HDR and Mr Pete Carr

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milou

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Congrats on your multi-page article in November's edition of Professional Photographer magazine - just seen it in WH Smiths Waterloo. I recognised the pictures first!
 
Thanks :D I've been meaning to get out and buy a copy to start this thread but you beat me to it :p Theres quite a lot in this month issue that I need to talk about, which I will once I've seen the mag myself. Read the article on a day with Karen McBride, I was there :D
 
Cool, now I have to go out in the cold at lunch at get the mag.
 
ohh nice one Pete, you kept that quiet!

look forward to reading that
 
I subscribe to the Pro Photog mag and didn't see your article in the last edition that I read. I'll check later which month it was.

Nice networking though :)
 
Its in the Nov issue as I'm looking at it right now :D The more interesting read is the Karen McBride day as it gives you great insight into how a top photographer does a shoot. As I was there its also a great reminder of my first time assisting and it was such a fun day.

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Nice one mate, I'm pleased to see they included the picture of the dancers, one of my all time favourite shots.

Did you approach them or was it the other way round?
 
Thanks for the support guys :) I'm just writing up how the day went and I'll be posting it soon.
 
That is sooo good - will you be doing autographed copies :)
 
Dark Star said:
That is sooo good - will you be doing autographed copies :)
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Haha... *ponders*

Forbiddenbiker said:
And he's ours all ours.. heehee....well probably not, but hey. :D

Fanblinkin tastic, Pete, congratulations. I remember your super riot shots from ages ago...one of the reasons I ended up choosing this forum over all the others.

:clap: :clap:
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Huh no way. Thats quite something :thankyou:

-----
The story in full...

So a few weeks back I saw a forum post by Karen McBride asking for an assistant. I emailed her for the details and we had a chat on MSN about the day. It turned out that she was being interviewed by Professional Photographer for their "Day in the life" article. She wanted an assistant or two to create a real atmosphere. She called in a great guy called David Baird who really knew his lighting stuff. He was to be her assistant and I was to be his. Getting there was fun. I got stuck on the motorway for 30 mins and was panicing that I'd be late. I had to call Karen and explain. She said it was cool as David's train was late. I got there and it wasn't at all what I expected. I was kinda expecting a stereotypical studio on the highstreet or something. It was actually this old factory that had been done up, a tiny amount, to allow artists to work there. Musicians, painters, photographers, etc. It had a very cool lift. Really old fashioned style, but as we've recently found it can be stopped mid-floor by someone opening the door. The studio was awesome. It had the floor space of my parents entire house. There was a large quarter for studio work with HUGE softboxes. Another quarter was a kitchen. Another was a chillout zone with a couch, matrix like green seat and a coffee table. The other quarter had Karen's work on the walls and a place to work. All day I kept thinking "This is what I need." I was really nervous for most of the day. I was nervous enough about assisting but then with Professional Photographer in the background documenting it I was very very scared :D While we were waiting for the band to turn up we all got our laptops out. It was like an Apple / Canon store. We had the following;

2x 15'' Macbook Pros
1x iBook
1x 1Ds mk2
1x 30D
1x 10D
1x Fuji S3
1x Sigma 10-20
2x Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 (Canon + Nikon fit)
1x Canon 24-105 IS L
Random Nikon and Canon bits
Click to expand...

The 10-20 on a 1D "works" and its just uber wide. I looked at least 8ft tall. I had the chance to play with a 1Ds. I held it, looked through the viewfinder and put it down. Ignorance is bliss. I had just got my 30D and there was no way I wanted to spend the next few years thinking it was rubbish and that I needed a 1D. The great thing is that this was all backed up by what Karen said. She recently toured with Robbie Williams as his official gig photographer using none other than the Sigma 24-70 f/2.8. This really filled me with confidence. If its good enough for events like that, its good enough for me. She actually stole my 30D for the shoot as it was producing the results she was after with my 10-20 and 24-70 on. Again I was filled with confidence that it was all about how the photographer uses the kit they have.

