Well, I’ve been back from our three week January break in Australia for a good few days now and apart from getting some quality time in with the pooch, I’ve basically been chopping together a wee holiday video to remind us of our trip; taking in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane & Fraser Island.  Check it out:

The music is the beautiful ‘Hush’ by Aussy folk-duo ‘Angus & Julia Stone’ (track and album available to buy here)

I was inspired by a post fellow snapper Cris Matthews pointed me to on f-stoppers.com (here), entitled ‘How a professional photographer should document a vacation’.  It featured two tasty ‘Vacation Videos’ (one shot on a Canon 5DmkII with a homemade glidetrack and the other on a tiny, waterproof GoPro video camera).  Both really captured the spirit of their adventures.  I decided I wanted to do similar, so set about

I’ve do quite a lot of DSLR videography, but didn’t want to lug around heavy gear so I was in the market a new compact.  My trusty Canon IXUS 1000HS had served me well on past holidays, but has been dropped one too many times and is getting grumpy.  One feature I loved about it was it’s ability to shoot ‘miniature’ (which looks like tilt-shift) video at 720pHD.  I made this little vid of a trip Clare & I took with 2 pals to Marakech:

I basically wanted a camera that shot full HD footage at 50 or 60 frames per second (so I could slow it down afterwards to 24FPS and get a slowmo effect) and there really aren’t many on the market.  After asking around my little crew of photo geeks, I was pointed to the clever little Sony HX9v.  NB: I learnt later that the UK model is locked to 50p and the US version 60p (and sadly there are no workarounds as yet – cos 60p slows down even more).  Geeking aside, I’ve never owned a Sony before and it really was a fantastic travel camera.  I’ll be posting a blog or two soon featuring holiday images, and raving about some of it’s jazzy features (particularly the ace ‘Sweep Panorama’ & the cunning ‘HDR’ modes), but it really comes into it’s own shooting video.

Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not perfect.  It’s irritatingly slow to wake up & shoot and playback is sluggish to the point that I gave up filing in camera to deal with it later.  But what it does well, it does really well.

Anyhoos – for the shutter geeks out there, here’s how I made the Australia video:

The Sony HX9v shoots 50p AVCHD clips.  AVCHD (Audio Video Compression for HD) is a new high definition movie recording format which allows High Definition recording on a variety of media.  What they don’t tell you is that it’s borderline impossible to edit.  So as with most video footage out of stills cameras, it had to be transcoded with the free MPEG streamclip to Apple Final Cut Pro friendly ProRes422LT.  I was quite surprised at quite how compressed the AVCHD fomat video is, and the 44GB of footage, transcoded, became a hungry 270GB!  Lordy – dig out an old external HD I did…

To make the footage play as slowmo, I conformed it from 50p to 24p with Apple Cinema Tools), then got busy chopping it to the audio track in Final Cut Pro 7.  The new Final Cut Pro X claims to be able to ‘natively’ edit AVCHD footage, but apparently not stand-alone AVCHD video files, they have to be imported from a plugged in AVCHD camcorder, or a valid Camera Archive disk structure (yet another douchey feature of FCPX).  I’ve tried FCPX and know they’re releasing updates to improve on disappointing features, but although it’s more user friendly, ultimately it still isn’t as powerful as FCP7.  If you’d like to read more about the two, check out a blog DSLR video guru Philip Bloom wrote contrasting his use of the two here.

So that’s that really!  The timing’s in the footage and the art’s in the edit.  Here’s how my final FCP timeline looked:

As I said, I’ll be posting more pics from down under in upcoming blogs.  I hope you enjoyed the video.

Interestingly; the last two videos I’ve shot and edited have been this one on a compact camera and a music video for my pal Pilla on my iPhone 4S:

I really think that you don’t need all the gear to get involved.  Granted it’s a tech-heavy field, but as the 5D did to the Cinema industry, consumer cameras/phones are now producing stunning quality footage and gear-based barriers to being creative are hardly there any more.

