Category Archives: Concept Images

Competition Entries, Concept Images

In search of Arthur

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Later this year I am submitting images for a club competition on the theme of “once upon a time”. You are expecting to stage a shoot rather than simply finding an object and shooting that.

One of my favourite stories is King Arthur so I wanted to recreate the sword in the stone which is fairly integral to the whole story.

For those who don’t know the story there was a magic sword embeded into a rock and only the true king of England was able to remove. Of course Arthur managed the feat and became king.

I had thought to borrow a sword from a local medieval group but when I told them that it would involve water no one was interested. Turns out that authentic swords and water don’t mix.

Anyway TradeMe was you friend and I sourced on there. On last Sunday I decided that the area below the old Birchville dam would be ideal so with my daughter as assistant we set off up the trail to the dam.

Unfortunately the light was not ideal and we had to resort to flash to boost the image. Shooting on slippery rocks below a waterfall is quite tricky especially as recent rain meant there is was a lot more water. The spray was a major issue as the lens got coated very quickly.

I got the image that I wanted although I suspect that I will probably tweak it some more before it is submitted in October.

The sword in the stone

Competition Entries, Concept Images, Makeup / Hair, Models

Sand, Wind & Mermaids

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The second shoot in the “Once Upon A Time” series called for a mermaid and was originally envisaged to be on the rocks on the south coast. This ended up being changed when I was approached by Peri who lived in New Plymouth who was very keen to take part in the shoot. She even offered to drag in 19her friend Ella (who is a very talented makeup artist). They were willing to drive the 4 hours down to Wellington, but when I told them that I was going to be in Wanganui on the weekend of March 2-3 they were happy not to have to travel so far and we arranged to meet and do the shoot there.

Now shooting away from home base always presents issues as you need to ensure that you don’t leave anything behind. It is also complicated when you don’t know the locations that may be available. The former is sorted through careful planning while Facebook can come to your aid with the later. On a photographic Facebook group I asked for ideas and was told roughly where to look, so on the Saturday I set off to look at the suggested beaches.

The first location was not promising especially with two drunks sprawled out on the sand, but further along the road we found the exact location I was looking for. The only problem was that the gear all had to be lugged over a very large sanddune.

The next day we met up with Peri and Ella and headed for the beach. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered that the “ideal” spot was being used by a couple of fishermen. Fortunately a 100m down the beach was another suitable location. So after Ella finished with the makeup we headed down there.

I had anticipated sun as an issue but what turned out to be a bigger one was wind. Although it was not that strong it threatened to turn the reflector into a kite making it very difficult to use. Still I managed to get the shots that I wanted and a few more.

A friend is a keen fishermen so getting a good image of a fish was not that difficult. Several hours of photoshop work and we have a couple of images that are not too bad.

Mermaid-1-small Mermaid-2_Small

Competition Entries, Concept Images, Models

Red

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This year the last round of the Hutt Camera Club Ladder competition has the theme “Once Upon A Time” in which we are challenged to create an image that represented a fairy tale. It is called “conceptual photographer” where the photographer gathers together a significant amount of the elements that end up in the final image. Now those that have read this blog will know that it is a style of photography that I really like.

I decided on a number of ideas that I would progress and just before Christmas 2012 made a casting call on Model Mayhem for models and makeup artists who were interested in taking part in the project.

As it turned out the first shoot ended up being “little red riding hood”. However I wanted to do this with the twist that the recent television series had introduced where Red and the wolf were actually the same individual. To represent this I wanted a model to be face painted on half her face as a wold while the other side remained normal. Rachel agreed to the shoot and my wife Vicky agreed to do the facepainting. Lower Hutt photographer Mandi Lynn kindly loaned us a cape from her wardrobe.

We shot late on a Sunday evening in a park not too far from home and I am really pleased with the early results. The final images may be tweaked even more in photoshop before being entered into the competition later in the year.

LR_red-30 LR_red-31 LR_red-32

Awards, Competition Entries, Concept Images

Success at 2012 Wellington Interclub

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Third in Urban category

Every year the six photographic clubs in the Wellington area hold an annual competition where each club enters one image in each of ten categories. The 2012 competition was organised by Wellington Photographic Society and held on August 23rd.

My images were selected by the Hutt Camera Club to represent them in three categories  namely

  • Urban
  • Red, Green, Blue
  • Time

I was delighted that on the night they all did very well. The image in the Urban Category (right)  came 3rd while the images in the other two categories (shown below) won.

Winner – Red, Green Blue category

In speaking to the judge afterwards it was apparent that I had been able to create images that created an immediate reaction with the viewer, and which grabbed their attention. This was exactly what I had wanted to achieve.

The shot entered in the urban category was shot in Auckland when I was attending a conference there. It was not specifically shot for the contest but was rather in series I took as part of my “photo a day” challenge. It was taken in the top end of Elliot Street. The staircase so much reminded me of all the television series set in American cities such as New York or Chicago.

The shots in the other two categories were specifically shot for the competition. This blog already contains background information on both images which you can find under RGB, or Time.

