Let's play! | Bora jogar! By F.Pamplona

I’ve set photographic goals of one form or another for myself each January for several years now, though more often than not I’ve just kept these to myself and haven’t really broadcast them. This time though I thought that if I shared them, not only would it give me a reference point to look back on, but the fact that I’d shared them with the whole world, would encourage me to try harder to actually try and hit as many of them as possible. Having thought about this for a few weeks now, I’ve completed my list and decided to bare my soul to the world. Here goes, in no particular order:

• Attain further accreditations – On the back of my Qualification with Merit of the Guild of Professional Photographers, I aim to submit a body of work to the Royal Photographic Society for their Licentiateship accreditation, as well as achieve the Guild’s Craftsman status. The RPS only hold a few Licentiateship assessment dates each year, and from the looks of their calendar, the earliest available date that I’m going to be able to fit into my calendar is June or July, which buys me a little time to think about what I’m going to submit. For the Guild’s Craftsman status, submissions can be made any time. The Guild’s website states that “The aim is to show complete proficiency in your craft, along with versatility, control of light, and variety of composition etc. The submitted assignments should show a good variety of style and skill sets in different environments.”. Along with written briefs, letters of recommendation from past customers, PI & PL certificates, the qualification requires a number of images from at least 3 different assignments over the last 18 months which obviously have to stand out from the crowd. Co-ordinating all of this will be no small task, but one that I feel will be well worth the effort. To be honest, I’ve never really placed a great deal of merit in accreditations in the past, but having spent some time thinking about my “brand” over the last few months, I have changed my opinion and I now feel that in the grand scheme of things, that they can actually be rather beneficial.
• Put on an exhibition – This isn’t a new one, and I’ve been put off in the past by the cost. From what I can gleam, these days gallery shows tend not to make too much money, but are actually more about raising awareness. I do have a show of some of my Maltese photographs pencilled in with a new gallery in Gozo, but so far the logistics have been too protracted for my poor little brain to handle. The thought of making and shipping framed prints to Malta, co-ordinating hanging and then freeing up enough time to spend over there to do it justice is a little frightening, but I do have something up my sleeve a little closer to home that I want to commit to in the next few months.
• Get a magazine cover – This would be a very nice goal to hit, but it’s going to take quite a chunk of effort on my part to market myself more and establish more rewarding relationships, which brings me to my next point…
• More networking – I’m not a networker. In fact I really struggle with it. But I know that I really need to push myself more, get out of my comfort zone and work harder at building more relationships offline and online and put more effort into building on the relationships that I already have. The long and the short of it is that I need to knock on more doors and make more telephone calls. It’ll be tough. I have no illusions about that, and I know with every new lead there comes a very high chance that it’ll be accompanied by a knock-back. But as the old adage goes, “If you don’t ask, you won’t get”
• Plan more – I need to devote more time to managing my business and marketing it, which is inevitably going to leave less time for shooting. This is I will find frustrating as that’s what I love doing and I feel that even though my photography has improved significantly over the last 12 months, one of the beauties of photography is that you never stop learning. It’s my hunger to learn that keeps me going and wanting to try new techniques and explore new places. So in order to maximise the opportunities in the limited time available, I am going to have to put more effort into planning when and where I’m going to work and to create a shooting schedule for several months in advance, or even further if I can. As well as working on my landscape and travel catalogue, I also want to schedule in more portraiture. I love working with professional models and struggle with people less used to being in front of the camera. That’s down to my inexperience of directing people and knowing which poses work and which don’t. I really get a buzz out of shooting people and would really like to do more not only with models, but also with those less comfortable in front of the lens.
• Publish a book – I’ve used several of the online self-publishing book services for assorted personal projects and family momentos in the past, but never really taken the time and effort to do it properly. I’ve found book layout is an art in it’s own right, can swallow huge swathes of time and have a great deal of respect for publishers that do it well. It’s not easy, but I’d really like to get a body of work in print. It’d be beneficial for me as an artist, and would also be a useful marketing tool.
• Work on my travel writing – From the perspective of marketing my work, I’m fully aware that pictures work better when accompanied with text. Not just for SEO purposes, but also magazines and publishers are much more likely to accept comprehensive articles these days rather than images alone. Sure, if the images are strong enough to stand on their own, then they’re likely to be accepted, but there’s an even greater chance if I can accompany them with a travel or photography article or similar. I’ve looked around for online writing courses that fit my needs, but to be honest I’ve never found anything that suits. So I’ll keep trying, working on it myself using the various sounding boards I have at my disposal and putting more out onto this blog.
• Charity Work – I’m very disappoined that we had to cancel the Manchester Help-Portrait event last month, so I am determined to make up for this year by commencing the planning and organisation in plenty of time (it’s already in my calendar), and I also plan to do some other fundraising using my photographic skills but more on that another time.
• Finally, I need to get my sorry ass to the gym, eat better, drink less, spend more time with my family, and attend more football games. The long and the short of it is that in 2012 I shan’t be sleeping…..

