The first four “Ambassadors” in Canon’s recently announced Ambassadors programme are “VII Photo agency co-founder Gary Knight, famous National Geographic wildlife shooter Michaal Nichols, prolific Israeli photojournalist Ziv Koren (Polaris Images) and the top portrait and fashion photographer Lorenzo Agius (Getty Images).”

We’re told that the Canon Ambassadors will be offering “workshops, seminars and events”. Each of the four are interviewed on the Canon Professional Network web site. I haven’t read all four yet but I have read Gary Knight’s interview and, as a co-founder of the VII agency, he’s clearly had a fascinating career so far. Like a lot of photojournalists of his age, he claims Tim Page and Don McCullin as inspirations. I also note with interest that he began his photographic career in Bangkok before spending a lot of time in the Balkans.

Tags: canon

I made it to Bangkok’s sprawling Chatuchak market on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. On Saturday I was picking up some knick-knacks to make my new Bangkok apartment look a little more homely. I took the Canon G9 with me and tried out a few shots, including some panning shots, which seemed to work OK. The G9 has an image stabiliser but this can be set to Panning Mode, which is useful.

I returned to the market on Sunday with just a 1Ds MKII and an 85mm f/1.2 L II lens in order to get a few portraits and to test the lens out. It’s new to me and although I’ve seen some great portraits taken with it I’d heard that the focussing can be slow so wanted to see for myself.

The friendly juice seller (above) was a willing subject and I snapped a few more portraits over the course of the morning. I can’t post a very comprehensive review of the 85mm yet but first impressions are very favourable. It’s a bulky lens to be sure but when sitting on the business end of a 1Ds MKII it does lend a nice, balanced feel to the camera. Although it’s bulky it’s not long so it doesn’t get in the way as much as the 70-200mm f/2.8 that’s been my preferred portrait lens until now.

There’s a more in-depth review here and if you Google “review canon 85mm f/1.2 usm ii” then you’ll find plenty more. I’ll post just three more shots from the market, all shot at f/1.2.







I also took a few images taken outside the Siam Centre on Saturday afternoon, where some sort of festival was taking place. Although there were performers on a main stage, much of the action seemed to be concentrated on various people in fancy dress taking photos of each other. I’m not sure a Rohan shirt and trousers actually qualifies as fancy dress but I joined in anyway.

I haven’t added any additional blurring to these shots, just a small post-crop (where there is a crop) vignette in Lightroom 2 Beta. I think you can see in these shots, even though they’re reduced in size to fit into the blog post dimensions, that there’s a lovely, narrow depth-of-field to them. It really helps focus attention on the eyes and face in a portrait and helps to remove some of the distracting elements in the background.







I think the 85mm f/1.2 promises much and may end up being the ideal lens for me to have on my camera. Much of the work I do involves either relatively unposed portraiture or picking specific elements out of a scene. I’m looking forward to using it over a longer period of time and am excited about the sort of results that I’ll be able to achieve with it.

Whilst I’m wrapping up this post there’s just time to announce another guest post from David duChemin, which I hope will be appearing on Wednesday of this week. So look out for that as David’s never failed to write an inspiring article on his own blog so I’m always chuffed to have him writing on my site.

Tags: bangkok, canon

It’s been a busy day for me in Bangkok. I started off with a ride on the back of a motorbike taxi into Siam Square, Bangkok’s premier shopping location. I picked up a Canon G9 (not an f/9 for those of you who know about these things) at a bargain price from what must be the city’s best camera store, “Foto File” on the ground floor of the massive MBK shopping centre. I’d been looking forward to trying out the G9, having used a G5 and a Pro1 in the past, both very similar predecessors. It should be ideal for personal projects and for those times when it’s just impractical to carry a full-size SLR. It’s a handy size to use for street photography and fits neatly into one hand.

I’d been looking at the Leica D-Lux 3 too and did try one out but although I did really want to be charmed by the Leica, it was clunky to use and seemed much slower than the G9. Reviews suggest that it’s pretty soft around the edges too and at twice the price for fewer pixels there didn’t seem to be much of a contest. Funny though, that little red Leica dot did almost win me over but I knew that I’d be paying a premium for the name alone and I reminded myself that it’s about the results, not the equipment.

