by Tim Gander

Happy New Year!

How was your Christmas and New Year? Are you all re-invigorated, set and ready to take 2026 by the chestnuts and give it a good twist?

Well if not, don’t worry; there is no law which says you have to be a new you just because it’s a new year. Don’t put that pressure on yourself. Maybe spend a little time putting together your short term, medium term and long term to-do list, then stick it in a drawer and wing it like you always do! It works for me!

Being a little more serious for a moment, I know I have some challenges to face and some tricky decisions to wrestle with this year, and I will be working through them in my usual, slightly random way. However, I did at least end 2025 and start 2026 with some relaxing family time followed by a fun adventure in wildest West Wales.

And as always, my camera was with me.

So to kick off the year nice and gently, here’s a handful of random images from the Wales trip.

Looking along a smart new concrete promenade with large rocks either side as it stretches out to the sea at Aberaeron, West Wales. There are people in the distance and to the right of the picture, a woman in a red winter jacket, jeans and trainers walking her large brown dog. They are walking away from the camera. The sky is blue with whispy clouds and the sea is calm.
Aberaeron, West Wales.
A female whose face is only dimly visible is smiling at camera while her head torch shines two red beams which also illuminate the faux fur lining of the hood she is wearing. The surrounding picture is in blackness.
Helen looking like a Dr Who monster.
Looking down a supermarket aisle with shelves filled with sugary breakfast cereals on the left, green footprint stickers leading away from the viewer on the speckled beige tiled floor and freezer cabinets to the right.
Signage...
Low-angle view of sea foam on the beach looking out from Penbryn in Wales. Heavy clouds make a dramatic sky.
Sea foam
A full moon is visible between power lines against a dusk sky.
Full moon from M25
Close-up view of a display panel in the Science Museum showing a scientist at work next to text of his quote.
I'm in the Science Museum!

It was a fun start to the year and it gave me a little time to reflect and consider what goals I might actually have. Here’s the thing though; I didn’t have any revelatory moments during the couple of weeks I was away, but I know thoughts were churning in the back of my mind.

Now that I’m back, some of those thoughts have turned into outline plans which have floated to the surface like messages in a Magic 8 Ball. I’m determined to get some of them out of my brain and into reality.

So here goes 2026! I hope your plans emerge too and that you manage to make them tangible.

Happy New Year!

 

in Personal Work / photographer / Point of View / Uncategorized 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

A Goodall Moment

A few weeks ago we learned of the passing of pioneering primatologist Dame Jane Goodall.

It was additionally sad because Jane was to be the keynote speaker at this year’s IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, which as I said in my previous post, I covered alongside a team of photographers from the UK. Jane would have been addressing hundreds of climate leaders from around the world, but passed away just a few days before the event.

It would have been a huge honour to have been there to photograph her, but at the grand age of 91, we can be thankful she had such a long and impactful life.

On a more personal note, I shall now always share my birthday with the anniversary of her death.

But on the subject of tenuous connections between myself and Dame Jane, here’s another for you; I once had what I call a “Jane Goodall moment”.

In 2004 (April 21st to be precise) I was engaged to take photos at Howletts Wild Animal Park for their marketing. At one point during the day I was asked to go to the medical unit where a female gorilla was undergoing a hysterectomy. She’d had a baby, but she had a condition which meant that another pregnancy could kill her. I was asked to do a few photos to document her aftercare, but I was probably in there for no more than five or ten minutes.

After I came back outside I saw that the father of the baby, a large silverback, was in a nearby enclosure so he could be close to where the mother was having her operation. We looked at each other and he came over to the wire fence, turned side-on to me and with a definite look of pride, indicated for me to see what was clinging to his back; his young son.

Between us were two layers of fence and one language barrier, but I could tell he wanted me to look. I spoke softly in appreciation and at the same time, had to think quickly.

An unconscious female western lowland gorilla lies on her back on hay bales with a medical tube coming from her gaping mouth while a keeper and veterinary practitioner (both male, one crouching and holding her hand, the other standing over her checking her breathing) look on.
Still unconscious after her operation.
A baby western lowland gorilla is clinging to the fur of the father's back, looking directly into the camera.
A baby portrait with a difference.

One of my tasks that day was to find a cover image for the Howletts souvenir booklet, and here was the perfect moment. I managed to find an angle to make a portrait of his baby. You can just see a strip of green haze down the right-hand side of the frame where I couldn’t quite avoid the wire.

