People do read this blog!!!

I have just had a complaint about one of my previous posts! I think I have been a little bit nieve in ranting and raving and thinking nobody even reads this blog.
I apologise to the person who's work I previously took the micky of and will be a little more careful what I say in future. After all it really isnt very professional sharing every opinion if someone may be offended.

Canon 5d mkii

Not yet released, but I am dying to get my hands on one of these babies!!! Oh my the Canon 5d mkii! Many photographers are poo pooing the fact this camera has a high def hollywood quality movie mode on it.

I on the other hand am super excited about it! Ive always loved movie making as well as still photography.

If only something else for me to play with, that movie mode is going to be a lot of fun for anyone thats into films ect.

I will definately be using that mode let me tell you.

Take a look at the link below to see the superb quality of its movie making abilities.

In the right hands (my hands) this camera will get full use for still photography and movie making!!

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2008/11/26/7-days-7-shoots-eos-5d-mkii/

What Credit Crunch?

All this talk of the Credit Crunch, and I just havent been affected by it at all! In fact I've been busier than I ever have been. Next years Wedding Bookings are even better than this year!
So whats that all about? People are obviously still spending money on getting Married.
One of my friends was trying to book a wedding venue for next year and has really struggled getting somewhere decent that isnt fully booked.
So it seems this panic hasn't made couples porspone their weddings at all. I have heard some photographers here in Carlisle complaining that they arnt getting as many bookings. Maybe its nothing to do with the credit crunch. Maybe couples are just making sure they are getting a quality photographer for their money.
People will always get that high quality with me, and because its satisfaction Guaranteed they know their precious money is being used wisely.
Credit Crunch my ass!

New Website

I have a new Website!!! Go to www.paulreidphotography.com
Switch the music off if it gets on your nerves as I'm still coming up with what music I want to be on there.

G R Digital

I have used the GR Digital quite a bit now and overall I have been very pleased with it.
Some of the recent photo's I have taken of my kids, like the one above have been done using the GR.
I do love the quality of the grain like noise that they have not tried to mask in a smudgy mess like other compacts have tried to do and it is very like TRI X Grain which is a film I love.
Saying all this, it just isnt enough to keep me happy with it as a compact. Its ability in low light is awful. Pump the baby up to 1600iso and it is a mess. 400 is fine! 800 is ok at a push! But 1600 is a bit pooh!
The camera really isnt helping me either in the direction I am going. I still struggle with the whole film/digital thing. Not so long ago I was using my ancient 120 Agfa camera. This was something I purchased from ebay and is way before even my time (there is not even a viewfinder).
What I loved about it was the way it made the photo's look. It was by no means sharp except for maybe a sweet spot in the middle, but it got the results that I was after. No digital jiggery pokery! Straight out of the camera it looked like a the fine art print I was after.
This brings me back to the fact that some old cameras, like my old Agfa are more for me than any digital camera will ever be.
Don't get me wrong! For my wedding work I'm really looking forward to my Canon 5d mkii.
But for my other projects, I feel myself longing to use seemingly useless old film cameras! Be it even pinhole! I love them! I think I will find myself getting a few different old camera's with which to experiment over the next couple of months until I find the one that suits my next up and coming project.
There will I'm sure be a digital process to it in the end, as I dont think I have the time to return to the darkroom. So some kind of high quality scanning device will have to be purchased.
Ive also said before that the lomography scene is not for me! I am into a lot of the camera's I see that the lomo folk use. But the view of point and shoot without thinking is not what I'm all about.
Think fast and shoot from the hip when needed, but not just snapping and hoping for the best.
I slow down on weddings in November and December, so this will give me time to find the tool best for the next few months. The GR will probably then be sold and replaced with a digital compact more suited to low light. Still think its a great camera though!!!

Impossible?

I was asked by the lovely couple above to capture their wedding event. The catch was that it was on an evening rather than in daylight. It would also be difficult as there would be very little artificial light.

There was candle light and some disco lights. The disco lights would be flashing on and off and timing was everything. I could have just popped a flash on and snapped away, but thats just not how I work. I had already promised them that I would capture the atmosphere whatever the lighting situation. This would be a challenge as the venue, Dalston Hall does have a fantastic Dark atmosphere even during the day.

