Blog - Simon Plant Photographer

Oct

Capturing The Cider Orchard

This week the weather finally looked perfect and we got to shoot the old Cider Orchard I mentioned in a previous post.
I arrived on my own at the orchard just after sunrise and spent nearly two hours in the beautiful autumn light capturing all the images I would need ready for the composite.
I should explain again that the plan was to capture the orchard now while full of Apples and then photograph the guys from Richies Cider when things quieten down for them after the harvest.
The shoot was pretty simple and most the time was spent trying to create nice clean compositions as there was just so many trees full of fruit close to each other that it was a little too much !
We now have to create our backdrop from the images captured and arrange to return to Richies Cider Farm in a few weeks to capture the images of the guys to complete our vision for the final image.

Oct

Weekend Wanderings, West Coast To West London…And Back !

This weekend proved to be a rather hectic one darting to the Devon surfing hotspot of Croyde Bay to London ‘s Olympia for a shoot Sunday.

I’m fortunate to live in the beautiful rural location of South Somerset which is not only a great place to live but also offers great road access.
From here I can travel to some of the best countryside and beaches in the South West and also have easy access to London.
This weekend myself and the family travelled to one of the best Surf Beaches in Devon at Croyde Bay so that my son and his cousin could receive a Surf lesson that they had both received as birthday presents.
Have to say we could not have picked a better autumn day and being October the light was fantastic even very early afternoon and I managed to find time capture some fun shots with my iPhone and some more serious shots.

Sunday saw us rise early and drive into London to Earls Court where we were to finally complete a 6 month project we have been involved with.
I have mentioned and shown some video footage from an earlier shoot that we have produced for a company called Protexin and today we had to complete a final stop motion video showing their involvement at Cam Expo which is a complementary healthcare event.

Monday has been another busy day to which sees us traveling back down to Devon for a shoot for one of our long standing London clients…..a lot of miles but beats working in a studio every day !

Sep

Proper Somerset Photography, Remembering Gordon

It’s been a busy week here at Monks Yard researching locations and contacting people for several shoots we have ideas for.
For the last 18 months or more we have been working on a project titled “Life in A Somerset Landscape”

The title pretty much speaks for itself but the concept is basically to photograph well known or iconic Somerset landscapes with either people or animals in them.

Withy-weaver-portrait-somerset-ph-coates

Withy weaver PH Coates Withy growers Somerst

Of course in line with my style of imagery these images are often composited scenes made up from sometimes many elements to create the idyllic and quiet moments that make up my vision.
When I first started on my career some 25 or so years ago I would often shoot for the Somerset Tourism Departments and met some wonderful & colourful characters including a guy called Gordon Rich.
Gordon was a Somerset Cider Maker and owner of Richies Cider Farm and was Somerset as they come!

Maybe it was because I was young and just starting out with my somerset photography business but he was always very accommodating whenever I turned up to photograph him and always had some fantastic stories to tell.
Unfortunately, he’s no longer with us but the Cider Farm still continues to thrive under the families management.
The project just had to feature Cidermaking at some point as it’s what Somerset is best known for. After a quick chat with Gordon’s family and showing the images captured in the project so far they were happy for me to go ahead with my idea.

Today we did a recce of one of their oldest Cider Orchards which is currently brimming with apples ready to be harvested for cider making.
This time of year is perfect timing for the trees being full of apples but bad timings for the guys as they are very very busy harvesting and pressing the apples. Due to this, we plan to return at dawn when the weather is favourable to capture the orchards and return when this year’s busy harvest period is over to photograph some of the guys and composite the two images in post-production …how things have moved on since my days shooting Gordon on my old 6×6 film camera!

Aug

A Tranquil Mooring, A Moving Visit To Cadgwith

Who does not love Cornwall? I even love the picturesque A30 despite the fact it can be a bastard if you get caught in a jam.
I’ve lost count how many times I have visited since a kid and I even did what most have thought of doing and lived there for a short period…great in the summer not so easy in the winter!
Needless to say, I have photographed most of the more familiar spots over the last 18 years and many charismatic fishermen most of which are no longer with us.
So it’s sometimes either not really appealing to revisit places already well photographed in favour of somewhere new or a challenge to look at places with fresh eyes and creativity.
Having said that as photographers as with most things in life we grow and our vision grows and changes so the images I shoot today will not be completely the same as those captured previously.

