Finally, I’ve managed to go through the thousands of images I shot last year and select my favourite image from each month. I meant to do this last year, but what with one thing and another, I never managed to get round to it, but this year I’ve forced myself to set aside sufficient time. It’s been quite an interesting exercise all in all, and I can really see how my skills have developed over the year. Unfortunately though, there are only 11 images rather than 12 as it appears as though June was a very lean month for me photographically speaking. Don’t ask me why! I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning, nevermind why my image count for that month is rather low. I haven’t applied any particular selection criteria (composition, lighting, technique etc), other than they are my personal favourites. Anyway, I hope you enjoy….
For a full slideshow, go here – http://gallery.fillfactorphotography.com
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - January - Dawn in the Peak District
The above image was shot on a trip up into the Peak District very early on a January morning. It was very cold, but all in all quite a successful jaunt, apart from my run in with a rather irate bull who wasn’t too keen on my disrupting his breakfast! Read more here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - February - Dawn in Dunham
This was taken again early in the morning, just after sun up as you can see. I’d had a fairly fruitless excursion to this point, seemingly driving around endlessly looking for “that shot”. I’d been about to call it a day and head home to the warmth when I rounded a bend and saw this group of trees in front of me. Eventually the sun crested the horizon, and I positioned myself so that it was right behind the middle tree. At the time, I wasn’t convinced it was all that great an image, but having since gone back into it and applied some new HDR skills that I’ve acquired from Trey Ratcliff (the HDR guru), I’m much happier with it now.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - March - Fans leaving Old Trafford
Over the years, I’ve shot thousands of photographs of football fans for various assorted projects with different cameras and films. It’s only recently that I’ve been using a DSLR for this, as its not guaranteed that you’re even going to be allowed to get a camera into Old Trafford these days. So when actually going to watch a game, I still often take a film or a P&S camera with me. However for this game (if memory serves it was the Liverpool game where we got hammered ) I’d decided that bravado was going to get me past security (there was no way I was going to miss the game, or leave my camera at the turnstile), which was just as well as I manged to get a whole bunch of keepers before and after the game. More here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - April - Sunset over Rostherne Mere
This image was from a trip out to Rostherne Mere near Tatton one spring evening. I had intended on making some images in the graveyard of the church behind me here, but I got chatting to some old dear who was tending to a grave, and she suggested that I go round the other side of the church and look at the view there. I knew that this little lake existed, but I had no idea how you got to it, until she pointed out a path through the undergrowth. So I packed up my gear and wandered off, accompanied by her little dog and discovered this view. It was lovely and peaceful here and I must have stayed for a couple of hours as the sun went down. The whole time I was there, I had the little pooch for company – it must have been wondering what the hell I was doing, but it didn’t mind me rambling away and was actually a really good listener.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - May - Dry Dock, Malta
A family holiday to Malta in May produced this image. It was taken around dawn in the bay of Marsascala. I used the bow of a boat to make the foreground, and the waterline and harbour of Marsascala as the background. For more from this trip, go here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - July - Bridal Shoot in Wiltshire
In July I took an on-location lighting workshop with the inspirational Terry Hewlett (www.terryhewlett.com). We shot primarily with Terry’s Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit, and it proved to be an invaluable learning experience. Read more here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - August - Sunset over Southport Pier
August saw me paying several dawn & dusk visits to Southport pier with a view to capturing the pier at sunset. More here
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - September - Faked sunrise over The Wishing Bridge by Lymm Dam
In September, I was commissioned to produce an image of Lymm Dam. This image was taken on an initial recce to work out what and when to shoot. The light was so grey and drab that I thought I’d have a little play and see if I could re-create a sunrise over this little bridge. More here
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - October - Sunset over Lymm Dam
This is one of the final shots I produced for the above commission. Original post here.
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - November - Model shoot in Stockport
This image was taken as part of a shoot for the Boundaries project that I’m working on. More here
Neil Alexander's Best of 2009 - December - Car shoot in the Yorskhire snow
Around New Year, I was over in East Yorkshire shooting a little here and there. This image was taken just as the light was beginning to fade, and is one of the first good images I’ve taken with my new Lensbaby Composer. It was a relatively long exposure as I wanted streaked car lights in the background. As it turned out, I was just about to pack up when a snow plough came around the corner lights blazing. It was going quite slowly, but my exposure time was long enough to produce a nice long blur.
Anyway, there you have it – my personal favourites of 2009. Here’s hoping 2010 is even better!
