Ant Tran

Last weekend, Jen and I decided to check out the new American Latin eatery that everyone is going nuts over.

It's called Barrio Comida and is located right on the Quayside, outside the law courts, where the quayside beach is during the summer. 

Sitting at the foot of luxe business buildings, at first glance, the compact restaurant looks humbly basic. Upon closer inspection, it becomes visible that the structure of the taco shack comprises of a couple of shipping containers crafted together with almost two whole sides cut away to be replaced with glass. It has a charming appearance that is both welcoming and unpretentious.

When we arrived, Barrio Comida's popularity was immediately evident; there were customers sat at almost every table. Upon entering through the sliding glass door, we were hit with the yummy smell of fried meat, fresh lime and coriander. Along with the exotic beats of Latin America and sun streaming through the huge windows, I felt like I had been transported to a distant land.

A selection of tacos are on the menu with what look like authentic fillings. The recommended portion size is 3 tacos per person. I chose the Carnie Asada, Cabeza and Camron. What's great about this taco shack is that the breads are naturally gluten-free and dairy-free which is perfect for Jen. When we spoke to the server about dietary intolerances, she was very knowledgable about the ingredients used within each of the dishes and was quick to make recommendations and suggestions about which tacos to choose. Jen ended up going for the Lengua, Camaron and Mole. We chose a cool looking soda called Jarritos and found a seat at the window facing the Tyne.

It didn't take long for our food to arrive. Served up on a modest paper plate the tacos looked colourful, hot and fresh off the grill. I've never ordered from a Latin American street vendor before but I expect it would be just like this.

This is food that is designed to be eaten with your hands and Barrio Comida, expect that from you. On each bench is a roll of paper towels that can be used to wipe up messy fingers. These guys know what they're doing. The grilled prawns of the "Camron" was definitely my favourite and one I would recommend. Don't let the thought of ox tongue put you off and try the "Lengua" too, which was Jen's preference.

The whole experience was a lot of fun, we got to try new food and listen to new music in a new location. Even after finishing our food, we felt like we were under no pressure to leave and continued to enjoy the atmosphere and watch people walking by along the riverside. By the time we were done, the place was a lot quieter but it still felt comfortable. We cannot wait to return to try the rest of the menu. If you ever find yourself down on the Quayside, be sure to check out Barrio Comida for an experience of Latin America.

This week at Soleheaven, I had the privilege of photographing the latest sneaker pack release from Saucony dubbed "Dirty Snow".

Influenced by icy blizzards the design features hard wearing white panels streaked with black fibers against plush suede and a translucent outsole.

To complement the winterised styling, I wanted to shoot them in a location that resembled a rocky outcrop on a snow capped mountain. Unsurprisingly, neither of those things can be found in Newcastle, plus we are currently experiencing a bout of really mild weather.

Being in a city, finding a location that could pass as a mountain side left us with few options. In the end, I chose to shoot on a small section of the remains of the old city wall. Flanked by a pub with some of the Tyne's finest bridges behind it, it wasn't perfect but sometimes it's just a case of making do and being very careful with positioning and composition to make sure any unwanted elements are left out of the frame.

With regards to the ice and snow, we ran through a few ideas including crushed ice, leftover scrapings from the local ice rink and a variety of artificial snow options. For the final selection, we went with Magic Snow; a non-toxic absorbent polymer that has a granular appearance until water is added.

The result is incredibly realistic snow. It was also convenient enough for us to make it on location and provided the right visual effect I was after without the fear of it melting, or being too cold to handle.

After sprinkling 'snow' over the scene, I took a few shots with Callum, the model. Here is an example of one of the images as it came out of the camera.

It looks good but a touch on the underexposed side and too green for my taste. When I returned to the store, I put the photos onto the computer and edited the images to match the visual I had in my mind. Here are the final results, including the above image after post processing.

Jen was on the rota to be working on Saturday and I was going to be giving her a lift to the office. Since the weather was clear and bright that morning, I decided to bring Lola along so that she could stretch her legs at Tynemouth beach. It would be a little treat for Lola as she's used to treading the predictable terraces of Heaton. Plus, it's only a few extra minutes away from where Jen works.

The usual weekend crowds had yet to arrive at Tynemouth and it was pretty quiet, apart from the early morning cyclists, runners and dog walkers. There were also a few surfers and swimmers who were braving it out in the North Sea.

