Bruce Williams Photography » Bruce

A day with Joe McNally

Bruce — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:39:22 +0000

Earlier this week, I (and about 20 other shooters) had the pleasure of spending a day with world famous photographer, Joe McNally. Over the course of his career, Joe has shot for the likes of the New York Times, National Geographic, Time, Life, Rolling Stone and Sports Illustrated. Quite an impressive resume, I’m sure you’d agree.
The venue was a property which forms part of the New South Wales Historic Houses Trust, namely Vaucluse House. It’s a gorgeous old house with buckets of old world charm. As a photographer, it is an absolute paradise. Everywhere you look, there’s something just begging to be photographed.
The day commenced with Joe talking through a couple of different lighting scenarios, both of which pertained to balancing daylight with flash. Watching him work a scene, and to slowly build up the lighting was an amazing experience. With his camera tethered to his laptop, even more impressive was seeing his images appear straight away, and looking like they were straight out of a National Geographic spread and knowing that no photoshop was involved. This was SOOC* at it’s finest!
After morning tea, we split up into groups and were sent off with a model to capture the best ‘one light’ portrait we could achieve. ‘One light’ meaning one flash combined with available ambient light.
The afternoon saw us moving between 4 or 5 different locations, working with different models and multiple lights. While it was a great experience, the downside is that each photographer in the group has their own inner vision, but has to respect the wishes of the other group participants as well. As a consequence, I was not completely satisfied with what I got to shoot, but the main thing is, I walked away with a whole bunch of techniques (some already known, but now reinforced, and some completely new) that I can now implement and develop in my own time.
With only chump change out of four figures for a day’s experience, it was certainly not a cheap exercise, but one that I would wholeheartedly recommend to ANY photographer who:
a) could afford to do it, and
b) was interested in taking their lighting skills to another level.

* SOOC = straight out of camera; an image which has not been touched up in post-production

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New podcast: Nothing to Fear

Bruce — Sat, 05 May 2012 07:59:43 +0000

This is not photography-related, but I’m about to launch a new podcast called “Nothing to Fear“.

It will be a tutorial-based podcast all about the digital audio workstation known as Reaper.

I’m really just posting this here in order to get some inbound links to the site, so the google bots will index it. Sneaky, huh?

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Meetup #23 – Black Friday

Bruce — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 01:33:09 +0000

Yesterday was Friday 13th, and while I don’t subscribe to any of that superstitious nonsense, I thought we should do something along those lines for our monthly Sydney Meetup.
I decided we’d go for a ‘gypsy/fortune teller’ kind of theme, and a friend and business colleague, Deborah, seemed like the perfect choice for our ‘gypsy’ (given that she’s of Hungarian origin, and is into astrology herself!).
She has always been a fan of my photography, and when I asked her if she would like to be our model, she jumped at the opportunity, despite her protestations of her not being a ‘model’.
And in usual meetup fashion, things had to go pear-shaped in the lead up to the shoot.
First, the studio where we were supposed to be doing the shoot advised me 2 days out that they could not accommodate us due to commitments they had the following day.
So, that left me hunting around for an alternate space.
Knowing what I had in mind for the set design, and being the kind of person who doesn’t mind a challenge, I figured we didn’t really have to shoot in a studio anyway. We could pretty much pull this off anywhere, as long as it wasn’t too brightly lit.
With that in mind, I asked ARN (my employer) if I could use the underground car park as a studio for the night. Thankfully, they consented.
The first couple of images show the typical concrete jungle we were shooting in, but when you see the actual shots we were there to get, you’d never know it was shot in a car park! Just goes to show that amazing things can be done in less than ideal circumstances if you put your mind to it.
If you look closely at the first shot, you’ll see one of my speedlights gaffa-taped to the concrete ceiling, with a Honl snoot attached, directing light straight down onto our crystal ball. You’ll also see a bunch of cardboard filing system folders gaffa-taped over the fluorescent light. What is it they say about necessity?
But then the second disaster struck.
Yesterday morning, I got a text from my make up artist saying that she had fainted, and was not feeling at all well. So, thus began the frantic search for a replacement make up artist. Thankfully, I ended up finding one around lunchtime.
So, came the evening, Deborah and the make up artist arrived and started their work, while I started setting up our ‘gypsy caravan in a parking garage’ studio.
One extra challenge I set for myself on this shoot was to simultaneously shoot digital AND film. I have not shoot on film for about 8 years, and the last time I did, I knew absolutely NOTHING about photography. Of course, I didn’t think that at the time, but looking back now, I can see that I really was clueless. So, knowing how far I’ve come (and fully admitting that 8 years from now, I will view in a similar fashion, my work from today), I decided it would be an interesting experiment to put a roll of film through my old analogue body (a Minolta 700si c.1997) just to see whether the differences between film and digital are as negligible as some claim, or as chalk-and-cheese as others claim. I didn’t finish the roll of film last night, but will endeavour to do that this week. When I have finished it off, I’ll write a separate post to go along with the ‘analogue’ images.
An interesting thing (for me, at least) happened in the process of this simultaneous digital-analogue shoot. I noticed that my Sony a850, a $3000 professional DSLR body, struggles horrendously to focus in low light (with the lens hunting like a Kalahari bushman), while my 15 year old, consumer grade analogue SLR had no dramas at all. I hope Sony are able to address that in the coming years.
Anyway, we had a great time last night. I got a handful of shots I’m really happy with, and learned some things in the process…. which is exactly what these shoots are all about.
Onward and upward.

