So! Last week I went down to sunny Staffordshire to meet up with my photo buddy, Richard Allan. We were going to do a test shoot for a photo session that I'll eventually end up doing with the team.
While writing an essay at university, I was researching a photographer and their work, and I saw a couple of photographs that I thought the fans would like.....and the hopefully, the boys would like too! These photos will be different from anything either set have seen before, and its technically the most difficult shoot we'll probably ever do.
Having been taught like a Canadian, I deconstructed the images and came up with a plan of how I thought the photographs had been taken. So, Richard and I set about putting my theory into practise. After about an hour and a half, maybe two, we'd tried two different methods of capturing similar images. We came to the conclusion that there was a very large possibility that the final image was a photo shop job, as we couldn't quite get it like in the original image. I mean, I don't think you'll ever take a photo and get it 100% bob on, you can get very very close though.
The important thing was, we had the test shots in the bag. We'd taken the original images and made them our own.
We should be getting underway taking them later this month....hopefully.
Photographing a Photographer
After completing the test shoot, I photographed Richard in his hockey gear. Richard plays for the Blackburn Buccaneers, a recreational hockey team. We set-up the lights and the backdrop and away we went!
It is always nice photographing some you know, someone you're friends with. I find you have more to talk about, and it's more relaxed. That's something we don't when photographing the players. It's normally an hour (or maybe less) before warm-up, and the rink is full of the general public and the 'DJ' is playing some god awful music way too loud....so even if we wanted to talk to the boys we were photographing they couldn't hear us anyway!
When shooting someone you know, you can play around a bit more with the kind of images you want to capture. If something goes wrong you can take the time to figure out what and why, instead of doing a quick fix so the boys can be on their way pronto.
I thought Richard was an excellent model, even if I did have to stand on a chair for some of the shoot!
Jessops
As I type this, it has just been announced that photography chain store Jessops has gone into administration.
Yes, it is sad because of all the staff could potentially lose their jobs. But this is what happens when stores fail to diversify quick enough, and what happens when large supermarkets like Tesco and Asda start their own photo services.
Jessops have had to diversify into photo gifts because Tesco and Asda sell photo gifts. But those supermarkets are cheaper than Jessops and more convenient, you put your photos in for an hour and then go and do your shopping and pick them up on your way out. You can also go on about online retailers too, they're pretty convenient too and probably a lot cheaper.
While I don't use Jessops, I buy anything photography related online from other retailers, it would be sad to see it go. Not just because when you start out in photography, its a first call. But because, once Jessops, a shop dedicated to photography, where else can you go to see what you're thinking of buying? Places like Asda, Tesco and PC World only carried a limited stock of cameras and photography equipment, they aren't specialised retailers at all.
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