Winter Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsey Vonn - Sports Illustrated

The Winter Olympics in Whistler have just drawn to a close

Last June I was fortunate enough to be commissioned by 'Sports Illustrated' to shoot a feature on World Champion Ski Racer Lindsey Vonn during her training programme in Salzburg, Austria for a feature in their Winter Olympic Edition

The most successful American Woman Skier in history

The brief was to shoot her while she was training and some portraits too

This was a really great gig for me and needless to say I wanted it to go WELL

In a situation like this the most important factor has nothing to do with equipment but it is the human factor, just how co operative is the subject going to be in the middle of an arduous, focused training programme?

Well, the moment I met Lindsey and her trainers I knew all was going to be just fine.

Lindsey is a really kind, warm, friendly and open person and she made the job in hand easy by being super co operative even though she was training a zillion hours a day

The first part of the shoot was following her and her trainers (from the comfort of a chase car!) on a long and tough (for you and I!) cycle ride through the Alps. It went on for hours....

I was getting some good shots during this but in the back of my mind I was focused on the location for a top class portrait

This process started the week before though as I had asked the crew at Red Bull to suggest some suitable locations and to send some shots of the locations to me, which they did

On a shoot like this you need all the help you can get and local knowledge is invaluable

And they suggested the peak of a nearby mountain

I say nearby but it involved a bit of a mission

I had to check it out, set my lights up and then wait with fingers crossed as it involved a dash by Lindsey to make the very last cable car of the day to the top of the mountain....which was also the very last cable car DOWN the mountain leaving just 30 mins to get the shot!

So I pre lit the shot using passing tourists

Ask nicely and tell them that they are being a stand in for a World Champion skier and you would be surprised how many agree! After all we all want to be part of something don't we?

I lit both the leaping shot and the alpine portrait pic with my Elinchrom Ranger Quadra

On an assignment like this when I'm working alone with no assistant and having to carry all of the gear myself it is a superb little light, packing a very respectable punch

When travelling light I use one of my favourite light stands

The Manfrotto 001b (It seems to have been superseded or renamed the 5001 or but it looks to be much the same)

It is one of the most affordable light stands made by Manfrotto and it is so versatile.

It folds down to 19 inches long which means it fits diagonally inside my carry on baggage

And though I'm unsure of its official load bearing spec I have put some quite silly loads on it which I'm sure would make Manfrotto wince. The stand seems to be 'keener' to flex than fall over. Unscientific on my part but it works for me. I have this light stand with me on my huge productions too, it has the knack of being the tool for the job on more occasions than I can recall

I used a Chimera Medium soft box (which you can see on my pre lighting shots)

Regular readers of the blog will know just how important this softbox is to the look and feel of my work

I shot the whole job on my Canon 5d Mk2 which I Love, Love, Love.

It delivers so much in such a small package, saving my poor old back

The Portraits on my 24/105mm Canon 'L' Series and the leaping shot on my Canon 'L' series 70/200 F4

Th light weight zooms perfect for my travels

Lindsey fought off a nasty injury she sustained prior to the Winter Olympics to win a Gold medal in the Women's downhill, becoming the first American woman to do so, she also won a bronze in the Women's Super G.

Richly deserved

A Brilliant start to the Year!

Just about wrapped up the new DVD 'Stills in Motion'

It is aimed at users of HD DSLR's to help them get to grips with video side of things

The idea is to share what I heave learned on my journey to integrate moving images into my work

I shot this with Dennis Lennie (director/producer), Katherine Holley(editor) and Peter Payne(second camera)

I'm very excited with the rushes I have seen so far.

We hope to have it done and dusted for launch at 'Focus on Imaging' in March

So watch this space.

And like so many things in life when you are as busy as anything, what do you get?

Yes, more work!

For the next month I will be shooting a big ad job

It is not any old ad job either, they are giving me considerable freedom

Yes, it is very exciting and I will share all I can with you when it comes out

Followers of my blog will know I was not the happiest at the end of last year

2010 has been one serious turn around in fortunes, I hope it has been for you too

F stop beyond Interview

Recently I was interviewed by Ron Dawson of 'F Stop beyond'

A very interesting internet radio channel which carries interviews with photographers from around the world including Joey Laurence, Zack Arias and Gabrielle Geiselman

It was a far ranging interview which gives quite a illuminating insight into me and what makes me tick


Download MP3 | Subscribe in iTunes | Drew Gardner on F-Stop Beyond

Hope you find it interesting

I'm in the depths of shooting my new DVD so I must fly

Exciting times ahead!

Bye

Drew

Cellist Found! Thank you François Sechet

So, the power of the blog strikes again!

François Sechet is coming over from Paris to participate

Check out his work

www.francoissechet.com


Some lovely work there

Will give you an update soon

Cheers

Drew

Calling Cellist and Violinist

Hi Guys

I'm shooting a new dvd round my studio all week in London, E14

Now I need to shoot some sequences which require a Cellist and Violinist

Is there anybody out here who would like to come along?

I can pay a modest fee and travel expenses and will take no more than 3 hours


Cheers

Drew

End of a Year....Start of a New Decade

I think we can all agree that it has been a tough decade and a difficult year

In so many respects

In the photographic world too

At the beginning of the decade we saw the emergence of digital as a fully viable medium

Film once the norm has become very specialist to say the least

We are about to start another new decade

And yes, we are facing another new revolution, the HD DSLR.

