Chris Buck interview

Found an interview this morning over at APE with the photographer Chris Buck. I'm a big fan of Chris' work which often gives a unique view of personalities and situations. The interview was also of particular interest to me due to Chris' perspective on assisting:

Well, if you look at the careers of assistants there’s a number of problems with it. You can certainly learn things from assisting, but I guess what I recommend for people if they feel any clarity about who they are as a photographer then I would really recommend that they intern rather than assist. And, I mean a real internship not sweeping floors. Don’t intern for photographers where you have no access to them or the shoots. People tell me they intern for big name photographers for their resume, but why do you have a resume. If you’re a photographer you don’t need a resume. Your portfolio is your resume, not some piece of paper.

I always find opinions like this quite reassuring that by not having ever assisted I haven't necessarily made the wrong decision. Yet at the same time the whole 10,000 hours thing as discussed by Chase Jarvis in a recent blog post, and as I read myself a few weeks ago in an extract from Malcolm Gladwell in the Guardian Magazine, is quite daunting. Knowing that you have to really be dedicated to follow a path for at least ten years is in some ways a frightening prospect - what if after ten years you still suck...
All photos copyright Chris Buck

Henry Herbert

More work for Henry Herbert - the bespoke London tailoring company. For anybody who was at my birthday bash a few weeks ago - these are the guys I was yammering on about who made my suit...

City living...

I've had an idea in my mind for awhile for a shot I've been trying to create, something a bit different from my normal work, something a bit 'artyer' perhaps. The purpose was illustrate my personal mixed up feelings I have of living in a city - a lifestyle that I've never truely been comfortable with. I find cities pretty intense places; so many people stepping on each others toes, so much pent up frustration and aggression, brutal landscapes and harsh realities. A real stamp of human influence and enedvour branded on the face of nature. Quite a lot to try and some up in a picture really!

Anyway I recently got the opportunity to set up a temporary studio, so I took the chance to shoot something for it. I had to move fast because I didn't have the space for long, so I'm not 100% happy with the outcome - I would have preferred a different 'scene' perhaps and spent a bit more time to plan it, and make the mood a bit darker. Nevertheless I shot it and thought I'd share with you the first concept (and at the same time my first proper attempt at a comp, albiet a fairly easy one!). Thanks go to Erika for her patience, enthusiasm and willingness to jump up and down lots of times. Click to see the pic bigger.

Athletes

These are some concept images I shot recently for and idea I've been working - maybe more to come on this over the next few months...or maybe not, we'll see.

Recent Studio work

These are some recent photos I shot due the availability of a spare room that I could turn into a studio for a few days. Recently been very inspired with the work of Steve Harries who uses a lot of coloured gels along with the work of Nadav Kander who I've spoken about before on this blog. I was lucky enough to spot that Nadav was talking at the National Geographic Society a few weeks ago for photo voice event, and was able to catch his small exhibition over the Flowers Gallery. Steve's photos have a dream like quality, slightly surreal due to his use of colour, and at the moment I can't get enough of them.

Feature in F2 Magazine

Just a heads up that I have a 5 page feature in this months F2 magazine in the 'starting out' section. It followed an hour long phone interview that I did for them a few weeks ago - quite frankly I'm always nervous as to how things like that are going to turn out. Thankfully they were kind to me and didn't present me as the gibbering idiot that I probably sounded like on the phone! Anyway I've included some scans for you to look at. And before anyone asks, in the profile pic those are sunglasses on my head and not a Yarmulke!

In other news I had a feature on the popular lighting website strobist which was a real honour. They did a feature using the Colin Firth behind the scenes video and raised some interesting points, David Hobby is particularly good at giving constructive feedback. That's what's great about the web community - you get a lot of feedback and debate. You do also get the odd, what I like to term as, 'armchair opinion', but as long as you don't take it all too personally then it can be very useful.

Behind the Scenes: Colin Firth shoot

I was very fortunate last month to get the chance to shoot the Hollywood actor Colin Firth for Time Out London. The piece is in fact in this weeks edition, on the shelves now. And as a nice little present to you all I shot a behind the scenes video of the shoot to show you how it was done. Special thanks to Ben and Alastair for all their help on the day.

LIGHTING INFO
Basically I new we didn't have much time with the man himself and so I made the lighting pretty simple - just two softboxes either side and close so that the light would fall off pretty quickly behind him and thus not making it look too flat. It also meant it didn't matter which way he turned or moved - the light was always going to be right on him. The backdrop was a safety precaution - I'd assumed we be in a hotel room, as it happened we were in a conference room in the basement - I would have been mightly miffed therefore if I hadn't brought the backdrop.

Cage Fight - East London

These images are from a series that I shot following the cage fighter, Jamaine Facey, during a recent bout at the Troxy in East London. You can see the full series here in the bottom corner of the table.

Tearsheets from Readers Digest Mexico

A recent spread from an assignment I had through WpN for 'Joy' magazine, part of Readers Digest Mexico, a few months ago. I had torrential rain during the majority of the time available to shoot the piece, but I guess that plays up well to the stereotype of the UK...

Click on the images to make them bigger.

Some more treats to bookmark...

Just some links that I thought someone out there might appreciate. Firstly a great design orientated blog, from the design consultant, photographer and Director Iain Claridge. I spent hours on this - full of really interesting links and articles.

And secondly, and related to the first piece because I found the link through Iains blog, is the work of the illustrator and artist Phil Noto. Inspiring stuff.