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The Circus!

I first got involved with the Wellington circus community back in 2011 when I was breaking into event photography.  The Wellington Circus Trust held a free event down at Waitangi Park and I managed to capture and shared some images from the various performances that day.  Over the next couple of years I’ve invariably run into the circus crew as they’ve performed around town and I’ve captured quite a few of their shows.  I’ve also shot a few environmental portraits of the performers including a recent one with Maddie, Sam and Victoria Coad.  So I was honoured to be allowed to spend a bit of time behind the scenes of the First National Circus Awards, also known as the Golden Carnies.

The Carnies are billed as an awards show but they also a showcase of an incredible display of talent, creativity and performance.  I am alway in awe not only watch these guys and girls perform: but also how they interact with each other off stage.  There is a tremendous camaraderie and a spirit of unity on display here.    The Golden Carnies were organised by Tom from the Fuse Circus: and he and all the people both behind the scenes, the performers on stage and the supporters in the audience helped make the Golden Carnies an event for all to be proud of.  

The show itself was fantastic: full of variety, action, humour, dance, danger and heart.  There were several moments where I put the camera down and just enjoyed the show.  Next year I’ll bring my second shooter along to capture the event, and I’m just going to settle in and watch!  So roll on next year!

The inaugural winners were:

2013 Overall Winner: The Blingling Brothers

Audience Choice Award: Aaron Burr

Ground Based Award: Mim Conyers
(1st runner up: Zach Washer. 2nd runner up: Nick Steward)

Arial Award: Aaron Burr
(1st runner up: Tanya Drewery. 2nd runner up: Eve Gordon)

Youth Section: Sam Coad and Lucy Egan
(1st runner up: Lisa Komatsubara. 2nd runner up: Emily Gare)

Some of the artists have given me permission to share some of the images from the night here: so I’ve featured them below.  

 

  

For more on the circus check out the following links:

Fuse Circus

Wellington Circus Trust

Awkward Productions

The Aerialist Blog

Tanglepoint Aerial Dance

Sometime next week I’m going to do a quick write up on the other big circus event last month, the Wellington Festival of Circus.

 

 

For the photographers following along on my blog I’ve decided to add a few technical notes where appropriate in a section called “Big Mark Talks Shop.”  It will be relatively technical and it gives me a chance to geek out for a bit: I’ll make sure I put this section after all the pictures are finished so that if you aren’t interested feel free to exit out!  I aim to make this section quite honest and to detail the processes that go on “behind the scenes” in capturing  the images I shoot.

 

This was a tough event to shoot. It really stretched the limits of my gear and my photography knowledge. I had to pull out every trick in the book.  I cursed silently every time the stage was bathed in different light colour temperatures at different intensities, and pumped my fist in joy in those rare moments I could get my shutter speed up to 1/500th of a second.

My typical settings (Canon 7D) was ISO 3200, f2.8, and I varied my shutter speed from 1/15 to 1/600 depending on the amount of light on stage.  I used tungsten white balance with the intention of tweaking in post.  I decided to use the dress rehearsal to get the safe shots: I shot relatively wide: was careful to time my shots, and centered myself in relation to the stage so I could get the full impact of the show.  For the performance I located myself at Stage Left out of the site lines of the audience:  concentrated on shooting at a much more measured pace, and looked for more interesting shots.  

This particular event prompted a few changes to my normal post production workflow.  As I was shooting I regularly imported to my laptop to make sure I didn’t run out of space on my cards and to make my life easier after the event.  Lightroom is the cornerstone of my workflow: for this event I culled, edited, exported and uploaded in six different batches to make sure the whole process didn’t become to0 mundane.  I finally made a switch to using an FTP uploader: it has made things much quicker and less error prone, wish I had made the change earlier.  The whole post production process from import to upload took about a week: and in total I culled, edited and uploaded and delivered 2000 images (1000 from each performance).

Wow.  Just wow.

Al is always on the look out for new locations for Project 50: so before yesterday afternoon’s shoot he suggested we check out a small theatre he had heard about in Lyall Bay.  ”Okay” I said.

I picked Al up from his house (on time for a change: which completely surprised him) and we headed off to meet Margaret at Time Cinema.  To be completely honest I wasn’t expecting much: and it took a bit of driving up and down the streets before we found the address.  From the front it seemed like an ordinary house: but as we drove up the driveway out the back came as a big surprise.