I captured this image “A Tranquil Mooring” at dawn at Cadgwith on the Lizard a few weeks ago, it’s a place I’m very familiar with and happy to revisit with or without my camera.
On this visit, I noticed a new bench near the spot I was photographing dedicated to a young lad called Toby who had very sadly died aged just 16 and had no doubt loved Cornwall as much as me.
Reading that inscription on the bench certainly left an impression on me and I’ll be sure to return next time and leave a few flowers.

A Tranquil Mooring.. Dedicated To Toby

Aug

Protexin, An Engaging Video Solution

We find ourselves quite fortunate more often than not to work for some very nice people / clients.
It’s only natural that we actively seek out companies and agencies whom we believe are not only a good fit with the type of work we do and enjoy but also who are known to be great people to work with.

Protexin are one of those such companies based not too far from our studio who we had heard great things about.
They had some very impressive new premises and won several awards including being voted one of the best local employers to work for.
I should add Protexin manufacturer pro biotic products for both human and veterinary consumption.
After several phone calls and mailers we met up with the marketing team over a coffee at our studio cafe to discuss some ideas we had for them.
As it turned out what we had to say and show went down very well solving a particular problem the team where seeking a solution for.

Below is the first of several videos we are producing over the next several months to help Protexin showcase their production & premises to their overseas clients in a contemporary engaging way.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/71599214″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

Aug

Bronze Award, Epson Panoramic Awards

Pleased to announce one of our images have once again won an award in the Epson Panoramic Awards.
We have entered a few times over the years and have been lucky enough to come away each time with some success which we are very pleased to receive.
This year we received a Bronze Award for the image titled “The Mud Horse Fisherman”.

The image shows Adrian Sellick one of the last mud horse fishermen on the banks of the Bristol Channel spitting distance from EDF Energy Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station.

Aug

Two Somerset Skies, Time Lapse Landscapes

There never seems to be enough hours in the day, when I’m not shooting I’m spending time either retouching,marketing or some other less creative side of business.
Despite creating images for over 26 years or so I’m also keen to keep pushing my image making still further forward so there is always something new I want to spend my often limited time to master.
Following on from my previous post my latest creative outlet is Time Lapse Photography which combines my skills as a photographer & retoucher with my albeit slightly more limited 5 years experience of video production.
Below is a short video titled “Two Somerset Skies” (still requires a little more attention to polish it up) and was captured close to our studio base in the beautiful Somerset landscape.
The locations where captured a few days apart during the recent summer heatwave here in the Uk and shows off just how amazingly varied our skies can be despite the season !

[su_vimeo url=”http://vimeo.com/71468226″ width=”1280″]

Jul

Time Lapse Photography, Dancing Shadows Over The Crops

I’ve been shooting and editing video for a good few years now for the purpose of presenting and illustrating Photography & Retouching training.
This year however I find myself shooting more and more creative video type work which blends stills & video.
Some of this work is nearing the end of production for a client so I’m unable to publish just yet but here is something similar we shot for our Studio based Cafe

Something else we have started to play with is Time Lapse photography which once again blends still photography with video.
Below is a short video titled “Dancing Shadows Over The Crops” we shot last week on a glorious summer afternoon in a beautiful field of crops and Butterflies.
This was our first attempt at Time Lapse and it requires a lot of images,batteries and most of all patience !..more to follow.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/69765604″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

Jun

Aegean Fishing

Jun

Lifestyle Portrait From Beach Babes To Toilet Attendants

I’ve photographed a lot of people over the years including my fair share of lifestyle photos of bikini-clad models.
Although models on beaches are always fun to shoot my favourite people to capture are those that ooze character.
I spotted this chap who was a Toilet Attendant whilst looking for a toilet (you never know where they will pop up) in the resort of Yalikavak Turkey.
When I spot someone like this gentleman I find it very hard to walk by without asking if I can take lifestyle portrait of them and In Turkey at least I can’t remember ever being refused to date.

The image is a great addition to my travel photography portfolio

Lifestyle-portrait-toilet-attendant-turkey

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