Tim Gander, Author at Tim Gander, Photographer, Bristol

June 26, 2025 by Tim Gander

YouTubes and Rabbit Holes

A question often asked of professional photographers, myself included, is “what camera can you recommend?”

Spoiler alert, I don’t know every model of camera available (there are MANY) and I don’t know what your end use will be, but in the spirit of the YouTube generation I suggest you stick around to the end of this article and I’ll attempt to offer some pointers.

Screenshot from YouTube search for camera reviews.

YouTube advice is a-plenty

Going Down The Tube

Speaking of Youtube, it’s become apparent that if you watch video content about all the latest cameras and lenses, the gear (to many people) has become more important than photography itself.

How do I know this? Well because in my quest to update my work cameras, I fell down multiple rabbit holes and watched a lot of waffle about the specifications of this camera verses that camera and a lot of “STOP BEFORE YOU EVEN THINK TO BUY THE LATEST *insert camera make and model here*” -style nonsense.

Luckily for me I only needed to check a few models because I’m now a pretty committed user of Panasonic cameras. For anyone starting from scratch, the choice is bewildering.

Finding genuinely useful information isn’t as easy as you would hope it to be. Often the specifications of various models are reeled off at breakneck speed like they’re comparing the abilities of a range of F1 racing cars. Everything comes down to specs and speed, while very little ‘air time’ is given to the real-world performance or picture quality of any given make or model.

Useful info for me is to know how the image quality holds up under a variety of conditions, but if you do find sample photos taken with a specific camera, they’re usually pretty random and uninformative. There will be a flower, a rusty car, a sunset, a neon sign, some graffiti. There’s certainly never a properly-lit, well-composed portrait, for example, so comparing skin tones or fine hair detail is pretty tricky.

Of course I don’t expect a YouTuber to go out and photograph a set of corporate images for a client website just so I can see how the camera performs in the situations I’m normally covering. That would be unrealistic, but it’d be helpful to see more in the way of portraits and interiors. It would help to know how the autofocus performs in sub-optimal conditions (ie a portrait taken against a bright background). The problem is, YouTube photographers are only photographers on YouTube. Very few take pictures for a living and they have to cater for the single largest group, hobby photographers. And hobby photographers are usually more interested in speed and specifications than photography itself.

Achievement Unlocked

Regardless of these niggles, I have come through the ordeal and updated both of my camera bodies. To be honest, I could have eked out a few more years’ use from my existing gear, but it’s not a bad idea to sell it while it has some residual value and the new versions definitely added one or two really useful benefits for the work I do.

The primary benefit has been the upgrade in autofocus performance. My existing cameras weren’t as bad as YouTube reviewers would have you believe, but I always had to be aware of situations in which it might struggle. The new kit is certainly more reliable and accurate in that regard.

Another feature which I’m going to find very useful is rather niche; I can now back up images directly from my cameras onto a portable hard drive. This negates lugging a laptop around if I just want to keep files secure while I’m on the go. If there is one thing I’m a bit paranoid about it’s that camera cards can become corrupt, or physically broken, lost or stolen.

I’ve gone with two versions of the same model; one is high-resolution for when that’s useful (pictures to be used for large displays) and the other is standard resolution and a bit more nimble in terms of moving files around.

“What’s Your Recommendation, Tim?!”

Ok, those aren’t necessarily features you’ll be looking for when choosing a camera, so what should you be looking for? Like anything, that depends on many factors. Mainly that will be budget and usage.

My main advice would be to check out the used market. Secondhand camera prices are incredibly reasonable for what you can get. The same goes for lenses, and I often hunt out used options where possible. As long as a lens has been looked after, there’s no need to shell out for a new one.

Most cameras manufactured in the past 10 or more years will do everything you need and more, so think about size and weight as much as about budget. A camera that is too heavy to cary long distances will end up left at home.

Think Format First

In this regard, think about the camera format – full-frame cameras are larger and heavier than those of a smaller format such as APSC or Micro 4/3rds (sometimes labelled M4/3 or MFT). In fact I have a Panasonic MFT format camera which is great for traveling with and lots of MFT cameras and lenses are available new and used. Look for Panasonic and Olympus for this format.

For general purpose, family snaps or travel, maybe an APSC camera will suit you; Canon and Fuji tend to lead in this field. The cameras will be marginally larger than with MFT format gear, but pixel-level quality will be a small step up too.

