First performed in the UK in Covent Garden, London in 1662, the traditional story involves a core theme of anarchy, failed babysitting, a random appearance by a crocodile and more fighting than would be allowed in children’s entertainment if commissioned today.  However, the slapstick violence is so deeply entrenched in British tradition that it’s not the done thing to really debate the issue.  In a world of ultra-safe television and worthy causes, it was great fun to just sit back and enjoy the decidedly un-PC show.  Considering how little there is to work with and how much one person has to do, you have to admire the time and effort put into getting their presentations right.

My favourite show of the afternoon was by French “Professor” Philippe Saumont who found some truly unique ways to move the figures and bring them to life.  Not speaking very much English, his whole show was made up of sounds, barks, yelps and cackles but had more life in it than most of the others.  I would say check him out if you can but I’m guessing he’s not likely to cross the path of most people!  It doesn’t do his performance justice at all but there’s an old video of him here.  It’s a very strange way for someone to spend their time.

While a huge selection of traditional booths were on show, others opted for more unique stages.  The “Smallest Punch and Judy show in the world” above allowed a single audience member to peer into a tiny booth while wearing headphones for a recorded version of the story.  The only downside to the days popularity was that it was rammed to capacity.  It was one of those examples where being able to move just a little more freely would have opened up so many more picture options but I guess I can’t complain about something being popular.

Featuring puppeteers (or “professors”) from all over the world, the weekend saw many interpretations of the story including a Bollywood version from Professor Patel starring Punjeet and Judy-Gee and a rather dubious satirical show featuring a Tony Blair puppet.  It’s fair to say that the six-year old kids watching didn’t particularly get the latter.

So it seems that after 350 years of entertaining children with this rather bizarre story, there’s still an audience for all things puppet.  When it comes to a plot with longevity, that’s the way to do it.  Happy Birthday, Mr Punch.

Now this may or not be a phrase that you’ve come across before, but you’ll undoubtedly have either witnessed or actually committed this photocrime yourself.  The toofer is when a photographer of whatever category, niche, clique or industry, can’t be bothered to decide between two (or even more) pictures so ends up using both.  Before you rush to find examples from me on the AFP site, I can save you the time and declare that yes, I’ve been known to toofer in the past.  Recently however, I’ve stopped and I think it’s time we all checked ourselves to make sure we aren’t falling into this bad habit.

You might have read all of this so far and wondered if it really matters.  Allow me to explain why it does.

Picture the scene; you’ve just finished a shoot and have started to edit the glorious fruits of your labour.  During the shoot, you remember getting a particular angle or moment that just worked so you shot the living hell out of it.  That buffer was glowing red hot by the time you finished, and you had chance to finish off your above-room temperature pasty before the data-write light had faded.  Now when you’re editing, you find shot after shot that you like but you can’t make your mind up which to release.  At this point, it’s so easy to think “if less is more, just think how much more is” and throw the whole lot into the finished mix.  This is actually one of the main moments that sets the professionals apart from the amateurs.  Why should your client be left to decide which is the best shot?  If there’s so little difference between the images to make a choice, there’s no damage in hacking it down to just one, is there?

A simple analogy is to imagine going to a restaurant and asking for something from the menu.  When the food arrives, it’s not just one plate but 9 different dishes.  The chef is in tow to point out that he was proud of them all but he put marginally different amounts of seasoning in each and couldn’t decide which tasted better.  While amusing on the first occasion, you would soon become pretty annoyed that the professional didn’t have the confidence to decide which is the best option.  On top of this, tasting nine virtually identical dishes will only serve to dilute the strength of the actual winner.  How the hell did I just write a paragraph on chef’s seasonings?  I will rely on your discretion and manners to pretend you understand what I’m trying to say.

So next time you’re preparing an edit for your client, picture editor or blog, step up to the plate and make the choices.  The internet is full of photographers that churn out countless thousands of images, but for someone to confidently say that a single image is the one that captured it all shows genuine talent.

]]> http://www.leonneal.com/blog/2012/04/18/toof-ache/feed/ 15 http://www.leonneal.com/blog/2012/04/05/nikon-d4-unboxing/ http://www.leonneal.com/blog/2012/04/05/nikon-d4-unboxing/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:22:02 +0000 tabascokid http://www.leonneal.com/blog/?p=6039  

I opened up the box and there was a camera, some leads, a bit of paperwork and some packing material inside.

As part of an ongoing project for Agence France-Presse, I recently had the opportunity to photograph a group of street artists known as Ground Release as they created new pieces on the walls of the communal area of Trellick Tower in north London. Never having seen these guys at work, I was half assuming they may be a little reticent when it came to having a photographer in their midst but they all proved to be a top bunch of chaps.

Wanting to see the whole thing from start to finish, I arrived in time to see them painting over all of the old tags and graffiti that covered the walls. With every possible square inch of surface already daubed in tags and graffiti, the plan was to create a clean canvas and provide the area with some consistent artwork that could brighten it up, rather than countless repetitions of the same names over and over again.

