Dan Donovan, photographer
Dan Donovan is one of our preferred Head On Out photographers. A seriously talented climber in his own right, he combines his freelance photography and videography with a job as part of the Mile End route setting team.
Here Dan talks to us about his career journey, his tips for budding shutterbugs, and takes us through his process behind one of our favourite shots.
Dan on location at Stanage Edge, Peak District
When did you first become interested in photography?
When I was really young there was always a camera knocking about - my grandad loved videoing stuff - but I got into taking pictures a lot more when I was at college. I like capturing moments, and I enjoyed the whole process of pre-production – getting a story together or organising a shoot. It gives you lots of possibilities; you can shoot in so many different ways and formats.
I did a year of Art, then moved onto a two-year Media course after which I bought my first DSLR. One of the photography lecturers was a professional, a guy called Brian Leggett – he used to do a lot of events and music. I remember always seeing his pictures and thinking they were so cool. I bugged him a lot, and in my spare time I’d go chat to him and get tips on cameras, lenses and what to buy first.
How did you get into the industry?
After college I got a job as an assistant for a fashion photographer. I did that for three years, travelled quite a bit, mainly commercial work in studios and on location, so I learned a lot about lighting. Even though fashion wasn’t my end goal, I learned to see things through someone else’s eyes, as well as learning a great deal about the business.
I assisted a few other people after that, on and off, some other fashion people and food, but nothing that I was super interested in. I’ve always loved sport, and in my own time I was always shooting events – I was training in MMA, always at the gym, and we had quite a few high-profile athletes that I used to shoot. I was working for this grassroots online magazine that started when I was in college; they sent me to shoot the London burlesque week – really random, something I’d never done before, but it was a really fun event. The PR company from that also covered one of the biggest MMA shows in London at the time, and they got me in.
MMA athlete Raymond Asare
What kind of work are you doing these days?
Photography for me nowadays is more climbing heavy, because I’m in that world – it’s always on my doorstep. Martial arts a bit less, but I want to do more.
I don’t mind the commercial stuff, but I think all the time spent in the studio shooting dresses on a white background just got to me a bit - that sort of stuff isn’t really my jam. I went to see some street photography by Daido Moriyama, and I just got the scenes that were being told. That kind of storytelling, that’s where I want to be: more of a sports photojournalist, telling stories rather than curating.
What is your typical setup for a climbing shoot?
If I’m outdoors I want to stay as light as possible - you have to carry all your stuff to the crag, and I’m probably going to have to be on a rope, so I want the bare minimum: one body, one lens. If I’m shooting bouldering, I might have more, but it’s usually best to be a bit lighter, especially as you’re going to have other kit with you. You’ve got to carry what the athletes carry and more.
What cameras would you take?
I would have my Sony A7 Mk3, with my old Canon lens: I use a 35mm Sigma, part of their Art series. That one is on my camera pretty much 90% of the time, I’ll only really take it off if I’m shooting video as it’s a bit too wide sometimes. It’s a prime lens – one that doesn’t move, just a single length - I love prime lenses in general.
I’ve also got a 24-105mm lens that I really like - it’s great for video - and a really wide-angle 14mm Canon which I love - it’s almost fisheye. I also have some manual prime lenses for my Olympus film camera, a 28 and a 50mm. Everyone should have a nifty 50 in their bag, whether it’s manual or automatic – it’s an all-round perfect length for shooting a lot. I personally prefer the look of the 35mm though. For MMA I might take a bit more, sometimes a flash, but I try to keep it so that I can just pick up one bag with what I need. The A7 with the 35mm lens is perfect for pretty nearly everything that I shoot.
Any other bits and pieces?
I’d have a cleaning kit, memory cards, and spare batteries as the essentials. You might take filters, but that’s a luxury – you don’t want too much kit if you’re running around like a madman climbing mountains: you’ve got to be prepared for run and gun. I don’t like big teams or massive crews, I hated it in fashion where there were 30 people in the room. I’d rather be by myself, with the clients. Much like the kit, I like a bare bones crew.
I sometimes take a tripod, or a monopod. I don’t always like footage to be super still – I like a bit of movement, but a tripod can be handy. It’s just about how much you want to carry.
Captain Lethargy, The Roaches Lower Tier, Peak District
How do you position yourself on a climbing shoot?
Just run around. You can’t always direct a shot so you have to go with the flow. It’s always good to reccie places, look at guidebooks or Google maps, and see whether there are any cool little spots. If you’re shooting something that’s already been shot, you might have seen where people stand. When you get there, just have an explore – the sun might not be exactly where you want it, so you have to adapt.