If sports action or wildlife are your thing, be prepared to carry a beast of a kit bag around because you’ll need longer telephoto lenses and a camera body that can keep up with the pace. You might also need a camera that has a level of weather-sealing. Canon, Nikon and Sony all have excellent models to choose from, and some of the discontinued professional bodies are incredible bargains now.

Say Hello To Woundwort For Me

The bad news is that having homed in on a lens/camera combo that you think might suit you, you’re bound to end up researching it on YouTube, and only rabbit holes and despair live there. Just don’t forget to click Like and subscribe!

June 17, 2025June 17, 2025 by Tim Gander

Another (Almost) Anniversary

Apart from a break for the Covid-19 pandemic, this is an event I’ve photographed for 10 consecutive years!

It’s a bit of an outlier in terms of the work I do, but it’s always interesting and rewarding.

The Event

And what is it I hear you ask? Well of course it’s the annual IRTE Bus & Coach Skills Challenge, operated through the Society of Operations Engineers and hosted at S&B Automotive Academy in Bristol.

Yes, that’s all a bit of an eyeful of info, so I’ll attempt explain it more simply. Basically, it’s a chance for bus and coach mechanics (the people who keep our public service vehicles running safely) to test their knowledge and skills and to learn new processes and approaches in a competitive environment.

This year’s skills challenge spanned four days, each with fresh teams arriving at S&B from all over the country, with mechanics and engineers registered to compete in mechanical, electrical and bodywork challenges.

Each day was a hive of activity with welding, cutting and panel beating in the body workshop, and electrical fault diagnostics, tappet measuring, vehicle safety and roadworthiness inspection and for the second year running, a test of an engineer’s approach to testing a high voltage circuit; increasingly important as road vehicles switch to battery power. There are too many sections to list, but suffice to say it’s a long and busy day for all involved.

The Job

My job every year is to capture each competitor in action so that should they win, there’s a good clear photo of them for the awards ceremony and souvenir brochure. The images also get used across the SOE website, printed materials and promotional assets (posters, banners etc). Because of this, I work to ensure there’s a good spread of library images from each day.

I also aim to ensure sponsors get coverage too, with at the very least a photo showing their presence and ideally working their branding into an action shot or two.

By the end of the four days, I aim to have achieved a mixture of team shots, fly-on-the-wall documentary-style action images and a few posed shots too. At lunchtime I’ll send a few rush pics to the client for immediate social media posts, delivering the full edit before I go to bed.

The First Year

I remember the first day I ever shot this event; I hadn’t been particularly well briefed, and it wasn’t until part way through the day that I was told I’d need to get a shot of every competitor. That spiced things up a bit, but I got it all done.

Another regular challenge for me is that many of the activities involve engineers working with their heads down, often measuring or looking at something. I need faces, not tops of heads, so if I can’t find an angle that works, I will often pose a competitor once they’ve completed the challenge they’re working on. This year, on the whole, I was able to get what I needed mid-action.

The Next Ten?

I somehow doubt I’ll be doing this job for another ten years – it’s a lot of running around, bending and holding awkward positions for periods of time, but I’ll do it for as long as I can and for as long as SOE wants me to do it.

In the meantime, for this year, the past 10 years and however many years to come, I’d like to thank SOE for engaging me on this one and to express my gratitude to all the patient mechanics who have to put up with me in a stressful situation. Special thanks also to Richard Belton at S&B Automotive Academy for his seemingly never-ending willingness to help and for listening to my terrible jokes for four days solid.

A bearded man in safety glasses and high-visibility vest and thick gloves looks down on a shaped sheet of steel he is holding and cutting.

Jason Bates of Reading Bus in action in the body shop.

A bearded male bus engineer in goggles, hat and high-vis vest shines his head torch on a set of instructions so he can read them in a welding bay of a workshop.

Competitors are often reminded to check the instructions as they go.

A mechanic in orange and blue overalls reads a pamphlet on Varta batteries, There is a large Varta sign just behind him.

Gary Walsh of Metroline works on a written test at the Varta station.

A bus engineer in orange high-vis overalls bends in to listen for a leak from some coloured hydraulic pipes.

Vince Hourd of Trent Barton listens for a hydraulic leak in a door operating system.

A mechanic in yellow and blue overalls holds a thick yellow rubber glove to his mouth to blow air into it to test for any leaks.

