Sherie, Miss Swindon 2009

I had the wonderful opportunity of photographing Sherie, Miss Swindon 2009, last Autumn and what a shoot that was. We had two sessions, an indoor one in the morning (while it was raining) and an outdoor one later one in the afternoon, when it was colder, but not raining.
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Sherie at Ashton Court, Bristol, #1

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Sherie at Ashton Court, Bristol, #2

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The outdoor shots were taken with the camera, a Nikon D200 set to manual, 1/200th and the aperture at about f5.6. The lighting was by two SB900's set to half and quarter power to give a bit of definition; a classic lighting ratio and it worked really well with Sherie, accentuating her natural beauty.
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The shots could have been done with one light, but given that Sherie was halfway up the steps, (sios, ag dul anios - if your Irish) getting the light elevated high enough would have been difficult. My good friend Glyn Dewis, you can see his blog here, is giving a series of photographic workshops on using one light this year, be sure to check it out.
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Sherie at Ashton Court, Bristol, #3

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The session went really well and the blue dress and purple tights were perfect for the time of year and the shoot. Sherie really had her eye on the ball and chose the perfect outfit for the day.

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Sherie at Ashton Court, Bristol, #4

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Sherie was shot with Pat and Adam, two other 'Bristol Strobist's' I teamed up with last year. A great day was had by all. We are at the moment trying to set up a 'January' shot and hope to shoot it early next month... yeah, I know it'll be February then, but the snow and holidays stopped play! But we have a few good ideas, so watch this space.

I especially want to thank Sherie for being a great model and having patience in the cold Autumn afternoon, next time I'll bring a warm coat for you!

Project 42 ... 43

Meet Jerry,
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50m f2.8,

SB800 in reflecting umbrella camera left,

Vivitar 285, gridded, behind.

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Jerry has worked for British Airways all his life and when we got permission to shoot in the new BA Headquarters I was beside myself with excitement! The building is an architectural masterpiece based around the idea of a street with six buildings laid out on either side of a 'street' that is enclosed in a vast atrium. There are shops, banks, all you would ever need during a working day; no need to leave the office!

The shot above is Jerry in front of a model of the famous Concorde; a classic plane beside a gentleman. Thanks Jerry for setting up a great shot and to Katy for being my invaluable assistant yet again! I must also say thanks to British Airways for allowing us access to their wonderful building.

Here is another of the shots we took.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50m f2.8,

SB800 in reflecting umbrella camera left,

Vivitar 285, gridded, behind.

Notice Jerry is smiling in this one ... I'm just sayin'...
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And here is the set up shot. This is how I start up my portrait shoots; the SB800 into the umbrella and the Vivitar, usually gridded to give an accent or rim light. Both the flash guns were on manual and triggered by the now famous Ebay CTR 301P remotes, that have been brilliant. I then tweak the light position and output or the f-stop to get the desired effect.

Thanks again, Jerry, by the way, those wheels to the left are  the wheels from a 747 Jumbo Jet, full size. there is a corresponding set on the other side of the 'street' at the correct positionwhere they are on the actual plane!

Project 52 ... 42

Meet Indiana Jones Peter,
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50, f2.8, SB800 silver umbrella to camera left,

Vivitar 285 behind Peter

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I have known Peter for too many years now! We first met during the last recession when he and his wonderful wife, Muriel, gave us many a Red Cross package, they are also God Parents to our son. A champion weightlifter in his youth, now, Peter is a bit of a modern day Indiana Jones, globe trotting all over in search of adventure. Here he is in his study with artifcacts from every corner of the world. Whether it is in the African bush or the Far East or South America, there is always a story to be told and a little something to adorn the walls of his study.

Peter is lit with an SB800 in a silver reflecting umbrella to camera left and behind and on the floor I have a Vivitar 285, both on about half or quarter power. The camera was set at f5.6 and 1/200. The room is tiny and with the umbrella, Peter and myself there was hardlyt any room to move at all.

I don't like 'busy' shots as a rule, but this one works because it mirrors his travels and also says something about the world getting smaller. Thanks for being such a good sport, Peter, and do tell us where you are off to next!

Miss Scarlett... Celebrating Cluedo's 60th Anniversary

Cluedo has been around for 60 years! The game has inspired many a 'whodunnit' on the big and small screen throughout those sixty years. I remember many a day spent chasing the murderer from the library to the kitchen and through the secret passage ways!