So that’s me. All out in the open for 2012. Clearly I don’t like to set the bar too high…. With a little application it’s all within my reach and now that it’s up here in black and white, I’m committed!

What are your targets and resolutions for this coming year?
Feel free to share in the comments below.

So here they are, although not in any order in particular, other than chronological.

First up is an image I made in Spinningfields, Manchester that I submitted in the Urban View category of the Landscape Photographer of the Year 2011 competition, which was subsequently shortlisted.

The Avenue, Manchester - Shortlisted for Landscape Photographer of the Year 2011

Also in January I made the image below with Charlie in Castlefield with one of my favourite modifiers, the Lastolite Ezybox. Details here

Charlie, Castlefield

Patrick with his guitar on the roof of the Arndale car park before the security guards came along. Blog post here

Patrick with his guitar on the roof of the Arndale Car Park, Manchester

Maltese street scene – First trip to Malta this year. Blog post here.

Typical street scene in Victoria on the Island of Gozo, Malta

Kayleigh, Trafford Park with the moon. Blog post  here

Kayleigh

Second trip to Malta this year. Blog posts here and here

Doorway, Zejtun, Malta

Anna – “Waiting for a bus?” with some very carefully placed SB900s – blog post here

Waiting for a bus?

Lighthouse, Vilamoura, Portgual. Blog post here and on variable neutral density filters here

View of the breakwater at Vilamoura, Portugal with a lighthouse at the end

Manchester Central Library – post here

Manchester Central Library at sunset

Jenson Button in his McLaren Mercedes tears up Deansgate, Manchester. Post here

Jenson Button

The Lake District. Post here

View up The Struggle in the Lake District on an Autumn morning

Derwent Valley. Post here

Tree in the Derwent Valley, High Peaks

And finally a shoot I did with Sophie and Pat in mid December that I haven’t yet blogged about. Post to follow in the New Year.

Pat & Sophie

So in retrospect I’m more than happy with the quality of what I’ve produced this year, though I do feel that I need to up the quantity next year. And in upping the quantity I’m pretty certain that this will also see an improvement in the quality too. I ought to write a post on my plans for 2012 too. For one, it’ll give me something to be held to, and it’ll also help me to thrash out my thoughts and plans for the next year of my business and where I want to take it. So you can look forward to this in the coming weeks.

Finally, for 2012 I’ll be releasing desktop wallpapers for your personal use. You can download January’s here in 3 separate sizes. There’s 2560 x 1440, 1920 x 1200 & 1440 x 900. Simply click the appropriate link and right click to save to your desktop.

NeilAlexander_JanuaryDesktop - 1440x900

As this’ll be my final post for 2011, I’ll sign off by saying that it’s been a fantastic year for me photographically speaking and I hope that 2012 is even better.
Enjoy the celebrations, and I’ll see you on the other side.

Wishing you a prosperous 2012.
Neil

Asia:   Cambodia  |   Laos  |   Vietnam
Europe:   Cyprus  |   Mallorca  |   Malta  |   Portugal
UK:   Bath  |   Cheshire  |   Derbyshire  |   Lake District  |   Lancashire  |   London  |   Manchester  |   Suffolk  |   Wiltshire  |   Yorkshire
Personal work:   Crime?  |   Portraits  |   Street Photography

So that’s the new gallery layout. Feel free to swing by and peruse….
Next task is to register my archive with the US Copyright Office.

Typical street scene in Valletta, Malta (Click to view larger)

The image above, from memory was taken on the same street as this one, but for this image I just wanted to capture the chaotic feel of the plethora of bay windows. Coming from the UK where the buildings and streets are so relatively ordered and construction is so rigidly controlled, to see scenes like this almost throws me into panic mode. Maybe I have a bit of an obsessive-compulsive slight to my character and I do kind of crave order so when I am presented with a visual such as this I must make a photograph of it. Also I suppose there is a degree of contrast and dissimilarity to what I’m used to here which is another compelling reason for me to hit the shutter button. As with any other photographer, I always find it easier to make photographs of “things” that are different to what I’m used to seeing. The most difficult place for me to make an inspiring image is in my own back yard so to speak. Change and departure are easy. Routine and similarity are so much harder to do. Is that one of the reasons I love travel photography? Because it’s easier, artistically speaking? Possibly.

