This year was I think my 7th or 8th year of shooting the event and is pretty much one of the highlights of my catwalk show year. This year was somewhat different from previous years as I knew a lot of the models and dancers in the sequences. This whilst giving me an extra link to the show bought along it’s own problems. Not only was I shooting for my news agency and getting overall shots that they could sell for me but I also wanted to get images that the people in the show that I knew could use for there portfolio. If you saw the show you will realise how fast paced it is and how they take care to ensure that the action encompasses all of the stage. Quite often my subjects were on different sides and also shooting with two camera’s wide and telephoto led to a number of fast camera changes and awesome panning skills. Actually that part is a lie, I shot the show over about 15 performances to make sure I covered everything my client and I required.
I also managed to sneak a few words with some of the models between shows, and it was nice to receive thanks from them that I was capturing them in a way they could use. I think this connection came out in the images, of which I can only show a few as the rest have been released to clients.
Clothes Show is perhaps my favourite event of the year to cover, not only does it have the awesome main show, which is about 45 minutes of amazing choreography but it also gives me the chance to catch up with some of my friends that I only see occasionally, they may be photographers or models / dancers in the shows.
You can’t really class the main show as simply a fashion show as that would demean it incredibly. It is a mini story that drifts from collection to collection, it is perhaps dance linked with the occasional catwalk rather than a catwalk with a bit of dance thrown in.
The dance sequences are very well scripted and no matter where you are sited in the arena you are going to see something, there is action stage right, stage left and front, centre and back!
If you can afford the platinum or VIP tickets then I would say they are worth it for the seats alone.