He's NOT the messiah, he's...

Or: "47 seconds with Michael Palin"


So much for weekly updates... Oh well.

Got talked into doing an extra day a couple of weeks ago, as it seems we ran out of freelancers on a Sunday (I should correct this to "ran out of freelancers who could do the job"!) when the new season of paper-sponsored youth football league kicked off.

What it did mean is that I had the rare privilege of being tasked to get a pic of TV presenter, actor and ex-Python Michael Palin. There was a weekend of local history, heritage and art presentations going on on Sheppey, called "Promenade". I'd spent Saturday at some of these, and on Sunday Michael Palin was to give a talk at Sheppey Little Theatre about the countries and, especially, buildings that had caught his eye on his world-wide travels. I should point out that Michael's son Will lives in Sheerness, so he had obviously been charmed on his visits by some of the architecture that still exists around the town.

As you would expect, he was very in demand by fans and the local journalists after his talk, but he had agreed to do a joint interview with the two papers and the local radio station and me and colleague Rob Canis, working for the "rival" paper, hoped we'd be allowed a window to get a picture. It was supposed to happen, but reporters sometimes think our job is just "point and click"...

Fellow photographer Rob Canis, early on in the

pre-production set-up we both did as Michael Palin 

talked to the reporters. I prefer the theatre without 

the striplights switched on, but that's the joys of D3

usage... Smile, Rob!

More after the break...





Both Rob and I were supposed to get other things ("get a pic of reporter with him/get a pic of him reading this week's edition") but once we were there we correctly surmised that those were going to be too hectic to sort. As well as being naff...

At the finish, Michael signed autographs and then went into the "green room" with the reporters - plus a glass of beer! - to do their interview. Rob and I set to doing some pre-production as we now knew that we'd get only minutes, so all the settings we needed were worked out in advance. There was a small table on-stage that we both liked but neither of us liked the cloth. The table on its own was worse, so the cloth stayed, and we pulled a chair up as we thought Michael could then sit and lean on the table for a pose or two.  It would be easy just to stand him against a plain background, but we wanted to see "Little Theatre" behind to put him in context, so he would face us with his back to the theatre. Then we played with ISO, shutter and aperture, one sitting in the chair as the other refined his set-up. Michael would be lit by flash, bounced from the projection screen behind us - I even set my flash to manual (1/4 power, I think) for consistency. In the end, as Rob had his D300, the theatre strip lights had to be turned on to make it work. I'd got my D3 so could have managed without, as I was also happy for the seating to be darker in my picture. My settings were ISO 1250, 1/25th @ f5.6, and lens framing at 35mm, Rob's set for slightly greater background brightness (I think ISO 1600, f4.5 etc etc).


Michael Palin was an absolute trouper that afternoon - once he'd spoken to the reporters, Will Palin brought him to the stage and he gave Rob and me different poses and gestures, leaning more on the table for Rob, and some more open-handed gestures for me so that we'd not got exactly the same pictures. Rob had about a minute, and my camera data told me it was 47 seconds from first frame to last in my set...  In the end I had seven different pictures that I was happy from with that set.

Considering how in demand he was, Michael Palin was a true professional and also very gracious and genuine.

Michael Palin at Sheppey Little Theatre, Sheerness, on Sunday 11th September 2011. He talked about places and buildings around the world that had made an impression on him for the Promenade programme of events taking place that weekend.  Nikon D3, ISO 1250, 1/25th @ f5.6, 24-120mm @35mm, bounced SB900 flash from projection screen behind camera position, with flash on manual at 1/4 power.  The submitted pics were adjusted in Apple Aperture from the raw files, as I actually darkened the background further and applied a little corner shading to keep attention from the bystanders. The pre-production we did meant that even the JPEGs were all very useable, though.

This is the one that actually ran in the paper, also my favourite, and it was used as a large, very effective "bust-out", with his head and left hand overhanging into the white margins. I could have done without the striplight in frame, one reason why I'd been happier with them switched off (it didn't show in the paper's crop). A lower shooting position just meant another came into shot, higher showed too much more of the stage and clutter around the front row of seats. With hindsight, we should have set the table and chair further from us so we could shoot with slightly longer focal length settings - and Michael actually brought the chair somewhat further forward as he sat down which is the sort of thing you can't anticipate. That would also have helped us to lose the last members of the audience who were looking for autographs. Oh, AND I'd have brought in a lightstand with umbrella or softbox! But, hey, something to take as experience and file for the next time.

It has been pointed out that the striplight looks like a halo, but if I said I'd realised that at the time I'd be lying...

No, he's not the Messiah...  But he wasn't a very naughty boy!