Johnny Boing Boing

Someone who I don't know said that they always wanted to do a shoot like this but didn't know how to do it. I sent her a link to a behind the scenes shot that is pretty self explanatory but thought I would blog it as well.

Johnny had bought a suit which he wanted to wear at our last shoot but didn't have in time. Maybe it's a good job he didn't. He wanted to do a "falling" shoot. I thought we should probably have him doing ordinary things during the fall. This evolved and we decided to go to Shotover Hill above Oxford so that we had a high view point and took along an exercise trampoline to help with take off.

Johnny brought an umbrella and I brought Carol and a car full of naughty balloons which took turns in trying to drive, until I stuffed them into the boot "Goodfellas" style. When we arrived we looked totally normal the three of us, one in a suit holding a trampoline and an umbrella, one holding a fist full of balloons and a bag of sandwiches and me dragging a trolley full of gear. We looked like Circus seeds trying to take root.

After finding a location where we had a good view over the City I set up two speedlights one side and one the other. Johnny jumped on the trampolene with assorted props while I lay on the ground to try and get some separation between him and the ground. We had a small audience who watched from a distance and once had to chase off a dog that decided that my lightstands were lampposts. All went swimmingly and we got some great shots before the light started to go.

Once we had finished we found a little boy and his dad and gave them the balloons. Of course not all children like balloons and ths was one of them. As I looked back from the car the boy was still refusing to let his Dad offload them.

The results looked like this (more here)