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Meetup #22 – Bonnie and Clyde

Bruce — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:25:17 +0000

Last night was our 22nd monthly Sydney photographer’s meetup.
This month, the theme I’d chosen was Bonnie and Clyde.
Despite having been immortalised by Hollywood over the last 80 years or so, and portrayed as lovable rebels, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were quite nasty pieces of work.
I wanted to portray some of that in this shoot.
Unfortunately, gun laws in the state of New South Wales made it pretty much impossible to get hold of real guns (or replicas, for that matter) to use as props. I brought some toy guns along, but they just didn’t look remotely believable, when everything else (costume-wise) really looked the part. Big thanks to Jeff Walshe Entertainment in Canterbury for supplying the costumes.
Enter one 3 foot piece of steel water pipe.
Funny how such an inanimate object can lend, when held in the appropriate manner, such a menacing air to a shoot.
Brooke (Bonnie) and Matthew (Clyde) had a great time in front of the camera, and soon warmed to working together. Thanks guys for your involvement! You MADE this shoot.
With the crazy eather Sydney has been experiencing for the last 4 months (!), we had to move this to an indoor shoot. My original plan had been to shoot outdoors with a 30′s-era motor car.
Again, Chris Belyea (Impactfoto) came to the rescue booking Think Studio at Epping for us, again. This was the same studio we used three weeks ago for the glamour shoot with Desiree.
As for post processing, I wanted to give the images a world-weary, well-handled kind of look.
My process was:
1. to mostly (but not completely) desaturate the images (lightroom),
2. apply some split toning (lightroom),
3. generate some grain (lightroom),
4. add a bit of a lightening vignette (lightroom),
5. then overlay some cracks (Photoshop CS5.1).
Thanks to everyone involved. I know I had a great time… again!

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Last day of Nippers

Bruce — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 10:44:35 +0000

Today was the last day of Nippers at Terrigal SLSC, for this summer at least.
I thought I’d better grab some shots of Max enjoying himself, seeing as how I hadn’t taken any other photos of his time in Nippers during the season.
Being the last day, the kids get to have some fun… going for a tow-ride on the Sea-Doo, a ride back in on the IRB (the inflatable boat), and a ride on the paddle boards which are, at all other times, reserved for the over 14′s.
The smile on Max’s face suggests he had a pretty good time of it all!

