Newspapers

This is one of those situations when all you can do is shake your head in bewilderment. We spent about 15 minutes getting this group shot set-up and lit correctly, and then the paper went and cropped it badly. Here's how I shot it. I have no idea why the paper cropped out the woman on the left, which had the knock-on effect of making the whole picture appear lopsided.

This was a fun shoot. I knew loads of the people there so it was nice to catch up with them all, and even do a tiny little bit of grunt work myself to earn my place at the midday barbecue.

However there was also a strange situation to contend with…

The organisers obviously wanted publicity as they had mailed out press releases to loads of papers, but as far as I'm aware the North Star was the only paper that sent a photographer. For some reason, one of the organisers seemed to resent me being there, especially when I asked him for some background information to file along with the photo. Even asking him for his name got a dirty look and some snappy response like "you must not have got the press release". I've really got no idea what was going on, maybe this person was just having a bad day, but it's the first time I've gone to a pre-arranged photo-op and had someone be so openly hostile.

Everyone else was lovely though! Really enjoyed this one. 

21 April 2007: People of all ages joined forces with personnel from Talisman Energy to clean the beach at Nigg. Duncan Bryden of the Moray Firth Partnership's Beach Guardians programme estimated that 5 tonnes of rubbish was cleared away in a little under 2 hours. Chairman of the Nigg & Shandwick Community Council, Richard Cross said he hopes to make the beach clean an annual event. Following the clean-up everyone enjoyed a barbecue at the Nigg Ferry Hotel.

I've not been doing enough editorial work recently so I asked for something creative to do. I was hoping for a job along the lines of a feature portrait, but instead I was told to get a picture to illustrate Springtime.

For about one second I was disappointed that it wasn't a more interesting job, but then I realised that it was exactly what I had asked for. I suppose the reason I wanted to do a portrait was because I've got a lot of ideas for portraits so I could simply pull the most appropriate one out of the bag, but that isn't very creative. I didn't have any preconceptions about how to illustrate Springtime, so it was in fact the creative job I had asked for.

I decided to keep it simple. I do have a tendency to try 'arty' things but the reality is that the general public doesn't like arty photos. The editor had mentioned kids, daffodils, blue skies and lambs so I made a few calls and soon found a local farm that had newborn lambs. Everything else fell nicely into place: The owners of the farm had young children and a big patch of daffodils at their home, so we scheduled the photo for the next morning.

The shoot itself went quite smoothly. One of the kids had decided that she wasn't going to smile but I did get a few shots when she was laughing. The other kid was totally into it and didn't stop smiling the whole time. We did some shots with the kids and the lambs, then some with just the lambs, all the time using the daffodils as a backdrop. (I did try positioning the kids and lambs within the patch of daffodils but the picture was starting to look too crowded so I scrapped that idea.)

Being a lighting junkie you might be surprised to know that I didn't even use on-camera flash for these photos, just ambient light. With a touch of over-exposure and the white balance set for overcast conditions, the pictures took on a warm, glowing quality that I thought worked well.

Out of 191 photos, this was my personal favourite:

Not surprisingly the paper used a picture with both kids. Can't say I like it much. There's nothing really wrong with it, it just looks a bit 'ordinary' to me, and I don't like all the empty space. It looks better in the paper (this week's North Star) and it certainly screams "Spring!" which was after all what we were trying to achieve.

Here are a few others that I liked, especially the middle one because it looks so natural whereas the others have obviously been staged.

There you go, a fun project completed reasonably well, and I even got to hold one of the lambs. Messy little thing it was but cute all the same. You might like to know that both of the lambs have been granted 'pet' status so you aren't likely to find them on your dinner plate any time soon.

Two pics from the childcare and family support day at the Memorial Hall in Balintore on Saturday. I avoid working on spec nowadays but I only found out about this event late on Friday afternoon so I thought I'd might as well call in on my way to the football. Turns out it was a good gamble as nobody else turned up to take photos. The drum circle pic is going in the Ross-shire Journal and I've sent the other pic to the North Star but I haven't heard if they're going to use it or not.

Thanks to everyone who patiently posed for the photos! 

17 February 2007: Parents with young children were invited to the Memorial Hall in Balintore on Saturday to learn about childcare and family support in the local community. Pictured are Fiona Ednie, Development Manager with Direct Childcare, and Ian Goode, Childcare & Family Resource Officer with the Highland Council, along with the few parents brave enough to pose for the photo! They are: Erin Wood with Ryan, Marion Willox with Ty, Mark Weir with Jack, and right at the front is Layla who simply had to be in the picture while her mum watched from a distance.

17 February 2007: Children were encouraged to dress up and make lots of noise during a drumming session at the Memorial Hall in Balintore on Saturday. Steve Sharpe of Happyness Drum Circles said: "It's all about bringing people together to have fun and to be expressive as a group. Drums are a great way for kids to play and to become a band, that's what the mission is all about." Assisting the drum circle was Henry Fosbrooke of the Woodland Orchestra. Away from the drums, the half-day Highland Council event gave parents an opportunity to learn about childcare and family support in the local community.

Some local interest pics. I haven't seen this week's papers yet so I don't know if these photos have been used, but I think two of them are meant to be.

This shot of Santa's visit to Hilton Primary should be in the Ross-shire Journal. The story behind the picture is that the lady waving next to Santa, Diane Hawksey, has retired from the Seaboard Playgroup after 28 years of service.

This one was for the North Star, another shot of Diane, this time at a farewell party thrown for her by mothers and helpers from the Playgroup.

And I don't think this one's being used at all, which is kinda frustrating as it cost about £20 in taxi fares whereas the other two cost nothing more than a 5-minute walk along the road! Ah well. Santa's visit to Nigg Hall. Note that the entire scene was lit with a single flash and Lightsphere, no ambient light at all, and there's very little light fall-off between the kids at the front and the wall at the back, another example of how well the Lightsphere throws light around. If you're surprised to see that nearly all the kids are facing forward then believe me, they weren't, not until Mr Photoshop stepped in to sort them out. (Same applies to the shot of Santa's visit to Hilton Primary, lots of editing done on that one too.)