Vrygrond Township -Photographic workshop

I could and perhaps should call this a tale of two workshops in the light of my forthcoming PODAS workshop at Weston Park

A little over a year ago I took a workshop for underprivileged youth in the South African township of Vrygrond, near Cape Town

My good friend Katherine Holley shot this short film of our time there.


Vrygrond Township, South Africa from drew gardner on Vimeo.

It makes me want to do more for these guys.

Moving.

Life changing, for me at least.

London Riots

Difficult to know what to say really.


Naked criminality with the root being poor parenting....where do they think their kids are going at night?

with the school holidays and good weather being factors too.


I just came across this time lapse of the Tottenham riots.

Video by Prokopi Constantinou @ http://www.itdrewitself.com

Score by Dogtanion @ http://www.facebook.com/dogtanion

Fun with email scammers....

With the world banking system facing oblivion and areas of London smouldering post riot I thought I would share this with you as a humorous Monday morning distraction........

From: Drew Gardner <drew@drew.it>
Date: 4 August 2011 22:08:30 GMT+01:00
To: Reservation Departament <information@allhotels.com>
Subject: Re: Hotel Camelback Inn, A JW Marriott Resort & Spa  made wrong transaction

Thanks for your email

I can send you the money but I have a small problem

During my stay I lost my wallet and I'm certain it was one of your cleaners who took it

Her name was Marianne

We had a good time together then she took my wallet

If you could help me with this matter I will be very happy to see that you receive the money

Regards

Mr Trew



Sent from my iPad

On 4 Aug 2011, at 20:42, "Reservation Departament" <information@allhotels.com> wrote:

Dear guest! 

Transaction: Visa 5159923_O 

This letter notifies that on July 26th, 2011 Hotel made an error of transaction from your credit card. Total sum of decommissioning is $1473 

Due to the termination of service contract between Hotel and Booking Company this Hotel was divested accreditation in our company. 

For the return of funds please contact your bank and fill information in the attached form. 

In the attachment you will find expense sheet with the sum of wrong transaction error of transaction. 

Company just mediates and bears no responsibility for any money transactions made by Hotel. 

Thank you for understanding. We trust you can solve this unpleasant problem. 

Tertius Cookingham, 

Manager of Reception Desk & Reservation Departament 

I'm still awaiting a reply....... 

If Drew Gardner shot weddings......

Followers of my Twitter feed will know that I did just that on Saturday, when I shot my Niece's wedding.

My first full wedding shoot since 1981.

It was actually a lot of fun, but bloody hard work.

With so many bases to cover, the day just races by.

I now have enhanced respect for wedding shooters.

I shot the whole thing on a pair of Canon 5D MkII's and shot the vast majority of the day with the wonderful 'L' Series 35mm F1.4 and 85mm F1.2 lenses.

Even with the right focusing screens, in this case the Canon Eg-S super precision matte, the attrition rate of soft shots could be a bit worrying at times when shooting wide open with these lenses.
(If you own a fast prime lens and you don't have one of theses GET ONE! it is the cheapest way to get the best from your camera and lenses)

Like anything in life when you live to your 'Edge' it isn't easy.

But shoot wide open with these lenses and get it right, the angels sing.

Practice is the only course to take I'm afraid.

It's not all about primes though, and my general purpose lens to 'fill in the gaps' was the 'L' Series 24-105
F4.

I shot this rather 'Drew' ish shot with it.

I wanted to create something special and different that was 'me'

'Signature' is all in this world of 'Sameness'

There was this great view from Belvoir castle which dominates the valley beneath, and it came into my head to put the bride and groom at the centre of their own 'Painting'

Being part of but not totally dominating the scene, something which you could hang on your wall without being too cheesy....

Followers of this blog will know I gain much inspiration from the great painters

I lit the couple with a pair of Elinchrom Rangers, triggered with PocketWizard TT5 transmitter and ST4 receivers on the packs (no cables, and good range make them a very good choice)

I modified the light camera left with a Chimera Medium soft box and other on camera right just had a kill spill.

I mounted the set up on a pair of Manfrotto 'Stacker' master stands, which extend to over 3.5 metres. But thanks to their clever stacking design clip together and take up the least amount of space in your bag possible, with their very 'flat' profile.

A long but really lovely day.

I want to talk about the edit which I did in half a day.

Yes, 1500 shots edited and processed in half a day.

Am I a genius?

Certainly not, but with Capture One 6 and its fast and flexible local adjustments it enabled me never to go into Photoshop - at all.

This and a now sparkling sensor cleaned by Canon at Elstree.

Time IS money.

The less time I spend on the post production the more time I have to do other things.

