Shoot: Josie Gibson

So at the weekend I was helping out at my mums charity event, An Evening With Josie Gibson. For those of you who don't know who Josie is, she won Big Brother 11 last year, and since then has been doing various presenting jobs on TV, and writes a column in OK magazine. She's pretty high profile and has been for the last year, and I had been asked to do a shoot while she was up for her official website, www.josiegibsonofficial.com


I had looked online at the shoots Josie has had done, and between Big Brother and the various magazines she's been in, she's had a LOT of shoots. I didn't see anything low-key though, and I didn't see any headshots that I liked. 


Now, I'm a sucker for headshots. If I could only shoot one type of image for the rest of my life, headshots is what I'd choose and its inevitably the first thing I look at when I browse a photographer or models portfolio. As a result it was a bit of a no-brainer for me as to what I wanted to shoot and what style. Low-key headshots, portraits, and then some natural light shots too, if time permitted.


Anyway, Saturday morning went by at a hectic pace, getting things ready for the event and I got ten minutes to set up the lights in the function suite a little before noon. I opted for a beauty dish, set quite high up, with all the other lights in the suite off to create a black background. Josie arrived and I have to admit she's a very nice person. Very sweet, very open and happy to be in Edinburgh. She was also very exhausted. 


Seeing how tired she was I opted to keep the shoot as short as possible and positioned her in front of the light and began chatting with her. I explained that I was looking to take a mixture of serious and smiley images to which she laughed, saying she'd only ever been asked for 'cheesy'. 


Anyway, I shot 17 images in the room in only a few minutes, and then we popped out to the hotel lobby where I turned one of their armchairs side on to the window, and took another five images. Total time for the shoot, less than ten minutes. 


Josie is pretty pleased with the images and so are the people who run her website. The response from Twitter has been phenomenal!! Bottom line - Happy customers, Happy Craig. 

General Update

The last seven days have been a bit of a nightmare.

After I did the review of Ednburgh Zoo I was absolutely shattered and in a lot of pain. I expected to be although I was surprised by the sheer amount of pain. Over the following days it never eased which became a bit of a worry, and it in fact increased a bit.

I had shoots booked in on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and Thursday was the second Project Inspiration shoot, this time with Dougie MacLean. Anyway, by the sunday morning I knew that I wouldn't be able to shoot, so better to postpone Mon-Wed shoots in the hope I'll be okay for Thursday.

I kept going with the heat treatment, with lots of painkillers and all the little tricks you pick up with a history of back pain, but nothing seemed to be helping, and then on Tuesday, Dougie MacLean postponed our shoot on the same day that I was going to have to do the same.

So I went to the doctors. As I suspected I've got another slipped disc, along with a muscle in spasm and I've got nerve pain down my leg again. Thankfully the doctor prescribed me much stronger painkillers and I can tell the difference already, mostly because I'm able to sit upright again. I haven't been able to do that for the last three days.

Anyway, I'm going to try a wee shoot at the weekend for my mum's charity event. No pressure or anything, but its with Big Brother Winner Josie Gibson, so as usual I'm hoping the shots will turn out rather spectacular.

I'm hoping that I can manage even a wee shoot, because I don't want to write off another six months of my life with yet another slipped disc. I've got too much to do, and too much momentum built up to stop now.

I guess it's 'Watch this space'!

Craig

Project Inspiration: Ian Rankin

The end product for Project Inspiration is to to produce images of people who've achieved amazing things alongside quotes encouraging or inspiring others.
Here's the first one:

Digital Photographer Magazine

A month ago I'd posted this big rambly post on the digital photographer magazine forums in a thread about photo retouching. The editor got in touch a few days later and asked me for a headshot so that they could quote some of my words alongside my picture in one of their features.Oooh, exciting!

Anyway, I patiently waited for June 16th to roll around and when it did I popped into the local newsagents and grabbed myself a copy.

Have to say, they definitely picked the lamest line out of the entire post to use. 

