Author Archives: benpipe

My Cambodian Office

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This is my Cambodian office! For your interest I’m (was) travelling on this 6 week Asian trip with the following equipment:

Nikon D800E (first big trip for this awesome camera, have been astounded by its quality and dynamic range. Upgrading to this has felt like the jump from Nikon D200 to D700) also have a Nikon D700 as spare body,

Nikon 14-24mm F2.8 Wideangle (first big trip with this incredible piece of glass – glad I brought it along),

Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 (this has been the bread and butter lens, its done about 90% of the work I reckon),

Nikon 70-200 F2.8 Telephoto (not used a lot but there have been a few sessions that I couldn’t have done without it),

Nikon 50mm F1.4 (just used for a few portraits – underused),

Nikon TC1.7 Teleconverter,

Nikon SB600 Flashgun

Cable release, Polariser, Neutral Density 3 and 6 stop, and Lee Hard ND Grads 0.6 and 0.9, Cokin 0.6 and 0.9 Soft ND Grads. The vast majority of the trip has been shot handheld, I’ve only got these grads out for a few dawn and dusk shoots in Ko Samui.

Casio Sea Pathfinder Watch (Love this for its in built compass)

Iphone 5 – A great travel tool for its Sat Nav to get me around these Asian cities. Music, to get me through these cramped, endless bus journies and camera to take preview snaps of potential locations which I can look back on later.

Guidebooks – I use Lonely Planet or Rough Guides when I travel, also use Trip Advisor for further info on accommodation and for ideas of what to do in an area.

Macbook Pro Retina 15” 16gb RAM – Dream piece of kit for a photographer on the move, this is my first big trip travelling with it but its hard to imagine life without it. Allows me to review and begin the post production process, keyword and caption work, and generally stay on top of business back home. The display is exceptional for its clarity and viewing angle, I can sit anywhere and still be able to view the photographs on screen. Its also got the required speed to handle the mammoth files that the Nikon D800E produces – 80mb an image!!

1TB Hitachi Portable Hard Drive to back the work up onto.

Not in shot but also with me is a Giottos Carbon Fibre Tripod, courtesy of David Noton.

Luang Prabang, Laos – Part Two

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The Morning Market, Luang Prabang, Laos, its 7:20am and I’m crouching inches from this fish aiming a wideangle lens at its lifeless mouth, if only every day could commence in this fashion! Nikon D800E, Nikon 14-24m Lens at 14mm, 1/100th … Continue reading →

Luang Prabang, Laos – Part One

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From Vang Vieng we headed north (to set things right) to Luang Prabang. This beautiful city was made a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995 and I’ve got to say its one of my favourite cities in Asia, (by English standards having … Continue reading →

Vang Vieng, Laos

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You’ve seen the postcards, read the guidebook, seen some nice stuff online and now you imagine you can turn up at this far flung destination and shoot fantastic landscape photographs of it, but its never as easy as that is it?! Finding the locations in the first place is an often under-appreciated part of location photography, you’ve got to give yourself the time in a place to get to know it, and the time to get good light. On a trip I’ll often stay at locations I like for days at a time, its one reason why i don’t like to book my whole trip out in advance – there will be places I want to move on from quickly but others where I find myself staying longer than planned.

I was attracted to Vang Vieng in laos not for the tubing and dismal dining scene but for the beautiful Karst hills in the countryside around this town. Vang Vieng also formed a natural stopping point on our itinerary which began in the capital city of Vientiane and finished in the stunning UNESCO Heritage listed city of Luang Prabang.The Limestone Karst hills are synonymous with Asian landscapes and I’ve shot them previously in Khao Sok National Park, Thailand . However finding a shot to do them justice proved frustrating at first attempts, my natural instinct was to set something up with the river in foreground at the karst hills and sunset colours beyond but none of these shoots yielded what I was hoping for. I had to get to know the area, and to do so took a hot air balloon ride

 

A boat ride down the river

Woman enjoying boat ride, Nam Song River, Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Woman enjoying boat ride, Nam Song River, Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

 

bicycles..

Morning Traffic over bridge, Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Morning Traffic over bridge, Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

 

Mopeds..

Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

 

And whilst the town itself was nothing to write home about, it was a pleasure to ride out and explore the countryside around Vang Vieng, I was doing a mix of shooting commercial stock type images (such as the one above) and more personal landscape work.

During the course of our day trips I met this Buddhist monk and asked if I could take his photograph outside his small monastery. I would have liked to have caught his name but he didn’t speak any English and myself no Laos, but still we tried to communicate for a few minutes after the picture! Another of the wonderful smiles I’l remember this country for. I think it was the first portrait I’d shot in Laos so it was good to get off the mark.

