Pure Mono

Man flu…grr

JOHN — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:51:30 +0000

Been in bed since Wednesday…

Nightmare Volcanic Eruption

JOHN — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:00:56 +0000

What a nightmare ….
6 days and counting, the UK government has drafted in Sunderland’s adopted warship HMS Ocean to bring home stranded Brits from abroad. The Icelandic volcanic eruption has a lot to answer for costing British airlines $200m a day.
HMS Ark Royal and HMS Albion have also been drafted in to bring people home.

Image taken on HTC phone.

Test post

JOHN — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:22:04 +0000

Sitting waiting for my Sunday dinner and reading the papers. Image taken on HTC phone.

Fine Art

JOHN — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:54:22 +0000

I don’t post my fine art on the internet as once it is seen then people pinch your ideas and copy it, but I’ll post this one as it is one of my weaker shots but it it still a nice delicate image and I’m sure the women who view this will like it.

I need to get out more…

JOHN — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:19:04 +0000

…because I’ve ran out of shots to edit and I’m going through old stuff re-editing them and hopefully processing them better than I had previously, here is a shot I took about a year ago at Pallion Shipyard, Pallion Shipyard was the largest builder of ships in Europe until it got closed down, Sunderland football clubs old badge used to have a ship on it as ships were our biggest export, it is such a shame to see the shipyard in decay, they used to be big impressive buildings full of marble and expensive furnishings, now you are lucky if you can see the floor because of all the pigeon shite.

It’s been a while…

JOHN — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:19:10 +0000

…since I done a post so I better post one to keep my blog alive, well I have been super busy so haven’t had much John time, I haven’t even had the time to do any personal photo shoots or TFP shoots for portfolio building so here is a shot I found on my hard drive that I didn’t bother editing before now, it is a film scan off when I shot Trevor training at his gym. Ilford HP5+ developed in ID-11 for 9 minutes, I always go over with my development times to add a bit of extra contrast.

Tuesday the fifth of May 09

JOHN — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:26:24 +0000

Well I finally got through the the person who deals with commercial lettings from the council, it only took a week, why? bugger knows I guess some people are just hard to reach, but at the end of the day I now have a meeting arranged to go and view the properties. I don’t know if I should go for the 1k square foot or the 2.5k square foot building as obviously the cost will be more than double if I take the bigger of the two but if the studio makes a success then I will no doubt have to move into the bigger one at a later date, my head tells me to start off in the smaller of the two to keep the cost down and to work on building the business up, I have a strong feeling that the studio will be a big success as there is no other studio in Sunderland that can be hired out, plus of course I will also be using the studio for my own photography as well, I have a lot of fine art set ups worked out in my head for when I get the building so now it is just a matter of having a look and then getting the doors opened once the choice is made.

Catterick market

JOHN — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:13:43 +0000

Well I finally managed to get out and get some shots today, Sue picked us up at 9 this morning and we drove to Catterick for the market, while they were looking at the stalls and spending money I was scoping the market for some shots, I didn’t get many as it was very busy and very rough so I kept my camera very tight in my hand and had the strap round my neck, at one point I took a shot of a butcher and he freaked out as he thought I was working for the DHSS, he wasn’t to know but if I was working for the DHSS he would not have even knew I was there ha ha. I decided to do some “in your face” street photography and get in as close as I could to the subjects, most shots were taken at between 50-70mm never once over 70mm so the farthest away I ever was from one of the subjects was about 2-3 feet away. More photographs to come when I get them processed.

Street togging tomorrow

JOHN — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:51:17 +0000

Originally uploaded by HotshotsSR1

I’m going street togging tomorrow and I can’t wait, my friend Sue asked us if we would like to go to an open market and we said yes, so when the wife is looking for bargains and saying things that only a woman could say like “that looks nice” or “we really need a new ……..” I’ll be mooching and taking candid shots and in yer face shots of the general public, then we will be gong for our Sunday dinner down my Mothers house, after that a nice chilled night with some Fosters and editing.

Working with pets and children

JOHN — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:13:56 +0000

OK so the saying goes in some parts of the imaging / video business that you shouldn’t work with pets and children, I think this is a good example of how NOT to work with pets, some of the best pet portraits I have done have been of my dog Foxy as when she is outside she is full of life and happy and it does come across in the photos but stick her in a studio and the ears go back the eyes wide open and her tail goes between her legs, this shows she was scared so I let her go, the moral to this story is if you are taking a shot of any living thing and it is uncomfortable then it will show in the photograph, I have seen many a portrait where people have shot models and they just don’t look happy to be there. So build up a rapport with the subject make them feel comfortable and when everyone is relaxed you will get better shots and it will show in the final results.