Some photos from today's antics at the beach...

Superman Joe

(My favourite)

More tk...

It's not real, it's only a model.

I built this a while ago now, my brother got it me as a present. I've been off work ill today, so got bored and started playing around with my latest toy er... I mean 'lighting tool'. The Lastolite TriFlip 8:1

What you will need in order to recreate this image is as follows;


- 1 dusty model of a Kawasaki zx10r (nothing else will do)
- 1 ridiculously messy dining room (or other totally unsuitable space)
- 1 overpriced trigrip reflector (or white bed sheet)
- 1 overpriced lumiquest softbox (or make your own cardboard softbox)
- 1 reasonably priced 12" silver reflector (or tin foil)
- 2 flash units
- 1 very expensive lightstand (or a nice friend prepared to stand perfectly still for hours while holding a flash unit)
- Wireless trigger system (or optical trigger system, depending on your flashes. I use Nikon SB800's)
- other bitz n bobz I've already forgotten I used...

I'm using the trigrip as both a diffuser and a table here, so I can light the underside giving an even shadowless (nearly) finish. The flash unit underneath is placed directly under the bike, about 2ft away. This makes the light fall off into the distance, giving a greyness to the background higher up the image.
I placed the softbox above and slightly behind the bike and used the little reflector to bounce some of the light into the shadows on the front of the bike.

I'm a newcomer to this, so there are probably (definitely) better ways of doing this sort of photography. This is just how I hashed mine together on a whim after seeing another overpriced gadget from Lastolite, and thinking "hmm...I wonder if I can do that?"

Today, while shooting alpacas, I met a woman who told me about a trip to China she took as a teenager with a group of fellow cycling students, where her party came across a village deserted due to bubonic plague, complete with dead bodies. She honestly believed that she wasn't going to get out of there alive...

Well, I'm not quite that ill, but I have though been feeling a little off colour, a tummy bug me thinks. I blame it on all the schools I've been in recently. I don't think there has been a day gone by for 2 weeks when I haven't spent some time in a school with those little dwarf-like plague-carrying humans they call 'children'.

I'm not quite sick enough to take time off work, but just sick enough to make it a hindrance. My mind has not been fully on my photography, and I've struggled when trying anything taxing. But despite the grumbly-in-the-tumbly I've managed a couple of good photos today which has cheered me up a little.

One was a funny picture of the alpacas, the other was a portrait of a hairdresser who had just returned from London where she had spent the last 3 1/2 yrs styling the hair of celebrities like Sharon Stone. While trying to get her to smile for the birdie (while all my equipment was failing around me - which reminds me, gotta charge a load of batteries) she says "I hate my teeth"...Well, I wasn't quite sure what she wanted me to do about it. Lend her mine? Believe you me, that would have looked a lot worse! I couldn't see anything wrong with hers, so I told her to keep smiling and we got the picture.

Did someone say bad teeth?

(It was only ever going to end one way from here on in for the player in blue/white. Today I can sympathize...)

This morning I was in work early...

An hour early to be precise. I had to be at a school before all the kiddywinkles arrived to photograph the head teacher (understand it was I that was photographing the head, not all the kiddywinkles...that would be insane) who was backing some crusade led by our leader (the editor) to revamp our roads, in particular an A-road running right through our leader's village. (Draw from this your own conclusion.) So I go pick up the car from work, along with the relevant reporter. Oh, since I'm out that way, could I also do another job just round the corner? "why, of course!" I say, drawing another much needed breath into my tired body which is starting to feel like its falling apart. The knot in my shoulder has flared up again, and I can't understand why my knee hurts!

Anyways, back to the job. We get there, the head is having a nightmare morning and the children haven't even got there yet. Its raining, the light is yucky dull and i'm far from being inspired. Trying to get anybody to do anything like what I wanted, when I wanted, was like trying to push a rhino in the opposite direction to what it wanted to go, and nearly as dangerous.

