It never ceases to amaze me just how powerful, even a single image can be. Sometimes words struggle to express emotions or describe events in ways that a good photograph can accomplish almost instantly. No language barriers, no lost in translation, just....POW ---- One look and you understand.Talking to friends recently about life on the offshore oil platforms, rigs and barges where I work, I was asked if we ever saw any birds or marine life out there. The short answer is yes, but after a few minutes trying unsuccessfully to describe an incident on a construction barge when a seal appeared on deck and the whole crew of several hundred, including me, stopped work to look...... “What's a construction barge?”.”How did it get up there?” ”What happened?”
It looked at us... looking at it. Many of us took pictures. The seal didn't appear to have a camera, just beautiful big eyes.
As I struggled to describe the situation in more detail, wishing, as usual, that I'd stuck with the short answer, it occurred to me that emailing them the pictures would save a lot of time. If you haven't nodded off reading this, the picture below tells the story.
What happened next? After a while everyone went back to work. The crew building oil platforms, me photographing them building oil platforms, the seal catching fish.
Whether you're taking photographs of your family or of street scenes where you live, you are recording history. Every picture documents us and our lives at an instant in time, and although you may not intend to capture more than a smile or a family gathering, each click records far more. It’s easy to forget how powerful images can be, not just as art or self expression, or as simple snaps, but as the best way to tell a story – Our story.
Oh, and stick with the short answer, unless you've got the pictures handy.
Update Complete.....for now.
Site Update : If you're reading this, I've completed part one of a major site revamp. Layouts have changed, many pages have been updated or replaced, and the way is now clear to introduce new content. Some sections, particularly the Printers area have started on a fairly radical and long overdue update. Many reviews in the RAW section still need updated but most Lens Tests have been expanded or updated. It's a long process, so will carry on for some time yet. Although producing phototestcenter.com is great fun for me, making use of the many tests I make anyway, tomorrow I have an 06.30 check in and am back on the road again. With 8 commissions lined up it's time to go make photographs. My new Canon EOS 5D Mk2 hasn't arrived yet, so will miss tomorrow's trip, but I expect it any day now. I've expanded my lens line up to deal with shooting more full frame digital images, spending much of the last few days making tests with my new Canon 100-400mm L IS USM. Results have shown it to be a great performer, producing better results than the Nikon 80-400mm VR I also own right now, but tomorrow it will be fitted to my third camera on the shoot, so I'll find out for real just how good it is. Buying this lens really hurt, not because of any real worries about it's quality, but because of the 20% or more price hike in the last few weeks. I manage to find one for £ 1200 – thanks to Nicholas Cameras of London, it's great – when prices are now mostly £ 1300 or more, but what hurts is that this lens sold for £ 900 - £ 1000 only about 3 months ago. That's 30% inflation in 3 months!!! According to our government, inflation in the UK is at 0% - Not for photographers it isn’t.
Time to get back to work then - I've got a family and a whole bunch of cameras, lenses and printers to support.
Beginning Update........
Site Updates.Thanks to a spell of snow and ice, which brought much of the UK, including my business life, to a standstill earlier this month, I finally got a chance to start work on updating phototestcenter.com. The first priority has been to start working through every page, rewriting and improving the layouts. I still have a huge amount to learn so that's an ongoing process, but some of the early pages really were my first web pages and were pretty basic. The plan is to update all pages to the newer, simpler style you see here, and to improve the navigation, around what has become a large site. It will probably take a few months to work through every page, but I’m determined it will happen as quickly as possible.
So far I've updated the Lightroom review to cover Lightroom 2 and I've almost completed an update to every lens test. Lots more lens tests to come here including some Sony and Minolta lenses. Next will be the RAW Darkroom section, where updated tests with new cameras will be needed to find out which RAW conversion package is best for me, and you.
