Tag Archives: e-m5 mark ii

Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize 2016

Posted on August 8, 2016 | Leave a comment

I’ve received my customary annual rejection email from the judges of the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize. However, nice to see the prize is slowly warming up to my work:

“However, I did want to let you know that your photograph(s) did make it through to the second round of judging which included around 346 images. This year we had a total of 4,303 prints submitted into the competition from 1,842 photographers so the competition was very strong.”, Keeley Carter, Exhibitions Manager.

Roll on next year! As is customary, I’d like to share my entry images with you.

Dancer Faye Stoeser (on left). J’Agura (The Present Of Now), Means Of Engagement present a contemporary dance performance titled “Embellished Abundance”. Creation and composition by Muti Musafiri and Nella Turkki. The performers are young dancers from London, ranging in age from 20 to 28. Organised by the South Bank Youth Club. The dancers are along the Queen’s Walk, South Bank, London, United Kingdom. August 28, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Freelance stage crew member Joe Meyer helps collect a sky backdrop as it is lowered. Technicians begin rigging up the lighting for Britten’s Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music, Britten Theatre, Prince Consort Road, London. June 10, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Polly Leech (who plays Florence Pike) backstage, waiting for her cue. Full company, stage and piano rehearsals. Albert Herring. Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music, Prince Consort Road, London. June 17, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Edward, the thoughtful superhero. July 19, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Elvis dressed as Iron Man shows his strength as he breaks a twig at his older brother’s birthday party. Roxbourne Park, Ruislip. April 03, 2016. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

The final performance of Albert Herring at the Britten Theatre, RCM. Miss Wordsworth, played by Sofia Larsson, reflects on her performance backstage and awaits her cue for her next scene in the second act. Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten. Royal College of Music, Bitten Theatre, Prince Consort Road, London. July 08, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

For the technically minded, the three backstage colour images were shot on Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II cameras with Olympus M.Zuiko lenses, apart from the backstage shot featuring balloons, which was with a Voigtlander Nokton f0.95 lens. The colour batman portrait was shot on an Olympus PEN E-P5.

The two black and white images were shot on a Leica Monochrom (M246) with Leica lenses.

All editing and processing was done on Adobe Lightroom. The colour images were finished in Alienskin Exposure X and the monochrome images were finished in Nik Software Silver Efex Pro.

UK Picture Editors’ Guild Awards Finalist

Posted on January 11, 2016 | 5 comments

UKPEG VIDEOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Thrilled to share some great news! Honoured to have been selected as a finalist in the UK Picture Editors’ Guild Awards for my short film, Taxi Driver. The highly-acclaimed UK Picture Editors Guild Awards competition is distinctive in that panel of judges consists only of working picture editors from national and regional newspapers, and international photo agencies, assessing the thousands of entries from professional photographers from throughout the media.

I’d like to congratulate all my fellow finalists and look forward to seeing you all on the award’s ceremony.

The short film is a look at a day in the life of a London black cab driver. It was shot on a pair of Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II cameras and a selection of M.Zuiko lenses. Full details here.

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Posted in Camera Equipment, competition, Film, multimedia, News, olympus, Video

Tagged award, competition, e-m5 mark ii, finalist, olympus, om-d, short film, uk picture editors' guild, video

Opening Night Of Opera By The River Exhibition

Posted on October 3, 2015 | 2 comments

Private View & Launch Party

Edmond Terakopian at the opening of his new exhibition Opera by The River, Riverside Walkway, South Bank, London Photo: Nigel Howard / www.nigelhowardmedia.com

Edmond Terakopian at the opening of his new exhibition Opera by The River, Riverside Walkway, South Bank, London
Photo: Nigel Howard / http://www.nigelhowardmedia.com

September 30th saw the opening and private view of my solo exhibition, Opera By The River. Thrilled that so many friends and colleagues could join, some making considerable journeys to get there. An equally great joy was to be reunited again with the amazingly talented musicians from the Royal College of Music. A true delight to meet up with the amazing singers and instrumentalists who were part of Albert Herring, the opera.

