Dark Daze photography blog

This is a little heads up that I will be running a few new courses at Garage Studios soon, quite originally its called Studio Lighting Part2, (the result of an all night brainstorming session)… It is aimed as a follow on if you have completed the original 2 day Studio Lighting course, and feel comfortable moving onto the next step.

We will focus a lot more on finetuning set-ups, and also the other factors that come into the image at this point, such as shooting to a brief, working with models, composition, introducing backgrounds and sets, current editorial styles. It will equip you with shooting portraits, band promos and fashion. You will need a good understanding of flash, and ideally have completed the first course, or be able to show some images that demonstrate your ability at a basic studio level. This image below is an example for a commissioned shoot for a client, and the sort of level that I will hope to work towards with the course. We will, as always provide models and assistant for the course, you will need a DSLR and a love of lighting. We will keep the group small, and places will be limited. I will post more details when dates and prices are fixed, but if you want to register interest please mail info(at)garage-studios.co.uk

I will also be running a course on Fashion Editorial aimed at those that want to shoot, or improve how they shoot fashion. We will work with a team with stylist, model, make-up artist etc. This is aimed at film or digital users, but this course is aimed at those with a real love of fashion and a decent grasp of fashion photographers work and will be shot on locations, not in studio. We will work on shooting a full editorial story, with specific magazines or websites submissions in mind. I will only be able to take a very small number of people on each session as we will have a full team working with you. We will also look at editing and post work on this course (though this will be available as a seperate day- so if you just want to shoot, you only need book Day 1). There are some examples of editorial on location below…. (again if you want to reserve a place pls mail info(at)garage-studios.co.uk)

But there are lots more editorial on here if you search my blog.

These should be really interesting courses and a real step forward from Studio Lighting 1, if you are interested the contact details are here

We will confirm prices soon, hopefully by the end of the day.

I have been crazy busy again, though to be fair that always seems to be the way every time i come to write on this blog. The GangUp issue is beginning to come together, we (the GS crew) just pulled off a decent fashion campaign shoot that I sketched, shot and directed, from styling to hair to all the sets, its kinda nailed me, but proved what we can do for clients and hopefully will attract some more big names. The clients really allowed me to run with the concept which is really ace, i hate having to cut back too much, but we still came in on budget plus we got to work with 2 great models and my favourite Hair/MakeUp team and aces stylists. (will get credited images up very soon….) I wont list all the other stuff i gotta get done this week cos it will seem like a bizarre mix of bragging and whining so instead i will direct you over to some great images from a very obvious obsession of mine. It turns out that Benjamin Horne, or in fact Richard Beymer the actor that played him in Twin Peaks shot a whole bunch of dope B/w whilst filming the series, including some very young looking shots of Lynch. I am sure that most people by now know that i am predictably in thrall to some of Lynch’s greatest works, of which Twin Peaks is undoubtably one. Though all credit to my sister who persuaded me to watch it when it launched in the UK, as she was obsessed with it.

So follow the link to see some of the great shots….

Thanks to Monica Perdoni, and Plus1 magazine for the hook-up and coverage

Click this to go straight to the full pdf

Sarah Ziffs documentary not a link to it, but article about. Looks very interesting- its absolutley mind blowing that models dont have a decent working union- its also horrendous how many girls send me shots asking to be models and some sleazebag has shot them topless in some rotten studio, with NO STYLE AT ALL…. Man if you are going to shoot with a photographer see their portfolio first- what kinda stuff do they shoot- and why do they shoot it. Are they good at what they do? I know that this film is looking at the upper echelons of the industry- but there nothing wrong with wising up down here on the basement level as well.

On a side note- the in-house model- Sally F*$%king Reynolds has finished her degree. This is pretty bloody incredible. I am dead proud of her achievement. She will no doubt leave a comment calling me gay- but secretly welling with pride too. This is our weird relationship nowadays. Its 5.30pm i have been teaching 1:1 photoshop all day and now need a beer- but I have to teach my creative class very soon and its not possible.

here as way of a visual interval and evening out the balance is a sexist, demeaning, objectifying picture of sally reynolds.

at the end of this shoot the models had been in the studio and in make-up for about 12 hours. It was a really demanding shoot- every position had been mapped out already, including where every foot, arm and strand of hair went, and we had to test each individuals lighting and position over and over again. All the girls were incredibly patient (well to my face anyways) and Bukki (the male model) was astounding, unable to talk due to wadded cottonwool in his cheeks and blood capsules up his nose for at least 5 hrs, but he just smiled enthusiastically every time we tested something with him- which reminds me I really should shoot with him again…..

