100 Models in one afternoon

Things have been hectic here - I've several shoots which I am itching to share with you, but have to wait until they have been published first.

Last week I was asked to shoot 50 models as part of a casting for the big-name client of a big-name photographer (yes, it's all very hush-hush til the campaign is live, but that's how it is). It turned out that someone got a litte over-zealous with sending us models.... we ended up having 100 girls to cast. Double what we expected. We had one arrive late, but where's the fun in only shooting 99 models when 100 sounds so much better? Of course we squeezed the last model in before packing up.

An interesting challenge, but one I am very pleased to say we met without breaking a sweat. By running a tight ship we were able to do the full casting and review the images with the client on-site, all in time to get home before the sun started to set!

To give you an idea of the scale, the above image is a contact sheet of 50 images. We shot twice as many girls as in the image (each girl in various poses too).
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Winner : UK Tattoo Industry Best Photographer 2010.

I was working at a convention on Sunday when I was told that I had won the UK tattoo industry 'Best Tattoo Photographer 2010'. I was honoured to be on the shortlist, but to have had the majority share of the public vote is even cooler. So if you are reading this and you voted for me, thank you very much, this does mean a lot to me!


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Pictures from the Bizarre Ball

You can see the galleries from the ball here, or wait to see the event in print in the next issue of Bizarre magazine.

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Rock n Roll Bride features the Ghoulmore Wedding

The awesome Wedding blog "Rock N Roll Bride" featured a gallery from the Ghoulmore wedding, to see it click here.

Pink Cadillac : Best prop ever ?

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Michelle and Craig Lewis emailed me a few months ago asking if I'd be happy to shoot their 1950's themed Wedding in Wales. They told me they had hired a pink Cadillac, so how could I refuse? The couple have a great sense of humour and wanted something a bit 'different' for their session after the ceremony (which took place just over a week ago). So we took the car down to the Beach and the above is just one of the fun shots we came up with.

Live and Loud ; Andrew WK

Phew, I'v been involved in several projects and exciting shoots recently, unfortuantly none which I can release until after the magazines have hit the shelves.
So to keep you going, I've included a link to a series of shots I was asked to do by RockSoun magazine for their recent Andrew WK live show. clicking on the above links you to their site and from there you can also see the photos I took of the 'meet and sweet' Q/A session he had with his fans (based on the theme of sweets).

Shotlisted for 'Tattoo Photographer of the year' Industry award.

I've just been told that I have made it to the shortlist of the final 5 photographers for the 'Tattoo Photographer of the Year' Award to be held at the Liverpool tattoo convetion in June. Which is a nice suprise as I didn't even know I had been nominated. I'm excited as I obviously have a great interest in tattoo related photography and try to add something new to the mix, and them competition is firece these days, so even being shortlisted is cool :)



More can be found out about the competition here:
http://www.tattooconvention.co.uk/Tattoo_industry.html

Thanks for your support !

And here is some info about the Liverpool convention :

"The Liverpool Tattoo Convention as a truly independent tattoo show, will this year be introducing a series of new industry awards with the intention of doing what we can to raise standards in the tattoo industry, give credit where it is due and let the tattoo artists and tattoo enthusiasts voices be heard.

We consider that Journalists, Photographers, Publications and online resources do an invaluable job in promoting the industry, and the Tattoo scene in general, so it is only right that achievement in these areas should be acknowledged."

Alternative culture through a lens : guardian.co.uk Gallery

There are a couple of portrait shots I really want to share with you, but I have to be patient as the client may be using these in a magazine feature too. Once we know if these images are going to be used in the magazine as well as for the client then I can post them.

Instead I'm going to post you a link to the Guardian.co.uk website where they have put together a gallery of images from my photobook, 'No Commercial Value'.



"Photographer Al Overdrive has spent years capturing alternative culture, whether it be at live shows, tattoo parlours or Roller Derbies. His first book, No Commercial Value, assembles the best of these images".

Which is a pretty nice intro from anywhere, let alone a publication with such a good reputation. Out of the shots they picked, it is interesting to see they chose one of Florence Welch (yes, of Florence and the Machine) who has gone on to have great 'Commercial Value' in the two (three?) years since I first met her.