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Desiree @ Think Studio

Bruce — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 06:41:44 +0000

Today, I spent 4 hours in the studio with good friend and fellow photographer, Chris Belyea (Impactfoto) and the lovely Desiree Hurwood.
There was no client, no job requirements to satisfy, no brief to live up to… just two photographers and a great model.
We did some high key shots to begin with, and then some low key images later on.
I’ve decided that I agree with one of Joe McNally’s early editors, who according to Joe, once said “If you want to keep something interesting, don’t light all of it.”
I certainly prefer the low key, partially-lit look better!
Each to their own.

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Meetup #20 – Ice Maidens

Bruce — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:14:54 +0000

A chance conversation with a work colleague was what sparked the idea for this shoot.
Aleisha used to be a figure skater herself, and these days is a figure skating coach.
Having been a casual ice skater all my life, I immediately thought this would be a great theme for one of our monthly shoots.
I got in touch with the manager of the Canterbury Ice Rink and organised to hire the whole rink exclusively for a bunch of photographers to do crazy things…. like drag live power cords out onto the ice to run lights and fog machines! What could possibly go wrong?
So, come Monday 2nd January, we were all rugged up against the cold of the ice rink while it was 20+ degrees C outside at 8:00 in the evening.
After a panic attack when I thought Aleisha had let me down on finding some skaters (turned out, she HAD done as she had promised…. I just didn’t get the message!), I made a couple of calls to some other coaches at the same ice rink.
Before I knew it, we had something like 8 or 9 young figure skaters and ice dancers lined up. And boy, were they keen!
With 10 or 11 photographers in the group, we split up into two smaller groups, and split the lighting so each group could work independently of the other.
What made this THE most challenging shoot the group has ever done was the fact that the skaters were nervous about skating too close to the lights (power cords, light stands and softboxes aren’t the kind of obstacles these kids are used to seeing on the ice!). And of course, the inverse square law comes into effect pretty fast. For those unaware of the inverse square law, it basically says that if correct exposure is achieved with a light-to-subject distance of x, then each doubling of the distance will HALVE the amount of light reaching the subject.
I won’t bore you with all the numbers involved, but I can assure you, we were struggling with getting the quantity of light where we needed it.
In all honesty, at the time I had hired the lights, I wasn’t thinking of having to shoot in separate groups. In retrospect, I needed to have hired 4 lights rather than 2, so we could have had 2 lights per setup. But hey, ya live and learn!
At the end of the night, all the photographers had a great time, and so did the skaters.
As for me, I didn’t get to take many images on the night, as I was managing the skaters, making sure all the photographers were getting what they wanted, liaising with the Ice Rink manager, talking with the mums, etc etc.
We will probably do another shoot like this next year. Having tackled it once, I’m sure we can improve on it next time.

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New Zealand – day 10 (Bay of Islands, October 27)

Bruce — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:40:58 +0000

Oh you have got to be kidding! Last day… ALREADY? Seriously?
Ripped off.
Well, in the last 8 days, we’ve gone from the mid-winter cold and rain in Dunedin to our final port of call, the Bay of Islands, and it’s a pleasant 24 degrees Celsius.
Not sure if you could hire a car here or not. I don’t recall seeing a car hire depot anywhere. But, the point was moot, on the grounds that the cruise ship had shuttle buses running back and forth between the wharf at Waitangi, Treaty House, and the township of Paihia (pronounced “pie here”). And that whole loop only took about 15 mins at most.
After alighting at the wharf, we walked to the Treaty House via the beach, a pleasant 10 minute stroll.
The Treaty House is the house where the Maori people (or more specifically, their appointed Chiefs) signed a deal with the Colonials (essentially, the British Government) that stated that the British could colonise the land, but that the land would forever remain the property of the Maori people.
Clearly, they didn’t make the same mistake as the Australian aboriginals.
After we’d checked out the Treaty House (and the accompanying Meeting House, and the Maori war canoes), we caught the shuttle bus around to Paihia and bought ourselves some ferry tickets for the ride across to the town of Russell on the other side of the bay.
Russell is home to the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, New Zealand’s oldest drinking establishment.
We had been advised by some Kiwi friends at home that whilst in New Zealand, we absolutely had to have New Zealand fish and chips, “’cause they’re soooo much better than Aussie fish and chips”. So we made it a point, in Russell, to go and get some fresh cooked fish and chips and a bottle of L&P and go and sit by the bay and enjoy it.
What’s L&P, you ask?
Lemon and Paeroa. It’s a soft drink unique to New Zealand. Quite nice, too!
So, we had our lunch in the sun (yeah, the fish and chips were good… not the BEST I’ve ever had, but certainly up there in the top 5), dropped into the Duke for a quick cider, then reluctantly hopped back on the ferry for the ride back to Paihia, knowing that this was going to be the last trip back to the Sea Princess for this voyage.
All that is left now is 2 days straight sailing home to Sydney.
Meh.

