That being a play on the title of the infinately hilarious Stanley Kubrick comedy about the war synergised with my love for negative space in photographs which allow for advertising text/headlines.
Here is a shot from an old portfolio I did which shows negative space. The main focus of the image is obviously in the right hand 3rd, which as we know, is a good thing because of the rule of thirds. The gradiant on the background also leads your eye to the focal point whilst also leaving empty space in which text can be placed. This can be very important for certain advertising campaigns as it allows them space to add a product shot, text describing the product and it’s uses, and the company logo.
Here’s a shot to show the lighting set-up. I used two Elinchrom heads firing from a 3000 pack with improvised black foil barn doors as rim light and a Profoto 7b head from a 1200 pack through a large grid spot high above the model as key. I can’t remember the exact figures but I think I was shooting at something like 1/200s, f22, iso 100 to ensure there was no ambient light what-so-ever and a couple of black poly boards on either side to prevent any light contamination from the rim light.
This is another shot from the shoot that I found recently and really liked. It is the model doing a Pat Bateman from American Psycho (Harron, M. 2000) which was a film we both loved.
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I was recently sent an email by a friend telling me about an upcoming gig in one of Canterbury’s best live venues; Orange St. I love the venue so checked out the artists and was blown away. I love finding incredible musicians living locally. It’s great to see people from your hometown making a name for themselves.
The musicians are both really cool acoustic singer/songwriters.
Jon Woode taps into that amazing era in music dominated by the likes of Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis and Jefferson Airplane to name just a few. It’s a very melodic style of music with definate prog and folk influences. My favourite song is The Beauty and the Tenderness which he dedicated to me at the gig (after I’d told him how much I liked it) which I thought was very cool!
Lucy Kitt also draws on infliences from the ’60s with her excellent guitar and vocals. Lucy has got to be one of the nicest musicians I’ve ever met. I don’t think she stopped smiling once, and was very easy to talk to. I’ve heard Lucy several times before when she gigged with another incredible Canterbury band called Syd Arthur who are basically legends around here. Lucy’s most popular hit is Laurel Canyon which you just can’t help but enjoy.
I’ll be attending a lot more gigs at Orange St so watch this space for more pics from the local scene.
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Last weekend I made the trip up to London to go to the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait) Convention at the Hammersmith Novotel. The convention is also a trade show for all things portraiture and wedding related. There were talks by some fantastic photographers that I did want to check out but sadly did not have the time. Both Bruce Smith and Damien Lovegrove were very high on my list, maybe next time!
I went with my good friend Matt Tyler who as a wedding photographer had a great time meeting the album and print makers that he does business with. For me, I enjoyed the portrait demonstrations, especially the one by The Flash Centre who were demonstrating both off camera flash with speedlights and the relatively new Elinchrom Ranger Quadra which may be finding its way into my camera bag quite soon.
We couldn’t resist taking a few photos, so thought I’d use one of the booths modelling lights as a rim light.
Looking forward to next year.
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I was dying to get out and shoot in the snow this past week as England has been submerged in wintery goodness and really wanted to strip it back to basics and work with just ambient light and some seriously sexy shallow depth of field.
I really felt the shoot took on a mind of its own and we began creating images that wouldn’t be out of place in a Superdry campaign. I love occasionally just letting unplanned creativity take over on a shoot and not to think too much about the why’s or the how’s and just react to a situation. We wanted to shoot in the snow and just went with it.
So there’s a lesson in their somewhere… if you want to be a photographer, get up out of your chair and take your camera for a walk, what you end up with might be something special.
Big thanks again to Geoff Rolph who I’ve worked with several times before and we always seem to bounce ideas off one another and come up with something we both love!
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So I’ve had an amazing year and been wondering how wierd it is that bands add new tracks to their greatest hits albums when they haven’t been proven either great or a hit!
But apart from that I’ve had a really fun year and I just wanted to take a look back at some of the latest and greatest projects from 2009 and usher in 2010 with a bang.
…
Joined the London Strobist Community Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3
Received Premier Award in the Ross Cup
Covered Corporate Conference at Ascot Race Course
Worked in one of London’s largest photographic Studios
Had my first exhibition
Got published in the NME
Shot a man on a bike
Made some fantastic new friends in not one band…
…But two
Never underestimated a good wall Pt. 1, Pt. 2
Did the music festival boogie Pt. 1, Pt. 2
Created two ends of the lighting specturm in half an hour
Spent some time in the studio shooting portraits Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3
Found a little time to do some assisting for an old friend
Became aware of the blog deitys Joe McNally, Chase Jarvis, Zack Arias and David Hobby
…
What a great year!
Now to start it all again… Can’t wait!!!
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A few months ago I was given a press pass to cover the Hevy Festival 2009 in Folkestone.
Images from the festival can be seen here…
I was contacted by one of the organisers and asked if one of my images could be used on the holding page in the build up to the 2010 festival. I agreed after some brief discussions over rights and compensation etc and the rest as they say, is history.
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Checked out a really cool local gig the other day and took along the camera.
One of the bands was Krissy And The Jackdaws, which is with out a doubt one of the best bands in Kent… fact! The other was Kid Harpoon a superb artist with the most amazing stage presence I have seen.
I only took my 70-200 L f2.8 which standing about 2 metres away from the singer allows you to get really close and capture the emotion of the performance.
Krissy And The Jackdaws
http://www.myspace.com/krissyandthejackdaws
Kid Harpoon
http://www.myspace.com/kidharpoon
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The Ross Cup is the largest Kent photographic competition running annually and is comprised of entries from clubs spanning the entirety of Kent and the outskirts of London.
In total there were more than 60 clubs entered with some 300+ entries.
I was voted the overall winner of the Premier Award which is for the best individual photograph.
I was extremely pleased to win the award not only for myself but because it is the first time that someone from the Canterbury Photographic Society has won it in over 50 years so its equally as good for the club as it is for me.
I entered one of my images of up and coming model Geoff Rolph that I shot at the early part of this year.
And here is a quick snap of me collecting the award at one of the society meetings as I was unfortunately unable to attend the ceremony.
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Looking forward to entering again next year.
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I was recently approached to shoot some portraits of Laura for her new promotional material.
Laura is the Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for South Thanet.
She was a pleasure to work with and wish her all the best.
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Really Cool band I shot a little while ago mentioned in NME.
Check out blog from the shoot for more info and behind the scenes banter.
www.josephwatts.co.uk/blog/?p=86
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