Category Archives: Fashion

Jordan

March 12, 2017 whittyp Leave a comment

The second shoot on day one of the Great Trentham Collaboration what’s with Jordan. Unlike Kasey, Jordan had spent the previous hour in hair and makeup with MUA Charlie Timmins.

She had chosen two outlets from Wellington designer Evem. Unlike my first shoot of the morning, this time we moved around the racecourse. We started in a small space that I have discovered behind the make up room they have good natural light and a piano and us I thought it would make it interesting start.

We then moved outside and into an area this that is used on race day to stable the horses just before they come into the birdcage at the start of the race. Jordan does pole fitness and so she had no problem climbing up in the staples for a number of shots.

We then moved around the course and shot in a pavilion that is quite often used for outdoor weddings.

And then into an area that is immediately in front of the old grandstand. On our walk-through of the venue the week before I have noticed a old piano in the area and thought that this would be a great prop. As it turned out when we first arrived it was being used buy another photographer. So we moved a little further down and again Jordan showed her gymnastic ability.

I been noticed a number of windows and thoughts that we might be able to capture reflections on them. This was true however the glass had the remnants of sticky tape on it which I could not remove. Fortunately photoshop can.

For my final shot we moved a large gate in-place and Jordan made out that she was trapped.

Events, Fashion, Models

Kasey

March 11, 2017 whittyp Leave a comment

The schedule for the Great Trentham collaboration was split into two groups each day with eight photographers in each. There were eight slots allocated to shoots, and seven to makeup. In the two weeks leading up to the event the various designers associated with it posted images of outfits that they would have available. This generated discussion between the models and photographers and lead to outfits being booked for various sessions.

I took a very relaxed approach and I let my models book their own outfits.

The first shoot in Group 2 started at 9 o’clock. This meant that the model did not have time to go through makeup and had to arrive already made up.

My first shoot on day one was with Kasey. She had selected an Egyptian outfit made by Charlotte Kelleher of CKfilmDesign. The outfit consistent of several parts and therefore we needed to assistance of Paul Irving.

As the morning was cloudy I decided it was a perfect opportunity to head to the roof of the grandstand which is essentially an open air seating area. I took a series of images in a different styles of the outfit including static and walking shots. I also had a play with my lensbaby composer lens. Unfortunately there is an issue with this lens on my the D600 in that the camera cannot control the aperture and so all shooting is wide open at f2.8.

At the end of the shoot we moved indoors and I used a white screen setup to shoot some images that I may look at using in composites later on.

I’m really pleased with the images although later in the day I would have probably chosen a different location, but that is always the way when you start early.

I hope to be able to shoot with Kasey again.

Fashion, Models

The Great Trentham Collaboration 2017

March 6, 2017 whittyp Leave a comment

Model: MUA: Outfit: — Model & MUA: Kasey Ooman
Outfit: CKFilmDesign

I have just had the most amazing two days of photography at what was called the Great Trentham Collaboration. Two Wellington photographer Shonty Rogan and Paul Maka organised a two day event that brought together 24 photographers and models, a dozen makeup artists, and six fashion designers, with clothes ranging from street wear to costumes. This was the second year that it had been run but this year was much bigger than before.

It was held at the Trentham Racecourse which is a very large complex with a multitude of rooms and areas to shoot in. It was so big that despite 12 photographers shooting at the same time there was very little competition for space, and when there was that was easily managed. We were originally told that we had full access to both of the grandstands but on the day the security guard needed to unlock the members stand was sick and so we only had the old grandstand to play in. I doubt that that caused much of an issue to anyone.

The old grandstand is four stories high including an amazing adandoned attic space, that practically everyone used at one stage. The windows faced the afternoon sun so were perfect for natural light, while other spaces were with easy reach of power supplies. All in all it was a great location.

The photographers were broken into two groups and each day was split into 4 1.25 hours shooting session. So at any one time 12 photographers and models were shooting, 12 photographers were on break downloading their images from the previous shoot, and 12 models were in makeup.

lr_gtc-5 — Model: Moana Lambert MUA: Outfit: CKFilmDesign

The two days went very smoothly with the only glitches being caused by models not being available due to illness. All photographers stuck to their allocated times and while the makeup in some cases took longer than allowed the time allocated for the photography was sufficient to make up the time.

Model: Olyvia Mayhew Mask: Black Widow Fascinations — Model: Olyvia Mayhew
Mask: Black Widow Fascinators

It was a true collaboration of everyone’s effort with photographers also helping each other out either my being assistants or in allowing their gear or sets to be set up.

Model: Hayley Bush MUA: Outfit: — Model: Hayley Bush
MUA:Wikitoria Tahuoarae
Outfit:Dress Deranged Headpiece Black Widow Fascinators

I have recently taken to wearing a fitbit and it told me that over the two days I walked nearly 33 kilometers, at lot of which was going between floors. It is no wonder that my legs were sore at the end of the weekend.

I have quite a lot of photos to process and keeping in my previous practise I will post about each separate session so that I can profile the images.

