Photographing the Royal Wedding

Back in the late 1980's, I was a student going to college in the US, but living with my family in England during summer and Christmas breaks. In the summers, I would take pictures of the Royal Family, eventually photographing Princess Diana over fifty times, and meeting her twice. I would also see the Queen, Princes Charles and Andrew, and most of the more 'minor' royals, as well as many European royals. It was fun, and a big adrenaline rush, not to mention good practice for an aspiring professional photographer. I also saw some of the world's biggest celebrities of the time, and attended film premieres, two royal weddings, and other social events. But after 1989, I became a professional photographer, got married and settled in the US. So when the chance came to be part of a big royal occasion one more time, I bought a plane ticket, and headed across the pond to see William and Kate.

The day before the wedding, I arrived in London by train at 11am and walked the route a couple times, eventually settling on a good spot by 4:00 that afternoon. I wanted a location that had a front row spot and a good view across a wide part of the road- not too close so I'd be looking up William and Kate's noses, but where I'd get a shot of both of them from the other side of the street, and where I could get out quickly and get a prime view of the balcony appearance after the wedding.

The people around me were great– sharing drinks, food, and even a nice chair and blanket to use throughout the night. I had many chances during the night to walk up and down the route, see what people were doing, etc. Some were sleeping, others just sitting up talking. Old and young, British and foreign, it was a really mixed crowd. I had a group of English women on one side of me and a Canadian family on the other. It got cold during the night, down to the 40's. I actually slept for about fifteen minutes I think. In the morning, more people started arriving after 5am, and by daybreak it was packed. Then the bomb sniffer dogs arrived, the guards began to line the route and military bands marched by again and again.

Despite what it may seem, I'm not a big "fan" of the Royal Family. I've still never seen Kate and William on TV, or watched clips of the wedding. I picked up a souvenir newspaper on the way home from London, but haven't ever looked through it. But I wanted to go and be a part of something really big, to spend the night on the streets with strangers who became friends, and to experience the emotions of a million people all in one place for a genuinely happy occasion. And it was emotional– surrounded by so many people, all cheering as the couple each said "I do" over the nearby loudspeakers, singing along to the hymn, Jerusalem, and waving and shouting as the new couple rode by.

I shot over 1,000 pictures, as well as dozens of HD video clips. It took weeks to sort through them all, edit out the bad shots, process the raw images, caption them for stock sales, and post a gallery. My plan is to put together a ten minute video of the stills, audio clips and videos from my experience. Stayed tuned.

Since 1989...

22 years as a professional photographer today. I still can't believe I'm able to do this and make a living.

I've shot in homeless shelters, and billionaires' offices; kings, queens, leaders of the free world, and leaders of the un-free world; sports stars and megastars; some of the most squalid homes on the planet, and some of the most sublime scenery known to man; thousands of good, decent people, and a few of the biggest losers ever; behind the scenes and in front of huge audiences; I've worn scrubs to shoot delicate surgeries, and stuck my head and camera out of small planes at 1000 feet. I've been privileged to play a large part in over one hundred couples' weddings and even photographed a funeral. I've made more than a few people look better than they really are.

I've bought twelve new cameras since 1989, and twenty-four camera lenses, from SLR (35mm) lenses to Schneider-Kreuznach 4x5" lenses, as well as three enlarger lenses. Thirty-one filters, one 5x7" enlarger, six portable flash units, eight studio flash units, five remote wireless triggers, and seven Macintosh computers.

When I started out, I told myself that I could always pack bags at the local grocery store if things didn't work out. I still don't feel like I have a real job. It's been a good life.

Decorating the British Consulate Residence...

Most people who know me know that I spent several years growing up in England, from age twelve to eighteen. My parents and three sisters still live there today. Every time I go back for a visit, I always do a lot of shooting, often going away for a few days on my own to shoot. I've sold some of these pictures for book covers, some as fine art prints or posters, and one even went on a national ad campaign for bottled water a couple years ago. For a long time, I thought of approaching the British Consulate (like an embassy but smaller) here in Chicago and seeing if I could decorate their walls with some of my prints.

The years went by and I never made contact with anyone about my idea. Then about three months ago I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen for a few years, who now works at the Consulate. I told him of my idea, and a month later, I was in Chicago talking with them about putting some prints up. The Consulate is in the Wrigley Building, but they have a penthouse apartment where the Consul General (the Director) lives, and has receptions for people wishing to do business in Britain, as well as British groups coming to Chicago. It's in a great location, just off Michigan Avenue, sixty stories up, with a panoramic view of the city.

Last night, thirteen prints made their debut at a party to mark the British elections, where about 150 guests gathered to mingle, eat fish and chips, sausage rolls, drink British beer and watch the results come in. These are the largest prints I've ever had made, including two 16x48 inch panoramas, a 36x48 print and a triptych of 20x30 prints.

The prints will be on view for at least the next three months. Unfortunately, the suite is private so you'll have to enjoy them from the gallery I've posted. I'm always looking for other venues to show my work; if interested, send me a message.

View the prints and price list here.

Lighting

I was asked by a new commercial client today if it'll be necessary to set up lights for a shoot we're doing. I know the location will be bright enough to shoot without any additional lights, but I responded that we may use them anyway. Here's why...

Photography literally means 'drawing with light'. Think about it– without light, whatever you're taking a picture of won't be visible. As a photographer, I'm always faced with decisions about how to photograph a particular subject. Should I use available light, or light with my portable strobes (variable powered flashes)? How will the light fall on my subject? Will they be backlit? How will I light up the background so it doesn't go dark? If I'm using available light, will the color be off due to mixed sources (all lighting emits different colors- tungsten light bulbs are yellow, fluorescents can be green or light yellow, and halogens defy normal colors)? Will the available light complement my subject, or should I use supplemental lighting to define my subject?

