Mission Photographic

Creative Futures 2012

meiadmin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:00:26 +0000

Some of my work doing stills, video and sound documenting Newport University’s “Creative Futures” event in January 2012.

As the University themselves put it:

“The Creative Futures 2012 event has demonstrated a strong appetite for success from students of Newport University. Organised by Newport Careers & Employability Service and sponsored by The Faculty of Arts & Business, the 2.5 day event aimed to engage students with industry professionals who can offer advice about working in the creative industries. This took the form of short seminars that led to networking and relationship building. The short film (below) documents how and why students and speakers were involved in the event.”

You can watch and download a full 1080p version of the video here.

There was a lot of education and inspiration to be found at the event, for the students, the speakers and for me.

I’ve done freelance photography work for the University for the last 3 or 4 years but this is the first time I’ve been asked to create a video for them, alongside the usual stills used for print media, press releases, posters, the university website etc. Video is an increasing part of my work and I’m becoming as fascinated by the moving image as I am by the frozen moment captured in a still. The truth is that while there are of course big differences the two mediums complement each other very well, solving different problems and being useful in different situations.

Video is also increasingly a requirement for clients and in this case I was also twittering for the uni during the event. Indeed a theme of the conference was be flexible, be multi-skilled, network and never stop learning. Suits me.

Links

Newport University
Newport University Careers & Employability
Mission Photographic on Vimeo

Park House Food

meiadmin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:34:20 +0000

Photographing food is fun – and sometime I get to eat it afterwards

That desert was lush.

Links

Park House Club

Flyover Fashion

meiadmin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:59:15 +0000

Experimenting with a movie look for the latest Red Handed men’s fashion shoot.

A little bit grimey, under a bridge and in 16:9.

Links

Red Handed
Model Andrew J Penhale

Posing A Digger

meiadmin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:54:17 +0000

“Little bit more to the left… can you point the scoop out more…”

This is the first (hopefully not the last) time I’ve ever had to pose an earth moving vehicle.
Sweet.

Links

Beacon Centre for Health

Hold The Front Page!

meiadmin — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:25:11 +0000

Just noticed that I took all the photos currently on Newport University’s homepage.

I take a lot of pictures for Newport University and have done for 3 or 4 years now. I always enjoy working there. The university have a prestigious photography department so it’s nice they get me in to do stuff.

Links

Newport University

Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green on Only Men Aloud

meiadmin — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:18:21 +0000

Only Men Aloud – dressed by Liam Gallagher.

I recently shot four members of the music group Only Men Aloud for Cardiff Life at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama’s new building. There were three sets of clothes, some smart and some, as in the images here, much more rugged than you’d usually see members of this famous television choir (best description I can think of for them!) wearing.

All the clothes in these images are from Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green clothes label, and one of the images is the cover of the current issue of Cardiff Life.

Links

Pretty Green
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Cardiff Life
Only Men Aloud

Recent Photos from Newport University

meiadmin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:32:07 +0000

Just a few photos from the last few weeks at Newport University, their Caerleon and Newport City Centre campuses.

I’ve probably been to more bits of the university than most other people by this point!

Links

Newport University

Corporate Party

meiadmin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:49:50 +0000

Some photos from the 10th anniversary party of Moginie James, which took place in Mocka lounge in Cardiff, in the very snug basement.

Defiled Details

meiadmin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:29:35 +0000

Shot this gig for Front magazine, and they asked for more behind the scenes stuff than typical live band shots which I loved.

I really like documenting and telling the story of something more than just shooting individual pictures, and I love random little details. The photos (a lot more than shown here) were used as a kind of collage spread in the mag. The gig was The Defiled, Murder FM and Revoker at Clwb Ifor Bach.

Links

Front

Meet Mew!

meiadmin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:15:10 +0000

I’m pleased to announce I’ve taken on a new member of staff at Mission Photographic…

…unfortunately he hasn’t quite got the hang of his duties, spending most of his time nibbling things, chasing string and squeaking for food!

Links

Cats On The Web

Studio Anywhere

meiadmin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 14:54:03 +0000

I often have to set up a studio anywhere a client wants, in the case the ITV studios in Cardiff.

Some shots of the presenters of the ITV/S4C program ‘Y Byd Ar Bedwar’ were needed on a clean white backdrop, and this is a quick setup I often use for that if nothing more specific is required, like matching to a background plate or a specific beauty look.

Links

Y Byd Ar Bedwar
ITV Studios at Culverhouse Cross

‘Winding Down’

meiadmin — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:06:37 +0000

A mini film about my Keystone K-4C Electric Eye.

Here’s a still of the title card from the video:

And here’s the video…

This is a short test piece I put together over the last few days. I have an amazing looking Keystone K-4C ‘Electric Eye’ 8mm film camera I bought as non-working a while back which I’d intended to use as a prop for a photo shoot but never got around to. It makes a good subject for a video test as there are lots of moving parts and it makes noises. It’s clockwork powered, you wind it up and it winds down.

