Children and Animals

The Hutchings Family

          Never work with children and animals they say. I have no intention. No chance whatsoever. None. I haven't really met many children. I don't know how they work. I've seen people around animals who are nervous and don't know what to do. This is me with kids. They give me the impression that they can see into my very soul, and what they see they don't like. Recently I photographed this guy (below), Johnson the Hungarian Viszla. He's a very handsome chap. He's handsome but he's also very nervous and it was incredibly tricky to get him to sit still. Even smoked ham didn't work. If a dog has no interest in meat it's pretty much time to give in. Despite this we did manage to get a couple of shots in the bag. We'd only been shooting for maybe ten minutes and it was time to wrap up. Johnson was starting to tremble and although this wouldn't show on camera it wouldn't have been fair to carry on. The dogs owner spotted an opportunity. The lights were set up and his kids were all in the other room, painting each others faces and having a screaming competition.  He shouted, " get yourselves in here quick" and in they bowled. Now like I said, I don't really know what to do with kids so I figured i'd let them do what they want. What they wanted to do was jump up and down, scream at me and run round the kitchen with my photo umbrellas. Grabbing bits of my kit in turn and shouting,"what's this? what does this do? WHAT"S THIS FOR?" and then dropping it on the floor and moving on to the next. Oh, so that's how it's going to be is it? Calming them down was impossible so I joined in with the shouting and just tried to get them to do it roughly in front of the camera. This was no mean feat as they were like wild animals but with the aid off the flash we managed to freeze them pretty good. Most of the pictures were awful but in amongst them was this gem (above). One of my favourites photographs in a while. A moment of genuine domestic bliss.

Johnson - Hungarian Viszla

       

Bert and the V2

          I can't remember when this was but I just found the pictures and figured i'd use my blog. I originally started writing this stuff as a kind of diary for showing pictures that don't really fit anywhere else. This set rest very firmly in that camp.

   An old friend of mine, portrait photographer Chris Floyd, was working on a personal project. He'd been photographing the impact sites of the German V2 rocket. His grandparents had been killed by one of the last to be launched. They were real point and hope weapons, designed to demoralise as much as destroy. They were loaded with just the right amount of fuel to get them from their launch site to somewhere over london. They were then pointed in the right direction and launched. That is pretty much it. Once they ran out of fuel they would fall from the sky and destroy whatever they fell upon.

    Having photographed the impact impact sites the next logical step was to find out where they originated. After some detective work Chris managed to find a guy called Bert who was an expert on all things V2. It turned out that our particular weapon was launched from Den Haag in the Hook of Holland. This is a pleasant over night sail from Harwich and Chris had ask that I come along. I love a personal project so didn't hesitate. We were accompanied by documentary film maker Ian Denyer and Floyds long suffering assistant Andras Bartok.

Hook of Holland

     

       The photograph above is the port of the Hook of Holland. It is also the launch site of a German V2 rocket. According to Bert it was launched from just about the red train barrier. The train line wouldn't have been there at the time but the port certainly was. It was about 6am when I took this photograoph and absolutely freezing. This was the first of what would be four launch sites we were to encounter.

   Above is the large format film camera used for the photographs. Fitting in every way for a job which was about the past. The next image shows the camera in action. What would be one of the final photographs is clearly visible on it's screen. It is a park near Den Haag.

   The images don't look like much but I guess that's the point. There really is nothing there now to give you any clue about the dramatic events. Hard to imagine from this that a group of German soldiers were once here launching their weapons against London. 

    This is our first meeting with Bert. I thought he seemed quite sinister but it turned out he was just Dutch. At one point I dropped a few of the metal screws that secure the top of the tripod. " Aah! You are losing your ammunition" he said in a kind of Germanic twang. I liked him from this moment on.

   Ian Denyer and Chris Floyd. Like a true film camera guy Ian never, ever put his camera down. He'd disappear and then be spotted in some bushes, filming the locals. Quite disconcerting if he'd have ever been busted. He also had a habit of leaving little microphones lying around to pick up any secret conversations. Fortunately he was great and there was no need to worry that we'd been slagging him off on tape. I had a go of his kit and you could hear every breath from about a hundred metres. A cautionary lesson for the next time I find myself with a filmmaker. 
   This particular spot was a small park right in the centre of town where another rocket was launched.