Martin Andres Hueche Bizama of Trent Barton tests safety gloves for breaks during preparation for working on a high-voltage battery unit.

On the left an older man in glasses, blue shirt and tank top points to something on a piece of paper that an engineer on the right is holding and looking at. He is younger with darker hair and glasses.

Competitor and assessor working together.

A bald man in white T shirt with a tattooed arm uses a torch to look into an inspection bay of a bus. He is also holding a small hammer. He is wearing glasses.

Danny Duffy of Grays of Ely undertakes the vehicle inspection challenge.

in Bristol / Case Studies / corporate communications / coverage / Event photography / photographer 1 comments

May 21, 2025May 27, 2025 by Tim Gander

25 Years of Digital (almost)

A few days ago I ventured into our attic where I came across the storage cases for my early digital work; 340 CDs and DVDs dating from November 2000.

It didn’t immediately register that this means I’ve been shooting digitally for almost 25 years! I reckon I only shot film for about the first 10 years of my career, which is another sobering thought on multiple levels.

The Time Had Finally Come

But seeing those cases of CDs for the umpteenth *damn* time, I finally decided to bring them down and start transferring them to a hard drive. The discs won’t last forever, especially being alternately boiled and frozen in the attic. Eventually the hard drive too will die and my archive will be landfill.

Brief side-note; apart from properly (expensively) stored negatives, transparencies or prints, no photographic format is immune from decay over time. I’m convinced that no amount of care can preserve digital images indefinitely, and analogue formats will always be more robust. But that’s a separate discussion.

Old Tech to the Rescue

Anyway, back to the plot. I’ve rigged up an older MacBook Pro with the DVD reader/writer I used to use, and connected a spare external hard drive. It’ll be my archiving station until the project is done.

Your job now is to rejoice as I share some of those early digital images. Don’t worry, you won’t have to suffer this until the 50th anniversary, when I’ll be in my early 80s. I doubt my nurse will let me near a computer by then.

Enjoy!

PY Gerbeau (left) and the then deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at a press conference staged on the roof of the Millennium Dome in London.

P-Y Gerbeau (left) was credited with rescuing the Millennium Dome project...

DJs Fatboy Slim (left) and his then wife Zoe Ball are wrapped up for winter as they walk away from Brighton pier. Zoe is pushing a pram while Mr Slim is carrying a small dog inside his jacket.

An exclusive of the couple for News of the World

Princess Margaret leaves King George VII hospital aided by a nurse.

An early "scoop" with my first digital SLR, the Canon D30.

Actress Martine McCutcheon signs a copy of her book in Harrods, London

A barely-in-focus photo of Martine McCutcheon

Notes on the photos:

Millennium Dome press conference 30th December 2000 – P-Y Gerbeau was credited with rescuing the flailing Millennium Dome project and appeared for a press conference on the roof of the structure alongside Deputy PM John Prescott, who couldn’t have been more miserable if he’d tried.

Zoe and Fat Boy Slim 29th December 2000 – I’d been sent to assist a News of the World reporter tasked with finding celebrities and asking them general knowledge questions to see how bright they were. While the reporter got his s**t together having had a bit too much fun in his hotel room the night before, I toddled off and got a fun spread of pictures of Zoe Ball and Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) walking on Brighton Pier. When the reporter finally turned up and asked Zoe and Mr Slim to answer some questions, he was told to eff off and that was that. My images made a double page spread in NotW and Heat Magazine.

Princess Margaret leaving King George VII Hospital 20th January 2001 – I was sent along by News of the World to catch a photo of Princess Margaret leaving hospital. I knew two other NotW staffers were already there, but I also knew they were using film cameras. By shooting digital, I was able to file from the scene and my shots made the paper just because they arrived at the desk first.

Martine McCutcheon book signing at Harrods 25th November 2000 – My first digital SLR, a Canon D30, was pretty dreadful in low-light conditions. The autofocus just couldn’t keep up, so my shots from this press call are soft to say the least. I include this image to air my shame.

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April 2, 2025April 2, 2025 by Tim Gander

Photo|Frome is Looming

View of the front of Frome Library with extremely large format vinyl photographic prints attached to the walls showing the work of Joanne Coates

Frome Library wears the work of Joanne Coates

After a fallow year in 2024, Photo|Frome is set to return with a bang in 2025. In fact, it’s nearly upon us and installation has started!

