Hogan Knows Best

The Man Behind The Camera

2012-02-17T15:09:00.000-08:00

I have finally got round to doing an about me page for my website.

So who’s the man behind the camera?

I stumbled into photography many years ago through boxing, plain & simple I didn't cut the mustard and at one of the shows someone gave me a camera to get me ringside so I started to take photos and the rest is history I've been hooked ever since.

Ok so I’m a sports photographer but hey that doesn’t mean that's all I do. I remember doing my first wedding back in 1997, up until that point I had always said I would never do weddings and made it perfectly clear to friends and family but one friend had other ideas and with the help from some alcohol apparently I agreed to do his wedding and I guess there was no looking back. I love all aspects of photography it’s so diverse one day I could be shooting high impact sport the next day beautiful models at a fashion shoot. The youngest person I have photographed was 4 weeks old and the oldest was a dear old lady aged 96 so no two shoots are ever the same.

The Evolution of Man

2012-02-15T10:07:00.000-08:00

Ok I don’t often do this but on this occasion I have to share my disbelief at what I can only describe as the behaviour of an Neanderthal man, ok this may sound a little harsh but believe me I’m being kind.

Today I had the pleasure of witnessing someone eating a bag of chips who decided to clear his nose by just slightly bending his head to the side and blowing through his nose! with hey no hands approach that can best be described like a camel blowing its nose the crap went in all directions & without doubt into his bag of chips but hey that didn’t put him off he went on to wipe the rest of his dangling snot on to his coat sleeve and then carried on eating his chips what a star.

So to this young man I award you the prize of THE NEANDERTHAL MAN

Karate Course With Sensei George Best

2012-02-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

I never get bored of photographing Sensei George Best seminars, he just never fails to deliver and this course was no exception.
It was a delight watching the Red Tiger Karate students being taken through their paces and their eagerness to learn was clear for all to see.
There is something special in the way George can demonstrate with amazing speed, power and control and in all the demonstrations i have seen he has never hurt anyone but if i'm honest i wouldn't mind seeing a Ashi Barai delivered at full speed it would make a wicked sequence of shots, sorry that's just the burning desire to get that perfect action shot i guess that's what keeps me going.
Just to finish off i have to say the venue was probably one of the best for lighting that i have been to in a long time. It was a delight to just set the camera to manual and fire away haha that sounds wrong but if your a photographer you will probably understand what i mean and if your not just stick to auto setting i'm sure you will be fine :)

Karate Course

2012-01-19T14:26:00.000-08:00

Fashion Shoot for Adele

2011-11-17T02:50:00.000-08:00

Another interesting shoot which took 1 week from start to finish yes that right 1 week.

This shoot I should have called mission impossible. I received a phone call from Adele a fashion designer asking for my help so we agreed to meet up and discuss how we can move this forward.

So the brief was she needed her collection shooting to take to her interview at St Martains in London ok no problem, what’s the time scale we will be working to? 9 days was the reply I nearly feel of my chair, so you have a model? No, a makeup artist? No! how about a venue? No! ok this should be fun. My initial thoughts were that this is a non-starter, the time scale was to short, no model no venue, and we only have 9 days to complete. But my problem was that Adele was such a lovely genuine likeable girl who I warmed to immediately how the hell could I walk away? Well I couldn’t and to be honest it’s not the first time someone’s come to me with a crazy timescale and they know who they are lol

So lets recap met her on the Monday, we found a model by Wednesday, found a studio by Thursday, did the shoot Saturday and she got the images Monday – its starting to sound like a craig David song lol

Looking back on the shoot I guess if the truth be known I thrive from the almost impossible situations and get great satisfaction from pulling it off but don’t get me wrong if it ever fails I will feel like crap but its not happened yet and I know that if I put every effort into completing it and it still fails it probably was mission impossible.

I would just like to thank Laurice a wonderful model and Taryn the makeup artist for stepping in at very short notice and Pumkin studio in Denton Nell was an absolute star very friendly and I will defiantly be using them again and finally I just want to wish Adele a massive good luck with her interview and for her future and I will look forward to working again with her sometime in the future.

