Jan
28

Rubus “The Beast In My Lap!” Ad Campaign Kings Bruton School

Following on from last years very successful campaign which won Silver in The Graphis Advertising Awards  I received a call back in September from Ice House Design with another exciting brief for Kings Bruton School.

After a couple of meetings and an interesting recce of Kings very old (it was founded in 1519 !) & historic school the briefs where finalised.
The required image was pretty straight forward involving capturing Kings Bruton’s sports field and Church with the beautiful hills behind with the inclusion of the famous Dovecote on it’s hill.The Dovecote does not sit quite in than spot but with a little creative license I moved it into position a mere mile or so. The main element for the image and most difficult to potentially capture was to be a Stag.I always prefer to shoot my own images when creating composites but even I thought a stock shot may have to be sourced for this one. Fortunately after some research on good old Google and conversations with several people my good mate and manager at The Monks Yard where our studio is based provided me with a contact just a few miles away.
Mike Gage runs South West Deer And Rescue and was more than happy to help me out and I arranged to pop down to take a look around.Mike showed me the park and it’s gorgeous views across the Somerset countryside and the many species of Deer he had. He finished off by introducing me to Rubus and very large Stag with an amazing set of antlers..perfect !.

Being October it was rutting season and Mike warned me Rubus was pretty hormonal and I was not to get out the back of his pickup truck. Unfortunately it did not stop Rubus coming over and sticking his rather huge head of pointy bits almost into my lap trying to grab food from the floor of the truck…! It became obvious pretty quickly I definitely  have to wait for the randy Rubus to calm down from the rutting season before coming back to get my images.
After a few weeks I had gathered all the background material and I returned to see Mike and to capture Rubus.This time he was a fair bit calmer and I could with caution leave the safety of the pickup to get the angles I needed.The shoot went well without too many scares and I got all the material I needed within 30 minutes or so. The post production took a little longer however about 71 and a half hours longer to be precise but then the devil’s in the details and the final image had plenty.
Below is one of several adverts that are now running together with another version that did not showing more of the sports field with rugby posts and flags.

 

 

Jan
25

Rich Tea Deer !

Yeah awful title but it kind of describes what is going on in this image.
Last September I got a call from an agency called Ice House Design whom I had worked with on a very successful campaign the previous year which won Silver in The Graphis Advertising Awards.
The brief was to capture images for a composite they wanted me to create which was to include a Stag as the main element.With the brief in hand I started to look at my options for capturing the animal. After several calls and networking I found Mike Gage of South West Deer Rescue Centre.
To cut a long story short the shoot was a success and I’ll post the images once the campaign goes live.
Mike was a great character and I asked if I could return at a later date to shoot him for my personal project “Life In A Somerset Landscape” and this brings us to the image below.
My plan was to shoot him and his mate Pete sat on the rear of their beaten up 4×4 truck surrounded by Deer but the truck was out of action with a broken axle.
So as often is the case in the unpredictable world of location shooting I had to think on my feet and come up with an alternative idea.
We decided that a shot of the Deer being fed their favorite Rich Tea biscuits could provide the perfect image against the beautiful South Somerset backdrop.

 

Jan
16

Dry Path To Muchelney

You can’t live in the UK without having heard about the village of Muchelney in South Somerset which has recently become an island after the severe floods.
I live a few miles from the village and have managed until today to resist all temptations to venture out onto the Somerset Levels with my camera.
The two problems for me are firstly that the Somerset Levels are where I learnt my craft and they even after all these years are still one of my favorite places to go and shoot.
Secondly although I’m certainly no adrenalin junkie or risk taker I’m fascinated by extreme weather much to my wife’s disapproval and this means I can’t resist getting safely close as possible to explore & capture what I find.

The floods had receded just enough that some roads are now passable so today with stormy skies still overhead I ventured to a couple of places I thought might be safe and give me some great views.
This image titled “Dry Path To Muchelney” shows the severely flooded River Isle on the right and flooded fields to the left with a elevated path bank heading towards Muchelny.
The gentleman I met walking with his dog said how in 40 years he had never seen flooding this extreme in the area.His dog seemed less bothered by he water and more interested in the wildlife as there where lots of mice and other animals on the bank seeking safety from the waters.
The rains came in again giving some wonderful skies and I decided to shoot one more image before heading home.
As I mounted a gate to reach the flood line in a field I somehow lost my footing and ended up head first with my camera luckily on top of me !
It must have looked hilarious but must admit as I sit here writing this I’m pretty bruised and not getting any sympathy from the wife !
I hope for those hit hard by the floods in Muchelney and surrounding area that the water recedes soon so that the clean up can get started.

