While the story of the shoot and how it came about is well documented in the Nikon Owner Magazine article on the subject, the behind the scenes of what was involved in the production and execution of this shoot might be interesting to some.

Firstly, there’s the video put together by Mark at Nikon Owner:

But behind all this seemingly well executed shoot, there’s a ton of preparation that was surprisingly complex.

From the beginning, shooting portraiture with a 13mm lens was going to be difficult. I had been approached about by Nikon Owner but didn’t have an idea of how to make it work. It wasn’t till I was introduced to Pete Reed over twitter that the idea of using rowing to show off the 13mm’s capabilities. When I first spoke to Pete, he had the idea of shooting something at the Leander Club in Henley.

The idea then turned into ‘what about if I get into the rowing boat with you’. Pete just laughed and said ‘sure, if you want to end up in the Thames’. I showed my lack of knowledge about rowing. When the day came, Pete, a world class rower, had trouble keeping his balance in the rowing boat. Add fidgety Felix to the mix and you’ve got not only a wet and cold subject and photographer but also $35,000 of equipment at the bottom of the Thames. The idea was nixed.

It turns out (and Pete didn’t complain about this once), that asking someone who’s a world class athlete in the Coxless Four (composed of 4 rowers in a single boat) to row a sculling boat (single) is like asking Bradley Wiggins to ride a unicycle. It makes sense in your head but when you try it results are very different.

I will always remember the delicate movements that Pete was making to stay balanced. It’s intimidating to see a 6′ 6″ man struggling to balance.

Add to this the freezing cold, the fast flowing river (it had been raining a lot and days later the Thames burst it’s banks), it was a challenging day.

For weeks I had the idea/hope of lots of fog. We knew Henley had a very picturesque bridge and I had gone with my assistant to scout the area. What I didn’t think with was that you couldn’t really row a sculling boat under the bridge. With the river flowing so fast even 500 yards from the bridge, you can forget getting in under it.

It would have been perfect to get a really wide shot of Pete in the scull, under the bridge with the morning mist rising off the Thames.

I didn’t want to depend on the weather and had researched extensively how we could create mist artificially. Dry ice, fog machines and dust were fast dismissed as folly. The complex dynamics of shooting on moving water made it a physical impossibility. But I did get to mess around with some dry ice.

In the end I opted to shoot a couple of shots using regular lenses and a studio setup in the library at the Leander Club (which, by the way has the largest collection of books relating to rowing on planet earth).

I used my new giant Lastolite umbrella and their Skylite system quite extensively for the non-water segments of the shoot and it was the first time I got the chance to really test them. They, along with my profoto lights, photek softlighter and a couple of reflectors and backdrop, made the whole shoot work.

My general experiences of shooting with the lens are summed up in the article linked above, but I’d add that everything turned out completely different from how I had imagined it. And the biggest difference of all was that we didn’t expect to get the cover. But I suppose you should always shoot a cover too, just in case!

Presenting Pete Reed with his cover at the iconic London camera shop ‘Grays of Westminster’ with Nikon Owner Magazine Editor Gray Levett

All behind the scenes photographs by Rob Senior

notice Leander’s distinctive ‘Pink Hippo’

trying to balance on an icy platform going down the river while avoiding toppling Pete into the water and shooting at the same time – challenging

This is as close as we were able to get to the bridge without being overwhelmed by the current.

This is when we were shooting the cover. You can still see the frost and notice my jacket is wet from lying on the floor to shoot Pete

Mark Gibson on video, Krishan (stylist) and Sam (Hair/Make-up)

I was so close to Pete, we’re both sitting in a tiny row boat

Shooting Pete shooting me

Experimentations with dry ice at www.green-gases.com

I was reviewing some of my own work in 2012 and I think it somehow tells the story of that evolution. I’ll do it reverse, broken up by season in no particular order.

This snippet of my work in 2012 can be augmented by looking at the rest of my website and my FB page which tells the story more completely. Each image is a part of a series and there’s a larger story for most of these.

