An interesting experience! Finally!

Last night I got my first taste of ‘real’ photography. Thanks to my involvement with the Casimir Effect Film I was invited along to a photoshoot that they were doing of the Cast. Some of whom you might know, John Jenner for example, has been in both Torchwood and Doctor Who. There were some other lesser known actors but all were fantastic none theless.

What really took me was just how easy it was. I don’t mean the technical aspect of the shot, but just how pleasant it was to work with the people who were essentially modelling for me. Everyone was co-operative and helpful, although I’ll say that I was more or less useless at directing them.

I’m surprised because of course I’ve heard all of these horror stories about difficult subjects or the more or less total control needed for the photographer. One photographer friend of mine has said ‘it’s essential to communicate‘ and that I should ‘take charge’ and ‘direct everyone’, In fact his exact words were ‘You need to be really good at directing people’. Of course after hearing that I more or less ended up crapping myself at the thought of trying to control or direct some very important people and of course in my case, a famous one.
Yet all I had to do was say to them both “just relax and do whatever feels right”, and whilst they picked up on the fact that I have never done any form of portrait work before, they did exactly as I said and just… relaxed! It was an incredible feeling building a rapport with them as I fumbled around with the studio lights, trying very hard to not burn either myself or the cast member I was shooting. Despite all this, they were great, helpful, kind and after a few nerves and a little uncertainly (on both their part and mine), I started taking shots and everything just flowed.

Shooting in a studio helped so much, this is the first time I was able to do this, but it gave a more professional environment, I was able to shoot easily and well with the camera and I think I got some fantastic shots as well (you will see some soon) but it’s left me with a completely different view of studio photography. Who knows, I might even get a huge amount of work from it, Maybe not. But there is the possibility!

Maybe this was just a really great first experience, maybe it’s all like this, but I now know for a fact that the profession I’ve always wanted to get into, really is what I want to get into.

I am more comfortable behind a camera, than I am anywhere else.