Andy Yuill - Photo Blog

Schmap Schmapple

2009-04-30T10:32:00.003+01:00

Sometimes Free of Charge is not the same as Not for Profit.

I was approached my Schmap this week with a request to use one of my images on Flickr, for free, with the promise of some form of reciprocal links.

The premise of their offer is that they provide the city guides and maps for free to the end user, and aren't they a nice bunch of guys who are providing a useful service for free to the end user. So therefore they shouldn't have to pay you for the use of your image, because hey, it's a free guide isn't it?

I thought about this, and my answer has got to be a resounding NO. For the reason that despite what they claim, they are not providing the resource for free. What they are providing is advertising disguised as a city guide and for this they are being paid large amounts of money.

So while the end user of the maps may not be paying for your image, Schmap are getting paid hansomly by the advertising companies. So why should someone else profit from my images and I get nothing in return. It doesn't make sense to me.

I think that the part I objected to most was the way that Schmap were not clear and open that they were going to profit from your image, while you get nothing.

Now, note that this is very different from Not for Profit. If an charity or NGO approached me asking to use one of my images on Flickr to promote a cause that I agreed with, or as part of an information pack, then that is a very different proposition where the only people profiting are those that the charity is trying to help.

And if it is exposure that you are looking for, seeing your picture up on the web, being appreciated and helping others, then there is always Wikipedia. Get out there, sign up with a user ID and submit your image, for free and not for profit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CaltonHillDugaldMonument.jpg

The west coast did not dissapoint

2009-03-27T17:25:00.002Z

After a night on the west coast layby camping in the car while storms raged around and lightning flashed overhead I got an early start in the hope of Castle Stalked being lit by the rising sun, looking for the snowy islands as a backdrop.

Nope, nothing to be had. I ended up with a couple of shots, that look OK when grainy and starkly B+W but nothing like I had in mind. Dissapointed I had more coffee and started the drive down the coast only to stop off at the mouth of Loch Creran to be rewarded with foreground, some water in the middle and then snowy mountain in the background. Dodging the sideways rain showers I was rewarded with a visit from a curous seal playing in the tidal rip and the picture below.

Loch Creran - Again a HDR image, still using ND Grads to ballance the dynamic range and the HDR path to get a little extra 'pop' in the textures.

HDR Vertorama Drama

2009-03-27T16:48:00.002Z

On my way back down from the Fort William Mountain Film festival I went on a bit of a detour which ended up taking in Castle Stalker and Loch Creran near to Oban and then across to Schiehallion via the Crannog on Loch Tay. So yeah quite a detour.

I had planned to stay on the west coast and explore the shoreline, hoping to get some pics of the sea with snow capped island hills in the background, but the weather wasn't playing ball with snow showers blowing through and extended periods of poor visibility. All the weather reports said head east, so I heeded them and ended up getting some wonderfull evening light beside Schiehallion.

Schiehallion could mean a couple of things, either 'Fairy Mountain' or 'Continuous Cloud' thankfully it was more fairylike and less cloudlike when I was there. For the fact fans it is almost exactly on the midpoint of the Scottish Mainland, east/west and north/south. It was also used to estimate the weight of the world by measuring how much a pendulum was displaced by it's gravity.

Anyway I digress, the clouds cleared and I was presented with two very different light levels in the top and bottom of the image, I would normally attempt to correct this using graduated filters and bracketing the exposures, this time I skipped on the grad and took 2 sets of bracketed images at +1 1/3, 0, -1 1/3. With one set centered around the exposure for the sky and snow, and one set for the foreground.

Each set of bracketed images were blended using Photomatix and tonemapped into a 16 bit image. The two tonemapped images where then stitched together using the amazing panoramic feature in Photoshop to create one blended, tonemapped and stitched image in the vertorama format. The final image was subject to the usual colour correction, contrast tweaks and general photoshop work before the end result was released to the world. A long process, but one that I think is work it.

HDR Vertorama Drama

The reeds in the foreground proved to much to resist and I finished up the long weekend in my wellies in the mud trying not to get stuck while I took the shot below. The sun was setting, it was dead still and I could hear an eagle calling high above. All in all not a bad place to be on a Monday....

This one a more traditional version with ND Grads to compensate for the sky.

