3 simple steps to Great Location Portraiture

More shallow DoF Olympic Golden greats - this one is my Favourite.

It is not fair, and one should not have a 'favourite' but in the whole 'Olympic Golden Greats' series this is mine.

Bob Braithwaite won Olympic Gold for trap shooting at the 1968 Olympics and held the world record for 4years.

All while he was a full time vetinary in rural Lancashire.

He is a wonderful Gentleman.

A life artist.

When Lan Bui and I went to see him to shoot stills and a video, we anticipated we would be there for the morning, we stayed there until way after dark.

Such is the measure of the man.

Have a look at the short video which formed part of the exhibition at the John Lewis Stratford store, sponsored by Manfrotto, it will give you some idea of his philosophy, one could do a lot worse than be inspired by his approach.


I know I was.

This interview was in the days before the Canon C300 and we shot it on a Canon XF305 and a Canon 5dmkII with a 100mm 'L' series Macro.

But where to shoot him?

Bob is not in his first flush of youth, infact he is the oldest surviving British Olympic Gold Medalist, and his mobility is limited.

Bob agreed to be photographed there, in the same Olympic blazer he wore in 1968, when he was in his 40's.

As with all my environmental portraits, the sitter is the very last element I introduce to a scene.

I treat them all very much the same and it is a 3 step process, very much 'jigsaw' like in nature.

1. Identify your 'blank canvas'

Ideally this should be the day before the shoot, but we were shooting in the North of England so this was not practical, so we used Google street view to give us some sort of idea of the terrain on this occasion it did not reveal the exact 'spot' that we would use but it gave us some sort of idea, if you don't do so already use this amazing and powerful location scouting tool.

We did checked the back garden which he was able to get to, but is was not suitable at all.

On checking the front of the house there was a quiet road which curved beautifully away, with a beautiful stone wall running alongside, and a gently sloping hill on the left.

Pretty much ideal for  my Phase One DF with a P65+ back shot at F2.8 on the Schneider LS 110mm.

With every location portrait, I establish my 'blank canvas' which I'm going to put the sitter in.



I like to do this on my own with time to think, analysing the scene in detail, but it's not always possible....

I often find that the 'blank canvas' shot is an interesting shooting it's own right too.

2. Use a 'stand in' who is NOT the model

This is very important

By testing all your your set up of lighting, exposure and pose on someone who is not the sitter you are keeping your model fresh and keen.

We all know how long it can take to set a shot up....getting everything spot on.

I used Lan Bui of the Bui Brothers as a stand in, who shot the video with me, even though he is a year or two younger and a foot or so shorter than Bob.

When I have worked my shot out exactly I introduce my tethered setup on the Gitzo tripod so once I have my 'blank canvas' I don't lose it.

If you use your model for this, they get bored, cold (on this occasion at least) and the shoot loses energy.

And you lose your shot.

This way you can commit to your model spending as little time as possible being photographed.

Using this technique I have managed to shoot many a 60 second celebrity or corporate portrait.

3. Introduce the sitter

By this point all the really hard work has been done and you project the impression of being a 'Pro' and in all probability you will pick up up more work this way.

Who would you employ, a photographer who faff's around eating into your precious time or a shooter who can execute a top quality portrait in moments, with little impact on your day?

The image that we project of ourselves is important, and this should not only be viewed as tool for getting more work.

Better thought out photography means less retouching, more profit and higher standards of your own photography, which is ultimately more rewarding and satisfying.

Interestingly, I initially asked Bob to pose with his Gold medal, which he did reluctantly.......he really wasn't comfortable doing this.

So we shot him without his medal and it made quite a difference to his expression, more relaxed and natural I think.

If you get the chance to 'give back' to someone who has given their time for free do so.

I shot this really quick portrait of Bob, his wife and daughter.

A great little memento of a pretty involved shoot on a cold, cold day.

Finally the lighting.

I wanted to light this shot in a very subtle way, so I used my Elinchrom Quadra with a Chimera Medium soft box at a little more than half a stop over ambient as the key light coming in from camera right.

I also used a super subtle back light way, way over into the muddiest field ever....Lan waded out with the Quadra and a small Chimera soft box and I very carefully talked him in on the correct angle from the position that Bob would be taking.

You can most probably tell that all of this took quite sometime.

Worth it I think.

I'm very happy with this!

