anti limited presents

Last spring I shot Hannah Nunn’s wonderful shop, Radiance, at night. The result was one of my favourite panoramas of last year: Hannah agreed, and featured it on the shop website. However this spring, Radiance moved to premises closer to the centre of Hebden Bridge: the move provided a great excuse to go back to the shop and reshoot. Rather handy as I’ve recently starting shooting more HDR subjects and have upgraded pretty much my whole rig since last year.

I love the new shop: the larger display area gives more breathing space to the designs of the many artists and craftspeople whose work grace the walls and ceilings. The new site is right in the middle of Market Street, so there’s lots more footfall from interested visitors to Hebden, especially during this 500th anniversary of the town.

It’s also the perfect subject for high dynamic photography, and a great challenge to capture the delicate details and colours. Last time I shot five exposures before enfusing and tone-mapping: this time I’ve shot nine exposures, which goes somewhat further towards eliminating burnout in the highlights and muddiness in the shadows. Of course that’s the geek in me talking, the aesthete simply loves the composition and variety within the scene… fabulous designs and such a range of shapes and colours!

Click the icons below for a fullscreen 360° view of the scene in Flash, or to locate the scene in Google Earth.

This is the wonderful Manchester Craft and Design Centre, a creative jewel set in the centre of Manchester’s Northern Quarter. It’s one of my favourite places to look for unique gifts and goodies from a range of talented artists and craftspeople in the North West. The building’s a gem as well, formerly home to the Manchester Poultry and Fish Market.

Incidentally, the profusion of brightly-coloured woolen accoutrements along the balcony are part of an installation called Yarnbombing, by Salford-based collaborative project Art Yarn.

Click below for a fullscreen 360° view of the scene in Flash, or for more info in Google Earth.

I’ve completed several 12″s for this quality Scottish electronic imprint recently, so thought I’d update the archives. NB, some of these designs could be considered to be NSFW…

MRR00000011 Operator – How to make bombs and influence people

Out now from all good record shops, distributed by Rubadub.

MRR00000012 Junior Rafael – Darkroom Traxx II

Out now from all good record shops, distributed by Rubadub.

MRR00000013 Hadamard – Studio Gangster EP

Out soon, distributed by Rubadub.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for  artwork for the devastatingly mighty new Legowelt 12″ ‘Equestrian 707′, out later this autumn on MRR. Sneak peek on here soon

After four years of largely fruitful and mutual partnership, today QuickTime and I part company. When I started producing 360° panoramic work, the only reliable, cross-platform way to publish the work was as a QTVR file. Getting under the skin and providing many of the things panographers take for granted, such as a custom interface, hotspots and interactivity, was dirty work but it could be done at a pinch.

Unfortunately Apple have done nothing to extend the functionality or longevity of the file format for years, and the multimedia aspects of QTVR have been looking rather long in the tooth for some time. Even their products seemed to play less well with QTVRs: when the iPhone failed to support it natively I knew the format was approaching the end of the road…*

I began to make my panoramas accessible in Flash format in 2007. Over the last couple of years it’s become easier to publish, use and view these panoramas; and as they’re Flash files, they’re much more extensible than QT. Although, thanks to the near ubiquity of iTunes, QuickTime has become much more established as a platform, fewer end users view my panoramas in QuickTime than ever. And almost everyone has at least Flash 8 on their machines.

So I’m no longer going to publish QTVR content on this site: over time I’m going to convert or upgrade all the legacy content so it’s available in Flash. I may still need to provide an alternative for commercial applications, but generally speaking, I’ll not be relying on QTVR again. Sniff.

So, sorry to see you go, QTVR… you were a good friend while you lasted. Thanks for the good times…

* I do however support the iPhone, via the wonderful PangeaVR from Brian Greenstone, veteran Mac programmer. I’ve been using it for almost a year now, with great success, as it’s the best way of allowing others to see what I do when I’m out and about. It comes in two flavours: the ‘regular’ free version, which allows you to view online panorama content from Anti Limited and hundreds of other around the world, and a ‘pro’ version which allows you to download panoramas and view them offline. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can view my content by looking up ‘Anti Limited presents Panoramas in your Pocket’ after installing PangeaVR. Enjoy!

Here’s a very mysterious one-sided 12″ label I’ve just completed for a new imprint, Tribute. Having been sworn to secrecy, all I can divulge is that it’s forthcoming in strictly limited quantities.

It’s a reworking of a popular song by a popular beat combo, reworked by a popular (and highly secretive) production duo. Unlike the Boomtown Rats, we DO like Mondays!

I was lucky enough to be asked to shoot this wonderful shop in nearby Hebden Bridge: I’ve had a soft spot for Radiance since I moved to the area. The owner, Hannah Nunn, designs & produces internationally acclaimed lighting on the premises, and also stocks a wide range of contemporary lights, craft and homewares from other designers. I urge you to visit the shop’s website and have a closer look at what’s on sale.

Shooting the shop in the evening gave due prominence to the stunning range of products against the dark canvas of Market Street outside: a warm oasis of light on a winter’s night. I shot five exposures in RAW and tone-mapped them to fully capture the wide dynamic range of the light and contrast, and the result is exquisite!

Click below for a fullscreen 360° view of the scene in Flash or QuickTime format, or locate the scene in Google Earth.

This is a recent piece for a forthcoming release on the Scots label, Mighty Robot Recordings. It’s an electro EP by a young female producer, with remixes from Ultradyne and Ottomatic. The 3 different plugs were inspired by the combination of a Scottish label, a French producer, and a remix from Detroit’s foremost electro musicians. The idea of the jack came from a design from the artist. As I arranged the plugs on a lightbox and shot away I tried lots of differing angles and layouts, but this reminds me of an evil robot probe closing in on the lonely jack. I feel this is a suitably dark and dystopian vibe for the release.

MRR00000010 Katelectro – Plug EP
Release date 2009

In true re-edit style I’ve been asked to create an identity for the forthcoming imprint from the autodisco crew in dundee. the label is called autodiscotheque, and specialises in edits of classic material from deep within the vaults. ADT#1 is available for pre-order now: 2 tracks from richard sen and cazbee, reworking lost gems to make you move to the groove. time to get down to the autodiscotheque.

Have just completed artwork for the forthcoming release on Mighty Robot Recordings, by electro act Dirty Hospital. Here’s just a teaser image for now, as the 12″ isn’t due out for a few weeks.

As you can see, i went literal with this one: E coli proved to be the best looking bug around (MRSA and C Diff just don’t have that presence for the limelight) and I persuaded a few microbes to pose for the camera. Remember, don’t have nightmares …

Magma Product store, Earlham Street, London WC2

The esteemed design bookshop, Magma, opened a new outlet in summer 2007. Unlike the original store just up the road, this was designed to showcase the lines which complimented the brand’s original core book, dvd & t-shirt sales – namely designer products and crafts.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Magma, and this store caught my eye for its innovative use of corrugated board fixtures and shelving. For everything. The whole store interior is infinitely modular, modernist, and recyclable: it also looks great. Forget expensive wood, glass or metalwork, this is testament to clean simple and functional design, paired with good lighting. Thanks to the staff for allowing me to shoot inside the store and capture this innovative display.

Click below for a fullscreen 360° view of the scene in Flash, or for more info in Google Earth.