Luck or Experienced Calculation

‘You have it so easy’ say you out there. Perhaps not! As a photographer for Events and Public Relations in London I am asked to shoot various people or objects in situations that sometimes have not a great deal of control, but I need to come home with the shot.

Over past years in these situations, that can be, not stressing but certainly let the adrenaline rush through your body, I have only had a few moments where I can honestly say ‘Is this going to go right for me?’ Or is this going to work out, will I loose out or become a winner with the wow factor and obtain that perfect frame. One time I remember was when I was working for American Airlines and needed to take a photo of Gary Lineker who at the time was in his prime of his football career with the England team on a training day. We needed a run of images for a PR article, I managed to fire off about three frames before he turned ran away from the gathered photographers to join his team mates on the training pitch. This was one situation that was going all ok but the tide turns very quickly sometimes and even in efforts to request his return ‘could you please come back not quite finished’ fell on deaf ears and as yet have not had the opportunity to meet him again in the flesh to thank him for that one.The images I got were fine for the article.

This one was great fun! It was a very early start. 5.20am to be precise. But apparently these balloonists like to float on the early morning thermals. I believe that actually it’s because they don’t know where they may land and when so need the rest of the day to make their way home, but hay that’s just my opinion. All the preparation of erecting these huge floating bubbles was nearing the end and shortly they will be off. Quite a dramatic experience really as they fire up the balloon and the basket drags alone the ground to lift up into the sky. Then complete calm as they float away in the distance. So my opportunity is close to achieve that shot. How well was this going for me.

All the balloons left within a good time frame and the soft breeze gently let them gain distance, there it was. The moment I was hoping for. Now feeling somewhat alone, with a slight adjustment to the angle by running to my left in the long bumpy grass of the field, I had the three balloons in the frame. The nearest one dominant in the picture displaying bold colours, the others just starting to become faint in the distance but adding to the overall composition of the shot.

Balloons, Public Relations, Event

This was the shot to end the set. Was it luck or was it a calculated situation on my part that this could happen for me, that the timings of that early morning produced this situation.

To be honest it was a bit of both really!

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FCPX with Alternative Images

In previous blogs it has been mentioned that at Alternative Images, apart from stills photography that is offered as our main service to the corporate industry sector, is the wider use of video content and how it is growing.

It is now with the use of DSLR cameras to obtain a high degree of quality for a desired budget for various applications. It has been said that the service offered is one from the ground up to making very complex sequences for conferences or business sales pitches but this all comes down to the individual situation that it would be needed for within the market place.

At Alternative we always want to be ahead of the game. Always ready to act for our clients and give them the best service possible. This means that we keep up with the latest hardware and software for all applications and address the functionality of all services.

We attend many training courses and have discussions with the most technical people on the latest updates and techniques available. Not that we don’t know how to use our equipment but have an attitude that there is something more we can add or learn to make us even better. Things are always changing, so we keep up.

We use the video editing program by Apple ‘FCPX’ and have recently been on a refresher seminar to interact with others on ideas and techniques to keep abreast of the market. Alternative are investing in their company and people to maintain their market prominence in this sector. So if your company needs training videos to address employees or short video clips for web site content we have the ability to produce the content required.

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