If you want to see more, go to my 2012 album on my FB page

Winter: 

Assamese artist Bula Barua, Clearwater Beach, Florida

Marlene of Marlene Rose Glass and her family in their studio/warehouse, Clearwater, Florida

From Family Session with Juhl Family, Clearwater Beach, Florida

Designers Craig and Yul Taylor in their studio in Clearwater, Florida

From family shoot with the Anderson family on Clearwater Beach, Florida

Anderson Family Portrait – Clearwater Beach, Florida

Concept Holiday Card for the Kugler Family, Oldsmar, Florida

Atelier Bogelund-Jensen Campaign, shot in Copenhagen, Denmark

more here

Autumn:

Catherine Kubillus recording a special session at the Ashdown Park Hotel Chapel, West Sussex, UK

more here

Nikon Owner’s Uri Zakay at the Institute of Directors, London

British TV presenter Diana Stewart-Dougherty at her home, Windsor, UK

Summer:

Photographer Lara Jade, Forest Row, East Sussex

London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Volunteers, on the streets of London and inside the London 2012 Olympic Park, UK

LOTS more here

Jamaica House attendees, celebrating 50 years of Jamaican Independence watching Usain Bolt win Gold at the O2, London – shot on assignment for McCluskey international

More here

The London 2012 Olympic Stadium at the Olympic Park, London

prints of these available here

Revellers at Roskilde Music Festival, Roskilde, Denmark

more here

Crowd atmosphere at Roskilde Music Festival, Roskilde, Denmark

more here

Nadja Swarovski for the cover of Austria’s ‘Trend’ Magazine, London, UK

 Nadja with some of UK’s top designers to commemorate the opening of Swarovski’s project at the London Design Museum, Corinthian Hotel, London

Entrepeneur Queny Villanueva, her farm, upstate New York

Spring:

Julie Ferguson, at home in Clearwater, Florida

Cover of Masters of Aesthetics Magazine – Celebrity Plastic Surgeon Dr. Garth Fisher, Celebrity Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Kourosh Maddahi, Lasik Surgery pioneer Dr. Robert Maloney & Style make-over specialist Eve Michaels

Beverly Hills, California

More here

Grey Levett, Institute of Directors, London

more here

Austrian Singer/Songwriter Gini Ernst – West Sussex, UK

Signing autographs (!) during my tour of Taiwan for Human Rights charity Youth for Human Rights with US singer/songwriter Dustin McGahee

Kaichung, Taiwan

Spring Scream Music Festival in the forest on the south tip of Taiwan

Kenting, Taiwan

Spring Scream Music Festival in the forest on the south tip of Taiwan

Kenting, Taiwan

‘Merge’ – a series of images created in collaboration with Austrian Artist Andreja Ernst exhibited at ArtRoom, Vienna, Austria

more here

New York Fashion Week AW13 for Wireimage/Getty Images

more here

 Amy Harnell in a sitting with Tony Harnell, Brooklyn, New York

more here

Entrepreneur Jim Mathers, Belleair, Florida

Shana Sandell – Clearwater Beach, Florida

Musician Chandler Mogel, Brooklyn, New York

Painter Laura Feeley, Half Moon Bay, California

 TV & Radio Personality Kerri Kasem at the LA Equestrian Centre, Burbank, California

more here

TV & Radio Personality Kerri Kasem at Nikki Sixx’s Funny Farm Studio, Thousand Oaks, California

more here

Barbara S, fashion test for Craig Taylor, Clearwater Beach, Florida

Kugler Family portrait on 1 Jan 2012, Palm Harbor, Florida

That’s it, a simple photographic review of 2012

For more:

Facebook - this actually contains most of my images

Dont forget to sign up to my newsletter

The story of the disappointment that lead to 650 magnificent portraits.

My London 2012 Volunteers project has become a microcosm of the Olympic experience. It has been garnering all sorts of attention online and has turned into a place for volunteers to connect. Messages like ‘Hey, we met on the train, I want to stay in touch’ are the kind of interaction I had hoped for.

