South African wedding day 5: Shorty
By nealejames | April 3, 2007
To redress a little balance for a moment. Reviewing the blogs from this assignment in South Africa, you’d start to believe that you’re witnessing the dawn of my animal photography career. I didn’t get the chance to pop up a picture of Shorty in the last blog. So here he is. A diminutive chap, (now what gave that away?) Shorty shows the scars of a life breeding the most dangerous hunters barring man of course. His stories include facing out an adult Lion, that allowed to wander the house as a pet, one day found his natural urges somewhat stronger than the tame variety. “Never turn your back on one of these beasts,” Shorty growled in his harsh Africaans inflected English, as he dragged from his woodbine. “That’s why I am still alive today.”
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South African wedding day 5: Shorty’s
By nealejames | April 3, 2007
Now I have to admit to being more than a little disorientated having spent half the day in the back of a Mercedes Vito, drifting in and out of consciousness. Usually on my travels I’ll have a geographical outline in my head of where I’m going. But in that the itinerary was organised by someone else, in this case the groom, I sat back and simply enjoyed the view. And so we headed south. The long tarmac roads lay before us, long, very long, very very long and injested by heat haze. It’s no wonder so many people simply nod off at the wheel on these roads and my own determination to see as much as I could before falling asleep wasn’t helped by the fact our driver and guide; Coen, liked country music. Thank God I wasn’t driving. Did I say the roads were long by the way? Early afternoon we arrived at Shorty’s, one of twenty or so big cat breeding farms in the Free State. Shorty (Durand?) has bred the most majestic of cats all his life, from what I could ascertain. His relationship with these animals is one of respect and commercial transaction. On the one hand he rescues Lions and Tigers from establishments that have failed to value their prizes and on the other, he ‘rehouses’ his stock with breeders, enthusiasts, zoos and… I never did get a straight answer on the hunting question. Some of the cats are hand reared and upon our visit, I sat in the bar/living room of Shorty’s house, with a Cheetah cub clawing playfully at my footwear, pulling at the laces and toying with the family’s Jack Russell. Later on, I appreciated that it would only be a matter of time before this little chappie would be behind steel netting. I was invited into a caged environment to photograph the adult version from five or six feet. I can’t say it was the most comfortable five minutes of my life.
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South African wedding days 3 and 4: Heia
By nealejames | April 2, 2007
We had a couple of rest days before our trek across SA into the Free State, the next part of this adventure. There’s a part of Heia that is safe enough to walk around, save the scorpions and Puff Adders! Springboks, Impala, Zebra, Vervet monkeys, and Giraffes frequent this fenced segment of the ranch that residents can explore. This isn’t the finest example of animal photography and my photographic buddy Paul Walker who specialises in pictures of hair covered beasts would probably wince, but only ten feet or so from ‘Freckles’ the Giraffe, (yes they really are all named - a nightmare when it comes to the Impala infestation) there was an opportunity for this cheeky snapshot. They are beautiful creatures, but not very attractive when eating.
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South African wedding day 2: The Wedding
By nealejames | March 31, 2007
Our job as wedding photographers at Breathe, is to look for something unique on the day. A scene, an emotion, light falling in an interesting pattern upon the couple and so on. All weddings are special and with the added benefit of some incredibly powerful scenery, this had all the hallmarks of a fabulous day’s shooting. Where to start with the images though? Well, for the blog I’ve chosen something that frankly I’ll be unlikely to shoot very often at a wedding, if ever again in my lifetime. Following the ceremony we headed down to water; a dam on the ranch. And as we prepared for a couple of close cheek to cheek shots in the fading sunlight, a zebra casually wandered by!
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South African wedding day 1: The Braai
By nealejames | March 30, 2007
In these parts a BBQ is referred to as a braai (pronounced br-eye). It was stag do part two for groom to be Graham Chapple, as his South African buddies saw this as an opportunity to welcome him ‘home.’ Invited by Graham’s good friend and local, Coen, we set off for a river bank somewhere not too far from Johannesburg. You know, I feel like a size zero model next to South African chaps (okes), and I easily have a stone and a bit to shift! So, faced with a mountain of red meat, Castle lager cans and sharp African humour to consume, I spent my first evening in SA being entertained alpha male style. Don’t be alarmed by the picture to the left, as at one stage, one of our hosts decided to demonstrate how ‘at one’ he is with his hunting dogs by orchestrating a mock spat. He whispered some choice Africaan phrases into his favourite Dalmatian’s ears and the dog responded by showing copious amounts of teeth through snarls and growls. Quite a display; we were all suitably impressed and unnerved. And then the dog bit him. Oh dear. Still, ten minutes later after they’d made up we all got back to chewing half hundred weight of Wildebeest, swilled down with two or three pints of Coke and brandy. Just another braai in South Africa, I’m told.
