The Fixation Blog | Fixation

Jonny Helm ProFiles September 29, 2016October 5, 2023 0 Comments

ProFiles | Helen Cathcart

The work of Lifestyle photographer Helen Cathcart has featured in countless renowned publications. Here, she explains how she started and how she plans to change perceptions of the elderly.

How did you get into photography?

I studied for my degree at Manchester Metropolitan University, but it was quite fine-art based and they didn’t really teach us anything about actually working in photography. So I graduated with few practical skills – I couldn’t even assist – and ended up waitressing for a couple of years. When I went back to do an MA in Art Direction I realised I needed to use being a student more, something I hadn’t appreciated during my first degree, so I entered loads of photography competitions. It was winning the D&AD Student Award that got me a four-week placement with a London ad agency. On the basis of that I moved to the capital and luckily the agency kept me on in a visual resources role. That led me to picture editing, and I later became a photo director for a picture company where I was commissioning photographers. But I still had a yen to do it myself, so decided to leave and start on my own.

So was doing a Masters degree the catalyst?

It wasn’t even the masters itself, it was just being a bit older and realising how I’d spent all that money on the BA, but had come out not knowing how to get a job. It was the realisation that I had to get much more out of the MA. A student project got me access to photograph backstage at the ballet and that’s the project that won me the award. So it was just about making better use of the resources the second time around.

You were recently a finalist in the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year competition, weren’t you?

Yes. I think it’s important for your profile to enter competitions. It’s quite time consuming but I try to enter when I can. When I was starting out as a photographer I began with a blog where I would photograph new cafes and restaurants in east London, and from that they would pay me to do the photographs – that’s how I got into photographing food.

Do you do a lot of your own food styling?

In food photography there’s a lot of different styling being done by different people. But I always set up the shot myself; a lot of photographers get the food stylist or the prop stylist to do that, which I can’t really comprehend. I have a lot of say about what props we’ll get and then I construct the shot. I don’t often have a prop stylist on set, but you still need to work with teams, so you’ll still have a food stylist involved in the shoot. My art direction background enables me to have a bit more input in it, which is quite important to me as I think the whole point of being the photographer is that you’re putting together the final shot.

Would you say you’re a big foodie yourself?

Absolutely, that’s why I got into it! I’ve just done the East London Food book (Hoxton Mini Press) with food journalist, Rosie Birkett. We first met when starting our careers, working for a magazine called Eat Me. We were sent individually to cover Meat Liquor and we just really got on. We then randomly got put together for a shoot on fishing in Aberdeen and the rest is history! The book contains all of our favourite places to eat in East London. The publisher approached me to do the photography for a book they had in mind and I recommended Rosie. Together we picked the places we wanted to showcase.

What kind of effect do you think Instagram and the fad of photographing food has on professional food photography?

I guess it shows there’s a massive interest for it out there and it seems to be the trend. I was working on some videos for a magazine the other day, and they were looking on Instagram to see what normal people are making at home so they could showcase it in a magazine format. So I know magazines are looking there for inspiration.

You moved to Sydney at one point?

That’s where my career as a photographer really started. Whilst working as a photo director I would often commission myself, and realised I was having more fun doing that! But the idea of quitting my job to be a photographer in London was too scary, just too much competition. It felt easier to go to a new country and to start afresh. My initial plan was to go out there and get more freelance picture editing work on glossy titles. My first commissions there were for Condé Nast Traveller and Sunday Times Travel Magazine, and that’s what kickstarted everything out there and meant that when I came back here they knew me and commissioned me here too. Australia was doing the lifestyle stuff I do now way in advance of here, and that really inspired me. They have amazing magazines for interiors and food, I still think they have the best ones in the world. They have a really fresh way of shooting it and amazing styling.

Is it difficult to switch off and draw a line between fun and business when you’re shooting in some exciting destination?

I don’t think you ever relax into it. You always say to yourself ‘I’ll come back here some other time’ and then you never do! Obviously it’s brilliant to get to travel to all these places, and you get to enjoy the best of of a place in a short space of time. But if I go on holiday I tend not to bring my camera. I don’t want to carry it – the carrying is the bane of my professional life, and I’m so exhausted from taking photos that I don’t even want to lift one!

