The Infinity Bridge over the River Tees at Stockton is beautifully engineered and even the most casual passer by always comments on the shape. At night it’s illuminated in a variety of interesting ways, but what I guess many people don’t spot right away are the myriad of detail features that go to making it up which I find facinating. The more I study it, the more engineering details I see. I’m a sucker for engineering and architecture, so combine the two and you’ve got my attention.

I shot it over two mornings, but had to scrap the first day, as the conditions were so much nicer on the second day, there was no continuity to it. Even so, we had squally snow showers blasting through every few minutes suspending activities and making consistent exposure a real battle.

It’s the first time I’d used the Glidetrack, other than just fiddling around in the office, but quickly becomes addictive as you start thinking of ways to incorporate short camera moves into your shots. Like all the best ideas, it’s really simple. A bar of extruded aluminium carries a carriage fitted with a standard tripod thread and has attachments to allow fitting to a wide variety of tripods, C stands, light stands etc, or you can sit it on the floor on it’s own feet for low moves.

It’s an easy thing to use and once you’ve mastered getting a consistent speed along the track and it really gives a look to camera moves that you’d have to spend ten times the amount to achieve with a traditional dolly track, plus you lose the fast setup time and portability of it. On really cold days, the metal picks up moisture and can judder, plus the rails are very sensitive to any dirt at all. I found the best way to ensure a smooth move was to carry a small can of WD40 and a clean cloth and give the rail a quick wipe before shooting. It takes just seconds to do and pretty much guarantees a smooth move.

Best of all, once you’re done the whole thing packs away in seconds and sits in the car boot taking hardly any space at all.

The 1D Mk4 with the full manual controls for video is superb and I’ll write more of this, it’s amazing ISO and 10 fps burst rate later.

The time lapse I cut into this was shot at the end of last year on the 5DMk2 and was added because it fits the pace of the music by Vivaldi and because I like it! Overall, I’m happy with my first shot with the Glidetrack. Things I’d change next time all revolve around getting a better tripod. The Manfrotto is OK for the money, but I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on the superb Miller I tried at the Broadcast Expo. And I wouldn’t use the ball and socket head on the Glidetrack, as with a long lens it introduces very small movements that you can see when viewed in full HD. One of the curses of shooting in full HD.

I owned a 930 Turbo a few years ago, but sadly finances at the time dictated that it was a heart-rather-than-head purchase and ultimately it had to be sold to release funds for other projects. It was a lovely car and I miss it dearly, to the point of not allowing myself to read such things at Total 911 until recently, as it was just too painful – yes, really.

So when Phil Raby calls me to shoot some 911’s, then tells me it’s going to be two 930 Turbos, my heart skips. This could be painful, like catching a view of your ex-girlfriend across the room, laughing with her new partner. Sure enough, it was. I caught sight of the wonderful Turbo LE, sporting the same chin spoiler with extra oil cooler just as mine had, plus the four pea-shooter exhausts, I felt a physical pang. Writer Kevin Hackett and I stood by as the cars were started and I felt a pain and lump in my throat as the car sprang into life with that typical bark, slight engine hunt up and down while the old ECU wakes, then settled down to that busy idle.

Concentrate, Neill. It’s just another car. Only it’s not. 911’s have always ‘done it’ for me. Plenty of people out there just don’t get it and I’m fine with that, but if you’ve been bitten, then nothing else matters.

On this particular shoot, I was using the Canon 5D mk2, plus one of the first Canon 7D’s, my regular 1DS relegated to backup duty, despite it’s imposing structure. Main reason was to become familiar with them before the first of our new Shooting Supercars series, where the two cameras were to be used heavily. Lighting was the superb Elinchrom Quadra packs that I’ve quickly found myself unable to be without. Fast, plenty of power and above all, lightweight.

We head off to the first location and I’m following the cars to the timber yard. The wonderful winding Yorkshire countryside means that Kevin ahead in the Turbo LE is often lifting off the gas over the blind crests in the road. When he does, there’s a lick of flame from the pipes as unburnt fuel hits the glowing turbo. Kevin’s having fun.

Statics shots complete, we head to the location for moving shots. Kevin and I jump into the LE for a quick recce of the road ahead. Then I remember why the Turbo was so addictive. From the passenger seat, there’s a huge lag, but then you feel the gathering wave of power, just like the beginning of a tidal surge when surfing in the sea, gathering until the tacho seems to be moving at the same pace as the speedo, the flat six noise becoming muted behind us by the wind noise from the old style body shell’s A pillars. You can’t help but grin and suppress the giggle in your throat.

Kevin’s words do the cars justice, putting you in the seat and recalling the hedonistic 80’s, so go grab yourself a copy of the January mag if you’ve an ounce of soul in your body. You’ll love the cars and remember the shoulder pads. Personally, I won’t rest until I once again have an aircooled Porsche 911 sitting in my possession.