I’ll often jug alongside on an abseil line, but I’m also sometimes in the climbing system. You get some really cool shots in the system with two climbers – you can shoot the leader leaving a stance, and then the second coming up. Even in a pair you can get some great stuff. You’ve got to have a good climbing ability to be able to keep up. A lot of top outdoor photographers, they’re elite-level athletes as well: someone like Jimmy Chin, he’s a world-class skier and climber, because he has to do what they’re doing. You’ve got to be at the same pace as the team.
I like having the freedom to move around - I’d rather not be in the system if I can have good access to all angles, but if the shot that I want needs me to be in the system then I’ll get on a rope.
If you look at most people’s climbing photos, they’re often taken looking up from the ground. How do you feel about the good old up-the-bum shot?
It serves its purpose – not everyone has the luxury of a nice camera or knowledge about photography. They might just be in a pair, in which case you have no choice but to take a photo of your friend’s butt. If you’re actively shooting more and it’s something you want to get better at, then up the bum isn’t that great. It’s fine once in a while – it’s like a fisheye lens. You can’t shoot everything on a fisheye, but once in a while it adds something, it has its place. One thing that I learned through shooting sport, anything with people, is that you connect through your eyes: you should always be able to see someone’s face. Most of the time I try to have that so that you can have contact in that sense. But sometimes up the bum is all you can do. If you just wanna be flexin’ for the ‘gram, it’s fine.
When you’re approaching an outdoor shoot, how much are you thinking about composition when you set up a shot? Are you looking for something specific, or do you just have a play around and see what comes out?
A bit of both. Especially if you’re going somewhere new it’s trickier because you don’t know what you’re working with, but for climbing I will definitely have a rough idea in my mind. I try to make sure that I’m covering the basics – some wide angles, some tight stuff, some nice in-betweens, covering a length of different perspectives. But also once you’re somewhere, see what looks nice with the light that you’ve got.
I’ll always try to frame things up nicely – especially in film I’ll always take the time, shoot a few less frames but make sure that they’re right. Climbing’s always a good one to shoot rule of thirds in opposite corners – your climber will be down in one side and you’ll have loads of negative space around it. Sometimes though in the heat of the moment you’ll have to shoot something that isn’t framed nicely but you just want to capture a moment. It’s not crucial that everything has to be framed properly – rules are meant to be broken!
The Devil’s Slide, Lundy Island
You hear photographers talk about the triangle of exposure - aperture size, shutter speed and ISO. How much do you play with these technical settings when you’re out on a climbing shoot?
I’ll set my ISO first, and then I try not to change that through the shoot. It’s normally the shutter speed I change the most - depending on how much my subject is moving.
When you’re outside, the light is always changing, so I’m always changing aperture to account for that - if you want a darker looking image in the middle of the day say, you can crank your settings up or down.
Can you get good photos on your phone?
There is still a gap between what your phone can do and what proper cameras can do. They’re much better than they used to be, but there’s always going to be a divide because the hardware is so minimised. Think how big a camera lens is compared to the size of a phone - there’s only so much they can do. That said, you can get great photos on your phone though – Apple did the billboard campaign with shots that people had taken on their phones.
The rise of better phone cameras and social media has definitely made a lot of people think they’re photographers. There’s a difference between being someone who takes pictures for fun and someone who does it for a living, but the line gets blurred because people have these social media accounts with thousands of followers. They just take pictures, they’re not photographers: there’s a lot of bullshit. But I guess it also gets people into it, so it’s always going to be a double-edged sword.
A lot of the time on Instagram people’s pictures look the same – they’ve gone all around the world, but because they’ve used the same filter everything looks like a copy and paste. If I have to edit stuff I’ll try to enhance the image itself rather than trying to change it. I don’t get that whole thing of ‘I’m going to have this photo of a place and then put this filter on that makes everything go purple’. When there was that whole phase of people doing teal and orange, it was horrible.
Leaning Buttress Direct, Stanage Edge, Peak District
How much do you edit in post-production?
Shooting’s normally the smallest part of the job. If you’re doing stills, it can be 50/50 or 60/40 editing to shooting time. I hate staring at a screen so I try to keep my editing to a minimum – a lot of the time I can mess my images up if I spend too much time on them. Video is the opposite – editing always takes longer. I’m an Adobe guy – I use Lightroom and Photoshop for pictures, and then Premiere Pro for video.