What equipment do you tend to rely on?

I have a Canon EOS 5D Mark III but I don’t use a lot of equipment and I don’t use any lighting, which surprises a lot of people. The thing about my work is that it’s very much me using the available light, and I’ve learnt how to do that in such a way that it gives me a distinct look and can fool people into thinking it’s artificially lit.

Do you need reflectors to achieve this?

Rarely. In fact I like having that dark look and making the most of the shadows for food. For travel shots, people say don’t shoot in bright sunlight but I love it. I love having lens flare, contrast and shadows. I’m obsessed with sunlight and I want it to be as sunny as possible. I use fast lenses with large apertures to make the most of natural light. Tripods can be a necessity, but if I can get away without using one I will.

You have a project called Bolder – can you tell us more about that?

This is something I do with Dominique Afacan, a friend I met whilst working with a publishing company. We both wanted to do a personal project outside of our commissioned work, we felt like we needed to do something personal to refresh things. We came up with the idea on a plane one day. I had just been to Cape Town and had to photograph Liz McGrath, the owner of the owner of Cellars Hohenort, for House and Garden SA. She was in her 90s and absolutely fascinated me. I was telling Dom about her and how I felt about getting older and she felt exactly the same – and we came up with Bolder. We’re both obsessed with getting older and wanted to change people’s perceptions of ageing. We had this idea that we would find these amazing people over 70, I would take the portrait and Dominique would interview them. Within a month of launching it we had such a good response, so we’re just trying to build up followers now and maybe get a brand sponsor on board so we can develop it more. It’s such a beast in itself that it’s not really a side project anymore! Next weekend we’re off to France to photograph Michel Roux Sr.

So have you found it difficult to find people? Have they come to you or do you approach them?

In most cases they are people we have thought of or that have been suggested to us and we’ll approach them to ask if they’re willing to participate. We usually just email them and find they’re very keen to help us change people’s perceptions of ageing. We try to get a range of people from different backgrounds, although admittedly it’s quite affluent at the moment, but we’ve got really interesting people on there. We wanted to do this while we’re still young and we can do something about the perception that the media currently portray, so that things might be better for us when we’re in that age group.

What other projects are you working on?

Lots! I’m doing one book with Michel Roux Jr’s daughter and wife, that’s with Octopus books. And I’m doing another cookbook for a publisher in New York. I’m doing a lot of things for Marks and Spencer and I’ve just taken on an agent, so I’m moving into more advertising and brand work. I’m also doing a lot of interiors; I’ve got a project coming up in Paris for Alexander Waterworth interiors, who work on a lot of restaurants, and I’ve got a lifestyle piece coming up for Vogue Russia. This is especially thrilling for me, as I’ve always wanted to shoot for the Vogue titles.

Helen was speaking to Matt Golowczynski.

To see more of her work visit www.helencathcart.com, follow her on Twitter @helencathcart and check out her personal project Bolder at www.be-bolder.com (@being_bolder)

Jon Stapley Feature September 22, 2016October 11, 2023

Close-up: Fuji X-T2 AF system

Fujifilm’s X-T2 arrived with an overhauled AF system and a strong focus on moving subjects. We take a closer look.

Although Fujifilm’s X-T2 may look similar on the surface to the previous X-T1, there are number of refinements to what’s going on inside.

The autofocus system is one area that’s received considerable attention. Some of the changes made are a direct result of the upgraded X-Processor Pro engine, and those who would like to use the X-T2 for sports and general action-based photography should be particularly interested.

The Basics

Like the X-T1, the X-T2 features an Intelligent Hybrid AF system that offers both phase-detect and contrast-detect autofocus.

When the X-T1 was released it offered 49 AF points in a 7×7-point formation. The v.4.0 firmware added Zone AF or Wide/Tracking AF modes and boosted the array to 77 points when using those modes.