   This was a kind of obvious shot that someone was bound to take. It's a funny photo which covers up a serious part of the day. This crossing led to the open ground where the actual rocket which killed Chis's Grandparents had been launched. We had finished shooting by now and we're on our way back to the port so spirits were high after a successful trip. I'm sure Chris had a few things on his mind but if he did he didn't say....

Chris, Andras, Me and Ian........

Fashion

.................I am no great lover of fashion. I have very little interest in the subject to be honest. Being "in fashion" is as much a lifestyle choice as being into body art or skateboarding or being a hippy. It is all consuming. Fair enough too if that's your bag but it isn't for me. Don't get me wrong, I like nice clothes. I probably like them more than the next man, but fashion is different isn't it. The kind of stuff I buy I've been buying for the last twenty years. Good quality stuff, probably with a bit of a price tag, that I can wear until it falls to bits........... not until it goes out of style. The one exception is jeans. You've kind of got to get the right jeans. You really do look a bit of a lemon in a pair of flairs when everyone else has gone skinny. So fair enough, I have my limits.

When it comes to fashion photography it is a similar thing. It is a lifestyle choice made early on. You have to want to spend your whole time in the company of stylists, models, makeup artists etc etc etc. You also have to know how to make a frock look nice since the name of the game is selling clothes. It's so easy to go off on a tangent when something starts to work only to be told that it's all about the product and the beautiful, moody photo's you've ended up taking are of little use.

This is a recent shoot for lifestyle brand Mudd and Water. It's a spring summer catalogue shoot for next season. The photographs they wanted are as below. Bright and colourful like the new collection.

We got the shots and everyone was happy but left to my own devices I couldn't help but try and make the shots more moody. It was all about the location. We had this amazing house with plaster hanging off the walls and tatty furniture strewn about the place. We had a great props, a great model. It was crying out for a certain treatment but it wasn't what the client wanted, and let's face it they were paying. 

You've got to listen to the person with the purse or you won't get used again but it is always fun to try and sneak a few shots through for yourself. 

The Old Masters, Grapes and a Personal Project

     I've got a personal project coming up. Been putting it off for a while because it's going to be kind of traumatic. This will all reveal itself in due course. It seems to me that personal projects, otherwise known as "massive jobs that take ages and you don't get paid for", are the creative backbone of all things photographic. No one is ever likely to pay you for the stuff you really, really feel compelled to do. Unless you are totally driven by fashion maybe. But if like me your interest is in animals things may be trickier.

     I did a job last week at Crufts for Marie Claire. A dream gig. Getting paid for something that I would do anyway given half the chance. This is not the norm. But this job came from a personal project. I'd spent a year and a half making a book on dogs. The picture editor saw it, liked it, and decided they wanted me to do some stuff for them. This is the upside of the personal work. No matter how hard it is to justify the time and lack of money involved, just do it, because at the end you will have more work for your portfolio and if what you have created is any good it may just spin off into other, paid work. 

The other great thing about personal work is the total lack of constraint. You can do whatever you like. It is the one massive bonus. Total artistic freedom and the knowledge that if you fail, nobody even needs to know.You don't have to justify your work to an editor who will likely choose the stuff you didn't want to use anyway. No ones going to tell you what you can and can't or should and shouldn't do. You  just have to find the motivation, be a bit pushy, and the world is your oyster................... Did I mention that you don't get paid.

As a result of my impending work I have been deciding on a lighting style. I like to do this. I like to be prapared. I'd been looking at lots of old paintings in the National Gallery. My background is painting so I often like to go back to basics for inspiration. What seemed perfect for this new idea was the the lighting style of the old masters. All those funereal, dark images. Every one of them telling a story. Always literal in their use of symbols. Lots of dead stuff. After a bit of experimenting in the studio I kind of arrived at this (below). One of them is a straight forward set up with two lights, reflector etc. The other is a five minute exposure and is lit with a mag light and a blue gel. Probably go with this one.

