6 months with my Hasselblad h4d

I've now had my Hasselblad for 6 months and I thought I would write up a few observations about it. To start - I have pretty much my whole life wanted a Hasselblad I would say I do have mild GAS (gear acquisition syndrom) in the lightest most un-serious way!  having said that i did just clear out my collection of totally broken unusable cameras (about 15) which i really didn't want to throw away but couldn't be bothered to fix as they were pretty much in an horrific state! Thats not including the 40 something actual working cameras I have but anyway...

So I obviously want the Hasselblad h6d but didnt have £35k to spend so I ended up getting the h4d 40 with an 80m lens and 2 batteries within the budget I had.

There are many reasons why I wanted a Hasselblad but the main one was the fact that you get a medium format look from a medium format camera and its impossible to replicate that with a dslr and I had a lot of misses with my film hassy so was keen to look at the digital options.

And it hasn't disappointed - its had its issues of which I will tell you about now!

1- Battery life when not tethered is horrific - especially on location and in the cold.

2- Random failures - so i've come from the canon dslr world where you just shoot - and keep on shooting with the hassleblad, stuff fails regularly, lens errors, back errors, battery errors, pretty much every kind of error you could think of happens.

3- Cost its a high end camera so EVERYTHING is expensive, lenses,extra batteries and most worryingly - servicing and repairs - if anything goes wrong it is not going to be cheap or fast to repair.

4- tethering - it was initially a nightmare - Im on a macbook pro and it took alot of troubleshooting to get everything talking to each other.

5- speed - using a medium format digital camera is not fast - its slow everything is much much slower than i was used to and it takes alot to get used too.

And now the positives:

1- so people always say that the equipment doesn't make you a better photographer - and I 100% agree with this BUT the type of images I can now create, the depth, the sharpness the file size and the dynamic range that can be achieved with this camera kicks the crap out of everything else ive ever shot on. which in turn allows me to create images more closely to what i imagined than ever before.

2- colour rendition - the skin tones are incredible

3- its sooo sharp

4- It's slower (i know i said this was a negative but) - you are forced to LOOK to observe the light to think more about what you are doing which is a great thing!

5- I love it - i like using it i want to go out and shoot on it all the time - which is a great feeling

6- I does take the best image out of any camera i have ever used.

So there you go!

Here are some examples:

2017 a year of fun ahead!

So it is nearly the end of January 2017 which is quite exciting!
I always like this period as its a chance to build on what I did right the year before and correct the things that didn't go so right!

So this year - The main plan is the create more films and shoot more stills!
I mean alot more of everything as thats what i love to do!

And spend more time looking - sometimes I can forget that its as important to look at life as it is to look through a lens at life.

but in the meantime here's our new showreel which I thought everyone might like:


MBP showreel 2016/17 from MBP LTD on Vimeo.

and here are some stills from the hassleblad - i feel im really getting to grips with this camera now, it took a few weeks to really understand what it can do and wow im blown away!

Lots more images to follow and more info on kit as ive got some pretty fun new lights and adapters which ill tell you all about over the next few weeks and months!

In the meantime happy 2017 and hope the next 11 months are full of adventures. 

A digital Hasselblad

It is exactly 1 week since I got a new camera whoooo

Now I need to make a confession- I like cameras, I like everything to do with cameras, I like new kit, lenses, lights, tripods, I mean i even get excited about a new lens cloth so when I finally got a chance to buy a Hassy I got very excited to say the least!

Now this particular camera is more than just another camera for me, since i first started taking images Hasselblad as a company represented the very best in camera systems and I never thought I would actually be able to shoot with one yet alone own one. It was something to strive towards and hope one day to borrow!

So after many years I finally have one! Now its not the newest version (aka the £30k version!!) but its still EPIC!!! And here are a few example images whooooooo:

So to begin with was an epic journey to ffordes photographic just outside Inverness a short 6 hour round trip!!!!

And I ended up with this: 

And this is next to my canon 7dmk2:

And here are a few images from the camera, they have been tweaked in photoshop and lightroom: 

So basically this is the most fun camera I have ever worked with And I cannot wait to see what other epic shots I can get with it!!! Oh and to check out my other work go to: http://www.mattsphotosuk.com/

and if you dont want stills but want video check out MBP here: 

http://mbpltd.com/

 

Its May whooooo!!

5 months into 2016 and it has been pretty incredible so far!

MBP has been doing some pretty fun different and engaging work recently and we have been around the world a bit again! here's some pics:

Dubai was incredible one of our favorite clients showed us a part of Dubai that we had never experienced before which was awesome!!

The desert in Dubai:

This was 30 sec from my hotel which is not a bad view!

