The Year So Far

Its not exactly half way through the year but after just coming out of an awful three weeks bout of lurgy, it has provided a natural 'enforced' break.

So whats the story so far? Well by this time last year I'd had three times as many shoots, and a huge backlog of artwork/editing. This year I didnt want that to happen again. I had too much to do in too little time and moans from models that I was taking too long didn't help...have you any idea how long some of those images can take? As one model fired a blast at those impatiently waiting saying...you should have done your homework, isnt this why you've shot with him! Forcing out images as fast as possible just does not do anyone any justice, and to be quite honest had I not been getting hassle I think I could have turned out better images.

This year I feel that the images have improved as I've had more time in a couple of cases to experiment and delve into what can be done as well as allow myself time to be inspired by the process of working on these images. I could happily shoot every other day and edit on the days between, but thats not what I do, its not what I want to produce. I still see images with gorgeous models, great makeup and styling and then nooooo  grey background..wrooooong! Its NOT complete....does it matter, everyone still seems to fawn over the results.

Although cutting down on shoots has given me more time to work on images, I did realise that it wasn't really the answer as to why I'd actually cut down. I think its more about dissatisfaction with where its all going or not going. I dont want to churn out more of the same, there has to be a constant evolution and boldly going where no tog has bla bla bla. Its also about producing or creating something that you consider an achievement, but that people look at and it really doesnt seem to do very much for them..... maybe I should just get a grey background.

Or when you think you've produced a great set of images and the model doesnt even acknowledge the results let alone thank you for the time and effort put in.

Last year I had so many discussions where the models mysteriously vanished ( I think they'll probably be deposited back on Earth in 2012 when the aliens arrive). So in an attempt to prevent that happening this year any model that I havent shot with before I've said that I'm adopting a policy of not working with them to avoid the timewasting discussions.  Actually I haven't adopted that policy at all, but its interesting to see what the reaction is. Some have just accepted this and others have been adamant that it will not happen with them, and continued to want to arrange a shoot. The ones that have accepted my new 'policy' can't have been that interested in the first place, so maybe its working to an extent.

Its still disappointing though when you answer models that you DO know, say on facebook, who have an idea for a shoot and your replies are blanked. Then they'll rant later about online manners. I wonder if you even know who you are.

In October we've got the Secret Nuclear Bunker shoot 7 lined up. The first one for two years, with almost all bunker newby models, and arranged away from the farce that NetModel has become...exciting times ahead....but we also came up with two other groupshoots. One at a privately owned Aviation museum, and one at privately owned Tank and Military vehicle collection where we could have climbed in and out of a variety of tanks and vehicles (unlike most tank museums), they were even going to fuel up the massive Centurion and drive it out for us! The response to the tank collection, was quite pathetic and I would even say bordering on rude or ignorant. That event was cancelled and as a result I cancelled the Aviation museum shoot too. We've done so much for the Alt Photography & Modelling community in the UK that I feel a bit better support from some of you people out there would not go amiss. It does reinforce the idea of just going for locations with a very small invite only bunch of photographers and models.

On top of that I've already had a previous blog ranting about the interest or lack of, from magazines for events which should be treated as being at the forefront of the alternative scene. 

Well for one thing I've had enough of waiting for scraps of exposure to drop from the table of publications (poetic or what!) and to be grateful for a tiny poorly reproduced and cropped image. Wow I've been published, quick stick the magazine under a microscope so I can see which image it was!

I also had enough of Net-Model. A site that when I first joined back in 2006, was a great community and despite arguments all over the place, it was a vibrant site that always had something happening, and carried on like that for a few years...now its like an old wounded animal, shoot it for Gods sake, put it out of its misery. I look in there out of habit, theres usually about 12 models logged in, and the same blinkered togs, locked in there out of habit, maybe not daring to admit to themselves that the site and maybe themselves have outlived their usefulness, maybe they should all shoot themselves as well. Or maybe I should join PureShit or is it MingerStorm...oooo Harsh! (but true)

Hah! well a jolly, positive and uplifting blog this is!

Well in a way it is. Once you decide what really matters, what you want to avoid, what needs to be flushed down the toilet of mediocrity, then you can start to move forward and cast off everything that you feel is dragging you down.

