There’s no denying it, Instagram has evolved to become my number one social media channel. I use it daily during the week to post an image myself, along with browsing other peoples feeds to get a dose of inspiration. The images that I post daily can be any mixture of things: from something i’d been shooting that day to a trip back through my image archive, triggered by a thought or something similar.Despite most of the heavy handling being driven through the phone application, Instagram actually made a great improvement to their desktop site in July, adding the ability to search hashtags within the site. All of a sudden a whole world of cool possibilities opened up. Whilst sitting at home in the office I was able to do an image research for a trip to Nepal, gaining a photographic insight on areas that i’d never seen before. What started with a broad search was quickly whittled down into specific destinations, providing a surprisingly detailed picture of what other active Instagramers have experienced.An example of this could be the following search:
- #nepal
- #kathmandu
- #thamel
- #khumbu
- #namche
Each step narrows down the amount of images and becomes more concentrated. The hashtag #khumbu can lead to both villages in that region or the mountains that rise above from them.
This shot above is a great example of trip research. Having got myself down to #khumbu, I was now keen on finding potential peaks to climb in the region. During my initial search I came across the account of Chris Brinlee Jr. It was apparent from his image feed that he’d been in that area and had climbed Lobuche East with a Kathmandu based guiding company. Curious about his experiences I simply reached out to him to get his thoughts on Himalayan Ecstasy (end note: they’re awesome). He’d used them successfully a couple of times which was enough for me to contact the company. We started a dialogue, they booked my mountain flights and I used them for a successful ascent of Lobuche East. All this was instigated through a 10 second conversation, showing the potential of this application.I’d been shown my 2015 best nine on instagram and its quite apparent that my followers are fans of Alpine scenery (and Kilian Jornet).
It’s not just mountain scenery that makes it onto my stream. I’ve just had a scroll through the year and here’s a few other shots that made me smile.Want to follow along in 2016? You can join me here.
The shorts are out and the flip flops are on. Time for that little tease of summer, before the rains come in and spoil the fun. I’ve recently invested in a GoPro, so you’ll be seeing plenty of POV shots. This one though was done the old fashion way. #canon 1dIV, #sigma 15mm #fisheye, #manfrotto super clamp, #pocketwizard remote. #summer #cycling #selfportrait #shorts #flipflops A photo posted by Tim Lloyd (@timlloydphoto) on
Day dreaming of summer sun and roads less travelled. #summer #ocean #roadtrip A photo posted by Tim Lloyd (@timlloydphoto) on
The weather has been so hot this past month that we’ve taken to seeking refuge wherever possible. #dogslife #refreshing #gopro #hero4 A photo posted by Tim Lloyd (@timlloydphoto) on
Did you know that today is International Mountain Day? I must admit, I didn’t until this morning. What mountain to share on such a day? This one doesn’t win any beauty contests, but it can’t be beaten on size. #internationalmountainday #themountainsarecalling #everest #8848 #nepal #himalaya A photo posted by Tim Lloyd (@timlloydphoto) on
I 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 
I 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.
I’m pretty new to cross country skiing so I was happy to experiment with the camera rather than trying to race the marathon distance. I’d heard that despite advancements, the GoPros battery life is still pretty dismal. My GoPro Hero4 comes with a built in display on the rear of the camera, allowing you to frame the scene, scroll though the various menus and settings and playback images. It’s also probably the number one drain on a battery so I disabled it. Whilst disabling that I also turned off the camera beep and led lights on the front of the device, making it a stealth camera.Turning off the rear lcd screen doesn’t actually hamper the GoPro, as a basic screen is still featured on the front showing you what mode the camera is in, remaining battery and space on the memory card. I’d decided on using the timelapse feature, capturing an image every 0.5 seconds. I had previously set the timer at ten seconds, but it proved hit and miss about whether you’d capture a moment. With an image being taken every 0.5 seconds it left a lot of deleting when i sat down to edit, but meant that much more of the event was captured.I’d say the battery lasted for around two and a half hours. I’d love to say that got me to the finish of the race, but I still had 9km to go. I need to train a bit more to try and come in before the battery runs out! Overall, I was really pleased with the results. The camera is so small that it didn’t bother me at all during the race (where it was mounted on my ski pole). I found the controls really intuitive and the results fun to scroll through. A camera like this is never going to replace your main camera bodies, but will definitely be able to go to places where other larger cameras can’t.I look forward to sharing my GoPro images in future, but until then here’s a few more from the race.
Cleaning 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
In order to best facility the shoot and share mentality, I thought it best to build my presentation portfolio from the ground up. I, like most other people, joined the mad rush to purchase an iPad when they were initially released, standing strong on the belief that it would be the sole way to display a portfolio moving forward. Print was seeing a major decline in popularity and the allure of a producing a great looking, backlit portfolio with very little effort was just too good to refuse.
Luckily, times have changed. I’ve got a pretty good range of magazine subscriptions, composed of both digital and print. Some magazines, like Outside Magazine and National Geographic have really great iPad versions of their magazines offered through the Newsstand app. The problem I have with this is that when I pick up my iPad to read a magazine through the app, it’s not long before my attention has wandered and i’m back in the Mail clearing out my inbox. Print feels different though. Despite the decline in popularity of a lot of the printing outlets, some truly amazing titles are on offer at the newsagents. Ultra high quality and extremely readable titles exist (In the Uk I love 
I see the process of making a print portfolio as being very similar to producing one of these Indy magazines – it’s a labour of love. The act of putting all of the pieces together is not an easy one. Selecting images that are strong enough to be displayed and then fit within a series, whilst maintaining a natural flow, takes time. My book is still very much in its infancy but reactions from initial meetings have been positive. Quality was paramount, with me first buying the cover of the book late last year. I was initially headed down the path of getting a linen backed portfolio, very British looking, but all this changed when I saw what the guys over at 
The section and printing of images has been something that has taken up a lot of my spare time as of late. I’m lucky to have been working with a great printer (
It’s crazy to think that we’re approaching (or even passed?) the midway point of winter 2015. I remember skiing in Verbier on the 9th November thinking what a great start we were having. A good mixture of naivety and enthusiasm took hold back then, but I didn’t actually ski again until after the new year. December in the Alps tend out to be largely miserable, with large doses of rain falling instead of snow.January picked up, with fresh snow making clients eager to shoot, playing catchup on the stalled start to the season. My working pattern across January and the beginning of February was very much contained to a 48 hour window, usually involving 
