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TESTED

NIKON Z 6 II AND Z 7 II

Is now the time to move to mirrorless?

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

STATE OF THE BUSINESS How professionals can survive and thrive in 2021

SOFTWARE TIPS

TIME TO REFLECT Using Affinity Photo to marry two images

Polar Attraction What drives Daisy Gilardini to keep travelling to the coldest places on Earth?

MODERN MASTER

GOING BIG IN PROVINCETOWN Joel Meyerowitz tells us how large format defined his iconic summer project

FACE FACTS: WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE A PRO PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

Eternal Spring of the Mind by Elena Paraskeva Eternal Spring of the Mind by Elena Paraskeva

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From the Editor WELCOME TO OUR latest extended digital issue and I hope that you’re managing to cope in this latest lockdown. These are difficult times for sure, but there are reasons for optimism and we’re covering this in our ‘State of the Business’ feature. Take a look and you’ll find some fascinating snippets about the industry we’re in, plus there’s feedback from three photographers discussing how they’re coping: well worth a read.

We’ve also got our usual great line up of features this month, including an in-depth interview with that great street photographer Joel Meyerowitz, talking about the portraits he shot using a vintage large format camera. Also, don’t miss his shrewd advice on picture selection!

Elsewhere we’ve got a glorious selection of polar images and a cover from the great wildlife photographer Daisy Gilardini, another excellent breakdown of a portrait session from Paul Wilkinson, some more inspiring words from wedding professional Lisa Devlin and indepth reviews of the refreshed Nikon Z 6 II and Z 7 II plus a look at the revolutionary new Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel laptop. A great read, so dive in!

TERRY HOPE EDITOR terry@professionalphoto.online

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THE UK’S ONLY MONTHLY MAGAZINE FOR WORKING & ASPIRING PROS ONLY £3.99 +EXTRA CONTENT

ON-PAGE VIDEO PR OFE S SION A L PHO T O.ONL INE

ISSUE 180 £3.99

TESTED

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

NIKON Z 6 II AND Z 7 II

Is now the time to move to mirrorless?

STATE OF THE BUSINESS How professionals can survive and thrive in 2021

SOFTWARE TIPS

TIME TO REFLECT Using Affinity Photo to marry two images

Polar Attraction What drives Daisy Gilardini to keep travelling to the coldest places on Earth?

MODERN MASTER

GOING BIG IN PROVINCETOWN Joel Meyerowitz tells us how large format defined his iconic summer project

FACE FACTS: WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE A PRO PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

ON THE COVER A gorgeous wildlife cover this month from Daisy Gilardini, who was inspired to travel to polar regions after being given a seal pup toy as a child. Read her full story in Portfolio.

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EDITORIAL Publisher and Editor: Terry Hope terry@professionalphoto.online Contributing Editor: Matty Graham matty@professionalphoto.online Contributing Editor: Richard Bradbury richard@professionalphoto.online

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This Month Issue 180 8 Upfront: News Lens launches this month from Sony, Samyang and NiSi while there’s plenty also happening on the memory front.

@professionalphotomagazine @pro_Photo_mag Professional Photo Magazine

20

10 Upfront: Vlog My Wedding Wedding photographer Darren Powell tells us about the service he’s offering, where guests are the ones shooting the footage for the video of the big day.

10

12 Portfolio – Daisy Gilardini Polar specialist Daisy Gilardini shows us her amazing images and tells us the unusual story of how she became addicted to the wildlife that lives in these regions.

32

20 Interview – Joel Meyerowitz The legendary street photographer tells the story behind a project in Provincetown that saw him working in a very different way with an antique large format camera.

28

NEW! Subscription e-gift cards. Visit the Pro Online Store for details.

32 Affinity Workshop Here’s how you can take a portrait and add an extra element by creating a reflection in a virtual window.

37 Lighting the Natural Way Karl Taylor shows that it’s not necessary to invest in high end professional lighting to achieve a commercial result.

40 The Move Towards Motion –

Understanding Frame Rates

37

These days cameras will come with an increasing number of frame rate choices, but what does each of them offer and what should you look for in your next camera?

72

TECHNIQUE

28 Anatomy of a Shoot – The Explorer When a famous and very distinguished looking explorer came in for a portrait, Paul Wilkinson was determined to make the most of the opportunity for a characterful shot.

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PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

12 BUSINESS

60 Lisa Devlin – My Working Life

45 Time to Turn Pro

It wouldn’t be surprising if your mojo has decided to up sticks and leave town after the year we’ve just had, but what can you do to entice it back?

We look at the things you should consider when setting up a company bank account and drop in on a day in the life of a professional portrait photographer.

62 Melissa Love – Website Marketing

48 Investing in the Future When 18-year-old student Zak Thompson needed advice on what kit to buy for his videography degree we introduced him to second hand specialist MPB.

If you’ve decided it’s time for a redesign of your website what should you do to guarantee a successful outcome?

75

65 Julia Boggio With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, Julia looks at romance in general and asks why it can be so undervalued by some.

50 The State of the Business A new survey has thrown up some fascinating facts about the current state of the professional photographic sector and we share the findings and talk to some working pros.

GEAR

56 Five Ways to Boost Business

66 Tested: Nikon Z 6 II and Z 7 II

While times are still tough there is light at the end of the tunnel, so how do you set up your business to grow again once your customers start to return post pandemic?

The refreshed Z series duo come with some very useful new extras, but does the facelift warrant an investment?

72 Wild About Harry

66

We catch up with Nikon #ZCreator Harry Skeggs and find out how discovering the Nikon brand helped him to get his wildlife photography career off the ground.

75 Tested: Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Our resident computer expert Mike Jennings takes a look at a revolutionary and powerful new laptop that incorporates a Wacom EMR display and a tilting panel.

GET IN TOUCH

78 Things I Wish I’d Known

50 PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

We find out from Peter Dench about the moment he became his older self and why it’s so important to be covering the things that are going on around you.

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OPENING SHOT / BEHIND THE LENS

EQUINE SUPERSTAR Sinéad Ni Raian’s fabulous low-key study of ‘No Nay Never,’ Coolmore Stud’s Ireland Champion sire, has seen her named Irish Professional Portrait Photographer of the Year.

HERE’S NO MISTAKING the look of a champion athlete, the finely-honed muscle, the slightly aloof look in the eyes and the unmistakable air of a winner. The fact that the champion Sinéad Ni Raian happened to be photographing was a horse made little difference: this was a magnificent creature at the height of its powers, and every bit as temperamental as any highly-strung human celebrity.

“I produced this portrait at Coolmore Stud in Fethard, Co Tipperary,” says Sinéad, “and this is No Nay Never, Coolmore Stud’s Ireland Champion sire.

The portrait is part of a series that I’m currently producing of the stud’s champion stallions, which happen to be the most valuable in the entire world.”

As well as being worth a fortune, thoroughbred stallions are highly sensitive animals and very reactive to change, so it was crucial that No Nay Never was kept calm and relaxed. He had to follow his regular routine and was led from his stable to the covering shed to have his pick of grass.

“We turned the shed into a studio,” says Sinéad, “and it took him a little while to get used to the fact that his space had been filled with camera equipment. However, I had the assistance of Coolmore’s head stallion manager Tony O’Meara and his amazing team, who handled and relaxed No Nay Never and got him into the position I required.”

This gorgeous low-key study was photographed with a Hasselblad X1D-50c and XCD 90mm f/3.2 and lit with four Profoto B1X 500 AirTTLs in tandem with a selection of Profoto softboxes. “I love rim lighting and rake lighting,” says Sinéad, “so I positioned two softboxes at 45-degrees in front of the subject and used a large 4ft x 3ft softbox as a window light while a 3ft x 2ft soft box provided the fill.”

The portrait has just won Sinéad the prestigious title of Irish Professional Portrait Photographer of the Year and she’s hoping to continue her series with a visit to the Coolmore Stud in Kentucky in the United States once travel restrictions lift.

T

More information: ■ niriainphotography.com 6 / PROFESSIONAL PHOTO ISSUE 180

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/ OPENING SHOT

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UPFRONT NEWS / VIEWS / EVENTS / EXHIBITIONS / NEW GEAR professionalphoto.online

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Professional Photo Magazine

LAUNCH

SONY EXPANDS ITS G LENS SERIES THE LATEST MODEL to join Sony’s G Master Full Frame Lens Series is the FE 35mm f/1.4 GM, which boasts a compact and lightweight design and the ability to deliver excellent image quality together with beautiful bokeh, thanks to its super bright maximum aperture.

The new optic weighs in at just 524g and, measuring 76x96mm, it’s said to be able to fit comfortably in the palm of the hand.

Under the bonnet there are two XA (extreme aspherical) elements to ensure excellent resolution throughout the image area, while an ED glass element and other optical refinements effectively suppress chromatic aberration and purple fringing. The XA

elements and a close focusing distance of just 27cm also help to contribute to the smooth, creamy nature of the background bokeh, as does an eleven-blade, almost circular aperture.

Meanwhile two of Sony’s XD (extreme dynamic) Linear Motors provide the high thrust efficiency needed for precise AF and tracking, while state-of-the-art control algorithms are on board to improve control response and precision whilst also helping to minimise any vibration and noise.

Sony claims that advanced focusing can also be achieved when shooting at a high frame rate.

Other benefits of the lens include an aperture ring with switchable click stops that

can be turned off when shooting video and a focus hold button that can be assigned to several other functions via a camera body menu. As a final touch there’s also a fluorine front element coating that acts to repel water, oil, and other contaminants. The lens is available now at a cost of £1500.

■ sony.co.uk

ANNOUNCEMENT NEWS

NISI UNVEILS AN ULTRA WIDE-ANGLE FOTOSPEED TO FILTER SPECIALIST NiSi has unveiled an ultra-wide 15mm f/4 ASPH lens, which is compatible with both full frame and APS-C cameras, with the focal length changing to 22mm on the latter.

Lens construction is 12 elements in ten groups, with one aspherical element and two very low dispersion elements, while lens barrel construction is metal, reflecting the high-quality approach of the design.

Other highlights include a 10-blade diaphragm, a minimum focusing distance of just 20cm, a mechanical ring to enable continuous diaphragm adjustment and a 72mm front filter thread that can 8 / PROFESSIONAL PHOTO ISSUE 180

DISTRIBUTE HOODMAN

accommodate both NiSi circular filters and the 100mm system for square filters.

The lens is available to pre-order now at £429 and all pre-orders qualify for a free 72mm NiSi Natural night filter, with shipping expected to start in the summer.

US-BASED IMAGING tool company Hoodman is to be exclusively distributed in the UK by photographic paper and accessories specialist Fotospeed.

Hoodman, established in 1986, produces a wide range of imaging products, primarily for the broadcast video and motion picture arena.

Over recent years, the company has become particularly renowned for its quality drone and aerial mapping accessories, while it also continues to provide robust digital camera, camcorder and monitor add-ons.

■ fotospeed.com

■ nisioptics.co.uk PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

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Professional Photo Magazine

NEWS

UPFRONT

SanDisk Ixpand Wireless Charger 15W

MK2 ADDITION

SAMYANG ADDS A 14MM SAMYANG HAS ADDED a 14mm to its recently introduced VDSLR MK2 cine-lens series.

Launched in August last year, the MK2 line-up now comprises of five of the most-used focal lengths, namely 14mm (T/3.1), 24mm (T/1.5), 35mm (T/1.5), 50mm (T/1.5) and 85mm (T/1.5).

Fast T-stop values, renowned image quality and enhanced user-friendly features are available throughout, and there are seven different camera mounts, with full frame coverage.

The new 14mm was created using an aspherical element plus three high-refractive, one hybrid aspherical and two extra-low dispersion elements in the compact body.

VDSLR denotes this is a cinema lens and the aperture ring is de-

clicked, as are the focus gear rings. Meanwhile the long focus throw of over 130° enables cinematographers to focus precisely.

All lenses in the MK2 series include weather sealing and 9-blade aperture rings to deliver smooth and circular bokeh. They also feature a sleek new black and matte finish design, with focus distance scales visible on both sides of the lens bodies for convenience.

The complete Samyang VDSLR MK2 series with all five focal lengths will be available globally from this month. Pricing for the 14mm is yet to be confirmed by distributor Intro 2020.

■ intro2020.co.uk/samyang

MEMORY

FOUR NEW PRODUCTS FROM OWC MEMORY SPECIALIST OWC has kicked off the new year with no fewer than four new launches aimed at creatives in all fields, including photographers and videographers.

The U2 Shuttle ($149) is said to be the world’s first U.2 carrier shuttle for 3.5in drive bays that combines four NVMe M.2 SSDs. It offers video editors and photographers a multiple blade SSD with blistering speed, massive capacity, RAID-ready flexibility, and swappable convenience. The device can be used with U.2 port-equipped PCs and servers, while also having the capacity to complement storage and PCIe expansion solutions.

Meanwhile the new OWC Thunderbolt Dock ($249) hugely expands the functionality of the latest Intel 11th Gen Core and Evo PCs with Thunderbolt 4, while also expanding Thunderbolt Dock

Envoy Pro FX universal compatible Thunderbolt and USB Portable SSD

the functionality of the new M1 Macs and Thunderbolt 3 equipped Macs once they’ve been upgraded to the new Apple MacOS 11 Big Sur. Also new is the OWC USB-C Travel Dock E (S64.99), which is designed to reduce the hassle of adapter and dongle heft while expanding connectivity options with six essential ports: USB 3 Type-A, HDMI 2.0, SD card reader, and all new Gigabit Ethernet, and USB-C 100W power pass-through.

The final device of the quartet is the OWC Envoy Pro FX universal compatible Thunderbolt and USB Portable SSD (from $169), which enables gigabytes of data to be transferred anywhere in seconds.

MOBILE SOLUTIONS

CHARGING INNOVATIONS FROM SANDISK TWO NEW PRODUCTS have been launched by Western Digital under its SanDisk brand, which aim to simplify life for photographers who might be seeking fast and reliable charger options for any of their Qi compatible devices.

The SanDisk Ixpand Wireless Charger Sync provides fast wireless charging plus local storage in capacities up to 256GB, with the user simply placing their smartphone on the device, with images and videos then being automatically backed up. Meanwhile the SanDisk Ixpand Wireless Charger 15W also comes with the capacity to offer reliable and efficient charging, delivering up to 15W for a speedy refresh, and it’s simply a case of plug and play, with compatible phones instantly connecting to the device.

Both of the SanDisk Ixpand new products are Wireless Charger compatible with Sync iPhones from iPhone 8 and up, AirPods Pro, Samsung Galaxy S7 and up and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and up, plus other Qi phones, even when charging through most cases.

The price of the Ixpand Wireless Charger Sync, which is available now in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities, starts at £89.99, while the Ixpand Wireless Charger 15W has an RRP of £46.99.

Also new is the SanDisk Ixpand Flash Drive Luxe, a 2-in-1 flash drive to enable seamless movement of files between an iPhone and iPad Pro, Mac computer and other USB Type-C devices, and this is available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities, with prices starting at £49.99.

■ shop.westerndigital.com

■ eshop.macsales.com PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

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UPFRONT

NEWS

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INTERVIEW

VLOG MY WEDDING Video coverage of a wedding might be a fairly standard request, but Darren Powell has added a twist by offering a service where the wedding party gets the chance to film their own day.

N A COMPETITIVE FIELD it’s often the wedding photographers who can think outside the box and offer something that’s eye-catching and a little different that stand the best chance of attracting the custom. Certainly, the idea that Darren Powell at Everybody Smile Photography came up with for his audience appears to have hit the mark; taking the concept of vlogging as his theme, Darren gives couples the opportunity to oversee their own video production of the day, ensuring a result that’s highly personal and packed full of very special memories.

“I’ve been running my business for eight years now,” says Darren, “the first four years part time and full time for the last four. I decided to start my wedding vlogging service at the start of 2019 for a couple of reasons. First of all, I could see that there was a demand for the same kind of informal, documentary style that I was already delivering in my stills coverage. Looking around I couldn’t see anyone offering this kind of approach through video, however, so I wondered if it might be possible to enable the wedding party themselves to do the filming.

“Secondly, I also thought this approach would be really personal and a lot of fun.

Imagine watching your wedding video knowing that your family and friends have helped to

I

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create it: how much more special would it be?

There’s also the point that people love to have fun on the wedding day and to be active and a full part of it all. We’ve seen everything from sparklers through to space hoppers being involved, so the idea of everyone having the chance to use a video camera to vlog the day sounded like an obvious thing to do.”

The way the ‘Vlog My Wedding’ service works is that Darren makes the booking and then provides the couple with a camcorder, lights and a tripod prior to the big day. He then follows up with a link to an instructional video and a Skype call to run through the technicalities – and there as few of these as possible – plus some tips are added regarding how to get the best footage possible.

On the day itself the camcorder tends to be passed around the wedding guests, so there are lots of things covered that a dedicated professional videographer might miss, plus plenty of informal interaction that only comes because people know each other so well and are completely at ease. The aim is not to achieve a record of everything that happened on the day – the stills coverage is there to provide this – but instead it’s a ‘fly-on-the-wall’ style video diary of everyone having fun and enjoying the party, and it inevitably means a huge amount to the bride and groom.

“We usually end up with quite a lot of footage,” says Darren, “way more than a professional videographer would take – sometimes six hours more! – and quite a few shots where all you’ll be able to see are people’s feet and knees. However, there’s always a really good story in there when you go looking for it. We ask couples who book this service to fill out a questionnaire beforehand so we can find out as much about the things they want to see in the film as possible prior to the big day, and we then make sure this is all included in the final edit.”

Cost for the service is £895, which includes the loan and collection of the gear and the editing of footage into a professional-looking production with music that can subsequently be shared around attendees, and it’s proving to be a real hit with customers. As word spreads, demand is growing and more and more people are signing up for the service.

“Ultimately what people are getting is a vlog-style record of their day,” says Darren, “that is hugely personal and which no-one but their closest friends could have put together.

It’s why the videos are loved so much and they’re proving to be really popular.”

More information: P everybodysmilephotography.co.uk PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

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PORTFOLIO / DAISY GILARDINI

Life in the Freezer D

AISY GILARDINI CAN pinpoint the precise moment when her future professional life became mapped out, and it happened when she was just a child, growing up in Switzerland. “Even at that early age it was obvious that I had a particular love for animals,” she recalls. “I had a huge collection of stuffed animals and everybody in my family – my parents, godparents and aunties – would cover me with them.

“One stuffed animal in particular influenced my life forever, however. I was just four years old when my godparents gave me a little stuffed seal-puppy toy.

