{"id":4978,"date":"2015-12-30T13:22:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T13:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/?p=4978"},"modified":"2015-12-30T13:48:05","modified_gmt":"2015-12-30T13:48:05","slug":"my-best-of-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gavtrain.com\/?p=4978","title":{"rendered":"My best of 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015-6\"<\/a>With the year\u00a0drawing to a close, now seems like a good time to take a moment and look back at what I did with my camera during 2015. A lot (but not all) of my time goes into\u00a0making videos for Adorama TV and in 2015 I made 26 of them, which have had over 1.4 million views so far.<\/p>\n

So here are a few of my personal highlights. If you have your own, please leave me a comment.<\/p>\n

Most watched video<\/strong><\/span>
\nAt 150,000 views in just over 5 months, my \u201cday to night\u201d video for Adorama TV has easily been the most watched video I made in 2015. As anyone who makes YouTube videos will tell you, it\u2019s almost impossible to predict which videos will become \u201cpopular\u201d and often it\u2019s not the ones you would expect, or perhaps that should be wish.<\/p>\n

[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aGsQxXUEvc4[\/youtube]
\nHowever I\u2019m really thrilled this video has taken off. It was a sound idea that took a long time to plan but was great fun to shoot. Best of all I the final photos came out even better than I had hoped.<\/p>\n

Most fun video<\/strong><\/span>
\nIt\u2019s tricky to choose just one as I enjoy them all in different ways. But the poker player shoot I did with Brian back in February was a very memorable one.<\/p>\n

[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kum6KjmToYU&index=22&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA[\/youtube]
\nI know absolutely nothing about poker and as it turned out, neither did Brian. Fortunately Brian is an excellent actor as well as a model and once the technical bit was out of the way, he excelled in the role. I loved the range of emotions he produced although some of that may have come from drinking the \u201cwhisky\u201d which was in fact cold tea!<\/p>\n

Video I’m most proud of<\/span>
\n<\/strong>usually my videos are all about taking and making a great shot but back in June I made a video that was more technical than usual. It covered how focal length can affect the compression in a photo.<\/p>\n

For years I\u2019ve listened to photographers go on about how they use a longer focal length lens to compress the foreground and background but that\u2019s actually not strictly true. Yes they used a longer focal length lens but it\u2019s camera to subject distance that does the compression and in this video I prove it\u2026 although I still get photographers telling me I\u2019m wrong!<\/p>\n

[youtube]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GbESqYkodmQ&list=PL821B7D720DEA39FA&index=14[\/youtube]
\nI had photography students firmly in mind when I made this one but I know a few \u201cexpert\u201d photographers who learned from it too.<\/p>\n

Most fun photo shoot<\/strong><\/span>
\nI don\u2019t just make videos, I\u2019m also a full time photographer. I always throw myself in to any shoot but occasionally a job comes along that really stands out. The best example of that in 2015 was a PR shoot I did with LG mobile and the Three network here in the UK.<\/p>\n

When I got an email asking if you can photograph a medium and ghosts at a ruined church in the most haunted village in the UK, I jumped at the chance. The full brief included shooting a spooky outdoor cinema in the dead of night at a location without power\u2026 I loved it!<\/p>\n