NEW STORE NOW OPEN
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos
It’s been a long time coming but I am please to announce that Satureyes now has an online store.
This will not only enable me to sell my personal work, but also offer clients the ability to have an online gallery with options for purchasing the images. ALL products come with FREE UK DELIVERY too!
I am able to offer the best quality printing onto different high quality papers, as well as onto canvas, perspex and wooden blocks.
The canvas, perspex and wooden block products are all incredibly high quality and the materials used are fantastic. Images look stunning and will last for hundreds of years.
I’m offering a coupon for £5 off your first order (of £10 or more) and this is for the whole of February.
Why not take a look HERE
For £5 off your first order please use coupon code FREEMONEY
Enjoy!
Tags: discount, online, open, photos, satureyes, store
The revolution will not be televised (but it will be photographed)
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos, tweets
This week has seen me move into the wonderful world of wedding photography.
The main issue for me not doing this years ago was that it’s an area of photography steeped in mystery – especially for the clients. There’s a whole bunch of wedding photographers out there that really should not be there.. and certainly not charging what they charge for what is quite average work. So I’ve set out to revolutionise this, and I really didn’t feel comfortable being labelled as ‘one of them’
However, over the last 12 months I’ve seen my portfolio grow substantially with work for magazines, interiors food, live events and travel, I believe that the wedding world is ready for my new ideas!
I actually thought that a new wave of young creative photographers would have emerged onto the wedding scene by now but it seems not. On a recent trip to a photo expo in Birmingham I wandered around and noticed a LOT of wedding snappers there they generally were older chaps with their wives, meandering from booth to booth drooling at kit they would like to buy but probably not be able to operate. It didnt seem like the industry has moved on in years.
It’s absurd how some photographers operate. Just because you live with someone you automatically have the ability to absorb a skill set. We’ve all seen them – these photogs who bring their wives along on a job who stand there snapping away – either its an amazing co-incidence that the couple are BOTH pro-photographers.. perhaps they met at a local photographic club.. or perhaps they didn’t. More like they are over-charging and not actually having the skills to do the job. Does the wife of a cardiac surgeon assist her husband in the operating theatre? Of course not, so why does the wife of a photographer become a professional by proxy?
Much of the wedding photo world still bases itself on the fact that people who are organising weddings have buckets of cash to spend and they are VERY anxious about their photos and choosing the right person for the job – and quite right they should. Some prices that are being banded about are insane. Much of this is based on the vulnerability of people at a time in their lives where they are about to embark on a massive adventure.
What also gets me is the ‘extras’ such as the additional prints.. It harks back to the days when getting prints made was a time consuming process that needed many days or weeks to finish, so charging a premium for prints and not releasing the negatives was another way for the photographer to make some cash and covering his time and costs of getting prints done. I think this model needs to change. Its out as out dated as the people taking the images.
YOU pay for the photographer and their time.. YOU have a right to those images.. they are YOURS.. its outrageous that some photogs keep them and then charge and charge again for the prints. Its unfair, and greedy but its almost universally accepted. Why? Well because people don’t challenge it.
Many of my clients are more than happy to get their prints done themselves or on a canvas or in a photo-book that they can order online. Of course I offer the usual trimmings.. albums, canvases and other items of memorabilia but I believe that the client can get it done cheaper and think it better value for money that they do. I want to concentrate on my work as a photographer, not as a money leech for vulnerable folk.
My rule is simple. I Charge a fair and competitive price for the work – and offer the finished images in all their glory on a disk for the client afterwards. I process every image, select and sort, putting care into each one.This is how it should be. My corporate work follows the same model and all my clients come back to me tim and time again.
So.. here’s the offer.. for £750 I will shoot the WHOLE wedding (none of this running away at the cake cutting) up and including a good stint of the dancing. I will then process every image and all the useable ones will be available in their highest quality on a disk for you to keep. No hidden charges.. just great photos!
Feel free to drop me a line for more information
click here to email me for more information
Tags: moans, photos, rant, rick bronks, satureyes, wedding photography
London from above
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, phone camera, phone photos
Here’s some iPhone shots of the view from my office today
I’m shooting a live teleconference tonight. Ages away but at least the view is good.
Brazil Brazil!
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos
I really need to blog more!
I’m gonna make more of a resolution to post more blogs. It’s very lazy of me and I should be more active on here.
By way of an apology- here’s a quick snap from my work the other night. More to come but right now here’s a taster 
Tags: canon 50D, dancing, ladies, wawaweeewaaa
Olympus Updates EP-1 firmware & lens firmware
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos
My issues with focus and bad lenses on the EP-1 MAY be coming to an end
Olympus has just released a firmware update for its E-P1 Micro Four Thirds camera. The new version (1.1) improves the camera operation in Continuous AF mode.
The company has also posted firmware updates for the E-P1’s kit lenses: the M. Zuiko Digital ED 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 and the M. Zuiko Digital 17mm 1:2.8 pancake lens.
The updates promise to improve the autofocus operation of both the lenses- which is exactly the problem that I had with them!
Firmware updates can be downloaded via the Olympus Master/Studio software. In case you’ve lost the disk the link to the software is below.
Tags: EP1, firmware, Olympus, problems, update
Olympus EP-1 – Hands on
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos, rants and moans
So, we got hold of a sample EP-1 for a project we’re working on and decided to take it out for a trip, to a huge rock concert at Wembley Stadium.
