To everyone, who over the last two days has taken the time to look at this blog and view the mass array of photos from the Churchdown Skatepark Jam.
I’ve had a lot of positive feedback, which is nice, as it’s good to see that people take the time and effort to look and appreciate the hard work that goes on behind the camera and in front of the PC screen afterwards.
Well hopefully some more events will come my way sometime soon, so watch this space. Also if anyone needs an event covering then please feel free to drop me an email to this address and I’ll get back in touch right away
Well today was the official opening jam down of Churchdown skatepark, built by Maverick Skateparks. Although the parks been open for quite a few months now, today was the cutting of the ribbon and big main event. Lucky for everyone the weather held out seeing as it was a bit hit and miss at the start of the week, the sun was out pretty much all day apart from some odd spots of rain here and there.
There was so much going on in terms of events meaning none stop action all day!! Skate and BMX jams, food stands, little mini go-karting and a clothing stand from Entirety Clothing (who were also sponsoring the event). For the jams there were plenty of prizes being given away, tickets to Nass and even some cash prizes in the over 16′s jams with up to £150 up for grabs. Don’t worry though as I was there to capture the going on’s for most of the day, in between trying to get some tricks down as well.
Enjoy the photos below…..
There does seem to be a lot of BMXing in this post…….maybe thats due to the fact the skateboarding street over 16′s jam, I was a bit busy trying to claim a BS Flip over the rail and not shooting photos (sorry for that as there was some banging tricks going down as well to be fair.) Although I think everyone has seen a lot of my skateboarding photos from Churchdown a bit too much now anyways….??!
Just like to say a big shout out to everyone who got this together today as it was such a good day. Nice one to everyone at Maverick Skateparks for building such a great place Jennings, Russ, Sam Reynolds etc. Shout out to Ross from Entirety Clothing, hopefully be able to help you guys out again sometime and last of all Parish Council for letting this park come true.
(Some more photos from the event over on my Flickr as well so take a look)
I’ve been lucky enough to get approached by Quantum, who manufacturer one of the main flashes I use in my skateboard photography, to put together a blog post for them.
The reason why Ken from Quantum got in touch and create a blog post for them was down to the fact for many years QFlashes have always been linked with wedding and portrait photography, however the flash has also caught the attention of action sport photographer. So they wanted to find out the reason why, which I was more than happy to explain.
To grab a look at what I had to say head over to the Quantum Blog now. (also don’t forget to share and hit the Facebook like on the blog)
That’s right………after how many years of shooting photos I’ve finally got my first ever photograph published. Below is a scan of the photo, which appeared in the local Gloucester newspaper – The Citizen, on Thursday 23rd February.
Here’s the orginal version of the photo
I actually sent the photo into The Citizen back in June last year, after taking a walk around the Forest of Dean. Never heard anything back until now. It’s quite a nice feeling to know that they actually took the time to use the photo, as they must get quite a lot sent through to them, and making that final cut on what to use must be hard.
Well here’s to the first of hopefully many photos getting in print this year and years to come!
As photography keeps advancing into smaller, quicker and fast processing cameras, the same can be said with mobile technology and the cameras within them. Also with the next generation of smart phones, photography has seen a big improvements. Higher megapixel count, focus control the list goes on. However the one thing that makes todays smartphones even more clever are with the help of apps. This was the main reason why I went for an iPhone, due to the vast amounts of apps you can downloaded. Some are just a tad bit silly but some actaully are very useful and powerful tools. Therefore I’d thought I’d share with you some of the photographic Apps I’ve got installed on my iPhone and the reason behind them.
Flickr – This isn’t actually the Flickr app, just the mobile version of the site as I found the mobile app to be a bit too basic for what I was after. The Flickr web app is pretty much the same as the normal desktop version but just geared towards mobile devices. I think it’s just a nice way to see whats going on without having to fire up a desktop/laptop and still have the same power in my pocket! See who’s been commenting on my photos, see what others have been uploading, everything you get from the normal desktop site.
Instagram – App Store Link - One of the fastest growing photo sharing apps to date! Basically you take a photo of whatever you like, apply some effects (different film styles, add some “creative blur”) upload and hopefully some of your followers (similar to Twitter) will comment or like your photo. I’ve only just recently downloaded this app, mainly due to the fact I had an app which was similar but found that sharing the photos to Twitter to be very long-winded. Therefore changed to this one. Enough different effects to keep everyone happy and you’ll also be very surprised who you can find to follow on Instagram as well! If you guys fancy following my images my Isntagram profile is here – mattthomasphoto
Strobox – App Store Link – I did a quick review back in 2009 about this app and still have it installed on my iPhone since then. Haven’t really used it much but should defiantly be using it a bit more now for lighting diagrams to coincide with my book I’m doing. If you fancy reading the review take look now, although the app and everything has changed a little bit since then!!