My mum explained to me that this was an animal that came from a very cold place, where it lived on, and under, the polar ice. I was mesmerised by those stories and, from that point on, I dreamed that one day I would be able to see them in their natural environment.”

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Polar wildlife has fascinated Daisy Gilardini ever since she was a child and she’s achieved a life ambition by becoming a specialist working in these awe-inspiring regions.

WORDS TERRY HOPE IMAGES DAISY GILARDINI

Naturally, the path from then to the point Daisy is at now, where she’s gained an outstanding reputation as a wildlife photographer specialising in the polar regions, came with just a few interesting twists and turns along the way. However, she always had the thought at the back of her mind that one day she would fulfil her ambition to see for herself the land that had so captivated her. She eventually got there after initially considering a career as a veterinarian and then founding a successful accountancy business, but when she finally arrived there was no doubt in her mind that she was following her heart.

“With a good business plan and solid organisational skills, I managed to balance my daily job commitments with my love for nature, photography and travel,” she says. “It still took me seven years to save the money necessary to realise my childhood dream of seeing ›

ABOVE: The stunning polar environment has long held great appeal to Daisy, but it comes with a whole host of technical challenges.

OPPOSITE PAGE: The scope for wildlife photography in polar regions is immense and part of Daisy's remit is to produce images that will serve to highlight issues facing the creatures that make their home there.

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PORTFOLIO / DAISY GILARDINI

“I’ve tried many times to understand this irresistible attraction polar regions have for me, which I would define as an addiction or obsession. These extreme adventures transport me out of my ordinary world and take me on a voyage of self-discovery.”

ABOVE: All species of bears appeal to Daisy, and she's determined to eventually photograph them all.

seals in their natural habitat but, in 1997, I was finally able to embark on an expedition to Antarctica, and this turned into a trip that would ultimately change my life forever.”

The bug had truly bitten and there was no stopping now. For a time, Daisy would take off on adventurous self-assignments that could last for months on end, with assistants in place to keep the accountancy business going but, ultimately, she was feeling depressed and unfulfilled each time she returned to the office, and something had to give. In 2006 she bowed to the inevitable and wildlife photography became her full-time business, and it’s a decision she has never regretted.

Over the years Daisy has travelled the world in the course of her work and, alongside this, she's also working on a long-standing and ongoing personal project that, for the past decade, has seen her focus on bears. These are creatures that fascinate her through their position as predators at the top of the food chain juxtaposed with the fact that they can be gentle and affectionate mothers. “I’d love to be able to photograph all eight species of bears,” she says,

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“starting with the spectacled bear, which you find in the Andes Mountains. That could definitely keep me busy for a while!”

However, it’s the Arctic and the Antarctic that keep calling her back over and over, and she reckons to have made over 80 expeditions to the polar regions throughout her professional career. “I’ve tried many times to understand this irresistible attraction it has for me,” she says, “which I would define almost as an addiction or obsession. These extreme adventures transport me out of my ordinary world and take me on a voyage of self-discovery. The isolation from modern civilisation and all the distractions that comes with that enables me to focus on nature’s simple rhythms and stirs a deep feeling of awareness in me and inspires respect for these delicate ecosystems.”

By necessity, expeditions tend to be planned one to two years ahead of time. This is because they call for a high level of planning, from logistics through to sourcing gear that’s capable of standing up to the harshest of conditions. “Cold is a challenge to your equipment, as well as your body,” she says. “You have to take care of yourself first and be careful PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

DAISY GILARDINI / PORTFOLIO not to freeze any of your extremities. If you’re not comfortable you won’t be able to focus on your job.

You need to dress in layers and avoiding perspiration is vital to surviving these conditions.

“Once you’re comfortable, the technical challenge of operating a camera with all of its little buttons comes next, and this is something that's not easy when you’re wearing huge gloves. Finally, you have to work around the fact that, after a while, parts of the camera will freeze: batteries first, then the control panels and finally the back monitor. So you must be practised at working your camera in blind mode, always keeping in mind the settings you started with.

You need to keep shooting and hoping for the best.”

LEFT: It's important for Daisy to achieve images of her wildlife subjects that are animated and reveal something of the creature's habits and personality.

LEFT: A toy baby seal inspired Daisy to travel to polar regions in the first place and she finally achieved her ambition to see them in their natural environment.

Changing Times The wildlife photography industry has changed dramatically since the beginning of Daisy’s career, more than 20 years ago now, and she’s had to adapt over this time to ensure that she’s able to remain commercially viable in a world where there are a lot more rivals than there once were, and many regular sources of income have taken a direct hit.

“With the advent of the internet and micro stock, the market has never been so compromised,” Daisy explains. “Everybody out there appears to be looking for free or super-low-cost images, without taking into consideration the time and effort that integrity and ethical photography demands, values that, unfortunately, are becoming rarer all the time.

“Once upon a time you could make a living by providing images to stock agencies. Today it’s much more complicated; to be at or near the top of the field, especially in a field as competitive as wildlife photography, it’s no longer sufficient to simply have a still camera and to go out and shoot. In this age of

social media, we’re expected to be so many different things: storytellers, writers, journalists, drone pilots, videographers, sound technicians and more. We’re asked to capture life from the air and under the water, using everything from camera traps to action cams.

“Many people think that being a wildlife/nature photographer is all about non stop fun, being outdoors and having the opportunity to explore wonderful places. Every time I would take off for an assignment, my dad would say, ‘Going on holiday again…?’

“The reality, however, is that the ‘fun’ part is just a tiny percentage of the job. We spend endless hours › LEFT: Using Nikon 500mm and 600mm lenses, Daisy looks for tightly framed close-ups that are all about symmetry and shapes.

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PORTFOLIO / DAISY GILARDINI RIGHT: The fascination of polar regions shows little sign of wearing off for Daisy, but she's struggled to travel over the past year.

VIDEO

in front of the computer, editing our images to get them to a point where they can be published. We write articles, captions for social media and blogs, while also contacting editors and sponsors and keeping up with new advances in technology and software. These are all indoor, office tasks that nobody considers to be part of the job.”

To make a living out of wildlife photography these days, individuals need to be a combination of highly organised and flexible. Daisy stopped working with stock libraries back when the royalties from licence fees dropped to unsustainable levels, offering just a few pennies an image in many cases. Now her income is made up from a number of different sources, including image licensing, delivering workshops and talks, the sale of fine art prints to collectors, either online or through galleries, producing books and fostering brand ambassadorships.

RIGHT: The art of wildlife photography is in getting into position and then knowing exactly the right time to depress the shutter.

RIGHT: Daisy is looking to achieve a lot more than 'pretty pictures,' and is instead hoping to capture the souls of her subjects.

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Like many other wildlife photographers, she also sees her role as being more than providing ‘pretty pictures,’ and she’s aware of how important her work can be in terms of drawing attention to the pressures human intervention has put the natural world under.

“I’ve been so lucky to have the opportunity to visit the polar regions many times over the past twenty years,” she says, “and I’ve seen first-hand the changes that have taken place. While similar in some respects, the two poles are also opposites in many ways.

The Arctic is an ocean surrounded by land, while Antarctica is a continent surrounded by sea.

“In Antarctica there’s more precipitation now in the form of snow, due to more evaporation, and this translates into delays in the reproduction cycle of the penguins, as they need pebbles to build their nests.

There are also decreasing penguin species, such as chinstraps and Adélies, while others, such as gentoos, are thriving. I’ve also noticed higher temperatures and more rainy days during the summer months.

“Meanwhile, in the Arctic the entire region is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world.

Sea ice cover reached its annual summer minimum on September 15 last year, the, second-smallest cover ever recorded. The Arctic sea ice is also shrinking, not only in area but in thickness as well. It’s no longer PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

DAISY GILARDINI / PORTFOLIO uncommon to see polar bears swimming in open water and to witness ice caps pouring millions of litres of melted water into the ocean.”

As a conservation photographer Daisy feels it’s her duty and obligation to give a voice to creatures that can’t speak up for themselves. Accordingly, she sets out to capture the souls of the animals she encounters in order to reach and touch the viewer’s heart and, hopefully, to stir them to take action “While science provides the information necessary to explain the what’s and why’s of issues and identify possible solutions, photography brings those issues to life,” she says. “Science is the brain, while photography is the heart. We need both of these things to touch people’s hearts and minds.”

Looking ahead Daisy is hoping for a less frustrating year than 2020, when it was so difficult to travel in the way she was accustomed to. However, being a positive person, she’s been determined to see her glass as being half full, rather than half empty.

“The past year’s forced pause from travelling has allowed me to catch up on projects I’d neglected for years,” she says. “I finally had the time to publish a new website with an online store, and I’m catching up on editing the roughly 500,000 images which have been sleeping in my hard drive till now.

“Even if I haven’t been able to travel physically, I’m actually travelling every day through this editing.

That said, I’m looking forward to leading workshops again and sharing my passion for the outdoors.”

More information: ■ daisygilardini.com | ■ @daisygilardini

Daisy’s Gear DAISY’S CAMERA BRAND of choice is Nikon, a choice originally made because so many of the photographers who inspired her as she was starting out – the likes of Thomas Mangelsen, Galen Rowell, David Doubilet and Moose Peterson – were also working with the system.

“Over the years I realised that wildlife photography can be really harsh, not only on your body but also on your equipment,” she says. “I work in some of the most challenging conditions on the planet and have to be able to cope with cold, rain, snow, ice and low light. My camera has to be robust, reliable and super-fast.

“Nikon has always excelled in providing equipment I can rely on in the most remote and challenging areas in the world. That allows me to focus entirely on capturing images. My body of choice when working with wildlife is the Nikon D6, coupled with a 500mm or 800mm lens. I use the Nikon D780 as a second body, usually paired with an 80-400mm lens. When in the field, I always carry a mirrorless Nikon Z 7 as well, with a 24-70mm lens for landscape photography.”

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“I have to be able to cope with cold, rain, snow, ice and low light. For this reason, my camera has to be robust, reliable and super-fast.”

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INTERVIEW / JOEL MEYEROWITZ

Memories of Distant Summers W WORDS TERRY HOPE IMAGES JOEL MEYEROWITZ

Joel Meyerowitz reflects on his celebrated series of Provincetown portraits, shot throughout the 1970s and 80s, which now forms part of a major new show of American photography.

IDELY RENOWNED for the incisiveness of his unposed street photography undertaken in New York – something he was inspired to take up after seeing Robert Frank at work – and for the fact that he was an early advocate of colour, Joel Meyerowitz has also more recently become known for his series of striking large format portraits undertaken in the idyllic former fishing village of Provincetown, Massachusetts in the late 70s and early 80s.

This was the place he headed to without fail every › summer, armed with a large camera and a self-set

ABOVE: Sarah, Provincetown 1980.

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JOEL MEYEROWITZ / INTERVIEW

ABOVE: Lynette, Provincetown 1981.

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INTERVIEW / JOEL MEYEROWITZ remit to capture images of like-minded free spirits, and it was a series that became a fascinating study of a liberal, individualistic community on the American east coast. Recently published as a book, a selection of the work has now also become an integral part of a show dedicated to American photography of that era, which is running at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin until May 16, 2021. We caught up with Joel to find out more about his project and what it was that so inspired him to return to this location year after year.

“In 1976, I was going through a change in my 35mm colour street work,” he recalls, “I liked the pictures I made but wanted to make very large prints and, at that time nobody was printing very big. So, I thought I should work with a view camera and on a trip out west to Salt Lake City I found an old photographer who was going out of business and I bought three vintage Deardorff cameras from him, two eight-by-tens and a four-by-five inch camera. And that changed my life.”

This change of emphasis in his work happened to coincide with his first visit to Provincetown, a place he had been encouraged to go to by a close friend, a painter, who had been travelling there for a number of years. “The town was a place that had drawn in people who wanted ‘to get away from it all’ for whatever

BELOW: Caroline, Provincetown 1983.

reason,” says Joel. “Actors, gay people, transvestites, a whole range of people who sometimes had difficulty living in larger communities or in cities. Provincetown has always been welcoming in that regard and people could be themselves out there.”

Different Approach Working on the streets of New York with a small and unobtrusive camera, Joel would observe life in the 22 / PROFESSIONAL PHOTO ISSUE 180

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JOEL MEYEROWITZ / INTERVIEW

bustling city and be able to shoot in a largely candid fashion. However, his approach with his large format cameras, by necessity, had to be very different and he relished the fresh challenge it presented.

“As a street photographer, I never really made serious portraits of people because I didn’t want to interact with them,” he says. “I wanted to capture the life of the street, but with the view camera everything changes. When you walk around with an eight-byPROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

ten inch wooden camera with a long black cloth on a tripod that stands a metre-and-a-half tall, everybody is going to see you and the old camera itself then becomes a conversation piece.

“Quite often, people would come up to me and say, ‘what are you doing? Why are you using this old-fashioned camera?’ And that would give me the opportunity to just be with them and to look carefully at who happened to be speaking to me. And every ›

ABOVE: Chuckie, Provincetown 1980.

ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 23

INTERVIEW / JOEL MEYEROWITZ so often I would see somebody whose spirit would have a kind of mystery to it, and it would compel me to say ‘I need to make a portrait of you’. Most of the time people would submit immediately and say, ‘oh, yeah, sure, take my picture’, and this would be the start of a relationship with a total stranger.”

Joel developed a set of ground rules for his sessions that he stuck to throughout his project. For a start he always worked on his own so that there was a direct relationship between himself and his subject. He also decided that he would only shoot a single image from each session, so he had the pressure of capturing the essence of his subject in just the one frame.

“I also made sure that I didn’t direct any of my subjects,” says Joel, “because, if I had done, the photograph would have turned into a kind of studio portrait session in which you’re trying to make people look nice or good or sweet or pretty. And I didn’t really care about that. What I wanted to do was to capture some of their individual mystery, something deep that would be able to come out in the course of the ten or fifteen minutes we spent together. So, I would basically have them stand or sit in front of the camera and then I would say to them, ‘okay, you can’t move’ and I would pull out the sheath of the dark slide

ABOVE: Joel's extensive Provincetown project is well suited to a gallery.

BELOW: Eric, Provincetown 1983.

so that it was ready to expose and step to the side.

“At this point I would have the subject look into the camera, not at me, so they were one-to-one with it. This would then create the kind of intimacy as if they were in their bathroom, putting on their makeup or combing their hair and looking in the mirror at themselves. And as I watched them breathe and stand there and settle into themselves, I would wait for a moment in which I thought there was some vulnerability, some honest expression of who they were to me, and that was the point where I would press the shutter.”

Despite there being an interaction between the photographer and his subject, Joel sees himself as the antithesis of a studio photographer, preferring things to be as natural as possible. “I don’t like working with lights,” he says, “and, when I have to, I just try to imitate window light, simple as could be. Natural light means you’re out there in the evening and the dusky blue hour, or you’re there in hard midday light or you’re in a foggy morning misty light. Think about it, all those tonal variations: they cast a kind of emotional content over the photographic moment.

And so, if I found somebody on a beach at the end of the day when the light was already golden and from a hard angle, they might look incredibly beautiful to me. And it would have been my good fortune to have come across them just at that moment and to see if I could use all the elements, the space of a person on a beach with a sea beyond them, the way light bounces off the sand and comes up underneath their chin and nose and their cheeks and lights them in a special way. You can see in the book and the exhibition that there are pictures like this and these are ones that really delight me.”

Choosing the Work As a project the set of images – Joel produced around 100 or so portraits with his antique cameras each summer – had a cohesiveness and integrity to it, but it was only comparatively recently that they were 24 / PROFESSIONAL PHOTO ISSUE 180

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JOEL MEYEROWITZ / INTERVIEW

“In many ways, these pictures are timeless because the people in them are wearing the most casual of clothes, a T-shirt and shorts or a bathing suit, not the latest trendy fashion, and these things haven’t changed so much.”

brought together as a published body of work.

“I collected and saved everything,” says Joel, “and then, following a conversation with the editor of Aperture Books around two years ago, he told me that he was looking to do an article on gender issues that were in the public eye and he asked me if I might have any pictures that would fall into this category. And so I sent him around 250 pictures from my Provincetown project and he was knocked out by them. He told me that he wanted to run a feature in Aperture Magazine but to also publish a book, because he felt now was the time. And that’s how it all came about: for me it’s great to finally see some of this work get out there.”

Looking back at the work now, does Joel feel PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

that it serves as a record of a time and place just as the impending AIDs crisis was about to hit? “That’s a question that has a yes and a no to it,” he says.

“In many ways, these pictures are timeless because the people in them are wearing the most casual of clothes, a T-shirt and shorts or a bathing suit, not the latest trendy fashion, and these things haven’t changed so much. And that’s part of what I love about them: these are ordinary people, not models, they’re natural and ordinary.

“And I think that also works throughout the history of large format portrait photography, because people come to rest in front of the camera in some way and › they give of themselves. And yes, with pictures

ABOVE: Nora, Provincetown 1977.

ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 25

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JOEL MEYEROWITZ / INTERVIEW made in 1890 you would certainly find hairstyles and clothing that suits that particular period. But the attitude of the people, that concentration and focus and their way of expressing themselves, that’s just human nature. And I think that’s continuous.”

When it came down to culling several hundred images down to a number that would be suitable for a book and then the even lower number required for an exhibition, Joel has a particular way of working that might be familiar to other photographers who have ever faced the considerable challenge of honing a project down to its bare essentials.

“The process of editing is something that every photographer has to deal with,” he says. “For me I reduced what were nearly 1000 pictures down to around 400 and then I just sat with them. I print them all very small, around four-by-three inches, and that way I have them like a deck of cards and I carry them around with me and every day at the start of the editing process I lay them out together on a table and move them around.

“I try to find a picture that starts what would be a book. And then I follow the starting picture with whatever sequence begins to make sense to me until I see the flow of chapters and a way that you can turn the page of the book. Then the next picture that comes up in a way has a continuity with the first one, but helps build a run of pictures. So that over three, four, five photographs, you begin to see the connection.

“And then when I reach what feels like the arc of the book – and it could be anywhere, maybe 65 pictures or 85 pictures in – I take that group of pictures and I turn them over and I write one, two, three, four, five, six on the backs, and then I take the whole pack and mix them up. Then I start again with a different picture so, in a sense, I’m playing with all of the photographs that are there.

“After playing that way for a while I’ve reduced the 400 pictures to around 150 by natural selection. And then I keep seeing which ones come up again and again, I look at the backs and I see the ones that are representing themselves as being strong to me. And from that, I can see a collection of perhaps a hundred

ABOVE: Darrell, Provincetown 1983.

All images © Joel Meyerowitz, courtesy of the Howard Greenberg Gallery.