It's really good fun experimenting with still life. You have all the time in the world and can really tweak things if they aren't working. Plus, if you use grapes, oranges etc. You can eat them as you go. The perfect crime. I'll upload all the images from this series as soon as I find the cajones to start.......

Lighting experiments for an upcoming personal project influenced by old master paintings

If it bites you it WILL hurt.....

 This week I photographed some slightly more exotic than usual creatures. Parrots, snakes, lizards, tortoise and a random African barn owl. There was a crocodile there too but it was a big one and too dangerous to handle. We started off with the barn owl as it was the most calm and would be easiest to deal with. It was perfect and between every shot it moved it's head a centimetre or so to keep an eye on me. If I could speak owl I would have asked it to do just that. Of all the things I've ever photographed the owl was the easiest. Not because it was well behaved, which it was, but because it was so photogenic. Every shot was kind of great and I haven't had to do a thing with them on the computer. It was truly beautiful. Maybe the most beautiful thing I've ever had in my hand..... 

African Barn Owl

.........Apart from at lunch time when it definitely let the side down...............

Swallowing a mouse whole

Next on the list were parrots. These guys weren't so relaxed as the owl and we had a very small window before they lost interest and literally flew away. These are handsome, long lived birds with real personalities. They craved attention but were very quick to panic when anything unusual happened. "It doesn't take much wi them parrots", said Steve, the creature handler with a voice like a weary husband. We probably got about 20 shots of each bird bird but this was more than enough.

Macaw

African Grey Parrot

     After the birds came the reptiles. I shot quite a few but I'm just going to post my favourites. The most interesting was probably the Boa Constrictor. When I asked to handle it Steve said, with typical northern candour,"I'll get him out but he WILL go for you, and if he bites you it WILL hurt and you WILL bleed A LOT". I sensed there was something of the challenge in these words so we got him out anyway. He wasn't joking. Every time I got the camera within about 6 inches of the snake it struck at the lens. It was ace. I just had to hide behind the camera and I was pretty much out of harms way. Don't get me wrong, I was bricking it. Behind the camera you very easily loose track of the distance between you and the subject so every few minutes I'd pop my head over the lens to realise I was only a few inches away and in danger of getting a nasty bite. This snake was incredibly aggressive but try as I might I never got the killer shot of him striking. 

Boa Constrictor

       Dragons next. The Bearded Dragon is probably the most common lizard to be kept as a pet in the UK. After meeting this one it's easy to see why. They have real personalities and are surprisingly gentle. Also, like all good animal models, they are completely driven by food so as long as you've got a wriggling grub in your hand,"they'll let you do owt". You can see by this ones alert stance that he is totally locked onto the prey/food. I kind of wanted to take this lizard home with me by the end of the shoot.

Bearded Dragon

Floydalikes

Looking through some celebrity portraits taken by an old friend, Chris Floyd, I noticed similarities between his people portraits and mine of dogs. I started to post them on twitter and it's become something I do every day. I'll keep it up until I run out of images or someone tells me to stop. If you want to see the entire series have a look on my twitter feed @gezgethings

Paul Mccartney by Chris Floyd and me

Paddy Considine + Peter Mullan by Chris Floyd

Paddy Considine + Peter Mullan by me

David Bailey by Chris Floyd and me

Close up

    I think there's an assumption when photographing animals (or anything else for that matter) that you need to get eye contact. If not eye contact then at least the head and shoulders should be in the shot. I disagree. There are many areas of interest on an animals body and it is a mistake to ignore them. The classic photo of a dog is taken from a fairly high angle with the animal looking up at the camera. This is fine but it is slightly unnatural. Much better to take the shot from their point of view. Get on your knees, it's the only way. Once you do this you start to notice some interesting stuff. This is a shot of my dogs knee. His hair here has this kink to it. It's always been there and seeing it reminds me of him every bit as much as a head shot. There is a lot going to in a shot like this. In a typical headshot there is a tendency to look at the eyes. It's instinctive and we do it all the time but it can be distracting. In a more abstract image the rules are different. You have to search for some meaning and in doing so tend to find some more interesting answers.

