Bio

My involvement with the STLD began in about 1995 as a sponsor member, representing Philips Lighting where I was marketing manager for lamps for Studio, Stage and Television. These, we supplied to Original Equipment Makers and lamp distributors but my activities also included the sale of lamps for Photography, Disco and other areas of entertainment lighting.

Although I retired from Philips about 20 years ago this coincided with the introduction by OEMs of LED powered fixtures. These of course would have a ‘lamp life’ of perhaps several years instead of 150-400 hours for tungsten lamps. So sales of replacement filament lamps continued for the ‘after-market’ of existing tungsten fixtures but less so for newly introduced luminaires. So, the timing of my retirement was opportune!

My entry to Philips OEM department was assisted by my long-standing interest in photography since school days and early involvement in stage lighting. After being on the edge of stage lighting at school, I then, in my twenties became involved in an annual outdoor Shakespeare Festival organised by Dorian Williams famous for his involvement in The Horse of the Year show. This would take place at his country pad, Pendley Manor, near Tring in Hertfordshire.

Whilst the luminaires were all Strand Patt. fixtures, the control desk was rudimentary by today’s standards with two rows of probably 20 faders and a master fader for each. The only solid-state items were the thyristor dimmers situated in a rack at the back of our control caravan. A secondary skill learned from working on this show for about three weeks of the summer, was an ability to build scaffolding towers for supporting Patt 223s in addition to those mounted above the terraced seating!

Around the same time, I was asked if I could do the stage lighting for a residential secretarial college in Hampstead who would put on an annual concert by their international students. So, I would rig extra lighting in their venue, a hall in Hampstead Garden Suburb but this was limited by how much I could fit in the car!

Helping on the lighting for a Gang Show in Harpenden in the 70s was memorable for the occasion when an enthusiastic scout made a DIY Piro effect to simulate a pirate ship’s cannon. He added too much flash powder and blew a hole in the stage much to the consternation of the cubs nearby, singing ‘on the crest of a wave’ and who just expected a modest bang and puff of smoke.

Since those heady days, my only direct involvement with lighting, has been FOH at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley, sitting in a follow spot position for local amateur musicals. I would be following the leading man trying not to get distracted by the looks of the leading lady as he moves downstage out of my spot!

However, despite retiring from Philips and lighting sales, I have continued to be interested in lighting so have maintained my membership of the society and taking photos has proved useful as a contribution to the STLD magazine.

The development of digital still cameras has made life much easier than the days of film processing and the manipulation of images with Lightroom and Photoshop has made the ability to accommodate wide variations in levels and contrast much easier.

Sometimes however the job has been done for me. It is often the case that shots of a studio setting need virtually no adjustment. The LD has already set the levels for the studio cameras and so has done it for me!