Google talk and my recent dotcom tour

Posted on 26th Sep 2010 by lomokev

On my recent visit to California I was lucky enough to be invited to Google’s Mountain View office by Simon Smith the design manager of Google Apps to give a talk . The talk was about how I built my career around social media particularly with Flickr. It has to be said there was a certain amount of serendipity involved in my career and this is reflected in the talk. You can watch the 1 hour talk in below in full.

Continue reading →

Posted in News, Talks | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Hot Shots course article in the Independent

Posted on 13th Sep 2010 by lomokev

Chris Leadbeater wrote an article on Brighton and my Hot Shots course for last weekend’s Independent. Chris was going to join a weekend course but being a travel writer he was away when I was running one. Instead I gave him some one on one tuition for half a day to give him an idea what the course is all about and then let him loose for rest of his stay in Brighton with one of my Lomo LCAs. I think Chris really enjoyed himself but judge for yourself and check out the article at the Independent site.

Article Independent article

I now run my Hot Shots course every month in Brighton. September’s course is fully booked but there is room on the 30th October and 20th November courses. Check the Hot Shots course page for more details.

Posted in Press, Teaching | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Street Style montage portraits hit the streets again

Posted on 8th Sep 2010 by lomokev

Been super busy lately and have not posted here for a month. Lots to write about and not much time to write about it. Since last posting here I went to Phoot camp 2010, gave a talk at Google, visited Twitter and Photo Jojo HQ’s and what seems like a tonne of other stuff! But I am long overdue a blog post about my trend spotting as I have had two sets of portraits published in the Brighton Source magazine. While I am on the subject of my street style pics I am having a exhibition as part of the Brighton Photo fringe of my trend spotting pics which will take place at Behind Reto on Vine Street. Keep checking my blog, twitter or join my mailing list (right hand column) to get all the latest details for that and another show I am putting on over the festival.

Below is the August issue’s selection which include one of Irate (guy on left) who was the 1st person I ever shot in a montage style. Also worth checking out in that issue is the cover article about the Tesco / Starbucks / Big business take over of Brighton and how we should stop it. Well worth a read.

Below are the shots from the September issue which you can pick up from all the usually independent (not Tesco) outlets. Also worth checking out in this issue is the round up of all some of the great fry ups you can get in Brighton.

One question I get asked a lot is how do I take these. To me its pretty obvious as I’ve not changed how I have done it since the 1st time I shot one. Luckily I wrote an article in my new book about how to shoot your own montage portraits. You can download that chapter as a PDF here. If you want to get the other 51 chapters you can find out how here.

How time flies, I should have submitted my latest batch of montage portraits today! (Hopefully I won’t get fired by the editor of The Source!)

Posted in Exhibitions, Published | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Book launches done and dusted

Posted on 28th Jul 2010 by lomokev

After banging on about them for so long you will be happy to hear that my book launches for my new book 52 Photographic Projects (photo op is the US title) are all over! If you missed out on the signings you can still get signed copies from me, you can find out details on my site here or you can just get it from Amazon UK or Amazon USA.

Above Photos by Stephen Cotterell

I had a great time and would like to thank all the people who came to the London and Brighton events. It was great that some of the contributors to the book joined me at the events. Thanks Lisa Garner, The Brownhorse, The Big Bambooly, Ruby May Allcock and Ricardo Mendonça Ferreira for making it along and signing a few books with me. I would like to thank the two venues, Add The Colour in Brighton and Bar Sequence in London for helping me out. Big up lomoDxx for being my little PA for the events. Thanks to Barefoot wines and Lidl the super good deal on bottled Stella that helping getting everyone nicely smashed at the Brighton event!

Above Photos by Stephen Cotterell

You can check out photos of the events by looking at the tag: 52 photo projects launch on Flickr or there is also Rob Orchard’s You Got Papped gallery the You Got Papped site. You can see the full party action buy checking out the 2 time lapse movies from both the events below:

If you’re feeling lucky and you reside in the USA or Canada you could enter yourself into a prize draw to win a copy of Photo Opp (US title) at Goodreads.com here.

Posted in Events | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Its that time of the month again.

Posted on 13th Jul 2010 by lomokev

The new Source Magazine is out (has been for a while) with my new trend spotting pictures. There’s a small change as Tuaca are now sponsoring street style. If you are picked as the featured person you get a free bottle of Tuaca! Keep an eye on my flickr stream and montage portrait set over the next few days as I will be uploading my new trend spotting pics.

Source was kind enough to mention that I am having a book launch this Thursday (July the 15th) for my new book 52 Photographic Projects. If they mentioned it it must be cool so you should all come! In other news according to Source readers the picture of Ruby is the best trend spotting pic so far, although Stevey of Ophelia Fancy gave her a run for her money this month (above left).

Posted in Lomo, Press, Published | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Published in National Geographic

Posted on 24th Jun 2010 by lomokev

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!

walking is un american

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.

Posted in Published | Tagged | Leave a comment

I have written a new book!

Posted on 18th Jun 2010 by lomokev

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 Rotovision 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!

Posted in Published | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Montage portraits one year on

Posted on 16th Jun 2010 by lomokev

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.

Left: Irate from June 2009, Middle + Right: Irate one year on

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.

Flickr links: Left Jen Giese, Middle Dan Busta, Right Mona Brooks

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.

Flickr links: Left Lee, Middle Ruby, Right Maria

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.

Nick Baird paramedic, Betty Swollocks Cabaret Artiest and the Ophelia Fancy fashions designers

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 first 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 quite 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)

Posted in News | Tagged , , | 5 Comments