Travel Photo Tips – Light
Atkinson Church in New Hampshire, USA
Light plays such a crucial role in all photography but with travel most photo buyers want ‘blue sky’ shots although in recent years atmosphere shots have become more acceptable. This often means waiting for either the sun to come out behind cloud or later in the day at sunset for it to slowly sink behind a great foreground. This can seem a bit pointless and a waste of time to non-photographer partners which can lead to friction so take a bit of time to educate them into exactly what you are doing and why.
Girl coming out of water in Aitutaki, Cook Islands
For example, waiting for a sunset to evolve over a time can be stressful if your partner really, really wants to go and have supper while you know the sunset can only get better, even when the sun has gone.
Sunset on a Cape Cod beach, USA
When going on location I always take a small kit to use in hotel rooms at night or when it’s raining. This comprises; flash with sync lead, small softbox, small lightweight stand and a 20 inch Lastolite reflector. That might seem a lot but not for any real photographer. Used with small still life subjects this enables me to shoot studio pictures anywhere and I have used it for portraits as well. It means also that I always have something to shoot. But being real life, things don’t always work out and on a shoot in Japan I ended up parted from this kit which as we were travelling light on a side trip, I’d left in the suitcase in another city hotel we would return to.
Lunchbox (Japanese bento) in Sendai, Japan
We were given some very attractive looking lunchboxes, too good to eat before shooting, so I had to improvise, and fast, Chizuko was hungry! One thing I did have was a metre square of non-reflective black cloth which can be a background to many subjects. The old fashioned business hotel we were in had all the basics so I got the coffee table and put the bedside 60 watt desk light over the top from behind on a chair. Then I used a newspaper taped up against the tripod legs to reflect fill from in front. Setting the White Balance to 3000K (or as close as goes) to correct the tungsten light, the pictures were a fraction warm in tone, easily corrected with minimal post production.
Police motorcyclist in Piccadilly Circus, London
A lot of photography is ‘thinking on your feet’ and with travel it is also ‘on the run’, always have the camera set to the conditions so you can take a picture within a couple of seconds from seeing it. Never be afraid to experiment, it will only be a few frames after all and it might just work. The lunchbox pictures have done well, and the contents tasted nice too!
Three women at Wadi Rum, Jordan
More blogs will follow on this important subject, telling the story with just one frame too, so keep watching.
RAF 100
RAF 100 display on Horse Guards Parade
What a fantastic week it was in London for the celebrations around the Royal Air Force and its centenary. In Horse Guards Parade, best known for the annual Trooping the Colour, an impressive display of aircraft from the First World War up to the latest acquisition for the RAF, the F 35 Lightning.
Meteor Mk4 – RAF 100 on Horse Guards Parade
For me, a couple of aircraft stole the show. A Meteor as this was the first jet aircraft I can remember as a kid when we lived in Haringay. I clearly remember the sound of jet engines as two Meteors flew low overhead, so very different from piston engine propeller driven planes. The one on display had broken the world speed record at 622 MPH in 1946.
Douglas Dakota DC3 – RAF 100 on Horse Guards Parade
Then there was a Dakota DC3 which was the type of plane used in the Berlin Air Lift that I had my first flight on a school trip from Croydon Airport to Basel in Switzerland.
My father bought me my first camera, a Brownie 127 which was really an updated box camera as it had no adjustments; I used my sunglasses as a filter to bring the clouds out.
The culmination of RAF 100 events was a flypast with the largest number of aircraft for many years with 100 taking part. The very sound of all the Merlin engines from the Battle of Britain planes, Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane, was truly awe inspiring.
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in the RAF 100 Flypast 10 July 2018
The roar of three newest F35 Lightning stealth fighters on their first public appearance was a bit frightening.
F35 Lightnings in the RAF 100 Flypast 10 July 2018
Of course the magnificent Red Arrows display team brought the flypast to a very fitting finale, such skills in making the whole event happen so smoothly in a very British way.
The Red Arrows in the RAF 100 Flypast 10 July 2018
I suspect it won’t be long before fighter aircraft will no longer be manned, drones similar in size and greater firepower will take over the role from anywhere with the pilots looking at a computers.
But until then I hope these aircraft are shown and flown at displays for many more years to come.
Images by Jeremy Hoare and Chizuko Kimura
Daphne Selfe’s 90th Birthday Party
I was delighted to be invited to supermodel Daphne Selfe’s 90th birthday party at an open-air rooftop venue in Shaftesbury Avenue, the Century Club, just right for the hot, sunny weather.
Daphne is the world’s oldest working fashion model, she started her career in 1949 when she was 21 and has graced the pages of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair and many other influential fashion and lifestyle magazines since then. She has energy, grace and glamour which belie her years and credits it all to a regime of gardening, yoga and walking to keep young. A grandmother of four, Daphne is now far from alone in championing a life bursting with opportunity and glamour in later years.
