Before the class got underway, some of the kids enjoyed limbering up:
Then, down to business with the routines to be practised for an upcoming show:
I was allowed to interrupt their rehearsals to get a posed shot of the whole group:
Wednesday 17 November 2010
Dance at Park Youth Centre, Sheffield
I've now uploaded shots of a dance session at Park Youth Centre, Sheffield, organised by Manor & Castle Development Trust and funded through Youth Consortium Sheffield. These youngsters were great to photograph, full of energy, commitment and enthusiasm. A few images below, more on my website.
Before the class got underway, some of the kids enjoyed limbering up:
Then, down to business with the routines to be practised for an upcoming show:
I was allowed to interrupt their rehearsals to get a posed shot of the whole group:
Before the class got underway, some of the kids enjoyed limbering up:
Then, down to business with the routines to be practised for an upcoming show:
I was allowed to interrupt their rehearsals to get a posed shot of the whole group:
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Katrina and Ben's Fundraising Concert
Another outing for the Canon G11 compact camera, to Ecclesall Parish Church for Katrina Brown and Ben Gregor-smith's fundraising concert for their upcoming postgraduate studies in Switzerland.
It was good to be reminded what a splendid space this church is:
Good also to be photographing Katrina and Ben for real, playing, after our previous publicity shoot. Katrina played pieces by Brahms and Rebecca Clarke.
Ben played music by Debussy, Beethoven and Paganini.
The sizeable audience evidently enjoyed their excellent playing, ably supported by Yolande Wrigley's exquisite musicianship at the piano.
In particular, the older music-lovers amongst us were reminded of the huge wealth of talent and commitment amongst the young musicians of today.
More images are here.
It was good to be reminded what a splendid space this church is:
Good also to be photographing Katrina and Ben for real, playing, after our previous publicity shoot. Katrina played pieces by Brahms and Rebecca Clarke.
Ben played music by Debussy, Beethoven and Paganini.
The sizeable audience evidently enjoyed their excellent playing, ably supported by Yolande Wrigley's exquisite musicianship at the piano.
In particular, the older music-lovers amongst us were reminded of the huge wealth of talent and commitment amongst the young musicians of today.
More images are here.
Thursday 27 May 2010
Publicity Shoot with Young Musicians
I recently completed a publicity shoot with two musicians, Ben Gregor-Smith (cello) and Katrina Brown (viola). Every freelance musician needs publicity shots for event programmes as well as websites and other media. Making these is very different from shooting musicians in rehearsal or performance. The approach is basically that of photographic portraiture. However, there is often (posed) musical "action", and the instrument figures prominently in every image.
We started in my studio, which is in my home. The space is 15 feet (into a bay window) by 12, and doubles as my study and digital darkroom. The ceiling is 8 feet high. These dimensions prove only just adequate.
The studio images were all made with a white background ("high key" style). This is a bit of a photographic cliche but it shows off the colour and texture of string instruments to good effect, and makes a dramatic contrast with the dark concert dress usually worn by both men and women.
I found both Katrina and Ben had a great visual sense of what would make a good image -- they both did Art A-level which may have something to do with it. The work was a meeting of creative minds, as we shared ideas and found out together what worked and what didn't. They were a pleasure to work with, and the time raced by!
We called one image "Girl with a Pearl Earring":
We moved on to the Sheffield Botanical Gardens, which are full of photographic opportunities. The weather was unpromising, and we only managed a few shots before we had to take cover from rain, first under the entrance portico:
and then in the glass pavilions:
More images of Ben here and of Katrina here.
This was a very enjoyable assignment and I'd be very glad to hear from other musicians requiring publicity shots.
We started in my studio, which is in my home. The space is 15 feet (into a bay window) by 12, and doubles as my study and digital darkroom. The ceiling is 8 feet high. These dimensions prove only just adequate.
The studio images were all made with a white background ("high key" style). This is a bit of a photographic cliche but it shows off the colour and texture of string instruments to good effect, and makes a dramatic contrast with the dark concert dress usually worn by both men and women.
I found both Katrina and Ben had a great visual sense of what would make a good image -- they both did Art A-level which may have something to do with it. The work was a meeting of creative minds, as we shared ideas and found out together what worked and what didn't. They were a pleasure to work with, and the time raced by!
We called one image "Girl with a Pearl Earring":
We moved on to the Sheffield Botanical Gardens, which are full of photographic opportunities. The weather was unpromising, and we only managed a few shots before we had to take cover from rain, first under the entrance portico:
and then in the glass pavilions:
More images of Ben here and of Katrina here.
This was a very enjoyable assignment and I'd be very glad to hear from other musicians requiring publicity shots.