The project has captured the imagination. It is remind people of the pride, hard work and enthusiastic collaboration that led to the games being dubbed ‘The Volunteer Games’. You need only look at the comments on the album and the photos on facebook: www.bit.ly/London2012Volunteers

Photographically, the project resulted from me solving something fairly negative:

I had turned down various assignments to block out my schedule to be in London during these games. I’ve followed the Olympics with growing enthusiasm since the Barcelona games in ’92. When London won the bid, I couldn’t believe it. 7 years of build up, 5 weeks of intense action and I still can’t believe the games were in my home city. The idea of it still makes me emotional.

When I cleared my schedule at the behest of my assignment editors at Getty Images, I was excited to be involved in some official way. I envisioned shoots for the sponsors, events with the athletes, even things only vaguely related to the Olympics. As I’m not a sports shooter, I wasn’t going to be covering any of the main events at the venues; I knew accreditations were tight. What I wasn’t prepared for was the absolute dearth of  assignments. Getty had the same experience as the shops and restaurants of central London. Lots of buzz, but no visitors. Lots of buzz, but no assignments. It was heart-breaking, devastating, depressing even. Add to that the fact that I didn’t get any of the tickets I had applied for, I was in a storm of regret and disappointment. The fear of missing out.

Then a bout of inspiration changed it all. I managed to get tickets for the Women’s Volleyball at Earls Court at the last minute. It was great to watch the game, but what was even greater was the Games Makers who welcomed us with smiles, helped in every way, shared our dismay at not being able to get more tickets. To me they are the stars of the games. I know lots of people felt the same.

On my morning run the day after Earls Court, the idea came to me to do memento portraits of the volunteers. I wanted them to have something they could take away from the games, something they would be able to savour in 10, 20 or 30 years.

Asking the volunteers to be involved in the project

I knew from the outset that I wanted to take them out of the venues they were working in. I wanted to give equal billing to those stationed directing people over a bridge to those driving the top dignitaries. Lots of people were taking pictures of volunteers, I wanted to do something different.

A couple of challenges came to mind right away:

- I couldn’t spend much time with each volunteer. Their job is to make the Olympics run smoothly, not to be photographed.
- We needed a portable setup that had no permanence, lest we fall foul of local laws regarding business on sidewalks. We also didn’t have accreditation. We had to find a place away from the venues that was swarming with volunteers.
- We solved all of this by using a setup comprised of some black foamboard, 1 simple light. We used a fairly standard ‘strobe-over-daylight’ method to balance the natural and artificial light and I needed a minimum of three assistants every day to make it work. One for the backdrop, one for the light and one to get each person’s details and have them sign a release form on my iPad.

Our very rudimentary street portrait setup

For the Olympics I photographed over 300 portraits.

We heard some amazing stories. The kind of stories that made me foam at the mouth with jealousy - A lot of the Game Makers I photographed were drivers, some drove the North Koreans, some drove family members. Not all of them had ‘All’ passes, but the ones that did were telling me stories of watching the athletics within reach of the Cauldron while their clients attend the stadium, many of them met athletes, many of them met dignitaries, many of them struck up amazing friendships. Many had come from afar, put a lot on the line to make the games work. It’s been inspiring.

The Paralympics:

After the Olympics I went and spent a couple of days in the sun. On the Eurostar to Paris, I received a phone call from Mr Matt Hatt who was working for the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) who asked if I could photograph the volunteer wrap party. I couldn’t but Matthew Richards, one of my volunteer assistants, jumped in.

Mr Hatt then asked if I wanted to come into the Olympic Park during the Paralympics. We agreed that Matthew Richards should be my assistant, having slaved away at the wrap party. We arranged accreditation and we spent close to a week in the Olympic Park during the Paralympics. We shot 350 more portraits. This time with support in the form of a Lastolite mobile backdrop which was a godsend, it made my setup mobile and easy to use. I was able to put all the equipment down at the Fleet Depot inside the park, no need for 3 assistants.

