Well atleast that's the plan. We've been working away to try and launch a totally different approach to our shoots which aim to support clients through each step of the shoot and help us appeal to more potential clients through Winter 2008.
We're hoping to launch this October 1st, but there's a million things that could go wrong so that's not an official date. Everythings gone abit quiet on the blogs as I haven't had any time to sit down and write this and I can't see it getting any better, our schedule is packed for a while now with shoots or other hard graft.
Worked on possibly the biggest team shoot ever the other day at the agency, the team included,
Photographer, 3 models, film crew, agency manager and assistant manager, make up, hair, location manager, assistant, and a few "extras" models to assist the main models. It was a crazy day but we seemed to manage and the location was fantastic. We even got a bit lucky and we were allowed to shoot in a sweet shop. Although - it could have been better if I knew we were going in there as the lighting sucked, but still - great shots all the same.
Anyway, I've started using "Twitter" which is far easier than writing lengthy blogs every time something happens, feel free to take a look - www.twitter.com/chrisbarbermedi (Yes, without the "a")(?) It's alot easier for me as I don't always have access to the internet when im out on a shoot but I can still update it from my phone so keep an eye out there.
Look forward to unvieling our new system very soon!
Chris
Tuesday 23 September 2008
Tuesday 16 September 2008
Artfest Incident
Just a quick update following my promise to contact The Levellers concerning the way I was spoke to whilst photographic their gig on Sunday. It seems alot of you are interested in what the heck is happening/happened.
I've been in touch with a few of the photographers who happened to be nearby at the time and helped me to understand the situation far better than I did at first.
Just to briefly overview what happened, I was taking pictures on stage left when one of the technical crew chose to start shouting all sorts of obscenities at me (I couldn't understand a most of what he said, just the odd word. His gestures and the odd words I heard suggested that he wasn't in the best of moods).
So I speak to a few of the other guys who were around the time, and (although I'm unsure how) I seem to think I may have stood infront of him whilst he was pressing buttons and twiddling his knobs and what not.
It all happened VERY quickly - we're talking in a 10 second time frame. I remember him waving his arms around and some freaky veins popping out his throat the moment I turned around. I immediately reacted to what I believed to be "Can you please just step aside" (Add unessential expletives) and continued shooting with another photographer towards the front end of the stage, about three metres from the techi's "cove".
So following this, and the opinions from other photographers who saw what happened, I understand that I was in the way of the techi (in some shape or form), so therefore, I raise my hands and apologize for that (just like I said and did at the gig when he rudely waved and whistled me away).
However, this was in no way reason for him to act and speak to me the way he did, the sheer unprofessional-ism and almost laughable approach to those who publicize and review everything he and the band work for.
This unprofessional-ism was not denied when I later wrote to The Levellers record label, OFT Recordings, who replied,
"Hi Chris,
Sorry to hear about this. Usually, we hear only positive things about the crew.
I have passed on your message to the tour manager and agent."
As much I really just wanna let this go now, I look forward to their response.
I've been in touch with a few of the photographers who happened to be nearby at the time and helped me to understand the situation far better than I did at first.
Just to briefly overview what happened, I was taking pictures on stage left when one of the technical crew chose to start shouting all sorts of obscenities at me (I couldn't understand a most of what he said, just the odd word. His gestures and the odd words I heard suggested that he wasn't in the best of moods).
So I speak to a few of the other guys who were around the time, and (although I'm unsure how) I seem to think I may have stood infront of him whilst he was pressing buttons and twiddling his knobs and what not.
It all happened VERY quickly - we're talking in a 10 second time frame. I remember him waving his arms around and some freaky veins popping out his throat the moment I turned around. I immediately reacted to what I believed to be "Can you please just step aside" (Add unessential expletives) and continued shooting with another photographer towards the front end of the stage, about three metres from the techi's "cove".
So following this, and the opinions from other photographers who saw what happened, I understand that I was in the way of the techi (in some shape or form), so therefore, I raise my hands and apologize for that (just like I said and did at the gig when he rudely waved and whistled me away).
However, this was in no way reason for him to act and speak to me the way he did, the sheer unprofessional-ism and almost laughable approach to those who publicize and review everything he and the band work for.
This unprofessional-ism was not denied when I later wrote to The Levellers record label, OFT Recordings, who replied,
"Hi Chris,
Sorry to hear about this. Usually, we hear only positive things about the crew.
I have passed on your message to the tour manager and agent."
As much I really just wanna let this go now, I look forward to their response.
Monday 15 September 2008
Artsfest 08 Rant...
I found myself at the mainstage photo pit at Artsfest this Sunday, looking forward to an evening of live music entertainment. This is by no means a review or overview of the event but instead a few thoughts based on last night.