I must add, I do not have a Canon 5dmkii yet!!!! I feel that would have made things much easier.

I did however have a 1.8 50mm lense and pushed the iso on my 20d to its limit.

Yes thats right, I still use a 20d! I am not one to replace my equiptment every time a new camera comes out. I am however due an upgrade shortly, and the 5d mkii is the one I have my eye on.

Anyway, the night was a success and the couple loved their photo's as I thought they would.

Below are their lovely comments.

Hello Paul,

We received the photo's in the post yesterday.......and we LOVE LOVE LOVE the pictures you took!!!

They are exactly what we were hoping for....you documented our evening perfectly.

Beautiful candid shots which depict each person in a very interesting way.

And the more "posed" shots of Craig and I..... we LOVE them.

The starkness/contrast of the black and white photos are amazing....and Dalston Hall itself certainly plays into that.

Thankyou so much Paul....if we ever hear of any other friends getting married, we will DEFINATELY tell them how pleased we were with your work.

Bye for now.

Craig & Michelle Bell

My New Book

I'm going to post a few photo's from my Up and coming new book, titled Kids. Its great to put a book together and in much the same way I loved putting the little movie together, I think it was important to publish a few of the photo's I have taken over the years.

Memories like frames from an old cine movie

I put this little 5 minute movie together. My Children are growing up so Quickly and I just wanted to put something short together showing flashes of their little lives so far.

I also have a book coming out shortly of shots which I have taken of them over the years. Its all great being a professional photographer, but its important to take those snaps of the people that are important around you. Before you know it those moments are gone. I realise this when thinking back to old cine film taken of me as a child. Although my memories of those times have faded. The old cine films still remain and remind me of times long ago that would have been lost had they not been captured by my father.

This is why I have posted the short movie and have based my new book on my children.

Apologies

Apologies for my lack of postings over the last few month. I have been extremely busy with Weddings and although I should have took the time to keep the blog up to date I just havent had time to do it.

This will change over the next few weeks as I will make sure that I commit 2 to 3 hours a week to the blog in the future. I intend to possibly start the blog afresh with my new commitment to keep it up to date.

I have had a really successful year so far and next year is almost fully booked. I must add that apart from my website and a link from another website I currently do next to no advertising.

Most of my work from this year and what I have for next year has been generated from recommendations from previous clients.

Thanks to anyone that still looks to this blog to see if there are any fresh posts, although as I say I think after the many months I have not posted I may as well start from scratch.

Watch this space for the new Blog!!!!

Choked By Digital

I have mentioned before how Jeff Ascough gives no choice as to what final photo's are given to his clients. I would love to have the confidence to do this. Just yesterday a client asked to see all the photo's I had taken in black and white in colour. Like a lot of photographers that shoot a lot of black and white, I have already decided a shot will be either black and white or colour at the point of shooting it. Its a shame then that clients often ask to see the image in a different way to what was actually visualised in the first place. When I used film only there was no choice for the client. If the images were black and white they were shot on black and white film and that was that. I then had a medium format camera which I shot anything I visualised in colour.
Nobody complained and nobody asked for it any other way.
The problem sometimes is that in some extreme low light situations I can be shooting at high iso's and therefore the noise can only look good in black and white.
In colour the noise appears in coloured speckles and in black and white it appears not much different from 35mm film grain. I rarely use any noise reduction as this softens the image and can end up giving a sharp picture a smudged painterly look.
So digital has given the client a choice that they were never qualified to have. I will soon be getting a D3 as this camera can shoot photo's with next to no noise even at speeds of 3200. Problem solved then, or is it? It can also shoot at 6300 and even crazy iso's way above that I never even considered would be possible (25600). So I know for my wedding work at times I will be pushing those iso's to their limit to capture images which would never have been possible before. I will be capturing even more stunning images but I am no further forward as I will still end up with a lot of images that are shot only to be in black and white.
Even these crazy iso's that show noise will be acceptable in black and white wedding and portrait work. In colour however they will still be prone to the hot pixels that glow like a farmers wart on the end of his nose!
So what do I do? For now I can only advise my clients to leave the images as they are, but the choice remains theirs.
For now!

