FIRST FOCUS » creative

Tank Girls – Editorial Shoot

Rick — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:07:12 +0000

My latest photo editorial has been three months of research, planning, prop sourcing , designing and organization. Based around the graphic novel “Tank Girl” the shoot features two very talented and creative models and performers Emily Aoibheann & Natalie Da Costa who are both fans of the cult comic book.

Tank Girl is a British comic created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. Originally drawn by Jamie Hewlett.

As the name suggests, the titular character Tank Girl drives a tank, which is also her home. She undertakes a series of missions for a nebulous organization before making a serious mistake and being declared an outlaw for her sexual inclinations and her substance abuse. The comic centers on her misadventures with her boyfriend, Booga, a mutant kangaroo. The comic’s style was heavily influenced by punk visual art, and strips were frequently deeply disorganized, anarchic, absurdest, and psychedelic. The strip features various elements with origins in surrealist techniques, fanzines, collage, cut-up technique, stream of consciousness, and meta-fiction, with very little regard or interest for conventional plot or committed narrative.

So it was this eclectic, random and anarchic punk comic book feel that I wanted to interpret and to achieve visually. I thought about locations involving disused factory settings, forest elements and even got into contact with a military vehicle group who had a member that owned a Sherman WW2 tank (too expensive to hire!).

I eventually went with a studio option, Hi-Key combined lighting technique (flash, Tungsten and daylight) and created a comic book background using enlarged comic book illustration panels that I had blown up to A1 size to create a kind of “Living comic book” feel. Also subconscious inspiration came from the photo shoot that was done as promotion for the film Trainspotting this shoot has always stuck in my mind as a very strong , visually effective character driven shoot in stark black and white shot from a high angle.

The props used were a combination of different props we had sourced and accumulated over the past while such as my bullet belt (that I had to consider taking through customs but eventually oped for the postal service), the weaponry was kindly on loan to me from a good mate Garret. Emily and Natalie did a great job on their own styling and make-up also.

Here is a sneaky peak at a select few shots from the shoot.

Emily Aoibheann

The selected shots ar now available for viewing in my main Gallery

South Bay Pool – Scarborough

Rick — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:37:27 +0000

The idea of a specific time reserved for leisure originated in the1930’s. Contemporary medical theories believing in the benefits of fresh air and sunlight encouraged the pursuit of open-air pursuits and led to the establishment of a number of outdoor pools with amenities. The more elaborate examples were called Lidos, a term borrowed from the famous bathing resort at Venice. The South Bay Pool at Scarborough was designed by Harry W. Smith, Borough Engineer (1893-1930). It was the largest outdoor pool in Europe, construction was begun in 1914 and completed the following year. The changing rooms with their pillars, tiles and circular windows, the pool fountains and various associated bungalows were added in the 1930’s.

The pool reached it’s heyday in the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. School swimming Galas were still held there in the 1970’s.

The pool was finally closed in 1989. It lay derelict, festooned in barbed wire throughout the 1990’s, an obsolete reminder of a different way of life.

Hand developed black and white photographs taken during the summers of 1997-2000 show the pool and it’s surrounding buildings in the last throws of disintegration. Festooned with barbed wire and Keep Off notices the water is black and oily.

I took photographs at the Scarborough South Bay pool whilst it lay derelict in 1997, in fact they were amongst some of the first photographs I had ever taken with an SLR, which at the time was a Pentax K1000 and shot on Ilford HP5 black & white film, hand processed and printed, the photographs here have been created with digital scans from those negatives.

The site had been closed off to the public and upon my visit there was a large amount of graffiti and the roof of the old locker room had been partially ripped off exposing the lockers you see in my shots in the main gallery, also the old cafe door had been broken into by vandals and was left open for exploration.

I could also gain access to the changing room which led to a staircase going down to the entrance of the main pool, which is the photograph of the metal gate seen below. The place had a very eerie feel to it as it was yet another place that used to be full of life and laughter from my childhood and my parents childhood that now lay in ruin’s.

As a child I remember spending the best part of the summer swimming there, the water was always highly chlorine filled because of all the sea water that flooded the pool and I will always remember cutting my feet in the paddling pool from all the broken tiles at the bottom.

Listing for the South Bay Pool was turned down in the summer of 2002, and the pool filled with rubble and sand in the summer of 2003.

This is how the area looks Today.

Marvel’s “Dark” Amusement Park

Rick — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:55:07 +0000

Over the last 10 years or so I have had a fascination with the crumbling ruin’s of my old seaside hometown of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. I have many great childhood memories of the beach, swimming pools and outdoor theme parks, there was the South Bay Pool, Water splash world, Kinder land and Marvel’s Amusement Park all in their hay-day in the late 1980’s , but by the late 1990’s all had eventually become run down , disused, overgrown or abandoned. I don’t know about you but to me there is nothing more creepy or unsettling as an abandoned theme park or swimming pool. A place that should be full of life, laughter and families enjoying a day out reduced to empty hollow shells of their former glory. What makes it more poignant is that they were all my childhood places, and as I revisited them from 1996 to now 2009 I found that my memories have traveled with me. I want to present to you now a series of photographs of my own childhood playgrounds as they disappear forever.