I’m afraid to say that I’m absolutely mentally busy at the moment, and unfortunately one of the first things to suffer is this blog! I still haven’t found the time to finish processing my shoot from London the other week, or go through my images of the seals from last week. I have however managed to find a few bits and bobs of interest to keep going…
Inspiration:
If you’re in the US, and you’re into your Urban Exploration, then this is the site for you – www.opacity.us – it’s a great site packed full of great photographs and a comprehensive list of places to shoot.
Another great site if you shoot portraits and are after some inspiration is www.davehillphoto.com .
If you’re still stuck for inspiration, try checking out the PhotoNetCast podcast. Their latest instalment (Episode 9), has “inspiration” as its theme and is worth a listen as always. Check out the shownotes and podcast here.
Finally, I’ve noticed that there is a serious dearth of stock photographs of uPVC doors, windows, gutters, conservatories etc, so if you’ve got some you’re prepared to sell, please contact me ASAP!
That’s it from me for the time being I’m afraid – I really need some sleep!!
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Hidey ho, back again from a fun family week in Norfolk. We stayed in a fabulous converted barn not far from the quaint little towns of Great & Little Walsingham rented through a great company by the name of Rural Retreats. We’ve used them once before for a break in the Lakes, and I reckon we’ll be back to Norfolk with them next year, though probably in a different property. Although I went completely tooled up, very little shooting was accomplished. My 17 month old daughter managed to crack her head on a stone step in the barn on day 2. After a not insubstantial amount of blood loss, a rather fractious hour’s drive to A&E in Norwich, we got her head sewn up. She had a large gash above her right eye and was hysterical whilst they tried to repair her. Fortunately, its scabbed over nicely and hopefully there’ll be no lasting damage, but the rest of the week was spent watching over her like a hawk and the result was very little shooting. We did however manage a trip out to see the seals at Blakeney Point, and a marvelous adventure it was. They get you really up close to the seals, and there are loads of them just languishing on the beaches with the occasional inquisitive one or two investigation the boats. I popped on the Sigma 170-500mm before we left the jetty, but due to the spray I kept it in the bag until we got up really close. I’d been toying with trading it in for a 2x teleconverter, but as PFD didn’t have one in before I left, I thought I’d give it another outing to see if the results really are as intermittent as I remember. On initial inspection I got some great shots, but until I get into the office tomorrow, I can’t say for sure. I’ll post the results tomorrow.
I’ve got a few interesting links for you below, but before I sign off I’ve got to point out that I will be starting a new webdev contract on Tuesday and unfortunately its onsite so I’m probably not going to be posting as much as usual. I’ve got a few ideas for projects that I plan to put into action to keep me sane over the next few months or so and I’ll post more details of these when I’ve finalised them.
Links:
1) The Flash Centre (UK-based lighting stores) have created a YouTube channel, where they have been uploading lots of lighting tutorials.
2) Now this is what you call a project! Scott Strazzante’s “Common Ground” project was shot over several years detailing the change in land use in Illinois when a farmer watches on as his house is bulldozed to make way for a new housing development and then details the new residents who inhabit is old land. Highly recommended – check it out here.
3) If you’re looking for inspiration, check out Chase Jarvis. At just 35, he is the youngest photographer to be named both a Hasselblad Master and a Nikon Master, and his work is fantastic. Check him out here.
4) If you’re on Flickr or Twitter or some such social networking site, and looking to keep in touch with some other pretty cool photographers, check out the survey Brian Auer compiled over at Epic Edits.
5) Finally, this looks pretty cool. It looks simple to use and has some nice features. You can import photos and movies, and the finished show can be presented right from the browser or saved in Powerpoint format. Check it out here
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A quiet weekend all in all, though I did make it into Trafford Park for dawn on Sunday. I’ve not spent much time with the DSLR & kit for a while, so I thought I ought to take it all for a spin. Though I felt particularly lacking in motivation and inspiration and the light got quite harsh rather quickly. So I’m afraid the results haven’t rocked my world. Though the image above did rather tickle me. These two fellas were just standing next to the bus stop waddling around. I dived out of the car and rattled off a dozen frames or so before they scarpered. The shot below is off 3 rusty unused tanks of some description. I was drawn to the patterns the rust has created. And the final image is of containers at the container port by the canal. The reflection was what caught my eye.
