Motivation

I am really bad at this blogging thing. I know that, I don't need reminding of that. However, I have been chatting to a couple of friends recently, Mike O’Neil and Steve Blake, both professional press photographers who I have worked with in the past and they have been hammering on to me about blogging and keeping it up.

Mike and I did some photography courses together in 2008 and he had to remind me that during that period I took a self portrait every single day and posted it to the flickr photo sharing website and blogged every day about the image and about what I had been up to. Steve on the other hand had to remind me that I told him at the end of 2010 that I would blog regularly and so far I have failed to do so. I have a few projects that I am trying to work on just now and will start putting some images from them on here as and when, but for the time being here are some of the self portraits that I did in 2008 for my project 365/366. Thanks again to Mike and Steve for the motivation!!

Film Noir

I have always had a fascination with old Film Noir movies and have always admired the works of John Alton and Alfred Hitchcock. I have always thought about doing my own film noir images and it wasn't until September 2010 when I finally decided that I was going to try and recreate the images of the 1940s and 1950s which are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir.

This image then is my first attempt at a film noir inspired shoot.

For this image I wanted to create that tense moment you get when watching a movie when you know that something is about to happen, that moment when your heart starts racing, the moment when you sit up in your seat and hope that everything is going to be ok.

Stats and the power of the Blog

As 2010 comes to an end I find myself thinking about the next year, an exciting (hopefully) year for me that sees me developing more as a photographer and shooting more than I did this year.

I like to shoot live music events when I get the chance and I love Burlesque and shooting Burlesque shows and I ended the year shooting 2 burlesque shows in the space of a week and a concert by Brighton Folk Punk band The Levellers the week prior to these shows.

Anyway, I regularly check my stats on my flickr stream to see what images of mine get looked at and where the referrals come from. On average I get between 50 and 250 hits a day (looking mostly at pics of sexy women!)

With the release of the Cher/Christina movie BURLESQUE , I have found myself getting more views on my burlesque pics with google stats showing people searching for burlesque. However, someone, somewhere, must have blogged or tweeted about one of my pics as I had over 2000 views on the 19th December on my flickr stream , the most I have ever had in one day.

So I end this year with a smile, knowing that someone, somewhere is looking at, and hopefully enjoying my images. Thank you to whoever blogged/tweeted about me on the 19th, and thank you to the people who made it possible for me to shoot these shows.

I hope to bring more of these kind of images to you in 2011.

Jim x

Lost in a time warp?

I realise that it has been almost 18 months since I last blogged! I really do need to sort that out! I have been very busy since my last blog. I moved back to North Yorkshire in March 2009 where I have been doing a lot of press and pr work. As good as this is and great that it pays the bills, it has not left me much time to pursue my own projects.

So to that end, I have giving myself a kick in the backside and have set myself a few projects to concentrate on (more to follow!)

I have shot a few burlesque shows in the past and have done some pin up style portraits and I loved this, so over the next few months I am going to be concentrating on doing more of these.

This is one of my first ever burlesque promo shots, and to this day remains one of my favourite images that I have taken. It is of the fabulous Darkteaser, taken prior to a performance at the Vivid Soda Burlesque Review in Northampton almost 3 years ago!

Tweeting on Twitter

Ok, so I caved in and joined the twitter revolution.

I found it hard enough trying to keep up with Myspace, Deviant Art, Live Journal, Face Book and Flickr.

But now I had to give twitter a go, but I have to say that I am finding it quite addictive just now!

Anyway, a very random blog, I know, but I just wanted post this image (that I did for my twitter background!) and thought I should at least explain why I have put it here!

I am looking forward to the rest of the weekend and plan to chill out today and update my various blogs and sites. Have a good weekend people.

Jim

www.twitter.com/jimnomad

Where have you been Jim?

I have had a couple of emails recently from gig photographers asking where I have been and that I have missed out on a few decent concerts. The truth is I have not gone anywhere, I have just been busy.

The thing with gig photography, is that unless you have been asked by the band/promoter/PR people to shoot the event, it is very hard to get a pass to do so.

I finish work in a couple of weeks down here in the Midlands and I am moving back to the North East to concentrate on press and pr work. Hopefully I will be able to shoot more concerts and do what I love doing. I need to make more contacts in the music business to secure a pass. It really is a case of who you know. Have a look at the image I have included below, it shows a couple of photographers in a busy pit with professional DSLR's, and then at the back some kid with a point and click camera!



Here is a great video to leave you with:

Reel Big Fish ~ Where Have You Been?

Moving On

A bit of an update since my last post. I left Wolverhampton in September and I moved a bit further south, near the Welsh border where I am once again working as an assistant for a commercial photographer. I have been doing this now for the past few months and I have had a couple of exciting jobs out of it. I went to Cyprus at the end of September to help out on some lifestyle shoots and I just got back last week from Kenya where I was out on safari.

However, I am a five hour drive from North Yorkshire and I have itchy feet again! I enjoy assisting, but I am not sure how much more I am going to get from it unless I move to London and assist the big fashion photographers, I just don't know if this is what I want to do.

I am getting some work as a press photographer and think that it is time to pursue this a bit further and so I am thinking of moving back up North and furthering my skills in this capacity.

I have been shooting a few concerts these past few weeks. Music is a huge passion of mine, so to combine music with photography is a dream for me. I shot at a decent venue a couple of weeks ago in Birmingham, the Asylum. A local band called Hanging Doll were playing, supporting Spit Like This who were having an album launch party. This is my favourite shot from their set.

Jim