We should not be fearful, but should embrace it as soon as possible

It will never replace stills photography but run alongside it I believe

I'm going to share with you all what I discover on my journey

So watch this space

2009 has been a very turbulent year for me

With many challenges still unresolved

I have watched hits to my website treble

And this is in no small part to the followers of this blog

Which, thanks to you goes from strength to strength

Exceeding my expectations all the time

Without you none of this would be possible

So a massive THANK YOU to you all

I look forward to sharing more of me with you

And to meeting some of you at shows and seminars etc

So parting shot from the year?

It doesn't matter what you do but keep shooting what you Love, and Love what you shoot

And just watch yourself and your photography grow

I hope I will remain in 2010, as the blog says...


'AN INFECTIOUSLY PASSIONATE PHOTOGRAPHER'

Happy New Year to you all

Converge One - My Contribution

The Flash Centre Organized and ran 'Converge One' at the British Film Institute in London on the 11th of December

It was an event which aimed to celebrate and foster the use of DSLR's with video capability

It was aimed at both stills photographers and Movie makers

The event was a massive success, with guest Speakers including, Phillip Bloom, Richard Jobson, Dan Fung Dennis and many more too

I'm not going to give the full post show report I wanted to yet as I just have not been able to write anything meaningful yet, my apologies

I will however talk about my small artistic contribution to the event

When I was invited to speak at the event I accepted straight away.

I felt I need to show something new, after all if we don't make new work, stills or moving, we are not photographers, at best just talkers or dreamers.

Then I started to think.....

'Wouldn't it be cool if I could produce a mini short with actors and actress's for £500 or less?'

I LOVE big productions, and it would be my first using the Canon 5Dmk2 shooting full 1080p HD video

Here are some of my stills which inspired me to take this route

I directed and lit all of these shoots myself, so how different was it going to be doing the same with moving images?

Now for all sorts of reasons, I produced this shoot by myself too.

So first came the idea, which I came up with and developed with my collaborators Katherine Holley and Graham Trott, along with some storyline help with my good friend Peter Payne

Here is Katherine's storyboard, which as you can see was pretty close to how it all worked out

The premise of the shoot was a cleaning girl at a big fancy house who is not invited to the party, but dives into a broom cupboard and transforms herself, to crash the party and become the star

All set in the 1940's

We decided to the shoot outside of London, we chose Studley Castle, part of the best Western Hotel group, who are photographer friendly and did us a very good rate

It fitted the role of a big fancy house a treat, with the added bonus that is was very close to where the model Jay Jessop lives (yes, of Water buffalo fame!)

Putting together an (over)ambitious shoot like this means pulling in every favour you can

Costume came from Nicky Albrechtsen and a few charity shops too

Graham bought a few dirty Rain coats with him (for the photographers)

I'm lucky enough to own several MPP and Speedgraphic's so that was the photographers sorted out

The car came from Robin Crump who made the long journey in the torrential rain in his Austin Fairline

Did I mention the rain? Well agood portion fo the shoot was going to be outside, so we needed LUCK

This is what the journey up to Warwickshire was like....



A project like this is only possible with the help of willing volounteers and the shoot would not have been possible without the support of Henly College who supplied extras, hair and make up

They had quite a big team.

Which had to be catered for, remember we are trying to do the whole thing for under £500.

So it was down to me



So we had from 3pm until 10pm to shoot the whole thing.

The crew, consisting of Graham, Katherine and I, as hard as we all worked was way too small

In fact the shoot came close to failing as we simply could not move the equipment and people around fast enough

Yes, it was low budget but I took the size of the crew to something smaller than I would have used on a stills shoot of equivalent size

I was trying to prove something though

We did not have tons of lighting, the mainstay of what we used was A spot, one kinoflo, a Chimera Triolet, and some mini light panels

Yes, you can shoot available light on the Mk2 but But I wanted to control the depth of field and have my 'Signature' lighting

We left the location not really knowing if we had covered all bases, and that the whole thing was going to edit together well

But Katherine is a brilliant editor and I'm delighted with what she achieved

Sitting round after the edit I realized that project would benefit greatly from a unique score

I put an appeal out on this blog and in under 2 hours I had two very generous offers of help

Firstly from David Getfrid in Washington State, and then from Douglas Black Heaton in Helsinki, Finland

I liked both of these very different approaches and have used both of them

Thank you SO much guys

David pointed out that a degree of 'Foley' (sound effects of laughter etc) would enhance things

So, another offer of help came in for Foley from Conrad Norton in Wales

I was very apprehensive to see how the piece was received at 'Converge' but I need not have worried. The audience was most appreciative.

And yes, I got a shiver down my spine as I watched it on the big screen of the National Film Theatre on the South Bank

It is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

Every time I watch it I see every last fault and failing.

But I did it

I produced, directed and shot it

And it cost £600, not £500

Hi Def to follow but in the meantime.....

Here is the Version with Douglas's music

'Cinderella' ' Music by Douglas Black Heaton from drew gardner on Vimeo.

If you don't want to wait for the high res Vimeo here is the low Res Youtube version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFNXJsqtGfE

And Here is David's

'Cinderella' Music by David Getsfrid from drew gardner on Vimeo.

If you don't want to wait for the high res Vimeo here is the low Res Youtube version too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6wLkwOrljs