• All Categories,  Work

    The Gumball 3000 GRD Built Subaru STi Promotions Car

    August 26, 2009 /

    James Greenwood of Greenwood Racing Developments asked if I could take some pictures of a car that his tuning company built on Saturday just gone.
    So I turned up at the GRD‘ workshop and I saw the Gumball 3000 Promotions car sitting in front of me.

    It turns out GRD built the Stage4 500+bhp Subaru (owned by Andrew Brimecome) that Gumball use for brand promotion
    James wanted some pictures of the car for the GRD website, so he passed me the keys and disappeared.

    Andrew enters the Gumball 3000 in his 1250bhp Viper and lets them use his Subaru whenever they want.
    It’s currently lined up to be at a trade show in September and he’s also giving it to them to use in next year’s Gumball. He thinks it may be the Jackass guys, but the celebrity has yet to be selected

    An hour after starting taking shots, Andrew turned up and after chatting for a bit he called some friends so I could do some rolling shots.

    These are some of the edited images from the shoot:

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  • All Categories,  General News

    Big companies getting loads of content – for free?

    August 19, 2009 /

    I was contacted recently regarding a promotion from RedBull as they’re holding a competition in which you go to Sisikon in Switzerland to report/photograph their cliff diving series.

    To paraphrase from my ‘invitation’: 
    "Red Bull is looking for a reporter to head to Switzerland to capture the twists and pikes of the amazing divers, the breathtaking location and the all round excitement."

    "To be considered for this exciting assignment, head to https://www.redbullreporter.com and keep uploading examples of your best photos. Tag your uploads ‘Cliff Diving’.

    UK entrants only."

    This sounds fine until you look at the Terms and Conditions on their website:
     #6 You will be solely responsible for the content of your submission and the consequences of posting or publishing it, including in relation to any defamatory material or content that intrudes on the privacy of any third party 

    Which means if they use your picture and then someone sues them … they point to this clause and pass the buck to you.

    Talk about your ultimate get out of Jail free card. And then there’s’ this … 
    #8 You will retain full ownership rights in your submissions, but in submitting your submission to us, you agree to grant to us a worldwide, exclusive, royalty-free, transferable licence (including the right to sub-licence to any user of the Website or otherwise) to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display or otherwise manipulate your submission including for the purposes of the submission. In submitting your submission to us you agree to waive all moral rights in your submission.

    So in other words, I still own the copyright, but I can’t re-sell any of the images as Redbull have worldwide exclusive rites to use, manipulate and re-licence my pictures.

    They could make them into flyers or a billboard poster – and the person taking the picture doesn’t see a penny.

    Even though they’d have to fly from the UK to Switzerland, stay in accommodation, pay insurances and permits and have wear and potential damage/loss to my (rather expensive) camera gear.

    The prize for winning he competition is that they say you "may" be selected to go on a selected assignment for them.
    #5 Those that are selected for the pool of Reporters will be considered to undertake special assignments on behalf of Red Bull, on terms to be agreed. Such assignments shall be selected at Red Bull’s discretion. Red Bull is under no obligation to commission any member of the pool to undertake such an assignment

    So they don’t really have to do anything other than hoover up free content. They can get all the images and not have to select anyone for a special assignment.

    I’m all for a bit of creative enterprise and will elect to work for selected charities, but when it’s a multi-billion dollar companies looking for free content …. that’s taking the Michael Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

    I’m actually not sure how they can pull this off as no Pro photographer will glance twice at the ‘competition’ and I can’t see an amateur coming up the money to do it either.

    Perhaps Red-Bull should behave themselves and just pay a pro or an agency who will get them the images they want. they will have the passes to get to exclusive areas and the technical and creative ability to capture amazing images for them.

    Or perhaps cliff diving isn’t high-profile enough to warrant paying a local Swiss pro to turn up. To quote a line I read in an industry article recently covering a very similar scenario of ‘free content’ "Since when did mediocre become acceptable?"

    It’s all showing a sad trend for the photojournalists out there. the knock on from that is that as their work dries up from conglomerates getting ‘free’ content, they have to move into new areas to make a living.

    My heart goes out to them

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  • Events,  Workshops

    WORKSHOP : 2-day On Location Lighting in London by Bert Stephani

    August 7, 2009 /

     

    On September the 7th and 8th Bert Stephani will be giving a 2-day Portrait Lighting workshop in London, England.

    The Workshop:
    On Monday, we’ll start out by going over the basics of light. We’re going to learn to recognize good light and shape bad light into good light.
    In the afternoon we are going to learn how to MAKE the light with small flashes and mix ambient light with flash.
    Bert will also discuss equipment choices and will squeeze in lots of tricks of the trade. With lots of real life examples and mini-shoots, we’ll make the theoretical part easy to digest.

