Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2016 ends up being a rewarding and productive year for you all.

Since I have nothing better to do this evening other than drink G&Ts and surf the interweb, I thought I would share a small website I’ve just put together as a sort of portfolio for my photography.

Tears in Rain

I am sure many of you will immediately guess the site title reference; no prizes for doing do so 😀

I just wanted somewhere to put the pictures I like the most (which I also hope are my best ones) as an easy way of showcasing them. Having the site is also a useful tool when out taking pictures. It’s much easier to show someone you’re not a weirdo if you have a site that backs up your work.

Bust most importantly putting the site together was an exercise to force me into understanding just what kind of photographer I am. I think I’ve figured that out now, or at least I have more of an idea than I did before.

Enjoy – feel free to be as rude or complimentary as you like. I will have it all.

BM’d, cheers for that. I enjoy your eye for a good pic.

Some nice stuff in there.
I like this one as I’m a fan of b&w with colour mix (when it’s done without photoshop).

The B&W stuff is really good and I wish I had the balls to do some of the street stuff. And in the best traditions, there’s only one that I’d get rid of, otherwise excellent a real eye for the image.

Many thanks chaps 😀

Captain that is actually one of my top five favourite pictures and there is a bit of a story to it.

It was taken in the Imperial War Museum in the section dealing with civil conflict. The photographs that the girl is looking at are indeed B&W; they’re images from the conflict in Northern Ireland.

When I saw her looking I immediately thought it would be an amazing shot; the contrast of her innocence and youth with the violent acts in the images was a fantastic contrast.

Trouble was her dad was about a metre behind me and while looking in the other direction, he was bloody huge and didn’t look like the kind of guy who would readily engage with the ‘tension of the juxtaposed innocence and post colonial conflict’ explanation 😯

So I had to be really quick, really discrete and prayed to god that the one chance I got would end up being decent. You can just about see me in the glass reflection (shaking).

“R. D. Lain, ‘The Polictics of Experience’

Laing is arguing…

Lain or Laing?

Polictics?

Lain or Laing?

Polictics?

Thanks my friend – appreciated

You’re welcome. A quick scan of the rest of the site didn’t turn up any other typos.

Happy New Year!

Enjoy – feel free to be as rude or complimentary as you like. I will have it all.

Complimentary- fair play you got your shit together and put it out there.

Rude- street photography was cool for a bit in the 60’s

Thanks for sharing. Some really nice work. Makes me want to get back on the street with the camera again 🙂

There’s one too many f’s in Chef in the caption on your home page. Pics look good.

Bookmarked. Have enjoyed looking at your work on flickr.

What’s the name of the template you’re using? I like the gallery view.

And credit to you for putting yourself out there.

There’s one too many f’s in Chef in the caption on your home page. Pics look good.

Thanks buddy. You see I knew that if I pointed you guys to the site I’d get the very best proof reading service available!

What’s the name of the template you’re using? I like the gallery view.

I used ‘Squarespace.com’ to build the site and within that, I used the template called ‘Momentum’.

I’m really impressed with just how easy it is these days to get a good, clean (albeit minimalist site) up and running. This one took me maybe two hours? The longest process was organising which photo’s I wanted to include. That took about three to four hours but once that was done the build was easy.

You are Bez and I claim my prize!

Great website and as ever great photographs.
I’d love to know how you created the site. I have no idea how to do it.

I’m in no way an expert in photography or art, but I love this:

I’d love to know how you created the site. I have no idea how to do it.

It’s embarrassingly easy; I cheated and used Squarespace.com. You simply select your template (there are loads to choose from) and away you go.

Hi Greg, looks nice and well done on setting something up. That’s my January task this year, and looking to use Squarespace too 🙂

Two things – did you use any of the discounts being touted by verious Youtube channels for Squarespace? (I think they’re all 10% off). And secondly, major lens envy of your Sony and Zeiss primes 😀

that is really great some fantastic images
it’s inspired me to pick up the camera again and go and take pics
cheers for that

Hi Kit – I didn’t use a discount code; I didn’t know there were any even though I probably became aware of Squarespace through a Youtube ad! I did just pay for a whole year as you can always cancel the agreement and get a refund equal to what you would have paid if you’d done month by month.

Re the Sony/Zeiss primes, LOL yes they are very nice. I’ve chopped and changed quite a bit, buying from eBay and then moving on largely without ever losing money on them.

I had a 50mm Loxia for a few weeks before changing it for the Voigtlander Ultron for a few reasons, one being it’s faster aperture, another being the ability to mount that lens to other camera bodies should I want to (I have a feeling I’m going to find an X-Pro 2 hard to resist!) but also because the VOigtlander is just damn gorgeous to use (the Loxia is as well but the Ulton has that vintage quality in a modern design).

