Jimena Larraguivel, Actress and Director, invites me to London.
Welcome to 2015, Happy New Year folks. I’ve had quite a hectic time and it’s still very hectic but I’m getting on track, so it’s about time this journal got a bit of love, starting with sharing a fun weekend I spent in London. It starts with a cramped tube ride with lots of camera kit and a bump shoot with my good friend, wonderful actress and director, Jimena Larraguivel.
I’d driven down from Chester earlier that day to spend the weekend working in London. I had three shoots to complete all of which were very different from each other. My very first bump shoot with Jimena on Saturday. Then on Sunday, I shot the promotional images for Chef Robin Gill and his new outstanding venture, The Manor. Finishing off on Sunday evening with corporate headshots for some fantastic entrepreneurial business owners I had the pleasure to meet a month earlier at a three day Les Brown seminar. I’ll tell you about them in upcoming posts.
Taxi!
After booking into my hotel I had another first for me. I’ve discovered a new taxi firm called Uber. They’re only operating in London, Manchester and Leeds right now in the UK and many other global cities, but I highly recommend them. You use the free App, it locates you and can tell you how far away a car is, give you an estimate of the cost, all before you actually book it. Once you get the ball rolling, you are sent all the info you could need. The car model, license or number plate, and the name and photo of the driver. I got a bit of a geeky kick out of watching my Uber taxi live on the map as he came to pick me up. They operate all over the world, if they’re near you, give them a try.
I digress, so I got my cab ride to the nearest tube station. I didn’t know what I was going to require on this, my first bump shoot, in a Catholic Church, so I brought quite a bit of kit. Anyone who lives or has visited London knows, rush hour on the tube isn’t what you do for kicks and giggles. Having all this kit really didn’t help the experience.
I had a quiet smile on my face, as often I do when I’m heading for unknown territories, wondering how the shoot would go. I had plenty of odd looks from commuters. Maybe it was the edgy, excited look on my face or the two backpacks and selection of odd shaped carry cases that did it. People watching is always more fun when you’re the odd one out.
My subject for today is Jimena. She’s always a joy to work with, such an uplifting spirit, rarely without a smile. Her husband Martin was also joining us, these two are such a lovely couple and great fun.
The Church
We all met up at Leicester Square tube station, after a bit of a catch up over coffee we headed over to the Corpus Cristi Catholic Church in Covent Garden. We entered a beautiful and very dark church. Probably one of the darkest locations I’ve ever worked in. Not the realm of a natural light only photographer, that’s for sure. Fortunately, I believe you should have as many tools and skills at your disposal as possible. One of my favourite sayings is, I’m an available light photographer, if there’s light and it’s available, I’ll use it. My availability was down to candlelight and my Speedlites.
Jimena’s actress talents are very clear to see right away, and of course, we’d worked together before so I knew I could concentrate on the image whilst she interacted beautifully with the environment. The candlelight was too delicious not to use, so I pushed my camera’s ability pretty hard to pluck a moment of thoughtful contemplation out of the dim light. With the warm glow of the candles washing over Jimena’s face I think it’s one of my favourites from his shoot.
From then on I broke out the small flash to photograph Jimena and Martin together in the church. We shared some ideas to find some scenarios which would look pleasing. With the minimal light, I needed to drag the shutter to allow some of the ambient light in, without location context Jimena & Martin could have been anywhere. This means the very fast pop of flash was going to freeze the subject. My tripod was one of the items I decided to leave at the hotel, fortunately, I’ve had plenty of practice wedging myself into locations so as the camera has very little movement.
The sound of my shutter has never been so loud. People were using the Church for their personal time, every press of the shutter button sent a crack through prayer and quiet contemplation. Through bellowing whispers I gave some direction to Jimena, trying not to spoil the atmosphere like tip-toeing on creaky floorboards.
Taking the act to the London streets
We decided to take the shoot onto the London streets, great, “I’ll have some light….” I thought to myself. Not exactly, I didn’t appreciate how long we were in the church for as it was dark outside already. Oh well, ISO plenty and slow shutter speed shoots are quickly becoming a speciality for me…
What I would have given for an assistant VAL with a light on a paint pole. Time was ticking on, Jimena and Martin would have to head off soon, so I plumped for a brightly lit street location where I pushed the kit even harder. ISO crying like a child who’s lost their balloon is where we were heading for. On the busy streets of central London at the weekend, there’s no place for unprotected light stands I can tell you.
Jimena merged into the street scene and quickly settled in for the new location. I love when passersby strike up a conversation, curious about the reason for the photo shoot. And it was nice to hear some congratulatory wishes for the little one’s birth.
Shooting quickly we created some lovely movie still quality images, a style I’d like to pursue some personal projects. Movie still photography is a part of my industry I’d love to try my hand at, with the suitable gear I might add.
So there we have it, my first ever bump shoot. I like the break from tradition and the challenge to shoot something new in difficult conditions only make me a better photographer. Thank you to Jimena who’s always a joy to work with and made the whole shoot so much fun and very difficult to get a bad shot. A big thanks to Martin for being so helpful and getting in the spirit of the shoot.
Congratulations!!!
A massive congratulations to Jimena and Martin on the birth of their baby boy Luken Tobías, what an incredible life you have ahead of you. I feel blessed that I was chosen to capture these precious moments, it’s a day that brings memories that makes me smile from the inside out.
Stay tuned for more great moments from this weekend, coming soon…..
Bye for now
