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I’ve been working on a much more refined image development workflow.

I have a precise idea in my head of how I want my images to display, and it takes a lot of work to get it right.

Its almost like a secret, how I finally got these images correct. It involves creating layers applying a special filter, and then editing whats under the filter,

Backwards steps to perfect the image. Counterintuitive, but Its the first time I felt I’ve got it exactly right.

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The Image coming off the camera is a very flat, lifeless thing.

The idea is to develop the flat image to the point that it bursts with energy and life, and gives the same emotional impression I felt at the time of being in that place, taking that image.

It felt like ‘magic moments’ at the time of capturing these images, so its a proper effort to try and instill the magic of the moment into the final images.

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I generally feel really disappointed with all my shots. I think all photographers do.

But, when I produce a collection like this, it tells a little story. There might be one standout form a collection like this, but I also like the variability within a collection, the nuances, and the way the B grade images support the leading images in a collection.

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This is a new process for me, and provided a lot more learning steps ready to implement for the next batch i develop.

The exciting this is, I’ve not yet gone out to photograph a place or subject knowing these new development ideas.

I can see how naive i was when i was out shooting, and I kinda need to play a fix up game in post production.

But knowing what I know now, I’ll go out shooting with new enthusiastic eyes.

And as lame as it sounds, I’ll know how to see the magic in front of me.

I’ll know the developmental potential in a scene, in a way I’ve know been able to see it in the past.

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These images are MEGE processed.

There is so much processing potential with the hasselblad cameras, its extremely satisfying.

But, when shown to friends for feedback they couldn’t tell that the images had filters applied.

So thats a win.

And I’m pretty satisfied with this collection.

Alex James

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don’t forget the selfies… 💪

Hats are the sign of a committed photographer.

A rare overcast day on the top of island Hvar

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So I bought a journal, a guided journal thats asked me; Whats my goal? Summarise three things you want to achieve.

I know I want to be a photographer, and adventurer, and i want to have a wide and positive influence on people.

I want to see this beautiful world we live in, and admire it in all its fascinating complexity.

I summarised that I want to be like the Anthony Bourdain of photography. (RIP)

I’ve been on this mission for a couple of years now. This trip up Ben Nevis is an intermediate step in the right direction.

I can see from my camera presentation, my photography and my physique that there is a lot for me to work on.

But it’s within reach to become a youtube/ social media photography personality, with a wide positive influence.

After editing this video, and thinking about all aspects of what I’m delivering here, what I’m trying to put together, I’d grade myself a D.

But the exciting thing is, I can clearly see what it will take to become an A grade photographer, and photography personality

So in this vlog, as mediocre as it is, I’m going to ruminate on the things i have to work on, and how to get them right. This is a journal after all.

Video link here https://youtu.be/knS-1sufdFI

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There is so much more I can do, that I haven’t even started on yet.

Step one, lose 8kgs. The morning of that video I weighted in at 86.5kgs. Its now been 4 weeks since and I’m down in the 82 range. No one wants to watch a chubby, lazy looking slovenly dadbod panting around the world taking photos. Step up the diet discipline, work outs, and proper sleep.

Every video should have 4 good time lapses. Every time I stop for a sit down, a stretch, gear reshuffle I need to set up a gopro for a lapse. When I’m out like this I actually have two gopros with me. The best ever gopro mount is a clip. you can clip two go pros on your bag straps, but with different settings.

I’m shocked to say that this blog was filmed with a gopro 8. Its stable as a rock, great colour, and shockling good audio? Who knew. I also have my sony a7siii which ill bring for future endeavour, but gopro for the win for combinations of timelapses.

Cinematics. I’m talking dramatic drone scenes, shallow shallow depth of field dslr work, Macro videography close ups. I love the essence of these places I get to see. And the essence is the detail, and the big picture. The whole theme of the place as seen from wide done shots, and the texture of the place as seen under the macro micro scope. I admit this takes time, and literally doubles the time of a hike. Butt hats the point, take the time, trial and error shots until you get them right. There hours between stops to dream up your next cinematic sequence, so pay attention to your surrounds.

Every video should have 3/4 cinematics. People love the romance of a story, some drama in presentation, and some exaggeration of the norm of an outdoor walk. I love it. So I’ll indulge it. I don’t know why I feel like I’m indulging myself in a selfish way when I put time into that kind of creativity? Maybe it’s the millennial in me?

The places I seek out are beautiful, the times of day I set out to enjoy these places are beautiful. So show its beauty through my eyes.

Now… why do this?….

The bloody VIBE.

