Millbrook-22 Cars-20 Hours

Just finished a rather large shoot at Millbrook Proving Ground in Bedfordshire England.
The site is used by many magazines,manufacturer's and the 5th Gear television programme to test vehicles and safely film them.In fact even some of the James Bond car stunts were filmed there.
It's very high security and every film crew-photographer has his or her own security guard to make sure they only shoot what they are supposed to.
We had a UK photo exclusive with the Bentley Zagato which is a mere snip at £750,000 !!
and many more exotic vehicles.
My favorite ? It's got to be the Mercedes C63 AMG as I got a chance to be scared out of my wits by our ex pro driver who kindly took me for a spin sideways around one of the tracks.What an experience that was...!! and what a talented driver.

This shoot is being featured in the November edition of Photo Pro magazine (On Sale at beginning of October 2008)

Pro Photo Insights

We are pleased to announce our new venture Pro Photo Insights.
I get many people express interest on how I create some of my work,so for a long time I have thought about producing some kind of online video content/training.
Following a chance online meeting and chatting I was finally inspired to take action and Professional Photographer Insights was born.
The idea is to show a start to finish (from behind the scenes) video footage of the photo shoot then screen casts of the retouching process.We encourage those who sign up to contact us and tell us what they wish to learn about e.g shooting panning shots of cars or what lenses have what effect on the landscape etc.The most popular request's will be made into a training video.We have lots more plans too so it's an exciting time to see where it will take us.
Sign up at www.prophotoinsights.net and we will send you a free 38 page e-book "Photographing the Edge of Darkness"

The Orphan Works Act of 2008

Please sign the petition to stop the Orphan Works Bill.
Sign and read the details at the site below.
www.petitiononline.com/Stop2913/petition.html

Heron

Another dawn sortie on the Somerset Levels.
I'm busy shooting for the exhibition Level Light and while out I spotted this huge Heron from a distance.I always try and keep my camera set for the unexpected shot so I was ready to pounce when this bird spotted me and took off.
I've added extra grain to this image as I feel digital images can sometimes be quite souless and I just love the textures I used to get with old emulsions like Agfa 1000 RS.
Anyway back to the Euro championships !

Level Light Exhibition

Here is a sneak preview of one of my images that will be appearing in an Exhibition called Level Light.Level Light is an exhibition of paintings of the Somerset levels by two established somerset artists Pennie Elfick and Jenny Graham.My work was spotted by Pennie and Jenny at the Ginger Fig Gallery in Taunton where it's sold and they kindly asked if I'd like to show some of my work.
This is the first image I have produced for the show and it's called May on the Moor.
It was shot nr Burrow Mump at Burrowbridge Somerset.It was so early in the morning that my only company where 2 young Deer who watched me from a cautious distance.
The Exhibition runs at Ginger Fig Bath Place Taunton for 2 weeks from the 3rd-17th July

Audi A8

We did some test work in April using the new Audi A8 which I was fortunate to have at my disposal for a week.After much deliberation we finally made our decisions for the locations.Myself and a friend who often drives for me on shoots first found some of these spots on Exmoor 16 years previous when we shot his Ford RS Turbo for my portfolio.Luckily we managed to find our way back to scout out the best time of day for the light.A week or two later at 5.30 am we returned and managed 4 locations before the light was lost.
The images where all retouched and then converted into LAB colour so I could separate the colours and add intensity before converting back to RGB.
As for the car it was nice for a week but I'm glad to get back to my into my BMW for the thrills !!
These images can be viewed at www.plantphoto.com

Perched

When I was around 7-8 I always had a toy gun strapped in a shoulder holster pretending to be James Bond or some crime fighting detective or other.
Later at about the age of 10 or so I was never without a football at my feet and when my interest in Photography developed (no pun intended!)it was a camera that replaced a ball.My camera still travels with me most days especially on family days out which is when this image was taken.Most of my images are pre planned to capture the subject when the light falls at the best angle at the best time of day and season.Sometimes however you spot something that catches your eye in the most uninspiring light and this is one such image.
I did not touch this shot for 6 or so months until I had decided how I wanted the image to be completed.Most of the post production work on this image simply consisted of adjusting colour and tone and took about 3 hrs to complete.
The finished image is available as a fine art print at www.simonplantgallery.com