Archive for July, 2007
Sandra & Jackie — thanks for wearing hats!
Fri Jul 20th - 12:09pm
Only one picture of mine in this week's Ross-shire Journal, a fun shot of Sandra & Jackie from Muir of Ord as they arrived for the Elton John concert. I'd been searching in vain for anyone in fancy dress, comedy wigs, Elton glasses etc and just as I was giving up hope I spotted these two lovely ladies approaching the stadium. I raced over to them and before I even finished asking them to pose for a picture they were strutting their stuff! I was so relieved to finally have a decent shot that I let them walk away without getting their names or where they were from, and when I remembered a couple of minutes later I was lucky to catch up with them just before they went through the turnstile. So girls, thanks for wearing hats that not only made a great picture but also helped me find you again in the crowd!
The only other decent crowd shot I got was of these two Elton fans who couldn't hide their excitement that the big day had finally arrived. Unfortunately I don't know who they are or where they're from as a moment later they were through the turnstile and beyond the reach of my feeble press pass. Still, thanks for the nice picture, whoever you are!
US sports shooters forced to wear adverts
Fri Jul 20th - 9:39am
Sports photographers in the US covering the upcoming season of National Football League games will be forced to wear red vests with Canon and Reebok logos on them. This is a marked change from previous years when they wore more subtle green vests with no advertising. The National Press Photographer's Association web site has reaction to the news, it is also being discussed on SportsShooter.com, and not surprisingly John Harrington has something to say on the subject.
Remember folks, whatever happens in America happens over here two years later, so this news is relevant to UK photogs too.
Hector Mackenzie blog
Thu Jul 19th - 10:48pm
Ross-shire Journal editor Hector Mackenzie is now running a blog. He's only about a month into it but updates have been fairly regular and informative so hopefully he'll keep it up! I don't know what the title "Cat's Back" is a reference to, unless it's the tongue-in-cheek perpetual motion theory, but if I find out then I'll let you know.
Click here to read Hector's blog
Update: It's the name of the hill in Dingwall that Hector's office looks out on.
Elton in Inverness videos
Wed Jul 18th - 6:28am
Here are a couple of great YouTube videos of Elton in Inverness: Rocket Man and I'm Still Standing. Picture quality is good but the sound quality is particularly impressive, captured with a Nokia N95 camera phone. (Videos are nothing to do with me, I'm just posting the links.)
Hey if anyone has a decent video bootleg of the concert then drop me a line, I'd love to see what everyone else was enjoying while I was back at the hotel!
Family portrait with a 1-year old
Wed Jul 18th - 2:27am
We had planned for a couple of weeks to do this family portrait of five children out on the beach, but with the unpredictable weather we decided the night before to play safe and go for studio shots.
This turned out to be a great way of doing it because we effectively had two shoots going on at the same time: When the 1-year old felt like co-operating we could do pictures of the whole group, and while he had better things to do elsewhere we could get on with pictures of the older kids. This broke things up nicely and the 3-hour shoot breezed past without anyone getting bored. (These pics aren't in order and I bet you can't tell which ones were done at the end of the shoot.)
The 4th pic, with the girl touching the boy's head, was a candid moment between set-ups, not posed. Not surprisingly that's the shot that got the most "awww!" noises from the parents and grandparents when they saw it. Sweet, eh?
Lighting info:
I changed my usual studio set-up for these shots. Normally I shoot with one softbox to camera left, up high, pointing down. This time I had the softbox at adult head height, pointed directly at the upright of the background. This created a fairly even field of light from front to back so the kids didn't have to be exactly in the right position. I also put a very low-power strobe with silver brolly over to camera right, about 3 f-stops darker than the main light. That little bit of fill kept everything bright and clean to achieve the (sort of) high-key look we wanted. I think I'll go back to using a fill light for all studio shoots from now on.
Elton John in Inverness (part 2)
Mon Jul 16th - 7:49pm
The BBC's choice of photo from the Elton John concert was a pleasant surprise as it was my personal favourite but I very nearly didn't sent it out at all as I didn't think anyone else would like it.
Click here to read the BBC article
(The fisheye photo isn't mine, just the Elton pic at the top.)
I was also covering the concert on a trial basis for Getty but they didn't take the photos. I was told that they were good but not unique enough, and they already had loads of pics of Elton from the previous night in Glasgow. Still it's another open door and maybe it will lead somewhere in future.
