lance burkitt photographer

Aint no such a thing as Can't!....only Won't!!.....

2011-08-18T12:53:00.001+01:00

Lights, Camera, Action!!

As regular readers will know I have been pitching myself in the music promo business for a while. In the meantime I have been attempting to get together a show reel to show the people at the top my capabilities. The frustrating thing getting a show reel together has been the distinct lack of enthusiasm from local bands/ musicians. Back in the day when we we’re struggling musicians trying to get out there, if we had been offered the chance to have a pro music video supplied to us gratis we would have snapped off the arm & leg of whoever was offering. It seems nowadays though that this generation are only interested in materialism, what’s in it for them (financially) instead of seeing it as a way to be seen, to get their music out, all they want to know how they can have it made for free yet make money from it too.. It’s not gonna happen guys! I always end up coming back to my theory that this generation of kids/ young adults are lazy, spoon-fed retards.

Luckily for me I have a talented family. My brother has written a dozen awesome songs this year, which in our spare time we have been demoing at his house. We had loads of fun getting these songs together & they were sounding awesome. After having a chat with him about videos one day, we decided it would be cool to shoot a video to go with one of his favourite new songs “Breakout”. It’s a very personal song and the theme made for an interesting subject matter. So I set about writing a treatment for it, which Luke loved. Now all I had to do was plan the shoot, with Zero budget.

No cast, no crew, no probs…

Getting the cast and crew together was an absolute breeze. I tend to surround myself with nice, good hearted people, people of the same mind set, who love what they do, who love to be involved. I cast Abigail Hernon in the lead role purely on a gut feeling. Abi had submitted her C.V after seeing the casting online. Out of the 20 odd people who applied, Abi was the only one who actually did what the casting asked. We arranged a meet in town and I was immediately sold on Abi, her enthusiasm in the project and her deep interest in the medium gave me all I needed to believe that she was right for the part, even though she had no show reel to show me… As you can see from her performance, I was 100% right about her. I got together my usual crew together (Lauren & Russ) and also my good mate Paul Rowe offered us the use of his studio as unit Base and also came along to help with stills and some camera duties. All I needed now was make up and some styling help. As luck would have it a good friend & Model I know Becki Lockwood had recently learned make up and also set up her own clothing boutique (take a look at www.flockboutique.co.uk) and offered her services. I told her about the project and she was excited to be involved! Fabulous!

So now we were ready to go. I sorted the dates for shooting, which would be 2 days for shooting and a day for pick-ups.

As with all my projects, this would be shot on the 7D, single camera.

The 1^st day of the shoot arrives & I collect everyone and we head out to Pauls studio to meet with Becki & get the ball rolling. Most of the 1^st day would be spent filming the main part of the video, Abi wondering the streets. Becki put together a fab outfit and Look for Abi, perfect for a girl who was down on her luck and escaping a world of living in squats and a life of misery.

1^st up we headed to Clifton Park in the Centre of Rotherham. Its 11am on a Thursday, so I knew the park would be quite empty of people. The weather was on our side too, a little overcast with no direct sunlight and the odd spit of rain to help give that “gloomy” look. I needed to shoot 2 parts in the park. The main part of Abi walking through the park and the flashback scene which would be set at night. Abi was fantastic from the off. She immediately got into character, understood the character, and the mood of the scenes & took my very limited directions as if we had worked together for years! It was a perfect day for shooting these scenes. All the crew worked seamlessly to help me be able to shoot these scenes at a breeze.

We also had a great laugh too. It’s always funny watching people notice you have a camera and doing their best to get out of your way! We didn’t have one single idiot bothering us, which considering we were shooting in Rotherham, was a real surprise!! Filming the flashback scenes meant it was time for my 1^st cameo. I had to play 2 parts, one of a guy approaching Abi as she slept on the bench and trying to procure her services, and one of a passer by touching her shoulder and spooking her. So I was now Director/ Actor… I always wondered how the Hollywood guy juggled the roles, now I knew….Paul did a fab Job as camera operator for these scenes, cheers mate. It took me a little while to get it right, hey, I am no actor! You’d be amazed how hard it is to put your hand on someone’s shoulder menacingly! 1^st take I looked more like a poor Tommy copper impersonator, which gave the crew a huge laugh! But eventually I got it..!! For the flashback, to create the mood in camera of it being night time, I simply altered the settings to darken the scene, knowing in post-production the film would be made black and white, thus completing the look of it being late night, or early morning. But it was in fact about 12 noon. Abi simply had a minor wardrobe adjustment to make it appear to be a different day. I had scheduled 4 hours to shoot all these scenes, we did it in 2. Yeah on to the cemetery we go..

For this part of the flashback, Abi was asked to look full of guilt and regret, looking back at what her mum & gran may have said if they had still been hear, wishing they were here.. She played it perfectly! Filming at the cemetery was tricky. It’s hard to be in such a place and be positive and happy about being there, especially given the subject matter. But the whole crew did a professional job and were mindful of where we were, a lot of respect was shown. The scene was shot and in the can inside an hour! So we decided to head back to base for a rest and to wait for Jack Webster who would be playing the boyfriend Abi escapes from in the beginning.

Upon arrival at the studio I realised it would be daft to hang about waiting for Jack for 3 hours when we could go out and shoot some of tomorrow’s scenes today. So we geared up and headed out to a street we knew in East Dene to film the scenes of Abi nearing home. This would be good prep for the later scenes of Abi running away from Jack. I had the idea of Abi following the camera on a lot of the video. I couldn’t afford to buy or hire a rig so I knew I’d have to improvise. So the improvisation involved mounting the camera in the back of the car, with the boot lid open, and Lauren holding it steady. We get Abi in position, set the camera, then I drive, Abi follows acting the part while Lauren holds it all together…And it worked a treat. All the scenes of Abi following camera, except for the park scenes, were shot from the boot of a moving car, fabulous!

So we get back to base and wait for Jack and as ever I consume too much coffee. We have a review of the rushes and I am really impressed with the footage we have shot! Abi is doing an awesome job!

Jack arrives and we brief about what we are gonna shoot. We have a last minute change of plan for the location as we get offered a better one. Awesome! So we all jump in the car and head off. Arriving on the location I do a few test shots and again land on my feet with the lighting. Again this is meant to be late evening, early morning, and the light is perfect, just breaking behind the location adding a perfect edge to the scenes. We do a few practice scenes of Abi and Jack running out of the house, this is easy, 2 takes and done..

Now we need a close up of the bag busting open. How hard can it be? Cheap as chips black bin liner, which I have already pre-cut so it would split on impact…would it split? Would it hell! 15 takes later, with the back only being held together by microns and it splits, we get the shot! Next we are back to Abi chasing the car down the road.

Bare in mind we had practice earlier in the day, so we were ready to roll. All the opening sequences are 1^st takes. I could have reset everything & gone again, maybe tried to keep Abi more in centred in the frame and focused, but I loved the energy of those takes, Abi genuinely looks like she’s running for her life, and that was more important to the story. Jack also needs to be paid tribute. He came, he saw, he conquered! Jack is one of the nicest blokes you could hope to meet, and helped set the tone for the video! Anyone who stands there and gets lumped around the head with a bag full of clothes for 15 takes deserves applause, cheers fella! In less than an hour the day was wrapped.

Day 2: Inside we go.

Most of the 2^ndday would be spent filming indoors, doing flashback scenes. Today I would get to play the Daddy part.. You may wonder why I played parts in the video…Well, it’s not because I wanted too, it was simply because I couldn’t find the talent who wanted to get out of bed and be involved..

For one of these scenes we happened to have my son Logan and niece Billi hanging around so I decided to put them to use and play younger siblings to Abi. I didn’t write the scene that way, I just improvised! What’s that old saying, never work with children or animals? Well…. in all honesty they were fab, except on the 1^st take when Logan decided to start shouting “Daddy, are you crazy” which gave us a big laugh. You can also see on the part where about walks past me and nearly knocks me over, that actually happened! Abi didn’t know her own strength and she nearly knocked me through the wall! Very funny so I decided to leave it in!

Inside an hour we had all the interior scenes in the bag, all that was left was a couple of scenes of Abi approaching the house and knocking on the door. Abi finally got to smile after 2 days of abject misery on her face, she loved that bit…

Having reviewed yesterday’s rushes overnight, and looking at todays, I knew we couldn’t need to reshoot nor do any pick-ups, so by 3pm on day 2 we were wrapped. What a fabulous cast and crew and what a thoroughly fresh and exciting experience it had been.

Editing the video was also a breeze. Because I can edit myself I can quickly get together a rough edit and then fine tune without having to go back and forth with anyone else. So the whole thing was edited inside 2 days. Luke finalized the track which I added and the video was in the bag, ready for release!

Good people...

It goes to show you, if you surround yourself with good hearted, likeminded people, anything is possible. Abi has gone some way to restoring my faith in the new generation, that they are not all selfish, lazy spoon feds. Abi travelled for an audition, and for 2 days filming from Scunthorpe to Rotherham, without pay & without complaint. She showed great faith in me, for which I am grateful! Thanks Abi, you have a big future ahead of you!

I’d like to say a massive thanks to all the crew involved too, you are all superstars and I owe ya! It was an absolute blast shooting this video & I am very pleased with the results!!

Imagine if I had a budget….

If you want great clothing, see www.flockboutique.co.uk

If you want a great studio and host, see www.rowephotographic.co.uk

I have had some offers of working with some fab people on new video projects off the back of this video already! A few exciting things ahead, of which I will of course keep you posted!

Hope you enjoy “breakout” folks!

If you have been, thanks for reading

Cheers, Lance.

itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/jopus-breakout/id401921644?i=96507884

Times they are a changing & the new Adventures of....

2011-04-30T16:52:00.000+01:00

Times they are a changing…

The time has come to move on, say farewell, to make somechanges in my professional life, seek new challenges & change the focus (Punintended)

I have enjoyed over 5 years working in the industrymainly as a Model photographer. I have expanded on this to add Actors etc morerecently, but really I am a model Photographer. Over the years I have for themost part had a blast. I have worked with some awesome people, helped launch agood few flourishing careers & made some awesome images! Recently though, I have to admit that I have becometired of it, disillusioned to the point where I find getting inspired to shoot isbecoming harder & harder.

Retirement...

There are a whole host of reasons, Ropey, Ignorant, Rude& spoiled models, seriously over expectant clients, offering little or no money,the general lack of respect offered to the Photographers who are creating the great work for people, the amountof Lazy people, people pretending to be what they are not… I could go on.. Thesimple fact is, I am done with it and all the bullshit that comes with it.. AsI feel right now, I won’t miss it..

Of course I will still be writing & making films, promosetc, hell I’ll probably still do the odd fashion shoot, but in future they willbe on my terms, not the clients, not the models, mine.. Of course if a Massivejob that is too fruity to resist comes in I may return for the odd real gig,but the money will have to be massive, and the project super exciting,otherwise I have no interest.

Genesia...

Around a year ago I set up a company called “Genesia” tofocus on Family Portraits, Weddings, Makeovers, high street stuff. My plan was to run that as a sideshow to thenormal work I do. Although I set it up & have never really pushed it yet,but it is ready to go. With my realisation & awakening over the last fewweeks it is now my intention to focus all my energies on Genesia, and leave therest of it behind. The website will be re - launched tomorrow with a whole hostof new services being offered. Holly will be joining me a Photographer &Retoucher too, so there will be a great family buzz about the place. Once wehave our own studio sorted there will be a host of new services offered too,but for now we’ll be working out of Pumpkin in Manchester and Paul Rowes studioin Rotherham. Our plan is to have a bespoke studio up & running aroundJunction 33/34 of the M1 before the autumn.

So if you want me for a shoot, you will have to comethrough Genesia.

Here's the website http://www.genesia.co.uk

Da Blog!

It’s my intention to keep the blog going, hell I couldn’tsurvive without venting my spleen here! But it will probably less frequent, andless ranty, maybe!

Time to go Andy....

Before I go, here’s the last thing I did commercially. Itwas a video and stills shoot for Manchester Makeup Artists Sidra Qadir. We shotit over a day at Pumpkin Studios & it features the fabulous actress SairaChoudhry of Hollyoaks fame. Thanks to my Mrs Holly for the 2^ndCamera work. Hope you like!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61-IxW5dWOI

Anyway, thanks for all your support & kindwords over the last few years, mostly it’s been a blast, but the industry is inits knees, and I am outa there!

If you have been, thanks for reading!

Cheers

Lance

Charlatans, finish what you started & a day in the life of....

2011-03-29T14:04:00.002+01:00

Charlatans….

The more and more I look around at other Photographerswork, the more and more I notice that a massive percentage of them are in fact Charlatans,passing their stuff off their own when in fact that is not entirely true…. Letme explain.

Photography asan art form is one of hardest to master. The parameters of what you do changewith every click of the shutter. It takes years of hard work mixed with rawtalent & fine tuning to become shit hot at it. To be able to take a commissionand deliver above and beyond your own high standards in my experience is a raretrait very few photographers possess. The final and for me equal part of theprocess of producing a shit hot better than your last one Photograph is theprocessing, editing, retouching, whatever you want to call it.

Processing: Inthe old days you would do the shoot then spend endless hours rattling around adark room making your magic, trial & error, finding new ways, newprocesses, fine tuning your images, finishing off your work. Nowadays with theadvent of Digital it’s all done in Photoshop, or should be at least.

Just because a Digital camera kicks out a decent looking picturewithout you having to get your hands dirty does not mean it is ready to see thelight of day. A Raw file or Jpg or Tiff or whatever digital format you use, isyour modern day negative, your raw material to take to the cutting room to finishoff.

Theart of retouching….Any processing, retouching, editing, should onlyever be done by the Photographer, the person who visualised, framed and tookthe shot. Why? Because if this important part of the process is done by someoneelse, ever with your instructions, how can it be called and credited as yourown work?

How can a finished photo be credited to the Photographerif he/ she played no part in its post processing & final finished look? To methat is like finding out all these years later that Da Vinci made a penciloutline of his art and someone else coloured it in for him, or that Shakespearegave an outline for a story and someone else wrote the body of it!! A Photograph,whether digital or film, should be started and finished by the photographer,otherwise it is no longer entirely their own work & should not be passedoff as such.

Over the years, but more so recently I have come torealised that many, established top photographers do not process their own workat all, they farm it out to a “Retoucher”. I am not talking about Wedding photographers,portraits photographers etc here, who by the same token should not be fully creditedeither, I am talking about world renowned Photographers, big names.

Now we have all seen before and after shots of work thatgoes in magazines, how much work is done, I am fine with that, so long as the creator ofthe Photographer is the creator of the final images that appear in thepublication. Because if not, then it is no longer the Photographers work alone,simples.

In High end magazines you never see a photographercredited and alongside it, “But this only looks this good because XXX spent 2days retouching it to make it look this good”

I exaggerate, I have seen one Photographer who creditstheir Retoucher, but that makes no difference to me, it’s still not their ownwork…

I never farm work out. Never have, never will. My work isall my own, every single image I have ever released, I live and die by thestandard I have attained through hard work & honing my talent. I could notentertain the idea of someone else finishing off my work. Arh but you say, yourclient may want the images to be of a certain style and have a Retoucher inmind and you are just supplying raw materials… Well in that case, I wouldn’t getthe job in the 1^st place, would I..

Finish what you started!

I find it quite shameful that a lot of people whose workI have admired over the years turns out to be not entirely their own. I feel abit cheated by that.

Because I know how much retouching goes on especially onhigh end magazine work, it leads me to the thought that these renowned peopleswork is not as great as I expected it would be. Do they rely on Retouchers tomake their work awesome? I would guess yes, they do!

Personally, my images vary slightly depending on the jobfrom about 70/ 30 to 90/ 10 split on Photography / Processing.

So for me, whether you are shooting the next top modelfor some big campaign, or if you are simply a portrait photographer earning a modestcrust, if you are not retouching / processing your own work, then it is in factnot entirely your own work, and you are not only kidding yourself, but your clients& the public too. Using excuses like “I don’t have time, there’s too muchwork” or “I don’t know how too so I farm it out” is bollocks. You had the timeto take the shots, find the time to finish them! You found the knowledge andskill to take the shots, find the knowledge & skill to finish them! Otherwise,don’t put the big © mark with your name on them, or you are a cheat.

Oh, and if you are one of those that believes your workis shit hot & finished straight off the memory card, then you need to see adoctor..

Aday in the life of a working studio.

Last week I produced a promotional video for Paul Rowe ofRowe Photographic Studios in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Shot on Sunday 20^thMarch at his studio in Rotherham I had a real blast making this video. The videois about the services the Paul offers at the studios and features Paul &His Crew doing what they do best. Our models for the day were Holly Wain &Amanda Rowe who both did fab jobs! If you need a studio in the Rotherham area,there’s really only one choice!

www.rowephotographic.co.uk

I hope you enjoy the video, if you would like something similar,give me a shout!

That's all I got for now folks, if you have been, thanks for reading!

Cheers,

Lance

Bright lights, Big City, a little test, celebrity bullshit! & Therapy?

2011-03-16T20:55:00.003Z

Brightlights, Big City

So last weekend I had a loooooooooooooooong trip down to Londonto shoot some fabulous outfits & models and work with some truly fabulous creative’s.I hadn’t been in the big smoke since 2003 and had forgotten just how far itwas! I left home at 4am and arrived at the location about 8.30, not badconsidering pit stops along the way! The shoot was for London based company PiaMichi shooting their awesome collections.

Stefanie Rycraft Jones

The shoot was at the also awesome SanctumHotel in Soho. Although we were shooting in a fabulous hotel, we only had useof the Cinema, which wasn’t best suited as a backdrop, so I shot everything ona nice white paper background to keep everything simple & uniform. It wasgreat meeting new faces & working with some new creative’s & models,all of whom were very nice people. The outfits were awesome, some beautiful dresses& fabulous colours! The winning model or the “Face” of Pia Michi was almostan hour late arriving so we shot the other 3 lovely ladies 1^st.