It was a magical moment and one not many people will have experienced except primatologists such as Dame Jane Goodall, and she wouldn’t have been fenced off from the experience. To be fair, I hadn’t spent years building up the trust of this gorilla, proud dad or not, so that fence was a welcome safety feature.

The photo did indeed make the book cover and of course I was pleased with that, but the longer-lasting memory for me was that moment of connection between myself, a proud dad and his baby.

A fleeting moment of course, and incomparable to the deep connections and impact Jane Goodall had throughout her career, but I like to think of it as my Jane Goodall Moment.

I very much hope her work will continue to influence our approach to, and understanding of, the impact of humans on the natural world. We still have a long way to go just implement what we already know.

in Older Work / Personal Opinion / photographer / Uncategorized 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

YouTubes and Rabbit Holes

A question often asked of professional photographers, myself included, is “what camera can you recommend?”

Spoiler alert, I don’t know every model of camera available (there are MANY) and I don’t know what your end use will be, but in the spirit of the YouTube generation I suggest you stick around to the end of this article and I’ll attempt to offer some pointers.

Screenshot from YouTube search for camera reviews.
YouTube advice is a-plenty

Going Down The Tube

Speaking of Youtube, it’s become apparent that if you watch video content about all the latest cameras and lenses, the gear (to many people) has become more important than photography itself.

How do I know this? Well because in my quest to update my work cameras, I fell down multiple rabbit holes and watched a lot of waffle about the specifications of this camera verses that camera and a lot of “STOP BEFORE YOU EVEN THINK TO BUY THE LATEST *insert camera make and model here*” -style nonsense.

Luckily for me I only needed to check a few models because I’m now a pretty committed user of Panasonic cameras. For anyone starting from scratch, the choice is bewildering.

Finding genuinely useful information isn’t as easy as you would hope it to be. Often the specifications of various models are reeled off at breakneck speed like they’re comparing the abilities of a range of F1 racing cars. Everything comes down to specs and speed, while very little ‘air time’ is given to the real-world performance or picture quality of any given make or model.

Useful info for me is to know how the image quality holds up under a variety of conditions, but if you do find sample photos taken with a specific camera, they’re usually pretty random and uninformative. There will be a flower, a rusty car, a sunset, a neon sign, some graffiti. There’s certainly never a properly-lit, well-composed portrait, for example, so comparing skin tones or fine hair detail is pretty tricky.

Of course I don’t expect a YouTuber to go out and photograph a set of corporate images for a client website just so I can see how the camera performs in the situations I’m normally covering. That would be unrealistic, but it’d be helpful to see more in the way of portraits and interiors. It would help to know how the autofocus performs in sub-optimal conditions (ie a portrait taken against a bright background). The problem is, YouTube photographers are only photographers on YouTube. Very few take pictures for a living and they have to cater for the single largest group, hobby photographers. And hobby photographers are usually more interested in speed and specifications than photography itself.

Achievement Unlocked

Regardless of these niggles, I have come through the ordeal and updated both of my camera bodies. To be honest, I could have eked out a few more years’ use from my existing gear, but it’s not a bad idea to sell it while it has some residual value and the new versions definitely added one or two really useful benefits for the work I do.

The primary benefit has been the upgrade in autofocus performance. My existing cameras weren’t as bad as YouTube reviewers would have you believe, but I always had to be aware of situations in which it might struggle. The new kit is certainly more reliable and accurate in that regard.

Another feature which I’m going to find very useful is rather niche; I can now back up images directly from my cameras onto a portable hard drive. This negates lugging a laptop around if I just want to keep files secure while I’m on the go. If there is one thing I’m a bit paranoid about it’s that camera cards can become corrupt, or physically broken, lost or stolen.

I’ve gone with two versions of the same model; one is high-resolution for when that’s useful (pictures to be used for large displays) and the other is standard resolution and a bit more nimble in terms of moving files around.

“What’s Your Recommendation, Tim?!”

Ok, those aren’t necessarily features you’ll be looking for when choosing a camera, so what should you be looking for? Like anything, that depends on many factors. Mainly that will be budget and usage.

My main advice would be to check out the used market. Secondhand camera prices are incredibly reasonable for what you can get. The same goes for lenses, and I often hunt out used options where possible. As long as a lens has been looked after, there’s no need to shell out for a new one.

