Alexander at the Troubadour

Below is the fantastic Alexander McKay at the Troubadour Club in London

The Troubadour Club has a long heritage of quality music and iconic performers stretching back many years, it also has a fantastic charm about it, i'd often wanted to go there so when I heard Alex was playing there I went along to get some images of him on stage and afterwards.

 

At the back of the venue are some very small alcoves with red walls and dark green benches, I asked Alex to sit on one side while I put a single flash in an umbrella in the walkway outside, we did a few different shots, looking at the camera and away, to produce the ones you see below, a nice touch was the fact that the table had some engraved images of guitars in them which you can hopefully see in the images, one camera, one subject, one flash and a cool location, a very simple set up.....

 

To find out more about Alex, click here

 

 

Hal Cruttenden at SHP

Above is the brilliantly funny Hal Cruttenden, photographed at the South Hill Park Comedy Cellar bar.

He was top of the bill and didn't disappoint, especially as he had come straight to the club after doing Pantomime in Woking earlier in the evening.

 

I photographed a few different comedians that night in between laughing,

Below are... MC Tom Webb, Michael Fabbri and TJ McDonald 

All the Comedians were great to photograph as they are all mostly very expressionate so I can capture the looks they have as they perform.

Alexander & Alexandra

A great night for quality music at Jagz recently, first up was Alexander McKay who had a fantastic voice and stage presence, here are just a couple of images from his performance..... 

 

 
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The main act on the night was Alexandra Legouix and the Sunflowers, a fantastic band that plays a fusion of Latin Jazz, Reggae and pop.

Here are some images from the night......

 

 

 

 

 

President Obonjo

I recently photographed 'President Obonjo' (Benjamin) at a comedy gig in Windsor a few months ago, he contacted me to see if I could produce some promo images for his comedy character.

We went up to London.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to Marble Arch where there was the Flags of all Nations so we did a few images there, shame there was no breeze as I hoped the flags would be fluttering horizontally.

Next stop was the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, we stopped on a Pedestrian crossing  to get some images of the President with Big Ben in the background. after that we went across Westminster Bridge to the London Eye for the images you see above, I took some little Union Jack flags with me as a prop so Benjamin could wave them, I managed to capture a bit of blur in the flags to indicate movement.

All the shots were lit with just one flash, held by my trusty sidekick John who also kept an eye on the equipment.

Here is a little bit about the President.........

The name is  President Obonjo of Lafta Republic and I have been performing stand-up comedy since late 2010.
My set combines story political and personal story lines, my influences as a British Nigerian , the impact of Social media on my life. Also included in my acts are political, topical and observational comedy .

President Obonjo is a creative thinker. 

Awards

Luton Comedian of the Year 2013 , Beat the Frog in Manchester 2013 , Bath Comedy Gladiators 2013 and Hastings Comedian of the Month 2013

Quotes

Some reviews of my performance can be found below:

“Obonjo’s future is bright in the Comedy World it is blinding “

“ Extremely talented comic and has a bright future in the comedy scene”

"Judging by the opening performance of the first Lafta Republic comedy show, this is one head of state who delivers what he promises "- Herts Advertiser

"A newcomer to the scene the St Albans scene,  funny man gave an assured performance for a new comer and will certainly be a permanent fixture on the comedy circuit "

"Relative newcomer PO came on in loud, coloured African attire, I thoroughly enjoyed his performance.

Obonjo is an experienced MC and has done numerous Corporate gigs.

 

So, some great images for a very talented comedian....'Vote Obonjo'!!!

Ella Martini

Below are a small selection of images from a recent shoot with singer/songwriter Ella Martini
The first three images were taken at the 'Bel and the Dragon' restaurant in Reading which has a great interior, ideal for music promo shots. We spent a couple of hours there setting up lighting in different parts of the restaurant to create some images that Ella can use for promotional purposes.
To hear and learn more about the very talented Miss Martini, click here

 

The last image was taken outside by a lake to get just Ella and the sky in the frame as this could be used as a CD cover if cropped square, for this image, I underexposed the already moody grey sky and lit Ella with one flash, camera right.

As we were shooting the late afternoon sun came out on the left side to put some light on the left side of Ella's face which filled in the shadow really nicely.

All the images here where shot just using one flash with various lightshapers, such as an umbrella or a smallish softbox.

 

 

Alex Cofield

 

Alex recently contacted me about some headshots he needed as he was getting to the end of his course at Rose Bruford College
We spent a couple of hours in the studio going through some different variations of looks with a few changes of clothes along the way for variety.
After choosing his 6 final images, I went through his choices and delivered them in a variety of formats and sizes that can be used for Spotlight, printed as 10''x8'' copies in colour and black and white, and email-able copies as well.
Alex was really please with his images and I wish him well for the future.