Yesterday I did a shoot for a client that will go on the cover of a magazine. This was an important shot, probably to be seen by 100-150,000 people, and the cover will set the tone of the magazine. Put a bland picture on the cover and people may not open the magazine. Put a quality picture on the front and readers will associate that quality with the organization producing the magazine. I wanted it to look really sharp and draw attention to the woman who was the cover model. Bland lighting wasn't going to cut it. In the end I used three lights– two on the woman and one bounced off the ceiling, lighting up the colorful background. It took more time to set up and shoot the picture, but the effort was justified by the final result.

And that brings me to my point. The magazine client and I have been working together for many years and we almost always use additional lighting. Another client of mine has a tight budget (ok, all my clients do...) and wants to squeeze the most out of my time while we're shooting together. We rarely use my lights, often moving quickly from shot to shot without time to think about making things look any better. Basically, we're shooting snapshots with little thought about lighting. There are times this works ok, but most times, unfortunately, the pictures don't look like anything special. Image is everything, and for better or worse, people will judge your business by the image you portray. If the images of your business are classy, well executed and eye catching, your customers will look at your business that way too. There are times when I won't want to use additional lighting and natural light can sometimes be perfect for the job, but for the best quality, take the time to create your images, don't just let them appear.

The first shot was used for placement, to see where the subject would stand and how the background would appear; the second will be the cover shot. BTW, extra space above her head and around the edges will be used for the magazine masthead and additional copy.

Nice Portrait

Got a call to shoot a college student, the vice president of the student government, for the college magazine. Usually when I get these calls, the setting and concept for the picture is all left to me. After reading a draft of the article, I decided to place her in their SG meeting room. I decided to use three lights, two to light the room and one on the subject, placed in a softbox. Met the subject yesterday, and she suggested holding her gavel, something she used in all her meetings. We spent about an hour all together, lighting and shooting the picture.

I was pleased with the lighting especially. The key to a good photo is almost always in the lighting. I could've taken an easy route and just shot her in front of one of the campus buildings in natural light, but that wouldn't provide any context to what she's all about, and what the article says about her, as well as being a pretty dull picture. We had a good rapport and shot over sixty pictures in several different poses.

Landscape Photography- Acadia National Park

Each autumn now, for the past three years, I've been traveling up to Maine to spend a week photographing Acadia National Park. This was my fourth trip, and I learned a lot about my equipment, how I approach photography, and myself.

Acadia is a small park, with only about 40 miles of paved roads, and all contained on the relatively small Mount Desert Island. Each morning I woke up at 5am (4am my time), and left my motel at 6:00 to be in place for dawn half an hour later. After the sun rose at 6:50, I'd spend the rest of the day searching for new things to shoot. Here's what I learned:

* landscape photography is better when you don't shoot everything at f16. F2.8 is far more creative and interesting, and f1.8 is even better.

* once the sun peaks out, the best light is done for most of the rest of the day.

* always carry a compass and know where the sun will set and where it will rise. Use it throughout the day to determine where the sun will be when the light is perfect, and what it will light up.

* I need to get a larger rectangular filter holder to cover the 16mm setting on my wide angle lens. Now I have a full frame digital camera (Canon 5DMk2), my widest angle is 16mm instead of 21mm with my 1.3X crop cameras.

* when shooting at the coast, get tide charts to know when the waves will be peaking.

* after a day of rain, streams turn into hundreds of small waterfalls.

* the pre-dawn light is a beautiful blue, twenty minutes before sunrise.

* when I'm thinking of what to shoot next, I don't really want to eat anything, and have small snacks throughout the day instead of any meals. I often don't think of food for several hours. I love to sleep in, but when faced with the prospect of shooting the dawn, I can wake up at any time of the night. Sunrise is almost always better than sunset.

* shooting in a location where tens of thousands of pictures are taken each day, it's a challenge to do something different. Having shot four times there now, it was much harder to see worthy subjects. But I think my images are better for the extra thought that went into them.

I love flying into Bangor Airport; there are only two or three gates and it's much quieter than any other public airport I've flown into. Upon arriving, it was fun to go into the small store there and see one of my pictures on the cover of Bangor Metro magazine. I had a three page spread of my Acadia work inside the magazine. I was going to pick up a few extra copies when I left, but alas, October was gone, replaced by November.

Changing Business in a Bad Economy

It's been a strange year professionally for me. A year ago I watched as others struggled with the effects of a souring economy; I read stories about several photographers packing it in after years of being in business. It wasn't until about April when things started to slow down for me. My biggest client saw their revenues way down and slashed their marketing budgets dramatically. Consequently, I lost a client I'd had since 2001, as the first client dropped their services completely. Six months later, everyone has been more careful about where they spend their money, and business has been down for me about 50% as a result.

But while work has been down, some smaller jobs have kept me busy, as well as several personal projects and other clients, both old and new. While some photographers I know are getting out of the business, I'm excited about some new directions I'm heading in. In the past year, I've been doing more stock photography, and traveled to five different national parks (Shenandoah, Rocky Mountain, Arches, Canyonlands and Acadia) to work on photos. Next October I plan on leading my first photo tour to Maine to shoot in Acadia, with ideas for more trips and teaching photography in the works. I've done more fashion shoots, working with professional models, which makes a nice change from many of the people I normally shoot for marketing campaigns ("I hate having my picture taken..."). And while I've always relied on getting my own work and promoting myself, I'm seriously looking at the idea of getting a rep to help promote my business, negotiate contracts (my most hated part of my job), and land new and bigger jobs.

Stay tuned; the future is looking bright.