After laying down a neutral coat, the team got to it, all working on their own section of wall. Never having worked with or talked to street artists before, it was interesting to find out that only a couple of the ten guys involved had any idea of what they were going to do. For most of them, they just went with the flow and would be working on ideas that they’d been developing in other recent work. Of the two that were working from plans, one was working from a rough sketch while another guy kept consulting the concept sketch on his iPhone screen.

I was actually shocked at how little interaction there was from the residents throughout the day. While the handful that did come downstairs to check out their new art were friendly and wanted to take pictures, only one seemed concerned but after a few minutes discussion, came round to the idea and was last heard saying how much he could appreciate the artwork over random tagging.

Ground Release is an international arts and culture initiative that aims to bring together people from across the globe through the language of supposed “underground” art and communications. With ongoing projects in Europe, Asia and the US, the artists involved all use skills and style often connected with illegal graffiti, and aim to make it a more accepted form.

The thing that I found hardest to get my head around was the tiny lifespan that is expected of the final work. One guy spent all day on his section and was very close to completion by the time the light faded. When I chatted to him about what he had left to do, he prefaced his reply with; “If it’s still here tomorrow…”

Aside from leaving me feeling a little like a middle-aged uncle trying to relate to his teenage nephews (making an aerosol of myself?), it was a really fascinating day, chatting to these guys. I just stupidly assumed that street artists still used spray paint from their local car spares shop but while your local tagger may well do, the serious artists have whole ranges of professional quality paint in cans designed for exactly this purpose. Golly, don’t I sound completely out of touch with the youth?

The reason that I was actually on-site that day was to create a time-lapse of the artists at work but spending time with them provided so many more opportunities that just that. I will be sharing the time-lapse when it’s published by AFP. Watch this highly-decorated space…

As ever, the most fun was had either trying to capture the madness of backstage life, or in the “off-piste” shows of smaller designers.  With security tighter than previous years, the main tent at Somerset House was very restrictive in allowing access but thankfully through a combination of ninja-skills and politeness, I got to work backstage at a number of shows including Temperley, Vivienne Westwood and Inbar Spector.

Two of the things that baffle me about life backstage is the sheer amount of people that are allowed to be back there and also why so many fashion photographers feel the need to have a lackey to hold their flash units for them.  Invariably, they end up holding it exactly where it would be if it was mounted and all it does is fill the place up even more.  Plenty of other guys mount their flash units on the camera or use ring-flash units so it’s always a little frustrating when your way is blocked by yet another person serving as a glorified lighting stand.

One of the frustrations of working at London Fashion Week is trying to balance coverage of the larger designers with finding the unusual shows at smaller venues from lesser-known designers.  While technically, you have the time to shoot loads of shows, your day gets soaked up with negotiating access, travelling between venues, marking positions, defending positions and then trying to get something other than the show itself.  If this is done for every major designer’s show, a 15 minute presentation will have actually have taken up four hours of your working day.  While it’s clear that you have to cover the big hitters, it’s a pain to see the random and pictorially-satisfying stuff that comes out of the smaller design house and design school shows.

While I tried to amuse myself by finding silly stuff like the shot above, it was refreshing to see the stereotypes challenged by the reading matter of the model below.  Not what I was expecting to see backstage at Temperley…

As ever, the kit for the week stayed pretty much the same with either two or three bodies (D3/D3s) and a whole bunch of lenses ranging from the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens for uber-wide stuff in the thick of it backstage, through to a 300mm f2.8 lens for picking out the detail and/or famous faces in the crowd.  Not shooting that much of the celebrity side, I packed a flash but never actually used it.  If there were famous people to be shot, there would invariably be more than enough flash being fired to wear the majestic cape of Captain Catchflash.  Also, I shot all of the backstage images with available lighting on a nice fast 50mm.  It helps when TV crews turn up with their lighting rigs of course… 

Another joyful experience is the skill of learning how to balance on a stack of randomly-assembled blocks, boxes and crates to get a decent view from within the scrum of photographers.  As you can see from the shot below, there really isn’t much room left to breathe, never mind work.  Randomly chopping and changing lenses mid-show is frowned upon as you’re working so closely to the person next to you that you’re bound to knock them, so you learn to choose your weapons and stick to them.  Having been sent a selection of slings by the lovely people at Black Rapid a while ago, I’ve worked out two situations where they’re at their most useful.  These seem to be any occasion where you have to wear a suit, and Fashion Week.  The former is due to the straps being worn under the suit jacket and stopping the crumples from attacking before you’ve even started your job.  The latter is due to the fact that you need to keep things close, but not be weighed down with heavy pouches.  With this in mind, I attached my 70-200mm to my R-Strap, put the 300mm on one body and the 24-70mm on another, meaning that I’d only have to find a temporary home for the 24-70mm. Not the most riveting of snippets to share I know but it’s a workflow that, er, works!

