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Journal
Here is where images often first appear, before I have had time to develop a Project or Photo Essay to its final stage. It is the place to share some of the material I have been working on at an early stage of the process, together with the experiences around the work. Dive in and see what you find. For a more precise dive, select a category.
I like to think that my health is something that I take seriously but I’ve definitely learnt over the years that being a photographer can be detrimental to your long-term well-being. During my assisting days, many of the photographers I worked for had back issues but I just felt that they were not looking after themselves. An extreme example is the still life photographer I assisted for a week, shooting a top-end wristwatch catalogue in a windowless 20′ x 20′ black box of […]
I’ve been shooting professionally for many years. In my film days, I’ve shot on various Hasselblads, Mamiya 67’s (I still own an RZ, sitting forlornly in a box behind me), the funky Pentax 67, several Canons, the occasional Nikon… In the digital age, I’ve been a Canon user from the beginning, starting with the 11 MP Canon Eos 1Ds in the early 2000’s, upgrading the camera body regularly, right up to the Canon 5DMk3. Alongside these upgrades, I’ve been building up my lens […]
Just by the fact that this site exists, you may have noticed that I like to do a bit of pre-production. The initial plan was simply for me to take a creative sabbatical around South America with my cameras. It was only later that I thought it might be a good idea to share some of the research I’ve done to get the best out of this adventure. This time it’s time to talk about my thoughts on choosing a travel tripod. Being a […]
Just to be clear, I am not an editor. I have sat in on several projects with various editors and have stumbled through some of my own personal projects to a passable level. What I have learnt from this is that editing is both an art and a craft. And when you are not in control of your craft, it can be a long hard slog to reach your artistic goals. I have wasted many an hour to achieve something that […]
I have no idea how many parts there will be about workflow and time management. Just thinking about all the different elements that I will need to manage when on the road gets my heart rate up. Imagine I’m travelling from place to place for two months, taking stills and video most days. That’s a lot of material! It needs to be filed, backed up, good stuff selected, processed, retouched / edited, uploaded, posted to various platforms, archived… A system needs to be in […]
Getting an idea like ‘From HEL and Back’ is the easy part. Daydreaming over where you want to take the idea is the fun part. Putting all the elements in place so as to be able to realise the idea is usually the bit where it all falls apart. Stubbornness and attention to detail are a big help. But what really makes the difference is having the right people in your corner who can take one look at a concept, then shape, polish and spit on […]
The idea for From HEL & Back (FHaB) came to me when I was working on the award-winning Transitions1020 project for Nokia, a two week shoot travelling around New Zealand’s south island. The shot above was one of many taken with the Nokia Lumia 1020, one of the last mobile devices made by Finland’s Nokia before Microsoft took over. Two days earlier, I’d been shooting fashion for a client in a studio back in Helsinki (HEL, which helps explain the choice […]
