kicking it old skool

I finally got over my denial: my work horse flash is definitely faulty. The problem is that it stops firing intermittently, even at full charge ready to go, and registering on the camera. A little experimentation revealed that if I rattle off a few shots with it mounted on the body, and gently pull it back towards me it starts firing again. So I’m willing to bet £50 (postage and packaging excluded) that it’s the hot shoe seating mechanism that needsa replacin’. Better than the £200 “send it to Canon” option. My theory is actually that heavy light modifiers like the ring flash or the Lumiquest Softbox I’m very fond of may have added to the situation. But shit, I’m still going to use those, so, whatever.

Where was I? Oh yes:

Saturday morning, after meeting up with David Hobby and the other guys at the Crosse, I got all my gear together and headed down to the Brunswick Gallery, located near Russell Square. BEEEEEuatiful day outside, just epic. Had to remember to water my plants before I left the house (I kicked off a planting project on my balcony a few weeks back, and they are growing fast and thick).

The day at the seminar was spent covering the basics of lighting, getting everyone up to speed with ambient and added light balance and techniques to do so. We then got into some of Dave’s more famous pictures and he walked us through the thinking process, fielding questions as he went. And this was my main attraction to the event: getting inside his head, how he approaches a job and gets the shot. The key to his process is layering light. I know about this a bit, but he’s changed up his thinking of late. Whereas previously he was solely focused on what the key light was doing, now he’s switched it round, to instead focus on the ambient fill, creating a safety net, as it where (your image will never be darker than this) and then adding layers of light on top of that. Really great technique and one I want to play with at home. (did I mention I was sat next to Drew Gardner, Award Winning UK photographer? Oh, well, I was!)

We had a lunch break in between and the entire Brunswick centre sprang to life while we where in the basement Gallery: food stalls and people EVERYWHERE, sun out in full force, smells mingling with sounds, just so cool! I grabbed me an Argentinean Steak sandwich and walked on over to where Dave and some folks where getting Thai. I then had the privilege of having a “real” discussion with the man, about the chances of him heading to Cape Town sometime since he has a big fan base there, why there aren’t more world class photographers from South Africa (“what’s stopping you?”, I was asked…) and just other random bits of cool conversation, just me and him, like we where old buddies catching up. Odd to think that I would be able to carry a conversation like that. I would not have been able to do so a few months ago…

Back in class for the second session and we got our hands dirty with practical. Dave did 3 shoots, different techniques and created portraits. I volunteered to be in one of them (not that he asked for volunteers! I insisted! Again, wasn’t gonna sit on my ass and let this moment go by!) We finished off the day with a quick review and a very touching speech from Dave on what his vision is for a project he is heading up in his home town.

I gave my thanks, shook hands and got my picture taken with him before I headed to the nearest bar for an Extra Cold Guinness.

The day was far from over though. Kwok, a neighbour I met at our on-site gym invited me the week before to his BBQ so I decided to look into that. Lot’s of folks there, good food (I have made an official threat to raid his recipe book!) and interesting people. One of which was Selina Lo, who casually says “I’m an actor” when asked the “so what do you do?” question. Turns out she’s done a few things, one of which is a Disney movie called The Prince & Me: The Elephant Adventure. She’s been doing martial arts all her life and her vision is to be the world’s greatest female action star. I’ve been checking out her work online and she’s been getting rave reviews, mostly because she is hot! But also because… well, she kicks ass! Best of all, she’s just a really cool chick, with a dark sense of humour to boot and really cool to hang out with.

Spent the rest of the evening with these guys and eventually hit a few bars in the area. Came home at 04:00 and decided: that’s it! Today, I’m doing NOTHING. And that’s exactly what I did. Slept in a bit, watered my plants, cleaned the apartment and heading down to Regents Park and just chilled, read, slept, whatever.

With so much to process and so many cool things back to back, I think it was the best thing I could have done. A little voice was protesting in the far back recesses of my mind that I haven’t achieved anything this weekend. Crazy talk, of course! I just smiled, nodded my head, and slept more on the soft, fluffy grass under a tree.

Another week beckoned.

Bring it on.

[G], out

The moment it clicks

The very best thing about my recent exposure to the world class seminars and speakers is that I have become far more confident and relaxed around strangers. It’s a big deal for me to be so chilled out, but it’s not something that I would say came naturally at first. I had to literally train myself to do so. My theme for this year as such is discipline. Coupled with this is the Japanese tradition of Kaizen. Kaizen is the essence of continual improvement and it is a beautiful philosophy. I’ve heard it used before, may have been a Toyota ad actually, but now it’s part of my being. It’s the same “little (lil’) action” approach I’ve been working hard to stick to the last few weeks. The most important application of Kaizen for me though was first realising what it was that I intended to focus on and improve. Because applying Kaizen to video games or watching TV is generally a waste of energy. I read a study that the average American watches 8 hours of TV a day. Not hard to extrapolate that to other regions, and when you start throwing Facebook and Youtube into the mix, you’d get pretty close to that. It’s all mental masturbation, isn’t it?

