A trip to Manchester

Yesterday morning I woke up staggeringly early - well, 6am - and somehow made my way to Preston train station. Hopping on the train, then another bus ride to Openshaw in Manchester - I'd never even heard of it till a couple of days ago - I arrived at the studio in perfect time for the day's training to begin. The thing is, I was 2 hours early and stuck in a part of Manchester that, to be fair, isn't exactly interesting.

Fast-forward an eternity to 11.30 ish and the training could begin. Mike Larson is an internationally known and respected photographer, but for me at least, it's not the quality of his images (which, by the way, are fantastic) that sets him apart, but his ability to talk about the business side of things in a way that seems to inspire people. For example, he mentioned having a 'to be' list, and not just a 'to do' list ... hmmm, I feel I need to buy a pipe, pour a glass of port and ponder this over some Chopin.

After a while he got down to some shooting, with the model, giving us some valuable insight into what goes through his mind when he takes on a shoot, particularly in regard to lighting - incidentally, by the end, we were working in conditions so dark that bats would've had to turn on their full-beams. Well, maybe not that dark, but you get the idea.

So, here are a couple of pics I managed to grab in the couple of minutes available to me ...

This one was taken with the model sitting on a window-ledge. No extra lights, nothing. 

This had the exact same set-up, but went for a more abstract composition.