Eagles and Otters and Hares…oh my!

It’s been a busy time of late in the world of Vivid, and I apologise for the lack of blogging. Hopefully over the next few weeks we’ll have a ‘blogfest’ and be back on track!

We’ve been working on a lot of different Vivid projects but thought I’d do a quick blog from my recent trip up to the Isle of Mull, where I went with my mate Pete Jones to try and photograph some of the local wildlife.

I’d visited Mull about 13 years ago with my then girlfriend, now wife Dawn and it’s somewhere I always wanted to return to to try and photograph some of the wildlife, especially the White-tailed Sea Eagle, which is one of the rarest and certainly most impressive birds you’ll see in the UK…..if you’re lucky.

Me with my big lens!

After about a 9 hour journey we arrived at where we were staying, in a cottage on the Ross of Mull, 5 minutes walk from where the above photgraph was taken. We were in the middle of nowhere but with great views and hopefully great wildlife photography opportunities close by.

So lets cut to the chase and show you a small selection of my favourite photographs from my week.

Common Sandpiper

Curlew, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Mull has a great selections of wild flowers, and numerous species of Orchid’s can be found at this time of year.

Heath Spotted Orchid by Graham Ella

Fragrant Orchid, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

The two main species that I really wanted to try and see and if possible photograph were Otter, which I had previously photographed on the Shetland Isles a couple of years ago, but only managed a few frames, and to be honest wasn’t completely happy with my results. The second, and top of the list was White-tailes Sea Eagle….. so here you go.

Otter, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

White-tailed Sea Eagle, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

White-tailed Sea Eagle, Loch Na Keal by Graham Ella

When not searching for, and photographing the wildlife, there’s time for a little bit of landscape photography too;

Pennyghael Shore, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Sunset over Scoor, by Graham Ella

View from the headland by Graham Ella

For those of you with young kids, like me, then you may not know where Mull is but there’s a pretty good chance your kids will recognise the main town of Tobermory or as they’ll know it Balamory. When I got home, all excited about the wildlife I’d photographed, my 3 year old’s eyes lit up with excitement when he saw….

Tobermory....I mean Balamory by Graham Ella

Enough of Penny Pocket and Archie the Inventor… back to the wildlife. Not a brilliant photo but you’ve seen Eagles and Otter so here’s the Hare.

Mountain Hare by Graham Ella

In the middle of the week, I managed to take a photo of a creature that I hadn’t planned on photographing, we actually became quite close for a day or so… as I found it eating me!! A Tick, being from Manchester I thought my days were numbered, my life flashed before me..apparently they are pretty common, and the Nurse laughed that my cure for the Tick was to cover it in Savlon and stick a plaster on it! Isn’t that how we sort out all accidents?

Tick by Graham Ella

Yes, I know it makes me cringe when I look at it too!! It was my leg after all. Typical photographer though, make sure you get a photograph before thinking about how to get it out!

Lapwing by Graham Ella

Meadow Pipit, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Snipe, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

One of the birds I’ve never seen and certainly wasn’t expecting to see was a Corncrake, so I couldn’t believe my luck to find this male ‘calling’ in the grass. Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time! Again not the closest of views but as I said seeing one of these birds in the open is pretty rare.

Corncrake, Isle of Mull by Graham Ella

Mull is such a great place, and I’d recommend it to anyone that wants peace and quiet, great wildlife and friendly people. A few shots to finish off and thanks for looking at my ‘non work’ blog.

Oystercatcher by Graham Ella

Swallow by Graham Ella

Juvenile Wheatear by Graham Ella

A final shot of the moment the Sea Eagle swooped and took a fish,

White-tailed Sea Eagle by Graham Ella

Product Videos for Turnkey Instruments

We were very pleased recently to be contacted by  Turnkey Instruments, after they received an email from one of our marketing campaigns. Turnkey are a Cheshire based company that specialise in the design and manufacture of specialist industrial and scientific instruments, and wanted to know how Vivid could help their business by utilising video.