Discipline, applied focus and continual improvement: my bumper sticker for 2010.

So I’m still not done with my wacky summer adventures. On with the show…

After the Lansdowne shoot, I managed to get home by 03:00 in the morning. Which was great, since that meant I could squeeze at least 4 hours sleep in before I had to get up once more and head out all the way to Earl’s Court for a Free internet marketing seminar! Meh.

Now this is the bit where “free” almost always means “not worth my while” or “I can just sleep in today and catch it next time”. “Next time”… the enemy of taking action. Good thing I’m not that guy anymore because boy oh boy, the content delivered by these guys was so damn valuable it’s staggering that they delivered it for nothing!

The line up was Julian Treasure, James Schramko and Andrew McCauly. Julian specialises in using sound in branding, media and environments to influence mood, and his presentation was so seamless he probably could have built the pyramids. I have tracked down his TED talk as well, and it is very VERY much worth a look. It’s a little rushed, since he only had 5 minutes, but at the seminar he flowed into a great many other concepts and took his time.

Schramko owns a fair spot in the internet marketing space, making a cool living from it and bumming on the beach for the rest of the time! Andrew made a great many “aha” statements and definitely some stuff that I can use as part of my own growing marketing arsenal. Made quite a few good contacts whom already operate in this arena, and hopefully something will come of it!

The Sunday I kicked back and got my photo editing on. I wanted to remain true to my quick turn around promise and did so with finesse.

The rest of the week I spent studying my notes from the weekend’s course and nailing as many concepts as I could down in my head. Annelie came home for a few days between courses so we did a lot of catching up. We both had so much to tell and it was weird since it felt like I haven’t seen her in a year. On the Thursday I “won” tickets from SA Promo (thanks JC!) to go see the South African National Comedy Team Bafunny Bafunny at the very glorious Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. The last time we where here we saw Cirque de Soleil’s Varekai; we where in the main floor seats this time round though. The line up featured 8 of S.A’s greats: “The Cousin” Barry Hilton, John Vlismas , Kagiso Lediga, Trevor Noah, Marc Lottering and a few I haven’t seen, such as Lotiso Gola, nice Rabinowitz and Trevor Noah. Very funny, good ol’ home grown humour, when Barry walked on stage to roaring applause and just said “My cousins” I got goose bumps! Pity that JC forgot to phone me, he needed a photographer for the event!! Grrrr, gonna have to have a word with him. He DID apologise for the oversight though, but SA Promo run events all the time…

Back home and I helped Annelie pack for another week long course and said my good byes. Myself, the weekend promised an interesting course hosted by Strobist’s David Hobby, a legend and someone I have long followed. I mean, this is the man that got me into doing REAL photography; as such I am a natural big-huge fan.

And here is where I have to mention how cool my new smart phone is. HTC Desire, my very first smartphone, never got into the whole iPhone BS, browsing my “Friend stream”, which is a HTC widget that shows your twitter and FB statuses all in one place and LO Dave will be at the Crosse Keys pub for a little social action! My plans changed mighty fast at this point and I decided to divert to there after work. The setting was very chilled, Dave was there along with world class and veteran photographer Neil Turner, kicking back, telling dirty jokes and entertaining us with stories from the trenches (although, I’m not sure I can publish those!). It was fun chipping in and asking them questions, making damn sure I at least engage in this conversation! I wasn’t just gonna sit there, no sirree.

Stars in my eyes, I was ready and willing for another cooking weekend. If only I’d known….

[G], out

I’m totally blogging this!

I ordered a shed ton of books from Amazon the other day and they arrived in good time, all Adwords and Website usability related. Actually, it was cool that we kept missing the delivery, since the guy down the hall took delivery for me and I had a cool opportunity to catch up with them. I’ve met him and his partner before but this was the first time I was invited in. Well, I invited myself: he mentioned that I should excuse the packaging and mess, but they got a new coffee machine, and I was like “OH can I see it?!” PS: drinking espresso at 21:00 is a bad idea. Cool folks, scheduled a dinner for sometime in June (yes, my calendar is that full).


Since the good weather has rolled in more and more folks have come to use the on-site gym (Annelie and I use it very often) so it’s a good meeting place for the neighbours. It’s always been a peeve of mine on how you life in a block of flats with hundreds of people but never get to meet anyone.


It’s one of these encounters that brought be to the BBQ (ok, it was a braai, but let’s keep it simple) where I met the action star… but more on that later.


