On a recent trip to shanghai I was lucky enough to have the famous Shanghai skyline visible from my hotel room – the perfect opportunity for a time-lapse video. It was my first attempt at time-lapse, but using a Nikon D3s made it very easy to set a specific number of frames, the interval between shots and the time for the shooting to begin. The shot was composed , filters attached and the camera set before going to bed. At 5am the camera began shooting Pudong at sunrise. Not the best weather but interesting results nonetheless.
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This video is made up of 480 individual frames over a period of two hours. These were then stitched together to create a one minute time-lapse movie using free software. Watch the movie a few times so you can take in all the different things happening across the frame.
2011 was a fairly successful year with a number of competions won and shortlisted. It may be February but I’ve just learned that I won the www.creativematch.com Flair Photography Nov/Dec competition. The winning shot was a quick studio portrait taken at the end of a shoot for Practical Photography magazine. The result is very different to the main photo taken during the shoot but I’m equally happy with it. Not a bad end to the year and with a portfolio membership to creativematch, hopefully a good start to this one.
The kind people at www.thecreativefinder.com recently provided me with a Supersize account on their creative portfolio website, and after only a couple of days of my profile being live have featured my portfolio on the landing page. The work here comes from a range of creative professionals and is of an extremely high calibre so I’m very happy to be featured alongside them. Putting together portfolios to upload to the site is taking a while to complete but more work will be live soon. Please take a look at my profile and let me know what you think. To view more of my work take a look at www.jamesabbottphotography.co.uk.
I’m pleased to say that my Dragon Gate UK wrestler series has been selected to feature on the Photography Office blog, which features some of the best photography from around the world. The aim of Photography Office is to become a source of inspiration for fans of photography and they’re certainly doing a good job of it by highlighting some amazing work. To check out the wrestler series on the blog click here.
I recently learned that I won 2nd place in the black & white category of the 2010 Colour Confidence photography competition. Here’s the shot of Canary Wharf tube station in all its monochrome glory. A colour version and more of my architecture and landscape photography can be seen at www.jamesabbottphotography.co.uk.
I photographed this tree just before Christmas when the temperature was minus nine. Not much for some places in the world but in the East of England it never usually gets this cold. I painted the tree with a flashgun and used a long exposure to capture the sky. I’m not usually a fan of light pollution but on this occasion it worked in my favour.
My latest work is now live on my website. Big Boy’s Toys is a slightly ominous title but it simply refers to a set of portraits of airsoft enthusiasts. There are around 25,000 people in the UK who play airsoft, and the numbers are steadily growing. My portraits were taken during the players’ lunch break between games. I set up a portable studio in a room of the derelict airbase where local groups play. To check out the images visit www.jamesabbottphotography.co.uk/airsoft.html
In the November 2010 issue of Practical Photography I wrote a technique feature about creating movie still style portraits. The technique provides technical and aesthetic advice about how to achieve a filmic look, with further advice including a Photoshop technique similar to bleach bypassing, and also one for a basic off-camera flash technique. The result was two very different portraits that both followed one or more movie conventions.
I’ve been interested in movies since childhood and have been using them as inspiration for my photography almost since the start. Whether it’s lighting, composition or a model’s gesture I’ve often used this influence in my photography.
The earlier post for the 80mm Carl Zeiss Biometar lens and tilt adapter has proved to be popular so I’ve found an example shot to show how sharp the lenses are. The first shot is the full frame image and the second is a crop at 100%. I think you’ll agree that the results are very impressive considering the age of the lens (30-40 years). The image was shot on a Canon EOS 5D with the Carl Zeiss lens set to f/2.8 and the adapter set to full tilt. When a lens is as sharp as this you can’t complain.
The first and second prize winners will be announced on 29th October, with the overall prize winner from across three categories – Photography, film and music announced at a private view at the Brick Lane Gallery on 16th November. A number of highly commended entries will be displayed alongside the winners in a week long exhibition. So it’s fingers crossed for the next couple of weeks! If you want to check out my gallery of nine wrestler images click here.
