Shoots

A Revisit to the Mine

For me there have been precious few advantages to lockdown, frankly I’ve hated it. But it has given me chance to catch up with my editing & revisit some old shoots.

Back in 2017 I embarked on a project with my good buddy David Cudworth at the National Mining Museum in Wakefield. It was a project close to my heart because I spent the first 15 years of my working life in the mining industry. They trained me as an electrical engineer & then I moved into training… there’s no doubt that those early years had a massive effect on my personality moving forward. It was a difficult & challenging environment in which to practice engineering & that required a very pragmatic “can do” approach from its engineers, something I’ve never lost. I have so much to thank the industry for.

One of the shoots was in the Victorian section of the mine & tbh I’ve never really given the images I captured the love & attention they deserve. I’ve decided to work up 4 of them as a panel & here’s the first two.

Water Dancers

The Water Dancer project started in February '20 & has been severely delayed due to Covid, but we finally managed to get a production shoot done in October. This video documents the development of the project from initial concept through to final images. It took 4 shoots in total, each one building on the previous as we overcame problems and worked out the best angles.

A big thank you to my assistants, Jane Riley & Marlies Chell, my video producer Alex Beck... and of course my dancers, Lily, Dan, Alisha & Jo.

It's Time to Recall Thranduil!

One of the most ambitious projects I have running is to create & photograph an Elf Lord, Thranduil. Our model is Bear, Elaine Searston is our make up artist & the super multi-talented Marlies Chell built his regal costume - it really is something.

So far we have only done one studio shoot and using Photoshop I’ve superimposed him into several landscapes like the one below - but the intention was always to take him out into the real world.

His next outing will be to a ruined 14th-century church at the end of October (Covid & weather permitting). Last night we did a quick test shoot to check out the location & lighting - thanks to Matt Wade for being the Thranduil stand in. Matt & Alex will be creating a video of the shoot on the day.

I’m excited and nervous about this shoot but that’s often the best combination isn’t it? I find being too comfortable can lead to a lack of effort & creativity. I have a great team around me, so I’m not alone, but inevitably I feel under the greatest pressure to deliver. Fingers X’d it goes well, either way you’ll hear about it here.

Thranduil - shot in the studio last year & inserted into a landscape from Asynt, Scotland (castle from France)

Thranduil - shot in the studio last year & inserted into a landscape from Asynt, Scotland (castle from France)

Matt stands in as Thranduil on our recce shoot  last night

Matt stands in as Thranduil on our recce shoot last night

The Alchemist

Following my successful shoot with Lily I started searching for ideas to repeat the home studio concept. I'd seen paintings by old masters of alchemists and decided I'd try to replicate one - but everything hinged on finding a model who looked the part. We didn't have to look far - Mel is the father of my shooting buddy Marlies & in addition to looking every inch the wise old sage he also has a fantastic beard. He took a bit of persuading but he pulled it off magnificently. Here's a behind the scenes look at the shoot. It was great fun - thank you Mel!

The Alchemist

The Alchemist

Back in the Pool!

It was great to get back in the pool this week and it made me realise just how much I’ve missed it. We resumed with a straightforward project just to get back in the swing as it were - Jane diving in off the side.

I first tried this shot around 18 months ago but on that day I was more interested in Jane’s reflection on the underside of the water surface. I’d decided I wanted to use reflections as an element in my Serenity images so I was learning about the camera angle & lighting I needed to get a good reflection - capturing the dive was just a means to an end. But I did like the result, so it was added to the ever growing list of future shoots… & that’s what we attempted on Monday.

It was a fairly simple shoot to set up & I’m pleased with the results. If you’d like to see how I went about it there’s a very short video below.

Pool Diving
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