A Cayman GTS, a Canon and a Grenade…

I love it when a plan comes together, Frankie Jim from Canon contacted me a couple of months ago in regards to running a workshop in collaboration with Porsche Club GB for their members. It seemed like a perfect idea to celebrate Porsche’s 70th Anniversary, but the challenge for me was of course to make it something for the members to remember and talk about for a long time.

Frankie wanted to find two contrasting photographers for the event, and he certainly did that as the second guest photographer was Rod Fountain, a Behind The Scenes photographer for Top Gear. Rod has very little time to set up his shots (although the film crew usually put the cars in pretty good places) and has to work using mainly available light within a short period of time minding many obstacles along the way. I think that as photographers you never stop learning and if you can pick up even one tip then it has been a useful experience. The tip I found most useful from Rod was how he  goes from a faster shutter speed to a slower shutter speed in just one pan using Tv mode and a slide of his finger, this gives two contrasting shots in one pass which I think is invaluable.

Compared to the work I do which is much more in a controlled environment, I usually have more time to adjust my shots and more time to set up artificial lighting to get the edgy look I love. It is so much more technical but I feel that I will be shooting a lot more natural light shots from now on to not only speed up my shooting but vary my portfolio.

Arriving on the Thursday to set up; the lorry arrived before the rest of the crew… as I started to unload the lorry I realised quite how much kit I had ordered. The great thing about advertising shoots and events like this is that I can get all the kit I need, more than I need sometimes but it means that if scenarios or weather conditions change I have what I need to still make the most out of the experience. I have to admit I felt like a kid in a candy shop, there were lines and lines of Canon cameras and lenses for everyone to play with along with all the gear Manfrotto, Broncolor and Lastolite had sent me.

The first workshop day was Friday the 13th, duh dun daaaar… luckily it all went relatively smoothly. The first day was set up for the Canon Pro Service members, and tickets for this day (75 available) were sold out in just under 1 hour, nearly crashing the PCGB website! That is the fastest one of these event days has ever sold out. I knew that these members were going to be looking for more technical details than the PCGB members so I set up a rather lovely interior shot for them to do of a rare 356 Coupe, following this I got them to shoot a few contrasty detail shots of the exterior. These were both shot with the Canon 5DS and the 85mm f/1.2 II USM lens, a Manfrotto tri-pod and up  to 3 Broncolor 1200L Move Lights.

In the second half of the day the set ups were repeated but instead of doing the exterior shots I got the group to help me set up the surprise shot which was a Porsche 997 with green smoke. This was lit using 5x Broncolor Heads, 2x Para 88’s, 2 x Standard Reflectors and 1x 1×4′ Softbox, a manfrotto tripod, a Canon 5DS and 35mm f/1.4 II USM Lens.

Porsche 997 with Purple Smoke

Day 2 was set up to help the Porsche Club GB members take better shots of their vehicles when out at shows, this is the day that would work better for Rod as I am sure 99.9% of the members would not have access the gear that I have. However, I did mention that they could in fact use a speedlight at night to light their vehicles in a similar way to how I was with my larger units. To make sure that I had a variety of cars to shoot I went out to the car park to see what the members had brought with them, and during the talk I read out their numberplates jokingly saying that I had damaged their vehicles. Instead I planned to use them on a couple of sets. The first shot for the day was the interior of a Porsche Targa 4 GTS using the studio gear and then the Porsche 356 Coupe outside using natural light and some chandelier glass for diffraction effects.

I thought it would be a great addition if we could demonstrate a rig shot at the event, unfortunately there was no scheduled time for this so instead I took some time out of lunch to demonstrate to those who were interested. Thanks to Peter Webb who lent us his Porsche GT3 for the shot, using a Canon 5DS, 17-40mm f/4 lens and an 8 second exposure.

The second group photographed the Targa interior shot and then helped me to set up a Porsche Cayman GTS for the final set. You should have seen the owners face when she saw smoke bellowing out from her beloved car; however, she was more than frilled with the results.

Overall it was a really enjoyable weekend, it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Porsche Club GB’s General Manager Chris Seaward, Canons very own Frankie Jim, Top Gears Rod Fountain, the amazing man with a brush Mark Lacey and all the sponsors including Manfrotto and their partner brands. It was a privilege to be part of this experience and I look forward to the next one! 


