Dark Daze photography blog

it seems to only take one image or one trip over someone elses feet to completely throw me off track. Bollocks…

keep running into brick walls, but not in some trendy slick Parkour way, just in a jaded, aint never gonna scale that beast lactic acid leg way….

Well it seems like its the week for it at the minute, just firing blanks out of this camera day in day out. Had a promo shoot with a band I love tonight, been to see them numerous times, and think they really have something great, good to watch, brilliant to listen to , great attitude and presence onstage, fucking excellent front man- but jesus this shoot went to the dogs. Theres not much point pissing the photographer off right at the beginning of a shoot and refusing to take any direction at all, especially when its just a lighting test. So instead of a really interesting, hopefully memorable image that works, we end up with ‘yet another band line-up’ shot- but what can you do…. Like I’ve said over and over again with these things, i dont tell bands how to write and play songs, if your an up and coming band think of a photographer like a Producer, or your Lighting Guy onstage, they normally know what they are doing, use them to get what you need….my shoots carry my name so the last thing I am ever gonna do is make you look stupid, cos its my portfolio at the end of the day…. what a waste of time….

Well if you are really bored and need an injection of British humour, especially the sarcy deprecating kind, some very funny comments left on the Argus website and the twitter of web editor Jo , some i think have been deleted but sent to me by Jo who left me this selection to post on my blog. I might add about how this slightly heated discussion came about but I may hold that back for a proper rainy day rant- but i can only say it must be a very slow news day today, or maybe even they have “lost the news” but only when I get her permission as it would be kinda wrong to publish her comments otherwise, and i dont want to just present a one sided argument.

but I thought these would keep you amused, looks like we hit our demographic perfectly here…. Oh and for those of you that have no idea what the Argus is, well its one local daily newspaper, that is kinda loved by Brightonites as you may love a crazy old aunt that swears a bit too much and changes her opinion as much as she farts… maybe the old lady in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. I am actually stoked that they covered it, cos its good to see a local newspaper cover local business instead of smashing into them as it did with poor ol’ Momma Cherri, after the cameras had long gone, you kind of need to read the comments on that article too, to see the sheer brilliant insights some people have made.

Any on the new GangUp release…..

botheredbob@brightonargusjo £12? for a magazine?! havent they heard there’s a war on, er, i mean recession.

girlb@BrightonArgusJo £12 for a mag by unknowns???

cvh2009@BrightonArgusJo Skins – The Comic.

DanielBettridge@BrightonArgusJo Ha…seriously why would you do that?Also £12 a magazine really?

My faves have got to be those from girlb and cvh2009, but hopefully more gems will follow. But really its just some jokes on the internet, lets not get all heated about it…. I am sure some people will like the magazine, some will hate it or have no opinion altogether, its a fashion photography magazine not a debate on the benefits of a welfare based healthcare system…

If you want to decide for yourself then please go here…..

I am slightly disappointed no-one has called it glorified soft-porn but its early days…. In all seriousness tho, the linked website is not worksafe so make your own choice before you cross over- but if your here anyway then i can consider you an informed adult, or a child whose parents dont supervise your internet use….

i need to post that if it wasnt for sally reynolds, i wouldn’t eat, have killer clean shirts everyday, a laptop, half my studio lights, shoes on my feet, non stained skinny jeans, and a roof over my head, plus i’d still be dead crap at shooting girls and have no decent portfolio…. Although I would have a lot of good nights sleep, my sanity (maybe), especially as she is going thru some lucid dream, talking and crunking kinda still asleep but loud thing at the minute every night. There ya go sally, better? xx

Fashion editiorial shoot with Elin (will post the stylist info etc soon)