I’ve been interested in film and video for a number of years. I’ve done lots of stills work on TV and films so I’ve seen the huge amount of work and skill that goes into production. As with everything else I get interested in and which seems challenging I want to have a go myself!

Planning is key for video so I storyboarded what I was going to shoot and then set up my single light source, a black background and various bounce cards, stands and tripods. I ended up shooting a lot more than I’d storyboarded, and some of what I’d wanted to do turned out to be impractical. The film is a lot longer than I’d intended, partly because it was easier to synch with the music that way, and also because I didn’t have time to make it shorter.

The music is by Jack Westmore, a local musician and composer who specialises in TV/film work. Having the music to work with really helped set the tone of the piece and a lot of the motion in the visuals flowed from that.

For those interested in kit I shot this with a Canon 5D Mark 2, 24-70 F2.8L and 100mm Macros lenses and lit it with this LED panel from Amazon. The LED light is cheap and it works but the build quality is poor and there seems to be a slight green tint to it.

Links

Mission Photographic on Vimeo
Jack Westmore

It’s My Shout 2011 Video on Vimeo

meiadmin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:40:17 +0000

A video version of the It’s My Shout slideshow with music and a surprise ending

From still…

… to video.

This summer I did stills on a series of 6 short films made for the BBC by It’s My Shout Productions. This is a selection of pictures I prepared for the films’ premiere and awards ceremony. The shorts are currently being shown on the BBC.

The music for this slideshow was composed by Jack Westmore for one of the films ‘Lovestruck’ and he and the director Leyla Pope kindly allowed me to use it here.

You can find most of the stills from this video here.

Links

It’s My Shout
Jack Westmore
Lovestruck

It’s My Shout 2011 Slideshow

meiadmin — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:20:07 +0000

A slideshow of photos from this summer’s BBC / It’s My Shout films shoots.

Links

It’s My Shout

Retro Scooter Fashion

meiadmin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:46:10 +0000

Retro-ish photos for Red Hande Magazine.

These photos come from a fashion shoot I did for the winter edition of Red Handed which will be out very soon. The magazine had some clothes from mod specialists Mojo King and managed to get hold of some scooters and we decided to shoot at Penarth seafront.

I challenged myself by shooting everything without flash and using just my 50mm f1.4 Canon lens, mostly wide open or close to it. The resulting very shallow depth of field and slight diffusion looks kind of old fashioned, especially combined with the color grading I knew I’d be doing.

Links

Red Handed
Mojo King

Mike Partridge of Defy Designs – Guest Blog

meiadmin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:07:50 +0000

I’m quite excited to have my first guest blog post byt designer Mike Partridge. And a good one it is too. I’ll let Mike explain himself, he’s better at it than I am…

————-

Hello everyone, my name is Michael, I’m a graphic designer and a guest blogger! That’s rather exciting isn’t it!

I was approached by Mei to contribute to his blog, we discussed a few ideas and decided the best thing for me to cover was our professional relationship and the positivity that has spawned from it.

A few years back Mei was approached to take some photographs of a Cardiff band called Zenyth, when they asked him for a recommendation for a designer, he recommended me (wasn’t that nice!). I was excited to be working with Mei for several reasons:

1 – I knew I could rely on getting quality images.
2 – He knew I would handle his contribution to the final product in the best fashion.

and most importantly…
3 – We were both very involved in the project from the early stages.

This is a rare opportunity in terms of a design project. As a designer, you are often the last person to be contacted in the process and it can often yield some difficult results. The worst case scenario’s can include being given portrait images and a landscape space to fill, low res photos that aren’t even good enough quality to use on the internet, images that are of a low enough standard that you would rather reshoot them yourself, or just not use them, have to spend hours photoshopping the images to clean up details that should have corrected by the photographer…but this was a special occasion!

By getting both parties involved from moment one, we could talk with the band about how they wanted to present their image and work together to achieve that result. I was able to get involved in the photo shoot have input on the results, “Can you make sure you get portrait and landscape head shots?” and during the design process Mei was able to say, “I think the image-xxxx will work better on the xxxx, don’t you?”, whilst offering me solid constructive criticism whilst I was working on my contribution.

When faced with photos you are given several and told those are the images to use, but I was able to discuss with Mei what images he had that suited the different parts of the project and we ended up using most of the best images from the shoot. This was a sure fire way to create a stronger result.

So, fair readers, please take a leaf out of our book and whenever possible get all parties you need to create your end product together in the planning stage. Your designer won’t be offended that he has to go to a meeting and then wait a few weeks for the content he needs, a photographer will be much happier knowing he has more input in the uses of his images and above all else, you will be happier with your end result and you will only have to explain your ideas once! You never know, by sitting them together (Skype conference call even?) the creative sparks might fly and your project could turn into something more special than you had considered.

When you give your creative types a chance to feel good about their work and give them as few potential headaches as possible, they will work harder for you as they will care more about the piece and you will see that in the end product.