D200, Tamron 17-50 f2.8, SB80 in shoot thro' camera left,

Vivitar 285 gridded camera right

At  recent shoot in Ashton Court, the theme was loosely based around the great board game. I had been shooting with the Nikon CLS system and decided to switch back to manual triggers, I set up my two light linear system and waited. I turned around and there was Miss Scarlett, or I should say Jess.

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D200, Tamron 17-50 f2.8, SB80 in shoot thro' camera left,

Vivitar 285 gridded camera right

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We had about five minutes to complete a handful of shots ( I think Jess was looking for Colonel Mustard in the library...)
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D200, Tamron 17-50 f2.8, SB80 in shoot thro' camera left,
Vivitar 285 gridded camera right

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The lighting set up was a simple linear one; the two lights in a line and Jess in the middle and then I just varied the lights to give the effect I wanted. I was shooting at around 1/200th at ISO 100 at f5.6 or so. Jess was a great model to work with and just got it right first time! Thanks Jess and thank you Cluedo!
 
Oh, and Hanleyman did it, in the Music Room, with a D200!

Project 52 ... 41

Meet Alan...
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB800 shoot thro' camera left,

Vivitar 285 gridded camera right

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I have known Alan for a couple of years now; a plumber by trade, he is a partner in Kings Brother Building Contractor's, at least he was until recently. He is emmigrating with his wife to Australia in December to be with their daughter. What a life changing adventure! We had a great time taking this shot in the arches in Windsor early one October morning. The set up was my usual linear setup with Alan in the middle. The camera was set to manual , 1/200th and a stop or so below ambient. I triggered the flashes using the ebay CTR 301P triggers - they have not let me down yet!

My thanks to Martin for setting this shoot up - he did all the hard work of arranging and making sure that everyone was there. He also bought the coffee's! (but no bacon sandwiches...)

These shots were taken to celebrate Alan as part of King Brothers. So we took a few shots for posterity...

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The King Brothers... Graham, Mark and Alan

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Good luck to you and your family in your new life Alan, but watch out for the spiders and kangaroos and snakes and sharks and the climate and ... did I mention spiders and sharks...?

See more of the shoot after the jump...

Ashton Court Bristol Strobist Meet

More shoes... rather a lot of them actually...

I recently had the good fortune to be part of an incredible meet at Ashton Court in Bristol with a group of about 40 like-minded photographers, 20 amazing models and a handful of very talented make up artists.
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Sherie's Shoes

D200, SB900 1/2 power camera right,

SB900 1/4 power camera left

I am at present editing the selection but I will be posting the best shots here over the next few weeks. Keep watching.

Project 52 ... 34

This is Morag.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50, f2.8, SB800, shoot thro', Vivitar 285 gridspot for hairlight

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Morag is a beautiful young lady with a bright future in ... Maths and Philosophy! Great subjects! She starts her university course this month, rather her than me! To mark the occasion we took a series of shots one Saturday morning of Morag and her Mother and Father. This can only be a difficult but very exciting time for both Morag and her parents.

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For this shot we had an SB800 in a shoot through umbrella to camera right, Morag in the middle and a Vivitar 285 to camera left and behind Morag giving a hairlight separation, and a nice bit of flare... This linear approach works very well and is very quick to set up.

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I want to thank Morag and her parents for being great people to photograph; we had a great laugh taking the shots. Morag, I wish you all the success and hope you enjoy university life! Oh, and don't forget... never divide by zero.

Project 52 ... 33

Say hello to Ria...
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB800 shoot thro' camera right, Vivitar 285 to rear

Ria joined our office for the summer to help out on our ever increasing workload... A great young lady who became a valuable member of the team. We shall miss her when she goes back to university.

She is seen here holding a wake board, not something you use after a funeral, but part of the extreme sports set and it has these strange boots fixed to it (no high heels...)! I am always amazed to see these surfers throw themselves around on boards that barely float and dice with the waves! Amazing!

The shot was taken with an SB800 in a shoot through umbrella, partially blocked to form the main light and a gridded Vivitar 285 to give the hair light. Thanks Ria for being such and  extreme sport...