(This is Zimba, he is only a baby at 1 yr old)

That road really does carry a lot of traffic, and where we were was very narrow. It was hard work, my pics were rubbish and things didn't really get much better from then on...

My second job was just around the corner, but could I find it? Could I eckers like?!? I'm looking for 11. The house numbers I found went 5, 6, 1, 2, 12! Turned out to be right behind me all along, tucked behind a van that was parked taking up all of the narrow road. They were lovely people, and it came to light that I had photographed them before, which was nice. But, no time for hanging around, I was already late. No pratting around with flash, a straight f.2.8 portrait at 70mm and I'm away, now to track down my illusive reporter back at the school before attempting to be at my next job in 5 minutes. Easy, right? besides, its only 20 minutes away!

more tk...

I covered the Battle of Britain memorial service last weekend and got there early, giving me time to find some angles before the service kicked off...although I don't think one 'kicks off' a memorial service. Anyways, I shot the above without being harassed or arrested for photographing children in the park...and no, I didn't offer them any sweets. This was a test for what turned out to be the front page photo.

I was trying to find new, more interesting ways to shoot this annual event. I'm sure what I came up with was nothing that hasn't been seen before, but it was different to me and more interesting. I knew the paper would usually use a max of 2/3 pics, but I wanted to shoot more for myself, and let the subs choose what they wanted from that.
I think this is a healthier mentality for me than thinking "oh, they'll only use one, so I'll only shoot one" and "they'll be expecting this picture, so that's what I'll give them".
It's very easy to fall into thinking and doing just that (and at times I do) especially under time constraints and with several jobs in quick succession. But for the sake of sanity, I've started to have the confidence to shoot for myself while getting pics for the paper, and submitting them with (or instead of) the expected/safe options.
Heres a couple more from last weekend...


A veteran reads the names on the cenotaph...

Wreaths laid at the base of the cenotaph with veteran in the background...

Veterans lined up in rows at the service...

Three pipers piping...or not as the case may be.

More wreaths, more veterans...

In total I had 6 pics published (5 used big on one page, and 1 on the front), which is 4 more than I was expecting. They also stuck them all on a slide show on the web!...which is nice :)

So many things happened today, I dunno where to start. I had a hectic morning, including 4 reception classes and 2 other jobs (one 20 miles away from the office) all before noon. I was also on my last day of a 7 day stretch, so I'm pretty exhausted as its been a particularly heavy 7 days...

Here's a piece of advice for ya, if you are going to make a stupid joke about something someone said, make sure you actually hear what they said. Unlike me. I swear a teacher called one of the kids Lennon, so I said "which ones McCartney?" (BOOM BOOM!!) She smiled and said "I'm lost..." I then go on to explain I had made a reference to the beatles, "you know Lennon and McCartney?"...still nothing. Turned out she hadn't said Lennon, or anything close. And just to clear it up, there was no kid called Lennon. So next time you fancy making a stupid joke, don't. Just don't do it.

Having quickly changed the subject, I carried on shooting kiddies...

This evening, however, I remembered why I do what I do. I went out with Jo (one of our reporters) to do a feature on the local mountain rescue team, including a dog named Skye. Its something we had been trying to organize for a couple of months now having met them at another job I had been doing. Since that day I'd had a vision in my head of the picture I wanted to do. This evening, after weeks of obsessing, I was able to complete it. The team were super helpful and at times it felt like I had my own crew of assistants, shooting on location on top of a big mountain. It was an awesome experience, a feeling I would love to repeat often throughout my career. These people are amazing, dedicated humans who shy away from the hero status they deserve. They are thoroughly nice and kind, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for them.




A sneak preview...

More tk...

Just a quick one. Matt Hammonde has been working very hard to finish off the rebuild of my new website. Its now gone live (still with a couple of little things to change and iron out the wrinkles). Let us know what you think...

www.joeriley.co.uk