I should start by saying that due to a combination of personal and professional commitments, I have much less involvement in this year’s festival than in 2022 and 2023. For the planning of Outdoor Exhibitions in 2025, I’ve taken on a more limited advisory role to assist de-facto new head of outdoor Mark Somerville, who’s done a grand job from a standing start.

And so on Monday of this week I was back on a scissor lift, helping a great team of volunteers to install massive vinyl prints on the outside of Frome Library. In 2023 this consisted of a collaboration between myself and the photographers of T House, an Italian collective.

This year’s star of this most visible of locations shows a small selection of images from Joanne Coates’ project “The Lie of the Land” which looks at rural life through working class and low-income communities, encompassing issues of gender and heritage and human impact on the landscape.

I haven’t necessarily summed it up very well, so do explore Joanne’s work more thoroughly here.

The wider festival, which runs from 5th – 27 April, promises to be exciting as exciting as ever, with a breadth and depth of exhibitions which will have something for everyone (always an aim of Photo|Frome).

Just returning to the library show for a moment, it’s also worth mentioning that the vinyl posters from 2023’s show have been recycled into bespoke, each-one-unique, handmade tote bags which will be available for sale at this year’s festival. Or if you’re interested in owning one, drop me a line via tim@timgander.co.uk. They are very limited edition (I believe just over 60 were made before we ran out of material), so don’t hang about!

Finally, just to say that if you are planning on visiting Photo|Frome, drop me a line so we can meet up if time allows. Either way, enjoy your visit!

Thank you to Photo|Frome’s sponsors:

MPB is Photo|Frome’s Official Sponsor, the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photo and video gear.

Arts Council England Photo|Frome is supported using public funding by the National lottery through Arts Council England.

Frome Town Council is Photo|Frome’s Local partner.

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March 10, 2025 by Tim Gander

The Naked Truth About Safety

The idea for this post was sparked by a post by fellow photographer and blogger Neil Turner, which you can check out here.

In it Neil discusses the requirement for professional photographers to fill in Risk Assessment and Method Statement (RAMS) forms when working for clients. As a professional, Neil is keen to emphasise that while RAMS and Health and Safety regulations do contribute to the freelancer’s work load, they are there to minimise risk and keep everyone safe.

But aside from how societal and commercial attitudes to risk have evolved in the past couple of decades, Neil’s post got me thinking about the riskiest job I’ve ever done. There are a number of contenders – scaling a 150ft hospital incineration chimney, or taking photos from the open door of a Royal Navy helicopter over The Solent having forgotten to attach my seatbelt (oops!), but these were back in the days when H&S didn’t seem so important.

My Riskiest Job

The job that I think entailed the most extraordinary risk mitigations was when I was commissioned to shoot some stock images for The Pirbright Institute and BBSRC. But the measures I had to undertake were less about my personal safety, more about bio-security. In this case, not accidentally transmitting a highly contagious pathogen to livestock.

Because I was going to be working in laboratories which investigate animal pathogens such as BSE, Bluetongue and, from memory, even Anthrax, the rule was that anything which went into the lab could only come back out either through a shower, sterilisation cupboard, or through a peroxide bath. This had certain implications on my approach to the task.

Kitting Up and Kitting Off

For a start, the kit I could take in would be very limited. I opted for my Canon 5D MKIII with 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens which would give me the best range of flexibility under the circumstances. There was no point taking a second lens in since the camera was going to be sealed into an underwater housing for the duration of the session, which was going to exit the lab through the peroxide bath. This also meant no flash because the underwater housing prevented this being an option.

All well and good for the kit, but what it meant for me and the client contact going in with me, was that not a single stitch of clothing could be taken in because it couldn’t then be taken out again.

This was the first and only time I’ve been naked in front of a client, but y’know we were pro’s. And so we stripped off, passed through a shower section, and dressed in scrubs on the lab-side of the biosecurity barrier. In this way, this laboratory is as sealed as it is possible to be from the outside world.

The Tricky Bit

Once in and dressed in lab scrubs, it was then a case of working out which parts of the lab would get the images the client needed, while also doing our best not to hamper the work of a very busy team of scientists. It’s also fair to say, as a working lab this was never going to look like a Getty Images photo session with clear benches, shelves of identical flasks and vials and clear white walls, all perfectly lit like Heaven’s waiting room.

