Photographic challenges and Hurricanes

One of my clients is running a series at the moment called "Ask The Pros" where they've chosen a bunch of great photographers and have hit them with some questions... You can see the the current batch of answers here

If you're a photographer and want some insight into how others / professionals work, check it out. 

You can also win a camera bag by leaving your own comment on their current blog post... Good luck!

thinkTank are also running a series called "About A Photograph" and they've just posted the new short film by photographer Ted Jackson, who covered the Hurricane Katrina story... 

Some really interesting stuff going on! More to come. 

The whole U2 album thing...

Typically its people complaining about having to pay so much for a CD / download, but the last three weeks have been filled with people complaining about U2's new album, Songs of Innocence, appearing for free on their iPhone / iTunes etc... 

Our inability to simply delete and walk on has gone. We need to make our frustration known on social media. I'm a strong believer in most forms of social media and the good of information spread that it affords us, but I'm no stranger to the evils of social media. You bent your iPhone? You're an idiot.

Wading through the complaints, they range from "I don't like U2" to "That's a gross violation of national security" ...wait, was that someone talking about U2, the Australian Government or Justin Beiber? Anyway, lots of complaints about the U2 album 'magically showing up on their devices'

I like U2, I always have... The new album is a good album, with my stand-out tracks being "Iris" and "Song for someone" The album is typical U2, similar runs, similar musicianship, similar mix... I like it. I like it a lot. 

U2 were reportedly paid by Apple, Good, Apple also reportedly agreed to a marketing campaign of up to a hundred mill... What did that get U2? 

500 million iTunes users across 119 countries were able to download the album for free.

Anyways... I really like the album, off you go and destroy your ears with those Beats by Dre and some Justin Bieber...  

"Soldier soldier, we knew the world would never be the same..."

Another fantastic track (I'm listening the the album again as I write) is 'Raised by Wolves' and the guitar in 'Cedarwood Road' is brilliant... Gah! How can you complain about a really good free album... Easily it seems...

Anyways, this could go on forever... I photographed U2 live at Wembley Stadium in 2009, 15th of August... Was amazing... The album is great, have a listen to it and then, if you don't like it, just bloody delete it and go play bejeweled. 

You're going to sleep like a baby tonight, in your dreams everything is alright...

China 2014

I've spent the last week in China, specifically Shanghai and Ningbo "City of Tripods" ...not quite as poetic as "City of Lights" or whatever, but what a trip. It's late, I'm cold, let me share some photographs of my time with 3LeggedThing CEO, Danny Lenihan in China.

Photos below are a gallery. click. 

Camera trade shows, factory tours, train rides, cool hidden bars, many hawkers selling everything from fake iPhones right through to women (for the night, not for keeps) it was crazy, it was mesmerizing. 

China was vibrant and dirty and loud and busy and DID I SAY LOUD?

View fullsize

With this ring, I thee shoot...

A new toy to play with...

I'm a big fan of fun, informative apps (I'm an iPhone user, but I'm not a fan boy, honest) and one of those recently released apps is Sakoos, an 'In my bag' style app but not just for camera bags, for all sorts of bags - hipsters of the world unite! 

I'd love to see you give Sakoos a try with whatever your daily bag is! Add me [gtvone] when you join up. 

Get it on iTunes - App Store : https://itunes.apple.com/app/sakoos/id850390426

On a holiday, taking a camera swimming?

I'm not actually 'on a holiday' but I am away from home and at the beach! One of the things I wanted to do when I was up here was to take a couple of cameras back into the water and see how they performed.

HOlding the Olympus TG2 half in and half out of a still pond results in this craziness...

Now, the cameras I've chosen are "point and shoot" cameras and they don't shoot RAW and they don't allow for full manual control, though they do have some operations you can fiddle with.. Aperture, etc.. They have a feature set that includes 'scene modes for underwater' etc. The two cameras I'm using are the Olympus TG2 and the Sony TX30. 

I reviewed an earlier Olympus Tough 8000 when it was released back in 2009 [here] and, as was pretty typical, only had the thing for a couple of weeks - for a camera that's billed as tough, that's not really enough time to see how it handles the rigours of regular 'tough' life - you know, taking it in water and stuff... You can see by the comments that people who have purchased that camera are not super happy with it. 

The original Olympus Tough 8000 was where the fun started...

Come forward five years and there have been a lot of advancements in tech as well as the housings, seals and performance of 'tough' cameras as is evident in the TG2 and the TX30, too. 

Anyways, over the next two weeks (I'm already a week in) I'll be taking the two cameras on more underwater adventures (as long as the water clears a little, it's been VERY murky with recent rains!) 

Some little fishies in the murkiness...

...and will report back with my findings! 

I've had one instance of condensation build up in the TG2, right in the middle of the lens, which meant I missed a couple of photographs of my little boy playing in the sand, I've not experienced that with the Sony yet.

Condensation from a rapid change in temp, let the camera sit for a few minutes...

One thing I do find amusing is when, while snorkelling and diving down to photograph some fish or some such thing, is looking at the back of the screen and seeing the name of a local landmark scrolling across the top - Yay for GPS, eh... 

More later... Sime