Venice, Hard To Top

Have you ever been to a place and had such a great trip you kind of don’t want to go back because you don’t feel you can top that perfect first visit?
That’s where I’m at when it comes to Venice.
I visited a week before Christmas to capture some travel lifestyle images so no doubt a little festive mood helped set the tone. On that note Venice is incredible at Christmas as the whole place is like a huge Santas grotto with lights and more importantly very few tourists.
The weather was also a great gift as it was very cold but clear providing beautiful low winter sunlight.
I came away with some incredible images from the trip which in Venice is hard not too and the feeling that returning could not get any better.
Having said all that’s it’s not to say I won’t as I would love to take my kids there and perhaps shoot some motion work this time.

Grande-canal-venice-travel-and-tourism-photography

 

iphone Wanderings In Majorca

iPhone Wanderings In Majorca

I came across this beautiful photography location during a day riding a Vespa around the Majorcan countryside.

I confess to often being slightly disappointed when I discover such great locations in the middle of the day as in most cases the light would almost definitely be more interesting earlier or later.

Majorcan-tree-travel-and-tourism-photography

A nine Image aerial composite

A Nine Image Aerial Image Retouching Composite

To add extra resolution to the camera resolution of my DJI Phantom 4 Pro I decided to capture this aerial scene in nine individual frames.

Some high-end retouching was then applied to the frames and then colour graded.

I could never image capturing images from the air years ago let alone being able to capture separate perfectly registered frames.

 

Aerial-landscape-burrow-hill-south-somerset

Aerial-landscape-burrow-hill-south-somerset

Somerset Uncovered, Village Cricket.

Another Time-Lapse video from my project Somerset Uncovered.
I had been wanting to test out a new bit of equipment on location to aid my shooting Time-Lapse videos and the perfect opportunity arrived this week.
With a beautiful evening forecast that looked like delivering a stunning sunset this would be perfect test conditions.
My son was playing a Cricket match at the village cricket club which is situated in beautiful surroundings.
I wanted to capture the setting sun and the match within my composition so I arrived and located the perfect spot.
Not really being a follower of Cricket and the rules I asked how long was left and told the home team were now starting to bat so could be a while..perfect !
I had only shot for about 10 minutes when suddenly everyone shook hands and disappeared. Apparently they won the game with just a few runs so nobody else was required to bat so they all buggered off home!.
Not too worry I decided to keep shooting as my hunch at a fantastic sunset still looked promising so I stayed another 50 minutes and was glad I did as the sky was incredible.

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Video Production In Somerset, Somerset Uncovered At Burrow Hill

Video Production In Somerset, Somerset Uncovered At Burrow Hill

Burrow Hill is a location I know very well and I’ve photographed here many times including from the air.
On this occasion, I wanted to revisit for my video project Somerset Uncovered.

We have recently had a spell of very settled warm weather but clear blue skies are not what was required for this shoot.
A few days ago my careful watch on the weather forecast promised another hot day but with cloud moving in later in the evening which sounded perfect for the shoot.
I already knew where the sun would be positioned for my composition so it was just a case of planning my timings.

One of the things I dislike about Time-lapse is that some objects like too much foreground foliage can move rather quickly.
This can not only be distracting but also ruin the tranquillity and graceful pace of the skies and light that sometimes dances across the landscape.
Therefore careful composition to avoid these elements or clever post-production is required.

Unlike shooting stills and retouching in Photoshop this can be a lot trickier when working with moving elements but I do love a challenge!

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/338069981″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

Venice Beach Patrol 1992

The last few days I’ve been busy in my archives digging through my travel photography portfolio. and also old car work.
These were shot predominately when I was retained to shoot cover cars for Top Marques magazine in circa 2007.

Within the keyword search popped up this image from my travel and photography trip in the states way back in 1992.
The photography location is Venice Beach in Los Angeles where I finished my 3-month photo trip before flying home.

Unfortunately, the lab back here in the UK actually cocked up the processing leaving many rolls with major colour and tonal issues and pretty much unusable.

Thankfully decades after capturing the image and with my knowledge of image retouching many frames are now repairable.

Venice-beach-police-car-1992-travel-photography-portfolio

Burton Pynsent Monument

Burton Pynsent Monument

Continuing on with my video production somerset project titled  Somerset Uncovered Time Lapse Video project I took a trip to a location close to my home.
As is often the case we can travel hundreds of miles yet don’t get around to those places that are closest to home.
The Burton Pynsent Monument is one such place I’ve meant to visit for a long time.
Located at Curry Rivel it was built in 1767 and is a grade 1 listed building.
As spectacular as the tower itself are the amazing views across the South Somerset landscape.

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Whitelackington Trees Time Lapse Video, Somerset Uncovered

Whitelackington Trees Time Lapse Video, Somerset Uncovered

A short Time Lapse Video part of a series called Somerset Uncovered.
These trees can be found sandwiched between the A303 and B1368 at Whitelackington. 
Due to the location, I’ve passed them often admiring their transformation over the seasons.
It was for this rather simple reason that I decided to create a short Time Lapse Video here.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/334062741″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

Creative Video Production, Parallax Video Lilianna The Palace

Creative Video Production, Parallax Video Lilianna The Palace

Lilianna The Palace Of The Grand Masters Rhodes.
This is an image I applied some creative post-production upon and is created from several photographs.

It was also an image I thought would work with some creative video production applied and created using 2.4D motion as a Parallax image.

Keep an eye out for some subtle motion work.

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Stills Based Motion And Video Production Services A Perfect Fit.

Stills Based Motion And Video Production Services A Perfect Fit.

Video Production Services can involve much more than just video footage.

Many years ago (circa 2008) I had my own photography training site and community where I would video, present and film photoshoots and the post-production work to form an A-Z of a complete shoot.

After a few years, I decided to close the site and concentrate solely on assignment work once again. For a while, I felt I had in some ways wasted several years of my time and energy but as I have since learnt nothing goes to waste.
Some of the things that I would have never had photographed in my day to day professional life or techniques used in post-production have since proved of huge benefit to me.

The biggest benefit though was the skills I had to develop in capturing the video like the tutorials on the site were all video-based content.
Over the years these skills have enabled me to not only increase my earnings but led me to explore other Video Production Services work.

At heart, my first love will always be still photography but more and more I can see the big benefit to clients to be able to offer motion work alongside capturing stills and even repurposing stills into 2.5 d Parallax movies to provide even more content within their budgets.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/256236312″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

Another area has Ive been commissioned to work in is blending video with stills which are often referred to as Cinegraphs.
This campaign was captured for client Mimecast shown on digital billboards at airports all over the U.S.A and here in the U.K

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More recently I’ve been shooting some video combined with Time-Lapse work which I feel is a perfect fit to my photographic style.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/331172665″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]

Stills based motion offers an engaging alternative to purely shooting video although as with all things requires a learning curve to get the best from it.

Other samples of stills based work such as stop motion can be viewed Here