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We welcome back the wedding photography innovator! Dru Dodd Part 2

• Neil Redfern & Helen Williams • Episode 66

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Prepare to have your approach to wedding photography transformed as, following on from last week's podcast, we are again joined by the renowned Dru Dodd for part 2 of our chat with Dru . 

Dru's signature group composites have revolutionised the traditional wedding group shot.  Dru's stories carry us from his first serendipitous composite to drawing inspiration from Annie Leibovitz's lighting prowess. What begins as a mission to offer clients something remarkable ends up setting a new standards in the wedding photogaphy industry.

When the lights dim, creativity must shine – a concept we embrace wholeheartedly in this episode. Dru shares tales of lighting challenges that would send most photographers into a frenzy, from shadowy priories to unpredictable UK weather. We reveal how the humble mobile phone light can become a photographer's secret weapon and discuss the innovation of high-powered lighting equipment that has reshaped our craft. The ingenious DIY 'Halo Pack' method is not just a nod to resourcefulness but a testament to Dru's innovative mindset.

Finally, we bridge the gap between the dramatic terrain of landscape photography and the intimate world of weddings. Incorporating majestic backdrops into couple portraits calls for a fine-tuned eye for composition, something Dru has honed through both experience and the wisdom of landscape visionaries. We recount tales of photographers braving the elements, much like the Greek heroes of old, and outline how a photographer's resilience can capture those epic, once-in-a-lifetime shots that make a wedding album truly legendary. Join us for a journey through light, love, and the art of capturing moments that last a lifetime.

A huge thank you to Dru for joining us for this two part special!

Dru's website: https://www.drudodd.co.uk/
Follow Dru's wedding photography on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drudodd/
Follow Dru's landscape on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drudoddlandscapes/

Join us in the Flash Masters community:

Website: https://flashmasters.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flashmasters/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flash-masters

Flash Masters is hosted by:

Helen Williams: https://www.instagram.com/helenwilliamsphotography/
Neil Redfern: https://www.instagram.com/neilredfern/

Intro:

Welcome to the Flash masters podcast. Flash masters recognizes and celebrates the best flash photography in the world through education, awards and community. To find out more and to join the Flash masters community, visit flashmastersco. Here are your hosts, helen Williams and Neil. Redfern and Neil.

Helen Williams:

Redfern. Hello there and welcome to episode 66 of the Flash masters podcast with me, helen Williams.

Neil Redfern:

And me, Neil Redfern.

Helen Williams:

And we're back again with the one and only introduce yourself, mr.

Dru Dodd:

Drew Dodd.

Helen Williams:

Hey, we got there.

Neil Redfern:

Thank you for coming all the way back from Northumberland, drew, for this. We had massive demand for Drew to come back and he's travelled.

Dru Dodd:

What three hours, I'm going to guess yeah, I did stop off to buy some Percy Pigs, so I'm not too sure what's that I can smell?

Neil Redfern:

Dru has never left us, but basically the last podcast. We were just having so much fun chatting and we were enthralled with Dru's stories, especially about his family's history and photography, that we had more notes, basically. So we asked Dru if he'd come back for part two with the wonders of technology, 10 weeks later. Here's part two fantastic.

Helen Williams:

So, drew, I will say that images that you have taken have absolutely, like, inspired me beyond belief and it's interesting, since starting Flashmasters and looking at our fantastic American sort of members and our ambassadors, how lots of them are using group composites, and I was like, wow, these are amazing. And then it turns out because I was like like I'm gonna be one of the first to bring group composites- yeah, I think we all felt like that, yeah we're like, yeah, I'm gonna lead the trend, and it turned out that you did your first group composite about 10 years ago well, not 10 years ago it'd be.

Dru Dodd:

It was either 2016 or 2017. I think I did my first like proper composite this is a multiple exposure photograph with flash but they do one way I didn't say that.

Neil Redfern:

You said that we love it. Now you've incorporated your weddings, I've done mine. It feels new to us, doesn't it? But yet dru here, has been doing them for eight years crazy yeah, it really has.

Helen Williams:

So I was wondering rather don't want to give away like all the secrets, but like how did you even come across, sort of where did the idea come from? Did you see someone previously do it, or is this another drew's marvelous mind at work?

Dru Dodd:

and, uh, something magic happened I mean, I certainly didn't invite group composites. I think the first time I did it I did. Obviously. I did the wedding wall in 2015 and the bride was local to me and then somebody else was getting married that had booked me. They weren't exactly close friends, but they knew each other. So she'd said the second bride. When I had the meeting with her, she said I really liked that collage. I think she called it yeah, um, that you did at such and such's wedding. She was like I would like it, but I don't want it because I don't want to be seen as copying her. She was like because we live in a local community, she was like I would like it, but I don't want it because I don't want to be seen as copying her. She was like because we live in a local community. She was like I don't want our weddings to be compared which I totally understand where she's coming from. So she was like I want something that no one else has had no pressure um.

Dru Dodd:

So she was like I have a think kind of thing. So I was just thinking and like my favourite photographer is probably Annie Leibovitz. Yeah, I know she's a bit out there and it might be like an easy one that people might say, or it's not very like interesting that you've picked her, but I love her photography from a technical point of view Maybe not the artistic photographs that she does, but how they're lit are amazing and I've always loved those like vogue big group photos yeah, I know exactly what you mean and it looks like the oscars and things.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, and it looks like impossible light. And if I ever find a photo online like, I feel like I'm quite good at working out how stuff's being lit, so I always look at eyes, anything that's reflective, because you can. You can see where the lights come from and you can see the shape of the, the modifier. So with hers I was always looking at like the shadows and stuff like that. So you'd like the light so soft. The modifier must be humongous. And then I saw an outtake. She had an argument with a queen like the queen of england, whoa, because obviously she's like the royal or one of the royal photographers and she was doing a photograph of the queen. I think she had a crown on and like the big robe and she said maybe we should like lose the crown. It looks a little bit like ostentatious or something and the queen.

