Painting with Light, Kicking Seven Shades in the Studio, and Remembering Matt

It's been a busy week for indulging in the old shutterbuggery this week (yes it's still a word), despite there having been no Phoenix home game to shoot.  I've had two main shoots this week, and it's the second one that I'm starting with here.

On Thursday nights, Yol and myself take a trip into Bentilee to go to the Willfield Camera Club, a collection of likeminded individuals who just want to shoot nice pictures and learn more about the photographic process.  This past Thursday we had a session on 'indoor painting with light'.  Regular readers (or reader) may recall that Yol and I did some painting with light outdoors a while back, atop Sneyd Hill in Stoke, with three of our friends from the Club, and it was alongside these three fine people that Yol and I started to shoot on Thursday.

Glyn Wade is a sport, definitely, for doing so much modelling on Thursday, whether having a head-torch strapped to his mouth, or wearing glow-stick bracelets, or being repeatedly walked around whilst having coloured lights shone in his face.  Before long we were joined by more snappers, and by the end of the session there were about twelve cameras capturing the action!

The mechanics of it were pretty straightforward.  Most of my shots were done at ISO200, f7.1 with a shutter speed of either 15sec, 20sec or 30sec.  Using a tripod, naturally!

Glyn got a break when Claire, Yol and myself took some turns in front of the camera, with Yvonne faithfully triggering off my camera when I was either doing the painting or being painted!  (Thanks Yvonne!)

The full set of shots can be seen on Flickr here: Painting With Light


The other main shoot of the week is one that I can only tease about at the moment, as the editing is far from done!  I've shot a few times with model and photographer Jen Latham before, so I know that she's no slouch in front of the camera, and this Wednesday I had the pleasure of shooting her again, accompanied by a mutual friend Micky Cartner.  Micky and Jen are both martial arts fighters, and the shoot was about capturing their poses, stances and movement in the studio, using flash heads, constant lights and smoke in various combination and degrees.

The full set of images will be released over time, but here's a sneak preview!

Watch this space!


My day job is based at Staffordshire University, working in the Media Centre and largely working with the students on the Media Production course range.  At the beginning of this week, the course suffered a tragic loss.  One of our Level 5 students, a young man named Matt Campbell, was taken from us.

Obviously, the loss of Matt has hit us all hard.  It's been a very emotional week in work for everyone, staff and students alike.  Matt was a very popular young man, he was smart and witty, and carved his own way through life.  His films were impressive, and his vision was well crafted.  He was a man not without his inner demons; not drink or drugs or anything like that, but inner demons that only he could face. Unfortunately he lost his battle with those demons and decided upon his own time to be taken.

Matt had a very impressive array of tattoos and piercings, and for a little while I'd considered asking Matt if he'd step before my camera for a portrait session.  Shooting people with tattoos is a kind of sideline of mine, I just find it interesting to see the designs and hear the stories behind them.  But alas I didn't get round to asking Matt, and now the opportunity is lost for all time.  But it's not just for the lost opportunity that I lament Matt's passing, his work ethic and talents assured that he had a bright future ahead of him.  A tragic waste to us all, but in his passing I just hope that he found his peace.

Sleep well Matt, for you are deeply missed.