So plans! Well lots of themes and projects coming up, I'd list them here but I'm not sharing ideas.

Collaboration with a very talented model/writer on photostories and possible graphic novels.

Producing magazines or one off publications of the events that we are involved in. I can already see it 'Tales from the Bunker', 'The Book of Bunker 7', 'The Bitch in the Bunker', 'Bunker 7 this time its personal', 'The Guinea Pig Breeders Gazette'....(they have guinea pigs at the bunker, as well as turkeys and a llama)

My Mum bought me my first proper comic when I was 6, it was Metal Men No.3 which incidentally I managed to get hold of a copy a few years ago. Then at 8 I got into Marvel comics, they were being reprinted in the UK as black and white weeklies,  so it meant that my introduction to comics was at an early age with the very first stories of Thor, X-Men, Iron Man, Avengers, Dr. Strange amongst others. That must have had quite an effect on an impressionable 8 year old, in the days when there were two black and white channels on a crappy TV, no vids or DVD's , no satellite, no computers, no phones, and you basically had to rub two sticks together to get anything to work.

So 5 years later as I'm now 13 and thousands of comics later, I can see a few projects that will involve writing, graphic novels and using a real cast.

....I dont suppose anyone wants to be in a graphic novel?

'Look Mum I've been published!'

'Oh very nice dear, is it another little picture that I cant show to Auntie Doris?'

'No Mum..I'm a FUCKING SUPERHERO!!'

  

A Brief History of the Secret Nuclear Bunker Shoots

The secret nuclear bunker shoots came about as a result of John Henry and myself living in Brentwood only a ten minute drive from the bunker itself. Its one of those  places you are always aware of as there are signs in the centre of Brentwood pointing to the place, and everyone would laugh.. 'Hey  someones given away the secret' 

I never actually visited it until around 2004, despite living in Brentwood since 1986. I turned up with my kids, switched on my camera and it wouldnt work. 'Right everyone home' I wasnt going in without my camera.

In 2006 shortly after joining Net-model.com (when it was a great site) I saw that an Essex model was trying to organise a social/groupshoot. She was asking for possible locations. A day later I was driving past the bunker so I popped in to see if it could be a possible venue,  and was allowed a free tour. It was empty and spooky and I jumped a few times, nobody told me I would bump into mannequins strategically positioned to make you have a heart attack.

After my visit I thought this is the place! I let the model know, and she asked my to organise the shoot as she was only 16 and unable to do so on her own. Now I'd only been to a couple of poorly attended groupshoots and both were weekdays, so I assumed this was the norm. I tried to organise a date, got very little interest from all the people that had been clamouring for somewhere unusual to shoot and promptly threw my camera out of the pram! ( I think at the time I just told everyone to Fuck Off!)

At that stage I hadnt met John I just knew that there was another Brentwood photographer called GothX that had joined NetModel around the same time.

It was then that John had his first go at organising the nuke bunker shoots, and quite sensibly picked a weekend date. (duuurh suddenly people can make it!) I sent over links to what I'd already found out about the place and also went round to Johns to actually meet him. John was the organiser and put in a tremendous amount of work to get this to become a viable and successful event. I did lots of sexy bits like get in touch with models and beg them to come. Once we'd got some well known names aboard, more people got interested. We were very much the new kids on the block at NetModel and I'm sure everyone looked on waiting for this non-event that was doomed to fail...  but It didnt. It was a great event.

It was a fantastic venue, lots of mods and togs, and lots and lots of socialising. I can still remember the look of frustration on Johns face when we had models coming out of the changing room in some great outfits waiting to be shot while some togs hadn't even got their cameras out by half way through the evening...jabber jabber jabber, whatabout some photography? I wasnt frustrated I was loving it, heads down no nonsense, shoot those models get those images!

Bunker 2, in June 2007, once announced was quickly snapped up, the first one had really stormed in as a great new event, and now lots of people were interested, coming from all parts of the country. Bunker 2 showed that this wasnt a flash in the pan, and again a great success. I'm sure it pissed off quite a few old hands on net-model as neither of us were interested or swayed by some of the 'bigger' names out there, and the new kids were actually showing the old hands how its done.

