DanD goes Movi(e)
DanD goes Movi(e) from Dan Dunkley on Vimeo.
DanD photography now shoots the moving image, video, videography, ‘talkies’, call it what you will.
Full video, production and editing services are now available alongside my traditional commercial (stills) photography. Watch this space, it’s going to be good times.
> See my vimeo channel for a small taster of some recent video production and editing work
Favourite shots of 2010
As it’s the start of the year I thought I’d do a bit of a retrospective. These days I don’t often get my camera out for ‘fun’ or my own personal pics. It’s a crying shame, but I know other togs who say the same. It’s a sad fact but if you’re not careful you can start to associate your camera with ‘work’ only, and it can therefore be seen as a bit evil.
Anyway, with the wintry weather around recently I thought I’d try and get back into doing a bit of landscape snapping, which is what drew me in to photography in the first place. This shot above was taken along my local canal, just as the sun was setting. Not a lot of thought or effort went into it, but I like it, and it’s one of my favourite shots I took last year, partly because it wasn’t for a client, just the bloke behind the lens.
Lighting the Lab Part IV
More pics from the Manchester science photo project. See some of the previous ‘Lighting the Lab’ posts for more details on the project. I won’t go into huge details but again multiple speedlights in weird places and coloured gels were used, so for this post, just enjoy the photies…
Lighting the Lab Part III
Another shoot from the science project I’m working on. Another day, another scanner. Or was it? This particular assignment was the very definition of ‘tough’. In short – how to make a plastic, fake piece of equipment in a dingy 12×8 foot room with no windows look like a multi million pound MRI body scanner in a nice, clean clinical environment. Did I mention it was tough? More pics after the leap…
Lighting the Lab Part II
Bonus update from the Manchester science project I’m working on at the moment. Another lab, another chance to get the coloured gels out for some off camera flash action. This lab is home to a small bore scanner, a bit like a mini MRI scanner or to put another way – the big white round thing that can be seen in the background in the shot above.
This time I didn’t have to suit up, but as ever with this type of shoot it wasn’t exactly run of the mill. The scanner houses what is basically a giant magnet. Giant magnets don’t particularly get on with digital cameras, speedlights, or even the credit cards in your wallet (it’s the magnetic strip on them you see). As such I had to keep a strict distance at all times and be very careful where I popped my lights, which for this room involved a 3 light setup – one backlighting the scanner (gelled), one camera right in a Honl traveller 8 (mini softbox) lighting the scanner and one camera right also in a Honl lighting the scientist.
More pics after the jump…
Lighting the Lab
Just a quick update this week (I’m trying to be good and keep this blog updated fairly regularly). The shot above is from a big project I’m working on at the moment for a Medical School in Manchester. I do quite a lot of what could best be classed as ‘science photography’, and it’s something I actually enjoy as it’s often quite a challenge.
The scene above is a sealed, sterile fume cupboard type apparatus (apologies to any real scientists if you’re reading this, I can’t remember the proper name!) I’m shooting from inside an adjacent one with the lid open, through thick glass. I’m using an array of speedlights, one gelled blue in the hole behind the blood plasma bag and one gelled CTO (colour temperature orange) pointing towards the big hands. The blue/ orange lights are a trick I often employ for ‘sciencey’ shots like this, as I like the dramatic effect it gives, and it helps liven up what can often be quite a dull, dry scene if using just available light or normal flash.
The best thing that you can’t see in this shot is that I’m dressed head to toe in a full CSI type suit, with the requisite gloves, booties and hairnet in place (you can just make out the Scientist wearing his on the right of the pic). The whole room was a controlled sterile environment so I had to have every single piece of kit swabbed on the way in, and dress like an idiot. All good fun.
Liverpool gets the X Factor
Had an interesting assignment a few weeks back for the newly-launched weekly X Factor magazine. It was for a ‘street fashion’ section of the mag called Your Pop Style, where young ladies are plucked off the street at random (by the fearless Rosie) and then quizzed on who influences them fashion-wise in the world we call pop. This is X Factor after all.
It was my job to snap them, and the location for this particular week was Liverpool, a city I haven’t been to for quite a few years until recently…
DanD goes large
(Captured on an iphone - excuse the poor quality - rubbish camera)
I’ve been semi-worrying recently that the resolution of the original Nikon D3 (which is still my main weapon of choice), might not cut it if I ever want to print bigger than A3, or if a job required super sized image usage.
Well, my concerns were somewhat allayed whilst strolling along the street in Manchester the other day, past a building site on the University of Manchester campus.
Out of the corner of my eye I thought ‘hmm looks familiar’ and found myself face to face with several 8-foot tall versions (and some smaller ones) of my pictures from a job I did a while ago….
Project ‘NORTH WEST’
I’ve just delivered a big project for ‘Links into Languages North West’. Links into Languages is a great organisation that helps promote language teaching and professional development for teachers across the whole country.
The brief was to ‘capture the North West’ and to try and get interesting shots that might provoke discussion. It also involved dragging a massive stuffed bear (Tiny – the mascot) around with me for several months…
New website, new blog
A fairly unoriginal first post, but I now have a shiny new website, and a new blog (this thing you’re reading here obviously) to go along with it. Above is a screen grab from the flashy flash version of the site, the guts of which are driven by a ‘Creative Motion Design’ (CMD) template.
I’m a virgin blogger, so you’ll have to bear with me here. Lots to learn about wordpress and the like, but I’m getting there. Expect further updates from a nothern snapper some time soon.
If you’ve stumbled upon this blog, take a look at my full new website here: www.dandphotography.co.uk
Enjoy.
Dan.
