Tim Lloyd Photography

Category: Cool Stuff

  • Cool Stuff: Sigma 24mm 1.4 Art

    Sigma 24mm 1.4

    New Lens – New Instagram Shot

    I’m not one to obsess about my photography gear. Of course, I love to geek out every now and again, but in general I just enjoy having the necessary tools to get a specific job done. This weekend though I found myself in a slightly unusual position of having one of the first copies of the newly released Sigma 24mm 1.4 Art lens. The company had just begun to start shipping them and I was lucky enough to find one heading my way before working in the mountains over the weekend.Sigma 24mm 1.4I generally put my camera equipment through a fair deal of stress, with large percentage of my work taking place in the alpine environment. This particular copy of the Sigma 24mm started its life hanging from my neck for a one hour hike, whilst getting into my position for the Verbier stage of the Freeride World Tour. I’ve been intrigued with the Sigma Art lenses since playing with the 50mm whilst in Germany for the Photokina event. The word on the street during the show was that Sigma have started to produce big, bold prime lenses that have incredible optics. Image quality is certainly the sweetener but the price seems to seal the deal with the lens range coming in substantially cheaper than the Canon or Nikon equivalents.With a 50mm and 35mm already out in the market, I was keen to try the 24mm as soon as I heard that production was underway. Having visited the UK Photoshow the previous week where I spent a little time with the new lens, I was quick to place an order that arrived just in time on Friday. First things first, I love the build quality. At 665g it’s not the heaviest lens but it provides a reassuring weight. Sat on a pro series body it feels well balanced and comfortable to work with.Sigma 24mm 1.4I was shooting a skiing event that required a lens with a longer reach for the action, but I was quick to change to the Sigma 24mm as often as I could. With a morning hike to the top of the mountain I simply threw the camera around my neck, trying out various settings on the fly. The lens will come into its own as we move out of the Winter season and into Spring, with it ideal for a number of up and coming assignments. Until then, it’s nice to have a new piece of kit, especially one that not many people have got their hands on yet.Here’s a couple of shots from the event.Sigma 24mm 1.4Sigma 24mm 1.4Sigma 24mm 1.4 

  • Cool Stuff: Sensor Gel Stick

    Sensor gel stickCleaning your camera sensor is not exactly the most exciting of topics, but correcting dust spots in Photoshop had recently driven me to the point where I really had to do something. A large portion of my work is captured in areas that out a lot of stress on the camera. Changing lenses in windy, mountainous terrain opens the possibility of tiny dust particles finding their way to the sensor. A simple dust blower can sometimes free up accumulated dust, however more stubborn particles require for the sensor to be properly cleaned.Camera manufacturers offer this service, with many people opting not to clean it themselves for fear of causing some expensive damage. Despite the great service that you can receive, this always requires some turnaround time where you’ll be without your camera, which was something I was keen to avoid. Having scoured the internet to read a host of reviews online, I opted for the eyelead sensor gel stick, which arrived this week. Following along with this video below, I was able to clean the sensor in very little time, removing a large percentage of dust with the first pass of the stick. A more thorough pass made it possible to remove any remaining particles, reducing the time needed to retouch an image in photoshop immensely.Any saved time is a blessing, and it’s these little things that can streamline our workflow allowing us to concentrate on the important things.https://youtube.com/watch?v=KVMIcytrh5A