By comparison, the X-T2’s AF system offers 91 points in a 7×13-point formation at default, and this can be expanded to 325 points in a 13×25-point formation.

When set to the default 91-point mode there are 49 phase-detect AF points in the centre of the array. This is a significant improvement from the nine phase-detect AF points that featured in the X-T1.

The XT2 AF arrays compared — The X-T2’s default 91-point AF system* compared with the expanded 325-point AF setting*

When using the expanded 325-point setting, however, 169 central points are phase-detect AF points in the centre of the frame. Both patterns occupy roughly the same proportion of the screen as each other, although the 325-point system is much denser, which makes it better suited for tracking moving subjects.

This central area with the phase-detect points covers 40% of the frame, and with the contrast detect points the total coverage is 85%. You can easily see the extent of both types as the phase-detect AF points are larger than the contrast-detect AF ones.

Fujifilm claims the phase-detect AF system comes into play more readily on the X-T2 than before, while the contrast-detect AF system is said to work down to -3EV.

* These images include the black surround of the LCD screen. As such, they do not accurately show the extent to which they cover the frame.

Focus options

Both the Single (AF-S) and Continuous (AF-C) options can be used with each of the Single Point, Zone and Wide/Tracking AF modes, which gives a total of six combinations to suit different subjects and scenes.

The Single Point is the default option, with one point that can be positioned anywhere on the array. The Zone option allows you to specify a particular area of the focusing system to use, while the Wide/Tracking option is programmed to automatically focus on subjects in the scene with the highest contrast, or alternatively to track moving subjects across the frame when used in the continuous focus setting.

Additionally, the camera can be set to manual focus, with the same focus assist aids as before. These are Digital Split Image, in either colour or monochrome settings, as well as focus peaking, which can have its colour adjusted over white, blue and red highlights and its peaking level set to either high or low options.

Fuji X-T2 AF System — *The camera offers comprehensive control over focus peaking*

Speed and precision

The new processor is said to have improved overall response times, and the AF system has benefited from this. Whereas Fujifilm claimed AF times as short as 0.08sec with the X-T1, the X-T2 shaves off 0.02sec from this to just 0.06sec. This is possible when the camera is set to its Boost option in its Power Management settings, although activating this comes at the slight expense of battery life; whereas Fujifilm claims a battery life of around 340 frames on the Normal setting when using the LCD screen, this is reduced to approximately 260 in the Boost mode.

Fujifilm also claims that the updated processor and improvements to the focusing algorithm mean that the camera refocuses more quickly than previous models, and also that the contrast-detect AF system benefits from data being read twice as quickly than before.

The camera is also said to focus more easily against low-contrast subjects and those with very fine details than was previously the case. Something else that helps here is the ability to change the size of the AF point over five levels. You simply press the Focus Lever on the back and rotate the rear command dial to alternate between the different sizes. Furthermore, when shooting with the Zone setting, you can use the same controls to change the area of the Zone over three levels.

Physical controls

The body maintains the same Focus Mode Lever from the X-T1, with Single, Continuous and Manual Focus options, and this is found on the front plate. On the back of the camera, however, Fujifilm has added a new Focus Lever (something first seen on the X-Pro 2), just beneath the Q button.

AF controls on the XT-2 — The new Focus Lever control (left). As on previous models, the focusing mode is still chosen with the switch on the front plate (right).

The primary purpose of this new control is to allow for the focus point to be shifted more easily than before. It moves up, down, left, right and diagonally, and pressing it into the camera allows you to quickly return the focusing point to the centre of the array.

It also serves another purpose; when manually focusing the lens, you can shift this to the point where you want the camera to magnify into the scene beforehand. Once this happens, you can also use the rear command dial to magnify further into the scene for extra precision.

Continuous Focus

Although the X-T1 did a very good job to track moving subjects, continuous focus has not traditionally been a main selling point for the X-series. Nevertheless, the X-T2 follows the similarly specified X-Pro2 in attempting to change that.

Fujifilm XT-2 AF tracking scenarios. — You can select one of five scenarios to help the continuous focus system (left) or program your own with settings to suit your subject (right).