Model: Jess Boyack MUA: Outfit: — Model: Jess Boyack
MUA: Lucy Penrise

Fashion, Models

Shoot at the old Brick works with Samantha

December 11, 2015 whittyp Leave a comment

Samantha-7 In Palmerston North there is an old brick kiln that I was shown a number of years ago, and which I have always wanted to shoot in. I had a shoot set up about 2 years ago but the model flaked. Back then the site was fairly open and as a result there was a bit of graffiti and vandalism to it.

So when Whanganui model Samantha wanted to do a lingerie shoot I suggested the venue. As it turned out access to the site is now a lot more restricted, however I was able to track down the right person to contact and access was arranged.

Unfortunately when I turned up at the arranged key collection place at the arrange time, no one was home and I was unable to raise anyone on the phone. So I drove back to kiln where I was meeting Samantha and her boyfriend Ben, who I had been assured was well versed in the fine art of holding reflectors.

Samantha-6 Samantha-8 Samantha-9 Samantha-10 Samantha-12 Samantha-11 Samantha-13 We waited around until the schedules time for the shoot hoping that the key would show up. However when it didn’t we made our way through a hole in the fence as I figured that I has permission to be there. Unfortunately once inside we discovered that steel bars had been installed on all of the entry points into the structure.

Rather than the whole shoot turning into a bust we decided to use the building and accompanying area for the shoot. While it did not have the same impact as the look I was going for I am still pleased with the resulting images.

We started with simply lingerie looks and then built them up with masks, capes and lengths of fake sur. In the end I tried a drape of material.

Samantha-15 I received a text later in the evening apologising for the muck-up with the key which was caused because the guys wife had forgotten to put it outside when she left the place. I hope that on the third attempt I will manage to shoot in there but that won’t be until next year now.

Fashion, Models

Soft fabrics and hard rocks

March 9, 2015 whittyp Leave a comment

Late last week I answered a Facebook post from model Alex Hunt looking for a photographer to shoot on the weekend. I discovered that she wanted to expand on some lingerie images that she had taken previously and I suggested that we shoot at Palmer Head gun emplacement as I thought the contrast of soft fabrics and the graffiti covered walls would create dynamic looks.

We arranged the shoot for Saturday afternoon but left it until the morning to confirm as the forecast was for gale force winds, heavy rain and thunderstorms. Saturday dawned fine and while a little breezy was not anything that we could not handle. We therefore decided to the do the shoot.

I picked her and her friend Lillian up and we headed up the hill. To our shock and dismay we discovered that the whole site had been treated to a new coat of grey paint. Our urban look was therefore replaced with industrial.

Despite being inside the opening in the building and how exposed it was meant that the wind was a constant issue. We shot in two locations in the building and used a combination of a single flash in a bounce umbrella as well as natural light.

We started with the lingerie that Alex had brought with her and then we moved onto using one of my drape material. I even incorporated a fake fur that I bought sometime ago.

We even tried some of my longer drape materials out in the wind but didn’t really achieve the look that I would have liked. The strength of the wind made shooting outside quite difficult and some of the places that I may have considered just too dangerous.

At the end of the shoot I managed to get a shot of Lillian who had the most amazing eyes, but didn’t consider herself photogenic. She could not have been further from the truth.

Editing the images was an absolute breeze and I was able to deliver them to Alex the next day. We plan on doing some more shoots together.

Fashion, Trash the Dress

Trash the Dress in the pool

February 17, 2015 whittyp Leave a comment

The evening that I had shot the milk water set I saw a Facebook post from Megan wanting a photographer to do a trash a dress shoot with her. She had got married on January 24 and wanted to use the flowers from the wedding before they were thrown away. I thought the small pool would be perfect and so we arranged to meet after work on Tuesday 3 February at her new place in Miramar.

It wasn’t too difficult to find the place but immediately I saw two issues with the location. The major one was that the whole section was on a slope so placing the pool would be difficult. The second was that the house was on the shadow side of the afternoon sun which meant that we would lose the light fairly quickly.

We found the least amount of slope and filled up the pool the best that we could. In reality this was no where near its capacity. When the water reached the top of the side at the lower end, it had only just managed to cover the bottom at the other.

This limited how we could shoot and therefore there were very few full length shots taken. Rather they were close ups in the deeper part of the water.

As it turned out the light was an issue in that there was too much and so there was quite a difference between full sun and shade. This meant more positioning to try to mitigate the issue.

We ended up with a series of images that both of use like although I would have liked more full length shot down images but the slope really prevented those.

Fashion, Models

Chaotic Sunday

October 10, 2014 whittyp Leave a comment

Generally speaking when I go to a shoot I have a pretty good idea what I am going to be dealing with. Last Sunday turned out to be the complete opposite to norm.

I have been asked by a model to help out by shooting her in some clothes that had been designed. She arranged the “studio” and I arranged to meet her there. When I arrived there was no sign of her and the studio turned out to be room in a hall. Shortly after the designated time the designers, who turned out to be four third year Massey university fashion students, showed up. As part of their degree they had to design a collection of clothes in the style of a well known designer. In this case it was Andrea Moore.

