Wow – the winners certificates have been sent through and looks like Shadowplay and Philip E James did pretty well across the board. Here are some of the ones we are most proud of!

Well done all – and well done www.philipejames.co.uk

We recently found out that Phil has won a Bronze award for People Photographer of the Year at the One Eyeland Awards.

It’s a year since Phil travelled to India for a charity project and here are a few of the images he captured which were also entered into awards. He was also lucky to be sponsored by Peartree rental for a Leaf Aptus Digital Back. He loved it so much he bought one as soon as he returned!

He has also got another project booked to shoot there in early May, so we’re excited to see the images he returns with this time.

See more of Phil’s work at www.philipejames.co.uk

We had a fantastic evening celebrating with some wonderful photographers at this years Portrait Salon 12. Phil’s image of Cooper entitled ‘Boy’, made it through from the Taylor Wessing portrait prize entries, and was one of the images being simultaneously projected in London, Brighton, Leeds and Cardiff.

The Portrait Salon was set up by Carole Evans and James O’Jenkins and they describe it as a form of Salon des Refuses, showcasing the best of the rejected images from the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. The event has had great support from sponsorship, funding and media promotion through both the Telegraph and BBC to name a few!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-20539566

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/face-time-taylor-wessing-portrait-prize-gives-exquisite-collection-of-images-a-new-lease-of-life-8317238.html

All in all an amazing achievement considering it is only in its second year.

Above are some pictures from the evening – you can grab your newspaper from Portrait Salon direct at http://portraitsalon.co.uk/2012  or following them on twitter @portrait_salon

Another year past and some fantastic work made it through to the 2012  Association of Photographers Awards. Congratulations to some of our favourites – Julia Fullerton -Batten and James Day’s images were beautiful and very inspiring.

Phil and Dave’s India project made it down to the last three in the Moving image section, and although they didn’t win best in category, to be chosen as one of the top three videos was a privilege in itself.

We had a great night and met up with lots of good friends – here is a selection of some of the uncensored images !

Some of you may know that Phil James and Dave have been out filming a document for Project Mala, a charity looking after children in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India – helping to give them an education and eliminating them from joining the child labour in making hand knotted carpets. They had both an emotional, but an inspiring trip and here is a sneak peek at some of Phil’s stills captured.

Following the success of the Carlsberg Get Behind England campaign (Carlsberg Project), Billington Cartmell approached us to help them create the campaign shots for their new client, Scotty brand. Their new brand positioning called for some epic landscape scenes in line with their Scottish heritage, combined with underground imagery of their tasty carrots and kestrel potatoes. A few days in Scotland capturing the landscape, a studio full of plants and soil and some fantastic retouching and composition helped bring the campaign to life. Now showing across Scotland and soon to be in the UK.

Check out the full Scotty Brand project in our STILL section here

Visit www.scottybrand.com to see their brand new website and find out more information on where you can buy Scotty Brand products

A few of the Shadowplay team descended on AMBIKA 3, for the launch night for the AOP awards exhibition as Phil James was up for the single object award.
A great night was had by all and it was fantastic to see such a high standard of work out there. More fun was had in the photobooth – although we’ve had to censor some images!
We’re all looking forward to next years submission, watch this space.

With the world headed toward cross-platform advertising (i.e., digital + print + broadcast), any investment in marketing artwork will soon require both still images and motion pieces from the same production.

Clients will be doing fewer and fewer still-only photo shoots, or just shooting 30 second spots on their own. Now they will need a range of creative material for the increasing range of marketing channels.Increasingly these distribution channels for the artwork will be digital. And digital channels crave both still and moving images, often together, but certainly each in various contexts.
The most valuable resource on a shoot is time. There’s never enough of it. And now doing two things (still and motion) in the production, time just got even more scarce.

HIGH ISO PERFORMANCE

The most time consuming thing in many productions is the lighting set-up and lighting changes, and to say something is “the most time consuming thing” is to say it’s the most expensive thing. This is particularly true when moving to various locations or changing the lighting for different takes.
The idea of doing two lighting set-ups (one of stills and one for motion) is going to be out of the question. In addition to the costs and extra time, you have even more lights that could get in the shot or cast shadows for the motion camera.

PHOTOGRAPHERS:

whether you are shooting only stills, or shooting the stills and the motion footage, you will not be able to do two lighting set-ups. And motion filming requires constant lighting, so you will not be able to use strobes. You will have to rely on the continual lighting set-up for your still shots.
Continual lighting set-ups are not nearly as bright as strobes, and you have less control, and you have less time, and the client will be no less forgiving if you do not deliver great shots that compare with the strobe-lit shots in your portfolio. You do the math.

Cameras capable of low-noise at high ISO settings will be golden in these increasingly common scenarios. High ISO capability will be THE key camera feature for photography in a motion world. And the digital distribution norm we’re rapidly migration to is a motion world.

In February I was approached by Julie Easton, the editor of Advanced Photoshop Magazine to provide some work for a profile in the magazine. I featured in Issue 80 in March and was given a double page spread. I was very honored to be asked to be involved in the magazine as I’m a regular reader, and realise the talent that I’m surrounded by. I have to admit I have learned a thing or two from APM over the years!

We have a copy in the studio if you want to find out a little more.

I was literally retouching the pants off these guys last week, and now the ad that will feature in mensrooms across the country and the March issue of FHM, has got an award!
Each week The Chip Shop Awards announces the ad that has received most votes and are named ‘ad of the week’, and fortunately the ad won.

It was a really fun project, and I’m glad Lloyds Pharmacy weren’t afraid of a bit of controversy.