My Community: Adam

My Community: Adam

As part of Strobist Boot Camp III I have put together the following mini-portfolio of images based on a new theme for my blog "My Community".

The assignment this week was to capture a close portrait of a member of my local community in a way that conveyed a meaning and purpose.

Adam Catling is a NHS Emergency Support Care Worker and also helps with the Farnborough volunteer first responders. The team work shifts and depending on the number of calls, may not know when or where their next meal or cuppa is coming from. The volunteer responders attend 999 emergency calls in their local area to give vital first aid response including emergency resuscitation until the ambulance crew arrives.

365/12 - Day 19 - Jelly Babies

Inspired by a series of images featuring Danbo I wanted to set up a shot featuring Jelly Babies. So, bag of Jelly Babies purchased I set about thinking what to do with them.

the idea:
In case you've never noticed the Jelly Babies actually have individual characters and expressions. Boofuls is always crying, but why? perhaps because one of their friends has had their head bitten off?! (Note: this is the most humane way to eat a Jelly Baby). Now it was to decide which one would loose their head - the only real choice was Brilliant, who was a nice contrasting red to Boofuls' green and he also happens to be the leader of the Jelly Babies. (I'm not making this up)

365/12 - Day 18 - Hey! I'm gonna get you too!

Lets do today's blog a little differently, I'll put the details after the jump... Before reading further just look at the photo and see if you can work out the lighting, how many light sources and where are they? Hit the Jump for the details - and remember, no cheating ;)

365/12 - Day 17 - Sometimes I feel like a sad song

There are some days when you don't feel like doing much, we all have them, this was one of those days. Being in quite a serious mood I took this photo to reflect that. I've also always liked this John Denver song and it seemed fitting that the words were exactly what I was thinking. I think the lack of colour helps emphasise the mood.

As for the lighting I had only one light source in this shot and it was definitely off camera - the setting sun. I took three shots in total and this was the second one.

365/12 - Day 16 - Meet my new Boss

I like this photo on several levels. The first and fondest of these is that it reminds me of the day I started working for my own company. My little desktop widget tells me its been one year nine months and six days since then :) in that time we have grown a small team supporting some of the world's largest companies and have had a very successful first (almost) two years.


The physical set-up for this shot was quite straight forward, I'm sitting on a dining room chair in my dining room about 1.5 feet from the wall.
The lighting was a little more tricky....

365/12 - Day 15 - The world's a bubble

Day 15

This is a bizarre addition to the project. Circumstances directed this one as I'd done some photos of Tory for her boyfriend's Birthday. This naturally led into an idea for my daily photo for Ali. So how did I do this? Well this time its pretty simple, there are two lights here one in an umbrella (not the one I'm holding!) camera left giving fill not key light. The key light is where the fill should be, snooted and firing straight into the middle of the frame - you can see the effect of this much better in the second shot. The reason for this was that the umbrella I'm holding limited lighting options.

When you help others you can't help helping yourself

The Old Boys - 2011

I've just finished my first week at a new client which has actually been extremely good, I've been working from home today and so currently sitting in my garden with the lawn mower working hard behind me (its a robot). Initially I wanted to write this post at the beginning of the week, but I was shattered had lots to do and decided it would be better to reflect on my previous week first.

I've just returned from a week in Lourdes with HCPT - The Pilgrimage Trust and am feeling quite alone as I have not had the privilege this week of having dinner with at least twelve other people. Thanks Old Boys for another brilliant week.