What has the end result been for Mei and myself I hear you ask? Well apart from being paid to do something we love, we have built a strong friendship and solid professional relationship. We have both been involved in each others ideas/portfolio pieces/hair brained schemes, I learnt more about photography, (I think) Mei learnt a little more about the design process and I know I always have a photographer I can recommend to people and I hope he shares my feelings.

Images

Here are a few of the designs Mike talks about, and a few bonus shots of Zenyth.

Links

Defy Designs

Zenyth on Myspace
Zenyth on ilovecardiff

Judas \m/ Priest

meiadmin — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 14:04:05 +0000

Judas Priest ARE metal.

Shot them last ight in Newport Centre. It was so easy to shoot them because they just look so good. The lighting was great too, and a few times they even stopped and posed for a shot. Yes!

Judas Priest

Lady Starlight

Links

Judas Priest
Lady Starlight

Google Image Search Fun

meiadmin — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 14:03:33 +0000

Google have just launched some new search functions for pictures.
You can find it at images.google.com and there’s more of an explanation at www.google.com/insidesearch/searchbyimage.html
Give it a photo and it will find other copies of it on the web and also similar images – for some definition of similar.

I tried it with a few of my own shots that I thought might be online in a few places and the results were a bit of a surprise.

Guns

The first picture is of actor Noel Clarke in his role in the short film-noir ‘Reign of Death’. I took this photo for the production company It’s My Shout and the BBC. I graded it to black and white because I knew the film would be mono and supplied it and a bunch of other images including one which the movie’s poster was partially based on. I expected this to be quite widely used and was pleased to see it on IMDB etc.

A few links:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1468501760/nm0164929
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2009/09/06/reign-of-death-the-noel-clarke-saga-continues/
http://www.andreaxmas.com/index.asp?id=7,2010
http://downtownrpg.blogspot.com/2011/04/as-caracteristicas-dos-personagens-de.html
http://lascreeningroom.net/2011/05/reign-death/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/07/10/video-noel-clarke-in-reign-of-death/
http://liveforfilms.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/reign-of-death-noel-clarkes-sci-fi-pulp-noir-detective-short-film/
http://www.clashmusic.com/news/noel-clarke-s-sci-fi-noir-project
http://www.ulike.net/Kidulthood
http://marcaprice.com/tag/steampunk/
http://www.bleedingcool.com/forums/showthread.php?20497-VIDEO-Noel-Clarke-in-Reign-of-Death

…and…

A few years ago I uploaded a silhouette of my friend Claire with a red Mohican to istockphoto then promptly forgot about it. I’ve since seen it used in a bunch of places including an iPhone case and Google images search helped me find it in three more places. The first is the funniest, as the cover of a music compilation called ‘iSweat Fitness’ with the tagline, “From Band-Aid to Live-Aid the decade of music that gave birth to MTV, Madonna and mullets! Very high-energy at 145 BPM — a great beat for Power Walking or Running on the treadmill or outside or for any other Cardio workouts.”!!!
Then there’s the hair salon using it to advertise their services – but she did this hairstyle herself in my front room!
The third use… after reading some of it I can’t even be bothered to really work out what Sparklife is.

Some links:
http://isweatmusic.com/product.php?productid=16158
http://www.paxsalon.com/
http://community.sparknotes.com/2010/03/02/a-sparkler-goes-back-in-time

Roses!

Slash is a rock god. There have probably been tens of thousands of photos taken of him over the years so I was happy that when Velvet Revolver played Cardiff I managed to make a distinctive image.

It seems a blogger (from Finland?) got the idea that this unusual shot was somehow from the game Guitar Hero III, “This is the real look of Slash in the Guitar hero 3:legends of rock game. He is actually from the famous band Guns and Roses.” A Spanish language game website and then Metal Injection picked up on it from there. I occasionally read metal Injection but hadn’t noticed this story before.

None of these sites have permission to use the image, I assume they got it from my Flickr stream, where its copyright is clearly noted! They’ve even cropped off my logo.

Those links:
http://guitar-hero-3.gemzies.com/show/entry_19262/Guitar_Hero_III_Slash_Characte.html
http://www.gamesblog.it/post/5030/guitar-hero-3-lelenco-completo-delle-canzoni-non-confermato
http://www.metalinjection.net/videogames/slash-to-appear-as-a-character-in-guitar-hero-3-video-game

Dead Heroes

meiadmin — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:42:11 +0000

Shoot for Dead Heroes Clothing brand.

They also do badges!

For the white background, catalogue shots I was asked to recreate the point and shoot style of Ben Rayner (and a million others) who’d done the previous shoot. Quite strange to be using on-camera flash like this! Male model is illustrator Richey Beckett who also designed much of the art.

Links

Dead Heroes
Ben Rayner
Richey Beckett

Gallows Is The Reason

meiadmin — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:47:10 +0000

Gallows start their set the same way they began their much loved last album Grey Britain.
Brief scene setter Riverbank followed by the ferocious but catchy London Is The Reason (tonight cheekily re-dubbed Cardiff Is The Reason) and bucket loads of antagonistic, righteous energy.

Links

Gallows