Border Terrier

     Here is another example. At home in the evening my dog generally sits on my lap. We both watch TV or I use my laptop and he has a snooze, whatever, the thing is that this is my view of him. I probably spend more time staring at the back of his head than I do at the front. I know every scruffy hair. This is therefore a very interesting area for me and certainly represents Baxter as well, if not better, than taking a picture of his face.

Border Terrier Fringe

    This abstract shot is of one of those modern breeds that once upon a time would have been called a cross but are now given full billing with their very own name. In this case Labradoodle. Naturally this is a blend of Poodle and Labrador. They seem to come in all shapes and sizes. This particular one has a strong poodle gene which means it has this amazing curly coat. It's almost exactly like the Astracan material my Grandmothers best jacket was made from. This is an example of a shot that relies as much on what is left out as what is included. Most of the frame is empty which kind of distils your focus and makes what little is included seem even more important. Well that's the idea anyway.

Labradoodle

Sphynx Cat

    Since i've just posted a hairless dog it seems reasonable to mention the hairless cat too. The Sphynx - baldest of all the cats. I hadn't photographed a cat before, never been particularly interested in them. After meeting these ones I did change my mind a wee bit. Not least because when they play fight with each other it sounds like an episode of Benny Hill. There is no fur to soften the blows so they jump in, dish out a volley of slaps, and jump to safety. Very entertaining.

Sphynx Cats

Sphynx Cats

Mexican Hairless ( Xoloitzcuintle )

   Think I might start posting a new breed every day. Or at least every week depending on time. Going to start with one of the more unusual breeds i've photographed - The Mexican Hairless or Xoloitzcuintle. 

Mexican Hairless

 I'd always thought these dogs were the same breed as Chinese Crested, which I'm sure must be considered very bad form amongst Mexican Hairless breeders. I'd wanted to photograph one for a while but you just don't see them. There are in fact only about 65 individual animals on the country. The ones featured here belonged to a woman who had seven. This must make her the leading expert on the breed, or at least the keenest. She was very reluctant to give me access to them at first. They had never been photographed by anyone and she was concerned I may want to make the images funny or ridicule them because of their appearance. Apparently Hoover had once contacted her to see if they could use them for in advert in which the powerful new cleaner would appear to have sucked off their fur. This is the last thing I wanted to do. I think they are beautiful animals and after spending a few hours with them I would go as far as say I wanted one. In fact the one pictured below could have gladly come home with me that day. It does look a little bit like Dobby the House Elf from Harry Potter but in a good way.

Mexican Hairless

Happy New Year

   The start of a new year and I just found this picture from High Voltage Festival. This is a now defunct musical gathering for people who still  like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. It seems like the perfect celebratory photo to start 2012. 

   The picture itself is of the fan club for a band called Black Label Society. I've seen tons of music photo's over the years and I've lost count of the number where someone is flipping the bird. It's a total rock and roll cliche and always leaves me cold. This one seems different. I think it must be the amount of people and the sheer joy they feel responding to the camera. I didn't ask them to react like this. They just got straight into character and gave me the sticks as one. There was no malice in any of them. If I remember rightly we were all screaming and laughing at the same time.

Black Label Society fans

    At the same festival I found these two characters. These guys are great. I was watching ZZ Top perform a blistering set when I had a look round to see what was going on behind me. There they were - loves young dream. I took about twenty shots and they never moved. I'd love to know what they were both thinking about. Safe to assume it wasn't ZZ Top.

Loves Young Dream

  

Fur, Flashes and the Judicious Use of Cheese

............ This is an excerpt from the Blurb on line publishing blog from the 20/12/11. 

Five Questions for a Pet Photographer

Spread from "Dogonomics" by Gerrard Gethings

Our new “Five Questions” series asks pro photographers to share some tips and tricks of their trade. Today we talk to Gerrard Gethings, professional portraitist and creator of Dogonomics, about the challenges of photographing dogs. Read the interview below, get his book, and then check out his site for more tips, pics, and behind-the-scenes photos.