Harriadnie Beau Phipps, the "Face" of Piamichi

Itwas a shame because we ended up not being able to get some “Extra” shots of the“Face” in the hotel lobby because we ran out of time to set everything up thereand what little light there was had gone by the time I had made sure we got allthe outfits shot against the white, that was a real shame..

It was a long long day, especially for the creative’s! Themodels hair was done by the fabulous http://www.inanch.comThe awesome Makeup Artist Sophie Smith http://sophiesmithmakeup.com never stopped from 8.30am until almost 6PM, churning out one awesome look after another, which made my life so mucheasier when it came to the retouch! She was also a blast and kept me sane throughoutthe day! Allie Howes from www.alliehandmadeoriginaljewellery.co.uk also supplied some beautiful Jewellery &fab company too! Thanks a million ladies!

The models were all great and worked very hard. Myfavourite model on the day was Stefanie Rycraft Jones. A lovely Yorkshire lasswith a great sense of humour & she was a fab model too. I felt great not tobe the only northern soul in the building. Hopefully I will work with Stefagain in the not too distant future!

Stefanie Rycraft Jones

We finished up bang on 6pm and had to be out by 6pm. Soit was mad rush to pack up & leave, so Ididn’t get chance to say thanks and goodbye to most people, so I’d like to saythanks and goodbye & looking forward to working with some of you again realsoon! I finally got my weary ass home at 11.30pm, after a steady drive home.

It was a hard mad day, & a long, hard & tedious 2day retouch. But I made some awesome images and a lot of people very happy. Hereare a few samples of what I shot, I hope you like! You can see the fullcollection at www.pia-michi.com

Atesting time….

Last Friday I had a fab little shoot at my mate Paul Rowe’splace in Rotherham. Continuing my fab relationship with BMA models I was havinga little test day to try some ideas and find a few models for future shoot& film projects. So I carefully selected the 3 models who are also aspiringactresses. My usual crew of fab MUA’s were all otherwise engaged so I put out castingand found a little gem from Sheffield by the name of Emily Hague. Emily waslovely and did a fabulous job for me, considering she only had a few days’notice & had never worked with me or at Paul’s studio before she fittedright in! The ladies were lovely, the ones who turned up that is… Yep goes toshow even agency models can be that unreliable, and considering she wascontacted the day before to confirm, there really is no excuse. But the 2ladies who did come along did themselves proud and were a credit to BMA. Hopeyou like the pics, and thanks to Paul as ever for fab facilities and being anawesome host!

Ashleigh Edwards Pitt, BMA Models

Katy Coffey, BMA Models

OpportunityKnocks…Celebrity bullshit...

More and more it seems the 1^st question I amasked by a lot of prospective clients of all types is “have you shot anyonefamous?” It makes me blood boil! It’s asked in such a way that I am sure, no Iam convinced that people only think you are any good, or that you have any Kudosif you have photographed a “celebrity”! Now by “celebrity” almost invariablythey don’t mean someone who has contributed something to their profession, orsomeone who has earned their credibility through being awesome & talented. Moreoften than not they mean people who have appeared on a talent show and come nowhere,or who have appeared on some shit Saturday game show & are milking the 15minutes of fame granted to them, or someone who’s done just about everyfootballer in town. Celebrities eh? Back in my day, a celebrity was someone whowas bloody good at something, a sport, a talent, someone who actually achievedsomething through talent & hard graft other than someone failing on 3^rdrate TV show! People are obsessed with nobody’s! It is frightening!

I wonder if when Andy Warhol coined the phrase “Everyonewill be famous for 15 minutes” he realised how understated that statement was?

Anyway, when I answer no, not really, but I have workedwith some awesome talent, the response I get is always the same “Oh, thoughtsomeone as good as you would have!” It’s as if there’s an unspoken thing where people think youcan’t be any good at Photography unless you mingle in the right circles, kissthe right arse & shoot the right nobody’s! If you look at my book do you go“Wow these images are awesome, Ill book him” or “Wow these images are awesome,but unless he has shot a 2 bob nobody failure, I am not booking him” For somepeople it seems the latter. I am convinced I lose bookings because I don’t havea row of “Celebs” in my book.

Now I am not averse to shooting anyone, in most casesanyway! But I don’t sit here longing to have the latest nobody in my book. I dohowever have a long list of people who I admire & who have inspired me overthe years from all walks of life that I would love to work with and be proud tohave them in my book. But not because I want bragging rights, not because I wantto go “oh yeh don’t you know who I have worked with!” But because they aretalented, interesting people! If I speak to anyone about a shoot it is simplybecause I admire them, their work, their look, there will be something aboutthem other than they have appeared on some shit telly show. In my experience,there is a lot of ropey, poor and downright awful photography out therefeaturing “Celebs”. Too many “Photographers” are working for free in the hopeof some kind of Godlike status because they have shot the latest nobody! Itseems to me there are 2 ways I can go here. I could A: Do like most “Photographers” whoare desperate to be noticed do, and beg &plead every “celeb” they can think of for a free shoot in the hope that it willget them some Kudos, or B: Keep doing what I do, and continue to sell myself onthe quality I produce & expect a fee. It will be the latter…

Therapy?

I’ve needed some over recent months. I have to give aspecial shout out to Paul Rowe, or the “Doctor” as he is now moreaffectionately known!. Over recent times I have been becoming increasingly frustrated with the industry and hehas helped me on many occasion find my way back on the right path. Its amazinghow a couple of hours talking crap, drinking coffee and looking at things froma fresh point of view can really change and refocus your outlook. Lately Paulhas been having to put up with my rants on a weekly basis, so much so he’s consideringordering a black leather reclining chair…. So I’d suggest anyone who has hitthe brick wall to give Uncle Paul a shout, I am sure he will be happy to fixyou up, no drugs involved and his rates are awesome! What a guy! Cheers mate.

Before I forget...

Just a reminder to anyone who is not aware of it that Iam running a Glamour Photography & Photoshop tuition day in Rotherham onSat 9^th April. All the details are on the poster below, there’splaces left so if you’d like to come along and learn a little and have a fabday then give me a shout!

and next....

I’ve got some Bonza shoots coming up over the next fewweeks working with some awesome models. Of course I will post the results herefor you all to see! I also am looking forward to shooting some videos for avery talented Makeup Artist at the beginning of April. It is something I amreally looking forward to getting my creative juices flowing with! The brief isa fabulous one, and very unique for a makeup artist. So I am so looking forwardto making our vision come together.

That’s all I got for now folks, if you have been, thanksfor reading!

Cheers

Lance

Didn’t we have a lovely time…..

2011-02-26T22:20:00.004Z

You may remember in my last blog I said I was off to the beachthe blow away the cobwebs! Well the day finally came, we had a blast.

Me and my photographer mate Paul Rowe decided weeks agowe needed to do something to get out of the studio rut. We hit upon going toTalacre in North Wales because it was a location we were both familiar with, itis relatively close by, and it would mean we’d be at the mercy of the Britishwinter weather. Just the tonic we needed.

The dayarrives….

So yesterday came, it’s 5.30 am and me & holly are upand getting ready. My nice Lauren is having Logan at her house in Rotherham,which is convenient as Paul lives in Rotherham, my other model Cassie wasgetting the train to Rotherham, and we were collecting Pauls model Michelle inSheffield on the way to Wales. It’s a nice fresh winter’s morning, but quitemild, no sign of rain, a good start. That said though we had decided and prewarned the models that we would be shooting whatever the weather. We’re running a bit late due to traffic on thewoodhead pass, no change there. We get to Rotherham about 8am and collecteveryone and we are off. I had to pop into Pumpkin Studios on the way past as Ihad left my batteries charging there at the shoot the day before, 1^stschoolboy error but luckily the studio was right on our route..

It took us around 3 hours to get to the location, norush, a nice chilled drive, putting the world to rights as we went, and a quicknip to Tesco for food.. So we arrive at the 1^st location bang on11am. A little place called Mostyn. We are now left to Pauls devices.Paul knows the location well, he has been here before. The plan here is toshoot using the old ship the “Duke of Lancaster” that has been in dry dock herefor years.

So the girls get their kit & we head off following Paul’s lead…2^ndschoolboy error, Paul leads us down the wrong path which is fenced of so noentry, so we have to about turn and rip the piss out of Paul for 5 minutes,usual, thing, is the old grey matter going or what mate? Lol. We finally get onthe right track and find ourselves stood almost right beside a beast of an old passengerferry that has been abandoned & left to rot and make its own grave. Theweather is also on our side. Nice and cool with glimpses of bright sunshine,had a good feeling about this.. So we walk a little further on and cross therocks down onto the breaker water wall, which also worked well as a windbreaker! Cassie has a little slip here& hurt her fingers (She was looking not to smash her skull in!) I wouldhave cried and wanted a plaster cast..but Cassie just got on with it! 1^stproof today that girls are tougher than boys…1 – 0 to the ladies.. So she sitsit out for half an hour while I shoot a set with Holly. The girls then whip offtheir shoes and go bare feet on cobbles, while us boys complain that it’s hardto walk on and hurts our feet! But it did! 2^nd reason today whygirls are tougher than boys, 2 – 0 to the girls :S

So back to Holly, always theplanner, she had a nautical themed outfit and idea…she aint daft… I shot theseon the 40D. Using a bit of fill flash for some. I wanted a shallow depth offield, to really throw the background (ship) out of focus. It was tricky, thesun was in and out every few shots, having the aperture at F5.6 and ISO at 100,I was flicking between 200^th & 1600^th of a secondshutter speeds to compensate for the change in brightness. Big fun, thinkingcap on..Loved it..I decided I wanted to make these look like old postcards, ormore like postcards that had been left out in the sun and faded a little, so Iretouched them all slightly differently!

Once Cassie was ok we shot a set and went for a fashion slantand used the sky line & ship as a backdrop. It worked out well, I would haveloved a bit more cloud, but you can’t have everything…Similar camera settingsused here..

Paul was happily shooting away behind me, beside me, andI was happily walking right though his shot on half a dozen occasions…sorrymate...3^rd schoolboy error… There was lots of banter and it was sorefreshing to be out & about, not stuck between 4 walls.. I could feel the frustrationdrifting away…

The only downer with this location was we couldn’t accessthe beach to shoot from the beach with the ship in the back ground because of adeep gully. It would have meant walking half a mile to get access, and wedecided not to waste any of the day doing that. We spent about an hour or so atthis location, before heading back to the car, and the beach..

Talacrebeach..

We drive the 3 or 4 miles up the coast to Talacre. Youcan park almost on the beach here, which is great! After munching on moresnacks, peeing in the bushes & freshening up, we head down to the beach& the sand dunes. Holly decides to take her suitcase with her & decidedwhat to wear when we get there…Funny watching her drag as 100lb suitcase acrossdeep sand! Did I offer to help? Of course I did, but this is 3^rdproof of the day that girls are tougher than boys!! 3 – 1 to the girls :S… then,a reprieve…as we get on the beach Paul spots something horrendous in the sand….Ashe points it out there’s an almighty Scream form behind us, as all 3 girls seethe monster……It’s a big Jelly Fish!! And By big I mean about 3 foot round, hundredsof the buggers…But at least we finally have reason 1 why boys are tougher thangirls!!! 3 – 1 to the girls…the game isn’t over yet..

We finally arrive at the dunes where me & Paul beginscouting out possible locations while the ladies make a make shift changingarea, which is basically a bit of sand, surrounded by more sand separated by afew bits of grass! Funny..

I shoot a couple of sets here, it’s breezy, and freezing(I think so) Cassie doesn’t think so, dammit, 4 – 1 to the girls..) This isgreat for getting some movement in the models hair, and the grass in the dunes.What sun we now have is directly behind us help with almost perfect lightingconditions, but I still wish we had either a blue sky or dramatic clouds..Iguess hoping for a blue sky in February was a bit much. Again these were shoton the 40D, settings around F5.6, ISO 200, and a shutter speed of 125^th.

Above, Holly Wain & Cassie McDowell

Life’sa beach.

Finally it’s time to hit the beach proper. Holly &Cassie took it in turns at walking along the beach, avoiding the monster Jellyfish that were strewn all over the place. By now it was becoming quite cold & thebreeze was now a wind, still the girls didn’t seem fazed….5 - 1. The sun washidden behind cloud and it was looking like we may only get a few more sets inif we were lucky!

So we spent an hour with them taking it in turns to walk upand down the sand whilst trying to avoid 2 young ladies who had brought theirmad horses out for a play... Again these were shot on the 40D with occasionalfill flash, settings for these shots were around F5/ 6, ISO 200 and a shutterbetween 125^th / 200^th sec.

I can see the pub from here....

By now the ladies were beginning to flag and Paul offeredto treat us all to a nice drink down the pub. I wanted a point back to the boysat this point but as Paul suggested popping down the pub the girls wouldn’t haveit!! So we gathered up our things and headed to the boozer, hoping that in anhour or so we would be spoiled with a decent sunset. As usual in the pub, Hollymanaged to eat enough for us all while maintaining her fab figure, yeah it doesmy head in! It was funny how Michelle’s food order was half an hour late, soCassie gave the manager mush some lady talk & he offered double portionsand a refund! This was the 5^th reason of the day why girls are harder thanboys! 5 – 1 to the girls, Well doneladies! I was now beginning to flag, shouldn’t have stopped, I could easilyhave curled up in the corner and had an hour but I was determined to get onelast set out of the location..By now it was almost 5pm. So we drank up, ate up& the girls made sure Paul got his refund :)

meanwhile back at the beach....

We arrived back at the beach and light was fading fast. Justenough time to get to the lighthouse and shoot an art nude set with Cassieright? Wrong.. You know when you are somewhere and there’s no one around, yetthe minute you want to do something that involves having no one around…peopleshow up? Yeah, that happened. So instead we decided on a silhouette, stylefashion shot. To get this right was a little tricky, Shot on the 40D I tried afew settings before settling on F5.6. ISO 800 and a slight shutter drag of 80^thsecond to get a little movement in the waves and a little bit of extrahighlight in the clouds. I did 2 version, colour and mono, I like both, evenwith the noise…

Holly had also wanted some running shots, but the look wasn’tquite right for what we had envisaged, we would have needed big sun & madclouds really, so we went with a silhouette style look instead. These I shot onthe 40D and the settings were F5.6, ISO 800, shutter 200^th sec.

So we finally had to give in, beaten by the sunset (orlack of it) & the cold, I was gutted, but exhilarated at the same time. Itfelt like a lifetime since I had done anything this exciting on a shoot. Intruth I had done anything that involved rocket science, but just to get out ofthe box and have to think almost every shot. It was awesome…

Timeto go Andy….

So we all trudged off back to the car, knackered, coldbut happy. The 2 hour drive back to Rotherham was fun, Me Holly & Paul satup front putting the world to rights, I don’t thinking that there was as subjectthat we didn’t cover, it was fun! We got back to my brothers in Rotherham tocollect Logan about 8,30pm, he was buzzing and had been spoiled Rotten,. But hewas asleep by the time we got to Shajahans pizza house in town…We finallyarrived home at 10.45pm, after driving 325 miles...and fell into bed. What anAwesome day…

And nowthe party is over?

I want to wake up every morning, throw the gear in thecar, collect the model, and drive to a location and shoot. I am 100% gonna makemyself do this over the next months and years. The freedom that theunpredictable gives you is a buzz that cannot be bettered. No pre conceived ideas,no idea what the lighting will be like, or the location….it brings the best outof you.. Me & Paul are talking about the next one already, maybe abroad…butdefinitely soon..

Here’s a little behind the scenes video from the day, we hopeyou enjoy!

Theday before the morning after…

On Thursday morning while I was too excited to be goingto the beach tomorrow I spent the day shooting a couple of models with thefabulous Kat Whittaker & Sarah Meredith on MUA/ Stylist duties. As ever wewere hosted by the fabulous Mel at Pumpkin. I gave the creative’s carte blancheon what they wanted to do. To keep in with my recent ethos and shoot ethic tostop the boredom & madness I made it all up as we went along. Here’s acouple of sets we did, I hope you likey? I do….

model: lynne sellers of bma models

That’s all I have for now folks! If you have been, thanksfor reading!

Cheers,

Lance

Eventually its "Over", Awesome talent & blowing away the cobwebs....

2011-02-21T20:46:00.004Z

Eventuallyit’s “Over”

So I finally got my 2^nd short film “Over” inthe can. Actually the film was shot last month and released on the 10^thFebbut I’ve been a bit preoccupied with life & no chance to blog, until now.

Allthings happen for a reason.

I was beginning to feel like it was never gonna get made,like it wasn’t meant to be. I wrote the film in ten minutes one afternoon whilstwaiting for Holly & Laura to arrive to do some audio overdubs on “Beautiful”Quite literally the idea just hit me, I used to get that when writing songs,for no apparent reason.. So I just sat typing for 10 minutes, and “Over” was whatcame out of it.

The 1^st scheduled shoot day was way back inNovember, the 20^th to be precise. I remember it well, because I’dput the day aside to shoot my film, and it was my birthday… The day came, I wasall set up, ready to shoot. I had my niece Lauren and her fella Russ on Soundand runner duties. Jenny arrived and was raring to go, but our male part was nowhereto be seen…Then my phone goes off, it’s a text message. Here we go, I knew whatit would say before I read it, and sure enough, the wanker wasn’t coming. Youknow, you do castings, auditions, talk to people, select them, and then theydecide to stay in bed. On the day I was livid, disgusted, but in the long andshort run it was his loss, and our gain. I am no longer bitter, but I will say makesure you don’t waste your time on Mike Biggam..

So this left us deflated, annoyed, having to rescheduleand having to find a replacement male. Rescheduling wasn’t too much hassle. Weall had a few dates we could do. I decided to get in touch with a man whom Ihave worked with on many occasions, who fitted the bill, who if I think aboutit properly the part was certainly written for. The reason I didn’t cast him originallywas out of my desire to work with new faces…that’s a mistake I will not makeagain. So I contacted Laurence Jaques who as luck would have it was up for it& available. Great I thought, now we are cooking.

Then, sods law struck again and Jenny was ill most of theChristmas period, which meant rescheduling again. This time was trickier as everyone’savailability was awkward. Eventually we got a date together, Wednesday 19^thJan 2011.

