OK so the weather has taken a turn after one of the best summers we’ve had for years. But don’t let that stop you getting out there and enjoying yourselves.
In fact it’s still pretty mild and there’s some dry weather forecast. The woods are looking fab at the moment and there’s nothing kids like better than getting out there and enjoying the fresh air now that schools are back and we spend so much time indoors.
So it’s a great time to organise a Family Photography Session and we’re launching a new promotion to help you make the step and book your session this Autumn. Watch this space for more details.
My small stock of film finally lost its space in the Freezer at the weekend. In fairness it’s been there a few years at this stage and we have a glut of frozen blackberries that had higher priority.
I think I have a couple of rolls of standard colour neg film in the fridge but this was the ‘special’ collection of film which I’ll never be able to get again. In particular I remember when I bought that last batch of HIE it was very hard to find any that was still fresh. I’m not sure if you can still get the Velvia but certainly it’s very hard to get processed last time I tried (and that’s years ago).
I came to digital photography at an ideal time – the D3 generation of sensors was the tipping point where digital overtook film in pretty much all practical applications at 35mm or smaller. While there was still an advantage to studio medium format at the time that’s pretty much gone at this stage.
So I never had to struggle with a film / digital mix. I didn’t have to deal with lots of compromises in final image quality for the convienience and flexibility of digital.
But I still love film and would love to find more excuses (and time) so shoot some.
There is something in buying film that filled me with expectation and excitment about what you might create. It’s like buying an artist’s pad of fine paper and a new pencil.
There’s a thrill of endless possibility and potential.
The world has moved on and digital has changed the way we take photographs forever – and mostly for the better. We do tend to over-shoot and under-think, we don’t get to enjoy your images in the physical way we used to with printed film but we have the opportunity to experiment, learn, develop, create and share more than ever before.
The essence of good photography doesn’t change with the medium. The proliferation of photographs in the world just highlights the difference between good and bad (because there’s a lot more bad) but the value of the good is under threat.
I’ll find a new home for my antique film and hope that when I finally find a worthy project for it it’ll still be capable of rendering images in its unique way.
For the record, Kodak HIE is an infra-red (IR) sensitive film what, when used with a suitable filter, was capable of recording reflected light in the IR spectrum. So you get these wonderfully eiree landscapes with black skies and bright folliage (and ghostly portraits). I love IR in the Irish Landscape but a couple years ago I converted a D70 to only record IR and moved to digital for that too. IR photography is very experimental and it’s a lot easier with digital – although no way as much fun. Fuji Velvia is a high quality slide film which renders strong, bright colour with very little grain.
It’s been a busy Summer and although things have been quiet on the blog, it’s been quite the reverse in the office. I’ve been planning a lot of things to post up here so I’ll start rolling them out over the next few weeks and months (and it’s not all shameless publicity).
In the meantime with the schools back tomorrow we’ll be returning to normal office hours. So I’ll be here 9-10 and 2-3pm every day so that anyone can drop in without an appointment.
Outside those hours I’ll be here unless I need to be somewhere else. So it’s likely I will be in the office but it’s generally best to call and make an appointment to make sure.
That said I have a wedding booking this Friday (30th) so won’t be here at any stage that day.
I’ll be in Limerick all weekend from Friday with the swim team so anyone looking for prints before the end of the school hols needs to give me a buzz tomorrow. I’ll be back next week (once I get the chlorine out of my system!).
Also from next week I’ll be moving to summer hours which means office hours will move to 10-12am and I’ll be arranging appointments around those times where possible. As usual, if I’m not out at an appointment I’ll probably be in the gallery at other times during the day but it’s best to phone or text to check first – 087 683 8511.
If you’ve recently had a Communion and you’ve no photos to show for it then it’s not too late.
We do a lot of First Holy Communion sessions after the event. It’s a great chance to dressed up again and get the pictures you missed out on on the day.
The kids always enjoy re-living the day getting dressed up again and it can be scheduled to suit you so there’s no pressure – you can relax and enjoy the whole photoshoot experience.
We can do the session at Home or in a Studio Setting depending on how formal you want to go. But all these sessions are designed to be fun for everyone and you can see that in the images we produce.
So give me a buzz if you want to get some lovely memories of your special day now that the dust has settled – 021 4293714 or rob@roblambphoto.com
I’m pretty much up to date with the communion pictures at this stage so anyone who has had communion pictures taken should have either a proof sheet (for Gallery Sessions) or a booking for a viewing session.
For anyone who can’t make it in we can provide on-line viewing of your images but it’s better if you can come in and see them in their full glory for the first time. I can also answer your questions about sizing, framing and how the communion packages work.
There’s a lot going on this time of year but some lovely pictures come out of First Communions whether it’s a Gallery session, a session with the family at home or some of the less formal pictures – like those from the Our Lady of Lourdes Communion last weekend.
It’s a lovely time for the kids and a great time to capture all the excitement and innocence of the day.
The IR-converted D70 hasn’t been out for a while. Years in fact. The battery was so flat it had completely reset. It was one of my phases: the IR phase. Like the Fisheye phase I guess every photographer has these.