Most cameras manufactured in the past 10 or more years will do everything you need and more, so think about size and weight as much as about budget. A camera that is too heavy to cary long distances will end up left at home.

Think Format First

In this regard, think about the camera format – full-frame cameras are larger and heavier than those of a smaller format such as APSC or Micro 4/3rds (sometimes labelled M4/3 or MFT). In fact I have a Panasonic MFT format camera which is great for traveling with and lots of MFT cameras and lenses are available new and used. Look for Panasonic and Olympus for this format.

For general purpose, family snaps or travel, maybe an APSC camera will suit you; Canon and Fuji tend to lead in this field. The cameras will be marginally larger than with MFT format gear, but pixel-level quality will be a small step up too.

If sports action or wildlife are your thing, be prepared to carry a beast of a kit bag around because you’ll need longer telephoto lenses and a camera body that can keep up with the pace. You might also need a camera that has a level of weather-sealing. Canon, Nikon and Sony all have excellent models to choose from, and some of the discontinued professional bodies are incredible bargains now.

Say Hello To Woundwort For Me

The bad news is that having homed in on a lens/camera combo that you think might suit you, you’re bound to end up researching it on YouTube, and only rabbit holes and despair live there. Just don’t forget to click Like and subscribe!

 

in Advice / photographer / photography / Point of View 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

Another (Almost) Anniversary

Apart from a break for the Covid-19 pandemic, this is an event I’ve photographed for 10 consecutive years!

It’s a bit of an outlier in terms of the work I do, but it’s always interesting and rewarding.

The Event

And what is it I hear you ask? Well of course it’s the annual IRTE Bus & Coach Skills Challenge, operated through the Society of Operations Engineers and hosted at S&B Automotive Academy in Bristol.

Yes, that’s all a bit of an eyeful of info, so I’ll attempt explain it more simply. Basically, it’s a chance for bus and coach mechanics (the people who keep our public service vehicles running safely) to test their knowledge and skills and to learn new processes and approaches in a competitive environment.

This year’s skills challenge spanned four days, each with fresh teams arriving at S&B from all over the country, with mechanics and engineers registered to compete in mechanical, electrical and bodywork challenges.

Each day was a hive of activity with welding, cutting and panel beating in the body workshop, and electrical fault diagnostics, tappet measuring, vehicle safety and roadworthiness inspection and for the second year running, a test of an engineer’s approach to testing a high voltage circuit; increasingly important as road vehicles switch to battery power. There are too many sections to list, but suffice to say it’s a long and busy day for all involved.

The Job

My job every year is to capture each competitor in action so that should they win, there’s a good clear photo of them for the awards ceremony and souvenir brochure. The images also get used across the SOE website, printed materials and promotional assets (posters, banners etc). Because of this, I work to ensure there’s a good spread of library images from each day.

I also aim to ensure sponsors get coverage too, with at the very least a photo showing their presence and ideally working their branding into an action shot or two.

By the end of the four days, I aim to have achieved a mixture of team shots, fly-on-the-wall documentary-style action images and a few posed shots too. At lunchtime I’ll send a few rush pics to the client for immediate social media posts, delivering the full edit before I go to bed.

The First Year

I remember the first day I ever shot this event; I hadn’t been particularly well briefed, and it wasn’t until part way through the day that I was told I’d need to get a shot of every competitor. That spiced things up a bit, but I got it all done.

Another regular challenge for me is that many of the activities involve engineers working with their heads down, often measuring or looking at something. I need faces, not tops of heads, so if I can’t find an angle that works, I will often pose a competitor once they’ve completed the challenge they’re working on. This year, on the whole, I was able to get what I needed mid-action.

The Next Ten?

I somehow doubt I’ll be doing this job for another ten years – it’s a lot of running around, bending and holding awkward positions for periods of time, but I’ll do it for as long as I can and for as long as SOE wants me to do it.

In the meantime, for this year, the past 10 years and however many years to come, I’d like to thank SOE for engaging me on this one and to express my gratitude to all the patient mechanics who have to put up with me in a stressful situation. Special thanks also to Richard Belton at S&B Automotive Academy for his seemingly never-ending willingness to help and for listening to my terrible jokes for four days solid.

