Here are a couple of black and white photos from a dirt jump spot near me which I help build at. I love documenting what goes on here. Summer time should be amazing when they are running too. The trees are still bare but it’s warming up and you can feel spring coming.
Checking the length of a jump
Aidan
Oxjam used a photo of mine as part of an information pack which is both in print and an online PDF. Oxjam (part of Oxfam) run a great series of gigs to raise money for charity. The Oxjam events are a good way to raise some money for a good cause, and get to see some great local bands at the same time!
Liam ‘Lima’ Eltham needed some photos to go on his BMX sponsor’s websites; Fox Racing. Thanks to a bit of scouting by me and some of my BMX friends a fantastic location near Oxford was found. A small lake in a nature reserve was used as the location. I choose to do the shoot just before sunset so that the sky, balanced with flash would be a beautiful dark blue colour.
There was a rock in the lake which was just below water level which gives the effect of Liam floating just above the water! I used 3 flashes to light Liam and make him stand out from the background. This image was shot on the Sigma 10-20mm, this allows you to get very close to the subject and get lots of the sky in the shot.
All the pictures are also linked to Flickr, just click on them to visit the Flickr page to post comments on them.
The reflections produced were almost a perfect copy of the scene which really adds interest to the image. The rest of the shoot was shot with a Canon 70-200mm F/2.8
After a while to try some different ideas I got some of my friends to throw rocks into the lake at Liam! Liam is a tough guy and didn’t mind the freezing water, too much… The flash freezes the water droplets perfectly.
The Fox jacket kept Liam warm, but his shoes were pretty soaked by this point!
Here’s a set-up shot of the lighting for one of the shots. Each blue circle is where a flash was placed. The Elinchrom skyport radio triggers allow me to be a good distance away fromt the subject, but not worry about trailing wires to fire the flashes.
The lighting diagram shows the set-up for the below shot.
This was the photograph that was picked to be used on the Fox Team page, it can be seen here:
http://www.foxhead.com/us/bmx/team/?id=15056
I used a strong rim light for this shot to separate Liam from the background. [A rim light is the light that produces the white line along the left side of his body]. The water droplets are frozen by the fast flash duration, as is the motion of his body making Liam appear to float. It was a fun shoot, a big thanks to Liam for being open to trying ideas!
Feel free to ask any more question in the comments section below.
I went to Cardiff in Wales the weekend, stopped off at Barry beach and took some photos. This picture is also on Flickr. I find landscape photography very relaxing, although it can be very frustrating if the light is wrong. This is a HDR of three shots taken on a tripod.
I find it’s always a good idea to work with a concept when taking on a fashion shoot. This test shoot was to the theme of ‘Rock Chic’.
The shoot was all done in my studio near Oxford with one or two studio strobe mono blocks, depending on the shot (Elinchrom 250 and 500 head). Most of the shots were with just one Elinchrom 500 head with a shoot through umbrella, some shots used a soft box too. The great thing about a shoot though umbrella is that it is very portable, though it didn’t really matter in this instance it just creates a nice light.
This shot was taken at F/6.3, 1/100 second, 55mm at ISO 100. This create just enough depth of field that all of the face is in focus but the hair starts to go out of focus.
I wanted to create a really graphic image and the black cables against the white background achieve this.
A little look at the behind the scenes setup, note the fan heater essential to keep the model happy! I fire the strobe heads with Elinchrom Skyports radio triggers, this reduces the number of cables to trip over around the studio and allows me to move around the studio freely.
We had a lot of fun smashing up an old record, again the contrast of the stark black against the white background works to create an effective high contrast image.
I have included several more shots in the gallery below, please click on a thumbnail to view them larger.Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below
Since I did this shoot I have produced prints of these photos, if you are interested please contact me.
