Missed the boat for Reading Festival Tickets

Festival goers arriving at the main entrance to the
Reading Festival carrying luggage, Reading, UK 2/2
Well, what a contrast. I've been away for a bank holiday weekend in Herefordshire, uploaded some stock from the Reading Festival and I'm only a week and a half away from Japan. Last week saw a welcome break from bad weather on Thursday night, when the festival goers were arriving for the festival so I drove down to the site to get a few shots. My shots have only just cleared QC so, what with the bank holiday, I've missed the opporuntity to sell on the back of the Reading Festival tickets fiasco but here are a few in any case.

Whilst I was wandering up and down outside the site, a bloke came legging it past me with a security guard in hot pursuit. I quietly strolled after them and found myself taking photos of the bloke being apprehended. Of course, these probably won't sell as no-one would risk suggesting that he was guilty of anything, and in any case, I can't confirm it. I did overhear that he was being accused of snatching a bag of wristbands (being shown to him in the second shot) but his response was "you can't prove anything" or words to that effect. I can safely use this to illustrate that festivals are hot-beds of crime and the security team and the local police always have a busy old weekend, this year the organiser's sent out this Music festival wristband warning

Alledged thief being accosted and searched by security guards at Reading Festival after running from the main entrance

The rest of the photos show some of the local traders making the most of the passing trade and a few people looking for tickets, just your average fair outside a major festival

Temporary off-license set up on Richfield Avenue during the Reading Festival, Reading, UK showing crates of beer being sold

Two teenagers hold placards asking for tickets to buy for the Reading Festival on Richfield Avenue, Reading, UK

Abstract editorial? Oh dear...

Blue pyramid glass bulidings against a blue sky
Ho hum, this week has been spent at work and the weather has not been stock-friendly in the evenings. I've had another two batches of images go through QC and one or two images, though perfect technically, probably won't sell. They've been plonked in my "Creative" pseudonym as I don't expect them to sell and I don't want them to affect my main pseudonym's Rank. The main problem with them is that I don't have a property release so they can't even be used "creatively", which leaves them in the wilderness of non-editorial non-released subjects - which I am quickly becoming a specialist in :-(

At least the Olympics are exciting for us Brits...

Abstract of wooden clad multi-storey car park in Reading, UK

Close-up of the pages of a book 1/6

The image on the left, by the way, is an image that I re-shot this week on my D300, using the same settings and lens as the two examples that failed shown in my QC Tests. This one passed with no issues whatsoever, my best case yet for soft or lacking definition being linked to upscaling and not lens or technique. I'll soon forget about my QC issues, but I'm still feeling hurt from all the comments that were made...about crap glass, crap technique, crap workflow...well here is the proof.

Pictures just there in front of you

A family with prams, children and a baby, holding balloons,
with a single female, using HSBC bank cash machines in Kingston, UK
Sometimes pictures are just there in front of you, put on a plate (above). This is definitely my kind of photography, cheap, editorial, useful. I'm not sure I could have orchestrated this one better, a large family, coloured balloons, striking lighting, and the D300's best vivid colours - I might need to turn down the picture control as the saturation is uber-stock! On top of that, finance is a hot topic, family budgets, the credit crunch, people pawning their jewellery...

And then (below left), over a quiet coffee I find that the tables in front of me are empty, and the ambient lighting is interesting and I get a classic commercial shot in the bag (albeit without release). It looks perfectly staged but I assure you that every other table in the place was full, this one was no problem for my VR lens and D300 handheld, I didn't have to adjust this shot at all, it came off the camera like that.

As for the blue sky shot on the right, well even that was in the hands of the gods. This week it has been blue sky one minute, black sky the next. This was a chance shot on the way home. The M25 was jammed so I chose a different route, spotted the sign and pulled up. By the time I had taken a couple of shots of this and the adjacent offices it started raining out of blue sky (how does it do that?!) and the rest of the evening was dark and gloomy.

Inside the Moka cafe restaurant in the Bentall Centre, Kingston, London, UK

Renault UK Ltd head office, Maple Cross, UK 1/2 showing logo on standard

Here's to lucky shots, let's hope they get spotted.

For those following the QC angle on my blog, all three of these shots came straight off the camera looking like this. Upsized by 120% in Capture NX and saved as JPEG, straight through QC, and finally Bob's your mother's brother and all that...

Discount license
If you want to license the images directly at a discount, contact the photographer at sales@smyrnoff.com otherwise use the links above to license through Alamy.

Grow your own fruit

Tayberry plant isolated on white showing leaves and fruit

It has been an eventful week, with some harsh criticism of my images on the Alamy forum. I don't wish to dwell on it, but since this is my own soapbox I will just say this; If you are not interested in the QC Tests, don't post a comment.

Back to new photography, and this little gem has made it through. It is quite nice that this image could be used to illustrate growing your own fruit, as I actually grew it. I did have to sacrifice the two un-ripe fruits as I removed the whole branch but that's just what you have to do in the name of stock. Tayberries however, are not very common, and I am loathed to keyword it as a raspberry (even though I'd probably get away with it), so it will probably not sell.

Enjoy the picture, I enjoyed the berry!

Harvest time in rainy August

Sadly the summer has already finished here, the rain has set in and this last week has been miserable. Just time to post up a couple of my last D100 submissions to Alamy.


Stormy clouds over Thirlmere, Lake District


One of the failings of the 6MP camera is the absolute detail you need to shoot landscapes. These examples are acceptable as prints and will be fine at small sizes but I don't think they will ever get put on a cover or a commercial project. Still, they do show something of the British countryside, at it's moodiest and sunniest...


High tension power lines across a wheat field panorama with pylons to the horizon 1/3


This next one was shot in the depths of Berkshire, a county that I always thought as quite surburban. Luckily, five minutes drive south from where we live, the roads are quieter so long as you avoid the main arteries.


Tractor bailing hay in a field at harvest time 1/4