Not a great deal has been happening in the last few weeks as we have been left to our own devices to continue with our project work. As for my project, I have hit a photographic wall. While my ideas seem good, actually getting them photographed is proving a little more complicated. The basic idea was to photograph graffiti writers but without showing their face. At night. I originally had an idea to photograph mountain bikers and the writers was my backup idea, but as I have got more inspiration and some direction from tutorials I came around to the writers project and felt a bit more happy with it. Plus, in retrospect my original idea for the bikers was pretty lame, even by my standards. But as I have discovered, writers aren’t exactly open to this form of scrutiny, and the chances of me being able to get six to eight different portraits is failing fast. Time sliding by at a much faster rate than is comfortable and people are not really wanting their photos taken. I managed to get a few shots last night, but they are far from the sort of work that I had originally envisioned. In fact I have one image that is just about OK, a long way from the 20-30 that I had thought I would need. Although the undercover police that questioned what we were up to seemed to like a few.

If I HAD to photograph writers, then I can see it taking a good few months of being in London constantly just to be accepted and trusted, before the camera is even taken out. Not really something I could do in a month, especially as I admit to not being exactly forward when it comes to photographing people I don’t know and have never met, and who may take umbridge to being asked.

So on to plan B – back to the Mountain bikers. While this seems a little on the easy side, (and I admit it kinda is) I’m not going to take the easy option and photograph them just sat about on bikes (or even my original lame idea). Taking the ideas and ethos from the Writers project, by not using any stereotypical clichés in order to illustrate who these people are, I intend to get a series of portraits that describe mountain bikers, rather than just some pictures of people. I have lots of ideas already and can see a few of the shots pretty clearly, without a bike or helmet in sight. After all, these are people who live and breath biking, not weekender’s who just go out to get a bit of exercise. This is also more suited to my commercial intent as a sports/lifestyle photographer, which is after all what the main aim of the course is. Weather my tutors will approve my change of direction I’m not too sure, but at the end of the day its my project, and I feel I could do a better job with a much greater chance of success.

For the last few days I have been assisting/helping/getting in the way of my friend shoot a small video for Becky Cook. The weather has been less than good though, yesterday it was wet and cold with a minus wind chill factor, and today it was snowing, but I managed to get over my photo-drought and took a few shots myself.

For those who don’t know, Becky rides Motorbike trials.

She is pretty good at it.

Ranked 2nd in the world good…

Snow clouds looming. This was a small thigh-high rock that Becky had no trouble riding over on her rear wheel.

D200, 1/200@f/6.3, iso 100. Flash cam right.

Riding along the chassis of an old logging trailer above lots of nasty old metal work.

D200, 1/100@f/4.5, iso 200

There is a few more on my not-used-that-much Flickr page…

Not much has been happening of late, so I have been ignoring the blog a bit, however this week we had talk from renound music photographer Andy Earl.

Andy talked about his work and his take on the last 20 years as a photographer. His ‘big break’ came shooting The Rolling Stones ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ music video with a technique he formulated in college by using two Nikon F5 Film cameras and off camera flash. The Cameras were shot at 5-8fps dragging the shutter, then morphed the resulting 12,000 photos together to form some sort of live motion stop frame animation.  Andys first commission came after a show at the Photographers Gallery in London, where he met Malcom Mclaren the manager of Bow Wow Wow, who asked Andy to photograph the album cover. The result of which saw Andy arrested and his photos seized over the age and state of undress of the lead singer, Lwin. After this and many more album covers including Duran Duran, Madonna, and REM, Andy found himself at the forefront of music photography, and has photographed many of the big names over the last two decades.

How Andy has stayed at the top for so long I think comes down to the way he photographs. Instead of photographing the obvious band shot, Andy sets out to take images that are new and different that just happen to have bands in them. The result is a band photograph that goes against what we would first think of. For some photos, Andy had asked bands where their inspiration came from and the result was photographed, even if the answer was ‘Nothing’ (a big ‘O’ made with a flare and long exposure) which seems to give the photo more weight, and a reason for it to be. No brick walls here.

The best insight for me into Andys work was the technical side of things. From home made multi-flash rigs to cardboard and tin foil modifiers, and all 20 years before the start of the ‘Strobist’ movement. Many of his shots were also taken on a Linhoff Panoramic camera, giving a unique view and an especially strong design element for CD cases.  Aulthough since the start of the ‘Digital Revolution’ and the uptake of MP3s, album art and photography work like Andys is in demise. Somewhat ironically Andy also photographs for Apple, proof that today to be the best, you also need to adapt to current social trends.

Andy site is www.andyearl.com – the Stones video is there too.