As you may know I run a Creative Photography/Visual Theory Course at my studio, Garage Studios (course info) and I am trying hard to get all the students on the course out of their comfort zones, myself included. There is a good range of photographers on it, and some very solid knowledge but its always good to break the habits that we all fall into. Sometimes I forget that I don’t need a bunch of strobes to make a shot. Now the students themselves have made great progress, approaching random strangers, putting themselves in the image etc, really thinking quite critically about whats in the frame and why, but I haven’t really challenged myself. Anyways as an exercise a while back we had to all use a disposable camera and break out something new. So I decided (as I do the exercises as well, time permitting) to push myself into an area I wasn’t at all used to. I made a dumbass plan to go to a girls house who I have shot once before in studio, but this time take no lights, team or agenda, just sit with her in the room and shoot whatever made a picture. I set myself rules, no arranging shots, moving objects or give any advise or direction to the girl/model. Its probably my idea of personal hell- especially in someone else house- hell no, make that someone elses Mum’s house -my first rule in life tends to be develop an Exit Strategy, and this allowed for none. Plus I don’t really get the ‘use a camera’ as an ice breaker school of thought… and I like to have control, and if your ankle isn’t at the right angle we will keep going until it is, or until it snaps…. And yet I couldn’t do any of this… way uncomfortable…

The pics were pretty noticeably awkward from that day when I got them back- though Elin was ace and said it wasn’t odd at all to skip a day of college and have me sit on her bedroom floor for a few hours- taking photos of her and her stuff and generally just get in her way.

Whilst we were chatting (not really one of my skills as a human being- especially as we are meant to be social animals) I saw she was a fan of Kate Moss , the many images plastered on her wall gave it away- a girl that Sally and I have constantly debated the merits of….

A few days later I found myself setting up a shoot with Elin that took the early Corinne Day/Moss flat and beach shots as its starting point- via the two editorials Daisy Lowe has done for ID. Not a ground breaking idea I know- but one that may work a new angle for how I shoot, I didnt expect the shots to look that way- buts its a start. Now Corinne and Kate were friends, they were in on it together, obviously I don’t believe that the shots were as spontaneous as they appear but they both knew what they were doing when making some great, but edgy images . So the test here is was to see what we can pull off in a few hours of hanging out at Elins house, and trying not to bug the hell out of her. Plus I had a bit of a time convincing Emma , the stylist, that this could work without being ‘creepy’, she had reservations, and I guess a part of me did as well, the Moss shots have that odd dynamic that would go badly wrong if forced in a day, plus does it make a difference that Day is a female- somehow yes it think it does…. So anyways we put together some outfits (well Emma did) that we could mix in with Elin’s natural wardrobe- and went down to the house with Bryony the MUA.

Everything here is shot with natural light, mostly on 400 film pushed to 800, and maybe a bit of bounce daylight occasionally, but it was a great overcast day- just perfect for what we needed. After I traipsed mud all through her mums house with my Cherry Red DM’s (I had bad socks on…the kind that you don’t wanna floss ya know) we sat in her bedroom for a bit shooting and drinking tea. A few changes later we were outside in the park and trying to boost her onto the crossbar, shooting quickly and easy, it was pretty smooth banging through rolls of film. And I like some of the shots- but it didn’t feel quite right- I needed to frame tighter and shoot on some more diffused light so we headed back.

Then back to her house for more tea and stripping off of some of the make-up and lifting the hair off her neck, as everything was too heavy for me up till then. (See yet more issues with control…. Emma and I even argued about socks pulled up or rolled down) I wanted something lighter but also with more of an edge.

Somewhere in my head I had an idea of how Richard Kern uses light, and a touch of that mixed in with some O’Bedlam magic. We kept peeling back layers until we were getting somewhere that I wanted and so these are just a few of those shots.

Theres definitely a different dynamic shooting in a models own house, as opposed to ‘my’ studio…

So you can see these images appearing a bit on my blog, flickr and tumblr. The result of 10.30am to 5.30pm of mainly just hanging out at Elins house and listening to the girls describe the various drunken falling over bruises on their bodies, and shooting 7 rolls of film. Most of the exposures were coming out at 1/15th or 1/30ths even at f1.8, with no digital to fall back on.

Now I think we may put all of these together in a decent collection, maybe a limited edition book (one of those self published ones) limited to 15 or so copies. Theres a wealth of great shots here- but maybe we’ll go back and do some more first, cull the best from 3 shoots together maybe….?….. I am not sure yet. If you’d be keen on that then let me know. Oh and if you work with a model agency push this girl into a car and get her to London- I mean have you seen here- she’s amazing.

