Photography
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”3″ display=”imagebrowser” maximum_entity_count=”500″]I began my journey with photography in 1999. Whilst at VFactO, a dotcom startup, we were at the bleeding edge of ecommerce in the UK. It was very new, though had been around for a few years in the US and was just starting to take hold in the UK. One of my very first projects at VFactO was taking a mail order clothing company (mail order was a thing in 1999 lol), and pivoting it to the web. Obviously to present the clothing, photos were required – but in those days high quality digital cameras were thin on the ground and were very expensive. Kodak who were the leader in digital photography at the time had partnerships with both Nikon and Canon in the early days to produce a pro level digital cameras – in a project with Birthdays (the now shuttered card shop) we got to use a Canon DCS 520 (or similar model).
And it was awesome (or at least to me seemed to be!) – but it wasn’t VFactO’s camera – it was Birthdays so we needed to get our own camera. I did some research and at the time, Nikon was just about to release the D1 – and we went for that. A big gamble – I had little knowledge of photography, never-mind digital phototgraphy – but it seemed the obvious choice to me.
It has also proved to be a real game changer. https://www.fixationuk.com/cameras-that-changed-everything-the-nikon-d1/ It cost a fortune but if memory serves was still a good deal cheaper than the Kodak/Canon or Kodak/Nikon models available at the time.
In my time at VFactO we shot various types of images – predominantly product shots – occasionally with models. The range of products was quite broad – from small intricate jewellery, clothing, to larger scale wrought iron dining table sets, to fishing rods and tackle.
From VFactO I went to LB Group, and the photography duties continued to some extent, but at H. Grossman I took my photography to a different level. I was frustrated at the quality of product images we’d receive from factories in China. They were clueless about photography (not that I was expert!).
So I figured, if we wanted good quality images, we’d have to hire a photographer, or I’d have to try to up my game. And this is when I decided to build a cheap and cheerful studio for HGL with an infinity curve and continuous lighting.
I also made a personal investment in an Olympus E-M1. I loved the idea of smaller lenses, meaning a smaller, less back breaking set-up was possible compared with the regular Canon and Nikon DSLRs. There wasn’t a gargantuan drop off in image quality with Micro Four Thirds – the selection of lenses for M43 is excellent – I tended to work with primes and Zuiko glass, though admittedly, low light shots are way noisier – but this is less of an issue with staged, static product shots. In fact in the entire time I was supplying images to assorted customers etc whilst at HGL, I never once received a comment from anyone saying that the pics were noisy. But for different subject matter such as live event photography, indoors with low light, I can completely see why a larger sensor, producing less noise is be a big deal.
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”4″ sortorder=”21,14,13,20,23,17,15,16,18,19,24″ display=”imagebrowser” maximum_entity_count=”500″]Latterly in my time with E&O, I’ve been shooting with a Nikon D7500. My dad is a Nikon shooter, and I’ve used plenty of his cameras over the years, so the D7500 has been fairly easy to get used to. The subject matter at E&O has been different though and very varied. Product shots especially petri-dishes with bacteria or fungi growing on them, some which can be quite dangerous if handled incorrectly, shots of scientists working in the lab and event photography. In the gallery above, there are a few selections of images I’ve taken, or examples of work where the photography was a key element (eg. LinkedIn hero images).
[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”1″ display=”basic_thumbnail” thumbnail_crop=”0″ number_of_columns=”3″ maximum_entity_count=”500″]Our daughter Lily has proved to be a willing subject (now and again!) – here’s a wee selection of images I’ve used when composing her annual calendar I produce for her grandparents.