 

A bearded man in safety glasses and high-visibility vest and thick gloves looks down on a shaped sheet of steel he is holding and cutting.
Jason Bates of Reading Bus in action in the body shop.
A bearded male bus engineer in goggles, hat and high-vis vest shines his head torch on a set of instructions so he can read them in a welding bay of a workshop.
Competitors are often reminded to check the instructions as they go.
A mechanic in orange and blue overalls reads a pamphlet on Varta batteries, There is a large Varta sign just behind him.
Gary Walsh of Metroline works on a written test at the Varta station.
A bus engineer in orange high-vis overalls bends in to listen for a leak from some coloured hydraulic pipes.
Vince Hourd of Trent Barton listens for a hydraulic leak in a door operating system.
A mechanic in yellow and blue overalls holds a thick yellow rubber glove to his mouth to blow air into it to test for any leaks.
Martin Andres Hueche Bizama of Trent Barton tests safety gloves for breaks during preparation for working on a high-voltage battery unit.
On the left an older man in glasses, blue shirt and tank top points to something on a piece of paper that an engineer on the right is holding and looking at. He is younger with darker hair and glasses.
Competitor and assessor working together.
A bald man in white T shirt with a tattooed arm uses a torch to look into an inspection bay of a bus. He is also holding a small hammer. He is wearing glasses.
Danny Duffy of Grays of Ely undertakes the vehicle inspection challenge.
in Bristol / Case Studies / corporate communications / coverage / Event photography / photographer 1 comments
 by Tim Gander

Photo|Frome is Looming

View of the front of Frome Library with extremely large format vinyl photographic prints attached to the walls showing the work of Joanne Coates
Frome Library wears the work of Joanne Coates

After a fallow year in 2024, Photo|Frome is set to return with a bang in 2025. In fact, it’s nearly upon us and installation has started!

I should start by saying that due to a combination of personal and professional commitments, I have much less involvement in this year’s festival than in 2022 and 2023. For the planning of Outdoor Exhibitions in 2025, I’ve taken on a more limited advisory role to assist de-facto new head of outdoor Mark Somerville, who’s done a grand job from a standing start.

And so on Monday of this week I was back on a scissor lift, helping a great team of volunteers to install massive vinyl prints on the outside of Frome Library. In 2023 this consisted of a collaboration between myself and the photographers of T House, an Italian collective.

This year’s star of this most visible of locations shows a small selection of images from Joanne Coates’ project “The Lie of the Land” which looks at rural life through working class and low-income communities, encompassing issues of gender and heritage and human impact on the landscape.

I haven’t necessarily summed it up very well, so do explore Joanne’s work more thoroughly here.

The wider festival, which runs from 5th – 27 April, promises to be exciting as exciting as ever, with a breadth and depth of exhibitions which will have something for everyone (always an aim of Photo|Frome).

Just returning to the library show for a moment, it’s also worth mentioning that the vinyl posters from 2023’s show have been recycled into bespoke, each-one-unique, handmade tote bags which will be available for sale at this year’s festival. Or if you’re interested in owning one, drop me a line via tim@timgander.co.uk. They are very limited edition (I believe just over 60 were made before we ran out of material), so don’t hang about!

Finally, just to say that if you are planning on visiting Photo|Frome, drop me a line so we can meet up if time allows. Either way, enjoy your visit!

Thank you to Photo|Frome’s sponsors:

MPB is Photo|Frome’s Official Sponsor, the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photo and video gear.

Arts Council England Photo|Frome is supported using public funding by the National lottery through Arts Council England.

Frome Town Council is Photo|Frome’s Local partner.

in My News / photographer / photography 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

Tool or Toy?

As September draws to its conclusion, I’ve been surprised to realise it’s only been a couple of weeks since I got back from an all-too-brief holiday in Brittany.

Now I could bore you with my holiday snaps, but I’m only going to bore you with two. And they’re not even typical holiday snaps.

The real purpose of this post is to share some thoughts on a new addition to my kit bag, a Lumix GX9 camera (and two lenses). This isn’t so much a camera review, more a ‘why did I do that?’ sort of musing thing.

For My Pocket

For a long time (I’m talking years!) I’ve been in the market for a properly pocketable digital camera. Something I could chuck in my coat pocket, but with more versatility and better image quality than my iPhone – a Holy Grail for many photographers.

I looked at all kinds of options, from the eye-wateringly expensive Leica Q2/Q3, to the Ricoh GRIII, but nothing quite hit the spot. Then I started to notice the Panasonic Lumix GX-series of cameras. Again, not perfect, but as close to the right balance of versatility, quality and price as I was ever going to get.

