You may remember a few posts back (you know, when I was updating regularly…) I talked about working quite a bit with a local band called Scarred I.D (whose guitarist, Ben, is seen above).

A little more recently the band asked for volunteers to help them shoot their first music video. I’ve always fancied doing video work, so I immediately threw my hat into the ring.

There was talk of broadcast-quality cameras and multiple camera operators, but sadly most of that fell through. Instead, we shot the whole thing on two video-capable DSLRs: a Nikon D7000 with a 50mm f/1.8 lens, and a Canon 600D, kindly loaned to us by one of the support acts. I’m not a Canon shooter, but I found that 600D a joy to use (except for the autofocus, which I switched off). I shot the image at the top of this post with that 600D, and it’s one of the best live images I’ve ever made, which is proof, once again, that gear is good but vision is better.

Here’s the full video for the band’s first single from their “Ground Zero” E.P, “Hell No!”:

And, partly because I wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped out, but mostly because I was enjoying playing with Premiere Pro too much to stop, here’s a credits roll for the video:

And yes, I did invent “High Flying Badger” as a name for a production company. Might even have registered highflyingbadger.com for future use, too…

© 2009 Century Photographic; used with permission

2011 has been an amazing year in many respects, but in many ways the only reason it’s been as good as it has is because I’ve had my wife of two years (today) by my side for all of it.

Sarah understands me better than anyone on the planet. She can coax me out of my sulks, help me through my occasional depressions and inspires me to shoot for the stars every time I try something new. She’s an amazing woman, and I’m so very lucky to have her.

Learn to draw

It’s safe to say that I have drawing ability of a dead gnat. Which is a shame really, since being able to draw at more than a rudimentary level would allow me to storyboard my shoots. Part of the problem with being a visual artist is that trying to express an idea for an image invariably means describing that image in words. Which is pretty hard when the image exists solely in your head.

I don’t need to be an amazing artist with a pencil and paper, but being able to draw figures and faces that look reasonably human would be a vast improvement on where I am now.

Get Published

What it says, really; there’s not much explanation needed. Something on this score is already in the pipeline, but even if that falls through, my aim for 2012 is get at least two shoots published in one form or another.

Shoot Men’s Fashion

I’ve been aware for a while that my portfolio specifically my fashion and beauty portfolio – is entirely made up of women (and at least one model is very heavily represented there, since I’ve worked with her on a significant proportion of my shoots this year). This needs to be rectified.

The obvious solution, then, is to work with some male models. It’s not as if there aren’t plenty out there. Browsing around the male model portfolios on ModelMayhem I can see a wealth of talent; I just need the right concept to get started. Brainstorming will now ensue.

Shoot a Series

I’ve long wanted to shoot a series; several shoots, probably over several months, with a uniting theme or story. I suppose this ties in with resolution #5, actually, in that if were going to shoot such a series it would probably be quite fine-arty (though it might also be interesting to do a portrait series).

Again I’m inspired here by Drew Gardner, but also by Chase Jarvis (whose Seattle 100 is one of my favourite photo books) and, more than all of these, by Alexia Sinclair, whose Regal Twelve and Royal Dozen blow me sideways every time I look at them.

Make Some Art

I’ve loved shooting pretty much everything I’ve shot this year. I’ve shot fashion, beauty, live music, editorial portraits, weddings, burlesque shows*… I’ve loved all of them.

But I feel like I’ve made very little art. The fashion and beauty work comes closest, but it’s still not what I’m aiming at with this resolution.

I’ve banged on for several years about Drew Gardner‘s work. I’m a big fan of it, there’s no doubt, and in particular I’m a fan of his Epic Fashion shoots – his series “The Forest” is a favourite of mine. That’s the kind of thing I want to shoot. Maybe it’s somewhere on the border between fashion (or editorial portraiture) and fine art; I don’t know. But there’s something about producing an image that’s beautiful for its own sake, rather than making one to showcase a person or a dress or a makeup artist’s talent, that appeals to the creative bits of my brain.

Of course, defining “art” is like nailing pudding to a wall, but you get the idea.

*Well, one. I’ll be shooting another on Friday, though.

Travel

I love travelling. I love exploring new places and meeting new people. Now that, for various reasons, I won’t be travelling as much for my day job as I have in years past, I want to make up for it by travelling more for my own reasons. Even if that just means going to new places within Blighty, or going to places that I’ve been before and to which I’m longing to return.

I have the perfect travel partner, too – my wife, Sarah. And I’d love for us to go out and travel and shoot some cool images together on the way, like we did in California this April gone past.

Get Off Your Arse and Shoot

I’ve spent a lot of time – and not an insignificant amount of money – over the last year on training. Seminars, video training, magazines… And it’s only recently occurred to me that I’m not getting as much from that money as I was at the start of the year.

Another resolution for 2012, then, is to stop spending so much time and money on training and instead go out and train by learning on the job. If I have an idea, I’ll go and shoot it, rather than researching to see how others do it and talking myself out of it in the process. If I see an image I like, I’ll try and reproduce it (not to include it in my portfolio; just to work out how it’s done) with the help of a willing friend.

Sure, I’ll still consume videos on the web, but I’ll be a lot less willing to splash out money for the sake of splashing it out. Because I don’t think that I’m getting back what I’m putting in. The only way to do that is to put my time into learning. And my heart.

Play More

There isn’t a huge amount of craziness in my work to date. Mostly, I think, that’s a result of my trying really hard to get the simple technical aspects of my craft right – sharpness, no limbs amputated and so on. I’m not saying that I want to start producing out of focus work where people are missing fingers, but as an extension of my first resolution I’d love to feel a bit freer with what I shoot.

Maybe it’s as simple as getting the ‘perfect’ shot in the can and then playing around and trying out ideas; maybe it isn’t. But it’s a good place to start.