Balloons & cake on Morcambe Prom

We're just in from shooting a lovely wedding on Morcambe prom under the auspices of Mr Gibbs who was off doing other Very Important Stuff. "Need a wee favour" he says a few weeks ago. In a heartbeat I'm sharing a flight to Liverpool with a hen party in a right feather boa then bombing up the M6 with the sun beaming down. What a handsome part of the world.
Got to grips with Mr Gibbs's new flash and with an old running mate in tow it was off to the brides house for the hair-do. Didnt get the shots I was after of our bride being laced into her wonderful frock. Seconded instead to assist with same. Lots Of Loops.
Running Mate cajoled bride and groom across the road onto the promenade for the sea railing and fluffy skies and whilst they had their tea we ate our sandwiches in the car and laughed about the old days. You never stop learning and McS knows her stuff so this old seadog added a trick or two to her kit. And there's nothing like a good friend who has your back when you're up against it all.
We've checked the rushes and we think we did a rather nice job whilst we were about it.

Enjoy Your Cruise

Do people still send postcards? Indeed they do. In fact the greetings card industry is still quite the behemoth both sides of the pond. As for port destination postcards, well this is our thing. Any country, any port. If ships go there and people go ashore we have the card. Over 450 destinations worldwide. Sample range and details now posted. Enjoy Your Cruise.

Nikkor Type V 55mm f1.2

 This lens was only made between 1965 and 1978, and the Type V, one of which I recently found myself on eBay, was produced after 1976. 34,000 were made. The coating is a little marred around the edge but that doesn't affect the image at all. It's the best part of half a kilo of Lovely Fast Glass. As it's a pre-AI lens it won't fit most of my bodies, the D200 or the F5, even the Fm2. However I had read that the F4 will take it, though you can't meter, and possibly the D40, which would be very handy indeed. Mr Gibbs is flying me over to Lancashire next week to shoot a wedding for him - silly boy has double-booked himself - I think he has one kicking around. I'll ask him to leave it on the kitchen table for me.

 Some Special Versions were made for NASA at the time. NASA lenses are extremely rare as you might imagine and it's said astronauts often leave them on the moon. I bet there's a rare collection up there.

 I had a play on the old beast, AKA the Mighty F4, and then I found an old F801 under the stairs. I thought I wrote that one off pot-holing under the rock of Gibraltar but it seemed to work, and the lens fitted! It was metering too, but not registering aperture changes so I guessed it was metering at 5.6 and compensated three or four stops. It was wonderful to shoot on film again, and what do you know, I didn't expose a shot wrong. Just like the old days, pre-pesky maverick digital. It's a little contrasty, but that could be the commercial scanning, however the depth of field is simply ridiculous when opened wide up and really rather lovely. There's more test samples in Sketchbook.

Heads Up

I chuckle every time I look at his wee head. And his Big Balloon.
But kid's portraiture is very competitive and I wanted to illustrate that Fine Art Imaging is a little different. I can only hope it will be embraced as a quirky marketing motif, I mean I can get the feet in you know!
I've been given a wonderful brief by a lovely man this week, to brighten up a rather dreary room. He cares about his residents and I'm thinking of something leafy and colonial. I shall present him with airy elegance, and insist he paints those walls!

Such is the nature of the design process it does tend to be rather organic. Regular visitors to Fine Art Imaging HQ might be a little surprised at the new look to the front page. As I am myself. So I'm going to sleep on it.

Either way, FAI is all about photography. Explore the links whilst I thrash out my typography.And there's a lot of new work to have a look through on the Previous Projects page.

Available Light

Anticipating my new lens makes me think about legendary Observer photographer Jane Bown. I first became acquainted with her work about 10 years ago when Lovely Mrs Burt gave me a book of her work. At the time I was a lone female photographer all at sea with a pride of male 'togs. It was a good empowering present. Jane Bown is indeed a legend. She doesnt bother with the hubris of technology or speciality papers. She cares about the shot foremost and works exclusively with available light. In her book she talks about dragging some of the most famous faces of the last century to the nearest window to grab the dying embers of a day. Simple, proper photography. Since 1949. Here's some lovely examples if you aren't familiar. Beautifully observed. Clumsy composition in Circus Performers for example, but the light is exquisite. I hope to be still chasing the light when I'm 81.

Through the lens

TTL today. If I did a guest slot on Desert Island Lenses I'd have my 50mm f1.4 packed in my survival kit, however pleased to have secured myself a lovely piece of fast glass in an old 55mm f1.2 Nikkor. It's got to be at least 30 years old as they stopped making them in the late 70's. There's very little about it on t'internet so I'm quietly hoping it might be a forgotton gem who hides it's light under the bushel of his little brother the 50mm f1.2. And for a manual prime lens they're not cheap either, and that's because they are so lovely. No bells or whistles with these fast boys, just fat slabs of glass.

Also pleased to finally get the Cruise page up and running. And if you are curious to know what that's all about, follow the link. It's an important arm to the FAI portfolio and an area we are looking to expand globally. I like to think of a product I've created and had produced here in Northern Ireland being dispatched to all sorts of corners of the world. It's quite thrilling really.