Since I wanted a camera that could potentially find a use in client work as well as be a personal carry-around snapshot option (my Brittany holiday was starting to focus my decision-making too), Panasonic’s Lumix GX9 has the added benefit that it takes interchangeable lenses. I didn’t want the built-in zoom that many cameras in the pocket-friendly category have because I wanted the best quality I could get.

The only potential downside is that the GX9 is discontinued, and the GX-line seems to have reached the end of the… um… line. So a used camera was my only option. Even some of the lenses seem to be discontinued, such as the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7*, which is mounted on my camera in the photo.

That 20mm is, on this camera, equivalent to a 40mm lens on a regular SLR (I won’t explain the technicals here, just believe me). That’s my favourite focal length, so I was pleased to be able to pick up a genuine Ebay bargain.

For a second lens option, I bought a Lumix/Leica 15mm (30mm equivalent, see above) for wide angle shots. For this I bought new as the used prices weren’t all that attractive, and it is still available through retailers.

For Work

So how does this slot in with my work gear?

As a rule, I favour fixed lenses for my work – I just prefer the quality. However, even with two main camera bodies, this can leave me changing lenses rather more often than I’d like. So the GX9 with the wide lens on it gives me the option to do the general views at events without having to switch out the standard or long lenses mounted on my other two camera bodies.

There is compromise here though. The GX9 isn’t exactly a wizard of low-light photography, so I don’t use it where I need to crank up the ISO (sensor sensitivity) beyond 800. Things get awful noisy from 800 onwards, though the end-use of the pictures can mean low-light noise isn’t always a problem. The camera can also take an external flash, which can get me out of a fix in certain low-light situations.

The viewfinder is pretty dire too, but I knew that going in and actually I’ve got used to it. In most other respects, it’s a highly usable, capable camera – you just need to know how and when to use it.

For Fun

Beside the personal/holiday/family snap use, and to make the camera even more versatile, I also bought a lens adaptor which allows me to use some of my lovely Nikon lenses on this camera. Ok, so I lose a lot of the automation of the purpose-built lenses, but it’s another chance to play and experiment with other looks and styles. For example, I haven’t (yet) bought a longer lens for portraits for the GX9, but I have a Nikon-fit Voigtländer 40mm lens which becomes an 80mm lens on the GX9 – perfect for portraits! The adaptor adds value to the camera, as well as allowing me to use those lovely older lenses more often too.

For the Future?

I suppose my biggest fear is that one day this camera will die and I won’t be able to replace it easily. Modern digital cameras don’t always have the robustness of some film cameras. For last year’s trip to Brittany I took a very pocketable 35mm film camera. It was manufactured some time in the 1990s and yet it still functions. However, I can’t use that for work since no client wants to wait for film to be processed and scanned.

In an ideal world, Panasonic would bring out an updated version of this camera. Sensor technology keeps improving and this camera’s format (known as M43 or MFT, and pronounced ‘micro four thirds’) has a lot of advantages in terms of portability. If they’re thinking of doing this, they’re taking their sweet time about it.

For the time being this toy/tool will get use while it lives. If/when it dies, I’ll see if there’s a decent used replacement available, and keep going until I finally have to ditch the lenses. Maybe by then some perfect alternative will have emerged.

So keep an eye out for future posts featuring this dinky camera, in the meantime, here it is in all its cuteness alongside two of my favourite ‘holiday’ photos.

A panasonic Lumix GX9 camera on a wooden table with a yellow background. The camera has the Panasonic 20mm lens fitted and is shown next to a Lumix/Leica 15mm lens.
The Lumix GX9 with 20mm lens mounted and the Leica 15mm lens next to it.
Golden evening sunlight illuminates the curved wooden chairs on board the Portsmouth to Saint Malo ferry as a cleaner moves through, vacuuming the floor.
Passenger lounge on the ferry to Saint Malo.
Small snack cabin and bar in evening light at Batz-sur-Mer, Brittany, as a man and a woman stand outside chatting.
Snacks and drinks cabin, Batz-sur-Mer, Brittany, France.

*Wherever the lens is listed new, it’s shown as Awaiting Stock. I suspect Panasonic ceased production some time ago.

in Personal Opinion / Personal Work / photographer / photography / Uncategorized 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

Three In One

The majority of my work is based around photographing people; professional headshots, people in business, in their office environment or at corporate events. However, every so often I’ll be called upon to make purely architectural images too.

