Photographing Wilderness

We are pleased to announce that we have secured a number of copies of the first book by Jason Friend. Photographing Wilderness (GMC Publications 2003) was released to positive reviews throughout the UK photographic press and led to his images being showcased throughout the world.

Taken in locations as diverse as California and Western Samoa, these magnificent landscapes provide beautiful and instructive examples of what a photographer can achieve even in the most challenging environments. Jason Friend' s adventurousness has led him miles from the nearest signs of civilization, all in the hope of capturing nature in its unspoiled state. Photographers with an equally bold spirit will appreciate the practical information on where to go; what equipment to take; which composition, framing, and exposure techniques work best; and how to travel and photograph safely. In addition to being a comprehensive hiking and photographic guide, this is an impressive record of one man' s journey to some of the world' s most breathtaking untouched settings.

You can order a signed copy of the book directly from this site for the special price of only £4.99 (+ £3.50 P&P). If you require shipping outside of the UK, please contact us with your requirements.

Extra date - Dunstanburgh Castle Workshop

Due to overwhelming demand for the Dunstanburgh Castle workshop on the 20th September (which is now fully booked), we have decided to run an additional workshop at the same location on the 19th September.

We will meet at the harbour in Craster at 10AM, from where we will take a gentle walk north along the coast. We will capture images of the Castle from this southerly position before proceeding to within the grounds of the Castle. After a stop for lunch, we will continue onwards to Embleton Bay where we will explore the classic northern viewpoints of the Castle. We wil return to Craster via an alternative route slightly inland. The workshop will finish at 4PM.

This workshop will give you the opportunity to practice your architectural and landscape photography along the Northumberland Coast. The composition of images will be discussed in addition to the technical requirements for successful landscape photography such as the use of filters, the benefits and disadvantages of using a tripod and essential focusing techniques.

There are currently 4 places left for the workshop on the saturday. You can secure your place by clicking here.

Hadrian's Wall Workshop - Places left!

Why not join Jason Friend this friday, along a spectacular stretch of Hadrian's Wall within the Northumberland National Park. As a regular visitor to the region, Jason will be sharing some of his favourite viewpoints of this famous world heritage site as well as his experience of how to make successful images from the location.

We will meet at the Steel Rigg Car Park near Haltwhistle at noon, from where we will spend until 6.00 PM hiking along and photographing the roman wall and its surroundings.

There are a few places left for this workshop. If you wish to secure your place please either book online or by phone - 0800 954 0234.

Image Licensing & Print Products

Last week we undertook the successful integration of the Jason Friend Photoshelter Archive into the www.jasonfriend.co.uk website. The Photoshelter archive has been utilized over the last few months to store and market the Jason Friend Image Library. By integrating the Photoshelter archive, we are now able to offer a number of new features through www.jasonfriend.co.uk:

Archival quality photographic prints are now available of all of the images in the image library which means that there are now nearly 5000 images available in 3 different print sizes with prices starting from just £9.99 for a 12" x 8" print. A full range of other print sizes and photographic gifts are still available at www.jasonfriendprints.com.

Image licensing and image downloads are now available online - 24/7. We also now offer a Freedom Account which empowers the picture researcher with a simple, cost effective means to reproduce the photography of UK based photographer Jason Friend, and also a number of images from carefully selected external associate photographers.

Images are available whenever you require them, with the account enabling you to search and download all of the high-resolution (A3) image files available at the Jason Friend Photography website 24/7.

Not only is the Freedom Account extremely convenient but also a cost effective solution for your image requirements. We offer a 20% discount on your normal reproduction rates, as well as the option for deferred payments for up to 60 days from the date of notification of usage. Click here to register your interest in becoming a Freedom Account holder.

Simplicity?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking a client on a private workshop near my hometown along the Tyneside Coast, where we photographed and explored the local landmark of the St Mary's Island & Lighthouse.

As you would imagine, I have captured numerous images of the lighthouse over the last few years although I have to be honest in admitting that I have not composed any images recently that I have felt are strong enough to escape the 'delete' button.

