As photography is my passion and not my living the actual time that I can devote to it dictated by the working week. Occasionally that means that the weekends can get a little crowded. The one just gone is no exception with four separate photographic outings over the two days. I intend to write each one up as a separate blog post over the next week, but here is a teaser of the “sneak peaks”
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.
In January I answered a casting call on model mayhem where a lady by the name of Hailee was looking for a series of images for her portfolio that involved her guitar. We arranged to meet over coffee and worked out that she was looking for two completely different looks.
The first was a glamorous look in the style of Dita Von Tease, and the second was a series of shots with the guitar that were inspired by a series of shots from the 60’s involving Bridget Bardow.
I arranged to use a friends studio in Wellington and Ivy Gordon agree to do hair & makeup.
While I am really pleased with the results I learned a big lesson from the session that adequate time needs to be planned for hair & makeup. The actual time for shooting ended up being rather squeezed and so it ended being more rushed than I tend to like.
As I mentioned in a previous post, (Rocks, Waterfalls and beautiful girl) when I asked for models interested in shooting at the waterfall I was so overwhelmed with responses that I was able to split the shoot into two sessions. Furthermore I decided that the second shoot was to involve two models as I believed the pool areas was large enough.
From the group that had originally applied I picked out two favourites and was about to settle on details when a fellow photographer pointed out that one of the girls was only 16. Now for a fully clothed shoot this would not have been an issue but I had made it quite clear in the casting that this was involving fabric lengths and that I did not want underwear under them. She had never mentioned her age at all. I then discovered that the other model was only 17 so she was now out of contention. After looking at their images I decided to go with Eileen and Heidi.
That selection did not last long as the day after I met with Heidi she texted me to say that she had damaged her foot and even sent the x-ray to prove it. That was ok. Kat replaced Heidi.
Then the weather gods decided to intervene. The shoot was planned for the Sunday afternoon. It started raining on Saturday morning and continued all day. Sunday morning continued with misty rain and the temperature struggled to get above 15 degrees. I visited the site and while the water had not much higher than the Friday, everything was wet and so I decided that it would just turn into a cold and miserable experience for everyone. The shoot would have to rescheduled for a week.
Eileen could still make it but Kat could not. So back to the list and after several others who could not make it, I settled on Renee who I had shot with before.
Everything was arranged for a meet at a location where people would not get lost and we managed to make it to the waterfall. The first series of shots were taken individually and involved the girls in fabric drapes. This went quite well although the girls were not impressed when they found a very large spider on one of the rocks.
For the second shot I wanted to have the girls together in the pool fully dressed. I had estimated that the pool was only about a metre deep so this should not have been an issue. That estimate proved to be way off and with an estimate that it was over their heads we changed the shoot. Both girls were real troopers as the water was very cold.
Some years ago I found a very special little waterfall and pool beside a walk in Upper Hutt. I just knew that it would be great for a shoot. My vision was to shoot a model in flowing fabric where what she was wearing and the water would meld into a single image. Knowing that the water would be fairly cool I always reserved this shoot for Summer but had never been successful in finding someone willing to take part.
That changed this year when a Facebook group was set up specifically for models, makeup artists and photographers who wanted to collaborate on projects. I took a punt and posted the shot I had of the location and was absolutely blown away with the response. Something with the concept and location touched the right cord and within hours I had lots of models to choose from. That resulted in me developing the idea from a single shoot into two with the second using two models. As I had planned to extend Waitangi day holiday into the weekend I planned the first shoot for Friday (7th) and the second shoot for the Sunday.
One of the first models to approach me was Ashleigh-Jane who happened to live in Upper Hutt so she was offered the Friday shoot. She had recently done a shoot with another Wellington photographer that I know so I was given a good reference.
With my models I do try to meet up with them in a public place beforehand as I find that this removes a lot of nerves from the shoot itself. We did this and it was obvious that Ashleigh-Jane had thought about the shoot. After deciding that the original choice of material would not suit her complexion she left with a length on fabric that she was going to create a gown from. To ease her comfort I was happy for her to bring along a friend. You can image my surprize when the friend turned out to be Issy who was one of the finalist in the New Zealand Top Model contest. She had shot with some of the top photographers in the country, so you can imagine there was a certain nervousness on how I would measure up.
The day was perfect and the whole shoot went really well, apart from me slipping on a rock and coming away with a few grazes. We started on the rocks and then like a professional she moved into the water and then in the pool at the base of the falls. She was not concerned about the cold but was a little worried as to whether the stream had any eels in it. The location has really nice lighting at the top but was a little dark once we moved to the lower pool. This was easily remedied by getting Issy to use a reflector and shine it into the area. We used the gold side to create a very warm light.
The images came out exactly what I was wanting.
On the week before I returned to work from Holiday I discovered that I had been invited to join a Wellington Facebook group for Models, Makeup Artists (MUA) and Photographers who wanted to collaborate on projects. Within a very short time I had a shoot set up with Ivy who was both a MUA and a stylist and a couple of models that she had arranged. Ivy showed me an example of the sort of shots she was looking for so I had a clear idea what we were out to shoot.
The shoot happened in a multi-story building in Tasman Street Wellington in the space below where she lived. The space was a large open plan room at least 30 meters by 15 meter and with a double height ceiling. It had been decorated and furnished with an amazing collection of items including one large graffiti art mural. It was really like one of those New York apartments that you see in the movies. The minute I saw it I knew this was going to be a great location.
