Take shot, take flight

A number of weeks ago, I teamed up with all-round nice bloke John Preston (of Preston Creative Design Consultancy), to illustrate some publicity material for another of his clients.

The brief was simple enough - photograph a single male subject against a bright blue sky, pointing a branded paper aeroplane towards that sky. The reality of the shoot, naturally, turned out to be less than perfect just as soon as the weather got involved.

Arriving in plenty of time, John and I had a scout around the area for the best location, taking into account the sun's direction, the patches of blue sky and the fierce wind that was blowing around the coastal area. It's one thing having a nice breeze blowing through, but on this occasion it threatened to jeopardise the shoot, given that the paper plane was relatively flimsy and our subject's hair could look a mess if he was blown around too much! The morning's weather had generally been pretty good up until that point and the ground was dry underfoot, so at least that didn't pose any real problems.

Whilst Mr. P went off to meet with our subject, I investigated further, picking out a shortlist of two possible 'sets' to work with. In each case, the sun would be behind the subject - acting as a back-light over his right shoulder (and in so doing, balancing the flash nicely). But my main concern was getting the subject sheltered from the wind.

Here's a quick diagram of the set-up (click to enlarge):


Our saving grace came in the form of some trees and bushes, roughly shaped like a letter L, which wrapped around us nicely.

Next thing, moments before the guys returned, it was time to set up my kit. As ever, keeping it very simple, I went with a single lens (50mm) and single light (SB-800, triggered by Pocket wizard, on a stand). Remember, the sun would be my 2nd light - after all, it's free, so why not make use of it?!

That's when things started to slip. And within a time frame of approximately 1 minute, the shoot was over.

In all I shot just 7 frames, including lighting and posing/angle tests, before the heavens opened and we were forced to run as fast as we possibly could back to the cars.

From memory, the sequence went something like: Sun becomes obscured by cloud... wind picks up... single patch of blue sky is replaced by grey rain clouds... torrential rain. What a farce.

Of course, there had always been a Plan B - to head for a local hotel which both John and I have worked with in the past. There, we would be able to set up a more typical 'studio' arrangement in one of the larger rooms, if needs be.

Amid the ensuing deluge, we peered at the back of my rain-soaked camera...

Job done. No need for additional pictures, no need for a re-shoot. The only call was for dry clothes and a hot cup of tea.

Once the pictures were turned over to John's team, they were tweaked a little - just enough to bring a bit more colour into that damn awful sky. The picture at the top of this post is a quick scan of the final document, showing the image as it appeared, so apologies if it doesn't exactly 'pop' off the screen.

In hindsight, and keeping in mind the less than perfect conditions we faced, I was happy with the way these photographs came through. Looking for the positives, the paper plane stands out well from the sky and the 'mood' of that sky ties in well with the accompanying text.

Sometimes, as they say, it's not the destination but the journey - and this shoot was a case in point. The greatest irony of all still remains that as I was driving back to the office, the clouds parted, revealing a great blue sky and perfect sunshine. Bugger.

Still, at the end of the day, the client was delighted with the end product - and that's what really counts.

Simply effective product photography

Another little product shoot from earlier this month, a further example of how I like to keep things nice and simple. The products in question were a range of samples produced by a local firm of screenprinters, engravers and precision engineers. We have created images for this company in the past, and the purpose of this assignment was to show off the new line aimed at the medical profession.

One empty meeting room, one camera, two lights and a plain card background - that's all we needed in order to produce a set of simple yet effective pictures which can be dropped into the company's website, brochures and all manner of marketing material.

Here is a time-lapse video showing the process, from start to finish. Be sure to check out the selection of images at the end of the film:

In spite of the rain...

Whilst up in Manchester, Manda and I decided to take a trip out into the countryside of Bowland - a lovely area of rivers, sheep and rolling hills crossing rural Lancashire and North Yorkshire in the North West of England. I'm sure there's probably more to the place than that, but these were just my initial observations!

Having been treated in Blackpool, the day before, to a relatively mild afternoon with dry weather and a fantastic sunset, we were all fired up to have another day out walking around and taking pictures 'just because we can'. As I said in a previous post, creating more personal work is very much on my 'to do regularly' list this year.

In theory then, the idea of another day out was a good one... Seeing that the light was pretty good and conditions were almost rain-free, we packed the car with everything we'd need to create simple lighting on location - 2 flash guns (Nikon SB-800s), 2 lightweight stands and a set of Pocket Wizard remotes (for reliable wireless flash triggering). Between us, we were using both Nikon and Canon camera/lens kit. Oh, and just for a bit of comfort, a flask of coffee came along too (pity we forgot the milk!).

I say the idea was a good one 'in theory', because nature had other plans for us.

With every mile we drove, the wet stuff got worse. Specks of rain turned into a fine drizzle, before passing through a state of what can at best be described as 'lazy droplets', before threatening to become a downpour. Add to this the increasing cold and we were getting further and further away from what would be considered 'favorable' conditions.

But of course, in true British spirit (that is to say a stubborn and determined fashion), we refused to be beaten by this. I always carry a bunch of clear freezer and zip-lock bags with me, to keep all the electronic stuff dry in such scenarios - and thankfully, as ever, this simple, cost-effective solution proved perfect for the job.

Modern pro kit is pretty resilient these days - it has to be - but even so, it makes sense to give it a helping hand from time to time.

We managed to get a good few pictures in the can between us before the decision was made to head off to a different location further up the road. In the event, the weather really set in and so 'Plan B' came into force - head for the nearest pub on the way back and have a late lunch before settling down to a warm evening and review our day's efforts.

All in all, we had a great time in Bowland. And despite the weather, the experience only served to fuel what drives us as photographers, and what it's all about - a passion for photography, and a desire to make images. Pure and simple. And with the thought of long summer evenings on the not-so-distant horizon, we can't wait to get out and about and do more of the same!

Marketing Portraits - Set-up and break down

Right then... This is the first video we have produced for the GBP Blog, so please be gentle! As always we're looking to add more and more interesting content here, so do give feedback about what you see... and, of course, tell us what you'd like to see in the future, too.

This video is, quite simply, an illustration of how a shoot can be arranged in any loction, fitting in with the client's working day. The resulting images were to be used in a marketing campaign, both on large vehicles and printed matter.

People often ask us what is involved when setting up a shoot - for example should they come to a studio?/what should they wear?/how long will it take?/how many people will be present? In this instance, our 'studio' was an on-site cafeteria - which we took over for a few hours. Our subjects (7 in total, although only 2 appear in this time-lapse video) were actively on call, so we just grabbed them when the opportunity arose - this actually worked very well, as it often does, and we were only kept waiting for a few short minutes between sitters.

As for the technical stuff - we shot on the usual Nikon cameras, directly hooked up to a Mac. Okay, I admit it, I'm not a Mac user... and that's why you'll see Matt pressing all the buttons on this occasion whilst I take care of the light and, well, simply point at the computer :-)

It's always nice to preview images on a larger screen, as they appear, but in this case it was especially important as the lighting arrangement was very specific and had to be tweaked until it was just right. Speaking of which, 3 Nikon SB-800 speedlights were used, triggered remotely using Pocket Wizards. Naturally, the video was shot on the trusty G9. Be sure to watch out for the photographs at the end!

Enough talking... on with the show:

Oh, and one last thing - a big 'thank you' to Paul for the backing music. Seriously, you really brought this first video together for us!

For more behind-the-scenes GBP videos, check out us out on YouTube.