Browsing in Brighton

I spent the weekend down in Brighton as I was shooting fishing in Shoreham on Tuesday. Brighton is always excellent for street photography and spotting quirky things that are great to photograph. Thought I'd share this photo here with you. 

Food, revisited

So, I've come along way since I've been doing Edible. I also work part time for a food stock agency now and am working alongside some of the best food photographers in the world. I'm becoming slowly obsessed with taking photos of what I've been eating so expect some recipes popping up soon. 


I've also moved and I now live in a flat that has bright bay windows and white walls so I'm much more blessed with the right light. If sun streams through the windows, I use a cheap net curtain from Ikea to diffuse the light. I also use sheets of white foam board to bounce light back into a dish. I usually position the light behind the subject. I often work at about f3.5 but you can take that aperture narrower, even up to about f5.5, and still get that lovely depth of field. I work with my L series 24-70 f2.8 for all my food shots.

Music Photography

I am a music obsessive. Always have been, always will be. I've been very blessed to be able to photograph some of my favourite artists in the past few months and I think music photography is the way I'm heading professionally, it's where my heart lies and it's what inspires me.

Use negative space to enhance an image. 

The last few months have been a whirlwind of gigs and nights. My advice for getting gigs to photograph is to be bold - go to your favourite gigs and if public photography is allowed, take your camera and email the photos to the artist and/or record label as soon as possible after the gig. Offer to do further gigs for them - they're usually unpaid but it may open other doors. Keep at it too - if you see a gig you want to cover get in contact with the promoters with some examples of past gigs and ask if they'd like it covering.

Roots Manuva

The photography itself is the fun bit - don't worry about it, if you like the artist you WILL get shots you're happy with. Music photography equals working with low light - be prepared to set your ISO high and shoot as wide open (low aperture number - e.g. f2) as possible. This is always a good plan anyway for that good depth of field.

Direct flash with slow shutter

A long lens is advised - I always work with my 135mm f2.0. If it's a concert or gig in a large venue then flash isn't usually allowed however, if it's a DJ or club night I wholeheartedly recommend taking a flash with a diffuser. I would usually bounce the flash but direct flash (diffused) with a slow shutter speed can produce some interesting results. Be adventurous with direct flash, you can even shake the camera. I recommend a Lumiquest mini soft box - it's hard wearing and does a fantastic job. It's about 20 quid, beware of Ebay copies, I had one and it fell apart after my second gig with it and it was difficult to get on and off.

Utilise light hitting your subject

I'm guilty of shooting tons and tons of shots - try and stand back every once in a while and take in how the lights are working and how they're catching your subject. Take advantage of the different colour lights and try different angles - get down low so a spotlight is behind the artists head, or shoot so you can see the beam of light hitting your subject. You can also use the light to silhouette your subject or to highlight the instrument they're playing.

Get amongst the crowd

Labels love crowd shots too - of course it's nice to have some amazing pictures of their artists but also you need to capture the vibe of the crowd. Get out amongst the crowd, enjoy the music with people, have a little dance with them and get snapping. People generally don't mind you squeezing through if they see you have a large camera with you and a lot of them will try and get in photos. Don't be annoyed by this, embrace it! Don't be afraid of enjoying yourself either, if you're having fun, you'll capture a vibe a lot better. 

Make the most of wide apertures

A pit is a good vantage point

Finally, get to a gig early - give yourself time to check out the venue and shoot some shots of the setting up or support band so you're all set up for the main act. Ultimately - have fun and enjoy what you're doing, it's a good place to be. 

Black and white often works well

Use smokey atmospheres to your advantage

Get meeting the crowd

Capture the emotion of the crowd

Familiarise yourself with the artists

Get up close, don't be shy

Use a long lens

A subject to the side can make for a striking image

The crowd love being photographed

Pay attention to every member of the band

Baby session

Meet Gabriella. She's a beautiful newborn and her parents were wonderfully happy.

Canvas offer

I'm always for the look out for canvas and print offers - once an image is printed it really comes to life. The best places to look for deals by far is Groupon and LIving Social. Living Social sent out this link this morning for 67% off canvas and prints.

Enjoy!

Street Style

Without a doubt, my strength in photography is taking photos of people when they don't know a photo is being taken of them. I can't get enough of it.


The thing is with street photography is there is always someone to photograph, especially in Brighton. And you have to be bold. Quite often, people will just assume you're taking general shots of the street for a newspaper or news story. Then you get the types (usually after a few drinks) who pose for you and want to be involved, everyone wants a minute of fame, right?












Get out there and see what you come up with - soak in the atmosphere of where you are and shoot for that feeling. I usually shoot with a wide aperture (please see the 'jargon' page if this term confuses you) and with a fairly long lens (135mm usually). Use a fairly fast shutter speed, if it's a dark day you may need to increase your ISO slightly.

Shopping areas are great: people ducking in and out of shops, friends laughing with each other, tired faces. Buskers always make for good street shots too. Then there's the 'cool' part of town where everyone is walking around in the latest fashions. Try parks and the beach too but in the summer I avoid pointing the camera at women in small bikinis for obvious reasons. Take care when taking photos of children too, use your discretion on what could be misconstrued as indecent.

Remember, the law says you are allowed to photograph what you want in a public space so never feel like you're doing anything wrong. Never be shy, look confident with what you're doing, the more confident you look, the less shifty you look.

In the warmer months, take advantage of the golden hour  - when the sun is going down and the streets are bathed in the lovely warm light. I usually have the sun behind my subjects but you can do it either way. Mornings are great any time of year - people out walking their dogs and joggers on the seafront.

Last thing, if you're heading into town to photograph, give me a shout first, I may be up for coming with you!

Food, Glorious Food

I had an aunty Gloria, I miss her terribly. When I was a nipper, we used to sing 'Food, Gloria's Food' and whenever I'm photographing food I think of the song and her.

Anyhoo, I love photographing food. For one, it doesn't have any expectations (Can you imagine a pomegranate exclaiming: 'I don't want my double chin to show'?) and for two it can be so ruddy pretty.

Food takes styling though and it's something I'm learning to do slowly but surely.

These photos were all done for issue 2 of Edible and believe it or not, I just used bounce flash in my humble living room. My living room was quite dark and it needed something to lift the shots - a white ceiling was a great help here.

Use a tripod for food photography, you have no excuse not to and you'll be pleased you did. A point of focus on food should always be tack sharp.

Which brings me on to my next point. Let's face it - unless you have some clever lighting, food looks boring when a narrow aperture (deep depth of field) is used. When photographing food set-ups I always shoot wide open. I usually use my trusty 135mm f2 but I have also achieved some amazing results with the less costly 85mm f1.8. Try not to get too much out of focus though.

I needed to create something festive that didn't look too obviously Christmassy. I took advantage of a bit of bokeh in some of these shots by placing some small battery operated fairy lights in the background. Play around with food - sift some icing sugar over things, add sparkly stars, find some beautifully rich coloured material to place your food on but most of all just have some fun with it - the food ain't going anywhere, you haven't got any time restrictions and you get to eat it after!