Avalanche dodging in the back corries

2009-03-13T11:50:00.004Z

"How about the Snowgoose car park at 7am tomorrow? Now that it's getting lighter we don't have to make an early start"

That was the call on friday night from an old uni friend Dave MacLeod. I'm glad I didn't have to find out what an early start would have been. Dave is a well known figure in the climbing world, continually pushing the boundary of what is technically possible and is considered by many to be the best all round climber in the UK, having just completed the UK's hardest traditional climbing route graded E11 and F8c+ as well as putting up the UK's hardest winter moutaineering route, hardest boulder problem, hardest sport route, the list goes on... Have a look here for more information on what he is up to.

I'm glad to say that I wasn't going to be climbing anything that day, Dave and Malc were keen for some winter climbing and I was going to join them for the walk in and take some pics. Dave had the keys for the access roads, so we were able to cut out some of the walk in and take the cars up.

The temp had risen considerably through the night and the avalanche risk was a solid category 4. After taking stock at the hut, the plan was to stay far away from the gullies and follow Tower ridge up to a mixed route beside Echo wall and see what it looked like. This should keep us away from the path of any avalanche should the cornices collapse and on more stable snow/rock areas.

The wind and rain that had started when we were at the hut continued to deteriorate and I only had short windows to take pics of the walk in before the lens got a soaking. Dave and Malc had managed to colour co-ordinate without any prompting from me and the look that I was going for was of the two climbers looking dwarfed by the expanse of white surrounding them.

picking the least avalanche prone route....

As we rounded into the gully the going got a lot harder, wading through waist deep heavy wet snow. A quick block test to look at the snow pack showed a very obvious shear plane about a foot down into the wet snow, not an ideal place to be. Dave and Malc geared up and we headed to the relative safety of the rock. The rain had changed to driving snow at this point and was creating and excellent build up of rime ice to add texture and detail to the rock, however the temp was still rising and the ice that Dave and Malc had planned to climb was continuing to rot and melt.

I followed up as far as I felt I could go without increasing the danger levels past a point I was comfortable with and got a couple of shots as they started up into the climbing proper.

Knowing that I wasn't going to get any more I turned and headed down as quickly as possible. The rain was torrential by this time so I kept the camera in the relative dry of my bag and stomped back to the car wondering how Dave and Malc were getting on.

I got out of the wet gear and tried to start the drying off of the camera kit while I had a bite to eat. It wasn't long before I had a knock on the window and saw a very wet, but happy Dave and Malc looking for a lift back down the hill. The route had turned out to be in very poor condition and the snow had quickly turned to rain so they had made the call to head back about 10 mins after I did.

Fort William Mountain Film Festival

2009-03-12T11:55:00.005Z

I'm doing the rounds of the mountain film festivals this year, first a special mention from Colin Prior at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, then two 3rd places at the Fort William Mountain film Festival last weekend.

Kirkjufell is proving to be a popular mountain, with this pic getting a 3rd place in the Landscape Photo Section.

An old one but a good un, taken at Stanage got 3 place in the Mountain adventure category.

Dave Cuthbertson of Cubby Images was on had to give out the prizes, Cubby is a long serving mountain and outdoor photographer, as well as being an acomplished mountaineer and mountain guide. For more info about Cubby have a look here.

The rest of the night was spent catching up with people and watching some amazing kayaking videos at the paddling evening of the film festival.

Active Earth evening

2009-03-12T09:24:00.002Z

I was recently put in touch with the people at Active Earth and last week I found myself helping out at a night they put on in Edinburgh. Active Earth run training workshops and facilitate experiences that give everyone from high powered executives to students and young people the chance to re-establish a connection with the natural world.

The overall goal of this project is both to benefit the person and also to benefit the environment. If a person feels a direct connection with the natural world, if they appreciate and value our natural resources, they are more likely to want to protect it and strive to live in a more sustainable fashion. This is a shift away from the traditional environmental lobby approach which tends to create a feeling of guilt and focuses on what we have to give up, instead this aims to give people a greater understanding of what they have to gain by protecting the environment.

As a landscape and nature photographer I was invited along to talk at one of their events in Edinburgh and help facilitate a discussion group. I printed off a range of landscape images and these were distributed about the tables as props to help the flow of discussions about nature. It was a very enjoyable evening, with lots of interesting people and plenty of lively interesting chat. Head over to their website to find out more about them, they are planning another evening in Edinburgh soon and it should be very interesting to go back to.

New Zealand pics

2009-03-05T15:22:00.004Z

All in all a great trip to a very photographic country, I've put a selection of some of my favorites below. I've been busy getting prints together for a photo exhibition in Edinburgh and I've been getting involved with an organisation called Active Earth to provide images as discussion points on our relationship with nature, so updates here have been a bit thin on the ground, but there will be more to come.