Buddhist Monk outside Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Buddhist Monk outside Wat Xieng Thong,  Laos, Indochina, Asia

 

Later that afternoon I was struck by the lighting on this landscape, I could see that the sun was slowly sinking behind the hill, and so by partially obscuring it I would be able to shoot into it without causing too much lens flare. Since getting hold of the Nikon D800E I’ve been amazed by its inherent dynamic range, its now possible to easilly shoot into the brightest light and still recover shadow detail, when I was cutting my teeth on Fuji Velvia 10 years ago this sort of shot was unthinkable and it meant a different way of shooting. This is a single raw file which I’ve exposed for the highlights and subsequently used Adobe lightroom to pull back the shadow areas of the landscape. You’ll see a lot more shots like this from this trip, I think I’m getting a bit obsessed with shooting into the light!

Nam Song River at Dusk, Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Nam Song River at Dusk, Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

 

After my extensive explorations i finally got something I was happy with, on the final morning of our stay there, I’d seen these remote farm huts as rode through the countryside and returned before dawn to the area. I’d love to say I’d arrived here previously and used GPS to calculate the suns position the following morning, sunrise time, and been setup with a tripod ready, but that wasn’t the case. This was one of the shoots where I rode out without a specific shot in mind but knew the area was good, saw the sun starting to come up above the horizon and ran into the nearest field, seeing the hut and composing the shot as I moved. It was shot handheld, partly because there wasn’t time to setup but also with these type of shots with the sun moving into a specific part of the frame I usually find  it easier handheld. It is always worth heading out early in the morning, even if you don’t know where you’re going or what you’ll shoot, I find it easier when I’m away on a trip because I’ve invested to come to the other side of the world, and when will I be here again? I should get out more when I’m back home in London or Dorset.

Sunrise over countryside near Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

Sunrise over countryside near Vang Vieng, Laos, Indochina, Asia

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I go up to earlier this month in laos, it s a first for me to be posting work as I travel but I’ll be making an effort to do more of this in the future, let me know what you think (and if you read this far) in the comments below.

PS If you click on the image you should be able to find the shot information..

Mono or Colour?

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Manhattan, New York City, USA

Manhattan, New York City, USA

Dull picture in colour, I liked the steam rising from the vents but the colours are not in harmony and serve only as a distraction..

But in black and white it just works, its not the best picture I took in New York that week, its not even the best picture I took that morning, but its a good example of an image I might have deleted from the back of the camera, that ended up being worth keeping…(Technical info – Nikon D700 with 70-200mm at F5.6 1/640th Sec ISO500 – B & W conversion in Photoshop CS5)

Day of the sabbath – Lloyds Building,London

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Sunday, the day of the sabbath – the choice = Tottenham vs Swansea or a Shoot, I can’t watch the team white so its a downtown train. With some city shoots I aim to time the shoot to coincide with the rush of people and traffic which I’ll include in the frame. However for this shoot which I’ve had on my mind for awhile, sunday was the perfect day – the lack of traffic / commuters / security guards meant I could have peace to sit on the pavement at the foot of the Lloyds building, in central London.

I picked up the Nikon 14-24mm Lens in New York recently as a little treat, I’ve been looking forward to using this along with my new body (Nikon D800E) to reimagine some of my previous shoots in the city. Being able to zoom out to 14mm which is close to a fisheye perspective allows me to be a few metres from the foot of a building and yet still fit the entirety of the structure in frame.

The Heron Tower, London, England

The Heron Tower, London, England

This is the newly finished Heron Tower (near liverpool st), shot handheld on my way to the primary location. I’ll come back and do more of the amazing building soon.

Looks good on the back of the camera, I always like the reflective nature of glass buildings, now over to the main event. I scope out the location with a slow walk around the building – I know where I want to do the main shot but its not time yet –  i want it a little darker, so I’ll set this up to do i the meantime..

Struggling now to do this handheld but its not possible with this tripod set up to angle the camera directly up – I’ve pumped the ISO to 800 and aperture is almost wide at 3.2, usually you’d struggle for sufficient depth of field but at 14mm it almost infinite. I love the industrial look of this building with all the pipes visisible on the outside, reminiscent of The Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Lloyds Building, London, England

Lloyds Building, London, England

This is the one I came for, I’ve got the tripod angled up and I’m crouching on the pavement, lens is zoomed out to 14mm to get as much as possible in, D800E is at F8 (no point stoppng down further and have diffraction softening the image, and I don’t need to slow the shutter speed either) 1 second exposure at ISO200. Only exposed a few frames – its amazing how quickly the light changes at this time of day, after a short while the sky is losing the blue colour and being lit by the light pollution of the city. I move on to one final shot before heading home..