2016 HIGHLIGHTS

This year has been quite an exciting time, lots of changes and new adventures. I have had a quick look at all the shoots I have carried out throughout 2016 and tried to choose just one image that I like from each set, these may not have been the published image choice but is my personal choice. There are a few shoot days missing here and there such as some events but you can find a few of those over on the blog.

In 2017 I am looking to photograph more commercial campaigns for cars and products, I am going to expand into headshots for LinkedIn profiles as well so if you are in need of an image get in contact. Winter is a slow part of the year for me so I decided to use the time to plan and execute some new product images to improve my portfolio.

January


25th January – Versace Eros, a self initiated shoot.


25th January – MCE Watch, a self initiated shoot.


27th January – Bleu De Chanel, a self initiated shoot.


27th January – Versace Woman, a  self initiated shoot.

February


1st February – Chamilia Beads, a self initiated shoot.


1st February – No.7 Early Defence skim smoothing cream, a self initiated shoot.


5th February – MAC Cosmetics, a self initiated shoot.


24th February – I took a trip into London to pick up some mail from the office, couldn’t resist taking a pic of this weird looking piece of architecture on City Road.

March


10th March – My cousin contacted me about photographing his Audi as he had some new wheels and grill on the car. I have included 2 images from this shoot as couldn’t decide on a favourite. I did several shoots for him this year as you will see further on. READ MORE


11th March – Once a year I visit Rose Bruford College to photograph their Ready Steady Light event, however at short notice I was asked to photograph one of their theatre productions. This was my favourite as I loved the effect the torches gave in the smoke.


12th March – Ferrari Testarossa, a beautiful classic owned by Profusion Customs. This was a test shoot to show how I can perform to win the RWB UK contract. I later took on both the stills and moving image of the first RWB UK Porsche 964 911 Royal Wide build here in the UK. It will be released early in 2017. READ MORE


14th March – Millie Cox, I first met Millie when I was photographing night clubs. After a successful shoot last year we got back together for a shoot in 2016, Millie is such fun to work with and her poses are simply beautiful. I photograph people mainly as a hobby these days and really enjoy it. READ MORE


19th March – Ready Steady Light at Rose Bruford College, this is a Competition run for South London schools who compete against each other to light parts of the college with a maximum of 6 lights. It is always a fun thing to photography as I love lighting design.

COMING SOON

24th March – Ford Cortina in the Darenth Valley, this was photographed for Classic Ford Magazine and is awaiting a publishing date.

April

16th April – A shoot with Valerie, booked last minute due to a cancellation Val did a great job. I just love how a small pocket of light picks up part of her face as we look through a frame of derelict timber. READ MORE

25th April – It’s Jamie’s Audi again however this time a trip to London was in order. It was a rainy night and I questioned whether it was worth going because of heavy cloud cover. Despite the weather we produced some beautiful images. The underground car park is actually in Maidstone. READ MORE

29th April – Firetherm Fleet, a quick job to photograph two new vehicles together. The final image will have the vehicles cut out on a white background as a hero image. READ MORE

29th April – Granada GXL, photographed for Classic Ford Magazine. READ MORE

May

4th May – Corvette Cross Fire Injection, photographed for Profusion Customs.

6th May – The Drifters, Jahson put on a charity tribute evening to Lionel Richie to raise funds to help a young boy. READ MORE

9th May – Kelly Maynard, I met Kelly whilst photograph for nightclubs and asked if she would like to model for me. As it turns out she had just decided to give it a go and this was her third ever shoot. Kelly is an amazing model and within this short period of time is working full time as a model. She works well with or without direction and was a perfect choice for running a studio course later in the year.(Warning: Adult Content) READ MORE

14th May – Volvo 1800s, came across this beaut’ whilst visiting a garden centre. It is in mint condition and I really wanted to photograph it. The location had been freshly renovated so I wanted to try it out and the two combined looked amazing. The car owner had only just purchased the car so there was not a lot of history, without a story behind it I wasn’t able to get it featured in a magazine but did manage to create some memorable imagery. READ MORE

18th May – 100E Anglia and 103E Pop, photographed for Classic Ford Magazine this father and son duo was great fun. It also meant that the location made it to at least magazine 🙂 READ MORE

June

6th June – Becky Little, a fun bit or Urban Dereliction with Becky. (Warning: Adult Content) READ MORE


11th June – MKIII Escort Estate, for a special long roof edition of Classic Ford Magazine. READ MORE

18th June – MKI Fiesta’s at The Ace Cafe, this was a shoot for Classic Ford Magazine to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the MKI Fiesta. READ MORE

20th June – A quick fashion shoot with Katie to show off her new dress. READ MORE

25th June – 105E Anglia shot for Classic Ford Magazine. READ MORE

July

July didn’t have many feature shoots as we were at car shows photographing cars and selling prints, if you are running a show this year let us know so we can see if we can cover it.

