The photographers eye and a Dog Full of Money

Good photographers are often said to have better eyes than those who are not blessed with the capability to do more than take snaps.

A good photographer sees things differently and can often "see" things that are not yet there by pre-visualising a shot in their head. They then turn it into reality by positioning the subject in the environment, choosing the right camera angles and settings  and sometimes adding props and lighting. 

I think I am lucky that I also can see things that others don't see - I'm often the one in a group who says "ooh look at that" when the rest of the group had missed it. My son is lucky that I seem to have passed on this ability to him.

Over the years my son and I often spot things when we are around town and set out to document them photographically and are often surprised how many of these hidden items pop up over time when you seek them out.

Following on from my blog posting a few weeks ago on local graffiti around my home town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire (You can't find a decent bit of graffiti when you need it - but is it art ?)

I thought I would post about some other "found art" - this type of image started off in a very low key way but we soon found that actually they were breeding like rabbits which is ironic given that they are dogs, a very special sort of dogs

To begin with I though that Dog Full of Money (DFM) would turn out to be a local band and these were promo stickers but it turned out they are a celebration of those collection boxes you used to see on the High Street to raise money for Guide Dogs for the Blind. The producer of the stickers seem to have a Bristol connection and also a strong foothold in Hitchin.

In the years since these images were take many of these stickers are now faded remnants proving that art is only temporary

Not all of them featured the Dogs themselves there were others with the letters D, F and M and often shared their space with graffiti 

And they came in a number of designs, some with cut outs like the one at the top

Sometimes they shared a post with some band stickers

These 2 were placed on a the mounting for a CCTV camera, I don't suppose the camera can look straight down

Virgin Media cable TV boxes were a favourite target, here with the 3 headed dog

and I am amused by the fact that this post box is right outside another photographers studio

I will miss them when they are all gone but I'm always on the look out for the next thing to say "ooh look at that" 

What is there in your environment that others overlook ?

Well it made me smile

Do you think these two will have a long and happy marriage or will he turn out to be a little wooden or maybe she could turn out to be just like her mother ? and anyway shouldn't they be inside the venue enjoying their reception not outside directing their guests

What funny things have you seen at a wedding, I'd love to hear, please add a comment below

What goes on behind the scenes at my photo shoots or maybe not - reality comes to advertising

I recently came across this behind the scenes video that shows what has to happen in order for a large corporation such as Domino's Pizza to shoot a few seconds of a "cheese pull".


 It shows some of the 150 people including a hand model (wearing gloves until the last minute before the shoot in order to protect her hands), lighting crew, grips and  the dozens of food stylists who adjust the pizza after it is cooked using spatulas, knives, cotton buds and tweezers to make the food looks as perfect as it does when it arrives at your door ;-)


You'll have to watch the video to see the use of power tools and other hardware but please do continue to read the blog after you have watched it





In reality it was shot for a Domino's campaign called Show Us Your Pizza, where they promise to bring reality in to their advertising photography and film making and also offer up to $500 to their customers who send in their own winning pizza pictures


Russell Weiner, Chief Marketing Officer of Domino's makes the following promise

Our Photo Promise

Here at Domino's, we don't think our inspired Domino's pizza needs the "extra" things typically done to food at photo shoots to look mouth watering. Our pizza is good enough to stand on its own. That's why we're making the following promises about how we photograph our pizzas from this day forward. Did we just buck the food photography trend? Oh yes we did.

We will only photograph real, honest-to-goodness pizzas.

That means fresh from our own ovens, with exactly the same ingredients we deliver to your doorstep. Nothing else added.

Our employees will make the pizza we shoot.

Not an art director or model maker or food stylist. A Domino's employee trained to make pizzas the only way they know how: by hand.

We will not artificially manipulate the food we shoot.

No tweezers, no steam guns, no model knives cutting perfect perforations in the cheese. The only thing that will touch the pizzas we shoot is the pizza-maker's hands and a standard Domino's pizza cutter.

I think it will be interesting to see other food suppliers coming clean and making a promise about the reality of their images

Next it could be Anchor butter folk  telling us these were pantomime cows in their recent advert and not real cows



What do people think ?

Please post your comments below

You can't find a decent bit of graffiti when you need it - but is it art ?

One of the advantages of being a photographer without the millstone of a studio with four walls is the ability to find interesting places to shoot people

Grungy town & city centre locations are often popular as backdrops, this is particularly so of walls plastered with colourful graffiti.  Some people see graffiti as art (or at least sometimes as art) and there are many people who see it as undecorative vandalism that creates eyesores across the landscape.

