Feature | Fixation

Jonny Helm Feature September 27, 2017October 11, 2023 0 Comments

Daniel Kemeys | 10 Days, One Road

We have so many regular customers – faces that we’ve known and enjoyed serving over the years, but it’s always nice when new customer catches our eye.

25 year old Daniel Kemeys is a visual effects artists for Framestore and has worked on projects such as Guardians Of The Galaxy 2, The Martian and Suicide Squad. Prior to that he was at MPC and was part of the compositing team that won the VFX Oscar for Disney’s The Jungle Book.

To have such a wealth of experience under his belt at such a young age is impressive enough, but it was Daniel’s short film ’10 Days, One Road’ that caught our eye. Shot in Iceland using a Phantom 4 Drone and a Sony A7R II, the film captures the stunning landscape and diverse weather conditions that Daniel and his girlfriend experienced on their 10 day road trip.

We weren’t the only ones impressed. National Geographic Traveller recently featured it as their video of the week.

10 Days, One Road from Daniel Kemeys on Vimeo.

We caught up with Daniel over a coffee in the Fixation showroom to find out more about his work.

Thanks for taking the time to chat to us Daniel. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

No problem Tim, thanks for having me! Yeah, well my name is Dan, I was born in Wales, studied at the University of South Wales and now I’m currently living in London. I’m a digital Compositor for films, currently knee deep in action working on an exciting Marvel project at Framestore.

How much planning goes into a project like 10 Days, One Road?

Well, it’s a bit of a tough question, a lot of planning goes into where you want to travel especially when road tripping around an island for ten days! Planning ahead and booking was a big factor but there are advantages and disadvantages to planning everything ahead of time. I’d say the most time goes into location research, then you can get a rough idea of what you want to shoot, but it’s all totally down to the moment of when you’re there and weather conditions.

Did you shoot many stills to almost provide an ongoing storyboard or were the sequences made up on the fly?

Usually when I’m doing projects I find storyboarding a crucial process… but travel films are totally different, you just shoot what ever you can, get the most content possible and then shuffle through and pick the best bits to put something together at the end. It’s kind of nice, it’s making the most out of what you can’t control. I like that, a true artist comes out when they have to work with what they’ve got. For us, we wanted to capture a narrative and our journey travelling, not just what we saw as this was going to be a diary for us to look back on.

So it was a question of gauging the surroundings and working with the conditions?

Totally, capture everything as much as possible and hope for the best when it comes to footage. Then you need to put in the work to make sure it all fits together and flows, which can be the most difficult part.

I’ve read that you particularly wanted the piece to have a filmic look. How did you achieve that?

Yeah, for sure. I’m a big fan of the filmic look and film in general. It’s pretty difficult and expensive to take a film camera on a trip when filming everything is your main objective, so I looked into different grain overlays that I could apply in post, used some lens effects to separate the channels to give the footage some subtle chromatic aberration. Then I looked at the colours you find in film, the punchy contrast and mellow hues were a big factor in my film, nothing was oversaturated.

Hana and I had a particular vision for the film already, wanting a strong travel narrative of our experiences. We’d sit down and have a daily review of each version, almost like I would have my work reviewed by my supervisors at work. Basically my girlfriend was my supervisor, haha.

Do you have any more projects like this planned?

Yep, I have a pretty big personal project on the go called “The Forgotten Nation.” I’m super excited to share this one but I have a hefty amount of work ahead of myself. I have a few other projects in the works, 2 particularly large ones off the back of the Iceland film, they’ll be very fun also as we’ve partnered with with some cool brands.

You obviously have a passion for cinematography but I understand you’re also a keen stills photographer. Do you often look for ways to combine the two mediums or do you prefer to keep your work separate?

I do like to have fun with both, I usually shoot a mixture of stuff. I really like posters, so I’ll always snap a still but with a cinematic style. I find stills so powerful. The amount you can take from a still image is pretty exciting, especially if it’s continued into moving images. I’m a big fan of thumbnails, especially on Vimeo, I’ll watch something if I like the thumbnail and the typeface used.

I’d say I’m a pretty decent photographer. I’m still learning and growing as a photographer and I like to think of myself as a sponge in all aspects of this industry. I’ve been involved in video for so long now I find it second nature, even though I’m always learning. I’ve always been pretty confident with moving images. I’d really like to push my limits and get a hold on the photography game, learn portraiture, and read some books on photography while travelling and shooting.

