The Photo Blog

Sean Smith from X Factor’s sibling duo, Same Difference is another celebrity to brave the on-going national Testicular Cancer awareness campaign known as Checkum. We photographed Sean a few weeks ago in London, but I will hasten to add that his sister, Sarah wasn’t present at this particular gig! Instead she took a hasty retreat after dropping Sean at the studio door and returned later with a beaming smile all over her face - I can’t think why!

A positive and happy character (despite the three hours of nude labour Andrea (my Art Director) and I put him through, Sean was a delight to shoot and sailed through every pose like a true professional. I have posted one of Sean’s Checkum posters here, but more should be released once we receive approval. All images were shot with a Nikon D3x provided by Nikon UK in support of the campaign. The lens I used was my own Nikon 70-200 vr. We used Elinchrom flash as our light source. Click on any image for a larger view.

See an interview with Sean and Sarah here, where Sean talks about the Checkum shoot. There is also a newspaper article relating to the shoot here.

HOT OFF THE PRESS! An additional photo has been used by Heatworld (Heat magazine on-line) here.

(To find out more about the Checkum campaign and view additional images and stories, please scroll through my blog history. The Checkum celebrity campaign was created by Famousmales in association with Macmillan Cancer Support).

Gavin Jenks from the Autoglass TV advertisements is another familiar face to reveal all for the Checkum Testicular Cancer Awareness campaign. Shot about a week ago in Birmingham, Gavin told us he had never done anything like this before, but was willing to expose himself in the name of charity and for the good of all mankind! Gavin’s shoot was a little trickier than most, as we had to position the glass windscreen to avoid reflection from the studio lights. My Art Director, Andrea had much ‘windscreen tweaking’ to do in order to get the perfect shot. Gavin provided all the props for the shoot himself, including an array of tools for the job, plus the glass windscreen that weighed an absolute ton!

All photos were taken with a Nikon D2x and 50mm prime lens (75mm due to chip size of camera). The images were mostly lit with 3 Elinchrom flash heads with a small softbox as the key light, a snooted light on the background and a large honeycomb to backlight Gavin’s body and hair and separate him from the background.

Click on any image for a larger view.

HOT OFF THE PRESS! Gavin’s photo’s are in Heatworld (Heat magazine on-line) here. More radio coverage at BRMB Radio here.

Stuart Pilkington of Big Brother 9 is yet another celebrity to hit the headlines for getting his kit off for charity. We photographed Stuart in a Manchester studio very recently, followed a couple of days later by an additional celebrity shoot in London - soon to be revealed!

The idea of the final Checkum posters is to promote Testicular Cancer awareness to the male population. As the campaign gains popularity, aided by the fantastic publicity it’s receiving through the international media, more and more celebrities are showing an interest in joining in. The photo shoots are essentially a bit of fun, but carry a very serious and important message in the final posters (click on the poster images for a larger view).

A recent shoot with Coronation Street’s Adam Rickitt has also been featured widely in the media and the Checkum campaign received mention a few days ago during a TV interview with Adam on ITV’s Loose Women. You can see a selected gallery of the Checkum posters so far, including Adam’s images here.

Stuart’s final posters are featured from today in The Sun newspaper on-line, click here to see the full article.

Here’s to the next Checkum shoot (coming very soon)!

All images were shot with a Nikon D3x loaned by the Nikon UK in support of the campaign. Checkum is a celebrity Testicular Cancer awareness campaign created by Famousmales and is sponsored by Macmillan Cancer Support.

Lenses used were my own Nikon 70-200 vr and 50mm 1.8 prime. The studio flash used was Elinchrom.

HOT OF THE PRESS - The funniest thing to come out of the Checkum campaign yet is here! And another article here.

The Checkum celebrity Testicular Cancer awareness campaign (sponsored by Macmillan Cancer Support) is now gathering pace, gaining national recognition and global media attention. I have therefore decided to create a quick blog post hosting a gallery showing the majority of the Checkum posters we have created so far in liaison with my client, Famousmales. An additional celebrity took part in the campaign recently and the poster will be added to my blog very soon.

Sadly, we no longer have Nikon supporting us with their high-resolution D3x camera, which was perfect for the campaign shoots. Should any other camera manufacturer/supplier like to support the campaign in return for a credit on the posters, please contact me - 07802 463315. You can see Nikon’s credit on many of the posters in the gallery.

Click any image for a larger view.

