Over the past 9 months I have had the privilege of being involved in organising of the 2012 UK Barista Championships and associated UK Coffee Events competitions.

In September 2011 I was invited to be a part of the SCAE UK Chapter organising committee and took on the challenge of coordinating Media and Communications activities. With the hunger for information growing a large number of audience sectors needed to be engaged. Bringing the website up to date was the first challenge. This enabled the event information to be published as the hosting arrangements for each regional heat was finalised.

Additional areas for sponsors content to be displayed was created and competitors registrations required coordination. There were 6 regional heats and a finals weekend, translating into a number of opportunities to engage with the media but creating a staffing challenge too.

Arranging photographers to cover each of the events was no mean feat. A tight photographic brief was written and issued to hopefuls who wanted to enter the competition floor, for the best vantage points outside of the standard media exclusion zones. I am very pleased with the selection of photographers who have this year produced some stunning shots, captured the vibrance and pace of this competition and hit the brief.

Thank you to; Maria Dragan, Liz Bishop, Rob Sharp, Jessica Odell and Hazel Guppy for their contributions this year.

My images from the 2012 UK Coffee Events can be viewed here.

It has been very pleasing to hear that some of the photographers we have engaged have already been commissioned to shoot other assignments as a result of their exposure in a number of trade magazines.

My next update will be from Vienna where the SCAE World of Coffee (incorporating the World Barista Championships) will be taking place 12-15 June 2012.

Back in April 2008 I purchased a Canon 400D before heading to New Zealand to visit  friends and family. During the trip I used the camera with the kit lens and took some great pictures – sadly all on Auto and as jpeg only. I’m not too worried about that though, as they all turned out great and coming from New Zealand the images were not of new experiences, but of familiar landmarks.

Upon my return I was given the book Understanding Exposure, by Bryan Peterson (available from Amazon) which got me out of Auto and into Manual mode within hours. I haven’t looked back since.

This camera has since travelled far and wide, jetting all around Europe and finding its way back to NZ again twice since it’s first trip.

Several lenses later, and with a whole new appreciation for digital cameras, I found myself lusting after the Canon 60D when it was released. However, the Canon 400D is such a simple camera to use, and is quite small and light too. This makes it very easy to hold for long periods, and paired with a Blackrapid R-Strap you hardly notice its by your side, ready for action.

I shoot a lot of indoor photography, and considered the max ISO of 1600 to be the main limitation for me. The appeal of ISO 12800 with pretty good in camera image sharpening and noise reduction was too much to handle, so after a bit of hustle and some lucky breaks, I have finally purchased and received the camera.

My trusty Canon 400D is off to a new home, and remains in the coffee industry where a barista will take ownership and put it to good use.

After some more hands-on time with the 60D I will post my initial thoughts. In early May I will also publish some images taken with the camera at the UK Barista Championships taking place 27/28 April at The London Coffee Festival.

We’ve been busy this festive season and treated ourselves to a new look.

Gone is the text-heavy coffee-photography.com website, and in its place is a brand new layout, featuring sample images from our growing portfolio.

This coming year we already have several events lined up to photograph and will be working on several personal projects in between.

Click on the logo below to visit our new website.

Feedback is always appreciated

These days our clients can commission our work from all over the world, and my most recent shoot was at the request of an Italian, family-run, coffee machine manufacturer.

The shoot took place in London using the clients product in-situ and the proofs were uploaded to the client area of my website for review the next day.

Tip: Make sure your client area is not indexed by web robots and spiders

After review and agreement to purchase a number of the images, the chosen items were exported from Lightroom straight to a specified folder in Dropbox, which could only be accessed by the client.

With the base site (free) allowing a 2GB file storage limit, this was plenty of space to store the 115mb of hi-res photographs, which could be downloaded by the client at their leisure.

Previously I have used FTP to client sites, and usually post a CD as well, but sending files electronically makes so much sense, and is now the standard offering.

The more I interact with the 500px interface the better it becomes

Flickr still has its place though, as I use Flickr for my general photo sharing, showcasing only selected photos on 500px

The 500px UI is clean, uncluttered and most of all encourages interaction. Whether this is a result of showing only the best photos in your portfolio or not remains to be seen, but early signs are encouraging.

The 500px interface allows you to add photos as favourites – to display to your friends, or to vote on other peoples photos and show your appreciation (known as affection)

The blog on 500px is a nice touch and seems well read. I have already made contacts with photographers who have similar interests and display a different perspective in their work, giving me ideas and inspiration to get out and shoot more.

All of these features are available on the free version, yet there is also an upgraded version – for US$50 per year, giving you access to more content, multiple collections, analytics and much more.

I hope you’ll join me in exploring 500px and helping build this community. Whilst there’s no financial incentive to do so, I’m happy to be part of what is set to be the most inspiring photo sharing site on the web

I’ve spent the past half hour searching for images and seeing what results are returned using images indexed on my Flickr account

The results have been pretty surprising and images with similar attributes have been returned,  even grouped by colour and orientation

I uploaded a friends wedding picture, and other wedding images appeared (as expected), but in the middle was a dog. Quite random but maybe the photo was taken at a wedding and the tag threw up this anomaly. So the algorithm isn’t foolproof

Another check was performed using an image which has been published online in several newspapers and magazines and a good number of these results were returned, also enabling me to search through the different sizes of the image (compressed or resized by editors) . This also pointed me to other sources where the story was shared, giving an idea of the reach and impact a single photograph can have.