My favourite is the 35mm 1.4ZA. The results from that are jaw dropping. Yes it’s a beast but the results more than compensate.

I also have a Sony Zeiss 85mm 1.4 planar. It’s an Alpha mount used with an adapter. I’ve only just got it though so don’t have anything yet to post but the initial tests look like the results will be every bit as stunning as the 35mm but in a focal length more suited to portaiture.

it’s inspired me to pick up the camera again and go and take pics
cheers for that

Wow – I think that’s the nicest complement anyone has ever paid me in relation to my photography. Thank you.

Some fantastic photos there

I particularly like the abstract & still life, and the street portraits section. I’ve always wanted to take photos of interesting looking people in the street, but I don’t think I’d ever have the charm or confidence to get them to pose for me

I’ve been thinking about getting back into photography for a few months now. I’d like to start a blog or website to upload them to.

I’ve been looking at cameras, and don’t really know where to start. I know I can’t afford the ones you’re using! I was considering a Nikon D5500 or a Canon 700d

Really nice stuff 🙂 I haven’t touched a camera in ages, wouldn’t mind getting back into it but I focus more on the video and motion graphics stuff these days and barely want to do that since I spend most of my day at work doing it as well haha, can’t be creative all the time I guess!

Interested in that squarespace, could do with re vamping my video portfolio site a bit. Do you know how it works if I already have a domain and hosting etc, and how customisable are the templates? Had considered wordpress but can’t really be arsed with learning a bit of css.

Jools many thanks as well for the kind words. The ‘street portrait’ section is the one I’m most proud of, precisely becuase it’s less about technical ability and more about communicating and gaining people’s trust. That’s the skill I find most rewarding.

Here’s the thing though. It’s so much easier than you imagine. Once you get over the initial obstacle of engaging with a stranger randomly, the rest is kind of easy. We’re a gregarious species and most people will respond very positively if you approach them and say something nice about them. I always gravitate towards people I think look interesting and simply telling someone they have an interesting face, or a fabulous ‘look’, rarely fails to put them at ease. It helps that my job encompasses large elements of this skill anyway but still I’ve found that doing this has actually helped my work as much as the other way around.

I read an blog about street portraiture recently where the writer advocated actively trying to get people to refuse to let you take their picture (rather than the other way around). Her point was that it’s often harder to get a refusal than an agreement. It’s an interesting exercise.

If this is something you feel you would like to do then you definitely should try it. It ‘feels’ fantastic when you’ve done it. I come back from a day’s shooting like that feeling elated. It’s a very positive experience.

Regarding cameras, yes I have some pretty well developed ideas about what I would recommend. That’s not to say that they are inherently correct, just that I’ve thought a lot about it and tried a lot of stuff.

I personally think the best thing you could do is to start by getting something really simple but really high image quality. A fixed lens and a fixed focal length but a really big sensor concentrates your approach and forces you to ‘see’ the picture before you take it. If you’ve done photography before and want to get back in, this approach will give you the discipline back that you previously had. Otherwise you’ll be thinking too much about the kit and not about the picture (because we’re all gear fetishists really!)

If you’d like to start trying to take street portraits then, while not remotely a portrait focal length (the camera I am recommending has a 35mm equivalent field of view), I would strongly recommend a Fuji X100 in the best version/iteration you can afford. The original can be had for less than £300 on eBay and the later versions new will be around £600 from somewhere like Parkcameras.com or Wexphotographic.com. I’d also suggest looking at second hand versions from these retailers (they are online retailers but also have big store presence so they are reputable and won’t be selling you grey imports).

If you would still rather have an interchangable lens camera then the X-Pro 1 is brilliant and lovely and cheap as chips right now because a) it is now quite long in the tooth and b) it is about to be replaced. But it still takes amazing pictures. You can get a second hand one from Park for about £250 and a lens to suit. You won’t find as many X-Mount lenses going as cheap as this and they are expensive to buy new but that is because they are really very good indeed. Something like the new XF35mm f/2 would be excellent (and that’s a lovely lens by all accounts) or the XF23mm f/1.4. These would give approximately a 50mm and 35mm field of view respectively.

I don’t know much about traditional DSLRs these days other than the fact that they are bigger and heavier but still probably have the edge in terms of responsive performance of the new mirrorless brigade. I am certain that mirrorless is the future as it is only a matter of time before the technology catches up and to prove the point, Leica have just launched a mirrorless pro-level camera with an electronic view finder that is so good most people cannot tell the difference between it and an optical one.

New project update from the weekend for anyone interested:

Soho Street Portraits