Time Cinema is housed in an unassuming double garage that over the years has been converted into a 40 seat movie theatre/private film club/nostalgia haven.  Describing the place in words would not do it justice: and while I took a few photos they really don’t come close to showing what John and Margaret have accomplished in such a small space.  Time Cinema is a labour of love.  Its a passionate love letter to film and the days when going to the movies was an event.  It has literally been built from theatres past: Margaret pointed out things that used to be part of the Majestic Theatre and Mid City theatres and the carpet and there were pinball machines and posters and projectors and all sorts of really cool things that you really have to see for yourself.  I left Al and Margaret to chat and talk shop while I simply explored.   

I walked away from Time Cinema quite inspired.  Its a place that could only be built by passionate people with a strong belief in what they are doing.  Time Cinema is fantastic.  And if I managed to accomplish only half as much as John and Margaret have built in their backyard in my lifetime I would be well pleased with my life.

For more information contact John Bell on 934TIME (9348463) or email john@timecinema.com .  The venue is also available for private functions and conferences.  

I don’t often make it to the dawn service anymore, but I almost always make it to the commemorative service at the Cenotaph.  As a Rongotai College Army Cadet I used to march in the parade down Molesworth Street, so twenty years on I still find that it is this service that I keep returning to.  (Not to mention the more “gentlemanly hours!”)  It was another lovely service with the rain holding back until the last speaker had finished before the clouds decided to open up with a light downpour.

Did you know that Big Mark can be in two places at once?

Well not quite! I always hope to be available to shoot on the day you need me, but if I’m not then I do work closely with a number of other professional photographers who can cover your event if I am unfortunately not available.

Here is Kate in action yesterday just before I headed across the road to shoot the Carnies. You can see Kate and the other photographers I work with on my About Me page (scroll down and click the arrow button) and you can read a bit about them and check out their websites and portfolios.  I only work with photographers I trust: who have been trained in my systems, who have a great customer service ethos, have back up gear, and really know their cameras. I do my best to be able to be there when you need me: but if I can’t make it (either due to a prior booking or otherwise) then I can make sure you are in good hands.  

Been a crazy weekend of shooting with four shoots in three days! Two have already been edited and delivered to clients, and tomorrow I’m tuning out the world to edit images from the wonderful 1st annual Carnies, a dance shoot, and a portrait shoot from earlier in the week.

So I’ve had a year in business!  

So to celebrate a year I decided to give my website a bit of a facelift.  Its the third new look I’ve given the site: and I’m going to stick with this one for a while. I’ve gone with a nice, clean and light feel for the site: made the navigation menus easier to follow and have have moved most of my images into one section, the portfolio.  I’ve upgraded my about me page as well and added in the people profiles of some of the people I work with.  

I wanted the new site to reflect my personality and I hope that I have managed to do that.  Originally each page of my website was written in the “traditional voice”, I pretended to be “someone else” writing about me and what I did.  But I ended up with a website that read the same as every other website out there: so I scrapped it all and started again.  (Which is why it took an extra week to get the website up and running!)  And what I ended up with is a much fairer reflection of who I am, how I shoot and what sort of person I am to work with.

On my last site I had split my portfolio into galleries divided by ‘category.’  I’ve now put all of my portfolio images into a single gallery, loosely arranged by image type.  I want people to be able to dip in and out of the different style of work I do: and to get an honest idea of the sort of work I shoot.  I’ve set up a new area for my client and public galleries and am changing the way I organise the galleries at the “back end”: so I will be grouping galleries by client and rather than sending through single galleries with different passwords, all of your galleries will be in a single place with a single password.  I’m still updating these galleries so if you gallery doesn’t appear here yet, it will in the very near future.

I have a new logo!  It was designed for me late last year and I’ve been wanting to talk about it but I wanted to wait until my new site was finished…and that only took me about six months!  It was designed by Rachel Cross: a talented young graphic artist who worked tirelessly to create something that fit the criteria I was looking for.  

I wanted something big and bold: just like me! I wanted to incorporate my web address into the logo so that I could use it as a watermark without having to add any additional text.  I think its nicely balanced and very distinctive, and fits well with my body of work.  Nicely done Rachel and many thanks!

