Kefalonia

Back out in Kefalonia shooting until 30th October then back to London.

Portrait: Alastair Humphrey

Photo of Alastair Humphreys an explorer and man of many other talents, who is currently planning a trip with fellow adventurer Ben Saunders, that will be the first return journey to the south pole on foot, and the longest unsupported polar journey in history.

Alastair is currently helping out on a few shoots in order to add to his already great photography skills before he departs for is adventure.

see more at www.alastairhumphreys.com

Recent work

CEO of insurance firm RSA, Adrian Brown. London, October 2008

British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA). City of London. October 2008.

Interesting times to be an Insurance Broker.

Tim Watson, Professor of Microscopy in Relation to Restorative Dentistry in one of his labs at Guys Hospital, London. October 2008

Winter fashion shoot for handbag.com. London, October 2008

New Scanner

WARNING: I have a new scanner so expect posts purely of random scans...

The Bowens Delux Kit Bag: Mod

If any of you have the bought yourself a brand new Bowens Delux Kit bag then you have my deepest sympathy. I believe that the newer version of the bag may be an improved model, I don't know for sure, but if like me you have an old version be prepared for it to be completely useless in it's current state. For the amount of money it's sold for - its pretty upsetting. Thankfully mine wasn't bought new....

My Bowens kit bag, designed for carrying lighting equipment, is made to standard that allowed it to fall apart within the first few outings. If like me you don't like to give up on these things then please read on to discover how I bodge modded mine to make it more acceptable.
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The first problem with the bags is that they're aren't made with much structural support, especially around the wheels (see below). This tends to mean the fall off (as they are attached to material rather than a hard surface with screws rather than nuts and bolts). Eventually this leads to the wheels wearing away in a manner that causes the bag to wobble uncontrollably when it's being wheeled.



The first task then is to add structure and sturdiness to the bag. Bowens quite happily replaced the wheels for my bag, twice, so the company did well on this front. But as you can see in the picture below the support on the rear end of the bag is a petty sad looking piece of flimsy plywood. After taking this out I replaced it with maple 9 ply.



At the same time I also layered the bottom of the bag with ply board. To support the corners I took a two pieces of bent aluminum and placed one on the inside and one on the outside - thus giving the wheels something solid to bolt onto.

Remember to cut the bolts on the bottom of the bag so that the ends don't grind on the floor, or worse, into the wheel. You will also need to re-drill the holes in the Bowens wheel brackets unless you have a larger bit of aluminum.

And there you have it. A very simple, very ugly bodge/mod of the Bowens lighting bag.

Fallyrag feature: Israel/Palestine work

Managed to get some of my work featured in the latest issue of 'fallyrag', a UK based online creative journal. They've got some images from my trip earlier this year and an essay I wrote on the subject.

Canon 5D II *UPDATE*

Vincent Laforet's blog article is definitely worth checking out - the video off this thing looks absolutely stunning. Is this, as he claims, going to change the game forever?

Canon 5D II is finally here....

Check this out over at Canon USA - and this at dp review (Image courtesy of dp review)

Initial response: Only 3.9 fps...c'mon they can do better than that surely! 5D is already 3fps. Apart from that it has live view with apparent HD video (eager to hear more about this). 21 megapixels and an ISO that goes up to 6400 using the new DIGIC 4 technology. Anyway for a far more in depth anaylasis head over to dp review - I'm meant to be on the way to a job..!

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UPDATE: AFP photographer Leon Neal has briefly tried out one of the 'beta' version of this camera, and his inital opinion is that the ISO and new sensor beats the Nikon D3 in low light, which is saying something. Read it for yourself here. Also worth checking out is Rob Galbraith's page

Tarell Alvin McCraney - Portrait shoot

A recent shoot I had with the US theatre actor Tarell McCraney with a behind the scenes shot of me getting into position shot by Ben Thomas

Visa Pour L'image 2008 - Perpignan

Well I was going to launch into a review of this years Visa Pour L'image held annually in Perpignan, south of France, with this years being the 20th anniversary. However I realised that I couldn't be more indepth than this one written by Casey Kelbaugh - so I'll point you in that direction. Bonus point for spotting yours truely. I will say one thing though - the final night was cancelled (due to a few drops of rain...don't even get me started) and whilst many were disappointed in missing the legendary final night party, we were disappointed that our good friend Dirk-Jan Visser didn't have his work on Zimbabwe shown on the big screen. This would normally be an honour in itself, but to have it on the final night is something very special. Anyway for any of those who were there and want to see what they missed or for anyone else - check it out here