     

    On Tuesday, you’ll get the chance to put everything you’ve learned into practice on a location shooting day. You’ll get some fun assignments, that you will work on in small groups under Bert’s guidance.

     

    You don’t need any experience with flash, tons of expensive gear or a degree in photography to benefit from this workshop. The motivation to improve your photography, is all you need.
    The main focus on the workshop days will be lighting, but you can ask any questions you like, from technical to the business of photography. 

    BONUS:
    Those attending will get the chance to win a California Sunbounce Micro-Mini (rrp £120) during the workshop
    Everyone who comes will also receive a small pack of colour correction gels big enough to fit their hotshoe flashes
    2x 1/4 CTO (Lee 206)
    2x 1/2 CTO (Lee 205)
    1x Fluor 5700k (Lee 241)
    1x Fluor 4300k (Lee 242)
    1x Fluor 3600k (Lee 243)

    Workshop Location:
    The workshop will be held in the heart of Richmond in the Parkshot Richmond Adult Community College (RACC) building – about 2 minutes walk from Richmond station and is also easily accessible by road, tube and bus.
    The first day will be in one or 2 of the college’s rooms and we will also have run of the corridors and the gardens too if required. The second day we’ll be exploring different locations in a walking distance in and around Richmond†. On both days the workshop we will gather at 09:30 and start at 10:00 and aim to finish at around 18:00.
     
    Directions and other information and forms will be emailed to each participant prior to the Workshop

    † Final location to be booked. We’ll update this page once finalised

     Workshop Pricing: 
    To celebrate first classes with Bert in the UK, this workshop is temporarily offered at the introductory price of 220GBP*.
     
    We may have some models and a make-up artist lined up for our practical day. If they come then they will be with us on a TFCD basis, so it’ll be courteous to supply to them some polished images for their portfolio to thank them for their time
     
    * All prices include UK VAT

     

    If you wish to book your place on this workshop, please use the Registration/Payment link below.

      

    Bert Stephani is an internationally known professional photographer, mostly known for his creative portraiture, commercial work and his lighting style. He’s also a passionate teacher who’s frequently asked to conduct workshops, seminars and lectures in Belgium and the rest of Europe. Bert doesn’t believe in ’secrets’ and is always willing to share everything he knows in his workshops
     
    Bert became known initially for his ’Confessions of a Photographer’ videos on youtube where he takes us on portrait shoots and talks openly about technique and the processes going through his head when he’s working.
     
    Since then he also started the LIME project with his friend Pieter Van Impe and the mission behind lime being:
    Learn, Inspire, Motivate, Experience (L.I.M.E.) A resource for photographers, by photographers.
    Their ethos is very much about sharing their experience with other photographers and don’t believe in keeping ’trade secrets’
     

    Here’s a sample of Bert and a Sunbounce Micro-Mini in action:

     

    If there are no more places and you wish to be notified in case someone drops out,
    then leave us your contact details and we’ll email you

     

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    Refund Policy

     

    Find a nearby Hotel with

     

     

    Registration

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  • All Categories,  Work

    Picture of my dad

    August 5, 2009 /

    A couple of days back I posted about the abstract picture I made for Signature, the hairdresser shop in Woking, Surrey.

    I’ve been snowed under at the moment and so my dad offered to frame the picture for me, which he does now and again if I’m flat out.
    It also gave me a chance to drop off a picture I’d made for him to say thanks for helping me out over the last few months and because, well, he’s my dad and that’s reason enough :o )

    His picture was one he took from the tiller of a scooner sailing at full tilt.
    He likes his sailing

    He dropped round the picture last night and we chatted for a bit. We talked a bit about the Workshop I’ve recently arranged for Bert Stephani and how it’s about lighting.
    Dad used to be a keen film snapper when my brother and I were young (lots of family albums), but I was trying to explain layered lighting and how it’s controlled.

    I could see the slightly vacant expression coming back at me, so I decided a practical was in order to explain what I was twittering on about

    So I sat him down, set up my folding backdrop, one light stand, flash and umbrella and gave him a 5 minute demonstration.

    He quite liked the results and I also got some cool shots of him for prosperity.
    So, here’s my dad being a good sport while his youngest got all wide eyed and rattled on at 100mph.

     The look you only get from a father to their crazy son:

    I sent it to him and he emailed back thanking me, but asked who the wrinkly old man in the picture was.
    Comedian😉

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