One of my favourite presentations of the week was by Israeli designer Inbar Spector, who showed a series of skintight laser-cut cat suits and huge flowing dresses, all topped off with jewelled headpieces by Lara Jensen.  It was good to at least catch one distinctive show during the week!  The aim of the lighting teams at fashion shows is to create a smooth and consistent flow of light onto the catwalk throughout the models’ route.  This show proved a bit of a nightmare though, with the spotlights at the end of the runway capable of giving a healthy suntan in a few seconds, while elsewhere it was pretty murky so it was a case of riding those dials frantically as the model progressed.

My last show of the week was the Burberry presentation, held in an alarmingly expensive-looking temporary mega-marquee in Hyde Park.  With AFP throwing three of us at it, Carl Court was given backstage, AFP’s latest freelancer Justin Tallis was given the outside arrivals while I got the show.  Having not had a chance to secure a decent position, there was half an hour of chin-stroking as I worked out how to fit myself in, before AP’s Joel Ryan decided to shuffle into a different spot, freeing up a nice central location.  It really is like Tetris but involving aggressive fashion photographers, unstable stacked boxes and body odour issues.  Even French actress Clémence Poésy was concerned about the grumbling and bickering coming from the photographers’ stand…

Another season down and I remain as lacking in style as ever.  When will these fashion models finally rub off on me?  *ahem*

Hi there.  Remember me?  Sorry it’s been so long but I’m a firm believer in only writing when I have something that I want to show, rather than just to keep the posts coming.  Thankfully, last week I got the chance to shoot something different at the European Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield.  Not only did it give me a chance to return to God’s own holiday destination, The Steel City, but also the opportunity to shoot something that I’d never photographed before.

Aside from the unbelievable quantity of bad haircuts and highly dubious fashions, it was certainly a challenge working out how to cover something I’ve never even seen before, never mind worked on.  Thankfully, AFP photographer Andy Yates was on hand on my first day to show me the ropes and give me an idea of what the hell was going on.

First things first; light, or rather lack of light.  With the Nikon D4 announced but not yet in my hands, I was relying on the D3s to step up which thankfully it did.  With my ISO never dropping below 3200 and shutter having to always be above 1000th/sec to freeze the motion during the incredibly fast spins, there wasn’t much chance to get any depth of field on the subjects.  F2.8 it was then.

With a mixture of men’s, women’s, pairs, short program and free dance routines, it took a bit of getting my head round but I very quickly realised two things;

a) Most of the routines have to include a selection of required moves or tricks.  As some take more stress and energy than others, the competitors get the scary ones out of the way sharpish so it’s wise to expect the leaping and spinning pictures to happen within the first minute.

b) Falling flat on your arse isn’t necessarily the end of your hopes.  While one competitor fell over three times, she still managed to come ahead of a girl from Ireland who didn’t fall once.  I guess that didn’t say much for the judge’s thoughts on Miss Plenty O’Skates performance.

Shooting from the start of the day’s session, it quickly became clear that they run through the entrants pretty much in order of rank so just as you’re getting used to the speed of the action, along comes the world number 3 or higher to completely throw you out again.  As I said above, thank god for high ISO settings that actually work.  I can’t imagine how photographers shot this on on 1Dmk1 or D1 bodies that fell apart above 640ISO.

While I was mainly working alone, the other agencies had two photographers on the job with one shooting from up in the higher seating positions and one from rink-side but while the shots from above looked cleaner, they also became incredibly boring to shoot very quickly.  While downstairs provided the headaches and mess of empty seats and garish advertising hoardings, upstairs provided no context.  Press photographers strive for clean backgrounds, but you still need to have something in the frame to offer interest other than another skater doing the same moves you’ve shot on the previous 24 entrants.  I soon found that rink-side allowed a few more options for shapes and reactions.

Having said that, rink-side also proved to be a LOT harder.  With the positions at either end of the rink, the competitors were loose on a 400mm when they were at the other end but unbelievably tight when right in front of you.  While I hoped for action to happen in the centre of the rink, I soon realised that this was going to be a rarity as the skaters use the length of the rink to build up speed and power to perform their airborne manoeuvres.  Shooting alongside photographers from Reuters, AP, Getty and EPA, people standing nearby would hear the desperate mutterings of “no..no..No!. NOW! NOW! NOW!  Nooo! No.. no.. no…” as the skaters rushed in our direction before spinning in the air a couple of metres in front of us.

As the competition came to a close, there were no real surprises on the podiums with the Carolina Kostner taking gold in the Ladies category and Evgeni Plushenko taking top spot in the Mens category.  The only real shame of the week was that restrictions had been tightened on where we could shoot since I covered the Speed Skating last year.  Having access to the gantry above the rink during these incredible moves would have been awesome.  Boo to Health and Safety!