Rain Shower passing through the Abel Tasman sea

Standard NZ Nelson Lakes shot number 24.

Tennyson Inlet deep in the Marlborough Sounds

Champagne Pool at Wai-o-tapu thermal wonderland, NZ standard shot number 12.

Statue on the wellington sea front.

Walking on the Coramandel Peninsula

And finally swimming with dolphins, a truly unique and very cool experience.

Cafe Renroc Exhibition

2009-02-17T13:53:00.006Z

See you all on the 19th.

If you can't make it on the 19th, then the exhibition will be on for 6 weeks. Renroc is a great place in town to stop off at for some food or coffee and a look around.

Off to the land of the long cloud

2009-01-20T17:36:00.001Z

I'm off to the land of the long cloud to look for my photomojo. I won't be back till mid Feb when normal service will be resumed. Check back then for New Zealand pics.

Online print orders

2009-01-15T15:32:00.002Z

In conjunction with The Image File, I am pleased to announce that online sales of selected images on my website are available for sale online.

I am still in the process of putting together the final touches, so I have not yet linked to the online sales site from my main website, but those of you interested can get an advance preview here.

Any feedback on the site would be appreciated.

Essential viewing on CS4 updates

2009-01-15T11:05:00.002Z

If you use photoshop and are thinking about upgrading to CS4 then these guys are doing a 4 part video showing what is new in CS4. I've been using it for a couple of months now and learned about a whole lot of new features I didn't know about from watching this.

Click here for a link to video part 1.

I'm no longer a pro...

2009-01-08T13:21:00.003Z

...well on Flickr anyway as my pro account has expired. Not that I'm bothered, I'm going to see how long I can string it out before I have to go back to the paying for the service.

Couple of reasons really. I don't use it to put up lots of high resolution images so I shouldn't need unlimited upload capacity. There have been too many instances of Flickr images being used for profit without permission, so I only put watermarked images with a max of 1000px at 72 dpi. Perfect for web viewing and sharing. Images are now backed up elsewhere in other ways.

I use it more as a stream of images and don't need to group them into sets...

Emm... and I think that's all you get for your money.

I also don't really feel the love for the masses of u constructive comments. Constuctive ones I'm all about, see the post on the A or B group below.

Packing photons

2008-12-15T12:17:00.002Z

The creation below appeared on a blog late last week and generated some considerable interest.

12 x 580 Speedlights controlled with RadioPoppers, firing on full power is great for turning day into night. However some people seemed to miss the point of what this gives you, arguing that for the same price you could get a high wattage studio light.

What this set up brings to the game is high power levels when using high speed synch at very fast shutter speeds. In a normal high speed synch mode the power output of the flash is reduced as it is essentially firing a lot of short, very fast pulses to make sure that all parts of the sensor receives the same light as the shutter curtains sweep past.

The poster plans to use this for getting a fast enough shutter to freeze the action of dirtbikes at the same time as having enough power to properly light the subject, and turn the midday sun into mere fill light! Can't wait to see the results.

Head over here for some more indepth info and comments.

Kendal Mountain Film Festival. - Updated

2008-12-12T10:42:00.003Z

Well the results are in and can be found on the Kendal Mountain Film festival website. The image of the prayer flags that I commented on below didn't win, each to their own I suppose, but I think it deserves special mention as the most emotive picture of the mountain environment on display.

The winning image was the following entry by Jayne Smith of Burnside.

My image of Kirkjufell in Iceland did get special mention from the Judge, Colin Prior, and is up on the website with the winner. Futher info can be found here.

Not sure what a "Special Mention" means, but lets say I'm chuffed to bits.

Indecision is the key to flexibility

2008-12-11T12:56:00.002Z

... But remember you are the captain of your own ship.

A wise man (pictured below in a contemplative state) once told me that indecision is the key to flexibility, this is a very true statement, but can lead to difficulty when selecting the best out of two very similar pictures.

Photo by Indestructajames

Enter a new creation from fellow photogeek Dougie, to settle the issue once and for all with some constructive comments from other flickr users. Something often lacking in the usual "great A++ picture dude - here is some arbitrary award rubbish"

So without further ado I give you the Flickr A or B group.

It's early days, but the concept is a good un, so head over, stick up some pictures and leave some useful comments.

Renroc Exhibition

2008-12-10T14:25:00.002Z

Date for the diary - 19th of March.

I will be putting on a exhibition of my landscape and wildlife photography at Cafe Renroc in Edinburgh on the 19th of March. There is scope for 30-40 photographs on display and all images will be available to buy.