Last will be the photo printers tests. This area is still the least satisfactory part of digital imaging, and in my daily working life, one trend is easy to spot: The number of prints I make and sell is steadily decreasing, at a time when I’m actually supplying customers with more images than ever. Over the last few years professional imaging has moved away from supplying an envelope full of conventional prints, to photo books, and not just for weddings anymore. I’m just back from Focus on Imaging, the UK’s biggest photo trade show, and photo book supplier’s were on every row. I think this is great - Now every photographer can produce their own books. That’s so much better than showing people boxes full of old prints, or even images on a PC. Many of the end results on show looked stunning, and were not that expensive. Even if you only need a few copies you can produce something that looks really impressive. If you haven’t tried this - give it a go, you’ll be amazed at how good a few of your best photographs can look, properly presented in a form that you will keep to hand, rather than hidden in a drawer somewhere.
My main reason for visiting the show was to get my hands on a Canon 5D Mk2. This is a vital camera for me and judging by the fact that it was impossible to buy one as every dealer was sold out, Canon have a success on their hands. That’s really good news, as other recent Canon digital SLR cameras have all had their weak spots, casting doubts on my continuing investment in Canon equipment. As a result, over the last few months I've re-visited Nikon, had a look at the latest Sony DSLR's, spent a fortune on lenses and made dozens of tests, to find that ….. (enter answer here when I figure out what it is, but I suspect, like almost every photographer I meet at the moment, it’s a Canon EOS 5D Mk2)
Qatar
Recently I was lucky enough to be sent to Qatar in the United Arab Emirates. Having visited Dubai recently it was a great opportunity to see another UAE state (and to work somewhere warm again). Like Dubai the level of development taking place is staggering, but in Qatar the process started more recently so there is a much stronger feeling that it’s all happening right now, in front of your eyes - or in front of a Canon 24-105mm f4 L IS in my case. That is an intoxicating atmosphere, and an environment that is full of photo opportunities. So if you’re finding little inspiration in familiar surroundings this winter, Qatar is a great place to visit. Temperatures in winter are ideal, mostly 25-30C, which is much more pleasant than the summer time 45C levels. Doha, the capital has a 7km long sea front corniche which is worth the trip on it’s own. Haze is the main photographic problem - the desert really is just over the hill in the picture above.
As always the actual job was on an offshore oil platform and began with an 05.30 check in ( the oil industry the world over believes in getting an early start !! ) and the equally predictable “can you photograph 2 platforms in 8 minutes?” conversation with the logistics department who had only read as far as “a photographer’s going out to take a few photographs” and hadn’t realised how many photographs or planned to refuel the helicopter offshore, hence the 8 minutes limit. As it turned out the helicopter crew did know there was fuel available on a nearby platform so eventually a solution was found, and nobody asked for my credit card to pay for it. More difficult was another parallel conversation with the check-in clerk who kept telling me that my beard had to go. Due to very stringent safety rules about gas masks offshore, even large sideburns weren’t allowed, in case this vital part of your safety equipment failed to seal properly, so even a neatly trimmed scottish beard was a definite no no. Having had a beard constantly since my early twenties, my wife has never seen me clean shaven and likes the beard, so I was trying hard to ignore the repeated “beard must go” requests, but the check-in staff were still insisting even after we’d sorted out the fuel, and eventually I was presented with an old razor and directed to the airport toilets, and probable divorce. No shaving cream, no towel...... took a while, but every check-in desk had a big diagram of “acceptable hair” and none of them looked like me. If I wanted to take any photographs it had to go, so......
It took a while after I got back to Scotland for the beard to grow back, and I never did work out how much to charge for it in my expenses, but I’m glad to say I’m still happily married, and the job got done.
In the end the biggest disappointment from this trip was the performance of my new Canon EOS 50D - Even at 400 ISO images were noisier than I’m used to.
I, and almost every other pro, changed from Nikon to Canon to get away from noise, but now the Nikon D3 is the camera to own. When I first got my hands on one the Nikon tech had to make me give it back, and Nikon D3 image quality has a definite wow factor, at almost any ISO. Sounds like my kind of camera. However, changing systems is very expensive. Owning a large chunk of both is very expensive. So right now a large part of my brain is going “just get on with it” while another more sensible part is going “Oh no, not again”. It all depends on the Canon EOS 5D Mk2.
More to come on this.
The Deck Crew who solved the offshore refuelling problem didn’t want my credit card, but they did want me to take their picture. No problem. Thanks guys. Note - No Beards. I wonder if I could get the same deal at my local filling station?
10,000 Miles Later...........
