On the day of the Greater Manchester Marathon 2012, Manchester lived up to its reputation and delivered one of the wettest and windiest days I’ve ever struggled to work in. I’d received a commission from Runner’s World magazine to cover the event and despite the driving rain and sometimes very low light conditions, I managed to crack off numerous images of those taking part in five separate locations. These locations fell between Old Trafford football ground and Dunham Massey. After half an hour in the rain I was absolutely drenched and at one point, very cold.
This was despite equipping myself with layers of fleece and Gore-Tex. The camera and lens, along with the camera bag were soaked through too, yet my trusty Nikon D700 and 70-200mm 2.8 Nikon lens, plus SB900 flash never failed me. I was actually surprised, considering all my equipment suffered virtually the same treatment as being placed under a running tap! A fellow photographer informed that one of his cameras had ‘packed in’ under the severe conditions, presumably due to water entering the electrics. This was a top-selling model in the professional range too.
After enduring hours of non-stop rain, I forced myself to the finishing line and managed to ‘scoop’ comedian, Steve Coogan (and brother) completing the 26 mile course. To see the full gallery of images, click here. The images are unedited, so there are lots!
The British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) recently held their annual North West photography awards in Liverpool and I was delighted to hear that I’d achieved a Gold award in the Environmental Portrait category. The winning image was part of a series shot in Manchester over a couple of days using Nikon off-camera flash combined with Elinchrom studio flash heads. To see other images in this series and the story behind the shoot, follow this link – Boxing Shoot
Thanks to Oscar Young for modelling, Sadaf Saeed for make-up, James Largey for organising the shoot location, plus the rest of the team who helped out on the day.
Based in Wilmslow, Ian Thraves Photography operates a bespoke Wedding & Portrait service , covering Cheshire , Manchester and surrounding regions. Please click here to visit our dedicated Wedding and Portrait website.
To find out more about wedding photography, call Ian on 01625 524018.
The location was Manchester city centre and the event, Grimm Up North 2011. A few days ago I was asked by Festival Director, Simeon Halligan to photograph celebrity guests attending the event. I was generally given a 10 -15 minute time-slot to get the shots, which meant there was no time for error. Since time was a limiting factor, there was little scope for creativity and I therefore decided to keep things simple. I wanted to create images that were more than press-style snapshots and was determined to gain a clear edge over the other photographers attending.
Yvette Fielding
The shoot took place in a back room at the 235 Casino in Manchester, which offered a cluttered backdrop of vibrant coloured walls, a typical casino environment. Luckily, I found a black curtain to use as a backdrop and hastily set up a mini studio in the corner of the room. For the first session, I rigged an ‘off-camera’ lighting set up using two Nikon SB900 Speedlights positioned on separate lighting stands. Both flashes were triggered by a nikon SU800 from the camera. The key light source was fired through a small soft box that was gaffa taped on to the flashgun itself. The rear light source was a ‘straight’ SB900, softened by a standard clip-on diffuser. I knew that by creating this set up I would not only have a unique look to my images in terms of lighting, but with a professional-looking studio I would stand out as the official photographer. This all helps with being taken seriously, especially in such a competitive market.
Billy Murray
On the second night I brought along an Elinchrom studio lighting kit, only to find a fellow photographer had already set up his own studio in the position I used the night before. Rather than set up two sets of lights and get in each other’s way, I suggested to the other photographer that we should share his lighting and help each other out. He was fine with this and as a result we worked together as a team. We both benefited from doing this.
Robin Hardy – Director of The Wicker Man
Celebrity shoots are always tricky, as you have to be fully prepared to shoot within tight time constraints and unpredictable environments. In terms of developing a rapport with your sitter, it’s often a case of having a 10 minute chat and then straight to shooting. With so much competition from other photographers, the key is to try to engage with your sitter, develop trust and then ‘shoot different’ in an effort to achieve results that stand out from the crowd.
Jonathan Sothcott – movie producer
Charlie Bond – Actress
Camera – Nikon D700, Lens – Nikon 28 -300 vr.
All images are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any way.
Wayne Godwin and Ashley Gibson of Salford Reds are the latest rugby star duo brave enough to reveal all for Checkum. Wayne and Ashley were photographed for the campaign a few weeks ago at NPD studios in Leeds, a fantastic well-equipped and spacious facility for still and TV/movie shoots. The duration of the shoot was around three hours and in that time we were required to fulfil a detailed brief that included a storyboard of many sample images – and we had to shoot them all twice over!
Checkum is an on-going national celebrity testicular cancer awareness campaign. Supported by Macmillan Cancer, Checkum has now been running for more than two years. The campaign has involved public figures from many walks of life, including sports stars, actors, TV personalities, musicians, presenters and performing artists.