Now i have no intention of turning this into Aint It Cool but……

I watched this film last night, after some very civilised tea and cake with Emma whilst discussing upcoming Porno shoots that we are working on, I made the cake, chocolate with coffee frosting (include sallys wheat-free-gluten-free-hippy-life-modern-age-flour) and it was pretty good, especially when washed down with some Yorkshire Gold tea, and talk of nudity and amazing wallpapers.

The Fall film though was amazing, the fact that the plot was clearly written at the end of each take didnt seem to matter as the film is so visually stunning. It is directed by the same guy who made The Cell with Jeniffer Lopez (another film with a shockingly weak story but some of the most amazing set pieces i have ever seen…)

Now to be honest this kinda thing aint normally my kind of flex- i am far more a fan of Julien Donkey Boy than of a Star Wars level of production value- in fact something like the thought of having to sit through any of the later Star Wars films makes me want to vomit all my bile into a childs novelty Pizza Hut tie-in plastic cup- (having done my far share of shitty jobs including working for Pizza Hut when the Phantom Menace was being hyped to death with useless plastic toys..) anyways the film is mind blowing. Go to the website and read some of the back story about how the film came about- and then punch yourself repeatedly in the head at the sheer scale of what they achieved in camera and then cry as you see they shot this in 20 countries. Twenty!!!

The Fall

the funniest thing is that sally didnt realise the lead actor is from one of her favourite shows, the dire and desperately bad Pushing Daisies….

But really go and rent this- and see how unlimited the scale of the teams vision was, immense. (then mail me back about how weak the story may have been- but how it still blessed your lucky and thoroughly undeserving eyes).

Now Adam, the non-stop, constant working, but bad-music-playing Studio Manager of Garage Studios sent me an email late last night. The same last night that should have seen me at a gig watching Fucked Up slay the crowd……..when instead I ended up teaching… Anyways my point was an email arrived in all its silent but nerve shredding, hope dashin glory- a harbringer of torment set to wreck my world and wrack my brain. Subject title “Light Works”, opened it up and just one small innocent looking link sat in the text. I figured i knew where this was going, someone had blogged the LightWorks post and shoot thats in the previous blog- The Neon Hot Stepper flicks…. But even Jesus Christ if he had ever walked the earth would have been surprised by this one- the link took me to a mind blowing editorial that not only took the Neon Hot Stepper as its starting point but then ripped the lid of the sucker… and the absolute kick in the nuts about it is that according to the shoot date it was done last year!!! So not only did the punks steal the idea and title but they “Deloreaned it” back to last year and posted it in the past people…..the past!!!!

Pffff thats enough of the hand wringing, I knew the idea wasnt exactly ground breaking and we have used some similar techniques in the past , and hey I get that photography is all about light trails and all that but just follow this link and see how damn good they did this shoot. Its just crazy good- I cant even feel slightly annoyed cos its so great an editorial- apart from the male model- who aint really doing it…. but the colours, the gelled lights, the oh-so-fuckin-perfect trails, I’d puke if i wasnt so excited by it.
incredible light works shoot not by us…

if you missed the link (just above) check this picture, its amazing, and whats even more amazing is that I didnt take it….

Now obviously none of us here at the Garage had seen this, I have spent enough time with the Spraycan Arters to realise that a straight up bite aint the steez to flex- this shocked me to see it- but in a good way. Well done kids that worked on this- and we are just gonna go off and sit back at the drawing board with a big bottle of Absinthe and see if we can conjure up some more voodoo for a fresh new idea- that hasnt already been done. Damn this thinking game is hard….

Thats all- oh and my man Jiroe is having a party tonight- should be live-o just the thing to drag me out the funk.

Final final thing i joined Twitter- DD Twitteurghhh cos i got forced into it by Adam. Go follow me and be amused by the lack of anything happening and the occasional objectionable comment.

DD.

you know what its like, in fact we’ve all been there, straddling the arm of the ol’ sofa and the chest of drawers, trying to straighten the picture frame, then whoops, minor earthquake, lose your balance, and find yourself falling backwards onto your 4 foot blonde hair extensions, and the picture drops out the frame altogether…. Like I said we’ve all been there….but be careful folks….

