Jonathan Tiernan Locke photographed for the new issue of Cycle Sport Magazine. I think this was the third time I’ve photographed Jonathan in as many years; consistantly a pleasure to work with, easy going, open and photogenic we always come away with some great pictures. Jonathan is still based in Devon despite spending very little time at home due to a demanding European race schedule so we shot the photographs over two days on location in Plymouth and Dartmoor; opting for a studio shoot for a safe bet amidst what turned out to be the wettest April in the UK since records began in 1910, then managed to find ten minutes of sun on Dartmoor as we stood around watching the sky waiting for the clouds to part just enough for a few rays to poke though. Finally I met up with Cycle Sport writer Ellis Bacon at a cafe in Plymouth’s Royal William Yard for the interview where we also took the opportunity to shoot some more portraits in between showers.

It was great to hear from Cycle Sport Editor Ed Pickering that the photos from this shoot were so well received that they decided to give the feature more space so they could use more of my images so to see the feature in full pick up a copy from any good newsagents to see the full spread and read the interview. As ever there were plenty of photographs that I love which didn’t make it into print however so here’s some of my favourite out-takes:

This was my first magazine shoot using the new Nikon D800 camera body; the level of detail in the 36 megapixel full frame sensor coupled with the very best Nikon lenses resolves an amazing amount of detail; I was a little leery of Nikon squeezing so many pixels onto a 35mm sensor but the detail, dynamic range and even the noise are all incredibly impressive, and all in a much smaller, lighter camera body (by pro camera standards at least). Below is a 100% crop of the above image taken from the original file to illustrate the level of detail captured:

Nikon D800 100% Crop

From a recent commission; RAF pilot and occasional fitness model Ian Brett.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with VU online on a couple of occasions now so it was great to receive an email from them asking if I could shoot the portraits of their own team for the new website they were in the process of putting together. Designer Mark Healey already had the concepts mapped out and supplied the brief required; the old website had a series of animated portraits that rotated 360 degrees as they were ‘moused’ over that had gotten a lot of very positive feedback from clients, and so the plan was to re-shoot these for the new staff profile pages and build on that idea with a series of animations on the home page based around each aspect of the company’s services.

We shot everything on location at the VU Online offices in Totnes on a white seamless backdrop and the RAW files were then uploaded directly to their own server for in-house post-production; part of the deal with commercial photography is that the look of the final images is often dictated by the client and design team (in this case one and the same) so it’s always interesting to see how the photos are ultimately used, especially with so many elements in this case only being added in post (no, he wasn’t really juggling a laptop, phone and cafetiere on set…), I was really interested to see how all of the individual images we shot would work within the final website and now it’s live it’s great to see how it’s all been pulled together in the finished product.

Check out the full site at: vuonline.co.uk

Sagrada Familia/Park Guell

A couple of photographs from a recent stay in Barcelona; Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia and Park Guell.

Wilfred Emmanuel Jones; entrepreneur and founder of the The Black Farmer brand photographed for the What I’ve Learnt section of British Airways Business Life magazine.

Danish professional cyclist Lars Bak photographed for the new issue of Cycle Sport Magazine. It’s never ideal photographing an athlete during a big race; I was sent out to a team hotel on the 2011 Tour of Britain route to photograph Bak and I know from past experience that the subject will be tired, have very little time, and will have no clothing other than the standard team issue tracksuit and race kit. After arriving on location, scouting and ultimately setting up a studio in a conference room and waiting all evening I was eventually told by one of the team soigneurs that Lars was too fatigued and had already retired to bed. It’s frustrating to leave with nothing in the can but with a guarantee of an early slot the following evening it didn’t feel that my time was entirely wasted so I returned to the hotel nice and early the next day hopeful that we could get an outdoor set-up in while it was still daylight.

More waiting followed and it transpired that Lars was riding back to the team hotel after the stage for some extra training (that’s a 180KM of racing, then around 60KM or so from the race finish to the team hotel) so it was looking like it was going to be pretty tight. Fortunately when Bak did arrive we talked him into doing the shoot before dinner and we managed to squeeze out the last few minutes of daylight after finding the only clear view from the grounds of the motorway-side hotel (looking out over the motorway in fact, to the hills beyond). I’d taken along a few options on wardrobe as an alternative to the team issue clothing and we went with a formal coat for both style and warmth (professional cyclists are notoriously sensitive to the cold…). We managed to get nearly 25 minutes with Lars Bak in the end; three set-ups, one outdoor, two indoor, and three wardrobe changes plus a little conversation; not so bad. Big thanks to Ed Pickering and the rest of the team at Cycle Sport for the assignment and doing such a nice job with the layout.

Out takes:

My first book cover: Inside the Peloton – My Life As A Professional Cyclist; the new autobiography by Nicolas Roche was released a few days ago. I saw the mock-up earlier in the year but it’s great to finally see it in print and on book shop shelves.

A couple of recent portraits of artist (and former musician with Add N to (X)) Steven Claydon produced on location at Royal William Yard as part of a commission to document the British Art Show 7.

Portrait of Devon based ballet/contemporary dancer Victoria Sahakian Rogers, photographed on location at the Dartmoor National Park. Hair and make up by Josie Lock, hair re-styled courtesy of a 30 miles an hour south-westerly wind.

Mary Quicke - Quickes Traditional

Mary Quicke (MBE) of Quickes Traditional; the Quickes family has farmed at Newton St Cyres in Devon for over 450 years and are now the largest traditional cheese maker in the United Kingdom. While researching the subject I came across some pictures of their enormous cheese store and knew straight away it would be the perfect location for the portrait. When arriving on location without the benefit of a prior tech-scout things can often change completely; concepts originally thought to be possible actually aren’t, and new unforeseen opportunities arise, but on this occasion the final portrait looks exactly as I planned it thanks in part to a series of 360 degree panoramas I found on a food blog called FX Cuisine; you can see one of the cheese store HERE.

The store is pretty impressive and definitely one of the stinkier locations I’ve worked in for sure. It was a great pleasure to meet Mary whose love and enthusiasm for both cheese and farming is immediately evident and it’s no surprise that the end product is so good with that kind of infectious attitude. Check out Quickes Traditional online at www.quickes.co.uk where you can find your local stockist, or call in to the farm shop if you’re in the area.