Sony Xperia Z launch event

Yesterday a group of bloggers in the arts/photography/technology worlds including me! were invited to Sony's PR company, Citizen Relations for an evening to try out and play with the new Xperia Z smartphone.

 It turns out to have a 13Megapixel camera, with all sorts of cool features such as burst mode and auto panorama stitching and is amazingly sharp.

 Its also pretty damn waterproof, as we saw by dunking it in a fish-bowl filled with water which just happened to be there!

I found time to sip wine, eat a rather good burger, watch a movie, play music and take lots of snaps with the phone which I left there and my Leica M9 with 21mm Elmar lens which I took home. The Android interface works beautifully and the screen is strikingly sharp with bright colours.

My HTC phone which is a whole year old now seems curiously dated .........

London Fashion Week Russian Fashion Show after party by RuStyle @ The Collection

On the night of the 22nd of February I had the pleasure of attending a London Fashion Week Russian fashion show after party by RuStyle at the very trendy Collection in Brompton Cross, Knightsbridge.

I took along my Leica m9 with Elmarit F2.8 21 mm lens and a Summicron F2. 35mm lens and using a variety of ISO setting from 800 to 2500 got some fun shots of the goings on

You can see more images in a slideshow of the evening

I emerged at the end of the festivities to find a beautiful Jaguar E-Type parked outside.

My "year in the life of a Scottish Estate" draws to a close

As reported on several times over the last two years, I have had the enviable task of photographing a huge variety of scenes and activities to tell the story of a "year in the life of a Scottish Estate" on the borders. Over 3,000 photographs were edited down to roughly 800 which were then laid out in a draft book of over 350 pages, which was printed via the excellent Blurb book printing service and then pored over by and then discussed with the client.

Changes were made and a small shot-list produced of scenes and people who still needed to be added to the book. I went up in mid June and took over 300 pictures with my new Leica M9 which has now replaced the excellent M8.

 The book with some of these new images added and  further editing now moves on to its final draft, then several 10's of copies will be printed for distribution to the client's family and the staff who make the estate such a wonderful place which is a home, a working farm and a sporting estate.

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Nivea - a million moments of closeness, photographing people -Together!

Now a chance for all you photographers to show what you are made of and enter a competition with your photos of people expressing closeness.

Viral video by ebuzzing

From a shared smile to a loving hug, Nivea are trying to capture photos of people with their friends or family showing a true moment of closeness. Every day Professor Geoff Beattie will pick a shot of the day and analyse it for signs of genuine closeness.

So upload a moment from your computer or your Facebook account for a chance to WIN!

 

Here are some of mine!

Blue & Red

I was in Lisbon recently and snapped this scene with my Leica M9 and I think it is one of those perfect Leica moments where everything comes together.

Sustainable haircut & Thames side views

This week I strolled along the Fulham Road and spied this scene outside a hairdresser - the future of hairdressing is green and sustainable! - Leica M9 90mm F2.8 at full aperture 400 ISO

Later that day I crossed Tower Bridge on my way to a meeting and caught the Shard and the Mayor's Office against a lowering sky and a detail of Tower Bridge itself. - Leica M9 35mm F2 at F8 400 ISO

BNI Notting Hill has a social evening at The Electric House Club

As a photographer, I get a lot of my work via referrals from previous clients and from networking. The core of my networking  initiatives comes via BNI - Business Networking International with my being a member of the Notting Hill Chapter which meets every week on Thursdays from 6.30 to 8.30am!

A number of times a year we have evening social events varying from wine tastings to ten pin bowling and this month a night out at the fashionable Electric House Club on the Portobello Road.

I took along my Leica M9 with 21mm F2.8 Elmarit lens using it at ISO settings from 400 to 1600 and in the moodily lit,essentially dark club got some great shots of our members having a good time, getting to know each other better and chilling out whilst having excellent beers, cocktails and wines helped down by a wide range of delicious food.

The Leica has an uncanny way of capturing the subtlety of the light and being small and unobrusive, people act naturally in front of it. You can see more in the slideshow.

Leica Noctilux F1.0 Lens at the RSA

On Wednesday I went to the RSA to listen to a talk by Brian Christian about his new book The most human, human "An eye-opening inquest into human imagination, thought, conversation, love and deception (David Eagleman, author of Sum )" His talk proved David knows what he is talking about. Brian is a brilliant explainer of things in a quiet, humorous deeply thoughtful and cultured way and made us realise what complex and wonderful beings we all are and that proving you are a human to another behind a wall is not so easy as it may sound.

 

I took my Leica M9 this time with my F1.0 Noctilux lens and snapped some pictures on the way there including this sad but amazing "Mummy/Vagrant" sleeping in a doorway and at the presentation itself and some menu cards in a restaurant afterwards, all shot at F1.0 to see how the tiny depth of field and beautiful Bokeh worked out.

 You can judge for yourself in this slideshow.

Do buy the book - its wonderful!

Rain or Shine Havaiana's hit London!

Sharing propelled by ebuzzing

RAIN or SHINE?

On April, 14^th, Havaianas hosted the very first festival of the year…right in the centre of London! The RAIN OR SHINE indoor festival took place in the Ultra Lounge of Selfridges (Oxford Street, London, UK) to celebrate the global launch of the new Rain Boots range!

I accompany this announcement with some of my pictures of London, in the spirit of this fun happening!

Surprising? Not really considering that it’s Always Summer with Havaianas ;)

Guests enjoyed Brazilian cocktails by Sagatiba but also traditional British brews while sampling a mixture of the best Brazilian and British festival foods including Tacos, Fajitas, Mini Fish n'Chips & Burgers.

Musical artist Jamie Woon wowed the guests with music from his recently launched album ‘Mirrorwriting’ and Daisy Lowe got the party going spinning tunes from the DJ booth. 

 

Dance artists ‘Brazilian Fantasy’ took to the floor and created dance frenzy toward the end of the night when all of the guests really ‘gave it some rain boots!’

Among the British and International famous guests: Daisy Lowe- Bombay Bicycle Club – Clara Paget –  Jade Parfit  –  Harry Treadaway – Kate Moross – Laura Whitmore – Nat Weller – Jamie Woon – Tolula Adeyemi – Misty Miller – Luke Evans – Is Tropical – Lara Bohinc – Leo Gregory – Mary Charteris - Clare Maguire – Jameela Jamil – Lara Bohinc– Laura Jackson.

The Rain Boots collection is composed of 8 colours (2 unisex and 6 feminine): Green, Black/Yellow, Pink/Light Blue, Purple/Pink, Grey/Pink, Turquoise/White, Always Summer and Elegance. They cost between 45 and 50 pounds, depending on the colours. For the time being, they are only available at Selfridges and on www.selfridges.com

Very soon, you’ll be able to get them on www.havaianas-store.co.uk so we recommend you to enter your email on that page in order to be the first to know about their availability.

 What about you? RAIN or SHINE?