Bexley – steve hickey

Time-lapse with the Panasonic GX8

February 28, 2017February 28, 2017Steve Hickey

Recently I was asked to make a time-lapse video during the creation of Susan Stockwell’s art installation at Hall Place, Bexley.

The installation – Trade Winds – would be made from thousands of coins on which would ‘float’ small ships made with paper money from around the world. I was aware that the installation could take up most of the floor space in the room which was about 8 x 10 metres so the first thing to sort out was where to put the camera. A tripod wasn’t an option as the chances of it being moved by accident were high but luckily there was a small lighting rail on the ceiling which I could use to hang a lightweight camera. I mounted the GX8 with a small clamp – backed up with Gaffa tape and a safety chain just in case the clamp and tape didn’t hold.

I used a 7.5mm Samyang Lens to cover the whole floor with the intention of cropping into the frame for the best coverage of Susan’s work.

The camera has a very good built-in intervalometer which is very easy to set up to shoot a series of images. I shot RAW still frames and didn’t use the in camera conversion to movie (quite frankly the conversion in camera is not very good). I processed the RAW frames in Capture One so I could output as jpegs which were then imported into Premiere Pro. I could then crop the full frame images as necessary to the 16:9 format.

The Panasonic GX8 hanging upside down from the lighting rail.

It all worked pretty well and was used as both a standalone time-lapse and also as part of a longer video about the installation.

The only real issue I had was with the battery life which lasted about 180 minutes, maybe a little more. Shooting about 3 frames a minute gave me around 600 frames or so depending on which battery was used. The installation progressed over 5 days so I would be away for much of the time, going in when I could to change batteries. Sometimes the battery died before I could get in to replace it so there are a couple of points where the time-lapse moves on slightly quicker than it should but overall I think it works.

Susan Stockwell’s work can be seen on Su’s website.

Filming Laura Ellen Bacon

November 16, 2015Steve Hickey

I meant to write this a couple of months ago but it’s been a busy time in various ways and I’ve only now got around to it.

Anyway I spent 13 days over 3 weeks this summer shooting a short film of Laura Ellen Bacon working at Hall Place, a Tudor House situated about a 15 minute walk from where I live in Bexley. Art exhibitions are a central theme of Hall Place and visitors almost always have the chance to view an exhibition when visiting the house and gardens. Laura’s work was part of the Watershed exhibition, Laura was also the first Artist in Residence at Hall Place and I had the opportunity to film her at work.

Laura works with willow and makes large structures which are often placed out in the open, as was the case here. The weather played its part, starting reasonably well the first day or two but after that most days it seemed to rain – quite heavily sometimes. Pretty much your typical English summer. I think there were one or two sunny days somewhere in there, but Laura carries on working whatever the weather! So I had to rainproof the cameras a lot of the time. I was filming with a Canon XF100 and 2 Canon 5Ds. I had proper waterproof covers for the 5Ds but the XF100 had to make do with a cut down plastic bag – but then I do tend to improvise a lot with things like that so it wasn’t a problem.

As I live close by I could pop over for an hour or so, have a chat with Laura about how the work might progress through the day then maybe go back later for another hour or two. I felt it was important not to get in Laura’s way too much and allow her to work so I didn’t hang around any longer than necessary. So with a couple of weekend breaks this is how it went over 3 weeks. It was a great experience to be able to be there on pretty much a daily basis and watch Laura at work and to see the sculpture take shape.

Laura was assisted by her partner Robert Clough and both were a pleasure to work with, particularly as they shared their Rocky Road cake with me!

The video can be seen at http://www.vimeo.com/141776115

Vivienne Westwood at Danson House

April 22, 2015April 22, 2015Steve Hickey

SH116586 — **Vivienne Westwood at the Danson House exhibition**

Art, I believe, can only be fully appreciated ‘in the flesh’ so to speak. Music and theatre, for instance, are best seen and heard live, not on some digital medium. Paintings, sculptures, even original photographic prints elicit a more emotional response when seen in reality. So it goes for all art forms, and Vivienne Westwood’s creations are no different.

Vivienne Westwood: Cut from the past, covers her work from the punk years through to later pieces influenced by Vivienne’s love for 18th century art. Should these clothes be revered, referred to as ‘art’, just because they are placed in glass cabinets? Maybe, maybe not, but when I saw the exhibition I felt the same kind of response I have when seeing other artworks. Difficult to describe, so I won’t try, it’s only something that you get by being there. Of course it could be that the exhibition brought back memories of when I was younger. I even went to Vivienne’s Worlds End shop in the early 80’s to photograph Philip Sallon; I should have bought a few things from the shop when I was there and hung on to them! If you have any interest in fashion then this is an exhibition that should not be missed.

Dame Vivienne went to see the exhibition for herself last week. Afterwards she did a Q&A session following a talk given by Ian Kelly, who is the co-author of her biography.