I fit into the "sometimes" category

I've been out on one of my regular location scouting expeditions to check on the status of my local graffiti hotspots and it has all been a little disappointing so I though I'd share some images from my local area and also some across Europe where I have been shooting.

There is plenty of graffiti around my home town of Hitchin in North Hertfordshire

Some of it is rather dull tagging and I suspect this was done by someone other that Fuse who I believe is a big time London artist

and some of it just seems to spraying over the top of other artists work

You can come across something that has the makings of a photography location

But they never seem to go far enough

And some that look like they might be good if the next stage of colouring was completed

and some of it is a dead loss

and will possibly never go anywhere

There are some very popular locations with the local artists, unfortunately these locations are also popular with the clean-up teams from the local council or Network Rail

This is another popular location that shows a little promise sometimes

But then a walk down another popular backstreet location showed some new promise

and some recently completed work that if it managed to remain intact may well be appearing in one of my photoshoots very soon

It is also interesting to see graffiti with some sort of political message although in this case I'm not at all sure what the message is

and in some cases I don't agree with the message, copyright is definitely something I am in favour of to protect my work

Looking further afield, I saw some great graffiti when I was in Vienna Austria working. These images were all seen along the banks of the Danube in the city centre

This one must have been 10 feet tall so must have taken quite a lot of planning and perhaps a step ladder

Most of the Vienna work seems to contain a message

Some of the messages were quite clear

and some were a little too clear. I certainly looked out for what I was treading on after reading this (and wondering why it was in English rather than German)

and then back to England and my home town of Hitchin

This guinea pig stencilled image in the centre of Hitchin has always amused my son and I'm sure there is a message behind it too but from my experience with guinea pigs the message may well be Squeeek

If you'd like to talk to me about a photoshoot for yourself, your company or band please call me on 07866 719730 or email me on caterham@gmail.com

Also if you know any good graffiti locations please do leave a comment below

New website for Davis & Co Photographers - Hertfordshire & Norfolk Wedding Photography

As well as my own commercial photography business Paul Davis Photography and Antonella Muscat's business Antonella Muscat Photography we are also partners in a wedding photography business called Davis & Co Photographers we aim to shoot beautiful weddings anywhere in the UK but especially in Hertfordshire and Norfolk

We have recently launched a new website for Davis & Co and have several weekends this wedding season when we are not booked. We are offering a number of special offers too including either a free engagement shoot or trash/cherish the dress session so if you are looking for a pair of wonderful photographers for your summer 2010 wedding please stop by at our website or get in touch so we can tailor a package just for you

New webiste - Davis & Co Photographers


Antonella 07748 197522 or Paul 07866 719730


Email us at contact@davisandcophotographers.co.uk

The Skyline in Lowestoft has changed

Those of you that are connected with me on Facebook will probably recognise this picture of me taken by Antonella last year in Lowestoft as I often use it as my profile picture. I was taking a picture of the thing on the right with the many legs when Antonella grabbed a rare picture of me rather than a picture by me.

The many legged thing is a 3000 tonne Jack-up-platform called Excalibur and is the largest owned by Fugro-Seacore

The now finished (and now much much bigger) structure on the left by my elbow has been in the news this week as it is finally out at sea being towed to the oil field on the Norwegian side of the North Sea - amusingly for a pedant like me the Norwich Evening News had the headline "Massive construction sales out to sea at Lowestoft" maybe from the Lowestoft branch of DFS ?

The Structure is an LQ or Living Quarters module and is in effect a floating hotel for oil workers in the Valhall oilfield and is the product of over 3 million man hours by workers from Lowestoft based SLP.

The LQ provides offshore accommodation for 180 people and includes an atrium, gym, 'town hall', saunas and heli-deck. The Atrium is required to ensure that all of the bedrooms have natural light as that is a Norwegian legal requirement, seems they treat their oil workers than we treat ours

Unfortunately SLP went into administration in November 2009 and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) are looking for a buyer for the business. For the sake of the 1400 people who worked on the LQ lets hope that they find a buyer soon. And of course it would be nice to have some new interesting clients with interesting products to work with too

New Business page on Facebook for Paul Davis Photography

A very brief posting to let you know that Paul Davis Photography now has a business page on Facebook

I will be using this page to showcase my commercial work particularly automotive & motorsports

Please feel free to drop by and press the Like Button :-) and if you'd like to discuss commissioning me for any commercial photography work please email me on caterham at gmail dot com or call me on 07866 719730

Paul Davis Photography on Facebook