Jul 13
4
Pan shots for swingers
It was all boiling up to the final climax where everything was just getting about right. It takes a bit of time to prepare all the components for a studio shoot, not least of all when it includes food and metal things.
Lakeland Limited required swing tags for their range of pans illustrating their regular uses and these were shot to fulfill their agency brief and to fit specific sizes. I’ve worked before for Lakeland Limited on various projects and they make some great products. My household specifically likes the spider catcher which does a great job at.. catching spiders, but also saves the rest of the house from thinking some other calamity has happened judging from the screams.
Food and Pan photography 1
Food and Pan photography 2
Food and Pan photography 3
Food and Pan photography 4
A few years ago I travelled around the South of France shooting the French High Speed Line for the then Corus Rail. Now, it’s new owners contacted me again for more images of new rail products at locations throughout the UK.
Arranging the weather is always the most difficult aspect of this work. Combined with deadlines for exhibition and print use imposes another more important aspect.
After researching the locations, comparing tide tables and train time tables, each location was photographed and completed on time.
Six locations were photographed in all, each with their own challeges both access wise, weatherwise and product wise.
These will give some idea of the type of railway photography undertaken.
High Speed Rail, Bessy Ghyll
Dawlish Railcote Track
Steel Sleepers near Culgaith
Harder to catch than a mole above ground this horizontal borer was just as elusive. No sooner was it relieved from completing one tunneling project, it was transported to the next location and dropped down a shaft to start the next.
To say that I only had minutes to shoot this was a little unstated. Before the lights were taken down the borer was being lifted into an adjacent shaft to start work tunneling under a Golf course.
Horizontal Borer
Jul 13
3
In the Field – in the dark
‘We’re shooting the picking and delivery of new potatoes.. it happens at 3.00 a.m. but we’re going to shoot it at 9.00p.m. the day before’.
OK, that should give the same effect, what do you want?
‘We need the images for POS, Banners, Header Boards, Internet.. something like this…’
Artwork visual
‘We have a few comments too..
Client comment:
Looks good, I think we will need the sky to be pitch black, lots of space for the bright lights of the tractor and then at the forefront of the image Sean and the potatoes… giving the potatoes extra prominence.
Our comment:
Need to see tractor silhouette, so not sure about pitch black sky.
One shot (portrait) should be OK for Standee and A0 poster format but we will need a landscape shot for web banner. Shoot Sean turned towards camera holding potatoes towards you so they become more prominent (we were limited to an existing shot of him for the visual).’
We met in the local pub carpark. The client was held up, so I went to the field with Sean the farmer with the instructions to shoot an image before it went dark as an alternative.. But it was nearly already dark.. OK..
The field was massive, and it was immediately evident that the visuals hadn’t been drawn up with this field in mind, and that row of trees was going to cause a problem.
First off, quickly assemble the kit for the ‘alternative’ before we lose the light. I set up the D3x with a Quantum X5d-R on a bracket expecting to combat the strong backlight of the setting sun and set off along the edge of the field to the middle with Sean following clutching a handful of freshly picked potatoes.
Here’ll do, I said setting down my camera case and squatting slightly to reduce the horizon.. Ouch!! ‘That’ll be the nettles then..’ said Sean.. ‘they’re a bit fierce around here.’ Yes, that’ll be the nettles then..!! !%$*%*@$&!!
A few shots before the sun completely disappeared, then back to the truck.
Alternative freshly dug potatoes
After transferring my equipment from the van to the 4WD truck, being careful to ensure I had enough equipment so that I didn’t have to traipse all the way back again and lose valuable time, the mounting equipment in the back of the truck proved early entertainment for the gathered ‘helpers’.
The siting of the tractor was wrong, it wouldn’t work with the visuals so I had it moved to the middle of the field after finding the correct location. Getting across a field of fully grown potatoes is not an easy matter. Each plant must be at least a metre high from the furrow.
Quickly I set up my main light and did a test.
Main light
The main light was a custom built reflector providing a hard but wide light on a Quantum QFlash X5d-R again.. I think I may need a few more..
It was evident what was required and where it was all needed to be, so I busied myself setting up whilst other helpers took some snaps of the amassing group of people in the middle of a potato field, in the dark.
OK, ready. Sean – just get into position around about there and we’ll take it from there..
Dug today new potato harvest
Balancing the falling light levels with the need to keep the sky dark, pitch black, not pitch black(!), dark enough.. and the black tractor mirrors not disappearing into the real black and the dark green tractor not blending into the real dark green.. seemed to work.
So I shot a few variations
New potatoes in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere.
The way the images were used:
Finished Artwork