I had to pick angles with the least distracting backgrounds and contend with a mix of off-white ceiling lights and a bit of window light here and there. Most of the colour correction was going to have to happen in post-production.

Add to this, working a camera inside an underwater housing is like trying to knit while wearing boxing gloves (not that I’ve tried that, but you get the picture). However, by the end of our time in the lab we had a good selection of images of all the key activities the client needed covering. So time to leave.

U-Bend If You Want To

This is where things got a little tricky. You see my camera needed to exit through the peroxide tank; imagine a sort of large u-bend filled with a powerful bleaching agent. We could have used the fumigation cupboard, but that would have taken around an hour and none of us saw an issue with passing the camera, in its underwater housing, through the peroxide.

That is until it got stuck in the u-bend. With a lab-side technician trying to prod the unit down with a rod while another technician outside the lab tried to hook it out (we’re talking a strong peroxide solution, so full gloves, masks and all the health and safety being observed), there was a 20-minute tussle to retrieve the camera.

In the meantime, my client and I got showered in the fanciest shower I’ve ever been in. A single-person cubicle with doors which locked automatically and didn’t release you until you’d showered for a set amount of time (six minutes, if memory serves).

By the time the camera equipment was retrieved and thoroughly rinsed off I was back in my usual clothes, but the underwater housing looked a little sad after its ordeal. Even one of the locking screws had sheared off in the process, but the bag was still watertight and everything inside was fine.

A scientist in blue scrubs stands looking into a large steel door with round porthole windows. He's in a mostly white corridor with other scientific equipment installed to his left.

A female scientist looks at a red coloured liquid in a large test tube which she is holding horizontally between her face and the camera while wearing PVC gloves.

A male scientist in white lab coat is turning away from his computer monitor to look beyond the photographer. There is a micoscope image of a sample on his computer monitor.

Close-up view of the front lens housing of an underwater housing for a camera, with camera lens visible through the clear plastic. The paint on the ring has been corroded back to an alloy metal ring by strong bleach.

What’s Not In The Picture

I suppose what all this illustrates is how we can see a routine-looking image and not realise what’s gone into making it happen, a lot of which might be completely un-related to the photography itself. Sometimes this can be the extensive planning of logistics, other times health and safety considerations (often both), or even whether or not the photographer had to take their clothes off to do the job.

Needless to say, that last bit isn’t routine for me, and thankfully so for everyone’s sake.

in Uncategorized 1 comments

February 19, 2025 by Tim Gander

Worst. Tourist. Ever.

I just can’t do it. Send me on a nice break, and I’m constantly looking for the gritty photo, or at least something with a bit of a story to it.

At the end of January my wife and I took the Eurostar to Paris to visit friends who live just outside the city. It was nothing more than a long weekend, so we packed extremely light which meant I wasn’t especially interested in taking a film camera, lenses and film. Besides, I’ve fallen a little bit in love with my Lumix GX9…

mmmmcheese

What we couldn’t resist during our trip, apart from the astonishingly good cheeses and cakes, was a visit to the newly-restored Notre Dame Cathedral. I can honestly say, it is well worth getting there if you can, but be prepared; prepared for crowds, queues and smartphones in every view.

The last time we visited Notre Dame was in 2014, and although there would have been tourists taking photos then, it wasn’t an impression which was stamped on my memory. This time around it felt like the smartphone-wielding had gone a bit OTT.

Rear view of a female tourist in an orange knitted hat raising her iPhone to take a photo of a holy mass underway in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, with one of the beautifully restored circular stained glass windows visible out of focus beyond.

Tourist captures Holy Mass on her iPhone in Notre Dame Cathedral

I’m not a religious person, but if I visit someone’s holy place, I hope I tread carefully and with consideration of where I am. At Notre Dame there were people poking their phones through railings, taking pictures in places with ‘No Photography” signs right next to their elbows. Maybe this is nothing new, maybe I should mind my own beeswax.

Maybe it seemed worse because it was incredibly busy – perhaps unsurprising as it’s only been open a few weeks, but when a Holy Mass got underway, there were people filming the service with phones on selfie sticks, small gimbal cameras and the like. Is this normal? Maybe it is.

While I wasn’t there to pass judgement (as I seem to have done, whether I like it or not), and not there to gather a story, rather than poke my camera into every nook and cranny of the cathedral I focussed on the visitors around me and tried to get a sense of what it was like to be there, more than what the space looks like*.

