The opportunity to photograph the inside of an exceptionally large bendy bus does not present itself that often. Even less often comes the opportunity to photograph one that has an interior built to represent the inside of a home, the suburban street it’s on and the interior of a car. Kitchen, lounge, road, level crossing, car seats and steering wheels all inside a bus so long that it’s hard to imagine how it ever made its way to the Harpenden House Hotel.
The bus is the brainchild of the folks at Liverpool Victoria and the aim is to travel the country helping to educate young children on various safety issues that exist both in the home and on the streets.
A few weeks back it was the turn of the children of St. Dominic’s School, Harpenden who were taken through the bus and shown, room by room, all the things that they should be wary of. From poorly insulated wires, boiling pans, matches, medicines and chemicals through to clothes drying in front of lounge fires and various roadside hazards. The bus and its contents represented a pretty impressive portfolio of accidents just waiting to happen, all in a perfectly safe and secure environment I might add.
From a photographic perspective the shoot represented a number of challenges. Firstly the range of ambient lighting was pretty much full spectrum. From a very bright and contrasty exterior to a sequence of interior rooms that went from fairly bright to virtually completely dark. There were also a number of TV screens and a projector screen that needed capturing along with the ambient lighting etc.
Secondly the cramped conditions inside the bus made for an interesting time when trying to get the right composition. The kids were brilliant however and the LV= guide was exception (I wish I’d got his name) and by the end of the tour we’d managed to get what we were looking for.
We all had a great time, particularly the children. Fun AND educational ….. and a very, very long bus.
I covered a PR event a short while back to celebrate the opening of a Cafe tied to a residential social care project and I was really taken with this magnificent jukebox. It’s a 1940′s style Rock-Ola reproduction and, frankly speaking, it went straight onto my list of “things that I really, really need and cannot do without”. Or at least it did until I was struck by the fact that its magnificence is matched only by its £5,500 price tag.
If you want to own one, just for a moment, they can be rented through the folks at Jitter Box who broke the news about the price tag to me very gently over the phone only a few short minutes ago.
This year’s Harpenden Classics on the Common event will take place on the 28th July 2010. This is one of my favorite yearly photographic opportunities and is, I think, the best event to take place in Harpenden all year.
I covered the event in 2009 and some of the images of the day can be seen here.
Earlier this week I covered a corporate party at the Barns on the Knebworth Estate. During the event I decided to use a method of photography that I’ve been playing with for a while which can really deliver a dynamic feel to a shoot, especially if the venue’s ambient lighting is particularly extravagant. By way of reference here’s a static tripod shot of the venue before the guests arrived. The pin lights in the ceiling are one of the things that give the subsequent image a neat little ‘twist’.
And here is a shot, completely in camera, of the event once it got going:
For the above image both the flash and camera were on manual. The idea is to have the shutter open, the flash fire and then a delay before the shutter closes again. During that post flash delay two things happen; firstly ambient light is allowed to hit the sensor, better exposing the background of the image and capturing more of the ambient light of the venue. Secondly it gives the photographer the opportunity to twist his camera around sharply about 90 degrees (not recommended with a flip top flash frame such as the Stroboframe).
For anyone interested in the numbers for the above image they were 1/4s at F/8 with the flash at 1/4 (-2/3ev), ISO 350. Nikon D300 with an SB800 speedlight. The timing of the human driven twisting element is not recorded in the EXIF data for some reason.
The burst of flash at the start of the shot has the effect of significantly freezing the subjects in the foreground while allowing the parts of the image registered in the ambient exposure (post flash) to blur.
This process is fraught with danger. Chimping the LCD display at 100% is recommended until you are comfortable with the shot setup.
On Tuesday I had the great pleasure of joining the chefs of Quantum Care for a day of nutrition training at the Fairway Tavern in Welwyn Garden City. I was impressed with the commitment and knowledge shown on the day and left feeling a little bashful about my own dietary habits. Note to self: more vegetation please.
Of course there was plenty of food on show and here is a small selection of the shots of that particular subject matter:
I’ve received a lovely letter from the wonderful folks at the Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust. A little while back I was asked if I would be their official photographer at their tenth anniversary event which I eagerly agreed to. It was a great day and, frankly, pretty humbling when you consider that most of the people there were either crew, support staff, victims or charity givers. The whole air ambulance operation is charity funded and provides invaluable emergency cover for the local area.
“I have seen the photographs which have also been distributed to our Trustees and Aircrew. We will pick out certain individual shots and send them off to the groups involved. You managed to capture the day beautifully; you are a credit to your profession.”
I really am very grateful that they took time out of their very busy day to write to me.
I’ve uploaded a selection of images of this year’s Harpenden Classics on the Common event to the local interest galleries. The gallery can be seen here.
This year’s Harpenden Classics on the Common was a little wetter than I would have liked.
I’ll be processing the images over the next few days and will upload them to the local interest galleries when they’re complete.
This year’s Harpenden Classics on the Common event will take place on Wednesday 29th July. The official web site announcing details of the event is available here.
This event promises two elements that have me coming back year after year; great classic cars and some very interesting photo opportunities. Last year was a particularly good one with the weather helping to deliver an exceptionally high turnout of enthusiasts and members of the public. The day’s photography resulted in some of my imagery appearing in The Enthusiast magazine.
Photographing the event is not particularly easy if you are looking to create pristine images of classic cars. There are simply too many elements around (people, other cars etc) to shoot clean frames. Last year I spent some considerable time shooting elements, little pieces of automotive magnificence, in response to the tight conditions. Some of these images can be seen in the machines gallery.
This year however I think I’ll be concentrating a little more on the editorial side of the event coverage by trying to capture the day as it is. People and cars all mingling with each other. Bedlam and classic car nirvana. What’s not to like?
I had the great pleasure of covering this year’s Quantum Care Awards ceremony which took place at the Holiday Inn in Borehamwood. It was a rather pucker event with around 250 guests, a number of speakers and sponsors and a special guest star appearance by Shirlie Kemp.
This was a long event with a very busy schedule that had to run very smoothly simply to get through all the material and awards without extending the structured sections too far into the night and the brief I was given was very clear that there could be no delay in the proceedings. This meant that those receiving awards were not going to be asked to wait and pose on stage for their photograph to be taken. Normally this only takes a few short seconds but at this event those seconds would soon add up.
To get the required photographs of the award winners and runners up I was asked to extend the photography team and provide a temporary studio in an adjoining room so that posed photographs could be taken after each award. Winners would be lead to the studio and photographed without slowing down the proceedings in the main event hall. Print on the day services were also to be included which we staged in the same area.
Fellow photographer Chris Hawkes, aided by my lovely assistant, stepped up to the plate and did a magnificent job of that part of the proceedings while I covered the main event in the hall.
None of us got away before 2am.
This was a really special event and it was clear to me that the effort involved in its organisation was nothing short of epic. Debbie, Sarah and Caroline were largely responsible for its planning and I would post a photograph of the lovely three but I suspect they’d never forgive me for it.