The exhibition at Danson House continues until 31st October 2015.

Danson House link is below;

http://www.bexleyheritagetrust.org.uk/dansonhouse/vivienne-westwood/

Vivienne Westwood’s climate revolution website link;

http://www.climaterevolution.co.uk/wp/

Canon 17mm TSE at Danson House

September 30, 2013October 3, 2013Steve Hickey

Recently I was asked to do some photography at Danson House. The photography was for a new brochure showing the wedding set ups at both Danson House and Hall Place, both located in the London Borough of Bexley. I took along a Canon 17mm TSE together with a little rig I sometimes use to get very wide shots.

The photograph above is of The Salon, an octagonal shaped room in the house. The image is composed of three separate images which are then just layered together, it’s not stitching as there’s no special software involved.

This is a very tight space. I was literally standing against a wall ( not leaning on it! ) in between a very expensive chair and a probably more expensive cabinet. The tripod legs about a centimetre away from each!

Over the years I have used various cameras to get super wide shots, the Hasselblad SWC of course and 75mm lenses on 5×4 cameras. The digital full frame camera and shift lenses have in recent years made it possible to achieve the same kind of wide angle photographs that I was used to gettting on film.

The main issue is to keep the lens in exactly the same spot (relative to the scene) for all three images, this is done by effectively moving the camera around behind the lens. There are various rigs available to do this, but they can be quite expensive, so a couple of years ago I looked around for an economical alternative. I already had the Manfrotto umbrella attachment for a light stand and an old Metz 45 flash bracket so I just needed something to slide this around. I found the Manfrotto 454 micro positioning plate which was just what I was looking for. Cost for the Manfrotto 454 is around £75. I put these together so that I could mount the camera in a vertical position and then slide the whole thing very precisely sideways. It takes some time to ensure that everything is vertical – a bit fiddly but effective.

The shooting method is as follows;

1/ Set the lens so that it shifts from side to side across the vertical plane, then centre the shift.

2/ Set the Manfrotto slider to a given point which works for you, I usually start with the marker at 20 or 30 on the scale. Ensuring that the camera is positioned so that it is directly above the tripod head.

3/ Take the first shot ( centre image)

4/ Move the slider 10 mm to the left (markings are 1mm) then move the lens shift to the right 10mm. Take second shot.

5/ From this move move the Manfrotto slider back to the centre point and then another 10mm to the right, move the lens shift so that it now goes beyond the centre position and 10mm to the left.

6/ This now means that I have three images each with a slightly different view but with the lens in pretty much exactly the same place in relation to the scene.

All that needs doing now is to align each of the images in Photoshop using layers. It’s feasible to do this in just two shots but I like to use the eraser tool to blur the joins of each image and having three shots gives me more room to play with on some shots. Also it’s safer to do three if you want to push the lens shift to 12mm, although I find it easier and quicker just to go for the 10mm markers most of the time.

The images usually line up exactly if I take time to make sure everything is straight and vertical, so layering them together is simple. The image on the left is slightly off in this shot. I have guessed roughly 10 pixels, but it’s only on the vertical axis and the side to side matches perfectly. I must have nudged the camera slightly on that one, or more likely I forgot to lock the Manfrotto plate on that exposure and this made a slight difference in how the camera was positioned.

You can see from the centre image on the Photoshop screen grab that you end up with a much wider image than just doing the one shot. The shot a the top of the page is cropped square which I think works well, very similar to how it might look on a SWC – possibly even wider. The full uncropped shot is below and works out at almost exactly a 5×4 ratio with a size of 113.5Mb.

Danson Festival: Leogun, Craig Charles.

July 8, 2013July 9, 2013Steve Hickey

Summer returned to the UK last week and last Sunday (7th July) I photographed the Danson Festival for Bexley. Very hot, unlike last year when it rained so much that my camera stopped working (Canon 5D mk11), fortunately last year I also had my 1Dmk111 which carried on regardless. Anyway back to this year. I followed and photographed the Mayor of Bexley, Cllr Sharon Massey, around the site for a few hours while we both (and the tour group) slowly wilted in the heat. The Mayor meeting and greeting etc. We finished and I said goodbye to the Mayor and then spent the afternoon doing some general pics around the festival.

The day always ends with bands on the main stage and so there I found myself shooting the local London band Leogun, not the headline band but well worth a look in my opinion.

The heat of the day faded as I stood in the shade at front of the stage. This is where I switched into ‘gig’ mode: a history of shooting hundreds of gigs in the 70’s and 80’s (and a bit of the 90’s) came into play, it’s second nature, it’s like I am 25 again. After a hard day toting gear around in the heat this, for me, is a refreshing way to finish. The day ends with Craig Charles and The Fantasy Funk Band. After Leogun finish I catch a quick pic of Craig backstage before going out front to shoot the rest of the show.