Having just undergone the worst blog drought in personal blogging history I thought I would kick things off with a blog on shooting a fashion show. Why? Because I’ve got a few blogs backed up and I have to start somewhere, right? A while ago I was commissioned to shoot the Harvey Nichols spring/summer 2012 fashion show. This is always quite an interesting gig as the brief puts me in several different shooting situations. Hit the jump to see the pics, write up of the day and the geeky lighting info…
Recently things have been going quite well with regards to work – I have been doing quite a bit of fashion work on behalf of a marketing company, shooting some brands you might have even heard of! Needless to say its been pretty cool because this year was all about getting more work on and that’s starting to happen. Its not all been smooth sailing but things seem to be on the up! I will be blogging about some of the work I’ve been doing, with lighting info and pics soon.
This shoot was for a couple of musicians collaborating on a duo act called Huckleberry. The makeup was done by Jenny Cadwallader who can normally be found working with her boyfriend Danny Baldwin, an exciting fashion photographer based in London. I have mentioned before on my blog how musicians like leaving things to the last minute – this was no exception. Preparations included calling all my friends to find out if anyone had a straw hat and then convincing Guy (the guitarist) it would be a good idea to wear one. The end.
If any readers of this blog are looking forward to the bit where we all pack our bags, board American Airlines, land in New Orleans, eat some fried catfish for breakfast and then get shooting on the grand banks of the Mississippi, they will be slightly annoyed to learn that the title of this blog was only a metaphorical tip of the hat to Mark Twain’s immortal character Huckleberry Finn. Please do not be too annoyed because the location still has all the historical and industrial relevance of the mississippi delta, minus, of course, the romantic penning of Mark Twain. Our location? Non other than the Great Manchester Ship Canal. The canal nowadays is completely deserted, which is strange considering only 50 years ago it was the third largest shipping port in the UK. What’s interesting is, its days lying peacefully disused may be numbered, as the canal has been aquired this year by Peel Ports. Their plans include redevelopment, expansion, and an increase in shipping from 8000 containers a year to 100,000 by 2030, as part of their Atlantic Gateway project. According to Wikipedia. So some or all of that may not be true. All fascinating stuff and nothing to do with photography at all, except, I love shooting round that area as there are so many different views to be had as backdrops including my all new ‘Mississippi Delta’ look! Hit the jump to get the geeky lighting info and see the rest of the pics…
I recently did a shoot with on behalf of Manchester Fashion Network for a brand called Stone-Dri. The brief was simple ‘street style’ and near the offices of MFN for ease and practicality. We used the rather handsome Sam Ferns to model, the expertise of John-Paul to style him, and Katrina Urwin from MFN overseeing. We had about 20 outfits to get through and needed 5 usable photos for each one – and about 7 hours to do it in. So about a 100 usable photos in total. Katrina also wanted to mix up the locations a bit too. Unsurprisingly today was not a day for complicated light setups. Which was fine as Katrina wanted them to look as if they were taken in natural light. In fact the photo above was taken in natural light only. More on light in a minute though. The day went well, we alocated 10-15 minutes for each outfit and then moved on to the next one. It was pretty intense as i was choosing locations as we went along. It would have been nice to have a few planed in advance but I had no idea really what the light would be doing on the day which is kind of mainly what i look at when choosing locations. As it turned out the light was dim and coming from everywhere! It was great working with a stylist like Jon-Paul – he put some great outfits together and although he paid attention to detail he didn’t fuss too much which could have been disastrous with the time we had.
I have been meaning to blog about this gig for ages now but it took awhile for the pictures to be given the go ahead and then I got busy, but, better late than never! I was asked by the lovely Gwen Oakden who works at Manchester Art Gallery, to cover this event which was held for the Gallery’s patrons and, to be honest, I got pretty excited – for those who don’t know Manchester, Beetham Tower is by far the tallest building in the city and it completely OWNS the skyline here. Hit the jump for more pics and further write up…
A couple of weeks ago I was commissioned to shoot Manchester band Let’s Be Lionsfor their new website. As usual for a band shoot I am emailed a very specific brief and a detailed mood board which has been painstakingly crafted over several months by the band who are completely focused on their corporate agenda.
