff and several shots taken at a slow shutter speed to accentuate movement.
1st run was pretty good, and a re-run got us the keeper I was after.

Nikon D3 with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 1/13th sec f14 ISO 100 (that would be LO 1.0, as the D3 has a lowest ISO of 200)

So, considering the shutter speed was a mere 1/13th sec, any guesses as to the speed of the car?
About 3mph, or something like walking pace.

The camera doesn't lie, but perceptions can be skewed.

The Leaping Groom

When I get a Bride and Groom that are confident, and will at least listen to creative ideas without shuddering, I tend to get very excited and all those ideas and visions I've had for some time start to bubble forth.
So, on Saturday I had just such a couple, and the fact the Groom was arrested an hour before the service and frog marched to the Church by three Imperial Storm Troopers and an Imperial guard, gave me the green light on a few projects I'd been saving for the right couple.
This particular image I've had in mind for over twelve months, and if I were to be honest, I don't feel it's fully worked to the best advantage here. The ceiling was too low, and the foot of the bed had a wooden board that was likely to catch the Groom's feet if he wasn't careful (and who wants to be responsible for taking the Groom to hospital on his wedding night?).
Well, we have to work with what we have, and this is what I got. I'm quite happy using the Nikon Creative Light System, which takes care of a lot of the exposure etc automatically, and it's damned good too. And I'm also perfectly at home using a fully manual set up, dialling in the required amounts of power to each strobe, taking full command.
Here, I chose to go with a fully manual setup, as I knew if I were to use the CLS option, the white dress and white walls would likely confuse the hell out of the CLS system , and I'd have to dial up some exposure compensation anyway. Now, being a lazy photographer, I couldn't face setting it all up automatically, and then having to dial it up bit by bit, so I set it all up manually to begin with.
First SB-800 camera left at six feet with a stofen on, at 1/16th power. Second SB-800 camera right at six feet with a stofen on, again at 1/16th power. Why two? To eliminate shadow and give a more voyeuristic look to the image, along with the final post processing I had in mind.
Nikon D3 with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 at f5.6 1/125th sec 200ISO.
Took two shots to get the light levels right, and then three shots to get the keeper. Post processing? Not a lot really, convert to black and white, add ""film grain" for authenticity, along with a healthy vignette for the same reason.
What would I change? A bed without the foot board, a higher ceiling and a longer run up so the groom can get more height and straighten out.
Well, it made me laugh.