Off to a solid november
Things, this month, are so far looking pretty good. It’s been a decent start to the month with enough coming in and a second week already shaping up quite well that I am feeling reasonably comfortable. November can be a funny old month though and the rug could be pulled at any moment!
That said, next week I have a trial job which will hopefully set up a new client. I have been looking for an extra solid partnership for some time to make the business a little more resiliant to the vaguaries of the housing market! Taking on another, quite large, successful company should provide that layer of security - particularly over the quiet months - and also allow me to move away from the unprofitable agency work to a large extent (if not completely) which has almost entirely evapourated over the last 18 months anyway.
The additional fincancial stability will also allow me to start planning for the future better, in terms of some exciting projects and some new kit that has been needed for a while! The changes in the Drone Laws coming in January have made me hold back on any upgrades or replacements for some time as it is - to the point that my main aircraft is now in for major repairs as it has been so heavily used (which has come at a terrible time as I really need it this week, and it won’t be back until probably next!). A replacement when the entire market is about to be shaken up made no sense though, and with the shift in regulations there is a good opportunity to start an upgrade cycle with the smallest and weakest being replaced first. I am also going to renew my qualifications for drones early in the New Year, and I think I will shift from the GVC which has become increasingly expensive and irrelevent to the A2 CofC which fits much better with the work I do and still allows most of the freedoms that the more complex qualification does.
My main camera - the Z6II - is also getting quite a lot of miles on the clock so I think it is probably about time to replace that. The Z6 family is absolutely perfect for most of my commercial work still so I think that the mark III is the obvious way to go for a replacement, unless a ZF II comes along soon that is! My digital landscape camera is currently the Z7II and there is no need to change that, but I am waiting to see what the next itteration of the Z8 looks like as it may sway me to upgrade! That said, most of my landscape work is intended to shift onto film with the DaYi panoramic camera taking on the bulk of the work and the Fujifilm GSW690 being more of a notepad to explore ideas for now. I do fancy a Pentax medium format SLR perhaps… and there is a part of me being tempted by a large format field camera too!
Or perhaps a medium format digital….
Anyway, that is all for later - just now I am working hard on developing a set style that moves me forward. I am still assessing film emulsions for fine art black and white which is coming down mostly to Ilford PanF and Delta 100, but I haven’t managed to get hold of any Ortho 80 as yet and the results I have seen from others using that film are very encouraging. I am mostly using two focal lengths on the panoramic camera anyway, and don’t see any need to alter that. What I may do is determine which focal lengths of those convert to 35mm/standard medium format ratios and converge my landscapes around just two options… I want a consitancy in my work so that anyone seeing my photographs knows that they are my photographs! I may yet narrow that down to a single lens so far as landscapes are concerned (my property photography is already down to a single focal length most of the time).
So - plenty going on as we move into the darker months… and I am feeling like things are moving in the direction I want too!
Here are some images from this weeks commercial work anyway!
