Professional Photographer Magazine kindly asked to interview me for the July Issue of their magazine.
Receipt Bank Animated Still
Back in November, I was commissioned by my client Receipt Bank to capture several of its clients in their workplaces.
The final images were destined to be printed into large promotional pieces and I’ll be publishing theses as soon as I can.
When I’m on an assignment I’m always looking beyond the brief anticipating other ideas while I’m at a location.
This was one of those occasions when the guy and the amazing location was too good not to capture other options after of course, I had captured what my client wanted.
The final image below is a still image that I have animated in After Effects which can be used for short social media content.
For clients, it gives extra value by offering video production services that allows the repurposing existing images and extending their budgets further.
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq-vxwwjMrA”]
Somerset Uncovered – Evening By The Isle
Continuing my personal filming and video time lapse project “Somerset Uncovered” the latest location was not only the closest to my studio and home but also one I’d never heard about.
This was despite driving past it many times over the last 15 or so years.
It was while chatting to my sons friend on the way to a football match that he was telling us of a spot that some of his friends go to swim in the summer holidays.
I was intrigued to take a look even if the directions were a little vague !
The following day with the family and dog in tow the location was eventually found and it was not only stunning but less that a 10 mins from home!
I went to film here 3 times in total mainly due to weather and some rather inquisitive cows blocking my intended shooting location.
[su_youtube url=”https://youtu.be/k5uygcNd7sM”]
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.
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/341102387″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]
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″]
May
13
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.
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/335884509″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]
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.
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/333857762″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]
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
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/192046243″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]
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
Apr
10
This is an old World War II train track called the stop line that cuts through South Somerset parts of which are hidden away in fields and overgrown by time.
The short video and time-lapse sequence is part of a self assigned project.
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/329664106″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]
With technology in constant movement it’s sometimes hard to know when something new appears if it’s just a temporary gimmick or if it’s actually something useful that will stay around.
3d motion or 2.5d to be more precise has been around a while and caught my eye.
It grabbed my interest as I could see how it could add value to clients by using the same still images shot for a campaign and repurposing them for motion based ads.
Like most things the images work best when pre planned to be used in this way but you can still create some subtle eye catching Parralax images from the simplest image like this portrait of a Belly Dancer.
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/258647113″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]
The following samples are a little more complicated to produce requiring elements on several layers (spot the subtle seagull movement).
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/257257982″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/256236312″ width=”1600″ height=”720″]
More stills based motion work can be found Here