Last night the weather conditions were quite 'interesting' with the onset of rain never seeming to be far away. However the weather can be quite fickle along the North Tyneside coast and the clouds actually started to clear shortly after sunset.

I am quite pleased with this shot although the capturing of the image was not as easy as it may appear. There was huge difference of 5 f-stops in the required exposure for the rocky foreground and the dramatic sky. To balance the final exposure I could have taken a normal of exposures and then processed them all to create a final HDR (High Dynamic Range) image but that would have meant yet more time behind the laptop. Instead I decided to use two of my Galen Rowell Graduated Neutral Density Filters staggered across the horizon (a 2-stop soft transition filter and 3-stop hard transition filter) which balanced the exposure nicely - but there was a problem.

The wooden groynes providing the foreground interest were occupying both the top and bottom of the frame, and as such were clearly indicating where I had placed the two filters. The only solution was to manually fire a strobe light across the top of groynes during the required thirty second exposure, with the strobe light being provided by a Canon Speedlite 550 EX. I captured a number of images with this one being my preferred frame.

Quite simple really.

The Lensbaby experience

Recently the nice folks at Lensbaby sent me a Canon mount version of their Lensbaby Composer with accompanying Optic set, for me to put through it paces in the great outdoors. The first question in my mind was simple - Would the Composer be sharp enough for my critical picture editors?

Anybody who has heard about the Lensbaby are probably wondering why I am even considering the sharpness of the lens, after all the Lensbaby has become famous for it's ability to selectively blur the subject. In my opinion there is a fine line between an intentionally blurred image and one that is simply out of focus - And of course I don't want people viewing my images to think that the latter reason is why my images appear blurred. So, is the Lensbaby really sharp where it should be?

Considering that the original Lensbaby could almost be considered as a toy lens, the Composer is amazingly sharp. The method used to compose and focus a shot can be somewhat frustrating, with the composer utilizing an unique ball and socket system to refine the amount of blur (out of focus effect) applied to your composition meaning that once you have focussed the lens and then start to evaluate the 'lensbaby effect' you may well slightly knock the focusing of the sweet spot. I found myself composing, focussing, adjusting the blur direction, re-focussing, adjusting the aperture (via a rather simple yet highly effective method of placing metal discs in the front barrel of the optic), checking the focussing again and then actually tripping the trigger. Of course my camera was set up on a tripod all the time while I went through these motions - I did try some handheld shots but they were quickly deleted from my computer upon viewing them on the monitor.

Although the Lensbaby was sharp where it mattered (albeit with a drastic drop of sharpness outside the sweet spot - this is a Lensbaby after all), I did find the rendition of colours slightly muted and nowhere as vivid as I would expect from one of my 'L' series lenses. In the defense of the Lensbaby, I am comparing a lens costing less than £200 to a selection of lenses which retail for nearly 3x the price of the Lensbaby. The colours are muted but in a way they add to the Lensbaby effect. Personally however, they are not to my taste and I found myself converting a number of my images to Black & White.

Continuing along the Black and White theme, I experimented using the Lensbaby Composer with a 77mm size Kood infra-red filter attached to the front of the lens with Blu-Tack. The long exposures dictated by using a filter designed to block visible rays and only allow infrared light to pass combined with the selective focus (or should it be blur) of the Lensbaby seemed to compliment each other well and produced some memorable images.

Whilst testing the Lensbaby, I mainly used the excellent Double Glass Optic which is the standard optic shipped with the Lensbaby Composer and, as I mentioned above, I found extremely sharp. This can not be said of the optional Optic set although if you consider that a optic designed to replicate a pinhole camera is included in the selection it is hardly surprising! Unfortunately I found the Plastic, Single Glass and Pinhole / Zone Plate Optics to be little more than a selection of toy lenses which I would have absolutely no use for.

Perhaps the most important thing I found from trying out the Lensbaby Composer, is that whilst it will obviously let you down at times in regard to the image quality it will probably more than make up for any disappointment in the pure pleasure of use whilst actually capturing an image. This lens is not for everybody but, for those willing to persevere, it can produce some amazing results.