Blurb: Let’s talk gear. What do you shoot with, and what’s your studio setup?

Gerrard: The gear I use is pretty much all Canon. A 5D MK11 and L series zoom lenses. I would ideally use fixed-focus glass but the animals move around too much and a good zoom gives me much more chance of capturing what I need. I always use flash in the studio and three lights is usually enough. I try to use as few as possible because they need to be very portable and with a few well-placed reflectors you can get the effect of many more.

Blurb: How do you approach capturing the personalities of your canine clientele?

Gerrard: Capturing the personalities of the animals is always the goal. They are all different so creating an environment within which you have total control of the light is the first thing. It needn’t be huge, maybe a few square feet. The owner should always be there to calm and control things. Putting up a backdrop is a good idea, as this will reduce distractions in the final image.

Image from dogtownstudio.co.uk

Next, you get down low; you should always be on the dog’s eye level. Get the dog’s attention and you’re away. It is also a good idea to have the dog in the room as you set up the equipment because bringing a dog in to a newly reorganised room can really confuse them. Oh and fire the flash randomly as you do this, so the dog gets used to it quite naturally.

Blurb: Do you bribe them with treats? Really, how do you get them to do what you want?

Gerrard: Getting the dog’s full attention is key. There are obvious traits that some breeds have which can be utilised. Terriers like things that squeak, sight dogs, such as whippets, will lock on to movement. This does require a certain understanding of dogs in general but, if in doubt, then “plan b” is to get out the treats. I have never met any breed that wouldn’t jump through hoops for a piece of cheese. Again, this is something that the owner can advise you on.

Blurb: How do you get good action dog shots?

Gerrard: There are many ways of representing action. You can use slow shutter speeds so that there is blur in the image. Running alongside the dog with a shutter of about 60th of a second (and very steady hands) can give you some great results – but it can be hit and miss. The other way is the complete opposite. Shutter speeds above 1,000th of a second will freeze every bit of action, but focussing can be a problem.

I set my camera to manual and as I am out walking I change the exposure constantly to fit the conditions. This way, when something happens you can shoot without thinking. The auto settings just aren’t quick enough. It’s also a good idea to zoom into the action, even cropping some of the action out. This gives the impression of quite explosive action which can’t be contained within the frame.

Image from dogtownstudio.co.uk

Blurb: How many shots do you generally take per pup?

Gerrard: This really depends on the situation. Generally, in the studio, I probably take a lot less than when I’m out and about. Maybe 150-200 in the studio because I’ve carefully set up the lighting so I know what’s going into the camera without having to check constantly. Outside, with constantly changing conditions, things are a bit more hit-and-miss so maybe this could be doubled.

Be sure to check out Gerrard’s book, Dogonomics, and read his blog for tips on photographing pets and people.

BY KENT   POSTED IN FIVE QUESTIONS   DECEMBER 19, 2011 – 11:13 AM

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The most fun you can have with a camera........ f1.4

     I recently went to a wedding in Croatia. It was a family wedding and a short trip, plus we were going Ryanair so luggage space was at a premium. In a situation like this there is only room for the bare essentials. A change of clothes, some clean knickers and a camera. Carrying flash guns and spare lenses isn't an option so the good old 50mm f1.4 comes to the rescue every time. This is one of the best selling lenses of all time and apart from the odd tweak has remained largely unaltered for decades. If I could only ever own one lens this would be it. In fact I know one photographer who only ever uses a canon 50mm. If you are feeling flush there is of course the f1.2 but at five times the price I've never really been able to justify it to myself. I am only talking Canon here by the way. Leica make some unbelievable 50mm lenses including the mighty f0.95 noctilux but at £7,000 it really is a luxury.