I was thinking about my lack of vibe. What I love about Casey Neistat, Jon Olsson and even athena mellor are their vibes.

I’m blessed blessed blessed to have got the chance to take my life in this direction from such a young age. I need to spread that vibe, A simple good feeling.

I have this heavy burdenous feeling hanging over me that there is so much I’ve yet to ‘get right’ in my production, and coordination of of these expedition videos. I have told myself that once i get this production to a better, more satisfactory level I’ll be happy.

Well i’m almost there, I’m a happy soul, I should let a lot more of that out. I’m ambitious, and I have my work, and an artist is never happy and all that. But, I do love the process, and the variability, and the privilege of time resource and space to explore - that can and will be delivered. Smiles are easily accessed if you take some pressure of yourself. And your smile can change someones day… or life.

Infotainment. Get some facts and include them

Personalities, include more people.

Tones, lets get some luts, and some lightroom looks up in here for some emotional themes.

SFX, i really liked the music in this video, and wasnt as hard as i thought to get a hold of. I’ll add in some sound design to add dimension to the users experience and some theatri-cism to the presentation here.

So overall, as i said this was a D grade delivery. But a lot to learn. Importantly, I see how it’s a stepping stone to a B grade delivery, and then later even better,

I see myself doing this kind of thing for the rest of my life, so the more I get it right early, the more enjoyable the journey will be.

There is so much pleasure to be taken from the trajectory this journey is curving towards.

No one reads these early vlogs, but I’m glad to keep a journal, sort out ideas and feelings in my mind, and chip away at the progress. I’m a horrific typer, I hope it gets better.

:)

Alex James

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top of the uk, touched it, then a group of louts infringed my moment of glory

don’t forget the selfies… 💪

you’d smile too if you saw sun in scotland, in december

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A return to the location of my lockdown!

Ive come back here because I know it well. Here I can put into practise my new equipment, workflow and test myself against the weather while not risking getting lost in the wilderness, in the winter in northern Scotland, where I’ll be in a week or two.

Video link here https://youtu.be/knS-1sufdFI

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During lockdown I walked these hills about 60 times in the 90 odd days I was here. It was my fitness regime while gyms were closed. And I always wished I could bring my amazing camera, and videogrpahy camera up here easily,

I wanted to be able to bring my photography camera and blogging camera with me anywhere, anytime, any weather.

When I left this location after lockdown I set to work on getting my media mobility coordinated. I wanted to be able to effortlessly get up and go. And shoot the world around me, and bring viewers friends and family along for the ride.

The world is beautiful. And the hasselblad cameras make it look like a renaissance water painting. I try and make the images look ok as well, and I know my way around photoshop.

So here on this vlog are the first times I can show these pentland hills in all their beauty. They’re simple enough regional parkland hills. But to me they’ll always be especially beautiful as they were a place of healing and evolution.

reviewing these photos again, I can’t believe how beautiful Hasselblad can make the hills and the weather look. It’s truly satisfying shooting with that camera, and fulfilling to share the images here.

But not just the images, the adventure, the story is just as important and oftentimes more meaningful to both the creator and the audience. This time I was able to easily bring a little videogrpahy camera - the Sony ZV1. On a little gorilla pod thing.

I was really please with the audio on this camera given how windy and horrible the conditions where. I was mumbling through the face covering and the wind was ripping over the top of the hill at about 30-40knots.

Its a convenient little camera, but lacks the ability for easy cinematography.

For that I have the sony A7Siii locked and loaded and ready to take up the next day.

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So good to get out and do a classic 16km hike. Photos and videos TRULY effortlessly included.

And, now so importantly, it’s effortless to have a throughput. A place to publish all this. To record and index these moments and adventures.

I know that I’m unemployable in the real world. So I better get good at this.

With the sense of adventure, equipments and some traction on this platform, the sky’s the limit.

What is the sky in this metaphore? Inspiration and escapism. I love photography because it really can make me gasp and have emotional reactions. I love photography because it takes my mind away from my own issues, and distracts me from my own bad feelings.

I dreammmmm to be able to provide the same to others. Now and then, when inspiration and escapism are needed.

Alex

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Hangover walks are essential. Medical walks made magical by autumn leaves, very low sunrises and wispy fog.

The first walk I’ve done since my vehicle has been completed. I was able to simply wake up, grab my gear, and chase the light. A major breakthrough. And a major relief after 4 years of failed attempts to get it right.

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Its all well and good to have a good camera, and some skill as a photographer. But who cares if you don’t have a platform, and a good work flow?

Your photography doesn’t matter to anyone if you have no way of delivering it. Once you have a place to deliver it, like this website, then it then becomes a game of how efficiently can you deliver it.

