Moving content

This will be my last post here as I'm moving my blog into my website. Integration is the way forward allegedly!
DON'T PANIC, you can/will now find me at the all in one The new home of my blog. Integrated with the rest of my content.
If you'd like to subscribe to my posts then click on 'subscribe' button in the top right of the page.

Thanks, see you over on jonathanbowcott.com

Essential maintenance this weekend

The nameservers are being changed over this weekend so emails and web may be offline for 48 hours. Should be back to normal Monday morning. If you send me an email between now and then I probably won't receive it. Send it again on Monday, thanks!

2 years condensed into 60 seconds.

I love stuff like this. Sir David will explain....

iPhone pic of the day

So I went down to the harbour to look at the leaders debate. Tight security, every police officer in the country, barriers, loads of guns plus media meant it was actually quite dull. Did see this fun sign within the security cordon though......

iPhone pic of the day

Volcano still erupting, spring has arrived properly and aircraft are allowed back in the air - see the telltale signs of a contrail in the sky.
Must dash, got some excess blubber to tan.

Let me sneak in this great behind the scenes video so soon after the last post

Nothing to do with me or Bristol or anything local... but everything to do with creative photography.

More on this story later........

Short but sweet at the moment. Here's an article from the Guardian that sums up some of the issues that professional photographers face in the digital world of today.
As I said, more to come...
Guardian, Flickr and photos

You need good backup

Sometimes, believe it or not, being a photographer just isn't enough! Apart from being a husband, father, taxi service, chef, dog walker, big scary dragon and many other things I also need to have some post production skills.

In other words; Photoshop.

I shot this car, just outside Bristol, ( I wrote about it here iPhone pic of the day ) for a direct client in an old quarry on a freezing cold, windy morning. No budget for a studio or any other nice car photography accoutrements. Just me, a mobile backdrop and 2 lovely girls from Stuff who were handling, well, other stuff for this client. They ended up keeping everything standing as my sandbags, bricks, breezeblocks and bags couldn't withstand the wind. - Good backup, thanks Ali and Katie.

Additionally, as we weren't in the cossetted warmth of a studio the car needed some post production work before it was ready to be cut out and the large 2 metre mobile produced.

I did some tweaking of the photo back at HQ but the real work was done by Photoshop supremo Ewen Collis at Stuff who managed to hide any shortcomings - err, the shortcomings were due to the location of course, rather than my photography! You need good backup, thanks Ewen.
If you are having trouble seeing the image please click here - Fiat 500

Email update 01-04-10

If I want to have junk mail from large organisations (did you know there is a new coffee called Tanzarú, our Limited Edition 2010 Grand Cru. Born of a surprising union of two worlds, this coffee is an invitation to explore new and exciting, fruity flavours.) and spam offering me enlarged bits then I'm fine.

HOWEVER, other people who might want to get in touch and with whom I might wish to communicate are basically still 'French Connection UK'd', as it were.

I'm working out whether to join the cloud? Hosting and email all done up there in the internet thingy. Our lovely cousins in the good old you, ess of Eh offer great service and modern tech support.
I guess we're back to 'pay peanuts, get monkeys'
I think I'll have to 'pay proper, get proper' in future.

Happy Easter

If there's anything cuter than an Easter Chick it's a small child wearing a hat with Easter chicks on it!

This was tricky to photograph. Mainly because the model was being uncooperative. With his third birthday fast approaching he was acting his age. In between the tears and tantrums (to be fair it was nearly bedtime) I shot 4 frames. One frame was the end of a tantrum, one frame was a blinker, the other two were usable. Who was it who said 'never work with kids and animals?'

Set up was easy enough:
1 SB900 bouncing off a white tri grip with a half cut CTO to warm up the face.
1 SB900 on a boom through an ezybox softbox directly above the hat.
1 SU 800 on camera to fire the flashes.
1 D3 with a custom WB to account for the warm gel (not too warm please!)
1 105mm lens as sharp as ever.
1 very cold beer afterwards to help maintain sanity.

Shot at my studio in Bristol.

Have a lovely Easter weekend, see you on the other side.

If you can't see the image above please click on this link The Easter Cowboy