harrington photography blog

Mike — Thu, 01 May 2008 09:02:00 +0000

The joys of new budgets! Clients have received theirs for this year and are spending them, so this month’s been jam packed full of commercial photography commissions. We’ve been working on May Gurney’s annual report, which has taken us all over the UK, to Manchester, Wales, Gloucester and London, not missing of course Head Office here in Norwich.
The design work is produced by London creative communications consultancy, Radley Yeldar, renowned for producing annual reports for many of Europe’s top companies. So following several meetings we’re left to our own devices to fulfil the brief.

Another substantial photography commission was for Microsoft’s research department based in Cambridge. Microsoft Research Cambridge was set up in July 1997 with three researchers. Today over 100 researchers, mostly from Europe, do computer research at the lab developing new concepts and software technologies for the future. What amazed me is that they are working 15 years in advance, which just shows how much goes into the development process after the initial concept. The brief was to produce corporate photography of their development staff to be used across a wide range of mediums including newspapers, magazines, reports and websites.
The stylish architecture of the research centre complimented the subjects and was an obvious choice to add impact to the images. One of the images can be viewed here.

On a more personal level, a good friend and his girlfriend have launched a quarterly men’s magazine aimed at Norfolk’s car and golf market, 1º East. 1º East has the look and feel of a national magazine but is tailored towards men who live, work or play in the eastern region. 1º East is no ordinary regional; it offers a unique mix of men’s lifestyle, automotive and golf in a refreshing way and contains high-quality editorial by national writers as well as inspirational photography by Jarowan Power. 1º East is also elegantly designed, beautifully printed and expertly edited by automotive journalist, Suzannah Sorrell.

May Gurney
research.microsoft
1degreeeast

Mike — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 09:32:00 +0000

We’ve been on the bubbly this month, celebrating a win at the Creative East Awards 2008 for ‘Best Commercial Photography’. The industry’s been a tough place over recent years so it’s nice to get the recognition, especially as we’ve all worked very hard as a team. So big thanks to the team! The winning image of a girl holding an energy-efficient light bulb was produced for Getty Images for a series of environmental shots entitled Future Generations. You can see it in January’s blog entry. Our good news also made it into the local press, the EDP Business, where the photo was printed too. With the award, we also got a four-page spread in Professional Photographer so look out for it in the May edition.

The judges were photographer Tom Mackie, photographer Andy Earl, and Ian Farrell, editor of Professional Photographer. Tom Mackie is one of the world’s leading landscape photographers and I recommend a look at his website that speaks for itself:
Andy Earl is known for producing over 120 album covers for bands such as Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams.
Ian Farrell edits Professional Photographer magazine but is also a photographer in his own right.

Apart from that, a large proportion of this month has also been taken up with stock shoots. I’ve been working on a business brief and tend to try my hardest to avoid the obvious when shooting for Getty for two reasons; the first obvious reason being that it could effect sales but secondly as new concepts create new challenges.

The image included in this blog entry is a shot of a businessman taking a plunge in the sea to relieve his frustrations with his life. In taking the shot, there were several elements, which were likely to cause problems. It was freezing cold – about 3c, and very windy which meant there were huge waves so we all had to be on our guard at all times. Both these elements meant that the time in the sea was going to be limited which kept us on our toes! To keep the camera dry I used a Kata waterproof camera cover which are brilliant in these conditions.

I used an assistant who filled the part as a model dressed in an old suit of mine, which was unlikely to see the day of light again. As for lighting, I used a second assistant with an Elinchrom ranger strapped to his back and the flash head was hanging off the end of a boom arm and a small soft box to soften the light. The Elinchrom rangers are excellent for this as the power packs are waterproof, they give out 1200 watts of light and they recycle in about a second so you can work fast. You can source them from The Flash Centre, UK distributors for Elinchrom.