Take me to: Day 9 <-

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New Zealand – day 9 (Auckland, October 26)

Bruce — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:38:35 +0000

Shutters Inc listener, photography buddy and all-round nice guy, Mike Hollman (and his lovely wife Vivienne) came and picked up from the wharf in Auckland first thing in the morning.
Mike had agreed to give us a personalised tour of his hometown and its surrounds for the day.
First stop was the suburb of Devonport with its own version of Mount Victoria (what did I tell ya?), which affords the viewer an almost uninterrupted 360 degree view of Auckland. It was here that we stood above some kind of (now non-operational) secret military installation. Said installation required air vents which are shaped like little mushrooms. Someone decided that it would be a great idea to paint them as such.
After Mount Victoria, Mike and Viv took us out to Muriwai Beach to see the gannet colony. The gannets are quite a pretty aquatic bird, with their gold heads and striking blue eyes. Mike and I stood there for about 15 minutes trying to get some good shots of the birds. Not an easy task when your longest lens is a paltry 135mm! Still, I got a few images I was happy with.
Then, on our way back to the car, Mike bumped into a guy he knew, and asked him where was the best place for lunch in this area. This guy stated unequivocally that that would be Beesonline (yes, they sell bee products online… hence the name). Turns out, the guy owned 7 restaurants, hence Mike’s faith in his judgement. So, off to Beesonline we went. And I have to say, these guys need to seriously look after the chef that they have working in their kitchen. Every one of us was blown away with the amazing mix of flavours within our respective dishes. If you’re out that way, DEFINITELY have lunch there!
Then, it was a quick stop at a winery, a quick stop at a function centre (which was closed at the time, but offered some nice photo opportunities… the wooden gate, the lights, the ferns), and then back into Auckland proper where we drove up Mount Eden, another of Auckland’s now-dormant volcanoes. Again, a 360 degree view of Auckland. That’s one thing I noticed about the Kiwi’s… they don’t mind knocking down a few trees so you can get a decent view! After Mount Eden, we headed to the botanic gardens (time for a spot of tree climbing in some Moreton Bay Figs, for Max), then off to the Sky Tower. As the name suggests, this is Auckland’s answer to Sydney’s AMP Tower or Seattle’s Space Needle or any one of a thousand other such phallic monstrosities around the world. We took the elevator up to the viewing platform on the 54th? 56th? floor… can’t remember exactly. It was something like 280 metres above street level anyway. Enough that if you fell, you’d end up with a bit of a headache.
This afforded some nice overhead views of the city, but I found the glass (being as thick as it was for safety reasons) provided some really nasty colour shifts in the images. Thank god for RAW images and post-shot white balance adjustments!
A full-on day, to be sure, but a great day none the less. Even if we’d hired a car ourselves, I doubt we’d have seen as much as Mike managed to fit in for us, so Mike, thanks again, mate! By the way, when you’re done here at my site (and not before!), check out some of Mike’s work.

