Other times I will be talking to someone over dinner and will regurgitate my lunch in order to get the words “FISH TANK” onto the table.

I live in a world where there are lots of creative challenges and sometimes ideas and solutions come at the strangest moments.

Sometimes they work and often they don’t. The subject of todays topic is a commission we undertook last year to capture images of a pro surfer who incidentally is also a model.

I had the idea to set up a studio environment on the beach.. a bit weird.. but I thought the white background was a bit bland so Jack and me hit the DIY stores and filled up the boot with various bright paint..

The morning of the shoot was windy and cold. I very nearly killed the whole idea but we found a little bit of shelter from the wind in a location that might work and then started to set up.

To cut a long story short we lugged loads of gear onto the beach, set everything up, threw paint everywhere, set the lighting, got the model ready, took 5 frames and then the wind blew the whole set apart! If you look carefully at the image you will see the hands of Jack and the models mother holding the background together.

Did it work? To be completely honest I am still not sure.  What do you think?

Sometimes its just about about coming up with an idea and making it work, all in a very short period of time.

This is where popular culture comes in. I get inspiration from everywhere and often its subliminal.  Just watching telly for half an hour can sow a seed in my head that manifests itself the next time I’m on a shoot. Often its a tiny little bit of borrowing. Other times its blatent theft.

Can anyone guess where the inspiration for this image came from?

I shoot all kinds of stuff and always try to create an interesting image. Even if the subject does not always lend itself to this approach. Here is a selection of images that hopefully illustrate the point.

Whether its showing work to clients on the fly (especially supercool for video and mixed media work), previewing images after a shoot, shooting tethered  or just  email or web or whatever. Its killer, killer killer.

Just wish, wish wish I had one back in my news days.

The one problem and the big one, the elephant in the room,  its a slippery little $*^^(£ and easy to drop, scratch, drown..whatever

I work on location all the time and all my gear has to be location proof, ie Roy proof.. in other words, able to take a bit of a battering.

And so it was that I came to get hold of the Griffin Survivor case. Its ugly, ruins the form factor and makes the ipad into a bit of a lump. but hell its tough. I have dropped it many times and it just bounces right back up and smacks me round the ear. Gravity is no problem. Sand,dust and any other kind of misery is kept out by all the rubber seals. perfect. The BUILT IN screen protector works well too.

I have two little kids and the other day they decided to play drown the ipad. not sure who it was Miss P!  Lets just say it got a proper drenching for a really much too longer time. I was pretty much sure it was dead. Not even worth thinking about. In my head it was a goner, case or no case.

But hell no, I picked it up like a fish from a bucket. Drained its out, gave its belly a tickle and that bad boy fired up quicker than a monkey in a mouse trap.

So here is my advice for today. Get yourself an ipad 2. You will love it and get yourself a Griffin Survivor case to stick it in. It might look a bit big and ugly but it works sweeter than popcorn fried chicken. (whatever that is.. it just sounded right)

Roy

Holding up the game when everyone wants to call it a day is not always the most popular decision on a shoot but its one that often gives golden rewards.  “Shoot the light” is what I always say and its impossible to say when its going to come alive. Just because its the end of the day does in no way mean its time to go home. So we wait and on occasion it just comes right and the last take of the day is the one that blows the rest of the days work out of the water.

I love it when that happens.

This shot, taken  just as the sun dipped out from behind the cloud cover to say “goodnight” before heading over the horizon proves my point. There was only 2 or 3 minutes when this beautiful light was available all day and we were lucky enough to still be there to capture it.

Roy

Let me know your thoughts about this image.

Roy

Hope everyone had a really great Christmas holiday.

2011 was a good year for us. We were busy with lots of interesting Stills assignments and continued our expansion into the world of Film Making and New Media. This is all super cool for me and I will be posting some more information in the days to come.

2011 was also our 13th year in business and I am very proud to report that over the years we have had absolutely 100% customer satisfaction. Zero bad debts or business problems. (fingers crossed for 2012!).  Zero complaints about pretty much any thing..(apart from that incident with the two  Swedish pole dancers and the goblin.. but we dont need to bring all that back up again..)

Only joking.

So all in all everything is cool and the gang.

Always on the look out for anything cool and new to get involved in. I have some interesting stuff up my sleeve for 2012. Please do  add this blog to your RSS feed or subscribe so you can keep up to date with our news.

Here is a random selection of images captured on assignment in 2011.

Shadows are a difficult thing to explain and I was Mr Motor Mouth, giving it big on light, direction, intensity and all sorts. Using a gazillion words and confusing even myself.

Daughter number one nailed it down when she told me to stop talking and said quite simply ” Daddy, its just when the light wants to draw its own picture”

I think that is a really perfect explanation of shadows.

Here are a couple of shadow images where the light really is drawing its own pictures.

Roy