When you have a sponsored event, coverage is King.

Not only to get better attendance numbers but giving sponsors the exposure after they have supported you.

It gets no better than this.

The exhibition and project was featured on the Team GB website.

Videos to follow soon, along with more tales of our adventures.

We did it! Olympic Golden Greats opens at John Lewis Stratford City

It took Lucinda and I two years to pull it together but we made it.

Last night we had our private view of the exhibition which is on show at John Lewis in the stadium suite at Westfield Stratford City until 20th March.

With the passing of my Dad it meant that I had not seen the installed show until I walked through the door 15 mins before the party started.

It was only possible as Lucinda took the helm and with the help of my good friend Justin Sutcliffe, the show was hung in record time.

They did a fantastic job.

Never underestimate how long it takes to hang a show......

After Andy from John Lewis introduced us, I gave a short speech thanking all the people and companies who made it happen.

Manfrotto have sponsored the show and without them it simply would not have happened.

At all.

The images were printed on a Canon LFP printer by Velmex, if you are wondering why Canon LFP you could do a lot worse than have a look at the installed prints.

My good friend Brian mentioned on twitter that this show is a great place to see the difference between medium format and DSLR's

I will be posting specifically about this later this week, but if you go to the show before I do you might like to play a little game.....one of the images is shot on a DSLR, can you tell which one? I was surprised to note that EVERYONE got it right!

Not only are there prints on display but we have 4 videos on giant screens where some of the medalists talk bout their experiences and what it means to compete and win gold.

You will be able to see these on my blog next week.

Lucinda and I were also lucky enough to have 3 Olympic Gold medalists there too.

Judy Grinham, who won Gold for backstroke in Melbourne 1956

Terry Spinks, who won Gold for flyweight boxing in Melbourne 1956

Ann Packer who won Gold for the 800m in Tokyo 1964

Ann also came along to the press call where she spoke to kids from the local school about her achievements.

I will be blogging all this week as time allows, I'm in Holland speaking at the Professional imaging show along with Dave Black, Frank Doorhof and many others too.

I could not think of a more fitting way of closing my speech at the private view than by dedicating it to my Dad, he would have been so very proud.

What next after this two year long adventure?

Well, I have already done it, it's just a matter of when it will see the light of day.

This time I did not sell a car to make it happen, but a house.

The stakes are high, but the glittering prize is worth it.

Olympic Golden Greats Exhibition Dates

Anyone who knows me will know how important personal projects are to me.

This one more than others as it is my very first joint one, with my partner Lucinda Marland.

Our society is so obsessed by by youth, and we wanted to celebrate the achievements of the often overlooked senior citizens.

So we set out to photograph every British senior citizen who has an Olympic Gold Medal, that is anyone who will be 60 and over this year.

It has been a wonderful experience and we have leaned so much from these remarkable individuals.

The show has been sponsored by Manfrotto to whom I'm eternally grateful.

Please come along and visit the show.

It is running from the 9th-20th March in the John Lewis store stadium suite overlooking the site of London 2012.

It is a spectacular location.

Here is a panorama of the location shot by Lan Bui on an iPhone....

If you would like to know more about the project I will be talking about it at Focus on imaging on the Manfrotto stand.

You can also meet me at the Phase One stand where I will be talking about the benefits of medium format.

Olympic Golden Greats 2 -Dick McTaggart

Dick McTaggart won a Gold medal for Lightweight Boxing at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic games and the Val Barker Trophy as the games most outstanding boxer.

In his career of 634 bouts he was only beaten 24 times.

Truly remarkable.

Lucinda and I set out to shoot environmental portrait in locations that were of significance to the Gold medalist or failing that somewhere impressive.

We really wanted to shoot Dick in Glen Coe, but that was a long, long winter drive from southern Scotland, and Dick was understandably not quite so keen on the idea.

So we started to explore alternatives and came up with the Isle of Arran, which is sometimes dubbed 'Scotland in Miniature' and had the added advantage that it was only a short ferry ride away.

Sure enough it lived up to it's beautiful reputation and we found the perfect location of Glen Rosa, which has featured in a number of fashion shoots.

But the weather played its part and seemingly jeopardised the entire shoot as the whole of the UK was hit by an icy blast and heavy snowfall.

How on earth were we going to get a man in his early 70's to this beautiful but challenging location?

