A Trip to the Bank, Two Tatenhills and a Galione Visit

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned, it has been more than two weeks since my last blog entry....

A few weeks back I took a picture of the Jodrell Bank site at night, after a trip to Congleton, and I was very pleased with the resultant shot. Jodrell Bank has been on my list of places to visit for quite some time now, and frankly it's amazing that I've not been before since it's really not that far away! So on the Sunday before Valentine's Day, Yol and I got into the car and headed to Lower Withington in Cheshire, the site of Jodrell Bank. The weather forecast had said that it would be misty but that it would lift by noon. Apparently forecasters lie...

Let me say this about Jodrell Bank before I say anything else: if you've got even the faintest interest in astronomy, the place is an absolute must. I spent our time there looking in awe at everything, giddy like a child in a sweet shop! Educational, informative and extremely interesting, as well we fun and fascinating, we both hugely enjoyed it.



The 'main attraction' at Jodrell Bank is the Lovell Telescope, a 76 metre diameter dish array that probes the heavens. It's one of the most iconic man-made structures in the country, and even in the mist it's extremely photogenic!




We'd not been there long when a siren sounded, and the whole array began to rotate and realign. To see the dish move is an awe-inspiring experience, a feat of engineering that astounds to witness! As well as the Lovell, there are two buildings containing informational displays and features, as well as a lovely cafe and some scientific installations (check out the Whispering Dishes if you go!)





There's also an astronomy-themed garden area that will be coming into bloom in the next couple of months. All in all a cracking place to visit!



The full album of Jodrell Bank photos can be seen on Flickr here - Jodrell Bank set.

A couple of blog posts back, I wrote about a visit to Tatenhill Airfield with documentary-maker Vicki Smart. Since then we've been back for two more location recces, one last weekend and one this weekend. Last weekend was a little bit of a wash-out, in that it absolutely chucked it down as soon as we'd got there. Nobody was flying, the rain was beating against the windows of the cafe, but that didn't stop the crew from getting some materials in the can. Cameraman Danyl Rathband wrestled the camera into its raincover and shot some cutaways, with Vicki directing:





The rain-soaked visit can be seen on Flickr here - Tatenhill visit, 18-02-12

The second visit was, in terms of climate and shooting opportunity, a much more fruitful experience! This time, Vicki and I were accompanied by cameraman Alex Dean, and no sooner had we arrived on site than we were offered a chance to go up and get some aerial footage, courtesy of pilot Mike Tidmarsh. Mike, and fellow pilot Kevin Arblaster, also allowed us to film and shoot the pre-flight checks and inspections on N84VK, a four seater Piper PA-24-250 aircraft:





Before long it was time for take-off, with Mike as pilot, Alex filming from the front passenger seat, and me shooting stills from the back alongside Vicki:




The flight itself was short and very bumpy, the latter contributing to the former. Soon after take off, all three of us non-pilots were feeling pretty queasy, with Alex being the first to tap out and request that we land. Alex had been filming since before take-off, looking through the camera's eyepiece, and this can't have helped! Hopefully the footage will be good though! The view from up in the air was spectacular, the clearness of the day giving us a tremendous vantage point:




Before long we were back on the ground, and finding our feet again as we filmed and shot the post-flight checks:





The full set from the visit can be seen on Flickr here - Tatenhill visit 250212

At the Uni recently, I've been involved in teaching our Media Production students how to use a piece of kit called a Glidecam (very similar to Steadicam, which is a brand name). I'd posted some pics on Facebook from the teaching sessions, and was soon contacted by former student and current professional Steadicam operator Jon Galione. Jon and I go way back, we worked together on the Manchester Phoenix match night crew - Jon was one of the two original camera operators for the team, spending many hours perched up in a cherrypicker filming games at Deeside and Sheffield during the season that Phoenix played on the road! We've also worked together for Comtec as freelancers, taking a trip to work a conference at EuroDisney. Jon had some ideas on how to better operate the Glidecam using the camera that we were teaching it with, the Sony EX3, and he very graciously accepted our invitation to come in and take a look at it:




We were joined by fellow technical instructor Matt Lewis, and student Ciaron Craig, as Jon fine tuned our Glidecam and showed us all the most effective methods to get the best visual results from it.




Jon also posed for a spontaneous portrait before he left, indulging my passion for trying to capture the essence of people's characters. I think this shot sums up Jon quite well!:



The full set of shots from Jon's visit can be seen on Flickr here - Jon Galione visit.

Thanks for reading!

