Commercial, event and interview videography
As promised, here they are – the photos from the historic and always impressive Greenham Common. A place so steeped in controversial history and yet so beautiful whether in gleaming sunshine or gale-force winds (as it was for us), I always enjoy a long walk up there. For those of you who have seen the latest Star Wars, you might well recognise part of the landscape, minus the incredibly muddy dog.
Last weekend saw the return of Festive Road’s Paraffinalia winter fire show at Campbell Park. It was a chilly night, but it was a great show and I got some great pictures from it.
It won’t be the first time I’ve said it, but I really like this picture.
I could go on about colour and composition, and knowing me I probably will, but the thing I love most about this picture is the shift in perspective. As someone growing up in the UK, where we don’t have the big gnarly spiders of warmer climes, I’m used to seeing these things as a shuffling ball of legs with no real body or face. In spite of how scared of these guys I am, I find them fascinating. It is believed that you are never more than 10 feet away from a spider at any time.
In fact, there’s one directly above me right now. Hmm.
For those of you who aren’t read up on your UK weather patterns, this summer was a warm one, and those spiders which are usually only little and small got pretty freaking big. After a shoot at a local park, I was walking back and passed by a thick gorse-like bush covered in thick webs. On closer inspection I saw that each little patch of web had a not-so-little-spider tucked away, and in some cases I could make out some really interesting features and colours with my own eyes, let alone looking through the zoom lens. I decided to return the next day at around 10am, to get some clearer sunlight overhead.
Luckily, by the time I arrived the rain had long since cleared and the spiders were, for the most part, out in the centre of their webs. From that point on it was a case of remaining quiet so as not to spook them and dropping down to their level. Shooting at f5.6 with a shutter speed of 1/1600 without a tripod, the key challenge was re-framing as the subjects kept shifting about and rapidly darting across their webs.
The reason that I loved this project, and especially that first image, is that readjustment in perspective, taking these creatures which are so small and largely ignored in this country and placing them above the viewer, bigger than the viewer. It is easy to imagine how freaking terrifying it would be to be insect-sized and have these guys as a natural predator; the dark eyes, the strangely-balanced bulk, the patient and eerie intelligence. To imagine standing before the spider in that top picture as it approaches…
To me a good picture tells a story, and that’s so dependent on composition. Most cameras have onboard processes that can alter settings to optimise the image quality, but there is nothing on there that can help you compose the picture to get the best narrative out of it. Perspective is one of the most subjective elements of reading an image, but there are norms that we take as a given (i.e; people are bigger than spiders). Taking one of those general rules of thumb and subverting them through camera placement or perspective manipulation can lead to some great pictures, with some great stories in them.
I’m going to go now, because that spider above my head is no longer above my head and I’m starting to worry.
BJC
This weekend saw the annual Wolverton Lantern Parade take to the streets in and around The Square following a week of lantern-making workshops.
Working again with the Directors and Product Design Team at hf Chocolates, I photographed the products hand-packed on premises and edited the images to match the company’s brochure style.
Last night saw the epic Clash of Drums travel from Campbell Park to The Point following a day of Rugby World Cup excitement. We followed their journey and got some cracking pictures of the fantastic drumming and fireworks display.
After a long, rainy and brilliant Bank Holiday weekend travelling the length and breadth of Cornwall, here are some of my favourite pictures.
Earlier this year I helped design the new layout and colour scheme for the All Year and Christmas brochures for Milton Keynes-based confectionery distributor Milton Keynes. Working closely with the Directors, I photographed some of the new products, took and selected images for the front cover and also helped put together some images for a couple of trade magazine adverts in the same visual style.
Please note – not all images on the front cover were taken by myself.
An immensely successful and fun event, the Wolverton Carnival consisted of a multi-vehicle parade with vehicles from Tesco decorated and populated by Milton Keynes brightest and best, followed by food, drink and live music from Manny and the Coloured Sky, Shred Belly and many others, and a fantastic performance from Kundalini Fire. All in all, not even the three or four bouts of heavy rain could stop the party!
A part of the much larger Wolverton Carnival shoot, I caught enough great images of these guys doing what they do that to pick only one or two seemed an injustice.
bjc Video 