Sussex wedding photographer's blog » press photography

Bank of New York Mellon ‘Impact’ evening

DaveP — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:44:11 +0000

A short break from wedding photography here with some shots of the entertainers at a recent Bank of New York Mellon event. This was for the launch of ‘Impact’ a multicultural group within the bank that focuses on staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
The evening started with a Chinese lion dance. The only lions I’ve ever seen have been in a zoo and were lying around yawning, this one was a bit more lively and did a lot of jumping around the stage and shaking it’s head at the audience. This was followed by a very elegant solo Chinese dancer and a martial arts demonstration.
The main event was a series of speakers, talking about their personal experiences, and Impact’s mission to act as a resource for the company and employees, with a specific emphasis on the recruitment, retention, professional development and advancement of multicultural employees.
The event finished with a fantastic display of Bhangra dancing. These guys had unlimited energy and seemed to spend half their time in mid air. That drum was very, very loud! One of the dancers was also an employee at BNY Mellon, so his co-workers had the opportunity to see him out of his business suit and in action.

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Portraits for the University of Brighton

DaveP — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:38:23 +0000

A quick break from wedding photography, these are a couple of examples of recent photographic commissions for the University of Brighton.
The first was a portrait of Lord Nicholas Stern, former Chief Economist of The World Bank and head of the team that produced The Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change. My brief was quite specific for this one, Lord Stern in a country setting, looking away from camera. There needed to be room on the image for a magazine title and other copy. I was told I would have no more than 10 minutes to get the shot, as I normally ask for half an hour or more for portraits this was pushing it a bit.
Lord Stern lived some way from my home and I was told that he had a good location in mind for the photo. I should have known better, but took this at face value and didn’t look around the area before my appointment. This turned out to be a serious mistake, the first place we went to was completely unsuitable and cut badly into my 10 minutes. Luckily Lord Stern was a bit more generous with his time than we had arranged, and we visited another couple of spots before finding somewhere better. Even this wasn’t ideal and the light was very flat and grey, which didn’t help (Luckily Photoshop and portable lighting improved the situation!). The end result was a useable photo, but I feel I could probably have done a bit better. Next time I’ll make sure I’ve scouted for locations before I start a job with serious time restrictions.
The second commission was more straightforward. Rod Mallinder, a member of staff at the University of Brighton, was due to retire. The photo was for a feature in the University magazine. Rod works in a modern building with several areas that suited the brief. We ended up taking the main photo on the stairs in the lobby. This time I had a good look around before I started, and only needed about 15 minutes to get a series of shots that I was quite happy with.
I prefer to have some time to talk to people and walk around a location with them before I start working, but that’s not always possible. Sometimes you don’t even meet a person or know what they look like until 30 seconds before you start. In these cases the best thing you can do is get prepared; find a good location in advance, have a selection of ideas in mind, and make sure all your gear is ready to go before you start using up your allocated time.

Lord Nicholas Stern

Rod Mallinder

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New prospectus photographs for City College, Brighton.

DaveP — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:15:46 +0000

I’ve worked on various commissions for City College in Brighton over the last three years, providing photography for poster campaigns and various promotional materials. Last week I spent two days taking photos for the new 2009-10 prospectus.

In previous years I’ve spent quite a bit of my time at the college taking photos of students as they worked. The brief for the prospectus this year was to try for a less literal representation of each subject area. Instead of photographing classes as they happened we set up shots, mainly of individual students, and spent some time on the composition. The idea was to get images that could be used in a magazine style layout, some with enough room for text to be included.

We had allowed about an hour for each subject and tried to get a selection of shots in each area, using different backgrounds and models. We also had to find willing, suitable models from amongst the college students in that time, so the schedule was fairly hectic.

The college is lit with fluorescent lights, which give a horrible greeny yellow look to photographs, so I had to use flash for most of the interior shots. I used a very minimal lighting setup because of the lack of time, just a Speedlight on a stand bounced into an umbrella and triggered with a radio slave. This meant I could get the light source off the camera, move it around the subject, and get a variety of effects. Light from a flash mounted directly on the camera gives harsh shadows, a flat look, red eyes and generally looks quite nasty.

