do not try this at home
DTT with ludwig
arrived earliest and crunched the offside right wheel of the perou-mobile into the high kerb of hoxton square opposite 'SHhhhhhh' the ladies only sex shop.
blamed clara for her tardy arrival.
my failed logic being that if she'd been on time (30 mins early) i wouldn't have had the opportunity or inclination to walk the dog in hoxton square.
should have taken this paint stripping, wheel crunching as the bad omen it was.
two hours into the 3hr shoot with 'tom daley' and no shots taken, i phoned kate at the guardian weekend magazine to say 'i resign. i'm sorry i can't shoot for you ever again. every time i do, i get a full technological / mechanical meltdown'
the last worst day at the office was 'pamela anderson' in liverpool.
the difference between a photographer and a professional photographer is that when shit goes wrong, as it invariably does (there are always glitches) a professional works round these so they don't become issues.
when tings go off we spontaneously adapt and carry on: we always get the shots and they're always high quality.
but when plan A becomes plan B which becomes plan C and then D,E and then F, one starts to consider if someone is fucking with them.
i'd scouted the location with lord hamilton and henry on friday afternoon: the aquarium in old street.
it's a night club with a swimming pool and jacuzzi (weirdly)
i'd been to the acquarium once before, 12 years ago when i sat in the then unheated jacuzzi, hallucinating that it was lovely and warm and encouraged others to get in and join me.
when i got out i was cold to the core and spent the rest of the night shiver-shaking uncontrollably, stuck looking in the bendy mirrors in the toilets.
halcyon days.
anyway
we needed to shoot in a wet room because we were doing shots with moving water and it's too cold to shoot outside in england this time of year.
AND
we were on a budget: couldn't afford a 'water technician' and their gubbins...
to cut a long story short, my friends, we had some major issues with all of my equipment not working.
it HAD all been working when we shot on friday, which is why i refused to believe it had all spontaneously died over the weekend.
1 pack maybe, all packs probably not...but yes.
i still have to ascertain what the problem is / was
but it may be something to do with the humidity in the swimming pool and my old elinchrom just not liking it?
none of the usual masters of lighting know-how could explain it.
ended up shooting on profoto 7b's
after much stress and on one's feet problem solving.
no-one was electrocuted.
i'm keeping my fingers crossed that tom doesn't get ill from having dirty jacuzzi water thrown over him (having survived the delhi commonwealth games without getting a bug)
i also hope i don't get a veruca.
it's not really the cleanest swimming pool jacuzzi combo you might hope to party in.
here's me holding a slightly expensive hassle-bad hd4 balancing on two submerged plastic chairs in the cold water swimming pool.
we were a little bit tight on space in there.
eventually killed it, of course.
the pictures are my best in a while and one will be my new agency business card image.
see 3 in next week's guardian weekend magazine (uk) cover feature.
then see a load more when i get them up here online later on.
tom's publicist was a little concerned he'd look too old (like 18) instead of the 16 years he is.
let the people decide...
after the 50cent xxl cover 'homo-erotica' debacle this might be considered 'next level'.
while i was taking the low res round to the swanky new guardian offices, clara took ludwig and dempsey for a walk about.
them two dogs had a great fun day, play fighting non-stop round the aquarium.
dempsey had ludwig by his bulldog chops and was spinning him round.
after dropping off clara and dempsey, me and ludwig went to meet brian, claudia, ela and siobhan at shoreditch house.
i often take stratford or ludwig with me into soho house but got stopped taking ludwig into the shoreditch branch.
dogs are not allowed.
WTF?
i should have mentioned it to nick jones when i shot him last week but i never considered hounds wouldn't be welcome everyhouse.
anyway.
thankfully, the lovelies in the desk dog sat ludwig while i ate dinner upstairs.
he even got a little stroll during a fag break.
lovely to see brian and claudia and meet ela (brian and claudia's 8m old girl)
when ela was getting tired at 7pm, we left.
me and ludwig were back at farm by 8.30pm in time for me to retouch and send off the 3 shots the guardian had chosen.
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