Turnkey Instruments Cheshire by Vivid Photo Visual

After discussing in depth with the Turnkey team their requirements, Vivid created a proposal that would deliver a video portfolio that could be used through multiple promotional channels. To include a company profile video, as well as location and studio product videos for each of the Turnkey instruments.

Simret F2 product video by Vivid Photo Visual

The massive advantage to Turnkey of having videos produced, is that they would be used to promote their company, products and services in so many different ways. All their sales reps now have each product in video form to show to clients, either face to face or via email. Each video is also online, with appropriate keywords and tags to further add to Turnkey’s SEO strategy.

So many ways to utilise video promotion.

Below is just one of the product videos that we produced for Turnkey, for their BrakeSafe product.

We also produced a company profile video, as this gives Turnkey maximum exposure on the internet. Potential customers can find them either by searching for specific products or by looking for manufacturers of certain services. The company profile video will also be used at trade shows and exhibitions, as well as on the Turnkey website.

After the delivery of all the videos, we received an excellent testimonial from Dave Brooks, Turnkey’s General Manager, who we had liaised  with throughout the project.

“We engaged Vivid to supply us with company and product videos that our existing and potential new customers could relate too.

The finished product surpassed all expectations. The staff were polite and worked to achieve the perfect shot in each instance. They kept us well informed with their ideas while listening to our own comments.

We feel that the Vivid crew have become a part of us and we will be using them again as we develop new instruments. I would have no hesitation in recommending Vivid to anyone.

Dave Brooks
General Manager
Turnkey Group”

We had a great time working with Turnkey Instruments and we look forward to working on future products with them.

iPad Product Video

Last week we posted our iPad Lifestyle Product Video Manchester, which was part of our internal challenge to produce a short film showcasing an iPad being used in a day to day scenario. For those that didn’t see the lifestyle version the link is at the bottom of this blog.

This week is all about the studio version of our iPad product video. We wanted a nice clean, high key product video, with the addition of some animated graphical overlays. We set up the studio, borrowed an iPad from my sister-in-law (still waiting for Santa to get me one), and after liaising with our graphics department we decided to go for simple lines and clean cut graphics. We wanted to show some of the key features of the iPad using animated graphical overlays. Whilst we wanted to mimic Apple’s advert, the team wanted a more creative filming style to be used, with a more graceful approach than Apple’s own product videos. It was shot on a Canon 5D Mark 2 and a variety of different lenses including one of our macro lens to achieve the shallow depth of field. Product videos are the future of online product promotion and due to their adaptability, can be used in-conjunction with numerous promotional channels. I hope you enjoy….

Graphics from iPad Product Video - Vivid Photo Visual

As you can see, we created some complimentary graphics, with a modern look.

Here is the finished product video.

And the Lifestyle Product video

IPad Lifestyle Product Video Challenge

We were chatting, as you do, in the office and we decided that we should set ourselves a quick creative challenge. To produce a Lifestyle product video, nothing too complex and it had to be short  with  a cinematic feel.

So with only a small amount of preparation, I texted Katie, who as you know models for us now and again and explained our challenge. The timing was perfect, as she was available at short notice so we were good to roll.

So the basic storyboard for the video is a woman using her iPad at various times of the day, from waking up to going on a night out in Manchester.

Product video Manchester - Scene 1

After being woken by the iPad alarm at 10am!! The word ‘Lazy’ springs to mind (women and their beauty sleep),the blinds are then opened  and it’s time for a fry up…

Lifestyle product video manchester - Scene 2

…or in this case a nice healthy Strawberry smoothie, well you need to have your 5-a-day! The day continues checking out the ASOS website on the iPad, seeing what’s hot and what’s not.

Lifestyle Product Video Manchester - Scene 3

The day carries on and and after checking Facebook and ‘Poking’ a few people…. Katie’s ready to hit the town. The final 2 scenes are the iPad being placed in her bag, and door being closed behind her. Goodbye Stockport hello Sankey’s… personally I would have gone to Coco Savannah’s in Stockport but that’s just the way I roll.