I'd like to start by saying a massive thank you to the great crowd who were all very up for it and most of the bands who put on a great show.
However, why on earth was half the crowd in the photo pit? Whoever was in charge of designating photo passes on Sunday has alot to answer for. The pit was filled with people who really shouldn't have been there, making my job (and other photographers who were working for local press) extremely difficult.
I constantly found myself having to work around 15 year olds holding their mobile phones in the way of each shot. Most "photographers" I spoke to were not there on behalf of a magazine or press. For this I blame a Flickr group that sent in atleast 20 "photographers" to shoot the event, with no intention of the photos being used for press. Surely, the pit could and should have been reserved for photographers whos photos will be used commercially to promote the event. At times, I was tempted to just leave the pit and shoot from the crowd as I would have had more room to move.
The proof is in the pudding - I walked straight up to security and asked where and if I can get a photo pass, within 5 minutes I had full access backstage to the whole event with no evidence of working for local press, hence why there was SO many amateur photographers in the pit, and, even worse... people who just got in there to watch! I saw one girl just leaning up against the stage with no sense or purpose. I spoke to a handful of the headlining bands after their sets, and every band seemed frustrated and frankly pissed off with the sheer amount of photographers. I quote one band saying "It's like being at a f***ing Canon convention" - I'm sorry but in future, please allow the photographers who ARE there to shoot for local press and magazines to be prioritised over amateur photographers.
Second part of this rant is to The Levellers, or more so - your ignorant and rude technical crew on stage. Throughout the day, the photographers had been allowed on stage to shoot the band. This obviously goes back to my previous rant about photographers access and who security and admin had been allowing into the photo pit. During The Levellers set, I, along with every other photographer that night, spent two minutes getting a few shots from behind the band looking over the crowd. I was stood on the very far left hand side of the stage, far away from any action and creating absolutely no disturbance to The Levellers performance, when I was greeted by the grunting technical total twat who introduced himself with "OI F***ING S**T, F*** OFF". Hit by the sheer rudeness, I moved straight of his way and continued to shoot, along with two other photographers who were on stage at the time (Nothing was said to them). Out of his way, he then whistled and told me to leave the stage. I'd like to add that I was IN NO WAY disrupting or disturbing him or The Levellers from their performance and I was a good 3 metres from him when this happened. As a polite, respectful person, I left the stage at his command and even apologised for any inconvenience. At this point he shrugged me away and threw his hand in a "Just leave" gesture.
Never have I had to put up with such total rudeness from someone who was clearly just having a bad night. 20 minutes later I was back down at the pit and I could still see him shaking his head in disapproval of something else.
So, thanks to you, The Levellers set was totally hindered. In future, I'd like you to remember that some of the photographers that night were there to review you and actually publicise and promote the band you work for. Thankfully, The Levellers put on an entertaining show, as I said, this isn't a review, just an opinion on a poorly operated (from a press point of view) and ignorant technical crew that work with the Levellers.
I look forward to reviewing this, I'll make sure the technical crew get a copy.
Fool.
I'd like to start by saying a massive thank you to the great crowd who were all very up for it and most of the bands who put on a great show.
However, why on earth was half the crowd in the photo pit? Whoever was in charge of designating photo passes on Sunday has alot to answer for. The pit was filled with people who really shouldn't have been there, making my job (and other photographers who were working for local press) extremely difficult.
I constantly found myself having to work around 15 year olds holding their mobile phones in the way of each shot. Most "photographers" I spoke to were not there on behalf of a magazine or press. For this I blame a Flickr group that sent in atleast 20 "photographers" to shoot the event, with no intention of the photos being used for press. Surely, the pit could and should have been reserved for photographers whos photos will be used commercially to promote the event. At times, I was tempted to just leave the pit and shoot from the crowd as I would have had more room to move.
The proof is in the pudding - I walked straight up to security and asked where and if I can get a photo pass, within 5 minutes I had full access backstage to the whole event with no evidence of working for local press, hence why there was SO many amateur photographers in the pit, and, even worse... people who just got in there to watch! I saw one girl just leaning up against the stage with no sense or purpose. I spoke to a handful of the headlining bands after their sets, and every band seemed frustrated and frankly pissed off with the sheer amount of photographers. I quote one band saying "It's like being at a f***ing Canon convention" - I'm sorry but in future, please allow the photographers who ARE there to shoot for local press and magazines to be prioritised over amateur photographers.
