Eid 2012

Highlight: The view from London's Living Room

Lowlight: Shooting in London Living Room - lots of glass and steel.

Fill in: It had been a while since I had an event in London's Living Room at City Hall so got very excited as the view of the river, Tower Bridge and South London is amazing. It is a fairly cosy room, especially if the event is attended by the Mayor of London  and this one was. Boris was on good form and posed for quite few photos, which always ends up in a bit of a scrum with people asking you to take photos of them with the Mayor and then proceeding to get in the way of the shot you are trying to take of the people who have just asked the same thing, whilst at the same time people behind you are tapping you on the shoulder to ask you to take their photo with the Mayor. It all gets very confusing.

Tech spec: Which ever way you shoot in this room you either have a wall of steel cylinders or floor to ceiling convex glass windows in the background. Either way it is a nightmare when using flash. I do long shots on an 85mm F1.4 for moody, natural shots, but as the light is pretty dim and toplit I use flash for the PR group shots and open the shutter to get the background ambient light, being careful to ensure a head is directly in front of the flash to avoid nasty reflections. I always try to do speeches without flash if possible.

Back to the 80s - Bishopsgate Arts

Highlight: An evening reminiscing about the music from my teen years.

Lowlight: Reminsicing! I am old….

Fill in: An evening hosted by Robert Elms, a fellow ex-NME-ite, with Pauline Black of Selector and Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet. It was nice to know that the 80s actually weren't that horrific regarding music and style as they are always portrayed (Okay I admit it - I was a fan of Haircut 100 and I did outrage my dad by knicking his shirt, cutting off the collar and wearing it with a huge silver belt and pair of red knickerbockers). As the discussion went from Punk to two-tone, to New Romantics, to Electronic and finally Dance I was able to nod wisely and sigh nostalgically with the rest of the audience whilst munching on the free sherbet dibdabs, black jacks and fizzers. Pauline Black is as feisty and forthright as ever, Gary Kemp as glamorous as he was in Spandau Ballet's heyday if not more so, and Robert Elms charisma kept the evening alive.

Tech spec: Low light, from the top so I had to make sure faces were tilted forward or up to avoid deeply shadowed eyes. I was on 6400 ISO, F2 at 1/125 on the 85mm, using the D7000 which is the quietest camera I possess. Light was horrendously orange, even with the WB on tungsten balance so I had to adjust in the post process.

For more info:
http://www.facebook.com/BishopsgateInstitute

Life Drawing Class, Buckingham Palace

Highlight: Spending a couple of hours in a room with a perfect physical specimen of man completely naked (him not me!)

Lowlight: …along with ten other people.

Fill in:  After a month of getting up at the crack of dawn (and some times before the crack) doing school photos and class groups for Gillman and Soame, one of my first commissions following this marathon was to photograph yet another school. However this was a life drawing school, and I was a bit apprehensive as photographing naked people always makes me feel bit voyeuristic. Okay, very voyeuristic. However the model was perfect in manner as well as physique, very photogenic and the serenity of the class and the calming mood of the room made it the perfect antidote to the hectic chaos that is school photography. Pass the camomile tea someone…

Tech spec: Very low light, which is always easy as there is not much choice regarding camera settings. Widest aperture you can, highest ISO you dare and shutter as slow as you can hand hold. Luckily as the subject was fairly static, I could happily go down to 1/30th without too much trouble. This was very top lit, so I had to bear this in mind when composing all the shots, ensuring the main subject was exposed properly and letting the background burn out if necessary.

Universal managers conference

Highlight: Dinner with the stars.

Lowlight: Always having to do photos just as dessert arrives.

Fill in: I attend this annual event held by Universal Music which showcases the best of the new works from up-coming and established artists to the International Management of Universal. It is quite exciting to see new songs being performed, sometimes for the first time, before they are released to the general public. In the past the organisers never told me who was performing for fear I would leak it to all my press friends, but since they have found out that I have no press friends, in fact I don't have any friends, they are quite happy to let me know beforehand whose on the menu.

Tech spec: The showcases are like doing a gig but the light is more intense, mnore saturated and higher contrast as the venues are often makeshift stages in a hotel with low ceilings and the lights are very close. Very often the lights are right in the camera lens or coming in from the side creating lots of flare so a lenshood is essential. I shoot NEF, expose for the shadows and process bringing the highlights back in.

For more on Universal:
www.universalmusic.com

Sandybrown Jazz interview

Highlight: Talking about  myself and all my wonderful achievements.

Lowlight: Trying to find some wonderful achievements - in fact any achievements.

Fill in: I met Ian who runs the Sandy Brown Jazz website at a Jazz Awards bash and being the friendly chap he is he managed to break through my cool, aloof exterior and get through to the soft underside. It wasn't hard actually. All he had to do was ask me for an interview and I was in. I only had to check  with my PR (me), my manager (me) and my PA (me).

Tech spec:  Several lost emails later I managed to cobble some anecdotes together, then my server went down so I couldn't access my archive and my website wasn't working. Apart from that it went like a dream. I sent the final draft off to Ian with instructions to make me sound interesting and he did a stirling job. 

For more info:

www.sandybrownjazz.co.uk