Dru Dodd:

The queen had said like I'm in this robe like what's a crown matter. She'd been a bit of a short shrifter, annie Leibovitz and kind of stormed off, but from that that clip I saw like all these lights that she had set up.

Dru Dodd:

And I was like, oh wow, she's using like loads and loads of multiple soft boxes to create this like huge, big soft light. So then I figured, oh, maybe you could do it where you're using one, one light source but you're moving it around and that creates the big one I've seen. I've always wanted to try it with people. I used to do loads of car photography when I first got into photography because a lot of my friends were like that time of their life where they're buying cars and doing them up and stuff like that. So it's quite a cool way of me being able to do photography. And I'd seen this guy that showed how you do these photos like you know, like American Mustangs or stuff like that, where like the lines of the car look really cool, and this guy was showing you. Basically he had like a 42-inch like octabox on a boom pool and he would go along and basically just composite the car along.

Dru Dodd:

So you're creating a modifier that's actually longer than the car whoa but you're only using one softbox and you're moving along and obviously you can blend yourself out. Yeah, there was that that I'd seen. And then I did a one, like when I was a student and I was getting into photography and I was bored and stuff. I did a composite where I put on like green socks and then I could cut out my leg and that'd just be my foot there and stuff like that.

Dru Dodd:

So I did a photograph on a on a sofa of all my body parts, like lying on a sofa that's brilliant like my head was lying on the armrest, some random person contacted me asking to buy it, which I thought was a bit so would that have been the first time you've done?

Neil Redfern:

forget, like the what words are right here, but like in terms of actually composite, stitching photographs together.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, and I've done like stupid photographs of like me driving in a car, but that being four me's in the car. So I was driving. Yeah, the passenger was me turning around shouting at the two me's that were having an argument in the back of the car and stuff like that.

Dru Dodd:

So I'd done lots of photography as a hobby of doing it, where the camera's stale and I'm cutting and pasting bits and stuff like that. So then I'd, when this last was like, oh, I want something different. It kind of made me think the group photograph. I've done composites before. I know how to blend them together and stuff like that. All I'm adding is an extra stage of the lighting. So I did, did it that way.

Dru Dodd:

I've not seen that many people light it how I light it. There's a lot of like. Obviously you can light it from all directions and and stuff like that. But I guess I light them slightly different. So if you see one of mine it looks a little bit more most like signature, yes, kind of thing. So I was doing them and I I've never done it with a like a mag sphere or anything like that straight out the back, I was doing them with a softbox. So I saw lots of people doing them with spheres. Not that long after I started doing them it became quite popular. But the spheres I found it's just too hard.

Neil Redfern:

The light's too hard, of course.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, the bigger the light, so it's a lot nicer I feel like the sphere is like the ultimate backlight modifier. I use it all the time but I very rarely ever use it as a key light. Yeah, there's a photographer called christine diaz from america and she shoots a lot on the canon 11 to 24. I don't know if she still does now. I mean, this was dslr days and loads of her photos.

Dru Dodd:

She used to tag them as in like mag mod that should use the sphere and I was like I don't understand how she's getting this soft light and using a sphere. And then I saw like one behind the scenes photograph and she's actually only using the sphere as the fill light, right, so she's using a big modifier as a key and then the sphere just to lift the shadows. But yeah, so always use the softbox. I didn't use a sphere, I stick the sphere as a as a backlight. But yeah, and then I guess, like the advent of the mag box, people started like seeing more people had done them with with softboxes, the composites, and then now they're like super popular everyone, I still feel like it's so, unless I've just been, like you know, head in the clouds.

Neil Redfern:

I feel like it's only been the past two years. That's what I see. Yeah especially so you're well, well ahead of the curve.

Helen Williams:

It's just, mind just gets blown every time or so many things are linking back in terms of you know, you say you're not creative and that you're a technical person and things like that. Yeah, you're creating obviously what looks to be very creative work, but you're obviously digging. These techniques or these ideas are coming to you from shooting for fun yeah, everyone you've gone.

Helen Williams:

Well, I was doing this or I was messing around doing that. Um and I don't know how many times I'm going to say this on this podcast I have to start shooting for fun, and I'm sure there's plenty of people listening going. Yeah, I need to do that too and, like me, just haven't done it. And it just makes me think back to when I was doing photography in college and you know you were doing multiple exposures or or doing photos where you appear multiple times within that and how much fun it is to do things like that. But because you know, when you're so busy inside of your business and shooting weddings, you just don't really give yourself the time to do those fun things, but so much good can come from just playing and seeing what happens and I know neil's a huge advocate.

Helen Williams:

But it's so clear how not affected you. That's not the word I wanted, just inspired.

Dru Dodd:

You really yeah, I think you you do it and you don't realize how much you're educating yourself, yeah, and then you end up being in a scenario and you're like, I know how to do this, I could do this at a wedding, or I can add this and things like that, and it's just about like personal development really, I suppose. I mean, I did a wedding in the day after Storm Arwen, which is like the biggest storm that hit this country in a generation or whatever, and there was no power. Loads of places didn't have power, and I did it in one of the darkest venues in northumberland. I mean, I think I've got like ptsd from doing that wedding yeah, I've seen.