  • Cool Stuff: Black & White Challenge

    Black & White challengeThe Black & White Challenge has been circling amongst photographers for a while now on Instagram, with the challenge to upload 5 B&W photos for 5 days from fellow users of the application. I find myself in the midst of a love affair with all things Instagram related. Alongside Twitter it has become part of my daily routine to upload an image from my library, along with gaining a dose of inspiration from the people that I follow myself. I love discovering new people to follow and am often blown away by some work that, up until that point, i’d never heard of.Back to the challenge. Honestly, I thought i’d got away from this one. As the weeks rolled by I managed to escape nominations until an Instagram notification popped up on screen yesterday evening. The nomination found its way to me via good friend @atlasfoto (Online Portfolio). Mark and I met whilst he was based in Sun Valley over at the American HQ for Scott Sports. Despite being in the area for skiing, we ventured out onto the springtime trailhead and our friendship was born over an early morning trail run. The rules of this challenge are pretty lax, with no subject taboo or any timeframe to the images. I’ve been dying to go way back into my library for a long time, so i’m going to start this challenge with the image above.Living in japan at the time, I went through a period of devouring everything camera related. I’m not sure the situation now but at the time you could pick up extremely cheap second hand equipment to try out. This shot was captured with a Canon film camera, I forget the exact model (perhaps the EOS 300) during a vacation to South Korea in 2005/6. I’ve always had a bit of a fascination with all things war related, so a trip up to the Korean DMZ was first on my list. Panmunjom is the meeting point of the North and South, with ‘Conference Row’ consisting of a number of buildings where each side can meet whilst remaining in the comfort of their own country. There’s no freedom of movement between these two borders and in this image you can see the North Korean soldier watching on in the distance.The quality of the scan is not so great, but it remains a strong memory, and a nice place to start this 5 day challenge. I’m not sure which direction the next four days will head, but follow me over on Instagram to see how it all pans out.If you don’t like what you see i’ll no doubt be back to posting pictures of mountains next week.Update 02/12: Here’s the remaining 4 images that I uploaded during the challenge. It was a fun week, just as predicted.mountain-instagram surf-instagram  

  • Cool Stuff: Storehouse App

    I feel like i’m sometimes late to the party with content creation applications. It took me two years to sign up to Instagram, with me cursing missed opportunities as soon as I realised how great it is (find me @timlloydphoto). Pair Instagram with Twitter, and a large chunk of my social media presence is focused between the two.Storehouse is an IOS app that I had zero knowledge of until reading the blog of Vincent Laforet last week. Vincent is working in an advisory role for Storehouse, and is doing a pretty good job at getting the word out to photographers and other creatives to gain more of a community over on the app. Storehouse lets you construct a story in very little time directly from your iPhone or iPad’s camera roll. Simplicity and speed are two key features here allowing literally anyone to create a great little story feature with hardly any design skills required.Of course I wanted to try this out for myself, but was unsure about a subject for my first story. I try to keep my Instagram feed stocked with quality images that i produce for my work. With Storehouse though, I wanted to have a bit of fun for this first tryout. A friend of mine pointed out on Facebook that a lot of my recent images featured a dog.Dogs! exactly. What a perfect place to start.To talk you through my workflow here, I made my way through my 2014 image library and dropped any dog images into a collection in Lightroom. I then synced this with Lightroom Mobile which sent the images over to my iPad. Then I simply sent the images from Lightroom Mobile to the Storehouse iPad app, dropped them in, changed the order and added some text and was good to go. Things can get even simpler if you have images on your iPad or iPhone camera role as you can upload them straight from that.What I’m liking most right now is that, despite the story being constructed on an IOS device, it looks great on a desktop computer. You really can drag and drop a collection of images and publish an amazing looking project/album/diary/drawings/videos etc in no time.I’m really looking forward to the community growing and seeing how this develops. Head over to the Storehouse website to check it out a little more, and take a look at my first story – “Dogs Life“

  • Cool Stuff: GoPro HERO4

    Everyone expected GoPro to be announcing the HERO4 earlier this month at Photokina but with no announcement forthcoming, the internet was set ablaze by rumours as to when it would be announced.Today on the GoPro website, the await is finally up as the company has publicised the release date along with the latest promo video for the new product. With the view count on youtube currently saying 300, i’m sure by the time this evening rolls around it will be up in the millions. There seems to be a cult like following to GoPro and having enjoyed some great images from the previous model, I look forward to seeing the new HERO4 when it comes out in October.For a rundown on the exact specifications head over to the GoPro website, otherwise just sit back and enjoy this latest promo video.