We snuck into the Arcelor Mittal Orbit and watched the women’s 100m final from the viewing platform. We cruised around the park on BMWs über-cool electric bicycles, got so close to the action that we were bombarded by fireworks shrapnel but had the most incredible vista views of the final night’s celebration. We even got driven home by a Games Maker in an official vehicle – Games Lanes and a behind the scenes car tour of the park.

On a personal level, the project couldn’t have worked out better for me. I have trouble finding the words to sum up my experience. The Olympic Games are the greatest show on earth. I was a part of it. I did portraiture, I did what I loved. It means so much, it made my year. I did it for free, I didn’t make a dime, I turned down paid work. It was worth it.

The view into the Olympic Stadium from the Orbit

Feedback:

The project was picked up by The Guardian and was mentioned on twitter by Olympians Mark Foster and Greg Rutherford.

A stunning portfolio of  portraits in which he sought to illustrate the spirit of the men and women he calls “heroes of London 2012.”

Roy Greenslade – The Guardian

“Thank you for taking photos of us. As an avid amateur Photog myself, I was impressed with the fervour, enthusiasm, and professionalism you showed during your shoot at Fleet Depot Olympic Park. My only regret is that I hadn’t met you earlier during my many incredulous and fascinating experiences throughout the Olympics and then the Paralympics. I would have happily swapped “roles” with you for one day to be behind the camera.

 I was in awe of your story about how you came to be photographing some of us. Your drive, dogged determination and initiative is probably only surpassed by some of the amazing and world beating athletes that I happened either to drive from one venue to another or have lunch with in the Olympic Village. Yes, I was one of those who had the absolute privilege of an ALL Pass.

 We all contributed in our own unique way to make London 2012. 

Please don’t ever underestimate your role in this.”

L.M. – Games Maker

What a cool idea to show support and appreciation for the great volunteers like this. And to let the folks use the great photo you took of them for free as well? Very nice one, Felix!

S.K – Facebook

Thanks so much for these Felix, they are great and really captured a great time!!’

L.P. – Games Maker

Thank you Felix, for taking the time to contribute to the greatest show on Earth for at London 2012.

R.S. – Games Maker

What a memory! Unbelievable experience and now great photos too!

C.N. – Games Maker

Thank you again Felix for a great memento of my small part in London 2012.

B.W. – Games Maker

Games Maker facts:

- More than 240,000 applicants, of which only 70,000 became Game Makers after an interview process and training
- Over 2000 16-18 year olds were game makers during these games.
- Uniforms for the team of Game Makers, staff, officials and contracts required 765.92 miles of fabric, 359.37 miles of thread, 730,610 buttons and 1,069,034 zips. That’s a lot of stitching!
- Most applied over 2 years before the start of the Olympics
- McDonalds is the official partner for the Game Maker program and used their infrastructure to help attract, select and train the volunteers
- They delivered around 8 million volunteer hours to make the games run smoothly

A special thank you has to go out to my assistants – they were the guys that held backdrops, lights, iPads and kept a cheerful face on what ended up being very long, exhausting shoot days. They all volunteered their time:

Special thanks to Matt Hatt and my first assistant Matt Richards as well as all of the assistants as well as Lastolite UK for providing the backdrop for the Paralympics.

 

Anyes Green
Chiara Gaul
Jeff Boudreau
Kai Cem Narin
Kate Murrel
Matt Thompson
Oscar May
Sam Butler 
Solange Moreira-Yeoell
Wayne Lennon

Let me close this post with some varied images around the Olympic Park and Stadium:

Mexican Wave – do they call it that in the US?

the action was over but they stayed behind to soak up the atmosphere, even in an empty stadium

The famous cauldron – my favorite piece of Olympic symbolism – the screens say ‘Quite for the Start Please’. During Paralympic relays, which include blind and partially sighted runners, a guide is present. Silence is required to allow the athletes to communicate with their guides.

