Dark Daze photography blog

We powering the work out at the DD studio right now.
First to drop was the July Issue of Source magazine, featuring JFB and Beardyman, this was one of the most random and hyper photoshoots that I have had to do in years, which you can probably tell from what we got out of the edit- but it certainly shows them as they are. It was a very funny double act, and really good to meet them, if you get a chance go to the next BattleJam that they run, it will be live-o.

Then fresh to the streets today is Insight, with the hot hot summer ish. To mix it up we threw in a classic 80’s lovin Miami inspired Pool Party, with zinging hot tattooed ladies and some hep young cats, and we even roped in a drunk odisie to come and hurl insults and generally belch out some misbehaviour.

Then not wanting to sit back and relax and count notes we kidnapped the Ophelia Fancy Girls, stuck matches under their nails until they agreed to style a shoot for us and then filled the boot with budget blowing polaroid film to bust out a Badlands inspired editorial with much love to the equally game killing LouO’bedlam who gave a polaroid sundance for us, and blessed us with a break from the rain.

Mo loved it all so much, that he even gave us the Cover, kudos to Sally for a fresh new cover girl watermelon eating bikini squeezing steez.

If you want to see it all then bust out onto the streets of Brighton now and pick up some copies.

Oh word.

No Sleep Till Broken.

GB “people will always desperately seize upon a photograph as some kind of proof of whatever notions they cherished before they had even seen the picture in the first place. So the same document gets constantly re-enlisted by each new viewer as the supposed proof of their desires, however varied they are. The photographs become meticulously constructed instruments of hope. But I think this kind of delusion only works when you accept the image reflexively, without too much contemplation. As someone devoted to the internal mechanics of the process, however, the photographer isn’t afforded that kind of luxury, because the contradictions inherent in the medium quickly become apparent. So in time, as you said, these images that are supposed to be the perfect resolutions of external conditions end up more as mirrors of personal idiosyncrasy.”……
(further on in interview)
UL: “I think you’re right in what you’re saying. It’s also about realizing that you can affect your own situation. You can only make your own decisions based on your own limited knowledge. Even if they’re wrong, they’re your choices.
You’re talking about how in photography we are trying to stop the rush of time and see a subject more perfectly.”

i am beginning to think that maybe, just maybe it aint just about pressing buttons….
in full

Outtakes.

Squeezing into a size 6 Bikini, after the first modelled cancelled….but doing a far better job….. Kemptown

sx70 Polaroid

This didnt make the cut but I love it anyway, Sarah looks amazing….. Stanmer Park

I havent had a day off for over two weeks now and have spent so much time planning, shooting, and on the computer that my eyes feel like tiny shrivelled raisins, and my brain has pretty much given up any rational thought, but it looks like I will now have the weekend off. This is good, but unfortunately means I have had to cancel this weeks Studio Lighting course, as I was short of a model and any time to book a new one. Sorry guys.

I will reschedule this really soon.

So to catch up this since the last blog: I shot (along with the undefeatable matt halls) a fashion editorial at Stanmer park with 2 models, a new cover and feature images for Brighton Source Magazine, ran the 2 day studio lighting workshop last weekend with 4 great guys, shot official promo for Brighton Bar Week, shot another fashion editorial at a Pool Party in Kemptown, bought a dodgy flash for the 340 Land camera, caned £80 of polaroid film in 2 hours, averaged 4 hrs a night sleep, and drank a lot of free rum. But it was a hell of a lot of fun and there are a few outtakes and sweet shots below.

The pool party shots are something I am pretty proud of, had a team of 14 people working on this from Hair, to models, to booking locations, which is bigger than I have ever done before, but it has shown me, more than ever that I need a Production assistant of some kind, if your good on the phone, (no-one is more phone phobic than me) can organise models, book locations negotiate fees etc then please get in touch. But if we get work and shoots go well, if we get paid , you’ll get paid, its a freelance kinda deal, but in the next few months the DarkDaze enterprise is gonna change up and burst back out into the world, so we need someone with skills, patience and flair.

also I had a model cancel on me at 8.30am when call time was 10am, for a shoot that had 9 people on site waiting, if you can deal with this kinda situation and book me someone else, then your the kinda person I need to have here.

so here is an excerpt from the Miami Chill Pool Party…. it was 80’s theme but with new fashion, amazing styling by the very cool Leah Johnston, and make up by one of the best i have worked with, the unflappable and colour perfect Ciara McCarthy….

Also got the chance to shoot Nina Kate, who is beyond cool, if you wanna see her before my shoot comes out, she is in this months Bizarre magazine as a fighting Roller Girl, too hot for words….

and from the Polaroid Park vintage shoot, styled to perfection, from a few mumbled, 70s/50s Badlands, Sissy Spacek inspired, pointers from me, by the great Ophelia Fancy- Stevi and emma.

big thanks to those above and also to Brownhorse for assisting, Sally for working harder than any 21yr old should ever have to, Matt (again), Alex for saving the day with special effects MakeUp, Owen and Kirk, Rachel for locations and a whole bunch of other people.

I am shooting a fairly big fashion editorial this month- with a deadline for completion by 17th June. I am looking for up to 5 female models for this summer themed issue, plus MUAs, hair stylists and exceptional stylists. the shoot would be based in brighton. please get in touch via the contact page. thanks DD

Click it to see bigger…….

