by deryck | Sep 28, 2017 | famous photographers, inspirational, life, photography, photography tips and tricks, tips and tricks
Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the phrase the decisive moment, particularly in relation to his street photography he became so famous for. Photography is all about the decisive moment, that split second in time in which the photographer chooses to create the image. It’s difficult to teach someone when to press the shutter release button to create an image, the decisive moment comes intuitively. Photographers have to learn to trust our gut as to when that decisive moment that creates magic is and react instinctively.
The other day I went for a walk on my own at sunset. I had been filming the new hovercraft in Portsmouth that runs from Portsmouth to Ryde on the Isle of Wight and it looked like it would turn out to be the perfect evening. It did and people came down to the beachfront to enjoy the sunset. The light kept getting better and better and I kept shooting. As I was about to leave I noticed a man in a turban looking out over the channel. His profile was striking and his pose almost regal, majestic. I shot a few frames of him excited about the shot. I shoot with both eyes open, a skill that took practice to perfect. The benefit of doing it is that you can still use the peripheral vision in the eye not looking through the camera’s viewfinder. I noticed two young women pushing a pram walking into the background and waited for the decisive moment in which magic is created…
by deryck | Aug 17, 2017 | fine art, life, photography
“Allier, à la recherche de soi” [Allier, in search of self], is a fine art photography project created in the Allier region of France in 2015.
The body of work is a self-reflection, a time of deep internal turmoil and soul-searching, at a crossroads in life, decisions that will change the course of life forever.
The artworks in this series are collectible original 1/1 giclée prints available to BUY through Saatchi Art. There are no editions. The artist’s final proof becomes the final signed artwork if I approve it. All other works leading up to the final artwork are destroyed.
The body of work is a self-reflection, a time of deep internal turmoil and soul-searching, at a crossroads in life, decisions that will change the course of life forever.
Sometimes the loneliest road is the road we travel surrounded by people, oblivious.
The landscapes were created alone. Whilst wandering and wondering alone. An attempt to capture and portray the inner turmoil I felt whilst at the same time paying homage to Allier, a region of great beauty.
The intention is for the viewer to question, both the medium and the expression. The medium is chosen to confuse and delight, with the appearance of a water colour painting but the realism of a photograph.
There is a 7cm white border surrounding the print that means that the actual image size is 87.6cm high x 131.4cm wide with the total artwork size being 101.6cm high x 145.4cm wide. I title and sign the final original approved print in this border.
There is only one original 1 of 1 artwork per scene, Giclée print on Museum grade 310 g.s.m. 100% cotton fine art and photo paper, with beautifully warm off-white tones and extreme texture. One final collectible original artwork is created, printed to archival standards.
I reserve the right to use copies of the artworks for self promotional purposes, editorial and publishing use but guarantee not to print another fine art copy of the work. Should you choose to buy an artwork you are buying the artwork itself, not the intellectual property to the artwork. The copyright remains mine, my Human Right, for the sake of humanity. Should the artwork be damaged, lost or destroyed it will remain just so.
by deryck | Aug 15, 2017 | fine art, life, photography
50point5 is a fine art photography project that examines the barriers that divide the people of South Africa as a result of apartheid. It is a project of love and loathing that I have been working on for over seven years.Love for the people of South Africa and the art of photography. Loathing for apartheid and what it did to the people.
The images were created along the 50.5km route from my former home in Vredehoek, Cape Town, South Africa, to a private university in Stellenbosch, one of the wealthiest towns in South Africa, where I lectured in photography on a part time basis for five years. The route took approximately 45 minutes to drive, depending on traffic, giving me time to observe and think. The reality of post apartheid South Africa is blatantly clear along this route with the route running from affluent areas, overlooking the former District Six leaving Cape Town, townships, past the Cape Town International Airport, more townships, farmlands in the wine route, finally arriving at the office park where the university is based that overlooks an access controlled private residential golf estate surrounded by electrified fencing and patrolled by armed guards.
The gap between the haves and the have nots is extreme with the poor living in abject poverty in shacks, entire families sharing a shack, whole communities sharing rows of prefabricated toilets and communal water stand pipes. Serious crimes like rape and murder occur daily, seldom, if ever, featured in the news. The police are so overworked that criminals literally get away with murder. Shack fires occur frequently often destroying hundreds of shacks per fire, the people losing everything they own in the fires. Education at the majority of township schools is poor with teachers often not arriving for work, teen pregnancies high and violence commonplace. The government’s answer to the education crisis in South Africa was to lower the pass rate required to finish high school so that more pupils matriculate.
