Warning: This article contains spoilers! If you haven’t already, watch the first episode of Top Photographer with Nigel Barker here.
We were all super excited to see who would come out on top the first week of Adorama’s original reality web series, “Top Photographer with Nigel Barker.” The contestants were given the amazing opportunity to photograph Olympic fencing superstar Miles Chamley-Watson. While we were all sad to see Andrew go, we talk to Nigel Barker on why nobody was particularly surprised to see Roxy take the win in the first challenge.
Nigel: “The nerves were definitely present. Different contestants were more or less nervous than others. Scott looked like he was very confident initially. He had a game plan, but then I realized that he had sort of scripted himself too much, and as a result, he put himself in a box. When things didn’t work out the way he wanted, he started to sweat profusely, and he got very very nervous, and it was halfway through the challenge and he hadn’t taken a single picture. All his ideas that he came in with, went out the window, and he didn’t do a single one of them – many of which were actually good ideas! That was a bit of a shock and a surprise to me.
Andrew was interesting, he was our first contestant of the challenge. He was definitely nervous as well. He was out of his element, I think. He doesn’t normally deal with people in a studio environment so he wasn’t familiar with shooting with lights and strobes. He didn’t really connect with Miles. He almost treated Miles as if he were a still life object, didn’t really talk to him or communicate and have fun with him…at least until the very end of the challenge, when he suddenly started to enjoy himself and stopped directing himself so much.
Roxy did an impressive job. She said hello to Miles straight off the bat. She was very communicative, and asked him if he would take his shirt off and took risks. She gave herself a lot of opportunities to take some brilliant pictures. The proof is in the final images. For me, she had the best approach of all of the contestants. ”
Indeed, it was impressive to see how calm, cool and collected Roxy seemed during her first challenge on Top Photographer. When we asked her about how she managed to stay so cool under pressure, she explained that it was thanks to her experience.
Roxy: “I wanted to do so many things, but we only had thirty minutes. I’ve shot studio before, I’ve shot on a time crunch, I was never worried about that. Before the challenge, I didn’t want to go in over-confident though, so I prepared. I had a lot of things visualized that I wanted to execute.”
Go, Roxy! Although we were thrilled to see her win the first challege, it’s still sad to say goodbye to Andrew.
Andrew: “I’m not surprised I got voted off. I’ve never shot sports or in a studio, so I was completely out of my element. It was kind of tough. After I shot it, I didn’t have high expectations. I did what I could. If I could do it differently, I would have utilized Toby, the assistant, a lot more. I mean getting eliminated on the first day, it’s embarrassing.”
Aw, we feel you, Andrew! Although Roxy may have won the first challenge, it’s still anyone’s game at this point. Tune in to the next episode of Top Photographer with Nigel Barker to see the remaining contestants as they compete to come out on top!
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