Are other photographers generally happy to share their setups?
I remember I wanted to know about lenses, maybe 2009 - I was trying to figure out what all the top MMA photographers were using. No one would share their setup – it was super secretive. I messaged this one guy, he was the UFC photographer for ESPN in the EU, asking what lens he would recommend for shooting an event, and he told me, which was a game changer.
Back in the day, people wouldn’t even let you see their screens while they were editing. These days you can just DM someone and be like ‘Yo, what do you shoot on’, and the response will be almost immediate. It’s crazy.
How would you work out what somebody wants – how would you interpret their vision?
Normally a client will pick you for the job because they can see that your style will let them create their vision, or you’ve pitched it to them. You’ve got to be quite adaptable: if you just shoot one specific style, for example if you shoot like Ansel Adams, really hard black and white, then people aren’t going to come to you if they want some well-lit commercial job. You have a style, and I think it’s important not to stray too far from it, but it’s also important to realise that, if you shoot some one-dimensional artsy bullshit, then clients aren’t going to want to book you for everything.
If you’re keen to get into photography on a budget, what should you spend your money on?
Get a good lens. They don’t change that often and they hold their value pretty well. Bodies change so rapidly now – they’re like phones. Even in the past few years the tech coming out has been ridiculous. Don’t be afraid to buy second hand, maybe not eBay or Gumtree, but use decent vetted places online. You can easily pick up a nice second hand Sony body from a couple of generations ago with a good Sony lens for under £500. People who buy the most current cameras either really need it, or they’re chumps, haha!
What resources would you recommend for people to learn more?
Youtube and Instagram are great, and I would also recommend Skillshare. It’s a subscription service – you can find discount codes from a few climbers that are sponsored by them. MasterClass is another good e-learning site. There are some really big names there – you can find National Geographic photographers on Skillshare and Annie Leibovitz has a class on MasterClass which is pretty mega. There’s so much out there – we’re in a golden age for learning. Assisting is also a really good way to learn, but mainly just get out and shoot. The more you shoot the more you’re going to learn – so much of it is trial and error.
The Lime Arch, Reynards Arch, Dovedale. Tech specs: f6.3, ISO 200, 1/125 second, 14mm
The Lime Arch, Reynards Arch, Dovedale, 6b+. This was one of a number of routes that we climbed on Peak District limestone back in 2020, and it’s one of our favourite shots. Can you talk us through your approach to getting the image just right?
I had already seen multiple photos from this arch; most recently a friend of mine had shot on the 7a/7a+ on the right hand side, so I knew how stunning the shape and colours were. On arrival you have to clamber up a steep approach after which you’re engulfed in this cave, and once you do a 180° turn you’re finally treated to a pretty epic view. It was mid afternoon and the sun was low in the sky, which gave me great backlight.
Ed led the 6b+ on the right side of the arch, so I used the time to figure out the best position to be in to get the right frame I had in my mind. To capture the whole scene I opted for my 14mm lens, it’s super wide with an almost fisheye feel to it. Laura climbed second, and after seeing Ed climb it first I knew the spots with great light and body positioning to focus on rather than just snapping the whole route.
I kept moving up the hill to block the sun with the archway and get that nice halo glow. I wanted to get myself centred, so I used that tree at the bottom of the valley in the middle as a focal point. I knew Laura would get to that particular hold and chalk up so that I’d get a nice view of her face; obviously it looks badass that she’s just holding on with one hand. I think the light looks really nice as well with the gradient up the rock.
In terms of editing, I would have levelled out the highlights around the bottom of the arch a little bit. I would have brightened up the bottom of the shot, and touched up some of the corners so that they weren’t too dark, but not too much. The light was so nice that day there wasn’t a lot that needed doing.
What’s the plan for the future?
Lockdown’s given me lots of time to sit down and reflect on my work, think about where I want to go. I have a list of clients that I want to pitch to, plus a lot of cool stuff in mind for some trips in the future, projects that I’ve had in the pipeline for a while, both in the UK and abroad. I’ve always wanted to shoot for National Geographic, which is a big tick for a lot of people, but it can also be very difficult. I think the stuff that I’m shooting is more in their realm, so to speak: they’ve been big collaborators with outdoor photographers – they funded and backed Free Solo. Guys like Renan Ozturk who’s a Sony ambassador as well an OG climber, he shoots for them, and Jimmy Chin as well, photographers that I’ve been following for a long time.
You can see more of Dan’s professional portfolio by clicking here.