If I’d done this on my own I think I would have been lying in a sweaty heap by the end of it, luckily I was helped by two graphic designers from the college, Steve and Sarah. They came round with me and found locations, students and came up with some good ideas for shots. At the end of the job I had a wide selection of images that I think will fill the prospectus quite nicely.

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Gurkhas restore Sussex footbridge

DaveP — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:00:25 +0000

The Gurkhas moved into West Sussex last week to begin the restoration of the North Stoke footbridge. The bridge was badly damaged last year by a falling oak tree, resulting in the closure of the footpath. The path runs over the old course of the River Arun, between North and South Stoke.

After being contacted by West Sussex County Council and the Amberley Society, the army decided to carry out the repairs as a training exercise, charging only for the cost of the materials.

The 70 Gurkha Field Support Squadron of 36 Engineer Regiment will be restoring the bridge to it’s original design. Leaving the foundation and support towers they will be replacing the timber decking, parapets and anchor points for the main cables.

I visited yesterday to take press photographs of the first stages of the work and was met by Sgt Man Ale and his very friendly staff. His team of about 12 people had already made short work of removing the old structure and starting the construction of the anchor points on either bank. They looked like they knew what they were doing. I’ll be going back to see the finished bridge sometime in July and will post a few more photos then.

The Gurkhas have been in the news a lot recently with their campaign for residency rights and full pensions led by Joanna Lumley. I’m very ignorant about their history but, after meeting these guys, I was interested to find out a bit more about them. There are still over 3,500 Gurkhas on active duty in the British Army, serving all over the world. There’s a good Independent article on the history of the Gurkhas here if anybody is interested.

Royal Engineer veterans Major Trench (L) and Captain John Fitzmaurice (R), who helped negotiate the deal with the army, talking to Sgt Semanta Rai (SSA).

The bridge piers left standing after the removal of the old structure.

The 70 Gurkha Field Support Squadron on site.

Sgt Naresh Limbu on a support tower.

Sgt Naresh (centre) with sappers Ishwar Thapa, Bikram Malla and Kiran Shris (L-R).

Sgt Semanta Rai with Grahame Joseph from the Amberley Society.

The team removing the old anchor points. Cut it into smaller pieces guys!

Site commander Man Ale (R) with Grahame Joseph.

The old bridge before the restoration. Photo courtesy of Charles Drakew.

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Press photography for World Kidney Day

DaveP — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:17:49 +0000

I was working as the official photographer for World Kidney Day in Westminster on Thursday. This is an annual event, celebrated in 88 countries, to raise awareness of the importance of healthy kidneys and involves people with kidney disease, family, friends and healthcare professionals.

The day started with a ‘mini march’ over Westminster Bridge by some of the people involved in the day. Organisers Drew and Patti had filled out several reams of forms from Lambeth and Westminster Councils to get permission for us to stop in the middle of the bridge for a group photograph. As you can see the weather was bit murky but everyone looks pretty happy. In the front of the group is Seaford resident and award winning swimmer Michael Gates. Michael has had four kidney transplants and is a regular competitor in the British Transplant Games, to date he has won four gold, three bronze and two silver medals for swimming in the backstroke events. He has also raised thousand of pounds for Guy’s Hospital with collections and charity runs.

Michael is currently trying to raise funding for his trip to the World Transplant Games in August. All the competitors have had one or more transplants. If you would like to help you can contact him on 07752 489965.

The second part of the event took place in the House of Commons. MP’s were invited to come and listen to speeches and talk to participants. Lawrence Keogh, TV chef from BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, launched his Tasty Cookbook for World Kidney Day. Lawrence had a kidney transplant eight years ago and wanted to provide some tasty recipes for people affected by kidney disease.

The World Kidney Day website provides more information on kidney disease and local awareness raising events.

The World Kidney Day Team on Westminster Bridge

TV chef Lawrence Keogh and friends