So there’s my first real blog of 2012 and it’s about sport.  I can’t imagine there will be too much more of that kind of thing this year though.  Now, what’s in the diary?

Having used Thinktank gear for a few years now, it’s a real pleasure to say how great their gear is.  On a daily basis, I use the Shape Shifter, the Skin 75 Pop Down V2.0, the Chimp Cage, the Thin Skin belt with an Airport Check In also often getting drafted into use.  Having started out using Lowepro bags, I got rid of them after realising that they don’t seem to spend much time thinking about the actual user.  The bags do indeed hold the cameras but are cumbersome, bulky and do what countless other bags already do.  After a brief experiment with a Crumpler bag (that made me look like Touche Turtle, even when empty), I invested in a Shape Shifter and have been using it ever since.

For your chance to get your hands on the bag shown above (obviously without the Nikon toys), simply follow @tabascokid & @thinkTANKphoto on twitter and tweet the following message;

Follow @tabascokid & @thinkTANKphoto for a chance to win a Thinktank Urban Disguise 35 V2.0 #gimmeathinktankbag

MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE THE WHOLE SENTENCE, INCLUDING #gimmeathinktankbag AS THIS IS HOW I’LL FIND THE WINNER!

I’m afraid the competition is only open to those in the UK, so those readers in Bhutan will have to find a generous soul closer to them if they want a freebie.

I would say good luck but it’s a no-brainer!  The winner will be picked at random on the 20th of January 2012.

* * * * *

The competition is now over and the winner is Fraser Stephen of Fife, Scotland.  Congratulations Fraser!

I’m obviously tempting fate as I have one shift left for 2011 on the 31st, so calling these my favourites of the year runs with the proviso that the Second Coming doesn’t happen on Saturday, with Jesus choosing to return for an impromptu monster truck session on Oxford Street while I’m on duty.

* * * * *

First up is a scene from the Southbank of the Thames, during the build-up to the royal wedding.  With tourists filling the city and everything either draped in union flags or police tape, most photographers in London were regularly being sent out to find feature pictures on the upcoming marriage.  Aside from the poses looking like it could have been staged, the punchline to it all was that “The Queen” was in fact an Eastern European bloke.  I hope Phil the Greek knows.  The full blog can be found here.

The London riots saw some incredible images on the news wire from all agencies, newspapers and freelance sources. While I captured a good share of the flames and violence,  one of my personal favourite pictures came on the first night as I was leaving Tottenham to edit my photographs. Just as I was about to go, I glanced over my shoulder and saw a woman carrying two young children through the rubble and broken glass. The blue lights from the police vans lit her face as she walked towards the line of armoured vehicles and riot police. A few hundred metres behind her, the police were still clashing with rioters and missiles were being thrown in all directions. Being in that situation was scary enough, but as a father I can only imagine how scared this woman must have been for the safety of the children.  More images from the story can be found here.

The MCM Comic Con convention in east London turned out to be one of my favourite jobs of the year to shoot thanks to the ridiculous amount of pictures that were there to be taken, as nearly everyone attending was dressed in some type of costume. One of my favourites was Lindsay Vincent from Cumbria who dressed as US singer Lady Gaga and was happy to take time out to pose for me in front of the passing crowds.  The set of images I came away with have ended up being my favourite picture story of the year, thanks to the devotion of the fans of Cosplay and all that it involves.  Bravo, eccentric types!  More frames can be found here.

The show below is an idea that’s been done before but I loved how well matched the girls were.  While covering the “Vintage at the Southbank Centre” event, I’d spotted two girls playing around with the record covers as they searched through the stacks of vinyl on a stall.  As I approached them, they’d just found these two covers and were starting to play around with them.  I’d love to say I’d made the effort of finding out the exact covers and posing them just so but they made the frame for me.  While not being the hardest frame to capture, it still puts a smile on my face.  More images can be found here.

Covering the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships at Sheffield Arena in March, the photographers were given the chance to shoot from directly above, allowing us to catch the action from a new perspective.  At the time, I didn’t really appreciate how rare an opportunity it was until I’ve seen the “best of 2011″ images from a number of leading sports photographers have included shots from the gantry from over that weekend.

I was sitting in the office of Agence France-Presse, the news agency that I work for, on a particularly quiet day when I noticed the end of a rainbow over the financial district of London. I grabbed my camera and began taking pictures of the rainbow that could be used to illustrate a future business feature or story, when I noticed that it was starting to get longer. Within a few seconds it had become a full arc, and shortly after a second rainbow appeared over the top. By this time I’d called everyone over from their desks and they stood and watched the incredible light show as I frantically snapped away from under my coat (to cut out reflections from the glass of the office window). Then, as fast as it had appeared, it was gone.