It was about the time of Bunker 3 in Oct 2007, that I was organising a shoot with a model based on computer game warriors as in games like Soulcaliber. This escalated into a groupshoot, and whilst I was organising that, John suggested offically combining forces and using the land around the bunker for the fantasy warrior shoot and then head off into the bunker for the evening. So Bunker 3 became a Mega Shoot.

Bunker 4 in April 2008 was the same Mega format , but there was a big difference. There were alot of new faces, and all these new faces were very excited and were planning their individual shoots months ahead. This was more like it, we were finally getting through to people that the combination of unique location and the bringing together of all this modelling and photographic talent could lead to some great and unique results. Results that were not possible in any other way.

By the time of Bunker 5 in Oct 2008, the demand for places was amazing, and we decided to bring in something to boost the quality of the shoots further. We introduced vetting.  Just as you would put up a casting and choose who you want to work with based on your own criteria, so too this was applied to the bunker shoots. Too many of the people that lived on net-model always got in first while others that didnt hear about the shoots until later, would go onto waiting lists. This meant that models and togs that you really wanted to attend might not get in because they didnt spend every minute scouring the latest news on net-model. So we had to narrow over 200 people down to 50 (how to lose friends!).

Not only did we introduce vetting but also started to invite people that we wanted to attend that we thought could bring in something new. I spent so much time corresponding with models selling them why they should come. I had two models that were coming from Scandinavia. I'd shot with Festival of Sins for their promo material and invited a whole bunch from that shoot with a view to opening out a whole new set of events in partnership with them.

The amount of work that went into Bunker 5 was huge, it really felt we needed a secretary just to keep up on all the admin...the results were very bipolar. I dont think we've ever had a shoot where we had so much great feedback. Not just the usual 'Thanks' 'What a great day' etc, we received so many very personal messages where people said that they had found their lost mojo, they had gained a new boost, they had suddenly got lots of work, it was almost as if we'd provided a photography therapy session.  But I felt very let down personally. The Scandinavian models both got ill (genuine illnesses which I followed on Myspace) a couple of models that I'd shot with a few times dropped out but I only heard via a friend of a friend, they hadn't bothered to tell me, and a few of the models that I'd met through Festival of Sins no showed or gave incredibly pathetic last minute excuses . All that recruitment work had basically backfired, and made me question was it all worth it?

The next shoot at the bunker wasnt an 'offical' bunker shoot. It was a collaboration of John with  Pamperd (Pam Hughes) she wanted to run a fetish shoot as the bunker. Pam uses a website with a dancecard system to book individual slots during the day. It worked very well and on the night I loved the fact that I could set up in a prearranged spot with prearranged model, shoot  and then pack up and set up again in another spot with another model. It does make you get organised and focussed. We'd invited Festival of Sins and given them quite a few slots for people to be models. Their own togs didnt make the grade during vetting and their very poor attempts at getting involved in booking up dancecards lead them to pull out under the excuse that it wasn't a fetish shoot it was just a shoot with alternative models. How short sighted, we had great fetish togs and models and even one of the countries leading riggers, the results spoke for themselves. Yes how very shortsighted!

Also in the fields surrounding the bunker we had a shoot with Classic Cars. This time a model called Verity that was involved with classic car collectors had approached John to co-organise a shoot. Unlike classic car meets we had alot of space for each car, enough to make each car look completely by itself . The cars were fantastic , the day was brilliant fun and the results could have been published as a book in its own right. What it did show was that the nuclear bunker shoots arent a success by virtue of a unique location, but also by hard work and organisation.

In October 2009 we had our last bunker shoot - bunker 6. It was back to evenings only as many people had found that a full day completely drained them (lightweights!). It was an 'efficient' shoot. Everyone knew what where when  and how, we'd continued to use the dancecard system.  It was abit strange though, bumping into people you hadnt seen in ages, saying Hello and then having to move on 'Cant stop got my 7.30 to setup in the surgery'. I think we actually had a 100% turn out for this one. In fact the population increased by one as we had the birth of an alien baby courtesy of MUA Sammm Agnew and model Franka as the Mum in childbirth and model Lex Dublinski as the midwife.

