On Saturday morning, I had aerial shots to do of Dril-Quip at Stoneywood. I had arranged to hire a helicopter from HJS in Peterculter. It was David’s first time in a helicopter and with the door off and being up on a cold January morning, it will have been a memorable first flight. With the door off, it is not for anyone nervous of heights or flying. It was also very cold. David was behind a solid panel but I was facing open space where the door would be so had to wear a harness. We both had headsets and could communicate with each other and the pilot.
On the way to to Stoneywood, to set up our cameras and check exposure we took a few shots of Deeside Golf club and Stewart Milne’s very impressive house.
Then we got to Dril-Quip which is in the flight path for the Airport which makes it difficult for photography. The light was quite good but it is almost impossible to not have any haze. However using Photoshop and increasing the blacks, contrast, and clarity, we can cut through the haze.
As we were close to the flight path, we were limited in where we could fly but we got a decent range of shots. The links to the Dril-Quip shots are here.
I would like to wish all our customers a merry Christmas and a happy new year. David and I are currently spending all our time phoning couriers and on-line tracking the orders we are still waiting for. The weather has delayed delivery of several orders although we have had deliveries today of albums, acrylic prints, framed prints, and canvasses. Everything we are waiting is despatched but we cannot guarantee everything will get here. We have 4 orders in the UPS depot in Tamworth and the UPS website is stating delivery is due tomorrow so we can only hope that the weather does not cause any further delays. As a back up, we are preparing full colour vouchers showing what has been ordered and explaining what is to follow. Although it is far from ideal, at least there will be something to hand over.
These are the icicles at our front door and despite the beautiful sunshine, there is no sign of them melting.
They look beautiful and I could not resist getting my camera out although it was too cold to venture very far from the door. They would have looked better using a longer lens and a shallower depth of field but at minus 8, I took these very quickly.
At night, these look great looking out the window, with the lights on them. I might take them at dusk on a tripod if it is not too cold but Christmas shopping will probably take priority.
Although the weather has resulted in some cancellations, the studio has been busy and David has taken some stunning images. We have also sold a lot of portrait vouchers so we should be busy when we come back in the New Year.
We are open today and tomorrow and then I will be back to work on the 28th and we are photographing Cheryl and David’s wedding at Belhelvie on the 29th. I am then on holiday from the 30th to the 6th January, if we can get our flights.
I would like to thank all past and all future clients for your business and we look forward to dealing with you in 2011.
Earlier this week (14th and 15th December, 2010), I was photographing a house that is about to go on the market. Leathan Property instructed me to take the photographs of this charming house just of Broomhill Road. It is a beautiful property and has a high standard of finish. The kitchen, the tiling, the underfloor heating, the extensive decking, the glass partitions, and the bi-fold glass doors are the notable features. I took more shots of the glass as it was supplied by Yules who are a clients, and I will give them these shots also.
The decking had a lot of snow on it but we got it swept into one corner but it was still in some of our shots so Lukas removed it using Photoshop as you can see above.
The day that I took these was the last day before more snow was forecast and therefore, I could not wait until the best lighting was available. I used a technique known as HDR (high dynamic range). To do this you take a series of shots (on a tripod) at different exposures so in this example, I have shots exposed correctly for the decking but with a very white and over exposed sky. I also have shots where the sky is correct but the decking is obviously under exposed. Combining several shots together in Photoshop creates something akin to what the eye sees as our eyes are incredible and have a much greater dynamic range than any camera.
The dusk shots taken at the back of the house highlight the lights in the decking, and gives a different mood from a daylight shot. You can see in the examples above and below that Lukas has very skilfully removed the snow and sand.
On my way back from photographing the toilets at Kippie Lodge, I got a phone call from a friend and client asking if he took a photograph of a Highland Cow with his iPhone would I manage to print a large canvas. I asked him where he was and he was on the South Deeside Road so I went to meet him but even with a 300mm lens, I could not get the close type of shot he wanted as the cows ran away. David then arranged to meet a farmer and go with him as the cattle recognise that he is coming to feed them so he could get shots of them in the snow without them running away. David got some great shots (see gallery below) and the client is going to use a few but has initially ordered a 1.4m x1.4m canvas (with 4cm) wrap which will look great in the new steading conversion he is currently building. From toilets to Highland Cows, our job certainly is very varied.
They have now asked me to take photographs of their lamination products and facilities. I have started photographing the projects they have picked as examples and have photographed toilets in Kippie Lodge, the Hilton Garden, and various schools.
There are lots more examples of their work to photograph as well as their workshops and displays at their premises in Bridge of Don but some of the images have already been supplied to Artech, the agency producing the brochure and website.
I was commissioned to take photographs of two properties for Express Estate Agency and the first one was in Maud. Many years ago, I took photographs for most of the agents in Aberdeen and a lot of the national companies but a lot of them started taking their own photographs and the rates for this type of work dropped drastically. I have photographed several properties for brochures over the last few years (look out for a blog post on property photography) Photographing interiors is probably one of the the things I enjoy most.