I'd ranted about how the Oil of Olay advert with twiggy or lulu (whichever one it was) that was photoshopped to a ridiculous level was tantamount to false advertising, and I spoken about how photo manipulation has been around as long as photography has because a black and white image is manipulation itself. Then I'd made a point about how people need to learn to where to draw the line.

Some strongly argued points, well supported and reasoned arguments, and some good examples listed. Turns out that the only sentence they selected from the entire post was, "Removing spots, blemishes, scars and stray hairs is what the technology was invented for, and that's a good thing in my book."

Lame...... but it's always nice to see yourself in print!

Craig

Edinburgh Zoo: Disabled Access

A week ago I wrote a review about visiting Edinburgh Zoo as a disabled person for www.able2uk.com and took a few photos. Below is the review itself and a few of the images.

Edinburgh Zoo

Able2uk asked me to do a review of accessibility on Edinburgh Zoo and talk about what it was like visiting as a disabled person. I'm on crutches, I have back and leg problems and I tire quickly, so I knew it was going to be physically challenging, but enjoyable too. Edinburgh Zoo is the only zoo in the UK that has koala's, they have over a thousand animals from all over the world, and with my passion for photography I thought this should be fun.

It was. I had a good day out at the zoo, saw penguins trying to eat sweets from a five year old little girl, watched a leopard pass within a couple of feet of some kids and heard their delight at the big cats proximity. I saw koala's, gorgeous pigeons (I'm not kidding), wild birds, strange wolves that looked like overgrown foxes from South America, big cats, gibbons, chimps, baboons and all manner of fierce and beautiful creatures, small and large.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has obviously worked hard to make their park as disabilitiy friendly as possible. They have wheelchair loans, ramps all over the place, their viewing platforms are low enough that you can see if you're the height of a two year old, and there are plenty benches scattered around if you need a seat. They have lots of signs, a induction-loop system, recommended access routes if you have mobility issues and they welcome assistance dogs too, although a few areas are naturally out-of-bounds.

The Zoo itself has one serious drawback though. It's built on Corstorphine hill, and it's a steep one. There's no way to avoid that over 50% of the paths are sloping or steep. If you suffer from mobility issues it's going to cause some problems for you, or your carer. I was utterly knackered and in quite a bit of pain by the time I left.

The Zoo also operates a 'Hilltop Safari' – a towed trailer with 20 seats and room for three wheelchair users, a lift for buggies and wheelchairs, and a driver/guide who tells you all about the zoo and the residents in its 15 minute journey from the zoo entrance to the top of the hill. I should warn you there are quite a few bumps from pot-holes, however this is by far the best way to get around the zoo. Get the Safari to the top and work your way back down to the entrance.

Prices for the Zoo can be expensive with a family ticket for two adults and two children coming in at £47.70, or £15.50 for one adult, and parking is £4 per car..On the plus side, any disabled person who requires assistance to visit the zoo gets free admission for their carer and parking is free with a blue badge.

Overall, Edinburgh Zoo is a good day out. There's a huge variety of animals, lots of information on them, presentations, educational buildings and at 2.15 every afternoon, the penguins go out for a walk around the playground. The disabled facilities are generally good, and the viewing platforms are well situated. There's no getting away from that hill though, and if you're in a wheelchair there are going to be a lot of bumps - bring an extra cushion!

And don't forget your camera!

Craig McGuire

Project Shoot:: Ian Rankin

So here's the images from todays shoot with Ian Rankin, and the first person to generously give up some of his time for Project: Inspiration. 

The shoot took around 45 minutes, and all images were taken in his office, a room cluttered with personal mementos, books, vinyl and CD's. I even read an email stuck on a door from the members of REM inviting him out for dinner. Artwork covers the walls, there's a roadsign with his name on it in the corner, and it's a lovely bright room. I can see why he listed it as one of his three favourite places.

I'm only popping up a few of the images for now, but I hope you like them.

Craig

Project Inspiration Update

So today sees the first of the shoots getting underway for Project: Inspiration.