Neil Redfern:

It's this the photograph, that well I know the story, but it's. It's amazing what you're saying.

Dru Dodd:

It was crazy it makes me think if I'd had it, if I wasn't shooting mirrorless then and you're still using like the af of all, like the af from dslrs and the poorer iso performance, it would be like mad. But I mean, I shot the serif, so there's normally the ceremony is dark, but they have their own lighting in there. In this it's in a priory, like really old, I don't know what, why a priory is a priory and not a church. I don't know what makes it.

Neil Redfern:

I have no if you don't know, I don't know yeah so it's like super, super dark.

Dru Dodd:

And then I was just thinking I don't even know how I'm gonna get the bride coming up the aisle with her dad. It's like it's so dark and they're obviously gonna be moving, so you can't just like keep extending your shutter speed. So I had this idea of getting every guest to turn the phone light on.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, so we're talking really pitch black more, yeah, but I was like don't shine it at her, just shine it at the person opposite you so that they're creating like these little pools of light. Because I figured the best light would be just on the edge, where you get like the fall off and stuff like this nice off light. So I had it in bot meter mode. So I had I was just like spot meter and on the bride that she was walking up and obviously the iso is just like fluctuating as she's going in and out of these dark spots and the photos actually look like really cool. But I often think like what if I hadn't had that idea?

Dru Dodd:

you've also created experience there for her as well yeah, I mean she wrote me like she wrote me a review. I mean, when was storm, arm was 20?

Helen Williams:

I don't know I'll tell you 2021, 2022 I'm now going off my whilst neil's researching that I'm like so many people struggle with confetti shots.

Dru Dodd:

Oh, not confetti shots november 2021, so yeah, in the deep, dark winter as well, like yeah so it was post-COVID and it was like that venue doesn't normally do weddings that late in the year, but obviously they were trying to fit her in before the next season. Yeah, I think at one point I was shooting it like F1.8, 12,800 ISO and like a 50th of a second what?

Helen Williams:

Crazy.

Neil Redfern:

So I mean mean it was like really, I mean my granddad would be like, but yeah, I mean I was like genius

Helen Williams:

that was really pushing, like the technology to its like absolute limit, I think but to even think on your feet to even suggest that, and my head was then going, oh for all those people who struggle, um, doing like sparkler shots. But I think, oh, it's not going to work so well because of the different white balances, but how well you could have guests. If they've got a sparkle in one hand, you could have your torch from their phones on the other just to help light it. For those people who don't like using flash for sparklers or struggle or don't have a video light, anyway, I don't know why that came.

Dru Dodd:

One thing for doing sparklers, which is quite handy, other than buying my uh sparkler overlay pack the modeling light. So there's modeling light on a v1 and a v8 63, but the v8 63 the modeling lights on the front, whereas the v1 the modeling light is on the head. So with a v8 63 you can turn the modeling light on, but you can set it so that the modeling light turns off when the flash goes off. Or you can have it where the modeling light turns off when the flash goes off, or you can have it where the modeling light just stays on the whole time.

Helen Williams:

Obviously, a lot of the time you would have it turning off, but you can have it just keep it on, have it on whatever exposure you want, have the flash head turn so it's shooting back over your head, so it's not firing towards them, but you've got like a little dim light on the top of your camera just to light them for getting focuses and just put like a little bit of light on them for sparkler but yeah, saying how you get ideas from playing around and doing other things that aren't weddings, and then you said about using lights for that time in the ceremony and then I've connected it to a totally different thing. Yeah, it's just, yeah, just, yeah funny to see how we learn and how we can apply different techniques from different types of situations and circumstances and bring them together in other experiences.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, going back to what Jason Vincent said on the live stream that we did with him, where he loves problem solving, yeah. And you're exactly the same as him in that regard.

Dru Dodd:

I really, really enjoyed meeting him at Nine Dots.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, I can imagine, I think your brains are similar in the sense of like you'll want to try and create something and think how, and you know? Really try and think about what can you do to make it happen.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, I mean, part of it was I take a 600 watt second light to weddings and then Jasonason vincent walks in at nine dots and he's like I'll bring a 1200 watt second light and I'm like, oh my god, where's this guy? Being all my life like brothers for another mother yeah um, I mean like there's people saying there's no reason to have a light more powerful than a ad 100 oh no, he changed my opinion on that, although the a93 changed that a little bit.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah but yeah, I mean like often another tangent but buying different powered lights has really like elevated my photography, like I remember the first light I bought was a 600-watt light. I've still got in my storeroom. I never use it. It's not Godox and it was. Jason Lanier was using it on a YouTube video and he had a couple on the beach and they were on a rock.

Dru Dodd:

We just had a guy who's just manually holding it just with a small reflector with like a diffuser panel clipped on it and the photos he was getting from this like it was middle of the day and he was getting like blue skies and freezing the like the water spraying up around him and I was like I want to get into doing stuff like that. Yeah, so I went to america was when I went. I went to new york in 2015, like before. I went with my family because I was trying to take that photo that I always wanted to take and I packed all my clothes and my hand luggage and I took a suitcase which was virtually empty because I was going to bring back.