   So back to the wedding. Everyone has a little camera these days. At the very least an i-phone. It's always tempting to take the little compact camera for convenience but even the best of them are so limited in low light that I really don't think they are worth taking. I have a Leica D-Lux, a nice compact by any standards but compared to even the cheapest SLR with a fast prime lens it performs like a toy. The sensors in these things are too small to cope and the alternative is that tiny, nuclear flash which knocks the life out of everything it falls upon. It is well worth the extra weight and size to take a proper camera.

This guy just loved to dance

   The above shot is one of many I took of this chap throughout the wedding. I think he danced with every girl and always with a huge grin. The 50mm 1.4 allowed me to shoot hand held at 1/60, in low artificial light and still get sharp detail in the eyes even though he is moving about the floor like a Dervish.

Here he is again. On his last dance by the looks of things.

   The other great fun thing about these lenses is when you set the focus to manual, find your spot and just wait for stuff to unfold. The wardrobe malfunction below only lasted a second but because the camera was pre focused and exposure was set I managed to get the action. I was focusing on the guy to the blond girls right because he kept sneaking a look down her top and I thought it would make an amusing photograph if I could catch him. I got much more than I bargained for when the girls strap broke. Funnily enough when that happened the guy was looking at the stage, listening to the speeches and remained blissfully unaware.

Poodles...Thousands of em.....Don't shoot 'til you see the whites of their eyes

    In November I did a dog show called Discover Dogs at Earls Court. When I say did a dog show I mean I exhibited some of my work at the show in an attempt to drum up interest and hopefully get some commissions. The show was interesting and was also very successful. The clientele were fairly wide ranging. As well as the expected dog obsessed breeders and general dog nutters wearing sweatshirts with a picture of their dog on the front, were those like me, dog lovers who feel no particular desire to show their affections via the gift of fancy dress. Don't get me wrong, my own dog is no stranger to a pair of reindeer antlers at Christmas, but this is once a year and strictly for the holidays. So most of the punters were pretty normal and simply liked dogs.

Hanna and Ann trying to marshal the Poodles

    One of people I met at the show was a woman called Ann who lived just outside London and had 9 poodles and a puppy bulldog. Could we do a portrait of them she asked? In a word, yes. I did at first think it may be possible to get a group shot of all nine. Looking straight into the lens and throwing shapes on command. This was not the case. In fact one of them vomited and ran out of the room as soon as the first flash fired. The above image shows Hanna, who was assisting on the shoot and the dogs owner trying to convince them all to sit together on the sofa/studio set up we'd built in the conservatory. They had one squeaky toy between them which I think made the sound of an elephant, or was it a horse. Whatever it was the dogs were hilariously indifferent to it. Anyway, try as we might we could never get more than 7 of them together at once.

Seven Poodles

In the end we opted to shoot the dogs as single head shots and make something out of it later. The final  images have been used in my book and will be in the dog section of my web site in the not too distant future.It was hard to take a bad shot of any of these dogs. They had that lovely superior look that poodles do so well. We helped this by shooting from a very low angle and trying wherever possible to get eye contact. It was a really tricky and enjoyable shoot.

The first blog from Dogtown Studio

    This is page one of what I hope will be an interesting and informative look behind the scenes at Dogtown Studio. It will act as a diary, platform for discussion, message board and an utterly self indulgent vehicle for the exhibition of all those extra things that happen on a photo shoot but are never seen.

Baxter after a trim

    It is often the case that the best work remains hidden on a desktop or deep inside a hard drive where it will languish until such time that it is revisited. In the old days it was much more likely that you would come across the work again because it would actually exist as hard copy. Somewhere in a drawer or file. In order to access a specific piece of work it would be necessary to see at least some of the original contact sheet and therefore rediscover something interesting. Nowadays, with keywording and all manner of other sophisticated ways of accessing files it is entirely possible to completely forget that images exist. This blog will give that extra, less polished and often more interesting stuff a chance to be seen.

  It seems perfectly logical to open this blog up with a picture of my border terrier Baxter. He is the reason I started photographing animals in the first place. He is handsome, photogenic and incredibly patient. The wig in the above picture was made of his own hair after we stripped him and he sat like this for ages until we got the shot. I'm sure he will appear in future blogs in this site.