On Location – Cowgirl Cotton
An early morning shoot with Cotton Williams building her model portfolio before she moves back to the States next month. A big thanks to Rocky the horse and Eve the trainer from Mihara Horse Club for all their help.
All posts filed under: Photography
Tilt-Shift on Screen
Several times over the last few months I’ve seen TV shows, movies and even advertisements that have been shot, at least in part with a tilt-shift lens. I presume this has something to do with the Canon 5D mark II revolution that brought a photographer’s wide range of high quality optics into the cinematographer’s playground. So what is a tilt-shift lens? A lens that is able to rotate the optics of the lens relative to the film / sensor plane (tilt) or move the optics up or down relative to the film / sensor plane (shift). These “movements” are usually done to control the plane of focus (tilt) or correct converging lines (shift). Landscape photographers might tilt a lens to increase the depth of field in the image ensuring front to back focus. Tilting the lens in the opposite direction creates an unusually narrow field of focus. This gives the effect of miniaturization. It was used to shrink London for the recent BBC drama Sherlock, and New York in the opening sequence for Gulliver’s Travels. …
The best camera is the one you have with you
Took the camera with me on the dog’s walk. Nice evening light. It was dark by the time I’d managed to get Bear back on the lead. Labrador’s should be classed as marine mammals, and chocolate labs do not seem to develop obedience or common sense with age.
Love & Hope Exhibition Begins
Pentax just sent me a few pics of the exhibition. I’m going to head up to Tokyo for the July 16-18 long weekend so I’ll get to see my image in Love & Hope part III. Really like the look of the new gallery, hopefully I’ll have a solo exhibition there in the not too distant future.
Workshop Updates
Six Eight of the twelve spots on the July 8 & 9 (& 10) light painting workshop are now filled. Two of the four spots on the July 2&3 Photography 101 courses are now filled. If you’d like to reserve one of the remaining places on either of the courses please get in touch.
Love & Hope – Pentax Forum Gallery II, Shinjuku, Tokyo
A set of postcards just arrived at my house promoting the new exhibition at the Pentax Gallery. Nice to see my name on there in the bottom right, and just as impressive is that they have spelt Willson correctly with two ls. It may be difficult to see, but the small camera icon in the center reads “Camera GP Japan 2011 – Camera of The Year” which is fantastic news for Pentax. Last month the 645D won the Best Professional DSLR award from the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA). Not bad for a camera that most people thought would never get beyond the prototype stage. I hope to get to the exhibition, but most likely it will be for part III when the part I prints are put on display again along with some other images. I’m aiming for the long weekend of July 16/17/18 but will see what happens.
“Love & Hope” exhibition at Pentax Forum Gallery, Tokyo
“Love & Hope” is a new exhibition to be held at the Pentax Forum Gallery in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The exhibition is currently scheduled to take place from June 8 to June 20, and July 6 to July 18. Images will printed B0 size (1030mm by 1,370mm) which should be amazing. The first part of the exhibition will have 10 images each shot by a different photographer. Pentax asked if I’d take part, and they chose this image of Jessica as one of 10 to be exhibited.
Return of the 25mm
All good things must come to an end. I packed up the 25mm lens and sent it with Kuro-Neko (Black Cat Couriers) back to its home in Shinjuku. It’s a pity that the rainy season came early this year, as I’d hoped to have got a wider selection of images with the lens. It’s a huge piece of glass. It’s a giant in terms of size, weight and cost, but also quality. If you have the cash, and want to get as wide as possible, then this lens could be just what you’re looking for.
F.A.Q.s – Lighting Setups
I’ve had several people asking if I can explain how I took the latest set of studio portraits. Here is the answer with the help of the Lighting Setup generator by Kevin Kertz. The mainlight, a 150cm gridded octobox, was powered by a Profoto Pro-7a 1200W generator. The two hair lights, 30x120cm gridded softboxes, were powered by Profoto ComPact monolights. The generator was triggered with a PocketWizard which then triggered the two hair lights via their optical slaves. I used the Pentax 645D with a Pentax 67 105mm lens and a 67 to 645 adapter.
Suzanne Somersall Jewelry – Studio
Continuing on from the location shoot with the E-type Jaguar, we moved into the studio. We worked our way through the various pieces in Suzanne’s LUXE collection so that she will have a wide range of images to work with when producing catalogs, websites or posters. The large files produced by the 645D camera mean that the client (Suzanne) will have more options with how the images can be used and the detail in the pieces was fantastic. A big thanks to Amanda for modeling, and Ursula (Ursula Styles) for hair and makeup. Check out more of Suzanne’s jewelry at Kirakirajewelry.com
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 