US President Barack Obama’s State Visit

Posted on June 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

State visit to Britain by US President Barack Obama. US President Barack Obama leaving 10 Downing Street. May 25 2011. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Obama-20110524-288Obama-20110524-312Obama-20110524-338Obama-20110524-256Obama-20110524-167Obama-20110524-012
Obama-20110524-189Obama-20110524-197Obama-20110524-361Obama-20110524-036Obama-20110524-039Obama-London-20110525-192
Obama-London-20110525-208Obama-London-20110525-238Obama-London-20110525-094Obama-London-20110525-409Obama-London-20110525-425Obama-London-20110525-449
Obama-London-20110525-457Obama-London-20110525-170Obama-London-20110525-180

State visit to Britain by US President Barack Obama. Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron greets the US President Barack Obama, welcoming him to 10 Downing Street. May 25 2011. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

The ‘Beast’ (the nickname given to the Presidential limousine), the Secret Service, huge American cars and a red carpet.

President Barack Obama makes a State visit to England in May 2011. I spent two days in Downing Street photographing the meeting of the President and our Prime Minister David Cameron, as well lots of goings on as far as Hilary Clinton, security, demos and car polishing.

As enjoyable as these assignments are, a big part of the enjoyment is being there with colleagues, several of which are close friends. I’m estimating that there must have been around 60 photographer covering just Downing Street. Lots of catching up but mainly, lots of standing around and very early starts. Many many hours of waiting for a minute’s worth (if that!) of photography. To add to that, we had terrible harsh light to contend with.

Colleagues setting up their remote cameras which are triggered by Pocket Wizards. Photo: ©Edmond Terakopian

It’s all great fun though and I personally wouldn’t change a thing.

L-R: photographers Lefteris Pitarakis, Jess Hurd and Edmond Terakopian covering the State visit by US President Barack Obama. Downing Street, London. May 25, 2011. Photo: Sang Tan

On a technical note, I worked with a Canon 7D and 300mm f2.8L IS, a Canon 5D MkII with a 16-35mm f2.8L II or 70-200mm f2.8L IS and a Leica M9 with a 50mm f0.95 Noctilux.

Photographer Edmond Terakopian on assignment for Polaris Images covering the State visit by President Obama. Downing Street, London. ©Photo.

Leave a comment

Posted in Photography, Pictures

Tagged , , ,

My Workflow Using Nik Software

Posted on May 30, 2011 | 10 comments

Workflow Webinar

I’ll be holding a free webinar hosted by the lovely folks at Nik Software.

Colour processing done usng Viveza 2. Sunset, London. April 03, 2011. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

June 7th, 2011 at 7pm GMT.

TO SIGN UP, USE THIS LINK.

 

Black and white processing done using Silver Efex Pro 2. British street party on the occasion of the Royal Wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

I’ll show how I use Apple’s Aperture in combination with my favourite plugins from Nik Software. I’ll also demonstrate how the same plugins work within a Photoshop environment. Regardless of which platform you’re on, you should find something of interest as the plugin interfaces and use are practically the same.

Colour processing done using Viveza 2. Glasgow skyline, comprised of industrial plants and residential blocks. February 12, 2010. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

So, do sign up and hope to see you online 🙂

10 Comments

Posted in Computers and Software, education, Photography, Pictures, workshop

Tagged , ,

Battle of the Bokeh

Posted on May 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

Leica 50mm f0.95 Noctilux Vs Canon 50mm f1.2L

An interesting look at how the currently in production fastest lenses compare in look, specifically the way they render out of focus (or bokeh) areas. Still no idea what the correct way to pronounce this word is, but it’s an interesting little video by the Digital Rev folks.

Leave a comment

Posted in Camera Equipment, Leica, Photography, Review

Tagged , , ,

Masters Of Photography

Posted on May 7, 2011 | 4 comments

By The Macallan

Sky and mountain top scene from plane on route back from Perpignan to London. September 10, 2007. Photo: ©Edmond Terakopian

The Masters of Photography is an interesting project and competition, with year’s theme being Great Journeys. The people at The Macallan really seem to be into photography which is a great thing!

I need your help folks 🙂

I entered five images into this years competition and all five have been accepted. The way the competition works is that members of the public have to vote for the pictures they like and these then go onto the judging round. So please spend two minutes and look at my images below and vote for the ones you like 🙂 The website will ask for your age (as it’s a drinks company) and if you tick ‘remember me’ it won’t hassle you again and all links will just open up. All you then need to do is click on the VOTE button at the top right of the images you like.

