Under the Bridge

I love walking along the South Bank in London, camera in hand, eyes scanning left, right, up and down. There is always so much to see, sometimes too much , so on this occasion i decided to hang in just one spot ... under the millennium bridge.

Mark Bader Photography

It's all a bit of a Blur

If you travel back in time to a previous post way back in 2010 you'll see that for some while I have experimented with the idea of creating movement in some of my images. I love the effect this creates,  a surreal and ethereal quality that is both random and rather pleasing. I was inspired to try some more on the FujiFilm X100 the other day as I was walking through a forrest close to where i live. An uninteresting crop of trees for the most part transformed by blur.

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Lines in the Sand

Beautiful sand lines etched by wind and tide ... West Beach , Littlehampton , Sussex 

mark bader photography

Choc-Shop

I was doing a recce for a film I am about to make about an artisan chocolate maker. These are just a couple of stills from the day. I'm excited about filming this ... and tasting more of these beautiful chocolates , yum !

Broken Fences

The bleak colours that still adorn the landscape make this image work beautifully for me. It won't be long before spring brings a completely new colour pallet. Whilst I can't wait for warm sunshine, in a funny way I'll miss these muted wintery tones. 

Mark Bader Photography

Plug Me In

I'm often asked about my workflow and I always give the same answer 'well, that depends on the image' and to a certain degree that is true, I have historically mostly used Photoshop (now CS6) and Bridge as the main components of my imaging. Occasionally (and depending on the image) I would switch to Lightroom 4 as there are some features I particularly favour for some aspects of image control. Darkening skies in Lightroom is so simple and so effective, no gradient tools and masks to deal with. So for this reason I would mostly use Lightroom for landscapes. Having said that I would often have adjusted Levels & Curves in CS6 before importing into Lightroom. So you see , there is no definitive answer. 

Recently however: actually it was at the end of last year when I purchased my Fuji X-100, I started using a Nik Software plugin for CS6 called Silver Efex Pro 2 which was hailed as the 'best black & white converter  in the world' ... it was ! I love using it, it's genius and completely intuitive. It's like being in a darkroom again and just like any other image processing plugin , if used subtly it produces outstanding results. Even better, it only cost $199 which seemed to be reasonable enough. Nik also had a collection of other plugins, all similarly priced, for colour effects, sharpening and noise reduction. Shortly after I purchased the software Nik were taken over by Google which seemed like an odd partnership and I couldn't really see where the benefit was to existing customers, that was until to my complete surprise and delight I had an email from Nik (Google) allowing existing customers to download the entire package at no extra cast. With nothing to lose I did exactly that, downloaded, installed into CS6 and I've been playing around with it this afternoon. The result below is a combination of HDR Efex and Colour Efex. I won't go into specific detail of which tools and presets I used as we'd be here all day but now the entire suite is on sale for just $149 ... go on, you know you want it !

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Going underground

I still find it quite amazing to suddenly come across some of my own work out in the public domain. So there I was on the underground in London the other night and discovered I was standing opposite this poster for Neilsons holidays that I shot in the summer. Hummm I could do with some of that sunshine right now !

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windows & doors

 mark bader photography

70's Concrete

So, there I was, parking the car. You gotta love a bit of 70's concrete.

All Squared

Another shot from the awesome little Fujifilm X100.

Underground Overground

So, there I was, just hanging around...

All these images are taken with the fantastic fujifilm X100 : I now have a tumblr site for the images from this camera  the x100 files

Pottery in Motion

Here's a short film about designer ceramicist Jo Davda who's work features in top chef's cook books and is stocked in exclusive stores worldwide. You can find more of Jo's fabulous work here brickettdavda.com 

I shot this film on my Canon 5Dmk3 and edited in Premiere Pro CS6 for those of you that might be interested.

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Window Seat

This week I've been travelling around a fair bit and as ever my trusty X-100 is always in my bag or slung over my shoulder. Sitting on a train or being driven along a highway or country road watching the scenery fly by is such a visual feast, so indulgent, a real treat. It's like being in a cinema, you just sit back, in relative comfort and life glides past your window: you just have to freeze the frame.

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Soho Nights

I caught a shot of this girl in a Soho doorway the other night as I was walking between meetings. I was struck how brilliantly the iPhone she was holding illuminated her face. It's also good testament to the sensitivity of digital sensors these days !

Mark Bader Photography

Street Art is a Religion

I liked this bit of street art on a building site hoarding in Brighton. Clever use of popular language even though it is fundamentally flawed ... Shouldn't it read OMJ or JHC !



mark bader photography