So get involved – shoot some video and cut a movie!

Also – cos they’re ace, in incase you didn’t click through, those two F-stoppers videos were:

by the amazing Kyoto Studios, and a creative take on ’3 Days in Rio’, by Daniel Ferro:

Hope you enjoyed your pixel intake!

[ By the way - I'm not on commission from Sony; promise! ]

Just a quick explanation for the radio silence, in case you’re wondering where the regular blogs have gone, or have tried to email … We’re off to Australia to catch up with our migrated mates, my Aussie family & to catch some winter sunburn!

…think of me while I’m kindling here on Fraser Island!

I’m looking forward to playing with my new Sony HX9v while I’m out there, so expect more enviable blue sky blogs on my return!

Keep it creative peeps, B

On Friday, I joined Sarah & Henry to photograph their wedding at Norwood Park in Southwell, in Nottinghamshire.

Norwood Park’s such an ace place for wedding photography.  It was one of the early venues I shot in my wedding photography career, for my (now) good friends John & Helen.

Last time I was there it was a glorious summer’s day, and this time it was one of those winter days that just drizzled pretty much solidly all day long.  However, in spite of the temperatures and inclement weather, Sarah, Henry & their guests seemed to have a grand ol’ time!  Throughout the reception you could hear laughter in every room and we were made to feel right at home!

While everyone enjoyed their wedding breakfast (which we were lucky enough to sample!) we backed up pictures and made a quick slideshow to show at the evening reception. Even though they’re only quickly ‘processed’ and aren’t up to the scratch of the final images, after the wedding I like to set the slideshow to their first dance track and turn it into a video to blog, so the couple and their pals can see the images literally a few days after the wedding.

So here’s Sarah & Henry’s On-The-Day Slideshow set to their first dance ‘No Ordinary Love’ by Sade (which can be downloaded as MP3s from amazon’s MP3 store here).

If you can’t see the slideshow, are viewing this in facebook or would like to see it in HD, click here to watch it on Vimeo.com

As they slide through the slideshow so fast, I always like to share a bit of insight into my personal highlights from the day, so here goes:

When I arrived at the girls, the chaps were running the Krypton Factor, attempting to fix a ribbon to their motor!

Inside, the girls were being pamperered and made-up, by Sarah’s good pal Shahnaz Yaqub

The flowers by Floral Deco were simply stunning, embracing the colours of Christmas and full of fun textures and shapes.

Our lovely bride Sarah received a special turquoise surprise from Henry, courtesy of Tiffany’s.

Sarah certainly was an appreciator of the finer things!

Snakeskin too!  I do think fun shoes, so often hidden beneath a bridal gown, say a lot about a lady!

And hanging in Sarah’s childhood bedroom was that delectable gown, designed by Ian Stewart

Also in her room was a cute 4 way picture from a wedding photo booth they’d been at.

At their evening do they’d booked the same photo booth for their guests to play in!

I like this one of the family cheersing the day inA sweet moment between sister in laws
Meanwhile, upstairs, dad works on his speech

This might be one of my favourite images I’ve shot in a long while!  I like the fun, storytelling element to it.

Excellent socks too.

Meanwhile, Clare joined Henry as he prepared for the day…

…while groomsmen ironed their things

Henry togged up
and the guys finalised their outfits

The rings!

I love this ace personality-filled shot Clare caught of the best man, Grayson

But here’s the man of the hour, Henry, and a tasty detail of his suit and flora!
Outside, the remaining groomsmen checked each other were shipshape

Henry & his best man Grayson share a laugh before hitting the pub for a sneaky pint

Back at Sarah’s the Bentley was purring quietly in the rain

while Sarah secured her garter, the dress was readied

and it fit beautifully

Mum certainly looked impressed from the sidelinesI like this little moment between father and daughterA little triptych bridesmaidal detailage!

I like this one of Sarah all gowned up and checking out the finished look.