I alluded to another event I shot for in my last post. The history of how it came to be is a little quirky, since the events manager already had a photo type person lined up, but they cancelled on her one week before the event. She then offered to job to a friend of mine, who in turn offered it to me, since he “didn’t have the nerves for it”. I thought, ok, odd, what’s the big deal? The big deal was that is was a job shooting for the Lansdowne Club in Mayfair, a very upper class, well established private members club (and, heh heh, just around the corner from the Ritz!). It was a black tie event and a doozy: they where celebrating their 75th Anniversary.


When the “big deal” bit sank in, I have to admit, I was very ready to reply “er, no, I already have plans”. That vice grip on your heart feeling, like when you haven’t studied for an exam, or you just backed your car into a very new, very expensive automobile of the prancing horse variety.


I decided to sleep on it; didn’t no outright, though I was tempted. A quick Google into the club revealed that yeah, they where kind of a big deal… and my pictures will be logged as part of they’re history. Forever. Maybe even longer than that.


On Saturday morning, 1st thing and without thinking and before my morning coffee I replied “yes, I’d be happy to help” and fought my right hand until I hit “send” (little voice in my head screaming NOOOOOOOOOO). Too late now, Bucko, you’d said you’ll do it. That’s something I don’t back out of, my word is my word. Oddly, it’s my biggest selling point. Maybe not odd, but you’d be very surprised what a powerful asset that is and how many photographer gigs I get simply because the other guy didn’t pitch. Are people really this undependable? Yes, is the short answer, and I cash in on that shit. Woody Allan said it best that half of being a success is just showing up. I take that to heart.


So Friday morning, put on my best suit, grabbed all my gear and headed to the day job. After work I made my way to Green Park station (Hello Ritz!) and walked over to the club. They where already way ahead of the preparations with bright balloon archways and delivery people setting up everything from ice sculptures to microphones. I met with Danielle, the event coordinator for the club and had a quick tour of the establishment. Wow! What a beautiful place. The impression of history was palpable; I’d say the Ball Room was most impressive.


With my timings in hand I took my leave to setup and get some quick ideas on how I’m going to shoot this puppy (that sounds wrong!). Group staff picture outside, various artists from a contortionist, singing waiters, an door lady on stilts, big band singers to a Chinese Dragon(!); cutting of the cake, main speech, dancing… got to make sure I hit all the high notes.


First up was taking a picture of the conservatory, filled with plants and a piano at the end. This will be published in the Mayfair Times as an “after” pic, to go with the “before” picture, which was taken 75 years ago. They wanted to create the same era effect, and I think they did so wonderfully. (No pressure Gerry…)


Of course, the theme was the swinging 30’s and most of the guests came out in full force, which made for excellent frames and a lot of fun. In the one room a few studio lighting guys setup a photo booth with what looks like a swarm of paparazzi as a backdrop. Guests would then stand in front of this and have their picture taken which was then worked up into an “OK!” magazine front cover and printed. The contortionist chick raised a few eyebrows, and chasing the Dragon (heh heh heh) through the throng of guests and snapping the interactions was entertaining. Very clever, and the crowd had a lot of fun with it


Having cut my teeth on the Ritz event, I was rocking it out with all sorts of off camera lighting and experimental techniques, rubbing shoulders with upper class society and making friends. Everything was flowing smoothly. The food, the entertainment, the drink, the cake (delicious!), I’d say the whole event was a roaring success.


After I clocked off at 23:00, I had a sit down and finally enjoyed a nice cold glass of Champagne and a hookah pipe (melon flavoured molasses, goes well with the bubbly). I was a good setup, since some guests decided to join me and have a chat. And then this Goth chick, dressed all in black joined me and we ended up chatting till 02:00 in the morning. She was incognito, since she wasn’t really a member but a guest of the hotel (they had a hotel here??) and decided to crash the party. She’s from Pittsburgh PA, and amongst her many talents (fire breathing being one!) she’s also a model. I was invited to her room where she bestowed upon me a mint, 1st edition “Inferno” by Grimms Fairytales comic where she is on the back cover, now signed “to Gerhard, love Cy”. Geeks at comic cons go ape shit for this stuff, and here I just get handed one for free. How cool is that? I had to excuse myself though, since, you know, married... but it was a great evening all said and done, a fitting end.


As always, did a quick turn around on the pics, went out for a drink with Cy and her Pops, a very prominent business man and said my goodbyes.


I was rewarded just last week with a STELLAR testimonial from the club and booked outright for their November Ball (would I need a tux??). Oh, and my pictures will be published in the June issue of the Mayfair times. I’ve also spun a few extra gigs for parties and other events off the back of this, up selling pictures and the like.


The next big thing I really need to get done is my freakin website. There are so many pictures in my portfolio that I can use to massive effect, not just from the last two events, mind. Seems a shame that I don’t use them, and with my new internet marketing chops I think it would be a great sandpit.


Next instalment: information assimilation! Movie Stars! Comedy shows! Beers with David Hobby!


[G], out


Super green