The wealthy live in luxury protected by private security companies, often in access controlled electrified fenced private estates patrolled by armed guards. Domestic servants (gardeners and maids) come from the surrounding townships to work for the wealthy, often for minimum wage, returning to the townships in the evenings. The extreme in this daily journey from township to private luxury back to township must be mind bending, driving home the inequality as a result of apartheid.
The project comprises of a BOOK of 50 and a half images as well as limited edition fine art gicleé prints, available in a series of a maximum of five prints per image.
Read more about the project here.
by deryck | Aug 14, 2017 | inspirational, moving image, photography, surf
I’ve added a new “Inspirational” category to my blog to share some of the things that inspire me as a photographer and film maker in the hope that they will move and inspire you too.
One of my all time favourite indie films is the multi award winning surf film “Dark side of the lens” by Mickey Smith of Astray Films. The film is beautifully made and gut punches me every time I watch it. Mickey perfectly captures why it is that he does what he does, reminding me of why I chose to become a photographer.
“I see life in angles. In lines of perspective. A slight turn of the head, the blink of an eye. Subtle glimpses of magic other folk might pass by.”
“Cameras help me translate, interpret and understand what I see, it’s a simple act that keeps me grinning.”
“I try to pay tribute to that magic through photographs.”
Stop what you’re doing and watch it now. I insist.
by deryck | Apr 1, 2017 | fashion, photography
I’ve always been a big fan of Hasselblad. Their quality and craftsmanship combined with their relentless pursuit of excellence works for me.
The first Hasselblad I ever bought was a second hand ELX. A clever camera technician jippoed the battery compartment for me so that I could use a 9v battery in it and I shot on it for years. My second Hasselblad was a 500C/M, the AK47 of medium format photography. Manual beauty. I’ve always wanted a 503CW with a pistol grip, they’re as scarce as hens teeth.
The arrival of digital slowed down my Hassleblad purchases due to the cost but when Michael North of Hassleblad South Africa recently offered me the chance to test the new Hasselblad H5D-50C I grabbed it with both hands. The question was, what to shoot?
Presented with an opportunity like this I didn’t want to waste it. Cirque Magazine was doing a fashion story on Norwegian Rain, a clothing range from Norway designed by T-Michael that debuted in South Africa at the Mercedes Benz Bokeh Fashion Film Festival that was the perfect fit I thought. Shoot Scandinavian fashion with a Scandinavian camera.
Norwegian Rain specialises in rain coats since they live and work in Bergen, the town with the highest rainfall in Norway. Visions of a grey day preferably pouring with rain swirled through my mind. The shoot date set, perfect location secured and models and crew in place we were set to go. I even had his and hers umbrellas in the kit as props.
Cape Town is a city well known for it’s ‘four seasons in one day’ weather. I’ve always had the most incredible luck with good weather for my shoots and this day as no exception. Mid winter in Mediterranean climate (rains in winter) Cape Town the sun shone and the sky was pure blue. So much for the grey day my heart was yearning for.
Enter the thing (apart from the quality!) I love most about shooting on Hasselblad. Leaf shutter lenses. When I need to shoot with the shallowest depth of field possible combining natural light with portable flash (strobe) there is nothing like leaf shutter lenses to give you maximum creative control. Standard on Hasselblad. I said a silent prayer of gratitude for having the right camera in the bag for the job.
The Sunshine Company, distributor of Hasselblad in South Africa, gave me their newly arrived Profoto Pro B1 500 Air TTL Battery Flash 500W portable lights with lithium batteries to test with the Hasselblad. Off-camera flash. With TTL. Without cords. Nice. I’ve been working with Profoto lights, the standard in lighting rental in South Africa, for years. As an assistant I carried more packs and batteries up and down Clifton 2nd beach stairs than I care to remember. I’ve never had need for a gym membership.
When picking up the gear, the lads ran through it with me.
“Where are the packs?” I asked. They laughed at me.
“The batteries are on the heads!” they replied.
I had visions of what look like mini car batteries stuck to the heads. Clement showed one of the batteries to me. It was tiny by comparison to it’s predecessors.
“How long will it last?” I asked, the concern obvious in my voice.
“220 full-power flashes per charge,” he laughed.
“Can I take an extra spare to be sure?” I’m not a big fan of a battery dying on me at exactly the same time that everything comes together for the perfect picture.
