Royal Mile Details0
neil posted in Travel on August 22nd, 2009
Spent a little time on the Royal Mile shooting with a borrowed 105mm. Met Lewis, one of Edinburgh’s real characters. He showed me the scar he got from being mugged in Edinburgh. A very different photograph to what I was expecting to make today. All the same it was good to see he was still around. If you see him, take the time to talk to him and be polite, there is so much more than what is on the surface.
Lacrosse makes practice makes…0
neil posted in Travel on August 19th, 2009
I shot a lacrosse tournament at the weekend. I’m uploading the prints for sale via photobox now. I don’t think print sales makes a good business plan and I don’t think the sales would make it worth my attendance at any reasonable hourly rate. Thats OK. That is’nt why I went. I went to ‘keep my hand in’ on field sports. I don’t shoot enough field sports during the summer when the University is out of session and I want to keep my sports shooting skills ready for use. I’ve had conversations where people suggest that “there is no such thing as a good sports photograph” and seen forums where people have declared “I can’t think of anything more boring than shooting sports”. Those people are wrong. Its easy, especially with the right kit, to make a mediocre sports photograph. Simply set the aperture wide open on your longest lens, point and hold the button down and pick the sharpest image.
Woe betide you if you think thats as good as it gets. Its not. Practice makes perfect in life and in sports photography it makes EVERYTHING. If you’ve shot that sport a dozen times and have the slightest creative spark, you are challenged by your own back-catalogue of motor-drive-mediocrity. “How do I make a different image? How do I make a better image than last time?”
My favourite sports image was made on a day where I was SO sick of shooting Ladies lacrosse I almost did’nt turn up. The paper had been assigning a steady state of low-end dull lacrosse thrashings for what felt like an entire term. To do this they had ignored important qualifiers, cups and tournaments in almost every other sport. I was sick of shooting a non contact sport with a tiny ball, giant sticks that make composition a pain and rules that baffle me to this day. I did turn up, I did try something new and I have a portfolio image I’m truly proud of. Without knowing it, I’d been building up to that picture, getting the standard, dull, safe images out of my bloodstream.
My best guess is that you have the best odds of making a compelling photograph when you practice, practice, practice AND still manage to challenge yourself. So once a month or so, I’ll try and stroll the sidelines even on some loss-making venture so when the chance arises, I can make one more good image.
I’m nae Naysmith…0
neil posted in Travel on August 5th, 2009
Darren, Judy Cabbages on flickr, arranged a shoot with a number of local strobists and a professional Robert Burns impersonator. Our model was the excellent and most patient Christopher Tait of Robert Burns Live: http://www.myspace.com/robertburnslive. As the shoot was local to me, on Arthur’s seat, I brought most of my lighting toys to play with. The above photograph was taken by slowly building up the light from a gridded softbox. The ambient light was used to expose the background, an exposure I could control with shutter-speed. The main light got me my f/11, but as sun and softbox were aligned, I needed fill. In this case, the fill came from a large reflector/scrim (cheers Dave) bouncing the main light, ambient light and supplemental light from the side of a domed SB900. The other side of the ‘900 was used to throw a bit of light onto the leaves in the background. Although I’m happy with the lighting, this shot was doomed by insufficient scouting. The background is only so-so. Darren used a slightly similar setup on THIS shot, but absolutely nailed the background. In the land of good backgrounds, the man with time to scout is king!
I saw this shot while holding an SB900 from the waterline of St Margret’s loch. There was a ragged bank of thistles that could neatly frame Mr Burns. Seeing the photo I was after, Chris put himself right in the center of the frame and all I had to worry about was lighting him. I used three strobes running full power into a very large umbrella. This was boomed out over his head by a two man (Darren & Dave) Voice-Activated-Lightstand team, while a SB900 was used to light the background. Apparently a rat came out of the water and had a good look at me while I was shooting this, the other photographers present decided not to tell me, just in case I botched my picture or something! Thank goodness I’m scrawny and inedible. If I were to change anything, it would be to get the background more evenly lit and remove the non-thistle from bottom center. This was an excellent evening spent in good company! Cheers to Darren who organised it, and the other photographers who helped me out. Their photographs can be seen at the East Scotland Strobists group here. THIS one put a smile on my face!
Preview: No Fuss Endurance Downhill 20090
neil posted in Travel on August 2nd, 2009
The 2009 Endurance Downhill was put on by No Fuss events in Fort William. Riders had to make as many runs down the World Cup downhill course as possible, resting in the gondola up and fixing their bikes with penalties for using replacement parts. The images I’ve put up are the ones I pulled out at first glance and more are on their way.
I’m pretty knackered just now, so I’ll just put the link HERE