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South African wedding day 1: Heia
By nealejames | March 30, 2007
The Heia Safari Ranch in Muldersdrift is 45 minutes from Johannesburg’s airport, but what a difference those few miles make. When you fly into Heathrow, looking down, it’s never quite apparent where London ends and other towns start. They simply merge together. The first thing that struck me about Johannesburg is the city and sprawling townships seem to extend to a point then, as if someone has drawn a straight line over which you couldn’t even lay a single brick, the city stops and the bush begins. And so we arrived at the Heia. Built in the 70s, it is a rags to riches tale of a former £20 a week gold prospector, who fell in love with the country he had emigrated to, stayed and built an African empire. Heia now boasts it’s own game reserve, an hotel and conference centre, plus Zulu camp to maintain and promote traditions fast disappearing. The animals in this ranch have clearly never met the sights of an eager hunter since, excluding the Rhino for obvious reasons, they wander freely across the ranch inbetween sunbathing tourists, even stopping for a moment to drink from the swimming pool. I can’t imagine many places in the World where you would stand just four feet from a Zebra, with wide angle lens. Even the timid Impala stopped to wink and smile. “Catch my best side please, there’s a good fella.”
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A South African wedding
By nealejames | March 29, 2007
I think it would be fair to say that we get to know the couples we photograph at weddings fairly well - and that’s advantageous. As photographers, our professional task is to document an extremely personal and intimate event. Knowing our couples then, is an essential ingredient for the successful execution of such an important commission. I think it would also be fair to say that there’s a healthy dose of nerves when we approach the dawn of a wedding day as photographers. And that, is equally essential. It keeps us on our creative toes, because this is one day you can’t repeat! As we fly off to South Africa to photograph two people who have become very close and dear friends, the ‘one off’ concept has never been more palpable. Good luck Graham, lots of love Karen - for what will be a very special wedding. Thanks for the opportunity.
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Art postcards
By nealejames | March 17, 2007
My thanks to renowned bodypainter, Emma Cammack for an opportunity to collaborate on a joint project to produce a set of exhibition prints, postcards, posters and t-shirts featuring body and facepainted models against colourful backdrops. Emma has worked on a variety of projects over the past 12 years; films, commercials, publicity stunts, advertising shoots, fashion editorial and celebrity parties, as well as a range of artistic projects - so it’s a great honour to be working with you Emma! The image here demonstrates the power of her work. The lighting on set was extremely simple. A single Elinchrom Monobloc head with grid, so as to find shadow and depth. In post production I’ve used a digital cross processing technique to add hues to the finished article not present during the shoot. There are three colour sets; yellow, blue and red, plus a black and white bonus set. Watch this space for more details of when they are due to go to print.
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Pipes
By nealejames | March 16, 2007
I have a full day’s photo shoot today on location. And last night, as my head head hit the pillow and sleepy thoughts started to consume me, travel logistics began to run through my mind for the following morning. Had I packed enough lighting, must remember battery spares, was there a reflector in the car, oh, and must must must remember to grab the GPS as I hadn’t a clue how to find this place. I’m sure it’s that one last thought that triggered a restless night of sleep. What I should have done at that moment, is hauled my sleepy backside out of bed, grabbed the sat nav and propped it against the front door so as not to forget. It would have been an investment in the following six hours of possible sleep. But I was in that mode where, half asleep and far too comfy to even raise a finger in semi consciousness, I couldn’t physically find the where-with-all to act. And so my recurring dream struck! Everyone seems to have their own ‘recurrer.’ For most it seems to be chase scenes, running away from something, falling - that’s a popular one I hear. For me it’s somewhat different. Years ago when I worked at BBC Broadcasting House, despite being there for four years, I could never properly navigate my way round the place. One department I just couldn’t seem to find, resided in the bowels of the Beeb, where, rumour has it, there was a fully functional broadcasting suite in case of nuclear strike. I’d always been fascinated by this rumour. And so one night whilst working the graveyard shift, went in search. In the spooky semi darkness of the sub sub basements of what’s affectionately referred to as BH, I found heating pipes. Lots of them. Lots and lots and lots of them. Infact, you can’t move for them. It’s a fact I’m sure, that a large proportion of our BBC licence fee goes on maintaining the spagetti dish of tangled tubes that are the BBC pipes. And so, I got lost. I spent what seemed like an hour finding my way back up to ground level in the dark. And ever since, if I have a recurring dream, that’s what it is. I’m leaving for the shoot shortly. I’ll take a detour I think, and pass by Halfords. I’m going to buy something today’s kids haven’t heard of; a roadmap. Something I can leave in the car, fearless that it will be nicked. Never again do I want to have a sleepless night trying to remind myself about packing the GPS. Or maybe the dream is telling me something else? Perhaps I should have been a plumber. Pipes.
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Bishops Green community photographs
By nealejames | March 15, 2007
We started work today on an exhibition about a regeneration project in West Berkshire, which will see the redevelopment of a whole estate in a village called Bishops Green. The community that live on the Ashlands Estate will gradually be rehoused in new properties where once pre-fabricated housing stood. The original housing was built just after World War 2 and still stand in sight of huge aircraft hangers several miles away that belonged to the infamous Greenham Common US airbase, home to American B52 bombers, for years the focus of peace protests by female activists. The intention for this housing was for it to last twenty years, just about long enough for more substantial construction work to take place. But, like many areas of Britain where this happened, the bulldozers left in 1955 and never returned. Until now. We’re spending several visits photographing the people of Ashlands and their houses. Most of the new generation of dwellers seem quite excited by modern housing and better facilities, since anti social behaviour has dogged parts of the estate for quite some time. Those that have made this their home for over fifty years, who have roots more deeply set, are not quite so keen to see the demolition process. This is Austin, a widower, who has lived in the house that stands behind him for 52 years, sitting on the rubble of former neighbours’ houses.
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