In a couple of hours from now I'll be sitting with Ian Rankin taking his picture, and I'm quite excited about it. It's been a couple of months since I started working on this project and with this being the first shoot I know how important it is that I produce good images from it. (I will, I'm not actually worried about that)

If I want to continue to attract the right people to the project, then I know I have to deliver the goods. I guess I just have to do my thing, take my images, do my editing and see what comes out the other side of it. I'm looking forward to seeing the results myself.

I have to say, Ian has come across as a really nice fella throughout the communications leading up to today. Very chilled and keen at the same time. I hope everyone who ends up in front of my lens for this project is the same way.

Photos to follow... no doubt later today, because I haven't shot them yet and I'm itching to edit them! Inspired, indeed!

Craig

REVEAL: More Images

Just a quick post with some more of the images from the REVEAL shoots. Jamie's working on setting up some more shoots, so there'll be plenty more images to follow soon.

Craig

REVEAL: The Images

The last week or so has been busy shooting and editing the images for the featured artists of REVEAL Scotland, and today I attended a meeting up at the Creative Scotland offices in Edinburgh to present the edited images.

Very happy to say they were well received and it looks like between 15 and 25 are going to feature in their magazine coming out at the end of July. Everything from double-page and full page images to quarter page prints. This is by far the largest feature or series of images I've had in print, so to say I'm delighted would be a decent casual understatement!

Anyway, here's a few of the images. I'll add more as the week goes on, but I've been itching to get these online. Hope you like them.

Emma Scott-Smith, a painter from Stirling.

Sarah Caltieri, a singer, musician and actress from Edinburgh

Keith Salmon, an award-winning painter from Irvine

Caroline Bowditch, a dancer and choreographer from Dundee

Robert Softley Gale, an actor from Edinburgh

As I mentioned earlier, there'll be more images coming online over the course of the next week and there's a few more shoots to be done before the end of the month.

Meeting so many other disabled artists has been both exhausting, inspiring and sometimes humbling too. There's people out there who are so passionate about their own particular art or craft and they work so hard at what they're trying to achieve, I actually feel priviliged to have been a part of this, and I can't wait to see them in print.

Craig

REVEAL Update

No new images in this post - just a quick catch up on REVEAL Scotland and the images I've been shooting for them.

Jamie's doing a magazine in the next month or two and asked me to shoot all the featured artists for it, which I'm more than happy to do. On Thursday we met up for the first time and I have to say, he's a sound guy. Lots of fun, easygoing and very motivated too.

Anyway, we met Rosita McKenzie in Edinburgh on Thursday morning and did a few shots around the Scott Monument and then did some motion blur shots in Waverly Station. Fortunately the security persons were kind enough not to boot us out - something we greatly appreciated! After that Jamie and I headed up to meet Robert Gale and we had a pretty quick shoot too. Robert's lots of fun. An actor with cerebral palsy and more personality than a bus full of egomaniacs.

Tomorrow I'm off to Irvine then Glasgow for another couple of photoshoots, and then Wednesday it looks like I'm going to be hitting the Central Scotland, Perth & Dundee areas for another three shoots.

On Thursday the images will be shown to the artists at a meeting at Creative Scotland, and then I'll pop them up here on the blog so you can all see them.

I love being busy, but it's exhausting. Happy exhausting though :)

Craig

Postal Pipe Band Part 4

Here's the last part of the Pipe Band posts.

I was asked to take pictures for the band of the Saluting Officer for the parade, the announcer, and of course the obligatory group shots.

I'd like to thank Jamie, Mike and all the folks from the Band and the Dancers too for letting me take their photographs.

Craig

Postal Pipe Band Part 3

When the idea of shooting the band at the castle first came up I immediately had a specific shot in mind, and that was of the band going out the tunnel onto the esplanade, shot from behind. A whole kinda 'out of the darkness and into the light' kinda thing.

I shot images of the band when they formed up and marched out from inside the gates, and then I was fortunate enough to get up on the battlements of the Castle and take some shots of the performance from above.

Here's a few of the images.

Craig