Beltane Fire Festival Portraits

May 02, 2015

Beltane Fire Festival is difficult to explain. It's inspired by an ancient gaelic festival to celebrate the beginning of summer (yay), and is held on Calton Hill in the centre of Edinburgh. A quick google search will bring up amazing photographs of richly-painted dancers leaping around fire and general awesomeness.

I decided to head through and try to get some portraits of the colourful characters. Even though Calton hill must be in the running for 'Most Wheelchair Accessible Hill In The World' I still had to get up there with all my gear and set things up amongst 2000 or visitors, packing light and keeping things simple was important.

I set off with a one-light set-up. A 26inch softbox, speedlite, and lightstand. The festival doesn't kick-off until 9pm so there was essentially no daylight to work with and I pushed the softbox up as close as I could to the awesome people kind enough to sit for me.

I think the festival is famous for the half-naked fire dancers painted red from head to toe, and everyone definitely focuses on them for obvious reasons. But I found this little group of happy people off to one side called the 'Random Points of Kindness' who danced and skipped amongst the crowds, handing out tiny hand-made gifts to people.

I set-up my light and as each one danced, bounced, or crawled ('Badger' impressively stayed in character and only walked on all fours!) around me I asked them sit for their portrait. Softbox up close, level with their eyes (None of this 45° rubbish to cast shadows when I already have nothing but shadows), nice big, soft light.

These kind of portraits are always great fun to do. I always get a kick out of showing people their preview on the camera's LCD. Hearing a 'I hate having my photo taken' turn to a 'Oh wow, can you email me that!' is the best kind of feedback and motivation.

My best of January 2015

February 09, 2015

Maybe not the best, but my favourites so far at least. The snow (not really snow, just a little dusting) has hung around to add a bit of interest to the hills, castles, and Mel Gibson Memorial Tower™, so it'd be rude to not get a shot or two of them.

The William Wallace National Monument (Not actually Mel Gibson Memorial Tower™) — The William Wallace National Monument (Not actually Mel Gibson Memorial Tower™)

Stirling Rowing Club on the River Forth.

Technically a couple of these were taken in February but they make it in anyway, because I'm in charge.

Hamish and Gary. Guess which one is Hamish. 35mm f/2.8 1/60th ISO 200.

Happy New Year (+ In-Camera light painting)

January 05, 2015

So 2015 huh? Happy New Year and all that.

In the spirit of resolutions I'm going to be resolute in posting a new blog each week. Hopefully a skilfully and beautifully shot photo-essay or portrait session that portrays the entire depth of human emotions succinctly. Either that or some random how-I-shot-it stuff like this.

A very quite New Years Eve saw me in Scotland for the bells, with an eclectic mix of folk and I immediately suggested a group photo. Quickly set-up two speedlites, one on each side at 45°, bare. Then convinced the only guy wearing a kilt to come outside and help me get some test shots. He set-up a fire. That's the first test shot above. 35mm. f/2.8. 1/60th sec. ISO 200. Flash at TTL (Radio triggers)

Happy accident at 1/4 of a second? OR the birth of a fire demon? 35mm f/2.8 1/4 sec ISO 200

Shooting on TTL is so easy it's possibly cheating. But when you're trying to convince a group of celebratory Scots to stop partying and pose for a photo, outside in the Scottish winter at midnight, speed is of the essence.
So I knew I had the flash pretty much locked-in and looking good, a little harsh but I had no modifiers with me and this isn't going to be on the cover of Vogue (sorry Hamish). I wanted to lower the shutter speed (shutter-speed for ambient, aperture for strobes) and try to get some leaping flames from the fire to add some excitement to the photo so dropped it to 1/4 of a second.
I forgot that I'm terrible at hand-holding for 'long' exposures, so the first couple shots looked like the shaky fire you'd expect. Then I decided to play with that movement on purpose. Cool.
Above: 35mm. f/2.8. 1/4 sec. ISO 200.

Three light set-up. Third light directly behind Hamish to give that defining light on his shoulder. 35mm f/4 1.3 secs ISO 200

Sweet, things are looking good. I added a third light for the shot above, back behind Hamish to give a little separation from that blackness that is the Scottish winter. Lowered the shutter even more to start adding more deliberate movement to the camera. Closed down the aperture a little to make sure everything was in focus and control some of the flash highlights.
Above: 35mm. f/4. 1.3 secs. ISO 200.

Time to add some more drunken folk to the mix:

Helen is suitably unimpressed with my efforts to write 2015 with fire. (I wasn't trying to do that, and didn't even think of it until I started editing and thought "Oh, yeah that would have been better").

Above: 35mm. f/4. 1.3 secs. ISO 200

So if you're wondering how all this is done. It's essentially light-painting done by moving the camera instead of the lights/fire. The long shutter speed means that I can whirl the camera around and the fire-trail will show up, nothing else is blurry or showing trails because the flash is bright enough and fast enough (about 10,000th of a second I think) to freeze them, or burn them into the film so to speak. Which is just as well because asking people to hold still on Hogmanay isn't particularly easy.

One more for good measure, let's get a little more complicated:

This kind of thing is fun to do because it makes people more willing to have their photo taken, showing people the screen on the back of the camera is always a blast.