The opening and private view of “Opera By The River”. Photographic exhibition by Edmond Terakopian about the opera Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music. Outdoor exhibition at Riverside Walkway, South Bank, London. September 30, 2015. Photo: Neil Buchan-Grant / http://www.buchangrant.com

The exhibition, kindly supported by Olympus, will continue until October the 11th on Riverside Walkway, South Bank, London.

Edmond Terakopian at the opening of his new exhibition Opera by The River, Riverside Walkway, South Bank, London
Photo: Nigel Howard / http://www.nigelhowardmedia.com

The second part of the evening took place at the launch party (opening night only) at The Deck in the National Theatre.

The opening and private view of “Opera By The River”. A poster shows the way for the evening’s party at The Deck, National Theatre, London. September 30, 2015. Photo: Neil Buchan-Grant / http://www.buchangrant.com

Some more imagery was on display from the project. The opening and private view of “Opera By The River”. Photographic exhibition by Edmond Terakopian about the opera Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music. Opening party at The Deck, National Theatre, London. September 30, 2015. Photo: Neil Buchan-Grant / http://www.buchangrant.com

As is customary on such occasions, I had a short speech to give and thought to share it here with a wider audience:

Speeches. The opening and private view of “Opera By The River”. Photographic exhibition by Edmond Terakopian about the opera Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music. Opening party at The Deck, National Theatre, London. September 30, 2015. Photo: Neil Buchan-Grant / http://www.buchangrant.com

There are some people in this room who I have known for over 25 years and some in this room who I have known for nine months (no, I’m not pregnant, this is all me!). Regardless, you’ve all been part of my life in photography and it’s such a joy to share this reportage with you. As Albert Herring went on his journey in the opera, I too had the pleasure of going on a journey with this most amazing group of supremely talented singers and instrumentalists from the Royal College of Music. 31,794 pictures shot over seven months meant I could really share with the wider world the passion and hard work that goes into putting on such a wonderful opera and I thank every single person involved for letting me delve so deeply with my cameras.

This reportage was a personal project. It came from the wish of wanting to shoot a photo essay and as luck would have it, I met Christopher Middleton on one of my workshops. When I found out he was Assistant Head of Opera at the Royal College of Music, this got me thinking. Speaking over several months when I found out about Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring being the next production, with Britten having been a former pupil and the college’s theater being called the Britten Theatre, everything just seemed to come together.

I must say thanks to Michael Rosewell and Nick Sears from the Opera School who along with Christopher saw my vision for this project and welcomed me in with open arms. My thanks naturally extend to the Directorate for letting me have the access I needed to shoot such an intimate and in depth essay.

My thanks to the wonderful string quartet from the Royal College of Music for their beautiful music; you’ve made my heart sing.

My gratitude also goes to the super talented Stuart Smith for designing such a wonderful exhibition. It’s such a joy to work with someone not only so pleasant, but also with so much passion and understanding of photography. Stuart also kindly designed an exhibition book to go along with this project. Please make sure you pick up one of the free book leaflets and write in for your copy. It really looks amazing and I must admit to being teary eyed when I first saw the final design.

I’d also like to congratulate the wonderful team at Standard8 led by Tom Snell for their beautiful printing and exhibition construction. Over 350,000 people will see this exhibition and I’m proud for my images to be displayed in such a wonderful installation.

It’s one thing to have an idea and another thing to shoot it. Making it available for all to see is the next big hurdle. After all, pictures that remain in boxes or tucked away in virtual folders on hard drives don’t ever live up to their potential to move people. My immense gratitude goes to Olympus, not only for making the wonderful cameras I used to shoot Opera By The River, but for seeing and believing in my idea. I have to single out Mark Thackara from Olympus for his support. If it wasn’t for Olympus and the countless people there who have made this exhibition and book a reality, we wouldn’t all be together now. Thank you all so much.

Finally, thank you all; friends, colleagues and guests for coming this evening. Hope you’ve enjoyed the show and will help spread the word so others will get a chance to see the exhibition before it closes on October the 11th.

You’ve seen what they look like but the real treat to hear what they sound like. I’m thrilled to say that we are all about to be treated to a little bit of Britten’s Albert Herring by the wonderful people at the Royal College of Music.