Dru Dodd:

I was going to be an age I was going to go well, it was actually adorama, which is like another new york, because they adorama, they do flashpoint. That's there like they read it's like they rebudget your fool. Yeah, um, yeah. So I went and bought this, this light, and then I had to use a.

Dru Dodd:

I had a young, new trigger that I was used like the three and a half millimeter jack, super glued like a cool shoe, mount to the light so I could put the trigger on it. And I mean the young new triggers were. So like am I gonna work today?

Dru Dodd:

yeah, yeah it was like the british rail system, um, but yeah, so that was the first thing in the light I did. And then godox brought out the ad600 and I was like this is a mint, so I bought the manual version and then I got two like ttl versions from the photography show in I don't know like 2017, 26, 2018, because I had such a good deal on getting two. So now I've got well, I've got four 600 watt lights the maximum I ever take to a wedding's two, obviously, I use them for the wedding wall and and stuff like that. And then there's like one, the venue where I do the tree photograph. I use two 600 watt ones. For everything else, just use the one. But, to be honest, through the winter I don't really bother. Then I got the ad200s. So I've got four ad200s that I take to weddings.

Dru Dodd:

I honestly think the ad200 is probably the best like photography, off-camera flash invention that there's been over a pound yeah in the last maybe 15 to 20 years, I would say like the AD200 is probably like as big for the photography industry as what the canon 5d mark 2 was I mean obviously there's other like 200 watt second lights that are the same, that work on the same channels and and stuff like that.

Dru Dodd:

I mean there's been other people making stuff, but godox really brought it to like the masses yeah, um, I know, obviously, if you meet, if you meet someone that shoots pro photo like they're gonna tell you pro photo is the best thing till they're blue in the face and it probably is it's a lot of money.

Intro:

It's a lot of money, and I mean like I've smashed loads of smart flashes I have.

Dru Dodd:

I've smashed one ad200 I remember shooting a wedding. In movie 20 2013, 2014, some guy rocks up. He had a 1d 1dx and at 85 1.2 he brought it to a wedding and he was a guest and I was the photographer and he comes over like billy big yeah and um was like oh, what do you think of this?

Dru Dodd:

I was shooting canon at the time. He was just like he had to go at me because I was using young new flashes and he's like you're a professional, you should be using Canon stuff and I was like light's light. I hate people.

Helen Williams:

I had the same argument.

Dru Dodd:

yeah, I was like I've got six of these Yongnu flashers, obviously one on each camera, four in my bag because the AD200 wasn't out there, so all my off-camera flash stuff was speed lights and I was like I can smash one and literally just clip another one on. They were like 80 quid, like they were amazing. I remember Paul shot the first time Paul worked with me and he had a Canon flash and it was like 420 or 430 or something, but it was like it was super underpowered really, especially for doing bounce flash, cause obviously you're losing so much, so much light. Obviously like he had not long been into photography and he just thought I thought if I bought Canon I'm getting the best stuff. But I was like, get the young new ones, man, they're loads more powerful.

Helen Williams:

I had the same argument with another photographer in a photography group. When someone asked for I'm just getting into flash, what should I buy, or should I get the Canon one, I was like stuff that Sorry, canon, this is for the Flashmasters. But at that point I was like if you need a Flash and you're not sure if you're going to use it, there's no point spending all that money. Just get one of these. And someone else in the group was like no, you're a professional, you should only use Canon. And then the funny thing was that who doesn't use flash? They told me off for recommending those, but you even get arguments like on people within like godok stuff.

Dru Dodd:

Obviously the v1s like the round head. I think the v8 63 is a far better flash. I own two v1s and two v8 63s and I don't use the v1s the v1.

Dru Dodd:

If you're gonna shoot on camera flash at people, the v1 is lovely because you get this round, round, light and fall off. But if you're gonna use bounce which is what I use most of the time, like all my candid stuff, and and that is as bounce because a lot of the venues around me are dark I think there's a lot of venues that, like they're like drew dodd, yeah, and the paint the ceiling's black. It's a nightmare. They put the top tail in front of a window and then they paint the ceiling black.

Neil Redfern:

Literally painted black.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, I mean they're not painting it. I don't think they're genuinely painting it because of me.

Neil Redfern:

I can't think of any venues where that would be the case.

Dru Dodd:

Well, there's a lot of venues that paint the ceiling black and then they have, like the little LED.

Neil Redfern:

Oh for starlight effects.

Dru Dodd:

It looks like stars it just makes it a nightmare for bouncing flash yeah um, you, basically you have to just shoot primes and just and just like the light is the light. Yeah, like this is going back to the last flash monsters podcast, when I was arguing with caroline, like you, pick the venue that's what you wanted to look like.

Dru Dodd:

Like it's not for me to be popping off flashes. I mean I know you do your three light setup for for speeches. I've never done that because I don't think I've got the set up for for speeches. I've never done that because I don't think I've got the. Oh, it's so quick and easy drew.

Helen Williams:

I don't know if it is, it obviously is. I promise you, it is yes I did.

Dru Dodd:

I did shoot off camera flash for speeches not that long ago which I was half inspired by jonathan creek, which is like one of my favorite tv shows he's a great photographer um and half inspired by jason vincent um. He is a great photographer where I put the light outside oh yeah, that's really cool so I was shooting with an ad200 on the world's biggest light stand, which I got from your recommendation and I was shooting it so it looked like evening sunlight coming through a window like in the top table.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, I love that and the photos look really, really cool.