VIDEO:

pictures, and then I take these and I really work them.

I just sit with all 100, laid out on the table, studying them, and after a while they begin to suggest to me a way of organising themselves.”

Joel ultimately has to go through the pain of losing personal favourites. “The author Norman Mailer, who was a friend of mine, once said to me that part of the editing process for a writer was having to kill your little darlings, the paragraphs or chapters that have charm in themselves but can actually derail the forward progression of the book. And this book of mine had some of those same darlings in there and I had to take them out because they broke the rhythm.”

What’s left is an extraordinary record of a distinctive period in a great photographer’s working life that also happens to have captured a slice of history in the story of a very special and bohemian town. As such it’s created both a memorable book and an important contribution to a very special exhibition of classic American photography.

All images from the show America 1970s/80s, Helmut Newton Foundation, closing on May 16, 2021.

Provincetown by Joel Meyerowitz, available from Aperture Books, priced at £39.79.

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ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 27

THE ANATOMY OF A SHOOT

Exploring All Options WORDS & IMAGES PAUL WILKINSON

When explorer Alex Bellini came calling, Paul ensured he fulfilled the brief but went further to produce a classic portrait of his characterful subject that featured echoes of a different age.

T

HE SOUND OF the phone ringing is one of the most exciting noises in the studio as, so often, it heralds the first contact with a fresh client; the prelude to a new commission; a brand-new story. On January 8 two years ago, such a story began.

My notes from that particular telephone conversation say, succinctly, ‘Alex is an explorer and a public speaker; he is very well known in Italy and was given a coat by

an Italian clothing company. He would like to have a professional picture taken of him wearing it to send as a thank you, which they will most probably use on Instagram.

Would like a picture of him in the cold/rain.’

OK, so I admit that my note-taking might not exactly be up to that of a courtroom stenographer, but hopefully you get the idea: that simple but succinct summary led to a portrait shoot that will linger in our collective memory for a long time to come.

THE CLIENT AS MY NOTES alluded to, Alex Bellini is a world-famous explorer, a public speaker, and a motivational coach, having single-handedly rowed across the Atlantic Ocean and given numerous TED Talks.

To me, though, he was simply a prospective client who had been recommended to us through several other of our clients – never underestimate the school playground’s value and its importance for useful client referrals! With no small degree of curiosity, I leapt at the challenge, and we accordingly scheduled a session for the very next morning.

THE SESSION I HONESTLY DIDN’T know quite what to expect from the shoot. Fashion photography is not something that I have ever pursued and, on the face of it at least, it seemed like I was to be photographing, well, a coat!

Still, I reasoned that, as part of the session, Alex would also be looking for great portraits of himself – with or without the coat – and so I did what I always do: I prepared for a portrait shoot, albeit one that also featured a little additional all-weather clothing.

When Alex arrived, the first thing that struck me was a not inconsiderable quantity of facial hair.

I’m not talking a little bit of stubble here, this was a full-on, Victorianera-explorer’s beard! I’ll be honest: my heart skipped a little. There is nothing more appealing to a portrait photographer than a face with character, a look with stories to tell.

And Alex had the most piercing blue eyes I think I’ve ever photographed.

He also had a lot of tales to share!

PRO TIP IF YOU’RE GOING to be doing things like soaking your client, it’s a good idea to do this right at the end! It’s easy to pour water on someone, but it can take a lot of time to dry them off. This applies to the weather too – if it’s raining, create all of the warm, dry, in-the-studio shots before stepping out into the rain and risking frizzy hair and someone’s make-

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up sliding down their face. This goes for outfit changes too – figure out a way of getting as much as you can out of the time you have. Remember, it’s not just your time that’s precious, but that of your client as well. If you’re going to be switching between formal and informal, try and group the shots together, requiring the fewest possible changes.

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›

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ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 29

TECHNIQUE

ANATOMY OF A SHOOT

SHAPING THE SHOOT THERE HADN’T BEEN time to plan the session beforehand, though I have to say that this is pretty much the norm for me.

I thrive on reacting to the personality in front of my camera and I find it stimulating, creative and ultimately rewarding. And, clearly, this was going to be one of those sessions.

That isn’t to say I won’t have some sort of game plan in the back of my mind. I just don’t know precisely what that might be until I open the door and the client walks in. How could I know what I will shoot until I see what they look like, what they’re wearing and how they carry themselves? Are they shy?

Energetic? Confident? Tall? Short? Dark?

Fair? Are they having a good day or a tricky one? Everything we do as portrait photographers is a reaction to the people we meet and, ultimately, photograph.

Alex has a commanding personality, something that’s a pre-requisite, I suspect, if you’re going to be spending months on your own with nothing more than seawater, sky, oars and Atlantic weather for company. He’s one of those rare characters where just being in their presence is a rewarding experience.

We sat and drank coffee – he is Italian after all – and pieced together what we were going to do. At this stage of a shoot, assuming the weather is cooperative, I will nearly always head outside. Unless there is a specific need to be inside the studio, I find that the outdoor environment works for me and, as a bonus, it also serves to settle any nerves.

In this instance, however, I had a studio-lit image in my head, so that’s where we began. I also knew that we had to create a sense of ‘cold and rain,’ which makes it helpful to get the order right – you don’t want to start with a damp client if you need to get dry shots as well!

And so we chatted, laughed and created images both in and out of the studio. I noticed that Alex was wearing a coarse-knit woollen polo-neck sweater, a timeless style that could be seen in many early photographs of intrepid Victorian explorers and salty seafarers.

There was no way I was going to miss

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the opportunity to create an image harking back to that great age of the unknown and the gentleman explorer!

The brief had been for cold and rain.

Well, I couldn’t get rain into the studio, so a hand-held sprayer had to suffice! Having drenched every visible inch of Alex for the shots of him and the coat looking suitably damp, I asked him to remove it for a couple of shots, purely for my portfolio.

PRO TIP MORE OFTEN THAN not, when we talk about separating the subject from the studio background, we’re talking about adding light to form rim lighting.

But, of course, if the background isn’t too dark, we can do the same thing by

subtracting light to create shadowy outlines. This is quickly done with a subtractor board – a large, flat, dark surface that absorbs light. We use wooden doors with black velvet material clipped on and they’re affordable and long-lasting.

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ANATOMY OF A SHOOT

EXPOSURE: Shot with a Nikon D5 and 70-200mm at 122mm, ISO 100, 180sec at f/6.7

THE FINISHED SHOT THE FINISHED SHOT is relatively simple, but the subtlety is in the finessing. The lighting used is straightforward – a single softbox to camera-right – but precision was needed to create the effect I was striving for. My aim was to produce an image reminiscent of the photographs you might find in a book about Scott of the Antarctic, so I didn’t want to overly complicate things. What I was looking for was a crunchy, rugged look to Alex.

I started with a mid-grey background paper to ensure there was a touch of tone in the background. I could have used black paper and added a little more lighting towards it, but the grey seemed more in keeping with the mood I was seeking. It also makes the lighting a little easier to manage, as it’s simpler to draw the light, and the subject, further away from the background if I decided that I needed the look to be darker.

I wanted to ensure the light picked out Alex’s distinctive eyes, beard, and cheekbones, so I meticulously positioned the softbox to his face’s angle. The water droplets that you can discern in his beard and hair had the added bonus of exaggerating the details, as every strand glistened with the moisture.

At the last minute, I also added a subtractor board to camera left. The aim of this was to absorb any reflected light, creating a darker edge on the sweater’s left-hand side. Bringing the board in quite close created a lovely separation to the grey in the background.

It’s a balancing act to make sure that everything is ultimately lit well using just a single softbox – his face, sweater, and background are all picked out. Sometimes this can prove tricky to do, but at least you only have the one light to worry about and you can see results in real time.

One subtle detail in the image here, which is straight out of camera, is the droplet of water on Alex’s cheek. I didn’t notice it initially and then nearly dried it away as it could have been a distraction.

In the end, however, I chose to leave it, as it looked a little like a teardrop.

The post-production I carried out on the finished file was reasonably minimal.

The colour-toning was mostly produced in the RAW conversion out of Lightroom, and the background was checked over and any dust spots were painted over in Photoshop, along with careful removal of any distracting flecks of dust or lint that could be found on the sweater and beard.

TECHNIQUE

I expanded the crop of the image slightly as well. Vintage photos tend to be 10x8 aspect ratio, which seemed more in keeping with the picture’s feel. This is quickly done in Photoshop: just expand the crop tool outside of the original image and make sure the ‘Content-Aware’ checkbox is ticked before committing.

Photoshop will then fill in any areas that don’t already have pixels. Finally, a simple colour-tone was applied using Nik Color Efex Pro 2 – this also had the effect of harmonising the tones.

PRO TIP ALTHOUGH PLUGINS, such as Topaz Labs, Alien Skin or Nik Color Efex, can be overused, they can add quality to an image.

The slight colour tone and flattening of contrast in Alex’s final portrait brought the picture together, much as artists working in oils will layer varnish on their finished painting to harmonise the tones.

THE OUTCOME IN THE END, although I was commissioned to create images of Alex and the coat, it was the shot of him in the sweater that has that certain touch of magic to it – at least to me. It’s hard to put my finger on

exactly why: the expression, the teardrop on his face, the texture in his beard and sweater, the harmonious tones or his piercing blue eyes. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s the combination of all of these things.

MEET THE PRO Paul Wilkinson FMPA FBIPP FSWPP is a multi-award winning international photographer, with a boutique studio midway between Oxford and London. He is co-author of the best-selling book Mastering Portrait Photography and shares his skills and experience with other photographers through the free companion sitemasteringportraitphotography.com.

Build your business and transform your photography with hundreds of lighting diagrams, articles, videos,

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podcasts and more, plus get answers to your questions and feedback on your images through the friendly forums and constructive critiques.

■ Mastering Portrait Photography

by Paul Wilkinson and Sarah Plater is published by Ammonite Press, priced £19.99. Available from thegmcgroup.com and all good book shops.

ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 31

THE AFFINITY PHOTO TUTORIAL

Time for Ref lection A reflection is a perfect way to marry together two separate scenes in a believable way and it’s easy to achieve in post-production using the blending mode found within Affinity Photo. WORDS AND ADJUSTED IMAGES MATTY GRAHAM T TAKES SOMETHING special to differentiate your portraiture from your competitors’ these days and working professionals know only too well the unforeseen restrictions you could encounter on a photo shoot that result in you coming away with an image that you’re not entirely satisfied with.

However, creativity doesn’t have to stop once the shutter has been pressed, and there are some clever editing tricks out there

I

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that can allow creatives the opportunity to reinvent their work and to add another layer of interest. By working with the Layers and Blending modes found within Affinity Photo, you can, for example, introduce another image into your scene to create a highly realistic reflection, simulating the look of a window being placed between the camera and your subject. All you need is your original portrait and an additional image that you think could work well as the

reflection scene, and it’s a brilliant way of bringing two separate concepts together in a believable way. This smart technique can also be used to digitally place a person at a particular location.

What’s more, although the steps may look a little complicated, they are actually really straightforward and can be completed in under five minutes – not a bad use of time to breathe new life into a portrait and help it to stand out from the crowd.

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MAIN IMAGE: @YOABANDERSON. REFLECTION IMAGE: @BORMOT

IN ASSOCIATION WITH AFFINITY PHOTO

TECHNIQUE

STEP ONE

PASTE YOUR DONOR IMAGE WITH YOUR PORTRAIT open in Affinity Photo’s Photo Persona, proceed to open up your reflection image. Once you’ve done this, you’ll need to select the whole image, and the quickest way is to click

Control + A, which will select all the pixels in the image. To copy these to the clipboard, head to the top of the interface and select Edit, before scrolling down to select Copy, or use the keyboard shortcut

Control & C. You can now close down your reflection image as you won’t be needing it again in the process. Back at the portrait image you can Paste the image in place by hitting Control + V.

Move Tool

STEP TWO

REPOSITION AND RESIZE LAYER IT COULD BE that your reflection image is too big or small, or that you’re simply looking to reposition it within the frame.

To do this, all you need to do is head to the left-hand side of the interface where

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you can select the Move tool from the Toolbox – the keyboard shortcut for this is V. You can then move and resize the reflection Layer and, while this will be different for individual images, it’s

important to make sure that you’ve covered the whole canvas. If it helps the overall look, you can go to the Layers panel and reduce the Reflection Layer Opacity to better position it in the frame.

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TECHNIQUE

IN ASSOCIATION WITH AFFINITY PHOTO

STEP THREE

REFLECTION BLENDING MODE WITH THE REFLECTION Layer in place, it’s now time to change the Blending mode, which will affect how visible the portrait Layer will be. Head back to the Layers Panel, make sure the Reflection Layer is selected and change the Blending mode from Normal to Lighten or Screen. The exact choice will depend on the tonal levels of your portrait image.

STEP FOUR

ALTER THE LEVELS THE REFLECTION IMAGE may still be a little overbearing and won’t give the window effect we’re looking for, so progress the technique by making sure the Reflection Layer is selected and head to the bottom of the Layers Panel to select the Adjustments option, which is identified by a half white/half black icon. When you’ve clicked this, the Adjustments icon will present a menu with a number of options, and you’ll want to scroll up to select Levels. A Levels Layer will appear in the Layers Panel, but we only want this to affect the Reflection Layer, so drag the Levels Layer below and to the right of the Reflection Layer. Next, head to the dialogue box and drag the Blackpoint slider to the right and the Output White Level to the Left to reveal more of your portrait.

STEP FIVE

ADD BLUR TO THE REFLECTION IN A REALISTIC ENVIRONMENT, the reflection in the window wouldn’t be pin sharp, so you can recreate this effect for a true-to-life result by selecting the Reflection Layer, and heading to the top of the interface, clicking Filters and scrolling to Blur and across to select Gaussian Blur.

A dialogue will appear, so drag the Radius slider to around 20px and click Apply.

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IN ASSOCIATION WITH AFFINITY PHOTO

TECHNIQUE

STEP SIX

ADD A LAYER MASK AND EXPORT IF YOU FEEL you need to reveal more of your portrait, add a Layer Mask by heading to the bottom of the Layers Panel and clicking on the Layer Mask icon.

Next, select the Brush tool, (set to black and an Opacity of 75%) and brush over your portrait subject. With the technique complete, you can Export the image in a format of your choice (JPEG, TIFF, etc) by heading to the top of the interface, clicking File and scrolling down to Export.

ORIGINAL IMAGES @TOPICC/@ANDREIPANFI

MAKE IT BELIEVABLE THIS IS A TECHNIQUE where the effect will depend entirely on your management of the various elements, so play around with things until you’re sure you’ve got what you’re after.

You can even enlarge sections of the reflection if that works better, and it can help to get some third party feedback on what you’ve achieved once you’ve finished.

VIDEO:

Head to www.professionalphoto.online where Matty talks through this technique in real time.

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

TRY DIFFERENT REFLECTIONS YOU DON’T HAVE to settle for the first reflection you try, so be sure to raid your hard drive stocks to try out a variety of reflections. What’s more, you can even try multiple reflections at the same time to get the effect you desire.

More information: affinity.serif.com

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Professional Photography Education Knowledge, Community & Inspiration for Photographers

Popular Photography Courses

Live Photography Shows

FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY

25TH FEBRUARY 2021 - 15:00 GMT

Conceptual Fashion Shoot

LIVE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

Karl explains how, with his team, he brought his image ‘Hazards of the perfection paradigm’ to life. This class shows the entire process of creating this 60s inspired fashion shot.

Beer Bottle Advertising Shot Learn how to photograph beer bottles as Karl reveals tips such as how to create perfect condensation, and how best to light these reflective products.

PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

4TH MARCH 2021 - 15:00 GMT

Broad Soft Lighting Setup

LIVE PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP

In this business portrait shoot Karl demonstrates a two light setup ideal for older subjects and explains how this can be used for three-quarter length portraits.

Creative Portrait Lighting 3.0 Karl will demonstrate lighting techniques and how to invoke particular emotions in this third class in our series on creative portraiture.

PRODUCT PHOTOGRAPHY

11TH MARCH 2021 - 15:00 GMT

Tilt and Shift for Flat Lay

LIVE PHOTOGRAPHY CRITIQUE

In this class Karl demonstrates how to use a tilt and shift adapter for product photography. He also explains what a tilt and shift adapter does and the benefits of using one.

Business Headshots Learn how to improve your business portraits in this live critique show, where Karl will be reviewing images submitted by members.

Sign up today and get access to all our courses and live shows for just…

£14 per month cancel online anytime.

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KarlTaylorEducation.com

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

TECHNIQUE

Lighting the Natural Way WORDS & PICTURES KARL TAYLOR EDUCATION

You don’t need to invest in high-end professional lighting to achieve a successful commercial end result in the studio, as Karl Taylor was able to prove on a recent demonstration shoot.

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T’S EASY TO look at top commercial photography professionals like Karl Taylor and to imagine that the only way they can achieve the incredible results that they do is because they work out of a spacious and expensively-equipped studio space. Karl himself, however, has little time for such forms of equipment envy and recently set out to prove to the followers on his education site that it’s much more about the inventiveness of the vision than it is about the size of the set-up.

While full time and busy professionals like Karl might need and can fully justify the reliability that comes with a dedicated studio lighting set-up, the best of them are also able to produce the goods when called PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

upon to work with just the natural light that’s available. To prove the point Karl replicated a previous shot of wine bottles that he’d created using his full contingent of pro lighting, using just the window light that happened to be available and very little else in terms of accessories, aside from some diffusion material, a reflector and the torchlight from a pair of iPhones.

In short, this was a session stripped bare, with Karl setting out to prove the point that it’s the eye of the photographer for good composition and a willingness to adapt and to make the best of the resources you have available that are far more important than the banks of equipment you might happen to have at your disposal.

“The purpose of this shoot was to show the members of my education group exactly how they could achieve the brief I’d provided them with,” says Karl, “even if they didn’t happen to have a studio or flash lights. What I’d set out was very exact, and specified everything from background and base surface to the lighting on the bottle.

So, when it came to replicating the shot myself in the video I produced, I knew what I was aiming to achieve in the session.

“The reference image they had to work to was one of my own previous photos that I had taken in the studio using flash, but to eliminate any excuses I demonstrated how you don’t need studio lights - or even a studio - to create high-quality images.” › ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 37

TECHNIQUE

USING NATURAL LIGHT

Wine bottle product shot taken using a studio flash set-up.

Wine bottle product shot taken using natural light - spot the difference!