The biggest change to my website and the most “risky” from a business point of view is that I now have prices displayed for all of my services that I offer.  It wasn’t a decision that I took lightly.  But I went back to my business plan and one of the things I wanted to do with my business is make it easy for people to book and use my services.  I want to take the “guesswork” out of the equation for people and be as upfront as I can.  If you like my work and if you think you can work with me here are my prices and if they are in your budget: give me a call.  

So April marks the start of my second year in business as well as a new financial year, and just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has helped me and supported my business and helped me to stick around in such a competitive marketplace.  After checking the accounts I can proudly state that my business broke even last year!  Which means that I managed to pay all the bills and keep the lights on, but not much else, so this year I’m going to have to work twice as hard to make sure I can stick around.  It took me three years to convince myself I was a photographer.  Now I can’t imagine doing anything else.  And I’m determined to be here again in another year.  

If you could do me a favour and if you like my work: please share this post and my work with the people you know.  Once again I appreciate the support of my friends, family and those I’ve worked with this year…without your energy I never would have made it through the hard times.

A big thanks to Sam, Pearl, Darren, Tina, Lemonade, Rob, Kate, Al, Taylor, Spiro, Donna, Rachel, Claudia, Victoria C, Victoria R, Deborah, James H, James G, Jesse J, TeArikirangi, Julie, Jacques, Kristen, Lee, Glenn, Bernd, Alice, Angela, Kelley, Krystal, Kelly, Andrea, Zetta, Aranga, Rangimoana, Dennis, Mel, Marie Jean, Kristi, Rachel, Tracey, Julian, Anna S, Manda, Aimee, Renee, Jacintha, Bronte, Zara, Jess, Emma, Nicole, Susie, Ben, Jazz, Nick, Mark, Erin, Janine and Mark and I know I’ve forgotten people, but without the help of all of you guys I wouldn’t have made it through my first year.  (And if I have forgotten you, please yell out!  And will add your name to the list.)

Life as a creative person is hard: especially when you spent nearly three quarters of your life trying to convince yourself you aren’t a creative person.  I started in digital photography four years ago: I studied at Photoshool for half a year, toiled hard on my business plan for well over a year and then launched Big Mark Photography early last year.  My first year went better than expected, and coming into year two I settled down to reassess my personal and business goals.  My business is orientated towards candid conference and events photography: but my business needs a stronger commercial focus to be viable in a very competitive marketplace, and as a creative person I need to “create,” and I haven’t been “creating” enough lately.

And this is how Project 50 was born.

“50 Photoshoots in 50 Weeks.”  Project 50 is a collaborative project where myself and groups of creative people work together to create images.  The project combines logistics, storyboarding, lighting knowledge, project management and many other skills that we are discovering we are needing seconds after something has gone wrong on a shoot!  All of the collaborators are looking to improve their output: we are starting slowly and working towards creating more and more elaborate set pieces.  Big Al jokes that on our first shoot catering was some chocolate bars and water in the bottom of his bag, our last shoot will have a catering truck!  We shall see.

Donna from Voda Model Management and Faking Fabulous Couture Beauty is one of the people that have been working on the project and she has been a rock star.  She has been behind the project from the beginning and the her team are fantastic, talented, and to use a simple word, fabulous.  It has been a very trying week for Donna who lost someone very close to her: we all appreciate the help you have lent the project during this very hard time and our thoughts are with you right now.

The musings of this project started over coffee with Big Al from Paparazi New Zealand, so it is no surprise that he has come on board as chief collaborator, catering manager, creative consultant and storyboard artist.  In my business assessment session early in the year I identified a number of things that I would need to work on to become the photographer I want to be: and Big Al has done a great job of keeping me grounded and going back to basics.

And Taylor has been my primary assistant since about the middle of last year.  He’s the only person who can “read my mind” when on set and I can say a couple of things to him and he trundles off and gets things done…perfectly.  Taylor will take the camera a few times during the project so look out for what this talented young man will do.

So that is the project in a nutshell.  I’ll be posting updates on the project over the next few days where I’ll give you an insight into the thought processes of each of the shoots.  The images will also be marketed in various places online and I will share those locations: any income the project makes will be shared with the collaborators of each individual shoot.  If anyone is interested in contributing to the project feel free to contact me!  

