Flow flex initial meeting

The first meeting at Flowflew will be taking place on Thursday evening.
I'm hoping that I will be able to take some initial shots using my compact camera. This way I will find out the lighting that I will be dealing with, then figure out which lighting I will have to take with me on the actual shoot.

The initial meeting should have taken place last week during half term, but due to my contacts work load and the fact I was ill we have rescheduled. I'm looking forward to getting in there and finding out what I will be up against.

Hasselblad... a history

In 1841, Gothenburg, Western Sweden, the Hasselblad family set up their first trading company, called F.W Hasselblad & co. With its proximity to the continent and historic trade connections it was an ideal location for an international import-export firm. It soon became one of Sweden's most profitable commerce houses. They also began to import supplies and products for the field of photography.

When Arivd Victor Hasselblad, son of the founder, and amateur photographer set up a photographic division within the company he reportedly said 'I certainly don't think we will earn much money on this, but at least it will allow us to take pictures for free.' He was soon proved wrong and the photographic department became a major part of the company.

Soon after this Arvid Victor meets George Eastman (the founder of kodak) and based on a handshake, the company becomes the sole distributor of Kodak products. This business was so successful the in 1908, it was made into its own corporation called Fotografiska AB. 


Ownership of the company eventually passed to Karl Erik Hasselblad, Arvid Victors son. 
Karl wanted his son, Victor Hasselblad, to have a wide understanding of the camera business, so sent him to Dresden in Germany, which was then the world centre for the optics industry. He spent the next few years travelling between Europe and the US working on many different photographic endeavours before returning to the family business. Because of disputes in the family Victor broke away and set up his own photo shop and lab in Central Gothenburg called Victor Foto. 

During the Second World War, the Swedish Government recovered a fully functional German spy camera, and they approached Victor to make one similar. So he established a workshop in an auto mobile workshop, and with the help of a skilled mechanic, he started work on the HK7.


By the end of 1941, Victor had a small factory with 20 workers, called Ross Incorporated. Between 1941 and 1945, Victor had delivered 342 cameras to the Swedish Military. 

In 1942 Victor's father dies so he took control of the company. He saw the production of military cameras as a starting point for producing cameras for the consumer market. 

"This model, a single-lens, mirror reflex, 6x6 camera with interchangeable Kodak lenses, film magazines, and viewfinders, was unveiled to great acclaim at a press conference in New York City. The 1600F camera met with great critical acclaim and was a truly groundbreaking feat of engineering."

  

There were flaws of course, as with many brand new products. Because of the watch-making backgrounds of many of the workers, the mechanics were very delicate, so they couldn't stand up to the strain of a handhold camera. Eventually the design improvements led to a camera that Victor was proud of; the 1000F.

This Hasselblad never broke or went out of alignment, so the durability issues had been resolved and a legend was born. 

At the age of 78, Victor Hasselblad died. In his will he left the majority of his fortune to the Erna and Victor Hasselblad Foundation. The foundations purpose is to promote research in natural sciences and photography. The annual photographic award, 'The Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography' is the biggest award in the world of photography and a fitting memorial to Victor and the the world of photography he loved so much. 

Industrial Phototographers

• Malcolm Lewin

http://www.malcolmlewinphotography.co.uk/

• Reg Moore

http://www.regmoore.com/

Images currently on the Flowflex website

These are the images that are currently on the Flowflex about us page on the website (see: http://www.flowflex.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=60 )

From looking at them I'm not sure if they have been done professionally or if they were done internally by a member of staff. It seems to me that the website has been abandoned and when I was talking with my neighbour he said that he thought that as the website is so limited it could impact upon possible clients.

The images above are from the products page on the Flowflex website (see: http://www.flowflex.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=54&Itemid=53 )

They appear to me to be a mixture of professional shots and some that look they have been done in house. Personally I think that the website needs to have consistency in order to appear professional. Also I think that the images of the actual products need to be slightly larger so that they can be seen without having to press your nose against the screen!!

Titanic Brewery.... update

Since e-mailing the events organiser of Titanic Brewery, twice, I have as yet to receive any sort of reply.

