Over new years we escaped cold London for North Africa, however it wasn’t much warmer in Morocco. Still, there were Imperial Cities to investigate and tagines to consume. I’ve become somewhat a veteran of Morocco, this being my 4th visit, but … Continue reading
‘Dr Brian May, founder of the Save Me Trust, recently attended a “clean boot hunt” in Wales and saw first hand the use of bloodhounds, trained not on fox urine but on human scent. The bloodhound pack have been retrained – … Continue reading
I’m always interested in hearing from potential new suppliers and when CanvasPop got in touch it was perfect timing as I was in need of a new canvas prints supplier, who could reliably provide quality canvas’. Personally I tend to go with traditional prints for my own interior but often clients get in touch requesting my work on the canvas format.
I was very impressed with the canvas I received from CanvasPop – it arrived very well packaged, with secure cardboard and bubble wrap protecting the print. The detail looked really good, especially for a canvas which is usually printed a lower dots per inch than traditional chemical or inkjet printers. I was also grateful to the professionalism and attention to detail of the whole ordering process, being able to see a digital proof before submitting the final order is reassuring, particularly if you’re ordering a big print.
The image I ordered was a fairly old picture which was shot on Fuji Slide film (Velvia 50) at Portland Bill on a winter sunrise. I’ll be interested in seeing how work I’ve shot more recently on the high resolution Nikon D810 comes out on CanvasPop prints, as the incredible amount of detail I find in current files should lend itself well to large scale reproduction.
Its been done a million times but its hard to resist, even though you have to share the location with a press pack of other photographers.
Mesa Arch at dawn, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA
Tourists taking photographs, Mesa Arch at dawn, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA
Mesa Arch at dawn, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA
Mesa Arch at dawn, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA
I had the pleasure to travel to the Romanian capital of Bucharest in July to work for M & C Saatchi and the American sports shoes company Foot Locker. The task was to capture Behind the scenes stills showing the talent, products and crew in action during the filming of a series of commercials being shot for Foot Locker’s web campaigns. Here are a few of my favourite images from the first, Mad Max, style advert. See the finished film here.
I’ve recently been working on a fun assignment shooting training and portraits of boxers at a few locations in London, here are some images from the Central St Martins university training sessions. Next to come will be the famous Repton Boxing … Continue reading
A few shots taken during a workshop I was running in London a few weeks ago…
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