If you are interested in hiring me or using the services of the many of the wonderful people contributing to this project drop me a line and lets see how we can work together.  I’m putting together an easy to understand package for small businesses who quality images but are put off by confusing licence terms and conditions: I want to make it easy to work with me, so stay tuned.

To find out more about Faking Fabulous and Voda Model Management, check out the below links:

http://www.faking-fabulous.com/

http://www.vodamodelmanagement.com/

Happy New Year everybody!  I hope everyone had a wonderful break over the last few weeks and are looking forward to a fantastic 2013!

I’m a bit behind in my blogging, so over the next few days I’ll be catching up with a few posts that should have been posted last year.

Bear Grylls is best known for his TV series “Man vs Wild”, where Bear uses his skills and knowledge from his time in the Artists Rifles 21 Regiment, 21 SAS(R).  His recent tour included a speaking engagement in Wellington, and Big Mark Photography was engaged to provide photographic services.  Rhys Darby was the host and MC: and together with Bear they provided a wonderful few hours of entertainment which included stories and anecdotes, stunts and eating horrible food!

Local photographer and regular collaborator Rob Wilson assisted me for this shoot.   We provided a “two light” set up “photobooth” in the VIP lounge so that the VIP ticket buyers could get a photo with Bear.  Then me and Rob headed down to the main arena so we could cover the show in depth.  After the show the images were culled, edited, then uploaded to a private gallery for the client by midday the next day. 

I first encountered the Wellington Circus Trust early last year as I was rediscovering photography and I snapped a few shots of the Wellington Youth Circus at Waitangi Park.

Now these guys are astonishing performers who do simply amazing incredible things both in the air, on the mat and with their bodies. Hats off to Alice Capper-Starr and Deb for the wonderful job they do with these guys: this was their first year at the hub, and long may they continue.

The website for the Wellington Circus Trust is here: http://www.circus.org.nz/ They have circus classes and fitness programmes: and they are also available for performances.

Also see: http://www.awkwardproductions.co.nz/

On a technical note: used a combination of Canon 7D and 5D with four off-camera flashes, a softbox and a shoot-through umbrella. I was ably assisted by Rachel Cross and Kristi Dahm for what turned out to be a long afternoon, you guys were awesome! And thanks to Taylor Darroch: who “graduated”: he was only there for an hour, but he showed off the skills he has learnt over the last six months and proved himself to be one heck of an assistant.

 

Over the last year I’ve been making the transition from amateur photographer to full time professional: and one of the thing I’ve noticed is that I have been shooting less and less personal stuff and over the last few months this has been bothering me.  It hasn’t been something that I’ve consciously been doing: but as I look back over the last few months I realized that the camera had turned into simply a work tool. So I’ve decided to do something about it.  

 

So I’m looking at a couple of projects to get my creative juices flowing.  I’m in the planning stages for my year long project “”Pictures that are Slightly Wrong:” a photo series that will be bold, quirky, tell an interesting story, and are “not quite right.  And tomorrow I’m going to revisit the 365 Project.

 

Thousands of photographers around the world have taken part in the project which has a very simple premise: take at least a photo a day every day for the next 365 days.  

 

I started my first 365 Project in 2010 and the Project devolved into a roller coaster of emotions and imagery.  Over the course of 365 days I visited a “haunted” powerstation, photographed my first wedding, I shot with a pinhole camera, had Jonny Fairplay give me the finger, watched Maria Sharpova win at ASB Classic and I got to meet 100′s of wonderful people.

 

And I’m gonna do it again. You decide your own rules on a 365 Project and these are mine:

 

1) Take at least one photo every day and share that photo online as soon as possible.

 

And thats it really! I will be doing something else special this time around though: I want to do a portrait session a month for someone who deserves it. This isn’t a competition or a promotion for my business or anything like that: but an opportunity for me to give back to the people who have supported me over the years as I’ve grown as a photographer. If you would like to nominate someone for a portrait session flick me a quick message on either facebook or use the contact page on my blog.

 

The first 365 was the hardest thing I have ever done and it was draining both physically and mentally: but I came away from it as a much better photographer. I’m not sure what will happen this time around: but I’m looking forward to finding out. Below are a few shots from the 2010 Project.