Tom Mackie:
Andy Earl:
Ian Farrell:
Professional Photographer:
Kata:
The Flash Centre:

Mike — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:23:00 +0000

February has already been busy with some interesting shoots coming our way. One of which was a two day shoot at Imperial War Museum Duxford near Cambridge. Aviation museum, IWM Duxford used to be a place purely for plane spotters but has recently had a complete revamp and is attracting a much wider audience including families. The exhibits have become a lot more interactive and family friendly so it certainly appeals to kids as well as adults, which I think, is a great improvement. Anyway, our brief from design agency, IRG, was to produce lifestyle images for Duxford’s advertising material that would appeal to this broader market, so we went with ‘family day out’ images rather than photos that would appeal purely to plane enthusiasts. The best part of the job was that we had a decent budget, so we got to work with 8 professional models from highly respected Norwich/London model agency Sandra Reynolds. Due to it being February, working with the elements, namely the fog, meant the shoot was challenging, but produced some interesting and dramatic images. (See image below) The adverts will be used in the press and on the London underground so you may well spot them on your way to work someday soon!

I do approx 30 days a year freelance teaching/lecturing at Norwich School of Art & Design (NSAD) where I was also a student 11 years ago. I’ve just discovered that the travel photographer, Philip Lee Harvey, whose work I greatly admire, left NSAD three years before me. Since then, he has worked in over 90 countries, ranging from Antarctica to the Sahara and his work has been featured in publications including National Geographic Traveller, The Independent, the Saturday Telegraph, Condé Nast Traveller, Tatler, Vanity Fair and Volvo magazine. His website is worth a look, I really like his energetic portraits; He has a great way of capturing people’s personalities within their own environment. The BA (Hons) Photography course run by Peter Sherwood is an excellent foundation for any enthusiastic young photographer and sets them in good stead for the workplace because the briefs are set to answer real life commercial scenarios instead of the ‘fine art’ approach. Graduates therefore have a high success rate at turning their BA into a realistic and profitable photographic career.

Finally with the workload increasing, it’s been a relief to welcome a new member to our team, Tara Peak, to deal with customer services. We advertised for the position through a Broadland Council training scheme and had a great response, with 13 applicants. I chose Tara for her excellent GCSE results, enthusiasm and above all for her very friendly temperament. It means I can get out of the office and on location more, knowing that I’ve left a friendly voice to answer any queries back at the studio. So next time you ring the office, it may not be me who answers, but the lovely Tara!

Sandra Reynolds:Sandra Reynolds: http://www.sandrareynolds.co.uk/
IRG: IRG: http://www.interregional.co.uk
Philip Lee Harvey: Philip Lee Harvey: http://www.philipleeharvey.com
NSAD’S BA (Hons) Photography course: http:NSAD’S BA (Hons) Photography course: http://www.nsad.ac.uk/courses/baphotography.php

Mike — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:09:00 +0000

Its that time of the year again when industry commissions remain elusive yet there’s more than enough to be keeping us busy; New print material, upgrading the website, tendering, interviewing for job positions and a bit of studio feng shui, all help to freshen us up and get prepped for the year ahead.

As well as a few outstanding commissions, I’ve been shooting as much stock as possible for Getty Images. While I’m missing being in the great outdoors, it’s been a great opportunity to escape the rubbish weather and get busy in the studio.

This month we’ve been shooting environmental issues, as it’s such a hot topic at the moment. We’ve shot a series of images of children (the future generation) holding energy saving lighting. Shot in the studio, we’ve taken them into Photoshop and added a relevant backdrop, as shown in the posted image.

With the quality benefits of the Phase One back, which I’m currently shooting on, the retouching only took a few hours for each image, giving a convincing end result.

The UK’s Photography trade show, Focus 2008 is only a few weeks away. Although it’s very similar from year to year there’s always something new of interest every time. The AOP (Association of Professional Photographers) always have a good stand, maybe this year we’ll sign up for membership!

The Phase One stand, organised by the Flash Centre, is always excellent, as it seems to be ahead of the game in the world of digital backs with something new and exciting every year. They also have some excellent speakers such as Drew Gardner who I greatly admire. The interesting thing about Drew is like me he started as a press photographer working for local papers before he became the well-known advertising photographer he is today. He still has the press photographer presence and just gets on with the job rather than being a prima donna in the process.

Drew’s work: http://www.drewgardner.co.uk/

Focus 2008: http://www.focus-on-imaging.co.uk/

The AOP: http://hub.the-aop.org/

Getty Images: http://www.gettyimages.com/Home.aspx

Welcome to the MH Photography blog!!!

John — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:55:00 +0000