RANDY LARCOMBE @randylarcombe - Tumblr Blog

The importance of staying touch

Recently I had a shoot for a commercial client in London and while I was there I caught up with artist James Cochran whom I had met many years before here in Adelaide. James now lives in Shoreditch but works all over Europe. While there we made this little video together of him working and the streets of nearby Shoreditch.

We met on a shoot for a local magazine here in Adelaide but have stayed in touch and occasionally worked together on projects. Here are a few of the shoots we have done over the years starting with the first time we met in 1998 at the top, then a shoot we did in Hindley Street, Adelaide, for the Adelaide Magazine and at the bottom an installation of light boxes in a lane way in Adelaide of the Metro Dodo series.

Sometimes in the course of my work I do meet people with whom I have an instant connection and over the years I've made many friends and learnt so much from those encounters. Definitely one of the best parts of the job.

To assist with their recruitment strategy, ASC approached us to help tell the story of why ASC is a great place to work. We thought the best way to to do this was to talk to 5 employees (with a view to using 3) and simply ask them why they liked working there. In the end we used all 5 people and what they said, completely unscripted was quite compelling.

Same Same But Different release

Over about a 14 week period in 2013 Suzi and I regularly drove to Poh's place to shoot her latest book-Same, Same But Different. We had all worked together before on some commercial food shoots and I've photographed Poh many times for magazines but this was a big project.

I really enjoy shooting food because it's one time that I am not doing all the hard work. While I have to be on the ball in terms of lighting and technique Suzi and Poh did all the hard work of making in happen. Watching them work was a treat. I'll be honest that there were some times that they would be putting something down and I was thinking "what the hell are they doing?" But, they were both so confident in the craziness of their ideas and the wild colours that I went along and once I saw it through the camera I totally got it. I learnt a lot from this process. Be bold, be confident and don't be scared of pattern and colour.

The question most people ask when I tell them I did this book is "did you eat the food" to which I reply "YES, whenever it was offered" and with Poh's generousity, that was very often and I can tell you the food was amazing. Poh has a work ethic like no-one I know and no matter how tired or under pressure she is, she never loses that great laugh and wicked sense of humour. It was a great project, and Suzi are I both really proud of our respective contributions.

The above shot is the double page spread that the book opens with. I always wanted to do this shot from the top looking down at all the amazing props that Suzi and Poh had amassed and Suzi did an amazing job of styling it. It's definitely one of my favourite shots from last year. You can see a little promo that Harper Collins made here out of the stills from that shoot

"It's all about the experience"

Something that I am being asked to do more and more is take photographs that reflect an experience rather than a literal representation of what exists somewhere. Particularly in tourism images there is less and less call for pretty models in nice scenes. Now it's more about making the viewer feel like they are in the scene (having the good time) rather than an observer of someone else enjoying themselves.

The above shoot I did at the start of the year for Fairfax and an SATC promotion on the food and wine regions of the Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula.

Beautiful job Randy.

A fabulous opportunity here for the right person.

We were invited by NickNack to shoot the Cara (Community Accommodation Respite Agency) annual report. We were given the opportunity to shoot it how we wanted and they would design around the photographs -dream job. I wanted to shoot each of the subjects in a location which matched their story. As many of the subjects were in wheel chairs (which are quite busy looking objects) I was concerned the subjects might meld too much into the background so we place each of them against a plain grey backdrop. This also helped give the series a common thread. It was an immensely rewarding job which we entered into the 2014 Graphis Photography Annual and have subsequently won gold for. The design work around the photographs was just beautiful- you can see the report in context here and read about some of the great work that Cara does.

ASSISTANTS PLEASE APPLY HERE!

We are ALWAYS on the lookout for new assistants. Because of the intermittent nature of our work it's hard for us to find good people. Sometimes we might have regular work for weeks on end and then we might be editing video or in pre-production mode for the next big gig where we won't hardly need help at all-that's just the way it is. If we find someone good though, we'll move heaven and earth to give them as much work as we can in those down times.

