Visiting family in Lincolnshire for the weekend, Tallulah has spent much of the time enthusiastically riding the family rocking horse, it was first my Great Uncle Jack's dated 1905 and Tallulah is the 4th generation to still enjoy it.
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For those of you who don't know or can't read whats written on the camera is a Mamiya RB67, a gift I have bought myself for a joint Birthday/Christmas present. She (definitely a girl!) is a pro S and was made between 1974 and 1990 (not searched her family history yet) and is completely manual, as in everything is mechanical and adjusted by hand, there is not a single battery involved!
I have bought her for 3 reasons really. Firstly she has the same initials as me, secondly I just love the engineering and design wonderment of being able to see every bit move as you make an adjustment and finally, as much as anyone else have become a slight victim of the overshooting curse of digital. This is not me saying I won't take as many photographs as I have done, if anything I will probably take more, but I want to reinforce the disciplines of patience, consideration and restraint. This applies more to my personal work than commissions but there is less of a distinct line between those two these days, it can be all too easy to fill several 4GB memory cards (about 130 frames on a Canon 5D mk3) only to have to edit down the results once back in the studio. With medium format film it is over £2 each time you press the shutter, something that certainly focus the mind on the job at hand!!
I doubt I'll be shooting very many family portrait commissions with the RB67 but who knows I might fire of a few polaroids during a shoot as a rather unique memento of the wonder that is engineering and chemistry is this digital age.
n.b. I feel a sense of irony that I took these images with my iPhone! Image-making is image-making in the end!
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January is my usual time for looking back over the images from the year before and I have noticed a change this year. I'm generally not a "gear-head" photographer, ok I can get lost in a good sales flyer from The Flash Centre or Calumet, but since I pay my bills and feed my children with my cameras I tend to demand they generate money for me rather than being a slave to them! That all being said, looking back over the images I shot in 2014, I can distinctly see the influence of a single piece of kit that I purchased early in the year. The Elinchrom Ranger Quadra Hybrid RX has allowed me to shoot on location, single handedly, quickly, safely and with minimal interruption to my clients. I always shoot on location, but that may mean setting up a studio at a clients home or using their home as the set, but this year, more than ever before, we can head off into the woods or across the fields without this being any sort of drama.
The Quadra is so light, small and robust that I can take it with a Portalite Octa softbox on a light stand, power pack on one shoulder, camera bag on the other. Powerful enough to use in full summer sunshine but small enough and with a simple interface that the shoot remains about the subjects and not setting up the gear. I just need to get the adaptor to allow me to use the rest of the Elinchrom modifiers. Well done Elinchrom you have got his one pretty much spot on.
Here are a few images from this year lit with the Quadra, I'd love to know your thoughts and what piece of kit has made the biggest difference to the way you take photographs?
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it's such a filthy day here in Malmesbury and as I forgot to share this yesterday here is Thor at sunrise, my counsellor in his office! #dogwalktherapy #iphone #malmesbury
]]>I am having a little Facebook competition for you all over the holiday's. I have picked 4 of my favourite photographs from the year and I want all of you to vote on your favourite. Please pop over to my Facebook page (if your not already there!) and 'like' your favourite image. https://www.facebook.com/rupertbarkerphotographer?ref=hl
The image that get the most 'likes' by the end of the year - 23:59:59 GMT. Will earn the those who's shoot it was a 16"x12" fine art print of the image. I am also going to be entering these same 4 images into the Royal Photographic Society 365 Review of the year competition so I appreciate all the feedback I can get. Here are the images in no particular order.
And here is a link to the album on Facebook for all the 'likes' http://on.fb.me/1B3dOKF
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I may not own a Landy at the moment but it does not mean I don't think like I still have one!! Of to the dump we go!
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Winter Solstice from Glastonbury Tor. #dogwalktherapy #iphone
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Merry Christmas to you all. 2 Frozen obsessed daughters made our Chrisutmas card an obvious choice and let me play with some magical fake snow!
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"Green and pleasant land"
#dogwalktherapy #iphone
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Lesser Spotted Tri-Horned Scarlett.
This morning Scarlett asked for 3 bunches - Mummy obliged - this was shot at 5pm, still 3 bunches and even if I say so myself, that girls got style! #doityourownway
]]>"...the tiepins we bring to you and you king....." love her interpretation. Saying that probably more useful than frankincense and myrrh - especially if Jesus got a job where he had to wear a suit!
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So I was shooting our Christmas Card this evening............