The result you see here is the best of a handful of photos I took during the visit to Notre Dame. In a single image I’ve tried to bring together the iPhone experience so many people have of places now with how such use can feel a little insensitive. At the same time, I wanted to make it fairly obvious where the image was taken to give it context.

A Dame Good Photo?

I’m not sure how successful I was in this. Perhaps if I’d had more time I might have managed to capture a sea of phones-type shot, but filling the background with a single spectacular rose window would have been impossible, and here I feel it helps add impact to the image. And on the tourist’s phone you can clearly see she’s lining up for a photo or video of the Mass, rather than an architectural aspect of the space. If I’d got multiple phones in-shot, you wouldn’t see what was on any single one of them, and this would have diluted the impact further.

Either way, however successful/impactful/useful it is, the shot scratched my itch to make a different kind of image that day, so I’ll settle for that.

Having had this semi rant, maybe I’m the worst tourist ever. While other people go to places and do their thing, I feel compelled to document them doing their thing rather than going to a place and minding my own business. And doesn’t that make me slightly hypocritical?! Or perhaps it’s healthy to take a step back from the crowd and show what society looks like, rather than copy what everyone else sees. It’s certainly a minefield, and one I’ll probably spend the rest of my life picking my way through.

For the camera nerds, here are the image specs:

Camera – Lumix GX9

Lens – Olympus 45mm f/1.8

Exposure – 650iso, 50th sec @ f/1.8

*It is incredible. The restoration has been done with astonishing care and attention to detail. There is far more lighting than was evident in the pre-fire cathedral, but this means you can now see all the beautiful carving, all the way up to the beautiful vaulted roof. Just go, you’ll love it.

in My News / Personal Work / Point of View 0 comments

February 6, 2025 by Tim Gander

A Long but Fascinating Day of Acronyms

If it seems like I’ve gone a bit quiet lately, it’ll be because I’ve been anything but quiet lately.

A prime example is last Wednesday, when the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) Professor Dame Angela McLean visited University of Bath to see how their research is achieving real-world impact across a range of sectors.

Beyond a handful of set-up group photos, my role was largely as a fly-on-the-wall (FOTW) photographer recording Professor McLean’s visit through the day – and boy, was it a long day!

It started at the Institute for Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems (IAAPS) at Emersons Green, Bristol. In short, IAAPS is where engineers and designers can examine new forms of propulsion, or improve traditional ones (for example, improving fuel efficiency in internal combustion engines). There’s a lot of exciting work into hydrogen propulsion going on there, and Professor McLean got a good look behind the scenes at the state-of-the-art facility.

In fact, it resulted in one of my favourite images from the day, with Dame Angela clearly having a hoot on the driving simulator.

Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Dame Angela McLean laughs and smiles as she steers through a virtual course in a driving simulator.

Professor Dame Angela McLean enjoys a drive in a simulator at IAAPS

After a couple of hours at IAAPS, the visiting party moved to the University of Bath’s Claverton Down campus for a whistle-stop tour of a variety of laboratories and research demonstrations. Again, one of these resulted in another favourite image of the day, that of Dr Hannah Leese, a Reader in the Department of Chemical Engineering whose research covers nanostructured membranes and nanofluidic transport (you asked!).

Dr Hannah Leese smiles as she holds up a dish containing her scientific work as Dame Angela McLean looks on with interest.

Palpable pride on the face or Dr Hannah Leese as she shows her work to Professor Angela McLean

As she shows Professor McLean a dish of microneedles, you can see the excitement and pride in her work.

There were further tours of incredibly impactful research, including that into the augmented human where Professor McLean was shown (amongst other things) the huge advancements in prosthetic limbs, such as hands which respond to users’ commands.

Dame Angela McLean gets a closer look at a robotic prosthetic hand, being shown here by a female student who uses them on a daily basis.

Research into controllable (and useable) prosthetic limbs is part of the University's Augmented Human work.

Also part of Dame Angela’s itinerary was a tour of the labs at the Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour (IDSB) and a round-table discussion on Climate Resilience and Adaptation. But as if that wasn’t enough, she went on to officially launch IDSB that evening at Bath’s Guildhall.

In IDSB’s own words, “The primary objective of the Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour at the University of Bath is to respond to the evolving security risks to – and from – digital technologies from a socio-technical perspective.”