If you are interested, write Suzi an email but first of all read this excellent post on Igloo's blog Pretty much everything on here applies to us as well. Here are a few of the really important ones to me and a couple of my own.

First, if you work with me, you will be an assistant, not a photographer. If carrying someone elses gear or empyting the bins is beneath you, then read no further, you are not for us.

Point number 8 in Igloos blog is a big one for us. What can you bring to the table? How are you going to make my business better? Of course you are going to learn heaps from me both about photography and business but that's not going to benefit me. Don't treat me like an employer (which I am not), treat me like a customer. If you aren't into customer service, you are in the wrong business. Like any other customer, I will go for the path of least resistance to get through my day. You make my job easier and I'll want to use you all the time.

Point 10 is something I don't necessarily agree with. I don't mind being harassed- send us mail outs regularly of what you have been shooting. If you aren't shooting regularly, you should ask yourself if photography is what you really want to do. Everyone that has ever approached us I've asked to send me work regularly. To date no-one ever has (except for those we took on). We'll always look at your pictures even if we don't have time to respond.

Proof read your email and make sure it isn't full of spelling errors. If you don't care enough about making sure a job application is correct how can I ever trust you to be fastidious enough to take care of my gear? Dotting i's and crossing t's is very important to us.

For goodness sake look at my website. That's the first thing we'll do before we respond to your email. You won't believe the number of people that have approached me for work but haven't looked at my website. Truly.

And finally, I'll admit to not being the easiest person in the world to work with at times (just ask Suzi)- I have really high standards for myself and those around me BUT....we have had some assistants stay with us with for 5 years or more (so I can't be that bad) and all assistants that have worked for me for 2 years or more have gone on to run their own successful businesses. So while some days are definitely hard, you do get to meet a lot of really cool people and see places that mere mortals can only dream about. At the end of day, photography, (including assisting) is a great job.

I was commissioned by the The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre to take the official portrait of former Prime Minister, Bob Hawke. I had heard stories of Bob Hawke walking out on photographers after 1 shot, so I was prepared for the worst. We had been promised 15 minutes (although I was doubtful). He was staying at the Intercontinental so I did a reccie to work out where I could set up a backdrop and the best place was the now rarely used (and very 80's influenced complete with massive mirror ball) nightclub on the ground floor. I set up a large grey backdrop, with 2 profoto 7b's on hand and 2 assistants. He was right on time and first thing he said after we shook hands was, "How long is this going to take?" to which I replied "I think 15 minutes was our agreed time". When he saw the size of the set and set up his next comment was, "God, how much gear do you need to make a photo". I said, "well, depends on how good you want the photo to be". I think at this point he had resigned himself to the process and it was a thoroughly enjoyable shoot, I think for both of us. He was true to his word and I was true to mine and at the 15 minute mark I knew I had plenty to choose from. Toward the end of the shoot I told him how I had heard he could be difficult. With a smile he said, "don't believe all you hear". Good advice.

I took inspiration for this shot from a portrait of Margaret Thatcher by Helmut Newton that hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London. It's massive and I found it imposing, the intense expression, the simple dark background, the lack of obvious "involvement" of the photographer. I can remember standing there, looking at it for ages. I say lack of obvious involvement because of course the photographer was involved, they always are and it can be more about creating a feeling on set and stepping back and observing rather than directing. I am directing less and less as I become more experienced. I met a winemaker yesterday and we were talking about his craft and the importance of remaining true to the fruit that has been picked. He said sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing. I think it could be said that it's the same for the portrait photographer.

Here's a great little behind the scenes of the Burnside Ad shot by my assistant Ben in between running around setting up tracks etc. The camera I used for the TVC was a C300 from Gearhead in Sydney. It's a comfortable transition camera for someone like myself who predominantly uses DSLR's. I used all my own glass and I shot in the very flat Canon Log gamma which graded up beautifully by Kojo using Smoke.