Winner – Time category

The final shot above was actually modified right at the end because after I printed it I decided it needed some added punch. That was the change the eye colour to blue. This proved to be a correct decision as the judge commented that it was the eyes that drew the viewer into the image.

These shots were a very collaborative process and I want to express my thanks to Maya and Freya for modeling for them, and special thanks to Sharyn who assisted with some of the post production on them.

Concept Images

Multiple exposure

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This morning I did a photoshoot with Renee out at the Massey Memorial on the end of Miramar peninsular. The memorial is made of white marble and in many ways has a resemblance to a Roman structure so this gave me the ideas of creating a composite image.

The morning was high overcast which has the advantage that the lighting would be very even. In fact I used my light meter to discover that the light was a consistent F8 in each of the gaps where I wanted Renee to stand.

Unfortunately it also meant that the light was very flat. I had hoped to use flash to add a little punch but unfortunately I discovered that the flash triggers were still at home.

The camera was set on a tripod and then we shot about 6 images in each position. I used a remote to trigger the camera try to minimise an accidental move in position. Having the camera on the tripod meant that I could ensure that all of the elements (other than Renee) were constant.

Once I got home I selected an image from each location. Loaded them into layers in Photoshop and used a  simple mask to created the image. As I didn’t like the sky that was easily fixed as well.

The finished image is my Shot of the Day for World Photographic Day.

Competition Entries, Concept Images

Red, Green & Blue

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If you know anything about colour theory then you will know that Red, Green and Blue are the primary colours. All other colours can be created from them and if you meet them at full strength you end up as white. They are the main colours that you see on all electronic devices.

Red, Green & Blue was another of the topics in the 2012 Interclub Challenge. I decided very early on that I want to show the colours merging into white as one entry, and that I wanted to use a model. The original concept as shown in the photoshopped image was discussed with a makeup artist, and I had a model agree to do it. It never came to fruition as it was going to tie people up for too long and also be expensive.

It was then that I say an illustration that used fabric and when I showed it to Maya (my model) she loved it.

Now ribbons are also expensive but I managed to find satin material that I could cut up and then press ganged my daughter into sewing together into long ribbons. This gave me more than enough material to play with. The only draw back was that the satin freyed and so left little threads everywhere.

We decided that we were going to shoot two different concepts. The first would be similar to the illustration and we would simply deploy each of the ribbons in a light wrap. This is the shot that came about from that concept.

Then in the second series I would bring in the concept of the colours mixing into white. I had obtained a full white mask and a white wig. Maya was very accommodating because it took me and her friend Holly nearly 15 minutes to completely wrap the ribbons around her. It probably would have not been that bad for her if we had not started by putting on the mask & wig.

The final image was manipulated a little in photoshop to really make it “pop” and I hope that it has the dramatic effect I was after.

Competition Entries, Concept Images

Turning Nature into Abstract

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Abstract Photography is an interesting area because it is often quite difficult to understand. One explanation is that if you can recognise the object being photographed then the image is not abstract.

While this may be true it is quite possible to produce abstract images from very recognizable objects simple by getting in very close.

The shot below was taken of a spider web that has collected the morning dew. It was shot with a standard lens in as close as i could and try to time it perfectly so that no breeze was present.

Concept Images

Grace – The Marilyn Shoot

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In 1962 Brent Stern took a series of images of Marilyn Monroe that ended up being the last photoshoot before her death. I had long wanted to do a similar shoot and had previously discussed it with Grace when we shot a year before. I thought that the idea was consigned to the “maybe” file until I got a call from Grace telling me that she had lost 8kg in weight and wanted some new shots and did I want to do the Marilyn series. Hell Yes was the answer.

We arranged to meeting at Studio 9 in Lower Hutt which I had booked for the day to run a workshop. A couple of benches were pulled together and turned into a bed and a sheet of white metal served as a backdrop.

In keeping with the 60’s theme the shoot was done in black & white and I love the outcome.

Concept Images, Models

Conscience

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This is still a work in progress. I had an idea of recreating a cartoon style image where a person conscience is represented by an angel and a devil. Sarah and Renee agreed to be my subjects and even co-ordinated their outfits. Morgan agreed to do the makeup and also to be the main person in the image.

I have decided that I would shoot in front of a green screen, and because of the number of people had to use my garage. This was not idea as it has a very low ceiling.

The shoot was extremely funny event as the girls kept cracking up all the time to a point where in the end it was easiest to shoot them separately.

Unfortunately Morgan could stay for the shoot so my daughter Samantha ended up as a fill in. Once Morgan is available then we will finish this project.

Commerical Work, Concept Images, Models

Green Screen – Grace & Janelle

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Part of the concept of doing the MOS shoot was to introduce an urban feel to the photos, and this was being achieved by having graffiti in them. I knew that there were too approaches to this. I could drive all over Wellington, models and gear in tow, and shoot on location, or I could shoot in the warm of the studio in front of a greenscreen and composite the images later.

I had shot both Grace and Janelle before so I knew that they could pull off what I wanted. Grace had the added bonus of having some really nice tattoos that I knew could incorporate in the look that I was after.

The shoot took place over two Sundays while at the same time I scouted locations around the valley as well as on the net.