Kidding!!!
No that is not at all how it goes down here in Manchester – I got a call the day before saying “Yeah we need some pictures – you know something vibey and nothing too cheesy. Tomorrow.” Ok guys let me just check I’ve got your brief straight here just so I’m not missing anything and I completely fulfill every aspect of it.
– Vibey
– Not Cheesy
– Tomorrow
Obviously with such specific instructions you would have to be a moron not to know what was required at this point, but just to be on the safe side I thought I might home in on some more detail, “Are you looking to do the shoot indoors or outdoors?”
“Hey man whatever you think is best – probably depends on the weather.”
FAIL!!!
Just when I thought, Sven, you’ve had your brief don’t push your luck, a revelation comes out of nowhere:
“Definitely no hats”
Nightmage gig?! Nope. This is my favorite type of work – I love an open brief. What is really being said (I like to tell myself) is, we trust you to come up with something. This is where the fun starts. Hit the jump to see the rest of the pictures, write up and of course all the geeky lighting stuff.
The next couple of blog posts are going to be regarding work I have been doing recently. Tuesday this week I had the honor of covering The Lucy In Disguise launch night at Harvey Nichols in Manchester. Hit the jump for the write up and pics of the event including the Lucy In Disguise line modeled by Boss Models…
At the end of last year I did a shoot with the lovely Helen Batchelor and vintage make up artist Bethany Jane Davies, and I mentioned I would do a proper post on it so here it is. Antwerp mansion in December is an extremely cold place and despite having brought hot tea in thermoses and snacks to keep energy up it was a tough shoot. In fact Helen having spent a good portion of the shoot in underwear managed to catch the flu the next day. Lovely! Never-the-less it was fun to mess around and I try to do a shoot once a month that is a bit different from what I would normally do and is not for money, just to keep the creativity and learning on track. For this shoot I wanted to use some old stage lights I bought ages ago and see how they worked with strobe lighting. Hit the jump to get the geeky break down on lighting set ups…
In the last post I was leaving for an extended trip in Asia with the aim of getting some photos to come back with. As it turned out I became rather distracted with a video project that I want to put together for our trip through Vietnam. While we were there we bought a rather tired out old motor bike and traveled through the interior of Vietnam. I am currently in the process of putting together the footage into a short video which will be posted on this blog when its done, however since I’m new to video editing its takeing quite some time, so bare with me while I labour over the editing. In the mean time I shall be blogging on a few of the things I’ve been up to since I’ve been back. One of the first things I did when I got back was immediately leave again on a trip round scotland. An excellent choice if you like whiskey and castles. Hit the jump to see more…
A couple of weeks ago I did a burlesque shoot with Helen who has been suggesting we do this for about a year, literally. The question has always been, where? That question was answered a month ago when I went to see a gig at an old derelict mansion near where I live. It was perfect for the job. Unfortunately I have only been able to process a couple from the shoot as it has been absolutely crazy these last couple of weeks. We have been getting ready for a BIG TRIP in east Asia which starts on the 2nd at 9am (yes in 5 hours) plus I had the family at my house for Christmas for 10 days. So no time to blog. We plan on going to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and to come back in two months with a hardrive full of photographs to start my traveling portfolio. Check back here in March to see the results! Hit the Jump to see more of the burlesque shoot…
As I have mentioned in a previous post, the music world and photography world have many parallel lines and sometimes they converge, providing Gemma and I the opportunity to work together, without taking leave from our chosen profession. Most recently this happened when we covered an event at Epernay Champagne Bar in Manchester for The National Magazine Company’s 100th birthday celebration. The National Magazine Company is the umberella group that owns such magazines as Esquire, Harpers Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and many more. A rather glamorous evening with champagne flowing, Epernay’s caterers circulating the room with delicate canapés, whilst Gemma’s three piece band added atmospheric elegance, only stopping to allow for some low key speeches and then continuing into the evening. Hit the jump for more photos, my approach to capturing the evening and lighting info…