But over the last few years I’ve been focussed on my core skills as a portrait photographer and that’s all about traditional people skills and natural looking tones. I think classic portraiture endures whereas the latest trendy-faddy look will always date.
I’ve always been fond of the IR landscape look – those dramatic black skies! I just don’t shoot that many landscapes. And it hasn’t exactly been IR weather.
Today was better though and with a full day in the office in the offing I took 15 minutes out in the sun at lunchtime to see if the D70i still worked (it was a DIY job afterall). I decided to just go out there and shoot what I saw in a very familiar location. No real analysis, just image instinct.
I think it’s worth doing a bit more with the IR landscapes. You need to get the balance between the IR look and good composition. They are remarkable because of the IR thing but you need to use it to make a good image (and avoid the snowscape look). I just ned a few more sunny days and a little time to get out there!
I don’t do video, I’m a stills guy. I like a good movie – one with a good story – whatever the genre. But I prefer to tell stories myself using still images.
I am however a Swimmer and after a few years out of the pool as my kids have got more into swimming then I’m getting more involved myself.
So I guess it was only a matter of time before my interests came together: swimming, image capture, techy stuff.
When I met Garry I was inspired by his drive to improve the swimming ability of everyone he talks to. He’s more baldy-headed about swimming than even me!
We’ve now teamed up to provide technical analysis for freestyle swimmers. I’ve learned a lot about video in the process and the product is now matured. I’ve learned to ‘truck underwater’ and all about high frame rate capture. I’ve found some great free tools for editing video (and some crap ones). I’ve had a lot of fun and learned more about swimming in the process.
If you’re a mature swimmer and interested in improving your freestyle technique, check out video analysis cork for information on the analysis and development sessions.
It’s not exactly creative video – I’ll leave the wedding videos to the pros – but I’ve loved the technical challenge of getting this right.
In a digital age many people are still surprised that by far the majority of my photographs are delivered as prints.
I think it’s part of a full professional service that you get a professional product and not something that’s not ready for you to enjoy.
Most of my customers share the appreciation for a good print and they deserve to make the most of their images once we went to so much effort to create them together.
About two years ago we brought our printing in-house. That means that every thing up to a 20″ print (A2 paper size) is printed in-house.
It’s a quality thing. It’s about being in control of the whole end-to-end process of delivering my images to my customers. A lot of effort goes into capture (taking the picture with the best equipment and with optimal settings, good composition and great engagement) and then the post-processing of images to make them shine, so why would I give up the transfer of all that perfection to someone else.
And there is a huge variation to printing. Between the mapping of colour to ink and paper types to the handling and mounting of the prints, there are a lot of subjective decisions which I don’t want to leave to chance.
So bringing printing in-house was a big step. Not only buying a good printer but choosing paper stocks and learning how to get the best from my end-to-end set up.
I call it ‘hand printing’ because it’s a craft process. It may be less ‘hands-on’ than the traditional film/paper/chemical proccesses which I grew up with but in actual fact the inclusion of the computer is all that’s changed. The level of control and the ambition to create the perfect print is the same. The ability to print exactly how you see your print in your mind is the same.
Every print we produce goes through the same process. Each is printed on archival, acid free, fine art papers. The ink-paper combination is designed to last for generations if properly looked after. I also print on more specialist matt papers if it suits the image and the application. Each print is checked (and re-worked if necessary) and mounted in quality framers mounts.
If you choose a framed print, we can supply custom-made frames from a local framer or a small range of stock frames (also sourced locally).
You can also buy the high resolution images and produce your own prints – they cost about the same as print of equivalent resolution – but we can’t stand over the quality of the printer you choose.
How you display your images has a huge impact on whether you get to enjoy them. My images of your family deserve the best and our in-house process is designed to do just that.
To me there seemed to be a whole bag of stories relating to this bus, the people on it, the people who own and maintain it, where it’s been and what it’s doing outside St Mary’s on a Thursday morning.
And I’d love to know. And I’d love to photograph them.
But what came over me as I walked past the bus was a familiar old feeling of intrusion. It’s one I used to feel when I saw something like this on my holidays – I was fascinated, I knew there was a great story waiting to be told, I could even see some captivating photographs waiting to be taken, but I was inhibited by not wanting to intrude: I had no real right to pry for the sake of a good photograph.
My curiosity isn’t stronger than someone else’s privacy.
I thought that perhaps this would change now I do this for a living. I’m a full-time professional photographer now. But clearly for me that doesn’t give me the right to be nosey for a photograph no-one has asked me to take. Even if it will be fantastic.
Maybe it’s my English background. No doubt many other stunning photographs have been created without such qualms. Maybe the people concerned would have been more than happy to tell me their story and let me photograph them.
But the best thing about doing this professionally (for me) is that people ask you to photograph them and tell their story. It’s the asking that makes the difference.
So I shot this ‘from the hip’ without the people on the bus noticing and went about my own business. That probably says a lot about me but I’m OK with that.
