Fast & Furious Changes.

Tags

Fast and Furious, Film, Film Premiere, Leicester Square, london, Paul Walker, photographer, Photographs, Photography, Photos, portraits, premiere, professional photographer, Red Carpet, the empire, Vin Diesel

I have been rather light on the blog as late as I am in the process of switching website (and blog) providers over so that everything is hosted at Zenfolio.  This means that although the website will keep the overall structure,  it will have a more generic look and feel. The real key for this is to minimise the amount of time I need to spend checking the site is secure and managing content. I will be able to change the displayed slideshows and portfolio far more easily and hence more regularly.

I have also changed my strategy regarding image sharing and social media. In the past I used Flicker as the platform to host my images to share on media such as twitter and Facebook mainly because Flickr has such a high rank in the Google search engine and it meant my images were found easier (and a few sales did result). From now on though, with the sharing and SEO tools of Zenfolio, all of my sharing will be done right from my site, hopefully pulling in more visitors and improving my own ranking. Only time will tell if this works.

In the meantime a gallery of this weeks Fast and Furious Premiere at The Empire.

From the Archive: Kirk and Spock

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Chris Pine, Film, Film Premiere, image, images, kirk, Leicester Square, london, photographer, Photographs, Photography, Photos, portraits, premiere, professional photographer, Red Carpet, spock, star trek, Zachary Quinto

With the forthcoming release of ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ I thought this weeks Archive could be the two major characters; Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto aka. Captain Kirk and Spock.

This photograph is from the 2009 premiere.

Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto attends UK premiere of Star Trek at Empire Leicester Square, London on 20/04/2009.

UK Premiere of G.I. Joe: Retaliation on 18/03/2013

Tags

celebrity, Film, Film Premiere, G.I. Joe, image, images, Leicester Square, london, photographer, Photographs, Photography, Photos, portraits, premiere, professional photographer, Red Carpet, the empire

A wet premiere in London’s Leicester Square with a long wait for Tatum Channing (who got delayed in traffic after a days filming).

European Premiere of Oz the Great and Powerful on 28/02/2013

Tags

celebrity, European Premiere, Film, Film Premiere, image, images, Leicester Square, london, Oz the Great and Powerful, photographer, Photographs, Photography, Photos, portraits, premiere, professional photographer, Red Carpet, the empire

World Premiere of Les Misérables

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Amanda Seyfreid, Anne Hathaway, Cosette, Eponine, Fantine, gig photography, Hugh Jackman, image, images, Javert, Leicester Square, Les Misérables, london, monochrome, photographer, Photographs, Photography, Photos, portraits, premiere, professional photographer, Red Carpet, Russell Crowe, Samantha Bark, the empire, Valjean, World Premier

Wednesday saw Leicester Square host the World Premiere of one of the most anticipated films of the year; Tom Hooper’s adaptation of Les Misérables and I joined the photographers covering the event. Here are a few monochrome images of the main cast.

Amanda Seyfreid (plays Cosette)

Russell Crowe (plays Javert)

Samantha Barks (plays Eponine)

Hugh Jackman (plays Valjean)

Anne Hathaway (plays Fantine)

As ever, my images are available from a number of outlets: License Les Misérables premiere images on photoshot here with further images of the cast on my site here.

FrightFest the 13th (2012)

Tags

American Mary, Claudia Gerini, Dario Argento, Federico Zampaglione, Frightfest, gig photography, Greg Nicotero, image, images, Jen & Sylvia Soska, Leicester Square, london, Nazi Zombies, Outpost II, photographer, Photographs, Photography, Photos, portraits, professional photographer, Red Carpet, Ross Noble, the empire, Tom Six, Total Film Icon

Im now in my 3rd year of covering FrightFest as part of the team and with many of the attendees being regulars, along with the event being held at The Empire, it’s starting to feel like I’m part of a family.

The FrightFest team: Alan, Paul, Greg and Ian with Ross Noble

This year started differently to any previous FrightFest, with a 10 minute routine by comedian Ross Noble. I say “routine” – his act was anything but, having us all in stitches and trying to produce high quality images whilst laughing so hard is a real challenge.

Comedian Ross Noble

The event, in it’s 13th year, has become internationally renowned and my brief includes covering the fans, the personalities to show the whole flavour or atmosphere of the 5 days.

Michelle Ryan attends “COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES”

That means working at a “Media Wall”, out and about the theatre and on the stage area.

Dario Argento : Total Film Icon

Even at the media wall shots are not always simple. To photograph special effects maestro Greg Nicotero‘s glass Variety FrightFest Award I enlisted the help of the video cameramen and their LED lights to ensure the writing on the award was perfectly visible. (On-camera flash may have caused some problems and would have involved close direction of Greg, something i try to avoid).

Greg Nicotero receives the inaugural Variety FrightFest Award

On the Saturday, I had some “Nazi Zombies” from the film “Outpost II” to play with along with some other famous horror characters. Taking them out into Leicester Square produced some interesting responses and surreal images (especially in the rain).

Freddie Kruger in the rain.

 

Nazi Zombies in the rain.

There was also the Sunday night drinks reception to cover:

 

Director Federico Zampaglione and actress Claudia Gerini

Director Tom Six

One of the most anticipated files of the festival was “American Mary” on the Monday morning, giving me a chance to have a little more fun. This time the target was Greg Day, PR for FrightFest and Clout Communications.

Directors Jen & Sylvia Soska with FrightFest PR guru Greg Day

Directors Jen & Sylvia Soska

Before the closing film “Tower Block” a slideshow of my images from the weekend were shown on the huge 18M Empire 1 screen (there’s a test of image quality!). As a photographer, the response and feedback to this slideshow produces a warm feeling knowing its a job well done.