Northern Spirit Thai Boxing Show

2011-11-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

It was an absolute pleasure to be working with a very good friend of mine Lisa Ditcheva. She put on an excellent show with around 39 of her own fighters climbing into the ring to fight for their club. Well done to all those involved.

Its been awhile

2011-11-06T05:11:00.000-08:00

Can’t believe I have totally neglected my blog, well its time to catch up J Lets start with the Kmari fashion shoot.
Now this was an interesting shoot, one which I did mainly to prove a point. That point being that not all photographers are arrogant. I guess I should explain myself! I met Sat a wonderful fashion designer at a social networking meeting, she mentioned how she had just had a terrible experience with a photographer and it was so bad she would not use any of his images and felt totally let down. So you can imagine her opinion of photographers. At this point I had two options, say sorry to hear that and run like hell lol or I could stay and defend the integrity of the honest and hard working pros out there. Guess which option I took?

Up and coming shoot

2011-09-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

On Thursday i will be doing a fashion shoot to showcase the wonderful work of fashion designer Kumari.
this is going to be a wonderful shoot the venue is sorted, the models have been shortlisted so we are ready to rock & roll :)

WJKA World Karate Championships Belgium 2011

2011-08-26T02:13:00.000-07:00

Well ok it’s took me a little while to write this and I will keep it brief. First I must pay my respects to Vladimir Radotchinsky RIP we did not know you but rest assured you will not be forgotten in the sport of karate.

Well done to Hasha team England you all performed brilliantly and I would like to congratulate Rachael well done champ & Reid taking 3^rd place.

We had a great trip but I must say Gee your world class fella but your choice of hotel leaves a lot to be desired the name should have given it away Hotel LEMON oh boy what an experience pmsl

Karate Course With Sensei George Best And Sensei Antony Pendelbury

2011-08-10T14:47:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I covered Hasha International Karate course in Chester. It was great to see the Chief instructor from Hasha & sensei Pendlebury passing on their wealth of knowledge in both kata and kumite it was a great course and very well attended.
Next stop the world championships in Belgium good luck guys :)

Canon 40D is a live and kicking

2011-07-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

just a quick update. Yesterday my Canon 40D finally arrived back from Canon repair centre with a new shutter fitted hopefully fingers crossed it will be like brand new camera

The night school course finished and i was very impressed with some of the results checkout the 3 images below well done Lisa & Adele

and some exciting shoots coming up really looking forward to teaming up Jodie who will be returning to modelling and a bout time too, we have lots of plans watch this space and not forgetting the shoot with the wonderful Heather the results will be amazing.

Interesting Week

2011-07-04T16:11:00.000-07:00

last week was an interesting week, i was editing dance & karate followed by photographing Broadoak schools prom more editing then to top it off back to photographing karate. its good to have variety it keeps me alive :)

AOM Night of Dance

2011-06-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure to photography & film AOM night of dance & I absolutely loved it.

I get the call from a good friend asking if I have time to photograph & film her night of dance. I had to laugh because it was the usual lastminute.com (you know I love you Lucy)

Live dance what a buzz, but its never straight forward because the dress rehearsal is also setting the lighting L so believe me it can be very unpredictable event and it always pushes me to my limits and for some reason the lighting man loves the colour red, oh boy does he like red.

During the rehearsal there was a moment where a young solo dancer performed & I remember thinking to myself after she had finished wow I didn’t expect that (blimey I sound like one of the panel on Britain’s got talent lol) and I knew I had nailed the perfect shot of her flying through the air & to prove it wasn’t a fluke I nailed the shot the next run through as well.

I mention the word fluke because when I shown someone the image he asked if there was an element of luck & he wasn’t being funny when he asked the question, he was just curious, then I shown him the second image and explained that the only element of luck for me, was that the lighting man gave me light, the rest of it was in the timing. You have to anticipate and react to the situation then you have half a chance to nail the shot. Some would say just fire off the trigger and roll off five or six shots your bound to get the shot but that’s really not the case you still have to have timing and I always like to nail the shot in one go that’s where the skill comes into it.