It’s a side to my practice which I enjoy, so it’s a particular pleasure to get to work with property development company Bellhammer through their design agency Blast Design Limited.

Those with a good memory will recall that my relationship with Bellhammer’s Bristol city centre project (Assembly Buildings A, B and C) started during a headshot session for another client, when I took an opportunistic photo of Building C under construction. Since then I’ve returned to the site a few times to capture various stages of the project.

I was there again in June, with a brief to capture various aspects of Buildings B and C, but also to get an angle which included all three buildings in a single shot. That’s not as easy as it might sound, requiring some consideration of how the light falls on the buildings at various times of day, as well as trying to exclude other buildings or scrappy bits of cityscape.

However, give me a challenge and I’ll rise to it (within the bounds of feasibility of course).

What I came up with was two options. One based on a reference photo supplied by the client, the other an angle I found by walking the site until I located a spot which would work.

The more ‘standard’ angle is the stronger of the two images, but the one looking up at the buildings also has its strengths and uses. Giving a client a choice allows them to adapt images to whatever design and format they need, even if they don’t yet know what they need it for.

Sections of three modern office buildings shown together in a 'compressed' view using a long lens. From left, a burgundy-coloured building, the centre building has yellow accented balconies and the righ-hand building features green external steel girder construction.
Left to right, Buildings B, C and A.
Wide angle view looking up at buildings C, A and B with blue sky beyond their rooflines.
Left to right, Assembly C, A and B

Some of the images are included in the micro-sites for the buildings, including this (see below) from Building C taken during a previous trip.

Screenshot from the Assembly C website showing the open-plan reception area with the letter C layered over and the square footage available. A blurred female figure is striding through the photograph, carrying an opened laptop.
Still from the Building C web page.

Architectural photography, done properly, won’t generate anything like the quantity of images that something like a headshot session or event coverage might. More time and consideration is required; finding the best angles, setting up a tripod, making sure verticals and horizontals are correct (unless you’re after that leaning look, of course) and often having to wait until a person or lorry or whatever has cleared the scene.

The challenges of architecture are very different to pretty much any other genre of photography, but if you have a project which needs photography, I’d be delighted to hear from you!

Email me, or call 07703 124412 for that initial creative chat.

in Architectural Photography / Bristol / Case Studies / corporate communications / photographer 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

Going for G-old

Have you been watching the Paris Olympics? Like most big events that I’d like to see (Wimbledon being the annual classic), I usually miss the whole shebang.

This year though, I’ve managed to carve out a little time to catch a bit of the cycling and swimming – the two areas of sport I’m most interested in.

In particular with the swimming, I’ve been trying to pick up some clues for improving my personal performance in the pool. Well, let’s say that’s a work in progress. Most of the athletes have a 40-year advantage on me. Plus they swim every day (for several hours) and spend hours in the gym when they’re not in the pool. I mean really, it’s cheating!

Of course their performances are also enhanced by things like, I dunno, raw talent. They’re coached in techniques to the nth degree, drilled until they want to cry and many have been swimming since early childhood.

Contrast this with my “swimming career”; I left school with only a basic breast stroke, and no real drive to improve even that. As for front crawl (for the Americans reading this, that’s freestyle), until a few months ago, I couldn’t even get off the side of the pool. I was, in short, a drowning windmill.

However since rediscovering the joy of swimming while on holiday last year, I’ve signed up to regular sessions at my local pool, where my breast stroke has blossomed, and I’ve taken lessons in front crawl. I can now just about manage 50m without feeling sick, which is a huge step up from where I was around three months ago.

So why am I wanging on about the Olympics and my swimming now? Well of course it’s so I can shamelessly showcase the fact that 16 years ago, I had the honour of photographing double gold medal swimmer Rebecca Adlington (Becky) when she came to the University of Bath in 2008 to help launch the Youth Olympics.

There is a little more to this tale (not much tho) than just wanting to share an archive photo.

Bearing in mind Becky had only just achieved this huge success in the Beijing Olympics that same year, the attention she received would have been a whole new experience and perhaps slightly disconcerting.

As we settled into one of the university’s lecture theatres for a press call, I was just checking my focus and exposure on Becky when she leaned in to the person sitting next to her and said, “I suppose I’ll have to get used to this,” meaning “being photographed”.

As she sat straight again, she looked directly down my camera lens, and I took the shot you see here.

