Photographing Michaela Tabb

If someone had have told me a month ago I'd be photographing Michaela Tabb, at a photo shoot including snooker legend Jimmy White, I would have laughed in their general direction.  However, on Monday that's just what happened.  The day was for filming and photographing for upcoming ipad  / iphone apps for both Michaela & Jimmy.

Michaela, for those who don't know her, is probably the best known and recognised snooker referee on the circuit today.  She has (at time of writing) almost 10,000 twitter followers.

She was a delight to work with, suggesting ideas, that led to some interesting photos.  Hope we get to work together again soon Michaela!  Just the one photo for now.  If you want to see more, you'll have to buy the app when it's released.

NB. After the embarrassment of giving Michaela a lift back to her hotel in my very untidy car, the following morning I spent an hour cleaning it!

Update: Thanks to Neil Sheppard for providing "stunt iphone"!

IFBB British Grand Prix & Fitness Expo

If you charge a premium price, then customers expect a premium product.

With a ticket price over double that of Olympia in Las Vegas (£25 just to get into the expo), you'd expect an expo to write home about.  Sadly, it wasn't all that.  Take away the strong man and the bmx areas, and there really wasn't much left.

The price also got you into see the pre-judging going on in the huge arena downstairs, which I have to say was rather stunning.  Easily the best stage set up & lighting I've ever seen at a UK event.

The event I'm sure will grow, this is year one after all.  Congratulations to all concerned for getting it here and happening in the first place.  Hopefully next year will see a larger expo, and a reduced ticket price.

Hello to everyone I met there, including lots of previous fitness models I've worked with...  Jamie Eason, Lynsey Beattie, Sarah McLean, Audrey Kaipio, Henrietta Leung, Danielle Laws, Tara Stevens, Francesca Giacomini, Joyce Nunu,  Paulette Sybliss, Jenny Pacey...  Did I forget anyone?

(The photos here are just snapshots.  I went to the expo to network not to work.)

Netley Marsh Steam Show

I've been meaning to go for years, but never quite got around to paying the Netley Marsh Steam Show a visit until today.

Arriving a little later in the afternoon had two benefits., most people were leaving, and unexpectedly there was no one on the gate to collect money so we were able to walk on in for free.  Bonus!

Night shots in London

It was a bitterly cold May evening in London.

Nothing much else to say about these photos, so I'm going to let them do the talking for me.

Enjoy.

Stop using stock images!

So when my client that I photographed earlier today was booking the shoot they were telling me how currently they were using stock photography.

Now there is nothing wrong with stock imagery as such, I've just started to submit my work through the fotolia library.  I've only got 3 images there at the moment, and I haven't sold anything yet, but these things take time and I'll be uploading loads more images over the coming weeks.

They'd bought 10 images from I believe iStock (not that I'm singling out iStock by any means, it just happens to be where they bought their images from).  The images they were using were all excellent photos, technically perfect, with pretty models.  The trouble with stock images is that they are kind of generic, and my client was telling me that they were starting to see the same or very similar images on their competitors websites.

It's hard to stand out from the crowd when your rivals are using the same images.

Their solution to this was to call in a professional.  That's me by the way!

Interestingly, and while we're on the subject of standing out from the crowd, it was by doing just that that got me the call to do this job.  I'd met one of the company directors at Business South at the Rose Bowl a few weeks earlier, and we engaged in a conversation about road trips around the USA because of the moose photo on my business card.  Now if I'd  have had my old business card with 'boring' sensible photos on, would we have had that conversation, would I have stood out in his memory and would I have got the gig?  Chances are slim on all counts.

The client had a good idea what he wanted, and infact had printed off some images from iStock for us to use as a guide.  They photos as I said were excellent.  No point trying to re-invent the wheel.  The big difference being that the new photos were of his staff, in his office, and no other bugger would be using the same images.

The end result is that for a relatively small amount of money my client now has (or will when he gets the photos and uploads them) a more original website, original imagery and a better chance of standing out from the crowd.

So if you're guilty of the same stock imagery crime, give a photographer a bell, talk to them, you might be surprised at just how cheaply you can get your own original images done.

I've included a few photos from todays shoot, with the wonderful people from Frontline Telephone Answering Services.  I enjoy my work most days, but today was really quite fun.  There are some good people working at Frontline.  It was a pleasure to shoot them.

