What will 2010 bring?

Motion Graphics!

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For some time now we are training our Motion Graphic skills.

Since our video and footage division is gaining more and more importance we want to offer complete packages from 2010, including all the graphics needed for great looking video productions. Having been designers before we stepped into photography and video, that is just a logical step. For 2010 we want to emphasise this part of Amriphoto. A current example shows the video to the left.

Therefore we plan to split the website in two or three parts and extract video and motion graphics from the photosite. Let´s see if we find the time.

A studio?

For about two years we are looking for the perfect studio, but since our current capacities are now at it´s limit, we will have to use even more time for the search than we did in previous years. Still we keep choosey - better having some patience than working in a suboptimal environment for the rest of our career.

...what about a little more?

Since we didn´t write anything from our equipment front in the last months, it´s about time to catch up.

Not that spectacular, but a good start: finally a canon fisheye. Last time we had to rent it because Canon wasn´t able to deliver one. Crisis? Well - if you can´t deliver, who shall buy your products - no wonder the sales go down.

Other news on the lensboard: Canon 100-400mm L, a Canon 2x Converter (you´ve already seen pictures from that "set"), and in fact since summer in our range: The legendary Canon 85mm 1.2L (I don´t have to say much about it I guess - it more than meets our expetations).

Oh, and yes - there´s also a new Canon 7D, which we bought due to the video capabilities and the frames per second. Especially when travelling, our Sony PMW-EX1 is somewhat heavy (our carry on luggage is already too much without it). The 5Ds on the other hand: while producing amazing image quality, the sensor for some shots is already too big resulting in too shallow DOF. Additionally it doesn´t deliver 25p for the moment. Up to now we are impressed by the handling and quality the 7D delivers. While not quite on par with the 5D, it´s still good value for money. Well, that leaves us with 6 DSLRs in our lineup. 1xEOS 1Ds Mk II, 2x 5D, 1x 7D, 1x 400D for timelapse and 1x Nikon 40D because of the electronic shutter, that has big advantages in some situations.
Due to the astounding image quality of modern DSLRs and the new 7D, we sold our Sony FX1. 1080i isn´t quite suitable for the international market anyway.

OK, and finally the really great news:

The Minidolly from Kesslercrane is a great tool for shooting moving camera footage with a great 3D effect. While it is only about 1m long, it brings great results - and is very mobile. We plan to bring it to the maldives in March but have to look for a new bag (once again).

The Omni-Tracker is some sort if skateboard on 3 inlinewheels, you can adjust the direction of every wheel to produce exact moving shots around an object. The disadvantage compared to a standard dolly: you need a flat surface - but this is something you can get anywhere. The big advantage: it is extremely lightweight and versatile.

...just like every year...

the requests for familyshootings sky rocket just before Christmas. We planned some time, but since we had other projects in the pipeline we couldn´t nearly do as much as requested.

Therefore the call just like every year: if you want to give photos for Christmas, plan way in advance and at best get them in summer. Not only is it much less stressfull (imagine having your christmas presents ready in summer!!!), it also gives a much bigger variety of possibilities. You could shoot outside - I guess you can imagine the difference of a summer shot outside compared to the dull colors you get in december.

...or: the worlds biggest construction site!

The city is breathtaking, but it´s very hard for people like us to travel around. We are used to walk quite a lot, but it´s impossible to do so here. Not because of the heat, but rather because of the amazing number of cunstruction sites. We have never seen anything like that before. The "main road" Sheikh Zayed Road is in fact a highway with 6-8 lines in euch direction, full of construction rubble on either side. No way of crossing this road - fortunately there are bridges at the newly built railway stations - but be aware - they are closed at night!!!

We once tried to walk from our hotel to Burj Dubai, the highest building in the world. Its just about 2km - but it took us around an hour to get there. Most of the time there are no sidewalks and even more often we had to walk through construction areas, simply because there was no other way. Very unusual for us, we went back with a taxi.

It just seems as if traffic planning is lightyears back compared of the development of the rest of the city.

