Category: Pictorial

Cockneys Versus Zombies is coming!

Post author By myglasseye
Post date August 1, 2012

Alan Ford and Honor Blackman make a stand against the zombie invasion.

Last summer I did stills on Cockneys Versus Zombies (IMDb page), a comedy horror written by James Moran and Lukas Roche, directed by Matthias Hoene and starring Michelle Ryan, Harry Treadaway, Honor Blackman, Alan Ford, Rasmus Hardiker and plenty more equally great actors. It’s been a long time coming, but there’s finally a release date (August 31st) and a poster (over there on the left).

There’s also a load of new stills out there which is pleasing for me as there’s always such a long wait between taking the shots and then being able to share them; over a year in this case. Looking through Google Images it seems there’s around a dozen of mine out there now so I figure I can post them here too. There’s a handful of my favourites below and the rest are on my unit stills photography site.

I know I could be biased, but I reckon it’s going to be great; hordes of flesh-rotting zombies, buckets of gore, good laughs and lots of guns – well worth a trip to the flicks!

Cockneys Versus Zombies (2012) — One of the undead gnaws on some poor unfortunate soul’s leg. Well, he wasn’t needing it anyway.

Tags Movies

Photographic Pictorial

YoLandi Visser (two of them!) in the house

Post author By myglasseye
Post date July 3, 2012
1 Comment on YoLandi Visser (two of them!) in the house

A couple of days ago I posted a gallery of my wife dressed up as YoLandi Visser from South African rap outfit Die Antwoord. If you don’t know them check out their videos on YouTube, starting with I Fink U Freeky, then go and buy their albums on iTunes. Heads up if you’re at work or near kids right now – they’re pretty direct. And kind of sweary.

(that’s a lot of links to swallow in the first paragraph so I’ll give you a second to check them out…

… before we continue)

Well that first shoot was a practice run for this Thursday, 5th of July, when she’s off to see them in London with her best friend, Carike, who is from South Africa herself and has been translating the lyrics when they lurch violently into Afrikaans. They’re both going to be dressing up as YoLandi and have been putting their costumes together for weeks, culminating last week with a delivery of brightly coloured plastic watches just like the ones YoLandi has on in the new video, so we got together at the garages behind our flat and had a joint photoshoot.

I really like some of the shots Hollie and I got first time but we both agreed that given who she’s playing the light was a bit too soft and warm in general; one of her favourites is harshly and simply lit.

This time I ran the flashes bare, no umbrella or softbox or even a gel, and we used more daylight. The location helped a lot too, and the YoLandis sparked off each other pretty good for the camera. I still feel like I ended up making the photos inside the garage look a bit too ‘lit’; overall I prefer the ones towards the end of the shoot when we were completely outside, but have a look and decide for yourself.

By the way, if you still haven’t checked out Die Antwoord, fair warning that pretending to be YoLandi Visser means makin’ out like a bad ass mofo, yo, just so long as you know it’s all fo’ show… 😉

This silhouette shot was initially a total fluke as the flash lighting the foreground didn’t fire. Loved the effect and got a couple more. The flash was at the bottom of frame so I Photoshopped it out quickly. Obviously that’s purest South African moonshine in the bottle and not water.

Gold shoes, gold rings, gold medallions, gold leggings, blonde wigs, custom t-shirts, slap-strap watches… they look totally ZEF.

I love all these ones at the garage doors. Just one flash here, high camera left, behind and above me, filling in a slightly underexposed ambient, on a Daylight white balance. I really love the mood of these shots.

This is one of my favourites of the whole shoot.

We took a break to have biscuits and coffee sat on the floor of the garage, and go through some pictures. I had Die Antwoord playing on my iPad while we were shooting so the YoLandis got some more practice in.

After elevenses we moved to the end of the garages. I had the lights set up roughly where I wanted them and ran back to our garage to grab my bag. Grabbed this one quickly, on the move, to see if the triggers were up and running; it gives you an idea of how the next bunch were done.