Yesterday you may have noticed was short of a blog entry. I went out Tuesday night to continue the service stations project. I covered over 200 miles getting as far north as Tebay services and shot half a dozen rolls of film. I finally made it home just after 1am suffering with what can best be described as a full on case of Man Flu! An awful nights sleep combined with my eldest deciding he wanted to get up at half 5 left me feeling completely flat yesterday and totally unable to function. I did however manage to dev the film and should be able to post some scans later today. A late business meeting last night was the final straw. I did however manage to get some more photography work out of it 
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I also took delivery of an Epson R2400 printer yesterday. I managed to get it for a song as they’re about to introduce its replacement (the R2880). Its a full A3 colour printer that will print full bleed images, and it Rocks! I’ve had my eye on one of these for a while as I seem to spend forever sending images off to print, and it costs a fortune and they keep getting lost in the post. I did some sample colour and B&W prints using the sample paper that came with the printer (Epson Premium Glossy Photo & Archival Matte) and the results are tremendous. I used some vouchers for Jessops that I had to get some Harman Gloss & Matt fibre A4 paper. I did have some issues getting it to show the new paper types in the print dialogue box. Also when you change ink cartridges (the Matt black for the Photo black and vice versa) it uses a LOAD of ink to adjust and repopulate the print head, but I reckon I’ll never need to send anything out again! I just need to decide on what paper I’m going to use – I’d like to try some of the Hahnemuehle papers and try and source it as cheap as possible!! Any tips or sources much appreciated…… 
1. A funny article from Epic Edits – "7 Bad Habits of Digital Photographers". I have to confess that I have done more than one of these more than once….
2. "4 reasons never to delete images…." from a new blog I’m reading called Light Chasers Photography. Read it, digest it and NEVER do it!!
3. "Organize your pictures in 5 easy steps…no kidding!" from Organize Pictures – another new blog I’m following (well new to me anyway). This is one area that I really need to devote some attention to. All my photographs are within 1 folder, and all RAW files are quite well organised within there chronologically (I use Lightroom for more precise organisation), and all Film scans are in another folder (in another Lightroom library). The problem I have is with the plethora of subfolders I have within the main photographs folder, which contain images for print, for various web sites, competition entries. The list goes on and they are in a state of total chaos….
4. "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom vs. Nikon Capture NX". This is a really detailed 3 stage article from Photonovice.net. When I first got my D70s several years ago it came bundled with a copy of Nikon Capture NX which I began to use only to get increasingly frustrated with its UI, clumsy image organisation and its inability to handle anything other than NEF files. Then I discovered Lightroom and I’ve never looked back. There are a few things that CaptureNX does that Lightroom doesn’t, and if you buy a Nikon camera its FREE!
5. "5 Steps to create precise keywords for tagging your pictures". If you use a keyword based library application or submit to macro/micro sites, then your keywording skills need to be up to scratch. This is quite a good article if you’re struggling with this.
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I’ve been doing some further work on my M6 service stations project over the last couple of days. Now that I’ve submitted most of my A-level stuff I’ve got a bit more time to play with so I’ve been pursuing this again. I had wanted to capture the emptiness and the lonesomeness of the service stations at night, but the sunrise got the better of me. I was out the door for just after 3 and headed down to Stafford services, but by the time I got there (about 3:45am), the light was already changing. Once I’d got there I also realised that these particular services are not really what I was looking for anyway – they’re far too leafy and “pleasant”, so I opted to work my way up the Northbound carriageway and visited Keele, Sandbach (where I got turfed off), Knutsford (where both these shots were taken), Lymm truck stop, and Charnock Richards. All in all it was a relatively successful trip. The light once the sun had appeared was fantastic so I just kept shooting eventually calling it a day about 8am. I’m glad I did as the image above and the one below I’m really pleased with.Even though the light wasn’t what I had planned for, I have still managed to capture the feeling I was looking for. I got around half a dozen keepers but I’ll save posting the rest until the body of work has more depth.
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Waves crashing onto the shore in S’Algar, Menorca photographed by Fabrizio Filippini
Whilst we were in Menorca the weather turned for the worse towards the end of the week (only to be expected in early May I guess). I took these rather dramatic shots just round the coast from where we were staying in a little place called S’Algar. The scale of the development around this area of coastline in Menorca is quite amazing. There are new blocks of flats / holiday apartments, offices and rather swish holiday homes springing up all over the place though it does look like the authorities have a handle on it at the moment, and its not too in your face. Interesting to see what the place is like in 10 years time. One cockney dude we got chatting too had lived there for over 20 years, and he said that he reckoned the number of tourists to this area had been on the decline for the last 10 years or so. It’s only his opinion and as this was my first trip to the island its hard to say whether he’s right or not, but there are certainly plenty of new properties being built.
Waves crashing onto the shore in S’Algar, Menorca photographed by Fabrizio Filippini