A lull in the action

view across the Olympic Park to the Riverbank Arena

Our view of the fireworks

Thank you!

 

I had half decided not to do any more Festivals after getting my fair share of mud flung at me last summer. But Roskilde is always special and I am still drawn to and inspired by the Danish way. There’s just something so drop-dead cool about the Danes. Besides, I like playing a bit of ‘unknown band roulette’. Just pick some bands whose names sound interesting and go photograph them. I think I had heard of M83 before, they were great. I mistakenly though I’d recognize or like something of Bellowhead – I was wrong on both counts. Oh well.

The optimist in me thought that it was going to be a breeze, but as I swiftly find out, even after shooting festivals for years, it’s still, if not more tiring on my over-used feet. Same old story – even the nicest pair of Hunter wellies gets hard to wear after the umpteenth mile walking around the site, running from one music act to the next, trying to find interesting atmosphere in the camp sites and constantly doing my own head in trying to figure out how to ‘capture the essence of Roskilde’.

In the end I just had a good time shot a whole lot and got some fun images. I was sprayed with beer too many times, walked too many miles and felt too much like a stalker. But the press center is great and I connected with old friends, and most importantly got some fun images:

To see the entire set, go here, for 2011′s festival, here

Bubbles during the Bruce Springsteen set

Blowing Bubbles at Odeon - ironically, I think this was before Trash Talk came on. A dichotomy of atmosphere.Dancing by Odeon stage - to The Vaccines - my friend Rob Ball had backstage passes, I had atmosphere. Not sure where I'd rather be.

people running and happy to go see Bjork

They are being guarded by the man with the flag pole

There's also a lake - I thought it would be a dirty lake with beer bottles everywhere, but it's actually really nice. I almost wanted to swim myself on a hot day

Danish girls sunbathing, everywhere - it's a hard life.

Playing a game of balance and strength - you have to get up on top of the bench without tipping over - I was there for a while and only saw one person get their reward - a Jaegermeister garland. Worth it for the fun, not for the garland

woohoo

Woohoooooo - this is a shot I waited 48 hours for. I wanted the sun to shine in the background - the first two days were rainy. A great example of visualizing the shot and then executing it.

I found these guys playing with an improvised bat and a beer can. I wanted a slightly different angle but they ran out of beer. Things get bad when you run out of beer!

There was also some rain, not enough to make everyone start to run around naked like last year. Oh well, can't have it good every day.

no caption needed. I knew I had something the moment I pressed the shutter. Poor guy

M83, my personal festival highlight. I bought their album immediately

Janelle Monae fans in the crowd. At the Roskilde Arena stage I always shoot this while walking to the press pit. The security guys don't like it, but hey, what's the harm. We get shepherded around enough, it's almost impossible to resist being as sneaky as possible.

Janelle - she's fast becoming a favorite, she's always got a visually beautiful and energetic show.

Jack White - this 'kid', now solo, just oozes professionalism. A joy to watch - a real artist.

The Roots

I shot Gray last month in London a few weeks back at the gorgeous Institute of Directors on London’s Pall Mall. A magnificent location.

All shots by me. Assistants were Oscar May and Samantha Wordie

And one of me with Gray taken on set by Oscar.

To see more portraiture, check out the Spring 2012 Portraiture update.

The Festival Annual ’11 book features a front cover by yours truly. It was taken during a particularly rowdy day at Reading Music Festival in August.

I shot the Glastonbury Festival and Reading Music Festival for Festival Annual this year, both of which are now a chapter in this amazing documentation of festival culture. This is the kind of book that is going to be cherished more and more with each passing generation. Mark my words!

I’ve included some of my favorite images from Reading Music Festival. For the rest, you’ll have to head over to the Festival Annual Facebook page and buy the book. If you ‘like’ the page, you’ll get a discount coupon for the book. It’s available for sale at the end of October 2011.

