Days 14 – 18. Value bundle multipack posting.

Lots of days rolled into one after a busy weekend.

Day 14 365 Portraits. Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

Linky to the full 365 project on Flickr . . . . .

Only one image as the theme I have going for this blog only lets me post one per post, if you catch my drift. So you get this one, if you want to see what you might have missed, click the link above which will send you to the full project on my Flickr page.

Day 14

Another family gathering gave a chance for more candid portraits today.
Not much else to say today, feeling in a quiet mood, nothing insightful or inspirational to write. I’ll just let the photograph speak for me.

Canon 1D mark2
Canon EF L 70 – 200mm
iso 400

Days 15 – 18

A mixed bag of styles really. Just trying a few things, one was shot at the end of a job, one as part of a job, the others just for this project (well and for the fun of it). So the grouped postings have begun, it’s going to be a couple of weeks of this I think as I’ll be working away from home quite a bit. Also the improved weather means all the snow and ice has finally melted so I have to try and make up for all the lost training miles on the bike for the upcoming race season (gulp).

Next post will be at the end of the week, I gotta go earn some money.

Day 13 – Chuckles

Day 13 / 365 Portrait Project

Day 13 365 Portrait Project - Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

The best medicine.

Linky to my 365 project on Flickr . . . . .

Simple and emotive. That’s about it for today, simple background, black and white for simplicity and just the laughter remains.
What brought the laughter? Who knows, laughter is simple, everything else is forgotten if only for a moment.

Pixel Peep info –
Leica D-Lux 4 – I do love this little compact. For someone (me) who would so much love to own a “proper” Leica, this camera just about gives me enough of a Leica fix to feed the desire for an M. It was purchased as my everywhere else camera, ie. it goes everywhere else my other cameras don’t. It’s a handy size to pop in your bag or even pocket if you have a coat on. It produces lovely looking jpegs straight out of the camera so I never shoot RAW on it. I still consider selling it to help pay for a second hand M7, but despite my love of film the lack of people shooting it has meant a HUGE price hike for lab costs, and I think that would always be in my mind when shooting with a film Leica. I still put the odd roll through the Nikon FM2s now and again but that’s different. If I sell ALL of my current camera kit and lenses I would probably be able to get a lovely M9 plus one great lens, not sure how that would go down with my clients though. It’s a funny look for studio portraiture.

Day 12 – Just remember, there is no spoon

Day 12 / 365 Portrait Project – There is no spoon.

Day 12 - There is no spoon, Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

Linky to my 365 Project on Flickr

Um, busy day today, was on the receiving end of the photographing process twice today, bloomin press release things.
This is a portrait in an abstract style. Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Just remember there is no spoon!

Canon 5d Mark 2
EF 24- 105mm f4
iso 3200

Funkyness added.

The clever people may have noticed that this blog runs one day behind my uploads on Flickr, I will one day sort this out so that they run in sync once again. Not really sure when it happened but I have the best part of a year to sort it out I guess. Just as a little side note, next weeks posts are going to be very out of sync, work obligations mean being away so expect a multiple post at the end of the week. I have some good ideas for next week, the focus of my idea doesn’t know it yet but we’ll sort that out later.

Day 11 – Lady returns

Day 11 / 365 Portrait Project.

Day 11 - She's back - Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

Link to my 365 Project on Flickr

Lady returns, I’m glad I didn’t put in a rule about not posting images of the same person more than twice in one week 🙂
It’s been quite a busy weekend what with family gatherings, meetings with the cycle team and the looming deadline for tax returns.
I guess I’m just scratching around for reasons why I haven’t been out looking for new faces for my project and true being told I’m having a lazy day today.
Shoot data –
Canon 5D Mark 2
Canon EF L 24 – 105mm f4
iso 3200 (this camera has got me rethinking the whole usage of higher iso speeds)
Post Production – Lightroom for a little cross-processed film look. Plus frame.