There’s been a lot of buzz about this camera, people really want to get their hands on it, and with good reason, it looks great and for many it harks back to the days gone by where cameras were used by real men who knew a little about how to shoot photos. If you’re interested in this camera you already know what it looks like – and you’ve read the reviews, so I thought I would offer a personal look at how the camera was to use, in a real life situation. There is no techie reasoning here.. no pixel peeping.. just little old me, a pro(ish) photographer looking to potentially invest in something nice to take on holiday.
When the kit arrived (the 14-42 lens kit) I looked at it and thought ‘why do i need MORE kit’ I spend the afternoon thinking about who this camera is aimed at.. where it sits in the market, and if there is indeed a market for it. I still dont have an answer. I have a couple of DSLR’s and the lovely Leica S-lux 4 so I think I’m pretty happy with my photo tools. I just don’t know who would be buying this camera. Its not cheap – around 6/700 quid with the lens, so its a pretty major investment for a keen amateur, and to add lenses to this you have to be making a fairly major commitment to the 4 thirds system, so for someone like me who has Canon kit, I’m not sure I’m ready to be getting a whole other kit.
I thought that if I owned one, then I would use it instead of a DSLR and then take it to more places where a DLSR cant go. Here’s the thing though – take the EP-1, a flash (there is not one built in) and a couple of lenses, and I’m pretty sure it will be in a similar size bag to a xxD and a lens (even if you make do with a built in flash on the Canons)
So.. that was the initial thoughts.. of course I’d not taken any photos yet. The menus seemed to befuddle me.. you can customize pretty much everything which lots of people will like. Personally I had to actually read the manual off the PDF because it was too much – not very intuitive. I realised how we take for granted a great UI until we encounter one that is a little too complex.
So home the camera went.. took some snaps around the home.. the usual – cat, kitchen, some hight ISO shots.. the ones we all take when we get a new camera and its too late to go out and shoot something. Popped the card into the Mac.. problem 1 – Aperture doesnt recognise the Olympus RAW file. It will in time, but its a brand new camera so you will be tied to the Olympus software if you want to use RAW. I then switched to RAW and JPEG just so I could see what the camera is capable of.
The day after…It was time to go to a huge rock concert at Wembley Stadium. I decided to leave my Dlux 4 at home and take a chance with a camera I didn’t feel 100% comfortable with. I like the idea of shooting some HD video there too (hell why not). I was really debating whether to take the EP-1 or not. I wanted to get some nice shots.. but I wanted to take something more compact. THIS I thought was the real reason why I would have one of these units.
Bravely (well I thought it was) I toddled off to the concert EP-1 in bag, excited about putting it to the test.
OK.. it wasn’t like I was in the press pen, so i could get some amazing photos of the band, but I wanted to put it to real life testing. The people I was with needed to take a decent photo of me when I hand them the camera, and it needed to take some pretty good photos if it’s to live up to the hype.
Long story short. It was a mixed bag of feelings. The focus didn’t work a lot of the time.. it ‘hunted’ in any mode apart from full Auto, and would not lock focus. Took the lens off.. cleaned the contacts.. reset the camera.. and well.. no use. No matter what I tried it just didnt want to play.
I shot some video – it looked nice. Put some of the fancy built in filters on it.. was fun.. but well nice but not something I feel the need for in a camera but nice to have.
Once the light went, then the only thing we could take photos of was the stage because it was so well lit. We needed a flash badly for snapping us having a good time. ISO3200 wasn’t great.
I still dont know. I am desperate to really like the camera. If felt great – a good weight to it and seemed it was going to be a no brainer. I just feel a little underwhelmed. I think for many they are in love with the the idea more than the actual practicality and real life usage.
I also think its possibly people lusting after a rangefinder camera (read: M8) who will try this.. but its not the same beast. No way.
I will give it some more go’s, but right now I am not sure. If i was gonna shell out 700/800 quid for some more kit I think I’d think about a new lens (or even a 50D body) and keep on with what I have. I just don’t understand the market for this camera. I’ve spend 3 days trying to think of who would use it and why, and still can’t. Perhaps its me being a little dumb.
I’ve posted some images.. JPEG’s straight from camera.. as they are, some with the effects..one is taken of me by a stranger. They have been shrunk to keep the size down.. thats about it..
As always, over to you. Comments people?
Tags: EP-1, Oasis, Olympus, RP-1, satureyes, Wembley
It had to be done!
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos
Hot Babes Test Drive Bras On Alton Towers Extreme Coasters
Ok.. not my work but still.. sorry.. I had to…
Ok.. I was slightly tipsy after lots of free gin…
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos
I was walking back to the station last night.. whipped out the Leica that I carry every day with me and snapped these.. not too bad for a drunk!
Tags: Dlux 4, dusk, leica, london, night
Summer’s Here…
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos
Seems like the sunshine is appearing a little more, so to kick off the good vibes, here’s a shot that I snapped whilst leaning in some duck poo by a lake.
More East London Wanderings..photos on my way home
Posted by satureyes | Filed under personal, photos
Decided to take a casual stroll home to the station on Friday and see what I could snap.. Take a look (comments welcomed as usual!)
Tags: london, photos, shoreditch