1275cc Austin Mini Cooper S
This Mini carries one of the original registration numbers from the classic British film “The Italian Job”. Having bought all three plates that the car carried and the rights to use the registration numbers the owner then set about creating the perfect replica of the original car to attach the numberplates to!

Asked to shoot and write the feature for Mini Magazine I had a call with the owner about some suitable locations in his part of the world. “Well, we can recreate the sewer shots if you want?” I was a bit stunned but was assured that it would “Look really good.”

Two weeks later when we met at the location I was stunned at what I saw. Not only was it just about perfect but also the car’s owner had arranged with a local farmer that should I ask for it then we had 2,000 gallons of water available to flood it for a full on sewer effect.

Shot with with just two flashes, one to the left of the camera  shot through a brolly and a second aproximately 15ft behind the car and facing forward, I opted not to use the water in the end. The car was pristine and the thought of the poor owner having to clean his car afterward was too much. Also I didn’t fancy my flash battery packs ending their lives prematurely. To this day this shot remains one of my firm favourites.

Read all about the Italian Job Minis here.

Title: Chocolate From a Ladle

Arriving with the editor I took some detail shots of the shop to set the scene, then we turned our attentions to a shot to show the chocolate making process. The kitchen’s hob on which the chocolate is melted was not too photogenic, so I asked if we could set up in the shop area, deciding that by controlling the ambient light with flash I could get a shot of the white chocolate against a dark background.

With one Canon 580EX Flash connected to a Pocketwizard and firing into a Rogue FlashBender to give a diffused light a second FlashBender was attached to a Gorilla pod and placed to provided a degree of reflected light to the right hand side of the image.

With exposure set (1/50th@f10, with flash on 16th power) by using an empty bowl and ladle, to save the molten chocolate cooling, all that remained was for the chocolatier to melt the chocolate, bring the bowl through and for some artistic ladling of the chocolate to begin.

Yes, it was delicious thanks!

A big wing, flared wheel arches and spoilers may not be to everyone’s taste, but you can’t deny it looks purposeful.

Title: Within The Peleton
Taken at the Tour Of Britian Cycle Race as it passed through Trafalgar Square I wanted to capture the speed and colour of the race. Pre-focusing on the apex of the corner I let the camera fire away at 8 frames per second, on 1/25th of a second  shutter speed as the Peloton passed through. This was the only shot that captured  a rider completely.

I like to work outdoors with light, be it with natural daylight, or to complement that with flash, so to go inside for a shoot was a nice change. No need to worry about rain, of if my battery packs will laste the duration, or, my biggest enemy, a gust of wind. Over the last five or so years I have been using them my Bowen’s heads must have come crashing to the ground at least twenty times. I’ve lost count of the number of shoot through brollies have ended up in the bin, as they thankfully cushion the falls, in much the same way a UV filter is there to take the bullet for the more expensive glass it’s attached to. But I digress..

In the studio was a high glide system, which is a pretty amazing piece of kit, and allows you to get your lights pretty much anywhere, and keeps the floor clear of stands and general detritus, which will only serve to trip you up. Once set up you just need to manhandle the light into the position you want and away you go.

Eric

First stop was the Imperial War Museum in London for the superb Shaped By War exhibition by Don McCullin, (Which is on until 15th April 2012, so get yourself along). I’ve been a long time fan of McCullin’s work inspired by his harsh gritty reality of war and to revisit some of his work again was a pleasure.

The exhibition is well curated, with the huge image of US troops in a damaged building on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin in 1961 mounted high up so that you can see the images as McCullin would have seen it through his viewfinder. Clever.

As well as a wide range of his work on display there are a number of his personal possessions such as passports and press cards and also his Nikon F which took a bullet in Vietnam and may, or may not, have saved his life. A video of McCullin chatting shows him telling the story of escaping from heavy fire without any excitement or suggestion, just a statement of facts, and revealing when he was safe he checked his equipment and found the camera’s damage.

McCullin was not just about war however, and when the war erupted in Nigeria as Biafra sought independence it was, as is so often the case, the ordinary citizens that suffered, a plight which McCullin brought to the world’s attention. “I was devastated by the sight of 900 children living in one camp in utter squalor at the point of death,” he said. “I lost all interest in photographing soldiers in action.”

His image of an albino child shocked the world, and still brings a lump to my throat every time I see it, which to my mind makes McCullin one of the best photojournalists there has ever been.

A swift walk north from the Imperial Was Museum and you soon find yourself at London’s Southbank, and the National Theatre which is hosting the Landscape photographer of the Year exhibition, 2011 until the 28th January 2012.

With over 100 prints on display, and a bar nearby you can enjoy a drink as you browse the prints and easily pass an hour.  Now, by my own admission I do not have an eye for rural landscapes, so to see master of their field (No pun intended) at work was rather enjoyable, but I do have some reservations. Alongside each image is info on the camera and technical aspects of the photograph, which to us camera geeks is quite interesting. however, you do feel that perhaps that for anyone to produce a winner their skill in the digital darkroom must match that when behind the camera. One image, which you can see on that link above reveals that the image was created from five separate shots and three different exposures (Go figure!) while another, on closer inspection, reveals that a key element in the shot has much higher artefacts that the rest of the image, suggesting it was added in later. It’s a digital world folks, so where do we draw the line? I’d like to know what McCullin thinks.

Of course what usually happens is the blogger writes a post about how thin the blog looks thereby offering an apology for there being no content, but at the same time also creating some content. Clever!

I know you’re too smart to see through a scam like that, so I thought I’d post this just to let you know I won’t go down that well worn path…