It must always be a special moment

A quick snap of Sarah and her dad before they hit the road

And  at St Anthony’s Chapel of Ease in Calverton, the stage was set!Granddad arrivesAnd Sarah gets on her wayOne I shot over my shoulder on the way to the church of an excited bride and a proud fatherAn expectant gang of ushers waiting in the rain!A nice one of Clare’s of a glance between Sarah & dad just before heading down the aisle.I was waiting down the aisle for this one.

These moments of a bride catching eyes with her hubby-to-be for the first time are always special to behold.
The building looked aceA special moment for Dad Best man Grayson almost dropped the rings!Love this expressionThe official bit!

The semi-staged official bit!And back down the aisle as man and wife!Over we headed to the lovely Norwood Park, and we were greeted in the rain by a beautiful pheasant 

Inside the Christmas tree was set in the entrance hall

We had a moment to shoot a few portraits as guests arrived.It was raining out, but we had some nice spots to play with inside, such as under the tree.

A more secluded moment.
Afterwards, we did a few groupshots of the guys and the girlsThe wedding party teamshot!I love this one of these three jokers! They’ve been best mates for years and definitely brought the funI dived out as drizzly dusk set in……and caught a few snaps of the wedding breakfast before the guests arrived

I love how Christmas and their wedding designs fitted together so perfectlyThe speeches were hilarious.  Lots of laughs, and great stories all round

Grayson delivered a fantastic best mans speech, without a word pilfered from google, just funny tales of growing up with a best friend The cake cut!First dance!Set to Sade’s ‘No Ordinary Love’

Followed by some good, old fashioned partying!

Thank you Sarah & Henry for asking us along to your wonderful big day! It was such fun.  Have a fantastic honeymoon & New Year!

x

B&C

Last week I posted a blog of images shot one beautiful day deep in the Yorkshire Dales (post here).

The reason I was up was to going a lovely upcoming wedding couple called Sophie & Rob! We were up in the Dales to have a nosey round their simply brilliant wedding venue, Bolton Castle for their wedding early 2012.

It’s on the fringe of Satnav’s comfortable zone, and Jane tried to take me up various exciting tracks and across gated fields full of cows.

But I finally found myself up in the pretty village adjoining Castle Bolton, not far from Leyburn.

Last-of-the-Summer-Wine much? There was frost on the ground…

…and the castle looked amazing in the low winter sunshine!Apparently, Bolton is one of the country’s best preserved medieval castles.

Looks like a bit of a fixer upper to me!

Dating back to 1399, and built by Richard le Scrope, Chancellor of England to Richard II, its scars bear testament to over 600 years of fascinating history including involvement in the Pilgrimage of Grace, Mary Queen of Scots imprisonment and a Civil War siege. The castle has never been sold and remains in the private ownership of Lord Bolton, Sir Richard le Scrope’s direct descendant.  Once a luxurious family home as well as a defensive fortress and, despite being partially ‘slighted’ by Cromwells’ men during the Civil War siege, the Castle is preserved in outstanding condition.

The sheep aren’t particularly friendly though.

I was having a nosey round the surrounding fields to get a few establishers, and this chap trotted right up to me.  Being a clueless city boy, I gave him a stroke.  Then he started to but into me.  Growing progressively more forcefull, eventually chasing me across the field to the gate!

It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Tips: Sheep aren’t white dogs.  Don’t pet rams.

Round the front of the castle are some impressive gardens, vineyards, bee hives and a maze

The castle is actually closed to the public during the winter, and they’d opened it especially for is.  It’s not every day you get a castle to yourself.

 Sophie & Rob showed me around the interior, which would possibly make for THE BEST EVER game of hide and seek.

Then we had a nose around the outside

and went up the towers to survey the landscape!  Amazing eh?

It’s quite the view from the top.

And there we kicked off the practice photoshoot!

I like to put all my couple through the experience of being photographed before the big day.

It’s generally not the most natural experience, and it helps them get used to being in front of my lens.

We get to scout out some cool spots to use again on the wedding day……of which there were loads of fun spots!