I don't know whether this is just because he is extremely busy or he has changed his mind. I will keep trying to get in touch though.

UPDATE!!!.... Flowflex

In the next few weeks I will be going to the Flowflex factory in Buxton to have a look around and decide what they want photographs they want me to do. 

Steve (my next door neighbour) is my point of contact for this, he says there may be a possibility that the images could be used to update the website. 

I'm really looking forward to getting going with this now. And hopefully it will get going sooner rather than later.

Flowflex Follow Up...

On Saturday I will be having a follow up meeting with my neighbour. Managed to have a quick chat with him this morning before he went to work. From what he was saying its all looking very positive!

So watch this space...

Churnet Valley Railways resident Photgraphers

After looking through the website I have noticed that most of the photography has been done by Nigel Shaw and Dave Gibson.

I found a website for Dave Gibson which you can see through this link: http://www.davegibsonphotography.co.uk/

I will email Dave to see if there is an opportunity for me to accompany him on a shoot. This could then be an opportunity for me to get some work from the railway.

As yet I have found nothing for Nigel Shaw.

follow up from churnet valley railway

After enquiring about work at the Churent Valley Railway I recieved this e-mail;

Hello Anne

Thank you for your enquiry. I am sorry but we have nothing at the moment but if anything crops up we will be in touch, good luck.

Kind Regards

Julie Brindley

Churnet Valley Railway

Administration

So while there's nothing at the moment, I feel it's a positive sign that they will be in touch at some future point.

churnet valley railway... a possible client?

After speaking with Vivienne Cowie, who is organizing the Arts Festival in the village, I received a phone call from her today. As I was unavailable to take the call she left a message with my mom. It seems that she had been speaking with another lady in the village who suggested that I get in touch with the Churnet Valley Railway to see if they would like any work doing for them as it's at this time of year they are planning their special events for Christmas.

So I am now waiting to hear back from the Churnet Valley Railway.

http://www.churnet-valley-railway.co.uk/main/index.php

another new client?!

My next door neighbour works for a company called Flowflex in Buxton. They specialise in components for the plumbing and heating trade. http://www.flowflex.com/

I spoke with my neighbour today and he said they might be interested in me doing some product shots or something like that for them. I should know whether or not they would like me to do something for them later in the week.

new clients...

Over the last couple of days I've been asking around the local area to find myself some clients.

The first thought that I had was to ask the local church. Every year they have an Arts Festival, where local people can show off their work. I have asked the organisers if I could help them with advertising and promotion. They have accepted my offer so I shall be taking photos over the next few days and coming up with some mock-ups.

I have also spoken to the Events Organiser for Titanic Brewery and we will be setting up a meeting sometime in the next few weeks. He seemed really keen and had lots of ideas. So watch this space....

clients continued...

Earlier this year I did some work at the Eden Project. The images would be used on their website. This was an amazing experience. here was a series of briefs set out so we knew exactly was expected and everyone added a bit of their own creativity.

Everyone had a go at most of the briefs so there was a real variety  for them to choose from.

the images below are the one that im most proud of.

clients

The first experience that I had with working a client was around 2 years ago when a friend of the family asked me to photograph their wedding.

At first they were really keen to meet up and discuss what they wanted and to agree prices etc. But after 3 times where they failed to show up, I decided that I would do some research myself. On the big day I took a lot of digital photos and some black and white film photos (they weren't the easiest bunch to work with!!)

Again after the day and a few more let downs from them, I ended up making some disks with all of the images on so they could sit down in their own time and decide what they wanted in their album.

While this was going on I spent a lot of time developing the black and white images and printing them out to A3 size so they could be on their walls at home. When it came to handing these over, only the groom showed up and he really liked what he saw, which I found really positive.

Only this wasn't going to last...a few hours later i get a phone call from the wife, she wasn't happy and said they didn't want anything else from me!!! To me this was a real let down as I'd spent many hours working on this trying my best with zero input from their side. It felt like a waste of time!!

In all I had a really bad experience with this and I'm also still waiting to be payed (I'm not holding my breath!) this has taught me that there really should be a lot of communication between both parties and a clear brief so that it is known what to expect and what is expected.