The day came, Jenny & Laurence arrived & we had aquick chat, introductions and spent 20 minutes talking about the feel of thefilm. Bear in mind Jenny was selected on the strength of her show real, I hadnever heard Jenny deliver the lines, or seen her play the part. Likewise withLaurence, we were all flying by the seat of our pants. That’s the thing I loveabout working with talent, real talent, you give them a sense of what you want& let them bring the thing too you! They don’t need to be squeezed into acorner, being made self-conscious & then holding back, to have theircreativity and talent cut off before they start.

This time I was alone. I had no runners, no sound man, andcontinuity help, just me. So I shot the whole thing myself, including soundchecks, continuity, directing, camera…It was hard work, hard mental work. Ifthere has been one thing I have learned making these films is that I need assistance.

I am ready, I give Jenny one last piece of direction, andstart rolling….At the end of the 1^st take, both me & Laurenceare gobsmacked, blown away! Hearing this character I had written come to lifefor the 1^st time, exactly as I had imagined it, was eerie.. Not onlythat, the delivery was chilling, perfect. So perfect in fact that the 1^sttake is the one you see in the film…

The rest of the shoot followed in the same vein! Laurencedid his bit by being heartbroken, devastated, perfectly in character, without flinchingall afternoon, despite spending much of it laughing and joking between takes. Manypeople have commented “How the hell did he sit still through all that emotion”I don’t know, talent?

Laura Brown was chosen to play the good looking “ex”girlfriendwho is now gay, or who was always gay, but didn’t know it, or however you wantto perceive it, on the strength of her acting ability and the fact that she isa good looking girl. The girlfriend had to be a looker to make the twist more dramatic.Here’s a great couple, good looking guy, beautiful women, apparently happy…thenBoom!

As always Laura did a Stella job.

I was blessed. To have 3 awesome young actors cometogether and work so hard to produce a special little film leaves me quitehumble. I knew they would be good, but I hadn’t counted on them being thatgood, especially Jenny, her performance was superb! Remember there was noaudition, no rehearsals, no run throughs, nothing. That shows this young ladyhas real talent, proper talent. To deliver the character as she did was for meinspiring.

I will definitely be working with these guys in the future.If it’s good enough for Tarantino, it’s good enough for me..

Awesometalent.

Model: Laura Gallagher (BMA Models): MUA Sarah Meredith: Shot at www.pumpkin-studios.com

Recently I have done some shooting with some awesomemodels. Ok, I always do shoots with awesome models but the last few I haveworked with have been a step above. These models came to me through BMA models.I have to say I was super impressed by the quality and ability that the modelsbrought to the game.

Model: Laura Gallagher (BMA Models): MUA Sarah Meredith: Shot at www.pumpkin-studios.com

Proper models I call them. When you shoot wannabe’s, internetor “Aspiring” models, it can be a bit likefixing a car but you have left you best tools at home. So you have to make do& mend…There are very good reasons why most “models” never get taken on byagencies. So it was a real pleasure to work with more uber talent.

Model: Louise Tarver (BMA Models): MUA SKat Whittaker: Shot at www.pumpkin-studios.com

Furthermore I was blessed to work with a proper male model. One who has experience, the look, good clothes, knows what an Iron is for.. Again supplied by BMA Models was Anton Dean, Lovely talented fella.

Model: Anton Dean: MUA Kat Whittaker: Shot at www.pumpkin-studios.com

Thinkingoutside of the box

Shooting over Christmas and the New Year on Location gaveme a new inspired feel for photography. I realised that I no longer wanted tobe cooped up in a studio, no matter how convenient, warm * safe they are. Tohave new exciting backdrops, new situations, having to think your way around alook, lighting set up, it really does separate the men from the boys. RecentlyI have done some studio work, and although I have enjoyed it, the frustrationsof being in 4 walls came back to me within a second of stepping foot in thestudio.. Don’t get me wrong, studios are great, especially if like www.punpkin-studios.com you are allowedto create what the hell you like with the backing of Mel the owner. Mel willencourage you all day to break boundaries, paint things, move things, tryanything once!! But I still finding myself wishing the lights would break orthat the electricity would go off just so I had to think a bit…Walking into astudio, plugging in and being able to create awesome images without thinking Ican do blindfold..

Model: Elisabeth Shahlavi: MUA Kat Whittaker: Shot at www.pumpkin-studios.com

So to combat this frustration I allowed the creative’s Ihave worked with to have a blank canvas and give me what they want. The basic premiseis, Agency model, Awesome creative, wheel the model on set, and now it’s myturn to make it work. I enjoyed this, lots!! It’s not as simple as it sounds.No pre conceived lighting set ups, no idea how the model will look, what thecolours are, nothing until they are standing on set in front of you…For me itwas a way of compromising not being able to move the model over to the otherwindow, or in front of the car coming towards you. It was quite satisfying……

Model: Louise Tarver (BMA Models): MUA SKat Whittaker: Shot at www.pumpkin-studios.com

Blowingaway the cobwebs….

So I got chatting with my old mucka Paul Rowe the otherweek and he was saying the same thing that working in a studio had made his photographypredictable and he felt he was no longer doing his best work and he needed todo something to break out “Blow away the cobwebs” so to speak, as did I. So Isuggested that we chose a couple of models, load up the car and head for thebeach, whatever the weather, let’s just go! Within 5 minutes of the suggestionwe were wishing we were there! The following hours conversation was liberating,it’s amazing how just a little change in emphasis can make the ideas and visionburst out! It’s taken almost 3 weeks for the day to come, but this Friday weare heading to Talacre in North Wales with Just a camera (or 2) each, plenty ofmemory & a couple of fabulous young ladies.

We will most probably spendhalf the day wandering aimlessly round the beach & who knows what we willshoot! Who knows what the weather will be! All I do know is the freedom ofwandering round fighting Mother Nature & trying to be produce some awesomeimages will be the tonic I certainly need. Of course I will post the resultshere next week, whether I fail or succeed for you all to see.

That’s all I got for you today folks, if you have been,thanks for reading!

Cheers

Lance

www.lanceburkitt.com

www.pinklintfilms.com

testing 1, 2, 3..............

2011-01-29T22:42:00.000Z

Testicle 1, 2, 3…

Amie

Test shooting is something I don’t do as much as I’d like.Why? Simple.. I don’t have time, it often makes no commercial sense, it costsme money.. yeh, imagine that! There’s no such thing as free.. And there’s notenough real talent around…

Test shooting is just that. I use it to test ideas, new models/actors, locations, ideas with the intention of using them for a real gigfurther down the road. It is not tfp, it is a test, everything I do on a testis new, untried, untested, hence the test…Yes you will get a few pictures fromthe test if successful, if not we all chalk it down to experience.

Elisabeth

Some people believe test shoots should just be a quick inand out polaroid shot to see if a person is right for a gig…I don’t call thattesting, I call that a casting, or auditioning…

At the test shoot I did yesterday I was asked what my selectionprocess is for testing with models, where do they come from, how did I end upwith such a damn fine list of damn fine models/ actors/ people dying to workwith me?

Mmmm I thought, …There’s a few reasons why my list is sogood & so short…

Laura

I am very good at what I do, and have an exceptionalreputation for quality, and being a nice guy. I have worked with a lot of top professionals,and word spreads I guess. I get referrals all the time, from agencies, social networking,friends of people I have worked with, people who stumble across me & mywork. In with these are occasionally awesome people.

I turn down flat probably 90% of the people who ask me for atest shoot. Why? Most of them are trying to pass the test shoot off as aportfolio building exercise, and should be paying me & the rest are just not anywhere close to being real model/ actor material. My reasoning here can be down to looks, inexperience,cluelessness, ignorance, arrogance or just good old general thick as shitness.

Amie

At the minute I probably get 10 requests a day like this theabove… as soon as I say no test, but I’ll shoot you a book for £££ amount, theymostly disappear back under the stone from which they came..

Of the remaining 10%, the ones who made it onto my definitely/maybe list, probably 5% actually ever actually get selected for a test. Youhave to be exceptional.

I can’t really explain the criteria I use for selecting testsubjects except to say that there’s a quality controller who lives in my head,and over the years he has become awesome at his job and it has made him an hardfaced bastard!! I often can’t remember why I decided to put someone on thedefo/ maybe list, but I do know that because of my quality controller & hisultra- high standards & my own expectations that if they made it that farthere was a good reason why they did.

Elisabeth

It’s not enough to be handsome, fit or beautiful. You have to have something else.

Here are a few pictures of the last bunch of lovely ladiesI tested with yesterday. By exceptional I guess I mean you will as a minimumhave to be on par with these ladies below. Not in terms of looks, but in termsof ability, professionalism, and being exceptional…

Laura

If you want a test shootwith me, look at these ladies, look at their appearance, their performance,their Aura, if you think you come close,I may add you to my list, if you don’t, and be honest with yourself here, thenyou are wasting my time, and yours by asking. This doesn’t mean I won’t shootyou, it just means I will not test shoot you. My advice is book a portfolio shoot, and learnsomething as well as getting great pictures, for a very reasonable price.

Amie

Special thanks to David Massen for his assistance on this shoot, and the Kat Whittaker for her awesome make up, hair & styling.

That’s all I got for today folks, if you have been, thanksfor reading..

Cheers, Lance

skint but want great images? Technophobe & bullshit....

2011-01-16T19:33:00.015Z

I remember blogging over a year ago HERE about equipment & aboutmy frustration with the total bollox assumption by most that you can’t be any good unless you havethe latest all singing and dancing kit! Well the subject has reared its uglyhead again the last few days.

Firstly have had quite a few people in the last few weeks ask me what kit I use, genuinely thinking that they could put out pictures like mine if they upgraded there kit. When I tell them what I use, it is always followed by a stunned silence, because 9 times out of 10, there kit is already "Better" than mine.. Then I was asked to partake in a Photo podcast which unfortunately turnedout I couldn’t do because of a technical hitch my end. The Pod cast was to discuss the latest cameras’ and techie stuff Photo related.It’s a great show which I hope to partake in before long.

Those of you who follow my drivel here will know I am a rank technophobe. I don’t follow the trends.I don’t worship the latest camera & lenses in the belief that having them will somehow magically make myimages better, I don’t buy into that shit...But that aside I thought I’d dosome research anyway, so I didn’t sound like a complete bell end on the podcast.

What I found made my fucking teeth itch. Sure theres some cool stuff out there, some of the high end stuff is awesome, but would owning it make me a better photographer? Simple answer, no, it wouldn't, and it won't make you one either..

So I thought I’d just do a quick blog & revisit thesubject breifly to let all of you out there who have no money, but plenty of talent know thatyou can in fact shoot awesome images, for yourself or for publication, with very basic kit.

To prove my point, here’s a list of my current kit, when Isay list, it reads more like a lollipop stick joke, without the punch line to most.....

Canon 7d (£1200New, mainly used for filming)

Canon 40D (2^ndhand, EBay, £400 in 2008)

28mm – 90mm EFCanon SLR lense (Old type, fits film SLR, £40 eBay, 2^nd hand)

28mm – 80mm EFCanon SLR lense (Old type, fits film SLR, £40 e bay. 2^nd hand)

Sigma Ef –530 DGST speedlite (Hardly use it. £120 new (gift))

Couple ofpolarizing filters (£5 er eBay.)

When in the studio I shoot tethered (with a £3 cable not Radio set up)to a Dual core Laptop running windows 7 (Vista until recently) with 1.5gig ram.It’s worth about £200 at a push.

That’s it, my whole kit...

Now I know all those “Pro’s” of you out there will bepissing yourselves, hahaha, not even an “L” series lense? Haha this guy can’t bea pro…..Bollox to you.

I continue to see absolutely rank awful,badly composed out of focus,none colour balanced images online, in magazines,they’re bloody everywhere, mostly shot by people with more kit than talent. These are images that I know were taken on equipmentthat would make the average person bankrupt, or at the very least fallbehind on the repayments..

Here’s how it is folks. The quality you produce hasabsolutely nothing to do with the kit you have, but what talent, vision & skill you have atyour disposal.

Stop believing what magazines & websites tell you. Stop listeningto that guy on that forum who is a “pro” and who’s images are at best ropey,but because he talks a good game he must be right?....

Wrong.

What makes things worse is after these guys with all the kit& no idea how to use it have taken the shot, they then proceed to murderthe image further by either A: Not retouching at all, B: Badly retouching them themselves, or C: Farmingthem out to someone else to badly retouch. It seems that people with the moneyto buy all the kit have neither the brains nor the talent to use it.

I will prove my point in a few pictures below, along withthe details of their creation.

1st off here's one of my latest images, in fact from the last shoot I did with the fab Reem.

Here's the kit details.

Canon 7D/ 28 - 90 standard kit lense.

Now I shot this in a window, with minimal available light. I don't use a light meter. Why? They are a waste of time, and over the years I have come to trust my eyes, its a bit like playing music by ear..So I know I want a shallow dof, which is fine due to the ammount of available light. Now the good thing about the 7D is it's much improved ISO rating. So I set the aperture to F5.6 and boost the ISO up to 640, without the worry of creating any noise. This means I can use a nice fast shutter speed (125th/ sec), and keep the image nice & sharp. So I set up, one test shot and we are running. It's a pretty simple process when you know your kit, its capabilites, but in the back of your mind knowing the tweaks in PS that you can do to give you that extra edge.

For what I do in my retouching, please see the tutorials at the end of this blog below.
Now, tell my why I needed a £2,500 camera & over £1,000 lense to get this image? I didn't.

Here's one I took back in 2006, about 3 months into my photography career...

Misha:

Kit used:

Canon 10D£400 inc lense, (bought 2^nd hand in 2006)
Lense 35 - 80 standard kit lense

I shot this outside of the studio, against one of the old stones walls. Again it's a pretty simple shot. It was a summer evening and the sun was quite high still but not so bright, so perfect for good exposures. As ever, no light meter, just a good think and a few test shots. Now the old 10D had its limits in the best of light, but I knew them, so I knew I'd get a bit of noise aorund the shadows, but I could live with that. F stop of F5.6. I notice on the exif data I dropped the shutter to 90th/ sec..That was my compromise I guess. Retouching involved some slight eye brightening, a bit of skin blur, some sharpening, and a slight desaturation.

Now, tell my why I needed a £2,500 camera & over £1,000 lense to get this image? I didn't.

Here is an image of my Mrs Holly. We shot this in our frontroom at home in 2009.

Here is a list of the kit that was used in its creation.

6ft x 3ftpiece of old blue colorama (Pinned up on the curtain rail)

1 x 100 wattfalcon eyes flash head (£40 on eBay)

1 x 12” homemadestainless steel beauty dish (£8 from Ikea, plus a bit of gaffer tape)

Radio triggerkit (£7 on eBay in 2006, still running on same battery)

Canon 40D

Canon 28 –90 standard lense.

Holly didher own make up for this, of which she did a great job.

I approachedthis shot like I do all my work. I know what I want exposure / aperture/composition wise before I start. So I know I want to shoot this at a shallowdepth of field, to give this colourful make up & fabulous face a real focalpoint. I know from experience where I need the light, and at what power I needit. So I set that up.

So I put thelight in position, and 1^st I set my colour balance. I get Holly tohold a piece of standard A4 white printer paper and set the colour balance.Making sure of course I only take a shot of the paer, and there’s no colours bleedinginto the shot.

Light set:Above to the right, facing down, watching catch light in the eye.

I take 2test shots to check the exposure, no light metre, no adjusting the light 15times, no anything, 2 test shots and we are ready.

I take 5 pictures,I use the 2^nd image.

The wholeprocess has taken a little over 5 minutes from start to finish. Ok, half anhour including Holly doing her make up.

Now, tell my why I needed a £2,500 camera & over £1,000 lense to get this image? I didn't.

For what I do in my retouching, please see the tutorials at the end of this blog below.

Next are 2pictures of the lovely Emma Watts. Below is the details of the kit used to shootthis.

Shot at myOld Studio in Mossley, KIT used:

1st shot:

Red Colorama(30ft x 10ft) (£10 off eBay, slight use)

Main Light:200 watt head £50 eBay)

1.5 m Octagonsoft box (£50 eBay)

1 x 100 wattfalcon eyes for rim light

1 x Silverbounce brolley (£20 eBay)

Radio triggerkit (£7 on eBay in 2006, still running on same battery)

Canon 10D

Canon 28 – 80standard lense.

2nd shot:

Canon 10D

Canon 28 – 80standard lense.
Window.

Shot 1 is a prettysimple set up. The main light to my left, on full power about 4ft form themodel. The rim light about 4ft behind the model, set to half power with a bounce brolley. I tookabout 30 shots and could have used them all. The whole shoot took about 15minutes from start to finish, including set up & make up.

Shot 2 is even simpler. Stand the model in the window, set your camera to what your eyes tell you, set up the camera, couple of test shots, shoot. The 2nd image is one of my most published images.

Now, tell my why I needed a £2,500 camera & over £1,000 lense to get this image? I didn't.

For what I do in my retouching, please see the tutorials at the end of this blog below.

One more foryou here, this is Aime, who I shot on location in Manchester with the restof Skyrah Kane last Summer.

Here’s alist of kit used for the shoot.

Canon 40D

Lense 70 – 300 Sigma DG lense.(Now sold, about £120 new)

Sigma Ef –530 DGST speedlite

So for ashot light this important thing is position your model so as to A: get maximumlight in the place you want, and B: Make sure they are positioned so your compositionsaren’t compromised. I was luckyto have a fab location that I had scouted, so I knew how it looked & wherethe light would be. I set the colour balance to Flash, although I am shootingin sunlight I know I don’t want the models skin which is dark to appear blue,or orange depending on which setting I use. I know from experience to use theflash selection. I know I want a shallow dof, to add drama, so I set the cameraup at F6.3, ISO 200 and a shutter speed of 200^th/ sec. I take a few test shots, set the checking the exposuresetting the Flash to TTl and let it do its own metering. I directed the flashto just glance the model, so as not to wash her out, or cause awful shadows.

As you cansee, it works perfect. No metering back & forth, no expensive gadgets, nobullshit, just talent & know how.