The night of dance was a massive success and I have to congratulate Lucy & Jo well done girls you should be proud and Jo you will be sadly missed good luck at your next school & if you need a photographer you know where I am J

Hasha Karate England training session

2011-06-19T11:45:00.000-07:00

Another training session with Hasha Karate England - some of the squad, preparing for the worlds in Belgium, joined the Thursday night class.
I had the camera with me so decided to tryout 70 - 210 zoom lens

Hasha International Karate squad training session

2011-06-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

This was the day that I finally nailed the shot!

Let me explain, I have been on a mission to capture the clean kick to the head by sensei George Best. Now let me tell you, this really as been a mission because he is one of the best kickers in the game not only one of the best but he has lightening speed I swear at times I was beginning to think he was to quick for the camera.

So what now? I’ve got the shot, maybe its time to retire lol only kidding.

The truth of the matter is this, right now I feel on fire, my focus when shooting is amazingly sharp and whatever I shoot I can’t fail to get results, I really hope this feeling stays for a long time ;) I just hope people take full advantage of this and book a shoot with me soon. Shameless plug lol

A couple of things to look forward to

2011-06-05T06:04:00.000-07:00

just a quick update:

This Wednesday i will beginning my basic photography course for parents at my local school I'm really looking forward to it & hopefully I've not lost my old charm :)

Event photography, at the end of the month i will be covering the school prom now this I am looking forward to.

Let the fun begin :)

Strobist lighting

2011-06-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

Strobist lighting! What’s that you maybe thinking? Well let me explain A strobist is a photographer who uses off-camera flash to take pictures. Instead of the usual pop-up flash or speedlight attached on top of the camera, strobists use OCF to achieve more pleasing and more dynamic photographs. This is a result of the placement of the light, since it is not limited to one direction, i.e. the top of the lens. (Well that’s the photography lesson over lol)

Ok so this is not new to me I have been using studio lighting for years so why bring it up now? Well I was doing a portrait session last week & went through the usual process of setting up the studio lights but to my horror they did not want to work, don’t panic time for plan B, every good photographer must have a plan B so luckily I had two portable flashguns in my camera bag and hey presto I was carrying on with the shoot. Thinking back to the shoot I realised I get a total buzz out of a slight crisis it really was a case of this could work really well, or it could go tits up. So did it work? Hell yeah I even used flashguns for part two of the shoot, & I will be exploring & experimenting with portable flashguns in a big way from now on ;)

Pro Wrestling Event – Cumbria

2011-05-29T05:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday 14^th May 2011

Pro wrestling well this was new to me but I always relish a challenge.

So how did I end up at a wrestling event? Well a friend of mine Andrew Rogers was invited to have a run on part and asked if I fancied tagging along and so the adventure began.

Ok to be totally honest in my younger days I was a secret wrestling fan I remember as a young boy my granddad taking me to seeing a British wrestling match, which had Mick McManus wrestling but to be honest the WWF yes before they changed the name to WWE was my real love and for obvious reasons Hulk Hogan was the man. So it was a real pleasure to meet the beautiful George Stephanie Bellars Frankenstein a very well known former wrestler from WWE known as Gorgeous George.

Well it turned out to be a very entertaining event I loved the fast pace of the event and at times you needed eyes in the back of your head. Wrestlers were flying over the top ropes and I was loving capturing and telling the story and I have to say it was a real delight to see inferno from the gladiators take on two female wrestlers at the same time. Finally the time arrived for Andrew to storm the ring, and to my surprise another friend Matt Lawrance also made an appearance and to be honest they really did a good job but I’m guessing they didn’t expect to be thrown over the top rope lol

Hasha International Karate Grading

2011-05-11T04:01:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I covered the Hasha grading held in Warrington.

There was around 30 people grading 9 of which were taking their 1^st Dan black belt and you could really feel the tension, once the nerves had settled the students all began to perform and each and everyone of them passed the test. Well done to all the students and in particular the 9 students that finally reached the goal of 1^st Dan black belt wear the belts with pride

Children’s street party – Forest Gate Community Primary School

2011-04-30T02:54:00.000-07:00

I was asked to record the events of the school street party, Thursday 28^th April 2011 the day before the big wedding of William & Kate.

