Coolest job in the world
One of my commissions from Parkinson’s UK, involved a full day at the Campus of Ageing & Vitality on the old General Hospital site in Newcastle’s west end. The facility is a centre for excellence in geriatric psychiatry, and conducts research in all aspects of neurological motor-problems in the elderly. Parkinson’s is such a condition, affecting many people UK-wide. The clinicians here have developed treatments to assist sufferers, and this open-day event was designed to showcase the hard work and innovation that permeates the centre.
My brief was fairly standard – to follow proceedings, capture reportage-type shots of the various speakers, get images of the Parkinson’s patients getting involved, and obtain specific shots of those active patients holding the trademark blue card, onto which the charity strapline could be superimposed.
I had absolutely no idea what was in store for the day, but it was pretty intense. My key image turned out to be found in the MRI scanner room, with he help of Bridget. She is an active Parkinson’s campaigner, and I see her at every North-East event, getting involved. Remember my main point of “look for an angle“? Well this shows one of the key ways to make an image dynamic – framing.
I saw the photo opportunity as soon as I shambled in with the masses. We had to endure a bit of a long old talk before I could butt in, but eventually I got the chance to grab Bridget, and set this up. Lighting had to be quick and simple – one Nikon SB800 on the camera, pointing at the ceiling, one on a stand behind the scanner to get some light to that part of the room, and a third on low power, just out of sight to the right, angled towards the inner of the MRI scanner tunnel. This just gave a touch of illumination to help light up Bridget’s face etc. the shot encompasses everything that Parkinson’s UK represent, & is used on promo leaflets nationwide. I can honestly say that loads of things I do aren’t work at all – I get paid for knocking about with cool people & having a laugh. Jealous?