Lloyds Building, London, England

Lloyds Building, London, England

The Musicians I – Julie Helene

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The first of a series of posts I’ll be posting about the commissions I’ve shot this year with London musicians.

April 25th 18:00 – The shoot is on location so obviously we’re hoping for decent weather conditions but that isn’t happening – its absolutely pouring down as the makeup artist (Marina Angel) finishes her work off on Julie. We’re over on the east side of town so I haven’t got the option to move the shoot indoors to studio, and besides that wouldn’t suit the look we’re going for, so we have to work with the elements and use the bridge to shelter under. I’ve only got a couple of hours of daylight left so I’m anxious to start getting something shot, there is lighting kit in the bag but I want to some more muted natural light shots.

The brief for the location was to fit Julies music, we wanted something urban, busy, little bit dilapidated and the theme of travel and movement in there too…

1st Shot of the day – on an 85mm Nikon lens, at F2 so very little depth of field – want to knock all out the background clutter out of focus, also because its such a dark overcast day there is little light around anyway.

Now I’m further back looking to shoot whole body, this is a tricky location to work in because its 5 minutes walk from Liverpool st and at 6pm plenty of people passing through. On the Nikon 70-200mm at 2.8 now way back down the road, yelling instructions on pose to Julie!

We’ve changed spot slightly now, giving me a darker background and thats helping Julie stand out more, also changed outfit, and I’m back on the 85mm lens. I prefer to work with primes whenever I can – they are faster and lighter – that means I can get the shallower DOF and work with a faster shutter speed – increasing the odds of a sharp final image. We’re shooting a mix of poses looking to camera and some away – this is the one that goes on to make the album cover – a first for me : )

The natural light is really dying away now – its time to take a break and wait for darkness to fall..

25/04/2012 – 20:57 Twilight – if you follow my work you know I love this time of day, ambient light fades as artificial comes on. We had planned this shot earlier – have the look of Julie waiting for the taxi, sitting on one of the suitcases. By this time the road was quieter, less passer’s-by getting in the shot inadvertently. Technical bit – Nikon D700 with 85mm Nikon lens at F2.2, Manual exposure mode at 1/50th Shutter. Nikon SB600 Speedlight with Umbrella to camera right being triggered by the pop-up on camera. For a shoot like this I’d be getting my exposure set for the ambient (natural – existing) light first, then adding the flash and increasing / decreasing the power to suit.

As you can see we got a completely different look and feel to these shots at twilight with the flash to the ones a couple of hours earlier with natural light, but thats perfect when shooting for a client – gives them options, and the wet streets worked perfectly for these night shots.

Check out Julies amazing voice at http://juliehelene.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/thejuliehelene and Marina the MUA at https://www.facebook.com/marinaangelmakeup?fref=ts

All images © Ben Pipe Photography 2012

Vi in the Sahara

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Portrait of Vi, Erg Chigaga, Sahara Desert, Morocco, Africa

Portrait of Vi, Erg Chigaga, Sahara Desert, Morocco, Africa

Here we are – The Sahara Desert, a few months ago, the sun has just set, twilight colours enrich the sky and I’m about to give an off camera flash lighting tutorial to my workshop group. Vi is the model looking amazing on the sand dune, we’ve got David as a the fill lighting assistant (holding a Nikon SB600) and Anne holding the main flash (Nikon SB900), Phil is the stylist – his job is to throw the scarf in the air so we can get that element of motion to the image.

I love working at this time of day, twilight is an exciting time to mix in lighting with the fading ambient light. For a shot like this I had figured out where I wanted the subject beforehand, knowing the sunset was in that direction, there wouldn’t be time to get many shots as the light was fading – I wanted to retain colour and detail in the sky and you’ve only got 30-40 minutes after the sun sets to achieve this. Before everyone else has got to the location I’ve metered and worked out the approx exposure for the ambient (existing) light. Its around 1/80th at F4, ISO200, but that will have dropped by the time we’ve got the lighting all set. Next get the model (Vi) in position, then the main light, from my position this is coming from my 4 o’clock, usually I’d look to soften the light with an umbrella but its too far away and will kill too much power. I could move the flash closer but this shot was as much about the setting – The Desert, as the model so we want to keep it fairly wide.

The 2nd flash is coming from my 10 o’clock, slightly behind the model, want this one to add a rim lighting to the back of Vi’s outfit and hit the scarf. This flash is dialled with 1 stop less power than the main. With any shoot like this it takes a bit of time and experimentation to figure the right exposure, angles. To start with we had the stylist (Phil) blocking the fill flash so we had a change angles. Being able to constantly check the preview on the camera-back is a godsend for these kind of shoots, with film this would be a very tricky shoot, helps explain the prevalence of ambient – artificial lighting combo shoots in the editorial sunday supplements these days.