Take me to: Day 8 <- | -> Day 10

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New Zealand – day 8 (Tauranga, October 25)

Bruce — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:03:57 +0000

Tauranga recently made worldwide news due to the running aground on one of its close-to-shore reefs of a huge freighter.
As we were approaching the port and still a few nautical miles offshore, I was up on deck taking some shots of the sunrise. There’s one particular shot in the gallery of the sun just peaking its head over the horizon, shot around the corner at the rear of the ship. What I didn’t know at the time I took that shot was that I was looking right at the stranded freighter. It was only 5-10 mins later that we had altered our position enough to see the freighter, along with all the official ships and tugs and the like. The unfortunate aspect of this whole sorry saga is that the freighter captain was trying to take a shortcut, in order to get into Tauranga quicker.
Once we were onshore, we caught a taxi to our hire car pick up point near the airport (a good 15km away). With the car loaded, we headed southwest toward Rotorua, famous for its geysers (pronounced with an I sound, not an E sound) and hot mud springs. Cath, in her wonderfully efficient style, had researched the area ahead of time and had noted that it we had time, it would be good to make it down to Waiotapu, about another 30km south of Rotorua. Realising we had made good time, we decided to continue on. At Waiotapu, we did a 2km loop walk which took as past a whole range of different sulphur pools and geysers. One of these was called “The Artist’s Palette”, due to the plethora of brilliant colours visible on the surface. I’m confident you’ll identify it for yourself from the images! There was also “The Devil’s Pool”, a small lake so rich in sulphur that it glowed an amazing florescent lime green. Shooting on manual exposure as I have been of late, I found that at ‘correct’ exposure, my camera’s sensor simply could not cope with the intensity of the colour. It was only by shooting at about -1EV that I could get anything close to the real colour of the water. Again, you’ll have no problems identifying “The Devil’s Pool” from the images below.
After the geysers, sulphur lakes and mud pits, we headed into Rotorua for a bite to eat. We ended up at the wonderfully named ‘Fat Dog’ Cafe where I ordered a burger which would have fed a small mid-African village for about 3 days. It was however, an absolutely fantastic burger.
After our gastronomic overload, we waddled off in search of some tourist shops to pick up some souvenirs.
With that out of the way, we jumped back in the car and headed north back toward Tauranga up the west side of Lake Rotorua.
As we were driving into Tauranga, it occurred to me that we still had about 2 hours before we needed to return the hire car, so I suggested we take a drive down the coast to see if we could see anything of the stranded freighter from the beach. I guess I hadn’t really thought about it much, so it came as a bit of a surprise to find that all of the beaches were shut due to the spilled oil drifting in from the reef. As we were driving along, Cath was looking through some brochures and mentioned that there was a tourist attraction called Kiwi360, a little further south at the town of Te Puke. We had time, and nothing better to do, so we headed off. As we drove into the car park at Kiwi360, we saw a small red helicopter sitting on a landing pad. Cath commented that flights were $59 a head, which seemed quite a reasonable price. I have wanted to go in a helicopter all my life and had never to this point had the opportunity. And to top it off, this was October 25th, my birthday! I went inside and asked the lady at the desk who ran the chopper flights, how long, how much notice did we need to give, etc etc. She mentioned that the pilot lived 2 mins down the road and that she would give him a call. A minute late, she informed me that he was on his way here and would be ready to take us up in about 5 minutes! Sweet! He promptly showed up, gave us the safety drill, and took us up for a quick 10min flight over the kiwi orchards, out to the coast, south along the beach a little way (pointing out the oil slicks on the water, and noting how devastating this is going to be to Tauranga’s fishing industry for years to come), and back in over the fields and orchards to our base. It might have been a quick flight, and the reflections off the perspex windscreen rendered a lot of my images less than ideal, but it was fun nonetheless, and a great birthday present.
We tried the obligatory kiwi juice, which turned out to be quite nice, then headed back to Tauranga in search of a fuel station at which to refuel the hire car. Another cab ride, and we were back at the ship, ready to watch the pilots guide the Sea Princess out the (very narrow) channel into open water.

Take me to: Day 7 <- | -> Day 9

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