Those previously involved in the campaign include Adam Rickitt (actor and musician), Nick Youngquest and James Pritchard (rugby stars), performers from Birmingham Royal Ballet, Matt Evers (figure skater), Monty Halls (presenter) and many more. Posters from the campaign have received global exposure and have been published in many national newspapers and magazines. To view past Checkum campaign posters, along with stories relating to the photo shoots, please view my previous blog posts here.
On this particular shoot, Andrea (my regular assistant, who has a very sought after job) had to work particularly hard with the oil and water – I think she normally calls this Art Directing. But thanks to the patience and professionalism of the models, we achieved a successful shoot in a relatively short period of time. An image of Andrea hard at work can be seen below!
Camera – Nikon D700, Lens – Nikon 50mm F1.8 and Nikon 70-200 F2.8 vr. Lighting – Broncolor studio flash.
As a result of some encouraging comments from a magazine editor who happened to stumble upon my blog (see the comments below my last blog entry), I responded by adding in a few more action images to the boxing theme I’ve been shooting recently. The original boxing images had been created for two purposes – one for portfolio and the other for stock.
When drumming up ideas for stock images, I try to think of concepts that depict a visual story. Stock images don’t necessarily have to be realistic; they are not supposed to be documentary photographs. More importantly, a good stock image should portray a typical everyday life situation that’s obvious enough to be interpreted by global markets, regardless of language and culture. I often show my kids images from my stock shoots and ask them what’s happening in the photograph. If they can interpret the ‘story’ behind the image correctly, there is a good chance those images will make good sales.
Shot for stock agency purposes – ‘battle of the sexes’.
As explained in my last post, during the previous boxing shoot we suffered an accident with one of my Elinchrom studio flash heads, which brought the shoot to a halt before we’d completed our shooting list. So the models (who all box for real – they were not faking it) and I decided we’d rendezvous a second time at Northside boxing club in Manchester, so we could carry on where we left off.
Prior to shooting round two, I had a bit of thinking to do. I hadn’t had time to repair the broken Elinchrom flash that plummeted to the ground in round one. Left with only two studio flash heads, I spent some time the day before the shoot working out whether I could get my two Nikon SB900 Speedlights to synchronise with the Elinchrom’s. After many test shots, I found that the auto pre-flash from the Nikon’s triggered the Elinchrom’s (via the built in slave) too early, so all flashes were not working together as a team. Finally, I tried the Nikon flashes in their manual setting and suddenly all flashes were synchronising perfectly. So much for all that technology – I went totally back to basics by switching off all that sophisticated functionality. It was like going back 20 years to times when things were simple!
For those interested in stock photography, I have an on-going article published in the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook 2012 (publisher – A& C Black) that focuses on the subject. You can find this in the UK in the reference section of most libraries, or it can be purchased online at Amazon.
Camera – Nikon D700, shot with Elinchrom and Nikon SB900 Speedlight flash. Lens – Nikon 24-300 VR and Nikon 70-200/2.8 VR. Make-up – Sadaf Saeed.
It was the day of the Royal wedding and rather than partaking in the offer of a Champaign breakfast and joining the nationwide party, I instead ventured in to Manchester to photograph a passionate group of male and female boxers in a location not far from Manchester City football ground. The shoot was initially organised for three reasons – the first to try out a particular lighting technique, the second to create a portfolio of images that had impact and related to sport and finally to shoot something new and interesting for stock.
The team involved in the shoot included two male and two female boxers and my regular make-up artist, Sadaf Saeed. To start with, my aim was to create some strong portraits with minimal make-up effects, so at this stage we held back on the sweat (created with body oil and a water sprayer) and blood effects. These were to come later. First, the two female boxers (Natalie and Ruth who both box for real) took to the ring and posed fantastically with little direction. Neither of the girls had modelled before. Whilst shooting the girls, Sadaf was preparing the two male boxers and we successfully pulled off a production line of images and effects in a relatively short span of time. However, just as we were getting to the action shots we suddenly fell upon a disaster. One of the flash heads was knocked over and smashed to the ground, leaving us working with two flashes rather than three – and three were required for the lighting effect I had planned.
The lighting for the majority of the shoot was created with three Elinchrom flash heads. Two were positioned on either side of the model, positioned slightly behind and fitted with soft boxes. These were pointing directly at the model and set to throw light that was averagely two stops brighter than my key light, providing a fantastic edge light around the model. This lighting technique created a striking three-dimensional effect. The key light was positioned near to my lens and was also fitted with a small soft box. After the accident with the key flash, I was left working with two flash heads at 45 degrees to the model during the later part of the shoot. One flash was positioned behind the model, the other near the camera. The rear flash created backlighting set to around two stops brighter than my key light. An example of this effect can clearly be seen in the image of the model dropping water over her face.
