May 10th, 2010 § 0
A few photos from an ongoing personal project about Motorcycle Speedway. I remember my Dad telling me stories about his Friday nights spent at the local speedway track as a spectator way back before he was married but I don’t think I ever went to a meet prior to starting work on this project. All of the images were shot on location at the Plymouth Devils speedway team’s home track at the Saint Boniface Arena in Plymouth.
April 30th, 2010 § 6
I had an assignment shooting some collateral stock photos for the IPC cycling health and lifestyle magazines a while back (Cycling Weekly, Cycling Active and Health and Fitness for Cyclists) and this one is the first to go to print and my first Cycling Weekly cover. A little different for Cycling Weekly I think and a sign that perhaps natural light images are coming back into fashion. The model is James Scawn who manages the Cycle Scene bike shop in Plymouth and the photo was shot near Postbridge way up on the top of Dartmoor.
April 20th, 2010 § 7
I get a lot of questions about the kind of equipment I use on location, and although I’m not much of a gear-nerd I do find it interesting to see what other Photographers are using to get the job done so here’s a few details on the standard gear I use for most editorial and commercial work; additional equipment can always be hired as and when required but it’s rare that I have the need.
First up; good bags are essential. The LowePro Vertex 200AW has been my main bag for the past couple of years and I chose it because it was big enough to carry the essentials but small enough to meet the airplane carry-on requirements, while being relatively comfortable when walking or hiking despite the fully loaded weight of 20lbs. There’s also plenty of pockets for memory cards, gels, filters etc, as well as a pouch for a laptop which easily swallows the 13in MacBook I have for working on location. In here is a Nikon D3, a bunch of Nikon lenses and SB800 speedlights, Pocket Wizard and Skyport radio transceivers for triggering the lights, a Nikon D90 for video and production stills plus emergency backup, and loads of spare cards, cables, batteries etc.
My second bag is a LowePro Magnum AW shoulder bag which holds my Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit: two heads, one pack/control panel and two batteries, plus cables etc. The Quadra kit came in a lovely purpose made hard case which looks pretty slick but I didn’t find terribly practical so it all went into the Magnum which works great although I’ll probably need to re-think it when I eventually get around to picking up a second pack.
Lastly I have a Kata lightstand bag which I bought after way too many times struggling with carrying stands (I’ve noticed that the new Manfrotto stands neatly clip together but sadly I only have one of those at present…) and houses a whole load of various Manfrotto lightstands, boom arms, and Elinchrom, Photek, and Lastolite light modifiers as required. Also on stand-by are rolls of seamless, various reflective panels and a Manfrotto tripod (important to have a good tripod although I’m not a fan of using them generally).
Any questions please hit me up in the comments and I’ll respond as soon as I can.
March 31st, 2010 § 0
Corporate portrait clients are often surprised I’ve noticed; surprised that I arrive with a pile of equipment, surprised that I scout the entire location, surprised when I start moving the furniture (I put it back…), surprised that I take so many photos, and finally they’re surprised that the final images ‘look like they’re out of a magazine’. My experience working with high profile subjects on magazine assignments means that I’m used to working quickly while adapting to the creative and technical challenges of both the location and assignment demands, and all while never compromising on quality. I think that so many businesses are really missing out when it comes to having great images of their staff and even more so with small businesses as the owner often is the company; and with social media now being such a huge part of modern business it’s never been so important to have photos that make the most of that public presence. Please get in touch via my contact page to book a date or discuss your requirements in more detail.
March 17th, 2010 § 0
The new April 2010 issue of Cycle Sport is now on sale and includes an article I shot for the magazine on location in Holland with Rabobank team rider Robert Gesink. There was a big train crash in Brussels a few days before we were due to head out to meet Gesink at his home in Holland not too far from the German border which nixed the original plan to catch the Eurostar out to Belgium and hire a car from there, so plan B was to drive out the whole way to avoid any possible issues with the train service that may of caused us to miss our very narrow window. Three long days of traveling across northern France, Belgium and Holland and back again on a road that I can only describe as consistent was made more bearable with the company of Cycle Sport staff writer Lionel Birnie and we kept ourselves entertained with some good conversation and dreams of a large glass of Leffe at that night’s hotel. The shoot was the usual affair with a limited location and time and we were in and out of Gesink’s home in a little over two hours including the interview but with some solid images and several different options in the can. As always there were many good photos that didn’t make it into the final article but the magazine did a great job with the layout which as always is best appreciated in print so be sure to pick up a copy from any good newsagent. The rest of the layout is below, along with some out takes that didn’t make the final cut.
March 9th, 2010 § 0
Here are a few candid portraits of Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel from an interview with him backstage at the Plymouth Pavilions stop of the Black Procession European tour. I shot a mixture of film and digital during the interview with Rocklouder but these are all film scans; the digital images look great but the square format and grainy black and white film stock (Ilford Delta 3200) suits the candid documentary style perfectly I think, and I’ve found myself choosing this super-high ISO film stock and going with the available ambient light a lot more recently.
March 9th, 2010 § 0
Some live music photos from Machine Head’s recent headlining show at the Plymouth Pavilions on their Black Procession tour. No flash photography allowed, and the stage lighting was horrible hence the black and white conversions…
March 2nd, 2010 § 0
Here’s a few photos from the recent Bleeding Through show that I photographed at Plymouth Pavilions, supporting Machine Head on the Black Procession European tour. Bleeding Through were the only band on the bill that I was entirely unfamiliar with so I was very pleasantly surprised when they came out and put on what I thought was the best performance of the evening. If you have the chance to check them out live I recommend it; they put on a great show. More to come…
February 26th, 2010 § 0
A couple of portraits of Bleeding Through keyboard player Marta Peterson produced in a matter of minutes prior to the recent show supporting Machine Head at the Pavilions in Plymouth recently. I was at the show to photograph the live performances as well as some backstage portraits to illustrate interviews with relevant band members for Rocklouder. I have a ton of material from the show so I’ll post up some more images over the next week or so.
February 3rd, 2010 § 0
I first met documentary film maker Mark Kidel last Summer when he was in Plymouth to film one of my photo shoots with performance artist Francesca Steele – Mark is producing a documentary about Francesca’s bodybuilding performance piece ‘Routine’ – and we’ve met up a few times since with me turning the camera on him more recently. Mark has forged an amazing career producing and directing films on a broad range of subjects including artists as diverse as Ravi Shankar, Mario Lanza, and Tricky, was a founding producer of the groundbreaking BBC arts documentary series ARENA and even collaborated with Peter Gabriel on the concept for a world music festival that eventually grew to become the world famous WOMAD festivals. For more information about Mark Kidel’s work head over to http://www.calliopemedia.co.uk/
