It’s fair to say that sometimes a fair few curved balls are thrown in a row. Having been contracted by a Swedish company to photograph David – who lives near Bristol – on their behalf for an upcoming education article my first problem was that David was out of the country, in China; deadlines were short too.
We were able to arrange a date though but the magazine’s preferred option of a school environment wasn’t going to happen in such a short time. No problem though, David was happy to be photographed at his home office in an unusually designed house. So my first thoughts were that the house had an intrinsic interest and may be suitable for an outdoors setting with the Somerset levels in the background; the magazine was keen to communicate the English experience. On the day though the weather was appalling in many ways. Although teasing me with bright spells on the journey up the weather settled to a scene that Wallander would have been at home in, muted tones, mist come rain and limited views to the horizon. Somehow wind was combined with the mist without allowing any possibility of changeable conditions.
So the office it was to be, but this office was a tower in the garden, echoing the house’s octagonal structures. Although a great working environment the footprint was small and difficult to gain a suitable photographer to subject distance. So ultimately the image was taken on a standard 50mm lens with a wide aperture using artwork from David’s books as a background. There was barely room to light the shot, being an octagon there were no corners to hide lighting.
David was a really interesting sitter but unfortunately I have no idea how the article reads since I don’t read Swedish.
This wasn’t the shot that I’d planned, in all honesty it was my third reserve shot but, as I said at the start, sometimes the day throws a few curved balls and one just has to deal with them.
Gallery of Location Portrait Photos
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