It allows my couples to have a sword fight.

All weddings should have swords and daggers!But really it’s about helping my couple feel comfortable in front of the camera.

Sophie told me her Dad was a budding photographer, and was always taking photos of the kids.  To the extent that Sophie said she’d turn around and face the wrong way!

So it’s good showing couples that however awkward it feels, I’m here to capture the fun and love between a coupleI rather like this one outside.And this little triptych A few solos of Rob……and Sophie

This is probably my fave one from the shoot; really natural, and featuring some ace castly gate action in the background!

When the shoot had finished, the sun had burnt off the misty chill of the morning, so I headed round the front again for a snap of the Castle looking powerful against the blue skies!

Can’t wait to join these kids there for their wintery wedding!

Watch this space for more…

B

One of my favourite things about Xmas is the Christmas special of my gig night, The Sunday Service.  It’s on the last Sunday of every month, generally showcasing three ace bands from near and far, at Verve Bar in Leeds.  The Christmas Special Brew however, is always my fave of the year, as we ask back a whole bunch of bands that we’ve enjoyed over the year, and get them to play short sets of 3 songs each, including a festive cover track!  It ends up super Christmasy and because it’s also generally fuller than usual, we hosted it at Verve’s sister bar, Call Lane Social.

Upstairs is Leeds’ only Tiki Bar, adding a bizarrely tropical vibe to the festive proceedings.

We’d hosted it here last year too (check out a Facebook gallery here)

First up was the amazing PalookaI helped him sing his homespun Christmas cover called ‘I swear I saw him’ which might honestly be the best Xmas song I’ve ever heard.

If I can find it somewhere to link you guys in, I will!   It’s SOOOO good.Next up was the lovely Jennie Chapman.  She usually has a full band (AKA: the Pets)

But the drummer was sick and we had to make do with just Jennie and a pet.  

Her Xmas covers were a delight, and I can’t wait to hear her new studio recordings.

Joining us again in as many months (see last months SS images here) was the insanely gifted lap-guitar bluesman, Ben Pike.

You’ve got to see this guy go on the lap slide, it’s amazing.Some of Ben’s pals, Adam & Sam of ‘Louis Louis Louis’ joined him for his Xmas cover, Louis Armstrong’s ‘Christmas in New Orleans’Next up was the amazing Dan Wilde - who’s both ace and has played for us many times before.

He drove all the way from Cambridge to play the Xmas special!

All round musical Maestro Dan Norton led us in some audience harmony driven covers in the style of Bing Crosby!

Silver Bells was quite special.

Also  making a long trek was Mr Gavin Mart, who laid out a hypnotically rocked up cover of Come All Ye Faithful!

Lots of impressive foot stomping all round!Wrapping up the night like a Christmas gift to all was last month’s SS stars Louis Louis Louis!

These guys are a ‘jump jive’ outfit!

I reckon they’d make a wedding band that would guarantee dancers immediately on the floor!

We’ve never had dancers at the Sunday Service before, and at this Xmas special, we did!  Happy days.

As always, it was a massive success alround, and at the end thought it’d be rude not to photograph the revellers!

Fun times all round…

Thank you and happy Christmas to everyone who came!

B

May I wish you all a wonderful Christmas!

(Christmas Kyra says hey too)

Watch out for that festive food coma!

May I take this opportunity to genuinely thank all of you who stop in to read my little photo blog.  Some of you are upcoming clients, some are past clients who still enjoy check out my wedding images and some are prospectively hunting down their ideal wedding photographer.  Others enjoy my Urban Explorations and pics of my pooch dressed as Star Wars characters; some are buddies of mine following links through my Facebook and Twitter feeds, and some are just random googlers – but high 5 to all of you.  It wouldn’t be worth doing this if you weren’t stopping by.

For the statisticians out there, there are now 360 posts on the blog, I’ve posted every wedding I’ve shot this year, as well as loads of links to music, jobs and trips I’ve snapped over the year, and it’s nuts to see people are reading all over the world!

