2017 in eight images , a photographic look back! , part 2

Here’s the second part to my 2017 annual photographic review , the first part can be found here.

5/From the Big Wheel – Goose Fair ’17

Another technical challenge – I’d always fancied seeing if I could get aerial views of Goose Fair , and now with the D4 I had the gear to do so , from the top of a ferris wheel. There was a curveball. The cars attached to the ferris wheel were attached via a central post where the cars could rotate around upon. Moving around and shifting your weight , even being careful , within the cars would cause them to move about. I was  able to counter this by choosing a very fast shutter speed , and allowing my camera to make the other necessary calculations to give me a useful image. The ride went up and down so quickly , along with the rotational movement there was barely time to think about what I was doing – see something , quickly line it up , shoot , watch again as the car rose into the sky , find something else , see , shoot , until they hauled me out of the car at the end!

6/Window views @ Angel Court , Open House London ’17 

This image was part of a set I made as part of my visit to London for the Open House event , in which buildings which normally would be inaccessible were opened to the public for a weekend. In the link I talk about how those on the tour were seeing out the – which gave me an opportunity to play with the scale and proportions. But there was another side to it – an unexpected commercial opportunity came about as the architects Fletcher Priest contacted me to license some of the images , which I was more than happy to do. This I really appreciated and it reaffirmed my confidence in the value of images I make which help creative organisations and people tell their story. 

7/Congratulations – Steve and Ruth

I saw this coming towards the end of really fun day covering the wedding of a long time friend Steve and his fiancee. Now , at first glance this image might not look particularly exceptional , but there’s a curve ball I needed to deal with , hinted at by Steve wearing glasses (and not just for fun!).  Normally with dancefloor images I’d be using a strobe to help light things but with Steve having a sensory processing disorder (essentially photosensitive for this discussion) I needed to adapt . I just love this as it cuts right to the core of how I serve others with the images I made , taking advantage of leading edge technology.  Hats of to Nikon for making an exceptional camera and lens combination in the D4 and 14-24mm f/2.8 AF-S  – which can make images on a dark dancefloor , barely lit , and still retain enough integrity with my careful post-processing the couple are happy to use the image as a large canvas!

8/ The Framework Big Sleep Out , December

Finally (I didn’t see myself writing so much!) I thought I’d share an image I recently made supporting Framework by documenting people who were taking part in their recent Big Sleep Out fundraising event. This particular image I remember well by the reactions of the people playing the card game as I showed them it on the back of the camera. It utterly confounded their expectations of what could be done with a photograph – in such low light situations , which I quite enjoy doing within my commercial work. I was fortunate to be able to share some of the magic of what I do with them .From that perspective the evening was a success. I don’t tend to make a lot of staged portraiture – so was keen to use this as an opportunity to practice skills directing and interacting with some very friendly and keen people , as well as raising money for charity.