30th July – Ali’s 50th at Leeds Castle, sometimes I cover events and this was definitely a fun one to do with an airshow, fireworks, fire breathers and stilt walkers. READ MORE

August

3rd August – Kelly Maynard at the beach, as we had beautiful weather and warm water I had to get a shoot at the beach in this year. Following the success of the first shoot with Kelly I booked her again to guarantee success.(Warning: Adult Content) READ MORE

24th August – Plymouth Satellite, photographed for American Car Magazine. 

26th August – The RWB project is well underway but lots of imagery and video footage to get through. We released 2 teaser videos, one for the launch of RWB UK and the second to wish a Merry Christmas. Until the article is released on the 25th January 2017 the video cannot be released. Check out the two teasers below:


 

28th August – MKI Escort South London Style, probably my favourite shoot of 2016, love the car and the location. READ MORE

September

Everything started to slow down from September as I was working on another project, but managed to get a few shoots in between September and Christmas.

6th September – Yes that’s right Jamie’s Audi again but this time he has custom wheels… I think he has forgotten about the 100E project he is meant to be spending his money on!

10th September – MKII Escort at Peacehaven, currently in this months issue of Classic Ford Magazine

October

8th October – Ford Granada, part of a Buyers Guide for Classic Ford Magazine. Was cut out and placed on a white background in the magazine. READ MORE

29th October – I know what you’re going to say… it’s Kelly again! Well yes it is but this time I used her to run a studio portrait photography class. Interested in Classes? READ MORE

November

From September to December I went to teach photography in a school for a while to catch them up on practical skills. One of the lighting set ups I taught them was for this bottle:

December

For the wind down to Christmas I joined an angling club and left my DSLR at home, however I had my iPhone to take some images of the beautiful scenery as I was fishing.

The frost just looked magical in the morning, with the Birch wood complimenting the colour scheme and the red sky as the sun rose it felt like heaven.

As the frost started to thaw out the woods sounded like a massive rainstorm had hit, very strange

 

I was fishing just below where the sun is.

Despite it being December 28th with a third of the lake frozen I managed to land 75lb of carp.


RWB UK Trailer

Currently I am working on a short documentary showing the build of the first Rauh-Welt Begriff 964 Porsche 911 build in the UK. RWB is run by Japanese car designer Nakai-San, he creates wide arch body kits for Porsche’s and tailors the cars ride to that of the driver.

In the last year alone Nakai-San has built over 60 RWB’s across the world, his designs are now so famous that they are used in The Need for Speed video games. This 964 is the first to sport the Royale wide arches and Fender wings and is also one of the first to have a sound system.

The full feature is expected to be 20-30 mins in length and will be released late in 2016. For now I hope you enjoy this 36 second teaser. To keep updated on the progress follow my social sites which are available at the top of the page.


The Royal Photographic Society Journal – Masters Tips

The Royal Photographic  Society has been of great help to me over the past few years and really aided in my research for my photographic degree. Every year I attend the annual awards held at The Royal Society in London, this gives me great inspiration and the opportunity to meet many other great artists.

Last year I graduated with first class honours and the society gave me a feature about the work I completed for my degree, since then they have followed my work and my progression. About a month and a half ago I was approached by the Journal to share some hints and tips on creating realistic looking composites, over the past year this has become one of my most sought after talks. To see where I will be giving this talk in the future or to book please visit http://training.raidphotographic.co.uk

If you are a member of The RPS you should have received your journal this morning through the post, to find out more about the society please visit www.rps.org

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Sir John Hegarty (BBH) joins The Dots as Chairman

“The Dots is critical for the future success of the creative industries – putting creativity at the heart of commerce and industry, whilst also helping creative people realise their full potential. I’m privileged to help shape its future with Pip and her team” Sir John Hegarty

On Friday I received an email from Pip Jamieson, Founder and CEO of The Dots; which has been named as the “LinkedIn for the creative industry”. The Dots is an important place for aspiring creatives’ to both find and share work opportunities, it is full of inspiration from across the industry and is regularly celebrated in their weekly inspiration emails.