There will be some wine on offer, so feel free to come along and browse the photos and have a wee drink.

Cafe Renroc is a cafe and health spa in one on Montgomery Street in Edinburgh, well worth a visit at any time of the day for food and coffee.

Have a look at the Cafe Renroc website or the review in The List

Corporate mugshots

2008-12-10T11:26:00.005Z

Will shoot for food...

I was approached a couple of months ago by my housemate to do some shots of the people at his work, the current website and promotional images being terrible. The deal was if they didn't use the shots, he would buy me dinner, if the shots were used the company would take me out for a meal. In a way working for almost free, but the difference being that this would not have taken place as a paying gig for any other photographer, so I wasn't doing someone else out of paid work. In addition I was getting shots to use for my portfolio and valuable experience in getting a group of unenthusiastic strangers to look like an active, dynamic bunch of go getting corporate tigers.

I lucked out with the weather on that day, cold but clear and still outside, so I set up some lights outside in a courtyard and after a couple of test shots got the guys from the company to come out and have their shot taken. They are a small web technology company, so I had a list of 9 people to shoot in a range of situations.

I then moved inside and set up some lights in the board room with the intention of some very evenly lit shots against a plan background and a team shot of the senior management.

In general terms I the day went well, technically the light worked OK, it was nothing overly creative, but that was the brief. However I did come away thinking that there was things that weren't right and would be changed next time.

Get buy in from the senior management. I arranged this shoot through my housemate as the main contact within the company, when I arrived there was nothing from the company directors to demonstrate to the rest of the guys that this was an important thing for the company. As a result some of the people looked very forced into doing this and somewhat unenthusiastic. My feeling afterwards was if I had taken the time to make sure that the management had buy in to the idea and had made the rest of the team very aware of the value and importance then I would have got some very different expressions and reactions from the rest of the team.
Image is everything. Going back to the point above, a strong value statement from the directors of the company would have gone some way to making sure that the team was properly turned out for the occasion. On the day there was mix of casual and more formal dress which meant that when taking shots of the whole company they looked like a very mixed and bunch and less of a cohesive team.
It's the details that count. For most of the shot I was primarily concentrating on the expression and the overall pose, however once I got back to the lab it was the unruly collars, the jackets not done up and the hair out of place that I couldn't help but notice. As well as making sure the subject is relaxed and posing comfortably more needs to be done to make sure the details are right.
Go long for headshots. I did a couple of test shots using the long end of a 70-200 at F4 and wish I had taken the time to change lenses, move the set up and take the shots for everyone. The additional separation from the background due to the decreased depth of field from the long lens was definitely worth it on the final image.
Get the right height. There were a couple of particularly tall people in the shoot list, going back over the pictures having them looking down at the camera just didn't look right as well as creating some additional chins on some of the guys. Small stool or even the camera kit box to stand on would have helped the angles.
Sandbagging. If I'm outside, in Scotland, in winter, or indeed anywhere else at any other time, with an umbrella up on a lightweight stand then there needs to be a little more weight keeping things together.

The feedback was positive on the pictures, so all that remains is to sort out where we are going for food. I hear that the Witchery in Edinburgh is nice..

Kendal Mountain Film Festival.

2008-12-05T12:16:00.004Z

The Kendal Mountain Film Festival has been and gone for another year, so perhaps this post is slightly out of date. Along with the film aspect of the festival they have been running an amateur photography competition for some time now and this year it received 632 entries. So I was chuffed to bits to have 3 of my entries shortlisted and put on display at the film festival along with about 15 other images, including this image by my friend and Kendal local Dougie.

A full list of the entries can be found by clicking here (warning the page takes a long time to load)

I wasn't able to make it to the awards ceremony and there has been no news posted by the organisers on who was the final winner. There was however one image that really stood out from all the rest and that's the one below. A unusual angle of a common sight in the Himalayas and one that fizzed and popped with energy when printed out large.

The photographer information listed for the image only goes by 'pd walton' Who ever they are I hope they do well.

What, who me, blogging?

2008-12-05T11:48:00.003Z

Yes, it's been something that I have been playing around with for a while now and I think that it's a natural extension of the website updates and improvements which can be found here.

www.andyyuill.com

Hopefully it will be at times useful, at times interesting and at times less boring that at other times. The current plan is to use it as a place to update my site with any news, interesting things that I stumble across and any learnings that I come across as I continue to expand on my photography.

So in short, hello.

Andy