Now, tell my why I needed a £2,500 camera & over £1,000 lense to get this image? I didn't.

For what I do in my retouching, please see the tutorials at the end of this blog below.

So you see from the few examples here, over the years I have more or less used thesame, low end kit. I have had images shot with this kit published in Many UKPapers & magazines. So you tell me, where was the need for the latest, allsinging, all dancing, bank breaking kit? There wasn’t.

Forget about the kit....

So if you are sitting at home with just a basic kit, andusing that as an excuse to put out poor images then you need to go and getyourself felt. If I can do it, anyone can. Get past the kit thing, go out andshoot your ass off and learn & be honest with yourself. I know the limits of my gear. I know what I need to doduring the shoot and in post-production to get the best out of my images. Howdo I know this? Hard work, and lots and lots and lots of trial & error.

So far as the retouch goes, here’s some links below to simpleprocesses I use on most of my images. Sometimes I will use then all, sometimesone, sometimes a combination of a few. I know instinctively when I take a shotwhat processes I will need to finish them off. And in case you are thinking, arh, his pics are only any good cos he “Shops”um, You are wrong!! I would still have to do these same retouches even if I shotwith the latest bankrupting gear, because as of yet, even they are not up to scratchfor the output I desire.

I Hope this will help some of you come out of your shell, andencourage those of your with 5 grand’s worth of kit in your bag to eBay it and learn how toshoot 1^st.

If you have been, thanks for reading

Cheers

Lance

Retouching tutorials.

slow start, secret agents, planning, love my job, it aint "over"

2011-01-12T16:28:00.005Z

Slow start

Well I hope the New Year is treating you all well? It’s beengreat for me….Apart from the bleak, freezing cold, god awful weather, the Vat increaseand the distinct lack of anything good occurring anytime soon …..Otherwise it’sbeen a blast…..:P

Now I’ve cheered you up….:)

Had a slow start to the New Year, slow in terms of doinganything practical. I’ve been flat our doing my usual bout of chasing jobs,talking to magazines, harassing editors & the like, making inroads. But Ihave only just yesterday (11^th) done my 1^st shoot of theyear. More about that later.

Secret agents……

It became apparent to me 3 years ago that if I was gonna seeany signs of big success I was going to have to pitch myself to the big boys. NowI am not daft, I know my limits, I know where my strengths lie, and it is notin self-promotion. Unlike all the adverts you see for “Photographers” around theplace, I do not have sales experience…. So this leads me to the Agent business.All the successful, and by that I mean really successful photographers, not theones shooting 12 covers a year for free, or constantly testing for model agenciesfor free, I mean the real ones who are working with the ad agencies, topmagazines, serious paid commissions, have a photo agent, or two… So I havespent the last 2 years attempting to convince various agents to take a chanceon me. As yet I have failed, why? Who knows? The feeling I get throughconversations I have had is that there are just not enough “Big” jobs to goaround, and that they want to protect the photographers already on their books,makes sense, I’d kind of expect them to do that. It’s not that my work doesn’t fit,or isn’t good enough, I have been told as much by them, but I just cannot seemto crack the egg….

Maybe my face doesn’t fit?…Maybe because I don’t hang out inswanky London/ New York/ Paris eateries & wear an Armani suit puts me outof the game….Maybe it’s because I like to be honest with people, shout out of my bigNorthern gob? Maybe I need to learn to kiss more ass, who knows…

What I do know is I shall continue in this endeavour. Icannot succeed in my cunning plan without the assistance of the right people inthe right place. So it is 100% down to me to keep making awesome images, andbanging down that door….until it opens and welcomes me in, if I fail, it’s myown fault..

It’s all in theplanning:

Planning films, photo shoots & stuff takes time, lots oftime, and I have no patience, at all. Although I am slowly learning that I needto have some, as we speak I have none. I want to do everything now, but know I can’t.So I spend half of my time buzzing about stuff I am going to do, and the otherhalf wound off the clock because I can’t do it yet.. Frustrating. I have madethings profoundly more difficult for myself by not allowing myself to go intothe studio. This presents its own problems. Booking, hiring, lending, beggingstealing & borrowing locations is a total headache. I need a bitch (Haven’tI said that before?) The main headache I have found is that people are ignorant,totally fuckin ignorant.. I am polite, to the point. I always replyimmediately, if not sooner. Why can’t others be the same? They are sat at theirdesk, they’ve read my e mail & sent me the read receipt. So why then does it take them days, weeks,months and sometime never to give me a simple answer? 9 times out of 10 all I needis “Yes” or “No” but rarely do I get anything. It’s not like I am asking theMillion Dollar question, where they need to phone a friend or ask the fucking audience,just type “Yes or No!!” or even “Fuck off” would do, but rarely do I even get areply. The other problem I have run into is that places in general are run byglorified Sales People touting themselves as Managers. Oh I had it 3 times overthe last 6 weeks. “Yeh sure you can use the location” only then after I’veplanned the shoot does the low life send me a pathetic e mail explaining howafter speaking to”The Boss” it’s now a no goer. Pal, If you didn’t have theauthority to give the go ahead in the 1^st place, why give it? Goback to sweeping the floor & leave the thinking to someone with a brain. Itseems the world is full of glorified retards…

One place I have found to be extremely helpful and the totalopposite of the above is the ISIS owned, and Kings Sturge Managed IslingtonWharf. Glen Siddall & his staff have been 100% awesome to me & my crew.It has been nice after all the frustrations & let downs with locations overthe last month to work with some proper professionals. Cheers guys.

On days like these Ilove my job…….

Yesterday I did a fab little shoot with the lovely Reem. Itwas a great shoot to start the year off with. I had originally planned to ShootReem In December. But a combination of factors, not least being arsed around bylocations meant we had to put it back until now. I have worked with Reembefore, as she is part of the fabulous Skyrah Kane ladies who I shot lastsummer.

Reem is a very talented lady, she sings, she dances, she models, anddoes her own Make up, Hair & Styling too! This made the shoot prettysimple. She has a fabulous look. She can go from looking quite fierce & intimidatingto happy & playful in a flash.

Having a versatile face is one attribute alot of models never get. It’s not enough to be beautiful, you have to know howto use that beauty with confidence. I have photographed many a pretty face whohave not been the least bit photogenic, who turned in to blank pieces of wood andwho can appear ugly on camera, but not today. I could have happily shotheadshots for the few hours we were there without getting fed up. Reem had also put a lot of thought into herlook, even going so far as to having her own outfits designed & made by hermum, which I think is just awesome!

We shot 4 sets, in around 2 hours. Now allowingfor Makeup & Outfit changes, set changes & set up that is bloody fast!I like shoots like this. Turn up, create, and go home happy. No messing about,no waiting around, no anything other than creation. I find it extremely therapeutic.I can get in my zone, ideas just flow, and it becomes so easy.

Retouching was easy too. Reem’s complexion is great, her makeup& styling was fab, so there was very little to retouch. The main part ofthe retouching was to boost the view through the windows, which was quite grey& overcast. Otherwise, a levels check, a little Gaussian blur on the beautyshots, a boost in the curves & that was pretty much it. I hope you enjoythe photos folks.

On this image below, the purists of you out there will bescreaming school boy error. Why? I left the reflection of the soft box in thewindow in. Why? there’s something organic about it, it was part of what went into create the image, so I left it in….Sue me….:)

It still aint overtill it’s “Over”

So next up shoot wise is my 2^nd little film “Over”Again due to the weather, work commitments, illness the shoot has already been putback twice. But I am hopeful of finally shooting it next Wednesday. The cast isgreat, so it will be great. It’s not as grand as “Beautiful” was in terms of length,story, involvement, but this film is definitely more intense, and there’s anice little twist at the end. Photography wise I have to get it right or itcould look shit. It’s a challenge I cannot wait to face. So I’ll be spendingthe next week getting my head back into the zone of the film, so I can do itultimate justice.

So that’s all for this one folks, oh and just to say I amdefo gonna be doing some Photography & Photoshop workshops this year, so I’llgive you the details on them as soon as I have them.

In the meantime folks if you have been, thanks for reading!

Cheers, Lance

www.lanceburkitt.com

the long and winding road........

2010-12-28T22:13:00.009Z

WARNING!!! RANTS & A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE BELOW. IF YOU ARE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION, BEST YOU FUCK OFF NOW....:)

I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth…

I got askedjust the other day how long I’d been shooting for. When I said 5 years I got alook of total shock, like the guy was expecting me to deliver the old cliché“Oh I was born with a camera in my hand” I wasn’t, I been shooting sinceSeptember 2005. The guy remarked that my work was awesome and you’d think I’dbe doing it forever. Now whilst this is very flattering, to me it’s not abouthow long you’ve been doing something, It’s about whether you are actually anygood at it, and that can be very subjective.. I know lots of people who make aliving out of taking photos, people who make a lot more money than me, but whoin my opinion wouldn’t know a in focus correctly lit image is if shagged themup the arse.. I know people who have been shooting for 30 or 40 years and whostill haven’t even grasped the basics, seriously, but yet they still get hired!…andby the same token I know some awesome newbie photographers who should beearning big & receiving plaudits, but who aren’t. I guess the fact that Iwas born with talent & I have worked my arse off made me pick it upquicker, I do know what a good photo actually looks like... I’ve come torealise though commercial success has got nothing to do with how good you are,but how long and brown your tongue is, or how cheaply you will sell your soul…..more about this later…

Anyway, thisguy asking how long I’d been shooting for got me thinking, have I ever lookedback from where I started & compared it to where I am now? The short answerwas no, I haven’t, I try not to look back. So for a laugh I set about goingback to my very 1^st images I did, and coming full circle to mylatest shoots, just to see if I could see how I have developed, learned,changed, grown as an artist….I was astounded….It was mind blowing! I hadn’trealised just how much I have shot, how many people, places, just a massiveamount of images ranging from awful to magical…It’s been a ride folks, let metell you…

The long& winding road….Once upon a time, in a town not too far away……

Being acreative type, Photography felt like a saviour for me. I’d had to quit being amusician because of hearing problems in the late 90’s, but had mooched about atit still. But now it was no longer a career, just a memory. And although I hadfound a few jobs I had enjoyed the creative spirit in me was suffocating. Ithen suffered 2 personal tragedies in 2004. We lost my mum & sister tocancer within a few months of each other. Cancer is a bastard…the whole dealfucked me up. In the years that followedI went from crisis to crisis, trying to find my way. I am not sure if I amthere even yet. The truth of the matter is, if I hadn’t got Holly to supportme, which she has done a faultless job of, I wouldn’t be here now writing this,and I certainly wouldn’t be doing what I am doing now. I owe everything toHolly…

So what’s photography got to do with theprice of cheese?

I wasdesperate for something to focus my creative mind on. Holly had begun Modellingin 2005 and I had been driving her & chaperoning her on shoots for a fewmonths, and having a blast in doing so. I got to sit & watch shoots, howthey worked, and it intrigued me. I had always enjoyed taking photos andshooting home movies, but I had never considered it as a life choice, until thesummer of 2005. I began then to wish it was something I could do. So inSeptember 2005 Holly sold some of her stuff, enough to get me a dirt cheapdigital camera, not even an SLR, it was a Fuji Finepix s602 zoom, an e bayspecial. It was a shit camera in truth, but it was enough for me to beginplaying and seeing if I could put what I had learned from watching others, andthe ideas I had in my head in to practice. I was lucky, I had my own muse inHolly, she could have said no way mate, you’re shit, but she didn’t…she allowedme to take some horrendous images for months on end, all the time encouragingme to keep at it. I continued to go on shoots with her, watching &learning, and in my arrogance believing I could do it better. It took meprobably over 6 months to even dare shoot beside anybody else, so low was myconfidence at this point. But I had the bug, I was bitten. If I wasn’t planninga shoot, I was watching one, or editing one, or something.

Around Christmas 2005 Holly suggested we should set up atStudio in town, as there wasn’t one locally, and she could use it as a base formodelling & I could use it as a place to learn & maybe earn a few quidfrom hiring it out. The idea of it struck me, but I didn’t yet have the balls,or the money. In early 2006, swayed by some dire personal circumstances, we bitthe bullet & rented a rundown old Room in an old school & called it astudio. From there, I began my fledgling Photography career without any money,and equipment, and any clue…just the help of a few great friends, and arekindled faith in my own ability.

One of the 1st images I ever took, Shot at home on Fuji S602, Lit with a Hollogen heater & on board flash, over edited in Paintshop pro.

Studio64 Mk1: Rotherham. 2006.

My 1ststudio shoots were at Swinton Bridge workshops, in April 2006. With No gear,and no idea, I set about establishing myself & the studio. I must have beencrazy, or delusional.. The studio name came from the post code S64, simple,again Holly's Idea. It was all made possible with the help of a very nice man,local Photographer Paul Rowe who Holly had worked with on a few occasions. Paullent me his lights & some studio equipment, and more importantly began tohire the studio on a regular basis.

If it hadn'thave been for Paul the studio would never have got off the ground, nor would mycareer. This coupled with some suggestions and ideas on running events at thestudio from another one of our friends (Photographer & Digital artist, andmassive inspiration) Chris Chedgzoy, we began to get people through the door,although I still had no idea what the fuck I was doing...It also occurred to meat this point, neither did most of the people who were looking to hire thestudio. So I pretty quickly realised If I was going to make a success ofany of this, I needed to become bloody good, bloody quickly. To this end Ibegan shooting anyone and everyone. I arranged test shoots for models to go onthe studio register, to kill 2 birds, 1 for me to practice, and 2 in the hopeof attracting Photographers to hire the place via our register of good localmodels. This was a winning formula for the latter, but man I shot some horrendouswannabe models….

Here's somemore of the good models from those early register shoots.

Top: Karlie, Suzy Q, Again allthese images above were taken on the Fuji.

Above, Misha another fab model who I would go on to work with many times & do some of my best work with over the years

Above: Brooke (Misha) & Alica James & Emma C shot on a Canon 10d.

As you cansee, my photography style and confidence are starting to grow here, even daringsome art nude & Jelly Babies, quality idea, no? What not even the selectivecolour? Oh deary me….

2006, Becky J aged 15 who I would go on to do some of my best stuff over the years..

Icontinued to learn & realised if I was going to stand above the rest, alongwith getting much better behind the camera I was also going to have to get muchbetter at editing the images. So I set about doing just that. Practicing, trial& error, watching tutorials, and learning from those who I knew where shithot at it (Chris Chedgzoy) to name but one. Over the months I could see meretouching & workflow were improving. I was frustrated though by a distinctlack of decent computer gear. Times were hard. Running Photoshop CS2 ona 233mhz pc with – 256 meg of ram and a monitor off a 1980’s ep of Doctor whowasn’t helping..

Aroundthis time Holly began to work for the Les Harris drag racing team, and I wasasked on occasion to supply images for them, which I was grateful to do. Itmeant I got to shoot some awesome machines, and being a petrol head I was likea pig in shit. It also meant I got a few nice publications with them.

I alsobegan to have some success getting my images in the lads mags. At this time Iwas predominantly shooting glamour, so the lads’ mags were an obvious outlet.

Above, Brooke, Holly from the Car & Girls Publication, Nancy from a Zoo Mag features

If there isone frustration I have looking back, it's the ropey retouching. Retouching thatlooked OK on the PC & Monitor I had at the time, but must have looked shitto everyone else.....and to me now..

We’d holdgroup days and events to earn a few quid, make friends. These were some prettygood times in truth. It never felt like work, it still doesn’t…

Holly, Vik, and the gang from our Sept 2006 gathering...

And Lloyd Nwagboso, some of my best work during 2006.

Studio 64 Mk2: Manchester:

In 2007 withthe recent birth of our Son Logan we decided to move to Manchester in Search ofbigger & better things. Holli wanted to pursue her acting career & Rotherhamis no place to do that. So we waved goodbye to the studio in Rotherham and setup again in a small town called Mossley, about 10 miles from Manchester. Thestudio was in an old Cotton mill & was cheap & cheerful, and it did thejob, just about anyway. I continued in the same vein, trial & error,learning, but now I was starting to find my feet and the quality of my work wassustaining a good level, which only the occasional turkey creeping in. I notice I also started using the S64 photography tag around this time...

Sisters Alicia & Kay, Sibbligs 2007

Holly, glamourous as ever

Me dabbling with Digital Art, Holly in the studio

Art nude phaze summer 2007

Model: Kerrie Croft - Bednarski

Model: Kelly from Stafford.

Singer, X Factor runner up 2006, Kimberlley Howlett

Studio 64 MK2 waiting area.

I alsobegan holding more regular lighting & photo shop workshops. I managed toget a slightly better PC & monitor set up now too & my retouching beganto improve massively. I also began experimenting with digital art ideas, something that would help improve my understanding of retouching no end. You can see in my images form here on in how I liked to dabble with digital art occasionally. I also tried my hand and got proficient in all genres of Photography, something else that has stood me in good stead. I was also beginning to get some recognition in the media,with a few decent publications this year.

models from top. Holly Wain, Misha, Rachel Martin & Sarah Longbottom, Sarah went on to be a playboy model..

It was this year that made me realize that as nice as glamour was, I really wanted to be a fashion & Beauty Photographer mostly. So In 2008 I would set about becoming one...

Holly, 27th October 2007. Shot on a canon 10d.

In 2008 we upgradedthe studio and moved down the hall to a bigger place, with some natural light. Just prior to this I did a day test shooting with some mdoels old & new. We had a fab time from memory, just a good fun shoot with some lovely ladies:

L/R: Becki J, Sarah Longbottom, Rachel Martin, Holly Wain , Misha, shotin Studio 64 Mk2.

Studio 64 MK3: 2008

Thereason for this move was mainly because the regular hirers at the time kept on harassingme and suggesting it would be a great move, and they would hire the studio more…intruth they hired it less, so it was a commercial failure, but in terms of whatI learned combining available light & flash, it was the best thing I couldhave done. You can see in the images below the studio was a fab space.

And some images from shoots at the new studio.

Holli chillin on the settee, a little bit more digital art, I am always learning

Emma Watts 2008, has gone on to be a top UK glamour model

Emma Watts 2008, Image published in Daily star 2008.

