Been off the Grid

May to October is not what you would call the most regular or consistent blog posts, but at least I have a bloody good excuse. 22 June rolled around and after 45 hours of labour my daughter Charlotte graced us with her presence. It would be an understatement to say life has changed. Regularly saw 2, 4 & 6am for a while and changed priorities have meant it’s more important to get home for bath time than responding to another email or phone call.

 

It has started to calm down a little now, Charlotte is off to bed at 7pm religiously and starting to sleep a bit better during the day. Thank God. However with all the shitty nappies and awful hours there has been some fun along they way. All the dads I had spoken to before said it was the best experience, and it has been pretty good so far. Plenty more to come and the best thing about being a parent is you can continue to act like a kid for many more years than you should.

 

Here’s a few shots from the last 4 months.

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A christening & chance to test a new lens

 

Seems that I’m now passed the ‘everyone getting married’ stage and on to the ‘christening & naming ceremony’ stage. No point complaining as I’m getting ready to be a dad too. Only 5 weeks to go until it is unleashed on the world…

Anyway I got a new lens specifically for shooting indoors and portraits and this seemed like the ideal chance to give it a bit of a work out. A fast lens usually removes the need for flash which is great indoors as it saves time with either balancing the flash to the ambient or colour correction on the computer. I prefer the first method generally. Set it up right and get it all done in camera rather than fixing it in post. So I thought I’d post a few shots from it.

 

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Posted in photography

You must have a really good camera

I’ve been shooting for about 5 years now and things are coming along nicely. Getting happy with my work, other people are too as they pay me for it, but in the last year there has been one comment that I started off not really thinking about to now getting tiresome. It is generally said when someone is having a look at photos for the first time and then hits out with the all time line….

 

“I like your photos. You must have a good camera.”


Sunset silhouette of a camera in a field Continue reading »

Posted in photography

Playing with video

Having a camera that shoots video too is great. You just have to learn to use it. I’ve had a few goes at it and it’s plenty of work. Editing is also a bit of a task to learn. Managing to get some stuff together and have posted a few pieces below.

Enjoy.

Posted in photography

Powder Mag hits with no snow in sight

The UK has become a veritable hotbed for visiting pros over the last few years. It kicked off majorly in 2009 with the Just Passing Thru Tour of Mike Clarke, Tom Wallisch, Matt Walker & TJ Schiller darkening the shores of this fair island for the London Freeze and then staying around briefly to hit up Manchester’s Chill Factore and Bearsden Ski Club. Check out Ski Union’s coverage of it out here. Fast forward a year and pipe legend AJ Kemppainen dropped in for the UK Premiere of Level 1′s Eye Trip and another pro had to hit up the dryslope at Bearsden. Another epic session went down and everyone got to see some of the moves of a World Class pipe skier. The edit is available on vimeo.

Pro freeskier AJ Kemppainen hits up the legendary Bearsden dryslope in Glasgow

AJ throws a rodeo 5 for the dryslope gods

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Posted in snow

Breaking new ground…. Ski Racing

I send quite a bit of time shooting skiing and snowboarding but most of it involves people jumping off things or sliding along bits of metal or plastic. Yesterday was the first FIS Giant Slalom Race to happen in Scotland in quite  few years. Not entirely sure how many but over 6 anyway.

After a few technical hitches the race got underway and I it was quickly reaffirmed that the 5DII is definitely not a sports camera. Frames per second is way too slow and timing it to get the traditional race shots of someone battering through a gate was going to be a challenge….. What was great though was the blue sky and wall to wall sunshine. Forecast said it was going to do that and it did. Also on was the Kilted Ski to raise money for Charity an hopefully break the world record.

 

Course for the Scottish FIS GS at Cairngorm Mountain

The Course

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Posted in snow

More Random Shots

I will always be pretty sporadic with posts depending on whats going on. Middle of winter is pretty busy with skiing related stuff but can always find an opportunity to throw up a few more random shots. Not much going on the wedding front and to be honest I don’t think I have enough hours in the week as it is. These are a few shots from the last couple of months which I like and the opportunity presented itself.

 

long walk home with the shopping

A long walk home with the shopping

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A Day out in Edinburgh

The chaos of the holidays is over thank god and now on to the mental period of the winter season. Pretty much got something on every weekend until the middle of April now. Means I get to go skiing but not in the good books with the wife. Going away for work over their birthday is not advisable. Ever. The pregnancy hormones are running wild and it’s not going to be long before I really get my head  in my hands to play with.

Anyway to appease the boss, we went for a cheeky trip to a DeVere Hotel as there was family up from Southampton. Nothing like eating out and drinking for a few days to feel like your on holiday even if it is pretty close to home. Wandering around Edinburgh like a tourist for a day without any focus was quite nice. Took a trip to the Royal Yacht Britannia to see what all the fuss was about, small beds and gold leaf painting round the side of the boat. Then off to the Royal Mile for the touristy crap.

A good opportunity to just shoot some stuff with no focus on anything other than fun. Here’s a few of my favourites from it…..

 

The bow of the Royal Yach Britannia

Gold Leaf paint running round the side

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Posted in photography

Geeking out on skiing and photos to the max

Getting paid to shoot photos of skiing is a job I wouldn’t say no to. Chris O’Connell has been doing it for a few years and is also one of the main guys behind Armada skis. Just watched this video again and it still is a great behind the scenes of how to shoot skiing sequences with a flash. Downside you do need a bit of cash to pull it off. TheBroncolor Scoro battery is about £5k plus VAT!

 

 

Posted in photography, snow

Total Bedlam in Glasgow

I left for my paying job at the usual time of 9am this morning knowing there was going to be some snow today. Made it about 10 miles and got well and truly stuck for 5 hours after a truck or 12 jack knifed. Turned around eventually and headed for home to meet complete gridlock. I have never seen anything like it. Cars were abandoned everywhere. Some were sensible and got out the way, other wallopers didn’t and made the problem worse. To them I hope you get at least a ticket if not towed. Wasn’t going to get home using the car so either sleep in it or walk home.

1o miles of walking later after only seeing 2 ploughs and 4 cops, the cops doing absolutely nothing to help the situation, I made it home. Walked along dual carriageways with 4-6 inches of snow on them and no members of Strathclyde’s finest out to direct them not to go along as they would never make it, watched lorries, BMW’s & buses try to make it up hills unsuccessfully and burnt off a few calories in to the bargain.

Just heard the army has been drafted in to help. Wow talk about reactionary thinking Scottish Government, how about you did that before the snow arrived a week ago. I wouldn’t let them run a bath. Here’s a few shots from merry hell anyway. Hope everyone else got / gets home safely….

 

Snow stops play again.

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