Project 52 ... 31

Meet moody Vince...
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D200 Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, no strobes...

Well, moody is a little unfair, okay, well a lot unfair. I first met Vince on the Scott Kelby 2008 World Wide Photowalk in Windsor last year. The same time as I met Glyn (photographed here). Glyn and Vince hit it off and became good friends and when you become friends with a photographer, then they are going to shoot you sooner or later.

Vince can been seen in multiple guises on Glyn's Blog, a lot of which are moody. So when we were walking around Eton last week, and we found a fantastic covered entrance to a mews with these amazing rendered friezes on the walls, I had to shoot him there. I also kept telling him to be 'moody'.

'You sound just like Glyn', he said. Pleased with that, I kept shooting. But this is my favourite shot of the afternoon. Vince is trying not to laugh as I am saying 'moody'... that was the shot! You can just see a smirk developing out of the corner of his mouth... Thanks for being patient with me Vince!

More shoes ... well boots ...

This is part of a project of photographing my wife Catherine's wonderful collection of shoes and boots. This is the first shot I have taken and this was to decide how to progress the project. I want to create an sense of drama.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB800 grid, Vivitar 285 grid

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Lighting is all important in these shots and adds to the film noir mystic. Flat lighting will do nothing and leave you wondering why you bothered.
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As you can imagine, there are a lot more photographs to be taken ...

Blackrock Market ...

When I return home to Ireland I invariably make a visit to Blackrock market. An eclectic mix of clothes; vintage and new, books, comics, antiques, photography and all to do with the culture and history of Ireland.
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Project 52 ... 30

Say hello again to Heidi.

I photograph Heidi every year when I return to Ireland on a family holiday. With her lovely smile and long shining blond hair Heidi always looks good in a shot. I photographed her previously here.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB 800 in reflecting umbrella

This shot had to be taken indoors as the Irish weather was asserting itself; as I posted earlier, rain. Fortunately the hall in Heidi's house is rather large and lent itself to me setting up an SB 800 with a reflecting umbrella. The quality of the light from it was wonderful. As before everything was set to manual, the camera and the flash and I was shooting at 1/200th. I simply tweaked the f-stop until the photo looked right. Simple. Then you just shoot away. In a sequence like this I find it better to take a lot of shots because facial expressions change constantly and you wound not want to miss the best one!

Heidi's two friends are holding her hair up to give this fun shot. Thanks Heidi for being such a great sport and putting up with the hair pulling!

Project 52 ... 28

This is Art Droid Ross...

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50, f2.8, SB 800

I have known Ross for quite a while now. he is a local Artist, I should say a very gifted local artist. He can turn his hand to so many things from sculpture, drawings, restoration and I am sure many many more. I was delighted when he agreed to sit for a portrait. Naturally, it had to be in his studio. And what a studio! Surrounded by banks of wide screen monitors, electronic writing tablets, books (and a drawing board) it was an experience! I was overwhelmed. His artwork has graced the pages of magazines, comics and the film industry, and I like his way out futuristic style, he was also an Art Droid on 2000AD, a comic I was hooked on as a kid. You can see more of his work here.

There was a lot of mixed lighting in the studio - small low voltage lights in the ceiling, the monitor lights and daylight coming in through the door. I set the SB 800 with diffusion dome to camera left and set the camera's white balance for tungsten. I tweaked the final image white balance a bit.

What struck me as a huge coincidence is the disparity between this shot and the last of Roger, here, Ross uses a tablet to draw on the screen, Roger uses a drawing board.

Thanks Ross for giving me a glimpse into the life and studio of an amazing artist!

Project 52 ... 27

This is Roger.
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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, natural light

Roger is an Architect and has been practising for a number of years with great success. He has won many awards over the years. But what he is known for outside of work is climbing. he has climbed more mountains than most people on the planet! His last trip was to a peak in the Everest range a mere 200m lower than the main peak itself! Frost bite and the cold mean nothing to him! (I wasn't going to climb a mountain for this shot, the stairs were high enough!)

This picture is taken in his studio, in the gods, in the natural light streaming in from a rooflight to camera left. He climbs up here everyday, right. This photograph is an interesting contrast with the next one of Ross. Most architects use computers in their work and in Roger's office this is no exception, but he still uses a drawing board. I should at this point add that he is an advanced Autocad user, with a certificate to prove it...

