kids Archives — KEVIN MAY

My nine-year-old son recently asked me to explain how stop-motion animation works.

This was after seeing the modern versions of that mainstay of television from my junior years in the 1970s and 1980s: Morph.

Morph – and countless other examples from earlier TV shows and movies – inspired many amateur animators to try the technique (the “object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a fast sequence”, as defined by Wikipedia).

As technology improved, so did the levels of creativity in stop-motion.

When the web came along, so did the opportunity to share the work with the outside world.

Two brilliant examples of the fusion of creativity, technology and opportunity arrived in the mid-2000s courtesy of Lasse Gjertsen, a young Norwegian animator and videographer who created two masterpieces of the form and sent an early YouTube into a frenzy.

I showed both of these – Hyperactive and Amateur – to my son. He hasn’t stopped wandering around the house pretending to be Gjertsen and putting random vocal noises into melodies and rhythms since.

Hyperactive:

Amateur:

Gjertsen, after a short time studing at a college in the UK, resettled back in Norway.

He still produces videos for YouTube but has, in his words, “long periods of inactivity”.

“I am very sorry about that! I would never choose to let my beautiful fans down like that, but I did make some choices that led me into situations that rendered me unable to follow my passion, which is to manifest my creativity and share it with you guys. For that I apologize humbly.

“But hey, I ain’t dead yet, and I have learned very much on the way. New stuff is in the making, so please subscribe to my channel, because when I finally upload my next piece, you will be in a retirement home, BUT it will be worth it!”

I spent a lot of time over the past 12 months really enjoying my attempts to rekindle a love of photography.

As well as buying a new camera (a Sony DSC-H400), a definite highlight was being asked to take pictures of the brilliant Depeche Mode tribute band, Speak & Spell, at two gigs in London and Bedford (many thanks to Keith, Paul, Tony, Paul and their manager Claire)

Here are some of my favourite photos from a year behind the cameras – the forementioned Sony and an old Canon EOS 350D (and sometimes an iPhone).

sands43 — Keith Trigwell and Tony Clare, Speak & Spell

sands22 — Paul Wood, Tony Clare and Keith Trigwell, Speak & Spell

sands26 — Never Let Me Down Again, Paul Wood and Tony Clare, Speak & Spell

sands14 — Keith Trigwell, Tony Clare and Paul Boddy, exit stage-left, Speak & Spell

sands19 — Keith Trigwell, Paul Boddy and Paul Wood, Speak & Spell

sands9 — Paul Wood and Tony Clare, Speak & Spell… (this shot has since been used by the band in promotional material)

Dean Goodwin, Kloq (Speak & Spell support act)

sands5 — Tony Claire and Paul Wood, Speak & Spell

Tim Jackson, Dean Goodwin and Oz Morsley, Kloq (Speak & Spell support act)

best-of-2016-21 — Last night in Marrakech, kids and streetfood market stall hosts

best-of-2016-20 — Sunrise in the Sahara Desert, near Zagora

best-of-2016-19 — Sunset, Sahara Desert, near Zagora

best-of-2016-18 — Hotel door spyhole, Essaouira

best-of-2016-17 — Sunset, overlooking Jemaa el-Fnaa market, Marrakech

best-of-2016-16 — Souk steet diner, Marrakech

best-of-2016-15 — Recreating a classic Depeche Mode video, city walls, Marrakech

best-of-2016-12 — Stumbling across the old and the new, St Alban’s Church, London

best-of-2016-11 — First morning of “frosticles”, Bishops Stortford

best-of-2016-10 — Hedge mischief-makers, Audley End

best-of-2016-9 — Jet-lag wandering, Singapore

best-of-2016-8 — Quiet time with book, Bishops Stortford

Sensory overload in a taxi, post-12-hour flight from Amsterdam to Hong Kong

Pre-summer festival hair dye, Bishops Stortford

And… if there is one from a list of favourite photos this year, it would probably be this image from Les Dex Alpes in France.It was purely by chance that I clicked the shutter went just at the moment the clouds started to clear as we climbed higher.

It was purely by chance that I clicked the shutter went at the moment the clouds really started to clear as we climbed higher. I think the ski tracks in the snow from earlier in the day actually create a nice contrast to the cloud and sky above.

KEVIN MAY

Tag Archives: kids

Stop-motion brilliance – remembering Lasse Gjertsen

Favourite photos from 2016 – gigs, trips and kids