The Journey Begins - My new print from Martin Bailey
You cannot beat a print on a wall. Making a photograph that you're proud of and then printing that out on paper can be massively rewarding. Every photographer, no matter what you shoot, should have their photographs printed.
Right, now that's out of the way...
Just before Christmas 2013 I ordered a print from Martin Bailey. Martin is a British-born, Japan-based Nature & Wildlife photographer whose work I simply adore.
One of the reasons I was so keen to order a print from Martin, as opposed to any other photographer wasn't just because of the excellent quality of Martin's photography though. Martin has also literally written the book on printing! Check out Martin's Craft & Vision eBook 'Making the Print'. In Making the Print Martin clearly shows an attention to detail that tells you know he knows exactly what he's talking about. Furthermore Martin gives plenty of tips and advice about how to actually shoot a photograph with the end print in mind. There are some incredibly simple techniques that you can apply to your shooting that will dramatically increase the impact, the quality and the consistency of your prints.
It's for those reasons that I wanted to order a print from the man himself. For my first Martin Bailey print I opted for 'The Journey Begins' - a dramatic monochrome photograph of a dandelion flower. You can see the original photograph over on Martin's website, but here is a photograph Martin sent me just as he'd finished the print, before dispatching it to the UK:
Receiving this photograph of the print from Martin got me all excited and giddy. Each day I'd track it's progress: It took just two days to get from Japan to Coventry here in the UK to a delivery point. There, it took 4 days to get to Berkshire where I live...typical eh! Now it's here though I'm totally blown away with the quality.
One of the things about this print that I can't quite get across to you in the photographs I've made below, is how deep and rich the blacks are and how beautifully crisp and brilliant the whites are in direct contrast. It's such a simple subject, the humble dandelion flower, but it has such impact purely because of the black and white conversion and the simply superb job that Martin has done of the print. Wonderful! After removing it from the tube and then removing the wrapping from the outside and then slowly unrolling it, as if it were some sort of treasure map, I genuinly, literally took in a deep breath as it opened. I stared at it for a few minutes, just inspecting all of the details and the quality.
I've had prints done from labs for clients from the likes of Loxely Colour, OneVision, Whitewall and The Print Space, but in truth none of them have had this amazing feel of quality to them. Whether that's because Martin has more experience and is more of an artisan, whether it's because the original shot is just better for printing, whether it's the paper or the printer or all of the above I can't quite say. All I can say is that I've now got to raise my game and make my prints have this same effect on my clients.
It was only right that I photograph the unpackaging of a genuine Martin Bailey Print, so please do have a look at this 'unboxing' gallery:
(Click to view in Lightbox & Gallery View)
So, all I have to do now is find a means to mount this. I think this one will be going in my office, rather than somewhere else in the home. This is a photograph that I'll be enjoying in my place of work. It'll also be a nice backdrop behind me for when I do Google+ Hangouts and other video calls ;)
What do you think of the print and Martin Bailey's work? Have you read any of Martin's Craft & Vision eBooks? Drop a comment below and let me know.
An Audience With The Deer At Richmond Park
I've been working extremely hard on the Ready, Steady Podcast recently meaning the blog has been somewhat neglected. I've got 6 posts almost-finished, just needing some last minute attention so that they can be published. So, keep an eye out for some exciting upcoming projects and photowalk photographs here on the blog.
I've got a review of the Drobo 5D coming up, i share my thoughts on the cliche that is 'That's a wonderful camera, it must take great photographs' comment, I talk about why photographers won't (and shouldn't) give clients ALL of the photographs they take. I'm just putting the finishing touches to my FREE eBook, entitled 'The Wedding Day Planning Guide' - 3 tips to help your big day run smooth. I've also got a series of photographs to share from Donna Nook, where Neil Graham and I went to photograph the grey seals. On top of that I've got a whole batch of photographs from the Guild of Photographers London Street Walk / Photography Meetup.
That all is of course, in addition to the podcast that I record and produce on a weekly basis for public consumption AND weddings that I'm shooting. So, as you can imagine, I'm busy at the moment.
Oh, and I have an exciting project coming in the new-year that I'm calling 'The Art of Expression'. But for now that's top secret and I don't want to reveal too much.
So, Onto This Weeks Post
Back in September (Yes, that's how far behind I am with blogging) Neil Graham from NeilGrahamPhotography.com and I took a trip to one of our favourite places for a walk, some banter and a bit of photography: Richmond Park.
