Barcelona Photo Blog
Several different shoots over several days for NTTcom
I have done several sessions with NTTCom covering various different disciplines. Firstly there was the usual corporate headshot type of photography. On another day I was there for an in-house conference, where the top brass from the NTTCom at the Tokyo headquarters flew in to inspire the troops. This lasted half a day and then…
Pia and Her Family Do Barcelona With No Selfie-Sticks in Sight
It happens occasionally that you get clients who don’t want to spend their day out using selfie-sticks, preferring instead, have someone take the photos for them. It is hard to work out the progression of photography in this regard; in the old days you went on holiday, took photos and sometimes got a stranger to…
Given the run around for a day at Barça FC
Any photographer who gets a call to go and shoot with FC Barça is going to have an initial reaction of ‘yes!’ I reckon, even if they are FC Madrid fans. Any experienced photographer who is asked to do a shoot with a film crew, will most likely have a reaction something like ’hmmm…’ Even…
Cuban Night Life and Cuban Night Light
My third Cuban adventure. You can see images from the last visits here. The first thing I did, when I woke the first morning, was walk to the malecón as the sun came up. There were already fishermen perched on the wall, indifferent to the waves that lashed the defences. My first visit had been…
Wedding Day Photography? Maybe Not, but Everything Else…
I don’t do much wedding day photography these days, which is a shame, I always found it suited me well. Thinking on my feet, dealing with the stress (the good kind), that makes you creative, was perfect for me. You can even find a long neglected website which, surprisingly, still works, not sure who is paying for it……
Istanbul and Instagram, Late to the Game but Catching Up
Istanbul and Instagram is part 1 about my trip to the city and contains images shot on the iPhone. I have a list of places I want to go to and I have a friend who makes me go to them. The places tend to be the easier ones, the ones you could visit over a…
A Flying Visit To and Then Around Casa Bonay, Barcelona
One of the first really interesting job of the year was a shoot at Casa Bonay, a boutique hotel recently opened by Inés Miró-Sans in the centre of Barcelona. Receiving an email that is a possible job is always a little like Christmas, when it comes from another country even more so, because apart from the appeal of…
City Light; Those Magic Hours When You Can Take Your Studio to the Streets
I would like to take the idea of ‘Magic Hour‘ and turn it into Magic Hours. Maybe ironically, what I am suggesting might fly in the face of something sacred to many; that moment when the natural light is just perfect (and alas fleeting) for beautifully lit portraits. My magic hours are when the natural light, by chance…
The Europa Cup Tournament; Kids in Camp Nou
One of the more hectic events I have had to cover. Even with an assistant/second shooter this was a day of nonstop action on a day when the temperature was probably closer to 40ºC. There were maybe 50 teams of kids from about 7 years up to 15, participating in The Europa Cup tournament. The pitch at…
Linear Curves; How Making Your Images Look Really Dull Might Be the Way to Go
This is the title for my article about linear curves and HDR in Capture One Pro 8/9 on the website PhotosApps.Expert. Read the full article here.
No Fear & Loathing in Andalucia, or How I Beat Those Black and White Blues
Back in the day, when I was shooting film and travelling, I usually had 2 cameras with me, one with transparency (slide) film and one with black and white. The colour slide film was for stock library work (I used to make quite good money doing that) and b&w was just for me, to be…
Bohemian Beach Fashion Shoot, in Barcelona
I have been running a film group in Barcelona for about 7 years, I do this because I love showing people films that they might not get to see and as it is situated in a cultural centre and there is also a great bar, so the whole evening is very sociable; people arrive early…
My latest article about Capture One Pro
Where Oh Where Will All My JPEGs Go… Apple Photos or Capture One Pro? This is the title for my latest article about Capture One Pro 8 on the website PhotosApps.Expert. It was meant as a jokey working title but it seems to have stuck. Read the full article here.
Fashion Shoot, Gaucho Style Belts
I was contacted by Philipp, the MD of Iracional, a German/Argentine accessory company. They wanted to do a shoot for their belts. The style of the belts is a traditional Gaucho design and they are handmade by a guy in Buenos Aires who is famous for his horse saddles, etc. The idea was to have some models in the…
Chiaroscuro in Astypalaia
I am not being completely pretentious, using that artistic term in the title, as the island was ruled by Italy for about half of the 20th century, up until the end of WW11. I learnt this fact one day when walking around the town on a blistering day and came across a little old widow in a worn-out shawl, “like a wizened…
Back to School, Another Day at BHA
I got invited back to Barcelona Hair Academy, which is I guess is confirmation I must have done an ok job the first time. This one was a workshop for women, maybe a little quieter than the first time. I more or less knew how to set up the artificial lighting and got on with it. I did however…
Harvard Business School, Casablanca
Back in January I flew to Casablanca to take photos for Harvard Business School. Basically they had several groups of students there who were working on business proposals and as part of the assignment they had to essentially interview people around the city for market research. So an interesting challenge, with added language and cultural hurdles…
Barcelona Hair Academy
I have been getting my hair cut for a couple of years now by Emma, she has now set up with Cecilia a new venture, the Barcelona Hair Academy. Cecilia asked me to do some publicity shots at the new location, a very cool space in Gracia, an old industrial building now housing various start ups and the like.…
Your Aperture Files Imported into Capture One Pro 8; the Good, the Bad and the Missing
This is my second article for photoapps.expert, This time dealing with what happens to Aperture Library images in Capture One Pro 8, writing these articles has been an enlightening experience and is teaching me to be a lot more methodical, especially when asserting what is or is not possible (I am expecting to get pulled up…
Using Aperture Libraries in Capture One Pro 8
I recently was invited to write about my experiences using Capture One Pro 8 for another site, I was pleasantly surprised and got to work, it turned out to be a lot more work than I imagined as I found I had to be a little more ‘scientific’ in my approach and actually test out…
Capture One Pro 8; Some Initial Likes and Dislikes
I have started to immerse myself in the programme, but a short trip interrupted the flow and I feel like I almost need to start again! As an Aperture user in the process of migrating a couple of things I like and dislike have become apparent; If you liked Aperture’s interface then C1 with kind…
Goodbye Aperture; Hello Capture One Pro 8
Well, we finally got the confirmation recently that the Photo app from Apple would not be any kind of new Aperture; it’s aimed squarely at iPhoto users and a lot of them might be unsure if it’s even fit for purpose for some of their workflows. Apple, it would seem, is no longer interested in…
NYC: Back After Three Years, 3 Years Too Long Away…
I am painfully aware of how slack I have been in writing blog posts: but trust New York to cure that. I am having breakfast in Maybelle’s Cafe in Brooklyn and I am surrounded by industrious people tap-tapping like fiends on their laptops, so out of pure guilt I am endeavouring to do the same.…
Astypalaea Revisited (or) Trying to Avoid The Bloody Obvious…
… I think I half succeeded. Greece has to be one of those places where it is too easy to slip into shooting what there is, as it is. Faithfully recording rough-hewn houses, fossilised doors, blue domes, endless steps… and cats… and cats… and… and… I was here 4 years ago and even then felt…