Personal Work: The 1st Shoot in the new studio.

June 11, 2015 in Personal Work, Studio, Portrait

The studio opening day was looming being only 1 week away but I could not wait until after then to shoot in the space, not to mention I had picked up paint rollers and hammers more often than a camera over the last 2 months whilst getting the studio ready.

So I contacted my good friend and sometimes assistant Mark Boadey and we arranged a shoot. I wanted mark to shoot also as he helped me get the space ready... seriously when I outgrow this space and move to a larger one Mark will be commissioned to build me a cyc wall (aka infinity cove) and I will probably just get in the way as normal.

Thank you Mark for your help and support.

Of course to shoot you need somebody to stand on set looking good, sure you can buy a mannequin but the conversation is crap. Thankfully we were able to book Dee who was great to work with and looked great at any angle in any light. Thank you Dee for an enjoyable first shoot in the studio.

Below are some images from the shoot. It felt good to start getting a feel for the space (and pick up the camera) and to also finally realise I now have a studio.... holy S**T what have I done :).

I am back in the space this Saturday to work on a few white seamless sets ready for a band shoot later this month. On to the images.

If you click on the images it will load them in a light-box for you.

Started with the worlds most comfortable chair, Dee and a 28" silver beauty dish on set. Oh and some Laminate floor.

Then it was time to roll out the Grey seamless and try a few different looks.

Grabbed a shot of Mark whilst he stood in to test light. As well as an hilarious shot of him wearing Dee's fringe.

I then set-up using 2 lights and some gels in the studios meeting corner.

The last set of the day was white seamless.

Now the space is open I can not wait to get to work in it. The space has plenty of potential and I am looking forward to finding out what I can produce over the coming months.

Thank you for reading.
Rick

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#TattooStory - 1a (TJ Bear) 1b (Time and Tide) - Graham F

February 01, 2014 in #TattooStory, Project, Personal Work

It's an exciting and scary (mostly scary) thing starting a project, all kinds of things run through your head but you have to move forward.

Shot the first two stories for this project back in December, thanks to a broken PC and having to buy and setup an new one I am only getting round to posting the images in the project gallery today. Anyway..

When I announced this project I was not sure what kind of response to expect but was pleasantly surprised at the great initial response. The first subject could not of been better... Graham F and his two stories are a great way to kick start this project off.

I travelled down to Poole for this shoot, never been but was impressed by what I saw. Decided to stay over for a weekend to give me enough time to shoot if the weather decided to have fun with us.. which it kind of did.

My original project plan layout was to shoot 3 images per story, but Graham threw me a curve ball he had two great stories and I had travelled 230 miles so I had to shoot both of them.

Since the two stories tie in and work together for the environmental portrait shot I decided to shoot only one environmental for the two stories.

In the blog post announcing this project I talk a little about the process and the locations where the shoots will happen, in the case of this one we could not shoot at Grahams family home so we re purposed my Hotel room as a studio for the first 4 images.

Its a fairly simple lighting set up as it goes but not with out its own challenges, The room was small with white walls and a low white ceiling... great until you want to light a background (one of the walls).

You can get an idea of the lighting setup in the image below, had to make it work in that small space and with those walls.

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Just to give you an idea the set up is 3-4 lights and would normally need space to set up 3-3 light stands, two of which for the background. The difference in this set up is the background light was placed on the floor due to space limitations. Problem solver first photographer second.

Main Light: Speedlite in a Westcott 28" Apollo

Fill Light : Speedlite in aWestcott 60" Umbrella (shoot through) just to fill the shadows a little.

Background Light: Speedlite with a flag/gobo. Normally 2 will be used if the space is large enough.

In a perfect world I would be able to shoot all the 3/4 and detail shots for this project in a studio but (a) I don't own one... yet and (b) its not always practical to get people into a studio.

A few things about Graham before we go in to the images from the Stories.

1. He's a great guy and gave everything in his stories, for that I am very grateful.

2. He's a photographer himself.... Ahh Shit! was my first thought, I mean come on its hard enough working with a stranger in a strange environment let alone him knowing what I am doing and quite possibly how well I am (or not) doing it. :)

But seriously he's a good man who has been through allot, was nearly down and out but kept on keeping on.. kept moving forward. I could take allot away from that and his stories alone, never mind a set of new images.