You’ve been involved in VFX for a few years now. How quickly do you think the industry is changing?

Yep, almost 3 years now as a professional, the industry is changing rapidly, the skill level has risen inside the industry and in the university circuit. It’s a competitive industry. I’m loving my life at the moment as I get to work on the coolest films day in day out and my eye is getting trained for much larger things than just VFX. I find myself having incredibly high standards in all areas of content creation, from photos, film, VFX & design, everything must be beautiful and most importantly, I want everything that I produce to capture a story of some kind.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?

10 years is a long time. I don’t really like to look that far ahead usually but I’d be a pretty experienced VFX artist by then… if I remain in the industry, I’d either be a VFX supervisor or before I ever get that far I’d depart the VFX industry to peruse my own independent ventures, creating my own films, running my own business… who knows? I don’t see a ceiling, that’s what I love about this journey I’m on, I have many options and I’m open to opportunities.

Gareth Edwards used to be a VFX artist… he directed Star Wars: Rogue One last year… so maybe I’ll direct a Star Wars movie in 10 years, haha!

I know I’ll be doing something cool, which is all I care about in all honesty. You can see more of Daniel’s work on his Vimeo feed here,

Daniel was talking to Tim Stavrinou

Jonny Helm Feature September 7, 2017October 6, 2023 0 Comments

London Theatres | Peter Dazeley

“Did you know that Apple have over 800 people working on the iPhone’s camera alone?” says Peter Dazeley as I arrive at his Chelsea studio complex to discuss his latest work.

I admit that I didn’t as he continues, “And at the same time, Kodak have just launched a smartphone! They could have been the new Apple if they’d have pulled their finger out years ago!”

I’m meeting Dazeley to discuss the launch of his new book, London Theatres, and to see what he’s been up to since we last spoke.

After being awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2017 New Year’s Honours list for services to photography and charity, you might expect him to cut down his workload and reflect on his remarkable career to date as a fine art and advertising photographer. But no – he’s as busy as ever, having spent the last few months putting the finishing touches on the book, alongside a busy shooting schedule for Getty.

I was lucky enough to flick through an advanced copy of the book, a beautifully presented piece written by leading theatre critic Michael Coveney with all photographs courtesy of Dazeley and an inspiring foreword by the Oscar winning Mark Rylance.

London Theatres neatly completes a natural trilogy alongside his previous works Unseen London (2014) and London Uncovered (2016). The book invites the reader on a tour of forty-six London theatres, with stories of the architecture, the staging and the productions that have defined each one.

Theatre Royal Stratford East | © Peter Dazeley 2017

How do you approach a project like this? Was the book your idea?

No, the first two books were my ideas that I took to a publisher. In fact the first book (Unseen London), I originally envisaged purely as a book of photographs but the publisher felt it needed a narrative, and actually the writer did a fantastic job and brought the book to life. It was very successful, but there was a bit of a reaction because many of the places featured were inaccessible to the public, so I hit on the idea of the second book (London Uncovered), which featured readily accessible places. We also made a point of featuring information about each place in the book – website addresses, opening hours, etc.

The idea for London Theatres actually came from the sales team at the publishers. There was a book on theatres years ago and they were keen to produce an updated version. I managed to get hold of a copy of this old book and I felt I could shoot these theatres and do them justice, so I signed up to do the book and the publishers approached Michael Coveney, a long-time theatre reviewer, who did a wonderful job on the text.

Regents Park Open Air Theatre | © Peter Dazeley 2017

The nice thing about it for me was that for the first two books I’d already photographed maybe half a dozen theatres, and while shooting these, the staff had a lot of recommendations as to other theatres that would be great to feature, and it snowballed from there. A few places weren’t that keen initially, but once we’d explained the concept to them and shown them the work so far, they were quickly on board.

Donmar Theatre | © Peter Dazeley 2017

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One of the most amazing things about the book was getting Sir Mark Rylance to write the foreword. I’d have been grateful for two paragraphs, but he’s written about 1500 beautiful words about the interaction between the artist and the space, the audience and the theatre. He’s obviously very passionate about theatre and I’m so pleased he set aside the time to write it; he must be one of the busiest actors we have these days.

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Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre | © Peter Dazeley 2017

It’s nice to see a lot of behind the scenes shots too, rather than just the auditoriums.

