Confessions of the company camera tart
For many years now the company have proclaimed that I am a camera tart and accuse me of jumping in front of a photographer at the first opportunity. But, as I have told everyone, it takes years of hard work to look this good.
I have to say I do work on my kit to make myself look as scruffy as I can but maintain an amount of style, and yes I do imagen what would look good on camera! Although sometimes it doesn’t look as good as I think at the time such as this one.Yet most people won’t see what I don’t like about it and the lads will all say it’s because I’m carrying a flag. That isn’t the problem, it’s that the colours are on the ground. A common problem when your colours are six foot square and your only 5,8.
(photo by John Beardsworth) who always takes the most excellent photos and when I come home from a muster I can’t wait to see if he’s taken on of me.
The best pictures seem to come from just catching the action when it happens; this is why I’ve never been much of a fan of posed photos. One of my favourites from the last few years came from our muster at Monmouth (taken by Jeff Vincent ) a fantastic action shot of me and Splot from Gerrard’s .
These days after coming home from a muster and trawling threw everyone’s photos I’m finding it harder and harder to find good ones of myself. Don’t worry I don’t just look for ones of me! I have loads of the rest of the company saved on my computer to make use of for event publicity and handouts for the company.
Some of my favorite photos of late aren’t ones of us on the field or in kit but as us as a company enjoying ourselves.
So on to the reason I chose to write this blog. At Our Carmarthen muster this year we were approached by Jason and Lorna Banbury of Banbury Photography http://www.jasonbanbury.com
The word quickly got out that we had a professional photographer on site and everyone made a dash to put as much kit on as possible. Apart from myself, a good camera tart should always be prepared! So after a few of the guys had their pictures taken up against white vans or Living history tents Jason and Lorna finally managed to get hold of me. They had been waiting for some time and every time they were free I was doing something. They
introduced themselves and explained about the current competition project that they are working on. They had already shot the staff at Llancaiach fawr, and asked if we were going to kings day as they had access to a small studio there. I wasn’t so we arranged that Sam and I would pop over to their studio in St Clears in the next couple of days.So we arranged to visit there studio in the mean time I did a little research and found there website which is full of an amazing body of work and that Jason was the holder of some very prestigious awards, including UK and international master photographer of the year 2014/15 and 2015/16.
So we arrived at the studio with a box full of kit and sundries as the plan was for a fine art image in the style of the old masters. I would not be in my normal guise but that of Colonel Fleming, the character I played at Carmarthen, a stereotype puritanical Roundhead. Typical, I was getting a great quality photograph but looking like I’m on the wrong side. The Deal was we’d give up our time for them and receive digital copies for social media and a print, not of the ones they needed to use of course.
We were going to use two set up’s for myself. The first one with a draped backdrop, that later would have a background added in, and a table. We shot in different poses: dressed as an officer, relaxing at home and dressed in black breeches and singlet with various props on the table from a simple bowl of fruit to my helmet. I also had different items in my hands from baton which ended up looking rather phallic and to sword witch we hung on my right instead than my left. Which got me thinking about how the old master might have doctored there work: for instance if we were to look at a painting and notice that the sword was on the right it would lead us to think that the subject was left handed when in fact the artist wanted to put the sword in the image.
Then the second set up was a plan white screen that would have a imaged added to afterwards of oak panelling for this we added to the costume a Dutch coat and hat. After this we had finished with me and moved on to shoot Sam. They shot it with two sets of costume with coif and without. They also used various hand props, from the rather sober and demure bouquet of lavender to a serving platter.
We had a grate two hours with Jason and Lorna and can’t express more highly of them.
We now have our hard prints and the digital images have been on facebook for a few weeks. Causing plenty of interest! If you haven’t been lucky enough to have yours done, Jason and Lorna have said that you might have other opportunities because they might available at other Vaughan’s events to let them know.
We would like to thank Jason and Lorna and look forward to working with then again, and wish them the best of luck with the competition in September.