All the while factoring in commercialising your images. Selling framed images and prints.

Overall, experience is the key, The more you do something, the slicker you get at it.

So here I am, getting the first renditions up, so I can get faster, more efficient, and then more artistic - later.

Once its clear in my mind how to take an idea in my head, and present it online, with the facility of purchase factored in - then the process becomes really fun. Adventure and creativity. What you image is what you can publish.

You can tell a worthwhile story to a willing waiting audience.

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And so I’m having another conundrum. I take a lot of pictures and only a very select few are worth of posting. A couple of those are worth making available to print. And about 1 in 4000 images is worth selling. Framing and selling.

None the less, its really nice to get beautiful visual imagery delivered via blog, or email, or facebook on a bi-weekly basis.

The question is how do I link up this entire website to make the review and purchase available. And how do i decide which goes into the collection, and which remain simply as prints?

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I’m absolutely stocked to have this orchestra of amazing gear finally come together. Hasselblad X1D. Sony a7siii and now a website to publish the content to.

Ideally every post will be a nice combination of photography, prose, and videography.

All things that I have a lot of experience with, but until now, no where to post to.

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Furthermore on workflow, what i want to know next is - can iI convert blog posts directly into emails to send out to the email list? I’ll finish adding the video edit to the post, and then see whats possible. I’m sure there is a way. I’ll just have to figure it out.

Hope you liked these couple of photos, it’s been fun doing this practise blog.

Alex James - From the office in london.

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In an ocean of landscape photographers, you must do what you can to stand out. 3D mocks-ups are one way.

I’ll want to post some of the concept here to see how they look, and then blow, cropped in versions of the same thing.

The mock ups are fully automated into a huge range of scenes. The mock ups are custom built. So I know Alex James Galleries are unique in this sense.

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I’m interested to see how the images look inline of blogs and emails? I thought you had to upload the key images as image galleries, but it turns out its better to upload them as products.

So lets test out how it looks here.

The past three days have been a state of despair.

There’s been a windstorm over Scotland for 3 days. Temperatures have been around the ten degree mark. But when you blow winds at gusts of 50kmph its too dangerous to exercise outside. And where i normally hike, the wind gusts would be 70kmph or more, which would mean you’d literally get blown over the cliff faces to death.

Lock down mandate has been to stay at home - which is fine. But this windstorm as forced me to stay inside. Which has got me feeling extremely sad and upset. Its like a prison. Imprisonment by weather.

I realise now I need to get out of the united kingdom. ASAP, so that I can get back to the UK later this year and have a reasonable amount of time left on my visa to work.

Also, other European countries are about to implement a reciprocal self isolation mandate for people who leave the UK and enter european countries. So, if i can’t get out soon enough, once I get to Netherlands, I may be forced to lock down inside the vehicle for 14 days, and this is a serious quarantine. No groceries, no exercise.

I love hiking and training every single day, but when there is a 5 day windstorm, I’ve been able to do nothing. I wake up at 3pm, and go to bed at 9pm.

I’m sitting here typing with 45kmph winds ominously battering the outside of the vehicle. It sounds like a horror movie. I’m watching the day after tomorrow to really embrace the ominousness of it all.

I’m awaiting paperwork from australia to arrive to grant financial support during this lockdown crisis. I started this application 4 weeks ago, and now need to the papers to be sent to scotland, signed, and sent back, for the financial support to be delivered. That process could take 3-6 weeks longer.

When I drive out of here I will live, for free, at truck shelters and in the carparks of national parks. if i can get to europe before they impose 14 days quarantine, I’ll literally have every national park, every tourist location to myself.

It will be a travelers, photographers dream. A luxurious vehicle to travel and sleep in with all my equipment. The end destination is Austria. Everything is open, and its its a visual playground. I’ll drive through switzerland, hike, skate, ride, drone the hell out of the place.

But until then, until I get the papers, and until this storm lifts, I’m stuck trapped inside the vehicle.

I had been walking 14-16km a day. Now, its too windy to walk. You need goggled to walk to the grocery story. Its too dangerous to skate without being blown off. And it may be too dangerous to drive as the weather may uproot trees.

I did a 35 day health challenge in an effort to lose the horrible fatness I’ve gained in the last twelve months. I worked my ass off and got it done.

I lost 6 Kilograms, 13 pounds with a combination of cardio, HIIT, resistance training, calisthenics, cutting out alcohol, sleeping well, mobility and dietary scarifies.

But guess what?

Those kind of diet cuts, and extreme physical workload, walking training, caloric deficits, exhausts you to your bones. So I lost the 6 kilos, and I’m going strong, but I feel dead.

