A good friend of mine, Andy, commissioned me to photograph his Judge McFly cosplay, but he didn’t want to just document his suit, he wanted to showcase it like he could have been part of the most recent remake of the Judge Dredd film. I always loved the original film and the remake (admittedly only read a bit of the comics which are also awesome), I jumped at the chance to make this a reality.

With a good bit of research, we managed to find a great location not far from Andy that would work well for our shoot, he even managed to get himself a co-star in the form of That Ranger Girl, to play the role of Ma-ma, which really added a bit of depth to our shooting story. We decided to try and follow a bit of a timeline instead of just shooting great looking portraits.

As well as a bit of a storyline, one of the key shots we wanted to get was recreating the movie poster featuring Karl Urban, stood on the corner of a tall building. With a bit of ingenious box placing, we think we achieved this. (See what you think at the end of this post)

As with any shoot, we hit some unexpected obstacles along the way, one of which was the weather. Luckily we were undercover for the most part of the shoot and had a break from the rain when we needed to shoot on the roof.

Tip #1 – Always have a back up plan, when shooting on location outdoors, a covered area, possible studio or if it’s not too much of an issue another shooting date that the team can attend.

Tip #2 – Bring plenty of clothing options, umbrellas and waterproof covers for any equipment. Towels are also handy for those rainy days.

Another factor we didn’t find until the day was some work being done on the lower levels of the building and areas we had initially hoped to shoot in had been boarded up. As this was such a large space with various textures to shoot against, I don’t feel this really affected us too much. We got plenty to work with, without these areas, but again, it’s always good to have a back up plan.

Tip #3 – When researching your shoot, try to visit your location before hand to check ‘shootable’ areas. If this isn’t possible, arrive a little earlier than the shoot and have a scout around for alternative areas to shoot that are near your chosen location. Having back up spots is a must!

Anyway! Considering one of the things I wanted to achieve this year was shoot more on location, this set certainly challenged me to do just that and with a great friend at that!

Thanks for trusting me with this project Andy, I hope you like the results.

Don’t forget to like, comment and share this set with fellow costume enthusiasts, Judge Dredd fans and well anyone & everyone!