Moody comedy photography

I sold a couple of photos today of British comedian Ola (taken at Jan Jack's Laughter House) to Ben Lewis TV who are making a documentary which will air sometime in 2012.  Working title is "What Brits Love".

Double page in Muscle & Fitness UK

After years of not really trying to get published in the UK, I've managed to get published two months running in Muscle & Fitness UK, ironically without actually trying.

This month was my first "proper" photo though (last month were only contest photos and I don't really count those).  I'm only showing the lead photo here, from a feature on athlete Jenny Pacey.

Thanks Jenny for the shoot and making the feature happen, photo looks great!

Being a property photographer

It's been quite some time since I last got asked to do any property photography, but after responding to a request on Twitter last week that's exactly what happened.  I was dispatched to photograph two locations, a large farm house (more on that later), and a 15th century house in the wonderful little town of Rye.  I had to bluff my way a little "why yes of course I photograph some amazing properties all of the time...".  I knew my work would be up to standard, I only ever take on jobs when I am confident of doing a good job, hence the "bluff" was only to give the clients the same level of confidence I have in myself.

The owners of both properties are putting them up as possible film / tv locations (with Film Location Agent Sarah Eastel Locations), and hence needed some quality photos of them.

Having spent the evening in Rye last year during their annual bonfire night / ritual it quickly became one of my favourite small towns.

Much of the house has been recently modernised (while keeping original features intact), but the two "wood" rooms as I called them, have been left pretty much as is.   This little extract from the interwebs explains why one of these two rooms is of such importance "There was an exciting discovery in 1901, behind panelling on the East wall of the old hall of the building:  Plaster work was uncovered which revealed a remarkable wall painting dating from the first part of the 16th century.  It measures eighteen feet by seven feet.   Probably the most important thing about it is  the frieze with Tudor roses, the coat of arms of Jane Seymour dated 1537 and the Royal Arms of England “King Edward VI 1547″.   The painting was damaged during World War II but was renovated in 1997 and is in a good state of preservation."

Photographing the wall painting was a challenge.  The lights in the room cast an uneven light, and the daylight from the window did similar.  No one picture really does the painting justice.

A few photos from Flushing House...  the final one, in the cellar I fell down the final few stairs landing on my butt.  Two days later and it still hurts.  Stupid me and my clumsy self.

Photographing the moon

Today I learned that you need a lens much more powerful than the equivalent of a 448mm (Canon 60D x1.6 crop), + 200mm with x1.4 converter) to get a good image of the moon.

If you look at the top photo first you might wonder why, but as the below image shows its been super heavily cropped from the original image direct from the camera.

London at night

If anyone suggests to me that I try and do day-time, and night-time photos of London in the same afternoon / evening again, I may have to hurt them.   Fatigue had very much set in by the time it was dark enough to do night photography, so the amount of effort put into these pictures was not nearly as much as it should have been.  Still some pleasing ish results.  It's a subject I plan on returning to throughout the winter months.

Things I learned from a London photowalk

Deciding to make the best of the fantastic late summers sun we had in England last week I booked a last minute bus ticket to London, so I could spend the day doing a photowalk.  I quickly became a we as my friend Jorge was to join me.

We ended up walking much further than either of us had planned, a total of just over 8 miles.  Our route took us from Victoria all the way to Westminster Abbey, via Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St Pauls, and then across the Millennium Bridge back to Westminster via the South Bank.

During the day, after seeing a Facebook update that I was plodding the streets of London, another friend, Izuhbel joined us for a part of the walk.  Izuhbel tried to get us into and up 3 different buildings opposite "The Old Bailey" so we could have a better angle to photograph the "Lady Justice" statue on top, but maybe not surprisingly she failed in all 3 attempts.  We did all manage to get a mint humbug from the third building, so it wasn't a complete loss.

I learned quite a few new things during the day, including...

• the queens guards are all about 12
• the queens guards appear to have no apparent height standards
• ice cream vans have been banned around St Paul's Cathedral
• Trafalgar Square has no lighting (at all) at night
• walking 8 miles around London really makes my feet hurt
• there is a scarecrow alive and well in the centre of London
• a quarter of the lights on the London Eye are not working
• Waterloo foot bridge moves and is unsuitable for taking long exposure images
• London police officers, even the ones with semi automatic weapons, are quite happy for you to take their photo
• its possible for someone to identify a National Express coach type from a poorly taken photo of the interior at night
• scaffolding is a good business to be in right now
• taking a long exposure night photo of the houses of parliament that includes any detail in the clock face is extremely difficult
• the 15 seconds maximum exposure time of the canon g12 is not nearly long enough
• National Express coaches have an uncomfortably little amount of leg room

And now for a few of my favourite photos from the day time part of our trek.  Night photos to follow later in the week.

5 minutes of The London Eye

Just a short, kind of pointless video of The London Eye.   In real time 5 minutes went by...

A front cover on a new magazine

 

Currently still only in digital form, this is the mock up front cover of a new magazine called "Modelinscene"

To borrow a few soundbites from the magazines Facebook page -
"The UK's modelling industry premier magazine and website is on its way."

Description - "Providing a valuable resource and insight of castings, opportunities, news, reviews, interviews, tips, styling, fashion, agencies and photographers aimed at the aspiring to the established model! We will also feature models from the 'up and coming' to the 'hot right now'" and their mission "To be the print and web media choice for all things modelling!  Providing an information platform for models, people interested in modelling and for the industry agencies, photographers and make up artists."

I wish Jamie (the guy behind the magazine) much luck as he moves forward with this project.  Hope to see a printed copy early in 2012!

Although the photo of Abby might look as if it was taken at a glamorous beach somewhere nice, it was actually the very unglamorous Lepe Beach just down the road from Fawley Power station near Southampton.  For a little glimpse behind the scenes, look below...