18/09/24

According to Oli, singer-songwriter Beabadoobee was walking metres away from us as I was setting up the camera for the planet-style shot on Carnaby Street. Go figure! I’m a huge fan and I didn’t even notice her. Sorry babe, I’m just too locked in!

The planet-style photos are inspired by photographer Chris George’s series Planet Guernsey, which I saw printed in his book Guernsey II. Today, affordable 360-degree cameras have democratised and popularised this style of image to the point of the effect appearing somewhat hackneyed, but I was interested to learn that he had created his own by using traditional wide-angle lenses, stitching together a series of contiguous 360-degree panoramic images with editing software. Realising I had all the equipment needed to achieve this myself, I set about an attempt using a tripod and my 10-20mm Sigma lens. The results were varied: the ‘planet’ of Hyde Park betrays the method of its own construction by having the treetops in all directions uniformly curtailed by the editing software; the Carnaby Street planet finds its closest subjects warped and inscrutable; the planet of the Royal Albert Hall, however, I am very pleased with. I find that my distances from the different subjects in this scene fell together perfectly, unintentionally creating an engaging composition where it appears as though my friends are sitting on top of the world. 

The rest of the images were mostly taken with my 35mm SAM lens. I had initially purchased this lens under the impression that it was compatible with full frame bodies—always check this!—and was initially crestfallen to discover it was bound to a crop factor equivalent focal length of 53.6mm on my a77. Little did I know how wonderful a portrait lens it would prove to be. For my money it’s one of the best APS-C lenses I own, and the portrait images came out fantastically sharp. It’s been a long time since I’ve used it, but I’ll be sure to bring it along with me again soon.