GEAR TO USE YOU ALSO NEED to think carefully about camera settings for product photography, which are covered in more detail in Karl’s video. While he was working on this occasion with a medium format Hasselblad, it’s perfectly possible to work with smaller formats, even those that are not full frame, but it’s important to have the ability to shoot in Manual mode. In terms of which lens to work with, there’s no straight answer to this since it depends on the nature of the shoot. For this exercise Karl worked with a 100mm, though he also commonly uses an 80mm, lenses whose 35mm equivalents would be 73mm and 60mm respectively.

“The best settings for product photography vary depending on the subject you’re shooting,” says Karl,

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“but generally I use a small aperture to ensure the product is sharp throughout.

Sometimes this isn’t always possible when shooting small objects, so you may have to use a technique called focus stacking – where multiple images taken at different focus distances, are combined in post-

processing - to get sufficient depth of field into your shot.”

Shutter speed is something to consider too if you’re using natural light, something that’s not so relevant when working with studio flash, where the flash itself determines the exposure. A slower shutter speed and the use of a tripod might become necessary if lighting is minimal, but if you’re working with a camera with good low light performance you can safely up the ISO to gain a little more speed. For sake of ultimate quality, however, Karl usually works using an ISO of around 100.

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

USING NATURAL LIGHT

TECHNIQUE

THE SHOOT THE FIRST THING to consider was the background, and for this Karl went for a piece of MDF board painted grey, which was positioned behind an old table top that is often used in the studio for product photography, and which became the perfect base surface. The set-up was then positioned adjacent to a nice and bright south-facing window.

“Next, I considered my lighting setup or, in this case, my window,” says Karl.

“When using studio lights we can pick and choose from the most suitable modifiers, but you would think that a window is simply a window. Or is it?

“Photography is mostly about problem-solving, so don’t ever feel you have to settle for what you’ve got. Think creatively about how you can make

whatever you’ve got work for you.

“The light from the window itself was too harsh down the left-hand side of the bottle, which meant I had to find a way to soften it. For this type of product shoot, I’d usually use a softbox shining through some diffusion material, but instead, I used multiple sheets of diffusion for the effect.

“I used multiple sheets of diffusion to create the soft gradient light down the side of the bottle.”

VIDEO:

Watch Karl replicate his studio-lit bottle shot.

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

More information: www.karltayloreducation.com

“The light down the right-hand-side of the bottle was achieved using a piece of white foam board - though white paper or card would have worked just as well in this situation - while the light on the background was achieved using the torch function on two iPhones, which were hidden behind the bottle.”

CHOOSING A BACKGROUND BACKGROUNDS ARE AN essential element of any shot and should complement, rather than distract, from the product.

You could use anything that’s to hand, from a plain grey or white background to a textured wooden board.

“For the wine bottle shoot I used a tabletop as my base surface and a piece of MDF board as the background,” says Karl. “You can also see in our food photography classes how we used the same dining room table as the setup for three different shots we created.”

The key thing when photographing products at home is how to control your light. Rather than get caught up in worrying about what equipment you ‘need,’ focus on what light you have available and how to control it.

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THE MOVE TOWARDS MOTION In Association with PART FIFTEEN

Watch your Speed Frame rate is a big selling point for cameras offering video capability, but what do these numbers mean, what do you need and what’s the best speed to use for slow motion footage?

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ELL-SPECIFIED HYBRID cameras will come with a wide range of videofocused features included these days but, for those who have yet to seriously venture into filmmaking or who are new to this side of the business, it can be confusing at times working out exactly what’s on offer and whether it’s going to suit the needs of your operation.

Yet again this could be the time to sit down with an impartial expert who’s more concerned with supplying you with the gear you actually need rather than making a quick and lucrative sale. It’s the way they do things at CVP, and it means that your needs will be fully explored and then they will recommend something that can genuinely deliver what you need.

Take frame rates, for example. If you’ve only ever shot stills these will be outside anything you’ve encountered before, but once they’ve been explained they will make perfect sense and, from there, you’ll be able to work out what you’re going to need and what you might possibly be able 40 / PROFESSIONAL PHOTO ISSUE 180

LEFT: Modern and well specified hybrid cameras, such as the latest Nikon Z 7 II, offer a wide selection of settings via the Menu that enable a choice of fps rates to be set, but the pay off for the faster rates will often be an accompanying reduction in image quality.

to live without. The push at the moment is towards ever higher frame rates, with smooth slow motion being the ultimate goal, but with this on board you’ll obviously be paying for features over and above the standard, and you’ll need to be sure that this is something you really need.

It’s all about stepping back, considering the clients you have and the services you’re looking to offer, and building in a certain amount of future proofing. To do this you’ll need to get your head around what frame rates are all about and the effect that they will have on the footage you’re outputting.

The Basics Frame rates, otherwise known as frames per second (fps or simply p), tell you the speed you’re shooting at. If you’ve set your camera to 24fps, for example, it’s straightforward to understand that each second of footage you shoot will consist of 24 separate images, each one representing 1/24th second. The reason that 24fps, the standard for cinema, was selected has its roots in history and dates back to a time when the cost of film was high and studios were looking to save on costs by choosing the slowest speed they could get away with.

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

TECHNIQUE

Smooth slow motion sequences can greatly enhance a video production, but you’ll need to use the process sparingly.

A camera such as the Sony a7s III can shoot at up to 240fps in HD, but the 120fps rate in 4K can actually look better.

Humans can typically recognise ten to 12 passing frames as identifiable individual images but, beyond that point, the brain begins to discern the images as motion.

Settling on a standard of 24fps back when motion was becoming established gave a smooth enough result but was also PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

economical to produce, so that’s ultimately what was decided.

However, you will benefit from having options and the more that are on board, the more you’ll be able to experiment with different frame rates as you become more proficient. And naturally, if you shoot at

“If you shoot at a higher frame rate – typically twice your standard shooting speed – and then play the footage back at your normal rate, the footage will be slowed down and you’ll have a slow motion sequence, something that can offer a wide range of creative possibilities.”

a higher frame rate – typically twice your standard shooting speed – and then play the footage back at your normal rate then the footage will be slowed down and you’ll have a slow motion sequence, something that can offer a wide range of creative › possibilities. Select an even higher ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 41

TECHNIQUE

THE MOVE TOWARDS MOTION

frame rate, which is something the more sophisticated hybrid cameras are starting to offer as standard, and you’ll have an even slower sequence to work with.

“Having the flexibility to capture a range of frame rates will only make your camera more versatile,” confirms CVP expert Jake Ratcliffe, “and it will open up some interesting and creative new options for you. Looking at the basics first, however, there are two different types of frame rates you need to understand. The first of these is your playback or base frame rate, and this will depend on what you are acquiring and who you are delivering to.

“There are three standards under the umbrella of playback rates that you need to be aware of: 23.98 or 24fps, which is the standard for cinema, 25fps which is the standard for television in the UK or any other country that uses the 50HZ power standard and 30fps, which is the standard in the US or any other country that uses the 60HZ power standard.”

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

client, while whether you decide to shoot slow motion footage is very much up to the creative requirements of the individual.”

Used sparingly, slow motion sequences can add hugely to a production, especially one where movement is a key feature.

Filming an athlete exerting themselves to the full as they race down a track, for example, will reveal every ripple of the muscles, each contortion of the face, and will emphasise the effort that’s being made.

Similarly, slowing down the movement

Shooting Slow Motion Beyond the standards for real time motion capture, you can then move to the second option, which is to increase the frame rate to create slow motion footage and, technically, this will be anything that’s above 30fps.

“Most mirrorless cameras will start their slow motion options at 50 and 60fps,” says Jake, “which you can then slow down in post-production or in-camera to the base frame rate of your choice for delivery. This is hugely important, because slow motion is such a crucial part of modern filmmaking.

“When it comes to slowing things down there are a few things to be mindful of. The first will be your shutter speed. The rule of thumb for natural motion blur when shooting video is normally to set a speed that’s double your frame rate, so if you’re shooting 25fps your shutter speed would be 1/50sec. This also applies as you up the rate so, if you’re shooting at 100fps, your shutter speed would be 1/200sec. However, you can change this depending on how you want your footage to look but, if you’re aiming for a natural-looking result, doubling your frame rate is the way to go.

“The majority of modern mirrorless cameras will allow you to shoot most base frame rates that you might need, and also to film at 50 or 60fps, which will be half speed depending on your region. Your delivery frame rate will depend on your 42 / PROFESSIONAL PHOTO ISSUE 180

“The difference between 60fps and 120fps depends on which camera you are shooting with,” says Jake. “However, for the most part you could experience a reduction of quality when shooting at higher frame rates, perhaps because of more compression or reduced colour subsampling and bit depth. Resolution can also be commonly affected since you could find that you can only reach the higher speeds by shooting with the sensor cropped, which will obviously also reduce the field of view you’re achieving.

“And it could be that, if you’re a commercial operator, you might not need the very highest speeds in any case. With cameras like the a7S III shooting up to 240fps it’s possible to really capture all of the nuances in motion. However, the image fidelity of the 240fps HD that’s produced won’t ultimately be as good as the 4K 120p that the camera is also capable of, which looks absolutely fantastic!”

One of the most important things to remember is that you need to use the effect sparingly and justify why it’s being employed. It’s easy to be so smitten with slo-mo when you’re first starting out that it can become addictive and prone to over use. Also keep sequences short and sweet, otherwise you could risk losing the attention of your audience.

Choosing Your Rate Panasonic’s S1H offers an abundance of frame rate choice.

of something like a bird of prey in flight will help to accentuate the drama of its powerful wings in action, slowly beating as it moves through the air. There are also other benefits of slowing down the footage, such as making camera shake less noticeable, which can make hand held sequences easier to manage.

These days there are some amazingly well-specified hybrid cameras available, such as the Panasonic S1H and the latest Sony a7S III, that can drive the frame rate up still further, to 120fps and above, which slows the action down even more. This is a hitherto unheard of feature to be found in a relatively affordable hybrid model, and it just goes to show how far technology has advanced in recent years. However, impressive as it is, will the average filmmaker find that faster is better?

Just because the accepted standard film rate for a particular audience is a certain number, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to stick rigidly to this for every piece of footage you shoot. It is possible to push the boundaries and to go with non-conventional speeds and, provided you know what you’re doing, the results can look very impressive. Famously, for example, director Peter Jackson shot The Hobbit trilogy of blockbuster films at 48fps throughout for the look it offered him, an exercise that ultimately received mixed feedback from critics.

“When it comes to the different base frame rates, they will ultimately change how your video looks,” explains Jake.

“The higher the base frame rate, for example, the smoother your video will appear. This could be good for things such as sports or anything where you want to capture the details in movement, but could look rather odd for certain other applications, so it really comes down to what you are capturing and who you are delivering it to.

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

TECHNIQUE

THE MOVE TOWARDS MOTION

IMAGE @BMATANGELO

If you’re filming a high action subject, such as sport, you’ll achieve a smoother result with a higher frame rate that will lessen the blur.

“The higher the base frame rate, the smoother your video will look. This could be good for things such as sports or anything where you want to capture the details in movement.”

“One particular thing to be wary about is lighting when shooting at different frame rates, since you could end up with flickering if you’re moving away from the frame rates these fixtures were designed to operate at. Because of this, it’s really important to test out your fixtures before taking on a commercial job to make sure that they perform as they need to.”

Finally, these days it’s very common to be shooting video content for online use, and here the parameters are different again.

If you’re producing content exclusively for the likes of YouTube or Facebook you don’t need to adhere to the conventional TV or cinematic standards. In fact, there’s so much flexibility built into these platforms that there’s no recommended best frame rate to use. YouTube suggests that ‘content should be encoded and uploaded using the same frame rate that was used during recording. Common frame rates include PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

24, 25, 30, 48, 50 and 60 frames per second, while other frame rates are also acceptable.’

So, what you decide to go for could be down to the type of content you’re creating.

If you’re filming travel vlogs, for example, and want to capture a cinematic look, you might choose to work with 24 or 25fps.

If, however, you’re working with a subject that’s full of fast-paced action, it could be that a higher frame rate might work better for you, allowing you to lessen the natural blur in the footage that would result from the choice of slower frame rates.

It’s clear there is a lot to think about as you’re stating out in this area but, then again, it will all start to make perfect sense once you start working with video. Just make sure that you give yourself the best opportunity by investing in a camera that comes with plenty of options.

NEXT MONTH: Codecs can be bewildering but they’re not as complicated as they might at first appear. We’ll be looking at the regular options and the ones you should be looking to use in your own business.

JAKE RATCLIFFE ONE OF CVP’s resident team of technical experts, and a self-confessed camera nerd who gets way too excited over kit, Jake’s background mirrors that of so many creatives these days. After graduating with a degree in photography he took up a freelance career and found that many of his clients were asking for video services so, rather than turn the work away, he started to teach himself the filmmaking basics. Having been based at CVP for four years now, Jake epitomises the ‘equipment agnostic’ approach of the company and devotes his time to advising customers who might be looking for impartial feedback on which products to invest in as they look to make the same journey into motion.

P cvp.com

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TIME TO TURN PRO

BUSINESS

Managing Your Money One of the first things you need to consider when setting up a small photographic business is the creation of a company bank account, but what legal requirements should you be aware of? WORDS TERRY HOPE HERE ARE SO MANY exciting aspects to setting up your first small business, but it has to be said that managing the finances isn’t usually top of the list. When you’re designing up your snazzy new website, putting together your marketing plans and dreaming about being your own boss, taking time to consider which bank account might be right for you and your fledgling new enterprise might take a back seat, but it’s crucially important that it doesn’t.

If you want to lay down the foundations for a long lasting and robust business then it’s important to have your finances under control. Your relationship with your bank should be a positive one, and whoever you choose to work with is likely to have a team on board that’s been set up specifically to work with small businesses such as yours. This means that they should be knowledgeable and supportive and, as we’ve seen only too clearly over the past 12 months, they should be there through the challenging as well as the better times, to support you through periods when cashflow might be tight.

The first thing to consider is whether you need to set up a separate bank account for your business in the first place. If you’re a sole trader, which is to say that yours is an enterprise that’s owned and run by a single person, with no legal distinction between the owner and the business entity, then legally you don’t need one, though most people still choose to set one up. Many small businesses are registered as limited companies, however, and so here the situation is very different.

“By law, limited companies need their own bank account as they are a separate entity from their owners,” explains Symmie Swil, head of SME Banking at Starling Bank. “Even if you’re a sole trader it’s beneficial to have a separate business bank account, because it helps you keep track of your income and expenses for tax purposes and most banks will see

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“Your relationship with your bank should be a positive one, and whoever you choose to work with is likely to have a team on board that’s been set up specifically to work with small businesses such as yours.”

business transactions in a personal account as a breach of their terms and conditions.

“Business bank accounts can differ from personal bank accounts in a number of ways – they may have different limits on payments, or allow you to share access with a business partner or fellow director, and most will charge you a monthly fee.”

Choosing Your Partner Essentially, if you are serious about your new business and the hope is that it’s going to grow and provide income for you for a number of years, then creating a separate business bank account at the outset makes sense. The good news is that there are lots of options out there that are designed to cater for businesses of all shapes and sizes, and you should spend time considering all your many options.

Having your business account in the same place as your current account can simplify things but it’s certainly not essential, so shop around to see if you can take advantage of some of the regular deals that banks will offer to get your custom, and there could be some valuable ‘golden hellos’ being dangled if you look hard enough. Don’t just look at things in the short term, however; consider what type of bank you should be partnering with, and it’s perfectly possible these days to choose someone to work with that’s outside the major High Street names.

A modern internet bank such as Starling, for example, might not have a physical branch but if you can cope with its online nature, you’ll find that it delivers lots of flexibility and is one of the few that won’t charge a fee for your business account, which typically can be around £60-80 per annum.

Take a look at the full picture and make sure you pick a partner that ticks all the boxes for you.

More information: ■ starlingbank.com

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BUSINESS

TIME TO TURN PRO

IN ASSOCIATION WITH MPB

A Day in the Life…

Portrait Photographer Portrait photography comes in a variety of forms, and Rory Lewis specialises in fulfilling client briefs, following self-set projects and recording insightful images of famous faces.

WORDS & PICTURES RORY LEWIS

HE GENRE OF portrait photography itself breaks down into a myriad of different areas. While social photographers might be focusing on such things as family portraits, my part of the business is more about commissioned jobs for a wide range of commercial clients, mixed in with the personal projects that I feel are so crucial to ensure that you continue to develop, to learn and to push yourself forward.

I’ve spent 15 years behind the lens, working in both Europe and the USA and, in that time, I’ve had the privilege to photograph a wide range of familiar faces, such as former PMs David Cameron and Tony Blair, Dame Judy Dench, Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Patrick Stewart, Iain Glen and many others. I’ve had the chance to photograph royalty and military leaders, have received numerous corporate assignments and I also lecture for the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum.

In short, no two days ever turn out the same, which I really appreciate. For example, one day I could be commissioned to photograph His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent, for a new official portrait, and this could be swiftly followed by a location shoot with The Coldstream Guards in Windsor, or a day spent capturing celebrity head shots at my London Studio. I happen to love the diversity, but here’s a flavour of how a typical day might pan out.

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ABOVE: Personal projects are hugely important to Rory and his latest has seen him shooting portraits of the first female soldiers to join combat units. This is 1st Lieutenant Batts from The Royal Tank Regiment.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Celebrities such as Sir Ian McKellen also appear regularly in front of Rory's camera.

Doing the Preparation I like to begin my day slowly, since I usually work late.

When not travelling, I enjoy the opportunity to have a sleep in, and then my first task of the day will be to check through emails, answering queries and setting up appointments. I’ll then take the opportunity to sit down with my wife Alexandra, who’s responsible for marketing our business on social media and promoting my services online. We’ll spend around half an hour discussing a new campaign or marketing strategy, and we’ll always have this important morning discussion even if we’re travelling. I’ve found that having someone around you to help market your business allows you more time to concentrate on your photography and clients.

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My base in London serves not just as my home but also my studio and office, and it features 1000 square feet of loft style space. This is home to two Bowens XMT 500s and boasts a full array of collapsible backdrops, reflectors and stands. My regular kit consists of a Canon 5D Mark IV and Canon 85mm f/1.2 and 16-25mm f/1.4 lenses, while I’ll also have a back-up 5D Mark III with me in case anything goes wrong with my main camera.

First Sessions Late morning I’ll begin with my first portrait session.

These typically take one to two hours per client and often I’ll see three to four clients per day. I enjoy an eclectic photography practice and those coming through my door could be actors, politicians, corporate or celebrity clients. If I’m not shooting then I could be carrying out one-to-one photography tuition and coaching via Zoom, which I’ve been doing a lot of recently, or I could be retouching images for clients. In the late afternoon, I’ll either retouch images from the day’s sessions or I’ll be sending edited files to clients. My main tool has always been Dropbox, which is a must for photographers.

