Apennine Passes for Road Rat Magazine

Back in September I got a call from Rupert Gale at The Road Rat.. “how did I fancy shooting another series of mountain passes, but this time in Italy, in the Dolomites”

The mountain passes of the Dolomites are truly breathtaking, so as with the previous Road Rat assignment in the French Alps, I wanted to avoid using a single super wide cropped shot, so I opted to shoot panoramics using the ALPA 12 STC, ALPA HR Alpagon 4.0/40mm SB17 and a nodal rail. This gave a far more natural feel and perspective to the images and importantly avoided the ‘pull’ of a super wide lens, which is something I’m not keen on.

The scenes before us were so vast that some of them required up to 12 stitched frames, which were later put together using Photomerge in Photoshop. The largest PSB file ended up at just over 30 GB!

You can see a small selection of the work we made below, with more examples of the evolving ‘Great Mountain Passes’ project here.

“Exquisitely printed on a mix of heavy gloss and matt art papers, Issue Six of The Road Rat is a beautiful thing. 244 pages (it weighs around 1 kilo) The sixth Edition of The Road Rat is something of a diversion as it features a theme — Italy. We wanted to something to recognise the suffering, way back at the start of all this, of a nation that, as enthusiasts, is something of a Promised Land. So prepare to learn the psycho-geography of Turin, the dining habits of Enzo Ferrari, the sheer brilliance of small Italian cars and a look inside the astonishing mind and archive of Giovanni Michelotti.”

For The Road Rat magazine subscription information, head over here.

The opening spread.

The opening spread.

Passo Rolle. Highest point: 1984m. Number of turns: 44.

Passo Rolle. Highest point: 1984m. Number of turns: 44.

Passo de Giau. Highest point: 2236m. Number of turns: 55.

Passo de Giau. Highest point: 2236m. Number of turns: 55.

Passo Gavia. Highest point: 2621m. Number of turns: 23.

Passo Gavia. Highest point: 2621m. Number of turns: 23.

Passo de Giau. Highest point: 2236m. Number of turns: 55.

Passo de Giau. Highest point: 2236m. Number of turns: 55.

New Work For Lotus Cars

New studio work for Lotus Cars.

Ten long days shooting six iconic sports cars in a coved studio in Norwich, close to Lotus Cars HQ.

Client : Lotus Cars. Art Director : Julian Calverley. Lighting Assistant : Steve Thomas. Assistant : Brian Cottam.

Below is a tiny selection of the work we made.. Pick a colour!

Behind the scenes.. note my trusty Inovativ cart keeping things organised and mobile..

Olympic National Park Panoramics

After leading an ALPA workshop in the beautiful Olympic National Park with Capture Integration I decided to stay on for an extra week, to make some work for myself.

The sheer scale of the landscapes in the Pacific Northwest do beg the question.. how on earth do I make a photograph of what I’m seeing before me, that feels natural to the eye? Instead of simply reverting to using a super wide lens, which I’m not particularly keen on due to the pulI and distortion, I found the solution in using a slightly longer lens and shooting panoramic images. I used my ALPA 12 SWA with HR Alpagon ƒ4.0 40mm SB17, which allowed me to shift the lens vertically (especially in the rain forests) and dial in some tilt when required, while importantly keeping the camera level for shooting frames for stitched panoramics.

Many of the images were shot in damp and windy conditions, with movement in both the water and the branches and leaves, the stitching software taking care of any movement and anomalies. With some of the images being created from 10 x 80mpxl frames, you can imagine.. the resulting 16 bit PSB files are large!

I’m pleased to say that some of the work has been selected for ‘Lurzers Archive Top 200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide 20/21’

Below are some examples of the work I made, with more images available to see here.

Below are a few ‘behind the scenes’ images of my ALPA 12 SWA..

New Work For Delta Air Lines

I was recently commissioned by the good folk at Zero Collective to help create a series of ads for Delta Air Lines.

The agency, stylist and hair and makeup artist for the first round of ads were from the UK, with the models and client being flown in from Paris and the US. We then flew one of the models to the US to shoot a second round of ads with a CGI team from Atlanta, in their bespoke green screen studio. We were then home from the second leg of the shoot on a red eye flight, within 48 hours of leaving Heathrow!

The aircraft interiors were created and ‘lit’ completely in CGI and built out to match the exact lighting, camera heights, distances, focal lengths and apertures that we used to shoot the model. The separate elements were then brought together in post production.

Client : Delta Air Lines. Agency: Zero Collective. Art Directors : Paul Geudon & Greg Davies. CGI : Trick 3D. Post Production : Tom Wheatley.

