Puttin’ on the Brits
Enough with all that serious news, it’s back to the red carpet and the London weather for me! Tonight, I covered the arrivals at the Brit awards for my fourth consecutive year, I seem to remember. Always the photographer, never the winner. Tch! You’d think those judges would want to at least give me a lifetime honour for my contributions to Northern prog rock/dance music! No taste, I tells ya.. With stepladders over my shoulder and press card in hand ready for the lotto draw to decide our positions in the photographers pen, I headed out for my first shoot since returning from Israel.
Every year, AFP tries to get inside to shoot the show but every time our application is blocked. The only real reason I can see for the PR company doing this is a lack of understanding about the size of AFP as the pictures from tonight will be used worldwide. Baffling.
Anyhow, the draw took place and I was glad I lugged my 63 rung stepladder across London as fate decided to place me at the back. If you have the pleasure of browsing the celebrity magazines, you’ll see that the main pictures that sell (aside from exclusive backstage stuff, usually shot by a photographer for whichever agency paid the most) are the straight shots. As long as the picture has eye-line (eye contact) and is either a full length for women or a head-shot for chaps, you’ve got the shot. As you can see from tonight. Being third row and on top of a huge stepladder doesn’t always go hand in hand with eye-line.
Resigning myself to my situation, I shot pretty much all of the arrivals using the “catchflash” technique that I’ve talked about in previous blogs. As you can imagine, this is a hit and miss affair, relying on catching the moment that the other photographers fire their flashguns to provide the light for my image.
The results can create pictures that I think are usually far more interesting. Unfortunately, what I find interesting and what the papers will publish aren’t always the same as tomorrows tabloids will be overflowing with shots from the guys on the front row who got the eye and the full length. Ah well.
The problems connected with working on top of stepladders are that firstly, you can’t edit and send your pictures very easily and secondly, you’re perched on a small area while trying to juggle your camera bodies and lenses. Tonight, I was working with fellow catchflash devotee Ian Gavan and we both ended up on the magic combo of 300mm f2.8 for the headshots and 24-70mm f2.8 for the wides and full-lengths.
So that’s the Brits over for another year with no particular highlights but thankfully no rain to welcome me back into the fold. Small blessings..
love the pictures! x
lovely as always x
Gosh – they are reat shots -the close upof Kylie is amazing well done xxx
Cheers, peeps!
Lovely work, my liege, but since AfP is associated with Getty, you don’t have my sympathy with regards ‘blocked application’.
Remember the palaver that was the World Music awards at Earls Court 2 years ago? 
If we actually were associated, they wouldn’t have minded me heading inside with them yesterday but for some reason the offer wasn’t made..
As for the WMAs, don’t remind me..
G’day buddy.
Must be quite a contrast dodging tear gas canisters one week to red carpet events the next. Suppose the training came in handy.
It is easy to forget that what you do is “art”. What the paps do on the front row is chip paper!
Patrick, you may hurt a few entertainment snappers with that kind of comment and word “pap” next time I am covering the red carpet I will hope that I get third row so that I am not in the category of pap but then lose out on the photo’s that make me the money so I can carry on in this industry. Would like to know what the likes of Getty, reuters, AP and the others at AFP would say when they get front row and get pegged as a paparazzi tog, as I don’t remember ever hanging out side night clubs at 3 am but I do remember being in the first row of a prem.
I must agree with Will, as I’m experiencing similar contrasts. Emotionally it can be quite draining. Leon, these shots are great as always. Excellent moments captured, amazing clarity, and stunning colours.
You tried a tilt shift from the top of a ladder?
…or is that just a wee bit daft?
Not a daft idea but not my technique, I’m afraid! Just f2.8 in action..
Well made it to Feb 09! Great shots….love the ‘catchflash’ technique gives a really interesting result…will look forward to seeing more over the next 2.5 years!!!
Just out of interest…as your working at these events under the banner of afp…do all the images you take become their property..and thereby there copyright? Or is it that only the images you push through to them become official afp property?
Good man! You weren’t kidding when you said you were going through the whole thing! I salute you. It’s good to know that pretty soon, the pictures will get all supersized from when I upgraded the blog to include a larger image size.
As for the pics, I’ve never pored over the small print but I think it’s safe to say that if I shoot a job on their equipment in a location that I wouldn’t get access to without their help, I think the rights lay with them. It’s never been too much of a problem as they’re very supportive with what I do and I’ll often receive feedback through the system on blogs that I write etc.
Enjoy the rest of 2009! (I feel like a photographic Marty McFly…)