The power of the image

This Saturday just gone we held the first Arc'teryx Adventure Shot photo comp. Even though I'm biased as I organised it, it was beeping awesome. As a photographer you spend a lot of time and effort getting the best images you can, but have almost zero feedback other than the odd thumbs up or purchase from a photo editor. With the growing number of film festivals and the growing amount of talent getting involved with film it can be tempting to see still photography as an art on the wane. These were two of my biggest driving forces behind the Adventure Shot(a concept nicked from the Squamish Steep Shot event). Thanks to the efforts of the 5 competing photographers Alexander Buisse, Alex Ekins, Adam Long, Richard Seipp and Robbie Shone, MC Grimer, Arc'teryx for the impressive prizes and most importantly a very rowdy audience it felt like an evening when the still image tryely came alive. For me very inspiring. Below is Alex's winning presentation (note you can watch it HD on Vimeo). See you next year?

Why do we climb? from Alexandre Buisse on Vimeo.

Squamish Rock Festival

No this isn't a gathering of mullet fronted bands headlined by Rush, but a rather fine low key gathering of climbers in Canada. Arcteryx invited me over to do a lecture, take part in the film makers seminar and help judge the "Steep Shot" photo shoot out. The latter was great fun with 5 photographers Andrew Burr http://www.andrewburr.com/ , Keith Ladzinski http://www.ladzinski.com/ , Corey Richards http://www.crichardsphoto.com/ , Susanica Tam http://www.susanica.com/ , Sonnie Trotter http://sonnietrotter.com/ competing for decent big money prizes. Each put together about 5 minutes of slides set to music and the audience being Canadian needed little encouragement to shout out appreciation of their favourite images. The level of all five was incredibly high with Keith Ladzinski, last year's winner and perhaps the most technically accomplished photographer working in climbing to day just being pipped by Andrew Burr. Burr's show was a great example of how to put together a complete show, building up a story, throwing in a few surprises and ratcheting up the emotion to a fitting end.

The thing that really got me about this event was how it brought images alive. As a snapper you often work alone or with just one or two climbers, then an editor and once published although your image is probably seen by many thousands you get almost no feedback. Here with the event held in a brew-pub the atmosphere was, shall we say, well oiled and so feedback was instant and very rowdy. It was a real example of the power of photographs. I'd love to see something like this in the UK but it would only work if the British could lose their polite inhibitions.

Sheffield Rat Race

I had a last minute commission on Sunday from the organisers of the Rat Race, an urban adventure race being held in Sheffield. Based on Day Two around the industrial museum Magna it made for some dramatic pics. Here's a few pics from the final day. For more info on the series click here http://www.ratraceadventure.com/default.asp

Getting paid for pics

One of the biggest questions facing budding professional photographers is how much to sell your photos for. It can often be quite flattering for a first timer just to have their photos chosen and published and some are even tempted to let their work be used for free. Other snappers seem to put an unrealistic value on their work. For instance I hear of one photographer who was offered £300 per pic by a UK Outdoor company, it was fairly likely this company would have chosen half a dozen pics without requiring exclusive use. So potentially £1800, which surely is a decent payday in any ones books. So where does the balance lie?

I remember my first sale was to Rab Equipment where I sold 7 or 8 shots for a total of £150. Looking back that seems a pitifully small amount but at the time I was pretty happy with that - I was after all the first photographer to get paid in cash by Rab instead of fleece or down! Since then I've got a little more savvy an have managed a fair few sales for several thousand pounds. From my experience here are a few guidelines:

1. Does the company have a set rate card? Some companies such as Patagonia and almost all magazines have a defined a price per size of image and type of use. If they do and are happy with this go with it. Some photographers don't agree with this an will try to negotiate some special higher rate, my opinion is that will more than likely to alienate editors or marketing bosses and although you might occasionally win out you are just as likely to lose future business.

2. If the company has no rate card then expect to have to pitch a price and negotiate. This is obviously the tricky part for the inexperienced, here's a few tips:

- Don't be intimidated or nervous after all this is business and the company will be used to talking money everyday. Be confident, you have quality images that the company would like to use. However don't be arrogant or rude, word gets around amongst different companies and you will get a reputation as difficult to work with.