Thanks for letting me take this shot Roger.

The Holiday Season

Or should that be the rainy season...!?! I am just back from a two week trip back home to Ireland. It rained most of the time. When I lived there I was used to it, but living in England's almost tropical climate by comparison has made me forget about living with the rain. While it wasn't constant, it was there and did curb some photo walking I had in mind.

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I have a lot to add to the blog over the next few weeks. Not least of which is the 30th week of Project 52! A big thanks must go to all of you who have allowed me to photograph you. I have enjoyed it immensely. I shall email you all separately in the next week or so to let you know what is happening.

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D200, Tralee, Cockle Shell Beach Cow

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Just befoew I left I took part in Scott Kelby's World Wide Photoshoot, you can read about it here. It was a great day and lead by my good friend Glyn, I took his portrait back here a few weeks agoand there is a video of the day on his website, so do have a look. And why not make a note to take part next year - I am assumming that there will be another one then.

The day was great; there was about twenty of us and we wandered the streets of Guildford taking photos.

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D200, Guildford, Through the Looking Glass

Watch this space!

Project 52 ... 26

Bow your head to Sensei Rolf...

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50, f2.8, Vivitar 285, SB 800, both gridded.

Rolf has dedicated much of his free time over many years teaching karate to children, specifically Shotokai Karate. The club is in Winkfield, you can find out more about it here. Rolf has a great way with the children and they progress at a fantastic rate with his teaching and understanding of this amazing martial art. Sadly he is leaving the country to pursue his career. He shall be sorely missed on Saturday mornings!

I had Rolf sit in seiza for this shot. Not a posture I am comfortable in myself, but Rolf was very patient when I set up the strobes. I had both flashguns at camera right and left respectively, both gridded and both about 3 feet higher than Rolf's head. I killed the ambient and then tweaked the aperture / flash power until I got the shot I wanted. Thanks Rolf, and good luck!

Heidi and Helga

These two great girls, Heidi and Helga are drama dedicated in a big way. they are always in some production or other and they always excel!

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB 800

This shot was set up as a bit of fun one summer evening in the south of Ireland, yes we do have summers there ... sometimes ...

The shot was lit with an SB 800 in the Guinness umbrella, fired by the SU 4 super slave built in to the flash. A great fun shot, thanks girls!

Project 52 ... 23

Meet Maggie...

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50 f2.8, SB800 softbox, camera left

Maggie is a bit of a culinary expert. She works for the culinary genius Mr Roux and she tells me she loves her job. The theme of this shot was always going to have food in it in some shape or form. Maggie also sings in the choir at Mass on a Sunday and her dulcet tones fill the air like the song of an Angel! She is very well know and liked in the community.

The shot here in Maggie's back garden, when I suggested using the garden bench, she went and dressed it herself! Much better than I could have done it - she told me she had done it before (I shall file that away for future reference...) so I let her get on with it. I set up the SB 800 in a softbox to camera left with a 1/2 CTO (colour temperature orange) gel on it to warm up the photo. The ambient is under exposed by about a stop or so. I wanted to reproduce the late evening glow on an overcast night. The camera was at 1/200th or so and I tweaked the f-stop until I got the shot I wanted. Maggie is always smiling and this shot in a sequence was the one for me.

Thanks Maggie for letting me into your home, maybe next time you'll bake a cake...?

Another Chrysler ...

Another fine example of 1960's automotive design...

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D200, Nikon 105 VR

Project 52 ... 21

Say hello to Des...

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D200, Tamron 17 - 50, f2.9, Sb 800 soft box camera left, Vivitar 285 and gridspot camera right

I first met Des about a year ago and given that he is a Building Surveyor we immediately had something in common; the recession. To all who know him he a very happy and sincere person and always has a great building site story!

Throughout this project I have constantly wondered what the next shot is going to be. Because I am invariably in a person's home or office and while often I know them, I don't know their house and given the timescales involved have no chance of a recce beforehand. But I had been to Des' house before so I remembered the glass dining table. So Des became the first reflection shot.

An Sb800 is in a softbox illuminating Des and not much else as I kept it quite close to him. To the right is the 285 with a gridspot that is pointed past Des and onto the wall behind. This separates Des from the background. Ten minute set up, shot done.