Tuesday 18 May 2010
Music in the Round returns to the Crucible Studio
I've long appreciated the challenge of photographing chamber music concerts. Normally, of course, this is forbidden, because it can disturb the audience, quite apart from the ban routinely imposed by venues. Last week I was invited to shoot the final concert of Music in the Round's annual May Festival. This event was significant for two reasons: it was Peter Cropper's last Festival before retiring as Artistic Director, and the first Festival back in the Crucible Studio after reburbishment.
The musicians say that performing in the round, in the unforgivingly precise accoustic of the Studio, is initially terrifying but ultimately exciting and uniquely rewarding. Peter Cropper's vision has brought us a special immediacy of rapport between audience and players. It is this that I have tried to capture in these images.
It's essential to use a silent (mirrorless) camera and to be positioned unobtrusively rather than in the thick of the audience. This was the first major outing for my Canon G11 compact camera. It coped reasonably well at ISO 400 but images made at ISO 800 to reduce subject movement blur were rather more compromised. This first image shows the expectant audience:
The most challenging images were those showing both performers and audience when the house lights were down -- the small sensor's dynamic range is scarcely up to this. Of course, you can't combine images of moving subjects to extend this range, but blending multiple RAW "exposures" or localised Photoshop levels and curves adjustments improved matters somewhat:
My favorite shot of the night shows the flourish of string players' bows in the instant following the very last note of the final piece of the Festival, Schubert's monumental Octet:
Peter Cropper, delayed in France by volcanic ash, arrived too late to perform in the concert. He just made it in time to receive the appreciation of the audience at the end of the evening:
This outing confirms Canon's wisdom in reducing the pixel density of the G11 as compared with the G10. It also confirms the benefit of Canon's restoration of the swivelling LCD screen, last seen on the G6. In terms of image quality, the G11 is a great improvement on the G6, which I sold to help finance the G11. I'm glad not to have invested in any of the intervening G series cameras!
More images are posted on my website.
The musicians say that performing in the round, in the unforgivingly precise accoustic of the Studio, is initially terrifying but ultimately exciting and uniquely rewarding. Peter Cropper's vision has brought us a special immediacy of rapport between audience and players. It is this that I have tried to capture in these images.
It's essential to use a silent (mirrorless) camera and to be positioned unobtrusively rather than in the thick of the audience. This was the first major outing for my Canon G11 compact camera. It coped reasonably well at ISO 400 but images made at ISO 800 to reduce subject movement blur were rather more compromised. This first image shows the expectant audience:
The most challenging images were those showing both performers and audience when the house lights were down -- the small sensor's dynamic range is scarcely up to this. Of course, you can't combine images of moving subjects to extend this range, but blending multiple RAW "exposures" or localised Photoshop levels and curves adjustments improved matters somewhat:
My favorite shot of the night shows the flourish of string players' bows in the instant following the very last note of the final piece of the Festival, Schubert's monumental Octet:
Peter Cropper, delayed in France by volcanic ash, arrived too late to perform in the concert. He just made it in time to receive the appreciation of the audience at the end of the evening:
This outing confirms Canon's wisdom in reducing the pixel density of the G11 as compared with the G10. It also confirms the benefit of Canon's restoration of the swivelling LCD screen, last seen on the G6. In terms of image quality, the G11 is a great improvement on the G6, which I sold to help finance the G11. I'm glad not to have invested in any of the intervening G series cameras!
More images are posted on my website.
Monday 22 March 2010
The Top Shelalas
A great night's singing at the Walkley Community Centre in February opened with a set by The Top Shelalas. I've been inspired by two of these wonderful performers, Helen Lyle and Kate Thomas, who teach Purple Cats, the community choir I joined last year after photographing their spot at the Sheffield Green Fair.
The singers themselves chose the following images for their own use:
More images here.
The singers themselves chose the following images for their own use:
More images here.
Back to Blogging
The last several months have been pretty busy with all sorts of things other than photography. It's felt like there's been no time to keep up the blog. But I've had some good photographic times since my last posting. So I'll write a few posts over the coming days -- in no particular order -- by way of catching up.
Sunday 23 August 2009
Update on Yorkshire BIPP
Back in December, I floated the idea of BIPP activity local to South Yorkshire. Since then, I've been going to meetings in Selby most months. The drive can be a pain, expecially when it takes me 50 minutes to get to the M1 from my home on the other side of Sheffield. But it's been well worth it.
The meetings are advertised on the regional website, as well as via email. I've found them really helpful. Most of the presentations have been skills-oriented, which has suited me as I've still so much to learn. There's a very friendly and supportive atmosphere, with informal discussion and networking during breaks and continuing after the meeting's been formally closed. The committee, experienced and busy photographers, obviously put a lot of effort into putting on stimulating and productive meetings. And they must find the attendance levels and feedback they get very rewarding.