Second part of this rant is to The Levellers, or more so - your ignorant and rude technical crew on stage. Throughout the day, the photographers had been allowed on stage to shoot the band. This obviously goes back to my previous rant about photographers access and who security and admin had been allowing into the photo pit. During The Levellers set, I, along with every other photographer that night, spent two minutes getting a few shots from behind the band looking over the crowd. I was stood on the very far left hand side of the stage, far away from any action and creating absolutely no disturbance to The Levellers performance, when I was greeted by the grunting technical total twat who introduced himself with "OI F***ING S**T, F*** OFF". Hit by the sheer rudeness, I moved straight of his way and continued to shoot, along with two other photographers who were on stage at the time (Nothing was said to them). Out of his way, he then whistled and told me to leave the stage. I'd like to add that I was IN NO WAY disrupting or disturbing him or The Levellers from their performance and I was a good 3 metres from him when this happened. As a polite, respectful person, I left the stage at his command and even apologised for any inconvenience. At this point he shrugged me away and threw his hand in a "Just leave" gesture.
Never have I had to put up with such total rudeness from someone who was clearly just having a bad night. 20 minutes later I was back down at the pit and I could still see him shaking his head in disapproval of something else.
So, thanks to you, The Levellers set was totally hindered. In future, I'd like you to remember that some of the photographers that night were there to review you and actually publicise and promote the band you work for. Thankfully, The Levellers put on an entertaining show, as I said, this isn't a review, just an opinion on a poorly operated (from a press point of view) and ignorant technical crew that work with the Levellers.
I look forward to reviewing this, I'll make sure the technical crew get a copy.
Fool.
Tuesday 9 September 2008
Shooting The Prime Minister.
My day was totally turned upside down yesterday. I was scheduled for a portfolio shoot at 10:30am at the agency. I was almost there and in the space of 10 minutes my commute went from boring to super exciting as I found myself face to face with Gordon Brown.
10 minutes is a total exaggeration, I waited amongst the other paps for over an hour or so before the PM arrived. I got a great spot after fighting my way through the other photographers. There was atleast twice the amount of armed police as there was people who came to see what was happening, even the press didn't seem to excited when the PM arrived. I always thought it was a joke when they say that security talk into there watches, but it appears to be true...
Prior to his arrival, I got a few shots of the ICC, and just spent some time zoomed in and scanning around the building when I noticed two guys standing on the roof looking straight at me with a telescope....and a sniper (Y) - At that point I thought I should just start minding my own business lol. So after getting in the way of Jacqui Smith (Home Secretary) and throwing my lens in other politicians faces, Gordon Brown arrived, about 2 hours of waiting came down to about 6 seconds of him leaving the car and going inside. Enjoyed every second of it though, was good fun.
10 minutes is a total exaggeration, I waited amongst the other paps for over an hour or so before the PM arrived. I got a great spot after fighting my way through the other photographers. There was atleast twice the amount of armed police as there was people who came to see what was happening, even the press didn't seem to excited when the PM arrived. I always thought it was a joke when they say that security talk into there watches, but it appears to be true...
Saturday 6 September 2008
Rain...
Can I just say...
The floods and closed roads out of my town are not putting me in good spirits for tomorrows calendar shoots.
Lets all put our faith in miracles. Again.
The floods and closed roads out of my town are not putting me in good spirits for tomorrows calendar shoots.
Lets all put our faith in miracles. Again.
Friday 5 September 2008
Home from Wales
Wales is an amazing place filled with rolling hills for miles, breath-taking waterfalls and sheep. I was lucky enough to take a break from work to go and spend this week there with my partner and her mum and dad.
The first night saw an amazing sunset which was a short walk from our caravan (down a huge hill ofcourse). As soon as we unpacked, we were down there making the most of any sunshine as Wales is not famous for it's Mediterranean climate and never will be.
I took a few cheesey shots of Dani and a few of her parents for the wall. For the first time in ages, I've been able to almost disconnect myself from work and relax abit, even whilst receiving texts from the occasional person "I WANT TO BOOK A SHOOT" (repeat x1090827) - all of which have been ignored untill I have just sat down at my desk.
We woke up on the first day and took a walk to nearby town, New Quay, not NewQuay.
This place is your typical sea side town with a lovely little harbour, colourful houses and lots of seaside souvenir/food shops, oh and ofcourse, atleast a 100 chip shops. But! Anyone who knows me will know I'm quite proud of where I've grown up etc and the entire chip shop gave me the funniest look when I started pointing at the salt and vinegar bottles, getting all excited like a child that can't hold their bladder. "Dani Dani Dani!!!" I shouted whilst trying to speak to her with a hot chip and a fork in my mouth. I noticed that "Halesowen" (my home town) is actually a supplier and manaufacturer of the Salt and vinegar bottles you get in Chip Shops! Seeing "Halesowen" on anything in such a little town in Wales was great, I shared the story with the guy that served us but he just gave a pittyful smile and carried on serving the freaked out customers next to us. I even took a photo (You can't see it's halesowen - you'll just have to believe me on that one)
On an unrelated note.. here's my special lady doing her impression of a shark. I was impressed.