For this segment I needed to get usable pictures of the various speakers, some group photos, plus the general flavour of the evening.

Professor Dame Angela McClean stands at a lectern to deliver a keynote speech at the launch of the Bath Institute for Digital Security and Behaviour. A pop-up banner to the side behind her reads "Putting people at the heart of digital security."

Dame Angela's keynote speech emphasised the importance of highlighting to government where research can drive growth

On reflection it was a pretty long day, but fascinating, and I could see that in spite of having travelled from London that morning (and the prospect of having to travel back that evening), Professor McLean had thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

My work didn’t quite end at The Guildhall as I needed to turn images around for various communications teams at IAAPS and the university so they could get their social media feeds updated first thing the following day. So the evening stretched on a bit, but it was good to get the image files securely backed-up anyway. The following day I completed the full edit and delivered the rest of the images for on-going corporate communications purposes.

So a long day for all involved, but while I could have passed the evening segment to another photographer, I wanted to see the job through from start to finish and bring continuity to the coverage. It also meant one less complication for the organisers!

in Case Studies / corporate communications / coverage / launch / photography / press release photography 0 comments

December 23, 2024 by Tim Gander

So long 2024

It’s that time of year again when I kick of a blog post with the line “It’s that time of year again.” Maybe I should find a new intro! Maybe next year…

So here’s a bit of a whistle-stop photographic round-up of my last 12 months. These aren’t all Pulitzer winners, but there’s an image from each month about which I have something I can say. This’ll work best if you expand the first image, then use the ‘Next’ button to navigate through. Enjoy!

Outdoor portrait of Katharine Tylko in a nature setting. She is wearing a pink coat, scarf and blouse and looking to camera.

And finally of course, just to say a massive thank you to all my clients, collaborators and blog subscribers. I really appreciate your continued custom and support, and I wish you all the very best Christmas and New Year break. See you in 2025!

Tim

in Business Portraits / corporate communications / Personal Work / photography 0 comments

November 19, 2024November 22, 2024 by Tim Gander

From BTS to ECG, MRI to ICB – it’s all happening here!

First of all, apologies for the extended radio silence, I’ve been having an unusually busy time. There are reasons behind this which I will save for another time, another blog post.

Suffice to say, Google might have been disappointed by my lack of posting; my handful of loyal readers on the other hand might have enjoyed the quiet.

While much of my recent photography work hasn’t lent itself to sharing, there is one completed project worth a mention: a series of images taken around the local(ish) area of newly-installed Community Diagnostics Centres. This is work I’ve undertaken for NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board.

The brief was to visit the various hospitals and health centres in Bath, Salisbury and Swindon where new diagnostics facilities have been set up so patients don’t have to travel so far for MRI scans, respiratory tests, CT scans and the like. It’s a multimillion pound investment making testing facilities more accessible to a greater number of people.

What is always rather fun these days is when I’m asked if a few Behind The Scenes (BTS) photos are ok. This usually involves me being photographed while I’m setting up and taking pictures.

I’m fine with this as it helps the client with their social media, and most are happy to give me a mention too.

This set includes the BTS photo followed by the shot I was setting up, and a couple of further images taken during my visit to the rather swanky Sulis Hospital in Peasedown St John near Bath.

A medical nurse sits at a electrocardiogram (ECG) machine while a photographer adjusts the medical light behind her. The photographer's camera is on a tripod in the foreground.

I'm gracefully reaching across to adjust the light.

A clinical nurse sits at an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine, looking at the screen and operating the controls. There is an examination bed in the background.

One of the results of my set-up to photograph the ECG machine.

The Sulis Hospital Bath reception area with comfy seating, reception desk and hanging net curtains designed to bring light into the space. I blurred nurse is walking through the scene.

The reception area at Sulis, Bath.

A male patient is on the MRI bed wearing a hospital gown and the head scanner piece. A female nurse is standing the other side of the bed operating the controls.

To avoid my equipment damaging the MRI, I could only take this shot from the doorway.

Screengrab from the News page of the NHS BANES Swindon and Wiltshire ICB website showing the announcement of the multi-million-pound investment in new community diagnostics centres

The client was able to quickly update their news page with one of the images from the set.

in Case Studies / corporate communications / My News 0 comments

September 27, 2024 by Tim Gander

Tool or Toy?