The Pro B1 lights come standard with the Profoto Air remote TTL, an adjustable wireless remote trigger that can adjust the power of the lights proportionately while you’re shooting based on your TTL light meter. I’m too much of a control freak for that and prefer shooting on manual. What is really cool about it is that you can adjust the power of the lights up or down using the remote and it does it proportionately, keeping your lighting ratios the same. Nice. Less running on set required.
Shooting on the Hasselbald H5D-50C was pure pleasure for me. Being a professional photographer means I’m a professional crisis manager as there are so many factors that have to come together for a shoot to work. The better the gear, the easier it is to cope with changing conditions. My beautiful grey, raining day that I envisioned turned into blue skies and sunshine. To shoot rain coats in. Without the budget for a water tank. I’m always up for a challenge but there are challenges and then there are challenges. My favourite lens for shooting fashion with my film Hasselblads is the 150mm due to it’s perfect flattering perspective. I made sure there was one in the bag but never used it. The Hasselblad HC 80MM/f2.8 lens was a dream to work with. The True Focus system is a pleasure enabling the re-composition of the image without losing the focus point and there was no noticeable perspective distortion, allowing me to include the architectural shapes of the location, the reason I chose it in the first place.
The shoot over I reluctantly returned the gear having changed the batteries only once on the lights. I’m not big on shooting thousands of frames for one shot but I was surprised. Not as surprised as the MyCiti employee who locked herself in the staff toilets on location by accident, who we had to rescue, but surprised nevertheless.
The biggest dilemma followed in post production. The images were so sharp, with so much detail that they created the temptation to retouch and retouch, and retouch some more. I’m not a big fan of over retouched images, preferring to keep an element of realism in my work, but when presented with such fine quality there’s an OCD tendency that creeps in to just keep going. OCD under control I managed to tear myself away from the computer and send the finished images, out now in the August edition of Cirque Magazine.
Models: Simone de Kock and Jonathan Guy of Ice Genetics
Hair & Make-up by Samantha Ellenberger
Styling by Bronwen de Klerk
by deryck | Jan 14, 2017 | life, photography, the business of photography
I love the clever, quirky lines on pics on what it means to be an artist/freelancer/photographer, that make their way around the internet. I received an email today from a Royalty Free Image Library (no name as they don’t deserve the publicity) inviting me to use their iPhone App and make money from my pictures. Naturally, as a professional photographer, I investigated this.
Their terms told me that I can earn from 30-60% of the price they sell the images for, royalty free. So how much does that translate into in moneys worth? Effectively they’re offering me $0,216 at 30% up to $0,432 at 60% per picture that they sell, depending on their sliding scale ‘loyalty’ program. Royalty free. Clearly their business model is based on volume sales. The fact that they’re destroying the true value of photography seems to evade them.
As a commercial photographer I am commissioned to create images on a ‘Rights Managed‘ basis. This means that I control the use of the image, and sell the license for use thereof. The use of images is controlled by three factors being time, territory and media. Time, measured in years, territory being the number of countries and media being the number of different kinds of media the image is used in. What most photographers don’t know is that this is where the true financial value of photography lies.
If you don’t believe me ask Bill Gates.
Bill did not become one of the wealthiest men in the world by selling software. He made his money selling the license for use of the software. The value lies in the intellectual property behind the software, just as the true financial value of photography lies in the intellectual property behind the photograph.
South Africa has a sordid history on many levels, one of the less publicized being the blatant abuse of author’s (artists/designers/photographers/writers) international copyright by companies (corporations). One of the biggest media companies in South Africa abused photographers international copyright for decades with the attitude of, “What are you going to do about it?” Ironically they expanded into China.
The value of intellectual property is held in such high esteem by the international community that not only was it the key issue at the Berne Convention in 1886 but more recently it was enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations under Article 27 (2):
Article 27(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Both the Berne Convention and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights specify that the Author of the works has the right to protection NOT the owner of the copyright therein, if the owner of the copyright is not the Author of the works. The international community values the creations of our minds so highly yet companies (corporations) choose to rather exploit it. It sickens me to see authors struggling to pay their bills while the companies they freelance for declare record profits and increases in share values.
Perhaps if there were less sociopaths running companies the world wouldn’t be in the turmoil it is today. The relentless pursuit of profit = greed to the detriment of humanity. It’s time for business with conscience. For the sake of humanity.