Neil Redfern:

I don't know whether the couple, I don't know whether people notice it or whatever, but you could always be a bitch with your own success there, because they think, oh, we just had nice light.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah but look, I mean I got a shot, a wide shot, of the top table. I mean the bride did a speech, so it was class, but I was right at the back of the room, so all the other guests are silhouetted. And then there's this light coming in from the window, lighting just the top table up. It looks super cool. It's just another technical challenge of like oh can I make this work? But I think your three light set up. It's almost like it's the second most stressful part, other than the ceremony, I think.

Dru Dodd:

I mean like you doing, helen, doing off camera flashing a ceremony? I'm like blow, blow my neck.

Helen Williams:

No it's all good, you've just got to go.

Neil Redfern:

I think it's like with anything, once you've done something again and again and again, it becomes so second nature you don't even think about it.

Helen Williams:

Yeah, we need to get you on the three-light setup only if you wanted to, Drew.

Neil Redfern:

No, I think the setup that Drew's referring to there there the three light speeches set up I do talk about. If you go into the flashbusters member zone, you'll see that I've done a two-part introduction to off-camera flash, two live streams. In the second one I go through in detail what that setup is. So if you are looking to shoot speeches in in a venue, well, I use it regardless of what the light's like. But in venues where very low light, maybe it's winter time and you're thinking, oh, I don't have to light this and please go and watch that because I think you might find it quite useful. But yeah, it is. It is straightforward.

Helen Williams:

Helen uses it as well yeah, I've used it when they've got a heavy backlight. And yeah, no, it's amazing, I was used to it, it's, it's yeah it's very competitive.

Neil Redfern:

It's like bang bang. It's the same every time.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah I did, I did learn about it shine there you go.

Neil Redfern:

It was part of the reasons I wanted to come on Shine was to have a go of it.

Dru Dodd:

Did you know a little random, useless fact? Oh, I like these facts though Every time I write the word Shine in my phone, it capitalizes it now.

Neil Redfern:

I love that, yeah, because every time I put it out there, I always put it in capitals, for no reason whatsoever. I like that there. I always put it in capsules, for no reason whatsoever. I like that, though. Actually, whilst we're on this as well, when you very kindly did come to shine, not only were you an attendee there, were you also. This is seamless, isn't it?

Neil Redfern:

It is, I'll say it's a clever, not even planned Drew also very, very kindly, very kindly, did a little bit of teaching at the workshop as well, where he was demonstrating. I don't think you've got a name for this shot, have you? But a technique you use for shooting couple portraits where you use your own halo pack which is shooting through. Well, I'll let you describe it, and it's a very unique look to you. I've not seen anybody else do this again. If you want to see these shots I'm talking about, please go to the flashmasters instagram page and we're going to post some of drew's work and also go and follow him on on instagram at drew dodd. I'm all right, I think there's. There's not a name for that. Is there.

Dru Dodd:

We need to come up with one no, I mean full disclosure, like it's taken from sam hood's ring of fire. Yeah, who's another like I mean it's crazy how inventive he is.

Neil Redfern:

I love sound work. Yeah, he's a. He's a ridiculously talented photographer. I think he's only done the the ring of fire shots which, like you say, he started, but in natural light, yeah so I just started doing it using flash.

Dru Dodd:

Basically, I kind of use flash as a way of me being in control of everything and not having to be like I need to perform.

Dru Dodd:

I need to do this when the light is like this and also tell all uk photographers we just don't get the light, and the light might not happen so a lot of these things like especially there's various shots that I do on a day where I can be like I can do this, doesn't matter what the light is, yeah, I can deliver something, especially if it's raining. I mean I, since I was at Shine, which was October last year, I've never shot a wedding that way it hasn't rained.

Neil Redfern:

Really, and it's.

Dru Dodd:

March, now, god I feel like I've cursed you.

Helen Williams:

No, you're bringing all the wonderful stuff to life. Yeah, it's nice, nice spin.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, it's just crazy and it's like I don't mind doing like group photos indoors and lighting them, because I mean that's what I basically I pitch myself at wedding fairs that that I do that. But it just makes everything so much slower and you feel like you've got to do a lot more work.

Dru Dodd:

You've got to, you've got to really like force the photography in creating things, but you don't want to do everything at every wedding because you want to mix it up for yourself but also for the couples. But it's about having oh, I've got all these various things I can do like I could backlight a rain shot yeah, I can get them in an umbrella.

Neil Redfern:

I mean, I get people under an umbrella even if it's not raining like the photo still looks nice yeah, I think this is a great point, though this is one of the great things about off-camera lighting regardless of what the ambient light is like, what the conditions are like, you can still create something yeah, and I mean you can make a venue look really really good as well.

Neil Redfern:

Exactly, but, like you say, it's good to have these tricks up your sleeve if you need them. You might not need them, but obviously if it's raining, all the time, then you will, I mean.

Dru Dodd:

Another one you can do is the, the mag beam yeah, so the mag beam, so that is designed for making a flash go. Really, really far yeah, but you can also get a different lens that goes in it, so you keep the mag beam fully compressed and you get those like metal gobo things yeah and then you can with a gel you can project loads of different colors onto a wall, stuff like that, so you can do port rates against.

Dru Dodd:

You can just find like a plain wall or whatever, get a soft box to the side of them, put a bit of color on the background yeah um, so you can create like shots out of nothing, really so with the halo pack shot.

Neil Redfern:

Then we're talking about how did that first? Did you envisage it, or was it almost like a happy accident through seeing what would happen?