What a beautiful day bright sunshine & very warm, but if I’m honest I would have preferred a slightly overcast day, bright sunshine always causes people to squint but hey you work with what you have

I have to say it was an amazing sight seeing these kids dressed up to the nine & all the staff dressed up in top hats & tails & really enjoying the party atmosphere. Well done to the Forest Gate staff for putting on a wonderful party.

My highlight of the day had to be the young bride chasing the young groom around the playground to get that Kate & Wills style kiss; the poor lad was having none of it.

It looked like a scene from Benny Hill

Getting the best out of the equipment available

2011-03-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

The other day whilst sorting out some old equipment, I came across one of my old digital SLR cameras, which made me wonder how would it still perform. So here’s the thing I’m not one to try things out at half measures that’s just not my style.

The obvious thing would be to do I nice portrait with a nice steady take your time session but that would be far to easy, hell no not me I take it to a full on action packed karate training session. Now this would be a real challenge for me & the camera.

Firstly I have say canon’s focusing system was very quick for the age of the camera, so no complaints there. The fact that I was shooting indoors and without flash, the white balance was actually better than I had expected. But and a big but, the camera really struggled with the buffering it was way to slow, especially with the fast pace of fighting.

It really was very challenging and I really had to work hard and not get frustrated. To be honest I was seeing shots but the camera was not ready to shoot, which was a shame and one shot in particular where a fighter got smashed in the face, gory I know but hey that what its all about and when I see it in the viewfinder but the shutter won’t press now that really is frustrating.

So I guess this camera is more suited to portraits and still life and if I ever get the urge to do some landscape I would use it but sport hell NO

Training with Champions

2011-03-07T15:20:00.000-08:00

Training with Champions seminar Saturday 5^th March 2011

I went along to photograph a karate seminar in Whitefield Manchester held by George Best, Ronnie Christopher and Elwyn Hall

Shooting indoors without flash is always challenging but on this occasion it was about to get even more difficult, because they were using three different rooms all-varying in quality of light. Two out of the three had acceptable light but the third was terrible with a really bad orange cast and just my luck that this room would be where the best action would take place.

So to begin with I went from room to room capturing all the action, its important to white balance each time I went into a new room otherwise I would be in big trouble in the postproduction stage. I finally settled in the orange room because this room had the black belts and other high-grade students and I knew that this is where I would get the best shots.
It really was a pleasure to record these great athletes in action, they delivered 4 hours of intense training well done to all that attended.

George Best - Hasha The Champion

2011-03-06T14:15:00.000-08:00

I have had the pleasure to work with many talented athletes and I will be writing about some of them within this blog.

Today I’m going to be giving an insight into “Hash The Champion” Sensei George Best 6^th Dan in Shotokan karate.

First and foremost George is a dear friend who I’ve known since we were kids who just happens to be an athlete, maybe when your reading this you may think I’m biased but don’t just take my word for it google his name to see just what he’s done in the world of karate

"Hasha" means Champion in Japanese and anyone who has seen George compete or has trained with him will appreciate how he became a champion and one of the best Karate exponents in the world

George is one of the UK’s most successful competitors, displaying the many traits synonymous with KUGB Karate: Power, speed and of utmost significance, spirit. A motto essential to karate is Mukin Shori. “The way to success has no short cuts”, a statement of very close importance to him.

Displaying potential during his youth, he caught the attention of the KUGB, where he came under the coaching of Sensei Enoeda and Sherry, eventually coming under the international spotlight with a superb competitive record, including famously beating Masao Kagawa twice.

His record speaks for its self

Individual World Gold Medallist

Individual World Silver Medallist

Individual World Bronze Medallist

World Team Champions

Twice European Champion

Five Times Team European Champions

Three Times British All Style Champions

Three Times British Champions

Lucy's Wedding

2011-02-23T13:19:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure to shoot a very dear friends wedding in a beautiful castle in Wales. This was my wedding present to her and I have to say weddings are stressful at the best of times but because this one was so personal it was probably 10 times more stressful. Apart from dodging the rain the day was a total success everyone partied into the early hours of the morning and even I managed to let my hair down at the end of the night.

