An often asked question but thinking of sending people in the direction of this post on PetaPixel. A Nikon ‘kit’ for around $80,000.
So that’s a D4 and 20 N series lenses and the full kit contains some pretty expensive longer reach lenses which make up sixty percent of the cost. Nutso! Worth reading the camera nerds get stuck in with the comments on which lenses overlap and generally just have a pop at each other.
I recently signed up for a new service called Everpix after seeing it featured on Daringfireball, which I read religiously. As it was free for the first year I gave it a go. The idea is that it uploads all your photos and then organises them for you and shows you highlights as well as applying some form of image recognition to show you landscapes, people and so on. It connects with iPhoto and has clients for iPhone/iPad and Android. It can also use a watch folder and just update each time you drop a photo in there.
I have found the idea of photo and memory quite interesting and always love going home and seeing family albums with photos in. I want to be able to refer to my photos in the future in an easy and accessible way but the sheer number of images I take makes this task pretty hard. I’m still struggling to finish printing and updating these albums but do want to do it. I worry that these memories will be lost, along with some of the names and places that go with them in say 40 years time.
So in the short term I’ve come to really like the Everpix daily email that they send. It’s amazing and sometimes quite thought provoking to see what you were doing one or two years ago. Even the mundane photos are enjoyable.
Was it really two years ago I did that photo shoot?
Was it really I year ago that we went to Wales with Matt & Graham? We should go again!
Architectural photographers tend to work alone generally, there are exceptions but we’re a funny bunch and don’t generally collaborate with other photographers. So for this recent project it was a real pleasure to work and collaborate with my good friend Jim Stephenson (or Brighton Jim as I call him) to shoot a series stills and record some video footage of series of temporary pavilions or installations set in a beautiful landscape. This was part of Studio in the woods summer event, which is now in its seventh year. It was originally started by Piers Taylor of Invisible Studio who I worked with back in 2001 in Bath. This year it was run by Studio Weave and they were able to secure some public land to use in Stanton Park just outside of Swindon for the first time. Rather than try and describe it myself here’s the description from the project website.
Now in its seventh year, Studio in the Woods is a five-day outdoor summer workshop led by a group of award-winning architects and engineers aimed at architectural students, practicing architects and a wider audience with an interest in sculpture, landscape and the direct experience of making and building with materials to hand.
Studio in the Woods is an ongoing educational programme promoting the exchange of architectural knowledge and skills through experimentation and direct experience.
The practices leading the workshops were Studio Weave; Invisible Studio; Gianni Botsford Architects; Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios and Erect Architecture.
Jim and I were able to record the series of five completed installations around the forest on a beautiful scorching hot summers day. We shared the tasks of shooting stills and video, each coming up with ideas and critiquing the proposed shots. We quickly picked up a method of working and by the end of the day had the collaboration down to a fine art. The collaboration continued into the editing of the video and stills and I feel we both got a huge amount out of the day. It’s great to work with someone else creative and would love to do it again. More people should try it!
All content in this post is © Andy Matthews and Jim Stephenson.
And here’s a few of my favourite shots from the day which I’m really pleased with.
It’s not often you see London in a completely new light as pretty much every single angle has been covered, and then done to death. These shots via With Links* and shot by Rupert Jordan prove that this old city still has some fresh perspectives left in it yet.
*You should be following them on Twitter or signed up for their newsletter.
So wandering round Bath on Sat looking for food for Mum’s BBQ I could’t help have a look in the camera shop on Green Street opposite the Sausage Shop, my intended destination. The sausages are amazing and you should try some if you’re in Bath. The reason for stopping was to look at the array of lenses and cameras in the window. There was a load of Canon stuff but only a few Nikon bits and bobs. I spotted a tele convertor (TC20 II) and had a quick look online for reviews and prices – seemed like it was a reasonable deal and I could probably shift it if I didn’t get on with it.
So the 70-200 ƒ2.8 I have is a bit of a beast. I’ve started calling it the pervert lens as you do look pretty dodgy carrying it around. It’s great for long shots but the sheer size of it means I don’t use it enough. It’s been great for a few shots out of the window so far but doesn’t quite have the reach I’d hoped. The ability to turn it into a 400mm lens does bring some interesting possibilities though. Whether the image quality is up to it is another thing though. I guess one good thing is that I’ll always be using it on a tripod so can stop it down to whatever is sharpest for the lens combination.
I had quick go tonight and found that the ball head I was using was almost not up to the job. I’d left the geared head in the car and was too lazy to grab it tonight though. I had to make sure the tripod was weighted from below and used mirror up mode to get rid of all vibration from it. I ended up with this one earlier. Not sure about the image quality. It was a very hazy evening and it could just be pollution. Interestingly when I was focusing on the Cheesegrater I could see heat patterns in the air.
Here’s a few 100% crops which I think are pretty respectable really. I’ve sharpened but no more than usual.
Could be fun to play with, especially now Franks is open again and we can get to the top of the carpark again.
And later in the evening this is what I got…
Only they’re airplanes queued up for landing at an airport in Singapore. They look like fireflies or orbs or even UFOs. A really nice little clip and obviously a lot of effort went into it. Nice to see the aeroplane as part of the time lapse here too rather than something which gets edited out of a couple of frames.
Another great shot that captured the scrum of photographers at the opening of the Serpentine Pavillion this year. This time by Jim Stephenson.
I get that feeling quite often but this one really did jump out at me. A shot by Clement Guillaume on Flickr. Love that exposed concrete of a structural frame in progress.
Pure and intense*.
*Some of the comments on Instagram not my description.
News has just broken from the US that Yahoo have relaunched and redesigned Flickr. No more old, tired looking Flickr and new full screen design. Looks stunning and they’ve obviously been working seriously hard since Marisa Mayer joined.
I saw this news start to break and then got a Tweet from Olly Wainwright saying:
@andymatthews did you see you just appeared in Flickr’s presentation in NY?
So, click through the link and what… yes that’s my photo being shown live to millions of people, below a picture of Barack Obama! See 5:27:33, or as below. I’m thrilled that my photo was shown in this context!
So how did this come about? Well a while back I bitched and moaned about Flickr and the lack of development. This got a few retweets and some traffic to my site as well as catching the attention of two Flickr engineers, pkingdesign and spierisf. The former was the one who contacted me with the offer of a t-shirt. Shortly after this a series of improvements were made as well as a new iPhone app.
But today is a series of even bigger and better improvements, I’m still looking around it but first glance it looks incredible. I just wish I had chosen a different URL all those years ago!
