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Jazzwise Magazine Ad For Modern Jacobite
I picked up the latest Jazzwise magazine today and started flicking through the pages. I was drawn to the cover because it featured two jazz artists that I have shot before, Branford Marsalis and Kurt Elling. Then I got a nice, but unexpected surprise when I came across a full page ad for Tommy Smith's latest CD with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (which I shot all the pictures for). It's strange, but it took a moment to realise they were my pictures.
The September edition of Jazzwise will be out in a couple of weeks and will feature an interview with Tommy on the Modern Jacobite recording. Should be well worth a read!
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10 Travel Tips for Photographers
Sorry if the title for this post sounds a bit too much like click-bait, but it's exactly what it says on the tin, 10 quick tips for traveling. Some for photographers and some about travelling in general. It's not the definitive list by any means, but it's what I've found on my travels.
1. Plastic Belts designed for air travel are available from Amazon for very little money. They usually consist of a plastic buckle and a webbing material for the main part of the belt. This means you don't have to remove your belt at airport security.
2. Plastic bags are provided at airports for small bottles of liquid. Use one of these bags to place all your coins and then put it inside your camera bag.
3. Buy a camera bag with a sleeve at the rear to slide over the handle on rolling suitcases. Don't carry when you can wheel.
4. Remove everything you need from your hand luggage that you will need during the flight (book, iPad, magazine, reading glasses, sweets...etc) and stow away your bag in the overhead bins for the rest of your flight.
5. Invest in a quality pair of noise cancelling headphones, preferably over the ear ones. I use Bose, they're a bit spendy, but well worth the money.
6. Travel as light as possible, you don't need to take every lens you own. On my latest trip I packed an X100T plus the Wide conversion lens (35mm & 28mm in FF), the X-Pro2 with the 35mm f2 and the 18-55mm f3.5-f4 (27-83mm in FF). Maybe when the 50/2 comes out I take that instead of the zoom, but the 56mm is heavy and bulky (in mirrorless terms).
7. Pack a smaller camera bag in your luggage just big enough for one camera and one or two lenses. I take Rob by Millican because it can be packed really flat and it doesn't look like a camera bag and if anything looks old and worn. Put all non essentials in your hotel room safe and use the smaller bag to travel light. I tend to wear one camera and have another one plus two lenses in the Millican bag.
8. Camera bags are an easy target for thieves and pick pockets. Wear your bag in front of your body if possible, or turn it so that the opening side is against your body and if possible, use a luggage strap around it to make life harder for thieves.
9. Hotel room power outlets can be a bit sparse sometimes. Take a multi socket adaptor from your home country and you will be able to charge 4 or 5 pieces of equipment from one outlet.
10. With so many devices using USB to charge these days, it's worthwhile taking a couple of of double USB chargers. I use an international version that has interchangeable adaptors for UK, US, Asia & Europe. This can charge a phone, tablet, power bank and even cameras like the X100T at the same time.
Fujifilm X-T2, EF-X500 Flash and X-Pro2 Firmware
There's a few new releases today from Fuji. There's nothing mind blowing, like medium format, but as I shoot with a pair of X-T1's a lot, I'm obviously interested in the X-T2. Not a lot has changed on the outside (a good thing), but like the X-Pro2, the difference on the inside is huge.
A lot of people have been waiting for a decent dedicated flash too, and the EF-X500 looks like the first serious effort. What seems to be missing though, is a dedicated commander unit (transmitter) to be able to use these in a multiple flash situation. As I use six flashes, I don't think I'll be rushing out to replace my Yongnuo 560 IV's, not at 499 (UK pounds) a pop.
X-T2 coming Sept 2016 £1399
- 30min 4K Video
- New style Tilting Screen
- 24.3 MP
- AF-C Custom Setting
- Focus Joystick (like the X-Pro2)
- Dual UHS-2 Card Slots
- Acros Film Simulation
*The detail of the firmware is subject to change.
NEW Lens Roadmap
- 23mm f2 (2016)
- 50mm f2 (2017)
- 80mm f2.8 OIS Macro (2017)
EF-X500 TTL Flash £449
- TTL Flash
- Guide Number of 50 (aprox)
- High Speed Sync
- Weather Resistant
X-Pro2 Firmware v2. coming October 2016
With the firmware update, the FUJIFILM X-Pro2 and the new FUJIFILM X-T2 will stand side-by-side as double flagship X Series cameras.
Detail of the update includes:
The new autofocus algorithm* that is implemented on the new FUJIFILM X-T2 to produce faster and more accurate autofocus will also be implemented on the FUJIFILM X-Pro2.
* Excludes the new AF-C Custom Settings functions.
Compatibility with the new hot-shoe mount flash EF-X500. The camera will now be enabled with high-speed flash sync and multi-flash lighting.
AUTO POWER OFF will now have 15 sec, 30 sec, and 1 min. options, allowing more customisable power management.
The parallax correction function will be improved to provide a more accurate and easier-to-use Optical Viewfinder.