Soleheaven is an independent sneaker store with its roots in Newcastle Upon Tyne. It stocks popular sports brands such as Nike, Saucony, New Balance, Vans, Diadora and Le Coq Sportif, as well as lifestyle products like Clarks Originals.

Even with a brick-and-mortar store in the heart of the city, Soleheaven takes full advantage of digital media outlets. In an online marketplace where everyone is clambering for attention, it is essential that the effort is made to stand out from the rest. A strategy chosen by Soleheaven is to have all the product imagery photographed on location, meaning that nothing is shot within a studio.

Such a process provides many challenges, including finding suitable backdrops that complement the sneakers as well as constantly being at the mercy of British weather. There have definitely been times when it has been pouring with rain or when the light has been poor and I've wished that I have been inside a dry studio and in command of the light. But at the same time, there is something about being out in the city that inspires me and sparks my imagination. There are colours and textures, reflections and shadows on the streets that I could never conjure if I was shooting in a studio. 

Here are some of my favourite images I've taken for Soleheaven during August.

Chain stores make all cities the same.

Let's face it, once you've visited one H&M, you've pretty much visited them all. Whilst there may be a few differences in their presentation, the majority of the experience will be the same. There's nothing wrong with that, in fact there's a lot to admire from a strong brand that can provide consistency across the globe but sometimes you want something a little different.

Independent stores might not be able to offer the selection that a chain can, or sell products at the same discount as Amazon but there's something special about browsing through the carefully curated choices in unique settings. I love experiencing the personality of smaller brands coming through the product, decor and music choices they've made.

Whenever we travel, Jen and I always make a list of the independent stores that we want to visit. Planning our day trip to Leeds this weekend was no different. Our first stop was in the grand Corn Exchange.

Back in the early 1900's the building was a bustling centre for the exchange and sale of corn wheat, barley, hops, peas, beans, seeds, oil cake and flour and hosted a farmers market and regular leather fair. In more recent years, it has been transformed into a host for independent retail enterprises including designer-makers, specialist retailers and foodie outlets.

All Blues Co. is a clothing retailer specialising in casual classics, heritage brands and Americana. Founded just this year, they already have some strong labels adorning their shelves, including Levis, Lee, Champion, Laboureur, Sperry and Red Wing Shoes. Even though their store has only been open 6 weeks, it has a well established feel that is cohesive and considered. We spoke to one of the brand's founders, Mano about the store and he was able to tell us about the products and why they had been chosen for All Blues Co. Yet another reason why independent stores trump big chains.

You can find All Blues Co. at The Corn Exchange and on Facebook.

Village is a small bookshop and gallery filled with selection of contemporary art, design, fashion and photography books, magazines and prints. Located in the stunning Thorntons Arcade amongst other well established independent stores, Village's bright window display provides an immediate indication that the collection within has been carefully curated. A print on the far side of the store states, "This is not a library" which is apt, as it'd be far too easy to get drawn into an article of a magazine you only intended to flick through. Be sure to check out the zines and pin badges during your visit too.

I love taking photos on film and the anticipation of seeing how they turned out. I get my films developed at ASDA Gosforth because it's good value at £2.50 a roll and the results are good enough for my purposes. I'll often get the images scanned onto a CD for an addition £2 for convenience but I choose not to get prints because I like to view and edit my photos first.

The digitised images on the CD are normally low res jpegs and are only really useful as a digital contact sheet. They are not high res enough to print and too compressed to properly edit. The printer's do their best to make sure that the images come out looking decent but they don't always output them the way you had in your mind, as shown below. Scanning the negatives is the logical step to get to high-res images that I can edit but I do not have access to a good negative scanner. Cheap scanners do seem to exist but online reviews suggest that you get what you pay for and until you start forking out the big bucks, it's not really worth it.

'Scanning' negatives with the use of a DSLR isn't a new technique and is simply taking a photo of a negative to digitise it. The benefits of this method is that it is accessible to everyone who has a DSLR and results in hight-resolution RAW files that are ideal for editing. The quality is far superior to the images on the CD but unlikely to match that of a good dedicated negative scanner. For now, it's good enough for me.

In comparison to buying a dedicated scanner it's inexpensive too, provided that you already own a DSLR and suitable lens. The additional peripherals required; macro tubes, slide duplicator and film strip holder cost around £50-60 in total.

If you have a box of old negatives lying around and you've only ever seen them in cheap prints or scanned in low res, I would totally recommend giving this a go to see your images in a new light.

So let's get to it.