If my schedule is light in the later afternoon, I’ll do some research. It’s not unusual for photographers

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to be inspired by other types of art and, if you look through my work, you’ll notice there is a great deal of Renaissance Italian influence to be found in there.

I’ve made use of the Evernote app for many years now to make notes and to capture useful articles and clips, and I draw inspiration from the likes of Caravaggio, Titian and Jusepe de Ribera.

I always try to dedicate at least one day a week to personal projects, which I believe are of the utmost importance if you want to continually move your work forward. The one I’m concentrating on at the moment involves working with the British Army to capture the first female soldiers to join combat regiments. Recording history has always been a passion of mine as a photographer.

In more normal times I also tend to travel quite a lot. Utilising just one or two lights for my portraiture comes in very handy as it means I don’t need to take a lot of gear with me, while my Lastolite Collapsible backdrops and Manfrotto Nano Stands are compact and lightweight, which is great for carry on! I also max out my Air Miles by using an American Express Platinum card, which gives me access to airport lounges and travel insurance, both useful extras and some welcome extra comfort when I’m travelling.

If I have jobs in the USA or Europe, we’ll often make use of Airbnb to rent a live/work space, and this can be booked directly online. Living and working in the same studio location keeps our costs to a minimum and allows for more competitive pricing and less travel once we arrive at a location.

More information: ■ rorylewis.studio

“I’ve found that having someone around you to help market your business allows you more time to concentrate on your photography.”

MPB Used Kit List If you’re inspired by Rory’s lifestyle to consider a career as a portrait photographer, what kit should you be looking to buy?

MPB’s resident used kit expert Marc Reid gives his advice.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 II (Good Condition - £629) Olympus M.Zuiko 17mm f/1.8 (Good Condition - £219) Olympus M.Zuiko ED 45mm f/1.8 (Good Condition - £124)

Canon EOS 5DS (Excellent Condition - £1319) Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM (Excellent Condition - £229) Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM (Excellent Condition - £279)

Kicking things off with a budget option under £1000, the Olympus OM-D E-M1 II is a workhorse MFT mirrorless camera, offering a broad range of stills and video-minded functionality. Perfect for wide angle work, the Olympus 17mm f/1.8 M.Zuiko Digital ED lens delivers in every department. Finishing off the set-up with the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 45mm f/1.8 gives you quality in every shot.

Moving up in price, but still a budget friendly setup for under £2000 is the Canon EOS 5DS, partnered with two primes. Offering an impressive 50.6 megapixels, the EOS 5DS it is the perfect camera for the professional. The lightweight Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM and 85mm f/1.8 USM lenses are high quality optics that can partner this kind of resolution and both are perfect for portraits.

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Sony a7R III (Excellent Condition - £1889) Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA (Like New Condition - £539) Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM (Like New Condition - £1059) Our premium recommended set-up comes in at a fraction under £3500. Proving that speed, resolution, and video capabilities can all co-exist, the Sony a7R III is a versatile camera with multimedia versatility. Pairing the Sony Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA with the bright Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 short telephoto delivers a pair of excellent portrait lenses.

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BUSINESS

While money is inevitably tight, you can’t cut corners on your kit if you’re studying for a video degree. We asked second-hand specialist MPB to offer advice to one first year student.

Investing in the

Future AVING A FINITE AMOUNT of money to play with comes with the territory if you’re a student but, then again, if you’re studying photography or video at a high level you’ve got no choice but to invest in kit that can effectively support you through your studies.

This is a time when every penny matters and some expert advice can count for a huge amount. So, when first year student Zak Thompson approached Professional Photo to enquire how we thought he might most usefully spend his limited budget, we called in the experts at used kit specialist MPB to give him the best feedback possible.

“I started my Broadcast Media Technology course at Leeds Beckett University last summer,” says Zak, “and up to now I’ve been working with a Canon EOS 1300D, an 18MP hybrid model that can output 1080p video. However, I need something with a lot more in the way of specifications to undertake the course I’m on, and so I know I need to invest in kit that has more of the features I need.”

Zak’s first thought was to buy new, with the freshly introduced Sony a7S III, one of the best video-enabled mirrorless models currently on the market, near the top of his wish list. However, with no second-hand models available at present and a price tag approaching £4000 body only, it was beyond his means. With a more achievable budget of around £2000 or so for a body and couple of lenses, however, the second-hand route offered a solution.

With a bewildering array of options on offer Zak needed advice, and who better to come to the

H

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ABOVE: First year student Zak Thompson with the Canon EOS 1300D that he’s looking to upgrade, using advice from second-hand specialist MPB.

“MPB grades all of its kit honestly, from ‘Well Used’ through to ‘Excellent’ and ‘Like New’ and, at the high end of the scale you’ll get something that looks like it’s just off the shelf in the shop.”

rescue than used kit specialist MPB? The company has helped to transform this section of the market, taking much of the risk out of the process of buying second-hand by checking, grading and photographing everything that’s offered for sale and, as well as buying from a trustworthy outlet, you also have the reassurance of a six-month warranty. It’s an opportunity to dip into a treasure trove of used gear, which can still do a fantastic job and often for a fraction of the price of new.

Narrowing the Choice We set up a Zoom call between Zak and MPB’s senior content producer Ian Howarth, who also happens to be a professional photographer and videographer.

With expert first-hand user knowledge of most of the cameras that were likely to fall into the frame, Ian first of all ascertained that Zak was looking for a model that could function as a hybrid, and so deliver high quality stills as well as video footage.

“The first thought about the a7S III was a good one,” he confirms, “since this really is a fantastic camera that would certainly be able to deliver everything you could possibly require from a modern hybrid model. However, you will be paying a high price for something that’s just been introduced and, as a student, it’s quite possibly going to be offering you things you don’t actually need at the moment. The previous Mark II model, for example, still offers an amazing performance and yet it will be far more affordable. It’s still full frame, comes with phenomenal video production capabilities, including

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4K, and it’s got stacks of on-board features. I have friends who shoot professional video with this camera and it does everything they require of it, and yet it’s still highly affordable.”

MPB grades all of its kit honestly, from ‘Well Used’ through to ‘Excellent’ and ‘Like New’ and, at the high end of the scale you’ll get something that looks like it’s just off the shelf in the shop, while even the well-used models will be fully functional and tested. At the time of writing, there were well-used a7S Mark II camera bodies available for just £989, while an excellent example – with maybe just the odd tiny scratch – was selling for £1409.

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With plenty of cameras to consider, Zak was keen to move on to lens choice. “One of the benefits of the Sony Alpha system is the lens mount,” says Ian, “and there are so many adaptors out there that you can work with lenses from just about anyone – including wonderful vintage models – and it just gives you so much choice.

“There is an argument for working solely with primes when you’re shooting video, since you’ll get great quality plus so much understanding of what that focal length can offer. However, if you’re a student on a budget I would consider going for a really high performing zoom, and I recommend the Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS, which is available from MPB at £434 in Excellent Condition. I’ve used this lens a lot and it’s optically a great performer, is very lightweight and is image stabilised. It has a range that could serve as your do-all lens and it would come in on budget as well.

“Some people will not be impressed by the maximum f/4 aperture, but unless you’re filming something really specific, where you’re looking to use bokeh as part of the shot, you don’t really need an ultra-fast lens. There’s also the point that cameras these days feature such brilliant high ISO performance that you’re able to work in low light in any case.

“However, if you could stretch that investment just a little further, I would also highly recommend a ‘nifty fifty’ type, fast standard lens, and my recommendation here would be the Samyang 45mm f/1.8.

This is a brand that combines really high performance with excellent value for money, and you can pick this lens up from MPB for just £259 in Like New condition.”

Zak’s verdict? “That was incredibly helpful, and I really feel as though I know what to do now.

I can afford a little more on the budget front and so I think I will go for both lenses, since this will give me more options. And, although the a7S was initially my favoured camera, I now feel the a7 III is better suited to me, so that’s the outfit I’m going to go for.”

Zak’s Choice of Kit

Alternatives So, the previous a7S model was a real contender, but Ian was looking at the wider picture and talking through alternatives.

“Colour space, which dictates how subtle the changes in colour will be in your footage, is an important consideration when you start to get more serious about video,” he says. “Cameras such as the Panasonic S1H and the brandnew Nikon Z 6 Mark II will offer you the most flexibility – but at a price. In reality, this is something you might need to look at when THE FINAL CHOICE: Here is you’re a full-time professional, the kit that Zak’s budget is but as a student it’s not likely to going to be spent on. MPB usually stocks all of these be something you’ll find will be products at great prices. hugely noticeable.”

Other cameras discussed by Ian and Zak included the Micro Four Thirds Panasonic GH5 – along with its sister product, the GH5S, a very highly regarded hybrid model – the original Nikon Z 6 and another Sony, the a7 Mark III. “These are all excellent cameras and capable of doing a great job,” says Ian. “As someone who’s come into video from photography, I have a personal preference for full frame, but it has to be said that the GH5 is still a phenomenal camera.

“I also really like the Nikon Z 6, with a ‘Like New’ example costing just £1199 at MPB, while the a7 III is a little more expensive at £1529, but offers a huge range of features and is much more of a hybrid than the a7S. It has loads of features, a 24.2MP sensor and offers high resolution 4K video.”

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■ Check out MPB’s constantly changing itinerary of used kit by visiting mpb.com

ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 49

The State of the Business A new survey has revealed some fascinating and sobering facts about the state of the UK’s professional photographic industry a year on from the Covid outbreak, but there is positivity.

OU PROBABLY DON’T need to dip into a survey to have a pretty good idea that the UK’s professional photographic business across all sectors remains severely under pressure. For many, all bookings fell off a cliff almost overnight nearly 12 months ago and, despite a slight revival in fortunes last summer, the second lockdown in November and now the ongoing national lockdown have stifled any green shoots that might have been emerging.

But we’re not here to revel in doom and gloom, and the trio of professionals we spoke to in order to find out about their hopes and fears for the future were realistic but resolutely upbeat and still very much in business, tentatively planning for what’s still an uncertain future.

Clearly no-one knows exactly what’s around the corner for any of us, but the vaccines have brought hope of a return to some kind of normality later this year, and astute small businesses will doubtless be putting plans in place for this time and working out how they’re going to market their way back to something approaching a full diary as soon as possible.

Y

Google Seasonal Search Trends Photography Niche Wedding Portrait Sports Family Landscape Food Animal/Wildlife Travel Fashion

Most Popular Search Month January December September September October September October August February

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Facts and Figures FIRST OF ALL, there are some interesting numbers to share that have come out of the survey conducted by Currys Tech Talk towards the end of last year and, in a field as disparate as professional photography, these provide a fascinating overview of the business as a whole.

T As of 2020, there are 83,000 photographers and audio-visual and broadcasting equipment operators in the UK. T The country is currently home to over 8000 professional photographic businesses.

T Some 96% of photographers saw a decrease in their bookings over the past year.

T The global photographic services market is expected to decline from $36.9 billion in 2019 to $36.1 billion in 2020, but is expected to recover and reach $41 billion in 2023.

T The average salary for a UK photographer is £42,212 a year.

T Wedding photographers charge the highest day-rate, averaging £600 for a day’s work.

T The most hashtagged type of photography on Instagram is #travelphotography (133.5m), followed by #foodphotography (65.5m) and #portraitphotography (47.6m).

T Nearly a fifth of photographers are considering a change of career due to their loss of income in 2020.

T The sectors hit the hardest by a loss of income are newborn baby, family and wedding photographers.

T Improved AI (artificial intelligence) technology and 3D imagery is on the horizon.

With so many paths to go down within the photography industry, which niches are the most in demand and which will make the most money? In terms of day-rate, according to the Currys survey the most lucrative route to go down is wedding photography, which averages around £600 a day, followed by landscape and travel photography, which are both said to average £250 a day. That said, most photographers working in these niches obviously do so on a freelance basis, and earnings will clearly be reliant on finding regular work – as we’re all aware, that’s not something that’s been easy to do over the past year.

Based on Google Trends data, January emerged as the most popular month for people to search for a wedding photographer – data that predates the Covid pandemic, but could be expected to return to normal once the world settles down. This, in turn, suggests that it could be a good time for those in this sector of the industry to focus on marketing their services.

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The Travel Photographer Annapurna Mellor ANNAPURNA STARTED TAKING photographs in 2013 while spending a year travelling solo through Asia. While she was interested in travel writing at the time, her passion for photography soon became the focus, and she’s currently studying for an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at UAL.

has your business been Q How over the past year?

Travel has been severely affected by the pandemic, and therefore my work as a travel photographer has been hugely impacted. As a result, I’m thinking of how I can expand my work and skills and diversify into other areas of photography and visual media.

you feeling positive as we Q Are advance into 2021?

I do believe things will slowly become better throughout 2021 and, hopefully, we’ll be able to travel in Europe over the summer, and then perhaps further afield later in the year. I’ve kept up my social media during the pandemic and have been trying to shoot different kinds of images and documentary stories where I live in Yorkshire, so I’m hoping my clients can see that I’m still an active photographer and keen to work again as soon as it might become possible.

When travel companies start to operate again, I’ll be reaching out to my old clients to see what the future holds for us working together. I’m hoping to return to India to shoot a long-term documentary project for my Masters major assignment next year, so combining university work with this will also be a priority.

Q

Has the last year made you look at broadening your offering?

I do offer some food photography, but this is very much tied into my travel and so has similarly suffered. I have also shot weddings in the past, but I market this side of my business separately to avoid confusing clients. No area I cover has fared well during the pandemic, unfortunately!

■ annapurnamellorphotography.com ›

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The Wedding Photographers Through the Woods We Ran BRISTOL-BASED WEDDING specialists Lauren and Glenn used to live and work in Perth, Australia but have worked in the UK since 2015 and, with their alternative approach, they’re considered to be one of the most innovative operators in this sector.

The quality of Instagram enquiries is nearly always much higher too; people tend to put more information in the enquiry form, they’re excited, and they already know lots of stuff about us and comment on that – usually about our cats!

are things looking after the do you see 2020 panning Q How Q How year that was 2020? out for your business?

We lost about 85% of our income during 2020, but it’s also impacted on our 2021 income a huge amount – and in a positive way – because of all the weddings that have been postponed from last year to this. For 2021 we’re just staying the course.

Because of the circumstances we started offering the smaller packages last year and we’re keeping those going in 2021 for Monday to Thursday weddings and we’ve already had a few enquiries for those. That was good because we never would have considered those before we realised that shorter coverage weddings could still be amazing.

Assuming the vaccination rollout happens like it should and we see a pretty normal 2021 after Easter(ish), we think the year to come could be on a par with previous years in terms of the number of weddings that we will end up covering.

If England didn’t have its ridiculous laws around celebrants and where you can and can’t have a ceremony, I think we’d be in for an insanely busy 2021, with backyard and marquee weddings, something we miss the most from when we shot in Australia. The fact is that there are only so many registrars and venues and they will all have postponed a ton from last year as well.

are you promoting your Q How business at the moment?

Google Ads has been amazing for us but we honestly haven’t looked at our campaign in years, so we’re pretty sure it could be run better.

However, the number of enquiries and bookings we get – 120 enquiries in 2020 from Google, the majority of which had to be through Google Ads since we don’t really do SEO – means it’s working really well for us, so if it’s not broke!

We used to love SEO and all the analytics that came with it but then we think it became such a focus within the photography education community that one day we just decided we hated it and were sick of hearing about it – we feel the focus should be on taking good photos, showcasing yourself a bit on your website /socials, and giving an awesome client experience.

Instagram is by far our best lead source – statistically it’s second to Google in enquiries, but the number of bookings and the booking ratio are much higher because we’re way more personal with our Instagram captions, so people have already decided they like us (or not), versus Google and Google Ads, where people have probably enquired with several other photographers.

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ABOVE: The alternative approach to wedding photography adopted by Lauren and Glenn has been highly successful over the years.

LEFT: Weddings are all about families and friendship, and the hope is that the intimacy of these occasions will be able to return in 2021.

FACING: One of the few positive things to emerge from 2020 was the fact that smaller weddings could be seen to still be viable.

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“Keep putting yourself and your work out there because there are a lot of couples who are going to want to get married in the near future and they’re all going to want photographers!”

There’s been a trend – with our enquiries anyway – where the ‘average time from enquiry to wedding’ has been increasing quite a lot yearon-year (317 days in 2018 vs 367 in 2020), so we’re expecting way more enquiries for 2022 and 2023, which are shaping up to be our super busy years.

These continue to be difficult and testing times for the industry, but our advice for any newer or worried photographers would just be this: stay the course – keep putting yourself and your work out there because there are a lot of couples who are going to want to get married in the near future and, when the time comes for their weddings, they’re all going to want photographers!

■ throughthewoodsweran.co.uk ›

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The Food Photographer Robin Goodlad ROBIN HAS ALWAYS made a point of diversifying in his career, something that has become crucially important over the past year. He has a big reputation as a food specialist but is also a highly regarded wedding photographer, and he’s increasingly been sourcing commercial work to pick up the slack when other areas have slowed down.

important has it been to Q How diversify your business?

Up until last year, it was often considered that it was better to be a specialist in one field, rather than to be perceived as a jack of all trades. It is true to a degree that potential wedding clients want to feel that weddings are all you do, so they know you’re a true specialist and professional, and feel confident to book you. Likewise, commercial clients also want to feel that you’re dedicated to them and don’t want you to be distracted by your other work.

That said though, I have picked up weddings from food clients, and vice versa, so there is also merit in people knowing you are versatile.

In 2020 and moving forwards, having multiple income streams proved to be very wise as, when weddings had to stop, I was able to push the commercial work more, and I have completely relied on this. I was able to ask clients to deliver their produce to my home studio, and I could work from there completely safely, and also around everchanging family commitments, which was vital.

Being able to pivot your business at short notice is something which I think everyone will be mindful of in future; we never thought 2020 would happen, but it did, and there is nothing to say something else might not happen in the future.

do you keep the various Q How genres separate?

I was lucky in that I had already set up my business in a diverse way, with just one website and overall brand, but each of the genres I cover having a separate web address that I could direct potential clients to. This then takes them to the specific section that’s relevant to their needs, with custom navigation set up so that if clients land on either the wedding page or the food page via the web address or a Google search, they stay within that genre.

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“In 2020 and moving forwards, having multiple income streams proved to be very wise as, when weddings had to stop, I was able to push the commercial work more, and I have completely relied on this.”

