Dec
The Sunday Times ran a feature on Project Natick at the weekend, with my photography.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/silicon-valleys-dirty-data-centre-secret-carbon-kx0x8g3jm
Project Natick is Microsoft’s research into the feasibility of an underwater datacentre
https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/project-natick-underwater-datacenter/
A sealed vessel on the ocean floor does not have any of the issues that the equivalent land datacenter does, with corrosion from oxygen and humidity, temperature fluctuations, and bumps plus jostles from technicians who monitor and replace broken components.
Project Natick also supports Microsoft’s sustainability goals with the vessel in Orkney consuming no water for cooling and being powered by renewable energy sources.
Photobanks was assigned to photograph, film and drone the retrieval of the underwater vessel.
Nov
My photograph of the “The Ribbon Roof” of the ICON Outlet at the O2 Arena in London has been shortlisted in the Motif Collective “Architecture” photography awards.
I was assigned by the architects, CallisonRTKL who worked alongside Hoare Lea who designed the lighting.
Architecture photography is all about realising the designer’s vision. I always seek to understand the design concept behind any space and look to capture the creativity in the photographs.
The Motif Collective was set up by photographers for photographers as an online gallery to host monthly contests devoted exclusively to fine art photography. Their ultimate goal is to present the finer works of talented Photographers from all over the world to help them become successful in one of the most dynamic and challenging times on the global art scene. The Motif Collective online suite of International Fine Art Photography contests gives artists the opportunity to both be recognised and present their best work to the world.
https://www.motifcollective.com/winners-oct-2020.html
Nov
I was presented with the 15th Annual Black and White Spider Awards honourable mention in two categories at this year’s Winners PhotoShow, receiving the official email today.
The live online gala was attended by industry leaders and the photography community from around the globe who logged on to watch the climax of the world's premier event for black and white photography.
Bernardino Castro, Director at Portuguese Center of Photography (CPF), Porto said "The amazing quality of the images in the competition made it very difficult to select the winners. I would like to reinforce the relevance and impact of Black & White Spider Awards as a mobilizing agent in promoting the production and dissemination of excellent photography at an international level."
"It's an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the 6,378 entries from 69 countries we received this year" said Basil O'Brien, the awards Creative Director.
BLACK AND WHITE SPIDER AWARDS is the leading international award honouring excellence in black and white photography. www.thespiderawards.com
Oct
Earlier this year I was approached by Zoner Photo Studio X to test out their powerful but lesser known photo editor.
Zoner Photo Studio X is “the most universal photo software there is.” It is something that bridges both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop with RAW processing, layer support, presets, retouching tools, video editing and cataloguing.
During the past six months I have been photographing for InterGen at their UK power stations. The photography is a challenging mixture of portraits, reportage, architectural, interior, and exterior stock photography that I decided would be a perfect test for any photo editing software.
There is a logical progression from image “Management” to “Development” and then advanced options of “Editor” and Create”.
Like all digital imaging software this is something that you “grow with” and never stop learning as Zoner updates the program.
I was impressed with the “Presets” which produced some great results and really liked the offer of cloud storage.
The magic wand auto seemed to work really well and I liked the Split toning “colour Wheels”. It was slightly frustrating that I could not double click the sliders to reset the adjustments as this is a useful function in Lightroom.
Everything else seemed to work as I would want it, crop tool, filter brush and graduated filter.
I think there is an initial problem when coming from using Adobe Lightroom, which is that it has taken me the best part of twenty years to learn. When I fire up Zoner X I get frustrated that I cannot always work as fast, even though I have only been using it for a short time.
It is the equivalent of swapping my flagship Nikon’s in for the equivalent Canon’s. I know how to use a digital SLR and I know that the Canon camera is pretty f*({ing awesome, but I also know my Nikon's back to front so am a little "unsteady on my feet" with something else.
Overall, I warmed to Zoner Photo Studio X in a short period of time. There are some incredible features and I like the flexibility that it offers being somewhere between Lightroom and Photoshop. I don’t think everything always works as well as Lightroom or Photoshop, but I do think there is a lot to shout about.
Intergen, Coryton Power Station The Manorway, Stanford-Le-Hope SS17 9GN - 17 September 2020