Another day, another portrait.

Day 10

Day 10 - Telling the tale, Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

My 365 Portrait Project on Flickr – Linky

Family gathering this weekend means that the camera adopts its stealthy mode.
Luckily when your family is accustomed to you always having your camera they start to switch off to it, meaning getting shots of animated conversations becomes a little easier.
Straight out of the camera (well apart from adding a frame)

Canon 1d mark 2
EF L 24 – 105mm f4

Weekend Portraits – 365 Portrait Project, days 8 & 9

Two days in one, mainly due to lack of internet yesterday.

8 365 portraits - Lady saves the day - Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

9 365 Portraits - Take my picture, Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

365 Portraits Project on Flickr

Day 8 – Hey look it’s her again . . . . .
You have no idea how close I came to shooting a self portrait today. Spent a couple of freezing hours walking around the city only to find all the buskers and most of the market traders had decided to stay home due to crazy snow weather. Shot a couple of “photographers” who were out taking photos of the pretty snow, wasn’t really happy with them (the images I shot) so binned them.
The lovely Lisa took pity on me and decided to let me shoot her while we went for a walk by the river. Phew.
Little bit of “styling” to get the image how I wanted. It may be obvious from the images i’ve posted so far in this project that I like a certain “film” finish to my shots. Perhaps it’s something I’ll get bored by the end of the year . . . . .

Canon 5d mark 2
EF50mm f1.8
Iso 100

Day 9
“Here Mister take my picture!”
This is what I heard as I was taking some shots of a beautiful building in Leeds yesterday. Yes the astute ones amongst you may noticed I didn’t post anything yesterday. This will happen from time to time, it will get shot, but circumstance may mean it won’t make it online for a day or two.
Anyhows, as this cheeky chappy was riding by on his bike I just about managed to swing the camera in his direction while grabbing one frame. Not bad to say I wasn’t even looking through the viewfinder.

Canon 1d mark 2
Canon EF L 24-105mm f4

Who said anything about 365 portraits of people?

Day 7 – One week down and I’m already having to think outside the box.

Day 7 365 Portraits - Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

Link to my 365 project on flickr.

Gracie waiting.

Gracie is the sweetest dog you could hope to meet. Always looking for the next person to stroke her, desperately in love with her owners, so much so that even a hint of them getting ready to go and she starts worrying that maybe they’ll forget her. She’s not really one for a game of fetch, she’ll catch a frisbee if it happens to be close enough and she has a liking to chicken.
I took a couple of shots of her at this “sitting” and I just fell in love with the look on her face in all of them, I’m not sure if she’s annoyed, bemused or just plain “putting up with me”. Whichever it is I have to laugh when I look at the photographs.
Decided to give this an aged finish and crop it square to “fake” an old family Polaroid shot (hence the slightly warm tones). I’m really happy with how it turned out, it’s probably my favourite shot of the week.
As for the project, well, I’m managing so far but I know without the help of family and friends this is going to get really hard really soon. Lisa has been a sweetie and is putting up with me so far, but the idea isn’t to shoot 365 images of one person. So I’m going to have to start looking around for volunteers and begging anyone that will listen that my artistic vision is at stake if they don’t pose for me.
I have a plan for the weekend but it is dependant upon me being able to get out of York (current weather is making this rather tricky). If the plan works I’m hoping next week will be easier. If not, I’m going to have to brave the freezing streets hunting for characters.

Todays Image data (ish) –
Canon 5d mark 2
Canon EF 50mm f1.8

Starting to figure out a plan . . . .

Day 6 of my 365 portrait project

Day 6 365 Portrait project - Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

Link to 365 Project Flickr set

Braved the winter wonderland that is York today in an effort to shoot something. I think the cold weather has kept most of the interesting looking people indoors. Just as I was giving up hope I walked through the markets to see this friendly face looking back from amongst the camo gear.
Asked to grab a couple of shots and that was me back to the warmth of the home office.
It’s not the sharpest image i’ve ever taken but I was playing with my nikkor 85mm f2 mounted to the canon 1d mk2 (curious eh?).
Manual exp and focus, almost felt a fraud by getting the instant gratification of digital.