 Digitising 35mm negatives using a DSLR

What you will need

DSLR camera

Mid range prime or zoom lens (preferably without a rotating front element)

Slide duplicator lens adaptor (Amazon link)

Film strip holder (Amazon link)

Macro tubes (Amazon link)

Tripod

Rocket blower

Good even light source (daylight is fine)

35mm negatives

Also useful to have:

Cotton gloves for handling negatives.

Strobe or flashgun as consistent light source.

Remote shutter release.

 Setting up the camera

Get your camera locked down on the tripod, you don't want it moving about.

Attach your lens to a suitable macro tube. The macro tube moves the lens forward so that it can focus on much closer things but sacrifices the ability to focus on far things. I use a 21mm tube on a 50mm lens on an APS-C camera which allows the negative to fit in the frame and focus on it.

If you use a lens that is too wide, you will have to crop into your image a lot, reducing your overall image resolution. If you use an lens that is too zoomed in, you might lose the edges of your negative.

If your slide duplicator lens adaptor comes with a "macro lens" like mine did, make sure you detach it. Using macro tubes does the same job but without involving a cheap glass/plastic lens that can degrade image quality.

Attach the slide duplicator to the filter threads on the end of your lens. You might need step up/down adapters so that it can attach to your particular lens (Amazon link). Be careful not to over tighten the slide duplicator as I found out myself, it can be a nightmare to remove!

Attach the lens contraption to the camera.

If the end of the slide duplicator is not straight, loosen the small screw on the barrel by hand and rotate the end piece so that it is aligned with the sensor.

 Preparing the negatives

Tiny bits of dust show up like crazy when scanning negatives so try to keep the area you are working as free of dust as possible.

Carefully place a strip of negatives into the film strip holder, making sure that each frame is centred without any gaps around the edges. I would recommend using cotton gloves for this as negatives love to attract finger prints too. If you don't have gloves, very carefully handle the negatives by the edges.

Once closed, use the rocket blower on each frame, front and back, to get rid of any dust.

Carefully slide the film strip holder into the slide duplicator, taking care that the images are not facing the wrong way.

Either look through the viewfinder or use LiveView to make sure that the entire negative is lined up in the frame.

Aquire the correct focusing distance either with autofocus or by using LiveView and doing it manually and then set your lens to manual focus to lock it there.

 Camera settings

Image Quality Set the image quality to RAW as we need as much flexibility as possible.

ISO Set the ISO as low as you can to prevent any extra grain.

Aperture Set the aperture towards the small end to keep things in focus. I go with f9.

White Balance As the negative has an orange tint, I select tungsten (3200k) to counter it. You could go with a custom WB but I find that 3200k is adequate.

Shutter Speed Shutter speed will vary depending on the amount of light you have available.

Exposure Metering Centre weighted metering works well as it ignores the black frame of the film holder.

 Taking the photo

As with any photo, we're looking to get a correct exposure without any shadow or highlight clipping. Putting the camera in Aperture Priority mode might work fine but I prefer the control and consistency of Manual Mode. 

Point the camera towards the light source. There is a diffusion panel on the back of the side duplicator to help spread light from smaller sources but a larger source will ensure an even exposure. White (sun light) or colder (blue) light work well as they counter the orange tint of the negative. With warmer light sources, it's easier to blow out the red channel which is something that we want to avoid.

I use a strobe as my light source as it's consistent and bright enough to use a fast shutter speed but natural light coming through a good window will work just as well.

It's fine to use a dim light source and a long exposure to capture the images too. When doing so, to minimise camera shake, you should use a remote shutter release or the countdown timer built into the camera.

I have used the LED flash from my phone before as a light source and it worked well but if you choose to do the same, do so at your own peril. I don't think it's designed to be on for extended periods of time.

Check your shots using the RGB histogram to make sure that none of the channels are clipping.

Note: There will be clipping in the shadows due to the black frame of the film holder but it's clear to see where it dips and the histogram for the negative begins. To be safe you can increase the exposure by a couple of stops whilst making sure the data stays within the graph area on the right side.

Keep an eye on the red channel especially as the highlights are easily blown out due to the colour of the negative.

Once you have a good exposure, slide the film holder along, line up the next frame and take the next shot. The camera settings shouldn't need to change much, if at all.

If you get into a good rhythm, you should be able to scan the negatives quite quickly, leaving you with lots of RAW negative files ripe for editing.

 Coming next: Editing the RAW negatives

I'll be covering the editing process in my next blog post, taking the digital negative and turning it into a correctly balanced positive. Sign up below to receive a notification when it goes live.

