Category Archives: Musings

Arctic circle

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I can sense it –
Something important
Is about to happen

If asked, I would find it impossible to name a favourite album, as the answer changes based on my mood, the weather, and the time of day. But there’s no doubt in my mind as to the most important album, one which has arguably shaped the very person I am today.

In the summer holiday of 1993, during the heyday of ITV’s music video show ‘The Chart Show‘, my attention was caught by an unusual sight. A young Icelandic singer was fretting about the odd things humans do, whilst walking through a bizarre fake forest with assorted puppet animals. And what a voice! I was fascinated, and in those days, when MP3 downloads were but a twinkle in the virtual eye of a nascent internet, I had to satisfy my curiosity in the only way possible, by purchasing a CD of Björk’s ‘Debut‘ when it was released.

The album was a first for me in several ways. Trivially, it was my first CD, but more importantly, it planted in me the seed of my obsession with Iceland and Icelandic music. Here was this girl from a strange land that to most people only existed as a blob on school geography maps, and whose capital city had an exotic name, coming out with some of the most compelling and original music I had heard for years. Until that time my choices of listening had (to my eternal shame) sailed with the winds of popular taste; Sting, Annie Lennox, Mike Oldfield, to name but a few; and it took this album to make me realise there was so much more out there.

In 1999, 6 years after Björk screeched and wailed her way into our lives (well, those of us who were unfamiliar with The Sugarcubes), I travelled to Iceland for the first time, with my partner and our 6-month-old son, and I was bewitched. I returned to Iceland as often as time—and my wallet—would allow. Confronted by scenes such as this, how could I help but rediscover my love of photography?

Gullfoss, the Golden Falls
Gullfoss, the Golden Falls

Twitter, the microblogging service, and object of the derision of many of the less forward-thinking members of the traditional press, also had a major part to play in the imminent completion of an 18 year long personal cycle. A set of black and white images from Iceland’s western fjords region, which I took in May 2009, was extremely well received, and shared by several people, both within and outside Iceland, making it my most popular gallery of photographs to date. By maintaining links with the people who had publicised my images, I gained a small but growing network of friends who shared a passion for, or lived in, Iceland.

The resultant increased profile of my work brought me to the attention of Counterfeit magazine, a music website based in Sheffield, who were looking for some photographs of a London-based, Sheffield-born rapper called The Ruby Kid for an interview they were publishing. After completing the shoot I started asking around to see if there were any other websites like Counterfeit, but more local to me, for whom I could do similar work. The amazing networking power of the Internet brought me to The 405, where I was given the opportunity to gain free entry (via photo passes) to endless gigs in London to shoot for reviews or photo-only ‘In Pictures’ features.

It wasn’t long before I realised that we could do something particularly special at The 405 (that’s not to belittle the great work it was already doing), so I suggested trying for passes to the annual Iceland Airwaves festival in October, with a view to publishing a feature focusing on the festival as a whole. The editorial team were all in favour of the idea and, once again through Twitter’s network, I was put in touch with the press officer for the festival, who agreed to issue three passes to us. Only a week or so later, it was announced that there would be two special performances during the festival at Reykjavík’s recently completed opera house, Harpa, by none other than the one person who is still Iceland’s most famous export: Björk Guðmundsdóttir.

And so I find myself on the brink of an adventure that will bring together the holy trinity of music, photography and the magical island of Iceland, and I can trace it all back to one single, circular piece of foil and plastic, imprinted with the DNA of my life as it is today.

Q: How do I ask questions about photography?

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Photography Stack Exchange

An excellent resource I’ve come across recently is the photography Stack Exchange. This is a user-driven website with a strict question-and-answer format, with none of the off-topic tangents and trolling that you find on traditional internet forums. By answering questions well, or posting good questions, you earn reputation and badges, all of which actively encourages good use of the site. Have a look and see if there’s any way it can help you out. I’m on there as Nick.

No ’Room for noise

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Adobe finally released Lightroom 3 today, after an extensive beta testing period during which we were shown tantalising glimpses of the new features. However, by far the most impressive of the added goodies is the improved noise reduction. I’ve included some examples below.

Borough Market, EOS 5D Mark II, ISO 3200

This photo was taken at ISO 3200 on my Canon EOS 5D Mark II, shortly after I bought it, as part of a series of photos of Borough Market in London. All the photos in the set were taken at the same ISO, which allowed me to capture much of the activity and goods on sale without having to use flash.

Borough Market, EOS 5D Mark II, ISO 3200 (no noise reduction - 100% crop)

Here is a 100% crop of the same shot with no noise reduction applied (all sliders set to zero); for ISO 3200 it’s pretty good, showing off the low-light capabilities the 5DII is famous for.

Borough Market, EOS 5D Mark II, ISO 3200 (after noise reduction - 100% crop)

After applying noise reduction, the chroma noise has all but vanished, and only a hint of luminance noise remains, with (in my opinion) suggestions of film grain.

Borough Market, EOS 5D Mark II, ISO 3200 (after noise reduction)

The full photo, after noise reduction has been applied. It’s hard to tell the difference at this size, so here’s an example of an ISO 6400 shot that has been adjusted with Lightroom 3:

Starry night, ISO 6400, no NR

The chroma noise, even at this smaller size, is obvious, especially in the cloud and on the right-hand illuminated tree at the bottom of the picture.

Starry night, ISO 6400, after NR

The difference here is plain. A huge improvement over the original.

I now feel I can more confidently use ISO 6400 more on my camera now; technically it does go up to ISO 25,600 but I would have to try that out in Lightroom before deciding whether it’s a realistic option.

The friendly faces of Bruges

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A Belgian couple pose for the camera outside the Concert Hall in Bruges.

One of the most striking aspects of my recent trip to Bruges with my friend Mark was the markedly different attitude to photographers that we experienced compared to that in the UK. You can’t open the paper these days without reading about yet another photographer being harassed by police for taking (legitimate) photographs in a (public) location. However in Bruges, despite the fact that the majority of people walking about were tourists taking photographs, the locals appeared to actively welcome the chance to appear in a photograph (see above). We both felt that we were free to go wherever we pleased, whenever we pleased, even as far as the industrial docks to the north of the city where photographers with large lenses in the UK would probably be accosted by officious staff or police almost as soon as they stepped on the premises. Wandering round the streets and canals at midnight has never been so much fun.

Whilst I don’t want to use my blog to make political points, the Conservative party did promise prior to the election to stop the abuse of stop-and-search powers granted to police under section 44 of the Terrorism Act, and the newly published coalition agreement also makes the same promise. I will be watching closely and hopefully we will see an end to the nonsense that innocent photographers have been subjected to for far too long.