Second full day, the rain started, only a drizzle, so we took a journey up the single most windiest, single laned, most narrow road in Wales and possible the world. It's bad news when your going up a road with decent size plants growing out of the middle of it. Well done SatNav.
Anyway we ended up at a Honey Farm, which was nice because we got to look at lots of bees...and stuff like that. I make it sound dead naff, but it was dead interesting and fairly busy considering it was set in the middle of nowhere. As the day went by, the weather got worse as we parked up at some town (I couldn't spell or pronounce the name - It was something like.... Abrywlvn haha no it wasn't really, I just know it started with "Ab" like every Welsh town).
We got out the car and walked to the end of the road, we both got soaked within 5 minutes of leaving the car and decided it was probably best to retreat to the caravan.
After pestering Dani like a child I got my own way and we went to the amusements. Where I spent my years wages on fruit machines (winning nothing) and 20p on a grabber machine (Which I won a strange duck/teddy thing for Dani. It wears sunglasses and looks like a spy?) I think that evening we also went "Crabbing" which actually invovles catching shrimp?? Eitherway, I filled the bucket with lots of crabs which sort of attacked the few shrimp Dani caught, but they were all eventually set free in a merry little rock pool near the sea :)
On the last day (I've totally got all these days mixed up so far I think, oops lol), we took a drive to a town I virtually grew up with as a child, with regular family holidays to Tenby atleast 3 -4 times a year, you'd think I'd be sick of the place. But no - I dragged Dani along (for the second time) as we drove about an hour and a half in the rain to go and have a walk round the town. As soon as we stepped into the town - the sun came out! However, the town seemed alot bigger when I was little and it didnt really take us too long to get round there, as lovely as the place is, it hasn't changed much, but that still gave us a good excuse to buy some chips and sit by the sea. If you've never been to Tenby - go there - it's a nice little place.
The first night saw an amazing sunset which was a short walk from our caravan (down a huge hill ofcourse). As soon as we unpacked, we were down there making the most of any sunshine as Wales is not famous for it's Mediterranean climate and never will be.
I took a few cheesey shots of Dani and a few of her parents for the wall. For the first time in ages, I've been able to almost disconnect myself from work and relax abit, even whilst receiving texts from the occasional person "I WANT TO BOOK A SHOOT" (repeat x1090827) - all of which have been ignored untill I have just sat down at my desk.
We woke up on the first day and took a walk to nearby town, New Quay, not NewQuay.
On an unrelated note.. here's my special lady doing her impression of a shark. I was impressed.
Second full day, the rain started, only a drizzle, so we took a journey up the single most windiest, single laned, most narrow road in Wales and possible the world. It's bad news when your going up a road with decent size plants growing out of the middle of it. Well done SatNav.Anyway we ended up at a Honey Farm, which was nice because we got to look at lots of bees...and stuff like that. I make it sound dead naff, but it was dead interesting and fairly busy considering it was set in the middle of nowhere. As the day went by, the weather got worse as we parked up at some town (I couldn't spell or pronounce the name - It was something like.... Abrywlvn haha no it wasn't really, I just know it started with "Ab" like every Welsh town).
We got out the car and walked to the end of the road, we both got soaked within 5 minutes of leaving the car and decided it was probably best to retreat to the caravan.
After pestering Dani like a child I got my own way and we went to the amusements. Where I spent my years wages on fruit machines (winning nothing) and 20p on a grabber machine (Which I won a strange duck/teddy thing for Dani. It wears sunglasses and looks like a spy?) I think that evening we also went "Crabbing" which actually invovles catching shrimp?? Eitherway, I filled the bucket with lots of crabs which sort of attacked the few shrimp Dani caught, but they were all eventually set free in a merry little rock pool near the sea :)
On the last day (I've totally got all these days mixed up so far I think, oops lol), we took a drive to a town I virtually grew up with as a child, with regular family holidays to Tenby atleast 3 -4 times a year, you'd think I'd be sick of the place. But no - I dragged Dani along (for the second time) as we drove about an hour and a half in the rain to go and have a walk round the town. As soon as we stepped into the town - the sun came out! However, the town seemed alot bigger when I was little and it didnt really take us too long to get round there, as lovely as the place is, it hasn't changed much, but that still gave us a good excuse to buy some chips and sit by the sea. If you've never been to Tenby - go there - it's a nice little place.
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