Here's the one wide angle pic I did of the concert. Literally. Swapped cameras, took one shot, chimped for exposure and swapped back to telephoto. I'd have loved to do some more adventurous shots but just for once I played safe and made sure I got the close-ups. Rubbish shot? Aye. But I like it…
Elton John in Inverness
Mon Jul 16th - 3:11am
Who would miss the opportunity to photograph Elton John in concert? Not me! So when he brought his Rocket Man show to Inverness I had to be there. The process started about six months ago and after countless e-mails and phone calls it finally culminated on Sunday in the most frantic nine minutes of shooting I've ever done.
Yes, nine minutes was all we got. No pictures allowed before the concert, no pictures of the support act, then we were escorted down to the stage and as soon as Elton's first song ended we were escorted out of the stadium. No press room. Nowhere to plug a laptop in. They couldn't even give us a cleaner's cupboard to work in — seriously, I asked. I think the other photographers would agree that this was the most media-unfriendly event imaginable. (But shame on the one guy who selfishly broke the rules and let the rest of us down.)
Still if you can't get some good shots of Elton in nine minutes then you're in the wrong job. The guy has style and charisma exploding out of him. Total pro, he was there to put on a show and he gave one hell of a performance. I just wish I could have seen a little bit more of it.
The anti-media policies were a letdown but Sir Elton himself has a new fan!
How to Take Great Group Photos
Sat Jul 14th - 4:12pm
Over on Strobist I clicked through to an article on the Digital Photography School site, How to Take Great Group Photos. I scrolled down to look at the photos before reading the article and did a double-take when I saw one of mine there! It's one of my favourites too, taken at last year's Tain Royal Academy seniors dance.
Tain Mussel Shell Art Project
Fri Jul 13th - 1:55pm
Last week I did this picture of shell artist Blott Kerr-Wilson to illustrate an article in the Ross-shire Journal about the Tain Mussel Art Project:
I also photographed the launch night of the project at Collegiate Church in Tain, intending the pics to be used in a gallery on the BBC web site, with captions telling the story of the project. But the BBC reporter preferred the beach pic so he decided to hold the article back until after this week's RSJ came out so he could use that picture instead.
Click here to read the BBC article
I've posted the gallery pics and captions over on Flickr. I can see that the beach pic is more eye-catching but I think of myself as a photojournalist, not just someone who makes pretty pictures. So I'd have preferred to have the gallery used instead of the beach pic but at the end of the day that's not my decision.
Click here to view the launch night photos
Truth be told, I don't begrudge the decision because I don't think photographers should decide which of their pics are used. We pay too much attention to the arty/techy side of things. People who aren't into photography are better at knowing what Joe Public wants to see so leave the decisions to them, I say. That's why it's important to always submit a selection of pics for consideration. When I first started sending pics to newspapers I'd only send my favourites and often they wouldn't be used, which can be discouraging. But when I started also sending the 'okay' ones that I didn't really like, my hit rate went up to 90% plus.
Ross County action, Dick Campbell portrait
Thu Jul 12th - 9:23pm
I can't remember a time when I was more exhausted than on Tuesday night. I'd been up since 4pm on Monday, worked through the night, and stayed up to do one of my voluntary days at the village hall. By the time I went home at 4pm on Tuesday I'd been on the go almost non-stop for 24 hours so you can imagine I was looking forward to bed! But no, there was an e-mail waiting for me, asking me to shoot the Ross County vs Clach game in Dingwall that night.
Even if I had my own transport I wouldn't have driven because I could barely stay awake as it was, and it was impossible to get to the match by bus in time. So I had to get a taxi there and back. I'd been told that kick-off was at 7:30pm but when I arrived at 7:10pm the game was already underway. It wasn't a great game for action shots but I got a few that were okay. It's the second one that dominates the back page of this week's North Star.
New manager Dick Campbell was there so I introduced myself and asked if it was okay to take photos of him. Normally I wouldn't ask because any member of the team or management is fair game for photos, but this was a pre-season friendly and Dick had chosen to stay out of the way at one corner of the pitch, so I thought it was polite to ask. He said to go ahead, no problem.
Spotting an exclusive as I was the only photographer there, I asked Dick if we could do a quick portrait at the end of the match. Practically everything that could go wrong did go wrong, right up to the flash batteries dying after one test shot, but Dick was totally cool about it and stood for several different pics. This was one of the first and it's the best. Might be in a future North Star, I won't know until I see it.
When I got home at around 10pm I still had an hour's work to do, sorting through the pics and processing the best ones to send off so the sports editor would get them first thing in the morning. My head was buzzing so I got on with a few other things and eventually got to bed around 1am. I was up again at 11am on Wednesday morning and I'll probably not get to sleep again until midnight tonight, Thursday.
Weeks like this are becoming quite common. I don't have a lot of time for people who say that photography is an easy job! Fun, but not easy.