Baby Howl

Just finished a shoot with 'Baby Howl'.

They won the Battle of the Bands at Jagz music venue recently, first prize was a days shoot with me to produce images that can be used for Press and Promo requirements.

We started by an old corrugated barn then went onto a flyover that had some fantastic murals by Cosmo Sarcon  painted on it, we utilised the mural in a few of the images.

One of the final locations was a bridge/underpass that I know of in Windsor-it has some great lead in lines and textures with just enough darkness to enable me to light the band back up to exposure again with just one flash placed in front of them, i'm kneeling down by the light stand with a wide lens to make them more prominent in the image.

This image has been slightly processed, a bit of de-saturation and general slight changes.

Below is a mock up version of a CD cover, which shows what you can do with an image after editing and re-sizing/cropping etc

 

Jasmine......

 

Above is Jasmine, a Singer/Songwriter based near Reading, Berks
We met up recently to create some images for her that she could use for CD artwork etc.
The location was the Bel & The Dragon restaurant in Reading, a beautiful setting with lots of location possibilities inside and out.

This image was very simply lit, just one flash with a grid to create a fall off into darkness.
The deep blue of the seat contrast with the red patterned cushion and Jasmine's pale skin.
Ideal image for a cover.
You can find out more about her here

JAGZ Band competition final

Below are the entries for the Jagz band competition final, from the top are the winners-Baby Howl, followed by 'Martyrs and Kings', 'The Midnight Rambler' and finally 'Big Daddy'

 

 

I've covered most of the heats for this competition and have been impressed by all of the bands, so well done to everyone who took part.

 

My involvement with the competition is that I am one of the prizes, the winner (Baby Howl) gets a free days shoot with me to create images for promotional and artwork use.

 

Sha La La's CD cover shoot

 

 

Above are a few image that I produced for a new CD cover for the Sha La La's.

We all met up one evening at a disused garage near Ascot and spent about two hours creating images in and around the garage buildings.

 

I used one light for the second image, but in most cases used three to produce some rear/side lighting, the third image from top has three lights in use, one as a key light straight onto the band, one inside the building to light the side of John in the blue shirt standing and one from the rear right to rim light Darron in the red shirt.

In the top image I put a keylight onto the front of the band with another behind them to put some rim light onto them otherwise they would have blended into the darkness behind them.

I've mentioned before on this blog that I feel lighting makes the image, especially so as without lights on this shoot you would be looking at four black squares.............

 

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Below is a behind the scenes shot of the band being lit by one light, i've pulled back to show the band and light together as we were trying to get the white arrow that was painted on the floor into the shoot (see second image from top)

The blurriness around the band is a little trick I know, basically take the picture with a slow shutter and twist the camera at the same time, the ambient light blurs and anything hit by flash is 'frozen', simple but very effective......

We wrapped up about ten o'clock that night with lots of good varied images for a potential CD artwork, an enjoyable evening with a great bunch of blokes, see them live-you won't regret it!

 

 
 

PS.... I went back to the studio to do another shot of the band before their rehearsal, I had the idea in my mind for a while, just needed a dark room, 3 flashes and some card!

Basically I shone 2 flashes through a slit in a v large piece of card on camera right with a flash camera left behind and to one side of the band, see below for the final image...maybe one for the next album or a poster/flyer.

 

 

Sha La Las video shoot

 

I recently went to Powerhouse Studios in New Haw to take some behind the scenes images of
The Sha La La's latest video shoot.

Pictured above on Guitar is Darron, lead singer of the group, filming him is Robert Martin Kelly.
As you can see from the shadows on the floor, Rob had set up a couple of hotlights to illuminate the band but keeping the background black as they wanted a very contrasting look to the video.
My job was to get a few behind the scenes images, keep quite and keep out of the way which is always the best way to be on a video shoot!.

I sent in a selection of images from the night in black and white to fit in with the theme of the video and can be used for print purposes as well.

It was so hot in the studio that we had to take a few breaks outside as the hotlights live up to their name!

Btw, the Sha La La's latest cd is out very soon, I know I'm buying one-they are simply brilliant!

The Nevertones CD Artwork

 

 

The Nevertones.....

We recently got together for another shoot primarily for some forthcoming CD artwork.

The top image was at the end of the day, a very quick set up, a white background with one light aimed at it, and another light on each subject one at a time, then put together in Photoshop-simple but effective.

 

The bottom image was the complete opposite.... the group had an idea to have 4 different female characters taken from their songs to illustrate the CD cover, problem was we only had one girl!

Toni posed as all the characters with each member of the group which involved a change of clothes and makeup each time. I made sure there was enough space between each person so know one would overlap each other and took many frames.

In Photoshop I stripped the image together using layer masks.

It took a fair amount of time but looks effective.