Bob Carlos Clarke retrospective.

Still my favourite photographer hands down. The Guardian have put a nine photo preview of the exhibition that will show at The Little Black Gallery (from 8th May through to the 3rd July). The Little Black Gallery was put together by Ghislain Pascal, Lindsey Carlos Clarke and Tamara Beckwith. There's also a permenant exhibition at Marco Pierre White's restaurant, Luciano's.

The exhibition coincides with the release of Exposure: The Unusual Life and Violent Death of Bob Carlos Clarke by Simon Garfield.

Links:
Bob Carlos Clarke
The Little Black Gallery
Link to Amazon for the book.

One of the best shoots I've ever had.

The last twelve months seem to have blessed me with some of the best shoots I've done. Yesterday was excellent though everyone's first though for a wedding: "what's the weather like?".

Now the Met office don't always get it right no matter how many "it's supposed to clear up by 1pm" sentences I heard the rain didn't let up all day. From the moment I started shooting at 11am until I stopped at 10pm. Always have a "plan B" is my motto, so we rolled out plan B with immediate effect.

Off camera flash was the order of the day, the formals and bride/groom portraits were all done in the church after the service. Once the larger formals were done I spent 30 minutes with the couple, "can you hold this high please" I asked and a semi bemused Groom held my SB-600 as high as he could. Hey presto, simulated daylight coming through the window of the church, with a bounce card the light spread nicely. Same again but with me shooting from the balcony and Nikon's CLS kicked in no problems at all (I'm sure glad Fuji kept CLS in the S5 Pro).

I'll post some pictures up soon but I want the bride and groom to see everything first.

Wedding Shoot pre flight checks....

I tend to lock myself in my office with everything I need before a wedding shoot. Then the pre flight checks begin.

1. Charge every battery you have for cameras.
2. Fresh batteries in both flashguns.
3. Fong Lightsphere ALWAYS goes on the Sigma, no exceptions.
4. Clean all lenses.
5. Make sure the camera bodies are clean as well.
6. Revise the list of shots I have to do.
7. Double check my timing plan. Church to formals to Bride & Groom shots to Reception. Played out in my head many times over.
8. Shirt ironed and suit ready.
9. Business cards in pocket.
10. Check the weather for tomorrow.
11. Make sure there's enough petrol in the car.

A great way to learn lighting...

..is to look at what everyone else is up to. Whether that be reading Strobist, trying to get inside the head of Joe McNally etc.

Trade Secret Cards now have a collection of lighting related cards. The picture on one side and the diagram of how it was done on the other. It's an excellent idea.

You can read the Strobist post here.

The incline to 2010 begins here.

I'm off to join the British Institute of Professional Photographers today, I'm actually quite excited.

From crisis through to resolve

For the last couple of weeks I hit a real creative rut. Horrible it was too. In hindsight it's good to go through these things. A complete month of downtime with the camera wasn't what I had in mind but it was a great way to do things.

Yesterday was a major turning point when I watch Zack Arias video that he did for Scott Kelby's guest blogger segment. As I've been busy with other things over the last few weeks I haven't really had chance to look at photographic blogs or the like.

If you are in creative industry, Zack's video is a must see.

Hot Shoe Diaries.... finally pre ordered mine.

I couldn't hold off any longer and Amazon have a very good pre order price.

There's a sample chapter here if you want to have a look. You can even order it here if you like.
The Hot Shoe Diaries: Creative Applications of Small Flashes (Voices That Matter)