Lawrence Ripsher's Photo Journal

London Walking

I spent a week in the UK last week. My hometown resides outside of London, but the Big Smoke is where I lived and work for 5 years before moving out here to Singapore. Whenever we get to go back home, it's always a pleasure getting a chance to spend a day or two back in the capital. As our trip was shorter this time, we only really got a chance to visit London sparingly. Fortunately however I managed to tie it in with meeting two friends and fellow photographers Niall O'Shea and Ana Carloto. Niall and Ana made the long trip down from Manchester to see us - and it turned out as a great day. Niall is someone I met through Pbase since my early days there and since then our friendship and mutual respect for each other's work has grown in tandem.

Anyway, coming back to photography, street work in London is always limited this time of year given the shorts days but betweens coffee, exhibitions and talk, I managed to get a few shots in. All shots, unless otherwise specified, are taken with the Canon 1D Mark III and either 24 f1.4L or 85 f1.8. These are below.

Niall O'Shea working it

Nelson's Column

Leicester Square fairground

"Conditioned"... aren't we all?

Big Ben

This shot is out of focus, blurred and centrally composed. Technically speaking it has nothing going for it but for some reason I liked it.

"Family"

St Paul's Cathedral

Another view of St Paul's

Viewer from the Tate Modern

"Assistance"

Christmas lights along southbank. I shot this while using Niall's Olympus E3

"The Long Road Home". Another shot while using the E3

Maria Sharapova Live

This morning I landed back in Singapore after a week long vacation in the UK. Just a few hours after touching down, I was at the Maria Sharapova Live in Singapore event photographing courtside with the press. The Maria Sharapova Live was an exhibition match held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium between Maria Sharapova and Anna Chekvatadze, the current World Number 6. The event was a highly anticipated one, receiving large amounts of press these past few weeks. The crowd attendance tonight made the event a very successful one and the atmosphere was excellent.

For the match, I used my new 1D Mark III (and will be delaying my review a few days as I factor in comments about the camera's performance in this situation) and for the most part, a Canon 300mm f/2.8.

Greyhound racing

Spent a windy, chilled morning at the dog track on boxing day with the 1D MK3. I'm not a fan of the sport given the number of dogs that get destroyed each year when they can no longer race (and are not successfully rehomed), but I hope that recent efforts continue to improve the sitaution. Anyway, despite this, I went along for the first time to witness what has become the second most popular spectator sport in the UK and used it as an opportunity to conduct some AF testing.

Below are a couple of images from the races. I'll summarise the performance of the AF in my forthcoming 1D Mark III review.

Southend on Sea

Clearly the finest stretch of beach front in the world. Spent a cold hour walking along here on the 24th Dec - for what I'm not exactly sure - perhaps just to show my brave companions how every Christmas eve should be spent. Southend, the town where I went to school, is famous for penny arcades, Essex girls and the longest pier in the world.

Canon 1D Mark III - AI Servo testing update

Have been asked by a number of people how my testing has been going since the AI Servo fix and thought I'd write a brief update with the plan for the rest of the month.

So the quick summary is that over the past couple of weeks, I've been spending some decent time with the 1D AF system. My aim has been to understand its strengths and weaknesses for the kinds of subjects I shoot (in varying conditions) and to report on those findings. The testing is proving immensely valuable for my own purposes and it will hopefully be of use for other existing or potential buyers. I now have about 80% of the samples I need to complete the review that I'm writing.

FYI, I had an affected serial number 1D Mark III which I have since collected from the AI Servo fix. I'm on firmware 1.1.3.

I'll have the review up on my blog before the end of December (it might be *just* before). In the meantime, here's a couple of shots I thought worth sharing.

First is ISO 800, 1/800s, 200mm f2.8, AI Servo centre point selected. Second is ISO 800, 1/1600s, 135mm f/5.6, AI Servo centre point selected. Both are post processed with a little bit of cropping but representative of actual sharpness.

The big question is perhaps whether these kind of images are the exception or the norm for my experience of the AF system. Will be able to provide the answer to that shortly. Stay tuned.

The Stairs

It's been a while since I've posted a picture like this... in fact, it's been a while since I've even stepped foot inside a building like this. Almost all of my narrative work, has been shot inside similar environments... Today I quite literally stumbled across this place. I've actually been there before, but never inside - so today I wandered in and was quite taken aback by this incredible staircase on view. Fortunately I had my compact camera (Canon G9) with me and while its capabilities are limited for high contrast scenes like this, I managed to compose a scene which I think will set the tone for future visits. Expect to see more of this place.

Outtakes from Bangkok

Posting a few outtakes from when I was in Bangkok for the King's Cup. Given I was only there for a couple of days, there's not really a coherent story to these shots - mostly just random "around town" images and a couple more from the event itself.

A bird being freed from its cage for 90 Baht. The act of freeing birds is meant to bring good luck - although given this in itself exists as a business

Buddhist monk

Inside a temple

Guards inside the King's Palace

A young girl looks on past a Thai flag, one of many aligning the streets near the King's Palace

Girls in traditional dress at the King's Cup

Two friends sit on top of a bus while waiting for Muay Thai matches to begin. A crane hosting a TV crew rises in the background

A young spectator looks on during a Muay Thai match

Fireworks erupt during the candle ceremony held in honor of the King's Birthday

A woman deep in prayer during the candle ceremony

Thousands of spectators crowded the standing-room-only area to watch the King's Cup, a Muay Thai tournament

Canon 1D Mark III AF repair

Canon Singapore recently announced their service centre was starting the Canon 1D Mark III AF repair beginning from 10th Dec. I took mine in early last Friday and received an SMS update on Weds 12th that it was ready for collection (so far, very impressed with how Canon have handled the issue here locally). I'm now back from the US and will be picking the camera up tomorrow and testing it all weekend. Looking forward to providing an in depth analysis on this issue and seeing if I get the same results as Rob Galbraith in his tests of new 1D's (as opposed to repaired ones). For the record, my camera was in the affected serial number range (I knew this when I got it) and from my testing with it, it was possible for me to reproduce the AF issues that have been widely reported elsewhere (i.e. struggling to consistently track in bright sunny conditions while in AI Servo mode).

I'll report my findings here once I get a chance to fully test and absorb the data.

The King's Cup photos

Back from last week's Bangkok trip and had a chance to post process some of the images from the King's Cup. Thanks to all of those who mailed me asking to post images - here are some of the shots. Click on any image to enlarge... all photos copyright Lawrence Ripsher.

First a few from around the event

Before the fights

Live music - Wai Kru


Candlelight ceremony for the King's Birthday

Firework festival

Zidov from the Contender Asia was in attendance.

And some fight images
These are a small random sampling from some of the fights

A mandatory 8 count

Dzhabar Askerov, a contender from the Contender Asia in action

The taste of victory in one of the under cards

Matsui, a trainer from the Contender Asia and Joakim Karlsson, a fighter from the same show lock up

Matsui and Jocke again

The King's Cup

I'm off to Bangkok for a couple of days. There I'll be shooting the King's Cup, the world's largest Muay Thai event held in honour of the King of Thailand's birthday. I'll be ringside as the official photographer for the event with the World Muay Thai Council who are sanctioning and arranging the event. Should be an incredible couple of days and am looking forward to seeing Bangkok too. Also planning on catching up with some friends, photographers who I'm long overdue to meet and fighters from the Contender Asia. Will post more soon.