Hockey photos

I've been playing quite a bit of inline hockey again recently. It's something, along with ice hockey, I did when I was younger. I guess over the years it's been an on and off thing for me, but ultimately it has always been one of my biggest passions. A couple of months back I did a shoot for the MK Steamrollers. The Jokers are a team based near Hemel Hempstead and I have registered to play with them in the ball league. There are two disciplines of inline hockey. One is with a puck, and one is with a ball. The rules vary slightlyand ball is full contact, where as puck hockey is a bit faster but you can't hit people or bodycheck, so they both have their pluses and minuses. I find myself in a strange situation as i am registered to play puck for the MK Steamrollers, and ball league with the Jokers. The teams have squads in both leagues. This weekend just gone was MK Steamrollers v Jokers in the puck league, and we had some time before the puck dropped at face-off to get a few shots in.

I definitely took more shots with my Canon 5D MKII that day, than I did with my hockey stick!

New Photography and Video Website! About time too!

New website is up ladies and gents! And we have a .com address...

Ooo00oo0oh...

What do you think?

www.2dphotovideo.com

Cinemagraph: Attempt One

This is a pretty neat little editing trick I've just learned. I really like the idea of having a moving 'still image'. I know right?!?!

Hope you like :)

Inline Hockey Team Shoot!

Happy New Year Blog Nation!

If 2012 is indeed the last year until the world ends, I want to make sure I do as much of the things I love as humanly possible before the lights turn off. If I had a list Inline hockey would definitely be on it. Ironic perhaps then that this month one of my entries to that list can be crossed off!

I did a portfolio for my Inline Hockey Team – The Milton Keynes Steamrollers. I’ve played Ice or Inline hockey since I was ten years old and it’s always been a big part of my life.

So here are some examples as promised in the last entry!

A December to Remember....

Well the last few weeks have been quite varied indeed. Firstly, CHECK OUT THE NEW WEBSITE FOR THE STUDIO! WOOOOO!

www.remembernow.co.uk

We thought it was about time it had a bit of a revamp and as we had some problems on the last one, we are chuffed with the rebuild. What do you reckon?

The week end before last we found ourselves again up in Manchester undertaking a video production project for BetFred. We brought a good friend and colleague in the production world Dean to help us out from Timecode Pro . I have known Dean a couple of years now and met him shooting a music video. We also have a new edition to the two-d family...behold...THE TWO-D GRANDAD MOBILE:

I bought her because she was cheap. She's practical, got few miles on the clock, has a sunroof AND is a lush colour blue. Quite a few good reasons right there. We alas managed to cram a entire production company into the back of it including lights, cameras, tripods, dollies and ALL SORTS. Definitely a step up from the old focus that was falling apart but had a bad boy leather steering wheel cover and a nice sound system. It appears I am actually growing up quickly and similar to Peter Pan, it freaks me out a tad!!

Anyway...back to Manchester...

The brief was to do a behind the scenes style shoot for an in-house deal Or No Deal game show for some of BetFreds employees. Basically they turned up the event, got wined a dined for a couple of days and took part in a game show where they could win some money for themselves and their staff back at the shops. We knew it was a big project, hence bringing in the extra pair of hands (and cameras) from the offset. There were 32 contestants over two days and we ended up filming for 12 hours on day 1, and ten on day 2. Reasonably hardcore and it brought back memories for me of the old days when I worked for Disney in New Zealand and worked 15 hour days and by the end of the day found myself floating about a bit, on autopilot. I have to say though, despite the long filming and mammoth edit that lies ahead, it was an enjoyable couple of days and I am certain the finished products will be great. Incidentally, we are heading back to Manchester this week end to film another job for Betfred. They are a massive client and could potentially bring quite a lot of work our way but that ladies and gents, is a blogpost for another day...

Since the last Manchester expedition I have also photographed my own roller-hockey team. Another blog will follow with the finished products but if i am honest, it's the kind of shoot I've wanted to do since I was a kid. Ice and Roller hockey have been a big part of my life since I was a kid and making a hockey team 'look cool', is definitely something I was very much looking forward to. The MKSTEAMROLLERS made their way to the studio last week and we did the studio shots. The portfolio will be composed of another shoot, at the rink in Upper Heyford. This was meant to take place last night actually, but as the place is falling apart and the rink flooded, training was cancelled. It's been rescheduled for next week, but I have some IMMENSE ideas for really utilising the gritty, urban looking rink to its full potential. The rink itself is beat up and tatty, but will look quality once I get it into photoshop! Can't wait to get cracking on those images!

Here's a little behind the scenes clip filmed by Lucas ours coach...

