photography – steve hickey

Panasonic GX8 with Metabones Smart Adapter and Canon 300mm

January 29, 2019January 29, 2019Steve Hickey

I bought a Metabones Smart Adapter (T) for my GX8 a while back to see how my Canon lenses might work. I had used a Nikon version before, but that wasn’t a smart version so I had only manual focus with the Nikon lenses. I hadn’t really had much time to use or test the Canon adapter up until now so thought that I would try a 300mm and see how it worked.

I photographed some birds in my garden and below is a shot of a blackbird. I found focussing to be very quick – pretty much as I would expect on a Canon body. I used the single point focus on the GX8 as to me that always seems more accurate.

The shot below was handheld – with one hand resting on a support for balance. So the camera was moving around a bit. Shutter speed 1/640 and F5. Considering birds move about very quickly the AF kept up with the bird really well. There were a few out of focus shots but that was more down to me. Also on this camera the lens is equivalent to a 600mm. The bird was about 5 metres away, so very shallow depth of field.

This is from about the first couple of dozen shots ever shot with the lens/adapter combination so I’m still getting used to it. But from the first few images with this lens I would have no problem using it with the GX8. I get a 600mm equivalent without the weight and cost! I like using the GX8 when I’m just out and about shooting stock images as it’s preferable to carrying the extra weight of Canon bodies. A GX8, couple of M4/3 lenses and perhaps a Canon 300mm makes a pretty lightweight kit which will cover almost anything.

GX8 with Metabones M4/3 to Canon EF Smart T Adapter 1/640 sec at F5, ISO 800

Processed from RAW in Capture One Pro

Image at approximately 100%

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.

Straight 8, the result

July 27, 2016July 27, 2016Steve Hickey

Well, I finally got around to seeing my Straight 8 film last month. To my surprise it was chosen for one of the London screenings, so on June 12th we had a family outing to The Vue Cinema in Piccadilly to go and see the result. Popcorn and all!

I have pretty much never shown unedited film, or even stills, for that matter to anyone. There’s always been some kind of edit, however minimal. Now here I was sitting among strangers – film makers, in a proper cinema, to watch something I hadn’t even seen myself! Which was filmed with a 35 year old camera I had only used once to check it was working!

Obviously I must like making life hard for myself but that’s the partly the point of Straight 8. It’s not easy to produce something within the constriction of the 3 minute 20 seconds of film without having the luxury to edit afterwards. The only thing I had control over was the soundtrack, and I thought well at least that’s not too bad – people will have something to listen to.

My film was towards the end of the 25 shown so I had time to enjoy the others, the time flew by and then mine was up! The interesting thing was when my film came on I found that I wasn’t particularly nervous – I was more nervous in the pub before. I was just as interested to see if it had worked out as perhaps the rest of the audience were – well my family anyway.

My thoughts on seeing it? Yeah, it’s rough and raw – but that’s Straight 8. It was mostly a feeling of relief that it had kind of worked out something like I planned but really it inspired me to do it again. Push myself with a more difficult theme next time. It’s just a bit of fun so might as well push the limits – I played it a bit safe this time.

You can see my film above and if you want to see the others from the screenings the link is www.https://vimeo.com/straight8/videos

Straight 8, the experience.

March 30, 2016March 30, 2016Steve Hickey

Yesterday I put my Straight8 film in the post, uploaded the sound file and so completed the project. Now all I have to do is wait to see if, among other things, the camera worked properly and my timings are vaguely as I expected them to be.

For those who may not be aware of the Straight8 film competition, the rules are; shoot one roll of super 8 film to make your movie, edit in camera and put together your soundtrack (without seeing the finished film). This means a lot of planning – when I shoot video it’s mostly to a fairly open brief and I pretty much think on my feet – with only a loose (changeable) plan in my head. So for me this turned out to be a lot harder than I had anticipated – not helped by the fact that I chose an idea for my film which was subject to changes on the day.

I storyboarded as best I could and wrote down anticipated timings for shots. The day before the shoot I realised that small delays between me pressing the button on the camera and starting/stopping the stopwatch on the iphone could mean over a 10% difference between the two! That would be quite crucial in a film 200 seconds long. That’s why the iphone is taped to the top of the camera – anything to make the timing as easy as possible.