For around 20 years I have been involved in photographing celebrities, whether it be capturing the action during a TV or Film shoot, or a private commission to shoot an individual for a publication or advertising campaign. I’ll now describe how we execute a successful celebrity shoot, from start to finish.

Firstly, teamwork and planning is everything and it all starts with a brief from the client. This may be accompanied by sample images as a guideline to the style of photography that’s required. This could include lighting and posing styles, props list, background colours etc. My colleague and Art Director, Andrea normally puts the reference shots together in ‘storyboard’ fashion and we reorganise this in the most efficient shooting order. Props are purchased or obtained from hire houses and food, transport and accommodation may also need arranging. If required, we will organise a make-up artist and a hair stylist, who will also receive the reference shots. All this is half a day’s work before we even start pressing the shutter.

If the client hasn’t already done so, I will create a ‘call sheet’ which describes every detail - location address, arrival times, contact number, etc. This is delivered to every member of the team involved, including the model.

Bruce Jones - Coronation Street

Most shoots these days take place in a hired studio, although on occasion we have shot in hotel rooms and even in an auction house! We therefore often find ourselves in unfamiliar environments and for this reason I always carry my own Elinchrom lighting kit as back up, even if we have pre-booked a fully equipped studio. Working quickly is the essence, so being very familiar with all photographic equipment is paramount as we often only have half an hour or so to set up before the model arrives. I also have a back up for everything – a spare Nikon camera body, at least four flash heads, plus other essential accessories. In addition, I carry an Apple laptop for backing up the images immediately after the shoot’s over.

Most of the current Checkum shoots span over about three to four hours from model arrival to completion. Since the model is completely nude for the majority of the shoot, it’s essential we work quickly to maintain a comfortable environment. We also have to consider keeping the model warm and relaxed, something my colleague Andrea is pretty good at!

Ian Thraves With Dale Howard

Once the shoot is complete, we back up the images via a card reader to the laptop and on my arrival home, all Nikon RAW files are processed, currently via Adobe Bridge to jpeg. This usually takes another couple of hours. For the Checkum shoots, I don’t usually do any retouching or effects myself, all images go to the client as untouched files. For other shoots (especially female), I have in the past spent many hours softening the skin, whitening teeth and eyes and adding colour effects, etc so many more hours of work can be applied after the shoot has taken place.

In conclusion, a successful shoot is the result of a strong team of professionals working together to create the best results for the client. Without my trusty team, coupled with my Nikon camera equipment and Elinchrom lighting, we would never achieve the kind of results you see here.

Click on any image for larger view. Flickr slideshow here

Hot off the press! - Ian’s Dale Howard shoot has been used in Heatworld

Recently voted the best-looking housemate ever “BIG BROTHERS” Dale Howard is the latest celebrity to join forces with over 40 other top celebrities for the Famousmales Testicular Cancer Awareness Campaign in Association with Macmillan Cancer Support. Dale looking even better after leaving the BB house is now a Personal Trainer and is working in Manchester. Dale said ” I’ve never gone completely nude for photographs before but this is such an important cause that I just had to drop my pants and “CHECKUM”.

The campaign has attracted Top Celebrity support with names like Ronan Keating, Westlife and Shayne Ward to name but a few. Famousmales Creative Director Marc Gavin said, ” We have been overwhelmed by the tremendous support from multi media celebrities for this campaign and we have quite a few big surprises to come. The lads from the TV soaps have been very supportive, as have some of the countries top music stars. Anyone who’s anyone wants to strip off and join in.

There is of course a very serious side to all this, and the message is loud and clear - Check yourself and get to a Doctor if you have any worries at all!”

Macmillan Cancer Support has a special “CHECKUM” website: www.macmillan.org.uk/checkum

Click photo for larger view, scroll blog history for other Checkum photos and stories.

Australian-born Rugby League player, Nick Youngquest is one of the latest Celeb’s in the queue to be photographed for Checkum, the national testicular cancer awareness campaign. The shoot took place a short while ago in Manchester and is another supported by Nikon UK (who kindly lent us a Nikon D3x body). For further information and images relating to the Checkum campaign, please see my blog history. Another shoot is scheduled to take place tomorrow in Manchester. Keep watching this space - all will be revealed! Click on any image for a larger view.

Images shot with the Nikon D3x, 85mm 1.8 Nikon lens and Bowen’s lighting. Studio - Calumet, Manchester.