Below Mediterranean Street on the outskirts of Valletta Harbour (Click for larger)

To see more of these latest images, swing by the gallery here.

I’ve also added a few more to my gallery here.

HDR image of a 1970's Rover 2000 TC in Malta

The Maltese are big to the point of fanatical on old British motor cars. They’re often snapped up as beaten up old rusting hulks in the UK, shipped over to Malta and then painstakingly restored by hand with their new carers having to source parts from their networks all over the world.

These 3 particular cars in question were a Rover 2000 TC, a Triumph Spitfire Mk2 and a pre-war Morris.

I tried to arrange to shoot them as early as possible in the morning in order to minimse the harshness of the light, but even by 8am I could tell that I was going to have my work cut out. Between them these 3 cars have won quite a few awards in various competitions across Europe, so the primary goal of the shoot was to get a few great images of the owners with the cars and trophies. But I’m not going to post these, mainly because I really wasn’t happy with what I ended up with. The clients were thrilled, but I just felt that we could have done better. It was a real struggle to find sufficient shade against a suitable backdrop in a space big enough to drop some lights and make quality imagery. (I only had a couple of SB900s with me and I really needed about 10 times that to balance with the sunlight) The photographs of the cars on their own were much easier to do and I really like them. They’re all 3 or 5 frame HDRs processed in HDR Efex Pro.

HDR image of a pre-war Morris in Malta

HDR image of a pre-war Morris in Malta

HDR image of a 1970's Rover 2000 TC in Malta

HDR image of a Triumph Spitfire Mk2 in Malta

Classic pre-war Morris, Spitfire Mk2 and Rover 2000TC

Back streets of Zejtun, Malta (Click for larger)

On arrival, I unpacked my Think Tank Airport International, loaded up my LowePro S&F gear, and headed straight out to shoot number 1 on the list, which was the nearby town of Zejtun. I knew from experience that around early afternoon the streets would be fairly quiet. I knew the light wouldn’t be great (far from it), but the other option was to take a load off, knock back a Cisk or two and chill out for a couple of hours, but what would be the point of that? I was there to shoot, not to holiday! I figured in advance that the light was going to be harsh with a capital H, and that my best chance of getting anything close to usable imagery was to shoot HDR. Also being that it was just so damn bright, I could easily bracket without a tripod. So that’s what I did.

St. Catherine's Church in the background with the back streets of Zejtun in the foreground, Malta (Click for larger)

So here are a few more samples created using Photomatix -the alignment algorithms are now so good pretty much all the HDR sequences I shot handheld have sequenced beautifully.

St. Catherine's Church in the background with the back streets of Zejtun in the foreground, Malta (Click for larger)

More to come…..

The ancient city of Mdina, Malta at night (Click to view larger)

I’ve finally got round to processing some of my images from my most recent trip to Malta. The top and bottom images were shot in the medieval walled town of Mdina or “Silent City” as it’s often referred to. Mdina was first inhabited around 700BC and is one of the highest points on the island providing stunning views over the surrounding countryside, weather permitting which alas whilst I was there, it wasn’t…..

The top photograph is a 3 frame tripod mounted HDR image processed in PhotoMatix. I shot several groups for this scene, but this is the only one where there are people in it who stood still for long enough (around 30 seconds) to avoid any motion blur. Whilst I quite often like motion blur at night (for example in the bottom image of the group browsing a restaurant menu), this image I felt looked better with a static group. The image below was shot in the streets of Rabat, which is essentially an extension of Mdina, just outside the walls.

The streets of Rabat, Malta (Click to view larger)

I think that this one would have looked a little better had the two people been a little farther apart, maybe either side of the door walking towards each other but by the time I’d spotted them, it was too late and that particular decisive moment had long gone.

The ancient city of Mdina, Malta at night (Click to view larger)

Buried under a mountain of editing again, so it’s short and sweet one more time….

TTFN

Not just muddy puddles you have to look out for when swapping gear in and out of a rucksack - this cute little fella was intrigued....

I find a large rucksack is better for carrying more equipment unless I’m shooting in a hot humid environment or a busy market for example. In which case a large rucksack can be extremely inconvenient; it’s case of trying to peel it off a rather unpleasantly sweaty back, find a clear spot on the ground (which is probably muddy and stinky) to swap lenses and then slide it back on again. In the process desperately avoiding whacking old grannies or small children around the head whilst I’m trying to squeeze past them or trying to throw the rucksack back over my shoulders again.