And finally, a word for our sponsors. What about Squarespace and their Twitter 'hashtag' ploy eh? Very clever chaps. #squarespace has been in the top trending topics since they launched their iPhone giveaway yesterday, and their followers have swelled by around 5,000 in 24 hours. Marketing Genius Dudes. I've been banging on about it to anyone who'll listen (sorry fellow BNI members) not least because I'm so happy with the Square Space product and service. But I also have a fascination with the power of the Übernet. In fact, check out my other blog right here:

Painting by iPhone

Some days are more serious than you care for them to be. And after a late run, oh around 10pm down at Shaw Bridge I'm not allowed to run plugged into the iPhone anymore. Because it's 20% running and 80% wedged against fence posts capturing a dark evening light as everything starts to bleed into itself. But it's been a productive week-end here at FAI HQ. The website gallops on apace and we now have commercial samples on hand, some widgets poached from Little Shed, a sketchbooky feel to certain areas. And some cows. I like cows.

Clever Clogs

Have you seen what yer one over at Little Shed has been up to. With her lovely oil colours and nicely observed film stills. I brought over a bunch of marjoram from my garden and it was just that colour too. 'Marjoram Yellow'. They can name a tube after me some day. Meanwhile Gibbs says my new website is like some sort of Über Blog. And I suppose it is really. Or a sketchbook of sorts. And I'm really enjoying the interaction that having such a fluid medium permits. Static websites very last year we think. 

I love what that girl does to paint, and I wish I'd taken this shot. 'Picture Envy'

Hot Enough To Cook An Egg

You could fry an egg on the stable yard cobbles out the back of the gallery here. Resisting the temptation to point the car and a camera towards the coast. Instead I'm preparing a talk for my BNI group tomorrow morning. It's croissants at dawn and hardcore business networking at the Belmont Church Cafe. I'm also taking the education slot on another passion of mine, social networking and the power of the internet. I'll be talking about blogging, twittering, bleeting myspacing and 'booking. No doubt I'll find a way to sqeeze in a mention about Charles Leadbetter's 'We Think'. He gave a great lecture at the Art College recently which I havent stopped banging on about and I might volunteer a copy of his book as the 'door prize'. Finally got The Regency prints framed up and dropped off. Mr Steel kindly phoned to say staff and clients thrilled with the work. And he's not an easy man to please he'll tell you himself.

And in between nipping outside to top up on the sailor's tan its full steam ahead to get the website up to speed. And the account's..and the new flyer..and the brief for those lovely solicitors over at the Cathedral Quarter..Keep an eye on the site, it's filling up nicely.

Fine Art Imaging offers creative photography for practical application

Balloons and Other News

We've been busy in the studio this week with balloons and little people. And here's a top tip from FAI, if you're feeling blue get yourself a couple of massive helium filled beasts from Luce Balloons in Lisburn and take a stroll down the street carrying them above you like a cloud. Everyone smiles and says hello and it makes you and everyone else feel good. They've promised me I can come and photograph one of their 1,000 balloon releases one of these days... Speaking of which, one of mine disappeared in the night curiously enough. After hunting high and low for traces of exploded silver latex the next morning I've come to the conclusion that whilst I was busy down the other end of the gallery he bobbed himself towards the back door and slipped off into the dark. There's no other plausible explanation, he escaped!

In related news, Little Shed has been off to London to stock up on galleries, and poor old Tall Order had a bit of rum luck over in Lancashire when his car blew a gasket 20 miles from the reception, leaving him and two assistants nothing else to do but order milkshakes and call the AA. His bride was very understanding, not least because he did such a good job the rest of the day. RIP Dear Old Rover. And whilst we're on the topic of weddings, if you're in the market for a classic wedding photographer with a big personality, check out my chum Michael Sheppard. His dance card is filling up fast right through to 2011. Here at FAI we prefer the smaller more documentary style affairs. And we love that fast glass. Which is why we have our eye on a Nikkor f1.2 50mm lens, if anyone has one going spare.? Theres finally some samples on view in our services portfolio.

Fine Art Imaging is growing

It's largely been a week of weddings and websites. We've been dabbling with code and exploring the new exceedingly intuitive CS4 for post production. Some clever so and so has promised a quick masterclass in Flash so snazzy banners could be winging this way very soon indeed.

Time out for a quick visit mid week to The Little Shed to ruminate on overpainting, underbellies and littlepeople. With a head then full of colour, attacked the latest brief for The Regency. Acres of lovely fresh magnolia to fill with simple colour and outdoorsindoors. Twenty Giclée prints coming off the press right now, broken up with a splattering of canvas to add a little texture I think. Samples below.

And all the while transferring content into the site, which now enjoys it's proper title of www.fineartimaging.co.uk

The Regency is all about the reds and greens. They wanted easy floral pleasure and thumbed up the proposal this week so we're off and awaaayy..

The new site is knocking itself into shape.

And this week we are looking forward to playing with the new studio equipment. Primarily focusing on our origami and aiming to get that giant gold reflector put away in one smooth maneuver. There's an interesting meeting at the end of the week, a photo shoot with Irish flautist Gary Arbuthnot, a project for a conference room well on it's way and the best part of 20 prints to be framed for a new restaurant in Down. Theres a wedding needs editing, a website to finish, and if the weather picks up we might get a bit of shooting in before the week-end.

The site is slowly filling up with content but it will take time. The plan is to keep it fluid and apply a 'bloggy' feel throughout so it stays fresh. Forgive the gaps, particularly the image gallery which is still in test mode.

We're off to shoot a wedding today and really looking forward to it.  Some test shots in Castle Gardens, Lisburn yesterday produced some surprisingly agreeable options. Even in the rain..

The new website for FAI is now well under construction, courtesy of SquareSpace and Learning As We Go Along Systems Inc. Have now had a radical re-think of style sheet. (see section below on flux)

It's a very organic process but please check back regularly for progress. Expect constant state of flux...