  • Cool Stuff: Photokina

    PhotokinaPhotokina roles around every two years, transforming the German city of Cologne into a photography mecca. Having been invited to come and spend a few days with the team over at F-Stop Gear, I jumped at the chance to make the journey over.Just like most exhibition centres, Koelnmesse is huge. You could quite easily walk around for hours and hours without actually finding what you were initially looking for. I was in town for three days and only touched on a tiny percentage of what was on offer.I did get a chance to check out some of the halls though and there were a few cool things that stood out along the way. As I just said, I saw only a tiny bit of the products on offer, but these few things stood out along the way. COOPH – The Cooperative of Photography Just because it’s a photography show, doesn’t mean all of the cool stuff has to be expensive camera equipment (although there was plenty of that on display). I was introduced to COOPH late one evening and was so impressed with the clothing line. A shirt with a lens cloth and cap holder integrated – so simple, yet effective.Here’s a little excerpt from the site:”Frustrated at the lack of stylish yet functional photography clothing & accessories – we decided it was time somebody did something… So we’ve embarked on this exciting new project and are working on creating apparel that is both practical and fashionable.”I can’t wait to see this clothing line when it’s available to buy.3 Legged ThingThe F-Stop booth at Photokina was sandwiched between GoPro and 3 Legged Thing. Yes, GoPro was there in its dominant state, but this UK based tripod company was gaining a fair bit of attention itself. A company consisting of just 4 full time staff but producing tripods to rival the large competitors is a great thing to see. I had a chance to tryout some of their tripods and they really are as light and sturdy as you need. Being British is always a nice touch too. Peak DesignIt was impossible to miss Peak Design at the show. Located directly in front of us, and offering out beers come 4pm, they had a steady flow of people all day long wanting to try and buy their product. Starting life as a kickstarter campaign, this range of quick release camera accessories really do seem to make the life of a photographer (especially outdoor photographers like myself) that little bit easier.Photokina G-technologyG-TechnologyTalk of external storage solutions is not always glamorous, but G-Technology had a cool setup with some interesting talks from photographers about they’re individual storage solutions. I listened into a talk From Kamil Tamiola and they were 20 minutes well spent. As i said, it’s not always the most glamorous topic, but storage solutions are a fundamental part of our lives. Each and every photographer has a slightly different take on their process and it’s always good to get additional insight.photokina sonySonyOf course, whilst at Photokina I did make an effort to check out some of the more expensive offerings, including the mega booth that was Sony. If there’s one company that’s had a massive impact on cameras in the last few years, it has to be Sony. I’ve been using the Sony RX100 for a lot of my running related work and love the image quality for such a small point and shoot style camera. Wanting something bigger and better, I spent a bit of time with the A7 series camera and am sure that i’ve found the perfect camera for outdoor adventure where you have to be as light as possible, say whilst running 168km. The camera is available to take current Canon and Nikon lenses (with an adaptor) making initial purchases easier to digest.Sigma Art Lensessigma art photokinaThere’s been a lot of talk online about the new lenses that Sigma have been producing and I was keen to try out the relatively new 50mm 1.4 Art lens. It’s heavy – in a good way, produces beautiful images and I absolutely have to find a way to get this into my camera bag. One of the great thing about investing in new lenses like these is the adaptability. With the camera advances of today, it’s possible to be shooting this lens on a pro body like the Canon 1D series, and then simply switch over to a body like the Sony A7R (using an adaptor) for an altogether different look and feel. The price is also very attractive, coming in quite a bit cheaper than the Canon own brand offering.  F-Stop Gear Being invited to the show by F-Stop, it was impossible to miss them off the list. The company has compiled a selection of truly inspiring photographers and I had the chance to meet and hangout with a bunch of them this week. Of course i’m slightly biased, but their range of mountain related camera bags is really second to none. I recently returned from a trip to Corsica to photograph a trail running project on the GR20 route and had the chance to really put one of their bags (the Kenti – pictured left) through it’s pace. I’ll update the blog with that behind the scenes shortly.  And after some of those highlights, my Photokina came to an end. Cologne played its part as the beautiful host and the industry appeared to be thriving behind the exhibition centre doors. With a biannual schedule it’s off until 2016 but i’m already looking forward to what i’ll see then. 