We always seem to strike it luck there, either finding large herds that don't run off, or being able to get very close to Stags to get some beautifully detailed photographs.
Well this trip was no exception and it seems that Neil and I just have way with the Animals.
I'll keep the writing for this blog post short and just talk about each photograph just a little bit:
Not long after parking up and walking into the ferns, where we usually find the stags grazing in the morning light with their herds we stumbled across one heard all relaxing and grazing in a small clearing amongst the ferns. As soon as the heard spotted Neil and I all but one of them darted off into the bush to never ben seen again. Not this Stag though. He decided to stay and stand his ground. Not that Neil or I were being confrontational or aggressive at all though. We sat back for a long time, always keeping something between the stag and ourselves, whether it was a tree or a fern or something else.
A few times this Stag decided to give off a shout, just to remind us who was the Alpha male and who's patch we were on.
Neil and I remained passive for a long time. I'd actually sat down at this point and was just watching the Stag graze and enjoy a leisurely Sunday Morning. After a short while though the Crows that were at first on the ground, picking up scraps and anything else they could find, found the confidence to jump onto the Stag's back and hitch a ride. The Stag himself didn't seem to mind them being there either. Someone suggested over on the Martin Bailey Photography Community on Google+ that there could be a mutual relationship between the two species and that the crows could in fact be picking things off of the Stags back or something?
Although the Stag didn't seem to mind the Crows being there, there was a feeling that the Crows were a little nervous and twitchy about standing on the Deer's back. Each time he'd move or turn the crows would jump down or fly off for a minute before coming back. That is of course except one Crow who was clearly far more brave that the others. The Crow you see here (above), seemed very confident and remained perched on the Deer's back for quite a long time. Again, Neil and I were still sitting back at this point, just watching the Deer do his thing and the Crow go about his business.
One of the disadvantages of being a photographer, I will admit, is you're nearly always the one making the photographs and never really tend to appear in many. It's for that reason that when I go out on a walk with another photography I do quite like to capture some of them in action too. It's something I do very often. Here, in this little slideshow above you can See that Neil was trying, ever-so carefully to edge closer to the Stag without disturbing it. I decided to catch the moment. You can see in the last few frames that as Neil got as close as he dare and posed for a few photographs the Stag once again set about reminding us (well, Neil) who the boss was and let off a rather loud shout. Needless to say Neil jumped...a little but...as you can see in the final shot of this above gallery :).
So we got to a point where we thought it was only fair to leave that Stag well alone now. He was kind enough, and confident enough to allow us nice and close and stuck around for some photographs, rather than heading into the bush with the rest of his herd. On the way back however we stumbled across a smaller herd containing some beautiful albino fawns. They were very skittish though and ran away any time we got to within a distance to make a decent photograph. Whilst squatting down, trying to remain relatively incognito I spotted this huge Mushroom! Having my 70-200 L IS USM f/2.8 MKII on with Extender meant that I'd have to swap lenses, which is something I wasn't keen on doing in such long and wet grass. So, I made the best of the situation and gear configuration I had and snapped this shot of the mushroom. Good fun!
Having failed to stalk the Albino fawns in the smaller herd we've come across, and having had so much luck already with the Stag you've already seen, we decided to head back to the car and call it a day. On the way back though there were more confident Stags hanging around, playing the Alpha Male.
We stopped again for some photographs. This time there were two Stags. I got low down to the ground for this one and shot upward to give a regal and more majestic feel to the stags.Of the two stags that we'd come across on the way back to the car, only one was brave enough (or, stupid enough) to stick around for some photographs. I had to time this one well as there were runners in the background, constantly going. The Deer wasn't patient, but we really needed him to be do we could make some photographs.
I sat on the ground and watched this one graze for a while.
Whether or not he's poking out his tongue, or, just licking his lips I don't know. But i got the moment on camera anyway.
Of the two stags that we'd come across on the way back to the car, only one was brave enough (or, stupid enough) to stick around for some photographs. I had to time this one well as there were runners in the background, constantly going. The Deer wasn't patient, but we really needed him to be do we could make some photographs.
I sat on the ground and watched this one graze for a while.
Whether or not he's poking out his tongue, or, just licking his lips I don't know. But i got the moment on camera anyway.
