Photographer: George Marshall
Photo George Marshall
George is definitely one of those photographers with The Eye: he gets in there, figures out the shot, takes care of it, and it always comes out a treat. Look out for this guy’s work to be showing in more and more places – here he talks about the Glory Hole, packing Hobknobs, and travelling extensively. Good times.
BIO
Name: George Marshall Hometown: Nottingham, England, and currently living in East London. Years shooting BMX photos: 2 and a bit Where you can see my photos: georgemarshallphoto.com, Ride UK BMX magazine, and at an exhibition that’s open at weekends till Feb 22nd at Yinka Shonibares Space, 1 Andrews Rd, Broadway Market, East London. Nikon or Canon or? Hasselblad.
Photo George Marshall
What are you doing today? What’s the plan? Today is good example of my average mid week routine in winter. My day job involves no BMX. Usually I spend my days facing a screen, optimistically checking weather forecasts, making schoolboy errors, forgetting to save stuff, running late and losing stuff. Today is no different. Woke up. Had a bowl of porridge. Got to work 40 mins late. Had a cup of tea. Choked on it. Spat it all over my monitor and keyboard. Cleaned it up. Broke the keyboard. It’s time for my pub lunch, and I’ve realised I’ve left wallet at home. Being a Wednesday, and a dry sunny Wednesday at that, I’m off to face cold air and icy puddles in Cantelowes bowl after work from six until I freeze up.
Okay, what are some of the places in the world you’ve shot photos at? Shanghai, Las Vegas, Rotterdam, LA, Barcelona, San Diego, Warsaw, Mexico, Berlin, Bruxelles, San Francisco and Milton Keynes.
And are there any other places you really want to take photos at, that you haven’t been to yet? I’ve made a promise to myself to return to Glory Hole fullpipe, in North California, to put right a failed attempt to ride it four years ago. In order to ride the fullpipe you have get across 10 metres or so of stagnant cold dam water. One of us got over excited and tried to climb round a near vertical surface and fell in the ice water – with my wallet in his pocket for safe keeping. We wasted time trying to help him, by the time we’d pumped up our inflatable dingy security had arrived, and we aborted. We got frustratingly close enough see how amazing it is, and I hope to return one day to actually get to ride it and shoot some photos there.
What are your stand-out favourite spots? I used to ride Derby Storm skate park up to three times a week until it closed five years ago. It remains my all time favourite place to ride. But for photography I shoot street mostly, despite rarely riding it myself. I get a lot out of travelling to weird and colourful places to shoot pictures. In October I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go Shanghai with The Make and that place was incredible for photos. The idea of doing trips to new places keeps my chin up through the dark months.
Photo George Marshall
What gear do you pack for the day out, what equipment do you use, flashes, lenses, set-ups etc? In my bag I have a Hasselblad 501cm, 30mm, 60mm, 80mm and 150mm. peanut butter sandwiches, some flashes, spare everything, Pocket Wizards radio slaves, odds and sods, lens hood, light stands and a tripod, bags of sugar from Starbucks, mixture of 120 film, reflectors, ear plugs, Canon 40D for sequences, grubby socks, a good book for train journeys, diffusers, gels, clean T-shirt, filters, Nokia charger, note pad, few umbrellas, cables, hair wax, tape, pack of Hobknobs, tonnes of batteries and cables, Sekonic L 558 light meter, thermos flask, tea bags, pack of cards, toothbrush and my empty autograph book.
Ideally… film, or digital? Film.
What tips would you give to people wanting to take better trails photos? Just work hard at it. Prepare your kit well before leaving the house. Take inspiration from photographers you look up to, but try to be original and develop your own methods and a style that suits you. For beginners, don’t think you have to have all the expensive pro kit, you can achieve amazing results with a cheap SLR, without the hassle of flashes etc. Learn to shoot good photos on a simple manual SLR before moving on to invest a serious amounts money on kit.
What about shooting at contests – how do you see those? Shooting film on a medium format camera, you need time to set up and get everything spot on before you shoot, this all takes me about ten minutes or more, so I’m useless at shooting comps, I prefer to sit back and heckle some winners.
If you were going to for a photo shoot for one day with just three riders – who would you pick, and why? No one glamorous, it would have to be mates. It makes the process ten times easier if you know and get on well with the rider, and feels less like work. It helps when the rider is happy to carry some tripods about and helps even more when they appreciate photography and are patient with you when setting it up. It would be a toss up between STP, Tom O’Boyle, Beddows, Merlin, Orlando, Tom Blyth, Wozzy, Wakey, Simon Whitlock, Niki Croft, Mat Roe, Ben Richardson, Vinny Hunter, Boam… the list could go on and on, but any of those three.
Photo George Marshall
If you want to see more of George’s photos, check out his website – click here.