Sports Photography

2011-02-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

I guess this is where it all began; I have been around sportsmen & women for most of my life and I took up boxing when I was 16 but it was at one of the shows that I took along my first camera to take some shots of the lads fighting and that was it I was hooked and here I am 31 years on and still going strong.

So what makes sport so interesting? It’s the challenge to capture the action there are no second takes when the action is coming at you thick and fast you have to have lightning reactions and perfect timing. Knowing the sport is a real help when I shoot thai boxers 9 out of 10 times I will have studied their fighting style so I have an idea of what shots to look out for. Sport is probably the most demanding on the camera you really push it to its limit and sometime beyond.

Sometimes its the shot after the punch that makes the pic

Lets not forget the ring girls

unpaid work is it worth it?

2011-02-10T14:01:00.000-08:00

I guess today i have my moaning head on sorry! I am seeing more and more ads like the one below:

We are a small casual menswear company based in Manchester, currently trying to put together a rough portfolio of our current range for a trade show we are attending at the end of February. I require a photographer (ideally with their own camera/equipment) for one morning or afternoon next week. Models have been arranged to model most of the pieces and I would also like some hanging garments photographed.
The position is unpaid, however, we may be able to come to some agreement with regards to expenses. Probably ideal for a student or recent graduate looking to pick up some experience and build on their portfolio.

what's wrong with this ad? well firstly, when you go to the trouble of putting together a collection for a trade show, my guess is the models will be paid and the reason they are paid is because they are experienced in this area of work. Putting it bluntly they know how to walk posse change quickly and can work under extreme pressure that's why they are paid. So why the hell would you not budget for a photographer lets face it after the event the only thing left is the images to sell the product. Remember the saying you get what you pay for well that's very true. A trade show is not straight forward gig i have done a couple and you have no control over what's going on.
sadly it seems to that more and more companies are trying to get photographers on the cheap, look I am not saying i would never work free of charge i have done and will do in the future but it has it help both party's but when clearly someone is going to make money from the shoot the photographer should be paid
Unfortunately some mug will do the shoot and if they are lucky they might be able to come to some agreement with regards to expenses. I guess they had better save their bus ticket lol.

ok rant over oh just one more thing...

Copyright infringement

2011-02-10T13:14:00.000-08:00

I don’t really want to use this blog to moan but on this occasion I have to, because I guess this topic had to come up sooner or later. Well yesterday it became obvious to me that someone had copied images from my website and posted them on facebook.

Well in actual fact this person had also copied image from a site that I pay to sell my images in grand total 55 images taken now in my eyes their taking the p@#s !

No big deal you may be thinking, no harm done, you’ve not been mugged or anything. Well it is a big deal this is my livelihood and any photographer would agree that it’s a big deal to them. Lets look at it another way if I walked up to this person and took their Iphone of them then it would be seen as a crime and a lot of people might say but that’s different!

Why is it? when I work out the cost of each print sale 23 at £25 that accumulates to a potential loss of £575 I should still be owed some change from the Iphone.

The fact that I know who this person is makes it easier to deal with and rest assured I will deal with it.

The fact is it is a criminal offence and to be honest if you stole an image from a large photo stock company they would sue your arse big time and they will win.

What I don’t want to do is put copyright all over the images on my website. I want people to enjoy the images and not be distracted by the word copyright all over them take a look at the images below which would you rather see?

What’s been the most challenging topic to photograph?

2011-02-01T11:11:00.000-08:00

Most elements of photography are challenging, all for different reasons, weddings are the most stressful and you know what they say in television never work with kids or animals I’ve lost count of the number of times that statement has popped into my head, But if I was pushed to pick one. I would first say sport that’s a tough one.

But I have to say the most challenging element for me is live dance (what I mean by live is non staged I have no control over any element.)

Let me set the scene for you. Imagine you’re at the final dress rehearsal your armed with your camera and a monopod flash is never an option. The scene is lit solely by the theatre lighting which changes constantly from low light, red then blue add some green don’t forget the yellow lets be honest it’s a nightmare. The light is so unpredictable and the experience could completely put off many a photographer! But call me crazy I get the biggest rush to beat the elements and produce images with drama, style and movement.

