As it creeps on to halloween, we see the movies on TV all change to the horror variety, people in town all dress up and we have some fun with it.
But what about the “real” ghosts, do you believe?
Below is a blog post of the most haunted houses in the world and some of the stories behind them, what do you think is horror or just hype ?
Is it true ? is it ? I wish 
Canon will defo give out pre production cameras to be used in the real world for beta testing, and yes this app (if it exists, I haven’t checked) might be a cool marketing ploy.
The Red Herring in here is defo Chase, I love Chase and have followed his blog and work for as long as i’ve been into photography, and he is a big time nikon shooter, he goes against the grain of most “in the spotlight” pro HDDSLR users for commercial work in that he uses Nikon cameras for video and not canon, plus I think he is officially endorsed by nikon and tests their pre production cameras, so conflict of interest would defo be there.
Would be awesome if the 5Dmkiii was in the october announcement.
As most photographers know (and non photographers will know it to see it) depth of field is a massive weapon in your creative arsenal, but what if you could change the depth of field after fact?
Not even that, the viewer of any of your photographs could change the focus point whenever they want just by clicking on the photo ?
Enter the Lytro:
This new breed of camera takes light field technology and makes it available to average Joe, it looks amazing, and it could be a hint of things to come in our Pro DSLR’s, imagine a RAW file that gave you tons of latitude in terms of exposure AND you can change the focus point whenever you want.
Yes, some might say its another thing that “dumbs down” the industry, but I love new tech, and it I think this is pretty awesome.
Working last night shooting a club, and they had a wee (by that i mean two huge) bubble machines, full of UV paint.
My eyes stung, they tasted horrible and I was COVERED in this stuff (which was only viewable under the black light)
Oh and my camera to
Its gonna be a clean up job and a half
For quite a few years i’ve been fascinated by sound and the effect it has on us as human beings, the way we feel emotionally, physically.
Nikola Tesla (a hero of mine) believed that illnesses, disease and moods one resonated at certain frequencies and that we could use those frequencies to heal all ailments.
Here is a video from the 2009 TED conference that shows how sound can effect us in an everyday manner as opposed to curing cancer, ti’s well worth a watch (only 5 mins) and it even gives you the best stats in the world to either get a private office or get to listen to you iPod while you work.
Seth godin is a marketing guru who has some fantastic insights into the black box of the marketing world, here is a post from his blog, I can’t recommend following his blog enough, and also check out his books.
Every now and then, a creative act comes out of nowhere, a giant leap, a new way of thinking apparently woven out of a brand new material.
Most of the the time, though, creativity is the act of reassembling many elements that are already known. That’s why domain knowledge is so critical.
The screenwriter who understands how to take the build that went into the classic Greg Morris episode of the Dick Van Dyke show and integrate it with the Maurce Chevalier riff from the Marx Bros… Or the way Moby took his encyclopedic knowledge of music and turned into a record that sold millions… if you don’t have awareness and an analytical understanding of what worked before, you can’t build on it.
That’s one of the reasons that the recent incarnation of the Palm failed. The fact that the president of the company had never used an iPhone left them only one out: to make a magical leap.
It’s not enough to be aware of the domain you’re working in, you need to understand it. Noticing things and being curious about how they work is the single most common trait I see in creative people. Once you can break the components down, you can put them back together into something brand new.
Years ago, the “cost of entry” to photography industry was very high (well over £10,000) in the form of good 35mm slrs and medium format for wedding photographers and shooting any job had a physical cost attributed to it in the form of film processing costs.
This meant one thing, that doing photography jobs was something left to pro’s and NOBODY would do it for free, because every time you shot a frame it would be money out of your pocket, and the cost of shooting a wedding would be £500 just in film costs, without any profit nor compensation for time.
This was a good thing in a lot of ways, the client was always assured that they would be getting Someone who knew what they were doing and that photographers could make living doing what they were good at and love.
Now, with the advent of cheap DSLRS, people who have bought a £300 DSLR are now putting themselves out there as a “photographer” shooting jobs for free.
There is nothing wrong with shooting some things for free, charity work, building a portfolio etc we have all done it, the issue lies when these photographers, with no experience or skills advertise on sites like gumtree saying that they don’t do it full time so don’t need to “over charge” or “rob” like other photographers do.
This shows a sever lack of knowledge, when any pro photographer is hired for a job, they are bringing more likely than not, years of experience, literally 1000′s of hours learning Photoshop, using their gear, 1000′s of pounds on lighting, lenses, courses, books.
Then all the hours into actually doing the job which at a wedding for example doesn’t stop after the day, they then have a week or two’s work, selecting, editing each photograph of 1000′s taken, then putting together DVD’s, web galleries not to mention while still working shooting and editing other jobs. Then the gear isn’t finite, cameras break, become overused and need replaced, that’s another £2500, would you work for 2 weeks for free or £100 ? No, neither does the cheap/free photographer, they go home, take the images off the card, change a couple to Black and White then done.
So when you see these ads for cheap or free photographers, think about this “would I bother going into work today if my boss wasn’t paying me?” you take a massive risk with something that can never be captured again by hiring for cheap or free.