“Tower Block” features Sheridan Smith who attended bringing a little more conventional glamour to round up the event.

Sheridan Smith

As always, these 4 and a half days are immensely tiring but great fun. See you next year!!

A full gallery of image may be viewed here…

What to expect when you are expecting

Tags

Anna Kendrick, BFI IMAX, Cameron Diaz, Cheryl Cole, Cheryl Tweedy, Film Premiere, gig photography, image, images, Live Music, london, Noah Stewart, photographer, Photographs, Photography, Photos, portraits, professional photographer, Red Carpet, singer, singing, UK premiere, Union Chapel, What To Expect When You're Expecting

.. or … it’s not just about turning up and shooting; you need to plan as well.

As you are probably aware, the position of any photographer at a premiere is determined by a random draw; press cards are put in a bag and as they are drawn out, each photographer selects their position from the remaining space. With both Cheryl Cole and Cameron Diaz expected at this event there were bound to be a lot of photographers at the BFI IMAX, a venue where there can be very little space. My gut feeling was “trouble” so I packed a longer lens than normal, a set of steps and headed off.

My fears were totally correct, not only was there a very small amount of space (which was extended slightly into a L shape), I was drawn last. It was only with thanks to a colleague that I could actually see anything at all but being in the “L” it did mean I was shooting against a horrible background.

Photographers Waiting

Whilst I had to try and photograph full length images, I felt the best chance  was to go for tight portraits…

Actress Anna Kendrick

Cameron Diaz

Cheryl Cole

My images of this event my be licensed from PhotoShot. The full set of my What to expect when your expecting may be licensed here.

Leaving this event at 7pm, I then dashed over to Islington to photograph Noah Stewart performing acoustically at the Union Chapel, Islington. The contrast between the two jobs was obviously huge; from a busy, crowded, noisy film premiere to the quiet stillness of the church with just 2 other photographers in attendance.

The church holds a special place for me as my great uncle married here and I clearly remember his best man (twin brother) dropping the ring and it rolling down the isle.

The hall was the perfect location for Noahs powerful un-amplified voice:

Noah Stewart

Noah Stewart

My images of Noah Stewart event my be licensed from PhotoShot. The full set of my Noah Stewart at Union Chapel may be licensed here.

European Premiere of Dark Shadows

Tags

Dark Shadows, European Premiere, Eva Green, Film, Film Premiere, Helena Bonham Carter, image, images, Johnny Depp, Leicester Square, london, Michelle Pfeiffer, photographer, Photographs, Photos, portraits, professional photographer, Red Carpet, the empire

So, at last! Its back to Leicester Square – the newly refurbished square (well its not quite finished). The event seemed to far far more room than before and it felt really good to be back.

It was a case of quality not quantity with this event with a few stars turning up, but those that did were….

Actress Eva Green

As you can see, I was on the carpet, with VIP access.

Actress Michelle Pfeiffer signing

The atmosphere was great, with many fans having arrived before 9AM and waited in the pouring rain.

Actress Helena Bonham Carter

Of course, the film is another collaboration between Tim Burton and Johhny Depp

Actor Johnny Depp

A complete set of my images of European Premiere of Dark Shadows can be licensed from PhotoShot here and here (they are split in 2 sets).

Salmon fishing with an iPad

Tags

Emily blunt, Ewan Mcgregor, Film, iPad, iPad3, Photo Editing, Photography, premiere, professional photographer, Red Carpet, Salmon fishing in the Yemen

Ever since the first iPad was released I knew at some point there would be the possibility of reducing the weight on my back and speeding up the workflow at an event by using one of these lightweight tablets.

I invested in the iPad 1 but it was quite evident that the device just did not have the power to cope with the requirements of live image transmission, the iPad 2 was a definite improvement but still not quite there. All this time I have been playing with the pieces, putting together ideas and workflows and with the 3rd generation of the device the pieces finally fit and the jigsaw has come together. Whilst the reviews and techie sites have been raving over the screen clarity, the real improvement for me has been the doubling of the working memory from the iPad2 (being 4 times that of the original device), making image editing viable.

 

The premiere of “Salmon fishing in the Yemen”, being a low key event with only 2 or 3 “names” was the ideal event for a test.

The only real issue I found was supporting (holding) the iPad. Images were downloaded, cropped, annotated and sent to distribution all within minutes of shooting, the fastest I have ever delivered images.

Although my aim for this blog is not to be technical, more and more photographers are trying to work out how to make “real” use of these ultra lightweight devices; if there are enough requests, I will detail my workflow in a later post.

In the meantime, here are 2 of my first live event images processed and sent from the iPad (incidentally, this post was also written on the pad),

Ewan Mcgregor

Emily Blunt

Some recent work

Tags

Anthony Daniels, C3PO, celebrity, concert photography, Daniel Radcliffe, Ed Moses, Film, Film Premiere, gig photography, image, images, Kaiser Chiefs, Kate Winslet, Live Music, photographer, Photographs, Photography, Photos, portraits, premiere, professional photographer, Red Carpet, TITANIC 3D, World Premiere

Anthony Daniels who played C3PO in all 6 Star Wars Movies with a Lego model of his character at Star Wars Episode 1 3D at The Empire, Leicester Square on 8th February 2011

 

Daniel Radcliffe signs posters before introducing a screening of The Woman in Black at The Empire, Leicester Square, London on 11th Feb 2011

 

Kaiser Chiefs play the HMV Apollo Hammersmith on 23rd Feburary 2012.

 

Athlete Ed Moses attends the Sport Relief Mile 2012 at the Royal Parks

 

Actress Kate Winslet attends the World Premiere of TITANIC 3D on Tuesday 27th March 2012