I'm not a geeky tech head, I'm not constantly looking out for the latest piece of technology that looks sleek and sexy to try and impress with, to buy even if I don't need it. When the iPhone came out I didn't raise an eyebrow and wasn't particularly tempted to buy, as long as the phone I had could allow to make calls and send the odd text I was pretty much sorted.
I received an
iPod for a
christmas gift and despite my '
grumpy old man' murmurings about '
why do I need one of these...??' I was secretly impressed, the more I get used to it the more I like it and enjoy things I can do with it.
I'm a photographer, and I've seen the
Macbook pro's and the
iMac's doing their thing as they are used in anger by fellow togs. I know this and would love to have one, alas my mortgage, my car payments, my insurance and all the other boring stuff won't allow it just yet, but for image editing and ease of, well, ease of pretty much everything, I'm sold!
Now, as if that's not enough, old
Stevey boy and his merry crew launch this
iPad thingymajig and after watching the demo, linked here from the Apple site...
http://www.apple.com/ipad/ipad-video/#small I'd be lying if I wasn't a bit impressed.
Even if it turns out not to work in the real world it still looks really cool!!
Thinking of all the photography related uses it could operate and support, on first sight it looks pretty cheeky - How it would hold up though, especially the screen, to some battering and abuse through day to day work is interesting, would you have to carry a laptop and this
as well? - Probably. It is after all another piece of kit that needs to be charged and the extra weight is not a good thing, so when out and about I don't think it would replace the trusty old
lappie as far as photographers are concerned.
But if your going for a meeting to show some portfolio work, or giving a briefing or sat around and want to surf the
tinternet etc etc (or want to look cool in front of your mates) than it looks pretty sweet and if I had the cash to burn I'd probably have one - because that's what you do!
But for now, I think I will have to sit this one out and wait for the Mark II version which will be made of plastic and can be rolled up like a newspaper and I will look on with envy as other tech heads, geeky or otherwise, sit with a feint look of '
technology smugness' on their faces and work out which way is up.
Now back to my PC.....what does this blue screen mean?????
The bearer party make their way down the ramp onto the wet tarmac, the flag draped coffin is saluted, and away to one side the Last Post is played by a lone bugler as they begin the slow, dignified procession to the hearse.
Carried towards the open rear door of the hearse the bearer party remain steady. Unwavering in their task. Regardless of the weather or the conditions they carry their comrade to the waiting vehicle. As the rear door closes, they wait silently, standing to attention as the hearse pulls off and is slowly driven away. This is the process each time a soldier is repatriated. A dignified and faultless process that happens each and every time, regardless of rank or regiment.
As a photographer for the Army one of the tasks we undertake is to photograph each of these repatriation services. We capture the whole service from start to finish from a position on the roof of the terminal building. For each repatriation that we photograph we have three main outlets for the images we make. We file images to the civilian press, we subsequently create a CD of the images that is passed to the family and all of the photographs are eventually sent to the Imperial War Museum in London to form part of a permanent photographic archive.
It should go without saying that you have to get it right, each time, every time, regardless of weather or the conditions you have to try and make the best pictures that you can - for all the reasons mentioned above and because as a professional you want it to be right. Even though each repatriation follows the same process it would be foolish to become blase about it, each time requires total concentration to get the pictures and the awareness to see a picture that might be a little different.
You can almost feel the grief in the air sometimes, rising up from the white tent, but you have to put any feelings you have to one side, you can deal with them later in your own way but hopefully, eventually, the pictures will provide some comfort to the family and will go towards providing a lasting memorial to the soldiers killed on deployment.
These dogs are amazing - relentless, strong and determined animals that never seem to get tired of running through the snow! He trains them for working sled dog rallies, this basically consists of a team of dogs, a sled, usually with wheels (we don't get that much snow that often) and a route mapped out over various distances. Against the clock they set off on the route and race each other.
This jaunt out onto the Plain was a bit of training for them and a couple of Alaskan Malamutes' that joined the team and also offered some good photo ops for myself and Steve Woods another fellow tog (http://throughwoodyslens.blogspot.com/) . The light was fading fast and the first light set up I used was a single flash camera left at half power with a Pocket Wizard triggering. The camera was a Nikon D3 with a 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens. I had my ISO at 1000 and was working at a 200th at around f8, although this had to be tweaked as the ambient level dropped. I kept my white balance at 'Daylight' allowing the background to retain some 'blueness' because I liked the coldness it showed whilst the flash lit up the dogs in a pool of light (see above).
The shot above was on similar settings but this time Steve held a second flash at camera right, triggered by the main light. On the earlier shots Shane's face was too dark, we even tried shining a torch into his face as he passed to bring in some light but after getting some cross light going with the other flash it made a nice light, lifting Shane and his dogs nicely whilst keeping a sense of place as he drove the team through the cold woods (see above).
On the whole it was a good photo opportunity and from it, hopefully, some half decent shots. Some photo considerations that came out of it were that when you think you have enough plastic bags to cover your flash and pocket wizards - you don't - always have more, take some elastic bands to secure them to the light stand. Pre-focus on your light pool if your continuous focus is confused by the snowfall. Finally, ensure that the stands are weighted down - but at least I know now that snow softens the fall when the stand, SB 900 and pocket wizard all blow over in a gust of wind (twice!!)