Hollie used to be a cheerleader; still got the moves!

This last one wasn’t planned, but a neighbour pulled up on his bike as we were finishing so we grabbed one posing with it – it’s extra cool because we noticed that it says NINJA on the bike – perfect!

Hope you enjoyed the photos as much as we enjoyed making them. Thanks for reading!

Tags Portraits, Strobist

Photographic Pictorial

Hollie as Yolandi Visser

My wife and I are big fans of Die Antwoord, a rap double act from South Africa. They’re coming to the UK next month and Hollie and her friend, Carike, have not only got tickets, they’re planning to go in costume as Yolandi Vi$$er herself and I thought that would make for a brilliant photo opportunity or two.

Last weekend Hollie and I did a practice run in the hallway of our apartment building, and while I’m not sure I’ll necessarily duplicate all these lighting setups for the ‘real thing’, we definitely got some great shots. I shot RAW and in CaptureNX 2 I did some exposure and white balance tweaks to give them a colder look than the glossy warm and golden look they were shot with, which in retrospect I didn’t feel was suitable for the subject matter as Yolandi generally presents herself as a ‘real’ person dripping with attitude, as opposed to a glossy, slick production.

I think the best Die Antwoord pictures are often taken in natural light so for the next session we’re going to head out to the garages behind our building and do something there with maybe the occasional flash shot thrown in for variety, but focussing instead on letting Hollie and Carike bounce off each other without having to worry about staying in the light. They bounce off each other a lot, you see…

In the meantime here’s my favourite shots from the shoot.

Tags Portraits, Strobist

Photographic Pictorial

behind the scenes of a music promo shoot for Linda Harrison

Post author By myglasseye
Post date June 2, 2012
No Comments on behind the scenes of a music promo shoot for Linda Harrison

On Wednesday my friend Tristan Versluis was shooting some pick-ups for a promo he’s directed for Linda Harrison. The video was pretty much complete but they needed a few extra shots and I went along just to tag along and take some photographs for myself and anyone who wanted any; keeps me off the streets, or more accurately off the XBOX.

The shoot was in the upstairs room at The Old Queen’s Head, near Angel tube, which has these fantastic ceiling light fixtures made from what looks like old gramophone horns. There’s an old, lived-in atmosphere to the place, leather covered booths, golden-framed mirrors, peeling paint and a wooden floor, although very little of that was going to be seen as it happens.

Tristan just needed a few shots of a man approaching a woman in a dark, crowded bar while a band plays on the stage (which, obviously, was Linda herself – I don’t think I can tell you the name of the track yet though). It only took a couple of hours and didn’t give away any of the story but I’ve seen shots from the rest of the shoot and it’s a typical Versluis production; strikingly lit and shot by Stuart White and a deliciously twisted story focussed on a seductive woman (played by Annette Kellow) and how she selects partners to take home, set to a terrific track by Linda Harrison that I still can’t tell you about, sorry. It’s going to be great.

So, here’s my pick of the hundred-odd shots I kept from the afternoon, with captions here and there so you know what’s going on. Enjoy, and thanks for visiting.

Harrison_003 — Make-up, actors, Tristan chatting, Stuart setting up lights...

Harrison_005 — Tristan shows actor Peter Caxado frames from the rest of the promo

Harrison_009 — This makes me laugh every time. Timing is everything 😉

Harrison_018 — Justyna Dobrowolska doing Annette Kellow's makeup as Tristan talks through the shots he needs

Harrison_022 — The daylight on Annette's face was so strong the rest of the room is plunged into darkness

Harrison_024 — I really love this shot of Annette in makeup - that's the D700's own B&W; it's pretty good, and I'm lazy.

Harrison_027 — Last minute hair touch-ups. One of the cameras in the background there.

Harrison_028 — There were lots of moments like this, Tristan and Stuart deep in discussion of lighting and framing.

Harrison_029 — I liked making silhouette shots of these two working, as you can see.

