Lifestyle Photography Shoot, A Black Sheet And A Shaded Barn, Capturing Jock The Diver
Inspiration for creating lifestyle images can appear when you are least expecting it.
A year or so ago I was snapping pictures, my kids, while they were exploring rock pools on a small Cornish beach.
I was pretty engrossed with capturing the best shots I could on my iPhone while not dropping it into the water again (yes I destroyed the last one this way) when suddenly a dark dressed figure appeared between the rocks heading for the water.
The guy was all geared up in a wetsuit but not for surfing for diving complete with tanks and spearfish and I remember thinking what a great image this could make amongst the towering rocks.
A year or so on we revisited the area and I decided to return to the beach to capture it and create the image that had inspired me.
Capturing the background was pretty uneventful and my hopes that there might be an amazing coincidence and the diver might turn up faded along with the beautiful light.
No matter, part of the fun creating composite images is tracking down people to photograph so I hit the web and contacted several local Diving clubs and shops seeking a suitable willing model.
I eventually got chatting to Mike “Jock” Stewart who teaches people to dive not far from my studio base. After chatting for a while he explained to me I may not want to use him as he was 66 years old and retired !… I explained even without having met him that he would probably be perfect.
Yes, I could have hired the kit and got a young attractive model but as a lifestyle photographer of many years, I want to shoot a mixture of work besides how much more interesting to have someone passionate about their sport with years of experience and many tales to tell.
A time was arranged to shoot the next day and I set off to get a few things needed like a bag of sand to help add the small details needed to complete the composite.
Like with all composite images there are several things that need careful thought before shooting like perspective, the colour of the surroundings, focus and of course matching the quality and direction of light.
At this point, I should show you an impressive shot of the interior of our beautiful old Hamstone Barn stuffed with lighting and grips..but in reality, a black sheet from Asda and the open shade of a disused farm barn was all that was needed to blend and match the lighting to the background scene.
Not all that impressive I agree but I knew this would give the best result, after all why try and recreate daylight in the studio when with a little manipulation you can have the real thing.
The shoot went like clockwork and Jock was a pleasure to work with and quite happy to have water, oil and sand thrown over him!
The 3 completed images came together seamlessly in post-production partly due to some careful pre-planning and plenty of image retouching knowledge.
Most of the images I create tend to be fairly wide vistas with people (life) within them.
Occasionally however I come across someone who demands to be captured very simply up close with minimal fuss as with this gentleman.
It was while in Turkey that I came across this charasmatic chap attending toilets and just had to capture him.
As with all these type of shots I seek out open shade to provide flattering even light and drop everything but the eyes from focus.
I’m sat here watching a re-run of Kevin and Perry Go Large and it got me thinking of my trip to the white isle of Ibiza a few years ago.
This image was captured during the very last moments of daylight (or as I call the edge of darkness)
on a beautiful October day.
The fading daylight balanced with the welcoming interior warmth of the little cafe on the beach and sums up the tranquillity of the place perfectly as I experienced it.
Ibiza-beach-cafe-at-dusk
Corporate Photographer Will Travel, Capturing The Cleaning Up For KCP
As a commercial and corporate photographer based in Somerset, I sure have done some travelling these past few weeks.
A couple of weeks ago I posted Boosting The Ayr Miles about my recent shoots including one in Ayrshire Scotland.
Fortunately, I provide a range of corporate photography services including video production services and these skills came in very handy on these shoots.
The shoot below was for KCP Limited who work nationwide from their Scottish base in Ayrshire.
KCP operates a large fleet of bespoke vehicles that dispose of all manners of waste and are Scotland’s leaders in their field.
My brief was to capture both images of staff and the vehicles on location at the various sites that KCP maintain and also come up with some hero shots of the vehicles within the beautiful Scottish landscape.
Apart from this, I was left with complete creative freedom including picking some of the locations which actually proved much easier than expected.
We had a very tight schedule with just 2 half days but the weather played nice for the most part.
The one image I was not completely looking forward too was a request for a high shot of the fleet from a cherry picker as heights are not my favourite thing and at this point, I hadnt moved into commercial drone work.
The two main concerns I had was the wind had got up (sods friggin law !) and the fact the owner of KCP Karl was going to be operating the machine.
The reason Karl was a concern is that we have been friends since our teenage years and I knew he would not miss a chance to have some fun scaring me…which of course he did !
Not A Face To Be Trusted!
You can never say this industry is boring, frustrating & unpredictable at times yes, but never boring.
It’s been a very manic few weeks seeing me on location in Scotland, Denmark and a couple of jobs in London.
This week made me realise once again just how no two days or two jobs are ever the same and why I love what I do.
Monday morning saw me in the heart of central London for an early morning corporate portrait shoot in some very modern and swanky offices.
This was followed a couple of days later when I found myself on route to the beautiful South Hams in Devon shooting a Lighthouse for a recent new client.
The contrast in the assignments & the locations was simply chalk & cheese.
The London assignment was in the heart of the city with tall modern office buildings and as you might expect pretty full-on but also quite a buzz.
The Devon shoot was also a pretty busy day however the location was simply mesmerising and you could not work for long without taking a moment to once again appreciate the stunning coastline views from our elevated clifftop location.
This kind of day makes me realise how lucky I am (due to many years ongoing hard work !) to get to visit such great places and meet so many interesting people because of the camera.
More images will follow in the coming weeks but for now, here are a few iPhone snaps from both shoots and a little video.
Have a great weekend everyone….
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/129832517″ width=”1280″ height=”720″]
A precarious viewpoint!