Fujifilm has complemented the changes to the AF system with improvements to the continuous focus algorithm. The user now has the option to customise the system to suit five different scenarios. These are:

Multi Purpose
Ignore Obstacles & Continue To Track Subject
For Accelerating/Decelerating Subject
For Suddenly Appearing Subject
For Erratically Moving & Accelerating/Decelerating Subject

Each option is designed with a different combination of Tracking Sensitivity, Speed Tracking Sensitivity and Zone Area Switching, although if you feel that none suit the subject, you can also design your own AF-C algorithm and store it as the sixth option.

Look familiar? This echoes the AF Configuration tools that have been included on Canon’s higher-end EOS models for some time.

Canon EOS 1D X AF System — *The similar option inside the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II*

Other features

Eye Detection AF wasn’t initially included in the X-T1, although this came along in the v.4.30 firmware update announced in February. Not surprisingly this feature has been included here as standard, although it is said to have been improved to provide more accurate results. You can choose to focus on either the left or right eyes, or leave it to an auto setting. Alternatively, you can use face detection without enabling Eye Detection AF.

The Interlock Spot AE & Focus Area option allows you to specify whether you want the camera to meter at the selected focus point when using spot metering.

You can also select how to assess depth of field using the Depth-of-Field Scale option. The Film Format Basis option is suggested for those who will be printing their images to moderate sizes. The Pixel Basis, meanwhile, is intended for those who may be examining their images at 100% on a computer display. As the permissible circle of confusion becomes smaller when images are analysed in this way, this option is designed to provide the finest control for utmost accuracy.

Finally, an AF Assist illuminator is once again located on the front plate, and this kicks into action whenever the camera lacks the illumination required for fast autofocus. It is, however, possible to disable this, which is useful when you need to be discreet.

Jonny Helm ProFiles September 16, 2016October 5, 2023 0 Comments

ProFiles | Mark Lloyd

We speak to sailing and marine photographer Mark Lloyd about shooting fiercely competitive races and keeping his kit waterproof!

Hi Mark. Sailing photography, that’s an interesting niche?

Yes, sailing and marine photography is the mainstay of what I do. So it’s pictures of the racing and all things involved with it.

And you run your own agency?

Yes, it’s a small operation – me and just a few other people. Nothing too flash!

How did you get into this nautical line of work?

I’ve always mucked about with boats and always enjoyed watching them. I used to work for the Daily Mail and after leaving, decided to give freelancing a go and it just evolved from there. I took what I knew from various places, looked at how things were and tried to do them a bit differently……… and it worked!

When I started I was working on my own, I had a couple of contacts who gave me work and it just grew and grew. I worked a lot in France at the start, working with their sailing teams and that’s where things started to evolve. At the time, before the financial world exploded in the UK, there were quite a few people doing it, so I got involved with them and we slowly built it up. I still shoot 24/7 and I love doing it.

Your shoots seem quite varied?

Yes, it’s a real mixed bag of stuff. Some of it is races, some of it is individual teams, and then at the other end of the scale you’ve got high-end fashion work for people like Hugo Boss. I love photographing people, so the two go hand in hand quite nicely. I like to come up with ideas for portraits, so I’m lucky that I get to do it.

Are there any recent jobs you’ve particularly enjoyed?

In May I finished a transatlantic race called the Transat Bakerly which was quite an odd one and I was given free rein to do as I wanted. I was there at the race start in Plymouth and then later finished in New York and it had every element you could possibly imagine and more – the competitiveness, the people, the emotion of finishing. A complete story. And then – a total contrast – this week I’ve just come back from France, where I’ve been doing something called the Tour de France Voile, which is a sailing race that goes all over France. They’re little boats and you just get completely rinsed, totally soaked. More like swimming than sailing!

You must need good waterproofing?