Another shot from the first night of the London riots and it’s pretty self-explanatory but I liked how it captured the energy and frantic movement as the night developed.  With an appliance store on fire, the riot police moved forward pushing the rioters further down the street.  It’s always a challenge in this kind of situation to find the right place to be, as you’re facing incoming missiles when too close to the police but are at risk of being attacked if you’re in with the rioters.  More images can be found here.

Never having shot Wimbledon before, other than a few of the features surrounding the event, I got to cover the actual play this year with this shot being my favourite. After a long and frustratingly close rally, French player Benoit Paire threw his racquet while diving as he played against Spanish player David Ferrer.  A truly desperate move but it gave me a shot for the yearly round-up!  More images can be found here.

Another moment from the Comic-Con 2011 convention makes my list and this one was the opposite of the shot above, being a moment I spotted as I wandered around the main concourse during lunch.  While all of the attendees were connected by their love of cosplay, they still divided into some groups, so I had a poke around to see how they were mixing.  The guy in the centre was clearly quite proud of his costume and seemed to be a bit of an alpha-male of the group.  I’m proud of catching his flirtatious look towards the passing girl while the guy on the right eyes me suspiciously.  I also loved the Comic-Con show for this moment. More images can be found here.

It’s hard to fail on a story like this but when sent to cover the 25th annual International Kite Festival in Bristol, my favourite photo was of the interaction between a giant flying lobster and a spectator.  Even if it wasn’t a favourite picture, I’d probably include it anyway, just so that I could write that sentence.

While covering the on-going fighting around the town of Bani Walid in Libya, AFP journalist Dominique Soguel and I started chatting to a group of National Transitional Council (NTC) fighters as they sheltered from the midday sun on a dried riverbed running under the road. After shooting a few portraits of them, a senior figure in the NTC army arrived with a reinforced briefcase filled with wrapped bundles of tens of thousands of Dinar and started to pay the troops. With the fighting dragging on longer than hoped, the fighters were struggling to survive with families at home in need of income, so supporters had raised money by selling their possessions and sending the funds to the front line.  My posts from Libya can be found here.

The day of the royal wedding was truly one of the most stressful days of my life, but in the end it was saved by bridesmaid Grace Van Cutsem. The young girl became world famous after she covered her ears to protect herself from the noise of a fly-past, just at the point of the royal kiss, creating one of the moments of the day. I was very grateful that we were shooting from so far away, as if I’d been closer I may have tried to crop in really tight on the kiss and would have missed Grace’s moment.  The whole story can be found here.

During the visit to Britain by US President Barack Obama, I was covering a number of the meetings inside number 10 Downing Street. It included this one between the president, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Prime Minister David Cameron. I have absolutely no idea what was said, but I love the body language between the three subjects. While the prime minister had moved out of the way to allow us to photograph Mr Clegg and President Obama, the combination of the apparent giggling fit on the left, and the rather stern look from Mr Cameron, makes for an amusing caption competition shot.  More images from the visit can be found here.

So there we go.  Unless you hear about a series of crushed cars near Oxford Circus over the weekend, bring on 2012.

So, with that aside, my hunt for my next camera led me to Nikon’s latest range of “Compact Camera System” models; the V1 and the J1.  In my every day work, I use a wide range of Nikon lenses on D700, D3 and D3s bodies but have never used their smaller cameras before.  In recent years, I’d used the Canon S70 (and still do for underwater pictures) and the Canon Powershot G7 before finding the Panasonic Lumix GF1.  Thanks to the always-wonderful people at Nikon UK, I was allowed to get my hands on a range of bits and pieces from the range including the V1 and J1 bodies, the 10mm f2.8 lens, the 10-30mm f3.5-5.6 lens, the 10-100mm f4.5-5.6 lens and the SB-N5 flash unit.  Before I go any further, I’ll explain the difference between the two.  The slightly more expensive V1 has a hot-shoe and viewfinder, while the J1 has a pop-up flash and no viewfinder.  I gather that the idea is that the V1 is aimed at the street photographer and more serious photographer while the J1 is aimed at the consumer who’s less bothered about buying extra attachments.  With identical sensors and output, the extra money for the V1 buys you a host of other features including auto-sensor cleaning.  Deeper within the tech side of it, the V1 has both options of using a mechanical shutter or electronic while the J1 has only the electronic.  While the electronic is virtually silent, making it ideal for street photography, I always found myself back on the mechanical shutter.  I’d love to explain my reasoning but I can’t.  I just prefer the “feel”.  The only other difference that I could find was that the V1 has a higher resolution screen.  Basically, to wade through all of that, if you’re interested in buying one but don’t know which to go for, I’d lean towards the V1.  Yes, it’s a few quid more and you’ll have to buy the flash but I think the extra options that it provides make up for it.