Becky Adlington looks directly down the barrel of my lens.
Double gold-medal swimmer Rebecca Adlington holds her two gold medals while looking to camera.
Becky Adlington holds the two medals she won at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

The comment didn’t strike me as anything more than a very matter-of-fact observation of how her life would change; there was nothing hostile in her tone, and she posed patiently and with good humour for more pictures after the sit-down press conference.

Becky’s career beyond the pool has flourished. Clearly, she got “used to this” a long while ago. I doubt she remembers that moment or her comment back in 2008, but for some reason it always stuck with me. Perhaps because I care how someone feels in front of my camera, even if I’m just doing my job.

On that day, we were both there to do a job. I’m still a photographer, Becky is still in the media spotlight and seeing her presenting from Paris 2024 alongside Clare Balding and Mark Foster reminded me of this one moment.

In the meantime, I’m going to continue with my own swimming career, though I’m not expecting to slip into professional swimming any time soon. That ship might have sailed unless there’s a VERY senior league out there?

 

in My News / Personal Opinion / photographer / press release photography 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

Case Study

When an old photo of my lighting kit popped up in my Facebook memories, the first thing I spotted was the bottle of wine. Of course it was. Not only did it remind me of the generosity of a particular client at the time, but it also sparked an idea to write an article about how kit has changed over time. So I took a photo of my kit today to compare and contrast.

Picture 1 was taken in 2015 and shows (apart from the wine) my portable studio flash lighting equipment of that era (in fact, this kit was already several years old by then).

Sadly the photo was already cropped square, so I can’t tell you what was in the rest of the bag; I’m guessing you’d see the second flash head, a spare battery and some other bits and pieces. I clearly took the photo for the purpose of showing off the bottle of wine I’d been given.

So, apart from the wine (shut up about the wine now, Tim), what else is different? Let’s go through some of the components in the bag, and then compare them with today’s kit in Picture 2. I’ve made these pictures BIG so you can see the labels.

Photo 1
View inside a camera case showing two Godox portable studio flash heads and associated accessories.
Photo 2

At the top-left in Picture 1, you’ll see a trigger and receiver. Nothing remarkable there, except today’s receivers are built into the flash heads themselves. This saves having to Velcro a trigger to the back of the head and rely on a cable to send the firing signal to the flash. It’s a little bit tidier now.

The other disadvantage of the old system was that you could only adjust the power of the flash head by walking up to the controller pack and turning a dial. Modern units can be controlled from the camera, which saves a lot of time and back-and-forth.

This old kit was pretty revolutionary in its day. It was the first properly powerful, affordable kit that ran off batteries. It could be used outdoors and the light could be adjusted through softboxes, umbrellas or any number of other modifiers to achieve a particular look.

But technology moves on, and its main disadvantages over my current kit are power and control. The kit in Picture 2 is at least 50% more powerful than the kit it replaced. This might not seem that much, but it makes a big difference in photographic terms. The more modern design also has the advantage that each flash head is independently controllable from the other, and the increments of control are far finer than with the old kit.

The other disadvantage of the older kit was the build quality. The manufacturer, Lumedyne, is US-based and their kit looks and feels as though it’s been built by keen mechanics in a shed. Sometimes not all that well either. I remember screws dropping out, a control knob falling off and on one occasion, a loud POP! and a puff of blue smoke as an internal component blew up.

I probably had that kit for a decade though, and while it was expensive at the time, it more than paid for itself.

Thankfully, I’ve had the newer kit (made by Godox) for almost as long already, and it’s not showing any signs of ageing. I’ve added an extra spare battery as one of the originals isn’t taking a charge as well as it used to, but that’s about it.

Apart from technological advances, the other reason I switched to Godox was because Lumedyne is no longer distributed in the UK, so replacing parts or expanding the kit would be difficult.

Possibly more impressive than any of the technical advances of the contents is the case itself. Both flash kits have been safely transported inside the same LowePro Pro Roller 2 case, which must now be circa 20 years old. About a year ago, I finally replaced the wheels but apart from that this case just keeps… rolling.

The wine, sadly, is a distant memory, but good quality wine is readily available in several outlets. So next time I work with you, have a peek inside my rolling camera case while my back is turned. If there’s a wine bottle-shaped space in there, feel free to pop something nice in, like a Tempranillo or a Malbec. Some technology never really needs updating, just replenishing.

 

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