Dru Dodd:

no, I I've got a friend who's a plumber so I said, have you got any spare like copper pipe off cut? So he left a bit at my house and then I just polished it up and just took it along to weddings with us. And originally I was trying it like Sam was with the light. I never got the light. Yeah, yeah, basically. And then I thought, oh, maybe I could just do it with flash. The first time I did it, I did a wedding at this like really really nice venue, and I had another storm and there was no power. Basically they said you can.

Neil Redfern:

This is what happens to people in their career. Once, yeah, I know.

Dru Dodd:

So they said, you can get married, you can have your drinks reception, no alcohol, you photograph you have alcohol wait and see oh your photographer can do the family photos. You can have a few photos in the garden and then everyone's got to leave.

Helen Williams:

Oh.

Dru Dodd:

I did all the photos and then I said to the groom once I've edited all your photos, I'll work out what gallery you've got and how big it is in comparison to another person's gallery, and then I'll give you that, what you've not got.

Neil Redfern:

As a refund.

Dru Dodd:

I got in touch with him and said, basically you're missing, like it was. I think it was like 40 of your gallery compared to other people, but I'd still done prep ceremony, family photos and some portrait. So we didn't have speeches, we didn't have the evening do. So I said, if you give me your bank details, I'll just transfer like your portion back. Then he replied and he's like you're literally the only person that's offered us any money back. That's really nice. Um, however, the venue have allowed us to have an evening do, but it wasn't at the venue. The venue also own a club, so the evening do was going to be at this club, where they booked me because they wanted a photo in this lovely garden with this like french inspired chapel with the stars above it, and then now the only bit is a car park in a smoking area that I've got to do. So I said, yeah, I'll come and I'll come and shoot it. But I was like, really struggling of like, because most people booked me for my off-camera flash night work.

Dru Dodd:

Yes, yeah that's what I mean. I've said in the past. I turn up to a wedding and I'm basically like killing time for it to get dark before I do what before?

Dru Dodd:

I do what I'm like, really passionate about, yes, yeah. So then I thought, oh well, I suppose there's this little smoking area out the back in the car park that's got like a hedge. I could do something out there. And I thought I could use my copper pipe. I wonder if I would get two flashes behind them and then light, hold the pipe up in front and then, by sheer accident really, my friend who's the plumber the bit of pipe that he gave me was quite long, whereas Sam Hurd's using it it's almost like a wedding ring width or length, so he's just getting like a kiss of a light, whereas I did it, unbeknown to me, with this long pipe and and you get like loads and loads and loads of rings. Yeah, it looks really dramatic. So I won a Flash. I think it was the first ever Flashmasters award I won was for that photo and it also it almost looked like it was like a record.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, it is.

Dru Dodd:

It was like all these like concentric circles with the groom and then like a gap and then her, and that was just basically the angle that I'd held the pipe and she was kind of blocking the light going down that part of the pipe so then I started playing with using different lengths of pipe and you get like different looks.

Neil Redfern:

This is the crazy thing, yeah, because a lot of people would use this once and think, oh, that's the look, you've obviously then gone. What happens if, like going back to like you, your problem?

Dru Dodd:

solving. So then I got people. Obviously, once I won an award and other people were saying it, people were asking, like how have you done this? Like this isn't like the normal ring of fire thing. How come there's so many rings and things?

Dru Dodd:

yeah so then I thought like, oh, why don't I just like package it up and start selling them as a pack? Because basically you need to use a large width pipe to get, if you like, copper pipe. If you go to b&q or home depot or yeah, whatever you've got in america and stuff, chances are this pipe is going to be like small gauge pipe. You need to use like a lot wider copper pipe. But then you've got to go to like a trade center for that, yeah, and you can only buy them in like three meter lengths. You only need like what?

Dru Dodd:

probably less than 10 centimeters. What are you going to do with the?

Neil Redfern:

other 2.9 meters, the ability to cut these up either yeah, yeah.

Dru Dodd:

So I mean I spoke to you about like the pricing of it and stuff, and I'm so glad I did, because when I got a lot of orders and then I was sat in my garage cutting it all, I mean the polish, the polishing of it is the big thing and I was like, oh wow, like I never envisaged this much work to put them together.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, it's so good what you've done. And just to give a bit of a plug, if you go to drewcouk slash Halo Pack, h-a-l-o Pack, then you can see the images that we're talking about here, and also there's a link there to buy what drew's produced, which is a. It's like a pack of four different lengths of this piping and, as drew's just said, they all create different effects. I've used them in my youtube videos before. Yeah, it works really well. I've only used them in natural light.

Neil Redfern:

It's still on my to-do list to want to make a video for my channel. Try and recreate it. I tried it once with one person. Struggled. I now know why because you told me. You've told me why. Remember, at the time when I was trying to make this video, phone you up and you I don't think you were able at the time then, oh, drew, how do I do it? How do I do it? Because it isn't. It isn't an easy technique, but when you get it right, it's stunning and it's no wonder to me that is it, that style of imagery has won flashmasters award. So, yeah, go and check out these images because they're they're amazing and I love that. How you.

Dru Dodd:

They are different, yeah, because of the different lengths of pipes yeah, so you just get different number of rings and then, um, I mean, like anybody can do it, I mean I just went and made my own kit. Anybody can make them, but it's cheaper to buy mine than it would be to buy one length and then cut it all cut it up yourself do the polishing.