Look and touch (but no fondling please)

Oddly, both cameras manage to catch the balance between bang up-to-date and retro styling with a very minimalist layouts.  The smooth form actually reminds me very much of the Leica M7 body design with no sharp edges and a lovely rounded form that sits in the hand quite nicely.  Having a father who worked in the motor industry for years, I’ve grown up with a love of things that are well ergonomically designed, so anything that sits right gets the thumbs up from me.  When held, they both feel solid and expensive, unlike many other pocket cameras that feel too thin and insignificant.  As previously mentioned, controls on the camera are sparse, to the point of being a little too minimalist.  Having worked with cameras for a few years now, it was a bit surprising to find that I had to mail Nikon for the instruction booklet to work out some of the options!  In the end it turns out that the vast majority of functions are accessed through the software menu which I’ll get to later.  The controls that are featured have the feel of a Hi-Fi separate, with a brushed chrome finish and in-set buttons on the silver J1 that I received, while the V1 definitely had the feel of the afore-mentioned Leica with a powder black finish and reasonably subtle branding.

The backs of both cameras have near identical design aside from the pop-up flash button on the J1.  One issue that I had with both cameras was the positioning of the thumb-wheel to change between certain modes.  With the controls all clustered over to the right of the screen, I found that the selection dial was very easily knocked and turned, either in use or while carrying the camera over my shoulder.  While I wasn’t using the camera in anger during these tests, it would be very annoying to grab for my camera to take a picture and find that it had rolled around to either video mode or the slightly baffling “Motion Snapshot” setting.

Optics ago-go

Moving on from the body, the lenses were quite an eclectic bunch.  With the 10mm “pancake” lens being the one that I was automatically drawn towards, the 10-30mm kit lens looked like most other kit lenses while the monster 10-100mm looked more like it was designed for me D3s!

Starting with the 10mm lens, I have to say from the start that it was disappointing to find that it was only f2.8.  While this may seem very fast to some, my personal benchmark was set by the 20mm pancake lens that I got with my GF1 with an f1.7 aperture.  It’s a real shame that even f2 wasn’t possible as it makes all the difference to those who want to have a small camera as a quick alternative to their main kit.  Aside from that, the lens is sharp and fast and has a nice slim profile so it sits nice and close to the body.

Next up is the 10-30mm f3.5-5.6 zoom lens. With very smooth zooming and sharp images, the lens is very reasonable but, like the 10mm, the aperture is too slow for me.

Last but not least is the 10-100mm, otherwise known as the “Thermos flask” due to it’s chunky size.  Oddly, after all I said about liking slim and slender designs, this lens was possibly my favourite.  Looks-wise, it’s a no go, looking like some sort of military drinks flask but when you’re sticking such a lump of glass and plastic onto the front of a slim camera, you’re doing it for one reason and that’s for the photographs.  So once you’ve got used to the fact that it’s going to look a little silly, it’s a nice bit of kit.  I’m guessing that its size is down to the amount of image stabilising that is needed to make this combination possible.  With such a light body, you find yourself holding the lens rather than the body, but it does what it should with lovely smooth stabilisation allowing shots indoors, even at the f5.6 end.  Focus is adjusted via a switch on the side of the lens which takes a little getting used to after years of on-camera focus buttons but doesn’t cause too much confusion.

All of my f stop criticism may seem harsh but I’m approaching this review with the intention of finding the right camera for me.  If you’re planning on using this camera for everyday life and will happily pop the flash on at parties, then any of these lenses will be perfect.  However, if you’re like me and want to suck as much natural light out of the day as possible before using flash, an f5.6 aperture is a bit of a no-go.

Cheeky little flasher

Take a particularly small and wide-eyed little mouse and cross it with a Nikon speedlight flash gun and what do you get?  The SB-N5 flash.  Never did I ever imagine that I’d be saying “ahhhh” at a flash unit but this truly is the cutest little bit of kit ever made.  With full 180 degree rotation horizontally and 90 degrees vertically for full bounce options, it kicks out loads of light and slots easily onto the V1.  As you’d imagine, it’s considerably more substantial than the pop-up flash on the J1 but does involve more extra outlay and more to carry around but as it’s such a gem, who cares?  Even if you don’t own the camera, buy the flash and put it in a frame.

Operation (where you’re the doctor!)

Sadly, this is the area that really lets the camera down.  Operations and adjustments that would be carried out in a fraction of a second on a camera that has on-body controls take much longer on both cameras.  For starters, changing between camera modes involves pressing the menu button, moving to the camera settings, entering camera options, scrolling up to exposure mode and moving across into the options to pick between “Scene auto selector’, Program, Shutter priority, Aperture priority and Manual.

It might not sound like much but I’m constantly moving between manual, shutter priority and aperture priority while working, often even within the same set of images so it needs to be fast and very accessible.  The same applies to white balance with the process being equally lengthy.  While these vital options are buried in the user menu, the menu wheel on the back of the body gives you the option to switch between HD video, still image, Smart Photo Selector and Motion Snapshot.  While they’re nearly all useful options, having them as the options that you have easiest access to seems a real waste.  I could understand it on the J1 as it appears to be aimed at the consumer but to have the same option on the version that’s clearly aimed at photographers who are more experienced is really odd.