Graham's first #TattooStory is named "TJ Bear" after his late Granddad and is full of Family pride & history.

Grahams second #TattooStory is named "Time and Tide" and revolves around a very personal battle, victory and life motto.

You can see a smaller preview layout below. But images and stories are best viewed in the main gallery.

#TattooStory Project If you have a Tattoo and a great #TattooStory to tell I would love to hear from you.  You can find out all about the project [ here ] I look forward to hearing and photographing your #TattooStory RJ Bradbury

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Along with the two stories I also shot an environmental portrait to tie them both in. I don't have a BTS shot for the environmental... mostly because I forgot to shoot one (I always do that) but also because it was a simple portrait in terms of lighting.

I used a bare speedlite with a CTO gel on. Picture this.. we are at the docklands in a coastal town sooo it was windy and dam cold, I had a £320 light rig on the waters edge with a light stand bag attached to weight it down and it still had me jumping up and catch it on one or two occasions. Not a chance I could of used an umbrella or softbox with out the light and me after it going swimming.

The environmental portraits are the biggest shrug your shoulders with a blank look image in this project, reason is I have no idea what stories or environments are coming my way.

I managed to get this shot inside of 5 hours and that included travel a beer lunch break and a talk or two about photography which involved discussions about the industry today and photographers that have influenced us and our work.

Now I figure most of the #TattooStory's could be shot in about 4-5 hours total. Remind me to arrange an assistant for windy on location work next time. :)

I am still looking for #TattooStory's for this project during 2014, full details about the project can be found on the link below.

Personal Work + Project's

Thank again Graham for your time and stories. Stay in Touch.

Rick

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Personal Work / Message: Just 1 Beauty Moment...

October 26, 2013 in Personal Work, Message

The Moment is King or Queen...Always .. Oh and REAL

The above image is from today's studio session. I have wanted to shoot beauty for a while and went for it today... more to come on that.

If your wondering why the hands in the frame and why the smile?... my model for the day (Blessing) had come back on set with some Haribo.. you know Kids and Grownups.. love them so, she was trying to be stealthy about eating them (huge fail) and as a result of my questioning (jokingly) the Haribo this moment was created and I love it.

Let me open this up a moment, imagine if you will this was a client shoot for a magazine or makeup line, I shoot this and it pops up on the tether.... pretty good chance the client will reject it (if the brief does not request this)... its out of focus (not the hand) and has some motion blurr thanks to the flash powder slow lights, that's fine they can reject it no problem after all they are paying and its not to brief BUT I would flag/5 star that sucker in a heart beat for myself.... why?

The Moment is Always King/Queen. Not saying a brief/directiin is not important.. it dam well is but if you get these moments before, during or after the brief is fulfilled then press the dam shutter because they only happen once.. Make sure you fill the brief though :)

It's all too easy to get caught up in the brief, the shot list or the lighting, camera, lens... all that technical stuff or worse chimping every shot. Keep you eye to the viewfinder and watch for moments on every shoot, sometimes you can make a moment happen by working to get a reaction to something... you ask them to scream/sing/jump, you act stupid, make conversation... sometimes they just happen. You should be dialed in and be watching for them & not thinking about that preview on the LCD all the time. Why?

The Moment is King or Queen.. yeah said that already so i'll put it another way The Moment is REAL.

Now I am guilty on the chimping or over thinking stuff and missing some moments.. but I try not to and now always look out for them. Does it matter if the image is soft or a bit too dark/bright, not perfect (nothing is)... nope because that's a REAL moment a REAL reaction.

Below are a few frames from past shoots that show real moments/reactions. If i was constantly chimping or had my head up in a softbox or in technical land I would of missed them. Click the Images for larger versions in a Lightbox.

You have your head buried in camera settings, lights, that dam LCD then you miss these moments... REAL moments. Keep your eyes on the prize.

Also go photograph your family members & friends, young old and in-between... look for the moments (Go Do It) and if you get the chance to shoot a 100th birthday.. do it!

The image below is my Gran.. I would of been pissed if I missed that moment (I always wonder what she was thinking), it's ISO 3200 available light, 50mm, F.. it does not effin matter! The Moment is King/Queen...it's REAL.