After the 35 day challenge finished I ate some cookies and felt sick. I slept 18 hours a day for 2 days in a row, and the ominous storm set upon us here. Its been a huge emotional crash.

I feel flat, its like a state of despair. Its horrible.

I woke up yesterday at 4pm. Or, I didn’t bother to get up until 4pm, and then at 9pm I went for a walk, in a state of despair.

I took my Sony a7rii and the 24-105 f4.

Its so uncomfortable walking in horrible wind. eyes are constantly full of dust, its incredibly noisy, and its a huge pain to simply stroll when you’re being blown off balance where you stand.

But, despite all that, despite feeling rotten, and sad, and down, and helpless; I remembered how beautiful the world is.

Within 5 minutes of leaving my front door I saw the following moments in the slideshow below.

Simple country beauty. Sunsets, light beams and angelic horses, and rainbows and vistas.

Be gone weather. I have things to do.

I’m watching ominous movies like everest until this stupid wind storm passes.

For pentland hills in edinburgh. From my lonely bench.

Alex James

The view from the loneliest cold bench.

Good news on all fronts here.

This website and blog is coming together well. I have every confidence what this platform will be once its complete.

For years I’ve not been able to create the images and content I’ve waned because I have not had the platform, to tell my stories, showcase my images, and have the e-commerce to sell and ship them

Without these platforms, and without and outlet to sell…whats the point? I have hundred of images to sell that are not yet showcased. And a harrowing story to put it all together that’s not yet been told.

With this site - images can be displayed, and I can share this absurd adventure I’m on. This adventure I love. This absurdity I love.

There are so many interesting things to learn about the story telling process, creation, delivery, optimisation, and work flow.

While this site is under construction I’m putting up some practice posts, and testing some functions, to see how the whole publishing/telling workflow comes together.

So far so good. With every post more insights on how to do better next time.

Good news is that EUROPEAN SUMMER SEASON IS ON! The big revelation was that the croatian yacht tours will be back on full tilt 10 days before we plan to arrive.

Mean’s back in business for me, and means thats my release from 4 months lock down in the cold scotland will be my european home of Hvar. A welcome return to home after our generations most suppressed year in memory.

I’ve used my time brilliantly to find real happiness. Happiness I’ve not know since 2015.

My finances, my weight, my businesses, my infrastructures, are working, reliable and on point. A vision I conjured in 2015 is finally coming true.

A dream is coming true.

And can be reanimated in Croatia 2020. 5 years of struggle later.

Nice to muse away here, no one reads this, yet. Most importantly this is a place to express and vent. And something to do with my excessive energy.

See ya in Croatia, July 16th. For 4 Weeks.

Alex James

Without anywhere legal to go during the Uk lockdown i was forced to stay put at any site that can host motorhomes.

Once i realised this condition I knew we’d be in this for a good couple of moths, so i wanted to try and choose a decent location.

I aimed at edinburgh. The outskirts of edinburgh, where I could do some excercise in the little highlands, but not be too far from the city.

Most days I do a 14 or 20 kilometer hike. And hill sprints throughout.

The battle of the fat gut is real, and must be overcome.

I don’t normally take serious camera gear up the hill, but yesterday I took the lightweight sony a6600 to see how it performed as a landscape photogrpahy camera… and i have to say it did ok.

I’ll save hasselblad for the serious imagery. but it was enlightening to know what a simple camera could deliver when the only task is to tell my story, and not weight me down.

The other critcal aspect of this operation was to be able to get images from me to content consumer easily.

A huge mistaek ive made in the past is rendering images that are 1-3mbs. Now, I’m rendering much smaller, and lower qualitiy images that are find for web viewing, and most importantly fast and reliable to upload, around 200kb.

But for the stunning full res images I still have the option of prodibi, as for the one full res image below, before the full gallery of all the image of the march.

check them out, and enjoy.

The image below is uncompremised, and can be viewed in full res. The images in gallery are produced efficiently for web sharing.

Compulsory selfie included.

more highland cows than jurassic park

I want to make note that these photos below were taken with a poultry Sony A660.

This is a little cropped frame sensor camera that I use for vlogging and videogrpahy. It’s not renowned for its photographic ability.

But alas, the photos are pretty beautiful. Thats a testament to the kinds of sunsets that you get in the pentland hills outside of edinburgh.

Seeing these results set me on a course to mobilising my hasselblad camera. I wanted to be ale to walk and photograph everything, all the time. You never know when an unmissable moment is gong to reveal itself.

Sony a6600 inspired me.