luz buzz
Hugo and Luz
taken by John Londei
© All rights reserved
DID YOU KNOW?
A creative director, who gave me a lot of work, called me ‘a lucky photographer’. I wasn’t sure how to react. What did he mean? Was it a compliment? Anyway, that was twenty years back, but this shot taken three weeks ago reminded me of his comment.
Earlier this summer I was down in Brighton and spotted a location with elements around which I wanted to compose a photograph: sun in the right direction, rich shadows, steps, railings and. most important of all, a crowded beach. As I didn’t have my camera with me I vowed to return on another weekend to take a shot.
Well, weekends went by but they weren’t suitable. It needed a really hot, sunny day to guarantee a crowded beach. Saturday, July 4 was ideal, but other commitments ruled it out. The following day looked promising, so I got up early to head off to Brighton. Doh! ... I was halfway down when the sky turned grey, and spots of rain appeared on the windscreen. What should I do? Hope the weather would improve or return home? I’d already covered forty miles; it seemed defeatist to turn back.
By the time I reached Brighton it had transformed into a perfect day, and I set up my wooden plate camera. By the way, that camera and me form a double act, I’m the stooge and the camera’s the good-looking one, the one that wins admiring glances and arouses curiosity. Only trouble was, we couldn’t find an interesting subject to photograph.
That’s when I turned around and noticed Hugo and his girlfriend, Luz, watching me. They were a Spanish couple visiting Brighton for the first time, and Hugo, who’d broken his thumb the day before playing basketball, said, “I saw the camera. I thought it was a big one.” What’s more he was a photographer who’d just finished studying at the same college in Rochester where I’d studied photography.
They were so easy to photograph, patient, willing, and not at all intimidated when the police, wanting to move me on, said I needed people’s permission to take photographs. One by one the elements of my preconceived composition slotted into place, and Luz’s red toenails, peeking above the top step counter-balanced by her colourful bag, added unexpected embellishments. And as for those sandal straps around her legs that echoed the railings, I don’t reckon a stylist could have done a better job.
I think I got lucky that day.
Hugo and Luz
taken by John Londei
© All rights reserved
DID YOU KNOW?
A creative director, who gave me a lot of work, called me ‘a lucky photographer’. I wasn’t sure how to react. What did he mean? Was it a compliment? Anyway, that was twenty years back, but this shot taken three weeks ago reminded me of his comment.
Earlier this summer I was down in Brighton and spotted a location with elements around which I wanted to compose a photograph: sun in the right direction, rich shadows, steps, railings and. most important of all, a crowded beach. As I didn’t have my camera with me I vowed to return on another weekend to take a shot.
Well, weekends went by but they weren’t suitable. It needed a really hot, sunny day to guarantee a crowded beach. Saturday, July 4 was ideal, but other commitments ruled it out. The following day looked promising, so I got up early to head off to Brighton. Doh! ... I was halfway down when the sky turned grey, and spots of rain appeared on the windscreen. What should I do? Hope the weather would improve or return home? I’d already covered forty miles; it seemed defeatist to turn back.
By the time I reached Brighton it had transformed into a perfect day, and I set up my wooden plate camera. By the way, that camera and me form a double act, I’m the stooge and the camera’s the good-looking one, the one that wins admiring glances and arouses curiosity. Only trouble was, we couldn’t find an interesting subject to photograph.
That’s when I turned around and noticed Hugo and his girlfriend, Luz, watching me. They were a Spanish couple visiting Brighton for the first time, and Hugo, who’d broken his thumb the day before playing basketball, said, “I saw the camera. I thought it was a big one.” What’s more he was a photographer who’d just finished studying at the same college in Rochester where I’d studied photography.
They were so easy to photograph, patient, willing, and not at all intimidated when the police, wanting to move me on, said I needed people’s permission to take photographs. One by one the elements of my preconceived composition slotted into place, and Luz’s red toenails, peeking above the top step counter-balanced by her colourful bag, added unexpected embellishments. And as for those sandal straps around her legs that echoed the railings, I don’t reckon a stylist could have done a better job.
I think I got lucky that day.