Going to end this post here.. this image always chokes me up, she's still with us but having a rough time of late... i'm going to see her tomorrow (taking the X100) but its not about the moments tomorrow is about spending quality time.

Rick

Personal Work: Location Hunting in Stockport (Rachael F)

September 23, 2013 in Personal Work, Photography, Portrait

You would think by now I would know or have shot all the locations in Stockport, sadly that’s not the case so I have work to do.

It had been a nearly 2 months since I last picked up the camera and that’s not good, been busy with re-doing the website, social media stuff (infuriating at times) and not really been myself. I’m tired, stressed, still looking for a job and was in need of a kick up the ass to go shoot. Thankfully a good friend sorted that.. cheers Mark.

So a casting call was put up but that got resulted in nothing. After a post on a local facebook group Rachael came to the rescue. Now I had worked with Rachael before but it had been a while.

Come shoot day I was not feeling it at all. Confidence had lowered; doubts and noise had entered my already busy brain… ahh @#?!

It took me allot longer to get in to shooting and I know why, I think to much, worry too much and had left it too dam long between shoots.

Thankfully I had packed light, kept gear simple….less stuff to think about or get in the way. Only took one camera and one lens… actually it’s the only lens it has given the camera is a X100, also took 1 light and only 2 modifiers (28” Apollo, Grid Spot).

After I had warmed up somewhat and let my head clear (kinda) I started to enjoy the shoot more. I took a total of 169 images… allot of the first frames sucked… and that’s all me. All said and done came away with 22 edited images.

The image at the start of this post is my personal favorite from the shoot (thanks Rachael) because I had looked at this tunnel countless times and had an image in my head… funny thing is its not this image and I’m ok with that because this one is better.

Whilst setting up for this first image we were battling with traffic and public, during which a gent walking by asked Rachael what she was doing. I managed to catch this moment from the conversation.

Those images are actually from towards the end of the day so let’s rewind some and travel back in time.

The first location was an old car park of a now closed furniture shop (which by the way would make an amazing studio). Made a few frames at this first location which you can see below.

Those leggings and boots are great. Sometimes its worth looking for detail shots during a shoot.

But I’m a portrait photographer, better make some portraits then.

Anyone who’s knows me will know I like clean simple backgrounds, paper or walls.. what ever. That way your subject is the main focus of the image.

All the above images are natural light. Not wanting my speedlite to feel left out the next few are lit by a Westcott 28” Apollo Softbox.

The image above was taken whilst setting up, liked the pose/look.

Can’t remember what was said for the life of me, but made Rachael laugh. Then it was time for food and I was really looking forward to this after being on a training diet.. full English breakfast please.

After food we moved on to another location just at the side of The Plaza in Stockport. One day I will shoot in the Plaza… its going to cost so that one is on hold.

The next few frames were lit with that light you can see in the shot above. Westcott 28” Apollo on a stand boomed by Mark. Oh the jet stream thingy bugs the crap out of me, its sticking out of her head. Anyway moving on.

Needless to say we got some funny looks shooting this location on a busy Saturday afternoon. Oh also the EXIF Data = 1/1000th sec, F8, ISO400 Wireless Sync! Thank you Fuji and Phottix.

Sticking with the same location I changed the light modifier to a Grid Spot for the next set.

Head not in a clean spot but sometimes you compromise.

It was then time to move on to the next location just up the steps. Next images are lit with the Westcott 28” Apollo again.

Rachael fell in to this after a difficult and uncomfortable pose, that said uncomfortable pose did not get selected for edit.. go figure.

After this we moved on to the tunnel location but we have seen those already.

The final location was just nearby the tunnel and demanded bare flash and pretty much full power to control the sun.

Love this shot. Not quite as much as the tunnel one… almost. Bare flash zoomed to 80mm held by Mark in a horizontal position to change the pattern of light and the exposure was 1/1 full power, F16, 1/1000thsec, ISO250.

You can do allot with a speedlite with a DSLR but going up against full sun and a wide composition your better off with a leaf shutter camera like the Fuji X100… that thing will sync at 1/4000th sec if you cable a fast flash up, wireless its limited to your triggers and the signal delay. By the way the triggers I use are the Phottix Strato II Multi great for faster sync speeds.

Thanks for an enjoyable day shooting Mark & Rachael.

Thanks

Rick