So yes I promised I’d do a post going into a bit more detail about how to light the 200 odd people of the London Lindy Exchange. Dancing fast. In a large (70x40ft) hall. With only three speedlights…

If you’re not a camera nerd I suggest you leave this post alone. Otherwise find out after the jump…

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So, this past weekend was the London Lindy Exchange. It’s a really cool event where Swing dancers from around the world get together to share a drink, dance and their sofa with any other dancer in need of a place to crash. It’s full of live bands, awesome DJs, a fab hall (Old Finsbury Town Hall) and (well at least when the Cambridge guys are around), lots and lots of CAKE! Anyway, muggins here was invited along as ‘official’ photographer (hell I’d have gone along anyway just to dance (well, and eat cake) and would I  have ever been able to forgive myself if I left my camera at home for such a great event??)

Photos are up in the client section of CrookedRoad with the password llx09. Feel free to check out the entire set. I’ll get the photo CDs, for those who bought them, off in the post later this week along with a geeky “how I lit it” blog entry.

More Photos after the jump..

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So what do you do on a Friday night? Well this Friday I got the chance to go out and shoot with a group of local Cambridge photographers. A really great bunch: Dave, Karen, Martin and Ben. I had loads of fun, it’s actually the first time I’ve been out shooting with local photographers in ages. Really going to have to do it  more often. Recently I’ve been shooting a lot of projects with a predefined set of objectives and limitations, it’s always liberating to just go for a wander and try and make something out of nothing. Anyway enough of me, here’s some photos:

Dave, one of the other photographers silhouetted. The yellow in front is another of my little flashes with a CTO and a half on a stand…

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So what do you do on bank holiday Easter weekend in Cambridge? Easy, you go for a walk around Wandlebury Country Park with the gorgeous Holly and along the way try out a few techniques you’ve been dying to try for ages.

This is Holly taking a quick nap on a tree branch (yes I really am that boring…). The haze you see in the background is from a can of smoke. I’ve been meaning to try photos with smoke for a while but egged on by Drew Gardener this was the first chance I’ve had. Unfortunately the can of spray smoke is less than ideal: it’s thin and dissipates quickly. Unfortunately my smoke machine is mains powered and so wouldn’t work in an environment like this. Next plan is to get some smoke pellets and give that a go. Anyway the thin haze did create a small haze which I think actually worked fairly well.

For you strobists out there, the smoke was obviously behind Holly, I then used an SB900 to throw some light through it and emphasize the effect. With hind sight, I wish I had asked Holly to wear something different, but hey we were just out for a walk!

In the next photos I thought I’d try out some cross processing. I’ve been trying to get a collection of Aperture presets recently to give my photos different looks. The other day I figured out the Cross Processed look. Cross Processing dates back to the film days where a photographer would deliberately process a photograph in a solution intended for a different type of film. Read more about the process here.

Photos after the jump…

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So as part of mammoth photo weekend, last Sunday I was back on the set of Born of Hope, a Lord of the Rings inspired film currently being filmed in Suffolk. You can read about the previous adventures I had with the Orcs on set here.

Unfortunately this weekend I ran into something that’s normally rare for me: photographer politics. Don’t get me started on the minority of photographers who are so un-confident in their work they have to do everything in their power to stop other photographers getting a shot… I do feel that props should go out quickly here though to Jean-Luc Benazet who was brilliant to shoot alongside the previous day, and the McNallys and Hobbys out there educating our world. In today’s society, if the photographic industry is going to survive, we’re going to have to all work together and pool our knowledge. By doing so we learn lots, improve our photographs, reduce our stress levels and ultimately  knock our customers off their feet! Anyway talking of knocking people off their feet, I did manage to surreptitiously steal one of the Saxon huts on set and set up a makeshift studio for some more Orc fun…

Orc Airbourne Commander reporting for duty..

I think this might be my favorite shot of the year so far.

More photos and lighting info after the jump…

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