Firemonkeyphoto

Priorities?0
neil posted in Travel on October 25th, 2009

Most of the photographs I’ve ever taken have been of friends. I guess this makes my commercial, sports & journalism work like the tip of an iceberg. Most of my images are seen only via this blog or the (currently broken) gallery behind it. Typically, these images are post processed just after they are taken or weeks later, occasionally brushed under the carpet and never processed at all.

It was only last night, when I was using magic whiteboard paper to put old prints of my friends on the wall, that I realised that I had’nt printed any of these images for years. Literally. Its probably time to change that. Its probably good to shoot more, play more and relax more with the camera. It has’nt ever just been a tool for work, it has always been an eye cast over my life. I honestly regret the years I spent without one, the stupid trips, daft ideas, epic adventures that went unrecorded. My older pictures, shot with crappy compacts with doubtful exposures and factory-set focus, are reminders, bookmarks in the good bits of my life.  As such, they are in many ways more valuable than the tack-sharp, painfully lit images I like to show in my pro-galleries.

So, enjoy these images of a recent “fun only” trip to Leeds. I wish I’d shot more. I’d just like to suggest that you take the time to shoot your friends (politely).

PhotoSoc: Lighting class0
neil posted in Travel on October 16th, 2009

I worked with Adam Jagger Bramley, president of Edinburgh Universities’ Photo Society, to run a lighting class. We concentrated on the idea of modifying light, changing and directing it. We demo’d most of the common lighting modifiers from flags & snoots all the way up to a gridded softbox and with the help of our model, Malcom, we shot the effects straight into lightroom so the class could see how the light changed. This was the first time I’d ever shot seriously with a Sony camera and the 135mm f/2 was a nice lens to work with. The only downside was getting the AF-motor to decouple, that was harder than it should be! Once we’d done the demo, Adam and I handed cameras over to the most enthusiastic students and assisted them in creating a lighting setup for some contrived challenges.

Marc, a Sony user, stepped up to my 5D and put together this shot of our “stand-in”. The trick here was to light the stand in in a way that would flatter the male model who would take her place. This is a pretty common problem when working with a ‘celebrity’ or other time/patience challenged individual. It was a very big ask and Marc came up with a rocking lighting setup that suited the stand-in, but was’nt quite “masculine” enough for our model. I really like the light and shallow DOF here. Malcom offered an insightful model’s eye view of being photographed: He wanted the information to do his job well, which means he MUST see the image on the camera so he can get himself sorted and make a really good picture. See how photographers can be driven to perfectionism with light? Models are like that, but with their look! (duh!) It’d be foolish not to use that to your advantage.

Next up was Johnathan who put together a bike-theft scene using two hard lights, one flagged off the ground, the other snooted to be a torch. We never managed to put the model in the image as we ran out of time, but our stand-in nailed the expression we wanted in his absence. Both groups saw some of the hard work, attention to detail and persistence that goes into making a posed & lit image.

More continuous light0
neil posted in Photos, Neil on October 7th, 2009

Its happening again….0
neil posted in bikes, Neil on October 7th, 2009

Strathpuffer 16/17th Jan 2010. Team may differ substantially to that above.