Adam Scarborough Interview

Adam Scarborough is a well respected events photographer based in Dorset.  I know him from home and his work has inspired mine in all aspects of photography.  Adam has developed an easily recognised style by specialising in wide angle, off camera flash, night photography, saturated colours and long exposure.

This is a style I intend to apply to my own work in my events photography.  I haven't had the money for travel to go and speak to him in person, however he did kindly answer a few questions for me over FaceBook.

I know him as a mate outside of photography hence the informal language.

1) What inspired you to start taking pictures? 

Back when i used to skate every day of the week i broke an ankle and was told i couldnt 
skate for at least 6 weeks, and the skatepark being the only place i chilled out, i decided to 
get a camera to occupy my time there. I'd seen work from professional photographers at the 
time of some of my skateboarding peers and was interested in how they would set up the 
photos, with flashes in particular, and how they could influence the mood of images 
depending on how they were utilised.

2) How do you find yourself freelance work, and clients 
such as 'PIFF'?

Through previous work being on the internet, getting my photos in the public eye as much as

 possible, and generally taking my camera everywhere i can and taking photos of as many 

people as possible. Sooner or later, you will take a photo of someone important, and if they 

like it, they may want to work with you in the future. My first gig i did was scored was from 

taking my camera to a party and someone who happened to be a promoter for an up and 

coming gig chain saw the photos on facebook, asked me if i could do a few hours work for 

him that weekend and i had my foot in the door. After that, even on the first night of work, 

other promoters were in the crowd and asked me if they could have a look at the photos i just 

took. The next day i had a message asking if i could work for them too. On top of this, when 

the nights webpage posts up your work, other important people from all different keep a keen 

eye on these pages, wondering "who's been taking these?".

3) How do you keep yourself motivated and exited to 
find new ways to take an interesting picture?

In the previous answer i said about taking my camera with me everywhere and taking photos
 of as many people as possible, but while doing that i was never seeking to take a photo of 
that one important person that can hook you up. It was all because i just enjoy taking photos. 
I think thats the most important thing of all. If you start out with the mindset of making money, 
your just going to follow other trends and never develop your own style. Originality is one 
thing alot of people who are looking for a photographer want, something that will set the 
photos they are paying for aside so everyone can recognise their image or style. The new 
ways of taking photos come with the passion for it. Someone that just does it for money is 
going to churn out the same photos time and time again, but someone who is actually
interested in it will play around with the camera, even when they arent doing anything. 
Further to that, the gratification of someone either saying "man thats a nice photograph" or 
"ahh the last album you did was nice" is always a nice touch!

4) How did you achieve images of 'piff' in camera, and 
are there any tricks of the trade you can let me in on?!

Many people say its simply the equipment, which to an extent is true. But personally i shoot 

on a battered old Nikon D80 from 2005 in clubs and a bronica ETRSi in my spare time, and 

the cheapest non-screw on fisheye there is out there. Theres no exact setting for doing it, im 

always changing almost all of the settings on the camera constantly. Aperture stays relatively 

wide, to take the burden off the flashes for the fill light on the subject, but needs to be fiddled 

from photo to photo, as the subjects are never the same distance and in a sweaty club, the 

moisture in the air kills off alot of range the flashes would usually put out. A change in ISO 

can also help with this, and the grain sometimes comes out in a grimey kindof look which i 

love. Shutter speed almost always stays between 1 to 1/3 of a second, as clubs are pretty 

dark, and without the long exposure you would just get the subject stood in a dark room and 

little ambient light. Again, some photos there will be more lights in the room, and you have to 

shorten the exposure otherwise you just get a blurry mess. On top of this i change the white 

balance a fair amount, because the different lighting in different rooms of the clubs can make 

people look way too pale, or way too red in the face. I usually do that on the Kelvins setting 

so i can manually control how much it differs. My usual setup for a night of shooting is my 

nikon body with a 180 degree fisheye, a speedlight on the hot shoe in commander mode, 

and another held out at arms length to the left, as one flash cant cope with a large crowd of 

people, even with a diffuser attached.

5) Any last words of advice that you have learnt along 
the way?

If you want repeat business, be reliable and friendly. You would be surprised how many 
times ive heard people running the night go "wow you actually came! our other 
photographers completely bailed on us last minute and went out!"

What an amazing interview!!! So many of those things I will take on board... hopefully there will be a change in the way I take my photographs so they have more of a running style like Adam does.

After reading that a few times I am feeling very inspired to get out and take some pictures! Ye!

Below is what I messaged Adam back to say thank you...

THANKS ADAM!