Project 52 ... 46

Say hello to Paul, a neighbour, father, husband and all around good laddie!

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB 800 shoot thro' camera left,

Vivitar 285 gridspot, camera right.

Apart from the fact that both of our daughters go to Brownies, (when you become a parent that's where all your new friends come from - school, Brownies, clubs...you are no longer an individual; now you become part of the greater collective known as 'parents') But Paul and I share something else; a fine appreciation of Jack Vettriano paintings. Paul is lucky enough to have a few, and here he is pictured in front of two of them. And I should say he is a Scot too...

For this shot I wanted to portray a hard edged Vettriano type picture as a photograph; film noir and gritty. This is the kind of photograph I like, and the low angle I shot at gives a very hard edge effect to the picture, I like the shadow falling on the wall over the two pictures, it makes you think about them...

Thank you Paul for being such a good sport, oh, and, er,...are you doing the Brownies collection this week...?

See the set up shot here...

Project 52 ... 45

This is Paul...
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB800 from camera right...

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Paul is my Brother-in-Law. A great dad and a good husband; a nicer man you could not meet. We shared a house many years ago when we were first starting out in work. Good memories, the best of which ;

'I've fallen and I can't get up... but I'm alright now...'.

You had to be there!

I took Paul a bit by surpirse with this portrait. The flash was on-camera (I know, cheat, I hear you say...!). I am not a fan of on-camera flash; people end up looking flat and washed out. Paul doesn't. The reason is I bounced the flash off an adjacent wall, that in itself would have made solme difference, but some of the flash light would have gone straight onto Paul, which I didn't want. So I placed a gobo, a black piece foam, velcroed to the flash that directed all the light where I wanted it to go. It had the added benefit of not blinding Paul when I took the shot. Great for parties, it looks like directional light... which it is. So much better than on-camera flash.

Thanks Paul for a great photo.

Project 52 ... 29

Meet my little brother, Paul.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB 800 shoot thro' umbrella, Vivitar 285 + gridspot

I have wanted to shoot Paul since we were kids... only kidding. He is the best brother a man could have. Here he is holding a samurai sword called a katana that was awarded to him on receiving his First Dan black belt grade in Wado Ryu karate. He is also sporting his yakuza style tattoo. Paul and I first started learning karate in the 70's when the Bruce Lee phenomenon hit the big screen. You couldn't get enough of Kung Fu or Karate. It was everywhere and everyone wanted to be a part of it. We both kept it up, Paul studying Wado Ryu in Ireland.

I wanted to make this photo a gritty hard edged one to show something of the karate-ka that is Paul. Unfortunately this cannot show you the blood, sweat and tears that goes into the dedication required to gain this level of achievement in karate, but believe me its there. I lit Paul with an SB 800 in a shoot through umbrella level with the camera to camera left and a Vivitar 285 directly behind Paul and about 10 feet away from him with a grid spot to control the light. I also draped the umbrella with the black/silver cover to limit the spill of light through the umbrella. The lights were in a linear formation; with Paul in the middle forming a straight line.

Both flashes were triggered with CTR 301 P, Ebay remotes, which have fired every time for me so far! Thanks Paul for a wonderful meal that night and for having the patience to sit (stand) while I took the shot.

Project 52 ... 10

Say hello to Paul,

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB 800 in softbox camera left.

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I met Paul at a school Governors meeting and we got on well from the start. Paul is a very busy man so i was delighted when he agreed to sit for me. This is his favourite chair so that's where the shot was going to be and I wanted to contrast the shot with his busy life, so this is a 'resting' photo.

I under exposed the ambient, which became the fill from the right, set up the Sb 800 in a small softbox relatively close and just off camera to the left. I had it set to 1/2 or 1/4 power and the D200 on 1/250 and tweaked the f-stop to suit. A simple and subtle shot.