I have had work published in magazines all over the world but this one is quite a coup for me. In the July (current) edition of National Geographic I have a picture published on page 36 with an article about the dangers of crossing the road in the US. National Geographic is well known for the high standard of photography so it was quite nice to get a photo shot on a Lomo LCA in there! National Geographic first contacted me in February of this year about the using the image. I don’t get excited about this type of thing until it actually happens and, because of the birth of Matilda, I actually completely forgot about it!
Look out for it, it’s in the issue with a skull on the front. Funny thing is I was not even going to upload the image to flickr! I was at home wondering what to post to Flickr when my wife suggested the cross walk image, I didn’t think there was anything particularly special about it. Must be something special about it as Lisa Båtsvik-Miller the designer of my new book used it on the UK front cover.
This has been a long time coming, I have not just been fannying around since Hot Shots came out, no sir! I have busy working with the people at Rotervision and have written a new book. It’s called Photo Opp in the USA and 52 Photographic Projects in the UK, both books have the same sweet sweet contents so don’t worry about which one you get!
The new book goes in depth into 52 photographic techniques that anyone can try out with the use of accessible kit. So varied are the topics covered in this book that I enlisted the help of 20 contributors from all over the world. This has helped make the book as varied as possible, click here to read mini bios of the all the contributors and to find links to their websites, flickrs, twitters etc.
Getting you hands on the book
I will be selling signed copies of the book and shipping them worldwide for £22.95 + shipping costs. For deals on buying the new book with Hot Shots click here. You can of course pre-order the book from Amazon UK here or Amazon USA here.
Book Launches / Signings!
To celebrate the book coming out I will be holding 2 UK launches (and maybe more in the future), one in Brighton and one in London. 52 Photographic Projects will be on sale at these events for £20 (rrp £22.99). That’s just 38p a project! Also for people slow on the uptake there will be copies of Hot Shots for sale and signed for the special price of £10 (rrp 12.99).
The Brighton launch will be held on Thursday 15th July from 6.30 pm at Add Colour, Brightons newest café / gallery in the North Laines. When I arranged with the café owner, Add Colour was still being put together. Everything is shiny and new so you’d better be on your best behavior. I will be supplying beers on the night as it’s the home crowd. Once they’ve been drunk we can move on to the the Dorset. Because five of the book’s contributors live in Brighton it should mean that you can get your book signed by them in addition to me. You can join the Facebook event page to keep up to date with all the latest developments.
Add Colour
64-65 North Road (old parking fine office!)
Brighton
Sussex
BN1 1YD
The London launch will be held on Wednesday the 21st July at 6:30pm at Bar Sequence in Islington. Bar Sequence is a great venue as they are, in their own words, “equipped to deliver a unique digital audio visual experience”. Sounds cool. It has seven plasma screens around the bar that can be used to show slideshows and videos, I’m gonna use them to transmit subliminal messages so you that you buy my books and enlist yourself onto Hot Shots the photography course. You can join the Facebook event page to keep up to date with all the latest developments.
Bar Sequence
43 Essex Road (Nearest tube is Angel)
London
N1 2SF
Hope to see you at one of the launches! and if you get my new book I hope you enjoy it!
It was only a year ago that I took my first montage portrait of Irate (of Modu Designs) at Red Mutha’s fashion fair. At the time I was going take Irate’s portrait I wanted to record all the details of his fabulous threads. I very rarely shot photos in a portrait orientation and if I had shot him in landscape I would lost all the details when the photo was blown up. Then I remembered seeing an Austrian Photographer at the Lomo World Congress in 2003 taking a montage with his Lomo LCA and I thought it would be perfect for this situation. For the record I can’t remember the Austrians name but I am pretty sure he was the designer of the Super Sampler.
After putting together the 1st one I did not think much of it. In October 2009 I went to Phoot camp in California and shot portraits of the attendees using the montage technique. Once I was back home I slowly uploaded them to Flickr where they got very positive feed back from the Flickr masses. Shooting in this style was something I was going to continue.