Another advantage of having what feels like separate websites all under one domain is that the SEO works together and supports each page within your overall domain authority, rather than you having to build several separate sites which then compete with each other for a Google ranking.

I also have separate Facebook and Instagram pages for each genre for the same reason, as followers tend to be only interested in a specific style, and will start to lose interest if you post images that aren’t relevant to their interests.

ABOVE: Robin is widely known for his sumptuous food photography, and throughout 2020 he was able to build on the fact that he was able to shoot safely from his home studio.

Are there particular marketing Q activities that you’re planning, which will help you to build things back up again once the wedding market starts to make its expected return?

At this time, I don’t have a specific marketing focus, primarily because I have so many postponements in the calendar for 2021 and 2022, and I set a limit of 30-40 weddings each year, and we know already

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The Photography Industry in 2021

that when things do start to pick up, we will be working very hard. There is only one of me: clients book me for the work I deliver.

I’m lucky in that most of my 2020 clients have chosen to postpone their event rather than cancel them, so 2021 is, in some ways, a re-run of what 2020 would have been without Covid. It’s tempting to try to get as much work as possible into the book after such a lean 2020, but burn out is a real risk, and I want to ensure I have plenty of time for the commercial work too, maintaining my diversity.

■ robingoodlad.com ■ robingoodlad.com/food-photography

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ABOVE AND BELOW: Weddings are also a very important part of the mix Robin offers to his clients, and this year and next are looking busy already with cancellations from 2020.

LAST YEAR WAS a tough one for many industries, and with many areas of photography relying on events and human interaction, the photography industry felt the impact as much, if not more, than most. While socially distanced photoshoots have become the norm for some, almost all photographers have suffered badly from cancelled or rescheduled bookings.

The vast majority of photographers work on a freelance basis, of course, which is one of the primary reasons why the past year has been so difficult for many, particularly those who run limited companies, which haven’t been given any financial help by the government. There are, however, a few fixed employment opportunities within businesses. In 2020, the largest number of inhouse photography jobs were in creative and design, and PR, advertising and marketing.

Developments in photographic technology are now seeing a migration from DSLRs towards mirrorless cameras, together with improved video quality (6K and 8K resolution), better AI functionality, and advanced immersive 3D photography.

Exciting times ahead are envisaged and the expectation is that, once we see a clear path back to some kind of normality, the photographic and video professional market will pick back up quickly, and there will be a growth spurt experienced by the businesses that have survived, plus new start-ups.

Better Times Ahead In short, although things have been excruciatingly tough over the past 12 months for so many photographic businesses, there is a general consensus that better times will arrive in late spring and summer, and the need for high quality professional photography has by no means disappeared. Indeed, there is likely to be a pent-up demand for such things as wedding photography and family portraiture, while an economy free to grow again will see increasing opportunities for such things as commercial, travel and wildlife photography.

So, there are well founded grounds for hope, and it’s surely only a matter of time before those precious green shoots of revival will be able to start flourishing once again.

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1

Ways to Boost Your Business

Hard times are an invitation to up your game and supercharge your photography business. Carmen Docampo explains how to stay afloat and the ways you can reinvent yourself.

WORDS CARMEN DOCAMPO

HE COVID-19 pandemic has hit professional photographers hard, leaving businesses grappling to find new and creative ways of keeping their income levels stable. But if you’ve come this far then you’re obviously a survivor and there is a definite small and growing light at the end of the Covid tunnel.

The message you should be receiving is loud and clear: collectively we can get through this and there are numerous steps you can take to not only survive this greatest of all challenges but to be in a state to prosper and grow once things finally, and inevitably, start to return to normal. When the time comes, are you going to be ready to rebuild your business?

T

1

Improve Your Social Media Skills and Marketing Presence

IT MAY SEEM OBVIOUS, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to maintain a positive social media presence right now. A record number of people around the world are spending more time on their smartphones and computers, and you should be poised to take full advantage. Put your name and your work out there regularly, and you’ll

enjoy increased exposure, and potentially improved sales too. A good rule of thumb is to post at least once a day. If you don’t have fresh content to share daily, you can re-share old work, post handy photography tips and tricks or praise work from other photographers you admire. Just remember to credit your fellow pros when sharing their images.

Here are my top five tips for making sure that 2021 becomes known as the year of the fightback:

With a background in photo editing and photography, Carmen Docampo writes for numerous photographic outlets. She spends her free time enjoying the outdoors and discovering new hiking trails.

IMAGE @DOLE777

CARMEN DOCAMPO

›

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FIVE WAYS TO BOOST YOUR BUSINESS

Build Your Emailing List

1

ALONGSIDE YOUR WEBSITE, you should have tried and tested email marketing tactics included in your marketing strategy. Email marketing is the most widely used form of online marketing in the world, and one of the most effective.

Services like MailChimp are free under fairly generous levels of volume – and not hugely expensive even above the free limit - and your visitors can sign themselves up to your emails in seconds.

You can then provide them with updates, promotions, exclusive print specials and more. I recommend sending email updates once every two weeks to ensure you stay as relevant as possible.

Be sure to offer your registered recipients news about any website renovations, changes you make or new blogs that you’re posting, as this is a simple way to drive traffic to your site at no additional cost to yourself.

3

Add an Ecommerce Section to Sell

THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS to optimise your website and keep your business afloat during difficult times. You can give your site an overhaul to make it more visually appealing and more responsive for online and mobile visitors. You can also regularly update your blog with news, how-to guides and practically any other content you think would appeal to your followers.

Out of all these suggestions, however, the gold standard in improving your website is to add ecommerce functionality to it.

There are many ways to achieve this. You can hire a specialist web developer to add an ecommerce platform to your existing site or, if you’re savvy, you could do this yourself. You could also turn to existing online commerce platforms such as PhotoShelter, theprintspace, RedBubble or Etsy and use these as a platform to make money from selling your prints to collectors.

Regardless of how you do it, having an eCommerce element involved can provide a consistent, and often substantial, source of regular income directly from your work. Add reliable shipping options and regular promotions, and you’ll build your reputation and will have clients coming back to you time and time again.

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Learn New Skills

5

IMAGE @GLENNCARSTENSPETERS

THE PHOTOGRAPHY INDUSTRY was already a competitive one before the pandemic struck. Now there are thousands of photographers trying their best to make a living however they can.

This means the market is exponentially more saturated, and that you’ll need to stand out from the crowd to capture your fair share.

Your best bet: brushing up on your photographic know-how and learning new skills. Having a broad skill set can set you apart from your peers. The more unusual you can make your work and personal style, the easier it will be to find and dominate a niche.

I also suggest improving your software and hardware skills, learning an alternative method of photo editing, focusing on your business skills and perhaps taking a course in electronic image handling, image manipulation or digital resizing.

“Having a broad skill set can set you apart from your peers. The more unusual you can make your work and personal style, the easier it will be to find and dominate a niche.”

Optimise Your Website’s SEO

YOU MAY NOT THINK you’d be able to make a living from blogging alone, but writers across the globe are doing so every single day. If you have an existing website or online portfolio, you may be sitting on a veritable goldmine that’s just waiting to be discovered. All you need to do to attract attention is to start a unique and captivating photography-centric blog—or, if you have one already, to optimise your SEO and keyword usage to drive traffic to your site.

Blogging professionals recommend that you write blogs of at least 300+ words each. They can be about anything, from your personal photographic ventures and business experiences, to top tips, news in your fields of interest or anything in-between. Then, you will need to find and add profitable, high ROI keywords to your content. Websites like SEMrush and KWFinder can help you find and pinpoint the perfect keywords to add to your content, and web platforms like WordPress already have a host of free SEO plugins you can use to perfect your SEO strategy.

Once your on-site SEO is functioning at its peak, you could even enjoy increased traffic to your online shop as new visitors explore your site. This could ultimately lead to more sales too, which is precisely what you want right now.

SEO optimisation does take some research if you’re unfamiliar with it, but the results are very often really worthwhile. If in doubt, consult a professional. You could soon make significant sums of money from your weekly blog posts, and could look at monetising them way into the future as well.

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The Bottom Line IT’S CHALLENGING TO keep your business going during a major crisis like a pandemic—but it’s possible, nonetheless. The key to giving yourself a boost right now is to keep your name out there in whatever way you can.

Maintain a positive online presence, use the many tools at your disposal to keep in touch with your clients and find new ones and adjust your strategies to stay as competitive as possible. You have an opportunity to get through this stronger than ever, with new and valuable business skills under your belt.

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MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE

Re-boot Your

Lisa Devlin

Mojo

HERE IS A SAYING that nothing in nature blooms all year round. So please don’t be surprised if you don’t either: the fact is that none of us do.

In this bright and shiny world of social media, it’s all too easy to fall into a comparison rabbit hole and think that everyone else has it all going on, all of the time. Trust me, they don’t.

Overall, we are simply more inclined to share the good than the bad with strangers and that is what almost all of your followers are – strangers on the internet.

I give you permission to de-bloom every now and then, especially in these strangest and most unpredictable of times.

Taking a step back and resting can actually be good for us; fields need fallow seasons to recover and regenerate. But bouncing back can be challenging and you might even find that it feels impossible right now – that while you took that step back, your mojo faded away.

We all feel like we lose our mojo every now and then and it can be for all kinds of reasons. If that describes you right now, here are my magnificent seven tips for getting it back again.

Don’t Look Forward, Look Back

© ROCK N ROLL BRIDE

T

I’m putting this first as it’s far and away my best method for reframing my mindset when I feel like my mojo has deserted me. It can be quite stressful planning and trying to make things happen.

Setting goals and creating targets is putting pressure on yourself and, when you’re thriving, that’s great but when you are just surviving that’s not so great.

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It would hardly be surprising if your business mojo has chosen to go walkabout just for the moment, but there are ways you can find to reinvigorate yourself in these difficult times.

So, instead of making a list of goals, make a list of the achievements you’ve already accomplished.

Instead of making targets, write a gratitude list.

These achievements and statements of gratitude can be as simple or elaborate as you like. Just the act of writing them down will make you feel more positive and I’m betting that you have accomplished more than you think. Reflecting on the good that you already have will relieve current stress levels and hopefully trigger some self-pride.

Help Someone Else Every business fluctuates, and has peaks and troughs, but the pandemic has created a shared experience for so many. Whatever you have overcome and whatever lessons you have learned up until now, others will be behind you, trying to navigate the same waters.

So, find someone that would benefit from your experience and guide them. The act of helping others can put your own problems into perspective and, when you help people, your brain releases the hormones oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine which counteract the effect of cortisol (the stress hormone). It’s a win-win – good for both your self-esteem and your mental wellbeing.

Simplify Your Life Life is so complicated right now.

We have to book food deliveries weeks in advance or go to the supermarket and selfscan, self-pack and self-checkout. We work harder at almost everything, with the end goal of making life easier but yet it never seems to be. So, what can you do to simplify your life right now? Outsource some tasks?

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MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE

BUSINESS

Say no to more things? How about just take one thing from your to-do list and do that one task to the best of your abilities? Then give yourself time to switch off.

Get Inspired Inspiration is like a plant; you have to take care of it and not neglect it. So, when you feel down, take a step back and pick up a photography book, go to a museum (virtually or in real life if you can), listen to a podcast or a TED Talk, buy a new magazine or go on a mission to discover a photographer that you haven’t heard of before and see what you can connect with in their work. You could even watch a highly acclaimed film and then research the cinematographer. Just do whatever you can think of to keep your inspiration alive.

Create a Board of Awesome

Ask for Help If you feel like you’re struggling, ask around to see if you can get someone to help you. Ideally you might be able to source a mentor who can dig deep into your business and your situation and put their fresh eyes on where things could be going wrong at the moment. It’s not always easy to see the best path for yourself or to be objective about what needs to change. Having someone unpick it for you and to help you to put it back together can save you from falling any deeper into the negative hole you could be in and it will get you back on your feet much quicker.

Prioritise Self-Care You might have lost your mojo because you are actually heading for a burnout. This can happen to the very best people, so you need to know what the signs are for you. Maybe you are not sleeping, or you could be feeling anxious a lot of the time, are neglecting your business or yourself, feeling cynical or jaded or it’s getting difficult to get up and face the world in the mornings. These are all signals from

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

© ROCK N ROLL BRIDE

This is a fun one. Get yourself a cork board and pin all the ‘thank you’ cards you’ve had from previous clients to it or print them out if they are in the form of emails and pin them up. I have one of these on the wall behind my computer screen and, on the down days, I pick off some to read as a reminder that people have appreciated my work so far and it’s created joy. Photographers are visual people and, because of this, it really helps to have a visual record of the gratitude that people have had when you’ve done a good job for them. You don’t want to do a board? Make a ‘Folder of Awesome’ instead for the nice reviews or emails that you get sent, and this can give you a lift when you find you most need it.

ABOVE AND LEFT: Images from one of Lisa’s recent shoots for Rock N Roll Bride, with an Elton John theme.

your body that something has to change. Sometimes we might neglect self-care because we’re focused on other things, and yet you will be no good to anyone if you leave things until you break. So, listen to your own signals and do what you need to do to press the reset button. That might be one thing from my list, it might be all the things, but your mojo – your special inner magic – is always there. It’s just that sometimes you have to look extra hard to find it and then you have to slowly coax it out of its hiding place, back into the light.

More information: P photographyfarm.co.uk P @devlinphotos P @photographyfarm

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BUSINESS

WEBSITE MARKETING MACHINE

Time for a

Redesign Melissa Love

The start of a new year is an obvious time to consider freshening up your website, but do you have a strategy in mind and are you taking the necessary steps to protect existing content?

OUND ABOUT NOW tends to be when I’m at my busiest, since every photographer appears to choose the start of the new year as the time when they’ll consider a redesign of their website. With some lockdown time on your hands, you might be diving into your own DIY redesign right now but, before you do, I want to make sure you have a strategy in place and know which tools to use.

Thinking about redesigning a live website can be daunting, even if you’re handing the whole process over to a professional. If you’re not daunted – great – but make sure you know how to protect your content and all of the hard work you’ve put into SEO on your site.

Here are the things that you absolutely need to be protecting at all costs when doing a redesign: T On-page SEO, such as heading tags T Keyworded content T Page URLs T Images attached to pages and blog posts T Blog post content T Essential plugin settings and content

Before you do anything at all, make sure you’re fully backed up, including content, files, database and all.

If you aren’t 100% sure about your backup process or, worse, don’t have a backup process at all (eye twitches with anxiety) then you need to read my blog post about backing up your WordPress website right now: the link can be found at the end of this feature.

3. Creating a second fresh install of WordPress to use as a development or ‘dev site’.

4. Using the staging site option via your hosting (if available, and sometimes it won’t be).

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Redesign Options

1. Page Builder Option If you’re redesigning on a live site, you can throw up a holding page and edit your live pages, but you don’t really have to, especially if you’re using a page builder or page builder theme such as Divi, ProPhoto, Showit or Elementor.

Instead, you can create some new pages, making sure they don’t appear in your main menu and, when you’re happy with your newly designed content, you can simply save the layout ready to apply to your live page.

2. Test Drive Plugins

“Whichever method you choose, remember to stay safe and to make that full backup of your live site before you do anything that could be irreversible.”

When it comes to redesigning your website you have four basic options ahead of you and we’re going to analyse each one of them in this feature.

1. Redesigning on your live site ‘behind the scenes’ using a page builder.

2. Redesigning on your live site ‘behind the scenes’ using a test-drive plugin.

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IMAGE ABOVE: @EDHORADIC

Alternatively, you can use a ‘theme test drive plugin’ like WP Theme Test, which allows you to show your current theme to visitors while at the same time trying out a new theme that only you can see when you’ve logged in. It’s also worth noting that the ProPhoto theme includes a built-in test drive tool.

Pros of a Redesign on a Live Site: T Best for updates and smaller redesigns T No disruption for site visitors T A good way to test a completely different theme Cons of Redesigning on a Live Site: T If you prefer to use global styles for fonts, and want to make changes to your fonts and heading sizes, you’ll find that you have to wait until your new pages are all in place before you’re able to change your overall font/heading settings.

T It’s not a good solution if you happen to be planning a radical redesign and brand overhaul.

T If you change the content on live pages, those content changes will be seen by all of your visitors and sometimes they won’t make a lot of sense in the context of the existing old design.

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WEBSITE MARKETING MACHINE

3. ‘Fresh Install’ of WordPress

T You can completely change content and design in a separate environment to your live site, eliminating the time pressure of doing a re-design.

T It’s possible to retain existing content, such as page and post content and the media library.

Cons of Creating a Dev Site: T It’s not ideal for complex sites where plugin settings can’t be preserved.

T It’s also not best for busy e-commerce sites, where there’s a danger that transaction history can be lost during a migration.

T If you’re keeping existing content like blog posts, you’ll need to download and then restore your media library files using file management software, such as Filezilla or Transmit.

This is my preferred option and I choose it every time, because it gives the website a fresh start and it’s a chance to get rid of all of those redundant plugins, old files and old fixes to core WordPress files, while it’s also a great opportunity to clean up the database.

It’s also a lot easier to do than you might think. The first place to start is with your hosting company, where you need to check if your current hosting package will allow you to carry out multiple installs of WordPress. If it does, it’s usually very simple to go to your hosting control panel and find the WordPress or app installer.

Then the only decision you need to make is whether to install your fresh copy of WordPress onto a subdomain or into a subdirectory.

4. The Staging Option

Subdomain vs Subdirectory?

T newsite.yourdomain.com (subdomain) T yourdomain.com/newsite (subdirectory) In reality it doesn’t really matter which option you choose, because the end result is exactly the same.

Personally, I usually opt to install the development site into a subdirectory, because then it effectively eliminates the extra step of having to create and configure the subdomain.

Preserving Content With your fresh install of WordPress in place, you’ll then have a blank canvas for your new design, but you will probably still be wanting to preserve core content, such as blog posts and plugin settings.

Most plugins will allow you to import and export settings and content, like forms, events, products and SEO content. Meanwhile, exporting blog posts is even easier if you’re working with the built-in WordPress import/export tool. I like to export existing blog posts into the dev site, in order to style them.

Remember, when you export blog posts from one WordPress site to another, the images won’t be moved.

Instead, the image file paths will still be pointing to your ‘live’ site, and this allows you to see them in your dev site. Later, however, when you migrate your shiny new site back to your live site area, the images will hook up with their file paths once again.

Pros of Creating a Dev Site: T It’s a chance for a fresh start, getting rid of old files and plugins and installing a new copy of WordPress.

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BUSINESS

ABOVE: Everyone’s website can do with a makeover at some point and the start of a new year is an obvious time to think about undertaking a refresh.