Karen told me to show Ian Farrell (who has a photoblog) my HDR shots and he was blown away. We were chatting and he mentioned that he was missing a digital tutorial for the next issue. I told him that I've already written one on HDR and he couldn't believe his luck. He comissioned me on the spot and I was picking my jaw up off the floor for the rest of the day.

The band turned up, Dear Eskiimo, who are great. Katie really knew her stuff. Put a camera in front of her and boom, instant shot. Of course it takes a bit of time to get a really perfect shot as I saw on the day. Karen was taking some excellent shots but she felt things just weren't working. We had lunch in the form of Karen's Mum and sister who provided an entire buffet! There was even a tea boy. After lunch we got back to work and things started to pickup. We did notice a slight glitch in that Karen's Mac only had CS1 so it didn't support the 30D's RAW format. We had no net connection so we couldn't update it. Thankfully mine worked. She was shooting RAW + high res JPG as she preferred JPG but wanted the RAW's to have a play with HDR. So we used my Mac to do all the previewing. This was a great thing. I know people who say to never show your client the shots but having seen the other side of the coin I don't believe it now. You're there to produce something great. Whether you have an idea or the client does you need to work together and get that on film. So by sitting down with the client and going through the shots with them you can say whether you think its working or not, as can they. You're not there to simply take photos and run off home to process. If you look closely at the image of Karen at her desk, thats my Mac :D Its also my camera in the photos. Haha, random claim to fame :D 5pm rolled up and Ian had to leave. He was really disapointed as he was having a great time, we all were. After he left we put Fatboy Slim on (I think) and turned it up. That was the biggest tip I got that day. You could totally see how the band reacted to the tunes. They were more relaxed and livened up. The same for Karen and things just flowed. The great shots just poured in.

So by the end of the day what had I learnt?

Good tunes, good people skills = good photos. All the rest you can probably read in your average photography guide, but to see this in action was so helpful. Believe in yourself, go for the kill and have a kick ass soundtrack :D
 
Congratulations Pete, really good to read your story and will have to go out and buy the mag.

I bet the problems you recently had with the college prospectus is a distant memory now.

Well done :notworthy:
 
Can I just add my congratulations for the PP feature and thanks for sharing the day with us. Clearly inspiring!
 
Well done Pete, just goes to show you can sit and wait or you can go make things happen :)
 
Pete I'm looking for some way to slag you off so your head doesn't explode with all the praise but I can't find one so I'll just say congrats and I'm dead jealous and quickly go put my plastic mac on :)
 
Nice one Pete.

Well deserved. I might let you know my sharpening technique now :)
 
Well done Pete. I hope it makes up for all the glitches you've had just recently :thumbs:
 
Well done and its so interesting to read about the day itself .
Rich
 
There's another article in there too, your day with a pro?
 
as said on ocuk

Many congratulations and I hope this is the pathway to futher success for you.
 
Well done Pete :thumbs:

You've come a long way over the last few years, thoroughly deserved.
:clap: :clap: :clap:

I'm really suprised the 10-20 works on the 1D, might have to try that some time.
 
Cheers guys :) The 10-20 "works" in that it goes on and you can take pics but you do get rather bad vignetting and super distortion.
 
Excellent an excuse to go to Starbucks for a coffee and a what looks like a good read! Well done and a really interesting read about the day.

:clap:
 
Wow!
Im mega impressed :thumbs:
... but also a bit disappointed ... Ive just come back from a soaking at the shops and if Id have read this thread before I left Id have the mag in front of me now, tut!
Thanks for sharing your take on the day with karen, you just managed to keep me quiet & still (rarity) while I visualised your time at the shoot.
Ive been involved in a few shoots for mags but always at the beauty end so I really envy you actually being up there with the pro's.
Sounds like youve had a fabulous time, with some fab memories to savour.
Hope it opens some doors for you :)
 
Fantastic! Well done, you must be feeling great about the whole thing. PP sales have probably just shot up now :lol:
 
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