A shoot with Lauren, more Phoenixing, and the Rhumblerama Auditions

So far, January 2013 has been a busy time for my camera!  My shutterbuggery (it's a word) got off to an early start with a day in the studio with model and fellow photographer Lauren Freeman, where we were working on a test shoot for something a little different that we're planning to do with the Manchester Phoenix.  I can't give any details about that at the moment, so as not to spoil the surprise when it happens, but I can show some shots from the rest of the day's shooting - we shot several themes using Lauren's flash heads, including these shots of Lauren in my hockey kit:

I've shot under constant light in the studio before, and I've shot using flash heads, and there are pros and cons to both.  I guess in simplest terms, it depends on what kind of effect you're looking to get.  With these shots, it was important to me to get a substantial depth of field (or DOF), with all of the subject in focus.  To achieve this requires a mid to high f-stop (I think I was shooting around f7.1 to f8) and a shutter speed of 1/160th of a second, at ISO 200.  The flash heads weren't particularly far away, but were turned down low, so the coverage of light was nice and even - the dominant light was camera left, the fill light camera right.

In previous shoots where I've wanted a shallower DOF, sometimes the flash is too much, even with the flash heads moved further away.  The intensity of flash heads, even on a low setting, is much brighter than the constant light LEDs that I use, so sometimes constant light is the best option.  Shooting at f1.8 or f2.2 will give a shallower DOF, which gets shallower the closer you get to the subject, and this can give some great images.  But, for this shoot with Lauren, a deep DOF was needed, and so flash heads were the logical choice!

The set of photos from the shoot is still being added to, and it's viewable here: Lauren F. Shoot 2


We're just passing through the middle of the EPL ice hockey season at the moment, so the games are still coming thick and fast.   The response that Lauren, Yolanda and myself get to our photos is mostly positive (one or two trolls aside) and shooting the games is still fun.

At the last game, Lauren and myself had the opportunity to shoot the players as they come onto the ice, from a shooting position on the ice.  It's a shoot I've attempted a couple of times in the past, and the results are hit and miss, but when they hit, they hit!

As we go along, we also like to shoot some 'behind the scenes' shots - these tend to be shots not of the players, but the people around the games, as well as us setting up and working at the games.

More photos from the Phoenix matches can be seen on the Official Phoenix Flickr page here: Phoenix Flickr albums


This past Sunday, Lauren and myself were doing a different kind of portrait shooting for a good friend of mine, Andy Carson.  Andy is the director of a new independent film entitled Rhumblerama, a drama/comedy about a group of no-hopers who build a new career for themselves as professional wrestlers.  The film is at the casting stage, and so Lauren and myself were in attendance at the auditions, taking headshots and bodyshots of the auditionees to help with the selection process.

Essentially, our job was to take three shots of each auditionee.  One with them holding a clapperboard with their name written on it (for identification purposes), one headshot, and one bodyshot, which I then combined in photoshop to make one 'photosheet' per auditionee:

The whole experience was certainly an eye opening one!  We saw some incredibly talented actors and actresses giving performances that were worthy of casting.  We also saw, er, some other people....

A quick note here, if I may, to all budding actors and actresses out there:
Crying is not acting.  It's crying.
Doing an improvised monologue about one side of a relationship break up isn't acting.  It's still crying.
Yelling and shouting aren't acting.  They're yelling and shouting.
When you're auditioning for a drama-slash-comedy, doing a monologue about murder / rape / suicide / death / psychosis / torture is not really in-keeping with the theme of the film.
Acting involves adapting another personality to your own.  Being a chav and attempting to play a chav isn't acting, it's being a chav.
I hope this has been useful....

From a photography point of view, it was a relatively straightforward process.  Once we had set up and got the lights set correctly, we developed a system whereby I would photograph the taller candidates and Lauren would shoot the 'more normal heighted' auditionees.  Much of what we did that day was watching and waiting, we were sitting off to the side whilst the auditions took place, so we were in a good position not only to watch the actors but also the faces of Andy and his fellow panel members.  Watching them keep their faces straight for some of the auditions was also a good lesson in acting!

More info on Rhumblerama can be found on the official Rhumblerama facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/RhumbleRama

Thanks for reading!

Gardens, a church, The Duke, the night sky, and Nazis....

Last weekend Yol and I took a trip to Bridgemere Gardens to have a look around a wedding fair, and whilst we were there we had a chance to take a wander around the gardens there, enjoying the sun and getting a breath of fresh air. The Gardens are a peaceful place of greenery, with a variety of different 'garden themes' on display, and they're a great place to get the camera out!





The journey back from Bridgemere passes through the village of Woore, and it's there that we spotted a church that looked a little out of place, but in an eye-catching way. Saint Leonard's Church is, to me, very reminiscent of the churches of New England that we saw on our trip over there in 2010, so much so that I just had to pull over and get a shot!



The journey back also gave me the opportunity to track down and shoot a local landmark, The Duke of Sutherland. Well, not the Duke himself, the statue of him. Tracking it down is surprisingly tricky especially considering that it doesn't tend to move around anywhere, what with it being a statue. It's visible for several miles around Stoke, perched on top of a hill near Trentham, and to find the pathway up to it required a little scouting around on Google Maps. The walk up to it is a sod, no two ways about it, but it's worth it when you get there!





The set of photos from the day's trip can be seen on Flickr here: Bridgemere, Woore and The Duke

Regular readers will know that I'm still trying to get some decent shots of the night sky, but that finding a place to shoot from that doesn't suffer from light pollution is a problem. I took some advice from a member of a photo group on Facebook, and tried out a shooting spot near the village of Thorncliffe in Staffordshire, and took the opportunity to shoot the moon, the stars, and the light trails from passing cars:





I'm still not 100% happy with the stars photos, but one day...

The set of shots from near Thorncliffe can be seen on Flickr here: Thorncliffe

On Monday I found myself back on set once again, this time on director Jay Guy's shoot for the film "The Path". The shoot was taking place at Bantock House in Wolverhampton, a small historic building that was doubling for the home of a wealthy German SS officer in World War Two, and the shoot gave me the opportunity to shoot not only behind-the-scenes shots but also character portraits. Of the behind the scenes shots, I was lucky to have been working with a great cast and a very lively, character-laden crew:






Shooting the character portraits was an interesting challenge too, it was like shooting regular portraits but with the actors in full costume and remaining in character. Even though it was a sunny day, I decided to shoot in the shade in order to get more even lighting, and it seemed to pay off!:







The experience of shooting on the day was incredible, a fun but professional shoot with a great bunch of people! The full set of photos can be seen on Flickr here: "The Path"

Cheers for reading!