Saturday walk along the River Thames and we finally had some clement weather, albeit not balmy.
I was trying out my new 25mm lens with a Firecrest 3.0 HD this weekend. Not the classic streaking clouds shot but was quite interesting. I have started to do more HDR images (this is not one of them) as I have seem some great YouTube videos on how to combine images subtly.
Early yesterday morning, I stood opposite the London Eye to watch the dawn of a new day in London. The shot above is a panorama of four shots stitched together of the south side of the River Thames. The image is almost 18k pixels in width.
The shot below was taken a few moments before that, as the first light of day broke behind the Wheel. The maintenance team still had the red lights on the wheel switched on and the so too for the Marriott County Hall Hotel.
A couple of other extra long exposure shots from last weekend. This one was taken close to the Millennium Bridge. As the river was low, I was able to walk down to the beach, to take a lower angle shot of the Thames and Shard. The sun had finally broken through the clod, albeit temporarily, to illuminate the scene and bath the Shard in light.
This next shot was of HMS Belfast, across the Thames, of the Walkie Talkie building with the Gherkin also visible. As the ship was floating on the river, it tended to bob around, so I diminished the length of the exposure to compensate. You can see this in comparison to the tub boats in the foreground, which are blurred.
This weekend, after gaining inspiration from a couple of YouTube tutorials, I tried my hand at some extra long exposure shots in London. The weather on Sunday was perfect, with a mixture of sun and cloud.
I walked around Tower Bridge and the London Assembly. However, it was the view from London Bridge that caught my eye. The image above is made up of 8 long exposure images stitched together. Each image was a 90 second exposure. The whole shot took around 15 minutes, including set up and transition time.
One thing to look out for is battery usage as extreme long exposure shots use up a lot of power, so I recommend carrying spares.
The shot below was my first shot of the day. Being a film photographer at heart, I used my handheld lightmeter plus Lee Filter Big Stopper app, to deduce the exposure.
Recently, after many failed attempts, I was fortunate enough to go on a balloon flight over Berkshire. The evening weather as perfect as the breeze pushed us eastwards, towards Henley. On the way, we flew over a verdant forest, where a horse and rider momentarily materialised from between the trees as they crossed the bisecting path beneath us.
Hard to imagine that you are only 25 miles from London at moments like this.
In early April, I managed a team at Kin Design, who had been engaged by M&C Saatchi to create a large digital interactive installation for Adidas.
Over the following 7 weeks, my team created bespoke content for the inaugural Adidas Lab event in London. Within two months, we created viable concepts, designed and animated them, built the system to house the event both physically and programmatically and tested it for the live date of May 24th. The pressure was on as the Adidas CEO (Herbert Hainer) and CMO (Hermann Deininger) were using the event to officially launch some key technical developments that Adidas have been working on over the last year or two.
The press conference hosted by Herbert Hainer also had two famous footballers in the guise of Zinedine Zidane & Michael Ballack to support the Adidas Lab event. Both players tried out installations that my team had worked on.
The three key elements that my team created were the following:
(1) The Track
This was an interactive 20m track that users ran up and down three times, to identify which Adidas boot was most appropriate for them. Each of the three stages related to a different skill; speed, agility and control. We also integrated a real time video capture and render system into the track that used the RFID tag in data to upload the user’s video to the Adidas YouTube channel and post an update on their preferred social media channel of this video and their result (overall score and boot preference).
See an example of one of the thousand plus user videos below.
(2) MiCoach
We created an interactive picture based installation that users could look through as they watched a video that outlined the latest Adidas tech in MiCoach, where player movements were tracked on an iPad through a chip in the player’s kit.
(3) SmartBall Wall
Adidas created a ball that could transmit speed, bend and flight trajectory to an iPhone App. My team created a large screen for users to kick the ball against. At the top of the screen we installed a scanning laser to define where the ball hit the screen and trigger an animation. The App data was passed through AirPlay and shown on the screen to allow views to see the data on the iPhone screen.