Snapseed – App Store Link – One of the best editing apps out there!! Made by Nik software, who also make a load of software plugin’s for Lightroom and Photoshop. This app just does everything you’d every want. Change white balance, creative HDR style photos, crop, tilt/shift, selective adjust and you can even sharpen a photo. If you’ve got an iPhone, into photography and have always wanted to improve your iPhone photos…………download this app now. Below is a little video showing you the features of Snapseed on the iPad (although very much the same on iPhone)
Dev Chart – App Store Link – Haven’t really shot B/W film in quite a while, due to the fact I went on the cruise ship for a year and all my developer went off!! I’ll be getting back into it very soon though. This app is very much just a working model of the online site by Digitaltruth. You can select the developer you have, film, ISO you shot at, mixture you’re using to develop and away you go. It then tells you the time to develop for, when to use your stop bath and everything else a film buff needs to make sure his B/W comes out just right. There are soo many different settings you can play about with as well, it’s an app worth getting if you have no time for CF cards and more at home with 120 Tri-x 400 @ 800.
LightMeter – App Store Link – Surprising this app is actually pretty correct in giving exposure information. Yes I know today’s SLR cameras have the meters built-in etc etc however camera like my Bronica SQ-A don’t. With this app you basically pick whether you want to know the shutter or aperture value, take a picture and then feedbacks the correct settings. I’ve actually tested this against my D700 and was presently surprised at the outcome. extremely useful if you own an old film camera and don’t have access to a light meter.
NDCalc – App Store Link – If you own a 10 Stop ND filter (like me) having to guess the correct exposure or without having do some in head maths to work out the correct shutter speed can be a pain. However with this app you just say what the shutter speed is and it then tells you the correct one with the filter added. Also has a handy little timer to say when the time is up as well.
Photosynth – App Store Link – Quick and easy way to make pano images. Tap the screen to start and then to move the camera around the scene and the app snaps the images together. Once you’ve finished you just let the app render the completed pano and it’s done. Worth having if you just want to stitch two photos or even twenty-two. You can also be very creative with the app and have people three or four times within the same photo.
Well all in all that’s the overview of the photo apps I have installed on my iPhone and why. Some were free, some you had to pay for, but all of them give me an extra tool in my pocket to enhance my photography in some way.
Well it’s only been 18 days since I came up with the idea of doing this book, and I must say I’ve had a lot of positive feedback about it. At the moment just waiting for these cold winter nights/days to stop so I’m not freezing my fingers off when I’m shooting photos! Well below is a quick teaser of what to look out for, (well it’s mainly just one video from a photo I shot the other day, but still)
Finally thought of a name for my new book I’m doing, focusing more on a documentary style look on skateboarding. The new is going to be called Progression.
Like I said yesterday it’s going to have the normal style of skate photos but with the added behind the scenes stuff of interviews and profiles which the public normally don’t hear or read about. The reason for this is due society overlooking skateboarding and always classing it as “antisocial” not knowing the true idea why some people choose skating over other sports such as football or other mainstream well published activities.
This is what I’m mainly going to be focusing on during 2012, so look out for loads more shooting from me and updates on how it’s all going.
…..well might as well start off as we mean to go on. So by calling up Adam Hutchinson and telling him that it’s now the New Year and time to start shooting more photos. Needless to say Adam was up for it, below is the outcome from a quick 30min session .
Not a bad way to start off the New Year.
Also now it’s 2012 it’s time to think of new ideas and projects to get started on. One of the things that I’m doing this year is geotagging all my photos I’m taking using my new Nikon GP-1 on my D700. Therefore you’ll be able to see where all my photos are taken, which is quite a handy thing knowing how much I’m going to be shooting this year! So on the photo above here’s the location this was taken, allowing you to find out where a lot of these skate spots are!
Also another idea I’ve got in mind is to create a new book, however this one is going to more like a documentary style looking at the skate scene in and around Gloucestershire. It’ll be more like a behind the scenes look to what happens within skateboarding and how it’s changing and progressing in Gloucester. So it’s going to have some normal skate photos but also some interview style pages and profiles. Hopefully it’ll work out ok, plus it’ll give me something to work for during 2012, so watch this space!!
That’s right my D700 is having its first birthday today. May sound a bit sad but I thought it would be interesting to see how many photos I’ve shot on this camera in the space of a year. Well the answer is………… 11598
Which seems like quite a lot to be fair but seeing as I was on the cruise ships with this camera taking stock photos and then shooting sequence shots for skateboarding, I can see why it’s racked up a fair few! Well here’s to another 11598 or so and till next year!
As this goes online I’ll be on my way driving towards a new skatepark just opened in Newbury. Should be a good day. However for me a very busy one, mainly as I’ll be shooting the photos for the opening jam!!
Flashes are all charged and double charged. Rolls of film are ready to be ripped through, and the D700 is set to machine gun mode.
For updates during the day head over to my Twitter page here
