Location

“  How far still?…. “

A portrait shoot from last month for Virgin Green Fund, photographing the London team for their website and literature. Shooting in a small meeting room, I was looking for a bright, clean look, mixing natural daylight and the ‘poor man’s’ HMI, the Interfit Monstar 3 light ( about £375 with an octobox, lightstand and case ). A continous source, daylight balanced ( about 5000 K ) powered by three massive 150 watt lightbulbs – see the photos below of the light with the bulbs attached next to my 1DS MKIII camera for scale. Output from these is said to be the equivalent of 1800 watts of tungsten lighting!

Shooting with the octobox reflector that comes with the light, without the front diffuser panel, it does give enough output to lift the light levels with a nice bright, flat light, even when shooting against the light. Combined with the high ISO capabilties of camera such as the Canon 5D MKII or the Nikon D3S, allows you to light a room and shoot with, seemingly, more freedom than a strobe system. Letting the background bleach out a bit helps give that “high-key-Ikea -catalogue-lifestyle-bright-aired-look”. A more modern, contemporary business look away from the wood panelled boardroom shots of yesteryear. The only downside of this light is the sheer size of the bulbs, with need to be handled carefully as they would be easy to smash. The upside, pulling a roller along the street with this kit in it is considerably easier on your back than a Profoto 7b pack! It doesn’t replace the Profotos, useless outdoors, but in the right situation it is a great light to work with – but then if the budget stretches to real HMI’s!

Some shots can be see on a slideshow by clicking on the image below.

A corporate shoot in The City for Schroders from last week. The latest in a series of shoots for them over the past few years, photographing various key personnel for their image library with intended use in both company literature and for external editorial – to accompany interviews in business titles for example. With a fifteen minute window for each subject, which is rarely actually the full fifteen minutes, the idea is to get a variety of shots. What sets these shoots apart from many other such assignments is the ability to use their boardroom as a location.

Unlike many, this not only has a view  and plenty of space but also has a reasonable amount of natural light, as the sun arcs across the London skyline. Previously for these shoots I had shot one setup with my Profoto 7b’s and a very large Chimera softbox, grids, etc, as well as shots by the window with a reflector and more natural looking shots using the window light – shooting into the boardroom with the windows behind as a large ‘softbox’. Sticking with the last two setups, this time rather than using strobes I enhanced the natural light with a my Interfit Monstar 3 light with it’s Octobox attached. A daylight balanced continous light source – I hope to discuss this light soon in a forthcoming post when it was used in another slightly different corporate shoot last week . I have usually used this light to “lift” the light in a room when shooting the sort of “reportage” meeting shots of executives beloved by annual reports rather than have a flash constantly going off which can distract the subjects.  When it has the octobox diffuser panel attached  for portraits the output isn’t great but it emits a soft light that enhances the natural light in the room without overpowering the background. The result is similar as with a flash/softbox, but I can shoot with a more open aperture to seperate the subject from the backdrop to, hopefully, create a clean, natural looking and flattering lighting. Both the octobox light and light from the window is also bounced by a couple of large 48″ Lastolite sunfire reflectors. Clicking on the portrait below should start a slideshow of some images from this shoot.

Time to get some recent work up on this blog. This was a portrait session with England’s Chief Medical Officer , Sir Liam Donaldson for his annual report. Shot in his office in Whitehall in central London, it was the sunlight streaming through the window near his desk, that immediately stood out as the obvious spot to take the portrait. Being the UK, it was then a frantic race to get the light and softbox set up before a cloud blocked out the sunlight! More shots were then taken outside using the soft available light and a lastolite reflector.

Canon 1DS MKIII, 85mm f1.2 lens

Shifting through some archive cds today I came across this assignment from 2002. A “day in the life” reportage following the senior associate and Senior Vice President at the London regional office of Prudential Capital Group (PRICOA). A day spent full of meetings as part of their role in seeking out companies needing private placement investment. Shot on a Nikon D1X ( how digital has moved on ! ) and tilt / shift lenses.

Latest tearsheet is a cover and a double page spread in the February issue of PM Network Magazine produced by Imagination Publishing in Chicago. The portrait is of Tim McManus, a Senior Vice President at AECOM, taken on Waterloo Bridge in London as he passed through the city on his global travels.

Canon 1DS MKIII,  16-35/2.8 mm & 85/1.2 mm lenses    Profoto AcuteB 600 Flash

Driving back from Oxford at the weekend I had to fill up the car’s fuel tank, an increasingly painful experience. I can remember driving past a petrol station in south London one morning several years ago, surprised at seeing the price at £0.49p per litre – the average petrol price in the UK is currently is around £1.12ppl – I paid £1.14ppl for my diesel on Saturday! But back in September 2000 the country was effectively crippled by the petrol crisis. Led by lorry drivers and farmers, this first protest, there have been two smaller ones since, was a protest about the ever increasing cost of fuel and in particular the fuel duty tax that made up the bulk of the cost for UK drivers – around 81.5%, with vat, then of the total cost of unleaded petrol.

In a decade, vehicle fuel had gone from being some of the cheapest in Europe to almost the most expensive due to continual tax rises. A fuel price escalator introduced in 1993 by John Major’s Conservative government, ‘meant to discourage motor vehicle use and combat climate change’, set the annual rise for fuel duty at 3%, it soon changed to 5%. This increased to 6% under Tony Blair’s administration. Combined with the price of oil hitting $30 per barrel  ( current predictions see it reaching $100 this summer ) something snapped in the British psyche, or at least in that of the hauliers. In a very Gallic style protest, lorries pulled across the gates of oil refineries around the UK in direct action. Soon panic buying set in, long queues formed at petrol stations, with TV crews providing a distraction for drivers as they told others at home they were rather silly not to get down there too, join the queue and fill up before meltdown. Some protesters were calling for a 15 to 26p reduction in the pump price, effectively calling on the Government to cut the tax. Petrol stations began to close due to a lack of supply, some put up their prices, there was talk after four days that fuel would run out completely in 48 hours, even train services suffered. Often fuel was restricted to the emergency services.

Against this background, as I was about to go out to the park with my young daughter, I got a call from the Tesco Corporate Communications Department. They asked if I could leave right then and shoot images for a brochure that the company was preparing to document their staffs’ efforts during the crisis. It was a open brief to shoot what I found at three Tesco stores and a distribution depot, around the South-East. I was armed with a fax from Tesco HQ giving me access to the pumps if needed although disappointingly I had no need to wave this about. Some of the resulting images are here below. All this when petrol was almost 33p cheaper per litre than now and a barrel of crude oil a third of the cost it could soon become! ( PS: Check out the price of a loaf of bread in the fifth photo )

All images shot on a Nikon F5.