The Man Behind The Curtain(The Wizard of Oz)

For years now I have owned a book by a french photographer called Jean-Francois Jonvelle. I had always admired the photo's that were in this book because they were of gorgeous girls in very ordinary situations and in my eyes beautiful photos. If you google him you will see what I mean. In my mind these were all girls that were either his friends or even more, something much more intimate. In my past I have seen many moments with girls I have been close to that I have either captured or missed, much like the images I admired in this book.
Looking at such beauty of a woman while she is just lying on her bed in the morning. As she dries her hair, puts her makeup on or just looks at you in a certain way, surely this is something that a photographer would feel they needed to capture! Much the way I do any of my photography I have always believed the capture of a moment is of the utmost importance in my art.
When I first looked at jonvelles book I completely admired these photographs and envied him in a way to have had these moments with so many different women and captured them rather than being lost in the moment.

Imagine my surprise when I saw some behind the scenes photo's of the very photo's I admired so much, only to see a makeup artist, assistants, huge reflectors and some studio lighting.

I have never been a big fan of THE MAKING OF this that and the other. I am a big fan of Movies but I really dont want the illusion spoilt by seeing the Strings so to speak.

Jonvelle has some lovely images, but I'm afraid I would rather have kept my illusion that these were moments captured rather than posed portraits.

A Place of Quiet

As I sit here in the childrens section in the local library I can't help noticing how things have changed. Obviously I'm not here to read the childrens books, but my little girl is choosing her weekly books.
Rather than the peace and quiet of the library when I was a boy, there are children here fighting with swords. Not real swords of course but the foam kind which still sting if you get wacked with the end. I know this because I somehow got involved in a sword fight with some kids. I feel a bit like Arnie in kindergartden
cop and I'm built in quite a similar way to him also!
Its a far cry from my thoughts of what my visit to a library would be all about. My ideal library visit I would be using one of those machines twiddling buttons to flick through pages of a newspaper from 1941 only to see a photo of myself and realise I was some kind of immortal!
But instead I sit here with a toy crown on my head and a sword on my knee.
Maybe I am immortal after all!

Tears of a clown (Soft Git)

I was editing one of my weddings until about midnight last night and as usual after I have finished I watched the slideshow along with music ect. I couldn't believe it! I actually started to well up a bit! Its such a romantic day a Wedding and even though a lot of marriages end these days (like mine did), that one day does need to be captured as its really the happiest day of a lot of peoples lives.

Its quite a responsibility for any photographer, and I will never understand couples that decide to just get a friend who has just done a bit of photography, rather than a professional photographer.

The digital age has caused this more than anything. Just having a look in our local paper in the wedding section, you rarely see the same photographers credited in each issue.

I'm pleased that even after around 15 years of doing weddings, I have not been a casualty due to so many so called photographer around.

I have also noticed that everybody seems to love photography now! I remember when I used to be on a night out about 10 years ago and I think sometimes I was the only one in a club with a camera.

Since digital, it seems everyone has a camera out with them. At weddings is where you see the amateur enthusiasts in full flow. Some of them have better cameras than me.

But as I keep going on about! I could do better on a funsnap! Funsnap, Funsnap FUUUNNNSNAAAAP!

Lomography

The amount I bang on about taking good pictures on a funsnap you would think I would be shaking with glee and trawling the web for anything with the word lomo on it.

Instead, I really hate the name LOOOMMMMOOOOGRAPPHY! I dont even know why it bugs me so much.

I like the concept of taking good pictures on old camera's. Even good pictures with rubbish toy camera's. But what I dont like is people taking crap pictures with crap camera's. If you look at a lot of so called Lomo photography its all just a pile of cack! Its almost like if it looks crap then its lomo!!!! What a pile of old tosh!! Part of the theory behind lomo is not to think but just to shoot without taking time to compose the image. Balls!!!!! So when Tracey and Stacey go out on the piss with their little camera's they will come back with the best drunken Lomo Photography ever! After all they wont be composing anything, will they!

I had a camera once that was cheap and took a number of images in a sequence. It was plastic, the lense was cack but it was loads of fun to use.

