Simon Ackerman Photography Blog

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

Paris Bridge of Love

I'm dedicating today's blog post in tribute to those that lost their lives in the Charlie Hebdo shooting.

A picture from Paris with love. R.I.P

Tuesday, 6 January 2015

Backstage with Yulia Terentieva

Backstage shot Yulia Terentieva @ Premier Models and Marilyn NY, photographed at the Issa show at London Fashion Week.

Monday, 5 January 2015

Here are some images from my recent fashion editorial with male model James Pitt. I like to shoot some of my fashion stories in traffic, it's always going to get cars honking horns but is always exciting especially when you're shooting in Downtown LA.

Jock look with shades.

Simple white t-shirt with natural light and sunbounce reflector.

A shot on location Echo Park, Downtown Los Angeles.

Sunday, 4 January 2015

How to photograph car light trails in NYC

I mentioned in yesterday's blog post a little bit about long exposure photography that I did in New York so I decided to put together some of my favourite images from that series. Most of these were shot early Autumn which is great to work with as a photographer as you get to capture the changing colours of leaves.

This is the first of a series of long exposure shots taken in Lower East Side in Manhattan. The long exposure effect on the taxi gives it the illusion that is floating similar to Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder in Star Wars. It was great to time the shot so the illuminated road sign was above it and the NYPD cop car just to the left.

This shot is from the same location again, this is a taxi that was closer to where I was positioned. I find zoom lenses are better in this situation than primes, preferably a wide angle lens.

Delancey St, Lower East Side, Manhattan.

14th Street, Manhattan.

A tripod is essential for this type of photography, although there were a few occasions that I was traveling home without a tripod and had to make do with the environment. Resting the camera on the sidewalk as an example can work really well as it gives a much lower composition that can make this kind of photography look more dynamic. The above shots where taken when I didn't have a tripod to hand so decided to use the corner of a skip in order to get the shot.

Night shooting can really come to life with these techniques, there's always lots of bright ambient light and you're never short of traffic in New York City. This shot was taken using a tripod in the Meatpacking District with a shutter speed of around 10 seconds. It was great to capture the Burberry advertising with Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss on the building.

This shot was taken from Williamsburg Bridge, Brooklyn which gave a nice ariel composition.

This shot is one of my favourites from the series as it has the Empire State Building lit up nicely in the background.

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Saturday, 3 January 2015

Photography in London

I'm going to be shooting more in London at the start of 2015, primarily shooting fashion photography but also shooting more travel photography. Here are some recent images that I shot around places such as Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar square. I'm going to use some of my long exposure techniques I learned in NYC for some night city shooting and also scout some new locations for new shoots.

Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square. A monument erected in Central London to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Bridge on Thames Embankment, London.

London Eye, a giant ferris wheel built in celebration of the Millennium.

Metropolitan Police at Buckingham Palace.

Queen's Guard.

Buckingham Palace, London.

Buckingham Palace, Westminster, London.

Friday, 2 January 2015

Bournemouth sunset

This is my first sunset picture for 2015, taken on my iPhone 6 Plus. I've been testing out the new iPhone in various situations from low light to action shots. I've been really impressed so far and I'm pretty much used to having such a big phone now.

The shot was taken at Talbot Woods in Bournemouth, England. The HDR setting didn't really make much of a difference but I wanted to keep all the trees as silhouettes.

Thursday, 1 January 2015

New work with Kelly Gray

As promised here is another image from my location shoot with Kelly Gray in Echo Park, Downtown LA to start off my first blog entry for 2015. Happy New Year everyone!!