For example, there have been two presentations on off-camera flash for outdoor portraiture, one by Clare Louise using Speedlites and another by Steve Howdle, using Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit. Taken together, these gave lots of practical guidance and inspiration.
Most recently, there was an excellent full-day workshop on Photoshop retouching of portraits by Dave Wall. He's a very engaging speaker, witty, friendly and informal, and explains things very clearly. His teaching methods are very sound, including frequent admonitions against writing things down whilst he's demonstrating them, with promises to repeat instructions specifically for the purpose of everyone writing notes on a process before he moves on to the next item. He covered a lot of ground and seemed to satisfy participants with varying levels of knowledge of Photoshop.
Most of us brought our laptops and Dave passed around pen drives with the images we were to work on. The committee had set us all up with trestle tables and power extensions to make us convenient workstations.
It was especially helpful to see how to make subtle changes to an image rather than "overcooking" them. I did find it ethically challenging, though, to be invited to make changes that the subject would not be aware of, but which would leave them feeling better about themselves (e.g., by having their width reduced by 5%). I couldn't help wondering whether this doesn't reinforce potentially damaging ideas that people need to be seen as thinner than they are in order to feel acceptable. Is it OK for us photographers to encourage our clients to subscribe to the potentially unhealthy "size zero" norm of thinness?
Dave took us through the process of whitening a white background by masking off the subject. I'd read this up before but had never seen such a clear, thorough and systematic demonstration. I have since found this a promising tool for unpainted background areas of my reproductions of watercolour paintings or botanical illustrations.
I made a point of spending much of the following day reviewing my notes and trying out the techniques Dave had presented. This went very well. I was able to reproduce nearly all that Dave had presented without difficulty, testimony to his first-rate skills as a teacher.
Altogether an excellent event, for which I'm very grateful to Dave and to the committee for organising it so well.
Although the Owl at Hambleton (near Selby) is a very suitable venue -- comfortable enough without being too plush or pricey, unpretentious but well-prepared meals at reasonable prices, and very convenient for the motorway network -- the committee are interested in reaching out to members based some way away, such as South Yorkshire. This might be by putting on additional, local meetings. I said I'd ask around for ideas re possible venues. Any ideas, fellow-members from South Yorkshire?
The meetings are advertised on the regional website, as well as via email. I've found them really helpful. Most of the presentations have been skills-oriented, which has suited me as I've still so much to learn. There's a very friendly and supportive atmosphere, with informal discussion and networking during breaks and continuing after the meeting's been formally closed. The committee, experienced and busy photographers, obviously put a lot of effort into putting on stimulating and productive meetings. And they must find the attendance levels and feedback they get very rewarding.
For example, there have been two presentations on off-camera flash for outdoor portraiture, one by Clare Louise using Speedlites and another by Steve Howdle, using Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit. Taken together, these gave lots of practical guidance and inspiration.
Most recently, there was an excellent full-day workshop on Photoshop retouching of portraits by Dave Wall. He's a very engaging speaker, witty, friendly and informal, and explains things very clearly. His teaching methods are very sound, including frequent admonitions against writing things down whilst he's demonstrating them, with promises to repeat instructions specifically for the purpose of everyone writing notes on a process before he moves on to the next item. He covered a lot of ground and seemed to satisfy participants with varying levels of knowledge of Photoshop.
Most of us brought our laptops and Dave passed around pen drives with the images we were to work on. The committee had set us all up with trestle tables and power extensions to make us convenient workstations.
It was especially helpful to see how to make subtle changes to an image rather than "overcooking" them. I did find it ethically challenging, though, to be invited to make changes that the subject would not be aware of, but which would leave them feeling better about themselves (e.g., by having their width reduced by 5%). I couldn't help wondering whether this doesn't reinforce potentially damaging ideas that people need to be seen as thinner than they are in order to feel acceptable. Is it OK for us photographers to encourage our clients to subscribe to the potentially unhealthy "size zero" norm of thinness?
Dave took us through the process of whitening a white background by masking off the subject. I'd read this up before but had never seen such a clear, thorough and systematic demonstration. I have since found this a promising tool for unpainted background areas of my reproductions of watercolour paintings or botanical illustrations.
I made a point of spending much of the following day reviewing my notes and trying out the techniques Dave had presented. This went very well. I was able to reproduce nearly all that Dave had presented without difficulty, testimony to his first-rate skills as a teacher.
Altogether an excellent event, for which I'm very grateful to Dave and to the committee for organising it so well.
Although the Owl at Hambleton (near Selby) is a very suitable venue -- comfortable enough without being too plush or pricey, unpretentious but well-prepared meals at reasonable prices, and very convenient for the motorway network -- the committee are interested in reaching out to members based some way away, such as South Yorkshire. This might be by putting on additional, local meetings. I said I'd ask around for ideas re possible venues. Any ideas, fellow-members from South Yorkshire?
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