A couple of weeks ago I had the absolute pleasure of doing a shoot with Sean McLoughlin.

Sean is a proper stand up, described as ‘The best stand up you’ve never heard of’. He’s supported Bill Burr, Doug Stanhope, Katherine Ryan and is currently Ricky Gervais’s tour support. But the support slots belie how damned good he is. Check him out.

The shoot was a long time coming since I first took live shots nearly two years ago in Northampton and had gotten used to it not happening because Sean is a busy, busy guy.

It’s also the first proper promo shoot I have done in what, nine years or so. That’s a good long time and the thing is, it takes practice to keep sharp - and I was not match fit. But it was an exciting prospect though. I’ve turned down a fair few requests for comedian promo shoots over the past two years because I was not confident about taking good money for potentially bad results. I love comedy, and the last thing I wanted to do is piss off an entire community where word spreads fast and recommendation is everything.

I had no hesitation in taking this booking though. I knew that Sean liked my work and used a live shot of mine as his Edinburgh poster last year. I knew my style would fit Sean pretty well - quite lo-fi / DIY, simple and understated, so we were pretty much on the same page. That makes a massive difference going into a shoot. I had a couple of things I wanted to try, Sean had a couple of things he wanted to try - and we went with anything that was suggested by either one of us with some pretty decent results.

It reinforces my whole photography ethos: Keep it simple and flexible. Try anything that is suggested. It harks back to my acting days and the rules of improvisation; yes and…where you accept what is being said or done and you add to it. It builds a trusting, supportive creative partnership where everyone involved can feel safe in the knowledge that they won’t get shut down. I think through the day that developed nicely and now I have a couple of weeks distance from the pics, I can look at them and say that there are a fair few shots that I am very pleased with.

Anyway, Sean has released a few of the photos on his Twitter and Instagram feeds, which I will show here in their glory…

There are plenty more to share, and hopefully some of my favourites get used so I can post them here and talk about them a little more. Until then, check Sean’s website for upcoming gigs - he is currently trying out new material all over the place for his next show so is extremely cheap!

Cheers

Stu

Blog - Through the Lens

Posts tagged with Northamptonshire

Comedy shoot with Sean