With small rucksacks the problem isn’t getting in and out of it because I often realise at the first point I want a different lens that I actually left it behind because I couldn’t fit it in, so there’s no point trying to take it off anyway.

The Hassy vest, which is just a standard photography vest is good in that it is extremely lightweight and has more pockets than you can shake a stick at. The problem is that the majority if the pockets just aren’t big enough – even an SB900 is a squeeze so a 70-200 F2.8 is out of the question. Lord only knows how you’d manage with a 40mm Distagon!

Neil Alexander in Laos sporting a fine line in Hasselblad photography vests...

So recently in my quest for a good filter holder pouch, I ended up buying the LowePro S&F Filter Pouch 100 which ticked all the boxes as far as a filter container is concerned and has the added advantage that it’ll just slot into any of the external slots on my LowePro rucksacks which provides nice easy access for polarisers and grads etc as and when they’re needed.

I was so impressed by this little pouch that I spent some time investigating the rest of the S&F range and after careful deliberation decided to take the plunge – I have a wardrobe full of camera bags so anymore unnecessary gear really wouldn’t go down too well! Very hard to get hold of the entire range in the UK especially as I really wanted to get a little touchy feely with it before parting with my hard-earned cash. Fortunately Calumet in Manchester did have the vest and it was actually being able to see it in the mesh (see what I did there?) that swayed me. After a lot of shopping around, I ended up ordering from B&H in New York. It arrived within 3 or 4 days and worked out cheaper with shipping all the way over the pond than it would have done ordering it from a UK distributor without shipping even if they had had all the bits I wanted.

My trip to Malta 3 days after the gear had arrived was the perfect opportunity to give it a proper run out.

First impressions:
While this gear is probably not what I’d tip up in to shoot a corporate headshot, for travel work, I have to say that it excelled itself. If I were nit-picking, then I’d have to admit I feel the vest itself is lacking in pockets I felt – would have liked to see more places to secrete things like memory cards, cable release, business cards, keys, phone etc, but like I say that’s just me being pernickety.

My second even smaller gripe, is that what makes it so secure and snug once it’s on makes it that bit fiddlier to put together. I was shooting in different environments all the time, therefore the requirements for the kit that I needed with me were regularly changing so a couple of times a day I was shuffling the units around on the belt, taking some off, put different ones on, sliding them around to make them more accessible, all of which is made the bit more awkward by the industrial strength velcro LowePro have used. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t really a criticism, more of an observation. To be honest it’s quite reassuring knowing that I’ve got all this gear just hanging there waiting to be pinched, but any potential thief is probably going to ended up stuck fast to my waist before he actually manages to steal anything, and they most definitely aren’t going to be able to remove anything whatsoever without me noticing, even in a crowded market place.

But where this gear really excels itself is ease of access and usability. Once I’m loaded up and I’m out shooting, if I want to swap a lens out, grab a flash, pop on a polariser, it’s all just there. I can have glass swapped or a filter on in a fraction of the time it would have taken were I using a rucksack, and that for me is a real bonus – it means not missing a shot that I could otherwise have not been able to take.

In short:
It’s a comfortable, well-designed, robust, configurable all round piece of kit. I love all the little pockets withing all the pouches – these are really useful for strobe batteries, lens caps etc, and the advantage over an ordinary vest is that it’s all secured away – I can throw myself on the ground, crawl around, run all safe in the knowledge that nothing’s going to fall out.

All in all I feel it’s money well spent and can certainly see this gear getting regular usage. Great work LowePro, again!

Golden Bay, Malta (Click for larger)

Click here to buy a print or license a digital copy of this image.

The weather most certainly didn’t play ball. Every day I was there, first and last light were write offs. Dawn would start hazy and cloudy and then roughly an hour after sunrise, the sun would begin to burn through, and sunset was the same, just in reverse. So it certainly wasn’t for the lack of trying that I didn’t get to tick any of these boxes on my list. I was out for every dawn and made a few decent images but none were really as I’d anticipated. Both the images on this page were taken by the Radisson Blue complex at Golden Bay. I sat with my guide and had dinner in a restaurant overlooking the bay probably an hour and a half before sunset. As we sat down to eat the sun disappeared behind the haze, only to briefly re-appear as I hit the beach just long enough for me to get 2 frames off, and that was it – gone again. No golden last light, no pink or orange hues in the cloud just grey haze. So having traveled all that way, I just had to make the best with what I had without getting too downhearted.

Radisson Blue, Golden Bay, Malta (Click for larger)

Click here to buy a print or license a digital copy of this image.

More on Friday…. TTFN