I had heard some months ago that an indexing exercise was taking place and that both enhanced image and voice data searches would be available in the near future. The voice data searches will make searching for relevant content even easier and will revolutionise services such as Audioboo, which reminds me that I must post more audio.

Head on over to http://images.google.com and try out this service for yourself.

My only question is what happens to all the uploaded images and who retains the content ownership?

Be honest here, could you change your camera’s settings in pitch darkness?

Learning to use your camera and setting up in almost total darkness is a skill you should master as soon as possible.

Knowing what to press and which dial to turn to control shutter speed, ISO and aperture values should be instinctive.

I watched a number of people ‘learning how to use their cameras’ on a recent trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow. As we walked along a dimly lit tunnel there were cries of exasperation as some people tried in vain to take a photo that they could see in their LCD screen.

As I was only one of 3 people (in a group of 50) with a DSLR, a number of cameras were handed to me to see if I could improve the images or set up the camera to take a photo in the low light.

the ISO had been set to 100, not Auto

Many of these cameras were digital point and shoot and the ISO had been set to 100, not Auto. This single setting change sorted out most of the problems. The remaining issues were changing the flash settings to auto instead of off, and reducing the flash intensity. As we were in a salt mine there was a bit of light refraction from the salt deposits, and many people didn’t understand why they were getting the little round circles in their images, many of which were filtered out by those of us with lens hoods.

There were many happy people after the cameras had been passed back to them and it was nice to see the smiles as they took photos of the salt & rock statues and cavernous cathedrals between 90m – 130m below ground level.

There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing someone ‘get it’

There’s nothing more satisfying than seeing someone ‘get it’ and have the confidence to move off auto into more manual modes, whether it be a point and shoot or a DSLR user. A few words in the guidebook about lighting conditions may have prepared more people for the tour. Lets hope they don’t set and forget to ISO100 when they’re above ground again…

For more images from the Wieliczka Salt Mine please visit my Flickr

This weekend we have been out and about at various festivals and shows, making the most of the last May Bank Holiday for 2011

On Saturday we visited the Hampton Court Foodies Festival which provided us with very few photo opportunities compared to last year, but we knew that the Hertfordshire County Show 2011 would make up for this.

Having set our alarm for far-too-early-o’clock on a Sunday morning we arrived at the Herts County Show shortly after opening time and the festivities had already begun.

Our first stop was the Herts Air Ambulance stand where there was an opportunity to have a tour of their helicopter which was based at the show all weekend. Being a keen RC Heli Pilot this was of interest to me.

So the next stand we visited was even more interesting – the SKM Studio Photography stand with Stuart Marsh’s Align TREX 700E helicopter with Ricoh camera mounted in a custom undercarriarge. A servo was positioned over the shutter button allowing the images to be taken remotely and the photos produced were brilliant. A lot of care and attention was put into the design process to minimise vibration. The Align 700E helicopters are remarkable stable in the air (with the right pilot). I have a little way to go before I’m confident enough to strap a camera to my helicopter. Just keeping it in the air and landing nicely (consistently) is a challenge.

There was more to the show than high-tech-gadgetry, with lots of stalls selling handmade cakes & biscuits, sheep shearing shows, pony racing, birds of prey displays and even equestrian.

The star attraction had to be the Lings Bolddog Freestyle Motocross Stunt Team who wowed the crows by jumping over their custom built truck complete with it’s own landing deck and ramp

It’s not until you zoom in that you can appreciate the skill of the riders, keeping control of their bike (and their nerves) well above tree line, and landing safely onto the truck/ramp

Whilst browsing the display tents and admiring the handiwork of the florists I was asked by several stallholders to email photos of their exhibit to them after the show, as they are always on the hunt for good photographs. I find that I am getting this type of request more and more, and am trying to pinpoint what makes them ask me, and not the myriad of other photographers also with DSLR cameras. At a guess, it’s that the BlackRapid RS-5 strap that I use is different to the neckstrap worn by others, as it is quite distinctive. Although it could just be that I am confident when taking photos, spending a little extra time composing and not just point&shooting, hoping for a good shot (although my reject file might say otherwise)

Further photographs can be viewed on my Flickr and comments as always are appreciated

Chances are you missed the Tea and Coffee Festival at Southbank this weekend, which is a shame as there were some real treats to be had. The event was poorly publicised but plenty of people still stumbled across it when enjoying themselves on the South Bank and it’s environs

Every stallholder had to use Tea or Coffee as a major ingredient or overriding taste in their product

We enjoyed a lovely coffee-smoked beef bap with rocket, a iced jasmine tea infused ginger and lychee cocktail, many macchiato and espressos from the coffee vendors and also coffee infused macaroons

There was also a stage where stallholders could give presentations and help educate the public on tea and coffee related matters

Keep an eye out for future festivals and if you get the chance pop along and prepare to be amazed at the tastes you can create with a tea and coffee base

Dark Fluid Coffee Roasting Seminar

There was also plenty to see and do nearby and a most enjoyable few minutes was spent in the roof garden on top of the Queen Elizabeth building.

A few photos to wet the appetite can be found on my Flickr