ABSOLUTE CHAOS

On occasion I get asked to photograph people on a time for prints basis (TFP), these are usually young models or aspiring musicians wanting a leg up in the business. Unfortunatly I have not got the time to complete all of these requests, after all I have a business to run and free pictures cost me money, but inspite of this I consider each request on its merits and when I can I will shoot for free.

A request came in from Chantelle, an aspiring model from Newark, who wanted some pictures with her brothers band, Cause of Chaos. After she explained her position I agreed, and we arranged to do a location shoot near to where they live.

The shoot was an absolute scream, the guys dressed in Pseudo Punk come Gothic outfits, and I got to use my signature lighting technique again, I loved it. I shot alot more images than I would normally for a TFP shoot, we had loads of images to choose from.

Cheers guys, I had a great time.

Hope you all like them

Paul

Wonderful Wide Angles


I love to use wide angle lenses, they allow the veiwer to see so much more, and give the illusion of space and freedom.

I have recently been involved in a project for a design company who were putting together a brochure for a property development company. The brief was to photograph an apartment, near Nottingham, that was part of an exclusive development. I have photographed this type of building on many occasions, and was aware that on the most part, they tend to be small and pokey.

This apartment was very pleasant, much bigger than I was expecting, but still not exactly spacious, I was going to have my work cut out if I was to make this place look as appealing as the market value led you to believe it was.

I had packed a couple of wide angle lenses, a 17-35 f2.8, a real work horse of a lens, and my 12-24 f4-5.6, a superb piece of glass that I am using more and more.

I initially tried the 17-35, but I knew that optically it is rather poor at the edges, and it just wasn't quite wide enough anyway, so out came the 12-24.

Suddenly this small cosy flat becomes a much more spacious luxury apartment. The problem is that wide angle lenses tend to bend straight lines, but with careful use you can minimise distortion by keeping the camera as level as possible and not having articles too close to the lens. These problems were overcome by using the spirit level built into my tripod to ensure the head was level, and by some careful furniture arrangement.

The living room and bedrooms were not so much of a problem, but the bathrooms, especially the en-suite, were fairly tight for space.

As you can see from the picture of the bathroom , the basin is a little distorted, but as my camera is fairly level it is not unpleasant.

I must admit, I really enjoyed this project, some archtectural jobs can be incredibly tedious, but the quality of the apartment, and the challenge, really made this for me. Best of all the designers loved the images.

Essential gear















Without doubt, if anything is going to go wrong, it will go wrong while on that really important job, the one that you have spent the last two months sweating if your tender was successfull or not.

No matter how many times you test your gear, sometimes it goes tits-up at the most inopertune moment. generally its not the big items, such as cameras or flash units that go wrong, its the smaller items, like cables that break.

Recently I had exactly that happen to me, not a problem I thought," I have a spare" which I did. All was well for about 15 minutes, then just as I was about to wrap up, the spare went 'US', thats unserviceable to those none ex-military types. I only had one final shot to get, but I needed a working cable, and quickly.

Luckily I always carry a back-up to the back-up, not neccesarily the exact item I require, but some way of achieving the aim, usually I have to bastardise a piece of gear to get it to work, but I have not been beat yet.

On this occasion I had to chop up two different cables and connect them using electrical tape, it worked a treat and let me finish the job on time and to the brief.

So here it is, my most useful piece of gear, the venerable Gerber Multi-tool. I have owned numerous brands of multi-tool, including Leathermans and Swiss Army knives, but I have always returned to Gerber.

My current one is nearly ten years old and has been around the world with me, I always carry it.

Other important bits and bobs I carry include gaffer tape, elastoplast, paracetamol, power bars, and an LED flashlight.

So going to Scouts as a kid really was useful, it taught me to be prepared for every eventually.

Off-Camera Flash


















On occasion I am going to post little snippets of information about my photography and the techniques I use. I have never intended that this blog becomes a how-to site but since so many people ask me how I work, I thought I might as well share a little of what I have learned over the years.

If there is one photographic technique I really love to use, this is it, off-camera flash. By removing the flashgun from the camera and placing it on a stand to the side of the subject, it is possible to create a little more drama in the image.

The portrait above was lit with a Lumedyne Signature Series flash unit, but a similar effect can be achieved using a conventional flashgun. The flashgun needs to be triggered someway, the simplist method is to use an off-camera cord, these come in various lengths, and can either be dedicated to your specific camera, or made from a simple cable.

I have several cables, but I normally use a Pocket Wizard to trigger my flash units. Pocket Wizards are incredibly reliable radio triggers with a range of over 1000 feet, and because you are not tied to the flash with a cable you can move about freely without any restrictions.

In the portrait above I used the flash bare, in other words I did not use any form of modifier to change the effect of the light, but by using a flash off-camera I could quite easily have used an umbrella or softbox to soften the light.

Hope you found this useful

Paul