I worked with her late husband, ATV Floor Manager Jim Smith, when I joined the company which was run by Great Britain’s greatest ever showman, the charismatic cigar smoking Lew Grade.
Starting as a Post Boy in the ATV Kingsway Mailing Room, I also worked some days in the studios on live shows as a Call Boy (Stage Assistant today) where Jim taught me a lot about studio discipline.
During a break, myself and another Post Boy, Pat Richards, were able to pose on a camera but it wasn’t until four years later that I made it into the camera department as a Camera Assistant which set me on a path that still continues.
At Daphne’s party I even got a cuddle with another guest, the lovely actress Vicki Michelle, best known for her role as Yvette Carte-Blanche in the great (and now not very PC) sitcom, ‘Allo ‘Allo!, which can be found on several Freeview channels.
Daphne is an inspiration to many and a real delight to be with, she featured in the July 1st Sunday Telegraph magazine, Stella: ‘I don’t do retiring’. Seeing her so full of energy I can well believe she never will retire!
Images by Chizuko Kimura
Japan in London
Within the space of seven days I attended four different Japan events in London, something I’ve never done before and will probably never happen again.
Sake No Hana, St James Street
I was invited to the London press launch of The Ryokan Collection, five star accommodations in Japan. Ryokans are traditional Japanese inns in which you step into their culture and go back a few centuries so everything slows down. This took place in the swish Japanese restaurant, Sake no Hana in St James, and the food was delicious.
Akemi Nishimura, Hiiragiya Ryokan, Kyoto
I had photographed one ryokan in the collection in Kyoto in 1996, Hiiragiya, and surprised the beautifully kimono dressed sixth generation owner, Akemi Nishimura, by showing her the business card she gave me then. The picture has been used many times over the years in travel related publications.
Hiroko Tanaka Nihon Buyoh
Hiroko Tanaka and her traditional Nihon Buyoh dance group performed with grace and elegance in a small theatre buried in Swiss Cottage. Nihon Buyoh is most strongly influenced by Kabuki, Noh and folk dance. Hiroko began learning it at the age of 6 in Kyoto and has been dancing for nearly 60 years.
Hiroko Tanaka Nihon Buyoh
She has been a regular performer at both HyperJapan and the Japan Matsuri in Trafalgar Square where she dances for thousands of people.
Japan Embassy Invitation for Peace and Friendship Reunion
The Annual Peace and Friendship Reunion at the Embassy of Japan in Piccadilly is always a rather moving experience, I have been to several. The old soldiers, both British and Japanese, are slowly disappearing. I spoke to one of the waiters who is always there. he has outlasted several ambassadors with their three year posting here. He told me that the event had changed because coming today were the sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters of those who were interned in prisoner of war camps by the Japanese during World War II.
(c) BBC – Bill Frankland
One amazingly interesting man I met this time was Dr Bill Frankland who is 106. A trained medic in 1940, he had been captured in Singapore by the Japanese and was held as a POW at the notorious Changi Jail and then Hell Island for over three years. After World War II he was an assistant at St Mary’s in Paddington to Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, and Bill himself discovered how to alleviate pollen allergies and invented the pollen count. He has been awarded an MBE for which he is grateful but he has not been knighted for his work which benefits so many.
Japan House High Street Kensington
Some twenty or so years ago there was a move to create a Japan house in London which never happened; it was stymied by indecision and lack of a place. So Daiwa Anglo-Japanese House filled the vacuum which it has done very successfully with an impressive array of exhibitions showcasing many artists since 1995.
Now in 2018 the old Derry & Toms building in Kensington High Street has been refurbished and over three floors comprises the new Japan House London, financially set up with a mix of Japanese government, corporate and private sponsorship.
Japan House London, High Street Kensington
The exhibition space in the basement is large and the opening exhibition is by Sou Fujimoto entitled ‘Futures of the Future’. He is one of Japan’s leading contemporary architects and is only 46, the exhibition features many models of his already built and future work. Also in the basement is a library which had a rather limited space for books.
Japan House London, High Street Kensington
The ground floor is mostly a shop with nice traditional Japanese things for sale, ranging from homewares and accessories through to fashion and stationery. There is also a Japan National Tourism Office here to get info about travel to and within Japan.
Japan House London, High Street Kensington
The first floor is given over to an upmarket restaurant, Akira, which has 28 staff and will be a new offering to London’s food scene.
Japan House High Street Kensington
But for me the highlight was along a wood lined corridor to a private room for dining parties, this is where the real Japan kicked in. It was walking in and smelling the tatami mat floors that told me that.
Ryoanji Temple, Kyoto
Four days of Japan events in London, together they gave a great impression of the country today; a Japan looking forward while embracing its past.