Yes, it was a very conscious decision not to produce a book of photographs showing endless red seats. I’m a lover of the theatre, but I think most people will go and see a show without really taking into account what the actual place looks like. Every time I visited a location I tried to have an open mind, to see what I could find that was different or unusual. Sometimes it was tricky; most of the theatres were busy with rehearsals during the day but I was able to get in very early in the morning and get the shots I needed.

Part of trying to keep the individuality of the theatres meant photographing above the stage, below stage, backstage, dressing rooms, fly floors; anything I could find that was different.

How long did the project take to shoot?

I guess about 9 months in total, shooting on and off when I was able to get access to the locations. Sometimes I’d shoot 2 or 3 in quick succession and then nothing for a few weeks.

What equipment did you shoot with?

My camera of choice for this kind of work has been my trusty Nikon D810 which I absolutely love. Some of the locations were very poorly lit but I was able to shoot up to 30s exposures with no problems whatsoever. The way it deals with mixed lighting is also very impressive. When I think back to my days of shooting film, a project like this would have been a nightmare!

Wyndham’s Theatre | © Peter Dazeley 2017

One thing that strikes me is your attention to detail, especially in the symmetry of some of the shots.

(Laughs), I try and shoot with spirit levels as often as possible, but in those situations that I can’t, I know that I can make small corrections in post-production. I still find it incredible the way you can pull apart a RAW file from the D810 and put it back together without losing anything.

Royal Opera House | © Peter Dazeley 2017

There must have been some particularly memorable locations you visited?

(Flicking through the book), to be honest I enjoyed them all for different reasons. Take this one for example (Wilton’s Music Hall) – places like this shouldn’t exist any more but I’m extremely glad it does. It’s been restored, but very sympathetically and they’ve kept lots of the original brickwork. It’s still a working theatre and still giving people a lot of pleasure.

Wilton’s Music Hall | © Peter Dazeley 2017

St. Martin’s Theatre too, probably one of my favourite theatres in London; such a beautiful building. My publisher was keen to show some exterior shots of some of the locations, something I wasn’t particularly keen on, but on this occasion, I was actually going to the theatre one evening with my daughter and had the foresight to take my camera and tripod along. I’m rather pleased I did! Here’s another interesting one, the New Wimbledon Theatre; they had to remove the globe from the top of it during WW2 because the Luftwaffe were aiming for it to find their way into London!

The Mousetrap at St Martin’s Theatre| © Peter Dazeley 2017

London Theatres is available now from all good bookshops and can be found online here

To see more of Dazeley’s work, visit his website www.peterdazeley.com

Dazeley was speaking to Tim Stavrinou.

Jonny Helm Feature September 4, 2017February 7, 2024 0 Comments

Fixation Team | Canon Technicians (Part 2)

In part two of our Canon technicians feature we meet the rest of the team who work hard to keep your Canon kit in top working order.

Arison

Arison joined Fixation in January 2016 with a level 3 BTEC diploma in Electronics and Electrical Engineering under his belt. He lives up to his status as Fixation’s youngest staff member by being a bit of a party animal – he’s a regular attendee of all-night raves and Techno House. As Spare Parts Co-ordinator, Arison is responsible for stock control and ordering our Canon spares. He also repairs entry-level Canon cameras and some L series lenses. He enjoys playing pool, savours good cognac and recently spent 3 weeks back-packing around Europe by train. Arison likes to keep his feet firmly on the ground though; he suffers from Acrophobia and this fear of heights meant he could only manage the first level of the Eiffel Tower. He’s hoping his next trip will be to Canada, we’re guessing Toronto’s CN Tower won’t be part of the itinerary!

Navin

Navin trained as an electronic engineer before starting his first job as a merchandise examiner in 1979, checking equipment for quality and safety. In 1984 he joined photographic distributor, Johnsons of Hendon (latterly Johnsons Photopia) as a technician, repairing enlargers, projectors and flashguns. In 1987 he began work at KJP where he worked alongside our own Mick Edwards and Fixation founder, Mike Allen. He later joined Pentax UK where he advanced to Technical Endoscopy service manager. Navin joined Fixation in February 2012 and specialises in Canon lens repairs. In addition to the decades of technical experience, Navin has also managed his own newsagents; he enjoys a good malt whiskey and watching international cricket 20/20 matches.

Luigi

Luigi studied electronics at college before joining Camera Service Italia, Canon’s authorised repair agent, in his hometown of Naples in 1999.

He worked here alongside Giuseppe Cirello until 2012 when both men and their families moved to London and joined Fixation in February of the following year. Luigi specialises in the repair of L lenses and pro to mid-range camera bodies.