Then in December 2009 I discussed doing the trend spotting for the 1st issue of Brighton Source Magazine of 2010 using the technique as a one-off with the editor and chief The James Kendel. It turned out the Source liked what I did for them and I enjoyed doing it so much that it’s now turned into a permanent feature. I am now 6 issues in and going strong! I had only shot 3 sets of portraits for Source when Photo Pro Magazine approached me to write something about what I was doing for Source. I am really enjoying it as I am getting to meet so many people I might not of met otherwise.
In May my wife Rockcake and Partially Obscured hand an open house together. For the show I wanted to shoot something new so I decided to shoot the people who make Brighton the special place it is using the montage style rather than hanging some pre-shot work. I Shot people ranging from paramedics to cabaret performers to fashion designers. I arranged and shot 14 portraits in the month before the show, all with the added complication of a 4 week old baby at home! The show went down really well and I have already accepted commissions to shot family portraits in the style.
Left Nick Baird (paramedic), Middle Betty Swollocks, Right Ophelia Fancy girls
(These links are to there individual web site as i have not posted them to flickr yet)
It’s One year on from when shot my frist montage portrait of Irate and I have a little mental to do list of things to do with my montage portraits. I am going to producing a Blurb book of the best of the 1st years portraits as there are qute a lot to choose from. There are 67 on Flickr and 200+ on my computer. Some have not been put together, some are waiting go into Source and there is all the stuff from my Brighton project which I have simply not got round to posting to Flickr yet! I am also going to start a Tumbler blog just for the montage’s and I am having a custom theme being built watch this space.
What made me write this post was hanging out with Irate at another one of Red Mutha’s fashion fairs 2 weeks back. Seeing as he was the one that started it all I gave him a framed version of the 1st one. I think he was happy with it! (sorry about the crappy iPhone photo)
Nick Sayers has produced this rather stunning retro looking post card to promote the upcoming Brighton Naked Bike Ride that will take place tomorrow (Sunday June 13) from 12:00pm – 4:00pm. If you have a bike and no inhibitions you should join in. Check the Brighton naked bike ride web site for more details. He used one of my photos (bottom middle) on the card – visit the cards flickr page to find who the other contributors are. Last years ride attracted 800 people. This year Nick is hoping to get up to 1,000. I also had the pleasure of taking Nick’s portrait for Source Magazine in montage style but with his bike thrown in for good measure.
Visit the above photos Flickr page to drop a comment
With Apple announcing iPhone 4 and Adobe Releasing Lightroom 3 it’s been an exciting week for the photo / geek crowd. If that was not enough, Lomography stepped up to the plate and bought out the Spinner 360. I have not been this excited about a Lomography product since the release of the lomo LC-A+ Instant Back 3 months ago! Spinner 360 takes 360 degree panoramic shots, you pull a pull string and when you let go the camera spins 360° taking a panoramic shot that covers the length of 6 negatives. Can’t wait to run a film through mine but I think I am going to have to wait till the sun comes out again!
I will post a full review of this marvellous spinning machine as soon as I have used it a bit. I also have to post a review of the Lomo LCA Instant Back at some point. And maybe it’s a bit late for this but I should drop a review of the Samsung NX-10 as I had my grubby mitts on one of them before they were out. It’s a bit late for the Samsung review but at least if I wrote it now the camera will be more affordable and easier to get hold of. You can check a video review I did, go here for 360 publishing (nothing to do with the Spinner 360!)
I was able to attend one of the Spinner 360 launch events at the Lomography store, London (see video below). It was suitably bonkers, the highlight of the night was the “spin off” where the crowd all spin together to see who could spin the longest. I said to Mr lomo “this is really silly, someone is going to smash into the decks“. Guess which person stacked it into the decks? Me. Check the 2nd video to see the spin off. You don’t see my fall but you do see the aftermath!
This months Brighton Source magazine is a bit of a lomokev take over issue! Not only do I have my regular trend spotting section but I also have a shot of the 2008 Beachdown festival, along with a montage portrait of Nick Sayers the organizer of the Brighton Naked Bike Ride which takes place this weekend on Sunday the 13th June. This months trend spotting includes my favorite montage portrait of all time (left), taken of Ruby. She just looks amazing. I will post it to Flicker soon!
Pick up your copy of Source from the usual outlets (every pub / cafe / trendy shop in Brighton town center).