‘Witness for the Prosecution’ at London’s County Hall
The setting could not have been better for this production, the octagonal Council Chamber in London’s County Hall, previously the home of London County Council then Greater London Council with ‘performers’ such as Ken Livingston.
Opened by King George V in 1922, the audience enters this Twenties opulence from the minute they walk in, ascend the marble stairs and take their plush red leather seats.
From her 1925 short story, this production of Agatha Christie’s 1953 play centres around shifty Leonard Vole in a spiv like suit who stands accused of killing a wealthy elderly woman whom he casually befriended. His German wife Romaine, his alibi, viciously turns the tables when called to the witness stand by the prosecution.
Director Lucy Bailey made good use of the thrust stage which is always a problem with foreground actors masking others, but she kept them moving so it was fine for the audience. She kept the script clear and punchy, while subtly poking fun at the British establishment’s smug complacency.
The play takes place on the thrust stage in a well designed Old Bailey set by William Dudley; he turned what might be seen as a disadvantage by some into a very positive setting.
The lighting design was very effective, particularly as designer Chris Davey only had limited places to put lights, he took advantage of everywhere he could to position them. The lighting cues throughout were all razor sharp in application, a great example of theatre lighting as it should be.
Unusually for me it was the sound by Mic Pool that stole the show. I loved the music bridges used to cover scene changes, more often done in a sort of shuffling limbo, but not this one.
Julian Curry as Mr Justice Wainwright
At times the actors, although excellent, seemed to try too hard but never enough to spoil the performance. For me, overall, the direction and staging, set design lighting and sound made the show. This is a show in an unusual theatre setting on the South Bank and well worth seeing if you can!
Red Rum at Christies
Following my Red Rum exhibition at the Osborne Studio Gallery in London’s Belgravia in April, and thanks to gallery owner Geoffrey Hughes, I was asked to donate four of the images by Peter Jenson for The Jockey Club sponsored British Sporting Art Trust charity auction which I readily agreed to.
After selection and being beautifully printed, mounted and framed by Point 101, the four photos from the exhibition were sold on Tuesday 5th June at the racing charity auction held at Christies in King Street, the world’s leading auction house.
Hung in the same room as my photos (but not in the charity sale) were also oil paintings by Alfred Munnings, George Romney and John Constable.
Humble is far too grand a word to explain my reaction on seeing this juxtaposition, my photos alongside work by some of the world’s greatest artists, an impossible situation to have ever expected. Everything at Christies is beautifully lit with theatre style lighting which makes every picture a star in the spotlight, the best lighting of any gallery or saleroom in London I know of.
After being treated to admirable Taittinger champagne and canapes for an hour, the excellent Christies auctioneer, Hugh Edmeades, skilfully got the price up of every lot before my four photos, Lot 12. Bidding started at £1,000 and within five minutes were sold for £3,000, a great result for the charity. The total for the whole evening was £43,000 from the very generous bidders.
But for me the best thing is that those Red Rum photos of mine will be hung in the Boardroom at Aintree Racecourse thanks to Rose Paterson, the chairman. I could not wish for them to be in a better place than Aintree where Red Rum went into horse racing history, became a legend and is buried at the finishing line.
I am totally astonished by all this; never in my wildest dreams could I have thought this would happen to me. All in all a most wonderful night!
Copyright images by Chizuko Kimura and Jeremy Hoare
Evening at the Museum
The invite was good; an evening for the launch, with a friend, of the new-look British Museum online shop, to explore the Collecting the World gallery out-of-hours, meet the artisans and designers behind the unique products and to enjoy complimentary drinks and canapés.
After going through the bright and well-lit shop, attempting to display in a huge room beyond it with almost non-existent lighting were Nicholas Humphrey-Smith of the Ancestors group with beautiful hand crafted reproductions of some Museum artefacts, Sima Vaziry showing her exquisite jewellery and Mia Sarosi presenting lovely porcelain ceramics. But how Britain’s No.1 tourist attraction with 6.22 visitors last year could show this work in such abysmal lighting conditions is beyond me. It was so bad I decided not to even bother to take photos.
When we left it was somewhat eerie to find the Great Hall entirely devoid of people as every one of the many times I’ve been previously it has been like Piccadilly Circus, packed with people and the loud hubbub of voices.On talking to the security guy, a very pleasant one for a change, he told me that once when he and a colleague were checking all the many rooms to see if anyone was still present after closing, they got to the main door to leave and found themselves locked in. It took them about an hour before they managed to find someone to come and let them out.
As he was telling me this I had the thought of the exhibits coming to life and having a party. In the Egyptian rooms the Pharaohs were doing a Wilson, Keppel and Betty sand dance while in the Elgin Marbles room they were dancing around to Mikis Theodorakis’s ‘Zorba the Greek’.