  • Cool Stuff: Alex Honnold free-solos El Sendero

    I came across this gem whilst watching a backlog of videos that had piled up during my visit to the States. This weeks cool stuff focuses on Free-soloing, the art of rock climbing minus any safety equipment, has held my attention of recent with an uncomfortable feeling developing as i sit through each video. The raw nature of this activity is something that many of us will never experience. To be honest, it’s probably a rush that most of us will be content in not feeling, happy in the knowledge that some things are just too extreme to witness first hand.Alex Honnold is a different breed though. This recent video, expertly produced by the camp4collective for The North Face, showcases Alex’s talent in a 6 minute short. I’ve tried to fathom what capturing this feat must have been like for the cinematographers. Of course the route would have been precisely inspected by the team and Alex’s ability and confidence would have been at an all time high, but if one little thing would have gone wrong then the results would have been catastrophic.I’ve certainly photographed athletes in dangerous circumstances, but this simply blows my mind. Great work on display here, well worth 6 minutes of your time.

  • Cool Stuff: Salt Lake City Beckons

    This weekend i’ll be making my way over to Utah to participate in the Salt Lake City Shootout. I got the invite earlier last month to make the trip over, where i’ll be competing against 7 other ski photographers to try and capture the best that Utah has to offer. Having never actually skied any of the resorts that i’ll be shooting at, i imagine that it will be a steep learning curve over the 4 days as i attempt to keep up with the locals photographers who will have the priceless local knowledge.

    I dont fancy my chances of taking away the title but these contests are always fickle things so you never know. I’ll just look forward to my week in Salt Lake City, will work as hard as possible over the 4 days of competition and see what comes out at the end.

  • Cool Stuff: T’es Pas Bien Là? (Downside Up)

    Through this new column “cool stuff” I want to introduce cool things that happen throughout the industry. This could be the release of a new camera, a portfolio that catches my eye, or anything that gives me that daily dose of inspiration that I crave.I’m kicking off this column today with a new short film from Seb Montaz that I downloaded and watched this weekend. T’es Pas Bien Là (Downside Up) is the latest offering from Montaz which turns the focus onto the world of steep skiing, predominately on the surrounding peaks of the Chamonix valley.I first came across Seb’s work through his Salomon mini series that focused on the life of Catalan athlete Kilian Jornet. ‘Kilian’s Quest’ played a major role in inspiring me to focus my summers on trail running, and three years on I can safely say that this has become the backbone to my summer time adventures. During this period, Kilian’s list of achievements grew longer by the day (Kilian is currently in the running to be National Geographic’s Adventurer of the year) with Montaz’s camera skills developing in unison.With Kilian’s quest running its cause, Montaz turned his focus to feature length productions, covering endeavours including Highlining, Base Jumping and Ski Mountaineering. With the release of each feature it becomes apparent at how talented Montaz is not just behind the lens, but as an athlete in his own right. I’m a firm believer that in order to cover these adrenaline fuelled sports you have to be proficient yourself in and around the mountains.T’es Pas Bien Là (Downside Up) is a testament to how comfortable he is in the mountains. One of the greatest compliments i can give him is that he is annoyingly good at what he is doing and it’s a pleasure to watch him work.The following is the blurb from the new, 34 minute long film:

    We join skier and mountain guide, Vivian Bruchez, as he explores his backyard on several steep adventures in a winter of exceptional snow, in the company of a few talented friends. Previously impassable and unthinkable routes become a tangible reality when skill, experience and conditions align.

    Check out the trailer above and head here to download the $9 film