On the day I had to time every shot and then write the time on the storyboard and keep a running total and try to keep to the planned shots. Add to that the fact that I forgot to use the stopwatch for 3 or 4 shots meant that by about two minutes in I had lost track of how much film I had left. The film counter on the camera being fairly vague, so I couldn’t rely on that.

There’s not the luxury of editing the film afterwards, no retakes, any mistakes are locked in for good. Afterwards all thoughts of ‘if only’ are pointless.

Why did I do it? Well I hadn’t used an 8mm camera for many years but love shooting film (as stills) so here was an opportunity to shoot film, go back to basics and well, test myself. Whether my film is good or bad, its an experience I can take back into my working life and improve it.

Will I do it again – I can’t wait. It’s like coming off a scary fairground ride and then immediately wanting to get back on again.

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

Switch off and tighten up!

August 10, 2015August 10, 2015Steve Hickey

The display on the back of the camera – switch it off.

Even for someone like me who spent years trusting my skill with film and shooting in thousands of different situations its a sobering thing to do – switching off the display. Because like many photographers these days I’ve become addicted to the instant confirmation of the shot.

Only recently did I think to do it, and only last week put it into practice. Can’t believe it took me so long to do it. Maybe lots of photographers out there do this, but if they do they’re hiding it well, because almost every photographer I see has their face stuck in the back of the camera and they’re not looking through the viewfinder!

So last Wednesday I was in London and on the way home spent a few minutes taking pics with the display off as an experiment. It became very hard to not press the ‘play’ button to see what I had shot. I found this restriction I had imposed on myself quite annoying so I stopped after 20 minutes or so. I put it down to being tired and thought tomorrow I’ll try again.

Next day I was working back in Deal again and got there ages before my job started and so went for a walk with my camera (and with the screen off again). I just pretty much shot anything for about an hour. This time I found it more enjoyable – maybe I was tired the day before or perhaps it was the relaxing effect of being in Deal.

Well I did feel that it freed me up somewhat, didn’t create any earth shattering photographs, but had a good time. I continued to shoot part of the job later that day in the same way. Although I have to admit that at a certain point the lighting got a bit tricky so I switched on again – still addicted! But I will shoot more this way and see if it changes how I shoot. Just realised that sounds weird – been shooting for 40 years and I’m looking to see how something might change how I shoot! I think what I really mean is – lets see if I start shooting like I used to before digital came along.

What I did find last week was that switching off the display did tighten up my camera skills and did make me look outwards rather than inwards into what I had just shot. It’s worth a try. Switch off and tighten up!

Forty years on – Restart

August 3, 2015Steve Hickey

So Blogging 101 came up and gave me a reason to reassess my blog and why I do it.

I think it was forty years ago last week that I started my first job in photography, thereabouts anyway. I spent a lot of time in the darkroom in 1975 – with the odd cockroach floating about in the fix as company, but I was let out on jobs as well and started to learn.
Forty years on last week I was in Deal starting work on a project for Deal Pier Arts (photo above), some nice fresh sea air!

I still shoot, still work, still earn a living doing what I like best. I’ve worked for some major companies for good money and I’ve also worked for a small return or even nothing if the subject interests me.

Well a few things have come up recently that have made me kind of reflect on why I still take pictures, but the main catalyst was finding Vivian Cherry’s book, Vivian Cherry’s New York, in a charity shop and it made me look into her life. A really inspiring person who after a long break from photography – stopped in the 1950’s – took it up again later at the age of 67 (five years older than I am now).

I have also come across a fair amount of misinformation about photography lately on the internet and so I thought that rather than do the ‘see what a great photographer I am’ kind of blog – which seems to be everywhere ( and which I’m just as guilty of doing). I would give out some (hopefully) useful tips, information and how to’s. I’ve done that a little bit already, but I thought that now I should do more.

