Category Archives: Location Shoots

2021 Shoots, Location Shoots, Models

Sam in the alleyways

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The second model who I shot on my trip to Invercargill was Samantha. She was looking for an urban theme so in the afternoon I had wandered around the town and found some interesting alleyways and rear areas that look promising.

f1.7 1/50s ISO800

We started in an alleyway an old door with peeling paint that provides a great texture. As the shoot had begun at 5:00pm, in the middle of winter, we were on the last light of the day hence I was shooting on a wide open aperture and slow shutter speed.

The next location was a rear parking where I found a set of stairs. By now it was quite dark so I used a video light on camera and a speedlight positions behind Samantha to light the back of her head.

F3.5 1/60s ISO200 Video Light & Speedlight

The final location was in an old warehouse that has been turned into a carpark. As in many cities the walls had attracted graffiti artists. I used the same video light as my main light but positioned a speedlight behind Samantha but aimed at the wall so that we would see some of the environment. Without that light it would have been a black space.

F6.3 1/100s ISO200 Video Light & Speedlight

The whole shoot took around 90 minutes even though we were moving from location to location. My earlier visit to Skype out locations paid off as I did not waste time figuring out where we could shoot.

Samantha seem to be pleased with the final images.

2021 Shoots, Location Shoots, Models, natural light

Raj in Queens Park

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1/100s f5.6 ISO200 – bare speedlight

In July 2021 I travelled down to Invercargill to be the host on a Photographic Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) dance workshop. At the time I was president of PSNZ, and was also not working, so when I discovered that the Southland Photographics Society had their meeting on the Thursday before I travelled down early to visit them. That meant that I had the free day on the Friday.

On a previous visit to Invercargill I had discovered an area of Queens Gardens called the Stumpery. They have arranged large tree stumps into an area that you can walk around and through. Essentially it is a botanical piece of art.

From that visit I knew that I wanted to shoot there so in addition to packing my usual clothes, and gear for the workshop, I packed several lens of fabric and a lightstand.

Via a Facebook modelling group I reached out to see if there were any models interested in shooting with me on the Friday and Raj replied. We arranged to meet at the entrance to the gardens and made our way to the Stumpery.

After sum initial shoots in the centre of the Stumpery we moved to the edge and started to bring in the longer pieces of fabric. She was keen enough to climb up on the structures. By this stage we were losing the natural light so I wedged the speed light after the side to add more light.

1/160s f5.6 ISO 200. – bare speedlight

Moved around the gardens to an area with a Japanese Asian influence and I used the archway to pose her. I covered the speed light with an orange gell to fake golden light.

1/400s f3.2 ISO200 – Gelled speedlight
1/160s f5 ISO200 – bare speedlight

For the final set of images moved to water feature and I use the second piece of lace that I had brought down. Again I used a bare speedlight to add a little bit of light to the image.

One of the things that’s important when shooting at any location is to look at how changing your angle can change the image. In the images above and below Raj is essentially in the same location but I have moved to a different shooting point and in the process change the feel of the images.

1/60s f6.3 ISO 200 – bare speedlight

It was a good shoot and I was pleased with the result.

2021 Shoots, cosplay, Location Shoots, Workshops

Behind the Lens: Shooting Chris as Stigpool

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I met Chris at the very first Wellington Cosplay Photofest where he came in an stormtrooper outfit from Star Wars. You can read about that shoot here.

In May 2021 I organised a location shoot for my camera club at the World War 2 gun emplacements at Fort Balance on the Miramar Peninsula. I reached out to Chris and he came along in his own creation Stigpool. This is a combination of the Stig character from the Top Gear television series and Deadpool.

Chris had a fully kitted car to go along with his character so we started at the roadside with some shots there. These were all shot under natural light 1/200s at f8.

Then we moved up into the bunkers in shoot at several locations initially outside.

We then moved inside the complex and I positioned Chris and let him with a speed light in a small soft box on a light stand to the side. Positioning of this light was very important to avoid reflection within his visor. For the inside shots the settings were 1/125s f7.1 ISO 200.

The words on the floor were a complete coincidence but they worked in so well with the character.

For the final shot I had Chris climbing through a hole in the wall. The main light was again positioned to the side with a small speedlight in the room behind him to provide separation.

Shooting a character in a full face helmet is quite tricky as you cannot rely on the eye detect that modern mirrorless cameras. Fortunately my Lumix G9 switches to head and body detection when it cannot lock onto the eye.

It was a fun day and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.

2021 Shoots, Location Shoots, Models, natural light, water

Melissa – River

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While I mainly enjoy shooting in the studio (due to the control it gives me) I also enjoy shoots the involve holder water. So when Melissa and I finish the studio series we made plans for another shoot when the weather warmed up.

The Hutt River is only a kilometre from my home but during the summer months it does run into the issue of an algal bloom, which means swimming in it is not recommended. As I don’t want my models ending up sick this meant it was out of the question. Fortunately on a walk over the summer I discovered a path out of the housing development up on Riverstone Terraces that lead to a reasonable size stream that was feeding the river.

I figured that the water would be safer here so Melissa and I planned to shoot and I pulled one of the ballgowns that is in my position.

While we were shooting in the middle of summer the reality was that the water temperature did not change very much therefore we knew that the whole shoot would need to be done within a short period of time. This is also the case with pool shoots anyway.

Most of the shots which taken using natural light however for a few I did bring a speed light which was positioned in the river on a tripod. The light was gelled orange so that we could attempt to recreate gold light.

Given that part of the river was deep enough for Melissa to be almost fully emerged we attempted a hair flip. This was not as difficult as it could have been and we managed a reasonable shot after only a couple of the teams.

It was a fun afternoon and I’m pleased with the results.