Above, Victoria Basford another fabulous model who I would go onto work with lots

Above, Misha, 2008.

Wheneverpossible I would shoot with the natural light, the truth is you just can’t beatit. I had a fab summer shooting some awesome models in there, as you can seefrom the pics here featuring Holly & Becky.

Above: Becky Lockwood, FHM Hi street honey runner up 2008

I also spent the summer doing more family sittings than Iever wanted too. Although they are nice & help pay the bills, I realisedquickly that this wasn’t what I wanted to do in my photography career.

Towards theend of 2008 I began to grow weary of having a studio at all. For many reasons,not least because of the lack of hire, but mainly because it was an abject painthe arse. The location was in fact poor, the building was knackered, I wouldhave to run shitty little group sessions & days just to pay the rent.Although I appreciated the regulars some of the people who would hire the placewere just awful people, dirty old men to be precise, I no longer wanted to bea party to it, it just wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to be travelingabout, shooting in different places, not apologizing to clients for draggingthem in to the back of beyond to cold damp studio. There was no way I couldafford a place in the city, and no way was I was gonna get into debt for thepleasure. So me & holly had a good chat about it and she agreed that I hadoutgrown it, it was time to move on.

Freedom of the city… 2009.

2 muses, Becki J & Misha

So now I wasfree to shoot wherever I needed, it was the best decision I could have made. Itried to do more location work, which is extremely difficult in this climate, Ialso sampled some poor studios around the city, I began to lose all faith instudios..until Mel stepped in and offered Pumpkin, he saved my faith inStudios.. So I began shooting exclusively at Pumpkin from about April 2009. That was of course when I wasn't shooting at home...Being spoiled with a model muse for a mrs, who just happenes to be an awesome MUA too. We shot at home loads, I've done some of my best work at home. It taught me to do away with all the bollox that goes with a studio, and just use my imagination, and the basics, which is more often than not just one light, a home made beauty dish or the like, or just the window light. or a combo of both. Anyway, here's a sample of the stuff me & holly have done form home over the last few years...

all images above shot at hoome using 40 watt falcon eyes lights, home made beauty dishes, window light. Shot on a Canon 40d. Model & Make up Holly Wain

Thisis where I began to produce my best work. I took this ethic back into the studio. Pumpkin studios is so friendly, welcoming andjust perfect really. You can just walk in, play to your heart’s content, and be100% encouraged by Mel. Having the use of pumpkin allowed me to do some shootsthat would otherwise never have happened, I am eternally grateful to Mel forthis.

I spent mostof 2009 improving my craft & trying to get to a place I was happy with, whichwas a stupid thing to try really as I am never happy, well, maybe for a fewdays after the shoot, then I want to push on again. I spent the majority of2009 testing ideas and shooting content for my exhibition on September. Iblogged about the exhibition before, here http://lanceburkitt.blogspot.com/2009/09/recent-exhibition-brain-farts-keep-on.html

I also did manage to shoot much more onlocation this year than ever before, and loved it. Some examples of my roamingcan be seen below.

Misha on location in Manchester

Above & Below. Amy Adshead, Pumpkin Studios

Above, Holly Wain at Pumpkin, Below outside the Hilton, Manchester

Holly at Pumpkin with Porsche

Above, Imani at Pumpkin

all 4 above, Misha at Pumpkin, bottom digital art.

I alsoproduced my 1^st calendar this year, which I also blogged about here…http://lanceburkitt.blogspot.com/2009/09/calendar-shoot-progress.htmlI also had the shoot filmed, something which sadly due to lack of commitment fromthe film maker means I doubt that it will ever see the light of day, shame.

Atthe end of 2009 I was happy with the quality of my work, but I still wanted topush on. If I look at the quality of work I was producing during 2009 to what Iwas producing 3 years earlier in 2006, the gulf in quality is massive. In 2007I thought I was getting there, but it isn’t really until 2009 that I think mywork starts to really be 1^st class. But I knew I could still dobetter…

And that was the year that was…

So with the beginningof 2010 I did a few test shoots to find some awesome quality models to workwith on various brain farts I would be having throughout the year. I also wantedto find an awesome Make up / Hair Clothing stylist to work with, because ifthere was one thing I had found hard in the previous years it was that, findingthis person was proving impossible…. Then I struck gold..

In January Idid a day of testing, 2 models, and a couple of MUA’s. One of the MUA’s didn’t show, the one who did, Vicki Oultonstepped up and did the make up for both of the models. Not only was her workfab, but she was so easy to get on with, full of ideas, and she got me…..Wehave worked together since. Some of the best work I have done this year wouldnot have happened, or been as successful if Vicki Had not been involved. I also did a bit of testing with the Harden Twins, and worked again With Laurence Jaques. January was a very good month...

above: Branka:

Above: Sara & Kirsty

Above: Hannah Kates

Laurence Jaques.

March 2010. Thebiggest project I set myself not just this year, but ever, was to get on the Photographerlist at Vogue. Not an easy task considering the stature of Photographers theyuse. But this is where I wanted to be, the level of work I believe I am worthy of.So I set about doing just that. I spoke to Vicki about my aim, she was well upfor it,. I also booked in 2 quality models that I knew would nail it for me,Steph Hopwood & Amy Kitchingman.

The premisewas simple, style & shoot something that looks like it came out of thismonth’s Vogue. So we did. You can see the results for yourself below. Vicki hadsome fabulous help from MUA/ Stylist Amy Crank too.

I then got aset of pro lab prints, wrote a nice cover letter and mailed it off to AlexanderSchulman at Vogue, crossed everything & waited. To be honest I didn’t expectto hear anything, considering how busy she must be. Imagine my utter shock whenjust 3 days later I got a personal reply….Areply that said thanks for the lovely images, and your name has been passed onto our art department..I was a little stunned, ok very stunned, but deep down Iknew that I was worthy. I have spoken with Alexandra since who assures me myday will come, I just have to be patient, so here I am, being patient…

Heres a video that accompanied the shoot....

The rest of2010 seems to be a blur. Where did the year go? I think I have forgotten what Ihave done this year…Oh yeh, hang on, brain fart…pictures below will help.

Above: Jessica Ogunyemi: MUA Vicki Oulton

Above: Victoria Fairbrother:

Above: Cassie. MUA KAt Whitakker

Worlds Sexiest Team.

Above: Carole Kikeba

Above: Skyrah Kane, Eliz, Natasha, Reem, Aimee

Above: Holly Wain, Victoria Fairbrother, Tina Broderick, for Lazarian, MUA Vicki Oulton, Pumpkin Studios

Above: Monika, MUA Rebeccas Jayne White

Above: Liv Cunliffe, Miss South Yorkshire 2010. MUA Vicki Oulton

Above: Rachel Martin.

Full circle:

So my lastshoots of the year started off by taking me full circle. In December 2006, the20^th to be precise. Holly was pregnant with our boy Logan who wasdue any day and so she came to work at the studio in Rotherham with me for theday in case she went into labour. Hiring the studio that day was Paul Rowe. Justas Paul was wrapping up, Holly went into labour and Logan was born a few hourslater.. great times. Cut to last week, 4 years later & the 19^th December 2010 and wheredo I find myself? In Rotherham, at a hire studio belonging to none other thanMr Paul Rowe. It’s funny how things pan out. I would like to say anothermassive thanks to Paul, A for helping us get going all those years ago, and Bfor being the best studio host your could wish for…Here’s some fab images I gotfrom the days testing at Rowe Photographic Studios, Rotherham.

http://studio-rotherham.mysite.orange.co.uk/

Liv Cunliffe, Miss South Yorkshire, 2010. MUA Gemma Lawrence

Above: looooooooooooooooooora, the girl with too many ooooo's in her name :) MUA Gemma Lawrence

And the lovely Twins, Sara & Kirsty

Last shoot of the year, Islington Wharf.

You may rememberin the last blog how I Said for my sanity I needed to get out of the studio?Well that was said before the worst 3 weeks of Arctic weather the UK has everseen. I expected being greeted by a penguin most mornings when letting shepout. So that put paid to most of my location plans over the last few weeks.That said, I had the lovely people at ISIS offered me the use of their fabulousIslington Wharf complex on Gt Ancoats Street for the day. So I arranged 3models, the lovely Mrs Holly, the lovely Laura Brown of “Beautiful” fame andthe lovely Eliz Depasois of the girl group “Skyrah Kane” fame. I am a luckyboy. Add to this the Fabulous Vicki Oulton doing make up, I am on to a winner.The day was cold but the sun was out for the most part, which was perfect forusing a combination of Natural & Flash lighting (all I had learned in 2008at S64 was made for days like this) As luck would have it the apartments hadcentral heating, so the ladies soon warmed up…ok, they never warmed up, youknow what women are like! :P but I was roasting :) We spent the dayflitting between 2 apartments, one a few floors up, and one on floor 17. I hadfun, massive fun, as did the ladies. We shot 3 sets of each model, the ladieswere awesome. I am not going to type more now, I’ll just let the piccies speakfor themselves. A massive thanks to all involved, and a great way to finish theyear in pictures…

the awesome Eliz Depasois, of Skyrah Kane fame. MUA VIcki Oulton

The fabulously talented Actress/ Model Laura Brown. MUA Vicki Oulton

The uber model/ actress, Holly Wain, Make up by Holly.

I think that it is fair to say, looking back over the last 5 years, I have come a long way....

Not quite finally: The bollox that is being a“Professional” photographer

You know howI hate that tag, you know “Professional” but I am using it here…

One lastrant before the year is out…..I’ve been passed up for some very good jobs thisyear. Jobs I would have loved to have been involved with & that I couldhave done in a coma. Why didn’t I get these jobs then, am I shit? No, I amnot. But why I didn’t get them, let me elaborate..

1: It is notin my nature to beg. I will not stick my tongue up your arse, brown nose you orsuck your dick to get the job. I am bloody good at what I do. Look at my book,and hire me on the strength of it.

2: I willnot work for free. You are a commercial venture, a profitable one, why the fuckshould I supply your content for free? Bollox to that shit.

I have subsequentlyseen the work produced by the photographers who got the gigs and it is more apparentto me now than ever that it is absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with thequality of work you produce. If you will work for free (or below minimum wage)kiss ass, suck dick, beg on your knees and stick your tongue so far up peoplesarses that you can tickle their tonsils then you will be in work forever. Butyou are morally corrupt, as are the people “employing” you.

So I shallmaintain my moral stance, I shall continue to expect paying a decent living forthe quality of images that I produce. I will continue to miss out on whatshould be awesome jobs, but I would rather spend a week eating meat, than suck your dick or lick your ass.

That was the year that shall be!.....

So my planis to continue in much the same vein, being a photographer while at the sametime having brain farts and writing and directing little movies & musicpromos. I do intend to do more of the latter in 2011, to push it more, I’ve gotthe bug, I think! I will be shooting “Over” for definite in January, it’s beenput off twice already due to unforeseen illness etc, but will100% defo be shot& released in January. After that who knows, I have a few things in thebrain fart department just being mulled over, needless to say it will be afabulously creative year!

That’s allfor this year folks! I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings and insight, therewill of course be more of this bollox next year, but hopefully less ranting andmore positivity, and definately more bad language!!

If you havebeen, thanks for reading, & all the best for 2011

Lance

still beautiful, reasons why, lucky???, future happening, a new hope....

2010-11-29T22:14:00.009Z

Theres lots of swearing/cursing this time folks, so please block your ears if you are the least bit sensitive....

it's still beautiful....

Well it’s been a couple of weeks now (OK then, 4) since Ireleased my 1^st short film “Beautiful” into the real world. I haveto say I have had an amazingly positive reaction to it. I have spoken about thefilm to a lot of people, some I respect and some I don’t and with the exceptionof just one lonely soul the feedback (including critique) has been extremelypositive.

It’s always nice to know people enjoy your work. When youlet you friends and family see it, & although I am sure they would tell meif it was shit, I always feel they aren’t going too really. So it was great tohave the chance to see it viewed by 60 odd strangers in a bar one evening a fewweeks back. I was asked if I would like to show the film as part of a localfilm maker’s night with the proceeds going to charity. Great I thought, kill 2birds with one night out! So Me & Holly snook in to the Bay Horse in town andsat at the back. Outside of Lucy the organizer, no one knew who we were. Thefilm was shown along with some other cool little films made here in Manchester.My film was 3^rd on. I was quietly confident it would be wellreceived, but I was not prepared for just how well it was received. Theaudience was made up of students, local film makers, arty types, so there was agood mix of people watching. I watched people’s expressions & reactionsthroughout the film. They were thoughtful, smiling, laughing, and engaging. Itwas great to see such a reaction. I knew people were enjoying it because theyhad no idea who I was, so they weren’t pretending for me. What did surprise mewas the amount of laughing along with it people did. Now I know the script isfunny, but it was never intended to make people laugh out loud, but it does. Partof me is thinking no don’t laugh, but then part of me is laughing with them. Whata bizarre feeling! The biggest surprise was the rousing round of applause atthe end, I really wasn’t expecting that. I sat at the back of the room with thesmuggest mug I think you’d have ever seen, I was like a little kid who’ justgot away with something naughty. We watched a few more great little films andthen made our escape, with big smiles on our faces.

Now even I’m not dumb enough to believe the film is a masterpiece,but I am more than happy with the start I made & I feel that I am on theright tracks.

Doing things for theright reasons.

The point of me writing these films & working on these film& script projects is first & foremost to release my creative juices. Ilove being creative, it drives me. I am not writing films or working on anyproject to please or impress anyone other than myself. For me it is thatsimple. I am not trying to become the next Spielberg, James Cameron or JimmyMcGovern & especially not to impress the mainstream Holy fuck no…

I am doing this for me, not you..period

I had a story, I wrote it, I filmed it, and I released it.Simple. That’s pretty much how I approach everything I do. I didn’t have theidea to then spend the next 2 years kissing arse to get it made & thinkingoh I’d better do this or that because that’s what everyone else does. I doubt I ever will write and producesomething to make someone else happy, to give them their kicks. Whether it’s for me or it’s for a client, ifyou are not buying in to me, then you are choosing the wrong creative.

I think that puts me ahead of the game. Or maybe it justputs me in a different game? It allows me to write, make, shoot, film whateverI want without any compromise. I don’t do arse kissing. I won’t jump through hoopsto get a gig or to prove myself.

You either get me, or you don’t, you can either see thequality I produce or you can’t, and if you can’t then we shouldn’t be workingtogether. If I have a project that to do it well needs funding, I’ll eitherfund it myself, or it won’t get made, it’s that simple. I didn’t begin thisjourney to have the door closed in my face by arseholes with the money. Going downon my knees in someone’s office (Probably yours) (JWL) and begging them tofinance my project and raping the creative heart out of me in the process willnever happen. I am a doer, not an “I wasgunna do – er”… People who have the best ideas and who never see them throughare in my opinion retards. Stop believing how good you are, and show us..

I have had to do my creative stuff in some of the most horrendousfinancial & personal hell holes you can ever imagine, but I still got mycreative shit done, and for the better…In my opinion, if you believe inyourself enough to consider creating anything then go and do it. Hiding behind bullshitexcuses and “life” getting in the way tells me you should really stick to the dayjob that you hate..

So I am a Lucky maneh?

In many ways I am. I have a beautiful talented mrs, 3 fabbokids, a fab dog & great family, but in my working life, none of it is luck…

It was suggested to me recently by what can only bedescribed as an envious onlooker that I am lucky. Lucky in that I have a back catalogueof music that I can now use in my projects….Lucky eh?

Here’s the deal. I spent 10 hard years working as amusician. Rehearsing 8 days a week, writing till 4 in a morning, getting knockbacks, traveling the UK & Ireland with the lads in a beat up old Transitvan, living on plastic cheese sandwiches & cheap coffee, plying my trade,earning my stripes, working fuckin hard. In that time I played hundreds ofgigs, wrote over 70 songs, released a couple of tapes & CD’s and onlyretired because I was going deaf. Mixed in with this hard graft was a littlebit of honed talent. So now I findmyself with a nice bunch of songs I can use if I chose, or I can writesomething new if I so desire.

This is nothing to do with luck mate..

“Future Happening”

One of these songs is a track I wrote in 1997 and put on theback burner until me & our Luke decided to pick up the band in 2001. So werehearsed it, gigged it and eventually put it out on our EP “Rubber Nature” in2002.

I love music videos. The good directors (Joseph Kahn) toname but one, have been one of the few inspirations to me over the years. Iwish these guys would move into telly, because they would blow the game widefuckin open. Anyway… I had this urge to get into writing & directing musicvideos, for no other reason than to marry my love of music with my love ofmaking pictures. So I set about finding an up and coming local band in need of adecent promo. And there I hit the brick wall. Oh there are plenty of localbands, lots of them, some very talented, but so far all I have come across arebone fuckin idle…

So out of creative frustration I thought fuck it, I’ll makemy own fuckin music promo, so I have..

Those of you who read my bullshit here will know Iinvariably work with a small bunch of talent, for many reasons but mainlybecause they are shit hot & ultra-reliable. So I had the idea &storyboard in place for this video, all I needed was 3 hot chicks. I knew Holly& Laura would be up for it, they had told me of their desire to be inanything I do (Hell knows why) Holly suggested one of her actor mates Natalie wouldbe good for it, and a quick e mail later I had the 3 girls signed up. So Ibooked Pumpkin studios, Got Vicki Oulton (1 of the A team) on board, andanother fabulously talented young MUA I had worked with once before Rebecca JayneWhite. My niece Lauren came along to help with stills and stuff & her fellaRuss also came along to help as runner. Team complete.

I digress a second. I read somewhere recently, I think itwas a blog by one of those “gonna do” types, anyway, it basically said using inexperiencedpeople instead of a proper crew will harm the production of your film orwhatever. So I thought, mmmm. Does this mean I should get someone in who hashad 5 years in UNI but no school of life experience who wants £100 a day? Orsomeone who’s done a few student productions that frankly my dog shep couldhave done a better job on, or pay a pro silly money , who is only doing it forthe money, not for the love of doing it…..mmm.. And you all know my thoughts onthe word “Pro” it’s just a word that means earn a living from, not that you areany fuckin good at it..