Overall, the event was a great success and we are looking into opportunities to create future Adidas Lab events.
Here are a few more images from the Adidas Lab 2013:
Here are some links about the film in the press:
Adidas: http://blog.adidas-group.com/2013/05/the-adidas-lab-%E2%80%93-a-glimpse-into-the-future-of-football/
Adidas News Stream: http://news.adidas.com/GB/PERFORMANCE/adidas-lab/s/72842690-7f6d-4a25-8101-862845d99283
Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/24/adidas-labs/
Soccerbible: http://www.soccerbible.com/news/general/archive/2013/05/21/competition-win-adidas-innovation-event-tickets.aspx
UK Sports Network: http://www.theuksportsnetwork.com/adidas-lab-showcases-the-future-of-football
Pop Sop: http://popsop.com/62987
For the fourth year running, I am participating in the 24Photography artist’s group exhibition, which itself is in its tenth year. Each year, 24 photography artists document New Year’s Day, each assigned an hour to capture the day through our eyes and relate it to the year’s brief. This year, the chosen theme was Sign of the Times and I was allotted 13:00 – 14:00 slot.
My piece is entitles Fast Forwards. It is based on the premise that any city such as London is always in perpetual motion. This forward movement is derived from all the constituent componenets, which operate independently at their own pace.
I wanted to juxtapose the different time transitions, from the ever changing skyline to the frenetic movement of the people who inhabit it. Finally, I wanted to include the natural elements that surround all this activity, which itself is in a constant change of flux. However, in all of this commotion, it is this natural variable that will enjoy the greatest longevity.
As usual, the exhibition will opens tonight, 24th February in Berkeley Square, Mayfair. The nearest tube station is Green Park. Please come along and see al our work.
Useful links:
24Photography website: http://www.24photography.org/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/24photography
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/24photography
Press Links:
Photography monthly: http://www.photographymonthly.com/News-and-Reviews/2013/2/24photography-s-10th-anniversary-in-Berkeley-Square#.URPlCxhMTvs.twitter
Professional Photographer: http://www.professionalphotographer.co.uk/News-and-Reviews/2013/2/24photography-holding-its-10th-anniversary
Hot shoe: http://www.hotshoeinternational.com/wo_exhibition_details.do?b=14&c=1
Evening Standard: http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/exhibitions/242013-magic-abroad-air-115014
ArtsIant: http://www.artslant.com/lon/events/show/259378-242013—marlow-mortons-and-magic-abroad-in-the-air
All in London: http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/whats-on.php?event=99527
Indie London: http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Events-Review/24photography-exhibition-berkeley-square
Photo 75: http://photo75.com/home/?p=3061
Back in 2006, whilst based at PCI Fitch as Head of the Web team, we worked on amongst other things, a large animation for the main screen on the Vauxhall stand, which sat behind a half-pipe. The animation was several thousand pixels wide and played on a screen around 11m wide.
Gathering design and creative input from our surround environment and internet research, we crafted a completely new alphabet for the Corsa launch, used in this animation.
This approach was such a resounding success that it was adopted unilaterally by Vauxhall on other Corsa release material creative work.
Below are some images from the motorshow in London, showing all the different eleemnts the new font was used within as well as the main event, which was the half pipe.
Third year running for me to participate in the 24Photography artist’s group. Each year, 24 photography artists document New Year’s Day. Each of us are assigned an hour to capture the day through our eyes and relate it to that year’s theme. This year, the chosen theme is Empty.
I was based in Hong Kong for most of December this year and although I was allotted 12 noon GMT, this translated to 8pm in Hong Kong. The city is one of the most vibrant and hectic places on earth, so following the empty theme appeared complicated at first. I wanted to focus on the hyper realism of the city, which I accomplished through using HDR to enhance the already bright end of day colours.
As usual, the exhibition will open on 24th February in Berkeley Square, Mayfair. Nearest tube station is Green Park.
Useful links:
24Photography website: http://www.24photography.org/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/24photography
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/24photography
All Terrain Photography 