Wherever I hang my bike... that's my home!

You can't fail to have seen the growing interest in cycling in recent years... indeed the Tour De Yorkshire has only just finished for another year... and that grew out of the amazing support the Tour De France gathered when it came to Yorkshire in 2014. However where you park your bike has become a little more challenging... if you want to find it there when you return from your coffee!

A recent phone call from Greg Villalobos reminded me that with imagination and some talent solutions to problems present themselves. A video producer, designer and BAFTA winner Greg was interested in a friend's problem of where to store her bike in a house without a garage... typical of many city dwellers. That his friend was a talented sportswoman and therefore rode a highly valuable bike made the problem a little more challenging then simply leaving the bike outside against the fence!

I'd first met Greg a couple of years ago.. it was easy to identify him as the rider of the Triumph motorbike which everybody was admiring from the windows... he was the only one in the room with a crash helmet!

Later he asked if I could help him create images for a website Gregory North, as his bike rack designs were gathering interest and sales enquiries from those who had seen his friend's example.

A clean, simple design, hand crafted in plywood we discussed the type of client this would appeal to.... and decided the white block walls of the studio would work well... so out came the drill and in a couple of minutes we had beautifully engineered bikes hanging from the studio walls... simple!

And the recent call from Greg... well that was about a technical issue he was having with a new project... unfortunately he's not just a nice guy but also one of those infuriatingly creative individuals who sees something that interests and inspires him and he jumps straight in... as was shown by the  recent award from The Motorcycle Film Festival for his short documentary film on The Coast to Coast Trail.

You’re a pea brained, prat headed, talentless pillock headed….

Before you ask… no that’s not one of my more “educational comments” to an assistant or student…  

And no I’ve never, ever been tempted… because a friend and colleague told me of the day he was shooting a car on 10”x8” film (long time ago now!) from up a very tall ladder…at the end of which he realised the assistant had miss loaded all the film…time for a “Gordon Ramsey?” No... for as he said who’s was the bigger fault…the assistant for miss loading or him for not checking…and standing up a ladder swearing at yourself only convinces those watching that you really have lost it!

However before Gordon Ramsay made such outbursts "famous" the comedian Lenny Henry was doing it… just better and funnier! Indeed re-watching episodes from his “kitchen comedy” CHEF!, recently released on YouTube, still leave me doubled up… nearly ten years before Gordon made such outbursts on television "bollocking" Gareth Blackstock was doing it!

And what does this have to do with photography… you may well ask?

Some time ago now we were working in a new hotel and during a long day arrived in the Restaurant to see a selection of the chef’s signature dishes laid out ready for photography.

These included a bowl of Crayfish, looking fantastic on a bed of crushed ice. Needless to say we were under a little pressure to get the shots required before the re-opening of the Restaurant for evening service.

Things were going really well until I noticed that the Crayfish had moved between frames.., though I couldn’t remember moving the bowl and was sure I hadn’t asked my assistant, or so I thought… anyway... eye to camera I simply asked for the bowl to be moved and a hand appeared in frame to make the adjustment…

When the hand of my assistant touched the bowl the Crayfish reached out and oh so gently grasped a finger with it’s claw… my assistant froze! I had trouble seeing... as I was crying…with laughter…and the talented chef calmly and quietly commented that they actually weren’t cooked, simply kept “on-ice” until required... and clearly the photographer's lights were perhaps a little warm!

And how would Chef Blackstock have dealt with such an “escape attempt”… well just watch… when at 4.10 into the shortened video below he has first to deal with "runny mayonnaise" and is then told that all the Crayfish have escaped… "You’re a pea brained, prat headed, talentless, pillock headed... What are you…??"

To see the full episode CHEF1 Season 1 Episode 5 / BBC Worldwide

Education, Education, Education...

Any conversation with a client which starts…” how on earth did you manage to do that?”… whilst they're grinning ear to ear, is always a good start to a meeting!

Having heard this recently from a long standing client it got me thinking about just exactly what it is we do, and why we manage to have this effect on clients whilst just doing our job…

It’s not that clients are totally unaware of what we do as photographers…after all there are some who take great interest in exactly what happens when the photographer turns up…those that take “thoughtful contemplation” as clear signs of incompetence and a need to offer constructive advice from their extensive photographic knowledge…after all just how difficult can it be to take photographs if you’re doing it?

Then again others will look around the studio as though entering a magical kingdom… a land of smoke and mirrors…where pretty much anything you do will result in an “ohh” or a “whowww!” You are clearly a magician who will work your own special magic on the obscure widget they have brought lovingly to this temple of creativity.

However when it comes to the image above, of The Creative Arts Building at Huddersfield University, my client has many years of experience of what I do and how I do it… usually when we discuss budgets it’s all about trying to avoid their photog’s irrational desire to request 100ft aerial platforms, movement of entire site offices, relocation of a visually offencive parked car…or indeed entire car parks…or "borrow" an aircraft to achieve a suitable aerial viewpoint which will definitely look fantastic, but needs to be overhead around dawn to get the best light…and yes we have done all that and more…and they’ve loved the results! To say nothing of the fact the best light will definitely not be until next spring when the sun is in the best location…

That I “chase the light” …a phrase I believe truly describes photography, but must confess I’ve pinched from a photog friend…just hope he’s not looking…is really the key to a project like this.

Light… its direction, strength and quality which help create great images…whether the source is several million miles away or within reach. Put another way if you can stand there and see no shadow cast by yourself it’s either not a good architectural photography day…or you’re related to the “living dead”…just best not to explain this to the client quite like that!

When I recce’d this location, along with several others for this client, I was really conscious of the reflective nature of the building cladding and glass curtain walls…key features of the design and materials employed…despite the fact I was there during a typical “Yorkshire Summer”…that it was “raining” does not adequately describe the generosity of the weather!

What did we do without Google Maps, weather forecasts and sun charts…that’s right I have a little knowledge of where to look to find the time of year when the sun “should” shine in just the right direction for this or any other building…not magic really! So that’s why this client trusted me to wait through several months of apparently lovely sunshine for the time of year when the sun would give us the effect I had in mind…

So on the weekend of the shoot we were on-site just after sunrise…about 6.00am…after around a 2 hour drive…sitting in a supermarket car park with a clear view of the building…waiting for the local cloud to clear…and waiting…and waiting…because the forecast was for sunshine before “mid morning”…

Here I’ll gloss over the wonderful cooked breakfast…always sets you up for a day “cloud watching”… the issue of car parking for hours sat staring out the car windows…always guaranteed to attract attention from the “fluorescent jacket brigade!” Yes…I am “stalking”…that great big building over there…not your customers!!

And it’s all that questioning, planning, preparation and experience which we as photographers need to educate clients about. If we’re lucky…just like I’ve been…our clients realise that we have skills and experience which they must respect, just as they would any other professional…and in turn we must produce the result which make them ask “how did you do that?”

It’s just that moment which gives the opportunity to educate them about what makes us professional photographers…over a coffee and chocolate biscuit please!