Or maybe get someone who really wants to learn, has apassion for being involved, would love to eventually do it for a living, buthas no real idea & needs your guidance…

I go for the latter, every time..Why?

It frustrates the fuck out of me. Retards who say “Oh, Ionly use people with experience” huh, yeh? If everyone went with that theory noone would ever get any experience, and you’d soon end up using the guy youshould have used all along.… you cunt..

Here’s how I see it. I learned how to Play Guitar afterbeing shown the basics by my dad, he got me going, gave me all the tools Ineeded to get me on the road…then I learned to Sing, write music & lyrics,all by myself, and make a career out of it…Next I learned to take decent, ok,shit hot photos, all by myself… after watching others and seeing the basics,using my powers of observation & natural talent….

Case in point. My niece Lauren came to me for workexperience in Sept 2007. She had never taken a picture before. Now, 3 yearslater she is one of only 2 photographers I would allow to shoot something forme, because with her natural talent and my guidance, she has flourished in to afabulous photographer in her own right.

So I will continue to give new talent a go. Occasionally itwill bite me in the arse, but if I find a few little gems along the way, thenmy theory is correct, and you will still be “Gonna” do something..

Back to the story…

The video premise was a simple one. 3 hot girls taking thepiss out of the band who have come to rehearse and find the girls won’t letthem in. We shot the video in one day, starting at 8am and finishing at 4pm.The whole day was a blast. Now considering the girls cannot play their allottedinstruments, and only had a 5 minute lesson from me, they did an awesome job. Tomimic playing, look sexy, dance a bit, shake their ass & mime the lyrics, inreal time & at double speed, they made it look a piece of piss. You know,when you come across real talent, it really does knock the fuck out of you, andI had it 3 fold today.. It makes directing so simple, you give the instructiononce, and they nail it, 1^st time, every time, fuckin amazing. The Ateam did an awesome job as ever with the make up & styling & Lauren didsome awesome stills, which you can see here. I think I’ll have to watch my backeh?...So the day was over in a flash, which always disappoints me because Icould quite happily work with talent this good 24/7.

I wanted the set to be blown out white, white but messy,untidy, so all the amp cables, light cables & everything is a bit messy. Ialso deliberately shot into the light, to create lots of lense flare.. It was somethingI saw in last year’s Star Trek film, how they used flash lights to create lenseflare. Although not as extreme here, it’s a similar idea.

Most of the video was shot at 1080p 16:9 with only the slowmotion parts shot at 720p. The reason for these shots to be done at 720p isthat it enables the camera to capture at 50 frames per second, as opposed tothe 24 frames per second of the 1080p footage. This makes for great slow motionvideo that is easy to edit. The slow motion parts were the most fun to film,especially the dance parts and where they throw off their instruments. Thegirls just couldn’t get their groove going to the actual track, so we stuck on a“girls aloud” CD and they boogied to that. So they are actually dancing in realtime to a different song, but when played back in slow motion it fitted beautifully.Losing the instruments was a bit scary. Trying to look like you are throwing aguitar without actually letting go of it is not as easy as it looks, the drumsticks though weren’t such a problem.. it was so funny. I was so focused ongetting the shot and watching the monitor that I forgot to get out of the wayand was hit by the flying drum sticks, which I am sure Natalie deliberately aimedat me, you can see it flash past the lense…:) Imake a small cameo in the video, it’s me driving the car, my feet, my arm &my voice. The music playing as the car pulls up is a track called “Sweet Letitia”which is another of my songs which we recorded at red brick studios in inStrabane, County Tyrone in 1993. The voiceover at the end as the girls walk out“I would, I would, I definitely would!” is also me & was inspired by anepisode of the Sweeney called "Hearts and Minds"! Regan & Carterare back stage at a Morecombe & Wise gig and as the dancers come back stagethey give their opinion on them “I would, I would etc…. I’ve been trying to usethat for years….

Editing the promo was also pretty easy, except I hit 2 daysof P.C gremlins but once I’d sledge hammered the P.C into submission the restwas a blast. (New P.C is on the list winging its way to Santa ;))

So here it is for your pleasure, if you like nice bums, you’lllike this…

It ain’t over till it’s“Over”

Due to being let down by another wannabe actor/ waste ofspace a couple of weekends back, I have rescheduled my 2^nd shortfilm “Over” for this coming weekend 4^th Dec. I have the absolutelyawesome & handsome talent of Laurence Jaques coming to play the male lead,and I just know he is gonna nail it. I also have the fabulous Jenny Moylan Taylorplaying the female lead, and the fabulous Laura Brown who will be playing the ex-girlfriend.Over is a tiny little film about the end of a relationship which appears on thesurface to be an average break up, until the little twist at the end. Stay tuned,it will be released in the next couple of weeks.

A new hope…..

No not episode 4 of star wars, read on…

The last 18 months have been some of my best creatively. SinceI shed the shackles of my own studio in early 2009 and then spent a few months driftingon the highways of life I began to enjoy working in the studio again aroundApril 2009. Mainly thanks to Mel at pumpkin studios, who I have had a fab relationshipwith & where I have shot almost exclusively & without whom a lot ofwhat I have done in the last 18 months would never have happened. The studio isan awesome space, the friendliest and most inspiring place I have ever shot in.It has been a blast. But I am now starting to feel the constraints of workingin doors so much. Creatively I am beginning to feel stifled, groggy, I need tobreak out. So to this end I am making a conscious decision to get out and aboutand purposely shoot anywhere bar in a studio, pumpkin or otherwise for the foreseeablefuture. Like many of my brain farts this could prove to be a fuckin ridiculousidea. I mean we hardly live in a country with a reliable or even likableclimate. I don’t like the cold, the wind, the rain, or the fuckin awful snow, thethought of standing in the snow with my 7D in hand and blue fingers freaks thefuck out of me, but I am gonna put myself right out in the middle of the fucker& see if I am any good then. This is something I need to do for my creativesanity. Not having the luxury of a fabulous warm cosy studio to fall back onwhen a commission lands in the inbox or when a brain fart strikes scares thehell out of me, but that’s exactly what I need. I need to feel shit scared, toget as far out of the comfort zone as possible. I need my arse to be chewing the cloth everytime the thought process begins.

So be warned people, if you agree to work with me, no longerwill you be spoiled with a nice changing room, a private loo & centralheating, coffee on tap & pillows… It will be wind, rain, snow, and cold,lots of miserable cold, you’ll be shitting in the woods, frozen stiff & callingme all the bastards under the sun….but it will be awesome as fuck….

If you have been, thanks for reading

Lance

positive/ negative, the lazy generation, Beautiful...& chemtrails...

2010-11-01T09:58:00.011Z

Wherethe hell have I been?

Just checked the last blog and it’s been a month! Fcuk mewhere’s that month gone? Oh, I know, I’ve been flat out with filming &editing beautiful, doing photo shoots, writing 3 new scripts, family stuff,birthdays, school run, man had no time to relax….well that’s not strictly true,oh yeh and had to sue another thief…read on, make a coffee, this could take awhile….

Let’sget the negative shit out the way first!

More and more my faith in human beings is being diminished!!Over the last month I have been royally shafted by a few people I thought Icould trust. On the 1st occasion these people made massive on the back of myawesome work while at the same time royally shafting me & ripping meoff. Like all these things, eventually Igot word, but while these slime balls pretended to be my friends, they were infact raping my intellectual copyright. I will never allow this situation to happenagain.I am not going to name them here, hell no they've had enough publicity out of me as it is. If anyone would like to know who they are either out of morbid curiousity or so they can steer clear feel free to give me a buzz.

So now I have to go through the ball ache of court,chasing payments, copyright infringements & all that bollocks. I am nowlike a hungry Rottweiler who’s got the postman’s balls in his jaws and cantaste the salt..…. I will keep going until these parasites pay up and arepublicly humiliated for being thieves and cheats. When you are led to believeyou are working for a positive cause, with genuine people & it turns outyou are actually being raped of you intellectual copyright then you have tofight back. It seems just lately each time I think my faith is getting restoredin people (within the industry) another bunch of slime balls come along! Whatis wrong with people, are there no morals left these days? I take what I doseriously, perhaps too seriously sometimes but hey this is my Job, myreputation, so deal with it. I’ll never make these mistakes again that is forsure. My contracts are going to be locked down so tight that even a nats pisswon’t leak through. It’s a shame to have to do this, as I am sure there aresome genuine people about? But as far as my business is concerned if you wantme, you sign the paper I bring, or fuck off and steal from someone else…

The second occasion was on a more personal level I’m notthe best judge of character, my bad..But this time I thought I was at leastclose…wrong.. I gave a big, ultra important position of much importance &standing to someone I thought was genuine & really deserved the job. Theyturned out in fact to be another dreamer with ideas above their station. Youknow the old saying give someone an inch and they’ll take a mile? While thisdidn’t cost me anything financially, but it did cost me a dose of humble pie,arse licking & apologising to quite a few people. I am going to have tostart listening to Holly, as she is 100% right about everyone. In future shecan do my hiring as my judge of character radar is obviously broken and as muchuse as a pair of gloves on an Arab thief….very disappointed….

Thelazy, arrogant, idle, rubbish generation…

I used to think it was just models that are lazy, andthen I realized there’s a whole generation of people who expect their “Dreams”to be delivered to them on a silver plate with strawberries & ice cream on thetop while they lay on their arse in bed…

Do you think that life owes you success? That you don’thave to get off your lazy arse & work for it? Has the celebrity culture gotso bad that anyone with an ounce of talent thinks they can just turn up inHollywood with a suitcase & James Cameron will sign them up?.... It’s amentality I cannot abide.. I have people put in for my castings & the firstcontact is always the same.. “Oh I’d love to be part of this, what anopportunity, bla blah, almost begging for the chance, you get the idea! So Iwhittle down the applications to definitely maybes & then reply to themgiving more details of the project, but more importantly I let them knowexactly how much commitment I expect form them. It’s funny then how 99% of themdisappear without a trace. Imagine the thought of having to turn up andrehearse the part, have meetings with other cast members, oh & actuallyturn up to do the shoot…Imagine having to do that!....There are websites fullof wannabe actors, actress’s, models, but that’s not the reason, even the oneswho come through reputable agencies have the same outlook “I’ll do it so longas there’s absolutely no hard work involved” It’s disappointing. Casting filmsshould be easy. The amount of so called talent that is supposedly out there yetless than 1% can actually be arsed to put in the graft. So like with myPhotography, it looks like the films I will be working will have a small andregular cast of extremely talented & hard working people who are not afraidto put in what is needed to be successful. The rest of you can stay in bedhappy in the knowledge you are a waste of space…

Andbreathe……now the more positive stuff!!

Newwebsite & my bloody website

So, those of you who ever go to my site www.lanceburkitt.com ,or those of you who give a shit :)will have noticed it’s been offline again for most of the month. No…. it’s notbecause I’ve quit, or cos I haven’t paid the bill….well, that’s kind of nottrue….I run the site myself & it’s on free hosting, which allows me 1GB oftraffic each month. Now, because I have become so popular since about July? Ihave found the traffic exceeding the 1GB quota early into the month…Now thiscan easily be solved by upgrading the hosting, so why haven’t you upgraded youask? Ahhh, well there’s 2 reasons…Firstly because I am an orthodox tight arsewho hates spending money full stop, and secondly because I guarantee you theminute I pay for the upgrade the traffic will drop below 1GB and I will feelshafted…I’m sure there’s a compromise here somewhere….the websites back for nowanyway…

So, thenew website

I now have a dedicated website for pink lint films, whichis of course www.pinklintfilms.com

Designed by Holly & maintained by me mostly. Feelfree to have a visit but don’t keep going back to look at it every day or you’llsend that one over the 1GB quota too :P

Finally………………….”Beautiful”is here….

Back in July…. I think it was July? I have no idea if Iam honest! I decided to stop saying I was gonna have a go a film making andactually get down and bloody do it. To this end I wrote a short film &called it” beautiful” The idea was born out of frustration. I’d had a lookaround to see if anyone had a script, and idea, something I could blag my wayonto as a novice film maker, trouble was I found absolutely nothing that wasremotely interesting, or any damn good!…So I thought shit I’m gonna have towrite something myself…Couple this with the fact that Holly Wain (My Mrs) waslooking for a lead role, something to use as a show real I decided to simplywrite something for her. Holly does an awesome Scouse accent. I love theLiverpool accent & she does such a fuckin good job at it! But over theyears it became bloody annoying! She would often do this Scouse scally thingjust to wind me up. I’d had this idea about a young single mum who had a dreamof becoming a famous actress. I based the character loosely on this scallyHolly had portrayed so well and threw in some real life stories & events Ihad come across over 5 years being a photographer. So I found it quite easywriting dialogue for this character. The friend character played fabulously byLaura Brown was more refined. She too could be a model or actress, but hasdecided to take a back seat and help her “Bestie” get there instead.

CastingLaura was a breeze. She was the 1^st actress we saw. And out of halfa dozen was the only one who came anywhere close. The truth is I had alreadychosen Laura from her 1^st audition, so the further auditions were abit of a waste of time really… We began rehearsing for 4 weeks (Massive thanksto Mel at www.pumpkin-studios.com )then we did one last rehearsal on set the week before the shoot. The ladieswere fab. Watching these 2 characters come to life over a month was a greatexperience. You can see the detail & thought that both ladies put in totheir respective characters. By the time we came to shoot, I am sure both ofthem could have done it in their sleep. I’m gushing now I know, but to work onyour 1^st film & be spoiled by 2 such hard working and obviouslytalented actors made my job much more of a piece of piss than it should everhave been.. Thanks ladies :)

Theshoot…

The shoot was a blast. We shot it at home in ourhalf-finished kitchen that looked like a bomb site & was perfect to portraya “Shit hole” We shot the whole thing in one day, actually probably in about 6hours. It was a blast. You can see the fun we had in the out takes on the DVD. AsI have already alluded to the ladies performances were awesome, 1^stclass. To say neither had had a major part before you would never have guessed!They certainly made the characters come to life, and very believable. I foundthe whole experience fun but extremely tiring. The amount of thinking you haveto do as a director, lighting tech, camera man… it was much more intense than Ihad imagined, and a massive learning curve. I got my niece Lauren in to helpwith stills, continuity & the lighting & she did a great job as always.Lauren’s fella Russ also came along to look after the sound recording for me.And although the sound got fucked up, that was 100% my fault, Russ actually dida great job.

We shot the 2^nd part on Location in Manchester(Thanks to the guys at Ethical Property). Again this threw up its ownchallenges. The lighting in the building was awful, so I had to McGuiver somehot lights in almost no space. The sound was awful too. We also had the addedbonus of having to bring Logan with us, and although he is pretty well behaved,it wasn’t the ideal situation. In good old Logan style though, he did get in onthe act and made a cameo which is featured in the out-takes on the DVD. We had3 extras for the audition scene. One of whom Georgia Plimbley I choose to playa disgruntled auditionee. She did a fab job, I have a feeling she has a brightfuture ahead of her. Thanks to all the ladies, Georgia Plimbley, Vicky Ritson& Del McShane.

Soyou finally got the 7d?

Thanks for the early Birthday & Christmas pressys forthe next 2 years Holly :)

The 7D is a fantastic piece of kit. I spent a few daysprior to the shoot playing around, reading the manual, seeing what it would& couldn’t do. Impressed is an understatement! Considering it was neverdesigned to be a movie camera, it’s no surprise to me that Hollywood are nowopting for the 7 & 5 d’s as there cameras of choice. The DOF you canachieve with it is immense, you’d never get anywhere close with a conventional videocamera. Shooting at 24fps and 1080p gives you so much quality & flexibilityas a director/ photographer. The planfor the shoot was always to use a single camera. I’d imagined it being shotjust like the sit com “The Royle Family” only slightly more documentary like. Iwanted the viewer to feel like they were actually stood in the kitchenlistening to the conversation. Admittedly this makes some shots appear quiteraw, unexpected, but that’s exactly what I wanted. There was no way I was goingto make this film clinical & predictable, that’s for the mainstream...

Theediting suite…

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks editing, tweaking andlocking down the film in to what is now the final cut. It hasn’t been easy. I hadmajor P.C problems throughout the edit which set me back days. If I had a £1for every time I have threatened my P.C with being thrown out of the window inthe last 3 weeks I’d have enough ££££ for a new one! (keep mentioning the word“Mac” to Holly but she’s having none of it!” :S We twice had to re do somesound because of some schoolboy error technical problems I missed on the shoot.It was an error so schoolboy in its stupidity I doubt I will ever let myselfforget it, never mind Russ who was helping on the day :S Rubbish, completely myfault. Plus I have realised you have to give these things time to breathe. I amso used to editing stills, I have fine-tuned my technique so much can do stillsin no time and my workflow is bang on. But his was different, because I amstill learning, still finding my way. So the version that has finally made itis quite a different cut to the one I had original locked down & is muchbetter for the patience..

Sowhen can we see it?

Lookbelow :)

Originally I was looking at doing a screening for thefilm in town. But after being let down by the affor mentioned person that putpaid to that idea. So after a rethink about what to do with the film &speaking with the ladies I have decided to put it out to some festivals, makeit available on DVD, & release it on you tube tonight….

Soam I happy?

All in all it has been a fabulous experience & Icannot wait to get going on the next project. I made some proper mistakes forsure & learned some wonderful stuff too. For a 1^st time writer, director,cameraman, editor, I am pretty happy with what I achieved, but that experiencemeans next time I will do things slightly different, slightly better? One thingthat is for sure is my team will be even tighter…

I hope you enjoy watching “Beautiful” as much as weenjoyed making it. If you can watch it in Hi Def. The DVD has the film, the out-takes and an interview withthe ladies & my good self. If you’d like a DVD send me your details to info@pinklintfilms.com andI’ll mail you one out.

Sowhat’s next.