Now for a quick explanation of those four options on the wheel;

• “HD video” is very high quality, up to 1920 x 1080/60i.  One neat little feature is the option to shoot in slow motion at up to 1200fps.  The problem with shooting at that speed is that you need to be FLOODED with light for it to work as it’s filming so quickly.  If you do have lots of light to play with, you can get some great effects and playing around with flowing water and the obligatory “head shake for slo-mo cheek wobble” is good fun.  Here’s a link to a snippet that I filmed in the park.  As you can see, the quality isn’t great and it looks dark despite being in the middle of the day, due to the ultra high frame rate.
• “Still image” is self-explanatory.  If you need to know what that is, I’m frankly baffled as to how you’ve got this far into the review.
• “Smart Photo Selector” is essentially autopilot for the camera.  Nikon describe it as a way “to deliver a perfect image every time. When a “can’t miss” photo opportunity arises, users can switch to the Smart Photo Selector mode which uses the camera’s pre-cache to start shooting and storing images. All of these images are analysed within the camera, and the best photo is selected based on a number of factors including exposure, focus and advanced facial recognition.“  So basically, you don’t even have to think.  While it’s the kind of thing that I can see on their consumer cameras, why is it on their camera that’s aimed at semi-pros and above?  Bad move.
• “Motion Snapshot” is a way of making those moving pictures that they have in the newspapers in the Harry Potter films.  It films two seconds of video in slow motion and combines it with a choice of four pre-programmed snippets of music.  It’s just bizarre as a choice of quick-access option.  How can this be more useful than being able to change between camera modes?  While it’s possibly a fun little feature, it should be buried in the menu instead.  You’re never going to need it in a rush.

Oh yeah, and the pictures too…

Firstly, one major problem that I found straight away was that Photoshop CS5 still hasn’t got a finalised RAW update that allows me to edit the files from this camera.  They currently have an update that is still in user-testing stage (Adobe Raw 6.6) so while it appears to work perfectly well, the finalised update may produce slightly different results.  While I know I could download and install the Nikon software, I’ve always avoided the software that camera makers provide as it’s invariably pretty ropey.  I KNOW I’ll get grumbles for saying that as I’m sure it’s all singing and dancing these days but I’d rather just use the software that I’m going to use on a daily basis.

Pictures have a definite punch to them, straight out of the camera but, as expected for a camera with a very small sensor, noise can be an issue.  Even though the camera can be pushed up to 3200ISO, I didn’t feel comfortable pushing it beyond 800ISO.  Thankfully, in everyday life, you can get away with shooting within these limits but it’s a little frustrating seeing all that extra ISO listed on the menu but feeling uncomfortable using it.

Colour in the standard setting is, as expected, quite flat and allows for some tweaking while, of the image profiles, I found the monochrome setting to have a lovely smooth tone to it.  If, like me, you shoot in jpeg and RAW, it’s quite nice to shoot in mono for instant results while knowing that the RAW file is in full colour if you want to play later.  The RAWs allowed the usual amount of freedom of post production and held up well to close inspection.

The Grand Conclusion

Oh, if only this was a simple answer.  Like anything that tries to set itself apart, Nikon have succeeded in areas while failing in others.  Their line of compact cameras was well in need of a shake-up and the V1 and J1 definitely suggest a move in a fresh direction but I think the desire to create something interesting has resulted in them forgetting why most cameras do end up behaving in a similar manner; there are designs that work really well.  If you’re going to make something radical, it needs to equal or improve upon what is already out there and the current operation lacks ease of use.  If they swapped the wheel of toys on the back for a Av, Tv, M and HD option, it would be a VERY different camera.  While it would lose some of it’s sparkly innovation, it would become usable again.  The thing is, this could easily be resolved in a firmware patch.  If Nikon isn’t prepared to offer it as an option, will someone else?

It’s a real shame that the picture quality from the camera has taken such a back-seat in the review as it does produce strong images and I think most people would be very happy with it.  While noise does become an issue at the higher ISOs, anything within the usual range (100-800ISO) looks great.  As I stated above, while the new toys that Nikon have added are fun and well worth an explore, they are just… toys.  While people buy £200-300 cameras for exciting gimmicks, I think that anyone spending up to £849 wants a solid, well-performing camera that gets the job done.  With tweaks, the Nikon 1 series could end up a great line of cameras but it’s not quite got it right just yet for me.  I guess the GF1 will remain for a little longer but seeing what Nikon nearly created here makes me excited to see what’s coming next.