More to come soon, and more regularly. I have a series of portraits in the works as well as a lot more aerial stuff.

Street photography is easy...

May 20, 2014

...when you're surrounded by 200,000 Arsenal fans celebrating winning the F.A Cup.

Click images to view full size on a black background.Without leaving the page :) — Click images to view full size on a black background.
Without leaving the page :)

OK, so most of these pictures won't pass a street-photography purity test. 'Street' is meant to be entirely candid, without any interaction at all and timed perfectly to capture a unique, completely un-posed moment. When I say 'street' I mean 'I'm out on the street with a camera taking pictures of people'. Simple.

There was little chance of not interacting with the ecstatic swarm around Islington on Sunday. I wasn't there as an candid observer or anything other than an Arsenal fan with a camera. I'd impulsively booked a flight to London from Scotland the night before after watching the game online and thinking "why not?".

It was ridiculous game. An absurd victory. In typical, beautifully-frustrating style Arsenal won their first trophy in nine years. Coming back from two goals down to win in a frantic period of extra-time. It was special.

I knew the celebrations would be special too and, after nine years of waiting, bring out a eclectic mix of people happy enough to have their photograph taken by a strange guy in a wheelchair. I wanted to try and get a few well-lit street-portraits so I'd stuffed a small carry-on backpack with a lightstand, beauty-dish and a couple strobes in the hope of getting a bit creative. I quickly realised setting up a lightstand would be daft.

Sometimes I can only see the backs of people, or children who are at the same level as myself. Children can be ecstatic one minute, and completely unfazed the next. Chilling out in their own world, amongst 200,000 football fans going crazy.

When I see something that might make a good photograph I'll just park myself up and wait for a gap in the crowd to appear. Anticipation and patience. Sometimes once the gap finally appears the subject has gone, moved off into the swarm again, but sometimes I get the shot.

Obviously as far as street photography is concerned this is practically cheating, it almost seems as if everywhere you turn there's something perfectly framed for you. Shooting fish in a barrel.

The next photo is a classic mistake when shooting with a wide aperture. A really fun young family enjoying the day, one of the first people I approached to photograph and I nervously rushed it. Shooting at f2.8 just isn't enough to get them all in focus if they're not all on the same focal plane. Mum and Dad are perfect, I obviously must have had the focus point on there faces, but the cool little boy with an interesting smirk is just out-of-focus. I learnt my mistake too late. If I'd knocked my aperture to f/4, or pushed them back a bit to increase the distance between us, it'd probably have come out better.

As with all the images, click to enlarge.

This man and his son had flown from Thailand to watch the F.A Cup final, and be part of the victory celebrations around Islington and The Emirates. There were so many families, so many fathers wanting to give their children the gift of memories.

This time I made sure that they were both more side-by-side, than one in front of the other, so they're both on the same focal plane and both in focus at f2.8.

As the afternoon wore on I drifted away from the stadium, following the crowds down roads. Roads completely devoted to Arsenal and celebrating the cup triumph. Shops, cafes, restaurants, everywhere you looked there was Arsenal, and big, happy smiles.

Self portrait in a pair of mirrored sunglasses?

Why not....look closely.

CSI: Islington....enhance! Can you see me now?

A fun day, and a reminder of how easy it is to just go out somewhere and get some great photographs. The weather has been terrible in Scotland so far this year, so I haven't been able to fly at all yet. Which sucks, thankfully Arsenal won the F.A Cup to cheer me up and inspire me a little.

So I just wandered around with my old D90 and a 50mm, shooting things that caught my eye. Being in the middle of a crowd, in a wheelchair, is a different experience. Obviously I can't see over people so my focus shifts to details within the crowd itself, rather than what the crowd is there to see. I don't know if it's street, reportage, and portraiture. I don't really care either. It's fun and I enjoy the results.

Shooting all day, from about 0900 until I had to head back to Heathrow for my 1730 flight home, only one person said no when I asked if I could take their photograph. The carnival atmosphere meant everyone knew why I wanted to take their photo, no awkward silences or suspicious questions. I gave out so many cards to people so they could email me for copies.

Here's another awesome looking family. Same thing, shot at f2.8 again.

To get the full length body portrait I was further away than the first young family, in the middle of the road actually. No zoom with a 50mm.

So even though they're not all on the same focal plane, the distance between us increases the depth-of-field to cover them all and they're all looking sharp, sweet.

I was shooting mainly at f2.8 all day, with a circular polariser fitted to try and knock out a bit of light.

I'd packed at 0400 in the morning and forgotten to throw in my 4-stop ND filter which would have been a bit better. I knew things would be busy and it'd be difficult to separate people from the background without a wide aperture.

"F8 and be there" would have definitely worked but probably not given me the style I was going for.

I made close to a nine hundred exposures in about four hours. Of which maybe two hundred are keepers, and about twenty I really like. Edited in LR5, a gentle tonal curve to control the harsh highlights from a blistering sun, and lift some of the facial shadows. The exposure is boosted by half a stop too, with a gentle vignette if needed.

I don't usually venture into 'street' but I think I'll give it another go for sure. It's fun, though not as much fun as celebrating Arsenal winning the cup of course.

Thanks for looking.