markhayesphotography.com

Sometimes it’s not about creating the shot as much as it is being able to grab the shot when you see it. I was in a turn lane on a foggy drive into the office when I so this flock of birds perched on the “red light camera” pole above the intersection. That week I had started carrying the Fuji X30 with me again, manual exposure, fair ISO and just enough of a zoom to get the framing, all of which adjusted and shot taken in the 5 seconds or so before the light changed Sometimes you have to create your own opportunities, and sometimes you just need to be ready, and willing, to take the opportunities you find on accident.

It’s a camera that has had the normal protective IR blocking glass in front of the sensor removed and replaced with a custom cut infrared filter, it pretty much blocks all visible light and only lights light pass in the upper IR wavelengths. While doing a few model portfolio shoots at the studio I pulled it out of the bag, made some custom adjustments to the white balance setting, and decided to see what would come out of the camera using the studio strobes. The first things I noticed is how fabric reacted – most things came out a range of white, blue white, dark blue or black. Another discovery was the fact that tattoo’s for the most part totally absorb light in the infrared spectrum going very deep black, although certain shades of ink will show up bright blue.

only” updates to; foreverfilm.photography So for the last 8 months I’ve pretty much thrown myself into 100% film photography, which is great except for the fact I’ve been missing some of my Fuji digital gear and have a used XT-1 on the way now. While I adore the look and feel of film in the medium format use, for 35mm I’m not as much a fanboy – and there are things that digital just lends itself to in a way that works for me better, such as 35mm low light B&W work. So now I’m toying with post some stuff here once again, personal work (since I no longer do weddings/commercial work) and not items that are 100% film based. Leave the wedding items there in the history but continue to post about where I’m going moving forward, after all just as my personal work influenced those weddings, so to does the wedding work influence my personal style and work.

Of course this doesn’t mean I’ve stopped shooting – but for now I’m shooting my own art projects and just focusing on my own creative outlets, and the occasional family shoot for former clients. While I expect to shoot the occasional wedding for special people, or assist friends on weddings they’ve booked from time to time, every contact I’ve received in the last 6 months has been forwarded to other photographers. So it’s been great, and if I don’t come back to weddings I walk away knowing I have a huge body of work out there that has already become part of many families history – while I may never be famous, my work will be cherished long after I’m gone. Her coverage of Emily and Rebecca’s wedding  up at Dunafon Castle is truly breathtaking and is spoken of highly by the staff up at Dunafon.