It was the first work day after Christmas, the rain was chucking it down, and I had a headshot photoshoot to do. My subject was former SKY TV Gladiator Atlas, and current Southampton Mayflower Theatre panto (Santa Claus and the Return of Jack Frost) star playing evil henchman 'Thaw the Glaciator', Sam Bond.
It was the first time in years I'd been inside the Mayflower Theatre, as well as my first photoshoot there. I love having access to buildings and places that you normally you can't get into.
I'd decided before leaving home that I was going to shoot with natural / available lighting. I was travelling light, with just my Canon 5d mark ii, and Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens. Lighting in the auditorium was about as bad as bad can get. The seats were lit by several lights high up on the ceiling some 30 metres away. It was the daylight equivalent to shooting under the midday sun.
This was the second time I've had the pleasure of working with Sam, the first being on a lovely summers afternoon at Portland Bill, Dorset. Then we were working with wonderful sunlight, a reflector and a stunning location.
Sam knows what he wants, he knows his angles and what works best for him. This I like because it helps the whole process as it becomes more of a collaboration between photographer and subject.
If you have great lighting and an experienced subject then normally you'll end up with lots of images to select from. Poor lighting and an inexperienced model and the numbers go down drastically. Today we had poor lighting but an experienced model, so we were somewhere in the middle.
1 comment:
Hello, thanks for sharing your pictures of Sam Bond. I also enjoyed reading about your photoshoot. Sam is quit popuplar here in the United States right now.
http://thesambond.blogspot.com/
I wish we had more pictures of him. Thanks so much again.
Paige
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