Goodbye but not so long...

Just drop in to say that this blog will no long be the place where I ramble and post images and videos. That place will now be here: https://geoffwaugh.exposure.co/ I am moving over because I like the look of my images there and they can be viewed larger which is always GOOD. So , if you followed me here then my all means follow me over there. Come on over...

Flatland flat track

Flatland flat track, a set on Flickr.

From a personal project shoot back when. All but the sun flare action shot were taken with Agfa Scala black and white transparency, a great film that passed away into the emulsion graveyard. The action shot was captured with a Fuji rangefinder on 6x4.5 neg.

One Day, Three Lights

Three images from the campaign shoot for the new Kinesis Crosslight Pro6 cyclocross bike that looks so good I thought of nicking it. Anyway, why three? Just to show how much the light can change during one session. This was shot in one of my favourite locations for quality of light and that is the South Downs of England. Maybe its because the sea acts as a ginormous reflector I don't know but whenever I go there it is good. And this day was no different. First shot natural light into the sun flares through the boughs. Second shot hours later, again almost directly into the sun that yielded a fantastic yellow-tinged glow, a bit like a Cadbury's Flake advert but without the beauty interest.  Lastly, as the dark clouds gathered and made for a great backdrop, I had to use flash to balance the subject exposure and still retain that lovely sunburst. The window for the last two shots lasted half an hour to 45 minutes max. So it helped to work with an experienced model (thanks Jo!), somebody who knew that to get the very best out from the moment meant some spontaneous interval training. No nipping off to beat the traffic. These images and others will trickle out in advertising and road tests throughout the following weeks. Post shoot celebrations involved fish and chips and glugging back tea. I do like to be beside the seaside!

Unseen Wiggo

Not published this image until now. That's because now, today, I'm right behind Wiggins in his bid to win the Vuelta a Espana. The Sky captain has been an example in the Spanish race and I hope he has the power to pull a victory from what is a tough situation.
This shot was captured at this year's track World Cup at the Manchester velodrome. The four man UK pursiuit team were in the holding pen before their race. Three members were sitting, elbows on knees and heads down. But, as I crouched in the narow space between the TV interview enclosure and the teams pen, Bradley decided to ease the tension with a big ol' relaxing pose. Boom! - job done. The only way I could improve this image would be to ask his team mate on the right of the pic to move. But that was never going to happen!  Venga Wiggo, vamos!

Wide Eyed and Legless double exposures

I got a call from Ian Cleverly, Rouleur magazine's dep ed asking if I wanted to shoot some of the guys from the ANC Halfords team for a feature that centred around Jeff Connor's book Wide Eyed and Legless, the tale of the British team's 1987 foray into the cauldron that is Tour de France. Connor was a Daily Star reporter and was meant to ride one of the tour stages beforehand and then write about it. Apparently, he got the gig because he was the only one in the office that didn't smoke. The resulting  tale is of struggle, pain, lousy food and accommodation and every kind of ineptitude in between. Connor himself ended up driving one of the team vehicles, carry suitcases and generally mucking in.  It is worth reading. So, since I remember that tour very well indeed; one of my fave years, it would have churlish to decline the offer.
I met up with former ANC team boss Phil Griffiths and riders Malcolm Elliott and Adrian Timmis at an Italian Restuarant in Stone in Staffordshire and over dinner squeezed off a few frames. But I wanted something a bit different from the norm. As the guys got up to leave I had a idea and asked each one to stand back to wall a I shot off a double exposure portrait of each. I met Paul Watson at his offices in Milton Keynes and Graham Jones in the offices of his employee down in Surrey. Each shoot, as is the way when shooting with a writer in attendance, (no offence Ian!) was quick, falling at the end of the interview. This is one of the reasons I chose the double expsoure route. It would have been too easy to come back with something regular, and wouldn't have looked that arresting considering the locations.The double expos can be seen in the current issue of Rouleur, no 25.
For the camera techies, I shot with on camera flash with one of these on the flash head.

Time - he's waiting in the wings

Time. There's not enough of it. Not for me, nor I imagine, for you. And not for men like F1 driver Mark Webber, a human programmed to go fast. His life revolves around training, testing and driving the Red Bull Racing RB7 car. So time is at a premium.  I shot Mark recently when he joined members of the Subaru Trek mountain bike team for a spin around the local trails before they headed up to the World Cup in Dalby Forest, Yorkshire. It was ace to see people from very different sports interacting and mutually respecting each other's game. But the best bit for me was at the end of the day when I took a quick group shot and Webber said: "hey, you don't mess around, I wish they were all as slick" . And then later when shooting a cover for Shred magazine with Jonathan Horgan-Kobelski and his partner Heather Irminger , JHK remarked along the same lines. This is a complement and I was flattered. But the point of this is that the more time we take over images, the more antsy and less relaxed our subjects become. Professionals are always busy. I have no wish to interrupt their lives, which is why I nail the shots early on and then move on. I know through the viewfinder when the shot is good and a quick check on the LCD is confirmation. Hopefully, my subjects will remember me for that.

iPhoneography

Or whatever you want to call it is grabbing the attention of people who wouldn't call themselves photographers in the conventional sense - and who can blame them? The camera in the iPhone 4 is a great little tool that virtually does away with the need to carry a compact camera. It has a 'flash' and it can be 'zoomed' (although not something I chose to do that often) and shoots video. A whole host of apps have appeared to complement the camera and convert the images into tiny works of art that can resemble Polaroids of our childhood to faux tilt shift and almost every photographic look in between. Pro photographers have fallen in love with the new toy, ahem tool. I know I have. Anyway, I digress. The point of this blather was to show this little site I stumbled across that contains the sort of work I am talking about. Art. Nothing more nothing less. Unless you disagree..... Click the pic