Lowlight: In no particular order, one parking ticket, one RAC call out, one postponed job, one postponed meeting, and one headshot turning into ten portraits and a lost credit card.
Fill in: At the beginning of the week all I had was a school job on Monday and a headshot on Tuesday but after my holiday down in Cornwall I needed a rest so I was looking forward to a quiet week. Monday's job was straight forward and then another job for Tuesday was booked in, but as it was a simple single head shot and would be a bit of a rush to get there but make hay and all that.. Tuesday came and I had to be on london for 10am sharp. Aways a tricky one as to get here on time as avoid the rush hour means leaving early and arriving early. I got up at 6am - and arrived in plenty of time, only to meet up with the PR and to be told the job was cancelled due to a family bereavement. So I went from having no time at all between jobs to having two hours to kill. It was raining, but determined to make the most of the time I decided to visit the Natural History Museum and get some stock shots. I parked the car directly by a parking meter, paid £5 for the hour, took my partner's credit card (for emergency use only) and spent a happy hour photographing stuffed specimens.
I went back to the car to find it decorated with a cheerful yellow sticker informing me that I owed the council £130 or £65 if I was quick. Open mouthed I stared at the ticket, stared at the time on the parking ticket, stared at the parking meter and in my shocked state slowly registered the writing in small, neat letters on the side of the meter informing the reader that residents bays war eon this side (indicated by a discrete arrow) and public parking was on the other side (i.e not the side I was one). It was particularly irritating as most of the residents bays and parking bays were car free anyway. Still, I could see no way out of it and rummaged around ofor the credit card - this was an emergency if ever there was one. After a few frantic minutes where coat pockets were turned inside out and much groping round the car floor ensued, the second shock of the day was realised. I had lost the credit card. One phone call to my long suffering partner later, and by the time all was sorted I was not running late for my next job.
A nasty journey including lots of hard stares (from me to other drivers who were driving too slowly and from other drivers to me who was driving too fast) got me to the Musicians Union just in time. I was all set to do the quick head shots and was gaily met by the organiser who announced that 'quite a few' people were up for having their photo taken (usually everyone is trying got run away) so I had to muster up a socially affable mood for ten times the amount of time I had paced myself for - no mean feat for a miserable git like myself.
Now I was rushing to get to my evening meeting on time. I finished the job and checked my emails. The meeting had been postponed, so once again I had a couple of hours to kill. Reluctant to leave the car and tired out from being nice, I stayed int he car and had a quick snooze. On waking and checking my phone, I saw it was running low and put it on charge for a while. I went to my meeting feeling pleasantly refreshed and glad I had notice amy phone - Keith is always ring on at me to keep it well charged up. After the meeting, I returned to the car. It wouldn't open. I used the keys manually ( always an adventure prising the real key out of it's socket), the car wouldn't start but a cheerful yellow light blinked at me from the dashboard and informed me the car battery was dead. Two hours later with a phone running low on battery the RAC came and rescued me and I arrived home at 1am to another email asking me if I was free to do a job the next day....at 5.30 am in the morning start...to be continued...
Use of yellow tungsten room light to highlight red hair and backlight subject.
Use of window to backlight subject and 'blowout' the background.
Both shots have fill light from the front with a speed light from the left through a brolly.
Tech spec:. For single casual headshots I use an 85mm F1.4 so I can get a blurred background however small the space. I use the D700 as it has a small flash for fill in but if there is room I put a speed light on a stand with a small brolly just to get bit of modelling. I open up the shutter and shoot on an ISO high enough to get the ambient light.
Further info:
http://www.musiciansunion.org.uk/
Further info:
http://www.musiciansunion.org.uk/
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