They had been told that the room we had booked had white walls and wooden floors. The room we were shown into had green walls and a maroon carpet. I had been told that we were shooting in a studio so had left my backdrops at home.

Eventually we managed to secure a better location at the same time as the model showed up.

They had sent the model some mood board images to pass onto me which she had not. Fortunately they had examples on their phones for me to see.

They had a range of outfits and wanted to have simple “look book” images, then some to use as campaign images and then to go outside and shoot more campaign images in the city.

As they wanted bright images for the look book I chose a simple two light arrangement as shown in the diagram below.

The soft box to camera right is the main light for the subject. The second soft box is there to light up the background. Both lights were set to f7.1.

The idea in a look look is to maintain consistency in the set so that the clothes are the focus. To help with this the camera was sat on a tripod and the model did not move much relative to it.

Once we had a good series of images we then moved on the campaign images that were allowed to be a lot more lively. The girls had brought in a number of props and I say the possibility of a fun shot using them.

We then moved outside. My daughter was assisting me and she noticed that the pattern on the hood of one of the outfit lined up rather neatly with Emily’s face so we took the following image.

Not to far away from the building was a park bench that I thought suited the theme. We then moved down to Caro Drive to shoot around a pedestrian crossing. I decided to use a little selective colour with this image to make it pop.

I ended up shooting 360 images in the 3 hour session. These were put up in a gallery for the girls to decide which images they wanted to edit further. They chose around 40 which were delivered to them.

A chaotic start but a good session non the less. To Jess, Amelia, Rosie and Miriam all the best.

Fashion, Models

Return to Palmer Head – Victorian Inspiration

September 7, 2014 whittyp Leave a comment

Ever since I did the shoot with Megan at Palmer Head I had wanted to return there and try out some different concepts. Kristara and I had planned to shoot at the start of the year but somehow never managed to lock in a date when either our schedules or the weather could align properly. With time on my hands we managed to arrange a shoot for a Friday afternoon.

I wanted to go with two quite different looks. The first I wanted to utilise a homemade outfit that looks very Victorian. I thought that this contrasted nicely with the fact that Kristara has piercings and dreadlocks. Kristara added a set of goggles for a steampunk sort of look.

flashtest — The initial test at full power

I planned on shooting inside of the gun emplacement and to add an extra dimension brought an old style lamp in which I has placed a speed light covered in an orange gell. The first shot the speed light was set to quite a high power and while it produced the desired effect it was real too bright. So the flash was wound back a little and the following image was produced.

While the shot worked there was too much falloff in the light and so I positioned a second flash in a bounce umbrella to my right and then played with the positioning and angle of it until it only provided a level of fill and did not over power the colours I was looking for.

We did run into a major issue with the light in the lamp in that something kept creating a circuit that caused it to fire randomly. I suspect that it was something to do with the metal of the lamp. I managed to get enough good shots but it was frustrating.

For the final shot we moved into the main chamber of the complex that would have housed the actuals guns and I shot Kristara looking out. This is actually a composite of two images with one being exposed for her and the other for the outside, as there was two much difference in the light levels to handle in a single exposure.

Fashion, Models

Group Shoot

March 24, 2014 whittyp Leave a comment

While most of my photography is done with a bare minimum of help I find that from time to time it is great to join up with other people and do a group shoot. These enable you to work with a large number of models as well to see other photographers in action.

At the end of February I joined a shoot organised by make up artist Grace Krishnan, photographers Kevin Nj and Sharyn Reeve, and models Grace, Jasmine and Stacey.

Grace did most of the arrangements for the day which was no mean feat as she was holidaying in Australia at the time and only arrived back in the country last on the night before. She was then up by 7.00am to start makeup on the models. On top of that she loaned the girls their outfits.

We had chosen Kaitoke Regional Park for the shoot. We knew that the models would be ready around noon so we needed a location that offered us shade. The contrast between ball gowns and forest also appealed.

The day went without too much hitches. We started in the forest area and then moved to the river bank. The models then got changed and while Sharyn shot Grace in the river I worked with the other two.

A group of school boys added some entertainment at one point as well. Below is a selection of images from the day.

Jasmine in one of my favourite shots of the day

Events, Fashion

Fashion on a Saturday Morning

May 7, 2013 whittyp Leave a comment

Every two years the church we go to runs an all day event for women called “Body & Soul”. It contains a number of elective sessions, entertainment and inspirational speakers. I was asked to document to day for them.

This year it contained an additional item with a fashion parade by Upper Hutt designer Rasha Taylor, with a showing of day, ball and wedding dresses.

Now the main issue with photographing a run way show is generally light. In some shows there is too much and at others not enough. Fortunately with the show I knew in advance what I was dealing with and being the official photographer was able to bring in some of my own.

I initially thought about a speedlight but discounted it as it gives a very harsh light and the spread is very uneven. In the end I set up a strobe and umbrella on a boom arm. This enabled me to light up the last 2 metres of the catwalk with a reasonable consistent soft light head to tow at around f8.

In order the ensure a proper angle on the girls I brought in a small step ladder and shot from the top. I have been really pleased with the images shot.