My Mentor Dr John Best

2011-01-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

Dr John Best

From time to time I am going to give an insight into the people who have influenced my life. John is without any shadow of a doubt the most influential person, I am proud to be a part of his family for the past 37 yrs. It's John's influence that drives me to be the best at what i do I guess I'm conditioned to win. This attitude is very apparent when I'm photographing a sporting event, when i look through the viewfinder of the camera i switch i become almost emotionless, If i knew how to play poker i probably earn a fortune lol.

I feel i could not do justice to the career of the great man so i have called upon the words from his son George Best current World Champion and one of the best fighter to come out of England. I will save him for another day.

Dr John Best has trained for over 50 years, he first started training in Judo, Boxing and then Karate in which he adapted to very well competing in many tournaments. Master Best attained the grade of 8th Dan in Shotokan Karate, during his years of teaching he has trained many students, students who he trained from beginners to 6th Dan and some have competed at the highest level winning major honours for England.

Master Best’s training has always been focused on delivering fast, hard and dynamic techniques with the ethos of “One strike one kill”. His training would always be hard, scenarios that would challenge you and make you look at your technique in order to develop every aspect of your training.

With a wealth of knowledge Master Best has been a major driving force behind his son’s George & Ian Best passing on his knowledge to them and watching his son’s become England squad members as well as becoming British, European & World Champions.

Dr John Best 8th Dan

Master Hasha International Karate

Action photoshoot with Andrew Rogers

2011-01-29T08:23:00.000-08:00

Andrew is one half of the Rogers Twins who’s website I built www.therogerstwins.co.uk check it out.

When we talked about doing a shoot we wanted to do something different. Andrew wanted to incorporate a Van Dame influence. So with a bit of Van Dame and my craving to do a Sin City style shoot the fun began and I hope you will agree it worked a treat :)

Highlights from karate comp Sunday 23rd Jan 11

2011-01-28T12:10:00.000-08:00

Karate Comp Sunday 23rd jan 11

2011-01-28T08:51:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday I traveled to Liverpool to film Hasha International Karate team. What an interesting day.

For some reason my sat nav never gets me to Liverpool without some sort of meltdown lol. It didn’t help when the postcode was wrong but I always get there in the end.

That should have been the hard part done, but hell no, the girl on reception looks at my camera and then asks the most obvious question is that a camera Lar? No it’s an umbrella pmsl what she was really saying is you cant use it in here, well I beg to differ get me your manager.

Lets see how I work the manager, now this should be interesting. My first objective was to get myself to the door of the area where the karate is going on which was actually quite easy I don’t think he could understand my manc accent so lets walk & talk, bingo at the entrance of hall and surprise surprise looking around the hall there were loads of people filming. :) So fella if I can’t film what you going to do about this lot his look said it all. So off I went to start filming pmsl.

Now let the fun begin I love filming karate it’s so explosive if you blink you may miss it. Now for people who don’t know much about karate don’t be fooled by the tag of semi contact these boys are sending it in. The medics always have a busy day and this day did not fail to add up to my expectations.

Right from the off the Hasha team were tearing up the opposition and it soon became apparent that at some point they would have to fight each other and sure enough they met in the quarter finals then the semi final, then to top it off it was an all Hasha final and what a tear up it was, just watching these guys going at it you would never guess they were from the same camp its was so close it had to go into over time.

What a tear up that was great final :)

The Hasha boys were not finished there they also went on to win the team event so it was a very good day at the office for the Hasha team.

All that left is for me to edit the footage let the fun begin :)

Make your mind up

2011-01-17T13:00:00.000-08:00

finally decided on my new websites domain name (big round of applause its only took me 2 months lol) but now i can't make my mind up on the layout i just keep changing it what the hells wrong with me. need to sort my life out at this rate it will be christmas before i finish it

Welcome to my blog

2011-01-13T03:19:00.000-08:00

Thank you for visiting my blog i hope this is the first of many visits.
Well i guess I'm dipping my toe in the water of the world of blogging, I'm sure i will eventually get the hang of it. I guess some times it will be interesting other times it will probably bore the crap out of you & there will be ups & downs & hell at some point i will probably hit the brick wall but its my journey
So lets begin!