The digital book will be a series of stories with the relevant pictures attached, videos and audio, giving what we hope is an informative and interesting take on being a photographer today.
If anyone has any comments or feedback please feel free.

A Day in the Life of a Location Photographer

Part One

TGV

 
These shot were taken for a international engineering and construction conglomerate a couple of years ago at the height of the security alerts over Al Qaeda attacks. The company had done quite a lot of work on the HGV signalling system and wanted some good shots to use for their annual report.

This section of the TGV system in Southern France was still very new so most of the security fencing was still in good order, and the local kids hadn’t found there way though it as yet.

I was six days into a ten day shoot across Europe, and had crossed the bridge whist on a recc. earlier in the week, so had a good idea of where I need to get to. The taxi dropped me a couple of miles from the location and I did the last couple of miles on foot.

The bridge crosses the Rhône at this point, at a height of about 300 feet above the water, the fencing isn’t just there to stop local kids playing on the tracks, the tracks runs straight of the edge of a 300 foot cliff out across the valley. The only way of getting the shot I wanted was to find a way over the ten foot security fencing that surrounded the entire area and clamber onto the top of the wall which runs along the cliff edge. The wall was about 5 feet in height and 9 inches wide. Standing on the top of a wall 9 inches wide and only 5 feet tall isn’t normally a problem, except in this case the wall is 5 feet tall on one side only, on the other side it’s around 305 feet high and it’s a sheer drop.

If you can keep your eyes firmly fixed on the bridge which spans out across the river in front of you, it’s possible to trick your brain into ignoring the sheer drop beneath your feet, but it’s very important to concentrate and not look down under any circumstances. With the camera up to your eye and concentrating fully on getting the very best shot possible its very easy to lean forward slightly, this isn’t recommended. The trains come along at approx. 20 minute intervals, almost without warning they appear from over your left shoulder doing around 180 to 200 mph. and are gone in the blink of an eye, which means I am stuck in this position for the best part of a hour and a half just to get a couple of decent shots.

I am aware that I have been spotted by the track walker, he’s half way out across the bridge checking the track but I know he’s seen me, and will have relayed the information back so some kind of response can be excepted. Timing is now critical if I am to get back over the security fencing and get clear of the immediate vicinity without getting arrested and having the film confiscated. I stay as long as I dare then very carefully climb down from on top of the wall, my legs are shaking from having to stand in such a restricted position for so long, but the race is now on to get out.

Instinct tells me I don’t have much time. I force the camera bag under a loose part of the bottom of the fence and use the tripod to pull myself over the top, drop down the other side, grab everything and run. The area is sandy scrub land with low growing bushes and small trees, I reach a vantage point about 50 yards from the perimeter fence that I had used to recc. the scene earlier in the day, just in time to see two military jeeps come racing around the dunes. Half a dozen soldiers jump out and start combing the area, I take off on all fours dragging my equipment behind me as I crawl along under and around the thicket, thorns tearing at my hands,  face and clothes. After a couple of hundred yards I am covered in sweat and dirt and have to stop, I listen to raised voices and the revving of engines, they are very close but don’t seem to have picked up my tracks, I stay very still and hope they don’t have dogs. It’s starting to get dark by now and they eventually get bored, pack up and leave. I now have to find my way back to the road in the dark across open country, my phone has no signal so I can’t phone the taxi I had arranged, so it turns into a five mile two hour hike back to the nearest town, without being noticed, then finding a hotel that will take a very dirty and tired looking customer.

I eat what is left of the bread and cheese I bought first thing, have a bath, and crash out.

Tomorrow I will get up and do it all again. Just another day in the life of a location photographer.

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For some 2012 is the end of the world, for the publishing world it could be the end, or a new beginning, depending on how you play it, but one thing it isn’t going to be is the status quo.

Click to Gift This App Now!.

Here’s How
Click on the link and you will be taken through to the In Search of Monet page on iTunes. Go to the “Buy App” button and click the drop down menu tab to the right of the button, click the “Gift This App” option. Just follow the instructions. Quick, easy, and for less than the price of a Christmas card someone you love will find the perfect gift in their inbox before you know it. Merry Christmas.

The davidt digital guide to digital publishing is now online here:

The guide to digital publishing – click to view

The guide runs over what is available in the digital domain for publishers, with examples and notes on the advantages different types of publications have.
Additional material will be added to the guide as and when we have the time, currently I am in the process of devising a sales and marketing strategy for apps generally and iPad apps in particular as I think this is the major stumbling block to digital publishing for everybody but the very largest publishers and brands.

The In Search of Monet iPad Book now has a Facebook page, take a look and “like” please!

And yes I know this is blatant self promotion, I just hope its interesting blatant self promotion.

Facebook page click to view

The In Search of Monet iPad app is a fully interactive digital coffee table style fine art photography book, featuring 36 full page photographs in full colour and black & white with accompanying text, voice-over’s by Georgia Allen, picture galleries, video and much much more. In Search of Monet is one of the new generation of fine art photography e books for tablets.

All the photography at In Search of Monet has been created using traditional photographic film. Not because we think film is better than digital, but because film allows for additional levels of experimentation and expression, plus a whole range of different processes can be  employed to create the particular look and feel I am after, long before reaching the digital domain.

The In Search of Monet coffee table style digital fine art photography book for the iPad is now available here:

For full information fill in the form and press submit.