- Do some research on the size of the company and the scale of the marketing use. There is usually a sliding scale of use from a single small image on the web at one end through to annual catalogue cover or billboard advert at the other end.

- It is normal to have different charges for different market places i.e. UK, European and then Global.- It is also typical to define the exact use of the image and specify a timescale, mine is usually a non exclusive license for 2 years. If the company wants to use the image for several different marketing purposes i.e. in store publicity, in their printed catalogue, on their website and in a poster in a magazine then each of these would increase the value of the sale.

- If a company wants exclusive use then this is usually for a set period of time (1 year, 2 years etc), they would then have to re-negotiate and pay for a further extension if they wanted to use the image beyond that. If they wanted complete copyright (you loose all rights to that image) then they should expect to pay a significant amount of money.

- Always head into a negotiation with a plan of what you want. Have two figures in your mind, 1. your ideal price for the sale and 2. a figure that would be the lowest you would be happy with for that sale. Your first pitch will be number 1 and this maybe excepted immediately. In this instance it is tempting to be disappointed and think they would have been willing to pay more, don't be, you've got your ideal price and have learnt a bit about that type of company for future sales. If the company is unwilling to match your ideal price ask them what they would expect to pay, and then you can either negotiate a halfway settlement or move on if it's below price 2.

- Be realistic. Photographers make their living through sustained sales not one off fluke winfalls. I've often felt as satisfied getting £30 for a website image for a British one man company as I have for £1000 from a multi national's global campaign.

There is actually a reasonable amount of information on the net. The following is a great article and although it's American biased has some great links to give a few ideas and guidelines.
http://www.wheelsandwax.com/v4/2009/04/business-faq-licensing-pricing-etc/#more-219

British Journal of Photography

The prestigious British Journal of Photography has done a piece on climbing photographers called Vertical Take. I was quite chuffed to be featured alongside fellow Sheffield based snapper Keith Sharples ( http://keithsharplesphotography.co.uk/ ) the Americans Corey Rich ( http://coreyrich.com/ ) and Keith Ladzinski ( http://ladzinski.com/ ) There's an online version of the piece here http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=854564

As a result of this piece it looks like the Telegraph "may" be featuring a shot or two of mine. Here's fingers crossed.

Canon G10 first impressions

Just picked up a Canon G10, their new top end compact digital camera, so here are a few initial impressions after 30 minutes use this afternoon. It's on the large side for a compact (but for those of us used to 35mm film compacts it feels the right size for a quality compact camera). The controls on the whole are by large buttons and chunky dials - one of the main reasons I choose the G10 over rivals, as I'm hoping this should ease use with big gloves. The screen is BIG, bright and has great colours (more saturated than on my Vaio computer screen). Speed of use with Jpegs is pretty fast, with RAW not bad - certainly better than many other compacts. Here's a few pics, the first showing the colours This second is shot at ISO 100

....and here's a crop to show detail (no sharpening done in photoshop)

This fourth shot is at ISO 800 1/60th second (it was getting dark)

...again a detail showing obvious noise but not bad.

All these were shot on Large Jpeg, the G10 of course shoots RAW, which should have better results. I'll post up more images and thoughts once I've had a bit more chance to play.

New Gallery

There's a new gallery 20 of my shots just gone up on Planetfear http://www.planetfear.com/gallery.php?id=98&image=1668

Yosemite Leaves

Dave Pickford is doing a great job of resurrecting Planetfear after it looked like this fine website was dissappearing down the virtual tubes. It's now got daily updates with lots of interesting articles, photo galleries and reviews.

Photo Wise Part 3

One of the things you learn pretty early on with alpine climbing is that shiny gear doesn't make you a good climber. I'm surprised therefore on photography forums with the total obsession with gear. Even photography forums on climbing sites fuss over which camera will transform the poster's pics to the near exclusion of every other aspect of image making.

