Tag Archive for: barbados

Today we enjoyed a rare day to ourselves.  We were in the lab for a few hours, and then hit the beach.   Seeking refuge from the sun under some local foliage, I lathered myself in sunscreen, much to the mirth of everyone else.  Sian rarely trusts me to do this.  I invariably miss something – somewhere and end up with what I affectionately call ‘comedy burn’  which  basically makes me look like an albino leopard that has lost an epic, decade-long, game of slaps.  I go very, very red in the patches I miss.

Determined not to fall folly to my usual rooky-(ness?!), I went all out. Liberal and relentless – I was determined not to burn today…well at least not from the sun…

Sian kindly took a picture. Those of you easily offended by pasty, overweight Brits, you may wish to look away now…


Happy that I was lubed up to the max, and impenetrable to the sun’s evil burning ways, we went for a swim and the obligatory game of catch.  For anyone that doesn’t know, I love catch.  The beach was invented for catch.  We developed opposable thumbs for catch.  And Sian, bless her, always obliges my need to throw an inflated projectile until I get bored.  Or injured.

Today was awesome, and we had FUN.  For one reason or another I convinced James we needed to take a stunning picture of us emerging from the water…Halle Berry style in that Bond movie (not a huge fan – sorry!)

I, again, feel obliged to re-iterate the above disclaimer…

….As you can see from both the pictures, and reading back – my tone, it was a silly, silly day.  But it is always important to forget about work and have fun every now and then.

After more shenanigans and a few rum punches, we headed down to Oistins, with our new  ‘proper’ camera (POST TO COME) with the view to get a bite to eat and soak up some Bajan culture.  Sian’s friends Jenny and Tom have been out for the last twelve days, and it has been great to show and see so much of the local touristy stuff that we normally miss out on.  We are, however, not strangers to Oistins.  It is a ‘local fish fry’ that was initially started every week by the wives of the fisherman who would bring in their haul.  The food is awesome, the beer is cheap, and the atmosphere of it all is friendly and excited.  It is great fun.

The only trouble is, it only really ‘happens’ on a Friday.  Sian and I were aware of this, but we were locked in the hotel for a flood watch last night and Tom has a guide book that said there were some stalls open on a Saturday too, so we took the chance and went down.  We got some great food, but there was only a fraction of the stalls open and the place was dead quiet…except for our arch nemesis in tourist hangouts…the dreaded karaoke.

But it was great for the guys to see it, and it was actually really nice to be able to walk around without having to get your elbows out.  I got some rather cool shots of the locals playing dominoes too which was a bonus, and the evening was lovely and cool.

I always enjoy seeing the local traditions and cultural nuances of the places we go – and this is definitely no exception…but much like the beautiful and peaceful cannabis-inspired reggae of the 60s and 70’s from the Caribbean slowly changed to the overtly aggressive and violent cocaine-fuelled ragga of the 80’s, so too has the demeanor of dominoes.

These guys are violent.

There is no placement about it.  You slam your piece down, as hard as you possibly can, and curse.  Seriously, that’s apparently how it’s done in Oistins, girl or boy it’s hardcore.  I loved it.

You can see the dominoes taking air from the somewhat aggressive gentleman's last move.

As a final cherry on the cake, we wandered round to what Sian and I affectionately call ‘culture corner’. On a Friday, it is full of wonderful old couples – people in their 60s, 70s and 80s, in all their finery – three piece suits and trilby hats.  They play 30s ballads and ballroom, and they all dance the night away – if you’re lucky (or you’re my boss, Gary) you may just get swept up by an old bird who wants to show you a thing or two – but unfortunately we got there to see it was empty, with a DJ playing Rihanna’s greatest hits.

But, today was our day off, and day of fun, so fortunately this guy came out and threw some shapes for us.

I say it again.

I love my job 🙂

 

 

Ferg x

When I started this blog all of 4 days ago, I had visions of sharing my work with the world and pointing out why I had done this, and what choice I made to do the other, but it is coming apparant to me that it is much more of a platform to journal my thoughts as well as the technical aspects of my photography. So please, if you’re not interested in this, come back tomorrow – I have a truck load of photos and ideas that I intend to share with you all over the weekend, but for now, I want to focus on this little guy:

As you may have seen from my last post, Ryan is my nephew, and he is totally, totally awesome.

My cousin Den moved into my house the day that Sian and I first got together. He is one of my best friends and as dear and close to me as my two wonderful brothers Teggy and Ed.  Den met Sian’s big Sister, Sarah 9 years ago at out 18th birthday party. Their eyes met, the world slowed down, and Chris de Burg’s “Lady In Red” played throughout….well at least in Den’s head it did anyway – it’s the only song that he knows.

And that was that.