Enter Kate Samson of the National Trust who very kindly offered to assist us.

Without her is would simply not have been possible.

It was around minus 14C....bloody freezing.

We drove by LandRover as far up the glen as we could and then walked for a mile or so.

So it was now a matter of walking with all the gear up the Glen, bring not to fall through frozen streams.

Lucinda was pregnant at the time so I carried most of the gear, which weighed a lot.

I was feeling quite wobbly by the time we made it to our chosen location and I'm not sure how much further I could have gone.

I make no apology for the iPhone footage, as dodgy as it is.



When we found a spot to shoot, time was of the essence and due to the extreme cold we did not hang around very long at all.

Just as long as it took to set up the Elinchrom Quadra, Gitzo tripod, tethered set up for the Phase One and we were away.

Lit with one Elinchrom Quadra from the left, modified with a Chimera medium Softbox, shot with a Phase One DF P65+ 110mm LS Schneider at F2.8

Dick did well but the cold was clearly taking its toll.

We literally shot for a few minutes and we turned tail.

The sense of relief knowing we had pulled it off without any injuries to any of the participants was quite something.

It is part of my 'Golden Greats' exhibition which starts on 5th March in the Stadium Suite of John Lewis at the Westfield centre, Stratford.

Manfrotto are sponsoring the show and I will be speaking about this project and much more besides at 'Focus' on Imaging'

I'm printing the show right now on Canon IPF printers, with their latest and greatest media.

A blast from the past- A very welcome one

My professional and personal photography is like most others I suspect, strictly digital these days.

I have half a dozen boxes of 5x4 sheet film in the fridge which, though currently in date, I'm not sure it will see use before the sell by date passes.

I have a Speedgraphic (somewhere) for which I harbour thoughts of a new as yet unspecified project.

Why film?

Why?

It is difficult to come up with a rational reason to shoot it.

Film can and does have a different quality which does stand out but cost, and general faffing around are, to my eternal shame, a little too much for me to bear, for all of its aesthetic benefits.

There is only one kind of Film that would make me change my mind and that is Type 55.

Polaroid Type 55 was a stunning black and white film which gave you an instant print AND a negative of great quality (providing you remembered dip it in a bucket of hardening fixer)

The results it gave would vary, quite drastically, depending on how you stored the film and by the batch you used

It gave you this wonderful wobbly edges on the rebate with little hole punches too.

I never used it in anger but my partner Lucinda Marland undertook a project which was featured in 'The Guardian' Weekend Magazine.

It was about 'The Lebensborn' the children who were the offpring of German soldiers in World War II.

The Lebensborn programme was established by Heinrich Himmler in line with the racial and eugenics policies of the Nazi's.

So a very sensitive subject matter to tackle.

Lucinda set off for Norway in her Citroen ZX loaded with Type 55 and stacks of hardening fixer to shoot some portraits of these remarkable people and tell the story of their fight for recognition and justice since the end of the war.

It could have been possible on digital, but just look at them.

Type 55 is simply another dimension.

But that was 3 years ago, Polaroid no longer make film and Type 55 has gone forever...

Or so it seemed.

Until I stumbled across this amazing and welcome piece of news.

A gentleman by the name of Bob Crowley is trying to bring it back to life, under the name 'New55'

Bob might well be considered by some as mad as a box of frogs by some for attempting this, but not by me.

I see he is reconsidering a kick-starter project.

And judging from the traffic if he did try he would succeed.

I know by the following that this great film had, that if he got anywhere close in terms of quality he would have a hit on his hands.

The last batch of Type 55 was selling for around £300.00 a box.

So I think it could work out.

Why do I care?

Firstly, there is a really big project that I would like to shoot on this new film.

Secondly, it would open many photographers eyes to such wonderful photographic possibilities.

When Lucinda started to shoot 5 x 4 type 55 it was a steep and somewhat fraught learning curve, but she mastered it, in my rather biased opinion.

As Lucinda herself says 'When I started to shoot with it is was so difficult, it did make me slow down and consider every shot so much more carefully, it made me such a better photographer, even when I use my DSLR the type 55 experience is with me'

Perhaps we could all do with a dose of that?

ps if anyone out there is interested, Bob Crowley is seeking someone to make a short video for his kickstarter, if you live anywhere near Boston and you want to help this wonderful project get off the ground do get in touch with him.