Although equally at home in a cosy studio set-up, more often than not the real magic happens for Cliff when he has just minutes – or in some cases two frames – to get the top-selling cover shot the magazines demand.
“Sometimes the pressures are full on and you need to think and act decisively,” Cliff tells The Carousel.
“There are some amusing stories, but through it all you have to act professional and get the results that are required.”
One day, he promises, he’ll put all those yarns together with his award-winning shots in a tell-all book – you can seem more examples of his extensive celebrity portfolio here.
He already has the title, The Day We Buried The Lama, a reference to a UK publicity shoot that had a tragic ending for one participant.
While photographing an eccentric millionaire with his menagerie of four-legged friends, the subject’s prized lama was killed nearby by a pack of marauding mastiffs.
“It was not my fault of course, but my point is, you never quite know what can happen on a photo shoot.”
While we eagerly await Cliff’s book, here are just a few examples of the material he has to work with.
Grant Hackett and Candice Alley
Cliff’s amazing cover shot for New Idea in 2007 may look like it was perfectly staged, with all the time in the world. But with the pressures of a six-figure exclusive story deal and Australia’s paparazzi circling, Cliff had the weight of the world on his shoulders to deliver the goods. “When they told me they wanted to get married in Albion Park [in Melbourne], I said, ‘you’ve got to be joking’.” Cliff just had time to click off two frames for this picture before rival photographers with long lenses would scupper the shot from boats in the lake.
Ian Thorpe
Cliff and the Aussie swimming star travelled to the NT for this intimate shoot. “Ian is very shy and keeps himself to himself most of the time, I had been told, and always thought, he was going to be difficult to break and get onside,” says Cliff. “He was very wary of photographers in general I think. So I found a moment when we were in the Katherine Gorge when our group wanted to stop and dip in a rock pool area. He sat on the side but didn’t go in. I said Ian if you want to swim, please do, I am not going to take any shots you are not happy for me to take, and ensured my cameras were put away. On hearing this he smiled and said, ‘Great, I’ll race you across’. The rest you can guess…he beat me!
Jimmy Barnes
Cliff says this classic shot again illustrates the importance of building trust with his subjects. He was in the throws of wrapping up the shoot for a New Idea story about the singer’s recent heart surgery when this candid moment came. “We were in his studio /office and we were discussing his scar and he said ‘would like to see it?’. I said, ‘yes of course’ and with camera ready we got the main shot.”
David Hasselhoff
Cliff’s brief for the 2005 Hello magazine shoot was for a series of pics with the Baywatch icon, his wife and daughters while they were staying in London. “When I arrive at the apartment on the Thames, he says “I’ve got a great idea for the shots”. I say ‘great what’s that?’ He says ‘let’s go around London’s famous landmarks and take the pics’. The Hoff at the time was at the top of his appeal so moving around London in the middle of the working day with him was never going to be easy.” For a few anxious moments, Cliff didn’t think he’d be able to cajole a woman off the park bench above to snap his star with the Big Ben in the background. Cliff was trying to attract as little attention as possible to who he had changing in his Cherokee Jeep parked nearby. But once the woman caught a glimpse of his subject standing over his shoulder, she couldn’t move fast enough to oblige, laughs Cliff.