I was introduced to The Dots at University where I met Laura Richardson, Head of Marketing and Partnerships at The Dots who gave a very informative lecture and introduced us to the platform. Since then I have met with her and Pip on many occasions including Award shows as well as portfolio review evenings. I think that is one of the best parts of The Dots, the connections they have in the industry and being able to pull these people together for an evening of portfolio reviews which greatly aid in the direction and self development needed to succeed in this industry.

The exciting news that Pip shared with me is that Sir John Hegarty, advertising legend and co-founder of the award winning agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty has been announced as Chairman of this fast growing network for creative professionals The Dots, if you are not yet part of it you need to check it out! www.the-dots.co.uk

So what does this mean for the future of The Dots?

pip
Above: Pip Jamieson, Founder & CEO, The Dots.

Sir John has more than 6 decades of being at the forefront of the creative industry, with eight D&AD awards, fifteen Clios and almost too many Cannes Lions awards to count, Sir John will be leading the next stage of development and growth of The Dots in the UK after securing a £1.5m investment. This means that the website can now be made mobile friendly, it will become easier to promote yourself and to connect with new contacts and opportunities.

  • Since launching in September 2014, The Dots has rapidly become the go-to platform for the creative sector, attracting thousands of clients to promote their brand and recruit talent, including the BBC, Tate, Net-a-Porter, Vice, Airbnb, Sony Music UK, Condé Nast, Spotify, Facebook, Red Bull, WPP, Selfridges, Channel 4, Liberty, Saatchi & Saatchi, Viacom, Fremantle Media UK, Twitter & Somerset House.
  • Alongside this announcement, The Dots has just raised its first round of investment led by Hambro Perks, an investment group founded by Rupert Hambro and Dominic Perks, whose portfolio companies include Laundrapp, Seeinit and (Tech Awards laureate) What 3 Words.
  • Additional investors include seed stage VC Coral Reef, and Angel Academe; a female-led syndicate investing in start-ups with at least one female founder.
  • The Dots was founded last year by native Brit Pip Jamieson, an entrepreneur who has spent the last 15 years immersed in the creative industries, including executive roles at MTV Australia.
  • Named as one of Australia’s top female entrepreneurs, Pip is back in her hometown London, and set to make waves with her successful start-up.
  • The UK’s creative industries contribute 5% of the UK’s GDP and employ 1.8 million people, with the sector expected to grow 35% between 2015 and 2020, a faster rate than more traditional sectors. According to Nesta, creative roles are hard to automate and subsequently critical for the future prosperity of the UK’s economy.
  • The Dots is on a mission to generate one million commercial opportunities for creative professionals by 2018; helping build a stronger, more profitable and diverse creative sector.

‘Sir John is a creative genius who shares our passion for cultivating and championing top creative talent. We’re beyond excited to be backed by and working with such a legend!” Pip Jamieson

The Dots Team

The Dots Team Left to Right: Laura Richardson, Poppy J, John Down, Pip Jamieson, Sir John Hegarty, Harry Harrison, Bethany Lloyd, Spohie Howe, Tom Blackshire.


The Royal Photographic Society Journal

After working in and out of the photographic industry for 12 years at the age of 27 I decided to go back to University and finally attain a degree in photography. This sudden change came about as I was being made redundant for the second time in 6 years, the first time I went to work on a cruise ship as a photographer and this time I was also contemplating going back to photography full time.

The main issue that I had was that I had only been working part time as a photographer and doing a little bit of teaching since returning from the ships, this meant that I didn’t have enough clientele to take the plunge and go full time freelance straight away. I decided to contact Ikea and River Island who have teams of photographers working for them to get a job, but was rejected from both. A couple of calls later I found out the reason why, I did not have a degree in photography. This I found rather strange as my portfolio wasn’t bad, but I was informed due to the number of applicants and how popular photography is they will only look at your portfolio if you have a degree on your C.V.

That settled it for me, it was at that moment that I decided to go back to University and study; being the end of October I had already missed enrolment for that year but decided I would try anyway. I looked at a few Universities and Colleges as I did not want to do a fine art based course, I want to earn money from photography, real money and I struggle to see that with fine art. Eventually I came across a course at Ravensbourne College, a very new course which included only digital photography and was aimed at commercial photography; Brilliant, so off I took myself to London whilst emailing to get an interview. When I arrived I asked to speak to the head of photography John Gulliver, as I wait for him an email arrived saying that I could have an interview at 2pm… it was 11am and I was ready to be interviewed now!

