Gillman and Soame

Highlight: Small Group Training - get to boss loads of kids around.

Lowlight: Most of the kids are bigger than me.

Fill in: The Summer term is here and my first season at Gillman and Soame means I get to do lots of training which I always love. A. I always learn new stuff and unlearn bad habits. (It was galling to find I still did not know how to use my light meter properly) and B. I get to work with some great photographers. At Gillmans the company goes back over 150 years working with everyone from the University of Oxford to the Royal Family and Armed services as well as all sorts of schools from Eton to your average state primary. Some of their full time staff have been in the business over 20 years and know a thing or two about crowd control and working under pressure. I was keen to learn how they set up such faultless school groups which could be anything from 3 young kids in the recorder group to a whole school over over 1000 seniors.

I was training on small groups which is any number from 2 to 50! There were pages and pages of diagram to study with variations for inside and outside groups, groups of girls, groups of boys, groups of young kids, groups of graduates, groups of kids with sports equipment, groups of kids with musical instruments, groups of kids in dance outfits, formal groups, informal groups - you name it - they had it covered.

Tech spec: Well I could tell you how to do it but I'd have to kill you. Surprisingly less kit is needed for  a group shot than a portrait so even more reason to get this nailed as it will be easier on my back! The main kit needed was a cool head and an ability to use a lightmeter!

For more info: http://www.gillmanandsoame.co.uk/