Hockey Mask And Laser Time, and Lola's Idea Of Comfort

Sometimes you see a picture that gives you the inspiration to try something new. For me, one such shot was taken by Polish photographer Dariusz Majgier, which can be seen on Flickr here.

Dariusz Majgier has an extensive portfolio of work in a variety of styles, and his experimentation with a laser pen gave me the idea to try it myself, using something fairly unusual as a subject - an old style hockey goalie mask. Setting up in the Shoot Studio at the Uni, I suspended the mask from a lighting clamp and lit it using only an LED light and a laser pen, in a variety of combinations. This one, inspired by Majgier, was done by setting a ten second exposure and repeatedly flicking the laser pen across the mask:



Shining the laser pen into the back of the mask gave me this:



The inclusion of the LED light gave me different results:




The shots were taken using a remote control to minimise camera shake, and this allowed me to sneak in a quick self portrait during the shoot!



The full set of shots can be seen on Flickr here.

Regular readers will be more than aware of my two most frequent models - Lola and Lucy! This week, I clicked a shot of Lola sitting in one of the most potentially uncomfortable positions I've ever seen her in:



She seems to find it comfy though, so who am I to argue?!

Shooting on the Mats, The Bank in the Dark, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Grass

This past Wednesday, I took a trip up to Congleton to do a test shoot at the request of a friend of mine, Chris Leese. Chris has featured in several of my portrait shoots in the past, and when he asked me if I'd like to come along to the MMA gym that he attends to shoot some portraits, naturally I said yes.

Warrior Martial Arts is a busy gym that caters for several age groups, and the session that I'd been invited to come along to was aimed at adults of mixed abilities. The instructors and students were most welcoming, and didn't mind me getting in amongst the demonstrations and practices to carry out my test shoot:





Chris himself was happy to pose for a couple of portrait tests using just the available lighting in the gym, and these tests have given me a sense of the lighting that I'll need to take with me for the 'proper' shoot:





Whilst at the gym, I did manage to get a few spontaneous portrait shots which I'm particularly happy with, as well as the action shots. Sometimes when it comes to shooting a sport or activity, you need to have portrait shots to give some character to the people who provide the action, which is something that I always bear in mind when I shoot the hockey, so I applied the same principle to shooting the MMA session.







Many thanks to the staff and students at Warrior Martial Arts for their kind welcome and their cooperation!

Whilst driving to Warrior, an idea popped into my head. Once I'd gotten parked up, I sent a text to Yol to do a spot of research for me and provide me with a postcode to go into my Sat Nav, and she duly produced the goods! So, once the Warrior shoot was done, I jumped back in the car, set the Sat Nav to the postcode and set off to my destination: Jodrell Bank.

For those of you unfamiliar with Jodrell Bank, it's the site of the Lovell Telescope, one of the most striking man-made features of the Cheshire landscape. From where I was in Congleton, Jodrell Bank was a mere 15 mins drive away so I took the opportunity to go see what could be seen at night. The short answer: not a lot!

Jodrell Bank isn't lit up at night, so all that you can see in the darkness is an imposing black shape in amongst the trees, with a red light in the middle of it. The Sat Nav had delivered me right to the visitors' entrance in the backside-end of nowhere, and all I had to illuminate my way was the light of the moon in the clear skies. But that was enough for me!

I hadn't brought my tripod with me (rookie mistake), so in order to get a shot I had to balance my camera on top of a fence post, and use the remote control to trigger it. All I had to aim at was the red light atop the dark shape, that was all that was visible. So I just had to point, shoot and hope! I shot with the f1.8 35mm prime lens at ISO 200, and after a few test long exposures I was able to get a shot which I'm particularly proud of:



I'm kicking myself for not getting the 70-300 lens out and giving that a try, but I think that the fence post wouldn't have sustained the camera steadily enough. Next time, I'll take a tripod - won't be making that mistake again!

As I type this, the Phoenix are getting ready to face off against the Wildcats, and I'm having to miss the game. The reasoning for my absence is the snow that's been messing up the country, it's hit the Midlands fairly heftily and as a result the roads here are pretty hazardous. I spent yesterday evening shovelling snow with the neighbours and the snow was coming down faster than we could shift it, so we put out some grit and called it a night. Today arrives and the car is going nowehere, so here I am!



The dodgy weather did give me a chance to get a nice shot this morning though, as I opened the front door and shouted out to Lucy, who'd decided to brave the cold and head across the way to explore. I think she was just waiting for me to open the door and call her back in, judging by the speed with which she came hurtling back towards the house!



All of my non-hockey shots can be seen on my Flickr page here - thanks for looking!