Here are the links:

Sky

A Pier On The Thames

People On Pier

A Leaf

Battle Of Britain

Thank you very much for your help. I’d appreciate if you would share the link to this blog post on Twitter, FaceBook and with your friends and colleagues via any means! Thanks 🙂

4 Comments

Posted in Photography, Pictures

Tagged

Retrospective 5 Camera Bag

Posted on May 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

Think Tank Photo’s Smaller Shoulder Bag

Photographer Edmond Terakopian on assignment with a Retrospective 5 for his Leica gear and a Shape Shifter for his Mac; 10th commemoration of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States. American Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London, UK. September 11, 2011. Photo: LP

The one thing I have heard for a couple of years at trade shows when on the Snapperstuff stand, from Leica photographers or people with smaller DSLR outfits is “why don’t Think Tank do a smaller shoulder bag?”. Well, they do now and I got mine today!

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 5 in Pinestone. Shown with a Leica M9 and 50mm f0.95 Noctilux ASPH lens. May 06, 2011. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

It’s called the Retrospective 5 and comes in a natural canvas Pinestone and black. I have already been using the Retrospective 10, 30 and Lens Changer 2 from this range and must say that I absolutely love the range. They are extremely comfortable to wear, hugging your hip with their movable bases and extremely easy to work out of. They also blend in really well, most definitely not looking like camera bags.

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 5 in Pinestone. For size comparison shown with (L-R) Fuji X100, Olympus E-P2, Leica M9 and Leica X1. May 06, 2011. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

The Retrospective 5 has now become my Leica outfit bag. Considering how small it is, you might be a little stunned to find that I have the following inside:

Leica M9 with Leica 21mm Elmarit, 35mm Summicron, 50mm Noctilux and 90mm Summarit lenses. Also the Leica SF 24D flash, TTL extension cord, x2 ND filters, 21 mm Viewfinder, x1.25 Viewfinder Magnifier, Lightmeter, Spare Batteries, Think Tank Photo Cable Management 20, Pixel Pocket Rocket memory card holder and some other bits!

Think Tank Photo Retrospective 5 in Pinestone. Fully loaded with my Leica kit. May 06, 2011. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

The bag is also the perfect size for a small DSLR outfit (with a couple of lenses – eg Canon 5D MkII, 16-35mm f2.8L and a 50mm f1.2L) or a Micro 4/3 outfit like the Olympus E-P2 with several lenses and accessories.

I simply cannot recommend this bag highly enough for anyone who shoots with a Leica M or a Micro 4/3 outfit.

For the UK, check out Snapperstuff. For more info, have a look at Think Tank Photo.

Leave a comment

Posted in Bag, Leica, Photography

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Royal Wedding

Posted on May 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

My Reportage On The Wedding Of

Prince William To Kate Middleton

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It’s been a hectic few weeks. The pressure of the Royal wedding has resulted in many meetings, emails, phone calls and Tweets between colleagues, picture editors, technicians and press officers.

With a story as huge as this, with all of it’s logistical nightmares as far as security, bureaucracy, cost and locations are concerned, one photojournalist just couldn’t tell the entire story. Looking through the papers, “Fleet Street’s” finest did a superb job; there are stunning images of the couple from every angle and every moment covered by my colleagues. The page designers at the papers also pulled the stops out and produced magnificent work. The highest accolade though must be paid to photographer Max Mumby with his stunning picture of the couple driving away in the Aston Martin; The Times did an amazing job of running this as their front page and even went as far as doing a complete wrap with another wrap picture on the inside; genius. It’s these collection of images which told the story in it’s entirety. Although part of me really wanted to witness the wedding itself, I had other plans.

My way of covering the story was more aimed at the magazine market for which my agency Polaris Images specialises. I decided to look at how Londoners were effected by the wedding, starting from all the memorabilia being offered for sale to the Royal super fans camping out days before the event at Westminster Abbey and The Mall near Buckingham Palace. For this aspect I visited the super fans at night and also during the day.

For the actual day, I had spent well over a month talking with various people who were organising street parties and finally found what I hoped would be perfect for my needs; a small road in Brentford with a nice little pub called the Lord Nelson. On the day after a slow start it did end up offering some of what I had wished for!

For anyone wishing to buy images for publication, please contact Polaris Images or visit my Photoshelter site.

Technically, I used a Leica M9 and 50mm f0.95 Noctilux ASPH for the majority of this work. The first night was shot entirely on a Leica X1. For other shots, I used a Canon 5D MkII with the 135mm f2L, 45mm TS-E and 15mm f2.8 Fisheye. All image processing was done in Apple’s Aperture 3 and Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2.

I’m thrilled to say that this project is also featured on Steve Huff’s website, where there is more information on behind the scenes stuff.

To see the entire edit of images, of which there is also a colour set, please visit:

(NB – although there are some identical images in both sets, they are different)

Flickr – B/W Set

Flickr – Colour Set

Leave a comment

Posted in Leica, News, newspaper, Photography, Pictures

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,