Wordpress. Ashes. Phoenix. Squarespace
Today (1st July 2016) I'm launching the new improved derekclarkphotography.com. This wasn't a planned website overhaul, but my old Wordpress site got hacked and it showed me just how much damage can be inflickted on that platform and prompted my decician to move over to Squarespace.
So this is the new digs and I hope you like what I've done with the place so far. A lot has changed in the few years since my last total revamp and with that in mind, this new site should reflect those changes. The biggest of these is probably the jazz section. I've been documenting the jazz scene for three years now and I'm proud of the body of work I have so far (and it's growing all the time). If you know anything about jazz, you will see what an impressive list of well known players I have in the JAZZ section.
I have used Wordpress for many years and really like the platform, but it's time for a change and hopefully one that will make me want to blog more often as there is less back-end work to do on Squarespace. I've still got some work to do on this, so the site might change a little more in the next couple of weeks. Plus I'll be working backwards to fix all the pictures and galleries in previous blog posts.
Arild Andersen Trio
Last week I had the pleasure of photographing The Arild Andersen Trio during the Scottish leg of their current tour. The Trio consists of Norwegian bassist and composer Arild Andersen, Scottish tenor saxophonist Tommy Smith and Italian drummer Paolo Vinaccia. Although Paolo is Italian, he has actually lived in Norway for the last couple of decades. I photographed a gig at The Queen's Hall in Edinburgh and then again a few nights later when they played a private gig for a the music students at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland which is located in Glasgow, where Tommy is Head of Jazz. The picture at the top of this post was shot with my trusty Fuji X100T using the daylight balanced florescent lighting on the ceiling of the room. The picture has a slight crop to straighten it up a little, but other than that it's straight out of camera. All other pictures were taken with a couple of X-T1's.
If you haven't seen or heard this trio and you like jazz, I would highly recommend you do so as soon as possible. With beautiful compositions and double bass from Arid, not only that, his use of effects and loops help expand the normal constraints of a trio. Paolo's drumming and percussion is unique and he can take the band from a whisper to a full out onslaught and then back again. He can produce sounds from a cymbal that I have never heard from any drummer and on top of that he's a really nice guy that knows his cameras. Last, but definitely not least is Scotland's jazz legend Tommy Smith, fresh from receiving The Houses of Parliament jazz award for teaching. Tommy is a world class saxophonist and composer who has created a thriving jazz scene in Scotland and is largely responsible for the talented crop of young jazz musicians coming up today.
I've also been shooting some pictures for Tommy's next CD with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. More about that coming up in the next couple of months.
GIG AT THE QUEENS HALL IN EDINBURGH (Above)
PRIVATE GIG FOR THE MUSIC STUDENTS AT THE RCS GLASGOW (Above)
Fuji X-T1 & Bowens Streamlite 530 Portraits
I have around thirty head shots to do this week and I want to use a really simple 'one light' setup that I could see exactly what I was going to get straight off. I would normally use a multiple speedlight setup for this kind of location shoot, but space and time are tight. So I opted to use a single Bowens Streamlite 530 constant light. The Streamlite series use daylight balanced florissant bulbs, five of them in the case of the 530 or 3 in the Streamline 330. But I thought it would be a good idea to test the setup before the actual shoot as I will need to hit the ground running. would one Streamline be enough? So I enlisted my kids to model for my. That's why photographers have kids...right? I'm not sure what background I want to use, so I pulled out three of my favourites from Lastolite. I chose the Washington/Dakota, White/Grey and the Black Velvet. I shot all of the pictures below with an X-T1 and the 35mm f1.4. The Bowens Streamlite had all five bulbs switched on. I shot in JPEG with the following settings:
- ISO: 400
- Shutter Speed: 1/125th
- Aperture: f2.8, f3.6 & f4
- Film Simulation: Classic Chrome
- Noise Reduction: -2
- Sharpness: +2
- Highlights: -1
- Shadows: 0
- Colour: +2
- Dynamic Range: 200
- White Ballance: Auto
All pictures received +10 Clarity and +10 Contrast in Lightroom, and a slight vignette was added to the ones shot against the plain grey background. To be honest, I could have used them straight out of camera, but it's ingrained in me that I have to do something to them. But it's great to be at a point with digital cameras like the Fuji system that we could actually use JPEG's straight out of the camera.
Kage Collective :: A New Direction
Today, Friday 15th of January 2016, we launch a new direction for The Kage Collective website. Although there's always a lot going on in the backgroung everyday between the eight members, uploading content has been a bit sporadic and we haven't always produced as much as we hoped. So as a way change all that and to give us a kick up the backside and give our followers more quality content, more often, we have decided to take the website in a new direction. Today we launch our new monthly online magazine style format that will be updated on the 15th of each month and have a number of new essays, an interview, a review and a favourite shot of the month from each of us. This is new to us and it's possible that we may introduce more things in the coming months too. But don't hang around here, go see all that's new at Kage Collective by clicking HERE.
p.s. Don't forget that we have a free ebook called Under A Vagrant Sun that you can download from the Kage website or by clicking HERE.