Lifestyle product video Manchester - Scene 5

So here is the finished video, we hope you like it. It was a fun video to make, and hopefully proves that it’s worth setting yourself a few challenges now and again, to keep things fresh. All filmed on Canon 5d mk2 and 90mm TS-E lens, for those techies out there…..like me!

 

Vivid’s Golden Ticket Event

Well due to Glen’s love of hearing his own voice, and his passion for standing up in front of a large group of people, whilst throwing in the odd witty gag. Vivid have decided to put on our own event. An event that will be relaxed, fun and above all, informative.

Advert for our 'Golden Ticket' event

With our main business being Video Production, we want to inform people of the many business benefits of using video promotion within their business. Video is the fastest growing sector of online marketing but we realise that some people aren’t sure where to start with their online video presence. Hopefully after the event, they will.

You’ll leave with a better understanding of;

• The importance of video promotion.
• How having quality video aids SEO.
• How to manage your online video presence.
• Gaining maximum exposure of your video.
• How to utilise video within your current communication strategy.

The seminar is going to be held at The Village Hotel in Cheadle, we have a great relationship with The Village and couldn’t think of a better venue to hold our first event.

So if you would like to attend, all you have to do is Click Here to register for FREE  via our website.

The bigger the audience, the more people can witness Glen at his best (his words not ours!) And you’ll obviously have the chance to meet the rest of the Vivid team as well, we prefer to play down our talents.

 

Photography – It’s a mugs game?

Well excitement fell over the Vivid Photo Visual studio today, with the arrival of a new piece of equipment for Graham. A couple of things for those that don’t know me too well, I’m always buying equipment, mainly Canon, and I love a good cup of tea…or if Glen is making it, just a cup of tea!

So what way could I possibly combine 2 of my passions?

For those of you familiar with Canon L series lenses, you may well be looking at the photo above and thinking, yep a pretty average photo of Canon 24-105mm F4 IS lens!

Well let me stop you there Sherlock! And for those Miss Marple’s amongst you, well spotted, the chrome filter thread!

Surely not a special edition Canon lens made only for Graham?

No…….it’s a mug! How cool is that? A Canon 24-105mm IS Mug.

So the first thing to do…. ‘Glen pop the kettle on mate’

A not so great cup of tea, in a great mug.

Just to give you the technical specs of my newly purchased mug; it’s a life-size replica of the 24-105mm and even comes with a lens cap to keep your brew warm for longer! What more could you want?

So time for a quick break and an almost enjoyable cup of Glen’s tea.

Probably the coolest mug in the world!

And where did I get my great mug? Well my mate Paddy buys genuine Canon 24-105mm IS lenses and scoops the middle out. He sells them for about £15. You better get one fast because I don’t think he’ll be in business much longer!

Vivid work with Tecmark

A few months ago whilst scouting locations for our Miniature Manchester video we were fortunate enough to cross paths with Tecmark. Tecmark is a UK based Digital Marketing Agency that specialises in mobile app development and marketing, as well as Search Engine Optimisation. They have offices in Manchester and London.

They were due to update their website and wanted an eye-catching video on the Home Page. A video that portrayed how technology has made our lives easier.  How Mobile  Apps mean we can have information instantly, wherever we are.  We worked very closely with Richard, Kevin and Scott from Tecmark to come up with a Storyboard.

The basic idea would be to show a young man at work, doing the same task but in the years 1991, 2001 and now 2011. And how as the years have progressed, that task has become simpler.  We wanted the film to have a movie trailer feel, that grows in pace, building up to a final scene with bespoke animated graphics to show how people use mobiles for so many things in our modern world.

Once the final Storyboard had been agreed, we had to source props. We wanted  the same feel to each decade with subtle changes, for example Computers used, going from an old PC up to a new iMac. As we’re all football fans we used the nearest football tournament mug to the year, so Italy 1990, Euro 2000 and Africa 2010. There’s also a few other props on the desks, cassette walkman for 1991, Sony mobile phone for 2001 and an iPad for 2011.

We filmed it over 2 days and used local actor Danny Jackson, who we’d worked with before.

We are really happy with the final film and fits perfectly on Tecmark’s new website. We received  great feedback from Tecmark who have already used the video at trade shows as well as on their website.

