Photographer’s Notes:
Two days ago (02-09-09) I received an email from the lovely Kelly Ashton, the Head Of UK Operations at Tilllate.com London, that I got promoted from junior photographer.

It was good to know that the quality of my pictures was up to par and people were happy with them. This was my second shoot at the Ministry of Sound, but this time as a “PHOTOGRAPHER” which is GREAT thing, means BIGGER events are possible.

Ministry is one of the U.K’s big clubs, the atmosphere is brought to life with an array of lights and house music from a number of talented DJ’s. It always offers a cracking atmosphere, but it’s “The Box” where all the action really happens. All the top DJ’s have played here, from Pete Tong to Judge Jules. I always seem to get some sought of problem in the DJ box in the BOX room, for some reason they hate any photographer in there that is not THEIR own. I got this guy in the DJ box asking me where I got my AAA wrist band from! I was like ” from the Entrance” DUH!! and he said, and I quote, “Tilllate is not suppose to be in here!” Hmmmm… I have to check that out with the Tillate crew! I have kinda had enough of shooting here cos of this. All the other DJ boxes are great and the DJ’s are sound as a pound, hope they all dont become up themselves or get staff around them that are, when they get to DJ in the BOX! I guess i’ll just have to accept that they don’t want any Tilllate photographers in there for now.

3D disco hit Ministry, providing a visual stimulus to our already bumping musical chunes. It was provided by Novak 3D! It was an exciting and rather entertaining visual experience but after a while of dancing the glasses fogged up or became sweaty and very uncomfortable and you felt like shouting out “Someone turn on the Air conditioning”!! Not many people rocked the paper blue-red glasses which was a shame as I really wanted to capture a sea of ravers partying like a futuristic mob! I got a few shots of people wearing them though.

The crowd was great and I spent a lot of time in the VIP room ‘cos it has nice warm lighting (I mean colour not heat :) ) which gives helps give some warmth and definition to the faces of the clubbers. I don’t like blue or green light ‘cos it kinda flattens and create boring pale pictures. But when some red or tungsten light is thrown in the mix it provides a slightly better picture.

The box room lighting seems to be predominantly green, blue or a mixture of both or white strobe light. I guess those are the light techie’s favourite colours :) Occasionally you get some red spot lighting effect. The Loft room is another great room to shoot in cos it has a blend of the primary colours (blue, red and green) and funky music! All in all it was a great night, with challenging light (when is it ever not :) ) but I learnt from the first shoot firstly to try and avoid total blue washes of light ‘cos all you get is blue berry looking people, instead get the blue light reflecting off their hair like hair light in studio setups, secondly to be a bit creative and watch my timing in the Box room so as to get some funkier pictures!

Check out the full photoreport here