Yes, it’s a difficult one because you’re trying to find the balance between protection and usability. I’ve got a variety of different systems that I use depending on how much agility is needed – if I’m going offshore on the big boat I use Liquid Eye Housing, which is designed by a french photographer with surfing in mind, so we’re taking something and adapting it. And then the other system I use, which isn’t widely known but I think will be, is made by a company called Outex – it’s like a big rubber sock which goes around the camera with glass at the front so you tend not to lose too much in terms of quality.

What do you see for the future?

Well, it’s a difficult time. Things are changing so fast, the expectation and value people put on photography has changed and consequently you need to provide really nice quality pictures that people actually want to look at, but also do it quickly. It’s all so instant now, I’d say that’s what’s going to drive everything forward. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Mark Lloyd was talking to Jon Stapley.

His professional portfolio can be found at lloydimages.com

Jon Stapley Feature September 5, 2016October 11, 2023

Fixation Team: Mick Edwards, Canon Tech Manager

From teenager to manager of the Canon side, it’s Mick Edwards featuring in the latest of our Fixation team blogs

There can’t be many of Fixation’s long-term customers who wouldn’t recognise Mick Edwards. He’s been with the company from the beginning, assisting its founder, Mike Allen, to build it from a two-room operation to today’s repairs powerhouse.

These days Mick runs the Canon side of the workshop as Tech Manager, dividing his time between repairing kit and cracking (notoriously bad) jokes with long-suffering colleagues and customers who stop by. He tells us more about his history with Fixation…

In the beginning…..

‘Mike Allen and I met in 1982 when I was 18 and he started work at KJP shortly after I did. Previously he was Service Manager at Nikon and when I asked him what he was doing at KJP he said he’d come to build a workshop. So I said, “Give us a job!” And for better or worse he did!

‘We built a workshop out of practically nothing, working from August ’82 until Fixation’s proper opening in June 1988 and from there it developed into what it is today.

‘It’s been fun. I love it, absolutely love it. At first we only repaired Nikon products, but after 10 or so years we were approached by Canon who wanted us to offer the same service to their customers too. We were keen to help, so after sorting out details like the supply of spare parts, we were off and away!

‘From then I was doing Nikon, Kodak and Canon, but Canon just got bigger and bigger and needed managing properly, so I took on this role and have done it ever since.’

Fixation’s reputation

‘Relationships have always been important. In the beginning we had just two rooms and customers would come in and sit in the waiting room, which was just a sofa, and we used to repair their kit while they waited. When we were done they’d have the confidence to just pick it up and go do a job, or even fly around the world. The good reports started from there.’

His day-to-day role

‘I’m very much hands on – I love fixing things, it’s why I like the job.

‘The challenge is what we’re all after. You’re repairing the same products, but you want to do it to the best standard because you’re only as good as your last repair. We’re all the same and proud of what we do.’

Most memorable Fixation moments

‘As much as I love the day-to-day work, the different experiences are always exciting. Highlights include building depots at the London Olympics and Commonweath Games in Glasgow, but one of the most memorable was in 2007 when we worked with PA to set up cameras in the Royal Ballroom in Buckingham Palace.

‘PA provides images for all Royal Investitures in this room, but they can’t have a roaming photographer present. So we helped them set up a discrete camera and cabling so they can operate the camera remotely, shooting the ceremonies with the images transmitted directly to their picture desk.

‘There have also been some great customer stories. We’ve had cameras dropped in the sea then put in a bag of vodka. People think the alcohol will prevent corrosion, but it’s a waste of vodka if you ask me!’

Mick’s hobbies outside of work

‘I enjoy riding motorbikes, but would say my real passion is scuba-diving. I organise my own diving club and am an instructor too. I may be in control at work and when I’m diving, but at home I just do as I’m told by my wife and two boys!’

Jon Stapley Feature September 5, 2016February 7, 2024

Behind the scenes: Diving with Tuna

Louise Murray dons her diving gear to photograph the Atlantic bluefin tuna

The Friday morning before I leave for Andalusia to shoot Atlantic bluefin tuna, I’m making a routine test check of all my diving and underwater photography gear. A sticky button in the camera housing means that I cannot switch between stills and video. I call Fixation for an emergency assist and hastily make my way down for an urgent repair, before catching my flight later that day.