As for the cameras, the 5D was, as ever, superb, delivering great colours right out of the card, with the minimum of post required. The 7D? I liked the rapid fire burst rate, higher than my 1DS, but when shooting the tracking shots, I found the lack of weight actually a hindrance, my arms much more used to the ‘heft’ of the 1D series cameras when hanging out of the back of a camera car. Purely personal, nothing against the 7D, it’s a superb piece of kit and I’m sure that if I owned one, I’d quickly become used to it.

The Quadras were super reliable. I’m, constantly amazed at how many high output shots I can get from the batteries without running out of power. plus they seem to take very little time to recharge and are quite happy sitting in the car boot feeding off my inverter. A natty little by product of their compact size is that you could probably just about squeeze them behind the front seats of a 911…

Then a few months ago, we hear talk of Apple’s Tablet device as being a bigger iPhone style device and I start thinking, as I’m sure you will have been, about what a REALLY BIG deal this can be. Just look at how the iPhone is just soooo much more than just a phone, thanks to the power of iTunes and the App Store. Now take that sheer power of distribution and imagine this:

1. Imagine being able to download and buy your favourite car magazine onto your tablet, just like you do songs in iTunes
2. Imagine having your traditional car magazine, but with embedded videos alongside the photo shoots – now can you see where these HD DSLR’s by Canon come in?
3. Imagine you’re an advertiser being able to sponsor the videos and being able to not just put your website’s URL out there, but to have a clickable link within the content?
4. Imagine you’re a publisher who suddenly doesn’t have to think about the huge percentage the big news distribution warehouses take, you just need to get it listed on iTunes or indeed offer a download through your existing website with a pay portal
5. Imagine being a traditional newsagent or indeed any part of that distribution chain? I know I’d be worried.

This blog post by Vincent Laforet is a good read and echoes my thoughts on how 2010 will be the year of the tablet and indeed just might be the medicine that puts the publishing and news industry back to health. With a global audience for your publication avaiable as an iTunes download, the advertisers would be crazy not to be involved. Perhaps then, they’ll be charging for online advertising and throwing in the print version for free….

So that brings me to the creators viewpoint and what this means to photographers? It means getting involved in the whole convergence thing and getting to grips with some of the brillient new products that are arriving, not just from people like Canon, but from the mass of independent companies such as Zacuto, GlideTrack, Miller and other small enterprises.
All these products and technologies are changing the way we create content for our clients, both editorial and commercial and events like Convergence One by The Flash Centre are an important step along the way and if you thought that 2009 had been stuffed full of product announcements, I’m sure there are even more things in prototype form right now as more momentum is created. The benefits for photographers / film makers and our customers will be thrilling and I can’t wait to be part of it!

05/01/10 – A quick note to add a link to this post by The Recovering Journalist and his comments on where the Apple Tablet might just be taking us all. Well worth a read.

100 Best Pictures is published by the newly renamed “Aircraft’ magazine, formerly Aircraft Illustrated. It’s a good buy at £8.99 with some of the best known aircraft shooters in the world featuring, but when I was in store this week, it had 50% off, making it a no-brainer. Lovely and glossy, with that new-magazine smell, it proved to be a good read. There’s some well known names, but my favourite is Japanese shooter Katsuhiko Tokunaga with his killer shots and distinctive style.

If you don’t have a branch of WH Smith near you, grab a copy online at the publisher’s website I’ve only one grumble – the spine bound format makes it difficult to open out fully, making some of the full bleed, double page shots hard to view, but then, for a fiver, you can’t grumble!

We’ll have with us a mountain of Elinchrom lighting kit from The Flash Centre, plus we’ve grabbed a Canon 5D Mk2 and the brand new Canon 7D to use. So if you have your camera, you’ll be able to mount the Skyport wireless trigger on your hotshoe and try out the Elinchrom lighting we’ll have set up.

For me, I’ll be saying hello to an old friend, the pretty Mirage jet fighter you see in the background of this shot. A couple of years ago, I used her as a backdrop for a car shoot, but this time, the sharp dart shape will be centre of attention for the Elinchrom lighting, lets hope we can do her justice.

The wonderful Victor tanker / bomber that lives there with have all it’s ground power and lighting hooked up, so you can get some great long exposures as the sun goes down. The museum have created a great schedule starting mid afternoon with some interesting talks by ex-Victor crews too, so it’s shaping up to be a great event. What we need now is a spectacular Yorkshire autumn sunset and we’ll have some great photography!

There are still tickets available, simply go to the website here and book, or give them a call.

Living Magazine Cover & Spread – Outside Magazine from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.