He’s known for his humour and cheeky smile, but there’s really no mistaking where his heart lies – a love of Ducati bikes, Neopolitan pizzas and Sicilian holidays says it all.

But one day, who knows? He may even get used to British weather.

Aleksejs

Born and raised in Soviet Latvia, tri-lingual Aleksejs served his national service repairing military electronics in Chenobyl, just two years before the notorious disaster struck. He later spent many years running his own food stores before returning to a safer form of electronics repairs in 2001. He started in a multi-brand service centre before moving to Latvia’s Canon-authorised service centre in 2003 where there were strong connections with Canon repairers in Finland, Sweden and Russia. In 2010 he uprooted to the UK to join Fixation and his only lament about living in London is the lack of fresh water fishing. Thankfully for us, he doesn’t carp on about it.

You can read part 1 of the Canon technicians feature here.

Jonny Helm Feature September 4, 2017February 7, 2024 0 Comments

Fixation Team | Nikon Technicians (Part 2)

In part two of our Nikon technicians feature we meet the rest of the team who work hard to keep your Nikon kit in top working order.

Sunny

Sungharsh’s career began in Hyderabad, India, where he was trained by Konica-Polaroid and where he worked for around nine years before leaving for the UK and joining Fixation in March 2007.

Nikon flashguns are his main area of expertise, as well as professional cameras and mid and pro-range lenses.

Sunny’s hobbies include watching cricket, designing JavaScript HTML websites and astronomy. He studied the latter at UCL and combines it nicely with his interest in cameras by practising Astro-photography in his spare time.

Tiho

Bulgarian national, Tihomir studied journalism and literature in Veliko Tarnovo before working as a radio station DJ whilst at the same time running his own photography studio and portrait business. He later set up his own business repairing electronic equipment such as film projectors and has worked in a digital photo lab.

Tiho joined Fixation in March 2016 and repairs mainly Nikon semi-pro bodies such as the D300 and D600 series, as well as flashguns and some lenses. He may have quite a giggle, but this belies a penchant for serious literature of the classic Russian type, in particular Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

Pabita

Pabita may be petite, but she’s a powerhouse when it comes to repairs. She studied electronics and engineering at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal, before joining Nepal Television Corporation as an operation technician using Sony video cameras and monitors in the studio, later making the switch to repairs. She began by repairing large, heavy-duty products, later adding more conventional consumer products to her repertoire. She joined Fixation in April 2007 and these days specialises in expiring Nikon pro bodies such as the D700 and D800 series. Pabita’s free-time revolves around her young family, but she also enjoys reality shows such as Strictly and Bake-Off. Her ideal dinner party guests include a feisty American comedienne and two British Prime ministers. It might result in some lively conversations, but one thing we’re sure they’d agree on is the tastiness of Pabita’s Nepalese curries.

Tom

Tom studied electronics at Szczecin University in Poland before setting up his own travel business providing tailor-made packages to holiday-makers.

Always a photography enthusiast, Tom joined Fixation in November 2006 and specialises in Nikon’s pro and semi-pro camera models. Biker Tom loves to travel, especially in Asia and is a regular attendee at music gigs. Favourite performers include electronica artists, Jon Hopkins, Moderat and Bonobo. In quieter moments he’ll be found watching US drama series such as Breaking Bad, or reading a cyberpunk novel by William Gibson. He’d probably win the title of “Fixation’s Coolest Dude”.

Jay

Perpetually cheerful and all-round nice guy, Jay studied motor mechanics at Willesden Polytechnic before becoming a mechanical engineer at a machinery factory in 1978. In 1985 he joined Olympus as a repairer and in 1987 moved to Pentax where he happened to work alongside our own Navin Ranpura. Following a stint at Orion Photographic, Jay joined Fixation in July 1994, making him the second longest serving member of staff. Aside from family, Jay’s big love is cricket. Once an all-rounder, but now predominantly a batsman, Jay plays for Bharat CC in the Wembley area of Middlesex. He also values the sense of community and volunteers as a helper at events such as a 10-day Indian festival and summer BBQs that cater for 800 people. Jay also enjoys Eastenders and has fond memories of watching Crossroads in its heyday. Perhaps this is what gave him the incentive to fix broken things.