Flyer’s for Marvel’s circa 1996

Marvel’s Amusement Park 1996 – Closed Down

Marvel’s Roller Coaster 1996

Marvel’s 1996

I then returned to the same site in 2008 to see how it had developed

Marvel’s 2008 – This is where the T-Rex stood

The remains of the chair lift

Marvels “Dark” Ride

I walked around the site for about an hour, nobody disturbed me, nobody was there and that’s what freaked me out the most I created the digital piece above based on my emotions from the day

The full set of shots can be seen in my Gallery

Also I have created a digital piece that see’s the return of the Dinosaurs.

I will tell you how I created this image in my Technique section!

Photographic Re-imagining

Wedge — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:28:26 +0000

I have recently been archiving my photos to HDD (Hard disk drive) and whilst doing so have come across lots of old photo-shoots that I shot back in the day! some now over 10 years ago! One such shoot was a photo fashion editorial that I shot in a graveyard in Bolton back in 1998, looking through the original files I found some shots that I originally dismissed that I think now I am older and wiser may have potential. Using some new creative lighting techniques in photoshop I have given them a new lease of life, a modern twist and a new narrative. Don’t you just love it when that happens! It’s well worth re-visiting and re-imagining some of those older images, you never know what gems you may find. Now back to the archiving .

OM1 in a snowstorm

Wedge — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:28:58 +0000

Waking up to a blanket of snow earlier this month is always a delight for any Photographer, I packed my gear and headed out to the local park. I decided to go with my trusty Olympus OM1 SLR, a David Bailey favourite from 1973. This is truly a great little camera that puts back the creativity into photography, I bought this camera as a student back in 1996 and it was the only camera I owned throughout my Degree, In fact I only went Digital in 2003! I chose to shoot on Fuji Reala, a good fine grain film, then scanned the negs at a high-res to bring into Adobe Lightroom. At one stage during my ramblings a snowstorm hit and I managed to shoot off a few shots into it before my lens got covered in snow , which is fine for the OM as the only battery it uses is for the centre weighted light metre. This I would not recommended with a Digital SLR. Here are some of my favourite shots from the day.

New studio shoot

Wedge — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:47:42 +0000

The first shoot in my new studio took place this weekend & was a test shoot with Zoe Quinn, the shoot went well with some great shots that I am very happy with. I hope to be shooting an editorial fashion and portfolio shoot with Zoe next month on location with a full crew involved, make-up and styling. I have been putting together a creative team over the last month and we will be ready for action very shortly……..watch this space.

Here is my favourite shot from the shoot.

First Focus Studio’s

Wedge — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:26:15 +0000

Mobile Studios that can be taken virtually anywhere!

We only use the best equipment in our mobile studio

Rick Taylor currently shoots with a Nikon camera system and as a former Photographic Retail Manager with 10 years experience in setting-up and running camera shops in the UK & Ireland has a great deal of experience and hands on product knowledge with all the major camera manufacturers equipment released on the market throughout the rise of the new digital age.

“I am traditionally trained , old school !, 35mm black & white hand processing in the plastic trays under a red light!…..those were the days. Although nostalgic I may get, today IS the day and NOW is the time, my journey through the development (excuse the pun) of photography was just at the right time, I had completed my photography degree in Manchester in 2000 just a couple of years before the Digital boom really began, I had however been scanning negatives and digitally processing them through Photoshop (version 2) since 1996!, so I embraced the change as new and very exciting !”

Above is a basic studio set-up ideal for the home environment, allot can be achieved with a single model light set-up an a few colour backdrops!

We have quite a variety of equipment in our studio, we use the Bowen’s Gemini lighting system and travel pack battery when on location, which gives us the ability to create studio lighting anywhere, be it in a forest, on a beach or in a derelict factory where there is no power supply ! It is also compact enough to bring to a clients house and set-up with very little space needed at all!

I love to use available light wherever I can though, you cant beat natural sunlight!, a reflector in the right place can do wonders to an image, that’s what it’s all about at the end of the day we are manipulators of light!

Bowens Kit on location for Elite Model Look campaign shoot

The Creative Team

Wedge — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 23:45:47 +0000

Visual creativity is Key

We work with various make-up Artists , Hair Stylist’s and Art directors to create that perfect look.

First Focus Photography only works with the best in the creative arts to perfect the visual art that we create.

Before the shoot begins a great deal of preparation work goes into each and every project from visual storyboards, research and style development, Prop and location sourcing and Make-up, Hair and styling.

If you use First Focus to breath life into your vision you will not be disappointed! We hand pick a team of creative’s based on who is right for the assignment at hand.

We are in contact with several Make-up and Hair stylists along with various clothing stylists .

www.myspace.com/oksanamakeup

Make-up by Elise Hedou

Butchers Clutch – “Childhood Darkside”

Wedge — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:56:38 +0000

“Butchers Clutch”

Digital Artwork from the “Childhood Darkside” project

The Birth of Neon Chaos

Wedge — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:46:26 +0000

Here are some of my latest pieces

Birth of Chaos - 2008

Fear Inside - 2008