The space was rented to a whole lot of guys and Ivy had spent about 2 hours the previous day removing stuff from it.
One of the original models cancelled out and so Ivy managed to find a replacement (Grace) in addition to June (who models under the stage name of Little Miss Moon). She had hoped that some of the guys who lived there would also model but all of them chickened out.
While the girls got their makeup on I sorted out what where we were going to shoot, as there was no shortage of spaces. We were going to start using a corner area and an old wicker chair. This was in a corner next to a couple of windows which presented an interesting problem. Namely how to set up the lights in such a way to effective light the model but not get the reflections on the flash in the windows.
I was using my two Elinchrom strobes in softboxes and it took a little fiddling to set them up but eventually we did with the following results.
We then moved on the second area which was the graffiti wall, and posing the two girls together. The wall was a great backdrop and the only real issue we ran into was that the model were different heights. A quick change of footwear and the following results were gained.
Using the same setup we then took a few of Grace alone.
Finally if you have an indoor venue that has a swing in the middle of it you just have to use it. Ivy selected a very flowing skirt but had June wear it like a dress which was very effective.
While I would like to use some of the other parts of the room we ran out of time.
The pity with this location is that the building does not meet earthquake standards and in March is being demolished. A building with a huge degree of character will be replaced with a set of tiny boxed apartments.
The final shot sequence that I shot with Megan involved blood and water. It was sequence that Megan specifically wanted for her portfolio so who was I to refuse. We decided that it was to be the final set of shots after we had done the Lady of the Lake image.
Prior to the shoot I scoured the web looking for a fake blood recipe that would not stain. I needed to ensure one that worked because while my wife had agree to the use of our bathroom, she had told me that if I permanently stained the bath then I had to replace it. To make matters worse our bath was originally green but was coated white some ten years ago. In some places that coating is cracking so it would have been fairly simply for paint to get in there and not come out.
In the end I discover a non-toxic poster paint and using a range of colours from red to brown was able to get the look I was after. To prevent the issue with the cracks I used petroleum jelly and smeared the area before the bath was filled.
Lighting for the shoot was a single light in a beauty dish but pulled further back from the previous shots in the room.
Fortunately when we emptied the bath the red mark on it came off very easily and so I don’t have to buy a new bath just yet.
Earlier this year I attended the ImageNation conference and got to see the work of Alexia Sinclair, an Australian fine art photographer. What really impressed me was the level of staging that she did in her images. While she did use photoshop to finish the image, she went to great lengths to actually complete most of the shot “in camera”. I asked why she went to the effort rather than simply compositing the whole image. Her simple answer was that it looked better that way.
Now I do not consider myself a lazy photographer but I have not tended to go to into a great deals with my sets or costumes. Rather I have tried to find a location instead. So I thought that it would be fun to actually stage a themed shoot and Megan agreed to be my doll on the same day that we shot the crane image mentioned in the last series of blog posts.
I hired a costume from Anything Goes Costume Hire in Upper Hutt and spent the best part of two hours converting our garage into the set. The hardest part was actually moving the box into location as it was quite heavy. My daughter (who just turned 17) had kept most of her stuffed toys so they were brought out of storage along with bringing back a very large Teddy that we had donated to the kids room at our church. As I knew that little details would be important in the image I took several shots from the planned locations before Megan arrived and checked them for things in the background that would cause distractions. These were removed.
Lighting for the event was mainly natural as the garage faced towards the afternoon sun, but it was also supplemented with a main light with a beauty dish that was boomed down low so that it would reach into the box.
Part way through the shoot we turned the box upwards and Megan and a large assortment of toys were stuffed in. For these shots the main light was moved to point down into the box.
I was quite pleased with the results. Apart from the last image in the sequence below, most are pretty much straight out of camera and only needed minor tweaking to levels in Lightroom.
Yesterday I decided to attend a workshop on Portrait photography being run by Alan Raga. As I quite often end up teaching other people this aspect of photography it was good to be able to kick back and enjoy the session. More particularly to try out a large Octobox softbox and a gridded beauty dish.
Our model for the day was the lovely Jess.
She moved effortlessly for one pose to another but I decided that I wanted something a little bit different and that movement. As she had beautiful long hair I knew that the answer was to get it to move.
In my own studio I have a fan to do but a reflector and a willing assistant will get you half way there.
Wanting more movement still I had she twist at the waist and then release as I pressed the shutter. I am very happy with the result.
I enjoy doing session with other photographers because it enable you to build off each other, because even when you are looking at the same thing we will be seeing it from a different perspective.
So when Christchurch photographer Paul Willyams asked if I was interested in doing a shoot in the basement of the Wellington apartment I was only too willing as he had arranged the models . I just needed to help with the props which turned into a bit of effort in bringing in a very large chaise lounge. That presented a bit of an issue when it was discovered that it would not fit in the complex lift and had to be carried down the stairs. Fortunately we managed to achieve the task and the studio was transformed.
Our models for most of the shoot went by the stage names of Salacious Sugar and Optimus Fine. Both were great to work with and the shoot went very easy. Later in the day we were joined by John and a second series of shots was done involving him and the girls.
Paul achieved the look that he wanted using a little extra photoshop magic. I prefer to work more in camera and so the images below have minimal post production added to them.
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