Jan
15

A Seat On The Todden

A Seat On The Todden

I’ve joked before that if I never picked up a camera again I’d still have enough images in my archives to keep me busy producing new work for the next 15 years.
Fair to say some many never see the light of day but it’s strange how things happen in life and you find yourself remembering certain places, moments & images and being inspired to dig them out.
This week a comment on a previous blog post prompted me to go back into some images I shot last summer in Cadgwith Cornwall.
The reasons behind the comments are actually incredibly sad (view A Tranquil Mooring  blog post)  but this inspired me to spend a few hours processing and retouching this image

A-seat-on-todden-cadgwith-cornwall

A-seat-on-todden-cadgwith-cornwall

 

Dec
28

Casting Into The Dawn

The Christmas break has meant I have had time to look over some of the many personal images I have shot over the last few months but not had time to process. This one title “Casting Into The Dawn” was captured at dawn on the cliffs close to Albufeira on Portugal’s Algarve coastline.

Casting Into The Dawn, Portugal

Dec
18

House On Nieuwe Maas

While in Holland a couple of weeks ago I had a small amount of time to explore Rotterdam. My initial plan was to jump on a boat and visit some windmills that were situated not too far from the city center but unfortunately, this meant I’d be cutting things a little fine to get back to catch my flight home.
A little disappointed I decided instead to catch a water bus down the Nieuwe Maas river for an hour or so and capture a few images for my composite archive and enjoy the views.
The weather was a little grey and misty but in my opinion, there is never bad weather or light for image making it just depends on what you want for the shoot in mind.
During one of the many stops, the water bus made I noticed this house on the banks of the river that for some reason I was strangely drawn to.
Maybe it was because I watch too many horror films but with the damp December weather providing an appropriate backdrop it looked slightly eerie sat isolated on the edge of the river.

Dec
11

December Dawn On The Nieuwe Maas

The last few weeks have been pretty busy with a rather diverse mix of assignments both here and abroad.
Rather than wind down and take an early Christmas we are currently preparing to complete some shoots for one of our ongoing personal projects (See The Cider Orchards & Withy Centre Posts).
Personal work is and always has been a very important part of my photography. For me it’s an extension of my commercial work except I have complete creative freedom to cut loose,experiment and generally create whatever inspires me at the time.
A couple of things that do get me excited to go out and shoot are exploring new places and it’s people. Fortunately last week after completing an assignment in Rotterdam I had a few hours the following day to explore the city and I and set myself the challenge to come home with a few shots to sum up this very interesting and modern city.
The image here was captured at dawn and combines several iconic elements of Rotterdam including the huge Nieuwe Maas river, the beautiful Erasmusbrug Bridge and lighting up the horizon the very modern De Rotterdam building.

Dec
06

Protexin, Stop Motion Company Video

For several months this year we worked on a large project for a company called Protexin.
Protexin manufacture and distribute worldwide Probiotcs for human & animals consumption and where looking for a new way of showcasing to their international customers their impressive state of the art production line, staff and premises.
As we had been keen to work with them for quite a while we set up a meeting and proposed shooting a video using thousands of still frames (and some motion) to showcase their company in a contemporary and engaging way.
After shooting using the technique at one of the many exhibition that they attend  (see Protexin A Engaging Video Solution ) they decided to expand the project even further to produce the finished video below.
After a fair amount of pre production and planning not to mention many many hours of processing, colour grading, a pinch of after effects and plenty of video editing the project was finally finished.
Protexin where extremely happy with the finished product and we have since worked on several other albeit smaller Photographic projects with them.

Nov
26

The Headland Path

Another recent image captured in the beautiful light of the Algarve Portugal.
This one titled “The Headland Path” was captured on the cliffs close to the coastal town of Albufeira.
I have always lived on or very close to the beach and to be honest it used to concern me that the coast appeared in so many of my images.
Over the years however I have come to understand my work/vision in much more detail and what drives it and I know you can’t force or control creativity you simply just have to follow what inspires you.

 

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