A string quartet from the Royal College of Music performs at the opening and private view of “Opera By The River”. Photographic exhibition by Edmond Terakopian about the opera Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music. Opening party at The Deck, National Theatre, London. September 30, 2015. Photo: Sophie Ward / http://www.sophiephotos.com

The opening and private view of “Opera By The River”. Photographic exhibition by Edmond Terakopian about the opera Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music. Opening party at The Deck, National Theatre, London. September 30, 2015. Photo: Christopher Middleton

Singers from the Royal College of Music performing at the opening and private view of “Opera By The River”. Photographic exhibition by Edmond Terakopian about the opera Albert Herring at the Royal College of Music. Outdoor exhibition at Riverside Walkway, South Bank and opening party at The Deck, National Theatre, London. September 30, 2015. Photo: Neil Buchan-Grant / http://www.buchangrant.com

Edmond Terakopian’s solo exhibition, Opera By The River on Riverside Walkway, South Bank, London. September 29, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Further reading on Opera By The River:

BBC – Behind the scenes at the Royal College of Music

AP Magazine – Opera by the River photo exhibition

I hope that you can pop by and enjoy the exhibition before it finishes and also share this post widely so more will get a chance to visit the installation.

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Posted in News, olympus, Photography

Tagged albert herring, documentary, e-m1, e-m5 mark ii, exhibition, olympus, om-d, opera, opera by the river, operabytheriver, photographic, photography, rcm, reportage, royal college of music

Thank You

Posted on April 6, 2015 | Leave a comment

The Photography Show 2015

The Olympus Seminar Room time table at The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham. March 21, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

A word of thanks to everyone who made The Photography Show special. I’m very grateful that many of you came to my talks at the Olympus Seminar Room every day. Some great Q&A and interesting conversations were had and I’m most thankful.

Edmond Terakopian giving a talk at The Olympus Seminar Room at The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham. March 21, 2015. Photo: Rob J Hugh

A big word of thanks also to all who came to my two talks at The Film Makers Theatre on behalf of Snapper Stuff. Talking of which, great to see so many friends, colleagues and customers, old and new, come and visit the stand, check out some new bags, tripods and lighting kit and have such great conversations.

“Essentials In Documentary Film Making” talk by Edmond Terakopian at the Filmmaker Theatre on behalf of Snapper Stuff. The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham. March 23, 2015. Photo: Freia Turland

“Essentials In Documentary Film Making” talk by Edmond Terakopian at the Filmmaker Theatre on behalf of Snapper Stuff. Showing how I pack my Rode microphones, Rycote accessories and other video necessities into my Think Tank Photo Airport Accelerator. The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham. March 23, 2015. Photo: Freia Turland

“Essentials In Documentary Film Making” talk by Edmond Terakopian at the Filmmaker Theatre on behalf of Snapper Stuff. The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham. March 23, 2015. Photo: Freia Turland

“Essentials In Documentary Film Making” talk by Edmond Terakopian at the Filmmaker Theatre on behalf of Snapper Stuff. Showing “1 Sixpence 1 Play”, shot on the Olympus OM-D E-M1. The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham. March 23, 2015. Photo: Freia Turland

“Essentials In Documentary Film Making” talk by Edmond Terakopian at the Filmmaker Theatre on behalf of Snapper Stuff. My laptop bag, a blue Think Tank Photo Retrospective 13L can be seen by the podium. The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham. March 23, 2015. Photo: Freia Turland

It was great to see my choice in monitors, the great folks at Eizo, use my short film Taxi Driver, shot on the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II to show just how great these monitors are.

Taxi Driver, shot on the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II being shown on the Eizo UK stand at The Photography Show, NEC, Birmingham. March 21, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Naturally, also a big word of thanks to the teams at Olympus, Snapper Stuff and Eizo, along with many friends throughout the trade, who made the show fun; it’s always good to catch up and say hi, even if in some cases it’s annually!

Here’s looking forward to The Photography Show in 2016!

Olympus 40MP High Res RAW Plugin

Posted on February 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

New RAW Plug-in For OM-D E-M5 Mark II High Res Mode

Some great news for Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II owners. We now have a new Photoshop plug-in to allow processing of these astonishing 40MP high resolution images from the raw file. Although relatively simple in interface, it allows the all important setting of white balance and also sharpening at the raw file stage.