This very camera is considered to be a lomo camera now! I think I just hate the thought of people thinking they are artistic because they just snap something they see and it will look cool because it looks so cack! I read one Lomo photographers philosophy that he doesnt compose his photo's but lets them compose themselves. It makes me want to weep when I hear crap like this.

So you Lomo ITES, call it what you want, but its still just a pile of horse nuts!!!!

And believe you me, any so called Lomo photo's you see that are good were composed just like us proper photographers do!

To sum up!!! I hate the name!!! I hate the philosophy!!! I hate people who think they are great photographers when they are not!!! HOWEVER........ I do love crappy cameras with a bit of character, wood, plastic, metal, I love them all when they are used well!

Back soon

Just taking a couple of days off, after a busy time to recouperate!
Keep an eye out and I shall be back by Wednesday!!!!

Colour Photjournalism

A misconception when a lot of people think of photojournalism is that it must be in gritty black and white for it to work. This just isnt true and sometimes the colour adds to the story rather than detracting from it. Although I work mainly in black and white, sometimes in certain lighting with certain colours present, it would be awful to rob that colour away.

Its in those situations that I do actually work in colour for a change!

For life not just for Christmas

It was quite a few years ago I decided I would like a tattoo. Rather than going to MIKES TATTOO's in Carlisle I figured I would go down to London and have an original design. My friend Mr Doyle told me he knew a guy very skilled in this art. Off I went to meet my good friend and he took me to quite a small flat where I was greeted by a Romanian girl and her boyfriend. I walked into the small room and was shown my design.The guy who looked like someone from limp bisquit then sat me down in an old chair and begun piercing my pink flesh as marcus received a massage from the romanian.I somehow appreciated how seedy all this seemed! Like I wasn't just getting a tattoo but I'd nearly died doing it. I asked obvious questions like how did you learn how to do tattoo's. He told me he started early practicing on pigs feet! I wondered secretly if the romanian girl had also practiced her massages on the same pigs feet. I also wondered if these were live pigs that he had tattooed and that on some farm the coolest tattooed pigs would compare their designs. After a few hours I was ready to sport my new body art! After posing for a photo with the now naked romanian I left! I think Mr Doyle was quite heavily into his nude work at the time and I asked no questions. So did I regret this experience and did I regret getting my tattoo? Well I returned a year later to get the other arm done, if that answers your question!

The Look of Love

I must mention one of my favourite films of all time is "Somewhere in Time". As above Christopher Reeves Character falls in love with a picture of Jane Seymours character. To his horror after becoming obsessed with her, he finds out she is already dead!!! DUM DUM DUMMMMM!

Cutting to the chase, he finds a way to go back in time and later on in the film you see the very photo that he fell in love with being taken. It is just as Christopher Reeve walks in the room just behind the camera that she looks in love at him and the photo is snapped.

I think thats a really nice touch! That moment of love on her face was captured on a photograph and was on a wall 60 or 70 years later only for someone to become obsessed with it.

This is one of my aims as a photographer! Not for someone to feel the need to go back in time because they get obsessed with some bird I took a photo of! But to capture a moment that can never be repeated. A moment that can cause happiness to remember or like in Christopher Reeves case break your heart to look at.

Marcus Doyle Favourites

My Top Marcus Doyle Images (AT THE MOMENT)! Its probably no conincidence that most of these are in desert areas! I just love stuff like this!

Every one of these shots, I just want to be there. Odd really as they are all pretty barren! I want to be sitting in that chair on the bottom photo!!! I want that car to be my car and I've just travelled on that road only to run out of Gas! I want to be sitting in that Diner Contemplating life! I want to be a prisoner who has been transported in that plane who accidently killed a man. I want to be Placing one of those Flags on the fake Mars Surface only to be chased by the Government because I know too much!

I could go on! My interpretation of these photo's I'm sure will be different from everyone elses. You could have completely different stories than I have! But those are my stories, even the Artist Marcus will have his own for each shot! Beautiful work!

A Slow Recovery

I must be getting old! I'm still recovering from my Cowboy weekend away. I was told as soon as I went in my tent around 3.30am I started to snore like a pig. I was then up again at 7.30.

I remember when I was younger I could handle lack of sleep much better than I do now.