1^st & foremost I am a photographer, it’swhat I do, what I love, and what I am bloody good at. My main focus will remaincontinuing to be a shit hot working photographer. That said I am not planningany major new Photography projects this side of Christmas, it’ll be justcommercial stuff. Not because I don’t want too, I do, but I have a few otherFilm projects I’d like to complete while I am in zone. This doesn’t mean that Iam now claiming to be a film maker, or a writer, or anything ……yet! All I havedone so far is written & directed one tiny little short film. I have a longway to go before I can claim to be anything other than a tryer….. But I plan tokeep on trying. Plus you know me, I may just throw a big kiss ass shoot in themix too…

Newscripts…

Over the last few weeks I have written some more shortfilms which I would like to try and produce over the next few months. My ideais to build up a little portfolio of films that I can then hawk around. I thinkby then I’ll either have been found out or I’ll be decent enough to start &take it proper seriously, and maybe be taken seriously?... Either way, I’llmake sure it’s fun & the best it can be!!

So that’s my plan for the next few months really. Cast& shoot 2 or 3 small projects, and maybe a photo shoot, or 2 :)

For anyone wanting to audition & be involved see thecastings page on the website, www.pinklintfilms.com

Ohbefore I go & on a totally different tangent..

Those of you who know me well know my political and worldstance. I’m not gonna bring too much of that in to this blog but it’s no secretthat I am quite liberal & that I believe in a shadow government, theexistence of the New World Order, the Bilderberg group, & that we are being systematicallyenslaved.. For those of you not awake yet, Google any of the above terms to seewhere I am coming from.

Anyway, as part of this, I am a firm believer that a lotof Contrails made by Aeroplanes are in fact Chemtrails, not Contrails. That isto say that those pretty trails you see being left in a planes wake are notalways harmless condensation trails. These Contrails are, sometimes in factactually Chemtrails and in my opinion used for various different reasons, &none of them are for your benefit!!..I’ll let you do your own research onthat…

I’ve been trying to catch some of these being made for awhile and until Saturday I never was in the right place at the right time….

I know some of you are now thinking is this guy for real?I’ll have some of what he is on!! It’s OK, I used to think the same….But, watch thislittle video I made on Saturday morning, and then tell me if after watching it &doing your own research that you are not at least thinking …MMMMM!...And onceyou begin to think MMMMM, the rest becomes obvious….

Anyway, that’s all I got folks for now folks, onwards& upwards!

And if you have been, thanks for reading!

Cheers, Lance

www.lanceburkitt.com

www.genesia.co.uk

www.pinklintfilms.com

Front cover, websites bust again, just a quickie...

2010-09-22T00:02:00.000+01:00

Websitesdown again :s

Wellit seems I have gone over stayed my welcome on the website serveragain and have been booted off until the end of the month. Again it'sfab because suddenly I am attracting so much traffic but shit becauseanyone going for a look now will be greeted by a shitty message whichmakes me look like I haven't paid the lecky bill or something, but Ihave guv honest! So it seems like I am gonna have to bite the bullet& upgrade the hosting, bah humbug :s

Frontcover..

Anyway,the reason for today’s blog is to let you know that you can now gethold of Just As beautiful magazine, which I shot the cover andfashion feature for back in July. JAB mag is all about normal people,or what are normally terms “Plus size” people. Sue Thomason is aneditor with a passion, I was only too happy to get involved and shootfor her. I got to meet a bunch of lovely models Gina Swire who madethe cover & Nina Blakemore of Gok Wan fame. Some fabulous workdone too by the a team & shot at Pumpkin thanks to the fabbo Mel.

Toget your very own lovely glossy copy visit the websitewww.justasbeautiful.comand click on the link to buy.

just a quickie

Iam off now to get the use of my body back after 2 days soliddecorating! You know when you start a job then 20 minutes in wonderwhat you were thinking.....I have days & days of this left yet...

Ifyou have been, thanks for reading

Lance

waiting for a bus, calendar gurlz, the dogs bollox & a very funny man!

2010-09-18T00:43:00.009+01:00

Those buses....

Being a freelance photographer is great! I love it, I hateit, it gives me pleasure & drives me spare!! It has its moments, big highs and depressinglows. Getting work can be like waiting for a No10 bus, you know when none come forages then a dozen come at once. Luckily this week I have found myself ultra-flatout. It’s been a blast, I’ve drank far too much red bull & my bladder isstill letting me know it. As well as shooting millions of stills I have alsobeen busy rehearsing my short film & other stuff. So I am ready for a fewdays rest with the bin lids.

Calendar Gurlz

Firstly I finished off shooting all the content for my 2011calendars. This year I wanted to produce a different ones covering a few genres,so I did, Fashion, Beauty, Glamour & Swimwear. Last up for the shoot was toget more Swimwear content, as it is not something I have shot much of. Themodel I selected was the fabulous Victoria Basford. I have known Victoria a fewyears & have shot her a few times before. She came up for a shoot & Igot the A team involved. We’d chatted about the shoot and settled on Swimwear& also some Beauty, which I knew Victoria would be perfect for as she hasone of those faces you could shoot all day! I wasn’t disappointed. Victoria isa top, top model. She eats well, stays healthy, works hard, and I mean hard.She is an absolute pleasure to work with. She’s always on the same page, fewmodels are. Nothing is too much effort, whatever it takes to get the shot. Sheis one of the few models who you end up with more images than you’ll ever need,you know. As it turns out, I ended up using 7 images from the shoot for myswimwear calendar. It wasn;t the plan, the idea was to get 2 or 3, but theimages Victoria gave me were by far the best I had, so they made the cut,simples.

On the same shoot I also invited the young and superstar inthe making Jessica Ogunyemi. I had worked with Jessica earlier in the year whenI shot my 1980’s stuff. I wanted someone for some beauty and delicate fashion,and Jess was perfect for it. Jess isn’t very experienced, but she is gettingthere. Just a little bit of directing and we were on the money. Again it comesdown to attitude, wanting to be successful, listen to the photographer andtrusting them. It always easier for me when the model has some personality andJess has loads. Jessica will go a long way, you heard it here 1^stfolks.

As ever thanks to Vicki Oulton who did an awesome job :) And to everyoneinvolved in making the Calendar.

So the calendars arein the bag and now sitting on the server at http://www.beanprint.com/shopf/79/lanceburkittcalendars

Why not go and treat yourself to one?

I’d like to say a big thanks to Chris Chedgzoy & histeam at Bean print. If not for them the calendars wouldn’t be possible, cheersguys! Oh and if you are after awesome prints of any kind, these are the peopleto go too. www.beanprint.com

The dogs bollox.

Earlier in the year I was asked if I would shoot a Jewellerycollection for the fabulous bunch of people that make up Lazerian, headed bythe highly talented Liam Hopkins. Having seen some of their work previously, Iknew I had to shoot it. So like with all projects Liam gave me his brief & weexchanged ideas & I begin to plan. I know the shoot is still a month or sooff yet but I like to have a game plan. Then last week Liam asked me if I couldshoot this for them now, this weekend as something had come up & theyneeded pictures ASAP! Awesome I thought, I love chaos :) so I set about getting the A team,the models, booking pumpkin studios & demolishing bottles of red bull. Iwas given a pretty free reign with the shoot, the only proviso being “Nude” SoI set about the shoot with that in mind. The Jewellery is awesome, very different,not something you see every day that’s for sure. It became apparent early onthat having nude models was going to take away from the Jewellery, after allthe idea is to get people to notice the product, not stare at the models flange.So I hit upon shooting the girls to appear to be nude, implied, almost nude, sothere was no outfit to or flange to detract form the fabulous Jewellery. Thisworked out much better. The Models who Liam chose for this were Holly Wain,Victoria Basford & Tina Broderick. It’s funny because I had only workedwith all of these models in the weeks previous for my calendars, so it was likea family gathering & the only thing missing was the Sunday (veggie) roast!

Tina Brodrick & Victoria Basford.

We shot various things, I tried lots of lighting set ups,trying to keep it dark, spikey & edgy. No easy task when you have 3beautiful faces in front of you. A few times I found myself falling into thebeauty trap and had to reign myself back in. I binned some stuff & keptsome that I thought hadn’t gone so well on the day. It was a hard shoot, mentally.I really wanted to nail it. Lazerian’s mascot is a dog called Gerald. I hadspoken to Liam the night before & had suggested that he pop in a few Gerald’sfor me to incorporate in to the theme. I tried a few different ideas with the dogs,the best of which I kept. I am glad Ibrought Gerald in, it tied in the whole thing. The girls loved the dogs too. So after a hard but fun day we had it in the bag. We hadsome awesome shots, I knew that, but I left the studio feeling I hadn’t quitefinished yet.

Retouching the pics over the following few days I realisedthat I was right, that I had missed a few things that I really wanted to add. Iam very lucky, no, extremely lucky! Firstly the deadline was still a few daysaway & secondly having a top model for a Mrs & a great friend with astudio made it possible for me to shoot some more with very little planning. Onthe day of the shoot Holly had said to me she thought we could do more, shewanted to push herself more, do something extra. So when I said to her you knowwhat I think you are right, she couldn’t wait to get started.

So on Wednesday wewent back to Pumpkin and shot some more. Holly is fab at make-up. 5 years ofpractice & invention has made her that way. So I let her run with it. Weshot 4 more sets, and I have used images from them all.

So I was right to goback and shoot some more. It just goes to show that being honest with yourselfis the only way if you want to be successful. I could have just delivered the 1^stset of images & I am sure Lazerian would have been happy, but I knew Icould do more, and I was right.

The outcome of all this is that Liam & Co at Lazerian havesome awesome images to help plug their wares. I have absolutely no doubt these guyswill be successful, you don’t have that much talent under one roof withoutsomething magical happening. Thanks for the opportunity guys & here’s to along & prosperous partnership.

www.lazerian.co.uk

That thing about busses….

Earlier in the year I spoke with a lovely lady aboutshooting content for her soon to be launched online shop. We discussed all thestuff and she said she would let me know when she was ready to shoot. I get alot of enquiries & have a lot of chats with people about possible jobs thatnever come to fruition, so like many I put this on file and forgot about it. Soit was a lovely surprise this week when the lady in question buzzed me sayingshe was ready & could I shoot her stuff this week? Wicked, of course Icould. So this week I shot a load of content for her. She had some fabulous outfits,brought a great model Ellie, who wasn’t really a model but who really got intoit, and who was a lovely lady too. It is always nice when clients let you geton with it, when they trust what they are buying in to. I had so much fun itfelt like a portfolio shoot as opposed to a content shoot, but that just showedme that this was the start of a fabulous working relationship.

You can see the stuff I shot & buy yourself some awesomegear once the site is up and running at www.lovelila.co.ukOh, and don’t think about trying to undercut me, or Ill fuck you up ;)

Still Beautiful.......

So rehearsals for Beautiful started in earnest a few weeksback. I still have to pinch myself that I am making a film :S The ladies Holly Wain & Laura Brown aredoing fab. It’s great to see them grow in confidence & watch the charactersgrow with them. Now all my manic photo shoots are out of the way I am gonna bespending the next few weeks finalizing plans for the film shoot. Having changedmy mind about the location, or rather the setting, it should make things alittle easier (Fingers x’d) but there’s still a lot of work to do. Will be meetingwith the team next week to go over production stuff, as well as stepping up therehearsing. I’ll try & remember to take a few still at the next rehearsalsso you can see the cast & crew at work :)

Still in love…

My other big project is “Lovers” This is going to be quite abig film, not in terms of production & cost, but in terms of what it meansto me as a film maker/ writer & to the actors who will be involved. I amplanning to start looking for cast members towards the end of the month, with aview to shooting at the end of October. This is a biggy for an amateur. There are10 or so locations, some of which involved moving vehicles, 2 main cast members,about 15 smaller parts & extras. I cannot wait to get started. If you arereading this and would like to be involved (cast) take a look at the synopsis atwww.lanceburkitt.com/pinklintcastingspg2.html & drop me a CV to lance@lanceburkitt.com and if you aresuitable Ill get back to ya!

Before I go I’d like to point you in the direction of a heroof mine by the name of sadknob. His real name is Darren Ewing and he’s a ScottishTV Director now living in LA. He is a man after my own heart. Catch his blog athttp://darrenewing.blogspot.comand especially catch his Ministry of Offence videos blogs at http://www.youtube.com/user/sadknobTV

Quality man.

So that’s all for now folks, I am off for a nice relaxing weekendwith the bin lids, have a good un yall! And as ever, if you have been, thanksfor reading!

Cheers

Lance

www.lanceburkitt.com

Website is down, calendar girls, no plan B, still pink lint...

2010-08-29T17:14:00.002+01:00

Bloody website!

So yeh the website is down, apparently it’s gone over the allowed traffic usage as it’s a freebie hosting thing. Never mind, it’ll be back on 1^st Sept, I just hope no one ultra-important went for a looky, be just my luck that! Toying with the idea of upgrading the hosting but I’ve been saying that for 3 years! It’s only the 2^nd time in that 3 years it’s been pulled, I guess I can live with that. Good to know I am getting so much traffic though, I could check the stats but I am too lazy.

Calendar Girls….

So I spent a few days over the last few weeks shooting content for my 2011 calendars. I had a mixture of stuff I wanted to shoot including glamour (even though I am officially retired from glamour) fashion, Beauty & swimwear. Swimwear is something I haven’t done nearly enough of! As always I like to work with new models for these shoots. I know, don’t tell me, I am a gluten for punishment. I know full well that 99% of the people who apply will drive me to drink! But with this in mind I put out a casting sat back and prepared for the barrage of shit coming to my mail box! Sure enough, within 10 minutes the onslaught began. The idea is once you have sifted through the shit you hope that there maybe one or 2 gems in the bottom, a bit like diamond mining without the actual money reward! After days of looking through rubbish to my utter surprise I had found a few gems, 3 to be precise! All who had read the casting, all who were available when requested, all happy to be doing the shoot. Once I had picked myself up off the floor I realised I had a problem, and it was a biggy! My usual MUA/ Stylist Guru Vicki Oulton was away, Holli was busy working so I was left trying to find someone reliable & good at no notice. Completely my own fault. I managed to put off one shoot until the following week when Vicki would be available but I needed to get the other 2 done now. Anyway, Mel @ pumpkin recommended the lovely Kat Whittaker to me. Kat stepped in the night before the shoot & luckily she was available & up for it, life saver! For the 2^nd shoot the Model I booked luckily knew a MUA she had worked with previously, so they came as a team.

A little bit of class….

First up was the shoot with Cassie & Kat, all glamour & a touch of beauty. Cassie travelled down from Shipley by train for this. You can always tell when a models attitude is gonna be quality when they are prepared to get up early & travel without moaning. My idea of glamour photos is generally different to what’s now days thought of as glamour. The model should look beautiful sexy & “Glamorous” not be all in boobs in your face licking a lollipop! I wanted to shoot something soft, not lads mag, more refined than that. I suppose I had a kind of 1970’s playboy theme in my mind. Cassie did a great job, she was perfect for this kind of look. We did 2 or 3 sets but these 2 are my favourites. Cassie also has a striking face & cheeks, so I managed to sneak in a beauty shot at the end. Thanks muchly to Kat Whittaker for her great work and for stepping in at no notice!

Fashion, Beauty, Swimwear…

The following day I shot Monika with Becky MUA. Monika is vastly experience model from Poland. You can tell immediately she has much experience, and as far as fashion, beauty & swimwear modelling goes she rocked the set. She is completely comfortable in her skin, something which I find is pretty rare with a lot of models. Monika is also extremely versatile & not afraid to have a go to get the shot.

We spent the day in and around the studio, going outside and dodging the showers, eventually at the end of the day we decided on an alternative swimwear set, instead of it being beautiful we want for messy & wild. Covering Monika in baby oil, Vaseline and some other awful stuff which Becky the MUA had brought and applied to her eyelids & then we made her smear herself all over with it! Not that Monika minded of course, proper models never do! All the sets came out 1^st class. Thanks must also goes to Becky (Rebecca Jayne White) for MUA/ Stylist duties, lots of prep and hard work that went into making this shoot fab!

There is no plan b…

So this week I got back to reality with my A team. Vicki was back & raring to go and we had the good fortune to be working with the fabulous Tina Broderick. For this shoot I was looking for some stunning beauty & classic fashion. We had decided on outfits and looks days ago but on the morning of the shoot I had forgotten to bring the mood boards, schoolboy error! My mind was a blank and could not for the life of me picture them in my head! So I went on my website to download the images from the link I had sent to Tina & Vicki only to find my website was offline! So, I had to get on the phone to Holli who was luckily at home and have her email me the idea boards over. Eventually we had them and Vicki went to work doing her magic. We started with some soft natural beauty, these came out great! It was the kind of set where as a photographer you can just keep clicking. Tina has such a strong look and photogenic face it’s impossible to take a bad image. I had to tell myself to move on otherwise there would have been hundreds of this set alone. We then tried a little idea, more of a brain fart that just didn’t work. That’s what I like about working with Vicki. If we try something and its shit, we just give each other the look of agreement and bin it, no egos to offend!

I usually leave Vicki to her work & let her get on doing her thing, but today I fancied watching her at work. It fascinates me, the amount of effort that goes in to making the look. I don’t know how she has the patience or invention! I told Vicki I am going to shoot a documentary for her because in my opinion the creative are always overlooked, almost as much as the Photographer is!! :P So we then spent another 3 or 4 hours producing some of the best fashion & beauty stuff we’ve done. A combo of fabulous model & creative genius MUA/ Stylist make me look like I know what I am doing! It was one of those shoots you could just keep doing set after set after set! It’s a shame that I am fucked and my back can only take half days, I need 3 days to recover from that…

I was going to keep all these images under wraps until the calendars are out but I thought fuck it, who’s gonna see um here? No one reads this damn thing anyway! So I am allowing myself to give a sneak preview of the stuff I shot for the calendars, which hopefully will be ready in a week or 2. I have 2 more shoots to do next week to complete the series…Looking forward to those!

Massive thanks as always to mel at www.pumpkin-studios.com

Pink Lint Films…

So the other week I met with a nice young lady by the name of Suzanne Fairham who has joined the team on a film by film basis to gain some experience as Production Manager. It’s a massive undertaking but one that should equip Suzanne to tackle anything the industry can & will throw at her in years to come! So a very warm welcome to Suzanne from us all.