The 14-24mm Nikkor is a perfect lens for interiors. Many "experts" think this is one of the sharpest and best lenses on the market (click here for review). It is far better than anything Canon produces, so much so, Canon users go to great lengths to get adapters to use this Nikon lens on their cameras. You have to be careful not too get too much distortion but using the virtual horizon option on the D3s and the spirit level on my "Really Right Stuff BH55" tripod head makes sure this is controlled even at 14mm. The only other thing to do is to balance the flash and available light and use bounce flash (as used here) or the appropriate light modifier.
My client was very happy – see email received
Hi Neil,
Just had a proper look at these photos and we are really impressed. Wish we could commission you to work for us Nationwide. Fantastic work thank you
Regards,
Frances Williams
Listings Manager
Express Estate Agency
A fairly typical job where the requirement was for a group shot and a head shot of everyone. The only difficulty was that there was no where in the office to take the shots so I had to use the entrance but there was a logo of another company on the door and door closers etc. but this is where Photoshop is a godsend and we removed all the distracting elements.
I set up a background in the entrance and used a soft box and the daylight from the door as a fill light and worked with my favourite lens – the 70-200 f2.8 VR11 to get the head and shoulder shots of everyone. We put them all on-line (click here) later the same day so they could choose the best ones for each person. Even although this is not always popular with staff, I got an email the following morning confirming they were happy with the images.
"Morning Neil,
Thanks for your time yesterday; the pictures are really nice…..
Cheers
Ismail"
Taking photographs to "put a face to a name" on a company website is something we do a lot. If someone new joins the company, we make sure we use the same background and match the colour balance to keep everything consistent. We also create management boards for display in reception area. I am amazed how many very amateur versions of this I see, even for very large companies who are normally very conscious of their branding and image. If this sort of thing might be useful for your company, please click here to email me for a quote
Before I go on to speak about the job for Stagecoach yesterday, I must apologise for neglecting my blog recently. I was on holiday from the 30th September until the 6th October in Spain (blog post to follow) and since getting back, I have been exceptionally busy so there is plenty posts to come – weddings, albums, commercial jobs, new Macbook Air, new Apple TV, great portraits by David, and amazing Christmas offers about to be launched. Keep visiting as I will be back to daily blog posts this week or next.
Stagecoach launch new Jet bus
Yesterday morning I was photographing a new bus about to go into service for Stagecoach Bluebird. The client chose Castlegate and we met there yesterday on very bright but cold November morning. The lighting on the Town house was superb but the bus was in the shade. I could have used my Quantum Q flash units as the Nikon SB900 was not powerful enough (even at full power and the head zoomed in). However I used multiple exposures (9 separate exposures) to allow me to get good lighting on the bus and the iconic Aberdeen buildings in the background. Using a polarising filter helped minimise the reflections on the bus and also enhanced the blue sky.Fortunately the client was happy and sent a nice email
Hi Neil,
Received the disc today with the pictures on it.
Looks brilliant and everything that has seen them has liked them.
On that note are you free for a photo shoot out at Westhill on Tuesday potentially?
Regards
Ryan Neave
Marketing and Design Assistant
Stagecoach Bluebird and Stagecoach in The Highlands
Once I finished photographing the bus, I took a few shots of the Town House in the beautiful winter sunlight, which I think is among the best light for buildings.These have not been processed yet but will be added to the library of shots I am gathering and which will eventually be available for sale as prints or files.
Last week I was photographing some of the new rooms just opened in the second phase of the Bauhaus Hotel. I have been involved with the Bauhaus hotel from the planning stage with Nick Garett (the owner) and the late Bob Fitzgerald (the architect). I supplied a building wrap used on the scaffolding during construction and then produced artwork for canvasses for the rooms, and other artwork for the public areas. Some of this has been featured in previous blog posts – click here for a post about Bob, here for the canvasses supplied, and here for the photography of phase 1.
I have just finished a set of photographs for Nu-Style for a metal fabrication brochure. There was a long list of buildings and projects that used their products for eaves, soffits, ducting etc. There was also workshop shots and shots of the products taken in the yard.
For these, I took the shots in good lighting and then we created "cut-outs" of the items and replaced the background with a white background and used a drop shadow which made them look like shots taken in the studio. Click here to see examples of these or this link to see some of the workshop shots. Most of the shots I was able to get in the right lighting but for one or two of them, we needed Lukas’s Photoshop skills to enhance skies and lighting. For the workshop shots I used 2 or 3 flashes (Nikon SB-900 and Quantum TD5) and used gels to add a bit of colour to the background. There were also one or 2 buildings where I took several upright shots and then "stitched" them together in Photoshop CS5. Click here to see a selection of the shots. more…