Iveta straight out the camera, no tweaks, from a while back…..

so I feel i havent had a rant for ages, and maybe due to the fact I feel rough after a stupid long day yesterday and an outside shoot, well maybe its time….. But I cant summon the bile yet, though I did have an interesting conversation with a colleague the other day who said that someone had been saying to him that they used to like my work but now its just all topless women….

well it got me thinking so I looked at the gallery Homepage, out of the first 40 shots one is topless- it was commissioned, for a topless latex shoot, then there are 3 nudes or near nudes with girls who have their backs to the camera…. Not exactly slewing out a sea of filth, though i guess thats open to interpretation, but its more in the mind of the beholder than anything else. Its not even that I need to justify it to others, whatever I or they shoot, go and take pictures of sunsets if you want, or anything else that grabs your fancy, and I’ll shoot what I want or what I’m asked to…. but I hate the idea that people will dismiss without actually looking. I work with a predominantly female crew, stylists, make-up artists and my main assistant. All very ’strong’ women too, that know their own minds, run their own business, and rock their own styles.

But I can be exploitative- see here I didnt even press the button- just threw in the camera, shut the door and got them to do it…. (and ya know what it turned out better for it) Polaroid 600, cheap plastic walmart version

The last hotel shoot ended up being me and matt but the remaining 7 members of the team all ladies, and of course one of them my girlfriend of several years, who happily sent the final images to her Mum, sure there is a very fine line, I dont think we have got anywhere near crossing it yet. But dont worry I am saving that for my Christmas image, when the filth will come flying so thick and fast you’ll need to get a new computer…. better start pre-writing those indignant emails of complaint….first one wins a prize. mwah….x

Its taken me ages to get these done….too many new shoots, the new studio, meetings etc…but its all good, would hate it too be quiet, its just I’d like to get to bed before 3am one night, and I really think I am going blind from too many hours at the computer.

Just a few shots from Beachdown, I was only really there for two days, and most of what I shot was hampered by over zealous security crew (and whisky). If you have AAA, and VIP bands and a photo pass, and are actually working for the festival itself and still cant get backstage then you know your dealing with some kinda unsolveable issue- this happened far too many times to mention. So no DeLa Soul Backstage shots- lets just hope the other official photographer fared better. Maybe its my obnoxiously ugly face, or whining voice, but I was real friendly and polite, I know waiting in the dark, by a security fence near the backstage area, in the rain, with only a misguided sense of authority and a maglite for company, whilst your hoop earringed girlfriend is smoking all your tabs in your fully modded bodykit fiesta in the staff car park, isnt much fun but jeez dude next time let me in…..please.

and the best part of it is that you finally get through or get to the pit and find that the bands egos have been camping backstage for several festering hours, snorting coke and drinking any free beers, (or any that were left after your mates havent already swiped them with the passes that just wiped clean of permenant marker to allow you to wander thru to steal riders backstage). So then not only do you only get “sorry mate 3 songs, no flash” shouted by the pit managers (who were really efficient and nice tho) but then the manic singer with dust induced camera paranoia moves right to the front edge of the stage, so he is in front of any stagelighting that might posssibly give you a good shot and then stays there. When the pit clears, 3 songs later he roars, rips of his shirt, brings on dancing girls and then stage lights glow brighter than a midlands hydroponics basement…. and a thousand camera phones get a far better shot than you just jostled for….

(see i told you i wasnt getting much sleep)….. But having said that I had a blast, apart from the rain, and the site was dope, and it was good to see Brighton bands not only get decent billing but also to get paid…. and it was incredibly clean, even the toilets…. so I kinda cant wait till next year, when I’ll make sure I have my own tent and my own bottle of whiskey, so that when my mate disappears hollering into the crowd, I have something left to swig….

well done Beachdown, it was shweet….

anyways some pics…..

Jose Gonzalez

Nouvelle Vague

GoGo Bordello

Alabama3

Reverend and the Makers

Terry Callier

Doll and The Kicks

Magic Numbers

Kitty Daisy and Lewis

Gloria Cycles

Reckless Sons

Magic Numbers

Gloria Cycles (aces its Kenny Magic)

Infadels

Drookit Dogs Crowd

The Splendour

Horace Andy brass

ubiquitous Staring at the Lights photo circa ‘96

Jailbait (played to about ten people, closing the Brighton stage on Monday night- but gave a hell of a show, and were a real highlight.