Here's the full 1 minute version of a recent TV advertisement for Burnside Village that I shot in conjunction with our friends at Cul-de-sac . We shot this with a relatively small crew in the shopping centre while it was still open to the public. In some instances the field of view was cleared for only few seconds in order to get a single take. Our model, Megan Irwin from Pride brought a great energy to the shoot and she nailed it everytime she needed to. Editing and colour grading was done by Kojo.

Kids, Crabs and the Best Day Ever

The South Australian Tourism Commission have asked local filmmakers to give their take on spots around South Australia for their "Through Local Eyes" campaign. I was born and raised on Yorke Peninsula and Black Point is a lovely beach on the east side of the peninsula known for it's holiday shacks, crabbing and calm beach. It was a place I frequented many times in my youth so I thought it might be fun to hire a shack and take my own kids there along with some friends. My idea was pretty simple, shoot the kids having a good time and then let them retell the story over the phone and skype to their grandparents. Kids come out with some great lines and I am sure the words "people are not like, too worried about their jobs so they don't get phone calls and stuff" would hit home to a lot of parents.

Also, kids don't need a heap of things things to keep them happy, it's the simple pleasures that give them joy like "going for long walks on the beach, playing beach cricket, playing in the sand.....yeah!" and who doesn't love "pee-ing in the water"?

It wasn't much of a holiday for me as I was running around like crazy with a camera but the kids had an awesome time which I think shows in this little film which will show as a trailer in selected cinemas during the October school holidays. Keep an eye out for it!

To light or not to light, that is the question..

Brighter recently asked me to do some promo shots of their senior people. Up until September the sun is pretty steep in Adelaide and in a few streets around the main business district there are some lovely pockets of light created by the light bouncing around from the office windows. How a subject is lit is really important to me and I will nearly always introduce some artificial light or manipulate the existing light somehow. It was very liberating to wander around the city with one camera, one lens and get a similar look by being aware of those naturally occurring opportunities and exploiting them without any other lighting or equipment.

Congratulations to my lovely wife for getting her first solo exhibition of drawings together despite our busiest period ever. The exhibition will be at The Stranded Store in Colonel Light Gardens until the end of August.

I shot this in under an hour as a test for a Canon C300 which I had hired for another job, it was then cut in Final Cut Pro.

Here is a great little story about Suzi's exhibition and the SALA Festival written by Megan Lloyd on Talking Adelaide

There is a great story in today's Good Weekend Magazine by Gideon Haigh about the problems facing Holden and the automotive industry in Australia in general. I spent a day there shooting these portraits. A few years ago I was also commissioned to photograph the empty Mitsubishi plant in Adelaide after it closed and I couldn't help thinking that it was such a waste of human resource and manufacturing infrastructure. It is extremely difficult for Australian car makers to compete with overseas imports for a whole heap of reasons (read the story to find out) but I hope a way can be found to keep these industries here. Once they are gone, we will never get them back.

Here's a pic published in the Weekend Australian magazine that I took a couple of years ago that resonated with me when I saw it. I played country football for Port Victoria on Yorke Peninsula in my late teens and saw the slow demise of that great club. Many a Saturday you would have senior colts playing two games, old guys who would love to have retired but instead kept playing risking pain and injury to keep the club going. On Yorke Peninsula where I played there were two leagues, one with 9 teams, the other with 6. Now over the whole Peninsula there is one league of 6 teams and they still struggle for numbers. I'm glad Wudinna has found a way to keep going.

I found this a deeply moving photo essay. Photographer, Andrea Gjestvang, has worked with her subjects, all survivors of the massacre in Norway in 2011, to help them express themselves through this series of portraits. Truly great portraiture, to me, is more about observation than creation. That is, it's more about holding back, listening and observing than it is about directing.

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RANDY LARCOMBE