Below is the rather surreal green screen studio set in Atlanta, where we shot the photographic composite elements that later became the ads that you see above.

Treasured Cameras

Some of my most treasured cameras, which I originally photographed for a promo piece timeline story..

From left to right.. Nikon F2A, ALPA 12 STC, Ebony SV45TE, Nikon F3, Contax 645 AF & ALPA 12 SWA.

For those asking.. the minimalist ball-head is the Acratech Ultimate Ball-head.

Alpine Passes for The Road Rat magazine

I got a call from my old friend Mikey Harvey.. how did I fancy shooting a series of Alpine passes for a new premium automotive magazine called The Road Rat? Of course I said yes.

With three locations chosen, a couple of Michelin maps in the glove box and hotel and Eurotunnel reservations made, we hit the road.. After 5 long days, 146 caffè lattes, numerous marmot encounters and with 1987 miles behind us.. we were back.

The mountain passes were truly breathtaking and recording them was not a straight forward task. Instead of cropping a single super wide shot, I decided to shoot panoramics using the ALPA 12 STC, ALPA HR Alpagon 4.0/40mm SB17 and a nodal rail. The scenes before us were so vast that some of them required 12 stitched frames.

You can see a small selection of the work we made below, with more examples of the larger project here.

“Exquisitely printed on a mix of heavy gloss and matt art papers, Issue One of The Road Rat is a beautiful thing. 244 pages (it weighs around 1 kilo) it is at once absolutely of the moment - Lewis Hamilton, the Aston Martin Valkyrie - yet simultaneously timeless as we dwell on the making of the modern Ferrari and the decline of the Mercedes SL. It’s not a place for hot takes but long-form, writing every bit as considered as our photography, illustration and design.”

For The Road Rat magazine subscription information, head over here.

The opening spread.

The opening spread.

The Col d’ Izoard. Highest point: 2360m. Number of turns: 49.

The Col d’ Izoard. Highest point: 2360m. Number of turns: 49.

The Col du Galibier. Highest point: 2645m. Number of turns: 44.

The Col du Galibier. Highest point: 2645m. Number of turns: 44.

The Col de la Bonette. Highest point: 2715m. Number of turns: 63.

The Col de la Bonette. Highest point: 2715m. Number of turns: 63.

Turner's House In Twickenham

Back in the autumn of 2015 I was contacted by one of the trustees of the Turner’s House Trust, who had read in an article that I was a great admirer of J.M.W. Turner’s landscape painting. He asked me if I was aware of the restoration project of Turner’s House in Twickenham, and would I like to contribute in some way. I immediately thought I could help in my capacity as a photographer, and so a plan was hatched, and in March of this year, just days before the restoration work was due to commence, the Trust kindly granted me the great honour of two days access to the house.

I wanted to approach the work in a simple and honest way, and so decided to work purely with natural light, with the single aim of capturing the atmosphere of the house. Turner’s work, for me, is all about drama and the play of light and colour, and I’ve aimed to capture the spirit of that in these photographs. All the work was shot using available light, on the ALPA 12 MAX / PhaseOne IQ180 combo, with ALPA HR Alpagon 32mm SB17 lens.

“Sandycombe Lodge was built by 1813 to the designs of England’s great landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner, working here as his own architect to create a quiet retreat for himself, away from the pressures of the London art world. It also provided a home for his father, old William, in retirement from his trade as a barber and wigmaker in Covent Garden, and with old William’s declining health and changes in his own life, Turner sold the house in 1826

Turner’s House Trust intends to restore Sandycombe Lodge and make it available for all as a living reminder of J.M.W. Turner’s life in Twickenham and its influence on his art; 2013 marked the bicentenary of this building, a three-dimensional work by an artist renowned in his time and celebrated internationally today.

The house has had unsympathetic additions and is in a run-down condition. Turner’s House Trust intends to restore it to its original appearance and make it a monument to Turner in Twickenham. Once restored, the house will open to the public and allow visitors to explore a small but beautiful building, with fascinating stories to tell”

For more information on the history and restoration of Sandycombe Lodge, and the Turner’s House Trust, go here. You can also find information, including drawings, on Butler & Hegarty’s web site, the project’s architects, here.

Below is a small selection of the work that I made over the two days that I spent in the house, followed by some behind the scenes images. More work can be found here. 

Images shown courtesy of Turner’s House Trust.

Below are some behind the scenes images showing the ALPA 12 MAX with HR Alpagon 32mm f4 SB17 lens combo that was used for all of the photographs. The MBP tethering set up shows Inovativ’s excellent Digiplate Pro set up.