John eventually came down a little confused, reminding me that there are procedures to follow and interviews to have; so I told him that I didn’t have time for all that and wanted to start immediately. After a short chat and showing him some of my work I was allowed to start the course at the beginning of the next week. My time at Ravensbourne opened up a lot of opportunities, I met many great people in the industry, photographed on stage with Jessie J, Wiley, Lawson, Amelia Lilly, Charlie Brown and went back stage with Union J.

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Entering the course thinking I was a portrait photographer couldn’t be much different to what I do now, yes I enjoy portraits and am not too bad at them but my passion and skill revolves around still life and the automotive sector. Having networked with so many great people in the industry and trying out many set briefs on the course I was able to make an educated decision of the direction I wanted to follow.

KatBridge1

I am due to graduate this year on the 24th November but have already received my results, I have been awarded a first class degree that I am very proud of but could not have done it without the help of a few people. The first would be my beautiful fiancée Dora, she has been there since the beginning and pushed and supported me through the whole process. The second most important person to thank and society is Jo Macdonald from The Royal Photographic Society, over the last few years she has proved to be a valuable asset for me helping with information that I needed and introducing me to people who otherwise would have been un-reachable for my research such as Albert Watson, Terry O’Neil and Annie Leibovitz.

My aim 3 years ago when starting this degree was to work for a few magazines, I currently work for around 5 magazines and these are increasing on a weekly basis. This takes me to my new goal, advertising… currently I have completed some promotional work for Noble Automotive of their M600 Speedster Prototype which has been well used by them and Michelin. It only takes one person to say yes to get the ball rolling.

This leads me onto the main part of this blog post, following my degree I had a short article written about me in The RPS Journal, it features 2 of my images and a bit of text in a section they called “Graduates destined for success”. Having spoke with the new editor at The RPS Annual Awards ceremony last week I am looking forward to a much larger feature sometime soon.

rpsJournal


Ford Anglia BTS

Early Monday morning I went to meet Dave the owner of an Anglia in Dartford, it was the most miserable weather you could image so we ended up shooting under an old train archway. By the time we had finished everywhere was flooded, including my shoes and socks.

Following this I went to Asda’s to get my feet dry, purchasing a nice cheap £6 pair of shoes and a set of socks. Thursday morning we met up again so we could complete the shoot and get some amazing moving shots of the car.

Check it out in the near future as a full feature for Classic Ford Magazine.

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GMC Pickup BTS

Today I have had the pleasure of meeting Ted and photographing his GMC pick up truck. Sitting under the bonnet is a 360 Chevy with 400 turbo blocks. It has a traction rear axle and TCI front clip, a 4 bar rear end with watch linkage and slammed with air bags.

Look out for the official images and story coming out in American Car Magazine magazine over the next few months.


1932 Ford Model A Coupe – Hot Rod BTS

It happens to be the best time to get the best photographs is really early in the morning before everyone else has awoken. The location for this photoshoot was Rochester, next to the castle and cathedral; to be able to be undisturbed and avoid crowds of public and tourists we had to be in and out of there before they stirred. Having worked in a club Saturday night I was a little dreary eyed having only 2.5 hours sleep before having to wake up to start my next shoot. It was worth every tear and energy drink though so I am happy I made the effort.

The photo shoot in question was for non other than Custom Car Magazine with this beautiful 1932 Ford Model A Hot Rod, the images look amazing and I am super excited for when I can release the official photos. Keep an eye out for it in the magazine.

One of the most frustrating aspects of my job, especially being so fresh to it is that I have a load of amazing work as my style develops that I want to share with you all but am unable to until it goes to print. So make sure you keep checking back to see when I upload the official photos of these beautiful classic, american and hot rod cars.

But for now here is another Behind The Scenes from this shoot:

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Ford 300E Van

Yesterday I met with Tony Nash and his son Chris to photograph his 300E service van for Classic Ford Magazine. To tell the story behind this van I thought it would be a good idea to have the portrait of Tony servicing his other van with it’s head just popping out the shadows of the garage. Below is a concept and a snapshot of what the feature may look like.

My conceptual idea for the portrait shot:
300E2
A snapshot from my phone yesterday as Tony prepared his van:
300E


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