story behind the still

It was great to be asked by Digital Photographer to talk through the lighting techniques behind some of my still images.
I don’t think of myself as a technical so much as an instinctive photographer. I love watching the play of light and how it shapes, highlights and contrasts things. I think I have more of a feel for photography than a desire to analyse it. When I compose a shot it’s like having a band playing in my head and I arrange the lighting like a man who knows his music but isn’t interested in how the notes are formed.
I’m in awe of the whole gear head thing but I’m more of a ‘get out there and just do it’ guy so see if you can guess how I took this shot and then click on the image to find out for real.

10 second portrait

It’s funny how you become known for a certain style, a certain signature ‘look’ to your images.
Encouraged by the industry that feeds you to define and identify that ‘style’, you find yourself exploring less and less avenues as you close down on your own visual eye and work on specialising your ‘branded’ identity.
Trouble is, the danger is, that along the way you lose yourself and it’s not until you strip everything away and start back with the basics – just you, a camera, an open mind and your own creative vision that you can start seeing again.
Recently I decided to give myself a task.
Take a photo.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? And it is!!!!!
But, sometimes, the further you get from that place you first started out in the harder it is to stop obsessing about the light, the location, the set up and just seize the moment to take the shot.
I’d been invited to a boxing match and after his fight I grabbed this 10 second portrait.
It’s not my best work but I like it because I took it.
I like it because I didn’t let the fluorescent lighting talk me out of taking it.
I just took it.

suspended in motion

I’m obsessed with movement and I just LOVE the way things fall through the sky and seem to hang there – suspended in motion. It’s my take on the ‘decisive moment’ and it doesn’t get much better than this Vincent Haycock Music Video for Mellowdrone

It reminds me of some shots I took one twilight of local kids playing on the trampoline in their backyard.
There’s something fearless and uninhibited and spontaneous about kids that we totally take for granted and never quite recapture as adults

graphics and graffiti

I love subtle light.
I love strong light.
I love, graphics, graffiti and urban decay.
I love hi tech and lo tech.
I love colour and black & white.
I love movement and static shots.
I want to keep my mind open and my eyes peeled for anything that catches them….