Never mind. Apologies for lack of much blog today. I will try and post more today.

Jeff Ascough again

I just thought I would mention Jeff Ascough again and provide a link to his website.
I really do think he has some great wedding work. Definately the best I have seen. Its nice as Ive said to have found another decent wedding photographer!
One slight problem I have with his work is just that all the brides are like models! Not all real people look like that. I'm not saying they arn't real. I'm just saying I have a good mix of brides on my website. More so than Jeff Ascough.

http://www.jeffascough.com/

Tufty

This advert makes me feel a bit old!!! That willy weasels a daft idiot though!

clock below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY8MR0ssk7c

Combovers dont get better than this

Kingpin combevers at their best click below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci6YPGQedr0

Cowboys Return

The Cowboys returned after a fantastic weekend on a farm in honour of our good friends Cruddace and his lovely girlfriend Gilly. It was great to see not only Cruddace and Gilly but other friends as well who I hadn't seen in a long time.

Hopefully I will see Mr Cruddace and Gilly again before they go back to Australia next week.

The Omega Man Vs I am legend

I recently watched the film I AM LEGEND, which I was really looking forward to, as I am a big fan of

THE OMEGA MAN. I was left disappointed with I am Legend. It had some good points, but my main problem with it was the Vampire type characters. I think there was something much scarier about the one in The Omega Man, as they could talk and had some humanity about them. The CGI Vampires in I am Legend were just monsters, which didnt look real. I think Phsyco humans with white faces are scarier myself. Have a watch of The Omega Man and see what you think.

Kingpin

Yet another Favourite Movie of mine is Kingpin. I'm not normally into really silly films, but this one is done in such a fantastic way with brilliant characters and fantastic acting.

The combovers have to be seen to be believed!!!

If I had a Hammer I'd be a Carpenter

All this talk of large format, film, developer ect!!!! It may seem I hate digital! I don't at all. Digital has its place in my photography as do other formats. If I hated digital why would I want a GR Digital? A GR Digital would have a great place in my camera collection. You wouldn't see me on a family holiday lugging a medium or large format camera about otherwise they would interfere with my holiday experience. Nor would I carry my digital slr on me at all times as it just isn't practical! I use digital slr for my weddings because its the best tool for that job! I would sometimes even use the GR Digital at a wedding.
Put it this way, if I was a carpenter, I wouldn't use a saw to hammer a nail in!!! If all a carpenter did was hammer nails in, the only piece of kit he would use would be a hammer. Its the same with any photographer that does more than one type of photography project or commission. I do weddings, portraits, Architecture, still life, beauty! Its not a case of jack of all trades, master of none, its commissioned photography jobs and I use the correct tools for each type of job. When it comes to my own projects I do exactly the same thing. If I want the best results I will use the most suited camera/film/digital/whatever is best! I may have ranted off a bit but its only because someone spoke to me only yesterday saying I was stuck in my ways because I still love film. Yes I love film, but only for the right work. Hope that clears things up a bit. Now give me my fun snap back you whore!

Jasons Gonna Get Me

Just realised that I'm going on a Camping trip and its Friday the 13th!!!! Here's hoping that I come back alive or you will be deprived of my wonderful words and pictures!!!!

Grand Theft Auto

Last night was a good night on Xbox live. We all played Grand Theft Auto as usual and it is definately one of the best games ever made for playing with your mates!

You can always know a good night on Xbox live when it reaches midnight and everyone is still playing!

I would buy an xbox 360 just for this game actually as I dont think I have laughed so much at my friends on any other game!

Anyone with an Xbox and Xbox live who hasnt yet purchased it, get it today!!!!

Withnail and I

I thought I better put one of my less Romantic favourite movies on here so you dont think I'm completely soft!

Withnail and I is one of the funniest films I have ever seen.

I have actually came accross a similar character to Monty. If you have seen the film you will know who I mean. Luckily I wasnt alone in a house in the country with my Monty Character!

He did however call me into a room and hand me some cash with nothing on but a grin! I had done some photo work for him and I think he was giving me the choice between cash or payment in kind! I chose cash!

If you have never seen the film, check it out! Its a Corker!!!!