I like to end the day with a little light reading (currently John le Carré's The Pigeon Tunnel), but much of my work involves reading the light. Painful punning aside, what I mean is when I'm out taking pictures I'm studying the light; the quality, the quantity, the colour and so on.
Typically I'll be in an office getting ready to take photos for my client and what I'll be considering is the light source (window, overhead strips, or a mixture of the two), how much of it there is and what its qualities are.
Most office lighting is great as far as the client is concerned. To the human eye it will appear bright and white, but the human eye and brain are incredible feats of biological engineering and capable of filtering out all kinds of crazy colours and of seeing details which a camera simply can't.
These two shots demonstrate a rather extreme, if non-typical, example of what I mean.
One of the shots required was a mass group of all the scholars, not too formal, but arranged along one end of the Great Bath. This was an evening job and being early February there was no daylight left. In fact the only available light was from spot lights pointing at the back wall, and a couple of gas torches either side of the pool.
Given this situation, I knew just from looking at it that whatever I did with the camera settings I wouldn't get a usable image without the addition of flash. Since camera-top flash (which I hate anyway) wouldn't be attractive and would probably just illuminate the steam from the water, I set up a pair of flashes on stands at the far end of the bath from me, one each side of the bath pointing towards the students.
The test shot (left) shows what the camera sees without the addition of flash. Obviously the students weren't there for the test shots as I wanted to make sure they weren't hanging around while I got the settings right, but my stand-ins Rachel and Chris did a fine job.
So if I'm coming to your office to shoot a series of "simple" pictures, don't be surprised if I bring quite a lot of lighting kit even if the light looks fine to you. It's rare that the available light on a location is already attractive enough to render the best photos, but if I can illuminate 100 students across a steamy pool of water on a chilly night, I can probably make something visually appealing in your office space.
Yes, Routes has been dominating my blog lately, but this has to be one of the most important projects I've worked on in a very long time, so I hope you'll indulge me a little longer.
This is just a round-up of where we are with the exhibition, donations and stuff.
I'm pleased to say I've had some really positive feedback about the exhibition from people I've met in the street, through Facebook and twitter, but what's even better is that Sarah, the Routes centre manager, tells me people have been donating on the strength of seeing the pictures in Cafe La Strada.
We were a little worried that the cost of getting the pictures printed and framed wouldn't be met, but with a local grant and donations from individuals we've covered that now. Phew!
Now it would be valid to ask why Routes spent money on an exhibition when the centre so desperately needs cash to keep going, but the fact is the portraits and case studies and the exhibition itself have generated a great deal more local awareness than could otherwise have been achieved, especially in the few weeks they have before the funding expires.
Take a look at the local press coverage just this week. Imagine what it would cost to buy a full-page advert in a local paper, yet this week we made the front page and a full-page spread inside. This is in addition to the coverage we had in the last couple of weeks on the launch of the exhibition in both local papers as well as an online article in one of the most popular photography sites on the internet.
With that in mind, I have to give full credit to Sarah for having the foresight to suggest the exhibition.
The latest news I have is that grant funding for at least a proportion of the running costs is on the cards. Fingers very much crossed that this comes through and for the balance to be covered by other funding bodies, but in the meantime if you would like to donate, you can do so by Texting MEND41 an amount from £1 to £10 to 70070, or by a cheque made payable to YMCA Mendip to 'Routes' Drop-In Centre, 1A Palmer Street, Frome, BA11 1DS. Donate online by clicking on the BT Mydonate button at http://tinyurl.com/j9jukt9 and select Routes as your chosen project.
Wow, what a rollercoaster ride that was. From concept to completion, a photographic exhibition launched in less that five weeks and that includes shooting the photos! I may have to give the Guinness Book of World Records a call.
You can now see the Faces of Routes pictures in all their glory at Cafe La Strada in Cheap Street, Frome, until the end of March and I'm hoping many of you will take the opportunity to take a look around the gallery areas and read the quotes before enjoying some quality refreshments.
This really has been a Frome effort, obviously starting with the help and cooperation of Sarah at Routes and her colleague Silky, all the young people who so bravely sat for my camera and shared their very personal experiences for the case studies, right through Nik Jones who added the text to the images for the exhibition, Mount Art Studio who did such a fantastic job of printing them and Studio Prints who did the framing at breakneck speed so we could get the exhibition launched as soon as possible and of course thanks to Cafe La Strada for giving us exhibition space for two months for free!
Of course the whole point of this exercise has been to try to save Routes, and we're not there yet. The hope is that the bodies which really should be funding this kind of service will understand how important Routes is to young, vulnerable people of Frome and that without it there will be barely any other resource to which they can turn when they're in difficulty.
Fingers crossed then. In the meantime, if live in Frome and you want to help but haven't the finances to do so, please consider writing to your local councillor or David Warburton MP. If the message is made clear that we don't want Routes to close, we have to speak loudly.