In amongst all the madness and busyness of work, there was some time at the week end to get our asses to London to check out the Winter Wonderland shindig in Hyde Park. I love London it's always so exciting going there (is it weird I typed 'exciting' there and the autocorrect changed it to 'editing'??) and despite the frustration of driving through mad traffic, freezing our bums off, and walking around for AGES trying to find Pizza Express (finally finding it and yeh...it was closed...), it was a good day!!

At the end of last week I also did a shoot for Bedford Council. Again, they could eventually turn out to be a good client and it's always good to be out and about in the community getting involved with things that are going on. The Sports Awards were basically a corporate dinner style event to showcase and acknowledge the achievements and efforts of the sporting community in Bedfordshire. The mayor attended, as well as a couple of Olympians (gold and silver medalists) and if you're from the Bedford area and you follow these things, you'll probably know who they are! One's a rower, ones a badminton player. I'll leave it there. If you don't know, go find out. Your first homework assignment oOoOo000h...

So Christmas looms and whoever you are and whatever you're doing, I hope you enjoy it. A gargantuan Merry Christmas from us here at Two-d, and we look forward to filling you all in with the goings on here in the New year!

Cheers, dD

Music video, corporate video, video video its a video show yo

So, you've probably guessed the main topic is cabbage. I mean video. Yup yup.

It seems like a lot of my efforts since my last post have been using this medium, and we've had a few exciting projects on the go.

First and foremost...as promised in the last post BEHOLD!...the Secret Genius live video in all its glory:

Now, seeing as this video was shot with literally just me, my camera and then a whole heap of editing, I'm quite pleased with the final version. I am also quite pleased with my editing skills seeing as each take was at a different tempo and I had to manually drag each take in time with the track on the timeline in Final Cut Pro...some of you may be able to notice slight timing delays but all in all I am happy with it and so are they, and as this ultimately as a business - this is the most important thing. Smiling clients...like this > :)

Now the next video is a little promo we shot with our mate Dave from Birmingham.

Here he is.

We met him, out of all the strangest places, in a place called House of Baby. Basically, a high-end Mothercare just up the road. I say 'Mothercare' when in fact their product range and personal service is indeed second to none and they come highly recommended. For all the baby shiz niz anyways.

I'm hoping that comment may score me a free pram one day...

So...look at me getting sidetracked. Me mate Dave...

He runs a company called GraffitiArtist.com...and yes...that is also the website. Quite genius you may say. We thought so...

Well, it all started about 7 months ago when we met him while exhibiting a virtual studio at zee Baby house. We had a chat, I took a few pics of him (below) and it turns out he's a bit of a legend and digged my style.

He'd always wanted to try time-lapse, and we had an empty barn wall outside our studio. Great things were destined to happen!

We recorded his spray up. Turns out he's talented too, immensely! Watch this:

CLICK ME

I also had a meeting with Urban Graphics based in Bedford and may be working with them on some large  corporate and urban development projects. Watch this space!

I find the business taking off, but time is starting to become an issue. I find my days and hours limited with less free time to spend with those I care about. If it sounds like I'm complaining, I am not. I feel truly blessed to be involved in such creative industries. They draw me in every day. And I'm doing something I love for a living. BUT. And it's a big butt (heh heh). I think my biggest challenge is going to be keeping others in my life happy and understanding the fact that two-d is beginning to take over my world. A business like this one is all about reputation. It will carry you through to bigger and better clients, it will help you climb those ladders. It got me to here and so far, it's working. It will not make you popular to friends, girlfriends, and family when they want the time you find it so increasingly difficult to share. And even when you are with them, the phones going off, the keyboards texting away, the macs pinging away as new emails land.

Busy is he.

Yup.

dD

Music Video

The week end and the lead up to it has been busy! As well as having four sessions and two viewings this week end Saturday and Sunday, on Thursday we spoke to a guy about updating our website. We like the look of some of the stuff he has showed us he's going to do, so keep you eyes pealed on the two-d website as some exciting changes coming soon...

On Friday I shot a promotional video for a band called Secret Genius from the Beds area. They're mainly a covers band but also have their own material. They range in ages and backgrounds. I arrived at the recording studio and unloaded my kit. My primary focus was going to be lighting. It was important that being confined to a smaller space, lighting was going to be key. I would always argue, primarily being a photographer - that lighting is the SINGLE most important thing at any gig, especially when covering something so creative and passionate as a band. Second to remembering to bring you camera anyway! The lighting has to reflect the energy and character of not only the personalities in the band, but their music as well.

I knew there were 5 members and so had to keep in mind we'd need to be able to 'see' them all, whether they were key in the shot or just in the background. I hadn't managed to locate any continuous lighting and had to make do with the lamps on my photography lights (Bowen 500's). Although continuous lighting would have been ideal, the subtle light of the amps in these heads actually worked a treat in the end. I was lucky enough the roof lights were blue and gave off an ambient glow of their own.

I'll post a version of the video once the band give it the ok, and its finished.

Cheers for now,

Dan