Those Gwatamalans, Mongolians & Greenlandians are clearly off the ball, though

Google Analytics are a fascinating way to track who visits and what they read.

Over 2011, it’s mad to see nearly thirty six thousand people have popped by to check out the blog!

Twelve thousand of those have had the good sense to return for repeat viewings

It’s crazy to think about, but it really makes it worth doing!

It’s true that in peak season the majority of my posts are highlights from the weddings I’m chasing around, and come winter time, the focus shifts to dressing up my pooch and shooting music videos etc, but I’m gonna continue to post throughout 2012 and try to keep the mix up for you dear readers.

I’m taking January off for a winter break in Australia with Clare.  We’re gonna hang out with pals and catch some winter sun(burn) and no doubt I’ll have some enviable paradise beachy shots to post in slushy february!  But I’d like to say that I’m super lucky to be doing what I do, and have had such and ace bunch of like-minded clients this past year, and have a fab stack lined up next year.

So here’s to you, and to having a fabulous Xmas and making the most of 2012.  Be creative, and as I keep harping on about, you don’t need fancy gear to capture the magic around you… Get involved!

B

Last weekend I was up at Bolton Castle in the heart of Wensleydale (nowhere near Bolton!) to do a pre-wed at for a wedding I’m shooting early next year.  It was an impressive building indeed, and I’m gonna be doing a separate post about the stunning 14th Century medieval castle and pre-wed shoot with Sophie & Rob in a few days, but it’s positioned in such a beautiful part of the Dales that I thought I’d do a post of images I blazed while in the area!The sun was beginning to peep out on my way through Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.I love it when the low winter sun’s poking through clouds, as it selectively lights up the hills and looks mint.I thought the hill over the Dale from Bolton Castle was Pen-Y-Ghent (which we climbed with our pooch Kyra last year – link at the end), and although similar in shape, it turned out to be called PenhillThere it is again in the distance.  The Dale’s are such a stunning area.I love how the low sun rakes across the landscape in weather like thisThis was a view from the Castle Bolton groups, looking along snowcapped Wensleydale
Yorkshire Dales are all about sheep, dry stone walls, hedgerows and sheep.

It’s so beautiful up in the Yorkshire Dales, and one day I hope to know it as well as my mum.  She seems to know a great pub in every Dale (generally known as “the Something at Somewhere”).  I’m so glad that my wedding work draws me out of the city to enjoy landscape that’s essentially on my doorstep!

If you’d like to see the post about us walking our pooch Kyra up Pen-Y-Ghent, where I snapped my fave ever image of the Dales, check out the post here.

Cheers for looking!  Pre-wed post and more Castle Bolton pics coming soon!

B

Some of you dear readers may know I host and organise a band night in Leeds called the Sunday Service.  It’s a free night at Verve bar in Leeds on the last Sunday of every month and our mantra is to champion the cream of the North’s singer songwriter talent and pay them in beer and pictures.  It’s always a great night where music fans come to respectfully listen to good music, and bands play all the better in that listening environment!

First up were the amazing Garforth & Myers, so named cos Rory Garforth is on the left, and Adam Myers is on the right.

I even got them the right way round!

I don’t mess about you know.

It’d be wrong if I didn’t take a photo of feet during the set.

They’d brought along a cellist and backing singer to make the sound all the sweeter.

Rory’s an photographer in his own right. Check out his ace work on his site here. Guitars are a thing of beautyNext up was the legendary Ben Pike.

Ben’s laid out his gravelly blues loads of times before, and I particularly like the lap-slide stuff he does on his knees

It’s all about the Sunday Service granny lamp, hanging out with the cool instruments.Last up that night were the newly formed, but unbelievably brilliant, Louis Louis Louis.

These kids have also played before in various permutations, but this rig is a ‘jump jive’ flavour, covering the works of three famous Louis; Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan (I think) and Louis Someone Else.…though anything featuring double bass gets my vote.

