Out of India

It’s the time of year for some back room business..offloading, uploading,importing, production plan writing. that kind of thing.

One of my back room jobs is DAM (digital assett management).

Sorting,sifting, allocating images. Some here, Some there, a tweak for this one, a watermark for that one. Basically backing up all my images and marketing any relevant stock.

Really its all as dull as ditch water. But it has to happen and it does mean I get to spend some quality time with my back catalog.

This morning I found a folder called “India” I love revisiting old portfolios from shoots long forgotten. This was no exception. I have pulled a few images out for my stock library and thought I would share one of my favorites.

Curry for tea any one?

Rest in Peace

Maria Colvin, Remi Ochlik, Tim Hetherington and all the others who have given so much in pursuit of  exposing the truth and making the world a better place.

Running with an idea

Sometimes I sit upright in bed in the middle of the night and shout “B AND Q”

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?

Popular Culture

Finding inspiration can be a little tricky sometimes.  Especially when there is a big list of shots to get through and not much of a brief to work with.

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?

 

Commercial

So it’s not all flying Olympic athletes and grinning break dancers.

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.

Property

From time to time I get the call to shoot some property. I love it. It’s a meditation on detail, design and lighting. Here are some examples from recent shoots.

ipad will survive. Griffin Survivor

So the ipad 2 has become part of the furniture here at Riley enterprises. I was skeptical at first but now I love, love, love it.

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