I’ve shot 40 years with film and almost 15 years with digital so I’ve a pretty good idea of how to do it. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in that time – (still make the odd one!) but I’ve also got it right a lot of times. If I get it wrong in the future then I’m sure that someone will let me know

Burgh Island and Capture One Pro 8

June 12, 2015June 12, 2015Steve Hickey

I like the morning – it’s the best time of day for me, I get most work done before lunch. Mornings are also often the best time for landscape photography. The day I photographed Burgh Island I got up a little later than I would have liked, the Sun had already risen but I decided to go anyway. Walking through Thurlestone village about 6am I was a little surprised to see an old guy waiting outside the only pub in the village. We exchanged greetings and I moved on to the cliffs. Two old guys wondering what each other were doing up so early in a tiny village on the Devon coast.

I had been to the location a couple of times previously so had a good idea of where I was going to shoot and had three spots sorted out. However the light was changing really quickly and by the time I had reached the third location I decided to call it a day, so I was done before 8am.

I should have started out by saying that I don’t consider myself a landscape photographer but I like going out and shooting landscapes when I can – my work is mostly not about landscapes. I kind of always feel that I should be using a 5×4 camera instead of a Canon DSLR when I’m out shooting this kind of stuff. I used 5×4 and 10×8 cameras many years ago for studio work but I don’t think that I could bring myself to carry around a large format camera these days – but you never know, I might go back to one sometime.

So, instead of using large format, my way to bring up the Canon 5D3 to the best it can do is to use Capture One software to process the RAW images. I started using Capture One a few years ago, at the time I wasn’t happy with Adobe Raw Converter which I had been using to process my images. I tried Capture One and saw that it could pull out more detail.

So with this image of Burgh Island I noticed the edge of the shot (the mainland) was a little unsharp. I used the Canon 24-105mm lens – which although a reasonable lens, it has some sharpness fall-off at the edges. This image was taken at f9 – wide open at f4 the lens is pretty bad at the edges. Most people wouldn’t notice in normal use but viewed at 100% the fall-off at f4 is very obvious.

To correct the fall-off I used the Sharpness Fall Off tool in the Capture One lens correction panel. The screen grabs below show the change in sharpness when using it at 250% compared to 0%. The centre of the image remains unchanged in terms of sharpness. It’s a fairly subtle but noticeable change which in my opinion brings the image from the lens up to a good enough standard.

Image at roughly 100% with 250% edge sharpness correction. — The extreme right hand edge of the image at roughly 100% with 250% fall off sharpness correction.

Image at roughly 100% with no edge sharpness correction. — The extreme right hand edge of the image at roughly 100% with no fall off sharpness correction.

To be honest in normal life nobody ever notices as images are rarely viewed at 100%, and some don’t care anyway. The important thing for me is that I know I’ve got the best out of whatever lens I have on the camera and using Capture One Pro 8 enables me to do that.

Burgh Island, located just off the Devon coast, is known for its Art Deco hotel which famously inspired Agatha Christie.

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/

When Steve met Stevie

February 19, 2015February 19, 2015Steve Hickey

I noticed earlier this week that CBS aired a tribute to Stevie Wonder and it reminded me of the time I photographed him, so I thought that I would offer my own small tribute.

This year I will have been working in photography for 40 years. I decided that I might do the occasional look back over the years in my blog so I thought that I would start with one of the best moments.

It was December 1994 and I was sitting in the bar of the Lanesborough Hotel in London with a journalist, waiting to see Stevie Wonder. I had been around music photography since 1978 so had my fair share of photographing the famous. One of the first albums I bought was by Stevie Wonder, and his show at the Birmingham Odeon in 1968 was one of the first gigs I went to – so this was a bit more than just another job for me! It was a long wait in the bar, a couple of hours – so no alcohol! Eventually we were ushered in to the room and met Stevie – and what a great guy he was. One of the few stars that I have met that seemed genuinely interested in our conversation when we chatted before the interview – me mentioning the ’68 gig and him mimicking my English accent and making the atmosphere light and friendly. There were just the three of us in the room and I shot some photographs while the interview took place. We were there for maybe twenty minutes and then the interview was over.

They say never meet your heroes, but sometimes it’s worth taking the chance.