Got a call from Roisin in Hot Press, could I shoot Brian O'Driscoll in their offices at 2pm today? She was heading out to buy a rugby ball for him to sign and them to use in a competition. So I had a think about what I could do image wise and I had an idea to have him hold the ball with his middle finger, so it looks like he's flipping the bird (as our American cousins say).
With a late studio shoot arrival and one thing and another, I was running late, cue increasingly panicy calls from Roisin "are you here yet"? (ooops, still in my studio, downloading memory cards), "Are you here yet"? (just pulling into the carpark down the road). Anyway, I literally just had all the lights set up and ready to go when Brian walked in. Phew!
He didn't have much time (22 minutes to be exact) but was very nice and happy to pose with the ball the way I wanted him to. He just couldn't bend his ring finger due to tendon damage, he tried to bend it more using his little finger, but as you can see, could only get about half way.
Andrew from Hot Press acted as my (star struck) assistant and held the top of the ball in place and I removed his fingers afterwards, though I needn't have bothered, as they cropped out the top of the photo anyway. The New Year off to a good start!