Ian Thraves With D3x camera and Nick Youngquest

A quick trip down to an East London studio resulted in one of our first Checkum shoots with the Nikon D3x. A camera that yields a 24.5 mp image from a 35mm style DSLR body - fantastic! It was just like using my trusty Nikon D2x but with twice the resolution, a much larger viewing screen at the rear and shutter that sounded sweet every time I pressed the button. When the images were later viewed on my Apple Mac monitor at 100 percent, the detail was simply jaw dropping. As for my client, I think ‘impressed’ isn’t a strong enough word. I have used the D3x on two Checkum shoots so far; Jack Tweed (widower of Jade Goody) above and the other will be posted as soon as I get the go-ahead. Keep watching this space!

We have another couple of shoots coming up in the next two weeks and three more celeb’s to blog once the images have been approved. At least the next two shoots will be shot with the D3x. Nikon UK has kindly lent the camera to us in support of the campaign. Lenses I have used with the D3x are all Nikon and include my own 50mm 1.8, 70-200 2.8 vr and finally a 85mm 1.8 that was lent to me by Calumet, Manchester.

For more information about Checkum, please scroll through my blog history where you will find additional information and images that have been previously shot for the campaign.

Above - Nikon D3x test shot.

Those who have been following my blog posts and Twitter ‘tweets’ will be aware that I have been approaching top camera manufacturers for a higher resolution camera body for use on future Checkum shoots (see previous Checkum blog posts). I am delighted to publish that Nikon UK have responded to my request and will be supporting the campaign by lending their top camera, the Nikon D3x. We will be using the camera on at least the next four Checkum shoots (full details will be posted at a later date). The first shoot will take place in Manchester on the 9th of June followed by another in London on the 10th.

All previous Checkum shoots have been shot with my own Nikon D2x, but since it is planned that the resulting images will appear on large-scale posters, it was decided that a higher resolution camera would be preferable. Although I pondered using medium format bodies, compared to the 35mm style cameras they seemed a little more clumsy and would therefore slow things down on the day. Since the nature of the shoots can be time-pressured, keeping things slick and efficient with celebrity shoots is paramount. Therefore, the D3x was an obvious first choice, especially since it is reported to be the best quality 35mm style SLR camera body on the market today. In future posts, I will be reporting on my experience with the D3x - and I have to say that from taking a few ’snappy’ test shots I am already impressed. The results look absolutely stunning, especially in terms of detail and sharpness.

The photo above was taken and processed in 15 minutes and was shot in my hallway, which happens to have been stripped of wallpaper recently, hence the plaster backdrop. My six-year-old daughter held one of my Nikon SB900’s to light the background and I held the other whilst also framing the shot - a bit of juggle. We only took about three or four shots, but to my surprise, captured the one above. The camera was in Raw compressed mode and fitted with a Nikon 50mm 1.8 prime lens. Two Nikon SB900 flash units were also used.

Matt Evers, American Figure Skater, TV Presenter and male Model recently shed all but his skates to take part in Checkum, the on-going testicular cancer awareness campaign sponsored by Famousmales and Macmillan Cancer Support (for more information see my past Checkum blog entries). Matt is one of the stars of TV’s Dancing On Ice and has toured with every show alongside Torvill and Dean since 2006. For more information on Matt, visit his official website here.

The shoot took place in London at Boak studio, a great modern environment with plenty of Elinchrom flash heads, modifiers and power packs, all of which helped to make the shoot a great success. This was different to all our previous Checkum shoots because this time we had to capture action scenes, yet keep Matt within the parameter of standard-size paper background. However, Matt was fantastic and hit the pre-focused mark every time and responded perfectly to the instructions on our storyboards. As usual, my assistant Andrea relayed the instructions and helped by art directing the shoot. Further examples of the final posters can be seen below. Click any image for a magnified view!

All images were captured on a Nikon D2x and a prime Nikon standard lens (which works out at around 75mm due to the chip size of the D2x). I have recently approached a number of companies for further support in the form of camera equipment. We especially require a higher resolution camera body to achieve maximum quality for large-scale reproduction. I will keep you posted as to whether I achieve any success. I have already had a positive response from the rental department of a leading photographic supplier, who have provisionally offered to support the campaign by way of lending us additional equipment for future shoots. If there are any manufacturers who feel they would like to support the campaign, please contact me by phone or directly by email and place the name CHECKUM in the subject field. You can find my contact information on any of my websites. Links are in the right-hand column, under ‘pages’ at my blog site.

Next up, more dynamic action shots in the pipeline – keep following my blog!