I picked up a Thai sim card that will work with my BlackBerry and, unlike the process in the UK which took days to get the device working properly, the card was activated and I was sending and receiving e-mails within three hours. All the more impressive when you learn that I didn’t hand over any bank details or credit card information. I’m still not very clear how they’ll take my payment but whilst it keeps working...

After enjoying the refreshingly air conditioned atmosphere of the various shopping centres I braved the heat and humidity outside and took a taxi to the river. Well, eventually I took a taxi. The first taxi driver only took me a few hundred yards before pulling over and stopping the car. I’m learning that when Thai taxi drivers don’t want to go somewhere they just feign ignorance. This one understood where I wanted to go perfectly well when I got into the car but had a sudden and unexpected loss of memory when I pointed out that his meter wasn’t running. This is usual when picking up foreigners (farang) and drivers will invariably claim that the meter isn’t working. Usually when I point out that the the clock isn’t running it takes a bit of polite insistence before the meter is switched on and I understand that it’s no more than a friendly game that local drivers play with foreigners. I don’t object to be honest as a taxi ride across town only costs a fraction of what it would at home. However, this particular driver decided that he didn’t want to play the “Meter game” and so stopped driving instead. He shrugged, said he didn’t know the place I wanted to go to and even though I was able to give him very clear directions and show him the route on a map he wasn’t interested. No point arguing, I took another one instead and gave an impressive tip to the next driver as he was the first one I’ve seen switch the meter on without being asked.

After a quick bite to eat (mixed veg and rice, nearly £1) I took another motorbike taxi out towards the river. I think motorbike taxis are a great idea and they’re really the only way to get throught the gridlocked Bangkok traffic at anything resembling a decent pace. In fact, I’ve learned to pray that there will be lots of traffic as the bike drivers tend to take on the spirit of Barry Sheen when there’s a gap of more than a few feet between cars and can reach impressive speeds in short distances.

I took the river taxi up the Chao Phraya river, one of my favourite river journeys, and tested out the G9. I’ve only just downloaded the pictures and they look OK, not so hot at higher ISO settings unfortunately but this isn’t a commercial camera so I’ll get away with it for what I want. The video quality looks a lot better than the Pro1 and the time-lapse video option will be good fun.

I took a couple of photos in a temple at Banglamphu and ran them through a Holga-effect Photoshop action. It softens the image, adds a vignette and some interference, adds a colour cast and a Holga-style border and the photo above will give you an idea of the result (click for larger version - the original is here). I’ve reintroduced a bit of colour in this shot by adding a layer mask to the greyscale layer that the action introduces and then gradually painting the colour back in.

I noticed that one of the trendy gadget stores in Siam Centre has a whole department dedicated to selling Holga and Lomo cameras. It’s obviously the trendy thing to have in one’s camera bag and the effect they produce is an appealing, if somewhat random, one. I’m sorely tempted to pick up a Holga for fun but wonder if it will simply end up being just another thing to carry around. Perhaps I can use my new G9 as a Holga and take advantage of the Photoshop actions? Although it would have been a whole lot cheaper just to buy the Holga to begin with.

I’m looking at more apartments tomorrow. I’m getting a good idea of which are the best areas to live in and already have my eye on one apartment that I think will be fine. It’s all coming together pretty quickly and I’m looking forward to getting settled in and starting to focus my attention on work. I’m giving myself ‘til Tuesday to get moved in somewhere and ‘til the end of the week to get everything sorted. I have another bag arriving from the UK on Thursday and am looking forward to unpacking and putting a few books on a shelf. Nothing makes me feel quite as much at home as putting books on shelf.

Tags: canon, g9, photoshop, holga

My sources suggest that today will be the day that Canon will announce the long-awaited arrival of the EOS 5D Mark II. Watch this space! And remember, you heard it here first.

Tags: canon

Canon have announced a new digital camera in their EOS range. The 450D will replace the 400D and features a 12.2 Megapixel sensor. Yikes!

With Live View, the EOS sensor cleaning system, 9-point auto-focus and 3.5 frames per second this is an entry-level camera that packs a lot of punch.

There's a full review over at dpreview.com.

Tags: canon, photography