Pros

Interesting styling

Solid build

Fast frame rate

Innovative touches such as slo-mo

Solid photo quality at low to medium ISO

The flash that is like a light-producing Tamagotchi

Cons

Poor operation through heavy reliance on internal menu

Lens apertures not fast enough to beat the competition

ISO noise becomes apparent from 800 ISO upwards, despite options up to 3200 ISO

Samples

CAUTION : THIS POST CONTAINS ONE IMAGE THAT IS PROBABLY NOT SAFE FOR WORK depending on where you work, I guess.  If it’s the SoHo book store, crack on but if you’re reading this from the staff-room of a retirement home for nuns, it’s probably best to wait until your shift finishes before continuing.

At the start of November, I was sent over to sunny Belfast to cover the MTV European Music Awards at the Odyssey Arena.  Oddly enough, it would not only be the first time I’d been to Belfast but also the first time that I’d ever heard a Justin Bieber song.  I should point out that I might possibly have never even made it that far if I hadn’t had an understanding taxi driver.  Getting into a Belfast taxi and telling the driver you’re looking forward to seeing Dublin could be seen as a bad start.  I can only put it down to a very small brain and fatigue.

The night started off with a quick dash to Ulster Hall to shoot the Red Hot Chili Peppers sound-check ahead of their evening performance.  They clearly weren’t massively keen to see our smiling faces though so we waited and waited outside before being allowed in to shoot a ten minutes of them talking on-stage before performing one song with little gusto.  To be fair, I don’t blame them THAT much as I probably wouldn’t have wanted to be filmed when I was sound-checking back in my musical days either.

Still, it was good to see Chad Smith doing his thing.  He happens to be one of the few people in life that I’ve ever asked for an autograph.  You really really don’t want to know the others.

Anyway, after that quick appetiser, it was off to the Odyssey Arena for the main event.  Shooting from the rear of the venue, it was an evening of high-risk juggling, with a 600mm f4, a 400mm f2.8, a 300mm f2.8 and a 70-200mm f2.8 to contend with.  The layout of the set design resulted in the bands on the main stage being really loose on a 600mm while the 300mm was only just right for the close-up action on the stage below us.  Thankfully, it wasn’t just me having to deal with this issue as I was in good company with Reuters photographer Cathal McNaughton, AP photographer Joel Ryan and Getty photographer Gareth Cattermole.  A fine bunch of chaps (aside from Gareth who has a habit of wearing dodgy cardigans). 

I’m not going to give you a chronological run-through of who came where as if you’re that interested, I’m guessing you probably watched it in the first place!  Instead, here’s a bunch of my favourite pics.  Firstly, Selena Gomez caused a few exposure panics as she introduced the first few acts from within the centre of a ring of fire.  “Yay RAW!”, is all I can say…

Following the warning at the start, here’s the offending fella with his little fella out.  A streaker took to the stage as Hayden Panettiere introduced an act in what was supposed to be a “spontaneous” stage invasion.  I’m guessing if it hadn’t been staged, Belfast’s finest security teams would have found a new place to park their bikes within minutes of him being dragged into the car park behind the arena.

So streaking aside, we were onto the main performance of the night.  Having already been tipped off that Lady Gaga was the big winner of the show with four EMAs, we eagerly awaited her set to see what she’d be up to.  She didn’t do too bad a job of it, I guess.  Cratered moons aren’t the easiest thing to come by, never mind satellite dish hats…

Having said that, it was me that ended up doing a bad job of it.  Having shot the song, including her cheeky bum flash at the end of the song and a lovely side-lit slow fade to black on-stage with her surrounded by her dancers, I quickly ripped the card out and handed it to the runner to get it back to my editor downstairs.  Error.  It was only at 2am the next morning, after exhausting all options, did I realise that I must have pulled it out before the buffer had finished writing.  You’d think by now, a professional photographer would know not to do this, wouldn’t you?  Still, a lesson learned the hard way as the pics on the screen on my camera had looked great…  *sob*

After the sparkles of Gaga, it was time for the screams of the Beliebers as Justin took to the stage for his performance.  As I said in the opening paragraph, I’ve genuinely never heard him sing before.  I have to hand it to him for his glossy performance but it is genuinely terrifying that he’s seventeen and so comfortable in front of so many people.  The cynic in me sees many years of psychiatry sessions down the line but I’ll battle to restrain that and say good luck to him.  I wouldn’t have complained to be that popular at his age.

I’m unfortunately going to sound like a right old man when I write this but I have to say Queen’s closing set at the end of the show was the best music of the night.  I’ve never been a massive fan but when they pull out a 10 minute medley of their classics, you can’t help but smile.  It’s a well-worn cliché but it’s interesting to ponder how many of the artists performing tonight will be around in forty years.  I’m guessing a few may have fallen by the wayside of musical history.

With the show over, I wandered down to the “boards” where fellow AFP photographer Peter Muhly was shooting so that I could hand my final cards over to the harassed editor, only to arrive just in time for Lady Gaga to make her final appearance with all four of her awards.  While Gaga isn’t my thing musically, it’s good to have people in the industry that provide great pictures and interesting options.  Bravo, Mrs G on a well deserved win.