Editorial and Commercial photographer in the North East of England
Photography
Goodbye 2011…
Dec 31st
Walker on Hunstanton beach during the last sunset of 2011 (Click pic for photo gallery)
…it’s been a pretty crap year.
While I’ve had many really interesting commissions, met and worked with some fantastic people and produced some really pleasing images – it’s been a fairly quiet year for work. I’m hoping 2012 will be a great year. Alas, the current news reports don’t exactly bode well and I really can’t see the Olympics or Queen’s Diamond Jubilee putting a few quid into my pockets.
While I’d love to be a Corporal Jones type character, running around maniacally cajoling those nearby, shouting “Don’t Panic Mr Mainwaring, don’t panic!”. Realistically, I may shuffle quietly around, muttering Private Fraser’s famous phrase “We’re doomed, I say. Doomed”.
(If you don’t get the very British reference, click here)
To mark the last day of 2011, I popped down to Hunstanton in Norfolk to look for some potential pictures. I was hoping for a few cliched views of a desolated British seaside resort during Winter. In reality the mild weekend weather meant it was positively teeming with people strolling along the beach and promenade. More >
This made me smile
Jun 20th
© 2010 Aaron Johnson
I’ve been ignoring this blog for far too long. But I have plans afoot.
First things first, there’s some technical guff (upgrades, design tweaks etc) that I need to work through first, and hopefully avoid taking the whole website off-line in the process!
Anyway, saw this cartoon today that made me smile; on the excellent ‘What the Duck‘ website, so I thought I’d share it.
Britain’s sexiest farmer
Feb 13th
Anna (click for more photos)
I had the absolute pleasure of photographing the lovely Anna Simpson for a story that she has just been crowned “Britain’s sexiest female farmer” in a poll by Farmer’s Weekly magazine.
The shoot wasn’t ideal; freezing temperatures in a less than perfect location (her work place rather than her idyllic family farm in North Yorkshire) as the shoot had to be organised in a rush. But with Anna’s enthusiasm and a little photographic creativity we got a really nice set of photos. Poor girl ended up shivering so much some of the shots had a hint of movement blur! What an absolute star she was.
As a result, so far, the photos have appeared in The Sun, Daily Star and Daily Express and on the web at The Sun and Telegraph.co.uk.
This was just a quick note before I head off to the newsagents!
(NB: If your browser can not display ‘flash’ content, or you’re using an iPhone etc you can view the photos here.)
A better way to view panoramics
Jan 25th
Panoramic photos are always a bit of a problem to view. As you can see below, when viewed as a whole image it’s simply an interesting view of a scene. In this case it’s a picture of Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides, showing an unusual 220º angle of view.
Normal view
Okay that’s pretty neat. But it’s a 80MB image comprising of about 10 separate carefully shot images that are then stitched together by some clever software. There’s a huge amount of information in that picture that you can’t normally appreciate, unless you were to sell a kidney and print it up on a billboard.
But there’s another way to present this photo so that you can zoom in and pan around the image. It’s by a company called Zoomify and Adobe have incorporated it into Photoshop CS4 as an ‘Export…’ option, so even numpties like me can make it work. There’s nothing new about all this, but I just discovered it and think it’s really quite cool – take a look below.
Zoomify!
TV celeb learns a lesson
Jan 16th
Legendary children’s TV über-celebrity Pingu, learns a valuable life lesson…
Always employ a professional photographer. Doing it on the cheap only ends in tears, and there’s nothing sadder than a beloved little penguin in tears. 
If it’s important, it’s important to do it right.
How much? Canon, are you insane?
Jan 14th
Canon, what are you thinking? Are you indeed thinking at all?
So, you’re in dire need to replace the EOS 1D Mk III due to it’s perceived image of dodgy focussing (I’ve no idea if these problems exist or not, but it’s been irrevocably labelled with this malfunction) and no amount of free fixes and firmware updates have dispelled these beliefs. Combined with Nikon releasing a digital camera that people actually wanted to own and use (the Nikon D3 – fantastic camera) and then bribed significant members of the photographic community to switch to Nikon, by offering trade-in deals that only a raving idiot could refuse.
So you eventually bring out the Mk IV, and it’s looking like a cracker of a camera – hurrah! Costing £4,500 … that’s a typo, surely … no, that’s almost £2000 more than the Mk III costs. Insanity.
More >
Every year…
Nov 21st
Click Me!
…I have the dubious pleasure of photographing my lovely nephews and niece.
Every year things never go as smoothly as I’d like. You’d think it’d be the easiest thing in the world, but it’s good ol’ Uncle Tony taking the photos, so simply sitting still for just a couple of minutes is an impossibility. 
Maybe I should be a little scarier and then, maybe, they would spare me a few minutes out of their playtime.
Never mind. Managed to get a few snaps before they disappeared.