I suddenly realised today when I got a big wedge of provisional “work” shoot dates through that I’m not always going to have the luxury of posting everyday. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to be shooting everyday, it’s just my little excuse for apparently missing a couple of days then suddenly catching up again. I will however always strive to post seven new portraits every week.

Thought of the day – Seriously, print your photographs, don’t just leave them on your computer, display them, hand them around, feel them. There is something very very satisfying about holding a photograph, It gives it life and importance.

Todays kit –
Canon 1d mk 2, Nikkor 85mm f2
Plus a little adaptor ring that lets me mount the Nikon lens to the EOS body. Everything becomes manual, exp and focus but we’re all big boys and girls we can handle such things, right?
It’s fun using this set up, and it’s a good bit cheaper than the EF 85mm f1.2. What’s 2 stops between friends eh?

More tomorrow, plus I have a plan brewing for the weekend shots (at last, plans are forming)

Mark

Day 5 – Night Lights

Day 5 / 365 Portraits

5 365 Portraits - Mark Ivkovic

Flickr 365 Portraits Project link

Serious amounts of snow are falling at the moment which is putting a slight strain on my “planned” shots. As such my muse is having to put up with being another portrait for this week.
This is a slight homage to Dustin Diaz, a man who has just completed a 365 project. He was shooting some really great images towards the end so I thought I’d put a slant on his work.
This shot was achieved using only “available” light, no strobes, torches or even reflectors were used. Minimal photoshopage, just used what the street gave me.
Canon 5d mk2, ef50mm f1.8

Wow it’s taken me forever to get the blog to show todays image. I’m learning wordpress as I go along so you’ll have to cut me a little slack for the first couple of weeks if the image isn’t showing right away. Also any eagle eyed readers may notice that the blog colours change everyday, that’s due to the theme I’m using, it checks the image and auto selects the colours which are the closest match to it for the background and such (I think that’s why I’m getting lots of peachy colours).

Cheerio,
Mark

I think it’s in the planning . . . . .

Day 4 / 365 Portraits – One MILLION Dollars!

4 365 Portraits - Mark Ivkovic, York Photographer

Don’t look him directly in the eyes! Thanks for the title Tim.

365 Portraits

Okay so this wasn’t shot today, I admit i’ve cheated a little. This image has been hanging around on my hard drive for a couple of months. It’s from a day when we were kinda messing around with lighting and poses. Despite being a photographer he also does a mean “look into the eyes not around the eyes but into the eyes” routine, classic. Anyone lucky enough to work alongside him is in for a fun-filled day. Thanks Rob 🙂

I’m starting to realise that starting a project with minimal planning or setting up of ideas can get you in all kinds of a mess. I admit I’d toyed with the idea of starting a 365 photo project after a friend instigated one last year, partly to try and give him a little support and “we’re in this together” spirit and partly to force myself to go out shooting everyday. The start of a new year seemed like a good time to get going and so ideas started rolling around in my head, it wasn’t until new years eve that I decided to alter the goalposts on myself and make it a 365 portrait project. Don’t get me wrong I’m enjoying it, it’s just that constant snowfall and minus temps are making hard to venture out to get some of those “strangers” portraits. It is giving me time to plan some styles of shot and such, along with giving me time to trawl through some really good work on flickr.

Photo geek info –

Canon 1D mark 2, EF L 24-105 f4

Shot f8 around 75mm. Four studio light set-up, Bowens Gemini 500.

More tomorrow

NB: WordPress is doing my poor little brain in today, it seems to not want to link to images properly, sorry if anyone can’t see the image above i’m working on solving the problem.