About to go to work at 44 degrees centigrade - Rajnikant, in the orange coveralls, still manages to look cool. I, on the other hand, in a full body harness, look like someone wearing a large orange nappy. Oh well..... My thanks to all for a memorable trip.
As far as we know this was the first time an aerial photographic survey of this type had taken place in the Gulf. Unlike flying over the North Sea there’s little need for thermal underwear or gloves. The Bell 212 is a great camera platform. Eurocopter please note: this is where the exhausts go - well aft out of the way, not over the door frying my head. Thank you.
I’ve been travelling a lot recently - Exactly how many miles I’ve done I’ve no idea, so 10,000 is a (probably wildly inaccurate) guess, but for the first time in weeks I’ve got time to write. Travelling at other people’s expense is one of the privileges of the job so I have a lot to be thankful for at the moment. My last trip was to Dubai in the Persian Gulf, which considering the poor summer we’re having in Scotland this year, made a welcome change. It’s so nice to take pictures on sunny days when the sky is blue and the sea is even bluer. The only downsides are it’s the same every day and there’s always a heat haze, which at times came close to heat fog. My thanks to Rajnikant and to Aerogulf for making the trip such a pleasure. I’m sure I’d get used to the heat.... eventually.
Because of the heat and humidity I went to a lot of trouble keeping the cameras at a reasonably constant temperature and not taking them in and out of cool air conditioned rooms all the time. Every time I stepped out into the heat my glasses steamed up so I was concerned about the same happening to the cameras. Condensation on the front of a cold lens will clear when the kit warms up but the worry was what happens if I get condensation inside lenses which can take hours to clear and there’s nothing you can do but wait. Actually that’s not entirely true - There’s nothing sensible you can do, but I do remember another photographer putting his camera in an oven to try and dry it out ......It didn’t work, it steamed up even more. The idea of condensation on camera sensors or memory cards just didn’t bear thinking about, so 8GB cards and only one very careful change per camera per day.
Dubai is an incredible place, especially for the visually orientated. Whereas in Britain anything out of the ordinary gets trapped in planning regulations for years, in Dubai they’d probably complain if your building looked boring. There are so many stunning pieces of architecture it’s a real treat for the eyes. Not so good for my eyes was the 05.00 arrival in Amsterdam on the way back. Still, 3 hours to wander around one of my favourite airports is no hardship. Schiphol is a great example of what an airport should be, with a seamless transfer of my bags in both directions, with no damage and nothing missing. Wonderful. KLM do great business out of Aberdeen because of this - Who’d rather route via London? Anyone for Terminal 5? Not me. Photographers worry about their bags more than most for very obvious reasons.
Taking a bite out of an Apple
I’ve finally taken the plunge and bought an Apple iMac. After years of frustration calibrating PC monitors and printers I decided now was the time to try moving to the other side of town, where people seem much happier and more at ease when color management comes up in conversation. The hard truth is that no Color Management System (CMS) is perfect but having tried Microsoft’s new Windows Color Management in Vista I felt like hitting something - preferably a Microsoft something. What exactly is it useful for? - Actually that question applies to Vista as a whole. An operating system that requires double the resources of your PC running Windows XP to do the same but slower........ wow gotta get one of them.... My workload has quadrupled in the last few months - hence the lack of updates to the site - so slower isn’t an option. A Mac where stuff just plain works seemed at least worth a try. I’m also gradually shooting more and more video and Mac’s reign supreme for video editing, so it looked like I’d have to cross over anyway.
Working for a livingOver the last few months David Gold Photography, otherwise known as “the day job” has never been busier. This is a good thing in that a regular income is one of the few things usually missing from my life >>>>>>>>> continued
Winter Light I’ve just returned from the kind of super intense two day assignment that’s fairly typical of my working life. Although sometimes a quiet life sounds like a great idea, I can’t think there are many occupations where, even after more than 30 years, I’d still get the same kind of buzz that photography gives me. >>>>>>>>>> continued
All text and images copyright David Gold 2006 - 2009 and must not be reproduced in any way without permission davidgold@ezeedsl.co.uk
In the end the biggest disappointment from this trip was the performance of my new Canon EOS 50D - Even at 400 ISO images were noisier than I’m used to. 