As September draws to its conclusion, I’ve been surprised to realise it’s only been a couple of weeks since I got back from an all-too-brief holiday in Brittany.

Now I could bore you with my holiday snaps, but I’m only going to bore you with two. And they’re not even typical holiday snaps.

The real purpose of this post is to share some thoughts on a new addition to my kit bag, a Lumix GX9 camera (and two lenses). This isn’t so much a camera review, more a ‘why did I do that?’ sort of musing thing.

For My Pocket

For a long time (I’m talking years!) I’ve been in the market for a properly pocketable digital camera. Something I could chuck in my coat pocket, but with more versatility and better image quality than my iPhone – a Holy Grail for many photographers.

I looked at all kinds of options, from the eye-wateringly expensive Leica Q2/Q3, to the Ricoh GRIII, but nothing quite hit the spot. Then I started to notice the Panasonic Lumix GX-series of cameras. Again, not perfect, but as close to the right balance of versatility, quality and price as I was ever going to get.

Since I wanted a camera that could potentially find a use in client work as well as be a personal carry-around snapshot option (my Brittany holiday was starting to focus my decision-making too), Panasonic’s Lumix GX9 has the added benefit that it takes interchangeable lenses. I didn’t want the built-in zoom that many cameras in the pocket-friendly category have because I wanted the best quality I could get.

The only potential downside is that the GX9 is discontinued, and the GX-line seems to have reached the end of the… um… line. So a used camera was my only option. Even some of the lenses seem to be discontinued, such as the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7*, which is mounted on my camera in the photo.

That 20mm is, on this camera, equivalent to a 40mm lens on a regular SLR (I won’t explain the technicals here, just believe me). That’s my favourite focal length, so I was pleased to be able to pick up a genuine Ebay bargain.

For a second lens option, I bought a Lumix/Leica 15mm (30mm equivalent, see above) for wide angle shots. For this I bought new as the used prices weren’t all that attractive, and it is still available through retailers.

For Work

So how does this slot in with my work gear?

As a rule, I favour fixed lenses for my work – I just prefer the quality. However, even with two main camera bodies, this can leave me changing lenses rather more often than I’d like. So the GX9 with the wide lens on it gives me the option to do the general views at events without having to switch out the standard or long lenses mounted on my other two camera bodies.

There is compromise here though. The GX9 isn’t exactly a wizard of low-light photography, so I don’t use it where I need to crank up the ISO (sensor sensitivity) beyond 800. Things get awful noisy from 800 onwards, though the end-use of the pictures can mean low-light noise isn’t always a problem. The camera can also take an external flash, which can get me out of a fix in certain low-light situations.

The viewfinder is pretty dire too, but I knew that going in and actually I’ve got used to it. In most other respects, it’s a highly usable, capable camera – you just need to know how and when to use it.

For Fun

Beside the personal/holiday/family snap use, and to make the camera even more versatile, I also bought a lens adaptor which allows me to use some of my lovely Nikon lenses on this camera. Ok, so I lose a lot of the automation of the purpose-built lenses, but it’s another chance to play and experiment with other looks and styles. For example, I haven’t (yet) bought a longer lens for portraits for the GX9, but I have a Nikon-fit Voigtländer 40mm lens which becomes an 80mm lens on the GX9 – perfect for portraits! The adaptor adds value to the camera, as well as allowing me to use those lovely older lenses more often too.

For the Future?

I suppose my biggest fear is that one day this camera will die and I won’t be able to replace it easily. Modern digital cameras don’t always have the robustness of some film cameras. For last year’s trip to Brittany I took a very pocketable 35mm film camera. It was manufactured some time in the 1990s and yet it still functions. However, I can’t use that for work since no client wants to wait for film to be processed and scanned.

In an ideal world, Panasonic would bring out an updated version of this camera. Sensor technology keeps improving and this camera’s format (known as M43 or MFT, and pronounced ‘micro four thirds’) has a lot of advantages in terms of portability. If they’re thinking of doing this, they’re taking their sweet time about it.

For the time being this toy/tool will get use while it lives. If/when it dies, I’ll see if there’s a decent used replacement available, and keep going until I finally have to ditch the lenses. Maybe by then some perfect alternative will have emerged.

So keep an eye out for future posts featuring this dinky camera, in the meantime, here it is in all its cuteness alongside two of my favourite ‘holiday’ photos.