Aaron and his Norwegian Fisherman's Beard..

Aaron here, I bumped into on the crossing, by my local café..

I gave him my card and here a few weeks later we shot these..

His Norwegian Fishing Beard is coming along nicely and I'll shoot it again, once it has it's own post code...

By chance Arron brother Mickey, has this awesome moustache, that is crying out to be shot..

So that will happen at some point in the not too distant future...


As always click on the image to enlarge...

Bas's Skull, Darren...

So I went into BMF, for a PPM yesterday, with my wife's college Bas, who receive this beautiful Joshua Harker Skull, for his birthday recently...

It's exquisite, it was in a box on his desk and he kindly let me bring it home to photograph..

Here are some of the images, I don't think I can really do it justice, it's quite something..

It looked like a Darren to me, so here is Joshua Harker's Skull, Darren..




As always click on the image to enlarge..

Freckles.. Sisters, Claire & Ruby..

As part of my ongoing series on freckles, I’ve recently shot another old team mate, Dave Bruce’s kids, Claire and Ruby..

Claire use to come to watch us play on a Saturday and always has had these great freckles.. Now at the ripe old age of 10, I thought it would be great to shoot a portrait of her, before she got too old and started losing the freckles..

Ruby her older sister came round too and though she doesn’t have as many, is at that next stage in life as a teenager..

Their mum and I observed the shots and compared the two of them, coming to the conclusion, that their eye colour was really their only main similarity..

As always click on the image to enlarge..

Colin & Friends...

Earlier this year I worked on a series of images for an art director friend of mine Dave ‘Gibbo’ Gibson.. I never uploaded my favourites and thought it was time I did so..

I love dogs and love working with them, it’s like shooting kids, you never really know what you’re going to get…


Sounds like a line from a film..


My dog Monty, will be jealous..

Brendan Maclean.. Hair Lip, Burger Me.. KD Lang

A highly flammable T-Shirt, covered in burgers, a Macca's staff badge, 2 pickles, a gold fluffy blouse, a granny's blouse, a pair of clippers and a Gillette Mac3 Turbo..

+ Brendan Maclean and this is what comes out at the end of the shoot..

This is my Hair Lip, Burger Me.. KD Lang image.

As always click on the image, to enlarge..

Smokers.. Outside the TAB..

I've never been a betting man ever, but many many moons ago I did smoke.. Years later though, I hate with a passion..

What a hypocrite...

Next door to my local café, is a betting shop, the TAB.. Everyday dozens of blokes spend hours on end, spunking their cash. In between bets they're all out the front smoking away, then littering the pavement, with their butts..

So the other day I decided to go tweezers and zipbag in hand and take a selection of these butts and try to shoot something with them, here are the results..


As always click on the image to enlarge...

You can follow me on Tumblr too..

 

You can now follow me and my images on Tumblr..

The link is below..

http://mrelbank.tumblr.com/

Kenny Son's Grandparents..

                                        

        

  

I met Kenny outside his folks restaurant in Balmain, Ma BA Sa... Great food.  I was working on my beard project, at the time and thought he had an interesting look. I shot his portrait the following week and that was now, a few years back..

Kenny has a passion for design, which he studies and a love of photography and has been helping me out on shoots ever since.. I like Kenny a lot, he's very polite, calm and thoughtful.. His parents are lovely too, hard working and his mum loves the girls... For every time we go into the restaurant, they are in her arms..

Kenny has shown me many fantastic black and white images of his Grandparents on his father's side.
They were cool cats back in the day and I've mentioned that if they were to ever visit, to let me know, so I could take a portrait of them. And this happened on Thursday...

I very rarely get nervous before shooting anybody, but I felt slightly apprehensive before they arrived..

Kenny turned up with cakes in hand, I was already set up and didn't want to take too long over the shots. I gave Kenny direction and he translated. I found my usual Dad-Gag routine took a while to get through to my audience, I would say something, Kenny would translate, then a laugh would drop out the other end...

Anyway Kwang-won is 86 and has the verve of a man 20 years younger, as does Dong-soon, a mere 80... One thing I notice was how beautiful his Grandmother's skin was, I complimented her on this, but I felt she thought I was joking, but they both had a beauty about them, that I loved...

Did I mentioned they'd been married for 55 years..

I hope they like what I have taken and hope to see them again sometime...?



As always click on the image to enlarge...

Must Av A Moustache For Archie... Nugget

 

Recently I had some tragic news, that an old school friend had suddenly past away at the tender age of 39.. I had seen Adam 'Archie' Hughes for many years, but the whole school and town community have pulled together, over this sad news...

A Facebook page in honour of him was set up, entitled 'Must Av A Moustache For Archie'.. And all the locals and fellow school colleges are trying to grown Mo's.. Obviously there have been a fair few females uploading false mo's for the cause and my Elkie saw this and wanted to take a photo for the site..

We saw a moustache necklace on the weekend and we thought it would do the trick.. Though when it came time to strike a pose, she got rather camera shy, which is very unlike her.. So Daddy lent a helping hand, literally..

Here's my favourite from the very limited series...

R.I.P. Archie & my best wishes to you all connected with this tragedy, back home. x x

Beat Me To It.. Brendan Maclean. A Light Dusting..

Here is my first clip, a random idea I came up with recently, that I thought would work nicely with rising Singer/Songwriter Brendan Maclean.

Simply shot in one take..

Brendan gave a beautiful performance and I feel he really draws you in, considering it's just one long, three and a half minute shot..

We have a few other clips in the pipeline over the next few months, though the next one will not be so intense. A more humourous clip, which is to be a cover of an 80's Pop classic, will to be the order of the day...

I hope you like..?

Flour Power... Brendan Maclean. Beat Me To It..

So I called Brendan, on my return from London and let him know I want to shoot a video clip, of one of his songs.. Mr Maclean has already shot some great clips, that sum him up brilliantly.. My idea was a little different to that, so I told him the idea.. He said "Yep, sure. I'll be over next week."

I wanted to do this clip in one take, that was my only real direction, apart from keep eye contact and give it some welly, so to speak.. Brendan never disappoints.. We shot one practice run, for lyrics and then shot it for real..

The work process with him is always fun, he is always eager to shoot ideas, that a lot of singers probably wouldn't and he always delivers.. Whilst on Skype with my eldest nephew, back in London, who happens to be an actor of 15 plus years, I ask him if I could play him the clip, via Skype..

Holding the Ipad back to front and lining up the screen was an achievement in itself, but I wanted to see Dan's reaction..?  At first there was a grin and a smirk, then as the clip progressed, his expression changed..


These are some of the grabs from the clip...


http://youtu.be/GsH5arH_XIA


As always click on the image to enlarge...