1^st Auditions.

I am holding the 1^st auditions for my 1^st film “Beautiful” next Tuesday. I am quite excited about this. I keep reminding myself I must put my directors’ hat on and be brutal. I cannot wait to cast it and begin proper pre-production. We have much to do here, finding a flat to shoot in, a flat for an external shot, a place to shoot the audition scenes, ooh it’s exciting! I have been rehearsing and refining the script with Holli. She is finding her character & doing great. I did some sound testing yesterday with the equipment I’ll be using and it all came out great too. Exciting times.

Test films…

I am looking to finalize the 3 or 4 little films I have made too. I used these to hone a few filming & editing techniques, as well as to get some stories out of my head. I am waiting to find the right voice to narrate them. It’s pretty important to get the right voice, they would be shit otherwise. So if anyone fancies having a bash, and you can do interesting, none accented voices, give me a shout.

That’s all for now folks, and if you have been, thanks for reading :)

Cheers, Lance

www.lance........shit forgot its broke..... .com :S

shoe bribery, schoolboy errors & being pink lint!...

2010-08-16T00:16:00.003+01:00

Shoe bribery

I have been watching a few behind the scenes location shoot videos on you tube just lately & it frustrates the fuck outa me that there is nowhere in this goddamn place that inspires me to want to shoot there. Yet I watch these vids from around the world and think take me there now!

I decided I was going to and disprove my feeling that the country, well lil L.A for a start is devoid of anywhere interesting and exciting to shoot. Gluten for punishment I know!

So I managed to convince Holly to come out to play this afternoon. As I expected it came at a cost as she couldn’t possibly do this shoot with the gazzilion pairs of shoes she already has! New ones would be required! So I had a simple choice, go shopping for new shoes or spend the day kicking my own heals. So I compromised. I drove to the shops and stayed in the car, she went shoe shopping.

Afterwards we headed to town and I popped in to Pumpkin Studios to say hi to Mel and collect my zipper that I’d left there a few weeks back. Here was my 1^st schoolboy error of the day, more about that later. We drove around the outskirts of Manchester for a while, struggling to find anywhere remotely inspiring. It’s such hard work, Sure there’s plenty of shops, rundown buildings, stone walls, shit holes, but come on, hardly inspiring is it! Eventually we came back towards home and stopped at a hill in Motram. There’s a great view of the city from here, I have blogged about it before (a little help for my friends) I know the area well, so had an idea of how I could use the location, for one shot anyway. The idea was simple, stick Holly in the foreground in a city outfit with the brand new boots as the focal point with the city in the way off distance. It worked great because the outfit was quite sassy and city like and the boots looked rough and ready. As usual the smog over the city almost disguises it, you can make out a few landmarks but evening though it was a bright clear day, all you can really see is smog. Metering it is tricky and it’s always a compromise in situations like these. I wanted to shoot these at quite a long dof so as to show the massive distance from foreground to backdrop. I settled on F10 and used my Speedlite to light Holly directly, as she was under exposed at f10 without the flash, and the sun light was crossing right to left. This also gave the shot a nice look of flash whilst keeping the backdrop natural. So I got holly to pose on a rock that is used to stop boy racers entering the old quarry. It stands about 4 feet high and if I squatted down it was just about right to get the city in the background & contrasty. We had a nice breeze blowing the dress & Holly’s hair nicely, although it tended to blow in any direction it wanted, so you kind of have to wait and catch it when it comes the right way! I forget how easy it is working with Holly, We don’t get to shoot anything like as much as we used too, her being a busy film star n stuff. I did 2 different finishes one natural & one sepia. I don’t do much sepia but I like this it adds a bit of something else to the shots! You guys can make up you own minds.

So we spend about half an hour here and decided to have a mooch about and find somewhere else. After half an hour of looking, we decided it was a waste of time. Manchester really does not inspire me, everything & everywhere is just so bland, awful, freaking red brick, and stone, rubbish! So, disappointed we gave up. After we had taken the boots back, yeh, Holly had now decided she didn’t like them :S we had a bite to eat and decided to shoot something in the house.

Schoolboy error

Home set up, nice and easy….Now remember the schoolboy error I mentioned earlier? Yep, I’d left most of my lights, soft boxes, accessories, all the stuff you really need for a shoot at Pumpkin…I was sure I had brought it home :S Holly wasn’t that impressed, I couldn’t be arsed to go and pick them up, so in usual me style I set about making my own accessories! I had a couple of old lights & stands kicking about, a few old backdrops, some power cables, a flash trigger…maybe this could work?..

I found an old white backdrop sheet and decided it would double as a soft box. So I strung it up between 2 tripods I had and stood it at varying places when needed. It was cumbersome as hell, but I had no choice if I wanted to shoot! I had used up the 2 light stands I had setting up the backdrop, so now had nothing left to stand the lights on…..you ever get that feeling? So, a combination of Logan’s toy table and chairs and my old camera box doubled as light stands, it was a delicate balancing act I tell you..

First of we shot this, all holly’s idea, just a nice simple sexy image, no rocket science. I had light to the right of me behind the makeshift soft box, which caused a big elongated shadow on the backdrop, which normally I would have fixed but today I thought it looked kinda funky, so I left that in. Holly has a great bum, so I got her to flash it for the first set, and then I just said spin around and pull your top down like the wind is making it ride up. I put the house pedestal fan on, which we got from Tesco’s for £3.50 last summer and it was just about powerful enough to move her hair. In the retouch I again added a bit of a sepia tone, I must have been feeling nostalgic today.

Next I had to move the whole set up to do a beauty shot. I proceeded to drop everything, knock everything over, break 2 modelling lamps, and generally got completed fucked off with the whole shebang! Eventually I managed to get a decent set up, but I could tell Holly’s patience was about to pack in….but I rode my luck a while longer. Here’s a mono shot of that set. Again one light with the make shift soft box high to Holly’s right, settings we f11 to give it a really sharp feel, I dragged the shutter on this one(80^th sec) to let a bit of ambient light that was coming thru the curtains we used as the back drop come in & separate holly’s hair from the back drop. Doesn’t Holly have a way of just delivering the look? Having sat there for half an hour while I fucked about like a retard with the shitiest set up ever seen, when I say now, and she deliver’s!

So the next set, ended up being the last, in fact, I ended up saying fuck it, I can’t work like this & we never even shot it! Well the truth is, a few test shots in I threw the dummy out, I couldn’t take no more. Yeh I know, me, he who won’t be beat, was beaten.

All the shit was worth it, I got some great shots, I think…all things considered anyway!

But I realise now I should stick to shooting in the studio. This frustration I have with not being able to find half decent locations is grinding me down. So unless I somehow get transported to somewhere remotely interesting, I’ll be a studio hobbit for now.. And speaking of the studio, I have a couple of fabulous photo shoots coming up over the rest of the month. I’d love to tell you more about them, but I’d have to kill you! But I will blog about it once it’s all happened.

Pink Lint

So, photography aside I seem to be getting things done on the directing/ writing/ film making stuff. I decided I needed a name, a brand for the film stuff, something not connected with the photography. After brain searching (yeh it was a quick trip) and bouncing ideas about I finally stuck on the name “Pink Lint Films” why Pink Lint? We’ll mainly because I always am! Also loads of my family & friends use the saying lots. Plus it’s a catchy name, easy to remember, and as far as my research shows, no one else has it. (For those of you wandering what the fuck I am on about, pink lint is cockney riming slang for “Skint” meaning broke, penniless, nicht de coin!”

I have also put a little web page together for people who are remotely interested to visit and see what I am up to. As we speak I am looking for a few regular collaborators, well more people who are serious about getting into the industry and would appreciate the opportunity. Plus I know my strengths, and my weaknesses, and I am not too proud to ask for assistance when I know I need it. I have a few castings up there too. Soon I will put together a proper website for it but it’s not on the top of my to do list at the mo. More important is casting these damn films and getting them shot! I am working on it :)

www.lanceburkitt.com/pinklint.html

In the meantime folks, if you have been, thanks for reading

cheers

Lance

Words & moving pictures, old dogs & new tricks, less is more, too many cooks & the same old story

2010-08-11T01:58:00.006+01:00

Words & moving pictures…

So I just this evening finished writing the 2^nd draft of the 1^st proper script that I have written since 2004, and that was a ropey sitcom affair. It’s been a blast. The concept came in a flash, it’s not a rocket science thing, it’s just a short, serious story based on some real life stuff and will probably surmount to a 10 minute short film. I have been mooching about the last few weeks trying to come up with something to get my teeth in to and to give me something tangible to get this writing/ directing/ film making brain fart off too a half decent start. I ready have the lead actor cast for this, easy, because in fact I wrote the thing especially with my Mrs Holly in mind. I have watched her talent blossom over the last 5 years from a fresh faced young model, to an accomplished model & actress. I have seen her talent 1^st hand and I am excited to be working with her in her 1^st lead role, which of course will also be my 1^st film as director, writer… I do like the sound of that! So, Holly will play the lead, a role that will require her to dig deep for the character & also perform a very regional accent. Not an easy task, but I know she can do it. This evening we had a few read through’s of the script, with me playing opposite Holly and ironed out a few things. Great therapy! even though I was complete crap at reading the lines. You would have thought that having written the script I’d be able to speak it! Holly though read it like she had been rehearsing it for weeks, impressive! So now is where the real graft starts I suppose. Casting the other part, finding the right location, sorting out the cameras, lighting, the sound, can’t wait.

Old dog with new tricks?

Over the last few week I have also been doing quite a lot of what I call practice filming and editing, using a couple of camcorders, an I phone & anything that records moving pictures really. You name it I’ve probably shot something with it, all in the name of practice. I have put some of that footage together, along with another script that will be used as a voice over to tell a story. As a guide for editing I narrated the script myself, let’s just say a broken Yorkshire accent is not the way forward in Narration, so I will get someone in to voice the thing once it is somewhere near completion. It has a working title of “my 1^st go”. Bare in mind the medium it has been shot on, it’s not gonna worry James Cameron or the guys at ILM, but it’s been fun to do, and given me a whole range of new skills I can now hone to perfection. I am quite optimistic it will be ok, but you know me, ok is never good enough. Hopefully I’ll get it done, in fact, no, I will get it done and pop it on you tube soon.

Less is more.

I found pretty early on that I am already developing a less is more approach to my “film making” (term used lightly, for now) just like I do in my Photography. You see for me it’s simple. Have the idea, shoot it! Be honest on the day, if it needs to change let it change. If it’s shit, say it’s shit and move along. Don’t shoot what you really didn’t come for. Get what you did come for, and go home early, and happy. It’s easy to over complicate things, and unlike stills where you can just bin the shots quite easily, when you have to sit through seconds, minutes, even hours of rushes (See how I’ve picked up the terminology already” you soon realise the best way forward is to plan well and only shoot what you need. Do I really need to take the same shot from 5 different angles? No. My feeling is if the story and script is good enough, then the filming of it will be organic, and you should instinctively know what to shoot. Covering all bases with multiple camera angles is akin to the stills guys who continue to shoot in Raw, because they have no real idea what they are doing and shoot in Raw so they can fix it later. So like the philosophy I use when shooting stills, if you don’t know why you are shooting it, you shouldn’t be shooting it!

Too many cooks:

This leads me on to the realization that the film world, like the stills world is manically over populated with hangers on, jobs for the boys & full of people who as far as I can see have imaginary, made up jobs that should be subject to a review from the folks from the trades descriptions act! People who are only there because the folks at the top and too lazy and greedy to do things for themselves. If I ever get like that, sack me. Anyone who has read my previous blogs here will know what I feel about assistants, helpers, hangers on. I’ve done a load of research over the last few weeks and it seems to me that the whole movie/ T. V/ film industry would be a lot healthier, slicker & manageable if 70% of the “jobs” it has created were done away with. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wanna see people out of a job, I am working class & a lefty remember! But just like the stills industry, some of the jobs you see are laughable. I mean, to film a small scene, let’s say 2 people having a convo in a corner shop. Why does there need to be, a director, his assistant, 2 or 3 cameras, with an operator, focus puller, couple of lighting crew, couple of soundmen, all with an assistant, an electrician, a runner, or two! Hair & make up plus assistants? I ask why? Surely there are at least half a dozen people who don’t need to be there? Ok, maybe I have milked it a bit here but it seems to me that everyone from the director to the tea lady needs an assistant, or someone doing a job they are too lazy, or too “Arty” to possibly do for themselves! I like to have control on set, and have my crew all doing there own job, and scratching their own arse! Maybe it’s just me, I dunno. Next time you watch a film, or even something on T.V, check the credits at the end, it’s alarming! There is no way in hell I am having anyone do my job for me, or someone do yours for you. I can make a brew, re write some script, move a light, a camera, Ok, if it’s a massive production that calls for many hands then fair enough, everyone has to be safe and the job has to be done right, but come on, you know I am right!

The amount of money or “Budget” that is also spent making seemingly ropey productions has been another eye opener. If I approach someone to finance a project, it will be a project I would do anything to create. Now if I apply the rule of needing someone to scratch my arse for me, and yours for you, then the budget is going to be twice the budget I would need if everyone scratched their own arses, are you with me?

So, like in my Photography career I am going to endeavour to continue scratching my own arse wherever possible and whenever and wherever I can use will use a skeleton crew, and make every bugger involved earn their pay.

Inspire me.

I am often asked which Photographer inspires me or who has inspired me over the years? And I always answer honestly, no one really. When I say this to whoever asked me, they are always taken aback, like “What? No one?” It’s as if you can’t be a Photographer if you are not inspired by someone else who is a photographer. Like they expect you to go, yeah I loved David Baily’s stuff when I was a kid and that made me be a photographer! It didn’t, and doesn’t now, sorry. It’s like people believe you can’t be a great painter or artist unless you were inspired by Van Gogh, or you can’t be a footballer without being inspired by George Best or Beckham! To me, that’s bullshit! It’s like saying you can’t be a car mechanic if you weren’t inspired by Henry Ford or Enzo ferarri! This doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate good Photography, I do. Sometimes I am even really impressed. I have to be honest though and say rarely do I look at another photographers work and be taken aback with its quality. There are some great Photographers out there, some great images, but I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw one and went WOW, I wish I’d taken that. I don’t feel the need to be inspired by anyone else to be able to make great images myself! Maybe that’s arrogance, I’d say no it’s just confidence. If I am inspired by anything at all, it is what I see and hear around me. It was the same when I was a musician, yeh I used to be a singer, songwriter, guitarist n all that you know, a few moons ago…..anyway, I had people I liked, music I loved, but I never thought, shit I’ll never be that good, or I wish I could do that like them, I just did my own thing.

So as I am now a wannabe film maker, this lead me to thinking, what movies do I like, is there a style, a director, a genre, is there something there that might push me, make me do better, and the short answer is…..no. Again don’t get me wrong, there are films I love, some films I hate, some directors have loads of great films intertwined with lots of shit ones too. There are bits of films I like lots because on the photography, or script, or acting or the whole thing, but I am not sitting here going, shit, I wanna make my own Star Wars, or shit, I wish I’d done Avatar before Cameron.

Truth is I’ll just do my own thing. Wherever my mood takes me. No doubt subconsciously I am influence by every film and filmmaker there’s ever been, it’s impossible not to be I guess. But one thing is for sure, I am not trying to be the next Spielberg, Lucas, Scott, Scorsese or Bay, and definitely not the next smegging Michael Winner…

Same old story, come hear, let me tell you…

In the last few weeks I have had a steady increase in tear jerker stories from people needing new images for their books, their families, there agents but being unable to afford them. Let’s hear it now, Awe…These are the same people who, I kid you not, without fail every weekend tell the world they are out on the piss again 2 nights running and feel shit and have blown a load of money in the process! The vast majority of them have also had nice lovely holidays abroad recently too. Are they retarded? Do they think I am retarded? One thing is for sure they certainly have no respect for me! Hear this people, in case you didn’t notice, (ok, I know you did but you don’t care!) Photography is what I do for a living, that’s right, it is my job! Just because I am shit hot at it and enjoy it, doesn’t mean I should shoot everybody with a sob story or a pretty face for free! Photography pays my bills (sometimes) and feeds my kids (occasionally). Why the hell should I shoot you for free because you can’t afford to pay me and/ or you think you have a pretty face? Or it’ll be good for my book? I’ll tell you what, look at my book, it’s shit hot & it’s full of pretty faces, why would I want to add you to it for free? Do you think I need your face in my book, the hell I do. Same goes for the family & wedding freeloaders too. You can afford the piss up, the cake & the week in Majorca but you want the memories doing for free because the most important bit of the day was the last thing in the budget, but hey it’ll look good in my portfolio right? Bollox to ya!

Try this, when you wake up tomorrow and go to work, ask yourself, if your boss said, hey, come and work a few days for free cos and I am a bit skint & can’t pay you, but you really knew that they had been pissing money up the wall & taking nice holidays, what would your words to them be?

Do as you wish with your life and your money, hey it is yours after all, just don’t expect us creatives to make your dreams come true for free!

Here’s the deal, get some money, pay the photographer/ creative.

On the plus side, and to show how I do appreciate real & emerging talent, people who genuinely want great pictures, and would love to be able to pay the going rate but genuinely can’t, I am for the rest of the month offering an affordable solution to your problem. Please follow the link below should you be interested, but let me say this, if I agree to shoot you, then find you’ve been out on the lash or just come back from Lanzarote, who knows what could happen……:)

http://www.lanceburkitt.com/tenner.html

That’s it for tonight folks, it’s now 1.49 am and my eyes feel like dry onions.

I’d just like to say that even with all this creative shit going on & new things happening, Photography is still where it’s at for me, the rest is just salad cream :)

If you have been, thanks for reading

Cheers, Lance

promised tutorial

2010-08-04T14:16:00.003+01:00

I've cheered up a bit since yesterdays rant, so I thought I'd finally get around to posting the tutorial for how to edit the colour and contrast of your images using selective colour. Hopefully this will be a great help to those of you that have been spending hours selecting things with the magic wand too :)

Have fun with it, cheers allLance