Also drummer singers is also great crack.  (see the legend that is Mr Phil Collins for details! ;-] )

Such a cool looking instrument.

But I bet it’s a ball ache to drag about and he wishes he played the piccoloThey did a brilliant cover of ‘King of the Swingers’ from the Jungle Book. I was thinking as they played that these guys would make a brilliant wedding band to get a crowd in the mood.

They weren’t short on energy

Sam can even make the Clarinet cool.
It’s great to be able to supply the bands with a cool set of images of them in action

As I said, can’t go wrong with this guy

They’d even worn smart suits for the occasion.

Louis Louis Louis were such fun that I asked them back to play Decemeber’s Sunday Service Xmas Special Brew, which was last weekend and went down a treat.  Watch this cyber space for images, and a blog’s been lined up and scheduled!

Party on folks!

Last Friday, I went out with Clare’s work for their Xmas party to Brutus Gold’s Love Train, at the O2 Academy in Leeds

It was the ‘Christmas Disco Ball’, and the perfect opportunity to get our fancy dress on!  So before we hit the road I thought I’d snap our outfits for posterity…

Clare was a jump-suited Disco Queen!

…and I cobbled together a funky disco/cop outfit from the Tyler Durden fight club replica Soul Revolver jacket Clare bought me for my 30th, with selection of eBay auctions finds; including an original vintage 70′s shirt, sunfire sunnies & dubiously ginger wig.

It’s Scot Walker meets Starsky & Hutch!

Boogie!

Check it out:

Pretty crazy what you can do with a phone eh?!

For the geeks out there here’s how I did it:

I took one iPhone 4S (which has a great little HD camera on it, though exposure is more manually controllable with the ProCamera App) clicked it into a Glif, a low profile iPhone fixing with a tripod attachment in the bottom…

…and attached it to the Manfrotto Monosteady, a cunning little support device for lightweight cameras.

As well as being able to be a mini tabletop tripod and a shoulder-braced support, it’s a rudimentary steadycam!  I say rudimentary, because it’s nowhere near as smooth as say the expensive Glidecam or Merlin supports, but for £80 you can’t really expect it to be so!  It does smooths out the walk and looks infinitely better than handheld video.

It’s not vastly perceptible, but the video is in slightly slow-motion, and yet Dave mimes his lines in time.  I’ve seen it done elsewhere, and was interested to try it on the iPhone.  I found out the iPhone shoots video in Apple’s Quicktime Full-HD H264 30 frames per second video.  I wanted to slow that down after filming it to 24 frames per second, so some googling told me that if I shortened down the mime track he had playing in his headphones to 80% it’s actual length (which therefore made it sound 20% faster), then when the 30p video is slowed to 24p, his lips’ll sync!  Hope that didn’t make you cross-eyed!

Anyhoos – after dragging the HD video files off my iPhone (using the free iExplorer), I used MPEG stream clip (also free!) to convert the video to 30p proRes422, then used the Final Cut Studio ‘Cinema Tools‘ (not free, but great for changing frame rates) to batch conform the footage to 24p.  I dropped that into a 24p Final Cut 7 timeline with the original audio track and matched up the clips by eye.  Normally, I’d have used pluraleyes, but the audio of Dave’s Mime wouldn’t have matched well the original audio.

Then I did a bit of creative editing till about 3am this morning splashed a cheeky grade on it with Magic Bullet looks and went to bed while it exported out.

So there you are!  Granted there are even cheaper ways to DIY it than I did, as I’ve already got some of the toys.  But as always, I’m a big advocate of getting out there and doing it.  Don’t let things like ‘I’ve not got the gear’, ‘don’t have time’ or ‘no budget’ get in your way…

…you can do it on your phone!

Party on people.  Get involved and be creative!

B

ps. Be sure to check out more of Dave Pilla‘s tunes, cos he’s absolutely wicked.

pps. He and loads of other amazing muso’s are playing at my Sunday Service Christmas Special next Sunday at Call Lane Social.  Free in, good times, more here!