In Spain, it’s 32°C with a light breeze and I am just about to dive with 900 giant fish, each weighing between 150 and 200 kilos. Understandably I’m a bit nervous. I’ve been dressed in a black dry suit for over two hours and am struggling to stay cool. The boat is moored in a fattening pen about a mile offshore and we can see the huge fish swimming below the surface.

Here, fish captured in May are fattened up on a daily diet of defrosted sardines and mackerel before being sold to Japanese buyers in September. At least 10 tonnes of sardines have preceded me into the water today. This is not good. Fish scales are highly reflective and my underwater flash will bounce off them, a bit like using flash in a snowstorm!

For safety I have a dive buddy, Antonio. I’ve explained the nature of a fisheye lens and its 180-degree angle of view to him, so he is briefed to stay behind me unless I call him into a picture for scale. Antonio is there because although I am a certified commercial diver, these nets and others like them in fish farms worldwide are dangerous places to be. The powerful fish must swim constantly, and they do so in circles, meaning they create a vortex. The unwary can be sucked to the bottom of the net 30 metres down, or pushed against the outside of the swirling fish, where it’s easy to find dive gear or camera getting caught in the net. Alone, it’s quite possible to drown.

I’m here to complete a shoot of the tuna fishery for a German magazine – Unterwasser – producing an environmental piece about the state of the Atlantic tuna.

It has taken me since February, with the help of an excellent young translator called Polly, to negotiate diving with these magnificent fish. It’s now July. I’ve spent ages studying the tide tables and wind forecasts to find a small window when the sea surface will be calm, and visibility underwater acceptable. If you think topside shooting can be challenging, try working underwater. Imagine shooting in zero gravity you’ll get part of the picture, but then throw in wind, tides, currents and limited visibility – the variables are near-endless.

Fortunately I have excellent kit – an Aquatica housing for my Nikon D800 with a glass dome port which allows access to all of the camera’s controls while underwater, plus a couple of Inon flashes and a pair of Sola video lights.

Louise Murray with Nikon D800 in Aquatica housing on board the tuna dive boat at Barbate, Spain

Back at the hotel I finish downloading and backing up, and yes, predictably the shots are murky, turbid and full of reflective fish scales. And worse there is a reflected Nikon logo in some images when shooting into sun. This at least is easily rectified by sticking a plaster over the logo on the D800 and blacking it out with a marker pen.

I’ve managed to explain to Sebastian the boss why it’s so important for me to start shooting before the sardines go into the pen. Tomorrow I will be diving with 900 large, fast and hungry fish. Time for a cold beer.

The next day we travel offshore in a rolling swell. You need a good sense of balance and a strong stomach for this kind of work. This time I get in before the sardines, and the tuna – known as the Maseratis of the sea – are truly motoring in a tight swirl of fishy power. Antonio is with me and I get the shots over the course of an hour in the water.

Louise Murray and dive buddy Antonio

The dead sardines start to rain down in the latter half of the shoot, so I decide to try and focus on a single sardine, secure in the knowledge that there shortly be a 150-200 kilo fish blasting out of the blue with the intent of dispatching it. I don’t get the money shot, as the acceleration of this top ocean predator is hard to predict, and with limited visibility I can’t see them coming fast out of the blue.

A few more dives and eventually I would have nailed it, but the weather stopped cooperating and with high winds forecast for the next five days, I had to leave – me, my cameras and all of my dive kit stinking strongly of sardines.

The images from this shoot will be published in Unterwasser magazine, either late this year or early next year. The bluefin tuna remains classified as an “endangered species” by the IUCN, its population having declined by as much as 90% in some areas due to overfishing. A video from this shoot was selected as a featured clip by the Science Photo Library, and can be seen here.

Louise Murray is an award-winning freelance journalist and photographer whose work has been published in the Guardian, the Times, and countless international magazines, books and popular science publication, and can be found at louisemurray.com

Previous page 1 … 39 40 41 42 43 … 45 Next page

UK's premier centre for professional camera and lens repair, rental and sales

Blog