I think i mentioned these guys before, the Old Memories club that Odisie and I bumped into in East LA one sunny afternoon, man they had on display some of the freshest wheels I have ever seen accompanied by some cats that made Jeff Bridges “the Dude” character look like he had a definite adhd inspired need for Ritalin- laid back does not even begin to describe….. there is something about East LA that just seems to calm you the hell down, and was a welcome relief from the pressure cooker that the HA trip had become. So here are a few polaroids from that day, i shot a bunch and these are maybe the ‘okay’ ones, the best ones are somewhere in the middle of my growing polaroid wall, and to pull them out and scan them would be hours of fiddly reconstructing of clips and rows, and just pretend that these are the best ones, until I scan the Bronica Shots I took lying in the dusty gutter of the Chevrolet grills and then you all be left weeping at the inherent beauty of chrome. Oh and for an Illustrator like Al this was pure gold, never need to look for hot rod inspiration ever again, cos it was all here, in one 110 yds of road….check this

and whilst i am stealing from his site Alex Young look at this illage from the mental village, he has some work showing in london next week too and i will try find the link when he stops scribbling and picks up his phone…. but till then….

anyways i am posting this after a mixed week of crazy conversations some good, some not so good, as you may remember from earlier blog posts my hard drives suffered some horrendous power cut inspired double backing up data death. after some franticness, a fair bit of driving around and looking for experts on street corners of geektown and stuffing brown envelopes of cash, and super fresh still warm porn for geeks that have trawled every corner of the net, I found an expert who spent 3 weeks recovering and I have now got the returned data from the drives, about 500gb has been retrieved, so I now have a hard drive with two folders equally about 70,000 files in them. Unfortunately the file names were mostly stripped in the recovery process so I have to open them up one by one in photoshop (there are no preview options) and save and rename them. Also oddly they arent in order so file 0001.psd may be a shot from LA, file 0002.psd an ophelia fancy girl etc, the same with the RAW files- 70,000 everyone, thats gotta take about 6 months, plus then i have to work out was this the reject RAW file, the final psd or the unsharpened one- its a massive job- but hey it could be much much worse and I am indebted to the data recovery guy. It seems that due to the way the hard drive stored data that every third file may be corrupt and files over 160mb may be completely dead but its a start- it also means the book template is all but gone- which will throw things back a long time- but if the data is there it will happen at some point in the future. I am just throwin this on the blog because so many people have got in touch to ask how the recovery went - and I have to let you all know. Thanks for all the emails and even the ones that just told me to fly back out and shoot it all again on film, its a nice idea- but cash flow aint really flowin in, only ever out in this business…

anyway thanks again….. Plus I have some really exciting news soon i hope, probably know more mid next week but check in for freshness…..

and maybe even a little bit of luck and good fortune would be nice right now….

I am running the June Course on the following dates-

14/15th June
21/22nd June.

These are weekend courses, roughly 10-6 each day. A model will be supplied to help you get the best from yr shots but this is not Glamour work.
The total cost for two days of tuition in a small group max 4 people is £160. A simple £50 deposit secures yr place. As mentioned before this is a fun way to approach the daunting world of studio lighting but also get to play with a lot of kit and learn new lighting set-ups and techniques. Both these dates are aimed at photographers with some basic knowledge of flash, either on or off camera, but enthusiasm is the most important factor.

to see a more in depth review of what we can cover please follow Previous Course

If you require further info please contact me info@darkdaze.org

Well a bit late but I had to get the main shots to the Promoters today, so finally here are some choice pics from TGE Brighton 2008.

Maths Class at Watermargin
Maths Class at Watermargin
doll and the kicks
Late of the Pier
the crowd fucking loved Late of the Pier
lovvers
cage the elephant
cage the elephant
from plan to progress
crystal castles
crystal castles
the ghost of a thousand
Johnny Truant
Johnny Truant
cancer bats
cancer bats
Ebony Bones
Ebony Bones
Subways
Subways

Black Lips

well thats it the 3 day brighton festival The Great Escape is finally over and it nearly bloody killed me, its been so long since I shot live bands that it was a bit of headtwister to get round what i was doing again, plus everyone is taking in huge flashguns nowadays and throwing light all over the place.

It was dead good though, apart from the usual overzealous security that are brought in from Hell or somewhere and seem to take a lot of pleasure of kicking you out the pit after the first song after you have waited for 2 hours to see a band. And whilst I am on it whats with the old jonny come lately photographers. I find myself sitting by the barriers for an hour or so with the 3 other photographers that have done their homework and planned their route, and got there early, yr holding in yr piss, with a bladder that fels like its gonna rupture cos you had too many early afternoon gig beers, and you have to listen to some soundguy play Rage Against The Machine on repeat, whilst the crowd get bored and throw stuff at your head (who can blame them tho, i used to) and watch a roadie/guitar tech soundcheck his favourite sabbath solos, only to find that 5 minutes before the band comes on, another half dozen snappers have piled in and made the pit too dangerous for the security to control and so you all get kicked out. Whatever happened to “your too late, its too full, now piss off”

see i am still tired and whiny like a sandyvag

so this is a list of bands i shot in 3 days, hopefully i will edit this with a nice flick of each soon- i also have some bands that i didnt catch the name of and will add later.

some of these i just chanced upon, some i have been wanting to shoot for ages, and some were just really really bad, but i happened to be there……

heels catch fire
official secrets act
maths class
hot rocket
seeing scarlet
doll and the kicks
the boxer rebellion
small white light
late of the pier
yeasayer
ting tings
me my head
from plan to progress
elle milano
soko (acoustic)
my federation
cage the elephant
we smoke fags
lovvers
crystal castles
ipso facto
the black lips
the ghost of a thousand
johnny truant
cancer bats
soko (full band)
ebony bones
the subways
flykiller
times new vikings