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Rather than let chemotherapy take her hair whilst fighting breast cancer she decided to shave it off - doing it on her terms.
This included a brief hiatus halfway through to 'try out a pink mohawk'.
Anneliese has done this for her own empowerment but also to raise money for The Royal United Hospital's Forever Friends Appeal. They are currently trying to raise the money to build a dedicated cancer unit at the RUH, something I was surprised to know did not exist.
For more on Anneliese and if you can to make a donation, please follow this link: https://www.justgiving.com/Anneliese-Bushnell/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fundraisingpage&utm_content=Anneliese-Bushnell&utm_campaign=pfp-share
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Holme Beach, Norfolk. Ex-Crab on shell.
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Great shoot this afternoon - portrait shoot on a farm just out side Malmesbury. Whilst driving round the farm to look for locations client suggested the river, so of course we ended up in a river!! Found this little fella though what do you think?
Water was lovely and cool, if I wasn't carrying a camera may have had a lie down!!!
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The barley is ripening.
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Family time with 3 girls and a couple of 'Old Dogs" at Westhay Moor, Somerset. Feeling lucky.
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I don't work on Mondays I look after these 2 rascals!!! I used to pretend to clients that I was busy but I have given up on that now, I look after my girls on a Monday and I don't work. But being self employed/freelance I still answer the phone or emails if they look interesting enough!
]]>Looking for a completely different photograph I came across some images I shot way back in 2007 of the some friends juggling fire, for no other reason that we wanted to make some photographs. I thought is was about time I started to put some of the back catalogue onto the website and I will set up a projects tab to drop some of these into. In the mean time please enjoy the beauty of jugglers, paraffin and some dragged shutters!
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In this age of digital photography there is nothing nicer than handling the tangible and physical nature of 'negs' something I do not do anywhere near often enough. I immediately held a couple up to the window in the room and was filled with the excitement of seeing an image on celluloid, wishing I had packed my loupe with my suit.
Back in the studio a couple of days later, and no longer having access to a 120 film scanner, I set up my lightbox (once I had gone through a box of old adapters to find the correct one!) and photographed the negs in the same way we used to produce duplicate transparencies in my first job at LAT Photographic (thanks for that lesson remembered Peter Spinney). After a quick google search on how to produce a positive image from a negative in Lightroom (reverse the tone curve for those interested) the images came to life and I had 46 images from the 30's and 40's in my library. A wonderful glimpse back into the childhood and early family life of my Grandpa: images of my Great Uncle Jack, who died during The Second World war, and who coincidently shares a birthday with Scarlett my youngest daughter; lifelong passions of my Grandpa, horses and boats; the family home Scampton House, which is still in the family; and a few of my mother, her sister and her brother as very young children and several of dogs and cats!
My favourite image of the set is this one of my Great Uncle Jack in typical 40's beachwear! I love the pose, I love the crop (almost certainly unintentional), I love the tone, and I love the warmth it gave me as it appeared on my screen. (It could only have been made better it it had been under the red glow of a dark room as it appeared from a bath of developer.) That gives me an idea.................
A few years ago I was lucky enough to visit Croatia and meet an incredible lady called Sandra Sambrailo who almost single handedly runs a dog rescue sanctuary outside Dubrovnik. Her sanctuary is an old fort high on a mountain above the UNESCO World Heritage Centre of The Old City of Dubrovnik that was used by the Yugoslav Peoples Army to shell the city during the Croatian War of Independence. Sandra looks after hundreds of dogs and cats and was one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. As we walked up to the fort I heard a wimper from a road side bush and when I crouched down puppy timidly emerged, I carried the dog unto the fort imagining it to be an escapee but no Sandra informed me people leave unwanted dogs near by, knowing she will look after them and give them a home, no matter how many she is already looking after. 'Lucky' as Sandra named him is the little puppy with the kitten. The slideshow below is just a glimpse into her world and one I dearly would love to return to and photograph again.
I will be revisiting more of my old personal projects in the next few weeks and will post them up here and make a link on my new website.
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All photoshoot's purchased between now and Fathers Day ( June 15th 2014 ) will be entered in to a competition to win a £100 voucher to be spent on prints or products. Simply book a shoot for £75, to include a 10x8 framed print, and you will be entered into the draw for £100 off your print and product order, you will receive a card and voucher for to give on the day and have 6 months to book a date for your shoot. This can take place at your home or at a favourite location either on location or a studio set-up. Get in touch if you have any questions and Good Luck!
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Enjoy and any feedback more than welcome, unless its horrible then keep it to yourself!
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