Another question that kept our minds busy: who on earth shall live and work in all the skyscrapers that are being built. There are hardly any lights visible in the existing ones during nighttime, no people in the shopping malls during daytime, and just a few during night. So all in all we think there are much less people than offices and appartements. At the moment it just seems as if they are putting excessive money into skyscrapers as if there were no other possibilities to spend it - just in case there will be some people in the future that might need the property. We don´t know how that will affect the market rate of real estate in the near future. We hope the best for the region, but have just experienced how falling market values can affect the economy very badly, but we are no experts.

Nevertheless we had some great days in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but now we´ll go home again after 7 days with more than 1.400 photos and 90 video sequences. And there are no snapshots - we stopped shooting things that we think won´t sell, they just clog our harddrives and you never watch them. The next days and weeks will bring extreme retouching, uploading and keywording ;-).

...so without cheating...

...we produced this image - slight color corrections, but other than that no changes to the original (especially no cropping), thanks to the Canon 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 L and the Canon 2x Converter on a newly bought 7D (which we bought just before we left to shoot such images - and left one of our 5D Mark IIs at home instead). Maan, that baby is hard to manually focus when fully extended. But this shot wasn´t fully extended, just about 2/3. If you extend it, it gives you a focal length of 1.280mm compared to a full frame sensor camera - that´s quite a lot. Unfortunately the 7D can´t quite compare with the 5D Mark II in regard to image quality. Even at ISO 200, there´s some noise, while the 5D image is just plain perfect. Additionally the 2x Converter doesn´t do the image any good too, but that´s one would expect when doubling the focal length with quite a "cheap" piece of Equipment.

Other than that, the 7D is a great camera with lots of new functions that really make sense - and work. Autofocus is great too, so are the 8 frames per seconds if you are used to just 3.5 (if I remember correctly)

Well, and at the same time this was our last sunset in the desert - the days we spent here were short and few, too few actually. Tomorrow we´ll leave to stay two nights in Dubai and then we´re heading towards home again.

...well, hopefully!

Perhaps your guess was we are here to shoot Dunes and landscape? Well, it´s not all that wrong, there are some on our pictures - and to be honest we have some shots only showing these kind of things. But as successfull stock photographers you have to shoot the extraordinary. Things, that are not covered yet. That doesn´t really fit for sanddunes.

If you´d like to purchase this image, you have to pay through your nose, we plan to submit it to  Gettyimages let´s see if it gets accepted.

...and Endurance?

We start adapting to the heat, but it´s quite a huge step from snowfall to the heat of the desert.

We are pretty proud of our endurance which is quite uncommon under photographers. Here we have the chance to proof that. We walk fleet-footed over the sanddunes, do always seek the best spot and conditions, even if they are the most exhausting. Today we shot at 11:00 noon, because these conditions are just perfect for some of our plans. Felt temperature? Well I´d guess 50°C - no Wind!

What helps us "survive" is our affinity to triathlon. That makes us the perfect travel photographers - we are longer on our feet and our concentration keeps up quite some time. Even if the black camera is almost too hot to touch it, our brain keeps pretty cool.

...it´s just in our blood!

Even if this journey was planned to gather images and footage from the desert, we couldn´t resist to shoot some images from the room.

If there is something we are specialized in (besides shooting on white), it is travel photography. You sure have seen our images in Catalogues, Magazines and websites without knowing these are ours. But travel photography is more than just shooting landscapes. There´s an incresing demand on high quality architecture shots.

The hotel here is just a dream, so we decided to use this setting for some nice shots, right after sunrise (which btw. resulted in some amazing images), even though we aren´t perfectly equipped for these kind of shots on this particular trip. The hotel is called Quasr al Sarab and has just opened, as I just mentioned. There is still an amazing lot of work going on everywhere, but we don´t care. In fact we are rather happy, because that means we are almost alone in the desert.

The rest of the images from the hotel will be uploaded into our gallery as soon as we are back in the office.