We’re looking forward to working with Tecmark again in the future on video production jobs. To find out more about Tecmark and to see how the video compliments their new website, the link is below.

http://www.tecmark.co.uk/

‘Slip and Dive’, Vivid film the new Daystar music video.

Well something a bit different from our last blog, no Miss Stockport but five handsome guys (Glen’s words not mine).

Ryan, Jack, Simon, Tom and Steven - Daystar

We were asked to film a music video for Manchester band Daystar, for their new single ‘Slip and Dive’. For those who aren’t familiar with Daystar, they are a young guitar driven 5 piece Indie Rock Band from Manchester who have just released their first album ‘Daystar’. The album was produced by Ronnie Stone who engineered Mansun’s Hit album ‘Attack of the Grey Lantern’.

Simon Monaghan of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

The location for the shoot was the Moolah Rouge recording studios in our home town of Stockport.

Behind the scenes at Moolah Rouge ©Bob McGowan

We arrived and set-up prior to the bands arrival, which gave Glen a bit of time to do his usual ‘Human Beatbox’ which he has to do whenever he sees an open mic, fortunately none of Daystar witnessed this so we didn’t instantly lose our ‘cool film crew’ image!

That happened later on when Glen asked the band to give a little more ‘Jazz Hands’ in their performance! To be fair to Glen he had threatened us in advance that he was going to use the phrase Jazz Hands so at least he stuck to his word.

Simon Monaghan of Daystar performing Slip and Dive - Vivid Photo Visual

The band arrived and despite the Lead Guitarist looking like Ollie Murs (only joking Ryan!), they were top lads. Laura Sellers, their stylist arrived and together they picked out the clothes for the shoot. Within 30 minutes we were ready to roll, or maybe 45 minutes as Simon decided the first jeans were a little too tight!

Ryan Arnfield of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

The room was pretty full with; the 5 piece band, the Vivid team, Dave Cooper and Phil Cuthbert from the bands management. A couple of photographers that knew the band, first was Bob McGowan who kindly has allowed us to use some behind the scenes shots on this blog.

Behind the scenes on Slip and Dive ©Bob McGowan

The second was Matthew Comer, who works closely with the band and has taken some of the stills on their first album. Finally, and to prove it wasn’t only a male only affair, was the stylist Laura, who worked really quickly and got the lads dressed and ready to shoot within record time.

Simon Monaghan of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

I think because the room was full it created a great vibe and the band really went for it, it’s not easy doing multiple takes and still looking like it’s your first.

Under The Spotlight - Simon Monaghan of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

We filmed the video with 3 cameras, and it took approx 3 hours. In-between takes or when I felt the other 2 cameras were enough, I managed to take a few stills of the band during the shoot, to share on the blog.

Jack O'Connor of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

The shoot went very smoothly, and although this was the bands first video shoot, they were very professional and passionate about their performance. I think the hardest thing for any band is playing live in time to the original album track. Live performances always differ, you hold a note back, extend a note out, add an extra drum fill etc…. you can’t do that when making a music video, it has to match the album recording, and they did this very well.

Steven Woods of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

By 10.30pm we were happy we had all the footage we needed so we packed up and said our goodbyes. It was down to us now to edit the video.

Simon Monaghan, singer of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

For the look and feel for ‘Slip and Dive’ we wanted a high contrast monochrome look, we’d filmed it with unsoftened fairly harsh lighting, with this in mind. It was a great video to edit and we have to say, although listening to the track 100′s of times whilst editing we still enjoyed listening to it. As someone said “it’s one of those tracks that conjures up images of youth dancing through the minefield of a paranoid drug influenced urban sub culture” I don’t think I could have put it better myself….in fact I know I couldn’t!

Tom Mallas of Daystar by Vivid Photo Visual

So to watch the HD version of ‘Slip and Dive’ by Daystar click on the video below.

This was Vivid’s first music video production and we really enjoyed making it. It added a bit of variety from our usual web videos and company profile videos. We wish Daystar every success with ‘Slip and Dive’ and hope to work with the lads again in the future.