Photowalk in Southampton

Okay so it wasn't exactly much of a walk, from one end of the Town Quay to the other and back again, but I managed to sneak a few photos in, and even got some that I rather like.

I've played around with some HDR on some of them, and the lead photo with the Red Funnel ferry in is one I particularly like.

Saints got hammered

So having been offered a couple of tickets I pick the Saints vs Pompey FA Cup game in 2010 as my first ever football match. Many said I was crazy, and yes I admit I did first check to make sure the seats were as far away from the Pompey fans as possible.

Okay so Southampton FC got their arses well and truly kicked with the 4-1 result, I ended up with very cold feet, but it was kind of fun.  Not exactly sure I'd be in a hurry to go to another game, if I ever did I'd want to be sitting on the touchline with a big lens and able to take more than a few snapshots.  However it's something to check off the list.

A walk along the Thames

A couple of weeks ago while I was in London for the Wedding Show at Olympia, I met up with my friend Jorge for a pub lunch and we went on a short photo walk.

We parked up near The Monument, and our walk took us across Tower Bridge, down by the new London Townhall, and then back across to the car via London Bridge.  T'was but a short walk, and I only had my Panasonic GF1 with me, and these are my favourite photos.

Grey day in Southampton

I had a few spare minutes this morning on my way to a client meeting at the local Krispy Kreme outlet (gotta love clients who suggest meeting at a doughnut vendor!).

It was a damp, cold, ever so slightly depressing morning, and I wanted my photos to reflect the day.

I had parked on the top floor of the Bargate Shopping Centre carpark, and walked up East Street, along to the Bargate, and then in the back door by the book shop in West Quay.

I'm planning to photograph my home town more often this year.  I realised recently after living here my whole life I have no proper photographs of it.   Southampton really isn't as bad as this set of images make out.  It's not the prettiest city in the world, but it does have some nice bits.  I want to show it warts and all.

Biggest dog ever?

Now I love dogs probably more than I like most people, but this one scared the crap out of me.  It wasn't aggressive in any way, it was just big, bloody big.

It was early in the year, around March or April and I was on a photoshoot in the Miami area.  I remember it being stupidly hot and humid even at sunrise when we started shooting on the beach.  It was so uncomfortable that we soon had to admit defeat and head back to the house where one of the models was living.  I had heard this beast of a K9 barking for the previous hour from a distant corner of the huge mansion like house.  I've seen smaller horses than this dog.

Does anyone know what breed of dog this is?

Yes I know it's a poor photo, but its all I've got handy.

We also used him as a prop for the shoot - below is a photo of that mornings pretty girl with the beast.

Update: Fast forward the best part of a year...  I've just had an email from Claudia Costa (the pretty girl with the beast), and she tells me that the dog in question is a Presa.  Thank you Claudia for clearing that up.  :-)

My security blanket

Last night I was asked to do some photos at a comedy club in Basingstoke.  Now there was a time when comedy clubs scared me a little.  I was scared I was going to be the poor sap some mean comedian picked on for the evening.

Now though, I don't care.  At least I don't care when I have my camera in my hands.  I feel I have a proper reason to be there, to walk around, and stuff.  Also I feel part of the crew, I'm there doing a job, and the comedians seem to respect that and hence I'm not a target.

My visit to Jan Jack's Laughter House (www.laughter-house.co.uk) last night was my first visit to a comedy club in about 8 years.  Then I was sat in the back row, scared shitless I'd be one of the audience the comic picked on.

The show was great, with host Danny Dawes introducing Matt Reed, Spam Ayres, Joel Dommett and the main act Bob Mills.

It was one of the hardest things I've had to photograph.  Normally at concerts and live shows the hit rate of acceptable shots goes down, but the lighting was just awful for me (great for the audience and performers) but for me, urghh, bad bad bad!

I had my Canon 5D Mark II up at 5000 ISO, I was shooting at f2.8 and I was still only getting shutter speeds of around 1/20th.  Flash, not that I had one with me isn't an option at live shows like this.   My hit rate took a tumble, I must have deleted about 85% of the shots either on the night or in post editing.

Given the lighting, and it was the first time I've photographed comedy, I'm really pleased with the results.