Sadly, we didn’t get time to complete the action shots we had planned, but have decided to continue the shoot on another day, equipped with a third flash head. So keep watching this space to see the results of round two!
To view more images from this shoot, see the gallery below.
STOP PRESS – As a result of spending the past few weeks working part-time as a professional photography lecturer, I am planning to to organise private photo training workshops around the Wilmslow area in the next few weeks. Initially, I will be concentrating on photographing people, but I am open to other suggestions. I will only take small groups at a time with a maximum of 8-10 participants. Training will include – using digital SLR’s to their maximum potential, Lighting in studio and outdoors (both natural and flash lighting), creating impact with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom and making money via stock photography. Please respond (and include your email address) if you are interested and I will add your name to my list.
Portrait of a Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) Artist.
The British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) regional award ceremony was recently held in Liverpool during the first weekend of April 2011. Although I couldn’t attend this year I was delighted to learn that I had won a silver award for one of two images that were entered in to the Portrait category. The image of a Birmingham Royal Ballet performer was shot on location in Birmingham with very limited equipment – a Nikon D2x, 50mm lens, three Elinchrom studio flash heads and a portable paper background. There was no way to blackout the room, so much of the lighting effects were guesswork and the test shots were judged with reference to the image on the back of the camera. I always aim to create images that are a little out of the ordinary in the hope that they will grab more attention, especially with so much competition out there these days. The unusual twist in the case of this image is the confusion of arms and legs wrapped around the performer’s body that appear to come from nowhere (provided by the model’s wife, also a BRB performer). That, added to the fact that the dancer is nude adds a little extra intrigue to the image.
The original image was shot for a national celebrity testicular cancer awareness campaign known as ‘Checkum’. More information and images related to the campaign can be found on my blog here.
A&C Black, publishers of the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook have recently recommissioned an update to my ongoing article on the subject of working as a professional photographer. First published in 1998, the article has been updated over the years to accommodate the many changes that have taken place in this ever-evolving industry. Since the advent of digital photography and web-based marketing, it has become possible for photographers to reach global markets more readily. The article provides a wealth of information on how best to exploit these markets, whether seeking commissioned-based jobs or selling existing images via international ‘stock’ agencies.
This is the 105th edition of the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and can be purchased at leading bookstores and via the web. It can also be found in the reference section of most UK libraries. I will keep you posted as to when the 2012 edition becomes available. You can reach the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook blog here.
Order the 2011 copy or pre-order your 2012 copy from Amazon here.
My friend Jenny has featured as a model in many of my images over the past 10 years (see gallery below). As professional artist, Jenny is often game for ‘playing a role’ and shooting images with a twist but this time we had a different agenda, to capture a special moment in Jenny’s life. My aim this time was to create photographs that were a little different but keeping in mind the fact that these particular images would have a personal and emotional value and would be treasured by the couple for a lifetime.
The fist image shows Jenny with partner Nick. This image was shot in studio. I used two Elinchrom flash heads with a soft box and honeycomb light modifier on one head and a snoot on the other. The main key light was positioned at 45 degrees to the models and the second snooted light was positioned behind the models and opposite the key light. This image was captured with a Nikon D700 set to iso 200. The lens used was a Nikon 70-200 2.8 vr with an aperture of f13.
The second image was shot on the stair landing of my house. The background is a bare plaster wall, recently stripped for re-decorating. There was a small window to the left of Jenny and the final image was lit entirely by this natural and diffused light source. Due to very low light, the ISO setting on the camera was set to 5000, which with most cameras would render an image far too ‘noisy’ for use. However, the D700 is one of the best cameras on the market for low light and has opened new doors regarding capturing images in very low light. I now rely much less on the need for a flash or a tripod to capture quality images in low light. The lens used in this case was a much slower Nikon 28-300 vr. The aperture was set to F5.6 and the shutter to 1/125th of a second. The images were processed using Adobe Lightroom 3.
Below is a gallery of other photos Jenny and I have shot together in the past. Click on any image for a clearer view.
This was despite equipping myself with layers of fleece and Gore-Tex. The camera and lens, along with the camera bag were soaked through too, yet my trusty Nikon D700 and 70-200mm 2.8 Nikon lens, plus SB900 flash never failed me. I was actually surprised, considering all my equipment suffered virtually the same treatment as being placed under a running tap! A fellow photographer informed that one of his cameras had ‘packed in’ under the severe conditions, presumably due to water entering the electrics. This was a top-selling model in the professional range too.