So not having shot a wedding for 30 years, guess what I'm doing tomorrow?

Shooting another.

A birthday Indulgence - F1 to BSkyB.

I nearly always stick to photography in my blog but please allow me this indulgence, it is my birthday after all.

As some fans may have gathered I like Formula One, its excess cannot be justified but I like it

In fact I have followed it for much of my adult life.

Here is a pic I shot of the late great Ayrton Senna at a Silverstone test session way back in the day when he drove for McLaren Honda.

So my birthday did not start so well when I saw that coverage of F1 was going to be shared with BSkyB.

As BSkyB says in its current ad campaign 'Believe in better'

Really?

REALLY!

There is some good coverage on BSkyB, the digital satellite format does allow for great detailed coverage.

But the art of BSkyB is to charge us the population of the UK for broadcasts which we have previously received for 'free' or at least included in the very reasonable BBC licence fee anyhow.

Do I blame BskyB for getting the deal with F1?

I don't actually.

Yes, we the fans will indeed lose out, if we do want to see every race in the season, as the BBC will show half of the races.

But if I want to see the other half, yes folks I have to sign up to BskyB.

Which I will not do.

Now this is very interesting because most of my diehard F1 friends do not have BSkyB and have no intention of getting it either.

Bernie Ecclestone has always stated his objection to 'Pay for view' F1, but somehow he has had a change of heart or wallet....

Mercedes, Renault and all of the 200 mph sponsorship billboards, will I believe, be seen by far less people.

Cricket has been demoted to a niche sport since it is pay to view, once again short term gain to the long term detriment of the sport.

Is this what the sponsors want? a ring fenced sport which will be seen by fewer viewers, not more?

Less reach for all of the advertising budget.

Sponsors could be harder to find and down it all goes.

'Believe in better' by all means but you are going to have to pay for something which was formally 'free'

Or perhaps lose interest in and not bother to watch it anymore?

* Those of you whom have stuck with my blog thus far, I have a little tease for you. Sometimes I post a lot , sometimes not very much, but about once a week. I'm embarking on the single biggest photography/film project of my career and over the next 3 month I will be sharing with you the highs and lows of what I sincerely believe will be the pinnacle of my working life so far. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

I've seen that somewhere before....

My head is so full of stuff its about to pop!

But I did a double take when I saw the 1 year countdown to the London 2012 Olympics.

Synchronised swimmers made a '1' in front of the great and the good.

A bit like the '1' I did for Phase One in Denmark........

Here is a behind the scenes video of my shoot for Phase One, crewing the '1' was a lot of fun, though 10 meters does seem a long way up on a diving board (what a lightweight I am...)

I prefer mine as it is more defined.....but I'm biased

PODAS Fashion and Portraiture Workshop, Weston Park

There are workshops and there are Workshops.

Phase One with their PODAS (Phase One Digital Artist Series) really have taken them to a whole new level and to the four corners of the planet.

They go something like this, take a small group of enthusiasts whom in all probability would bleed photography if you cut them, have the very best camera's that money can buy, and throw in instructors who want to share their considerable knowledge in the very best surroundings.

Against this background I was very flattered and more than a little thrilled to be invited by Phase One to co lead the PODAS fashion and portraiture workshop at Weston Park, with super talented and renowned shooter Natalie Dybisz (aka Miss Anelia) if you have not seen her work, do check it out, it is truly unique.

What really piqued my interest though is that we are hiring the WHOLE of Weston park to ourselves.

Weston Park is very special,with more than 1000 acres and its Palladian architecture, it even hosted the G8 Summit retreat in 1998.

As Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister - 8th June 1878 said

"You will find Weston beautiful. I marvel whether I shall ever see the like of it again! It is a place that always pleased me."

This short film gives you a good idea of the place and its rich heritage

We wanted to give this a twist, so instead of the usual 'model shoot' theme, we have decided to give it a period costume theme very much in keeping with Weston Park.

We will have a sack load of Phase One DF camera systems fitted out with the excellent IQ160 60 Megapixel backs, along with the best of the Profoto range, so we can use the super high speed sync.

We should also have one of the amazing Achromatic+ backs which I have been using to shoot people, perhaps not quite what the designers had in mind but the results are stunning. It will be a great oppourtunity to shoot with this most exotic back.

Here is a sample of just what it is capable of, check out the eyes......

It is described on the PODAS page as 'intense' and it certainly will be, as while we are not planning, shooting, or post processing our work, we will be living and breathing photography every moment, sharing knowledge and ideas.

The workshop will be limited to no more than 16 delegates, who will be split into two groups - this really is all about the quality and an experience which will be with every delegate long after they have left.


You can find out all about the workshop in full here.