There were no bunker shoots in 2010, instead we had two amazing shoots at Laredo wild west town in Kent. The bunker needed a rest. Whenever a bunker shoot had finished and we'd all been posting our results, the next one would be anounced and so there has always been one running in the background. Unfortunately the better organised and more efficient that we got and whatever extra we could provide became very much taken for granted. The shoots were never money making ventures for ourselves. The costs were purely to  pay for the venue. We were never providing a paid for service, but many times peoples reactions were as if they were attending by some kind of right and John and myself were the paid custodians of a public event.

Bunker 7 we advertised on NetModel as we had done with all the previous ones. However even after vetting etc we decided to pull the plug on using Netmodel, its no longer a site that we want to have associated with these shoots. I think we are both quite disgusted with what it has become.   

So in October this year we have Bunker 7, the first bunker shoot for two years., and organised using facebook. As far as I can see only two models have been before, so its all new faces and new excitement. If you've managed to read this far without falling asleep or slitting your wrists, then you may have realised that these are not like other groupshoots. They are only called groupshoots because of the numbers of people involved, they are a full shoot that you have commited to as an individual. If you have any doubts as to your commitment to this then let us know now. We will be expecting a 100% turn out.

As this has turned into such a long spiel I'll have to write another about the October shoot, as there is lots to discuss, about how to get the most out of the day.

Alternative Magazines

Last month in Alt.Fashion magazine I had an article published about the two Wild west shoots that took place last year at Laredo. Whoop! Whoop! we all say, but do we? What should have been a multi-image, multi-page article for which around 100 images were provided by various photographers, ended up as being quite a small article, and even that was hi-jacked without me knowing, very unprofessionally by a model that wanted her full page image to be changed to one of her choice.

In all fairness to Alt.Fashion magazine, this is a fashion magazine (clue is in the title), and as such, priority no doubt goes to fashion articles and printing constraints. A wild west shoot is hardly going to interest followers of alternative fashion. Another magazine 'Nocturnal' which is an online, downloadable, printable magazine which had been many years in coming, also was expected to run an article, but it seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth.

I've always been totally bemused by the sheer lack of interest of all the other alternative magazines, publications out there.

So why do I have high expectations about the interest in these events? By these events, I mean the 'Secret Nuclear Bunker Shoots' (currently organising our official 7th one), the Classic Car Shoot, the Wild West shoots etc.

When you have a shoot you are bringing together two or more 'disciplines'. Photographer and model, then add in Make up artist, Clothes designer, stylist, prop supplier, location, retouching, digital art etc It can build up into a team of different skills all coming together to create an end image. That in itself can be quite something....but lets take it a step further with groupshoots. Groupshoots were mainly about getting together, models, photographers etc, and having a social gathering around taking photographs, networking, havingfun, meeting lots of people, and any good images that resulted from this were a bonus. The shoots we've been organising, in particular the nuclear bunker shoots have changed deliberately from this, to events where we are trying to realise the potential of having all these skilled people together in a unique location.

Its not a celebration of what we do by getting together with like minded people. Its about bringing all these people and their skills and vision together to create something potentially new and unique. Without blowing our own trumpet, these are unique events.  Even events such as Whitby Goth weekend are really only celebrations of an interest, and not a coming together to create something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

So we have a handpicked bunch of Photographers and Models, we have makeup artists, stylists, designer clothing and accessories , props and equipment, all thrown into an amazing location be it a nuclear bunker, a wild west town, a field full of classic cars.  All the 'disciplines' that we are interested in coming together to create something new and unique, that cannot be achieved anywhere else.

So why is there such a sheer lack of interest. I've approached plenty of magazines ,  Bizarre initially showed some interest especially once I told them that we actually would have a number of Bizarre UltraVixens there, but their interest soon disappeared, after all how can we compete with articles on custard wrestling or quite a few other equally banal and pointless subjects.

It does make me ask, are there actually any magazines out there that are about what we do, about the bringing together of different types of people to create something. I look at a numberof magazines and quite honestly it does seem they are scraping the barrel in many cases just to fill the magazine with 'interesting' articles. Yes thats a subjective statement, but one I feel is justified in the light of what is available to them out there.  

In October we have the 7th Nuclear Bunker shoot. It will be an exciting event as by that time  it will be the first one for two years. It will also be the first one that is being organised and promoted outside of net-model, mainly via facebook. So far apart from two models, the rest have never been to the bunker and therefore alot of new faces.  Now will any magazines be interested?