Last year I had a days shooting with the modern day climbing legend John Dunne at Ilkley. I'd never met John properly and was looking forward to making the most of the privilege of working with him. Imagine my horror when I opened the boot of my car to find my full array of lenses but no actual camera to attach them to. Apologising profusely to John, we rang around mates of his in the vicinity trying to blag a spare camera to save the day, but to no avail. Eventually I bit the bullet heading down the hill to Ilkley town and managed to find a pocket sized compact.

I felt a little as though I'd let John down hanging on an abseil rope waving around a tiny "happy snappy" when John was much more used to pros with multiple bodies weighed down with long lenses. The results however were far from a disappointment - as the magazine used 7 pages of shots including a double page and the front cover. It really went to show that interesting subject matter, nice light and a decent eye come well before how many expensive toys you have.

One of the most pleasing aspects of the magazine article was that I heard that the double page spread (above)had inspired Gaz Parry to go and repeat the route Reservoir Dogs, an E8 that hadn't been climbed for many years. That's when you know a photograph really is successful.

Photo Wise Part 2

For this week's "story behind the image" I thought I'd talk a little about this shot of Zippy climbing Traverse of the Gods, a VS at Swanage. There's a lot of talk about needing perfect light for the best shots, I don't agree. Great light of course can lead to some really beautiful images but there's alot more to life and especially the climbing life than just beauty. On this day the sky was dull and flat, even more the rock was completely soaked. Usually there'd be no climbing and no photos on a day like this but I'd had a vision of an image I wanted.


It's a bit embarrassing to admit but I sometimes dream of particular pictures I hope I might have a chance to photograph. I've always loved that feeling on seacliffs when the water becomes a real presence. Those big sea days when you're racing the tide and the waves are leaping around like wild animals. In most of the seacliff climbing shots I've taken the sea has remained tame; a mere pretty backdrop.

Luckily for me (unluckily for Zips) on this day the sea had been unleashed and the waves were crashing occasionally over the tops of the cliff. I managed to persuade Zips to give the first pitch a try, got the camera ready and waited for the big breaker. Of course I got as soaked as Zips but when you get one of those images you've been dreaming of its all worth it.

The thing I like best about this shot is that nature is most definately the boss. One of the most cringe-worthy attitudes in climbing is the idea of "conquering the mountain" or in more contemporary parlence "crushing the route"! In reality when a climber's at the top of their game they achieve a balance with nature. Nature however can easily bite back as Zippy found out.

Photo Wise Part 1

I thought it might be interesting to talk a little about my photography so in this occasional group of posts I'll try to explain some of the thinking I've made behind the lens. For the last year or so I've been running a series called "Stomping Grounds" for Climb magazine in which each month a well known climber gives a tour of the local area selecting 7 personal fav routes. Its been my job to try to capture the essense of each of those routes in a single image each. Often I have only had one or two days to capture all 7 routes usually at several different crags across the region. Adding to those complex logistics have been the usual photographer's foes the weather and poor light. But I like being tested and these pressures plus the monthly deadlines have added to the enjoyment I've had in rising to the challenge.

The following three pics of Nick Dixon show a little about the way I've been working. I usually run around like a blue arsed fly trying to get the most out of each climb and not just stick with one view. The route is called Sunburst a stunning E7 arete soaring out of the trees and rhododendrons of Nesscliffe. The first two shots concentrate on the amazing technicality of the climbing plus they also fit the format of a possible cover (space at the top for the magazine header plus strap lines at bottom left).

I chose this first view to emphasise the pure straight lines of Sunburst's arete and to line up the beautiful Rhododendron flowers as a back drop to this equally beautiful move by Nick - with all his weight balanced off his heel level with his head.
The end move of the crux sequence is a dyno. Here its crucial to see the concentration and emotion of the climber so I moved so I could see Nick's face and most importantly eyes. The image however that I felt worked best was this one...


I'm always looking for shots I've not seen before. Here the composition gives enough of the technical nature of the route with Nick perched on the arete his right leg flagging in the air but more importantly (considering that the article is more about the climbs than the climber) it brings out the incredible geometry and scale of Nesscliffe. Huge right angled grooves and aretes, a full rope length in height - shooting from this angle felt like swinging around in the tops of the tallest trees of a rainforest canopy and I think captured the granduer of one of the UK's most striking single pitch routes.