When I had breakfast at the top of a very tall building:

Then we went to Berlin:

and then we were airside at heathrow: 

 

and then we were in the Caribbean:

 

 

and at the same time we have been delivering a huge mix of work for clients:

 

From animation for fife council: 

 

 

To helping the SNP deliver video content across Scotland: 

 

As well as content for Babcock Marine and Technology 

Oh and Matt's Book went to number one on Ibooks whoooo!! 

and you can get it here if you missed it: 

click here to buy

 

And we have also got our new instagram account up and running here: 

 

https://www.instagram.com/mbpltd/ 

And we are knee deep in paperwork and loads of productions which are keeping us up all night! 

Will update again soon yey!

 

 

 

 

 

 

my endevour to post more!

Hello internet world!

So we have been working on a lot at MBP, we have been working with The Union ad agency to shoot some really fun eat better feel better online adverts : check them out here:

eat better

And then we have also been doing a lot of work with VETSNOW an amazing company Headquartered in Dunfermline who specialize in out of hours care for pets.

We have also finished off a project for SEPA and the 2020 climate change group

While also working on several quick turn around productions for the SNP including this here:

Voter Registration Week: Mhairi BlackPolitics affects everything, so Mhairi Black MP is encouraging you to register to make your vote count in the Scottish Parliament Election on 5th May #NVRD http://www.snp.org/politics_affects_everything_make_sure_you_re_registered_to_make_your_voice_heard
Posted by Scottish National Party (SNP) on Wednesday, 3 February 2016

Then we have been setting up lots of work with some super exciting companies over the next few months including a shoot air side at Heathrow which is going to be super super fun!

And we have a few trips to Berlin, Dubai and the Caribbean just been confirmed!

Alongside that Matt's just finished his digital book and hard back book which you can get here on blurb :

hard back beautiful mistakes

or here for the digital version:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1082186121

and here are a few image screen grabs:

As if all this isn't exciting enough! We have also just completed our new website!!! Here is a link:http://mbpltd.com/

It's super sexy so check it out!!! 

Feel free to drop us a line if you need any video production work done as we love making films and it would be great to work with you!!!!!! 

fashion and barbados

I was recently in Barbados and here are a couple more stills from a shoot I did whilst I was out there :-)

Let me know what you think :-)

More fashion

Here are a few pics from shoots that we have done recently:

a lots happened in 4 months... lets start with fashion.

I just realized that the last time I posted anything was 4 months ago argh.... thats terrible!!! But on a plus side I have lots of nice content to show!

Here are 3 fashion videos to get everyone started!

Iona Crawford: The butterfly Collector:

The Letham Grange Butterfly Collector from iona@ionacrawford.com on Vimeo.


Edinburgh international Fashion Festival:

EIFF Opening Gala - Clements Ribeiro A/W13 from EIFF on Vimeo.

Inspiration behind EIFF:

Edinburgh International Fashion Festival, 19-28 July, 2013 from EIFF on Vimeo.

more photos

I've been taking tonnes of pics recently as well as video work.

Heres a few pics of a great model from colours agency called Ciara, she was awesome!

Hair and make up was done by Judit who rocks it as always!!

And Iona Crawford provided the clothes :-)

Arri Alexa and Fashion

As usual im very behind in my blog posts but I thought I would share this video that we just finished for Iona Crawfords new fashion collection.




We shot it on an alexa - and it was amazing ill post some pics. I've shot with an alexa before but this really did change the way I think about this camera, its just amazing. The thing I love most is the simplicity of it. Everything from the build of the camera to the post workflow just makes sense.

Big big fan!!

Ill post pics of the behind the scenes soon.

Iona Crawford the art of living

This is a video I shot for Iona Crawford's new collection let me know what you think :-)

colours Christmas image

Heres another edit I did for Hamish, he took some great pics for the colours christmas image, and I put together an edit of the behind the scenes for him.

fashion video for hamish campbell

Heres a video I edited for Hamish:

Fraser balgowan beauty in the raw

Here is a video i shot for fraser balgowan.



We shot it in the highlands and it was the worst weather i've ever shot in but the Canon 7d held up really well. The guys at fraser balgowan were amazing, the idea was by Adrian Jeffery, the model was Hannah Breen who was great putting up with the freezing conditions! The make up was by Judit Soltesz who not only did incredible make up but also helped style the clothes making 4 deer hides into an amazing outfit! and music by the incredibly talented Colin McNeil.

fraser balgowen

You can tell when im busy as the blogging drops!
Since finishing the BBC project i've been working on loads of stuff and one project im very excited about is a fashion video for fraser balgowen. The video itself will be available next week. But in the mean time here are some behind the scenes stills taken by Judit Soltesz, she is an incredibly talented make up artist, the model was Hannah Breen, the idea came from Adrian Jeffery and the music (which you can hear next week) was created by Colin McNeil.