Neil Danton

…one of these very often

It’s a double-headed, double-ended, push-me pull-you:

I wasn’t out and about looking for genetically modified animals, I just spotted this while on an un-related commission for my client.

The animals are Oryx, a type of Antelope.

TTFN

…as opposed to wind in the willows.

So I’m having a nice day off, when I get a panic call mid-morning from a Sunday newspaper, because someone (no naming, no shaming) forgot to book a commission, for 2pm, 120km away.

Leapt into the nearest phone-box, did a quick twirl and re-emerged with my cape on, and underpants outside my trousers, and launched myself westwards.

I believe I may have caused a bit of a scare to the Ryanair flight that was leaving Cork Airport at the moment I flew past, but hey, they frighten the crap out of me when I fly with them, so fair’s fair.

Said commission was to photograph someone who is installing one of those whirlygigywhatsits. I think the correct term is wind turbine or generator, or something. Anyway it whirls around in the air when the wind is blowing, and generates a bit of power. Rewind. It whirls around when the wind is blowing, which you think would be a safe bet in Ireland 360 days a year, except on the day I need the wind to blow and whirl the thingy around.

OK, so no wind, and the top of the thing is at least 10m or 3 storeys in the air. So how to get picture of small man (well not that small, but 2m and not 10m) in the same frame as a 10m tall mast.

As always, I like to go for the simple solution. So in this case, we simply dug a huge hole in the ground, and moved the mast, and the bungalow that happened to be next to it, into the hole.

Et voila:

Of course, you can also make an image from the bottom of the mast looking up, with the whirly thingy whirling around really fast in a blur. Or, big thanks to the lack of wind, in this case, not:

Also, if you really plan it well, in trying to bend over far enough, to get low enough, you can release your reading glasses from the protection of the shirt pocket they were in, and aim them straight for the cow-pat on the ground next to you.

I bet if I tried to be that accurate again, 99% of the time I’d miss. This time though – bulls-eye.

I think finances will stretch to a new pair.

TTFN

…no automobiles. Actually no planes either.

While we’re at it, it wasn’t a real train. It’s a tour train that goes around the wildlife park, but it’s nice and colourful, and I needed some images for my client.

I shot some standardy (standardy?) images and then decided I’d try something a little different with a zoom-burst. Trouble is, this requires quite a long exposure, and for some reason, that day the sun was shining (that’s a momentous occasion with the summer we’ve had). When you spend so much time moaning about the dark / wet / windy conditions, it’s a bit weird to be muttering under your breath that you’d wish the sun would go in.

Still, just about managed to get a long enough exposure to get the required effect:

TTFN

…well it’s like being on safari, except it’s only a few miles away from home.

Was recently at the Wildlife Park to get some images for a client’s press release of a new arrival – a baby Siamang Gibbon. Not the easiest thing to photograph, a near-black object in high-contrast sunshine/shade.

Baby on it’s own:

and baby with mum:

I guess some people just don’t like having their picture taken!

TTFN

…ahh the old ideas still work when you need them. A fall-back when there’s not much else to liven up an event is the old standby – the jump for joy.

I can remember back, waaay back, reading articles by Victor… someone** who used to write a column in Amateur Photographer. The jump for joy was one of his favourites, when static images looked like the only thing available otherwise.

**It was Blackman, Victor Blackman. It was way back in.. actually I’m not going to tell you when it was, but it was a LONG time ago. Victor was a staffer on the Daily Express and his tales of the daily exploits of a newspaper smudger used to fascinate me. That and drooling over the hundreds of pages of advertisements for camera gear that I couldn’t afford. Regretfully I believe he has now passed on, which is a shame really because otherwise I could catch up with him and berate him for starting me off with this strange desire to be a pro-photographer. That and creating my interest in my first pro camera – the Olympus OM1. What a camera that was, and still is – I still have one – I can see it now across the room. Must run a roll of that strange stuff called film through it. You may have heard of the stuff.

So back to the commission, announcement of college places for the unemployed. Needs something to jazz up what could turn out very boring otherwise. Light-bulb moment – a jump for joy.

It was a fairly gloomy location (and pouring with rain outside), so used one flash on the main subject and a second on the laydees. I wasn’t going back the car to get a light-stand, so how do you hold a 1Ds in one hand, a flash in the other, and the second flash in… Simples. Use the Very Important Head of Something that you have just finished photographing, and he can hold it. Well if you don’t ask…

TTFN

…as opposed to me being in the dark about taking pictures. Nothing has changed in that regard.

This was a commission to get a couple of images of a student workshop, for pr release. Seeing as the workshop was all about the properties of light, I figured I’d better get something that reflected (oops, sorry) that fact. I had a couple of possibilities of using the light-emitting demonstration equipment, the problem with all of it was that is was very low power. Not going to show up well if I’m killing the scene with a bag of flash lighting.

Solution – easy – turn off every single light source in the room (didn’t need to worry about window light – black-out blinds fitted to the windows). Sounds simple, as long as subject, me, and camera don’t move after the lights go out.

The techie bit: Exposure 1/15s hand-held, f6.3, ISO400. Single light-source (you figure it out)

TTFN