hasselblad, the hoxton hotel and brick lane

It’s been a busy old week. We met some great new people and reacquainted ourselves with others. We‘re so chuffed to be featured in the Hasselblad online news (click here to view). We found a fab place to stay in London while down for a portrait shoot. The Hoxton Urban Lodge in Shoreditch has great rooms, great service and great food all at great prices! No we haven’t been commissioned to shoot their web site images but if they’re interested! We had a quick lunch in Brick Lane and wished we had more time...there’s so much to see. Go yourself and have a look.

brick lane shopkeeper © ross gillespie/broad daylight

brick lane barber © ross gillespie/broad daylight

technique

These photographs were taken using a Fuji X10. We'd been carrying our comparatively heavy camera gear around for two days and wanted something light that could used to grab some shots when we went for lunch. The camera was set up using manual mode for exposure and auto focus...manual focus on the X10 is far too slow and laborious to be practical for street photography.

Ross, Chiang Mai and a Fuji X10

Here’s this weeks blog pics…with some of Ross’s fab images from his recent trip to Chiang Mai. He’s far too modest to post them himself so I thought I’d share a few with you.

charoenraj road, chiang mai © ross gillespie

wat ket karam, chiang mai © ross gillespie

wororot market, chiang mai © ross gillespie

chiang mai © ross gillespie

muang mai market, chiang mai © ross gillespie

praisanee road, chiang mai © ross gillespie

Technique

The camera Ross used was a Fuji X10 which he bought the day before leaving for Thailand...he wanted a camera that was light and small enough to easily fit in a pocket. All of the above shots were taken using available light.

Pictured at an Exhibition

Here are a couple of recent pics we shot whilst on location at Edinburgh College of Art. They're students from painting and a sculpture photographed during their shows - we just happened to see them as we were working on the commission. We are always on the lookout for things that make a good image just for us - at ECA we were spoilt for choice!! Sometimes clients haven’t realized the full potential and so we’ve shown them these ‘additional’ shots…it’s surprising how often they then make it to final publication.

painter © tricia malley

sculpture student © broad daylight

Technique

Both of the above photographs were taken on our trusty Nikons. We used available light which Tricia supplemented with some fill flash from by an SB800 in her portrait of the painter.

More to follow next week!!!!

here at last…a blog update!

We’ve been pretty busy but thought we’d like to share with you some of our favourites from our latest shoots:

Akmal and Afzal Khushi - Trespass clothing

Akmal and Afzal Khushi © broad daylight

Firstly a portraiture shoot we did for our ongoing project with the Entrepreneurial Exchange. It features Akmal and Afzal Khushi owners of Trespass, the outdoor clothing manufacturer, who had been inaugurated in to the EE ‘Hall of Fame’. Following our style of having some narrative in the image we decided to photograph the brothers in a quarry using a rope to symbolise their close relationship as well as referencing the products found in their shops. Easier said than done you might say, we looked at several locations but finally settled on the Duntilland Quarry near Shotts. The quarry is operated by Bardon Aggregates and quarry manager, Sandy Fullerton, saw to it that we had a safe location and relatively easy access. The only drawback was all the protective clothing we had to wear…don’t get Tricia started on having to wear men’s ill fitting trousers! The shoot went very well...we had asked Akmal and Afzal  to wear business suits to add an element of incongruity and they co-operated fully with our instructions. This combined with the great chemistry between them made the portrait a joy to shoot and produced a stunning image. It was unveiled at the Entrepreneurial Exchange dinner at the end of last year to some aclaim...we’re so modest!! 

Some tech details

A huge thanks goes to Hasselblad's David Nield for going beyond the call of duty to help us after an issue with our CFV digital back threatened to force the cancelation of the shoot. On the morning of the shoot David drove from Leeds to Shotts to lend us a Hasselblad H4D-50 plus lenses. After giving us a quick run down on how to operate the camera he returned to Leeds only to come back to Edinburgh the following day to collect it again...what a man and what service!!!

We're never keen to use 'new' equipment on an important shoot but fortunately the H4D-50 is easy to use and we soon got down to setting up the lighting which consisted of two Bowens QUAD 3KM heads running from an Explorer 1500 battery generator. We needed the lighting because as often seems the case when we're working it's the middle of winter and we have to contend with rain, sleet and snow!

Cameron

Cameron © broad daylight

This private commission was shot in late summer in Glasgow. Our client had picked up our ‘as others see us’ book at the Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway (they also hold some of the portraits in their collection) and she was so taken with the portraits of Eddi Reader, Peter Capaldi, Kirsty Wark and others that she commissioned individual portraits of her family in our style. This shot of Cameron with his guitar is taken on a small balcony at their house. They are really pleased with the portraits and they gave us a great lunch…result all round!

More to follow next week!!!!

great news!

As previously posted our portrait of Eddi Reader from ‘as others see us’ has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in London – it is now on show in their new acquisitions room until September, so if you’re in London pop in and have a look if not, see it in the www.broaddaylightltd.co.uk - 'portraits 1' section.

Photographing Eddi was a great experience. We'd packed an iPod with external speakers and when Eddi arrived we asked if there was anything she'd like to listen to while we worked...she chose Van Morrison. During the shoot we were treated to Eddi singing along to every track...it was like our own private concert. A truly memorable shoot was rounded off by Eddi asking us to autograph a Polaroid we'd taken of her not the other way round!...she's a special kind of person.