6 Months (?) later they were engaged and all was well with the world. We got to spend a lot more time with Sarah who made the treacherous journey from the exotic concrete wilderness that is Milton Keynes almost every weekend. They soon got married and moved into a house together in ‘The French Apartments’, Purley. And here they started their family.

During our trips back daaaaannn saaath from our respective unis, Sarah and Den made a room up for us to stay in. They would welcome us, along with luggage from abandoned student dens, student-amounts of laundry, student amount of debt and the abundance of worries and concerns that weigh the shoulders of all that studentness – with wide arms and big hearts. Our parents were always happy to have us when we came back, but we called Sarah and Den’s home. And I loved them for that. And then they gave the world Ryan.

And I loved them all even more.

Today he is FIVE and he is MASSIVE!

We were lucky enough to have Mumrah and Denrah and the Monkey Man come and visit us out in Barbados not too long ago, and we had a quality time.  Den too is a budding photographer and is getting pretty handy with his Nikon.  We regularly have chats about our primes, aperture, shutter speed and filters,  but where as I strive to capture an awesome candid shot, or better the portfolio with more dramatic sunsets and seascapes,   the truth has to be told Den:  you’ve already made your best work.

You made this guy.

And he’s freaking awesome.

Happy Birthday Ryan xx

Unlike most photographers in the world, like this lot, Sian and I didn’t really get into photography through a ‘passion’ or ‘burning desire’.  We needed jobs.

Long story short we had both had a pretty rough year.  We had some bad news within the family, a company that I had been commissioned to write a play for went bust, Sian hated her job in the city and a dear friend of ours was murdered.

We were pretty keen to put the bad times behind us, and as luck would have it we stumbled across an opportunity to join Colorbox onboard a number of cruise ships as photographers.  We leapt at the chance.

This was the first ship we joined – the Thomson Destiny.  Originally built by Royal Caribbean and sailing as ‘The Song of America’, she soon became outdated and was bought by Sun Cruises, to sail as ‘The Sunbird’.  Then Louis Cruise Lines got their mits on her and now lease it to Thomson.  She’s an old rust bucket, but a great, great ship, and we had so much fun on there…

Anyway – when we started as photographers on the cruise ships, there was no question about us ‘fuelling a passion’, ‘creating images that linger on the mind’ or any other of the wank cliches that seem to litter the internet these days.  We were there to take pictures and sell them.  It was aaaalll business.

Now this isn’t high brow stuff.  Sure, you get to go to amazing places and take pictures like this:

which is epic and totally, totally awesome, but your job is to be efficient, friendly and my God CONSISTENT!  When you are printing 6000 photos in one night you HAVE to trust that, despite which photographer on the team of six took the photograph, the exposure and cropping will be EXACTLY the same as that of the other 5 photographers – and this is where all the skill lies.   Every photo you take is potential earnings for you, the cruise line, and the company, and so there is a lot of pressure to get the shots right, in camera every time.  There is no chance to play with a photo later in a RAW editor, and there is certainly no chance to go back to the guests if you get the shot wrong and don’t notice at the time.

As an example, on formal night, we would need to take three pictures of the guests standing in their finery in front of a less-than-convincing backdrop of the Titanic Staircase…don’t ask.  Anyway, this backdrop would require a set of three photographs: a full length, a three quarter crop, and a horizontal.  These pictures are then printed with very minor color correction on the epic Fuji Frontier (A blog in the making – I assure you) The lighting and cropping of EVERY SHOT is determined by the photographer IN CAMERA.   Now, it sounds simple, but I have challenged some very experienced photographers to take 10 ‘sets’ and see how consistent they are – and I challenge you!  Get your mates together, and see how consistently you can reproduce the same three photographs throughout them all…it is actually very difficult.  Remember – you can’t crop in Photoshop, and all of your photos must have the same cropping throughout (Roughly a fifth of the frame at the bottom for the feet, and the same again at the top for the heads) To add to the difficulty, we’re dealing with studio lights, so if guests stand a cm forward or back, you risk overexposure, shadows and all other of drastic pitfalls that render the photo ‘unsellable’.

Unfortunately, as I don’t own the rights to any of the photos we took of guests while working on ships (and for some reason I cant find ANY of the millions that Sian and I had taken) I have bodged together a similar example for you to see.  This was from a shoot that I did when my cousin and sister in law (sounds incestuous because it is – ANOTHER BLOG to come on that) and our gorgeous nephew Ryan came to visit.  Obviously, on the Cruises we wouldn’t have 70 year olds giving each other piggy backs, but you get the idea – the cropping is all done in camera, exactly the same for every single shot.  It might sound stifling, but this strict disicipline taught Sian and I so, so much…

