Having recently visited Tulum, Mexico I had to list an image quickly!  What a stunning place!  This was taken at about 5am in the morning, just as the sun was rising.  Being the only people on the whole beach, you certainly privileged to be the only people witnessing this dramatic scene.  Shot with a ridiculously small mini-tripod (which never leaves my kit), with my trusty canon 50mm 1.2 shot at f16 to get the slight moveemnt in the sea!  I WILL be going back!  

Oh - just a quick one - I am appearig in this weeks NY Post, on an article about some photography i did for a yoga studio.  Check it out

As mentioned in previous post - i like to complete most of my retouching in-house.  This gives me a lot of the creative control and flexibility when shooting.  The images can be layered or 'composited' together to give the optimum characteristics for each element in the photograph.

I have therefore put up an updated retouch portfolio for all to view.  Some are my images and some are other distinguished photographers that i have had the opportunity to retouch projects for, such as Phil Marco and Chris Sanders

Here is my retouch folio and below is an image from a recent shoot - it is HDR (high dynamic range) photography.  (more to come in next post!)

Enjoy!

This blog is not only an area where i can talk about shooting, but also other aspects of Photography that interest me.  I went to the Architectural Digest Trade show last week and amongst the various great companies, there was a small stand advertising a project called 100 cameras

100 Camera identifies children living in unjust  conditions and gives them cameras to document their lives.  Their photo narratives are used to raise awareness, and the capital raised goes straight back into the community.  Cameras have been give to lots of children throughout the world - from Africa to the Lower East Side in New York, and the website allows you to view and buy these photographs!  It is a great project and there is something raw and beautiful about alot of these photographs - check the website out at www.100cameras.org it's time to give back!

I love to photograph panoramics (pans).  I have included a recent image on my homepage, which was from a road trip around California - La Selva Beach, Santa Cruz.  It gives such a great depth and printed big you can really get to see all the details in the picture.  I shot on my Canon 1ds Mark III using the 17-40mm f4 L Canon lens - i like how the wide angle format gives this elongated sense to the photograph. 

When I am commissioned for interior work, I like to try and incorporate a pan into the shot list, or if something jumps out at me i shoot it!  Like when i photographed the interior of a new music studio in New York BEAT 360 I managed to shoot this:

To get technical - i shoot various fames on a tripod, overlapping about 1/3 of each images with the previous.  this allows greater flexibly with the stiching together at post production.  I also bracket each exposure 1 stop either side so I have the availability to composite elements into the final image.  For example the outside of the windows was shot at a darker exposure and then introduced to the final.

POST PRODUCTION: I retouch most of my own work, to give me lots of creative control - using the obligatory Adobe Photoshop CS4  I use the the command File> Automate> Photomerge to merge the exported .psd files together.  This gives a really great effect.    

Panoramic Photography