So at the very end of a long shoot- where my mind had clearly escaped me- (I cant eat when I shoot, or apparently sleep before it) I asked if the girls wanted any portrait shots for their portfolio and this is their reactions and boy do i just love this. It was shot on Adams Olympus OM1- which just shows technology dont mean shit sometimes…..

See they couldnt even be bothered to stand up…..

Anyway I am posting this as someone asked me how i get models to look so forlorn or bored, etc in my shoots and I gotta say that mostly its pretty genuine from them- I cant or dont do the crazy over-the-top-havin-the-time-of-my-life model kinda shoots, I love some of those pics, but its just not something I tend to do… plus i think that Richardson and some others have just nailed that so much that everything else looks wannabe. I think coming from a portrait background helps in this- plus I’m just not a very fun person to be around- you think I am jokin- but seriously even my cat dislikes me- and she loves everyone….

So in the last Saltdean editorial those expressions are pretty genuine- there was a lot of waiting and staring and more waiting, and then hit that hair trigger Bronica and we had it. This may seem obvious especially to a lot of other photographers out there- but someone asked so there it is…. Just waiting, in a cold decrepit changing room, with uncomfortable wooden bench, whilst a skinny photographer stares at you, whilst hissing at his two female assistants to stop pretending to piss standing up in a urinal- gives you this. Oh and a waist level viewfinder really really helps.

The Great Escape 2009.

Bit late in the uploads to this blog but I covered The Great Escape for Source Magazine this year, after several years of doing it for the PR company running it. Its always an interesting experience but normally involves a hell of a lot of feeling bad bouncing past the ordinary punters in the massively long queues- as it really is just more of an industry showcase than any kind of thing for the ‘man on the street music fan’.

On the first night almost every venue I tried to get to was so full that you stood no chance of getting anywhere near a band to get photos. The organisers pick some really good, intimate venues that turn into sweaty masses of bodies- with the occasional industry type- you can spot them immediately as they tend to be rocking a very shitty combo of blazer and too new jeans, iphone and a bored look on their faces. Anyways trying to get through the crowd at Sumo/WaterMargin/Jam with a camera packed backpack to see ‘They Promised Us JetPacks’ I realised it was just never gonna happen like that- it was just a mass of heaving bodies- though the band sounded pretty good although I couldn’t see them at all- and neither could maybe 80% of the people in their as the venue doesn’t have a stage as such, just a slightly raised area. I wandered to Audio, and the rain was now properly throwing down on me. I eventually decided to jack in the digital set-up that I had- and go back to the studio I picked up my trusty old Canon T90 a camera that used to be glued to my hands, but that hadn’t been used in at least 2 years- probably longer. I stuck the 1.4 FD 50 mm lens on, and loaded up a roll of fuji neopan 400, rated at iso1000 in camera (getting the lab to push it when developing).

The T90 is a great camera, its manual focus lens which is something I am not used to in gig photography nowadays- but I wanted to slow myself down and think a bit more about what I was shooting, its heavy as a brick and can take a real battering and still seems to work, this one has been dropped down a flight of stairs, and had numerous pints chucked over it but still seems to be going strong. Pretty much every gig I got to had a tonne of photographers at it- seems like the press pass was easier to apply for than last year- and if you couldn’t get one by applying it seemed that I fair few people I knew took the route of just printing one out on the home computer- as it as just a piece of clip art on a white sticker.

I saw some great bands though, a nice mix of new and familiar The Lyrebirds stood out for me, Youves had lot going on and a lot of presence though they did seem to go a bit nuts everytime they saw a camera, British Sea Power where one of the highlights – apart from Noble using my neck as a spring board to launch himself at the crowd. Ghost of a Thousand were really great at Revenge- but surely need to be playing to bigger audiences by now. Maccabees at Corn Exchange were definitely one of the best things I have seen in the past year at least- a really strong band that have grown together and the new songs were a triumph- as was Hugos guitar playing and stage presence , they really are going to be a huge in the rest of 2009- but they still seem to have an intimate feel to everything they do. I am gonna stop rambling now as its meant to be a bout the pictures and I have a backlog of stuff to post this week in the blog, including a past shoot I assisted on for Avangelist (Andy Parker), and a new fashion editorial at Saltdean lido. Lots to cover- so will get fully up on the blog thing now- and not be so slack at updating it.

[caption id="attachment_528" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Maccabees TGE 2009 "][/caption][caption id="attachment_532" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Orlando- Maccabees TGE 2009 "][/caption][caption id="attachment_534" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Metronomy at TGE 2009"][/caption][caption id="attachment_536" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Noble returns to the stage, via my head...."][/caption]

Shoot at Newhaven

After a handy tip off by a fellow flickr member I found out about a site in Newhaven well over a year ago now, after almost shooting there a few times I managed somehow to keep avoiding the place… don’t know why, it just seemed to need a really good idea and at the time I didn’t have it.