Anyway – with it all set and the shutter speed dropped a stop to allow for the ambient drop in light since we started, (now at 1/30th of a sec) we’re ready to shoot. Remember the shutter speed doesn’t affect the flash exposure so I was using manual exposure mode and tweaking the shutter to get the right balance between ambient and flash. If I change the aperture or ISO then they will affect both ambient and flash lighting. It takes us a few goes to get the scarf throw just right but when it works it really works – we huddle round the camera to check it out. Time for a few more exposures before the light has gone…1/15th at F2.8, ISO200 on 24-70mm Nikon Lens
Next Morocco trip is 7-14th March 2013 – http://benpipe.com/#/Workshops/Morocco/
Credits:
Model – Vi Rowshankish
Stylist – Phil Goddard
1st Lighting Assistant – Anne Cawardine
2nd Lighting Assistant – David Austwick

 

Kimmeridge Dusk

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Kimmeridge, Dorset, England

Kimmeridge, Dorset, England

5 Secs at F20, iso100, 40mm on a 24-70 Nikon

Sunset at Kimmeridge in the winter months is a popular spot for Dorset’s booming populace of landscape photographers. I shot it many times when I was still based in the county but I’d never got anything of this view looking west up the coast I was satisified with.

Some free time in my hometown earlier this year gave me the opportunity to achieve the shot I’d always wanted, the weather was looking changeable – always worth heading out on these klind of days. Being a weekday and an early sunset meant I wouldn’t be battling for tripod space with hordes of other photographers, just a few surfers returning from the water for company. I set up further back from the shore than I’d usually be because I wanted to work a longer focal length and bring the distant horizon and cliffs into the frame. (Also meant the camera didn’t get its usual salt wash!), filters – easy – we’re going with a Neutral Density Graduated Lee 0.9 to hold back the sky and an 6 Stop ND to give the long exposure blurring the water. Got this frame just before the sun came under the cloud and got too strong to handle.

5 Secs at F20, iso100, 52mm on a 24-70 Nikon

The game pauses for 20 minutes while the sun moves through that gap, when it gets back to those low clouds just above the horizon we can shoot again, the clouds are blocking enough of it. Same sort of exposure and filter setup as before, this time I’m showing more of the cliffs on the right side, liking the strong cloud lineup and the diagonals from the rocks leading out into the water. With this kind of shoot the sun is moving fast and the light changing all the time – you need to know where you’re shooting from and stick with it, there isn’t time to be moving or fiddling with equipment.

The sun drops lower and I opt for a wider view, including more of the foreground rocks and shore, I don’t want to go too wide here as the rocks are so dark that they may have little interest in the final composition. However the geology close to the water is getting splashed and the reflections are picking up hints of the sunset above so they’re gonna work nicely. Same sort of filter and exposure setup, watch the highlights / histogram – just a tiny bit flashing around the sun, thats OK we can pull that back later. Job done..

Multiple Exposure in Edinburgh B+B

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Since going digital I have to admit forgetting / being oblivious about the multiple exposure function available on my DSLR. Working on this hotel commission in the beautiful city of Edinburgh it was needed..

B+B Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

B+B Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Library, Edinburgh – Nikon D700 – 17-35mm at 17mm F11 – 1 Sec (x3) ISO100

The problem to resolve was the upstairs bookshelves (quite a nice feature to the room) were not getting any lighting, ceiling lights and ambient from the window were doing the room but without hitting those upper shelves they would come out dark and unnoticed in the shot. I used a Nikon Speedlight (SB600) and placed it on the floor of the upper balcony to throw a bit of light back up at the bookshelves, the flash was zoomed out and kept at a low power – the key here was for this light to be subtle. I wanted it to hit the shelves from 3 points across the floor so I used multiple exposure mode (this is under shooting mode on the Nikon) to fire 3 frames and after each one Paul moved the flashgun across the floor a metre. The ME mode automatically compensates exposure – so one frame exposure of 3 seconds at F11 will give a multiple 3 shot exposure of 1 sec at F11.

B+B Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Bedroom – Edinburgh B+B, Scotland Nikon D700 17-35mm at 17mm F18 – 1 Sec ISO100

There is off camera flash used in this shot as well (but not multiple exposure) – we wanted to emphasize the bathtub in the background but the large windows hitting the bed left the part of the frame too dark, so Paul is standing out of frame on a windowsill (to the left of the bath) holding the SB600 which we are manually firing (because I can’t send the signal from camera) towards the bath. There is a window there so we are just trying to match that lighting angle and keep the shadow on the far wall similar to the one of the nearest one (with the mirror) It took about an hour to get it right! As a commercial photographer having time to get a shot perfect is sometimes a rare thing – make the most of it when you get it..