Though not available to everyone, a good quality hosting company, such as SiteGround, will give you the option to push a copy of your site to a staging server, where you can make the changes you need to make.

When you’re ready to ‘push your staging site to live’, you can have the choice of an ‘Easy Push’, which completely replaces your existing live site, or ‘Advanced Push,’ which finds all of the changes you’ve made to the files and database of your staging site and allows you to choose which ones you want to push to your live site: read more about it via the SiteGround link at the end. Just a warning at this point however– not all hosting companies will offer Advanced Push in their package, so if you don’t want to completely overwrite your live site you need to check this out.

Whichever method you choose, remember to stay safe and, whatever else you do, ensure you make that full backup of your live site before you do anything that could be irreversible. And, if you feel you might need a bit of hand holding through all of this, sign up to my free Facebook group, The Design Space Lounge.

More information: ■ Marketing Fix Community: https://themarketingfix.co ■ Backing up your website: https://thedesignspace.co/how-to-backupwordpress-website/ ■ How to Use a SiteGround Staging Tool: https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/staging/

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We have a lot to say, so we made a video... /cvptv Your trusted resource for the industry’s new and leading technology; from product reviews, tests and opinions, to creative shorts, on set behind the scenes and advice.

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MY YEAR OF LIVING CREATIVELY

BUSINESS

© VERUSHKA BAUDO

Love is in the Air Julia Boggio

With St Valentine’s Day on the horizon Julia is in the mood for love, and pondering on how much romantic fiction and the wedding market will be worth to a re-emerging UK economy.

ODAY I WANT to talk to you about love. Or more specifically, romance.

In the first half of 2017 in the UK, a romance novel was purchased every two seconds. That’s a lot of romance novels. Yet, despite this, writers of the genre tend to be treated much the same as wedding photographers were about 20 or so years ago: as the poor, embarrassing cousins of more serious pursuits in the industry.

Thankfully, that has changed in the photography arena, but it hasn’t really evolved yet in the field of writing. What is it about the involvement of love that makes people think it’s worth less? Because let me tell you something: the romance publishing market is worth over $1.44 billion dollars a year, which is bigger than the science fiction/fantasy and mystery novel genres combined. Likewise, the wedding market is worth £14.7 billion to the UK economy (pre-Covid). So, to all the haters, love pays.

Despite this, I still find myself downplaying the fact that my upcoming book is a romance novel when people – alright, men especially – ask about it, afraid that they will think my book is frivolous or not worth reading. After all, my book is about romance and wedding photographers. Double whammy.

I’ve always been a voracious reader, sticking mostly to romance or fantasy with the occasional contemporary fiction or Russian classic thrown in, so it’s no surprise to me that this is should be the route I would take for my first book. I also happened to go through a long romance-reading phase in my teenage years, which meant my parents never had to have the birds and bees talk with me. Harlequin had already given me that education.

At the age of 13, I had to attend an admissions interview for a Catholic high school. I sat across from Sister Doris, a short yet frightening nun with eyes that somehow seemed to see into

T

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

“The romance publishing market is worth over $1.44 billion dollars a year, which is bigger than the science fiction/fantasy and mystery novel genres combined.

Likewise, the wedding market is worth £14.7 billion to the UK economy (pre-Covid). So, to all the haters, love pays.”

your very soul. She asked if I enjoyed reading. At this point my father interjected, “All she reads are these stupid romance novels!” in a way that made clear what he thought of them. To her credit, Sr. Doris just shrugged and said, “At least she’s reading.” I got into the school. However, the message had been received loud and clear by the young Julia: reading stories about love and happy endings was considered less worthy.

Fast forward to this Christmas 2020. Netflix has put all its marketing budget behind a new series called Bridgerton. This looked like a candy box full of saucy Georgians and I, for one, was ready to take a bite. As I started watching it, I realised that the whole series was based on a series of books by Julia Quinn I had read over a decade ago. Each book follows the story of a different member of the Bridgerton family. They are light and fun, and very descriptive of the sexual act.

Similar to Nando’s, in the romance industry there is a heat scale. One = mild: there may be some passionate hand-holding and a kiss at the end, but not much more than that. Two = medium: lots of kissing and touching, but no description of the act. Three = hot: put your roller skates on, you are in for a ride. Four = nuclear: graphic depictions, can includes toys, some S&M and spicy language.

Five = erotic: use your imagination.

Going back to the Bridgerton novels, they were firmly in the third category, which is why I was initially surprised they were chosen by Netflix. The BBC wouldn’t have gone near it with a bargepole. However, after finishing the first season, I have to concur that it made great viewing with its anachronistic touches and lashings of sex. Could this mark the beginning of a change of attitude towards romance novels? I hope so.

So, drop any snobbery you have towards romance and dive in. Happy reading, everybody!

More information: ■ boggiostudios.com

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TESTED

Nikon Z 6 II and Z 7 II

Are Nikon’s newly updated full-frame mirrorless bodies enough to attract more professionals to the Z System and what do the retuned versions of the Z 6 and Z 7 deliver over the originals?

WORDS & PICTURES KINGSLEY SINGLETON

IME FLIES, doesn’t it? Like Canon, Nikon was conspicuously late to the full-frame mirrorless party when the Z 6 and Z 7 were launched in August 2018, and while, like many other Nikon users, I was pleased to see the new cameras, I didn’t take the plunge at the time, sticking to the D850 as my main working tool. Since then, Nikon has released the lower spec’d Z 5, the DXcrop sensor Z 50, a very decent spread of pro-level Z mount lenses and now a proper refresh of the original models.

And ‘refresh’ is probably the most accurate word to use here. These aren’t a reinvention, or really an evolution. They're more a refinement and a retuning. For some they’re going to be a disappointment, not making the leaps hoped for, but for others they’ll have plenty enough improvements to encourage them into a purchase.

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ABOVE: The Z mount on the Z family of mirrorless models is designed to improve future proofing.

Build and Handling Getting basics out of the way first, the two cameras are identical in terms of handling.

In fact, they’re also almost indistinguishable from the original Z 6 and Z 7 which, in the most part, is no bad thing. You’d be hardpressed to notice any difference at a glance.

Unlike many mirrorless models from other

manufacturers, they’re very comfortable to use and the contoured grip and rubberised texture of the thumbrest gives a secure hold, which is very useful with larger pro lenses, like the 70-200mm and 50mm f/1.2 I tested the bodies with.

Despite being small, the bodies don’t feel cramped in terms of layout. Anyone familiar with a Nikon DSLR will have a pretty easy time transitioning, as things like the arrangement of the Exposure Compensation, ISO and Movie Rec buttons are in exactly the same layout. So, unlike some less intuitive competitors, really anyone can quickly pick up and use these cameras because everything, including the menus, is clear and simple.

On the downside, I’d like to have seen more manual inputs, like a dedicated Drive mode dial, which could easily sit around the main Mode dial on the top-plate. There’s PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

BELOW: Neither the Z 6 II or the Z 7 II can be described as action cameras, but with the right settings they do a great job.

also a large space next to the top-plate LCD where the built-in speaker sits, which could accommodate other useful inputs.

In fact, while the top-plate LCD is nice and clear, I didn’t find myself using it much, so removing it altogether could open up even greater space for manual inputs.

Generally, I’d like to have seen illuminated buttons included for low-light working as on the D850, too.

ABOVE: As with the previous models, a customisable 'i' menu helps make up for fewer physical inputs compared to a DSLR like the D850.

LEFT: The Z 6 II and Z 7 II now have access to a new accessory grip, the MB-N11, which comes complete with a vertical shutter release.

The bodies remain a little ‘short’ for my hands, though not uncomfortably so. Thankfully, unlike with the Z 6 and Z 7, they’ll now have access to a proper accessory grip with a vertical shutter release, the MBN11, which should improve handling even further. There wasn’t one available to use when we tested the camera, but hopefully this will change.

The quality of the electronic viewfinder is an essential consideration when picking PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

a mirrorless body and, though the Z 6 II and Z 7 II have seen no upgrade from the previous versions in this area, both using a 3690k-dot OLED with 60fps refresh rate, the performance is still top notch. It feels very natural to the eye and, though competitors like the Canon R5 and Sony a7R IV are higher res with faster fps, the difference won’t have much impact on your shooting. Likewise, as before, the Z 6 II and 7 II’s LCD screen is great in use: large, bright and angling up and down along similar lines to the D850’s for easier high and low-angle compositions, and I enjoyed using it.

Both cameras also have a weathersealed, magnesium-alloy outer, giving them a very durable feel. I shot in wind and rain, and worked on night shoots down to -5ºC › with both, and they didn’t skip a beat.

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NIKON Z 6 II AND Z 7 II

“The addition of an SD card slot is a good and worthwhile move and it's one that will doubtless solve many peoples' concerns.”

Performance

The z 7 II in particular has excellent dynamic range, and the 45.7-megapixel sensor produces a fantastic level of detail.

The real update in terms of build is definitely the inclusion of a second card slot. The original bodies used a single XQD/CFexpress slot, and many people immediately decided that was lacking, both in terms of functionality as well as being an unpleasant additional expense to upgrade media format. There’s definitely a sense of security in adding a SD slot as you can mirror files across two cards.

On the downside, you’re limited in write speed by the slower of the formats, as even the fastest SDs can’t compete with XQD/CFe speeds. But the new cameras’ expanded buffers should alleviate that.

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From a personal perspective, I’ve never had an XQD card fail in my D850, but I’ve had plenty of SD cards corrupt or fall to pieces over the years. In some ways, I’d have preferred the new bodies to use dual XQD/CFe slots, but overall, SD is a good and worthwhile addition and one that I’m sure will solve many peoples’ concerns.

As before, one helpful touch is that pressing the OK button in Playback, or immediately after capture if you have imagereview activated, zooms to a 100% view of the focus point. This shaves off valuable time checking focus and sharpness, particularly useful for portrait photographers.

The new cameras’ dual Expeed 6 processors and associated enlarged buffers sees a small increase in shooting speeds over the originals and, while in reality it’s not overmuch to write home about compared to the 20fps and above rates offered by some competitors, you have to ask yourself how many frames are actually required for you to get the job done.

The Z 7 II lived up to its promise of 10fps in its Continuous H (extended) mode, but that’s with 12-bit RAWs; if you want the full quality 14-bit NEFs, it’s 9fps.

In my test, it averaged around 60 and 45 frames respectively before the buffer filled.

Similarly, the Z 6 II maxes out at around 14fps in 12-bit mode, which is actually pretty impressive for a full frame mechanical shutter, and 10fps when shooting 14-bit NEFs, for 125 and 90 frames respectively.

As far as usable performance goes, I would imagine this should prove to be plenty for all but the most niche of applications. Shoot JPEGs and you can pretty much hose away until the entire card is filled up.

Of course, despite the expanded buffer and dual processors, your write speeds are only ever going to be as fast as the slowest connection in the workflow, so if you want the top performance, you'll find that an investment in fast cards will be necessary.

I tested both cameras with a Lexar Professional 64GB CFexpress Type B card.

When it comes to battery life, the cameras use a new EN-EL15c battery, designed to extend shooting time over the old unit. Practically, I was getting anything from 500-650 shots per charge PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

NIKON Z 6 II AND Z 7 II from the Z 7 II and slightly more from the Z 6 II, many of these being taken in fairly battery-sapping situations, such as long exposures, high speed shooting and freezing conditions. It’s by no means a headline-grabbing lifespan, certainly not when you compare it to the 800-1000+ shots I regularly get from my D850, but it’s important to remember there’s a lot more tech at work in these cameras, particularly the EVF being on all the time.

Both cameras also support power via their USB C connection, so it's entirely possible to charge or shoot with them while connected, and this worked perfectly on test and could be a life saver. It’s very handy for timelapse or extended bouts of studio work and, of course, the aforementioned MB-N11 battery pack should help, too, being hot swappable. This means that you can change one of the two batteries it takes without switching the camera off.

6 II and Z 7 II are no different, and they have two different modes to do it – Wide Area AF-Large (people) or (animals), which covers about 1/10 of the frame; and Auto Area AF (people) or (animals) which covers 90% of it. Though these modes have been evolved via firmware on the previous bodies, they now feel more complete and functional when employed on the Mark IIs. In the (people) modes, I found performance to be excellent. It’s quick to pick up eyes, which are marked by a yellow square, and you can quickly swap between right and left using the D-Pad on the rear.

Even with the subject turning, or briefly looking away, it was tenacious. When the

TESTED

eye was lost it simply tracked the head until it was visible again and then locked on.

In the (animals) modes, it was less sure, but still very effective. The accuracy seemed to vary depending on the animal, and the amount of light in the scene, being much more effective in bright situations; in dim interiors I found that it sometimes didn’t pick up a dog’s eye at all, even though they seemed obvious to me. In those situations, it seemed to want to flit between the general eye area or other high contrast areas, such as the nose.

Overall, though, I was impressed by the eye-detection modes. With focusing accuracy at wide apertures using lenses ›

Autofocus Performance Though both cameras inherit basically the same hybrid AF systems as their predecessors – a 493-point array on the Z 7 II and a 273-point array on the Z 6 II – the dual Expeed 6 processors claim to give them a kick in terms of speed and accuracy. I didn’t have the original bodies to compare, but I tested them on a range of subjects I’m familiar with to see how well they fared: human and animal portraits and action shots of running dogs.

For portrait-type shots, mirrorless cameras’ Hybrid AF systems offer the big advantage of face or eye tracking. The Z

ABOVE & RIGHT: There are dedicated AF settings for both humans and animals, and both worked really well although, on the animals setting, speed and acquisition did suffer somewhat if the lighting in the situation happened to be a little low.

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NIKON Z 6 II AND Z 7 II

SPECIFICATIONS

Nikon Z 6 II / Nikon Z 7 II PRICE: £1999.99 / £2999.99 body only SENSOR: 35.9x23.9mm BSI CMOS 24.5MP/45.7MP ISO RANGE: 100-51200 (50-204800 expanded) / 64-25600 (32-102400 expanded) SHUTTER SPEEDS: 1/8000sec to 30secs, bulb, timer LENS MOUNT: Nikon Z FOCUSING: 273/493 point Hybrid phasedetection/contrast AF, Pinpoint (available in photo mode only), single-point, and dynamicarea AF (available in photo mode only); wide-area AF (S); wide-area AF (L); wide-area AF (L-people); wide-area AF (L-animals); autoarea AF; auto-area AF (people); auto-area AF (animals)

Low-light performance of the new Z models was excellent.

STABILISATION: 5-axis image sensor shift STILLS SHOOTING: 14fps /10fps FLASH SYNCH SPEED: 1/200sec VIDEO FORMATS: 3840x2160 (4K UHD) at 60p/30p/25p/24p; 1920x1080 at 120p/100p/60p/50p/30p/25p/24p; 1920x1080 (slow-motion) at 30p x4/25p x4/24p x5; MOV, MP4; H.264/MPEG-4 EXTERNAL RECORDING: N-Log and HDR (HLG) SCREEN: 3.2in 2100k-dot tilting touchsensitive LCD VIEWFINDER: 0.5in 3690k-dot OLED, 0.8x magnification The camera's 5-axis VR means details are preserved if you're handheld shooting.

like the 50mm f/1.2 being one of the main drivers for me in selecting a mirrorless camera, I felt fairly well convinced. You can pretty much leave it to do its thing if there’s enough light, and I couldn’t find much to choose between the two bodies in terms of performance. There were definitely lots of images in my haul that I wouldn’t have gotten sharply focused otherwise.

In terms of general AF speed, both cameras did well, too. Tracking moving subjects in AF-C and in the Dynamic, Large or Wide areas proved very effective, though with a couple of caveats. As with the previous models, the cameras’ EVFs have a little stutter to them, which, for me, made physically following the subject more difficult, especially shooting at the fastest frames rates and at 200mm on the Z 70-200mm f/2.8 S. However, slowing down 70 / PROFESSIONAL PHOTO ISSUE 180

AUDIO: 3.5mm input CONNECTIVITY: HDMI Type C, Bluetooth, Wi- Fi, USB C, 3.5mm headphone jack

the shooting and being more selective I achieved a much higher percentage of hits.

Image Quality These cameras use the same physical sensors as their predecessors so, while they now have the twin Expeed 6 processors at work, don’t expect any real change in image quality. Is that a bad thing? Hell no: the Z 7 II in particular provides outstanding detail and dynamic range, and the 45.7MP resolution gives great freedom in cropping.

If you really need more pixels than that, you’ll just have to wait for a 60-megapixel Z 8, or something similar down the line.

The Z 6 II’s 24.5MP output is much more middle of the road, but its larger pixel pitch means it has the advantage over the Z 7 II in terms of ISO performance although, to my eye, only by about one stop. Both cameras

STORAGE: 1x CFexpress/XQD, 1x SD DIMENSIONS: (w x h x d) 134x100.5x69.5mm WEIGHT: 705g with battery and cards

have very good noise performance, so I was happy to leave them in Auto ISO for action shots, and even the 3200 and 6400 settings look good if you need to squeeze more shutter speed out of the cameras. I’d happily push higher but, as you’d expect, detail starts to be compromised.

Image sharpness is improved by the five-axis in-body Vibration Reduction system and, while this is unchanged from the previous models, it still manages to do a great job. It's genuinely possible to achieve an advantage of about five stops, and this is particularly noticeable in retaining fine details on the Z 7 II’s high-res images.

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

NIKON Z 6 II AND Z 7 II

TESTED

LEFT: One of these cameras' real advantages over existing DSLRs is their size and weight.

“How useful is 4K to pros? Well, it gives you more cropping options and, with many hybrid shooters opting to shoot in 4K and to downsample to Full HD, it’s a requirement these days.”

Video Performance Both cameras also sport video improvements, including higher frame rates, and the inclusion of people and animal AF in movie mode for the first time.

Use this with the full time AF-F mode, and the cameras will keep focusing on the subject for as long as you like. Both models max out at 4K 60p, but the Z 6 II only goes to 30p at launch with the extra frames coming via a firmware update in the coming months. In 4K 30p, both cameras use the full sensor but, despite the promised power of the dual processors, other restrictions include a 1.5x crop for 4K60p on the Z 6 II and a much less noticeable 1.08x crop on the Z 7 II. However, I didn’t find this much of a problem in workflow, and it's fine once you get used to it.

How useful is 4K to pros? Well, it gives you more cropping options and, with many hybrid shooters opting to shoot in 4K and to downsample to Full HD, it’s a requirement these days.

There’s also Full HD up to 120p and up to 5x slow motion on both models, too.

