Jul 13
9
Water Main installation – 55km
‘I could hear the sound of some sort of activity but it was so dark down there I could see nothing..’
The installation of a 55km water pipe was an interesting project to photograph. After a late afternoon phone call on a Friday followed by an early Monday morning site induction I was ready to go.
Despite the amount of works going on along the 55km excavations on the West-East Link Trunk Main, only certain areas were in a suitable condition to be photographed.
The first location was a 30m vertical shaft. I could hear the sound of some sort of activity going on down there but it was so dark, I could see nothing.. Taking a guess about what to expect and employing the help of a ‘VALS’ I gave some quick instructions about what to do and sent VALS off into the void in the personnel cage. (VALS = Voice Activated Light Stand 🙂 ). Despite not being able to hear a thing my new recruit did a good job!
Controlling the light levels over this distance was down to a new piece of equipment which was capable of controlling remote lights and their output from the camera position. If I needed to increase power levels either greater or smaller I could do it remotely. Previously, a trained operator would be required. Trials of this equipment just over a year ago was a miserable failure. After over a year in development it is now part of our standard lighting kit enabling us to cope with whatever gets presented to us in any situation. This is the most powerful remote control and TTL control lighting equipment available worldwide.. so it does come in handy.
Above ground excavations were well underway with pipe laying taking place whilst excavations were being made ahead. Identifying areas suitable for photography along the route was made the responsibility of Alistair, a QS who travelled the pipeline every day and knew where all the works were being carried out.
After crossing a road, the pipes were already ‘strung’ out ready for fitting. The pipes fabricated off site already had the bends and changes of elevation built-in, so fitting these at the correct angles and preparing the surfaces to support the weight of the pipes with their future load is a test of the civil engineers accuracy.
Further samples will be posted as they become available.
A further visit to add some more images to the library produced opportunities to illustrate some welding and pipline painting. It was intended to get some examples of Auger boring (machines) in action, but this was prostponed to another day. I’m hoping it might be in the next week or so.
Jul 13
8
Corporate Portraits
A recent request for a corporate portrait session (along with detailed and stylised style sheets) had me comparing this request with a brochure shoot in London a few years ago.
The similarity was based on the requirement of dark background being used, contrary to the current and popular style of brighter (cleaner) backgrounds, but the real challenge was to provide images straight out of camera without any of the (obvious) post process work shown on the backgrounds as depicted in the stylised proofs..
Here’s some samples of the original finished brochure images I shot previously which I used as a yardstick to adjust technique from.. these make an interesting backdrop to the creative and informative content of the brochure they were intended for.
Presentation Photography
Films Photography
Multimedia Photography
The requested portrait session was to be in a company boardroom – rather than any studio environment – and as always, time was restricted and the make do studio needed to be set up and taken down in the same boardroom that their Regional meeting was scheduled to happen immediately afterwards – so no stress there then.
Black backgrounds and lighter vignettes are no trouble in a studio where subject lighting and background lighting can be easily separated and isolated from each other, it’s a little more difficult in a boardroom without the level of control a studio provides but the convenience for the client and the subjects being ready assembled outweighs any possible photographic inconvenience.
Despite the open public studio my subjects were great to work with and the results matched the stylised brief and fulfilled their requirements.
Jul 13
7
Time-Lapse photography
[SCREAM] At the speed of light and in freezing wet conditions.. it always happens like that.. If only 23 seconds didn’t take over 24 hours.
Need these by the end of weekend – that means you have one night and one morning.. !! Weather dependent? You must be joking!
“We have some time lapse footage, but need more. Can you just find a few locations with a great vantage points.. lots of traffic.. get permission to shoot from said vantage point.. (be nice to whoever you need to be nice to) then send pics online – quick – over to you.”
It worked.
Twice.
Jul 13
7
In the Field
Working fast comes with the territory. Moreso when working around a film crew.
I’m very used to having to work fast, in fact, a lot of preparation time is used providing ways in which the camera and lighting equipment works together to create the best results in the shortest possible time. When working around a film crew the opportunity to set up lighting in the position required and do test shots and fiddle around is often hindered by the filming, camera positioning and sound recording of the on camera action. Consequently between takes, every opportunity is exploited to get my equipment into place and ready to shoot at any suitable break intervals.
Flashing off lights, clunking around with lighting stands and bashing around on ladders is a sure way to find yourself off the christmas lists of the filmcrew and client, so you need to chose moments wisely and ready to shoot almost instantly.
The first interviewee supplied live plants. The filmcrew were using the whole of the greenhouse as a background so no movement or sound was possible for fear of interference. Not being a professional artist, the interviewee was responding to questions posed by the Film Director in order to aquire the neccesary footage.
Potted Plant supplier
Potted Plant supplier and greenhouse
The purpose of the filming was to provide supplier experience of working with the Booths Supermarket chain. Booths use local suppliers wherever possible and the suppliers being filmed and photographed today had been supplying Booths with local produce for over twenty years or more.
From a photographic perspective, the availability of the suppliers with the client on hand provides an ideal opportunity to obtain images for brochures, newsletters, internet and marketing materials, but often in the case of a filming, the photography is the secondary priority.
From one greenhouse to another.
Was that an early Bee? What a monster.. Nope, thats normal, we were in a greenhouse dedicated to tomato production, complete with Bee’s hives and the flight past of the busy workers.
Tomato production
Some places the filmcrew need to shoot are not the places which as a photographer, I would chose to shoot in. In some cases there are no alternatives and you need to make the best of whats available. The next location allowed a little more scope.
Whilst the filmcrew were busy on the packaging line I went out in the truck with one of the farm hands and discovered a location suitable for the cauliflower supplier.
It was cold and wet and it was raining. I was grateful for the suggestion to come back in the summer and shoot in the warm and dry, but deadlines can’t wait for the summer, so it was the cold and wet – or nothing. The summer would be an ideal time for this sort of thing and the subject was full of interest.
Cauliflowers in the field