But good ideas always come along when you least expect them, and after a few beers with emma (its always a few beers that start these things) and growing frustration about having to curtail some ideas due to the studio business, (its amazing the time it takes running a business like this, even when you are a team of three dedicated and hardworking individuals) anyways I decided to have a ‘sit-down’ with Louie Banks/ and Sam Hiscox – you all know some of this know but stick with it. On fairly grey afternoon outside the Prince Albert I explained to them both that I wanted to put together a very special edition fashion magazine and that they were the guys I wanted to do it with. As you will all know they are both doing great things at the minute- well have been for ages actually and this would be a chance to bring all our ideas togther under one label. So that’s what we have done- we are still all shooting stories for it now, so I cant link to anything that you can actually buy yet but it wont be long. We have gathered together a great team in Emma, Stevi and Sally who I mailed about the idea many months ago, but we were stuck on some online concept then, this one will be an honest-to-god hold in your hands sweet deal of a hand stitched mag. The Girls are gonna cover much of the styling aspects, but also contribute ideas, promote the magazine, come up with stories they may want to shoot, it’s a sort of democracy- I hope anyway….so keep looking for updates, we will have a pre launch blog up very soon. These images here are just outtakes… don’t worry there is plenty of goodness left to come.

So looking for ideas for the first story we (emma and I) hopped in the strangely ‘street’ car of my buddy, dope photographer and emmas twin Andy Parker and hightailed it looking for a dinosaur park- you may have seen the tweets a while back. We found some but they were a bit shit to be honest, so after a while we found ourselves back at the abandoned warehouse in Newhaven and suddenly all the ideas for the shoot seemed to come together.

I have got to say I think it’s the best story I have shot yet- and it was a real pleasure to work on a lot of the images as a team, normally I am pretty rigid about what I want, but we kinda let this one evolve, with a lot of input from both Emma and Tash, and its got something different. I really hope you like it. Oh and its all film, not a megapixel in sight.

I should mention that after scoping the building off and on for over 2 years the day we arrived they were knocking most of it down, I should also mention Emma took off her heavy jacket to go and charm the foreman, who seemed to forget al aspects of Health and Safety. I should mention we were in a part of the building that we had said we wouldn’t go to, when the walls started shaking and we realised they were knocking the walls down two floors below us. I should also mention that trying to run down tiny starcases with lighting rigs is pretty near impossible. I should also mention that the digger driver just went back and forth with an empty skip all day just so he could watch the action.

And that both girls had scabbed knees from more drunk falling down situations (nothing to do with me- I live like a mormon- well except from the polygamous inbreeding aspect) . Oh and that I made Elin lay down in a mass of dead pigeon feathers and a fair bit of bird crap, and somehow she still looked amazing, or that Sally seemed to channel the spirit of Audrey Horne and it all just seemed to come together so perfectly that we even made it to the pub in time for kick-off of the Champions League semi final.

So keep looking for the blog, it will come soon and then that means the mag wont be far behind….

]If you liked the latest stuff on the shoot then there are some great Behind the scenes images on the G.Studios Site so wander over and have a look. Cheers for the shots Vickeh, DD.

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Last night had to shoot a quick fashion editorial for Ophelia Fancy… we only had about 2 hrs as the model had to go do a shift in a bar round the corner… where we relocated to sink some beers just after, and watch the most glamorous barmaid in Brighton, deal with the over enthusiastic punters sinking their ‘once-a-year’ pints of Guinness as it was that Irish marketing Campaign Day.

matt took a quick snap (below) whilst I was shooting this pic of the amazing alex…..

nice bit of wood panelling- its actually plywood, with a coat of varnish and the joints are just drawn on with permenant marker chisel tip…. the thick shag carpet- well its just a bit of rug from one of the Ophelia Girls flats. So yet another illusion shattered but hey its only the results that count…

The Ophelia girls have been asked to do a diffusion range for TopShop which is amazing news, its not all signed and sealed yet but hopefully this will clinch it for them. Go ladies!!

I have joined up with Tumblr, after being so amused by my the blog of the model that happens to share my house,

I have decided to start my own tumblr, apparently there is an international blog shortage right now and to kick start the economy we are being urged to type pointlessly on the internet, so i am doing my bit. After all who cares about underfunded libraries and books by old dead dudes and ladies, what we all really want is the incoherent thoughts of keyboard tappers with an ego and access to youtube.

so here it is

DarkDaze Tumblr go and click the follow button.

It wont just be stuff from my shoots but things that i like and hate and zzzzzzz…sorry i lost you already huh….

and this is the models blog in case you missed her insane ramblings..

the model