The demographic of Reading Music Festival is mostly middle class teenagers, who use the weekend to have a lot of (sometimes too much) fun. The group below are the guys who also ended up on the front cover on the book. I ran from one end of the site to the other to capture the malarky.

Tommy, Ashley, Max and the rest of the boys started bugging me pretty much the minute I left the festival and were hoping for the cover. They were duly rewarded. They also have a large spread in the book. The experience of shooting for Festival Annual is fairly interactive. I hand out cards all weekend, and most of the people I photograph end up interacting on the Festival Annual Facebook site. In a way, that makes it an even more rewarding experience.

Go ahead and ‘like’ the Festival Annual facebook page for more. Or follow my photo updates on my facebook page.

I attended my 5th Thorsten Overgaard seminar in London over the weekend of 4 Sept 2011. I’ve now attended 2 in London, one in Berlin, one in New York and one in Sweden.

Here’s some of my images from it.

There’s several reasons why I, as a working photographer, keep coming back.

One of the things is that Thorsten has been a mentor of mine for many years and he has so much photography wisdom to give.

He also manages to attract a cool group of people at any seminar. Professional people who want to learn about photography, from all over the world, and usually with their Leica in tow. I’m always shooting with my Nikon but it’s OK.

It’s a weekend of theory, chats, dinner, and most importantly shooting on the street. I don’t shoot on the street enough, and to be pushed into it always creates interesting results.

Thorsten does these all around the world, you can see more info here. I always leave the seminar with renewed inspiration and creative drive.

deadmau5 headlining on day 1. Lots of mice in the crowd.
Roskilde is very very organized. To get into the front you have to queue up for hours. It’s a shambolic form of organization, and somehow it really works.

Arctic Monkeys on the Orange stage (main stage). The stage has quite a history, having been designed originally for the Rolling Stones’ summer tour of 1976.

The crowds always have lots of fun, even if you are all the way at the back. 

The very energetic, theatrical Lykke Li, this year’s Florence + the Machine. 

Take care of each other

And take care of each other they do. This is in front of a pond/trash pit, but somehow they are still having a relaxing time.

This girl was shaving this boy’s head, halfway through the shaver ran out of battery. But it doesn’t matter, no-one will look at him twice at Roskilde.

A dedicated British camper. 

It wouldn’t be a major European rock festival without all the rain. Copenhagen got some of the heaviest rainfall in recorded history and the place I was staying (along with most of my belongings) were flooded in 6 inches of water. Luckily Roskilde didn’t get as much rain, it would have probably caused the cancellation of the Festival.

Protection from the rain.

Singing/Dancing in the rain.

Kissing in the rain

Laughing in the rain.
The Danes, with their slightly less conservative approach to nakedness, enjoy a good bit of streaking in the rain.

The end. See you next year.

For the rest of my Roskilde 2011 images, have a look at the collection on the Getty Images site

You might also like: Roskilde 2010, Glastonbury 2011

About 10 days ago, I decided that there was a better place for my equipment than to gather dust beneath the stairs.

Things came together pretty quickly, and yesterday I shook hands on the space. I’ll be using it until at least mid October. Located 50 minutes outside of central London, the studio was set up in an old, large, rustic barn, all set on beautiful farmland. It’s a serene spot away from the city, it’s got horses, fields, forest and all sorts of other features. It’s perfect.

The shoots I’ve already used the studio for are still in post production, so instead I called upon my friends/sometime assistants Mia & Raph to pose for me. These are some behind the scenes images (with the end result) to show it off.

I’m excited to have a space that I can use for nothing but creating photos. I will be shooting creative work, publicity stills, the odd headshot and will have some celebrities down for some sittings.

The whole point, of course, is to create beautiful portraiture.

The thing that really makes it special is that I have natural light when I want it. And, I can leave the studio itself in the shot. It doesn’t detract from the image.

I want to explore what can be done in terms of portraiture. I want to get a variety of personalities and really push myself and my subjects to create timeless images.

You can book your shoot now.

Just send me an email via the contact menu or comment below, I’ll get in touch.