I love taking photos on film and the anticipation of seeing how they turned out. I get my films developed at ASDA Gosforth because it's good value at £2.50 a roll and the results are good enough for my purposes. I'll often get the images scanned onto a CD for an addition £2 for convenience but I choose not to get prints because I like to view and edit my photos first.

The digitised images on the CD are normally low res jpegs and are only really useful as a digital contact sheet. They are not high res enough to print and too compressed to properly edit. The printer's do their best to make sure that the images come out looking decent but they don't always output them the way you had in your mind, as shown below. Scanning the negatives is the logical step to get to high-res images that I can edit but I do not have access to a good negative scanner. Cheap scanners do seem to exist but online reviews suggest that you get what you pay for and until you start forking out the big bucks, it's not really worth it.

'Scanning' negatives with the use of a DSLR isn't a new technique and is simply taking a photo of a negative to digitise it. The benefits of this method is that it is accessible to everyone who has a DSLR and results in hight-resolution RAW files that are ideal for editing. The quality is far superior to the images on the CD but unlikely to match that of a good dedicated negative scanner. For now, it's good enough for me.

In comparison to buying a dedicated scanner it's inexpensive too, provided that you already own a DSLR and suitable lens. The additional peripherals required; macro tubes, slide duplicator and film strip holder cost around £50-60 in total.

If you have a box of old negatives lying around and you've only ever seen them in cheap prints or scanned in low res, I would totally recommend giving this a go to see your images in a new light.

So let's get to it.

 Digitising 35mm negatives using a DSLR

What you will need

DSLR camera

Mid range prime or zoom lens (preferably without a rotating front element)

Slide duplicator lens adaptor (Amazon link)

Film strip holder (Amazon link)

Macro tubes (Amazon link)

Tripod

Rocket blower

Good even light source (daylight is fine)

35mm negatives

Also useful to have:

Cotton gloves for handling negatives.

Strobe or flashgun as consistent light source.

Remote shutter release.

 Setting up the camera

Get your camera locked down on the tripod, you don't want it moving about.

Attach your lens to a suitable macro tube. The macro tube moves the lens forward so that it can focus on much closer things but sacrifices the ability to focus on far things. I use a 21mm tube on a 50mm lens on an APS-C camera which allows the negative to fit in the frame and focus on it.

If you use a lens that is too wide, you will have to crop into your image a lot, reducing your overall image resolution. If you use an lens that is too zoomed in, you might lose the edges of your negative.

If your slide duplicator lens adaptor comes with a "macro lens" like mine did, make sure you detach it. Using macro tubes does the same job but without involving a cheap glass/plastic lens that can degrade image quality.

Attach the slide duplicator to the filter threads on the end of your lens. You might need step up/down adapters so that it can attach to your particular lens (Amazon link). Be careful not to over tighten the slide duplicator as I found out myself, it can be a nightmare to remove!

Attach the lens contraption to the camera.

If the end of the slide duplicator is not straight, loosen the small screw on the barrel by hand and rotate the end piece so that it is aligned with the sensor.

 Preparing the negatives

Tiny bits of dust show up like crazy when scanning negatives so try to keep the area you are working as free of dust as possible.

Carefully place a strip of negatives into the film strip holder, making sure that each frame is centred without any gaps around the edges. I would recommend using cotton gloves for this as negatives love to attract finger prints too. If you don't have gloves, very carefully handle the negatives by the edges.

Once closed, use the rocket blower on each frame, front and back, to get rid of any dust.

Carefully slide the film strip holder into the slide duplicator, taking care that the images are not facing the wrong way.

Either look through the viewfinder or use LiveView to make sure that the entire negative is lined up in the frame.

Aquire the correct focusing distance either with autofocus or by using LiveView and doing it manually and then set your lens to manual focus to lock it there.

 Camera settings

Image Quality Set the image quality to RAW as we need as much flexibility as possible.

ISO Set the ISO as low as you can to prevent any extra grain.

Aperture Set the aperture towards the small end to keep things in focus. I go with f9.

White Balance As the negative has an orange tint, I select tungsten (3200k) to counter it. You could go with a custom WB but I find that 3200k is adequate.

Shutter Speed Shutter speed will vary depending on the amount of light you have available.

Exposure Metering Centre weighted metering works well as it ignores the black frame of the film holder.

 Taking the photo

As with any photo, we're looking to get a correct exposure without any shadow or highlight clipping. Putting the camera in Aperture Priority mode might work fine but I prefer the control and consistency of Manual Mode. 