A rare Ferrari 288 GTO built in 1985 with only 883 miles on the clock. It is valued at £2,000,000 and available from H.R. Owen in South Kensington, London. Image shot on the Olympus OM-D E-M5 II, using the multi shot sensor shift facility, creating a 40 megapixel image. January 30, 2015. Photo: ©Edmond Terakopian

The Olympus High Res Shot Raw File Photoshop Plug-in can be downloaded HERE and the manual is available HERE.

The image of the Ferrari GTO was processed using this plugin. No other processing was done in Photoshop. The image was then sent to Alienskin’s Exposure 7 where I applied a 50% faded and subtle Kodachrome 64 preset. Finally the image had it’s final sharpening done in Nik Software’s Sharpener Pro.

You can view my jpegs from this shoot in my Flickr album.

Detail Shot – A rare Ferrari 288 GTO built in 1985 with only 883 miles on the clock. It is valued at £2,000,000 and available from H.R. Owen in South Kensington, London. Image shot on the Olympus OM-D E-M5 II, using the multi shot sensor shift facility, creating a 40 megapixel image. January 30, 2015. Photo: ©Edmond Terakopian

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II Launch

Posted on February 12, 2015 | 2 comments

OM-D Action Factory, Prague

After the announcement of the OM-D E-M5 Mark II, Olympus Europe invited various photographers and photography journalists to Prague, to a former water purification plant, to get a hands on opportunity with the new camera.

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. Setsuya Kataoka (General Manager, Product & Marketing Planning Dept, Olympus Imaging Corp), addresses the photographers and journalists gathered. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A former water purification plant. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Various scenarios were set up were one could try some of the aspects of the camera; a video station “Movie on the run”, a low light situation “Beauty In The Dark”, light painting “Mysterious Lights” and a workbench scene to try the 40mp high resolution mode “Devil in the detail”.

Beauty In The Dark

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A former water purification plant. Model Radka Vachalova. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A former water purification plant. Model Yulia Kazakova. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

After splitting up into groups of four, we went around the amazing venue, walking through tunnels and industrialised rooms to see and shoot the various scenarios. My review of the OM-D E-M5 Mark II can be found HERE in a previous post. This post will help show the abilities of this wonderful photographic tool; a camera that is definitely on my list!

Movie On The Run

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A former water purification plant with several miles of underground tunnels. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Devil In The Detail

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A work bench, shot at the high resoltion 40mp setting. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A work bench, shot at the high resoltion 40mp setting. Image shows entire image. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A work bench, shot at the high resoltion 40mp setting. This shot shows the detail resolved and is a crop of the full frame shot shown above. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Mysterious Lights

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A former water purification plant. Light painting by Zolaq. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

The Live Composite facility shows the image forming on the back of the camera’s LCD, as it’s being photographed on long exposure (the image above taking minutes to form as the lights are painted in by Zolaq. Once the photographer judges the image to have been made, the shutter can be closed. It’s similar to watching a print develop in a darkroom tray.

New Lenses

Interestingly, the two new Olympus M.Zuiko lenses due for official announcement soon were at the event, as pre-production models. They were however fully working samples. Pleased to say they were solidly built, focused smoothly and quickly and will add some very useful wider angle ability at fast apertures to the Micro Four Thirds range of cameras.

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A former water purification plant. A sample of the new M.Zuiko 7-14mm f2.8 PRO zoom lens. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Olympus OM-D Action Factory with the new E-M5 Mark II, Prague, Czech Republic. A former water purification plant. A sample of the new M.Zuiko 8mm f1.8 Fisheye lens. February 09, 2015. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

The Prize Of Prague

On a personal note, it was lovely to be back in Prague; my first visit was in 2006 to receive the Prize of Prague from the Mayor of Prague, open my solo exhibition and strangely, give a press conference and a couple of TV interviews!

The exhibition is hung. In Prague to receive the Prize of Prague and view my solo exhibition which was part of the prize. September 2006. Photo: Edmond Terakopian