In many ways the unoccupied Great Hall reminded me of empty theatres of which I have experienced many. There is an atmosphere in them of all the things that have happened in that space. The most personal one for me being the Theatre Royal Drury Lane where my father had been manager for 26 years. I don’t believe in ghosts but once when I was in his office above the main entrance late at night after the show years ago, all the lights went out and I had to grope my way along the walls to get to the pass door to the sage which did have some lights on, it was all quite scary. He told me that the next morning when he went I, a lot of the paintings were at odd angles where I’d groped my along them in pitch darkness.
So I know from experience what these places usually full of people can be like when they have gone home, spooky to say the least.
(C) Jeremy Hoare 2018
Photo London 2018 at Somerset House
What a brilliant, diverse and dynamic photo show this is, so much to interest anyone who is interested in any aspect of photography, the medium of our time.
Now in its fourth year, Photo London is an international photography event befitting the city’s status as a global cultural capital and has become the keystone exhibition of photographic art in the UK with galleries from all over the world exhibiting. Held each year at the beautiful 18th century former tax office of Somerset House in The Strand, it also has a growing number of satellite events to augment it and maybe next year there will be a Fringe Event too.
After a welcome by founder directors Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad, there was an excellent introductory talk hosted by Photo London Talks Director Bill Ewing with multi-award winning artist and designer Es Devlin and a photographer known for his depictions of global industrial landscapes, Edward Burtynsky. This got the show off to a good start.
The range of imagery on show is huge; from small 3 inch square Polaroids up to one print which is six metres wide. A good collection of vintage prints too; in fact some of the images taken in the 1860s are better than many taken today. I suspect that’s because 150 years or so ago, it took so much more effort and expertise than today with almost everything digital being able to take a photo, proving that speed is not everything in the creation of photographic art.
After several hours going through all the galleries, it was hard for me to pick any real favourites, I liked so many and loathed so many too. Key trends this year seem to be more black & white and also bleached out colour images. It covers more space this year with a further twenty two galleries attending so it is a huge effort to just get round them all while trying to remember where exactly I saw a photo I liked an hour before actually was.
The largest image, 3 x 6 metres, is made up of 122 merged images by Edward Burtynsky entitled; Carrara Marble Quarries, Italy 2016, and is quite spectacular.
If Photo London gets bigger in size and stature, it will surely become the world’s leading and most prestigious photo show, but even today the message is loud and clear – London is where photography is at!
Hokusai and Hiroshige – artists of the ‘floating world’
As it’s ‘Golden Week’ in Japan, which is a week from the 29th of April to early May containing a number of national Japanese holidays, here is some excellent Japanese art on show in London at the enchanting Henry Sotheran bookshop which is the longest established antiquarian booksellers in the world which was started in York in 1761.
Located just off London’s Piccadilly in Sackville Street, it has recently been the venue for exhibitions and talks about two of the most famous and revered Japanese woodblock artists, Hokusai and Hiroshige, artists of the floating world.
The woodblock print that most people know is ‘The Great Wave’ by the master Hokusai, who lived 1760 to1849. If you don’t know the original, you will certainly know of the many uses of it for all sorts of advertising. He did the ‘Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series’ of which this is the first.
In December, Japan expert and lecturer Suzanne Perrin gave an amusing talk about him surrounded by excellent prints executed by this most renowned of ukiyo-e artists, Hokusai.
A second treat in the same venue was to follow this April with an exhibition of Hiroshige prints. He lived from 1797 to 1858 and was another Japanese ukiyo-e artist who is considered to be the last great master of that tradition. He is best known for his landscapes such as the series, ‘The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō’.
Dr Monika Hinkel talk on Hiroshige at Sotheran Books in Sackville Street, Piccadilly
Dr Monika Hinkel of SOAS gave an insightful talk about Hiroshige, bringing the man and his work to life, also surrounded by many examples on display and for sale.
There have been many reproductions of the original prints by both of these artists, some good some not very good. But the underlying art produced by both artists is still wonderful and has had a lot of influence. Vincent van Gogh went through a phase of copying Hiroshige’s work and Monet also was influenced by these masters of the art of the ‘floating world’.
The Red Rum Exhibition and Book Signing Private View
This took place on Tuesday 10th April at the lovely Osborne Studio Gallery, 2 Motcomb Street, Belgravia, London SW1X 8JU thanks to Geoffrey Hughes and Anna Rowlinson.
The book and exhibition have had an impressive amount of press coverage in the following;
Liverpool Echo
Hampstead & Highgate Express
Racing Post
Daily Telegraph
Horse & Hound Online
The Guardian Online
Country Life
The Field
Irish Field
TalkSport Radio
The exhibition has now been extended until Monday 23rd April and signed copies of the book are available in the gallery at a discount price of £25.
Private View photos by Chizuko Kimura.
Red Rum Private View at Osborne Studio Gallery on 10 April 2018