Point the camera towards the light source. There is a diffusion panel on the back of the side duplicator to help spread light from smaller sources but a larger source will ensure an even exposure. White (sun light) or colder (blue) light work well as they counter the orange tint of the negative. With warmer light sources, it's easier to blow out the red channel which is something that we want to avoid.

I use a strobe as my light source as it's consistent and bright enough to use a fast shutter speed but natural light coming through a good window will work just as well.

It's fine to use a dim light source and a long exposure to capture the images too. When doing so, to minimise camera shake, you should use a remote shutter release or the countdown timer built into the camera.

I have used the LED flash from my phone before as a light source and it worked well but if you choose to do the same, do so at your own peril. I don't think it's designed to be on for extended periods of time.

Check your shots using the RGB histogram to make sure that none of the channels are clipping.

Note: There will be clipping in the shadows due to the black frame of the film holder but it's clear to see where it dips and the histogram for the negative begins. To be safe you can increase the exposure by a couple of stops whilst making sure the data stays within the graph area on the right side.

Keep an eye on the red channel especially as the highlights are easily blown out due to the colour of the negative.

Once you have a good exposure, slide the film holder along, line up the next frame and take the next shot. The camera settings shouldn't need to change much, if at all.

If you get into a good rhythm, you should be able to scan the negatives quite quickly, leaving you with lots of RAW negative files ripe for editing.

 Coming next: Editing the RAW negatives

I'll be covering the editing process in my next blog post, taking the digital negative and turning it into a correctly balanced positive. Sign up below to receive a notification when it goes live.

I was commissioned by Enlighten Design to photograph one of their latest projects, St Peter's Church. 

The vision here was to capture the effect of the exterior lighting installed by Enlighten Design against a dramatic sky during golden hour. The challenge I faced was balancing the ambient light and the fixtures correctly. Too much ambient light and the effect of the fixtures was lost but too little ambient light meant the silhouette of the roof was lost against the sky. 

St Peter's Church is located in Sunderland near the mouth of the River Wear and sits on spacious grounds. A super wide angle helped convey the space surrounding the building and allowed me to bring trees into the composition to help frame the architecture.

In addition to the images above, each scene was captured with the exterior lights turned off. An animation was created by blending the images together to give the impression of the lights coming on and then turning off again. This was done to help Enlighten's prospective clients more easily appreciate the effect and impact of the installed lighting.

These animations will be featured on Enlighten Design's new website, which is currently in development by Paul&Sam.

I had the pleasure of photographing for Alvarez Guitars' 2016 sales brochure.  Art direction was provided by design agency Paul & Sam who wanted high-key abstract imagery of the instruments from unusual angles, drawing focus onto the detail.

See the full image album here.

Many thanks to Paul & Sam and Rich Fish for their involvement with this project.

Following the success of my image Unexpected Gust at the Miami Street Photography Festival back in December 2015, I chose to enter it into a public contest run by Photocrowd.com under the category of Full-length portraits.

Competitions at Photocrowd have two winners, one which is judged by an invited expert and the other which is rated by the Photocrowd community.

The expert invited to judge the full-length portrait category was Michael Grecco, award-winning and internationally renowned photographer of celebrity portraits, advertising and editorial commissions, private collections, and fine art. 

It was exciting to hear that Michael had selected Unexpected Gust to place 2nd in the competition.

"I chose this as second place because it does a great job utilising the full body as an expressive and communicative tool: the outfit the girl is wearing compliments her surroundings and helps define her location, her hand expresses everything you need to know about the crux of the moment, and the scarf over the face and dog out of frame lends itself to enough mystery to keep the image intriguing. The light in the photo keeps the viewer's eyes moving and the colour is both energising and comfortable."  -- Micheal Grecco

Whilst it was a pleasure to have been awarded with that accolade, what was perhaps most interesting was that whilst Michael deemed my image was worthy of 2nd place, the Photocrowd community had placed it 422nd through individual ratings. The massive difference between these numbers is huge reminder of how subjective photography is. 

Critique can be a gift and a curse. Hearing that your image is great can really boost your confidence but on the contrary, hearing that it is terrible can have the opposite effect. I guess it's important to remember that everyone has different tastes and opinions to what makes a successful photograph.

This contest has taught me that an opinion is just that. Who is to say whether my image deserved to be placed 2nd or 422nd? I like that it was able to divide a crowd though, perhaps enough to initiate a discussion. I think it'd be really exciting to see that.