All about positioning
Keeping this blog current and with the weather being what it was the other day with the thunder and lightning rolling over Manchester, I found myself at what I thought was a good vantage point to see it and with being able to see it then I thought I could capture it.
There were a few problems with that fact, it wasn’t really a dark storm where I was and as it was daylight the usual dramatic lightening shots you mainly see weren’t at my disposal, the best shots seem to be in darker conditions, possibly at night and most are usually in tropical conditions, with a touch of regularity with timings and positioning I’m presuming...
Now I’ve never really gone out to photograph lightening before so it was an unusual experience, I could only look one way as I was in a building, but it seemed like the weather was coming towards me (looks at camera, as you can guess dear reader this was not the case) so I set us with a 24-105 f4 lens on a Canon 7Dmk2, I had no warning about when it would arrive so I stood at the window with the camera handheld as my thinking was that a tripod would inevitably position me in a fixed direction to react to the direction of the weather..
First flash of lighting went off and I snapped, ah it seemed to be above me and slightly behind… then the thunder roared above me all adding to then excitement then well you can guess the rest, it passed without me getting “the shot” which then in turn got me thinking about my career in photography, specifically where I positioned myself. I always seemed to be in a certain place and this was most notable with lot of the work I did on gigs and red carpets, couple of stories that come to mind helping to paint a picture of what I mean are:
Starting with the Scorpions at the Apollo, sometime in the noughties where the guitarist leaned right down and pointed right into my camera (I later saw that he did this to a couple of others as well so not too unique, but I do like working with professional performers*. This used to happen a lot more back in the days of film when you only had 36 shots on a roll so after you shot them you used to have change the roll which usually was the exact moment something would happen on stage but digital bypassed that time.
Next is a red carpet visit in the middle of winter where we had to wait outside for a royal visit, when the royal arrived their security swept past and directly positioned themselves in front of most of the still cameras as they swept in, wrongly positioned that time. 3 hours wait in minus temperature conditions to not get a single frame…was loving my life that time.**
As the title suggests the main take away here is that one of the major factors of photography is, it’s all about positioning.
Thinking about this, it’s also something that could be said to be the case with the previous blog image as well ! How lovely, onto this image and as a blog needs an image like thunder needs lightining. Here’s an image that I think illustrates the point very well and highlights something that features in my career, it’s an image from an X factor tour back in 2008. It was an act called Same Difference and I think they were brother and sister, think this jump was a major part of their act. I’m not sure if I positioned myself there or whether I was caught in a spot in the pit, interesting how you can remember certain things about images when you see them. I wonder if I could I have positioned myself better possibly? What do you think
Ah the beauty of reflection..
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it.
As ever any comments, feedback or suchlike then get me on the socials or on here. Stay safe.
* There’s also the Lady Gaga story where I got so many pictures with her looking directly into my camera (and my soul) that I felt like she was only looking at me, love working with professional performers but think I’ll save that for another blog…
** I could also mention the example of the TV Awards where I was massively hung over and then had to stand at the front of the red carpet for 3 hours, covering my face with my camera as I’m sure it was noticeable, that and I’d forgotten my tuxedo but one won’t spoil the professional mystique that I’m attempting to conjure up here…