I had some one ask me about pricing for a wedding, we discussed it and he loved my photo’s, he emailed me back a few weeks later to let me know he had chosen someone else, because he was getting his full day covered from gumtree for less than £100, he preferred my photos but couldn’t pass up on the £100 offer, which is fair enough.
He then emailed me back to let me know his regret, his “photographer” had turned up 1 hour late, was very noisy throughout the whole ceremony, asked the bride and groom to pose during the ring exchanges, held up the meal by almost 2 hours due to “fiddling” with his camera, knocked over one of the wedding cakes “they had a small sponge cake made for guests who didn’t like the fruit” and when they got they photos back there was only one that was quote “kind of ok”.
Usually it’s not an issue, people would almost always pick quality over price, they knew “buy cheap you buy twice” kinda thing. But everyone is feeling the pinch in a recession and we all understand times are hard, but at the end of the day, the flowers wither, the cake gets eaten, the dress gets put away and the venue is changed the next day like you were never there, the only permanent of the day, is the rings on your fingers and your photographs (your memories).
Years ago, the “cost of entry” to photography industry was very high (well over £10,000) in the form of good 35mm slrs and medium format for wedding photographers and shooting any job had a physical cost attributed to it in the form of film processing costs.
This meant one thing, that doing photography jobs was something left to pro’s and NOBODY would do it for free, because every time you shot a frame it would be money out of your pocket, and the cost of shooting a wedding would be £500 just in film costs, without any profit nor compensation for time.
This was a good thing in a lot of ways, the client was always assured that they would be getting Someone who knew what they were doing and that photographers could make living doing what they were good at and love.
Now, with the advent of cheap DSLRS, people who have bought a £300 DSLR are now putting themselves out there as a “photographer” shooting jobs for free.
There is nothing wrong with shooting some things for free, charity work, building a portfolio etc we have all done it, the issue lies when these photographers, with no experience or skills advertise on sites like gumtree saying that they don’t do it full time so don’t need to “over charge” or “rob” like other photographers do.
This shows a sever lack of knowledge, when any pro photographer is hired for a job, they are bringing more likely than not, years of experience, literally 1000′s of hours learning Photoshop, using their gear, 1000′s of pounds on lighting, lenses, courses, books.
Then all the hours into actually doing the job which at a wedding for example doesn’t stop after the day, they then have a week or two’s work, selecting, editing each photograph of 1000′s taken, then putting together DVD’s, web galleries not to mention while still working shooting and editing other jobs. Then the gear isn’t finite, cameras break, become overused and need replaced, that’s another £2500, would you work for 2 weeks for free or £100 ? No, neither does the cheap/free photographer, they go home, take the images off the card, change a couple to Black and White then done.
So when you see these ads for cheap or free photographers, think about this “would I bother going into work today if my boss wasn’t paying me?” you take a massive risk with something that can never be captured again by hiring for cheap or free.
I had some one ask me about pricing for a wedding, we discussed it and he loved my photo’s, he emailed me back a few weeks later to let me know he had chosen someone else, because he was getting his full day covered from gumtree for less than £100, he preferred my photos but couldn’t pass up on the £100 offer, which is fair enough.
He then emailed me back to let me know his regret, his “photographer” had turned up 1 hour late, was very noisy throughout the whole ceremony, asked the bride and groom to pose during the ring exchanges, held up the meal by almost 2 hours due to “fiddling” with his camera, knocked over one of the wedding cakes “they had a small sponge cake made for guests who didn’t like the fruit” and when they got they photos back there was only one that was quote “kind of ok”.
Usually it’s not an issue, people would almost always pick quality over price, they knew “buy cheap you buy twice” kinda thing. But everyone is feeling the pinch in a recession and we all understand times are hard, but at the end of the day, the flowers wither, the cake gets eaten, the dress gets put away and the venue is changed the next day like you were never there, the only permanent of the day, is the rings on your fingers and your photographs (your memories).
Being a “creative” can be tough, we don’t see the world in black & white, or even in shades of grey for that matter, we see the possibility of Colour and what we can do with it in a monochrome world.
What changes we can make, what ideas it brings us and we visualise these things vividly, the problem is, that is the problem.
Creatives are well know to be obsessive , once we get that idea engine going we cant let it go. It may hit us during a shoot, out with friends or for me at 4am (we are notoriously bad sleepers) ,and when the idea comes it needs to be created in some form in a note pad at the side of your bed, to go out and shoot right away or most recently on evernote (which is an amazing creative tool) right away ! We cant let it go. I like being the obsessive creative, we have that whole “right brained” thing going for us, and it’s not too damned bad tbh.
Spending time with your kids?
Out partying with friends?
Writing that book?
A survey was conducted a few years back that asked terminal cancer patients what they would do different, none of them said “I wish I made more money”, “I wish I spent more time at work” all of them focused on family, friends, things that would make their lives richer not in the intrinsic sense but emotional.
So play that scenario out just now, I’m asking 30 years from now (yes I know I have a nice delorean), what do you wish you did different ? Write the list, you now have 30 years to do it. Then when I ask you again, you can say “nothing”.
Don’t let fear get you, you can do anything you want, anything!
“use no way as the way, use no limitation as your limitation” Bruce Lee