If you want to see more ofDaystar, or purchase the single, here are some links;

http://www.daystarband.com/

http://www.facebook.com/daystarmanchester

http://www.myspace.com/1daystar

If you want to find out more about music video production Manchester, click on the Vivid Photo Visual link.

Miniature Manchester Tilt Shift Time-Lapse

Well it’s nearly Christmas and the Vivid team decided that as part of our Christmas email campaign we should create a film that was a little different.

Inspired by Australian filmmaker Keith Loutit, we decided to produce a short film based around our home town of Manchester.

We used a technique called tilt shift time-lapse, for those not familiar with this, basically what happens is specialist lenses are used that enable the plane of focus to be tilted at an angle. When this is combined with an elevated view point it gives an almost Toy Town effect.

Looking down over St Peter's Square in Manchester

First we needed to obtain access to some rooftops in and around Manchester. We were fortunate enough to have a few clients in Manchester that were very obliging  as well as friends, and friends of friends who we managed to sweet talk.

We filmed it over a few days and from 4 or 5 locations to give some variety.

One of the challenges when filming from rooftops is wind, and I’m not talking about Tom’s post Brussel Sprout incident! You’re at the mercy of the Great British weather, and the wind is obviously not blocked by other building when you’re on the top of them.

Smile for the camera but don't look down.

Obviously the main concern is Safety; of ourselves, the public and our equipment. All cameras & tripods are secured individually using climbing clips and webbing, so there is no chance of anything falling.

As for us, we carry an umbrella each so should we fall we can just open it and float gently to the ground…..we haven’t had to use them yet but when we practiced by jumping off the desk in the office, it seemed to make the landing a little lighter.

Seriously though, we would like to thank all the people and companies that gave us access, as we mentioned at the time Miniature Manchester is an on-going project and we hope to add further locations in the coming months. So watch this space…

All that’s left to say, is have a wonderful Christmas and fun packed New Year, oh and enjoy the video.

The New Adventures of Miss Stockport

Sounds like a Super Hero character… Miss Stockport, here to make your day!

It was a few weeks back now when Katie emailed me saying she’d seen one of the photo’s from our last session in the Daily Mail.

That’s one of the problems with selling stock images, you know the image/size/market sector etc who has purchased an image but not the exact details. As in this case, it’s just a matter of luck if you actually see it in print.

The image used is the one below and it was part of an article on heat transfer from Laptops whilst using then on your knee.

Image used to show the impact on using Laptop on knee.

So I thought it was about time we did another shoot to add a few more images to our stock.

Stock Library image content can be about just about anything, as in the image above, the search criteria may have been ‘Blond woman laptop knee sofa’. So the more variety the better, it’s just a matter of matching all the keywords searched for.

So for this shoot, first we went for something topical, being in debt!!

Bills, cards and calculator..... I'm skint!

One thing I always do on any images showing Credit Card numbers, Account Details, Names and Addresses is alter them in Photoshop, however small they are in the frame they get changed or removed.

I had a few images in mind that probably may never sell, but it’s all a numbers and chance game, you just don’t know what image may be required.

If  a picture editor wants an image of ‘woman on phone’, through one popular Stock Library that returns 37000 images to choose from, little chance of them chosing mine.

On the other hand ‘woman wiring a plug’ returns only 16 results, so although an unlikely search, it’s worth shooting an image that fits that search.

Katie wiring a plug.

Another search with low results is ‘woman changing a light bulb’ again you never know so it’s worth shooting a selection of images round this criteria.

As a matter of interest, how many models does it change a light bulb?

3 …….one to hold the bulb and 2 to turn the ladder.

Sorry had to do a light bulb joke, obviously Katie managed to change it all on her own.

Changing Light Bulb

And after a couple of hours of changing bulbs, wiring plugs, cutting up credit cards, pulling on jeans, taking pills, doing yoga it was time for a bit of rest and relaxation.

It’s a tough job being a model………

The tough life of a model.

Relaxing after a hard days work.

Not too difficult for the photographer either.