I met Chris on Twitter. Turned out, he lived in Nottingham and we knew all the same places to eat & drink, so I’m certain our paths had crossed under the anonymity of the city before we connected online over a shared love of music & reasonableness. He was a voice of sanity in a loud crazy faceless internet crowd, always chipping into discussions with words that kept me from thinking I must be going nuts. He introduced me to Amie, his bandmate in Antler and together they asked me to help them with promotional / artwork portraits for new music they were working on. They were a pleasure to work with from the off, their brief was interesting & realistic – their EP was nearly finished and they had an idea of the kind of visuals they wanted & so they walked me through that and I took their guidance & ran with it.
We discussed Snake Pass & Winnats Pass as two possible shoot locations – somewhere green, a little foreboding, nicely lit, outside but not too bucolic, a dramatic & bold landscape to place these two musicians inside to make a statement about their pastoral, progressive acoustic music. They wanted no trees. I never asked why. I just made sure there were none. I like a clear requirement. You gotta go where the art takes you, eh?
We met in a great cafe nearby & spent 3 or 4 hours wandering the stunning Winnats Pass, exploring caves, corners & slopes, looking for light. We found it, too. We were lucky with the weather – the first date we arranged was called off in torrential downpours, but the second date was everything, low, grey clouds with moments of piercing sun. Chris & Amie were both naturals, posing naturally, solidly & patiently without lots of experience, so that was really easy & I think the results bear that out; there were no bad shots, only good & great ones, if I do say so myself… 🙂
I shot them on my Canon 5D mkiii with a mixture of 85mm f/1.2 prime & 24mm f/1.4 prime lenses, and shot a few rolls of Portra 400 35mm film on an AE1 with a sticky shutter. I reckon the best shots are on a roll that isn’t developed yet, I need to finish it first. I’ll add to the post if there’s anything handy on there. Josienne got me a darkroom course for xmas, so hopefully, they will be my first self-developed shots.
So here’s a few favourites from the day. I don’t want to share everything because they belong to Antler, but Chris & Amie kindly agreed to let me share a few favourites here & now. Watch this space for more & hopefully the end result accompanying new Antler music soon!
If you’d like a photo or video shoot, please do ask.
Find me on twitter, instagram or shoot me an email – let’s make things!