Dru Dodd:

And then what are you going to do with, unless you did like a big group, buy with a load of people and then split it all up? So yes, I did that. And then the last one that I won, the flash monsters award.

Dru Dodd:

That's on the home page for the collection yes, it is yes um I did another one where another it was end of last year raining and I was like, oh, what am I going to do? And then I was like I'll do a halo pack shot and kind of pull myself out of a hole. And then it was when I was editing it. I just thought, oh, I wonder like I could just edit the rings in Lightroom and use like the HLS slider and make the ring like different different parts of the ring in different colours.

Helen Williams:

It's so cool.

Dru Dodd:

It does so yeah, so it was like when, I shared it that I'd won this award. It was the first gold I'd ever won. As well Like the bride messaged me and she was like I cannot believe like our wedding is like award winning.

Neil Redfern:

Oh, that's so nice.

Dru Dodd:

She was a really like her and him were like a really really you know, when you do a wedding and just like I'm just really happy that they're happy, yeah, and they had a little they've got a little son who was like and he, he was the best man and he did uh the speech and he's just talking about how much he loved his mom and dad and stuff.

Neil Redfern:

It was like it was so nice one of those where you just feel that, oh, this is a good job, you know, yeah, yeah, it is that, it just makes you.

Dru Dodd:

You go home and you think like you know what I was like, privileged just to meet them people and just have a little bit for them. Then it was their wedding that you, yeah, yeah I mean they, I found them and they that email address was like stars and stuff or something they had. Like. I always think if a couple contact you, that's what you're straight. Yeah, if a couple contact you and they've got like a like a wedding specific email address for that planning and stuff, you're like these people know that stuff.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, like they're gonna be they're gonna be on it and the fact that they're like, they're obsessed. It was like a celestial themed wedding, so it was like I felt, like I was meant to be there yeah, um, but it was raining, which was a bit of a pain because I wanted to do photograph with them with the stars. So then I was like I need to do think of some other things that I can do with them it kind of almost looks like a bit of a moon shape as well when you you edit some of them.

Helen Williams:

But I'll say I bring the halo pack to every wedding. I haven't used it at every wedding and I've not used it with flash yet either no, we need to do it yeah, when the sun's coming down as well. I've got some really beautiful shots with the halo pack, so thank you so much, um yeah, I mean another thing, I would have done it myself. I never would have gone and cut pipe myself.

Neil Redfern:

So no, and I just thought, when I can get on youtube, I know that that video will do really well, because as a thumbnail it looks crazy that's why we chose that for the, for the home page of the Flash Pattern website, because you just think it's just got immediate impact and then people will desperately want to know how have you done it?

Helen Williams:

Yeah, you know, we need to get that out there, Drew. We need a Drew Halo Pack tutorial video. We need lots of videos from Drew. We need the group shot composite.

Neil Redfern:

we need the wedding wall and we need the Halo Pack video.

Dru Dodd:

You need to visit Northumberland, have a you need to visit Northumberland, have a holiday, come stop with us. You could do a Halo Pack shop where you're up there.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah.

Dru Dodd:

And you get your landscape on like you were saying. I really want to get into landscapes.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, shooting for fun, almost landscapes. Yeah, I was saying that yesterday. Oh were you yeah.

Helen Williams:

I've heard it's you, though, because you obviously know that most of the videos I watch on YouTube are landscape photographers, not portrait right yeah, I'd like to know more about the the thought processes in creating compositions than landscapes, and I think that knowing that will also help, because I think I've got a lot better.

Neil Redfern:

But I like to do landscape photos with people in, obviously in brides and grooms but I think just to know a little bit more or to do a bit more studying in terms of, like, the concepts of landscape photography, would then hopefully make me a better wedding photographer when I have a huge landscape in terms of where I place my couples and things like that or how to compose or what to look for so that I can combine couples and an epic landscape yeah, because if you're good at landscape photography, all you need to do is plonk a couple in there, small, and it just it works it's weird though, like if you want to do landscapes with couples in you, obviously you think a landscape photography, anything like wide angles the best.

Dru Dodd:

If you want to get couples in and see scale, you're better off using longer focal lengths and you being like super far away, yeah and then you can get the couple like small but like all the scaling, like one of the I was telling neil yesterday the photography show one my favorite landscape photographers. I only found him recently on youtube. He's called mads pedersen, so he's based in denmark but he travels all over the place doing photos.

Dru Dodd:

I mean, I bought a lens yesterday at the photography show off his back, which is a 50 to 400, which sounds like a mad photo lens, but he does these photos where he'll often use himself as the person, so he'll set the camera up and then he'll walk like ages, pretty trusting yeah but he's he's got these photos with like him on the edge of a cliff and then this like massive glacier or mountain stuff in the background and it looks absolutely fantastic I love like I've always been like super, super wide landscape photographer, obviously live on the coast, I've done like a lot of seascapes, but seascapes can be quite demoralizing at times because you can't put anything down. You've got to have your bag on your back, you've got to have your filters hanging off your pouch stuff like that.

Dru Dodd:

So I've got, I've got a friend who I mean he's a uh tile ideas like kitchens, bathrooms, stuff like that, and I honestly consider him one of the best seascape photographers in the UK and he goes out who's that? Just to give it up, he's called Stu Patterson just to give him a shout out as well. His Instagram is Stu Patter, so S-T-U P-A-T-T-A 69.

Neil Redfern:

God to hell is this.

Helen Williams:

I was like that. Even as I started laughing, I thought, oh, helen, that's so typical of you filth, but yeah, so he's a tiler, so he's yeah, his work's amazing manual labour.

