Client Story: Doug Allan

The cameraman Doug Allan is a well known name in the world of wildlife documentaries and I help Doug with the stills side of his business.
Doug asked me to get involved in the preparation of the images for his first book “Freeze Frame” that is just about to be released.
Some of the images date back to the early part of his career so care was needed to reduce grain and get the images looking as fresh as the day they were taken, CMYK files were prepared for the books designer Simon Bishop.

Simon has just let me know that the printing at Butler Tanner and Dennis in Somerset went well and he is very pleased with the results of the two days of printing on the new Heidelberg press there.

Copyrightimage Ltd will also be handling book distribution so Jennie will be sorting on-line orders for the book.

Book details:
“Multi-award winning wildlife photographer and cameraman Doug Allan, of the BBC’s Frozen Planet now turns the focus on himself in his first book “Freeze Frame”!

Having worked on Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Human Planet, Life, the recent Ocean Giants and the sensational Frozen Planet, Doug brings together a collection of astounding anecdotes and breathtakingly beautiful photographs from the remotest places on Earth.

Have you ever been watching one of the BBC’s groundbreaking wildlife documentaries and thought “How did he get that shot?!” – well now you can find out the incredible stories behind the images in Doug Allan’s début book.

Braving the elements and depths of the Antarctic and Arctic Oceans, Doug has produced a fascinating 240 page book filled with exceptional photographs and secrets of life behind the lens, giving you a peek into the often hostile yet inspiring world of a wildlife cameraman

This book is so much more than a collection of superb images. Doug started life as a research diver in 1976 at Signy Island, Antarctica. Now with 35 years of experience in the Antarctic and Arctic, the stories that accompany every picture in this book tell of Doug’s astonishing adventures and encounters, his insights and emotions, his deep understanding of the biology of the animals and the psychology of film-makers.

Following a foreword from friend, Sir David Attenborough, the book is split into six sections; with many stories from Doug’s unique polar experiences and Arctic field craft, highlighting the challenges – and frustrations – of filming the animals themselves.

The book contains 70 long and short stories under the following themes:
• Camerawork
• Polar Heavens
• Ice & Snow, Cold and Colder
• Shots to Remember
• Near Misses
• Characters I Have Known
• Turning Up the Heat

From being pulled under water by a walrus, to the cunning and predatory Orca whale’s hunting skills. Doug invites you to learn about and discover the awe-inspiring nature hidden within the polar wastelands. Often exciting, sometimes humorous and always revealing and refreshingly honest, this is a uniquely personal portrait of the polar environments and the animals that live there, written by the man who’s spent more time there with a camera than anyone else.

“Every picture tells a story. I’ve just given the ones in this book a chance to tell theirs.”
– Doug Allan

Doug has won four Emmy and four BAFTA awards, as well as several Wildscreen Pandas. With Freeze Frame Doug gives the public a chance to step into his frozen world – without the frostbite!

Freeze Frame will be available from February 2012 pre-order here or at www.dougallan.com

You can pre-order Doug Allan’s new book “Freeze Frame” in hardback here (for buyers in the UK):
£25 + £6 P&P

Orders taken now, deliveries start early February 2012
Pay with either a credit card or your PayPal account.
Your credit card will be debited by “TartanDragon” Ltd”.
Buy now to ensure a copy of the first edition.


Getty upload site tip

Quick tip if you upload images to the Getty site-
I’m uploading clients images to the Getty upload portal, and as usual its like wading through treacle.
Multiple text fields with only a selection needed to be filled in and an irregular acceptance of text in each field means lots of extra work to get the data to stick.

The solution – Use the tab key starting at the top field, just tab through the fields you don’t need to fill in, the data sticks each time doh!


Backup Compact Camera (updated)

I know several clients who use Canon G10/11/12 cameras as a lightweight addition to their dSLRs. Very handy for capturing pictures adhoc when taking the usual kit out would be a pain or draw unwanted attention.

It has been possible to get the best of these images through Getty quality control but a lot of the time image quality can be an issue.

Canon have announced a possible solution. Its a little larger than the older G series (only a bit), but the sensor inside is 6x bigger. This will mean less noise on the 14MP sensor. Its on pre order at the moment and will cost approx £700 inc VAT.

DP have a review here

No sample images as yet but if your about to buy a G12 you may want to wait and see.

Update
Things are looking good, early pre production sample images are available here:
http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/reviewsamples/albums/canon-powershot-g1-x-preview-samples

Not quite Canon 1Ds MkIII / 5D MkII quality but pretty impressive for a small 14mp compact, particularly at high iso. Nice.

The HD video samples look very fragile with quite bad moire, lets hope this improves on the production model,  less important than the stills quality though…


Lightroom 4 Public Beta

Looks like Lightroom 4 will be a worthwhile upgrade when it appears later this year.

You can preview the new functionality yourself by downloading the beta from Adobe.

For me the biggest changes are the new develop settings layout, soft proofing for your different printer profiles and the map function will become of interest when more cameras contain gps circuitry.

On a more “Ed Reardon” note Adobe have “kindly encouraged their programmers to get their fingers out” and burning images to DVD is now supported in the 64bit version of Windows 7, something they should fix in Lightroom 3 but have not.

UK upgrade price will no doubt be the same price as the US plus a special supplement to pay for a new Adobe executive aircraft.

Ed