John-Jay

Possibly the quietest person at Fixation, no-one would be surprised to know that John-Jay is a keen chess player in his spare time, but even close colleagues may raise an eyebrow when they learn that John-Jay rocks out to the likes of Aerosmith and Bon Jovi in the privacy of his own shower. After studying electronics at Zamboanga University in his native Philipines, John worked with robotics and machine manufacturing for a company called Greatech Philipines Inc. before working as a programmer and wirer for companies such as Motorola, Samsung and intel. Chelsea fan John joined Fixation in October 2008 and repairs Nikon entry and mid-range cameras and their range of flashguns. He tries to return to the Philipines as often as he can, in fact life is a Bed of Roses if he’s able to do this every year.

You can read part 1 of the Nikon technicians feature here.

Jonny Helm Feature August 7, 2017February 7, 2024 1 Comment

Fixation Team | Canon Technicians (Part 1)

Our Canon technicians are a talented bunch of rascals, hidden away in our Kennington workshop, feverishly fixing any body, lens or speedlite that comes their way. In this first part of a series we meet some of the guys responsible for keeping your Canon gear in top working order.

Mick

For the low-down on Mick’s history at Fixation we need to go back a few short years to 1982 when Mick was a teenager working for KJP. It was here he met Mike Allen and when Mike decided to start his own repair company, he took little Mick along too. It certainly hasn’t been a short-term career as Mick has been with Fixation ever since and now manages the Canon, Profoto, Aquatech and Fuji repairs. Mick is known, in no small way, for his sense of humour. He has no shortage of low-brow jokes and tall tales, although not always appreciated by his long-suffering colleagues. Mick enjoys motorbikes, but his big passion is for Scuba-diving. He organises his own club and instructs too, certainly no small feat. Keeping things short, we’d finish by saying that what Mick lacks in height, he makes up for in personality. Hopefully this comment won’t go over his head, but most things do.

Giuseppe

Giuseppe “Jo” Cirello’s career started in his hometown of Naples in 1991, where his jobs included the repair of audio equipment and installing Fujifilm Minilabs. In 1993 he joined Camera Service Italia, Canon’s authorised CPS repair agent in Naples and during his time there advanced to Technical Manager and was responsible for repair output and customer service.

The economic downturn left him looking for pastures new and he and his family uprooted to London and a new start at Fixation in February 2013. Jo continues to repair Canon pro kit and is also our chief repairer of Profoto kit.

David

When David originally joined Fixation in March 1998, it was as temporary help for the Admin team, of which his sister was a part at the time. But when an opportunity to train as a technician arose, David made the move to the workshop and received training from both Barry and Mick. During the period that Fixation was official repairer of Kodak’s DCS pro range, David was the primary technician involved, but now he specialises in the Canon 1D models. David considers himself a “real” Game of Thrones fan, by which he means he was an avid reader of the books long before the television series came along. A big sports fan, he enjoys playing pool and snooker, but his big love is for Liverpool FC and unsurprisingly he counts Bill Shankley among is heroes. At home he is often called upon to act as referee – by breaking up fights between Felix and Kitty, his two warring cats!

Stuart

Back in June 1995 Stuart was a directionless teenager not sure where he wanted life to take him. Then he came across a small ad in the Sit Vac section of his local paper inviting applications to join Fixation as a trainee technician. With a bit of a push from his dad he decided to apply and although he turned up for the interview late, very nervous and having to perform a soldering test that was completely new to him, the team obviously saw the talent in him and he’s been with us ever since. A fan of Brentford FC and a keen pool player, don’t be fooled by the gruff exterior – now the father of small girls, he has developed a penchant for the likes of Harry Potter and Disney’s Frozen on Ice and his favourite experience was swimming with dolphins in Mexico, so clearly he has a very soft centre!

Alfie

Gaming fan Alfie joined our Canon workshop in October 2016 as Assistant Spares Co-ordinator and trainee technician. As part of a full training programme expected to last 3 years, Alfie currently repairs mainly EF-S lenses; but with 4 years’ experience as an apprentice electrician under his belt, he is also the perfect fit to safely take on some of our higher voltage Profoto repairs and has undertaken additional training in Sweden for this purpose. A regular traveller and particular fan of the US, Alfie is also a keen sportsman with rugby and judo recently giving way to rock climbing as his favourite pursuit. He also has a sensitive side – he enjoys carving wood and has produced objects ranging from spoon to tables and he counts Bailey, his labradoodle, among his best friends.

We’ll be featuring the remainder of the Canon team soon, but in the meantime, you can read all about our Nikon technicians here.

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