Author: Steve Hickey

Photographer

The Princess, The Chairman, The Mayor and the lift

Steve Hickey
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Councillor Alan Pett, the Chairman of Sevenoaks District Council.

This month I photographed Princess Anne, The Mayor of Bexley and The Chairman of Sevenoaks in the space of a couple of days, and I got stuck in a lift with one of them.

Well I’ve had my fair share of tricky moments with dignitaries over the years – even once having Princess Anne hold a door open for me. Being stuck in a lift is a first, nearly stuck anyway – as we got out quite quickly.

It took about 30 seconds before it dawned on us that the lift doors weren’t opening. First thoughts were – am I claustrophobic? Don’t know, maybe I am. What about the person I am with  – are they? So I put my camera gear down and prepared for a wait, should we press the alarm?

It was an interesting minute or so as I considered what might happen – how long we might be stuck there. Not that it was a serious situation, to be honest I just wanted to do the photographs I needed to get and then move on to the rest of the day. However the thought that this might involve a lift engineer battling his way through Friday London traffic briefly flashed through my mind  – slightly alarming.

Anyway, I pressed the alarm button and the doors opened in a few seconds – phew!

We took the stairs on the way out.

Zen and the art of rearing chickens

Steve Hickey

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Earlier this month I went to a residential service for people with disabilities. I’ve been there a few times over the years and I was there again to do some new photos. Rob, one of the residents, had some real eggs for Easter and they had now grown into 5 week old chicks. While I took the pictures he taught me a few things about how to rear chickens from eggs – things like the expected success rate, when they will start to lay, and so on. Rob had kept various exotic animals and birds for years, so he understood them well.

My brief that day wasn’t necessarily to photograph Rob and the chickens. The chickens were there and we chatted about them while doing other photos. I went in with a brief and a sort of plan, but things change as they always do and so I try to keep in the moment and respond accordingly. It’s an approach that, for me, generally makes for better photos.

The day reminded me of why I like doing what I do, why I like photographing people. It’s about the unpredictability and it’s about making contact, not a superficial photographer/subject contact but something on a more human level. Of course that kind of contact doesn’t always happen, but when it does I know I get better pictures. It’s a natural result which comes from that human interaction.

So I had a lesson in how to rear chickens from eggs, not a bad idea perhaps but I think for now I’ll leave that to people who know what they are doing, like Rob.

Clear out the trash

Steve Hickey

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When I looked at the trash folder on my mail today and saw 33182 message there I thought, hmm, maybe I should delete those. What am I keeping them for? They’ve been there a while, it’s not like I haven’t noticed them pile up. Perhaps there’s a gem of an idea in there? A treasure trove of lost contacts? But  most likely it’s all junk, just junk.

The messages are still there just in case I need to re shoot the photo for the post. Why? I’m staring at the image I just shot, it’s on the screen now. Right I’ve deleted them. No I haven’t – still can’t quite bring myself to delete them. They say perfectionism is the excuse of the procrastinator – maybe I could tweak the shot a little? Perhaps I’m just a hoarder?

Now I’m not suggesting that having thirty three thousand messages on my mail will slow down my computer as they take up no space but it reminds me that I need to keep my machine in the best condition possible.  Keeping it running smoothly so that it doesn’t decide to give up at a crucial moment. That’s happened to me more than once and when it does happen it can mean working late into the night to meet a deadline, fingers triple crossed that nothing happens to cause more delay.

So no more putting things off, it’s nearly spring and time for a clear out.

Just deleted the trash.

A ‘smashing start’ to the year…….

Steve Hickey

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Well in  a way, as Bob Harris demonstrates  in the photo.

I have started this year,  close enough to the start anyway, with a new look for my website. Perhaps it’s more of a blog site as  now it features a blog, of which this is the first post. In the future I’ll include a selection of current work, hopefully stuff that is interesting or informative. Here is a shoot from the start of the year.

Smashing walnuts for Prostate Cancer UK, celebrities turned up at The Nutcracker Suite in Holborn for the event – the venue having been transformed from an old opticians. As you can see BBC radio presenter  Bob Harris (vintage readers may recall The Old Grey Whistle Test) gets particularly aggressive with some nuts. Shooting this close did, of course, mean being showered in bits of walnut! A great event, everyone had a good time and raised a lot of money for the charity.