Dru Dodd:

He starts work early in the morning probably 8 o'clock in the morning or whatever goes out pretty much every morning taking landscapes at sunrise and then goes. Sometimes I'll be out driving early in the morning and I'll see his little, his company's called Tactile, and I'll see his little van driving and I'm like, oh, I've passed you because I mean he lives near Newcastle. So if he's up my way and he's like, oh yeah, I just popped out for sunrise and I was on my way to my job and stuff, but he's like the two-man thing of, like he's just buying lottery tickets yeah, but for landscape every single morning.

Dru Dodd:

So you'll have so many landscapes that absolutely drab and crap, but the ones that he posts, yeah, are like bangers and you think he's got lucky, but it's just yeah, he's not, he's just perseverance but he's like super into seascapes, so him, so there's him.

Neil Redfern:

And then a woman called rachel talibart uh, from devon, yeah um she does, she does waves her seascape stuff is really yeah, it's like turnip, yeah it's absolutely phenomenal um, but she shoots everything on a 200 millimeter she's like 7200, right, all her wave stuff and things.

Dru Dodd:

Cause she says like it's, you know it's too dangerous. You can't be anywhere near the sea when it's that rough.

Intro:

Yeah.

Dru Dodd:

She's shooting in like 10 force winds, but I mean she was getting interviewed by Glyn Davies, I think he's called. So I was watching that and I put a comment on it and it actually got read out at the end on saying like rachel has created such a niche for herself in in photography, like she's almost she, like she's become synonymous with the british sea yes, like when you say her name, I instantly think of crashing waves.

Dru Dodd:

Yeah, yeah, slow shutter speeds, it's all quite, yeah, very arty, yeah, and some, some of them are like really sharp, like really fast shutter speeds, and she's, yeah, I'm looking at her work, um, and like she read it out on the thing and she was like, oh, what a lovely thing to say. It's nice being able to say nice things, nice people, um, so she does, she does all that. Her background from that thing I was watching on youtube. She's had like a law career and stuff and she was really into like greek mythology and stuff like that. So one of the projects she did was all these like waves crashing and stuff and she called it um sirens, so you know, like the sirens that used to sing to sailors and like yeah over the rocks and stuff.

Dru Dodd:

So she named everything after that which adds like another dimension to your art I think when you when there's like a story about it. It doesn't even have to be a story about what's in the photograph. So I love their seascapes, but doing seascapes it's hard yards like yeah, and you're getting covered in salt all the time like it's not great for your equipment.

Neil Redfern:

That's your tripods.

Dru Dodd:

I mean, I've got a tripod that's just for the sea but the spray gets on. You've got to constantly have like a wet cloth with some like some sort of bottle of water, like clean water, that you can wipe stuff and that, whereas if you're in a field yeah, you can chill put your tripod down, put your bag down and just sit and watch the clouds roll over, and the clouds like basically paint and light across a landscape. There you go.

Helen Williams:

So we're all going to become landscape photographers. Yeah, I don't know if I've got the patience, though, but thank you so so much, drew. I know obviously we could go on forever, and yeah, there's whenever we see you, we talk for an awful long time. Uh, thank you so much for sharing so much information so for those of you who are listening.

Helen Williams:

Don't forget. Please check out drew's work, check out his instagram. We'll be in the comments, along with his new landscapes as well. And then don't forget, because I love pushing and drew and I'll be like, oh, you don't need to. Obviously has his Halo Pack. Is that still available for sale on the website?

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, yeah, I mentioned it literally before, helen.

Helen Williams:

Amazing. And then also, don't forget as well, you do have a fantastic set of sparkler overlays as well, yes, I forgot to mention those. Yeah, are they available on the website too?

Dru Dodd:

Just a simple log on to Drew, there's like 600 overlays, wow. So it's 200 various overlays, but at three different colour temperatures. So it depends on how you want to shoot the spark. Some people want to shoot where the sparklers are white. Some people want to shoot them where the sparklers are the natural colour and they're quite orange. So there's lots of different ones for that and there are loads of different overlays as well. So there's some that's in focus, but then there's some out of focus.

Dru Dodd:

So if you want to have those like big photo balls and stuff in front.

Neil Redfern:

Yeah, that is drewdogcouk, slash sparkler. Hyphen exits.

Helen Williams:

Excellent, so thank you so so much for joining us, drew. I feel like this is a bit weird. I don't usually do the closing bit, so I can't remember. No, I don't, I don't want to do it, neil. Oh, she's she's, she's struggling.

Neil Redfern:

I don't know what I'm doing if you'd like to join us uh, in the flashmasters community.

Helen Williams:

You could do so at flashmastersco um thank you very much.

Neil Redfern:

Thank you for listening and we will see you in the next one and don't forget to I know this bit keep through it's covering his eyes because helen is going for. This is like a commentary running commentary I. I shouldn't have commentated over the keep flashing, so please again, helen, take it away don't forget actually I'll tell you what I want to. Actually. I'm going to record this and put it on our stories oh, here we go.

Helen Williams:

Drew's blushing, I'm blushing.

Neil Redfern:

Okay, this is for the third time, Helen.

Helen Williams:

Okay, don't forget to keep blushing.

Neil Redfern:

Thanks for listening everyone. See you next time, Yay.

Dru Dodd:

Shouldn't be like why I man Start the car.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Helen Williams

Co-host
Head Shot

Neil Redfern

Co-host