Harrison_037 — Annette looked simply stunning; reminded me of Mad Men a lot in these shots.

Harrison_042 — While the camera's weren't rolling.

Harrison_045 — The boys at work again. You can see the framing on Stuart's LCD.

Harrison_047 — Perhaps a touch too much headroom but I love the feel of this shot with the light behind her.

Harrison_084 — Linda Harrison in make-up before shooting her performance

Harrison_090 — I don't know what was in that cocktail.

Harrison_101 — They were shooting fast and light, with two Canon DSLRs running at once.

Harrison_112 — The moment Annette's character picks out her man for the evening

Harrison_116 — Linda and the band setting up for their performance

Harrison_125 — This was a lucky, I mean nice catch, with the two red beams picking Linda out.

Harrison_135 — Linda really threw herself into her performance, every time, many times.

Harrison_189 — I love the balance to this image, as well as the moment it caught.

Harrison_191 — Perhaps bizarrely, this is definitely my favourite photo of the performance, really captures her energy

Harrison_228 — Final shot of the day, Tristan checking the last take before calling a wrap.

Tags Behind The Scenes, Music

Photographic Pictorial

Something For The Weekend: behind the scenes

Post author By myglasseye
Post date April 2, 2012
No Comments on Something For The Weekend: behind the scenes

One of the shows I used to work on regularly as a cameraman was Something For The Weekend, a Sunday morning magazine-style chat and cookery show for BBC2. I’d always enjoyed watching the show before I started working on it and it’s been one of my favourite jobs despite the 5:30am start, which probably seems like a lie-in for the folk who work on breakfast telly.

There’s a really friendly atmosphere on the studio floor between presenters, crew and production, and I’ve known chef Simon Rimmer for years since Great Food Live for UKTV Food, so it was definitely one of those jobs that hardly felt like ‘work’. Another bonus is the fact that it’s live, which always makes things a lot more fun.

I got to shoot publicity stills for the show in recent years (a selection are in my portfolio) and on those days grabbed some behind the scenes shots too, just for myself really. Those are the first few shots below.

Then I got into using apps like Hipstamatic and Instagram on my phone and started using that during the rehearsals to catch arty shots; there’s 7 or 8 minutes of hanging around between recipe rehearsal set-ups so I’d snap photos for fun. As we got closer to the last episode I started taking more and posting some to Twitter for the fans; I find behind-the-scenes photography fascinating, and on a show like SFTW there’s always something going on somewhere.

The atmosphere of the whole show is quite different to most other things I work on – we’re all tired but we have to be alert so the art of preparing and serving the perfect coffee from the shiny espresso machine in reception is prized amongst runners and crew alike; as we rehearse, the light through those huge windows transforms in just an hour or so from broody darkness to the piercingly bright golden glow of sunrise. It’s just a great space to take photos in.

So to commemorate the final show, and also just because these have been collecting in my hard drive for the last four years and they wanted to be seen, here’s a hundred or so of my favourite snaps from behind the scenes of Something For The Weekend, presented in roughly chronological-ish order, culminating in a set from the last show on March 18th, 2012 (you can click here to skip straight to that bit).

I should add that none of these are ‘official’ snaps; I simply love documenting what goes on behind the scenes in my job and I thought fans of the show might appreciate these particular pics now it’s finished.

Thanks for visiting, and if you watched the show, thank you for watching!

SFTW Something For The Weekend — The famous recipe chalk-boards

The last ever show

The last show wasn’t a great deal different to make than any other show, except there were a lot more studio guests watching behind the scenes including former producers, executives and friends of the show. There were a lot of cameras and smartphones out snapping pictures throughout the day, and I came away with around a hundred photos via Instagram; here’s some of my favourites:

And with that, Something For The Weekend came to the end of it’s 5+ year run! We had a lot of fun making it, and I hope you enjoyed watching it and flicking through these snaps.

Thanks for reading.

Tags Behind The Scenes, TV