Squirrel!!!!
I was contacted by one of my favourite clients a month or so ago and asked if I would take some pet pictures of their stunning Pointer breed dogs, mother and daughter Imola and Monza. It’s a bit of a change to the product and car photography I show, but they are great people so I said "sure" 🙂
We discussed the details on what the images were for (a large high-key print/canvas) and I suggested we also did some shots of them just being dogs and playing in the local park as a nice contrast to the posed shots. Everything was set and so we watched the weather and a couple of weeks later the conditions turned to our favour.
I rolled up outside the house with Prabha (girlfriend and pooch fanatic) as my assistant and a 1/2 sized studio setup in the boot. For the ‘studio’ style shots there was just enough room to set up a small backlit background and train, a front light plus a little ‘CallumW special‘ to crisp them up a little 😉
The stage was set.
There’s an old saying never to work with kids or animals, but I have to say that both pooches were extremely well behaved. They were easily transfixed with the promise of biscuits and "coochycoos" from both their owner and Prabha.
Both of them were so well behaved and so adorable, I think Prabha was eyeing one of my bags to see if she could smuggle one of them home (just kidding :))After the formal setup we headed to the park to let them loose.
A short while back I blogged about the JDM Drift cars that I photographed sliding past at speed, but seriously, they have nothing on these guys. Man these dogs are faaaast.
‘meep! meep!’ … blink …. you’ve missed them.
Needless to say there were a few shots where they were flying out of frame before I could track them. So quick … and unpredictable. At least cars follow the track (usually) and are consistent in speed.
These guys … forget it 😀
After a short time (but not before they both went for a swim in the lake) the light began dropping which meant I was struggling to keep the shutter speed up high enough, so we got them to pose for us in a few remaining pools of light to add some variety in style.
We headed back and I packed up my mini studio and we said our farewells.
Both pooches were wiped out from all the running, but you could see they had a great day.If that’s a dog’s life then where do I sign 🙂
A few semi-edited shots below so you can see how adorable they are 🙂
Picture of my dad
A couple of days back I posted about the abstract picture I made for Signature, the hairdresser shop in Woking, Surrey.
I’ve been snowed under at the moment and so my dad offered to frame the picture for me, which he does now and again if I’m flat out.
It also gave me a chance to drop off a picture I’d made for him to say thanks for helping me out over the last few months and because, well, he’s my dad and that’s reason enough
)His picture was one he took from the tiller of a scooner sailing at full tilt.
He likes his sailingHe dropped round the picture last night and we chatted for a bit. We talked a bit about the Workshop I’ve recently arranged for Bert Stephani and how it’s about lighting.
Dad used to be a keen film snapper when my brother and I were young (lots of family albums), but I was trying to explain layered lighting and how it’s controlled.I could see the slightly vacant expression coming back at me, so I decided a practical was in order to explain what I was twittering on about
So I sat him down, set up my folding backdrop, one light stand, flash and umbrella and gave him a 5 minute demonstration.
He quite liked the results and I also got some cool shots of him for prosperity.
So, here’s my dad being a good sport while his youngest got all wide eyed and rattled on at 100mph.The look you only get from a father to their crazy son:
I sent it to him and he emailed back thanking me, but asked who the wrinkly old man in the picture was.
Comedian😉Commissioned Abstract Picture
I received a commission a few weeks back to create an abstract picture for a hairdresser in Woking, Surrey.
I did an abstract for a shop last year and the people who set up this shop in Woking really liked it and asked if I’d do one for them in the same style.The brief was that they wanted an image of the shop to be manipulated into an abstract image, but still recognisable. They also wanted it in bright bright colours to stand out against the stark white walls of the shop.
I spent about an hour taking the shots of the shop (night time) and had to use a couple of strobes to throw light across the sign in order to make the sign stand out.
Once post production was complete I did a selection of 18 images which the client shorlisted to 3 possibles.
3 sample prints were made and the final pickedI printed the picture last week on my Epson 9880 and left it to dry for a few days.
It measures in at 64″x36″ printed and 60″x32″ once on the frameOnce dried it was mounted on a gallery wrap frame and is now waiting for the client to pick up.
Here’s the image:
To see it in the flesh you can visit the shop
Signature
Wych Hill,
Woking,
Surrey
GU22 0EU
t: 01483 715225