In terms of video quality one of the most important features is the N-log profile, but this can only PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

be recorded externally on both bodies. You can also get Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) via an external recorder and, in that set-up on the Z 6 II, there’s 12-bit Raw video, too, once again via a firmware update. This one will unfortunately need to be paid for as well, though the cost hasn’t yet been specified.

Like all new Nikon cameras, a separate menu is used for video settings, which makes control nice and easy, and a main lever switches between the modes. From my perspective, these bodies being smaller than my D850 also means they’ll be easier to mount on a gimbal or rig.

More information: ■ nikon.co.uk BELOW: The ability to tilt the rear LCD also adds useful flexibility to the overall mix.

ABOVE: Video is well catered for and models will be able to shoot at up to 60p in 4K, but the Z 6 II will require a firmware update beforehand.

❚VERDICT IF YOU WERE teetering on the brink of buying into the Z System, there’s probably enough to convince you to dive straight in now. Those put off by the original cameras’ single card slot and lack of a dedicated grip also get improved AF and more video options to sway them. That’s certainly the case for me, and I’ve bought a Z 7 II and a few lenses to kick off my kit.

And yet the real heart of these cameras – the sensor – is now at least two-and-a-half years old. The extra processing power is evident and, given the way camera firmware is updated, more improvements could come along in the post, but for as many as who are now convinced there will be others who wanted more obvious updates.

On the plus side, though these new bodies might lag behind the competitors slightly on the spec sheet, if you’re a Nikon user, you can’t beat their familiarity and usability. When that’s combined with mirrorless benefits, such as eye-detection AF, it’s a compelling reason to choose the system over others. As before The Z 6 II is a great all-rounder, and the Z 7 II offers ultimate image quality. And they beat the competition on price, too.

In a professional context, and when compared to the vagaries of picking a whole new system, the security of moving smoothly from a well used and loved Nikon DSLR to a Nikon mirrorless camera can’t be overstated.

ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 71

Wild About Harry Wildlife professional Harry Skeggs’ career moved to another level when he discovered Nikon gear and it’s led to a prestigious role as part of the #ZCreators scheme, using the latest Z 7 II.

T’S STRANGE but true that many of those considered to be amongst the best photographers in their chosen fields never initially envisaged a life behind the camera, but ultimately found themselves drawn in by their love of their subject and the urge to record what they were seeing for others to appreciate.

What starts out as a hobby eventually, and inevitably, takes over completely, and the individual ends up with no choice but to dedicate their life to their passion.

This was certainly the way it worked out for rising wildlife professional Harry Skeggs, who had his eyes on a very different future when he set out to study for a bachelors and masters in Art History at Cambridge.

Following graduation, he spent a year travelling around Brazil and the incredible wildlife he encountered there led to document what he was seeing.

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“Up until then I’d considered photography as more of a medium for someone who couldn’t paint,” he recalls. “That all changed in Brazil but, when I returned, I was struck by how little my photos had managed to capture the essence of what I’d seen. That early failure fuelled an addiction to improve and, since then, it’s been a journey based around experimentation, making mistakes and learning to fix them. I also wanted to pour what I’d learned about fine art masters into the mix, and all of those things have come together to influence the approach I now take to wildlife photography.”

One of the first things Harry realised he had to do was to source a camera system that would grow with him and support him as he started to learn more about his freshly-adopted craft. Working with a fairly basic compact led to initial disappointment and so he decided to needed to move up a PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

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“The more I use the Z System cameras the more I fall in love with them,” says Harry. “The obvious benefit is their size and weight. Not only does this make travel easier, it also makes it possible to get into some really interesting new shooting perspectives, such as hanging out of a Jeep with the tilted screen to get a low angle.

“Once I’d got used to it, however, the digital viewfinder was the real game changer for me. I’m a big believer in the fact that the photographer has to be making artistic choices, rather than letting the camera do the thinking. Purely taking correctly exposed photos is not enough, I want to be able to play around with deliberately over and under-exposing shots and to explore depth of field options, and having a digital viewfinder gives you real-time feedback, rather than you having to shoot and review. This has massively improved how I can play with light in the field and that’s a huge step forward.”

So impressed has Harry been with the Z System that he’s now become part of Nikon’s ABOVE: Harry had the opportunity last year to #ZCreators scheme, head to the Camargue to work with the Z 7 II. something he’s thrilled Building the about on every level.

Business “Purely taking correctly exposed photos is not “My role is to promote Since those early days, the things I love about the Harry has gone on to enough, I want to be able to play around with Z range via such avenues establish himself as one of over and under exposure and depth of field.” as social media,” he says, the most exciting young “and I’m more than happy wildlife photographers to share my feedback. in the country, with a I’m incredibly strict about what I promote, stunning portfolio of images that take I’m a big believer in needing to get close and only support products I truly believe in, the accepted perception of wildlife to your subject with your feet rather which is the case with these cameras. photography on to another level. Tapping than relying on telephotos. This allows “I think it’s important for people to see into his background in art, his work is for a fantastic perspective, including the professionals such as myself go through the holding a strong appeal to collectors, and sweeping landscapes these animals call journey of switching from DSLR cameras selling work as fine art has given him a home. I’m a big fan of the new 70-200mm to mirrorless to see if that jump might be commercial avenue to explore, which is f/2.8 as well, which is a fantastic portrait a good fit for them. There are so many helping to support his growing career. lens that helps you to isolate the features benefits to using the Z range that aren’t “I initially managed to get representation of a subject.” immediately apparent, as well as myths at a boutique gallery in London,” he says, Despite all of the difficulties of travel too. Against that background I think honest “and, after a few shows, others approached last year, Harry was able to undertake feedback will really help photographers to me and my work is now being sold in an autumn trip to photograph the wild decide what’s right for them.”

Australia, the US, Europe and the rest of horses in the Camargue region of France world. I’ve also recently signed with the using a pre-production Z 7 II, and he came More information: Clarendon Fine Art Gallery in London, and back with a spectacular set of images. It I’m thrilled to be represented by world class confirmed for him the benefits of Nikon’s ■ Harry Skeggs: skeggsphotography.com fine art galleries around the globe.” mirrorless system and, looking ahead, he ■ To find out more about Nikon's As Harry’s career has grown, he’s envisages this will form the basis of his #ZCreators visit: nikon.co.uk/en_GB/ travelled to over 85 countries, across six equipment set-up long term. learn_explore/zcreators.page level and to look for something that offered him a little more in the way of potential.

“I had very little knowledge about cameras at that stage,” he admits, “but I liked the look of a Nikon D40 that was available on eBay and I paired this with a cheap third party 70-200mm. The D40 has no internal motor, while the lens couldn’t auto meter with the body but, knowing so little about photography, I thought this was how everyone had to take their pictures.

“This meant that I was working with an entirely manual focus and exposure set up, which was tough, but proved to be a fantastic foundation in the long run.

Needless to say, when I eventually moved up to a Nikon D750 I was blown away by the way the camera could do these things for you and I was addicted all over again.

Since then I’ve taken my Nikon gear to some of the harshest environments on earth, from the tundras of the poles to the murky depths of the oceans, and it has never let me down. The optical quality is unbeatable for me, and that’s the primary reason I would never change.”

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

continents – he narrowly missed out on the seventh, Antarctica, last year only because of the ongoing pandemic – and he particularly loves the open savannahs of Kenya and Tanzania, and the incredible winding waterways of the swampy Okavango Delta in Botswana.

On the equipment front, these days Harry is using the Nikon D850 DSLR for his aquatic and long lens work, while he’s become a big fan of Nikon’s mirrorless Z System, using the Z 7 and Z 7 II for pretty much everything else he shoots.

“Lens-wise I’m making great use of the wide prime Z lenses,” he says, “particularly the 35mm and 85mm, both f/1.8 optics.

ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 73

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TESTED

Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel A bold, innovative and powerful machine, the new Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel laptop has been specifically designed to appeal to creative professionals. Mike Jennings takes a closer look. WORDS MIKE JENNINGS HE LATEST LAPTOP launch from Acer, the ConceptD 7 Ezel, is a real eye-catcher, a striking and innovative product that’s been designed from the ground up to appeal to creative professionals, among them professional photographers and videographers. The result is an undeniably bold, targeted design, which comes with lashings of power, but you will pay a hefty premium for such a dedicated piece of innovation: the retail price is approaching £3000. I wanted to take a closer look to discover if an investment on that scale could prove to be money well spent.

The Ezel’s most striking feature is its display. It doesn’t just have one hinge at the bottom – it has another halfway up the rear. This innovative set-up allows the display to be moved into a huge variety of positions: it can be tilted forwards to float away from the body of the laptop, rotated to a horizontal position for use as a tablet or as a collaborative device, and it can also be flipped around to face outwards if you're looking to use it for presentations.

The 15.6in touchscreen uses Wacom EMR technology – the same active digitiser kit used in professional graphics and design devices, which is said to deliver top-notch precision, no input delays and better differentiation between pen and finger touches. To make the most of this, a dedicated pen with 4096 sensitivity levels and two buttons is stowed in the screen.

EMR technology is touted as delivering top-notch precision and, on test, it worked fluidly and flawlessly – there’s no doubting that this technology is precise and versatile,

T

PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

The viewing screen of the ConceptD 7 Ezel uses Wacom EMR technology and comes with a dedicated pen. It's also hinged at the bottom and halfway up to enable tilting.

and creatives will love the many and varied options that it will open up to them.

The 4K resolution and generous screen diagonal of the laptop means that images are incredibly crisp, and the density level of 282ppi is high enough to deliver loads of detail. Meanwhile the maximum brightness

level of 426cd/m2 is ample for any indoor and most outdoor scenarios, while the black point of 0.28cd/m2 is impressively low without being overwhelming. The resulting contrast ratio of 1521:1 is fantastic for an IPS display, and it delivers superb vibrancy, punch, depth and nuance.

The colour temperature of 6655K is excellent, the Gamma of 2.23 is just as good and the display rendered 99.9% and 97.9% of the sRGB and Adobe RGB colour spaces.

The average Delta E hovers just below 2, which is good enough for colour-sensitive workloads. The display is Pantone-certified, and it’s protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 6. The only issue was the slightly mottled coating, but it’s not especially noticeable. › ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 75

ACER CONCEPTD 7 EZEL The Acer is made from metal but, unusually, it’s finished in a white shade that's striking, but could prove divisive. And, while the exterior design does have plenty of practical touches, it’s divisive elsewhere too.

On the positive side there is loads of connectivity on board. The Ezel has two full-size USB ports and a Type-C connection that supports DisplayPort and Thunderbolt, and there’s also an SD card slot plus HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. Internally, there’s Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 and Gigabit Ethernet. Build quality is impressive: the base is robust, and the hinges are smooth and easy to move. The power button also doubles as a fingerprint reader, which is a nice touch.

Less impressive is the fact that the ports and the power socket are installed towards the front of the machine, which means wires could get in the way. This machine isn’t the slimmest or lightest, either – its 2.5kg weight and 29mm thickness make it something of a heavyweight in fact. And while the Acer does have a webcam, it doesn’t support Windows Hello.

Keyboard and Trackpad The keyboard and trackpad are fine in use, if unremarkable. The former has a conventional layout, with extra function keys but no numberpad, and quality levels are decent. I found it a little too soft to the touch, but it’s good enough for most tasks.

Meanwhile, the trackpad is serviceable, but it could be larger.

Internally, the eight-core Intel Core i710875H processor sits alongside an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics card, while there’s also 16GB of dual-channel memory and a fast 1TB Samsung SSD. In Geekbench 5’s single and multi-core tests the Acer scored 1,321 and 7,728 points, and both results are right at the top end of what the Core i7-10875H can achieve.

Similarly, the Acer’s Cinebench R20 result of 4,006 is impressive, and the RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics core scored a rapid 6,389 in 3D Mark Time Spy. There’s easily enough power to handle Photoshop, and the CPU PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

and GPU have enough about them to enable professional design work and video editing suites as well.

TESTED

SPECIFICATIONS

Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel

Running Warm It’s not all good news. The processor should be able to achieve an all-core Turbo speed of 4.3GHz, but tough benchmarking saw it hit a temperature of 95°C and throttle to 3GHz. Noise levels remained moderate, but the laptop’s body also became warm and hot air was being expelled from both sides, which could prove irritating. The throttling does restrict performance in certain situations, but that’s not unusual for high-end laptops and there’s still enough computing ability here for creative work.

Acer’s machine delivered surprisingly decent battery life.

In a work test with the screen at peak brightness it lasted for two hours and 39 minutes, and you’ll double that if you drop the screen brightness.

Overall you’ll get around three hours from this machine during more demanding creative applications, and it will last for six hours with more conventional use. It won’t handle a whole day away from the mains, but it’ll last until lunchtime, and it’ll handle a commute and a stint at a café.

If all this hardware isn’t enough, Acer also sells a model with RTX 2080 Super graphics and 32GB of memory. And if you need ISV certification, there’s also a version available with Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 graphics. The model we’ve reviewed here, which doesn’t come with these particular modifications, costs £2899, while the extra add ons will take you comfortably above £3000.

It has to be said that this is a considerable outlay, especially when compared to rivals that don’t feature the moving, Wacompowered touchscreen. You can buy a 16in MacBook Pro for £2399-£2,799, for example, while a Dell XPS 15 with a weaker graphics core but a slimmer, sleeker design and a 4K display will cost less than £2000. Meanwhile, if all you’re after is pure power you’ll be able to find laptops with faster components for between £2000 and £2500.

PRICE: £2899 SCREEN SIZE: 15.6ins with Wacom EMT Technology CPU: 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-10875H MEMORY: 16GB 2,666MHz DDR4 STORAGE: 1TB Samsung PM981 SSD GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q 8GB RAM: 32GB/2TB DISPLAY: 3,840 x 2,160 IPS Touch PORTS: 2 x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 x SD, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort 1 x audio CONNECTIVITY: Dual-band 802.11ax wireless, Bluetooth 5.0, Gigabit Ethernet DIMENSIONS: 359 x 260 x 29mm (WxDxH) WEIGHT: 2.5kg BATTERY: 84Wh OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit WARRANTY: 3-year RTB

More information: ■ acer.com

❚VERDICT WHILE THERE ARE plenty of machines out there that can match or beat the level of power the Ezel can offer for less outlay, there is nothing at present that can better the moving, Wacomcompatible display this machine features. And, make no mistake, this screen is brilliant, delivering top-notch quality and functionality that’ll sate creatives who just aren’t able to work properly on most notebooks.

Elsewhere, the Ezel has impressive performance, build quality and connectivity, although it’s undermined

by CPU throttling and middling ergonomics. At £2899 it’s undeniably expensive as well but, despite that, it’s still an excellent option for creatives who want a truly versatile and innovative notebook that comes with the potential to offer them everything they need and more in one eyecatching, head turning package.

ISSUE 180 PROFESSIONAL PHOTO \ 77

COMMENT /

Things I Wish Iʼd Known…

Peter Dench Renowned photojournalist Peter Dench reflects on the importance of photographing the things that are meaningful to you at the time and not overlooking what’s around you.

HAT WOULD YOU TELL your younger self? That question, of course, presumes my older self would have some helpful and wise advice to give.

I’m not sure that’s the case. After the catastrophe of 2020, I feel more vulnerable, reckless and insecure than ever before during my 22-year photography career. I want to hear from my younger self, that self-assured, optimistic hunter of opportunities with ironing board stomach and head of thick long hair.

I can pinpoint the tombstone moment that I became my older self. I was aged 42 (I’m now 48) on assignment in the Cypriot party resort of Ayia Napa, shooting a reportage on young Brits abroad.

I attended a boat trip with around 100 holiday reps, the DJ was blasting out Play Hard by David Guetta ft. Ne-Yo, Akon. The crowd bayed as I went about my business documenting the scene. I was in my element, I belonged, this was the type of holiday I had gone on as a teenager with friends Marc, Jason and Stuart.

Then I saw the YouTube clip of the boat party.

The DJ sweeps his mobile phone across the crowd and brings me into focus – you can hear them say, “Woah!!! Who’s the old dude?” And there I was, crouched among the young, my thinning pate a shimmering pool in the waves of raised arms.

I decided it was time to stop this kind of reportage.

The first thing I would tell my younger self is to photograph what I was into at the time: don’t wait until 25 years later. I should have taken my secondhand Pentax ME Super to Magaluf, Majorca and snapped Jason as he climbed out of the excavated hole in the road he’d drunkenly fallen into, stripping sheets of skin from his torso. I should have documented Stuart as he was beaten black and blue with a cosh by nightclub security, and I should’ve recorded the moment a group of boys from Bury balanced precariously on their hotel balcony.

I recently asked my 27-year-old nephew what defined his youth? “Dunno, probably the Spice Girls,” or it could’ve been Girls Aloud. I wasn’t really listening; either way it was infuriating. My privilege is to live through several significant youth cultures – Football Casuals (I still dress in the 1982/3 season of terrace fashion), Acid House raves and Britpop.

I didn’t document any of this at the time; I was too involved to observe.

W

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Mini Biography Dench is an awardwinning UK-based photographer, presenter, writer, curator, contributor at Getty Images and Olympus Visionary.

As well as exhibiting internationally he has also published several books of his work including: England Uncensored; A&E: Alcohol & England and The British Abroad.

Indeed, there are very few significant archives by one photographer that I can find of these phenomenal genres of history. It’s a constant regret I didn’t produce photographs. Whatever you’re into – S&M, religion, horticulture, LGBTQ+, dog shows, Cosplay, photograph it now.

At that time, I never thought of photography as a business, and still struggle to. It has delivered such mind-blowing experiences and access. It felt disrespectful to call it ‘a business,’ more of a lifestyle, treat, jolly or jamboree. When I left my first photoagency in 2005, I’d accrued around £36,000 on credit cards. It took a while to pay back. I’d probably tell my younger self to be more cautious when it comes to pulling out the plastic, but probably not; the memories and adventures outweigh the debt.

I couldn’t tell my younger self to extract the positives from every opportunity because he already knew that. I should probably remind him to shoot every story as though he’ll never get the chance again – I think he knew that too – plus a reminder to pay more attention to developments in camera technology, read the manual, learn new skills, a new language, but I doubt he would listen. I’d tell him to do everything differently. I’d tell him not to change a thing. I’ve enjoyed the ride and I still do. I hope you’re enjoying yours while mentoring other photographers.

P peterdench.com PROFESSIONALPHOTO.ONLINE

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Weather or champagne proof – the real proof is in the results.

Welcome to 2021, a year full of possibilities and pent up excitement. To all those who have come on board with us, thank you. And for those yet to take the plunge, we look forward to welcoming you to the fold. Let’s make this year one to remember for all the right reasons.

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