And this is where we started!  Unlike 99% of the photography world, we started out working to a business model, and we knew that every picture we took had the potential of making money…this is very upside-down to how photographers usually discover the love of their cameras; most start as hobbyists who then take the plunge to try and make money from their images, and it has definitely had an effect on us both on how we approach our photography.  We love taking pictures – and we love sharing them with our friends and family, but we always have, and I think always will come to our work from a business point of view.  The first ‘photo’ I ever took, I sold, and we have never looked back.  There is a notoriously grey area when artists go from making amazing work, to making amazing money, and the balancing act that artists go through to justify what they charge.  But I find it fascinating how quickly and happy people are to give away their work for nothing – especially when it comes to taking photos.  Here in Barbados, we are setting the standard for wedding photography – the guys (not me) produce amazing work. Seriously, it’ll blow your mind.  But we are in direct competition with people who will offer (very very possibly) as good quality work, but awfully finished for a tenth what we charge….and I don’t understand why these people sell themselves short.  Our work is CHEAP.  For about 390 quid our wedding couples get at about 90 minutes with an experienced, seasoned photographer.  These guys are out shooting pretty much every day – they know the light, they know the sites, and they are all great with the guests.  They then spend a good 5-6 hours editing the photos, present them to the couple who then pick their 24 favorites and we print them and put them in an album.  That is the very basic package, and in my eyes, an absolute bargain.

But there are people on the island who will shoot a wedding for $100BDS – that’s  about 30 quid.  And the guests are more than happy to pay that – for their wedding photos!  Now, call me old fashioned, but if you went to a garage and the mechanic said “I’ve replaced your discs and pads on all four corners, that’ll be $60″ (sorry, I don’t have a pound sign on my laptop) would you not think…”Hang on – that’s a bit cheap – where is this guy skimping here?”

Whenever I go to buy something, or receive a service, I have a rough idea in the back of my mind of what I expect to pay.  Should that figure be way off either way, I get very suspicious…very quickly.

And I wish that our guests would too.  I think the problem we have is that no one wants to quantify photography (despite our damnedest) and what it’s ‘worth’.  Pretty much everyone has a good camera these days, and it’s quite easy to get a well exposed and composed shot, but it doesn’t make you a ‘photographer’.  Just like when I cook a meal in the evening doesn’t make me a chef, giving someone a lift down the road doesn’t make me a chauffeur and wailing into a microphone at the karaoke doesn’t make me a singer.  So please, everyone – stop underselling your work.  If you’re good and want to make a career of it, charge fairly on what you think you’re worth.  If that worth is $75 for a day’s work and everything on a disc, you’re either not good enough or you have esteem issues.  If you think you’re days work and all the images on disc are worth $40,000, then best of luck, but you have to be competitive in this already saturated market.  And if you just ‘do photography’ at the weekend and offer to do your mate’s wedding for a fiver.  Stop.  Even if you do it with all the passion, focus and zeal in the world.  You’re just giving the rest of us a bad name.

Ferg

Hello all.

Ok, so it has come apparent that all of the cool kids in town now write blogs, and being that I am such a super-funky trend setter, I thought it was high time I joined the movers and shakers in the blogging world.  My job robs me of a good 60 hours a week, and I am trying desperately to finish a novel that my best man Eddie kindly referred to as a masterpiece ‘coming to an airport book store near you,’  but I figured I could probably allow myself one more little distraction in life to keep me on my toes.

So, a bit about me.  My name is Ferg and I live with my beautiful wife in the nearly-but-not-quite as beautiful island of Barbados.  We have been here for the last 14 months and will no doubt be here for at least the same amount of time again.  Both Sian and I are photographers and we work for a company called Colorbox.

Oh – and I have the best job in the world.

Sorry to gloat, but I do.  Yes, I have serious frustrations at work every day (don’t we all?) and yes, everyone who visits or stays, or works with me has to put up with my ranting and occasional bad language, but joking and grumbling aside, I am one lucky chap.  I live on an all-inclusive resort managing a team of eight on the island here, and I am also in charge of what goes on in the Island of St Lucia, where Colorbox operate too.  I have a great manager called Althia over there, who looks after everything incredibly well, but I do intend to get out there a lot more often now that things are running a bit smoother here in Barbados – a huge amount of which need be credited to Sian, who is the Guest Services Manager,  Nicky our accountant, and the recently joined James Creasy, who is proving invaluable to the team.

So what do I hope to achieve with this blog? Well, firstly, I hope that some people read it.  Mostly, I think it is going to be a great way for me to channel my aforementioned rage at the end of each day, and I also hope to use it as a springboard to share some of my work, and the thought processes behind my photography.  But, ultimately, I hope that it gives some people a chuckle…even if it is just a titter a year I’ll be happy.

So, I look forward to sharing more posts with you all (Mum!) over the next few weeks – and maybe even years, but until then I’m off for a banks on the hotel.  Have a picture of a turtle on me.

Cheers 🙂