Dec

End Of Season, Rhodes

It’s been a busy end to what has been a slightly unusual year with both new exciting opportunities as well as a few challenges too but life is never linear or dull as an image creative!

October saw me back in Rhodes for a third time in 3 years but this time I chose to spend my time filming rather than capturing stills which I seem to be doing more and more of these days.
I decided (for the most part) to keep the gear to an absolute minimum. Apart from the Video time lapse section which was shot with my Canon 5D Mk4 most of the remaining filming was captured on iPhone and my Sony RX100 pocket point and shoot albeit a high end one!
My biggest dilemma was wether to take my gimble but I decided it would be a great exercise in adaptability and creativity to do without it plus I simply couldn’t be arsed to carry it !

Dec

Commercial Lifestyle Photographer, A Perfect Moment – Capturing A Greek Summer In Grey November

Commercial Lifestyle Photographer, A Perfect Moment

I’m going to state the obvious..winter is never an ideal time of year for a commercial lifestyle photographer to shoot summer lifestyle in the U.K!
Unfortunately, that was exactly what was required on one chilly November morning with two brave Welsh models Emma James and Nathan Scola.

The backgrounds for this shoot were all captured in the warmer months of August in Greece and required my models to be dressed for the summer.
To make the composite work seamlessly I required many elements to work together including natural light even if it was the grey type!

Commercial lifestyle photography can be tough but Nathan and Emma were true professionals and used their vivid imaginations to bring the greek summer into the shots despite the biting November cold. I’ll be sharing more from this shoot in the next few weeks.

Nov

Beach Front Living, Greece

Yep I’ve been back there again on a photography trip to one of my favourite places to shoot in Rhodes Greece.
Unlike the previous two visits this time I wanted to concentrate more on doing some filming that I had pre-planned rather than shooting stills and I’ll be publishing that finished video very soon.

Having said all that I still managed to capture plenty of still images like this location close to the beach at Faliraki.
The scene I found in front of me reminded me of one of those amazing large-format Peter Lavery landscapes found in the Marlborough adverts from back in the mid 80’s (Google em kids) captured in the wild deserts of the U.S.A.

I came across this and several other small caravans dotted close to the beach area and although this was obviously made into someones home at some point I’m unsure it or the others were still actually being lived in. Either way instead of seeing them as some kind of eyesore so close to the beautiful beachfront they actually made me smile because of it.

Jul

Travels And The Honda Cub

As a keen Scooterist from way back in the 80’s Im always on the lookout during my travels for old Italian Vespas and Lambretta’s.
In Greece you can still come across older Vespa workhorses still being used but it stands to reason they are becoming less frequent these days.

There does seem however a large amount of Honda Cub mopeds still on the road which is no surprise when you discover over 100 million have come off the production line so far and still going.
And my point is?… well I don’t have one except to introduce a couple of images with them in and inform you why you see the bloody things everywhere you go!

Apr

Mandraki Harbour

The historic entrance to Mandraki harbour in Rhodes.
This is where one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was believed to have stood The Colossus of Rhodes.

Mar

Blind woman on the edge of the Volcano

I captured this image in the near deserted village of Stefanos Greece.
The village is located on the edge of the Stefanos volcano on the island of Nisyros in the South Aegean Greece.
Over the years the village had almost been vacated entirely due to the volcano but a few people still remain.
One such brave resident was this lady whom I unfortunately did not get the chance to speak too.
She was blind and lived alone in her home above the crater with her herd of Goats.
As we approached the location and the scene in front of us unfolded someone described it as being biblical which I think was a perfect description.

Oct

St Paul’s Chapel And Post Production Ironing.

Last week I finally got around to shooting some models to be able to complete several images I had captured from my latest trip to Greece.
Casting the right models for a shoot together with right styling is always something that needs careful consideration to work well.
On top of that because this image was a composite the actual photography needed very careful planning as lighting, light quality, perspective, colour amongst many other things all needs to come together for the final image to work seamlessly.

Shooting Plan Mark Up

Even with all the best planning however the odd curve ball can still pop up. Despite preparation the night before one of the models shirts got a little creased on route to the shoot.
Normally this would not had been an issue except the studio iron decided to retire itself ! Fortunately I knew a digital solution and with the schedule being tight I decided this would be a better than have a delay acquiring another iron.

Digital-ironing

The background image was captured pre dawn and created from around 27 frames stitched together in post to allow for a more pleasing perspective with a 41mm lens and deliver a wider dynamic range.
I decided during the final stages of the composite to change the colour of the female models top from blue to a more contrasting orange to help draw the viewers eye to the models.

Aug

Like Clock Work

Today was one of those morning where everything seems to work for you seamlessly and you come away feeling blessed.

I arrived at Lyndos village pre dawn to capture a couple of locations and came across this stunning side street with a beautiful white washed church and the sunrise lit bay behind.

As I finished the image a street cleaner arrived jet washing the cobbles adding an even better surface for the dawn light to bounce off.

I decided to reshoot the image again especially as the colours had further intensified from the rising sun. A fabulous morning of exploring and shooting some stunning locations.

Trip-photography-white-washed-village-street-lyndos-at-dawn

Aug

Dodging The Wife At Dawn

I woke a 4.45am and once again managed to avoid waking the wife and kids (I think) and tiptoed out of the hotel room.

A family holiday always includes some planned photography shoots which often means some early starts to avoid the tourists and capture the best light. This trip despite being in Rhodes the previous year was no different.

My plan for the following morning was to capture some street lit dawn images around the old town in Rhodes. I had no particular location set in stone it was more of a suck it and see what I stumbled across.

I woke a 4.45am and once again managed to avoid waking the wife and kids (I think) and tiptoed out of the hotel room.

At this time of the morning there were no tourists around just gangs of street cats,street sweepers and groups of scary drunk girls to dodge. It’s a fantastic time of day (night) to be exploring but you do have to be careful as on more than one occasion I’ve almost tripped over and woken the odd person sleeping rough!

The morning went well and I captured 2-3 locations and was finished by sunrise and back at the hotel in plenty of time for breakkie.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/285617179″ width=”800″ height=”200″]

Cat-at-sunrise-at-gate-to-rhodes-old-town

St Paul’s Gate Rhodes

Rhodes Old Town

May

Young Fun In The Sun.

A few weeks ago I produced a mature travel lifestyle photoshoot Mature Travel In The Pesky Sun.
Following on from this I decided to capture another travel shoot this time with a younger more upbeat concept.
My models Tristan & Robyn were in their early twenties and quickly built a great rapport. On all the shoots I do my aim is to not only get the brief nailed (and some) while making the production as fun as possible. This was especially true on this shoot, in fact, my pre-shoot chat was simply let’s have fun!
Tristan & Robyn built a great rapport very quickly and my job was made much easier as a result. This really underlines the importance of having the right models that not only look the part but have the right personalities.

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