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.

Kefalonia

Back out in Kefalonia shooting until 30th October then back to London.

Portrait: Alastair Humphrey

Photo of Alastair Humphreys an explorer and man of many other talents, who is currently planning a trip with fellow adventurer Ben Saunders, that will be the first return journey to the south pole on foot, and the longest unsupported polar journey in history.

Alastair is currently helping out on a few shoots in order to add to his already great photography skills before he departs for is adventure.

see more at www.alastairhumphreys.com

Recent work

CEO of insurance firm RSA, Adrian Brown. London, October 2008

British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA). City of London. October 2008.

Interesting times to be an Insurance Broker.

Tim Watson, Professor of Microscopy in Relation to Restorative Dentistry in one of his labs at Guys Hospital, London. October 2008

Winter fashion shoot for handbag.com. London, October 2008

New Scanner

WARNING: I have a new scanner so expect posts purely of random scans...

The Bowens Delux Kit Bag: Mod

If any of you have the bought yourself a brand new Bowens Delux Kit bag then you have my deepest sympathy. I believe that the newer version of the bag may be an improved model, I don't know for sure, but if like me you have an old version be prepared for it to be completely useless in it's current state. For the amount of money it's sold for - its pretty upsetting. Thankfully mine wasn't bought new....

My Bowens kit bag, designed for carrying lighting equipment, is made to standard that allowed it to fall apart within the first few outings. If like me you don't like to give up on these things then please read on to discover how I bodge modded mine to make it more acceptable.
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The first problem with the bags is that they're aren't made with much structural support, especially around the wheels (see below). This tends to mean the fall off (as they are attached to material rather than a hard surface with screws rather than nuts and bolts). Eventually this leads to the wheels wearing away in a manner that causes the bag to wobble uncontrollably when it's being wheeled.



The first task then is to add structure and sturdiness to the bag. Bowens quite happily replaced the wheels for my bag, twice, so the company did well on this front. But as you can see in the picture below the support on the rear end of the bag is a petty sad looking piece of flimsy plywood. After taking this out I replaced it with maple 9 ply.



At the same time I also layered the bottom of the bag with ply board. To support the corners I took a two pieces of bent aluminum and placed one on the inside and one on the outside - thus giving the wheels something solid to bolt onto.

Remember to cut the bolts on the bottom of the bag so that the ends don't grind on the floor, or worse, into the wheel. You will also need to re-drill the holes in the Bowens wheel brackets unless you have a larger bit of aluminum.

And there you have it. A very simple, very ugly bodge/mod of the Bowens lighting bag.