This post is going to be very different from what the majority of posts in this blog are about and that there are no people in it.
Back in March I travelled to a farm named Glenburn Station, which is located on the coast in the Wairarapa, for a weekend trip organised by the Hutt Camera Club. The farm is located at the end of some 20km of gravel road, which I had not realised when we decided to go in the brand new car picked up the day before. My wife was not impressed with that fact.
This was the second year that the club organised a weekend, and while I did not go in 2019, I did have some idea of what was on offer from the photos I had seen.
While others on the trip were interested in the landscapes, I was more interested in the buildings particularly a large shearing shed that we ha been given access to.
So while the others went exploring the landscape, I took my time looking around the shed. I was particularly interested in where the light was falling, as I was planning to shoot a model in the afternoon. To be prepared I had taken my strobes ,light stands and tripod.
In some areas the light was low and the shots were taken with the camera on the tripod. For others, such as the machinery, I mounted the camera on top of the light stand and triggered it via the image app on my phone. This gave me the ability to go for different angles.
The farm had been shearing the week before and there was still plenty of materials around showing this.
It was a great location to shoot in and I used both my Lumix 25mm F1.7 and Olympus 7-14mm F2.8 lenses.
Sometimes bringing all of the elements for an image together can take some time. This was certainly the case with my image of “The Saucy Sue”.
Back in October 2018 my wife and I called into Hamilton Gardens on our way up to Auckland. The gardens are amazing with sections all done out into different themes. In one of these we found “the Saucy Sue”.
The minute I saw it I knew that I wanted to incorporate it into an image and pretty much had the concept in my at point.
So when we got home I cut the boat out of the background and I went looking for a suitable landscape to use with. I settled on an area shot just outside Hasting in April 2014.
I blended the two images together and was reasonably happy with the result. This was relatively simple as the light on the day that the boat was shot was very flat.
I know needed someone to pilot it. I had the idea that Kimberley would be perfect, however sorting out a shoot time proved difficult.It was not until earlier this year, when she was coming out for The Dressmaker shoot, I decided we could add this one as well.
Kimberley’s costume was made out of a corset, a dress hoop and some lengths of materials. We didn’t have to worry about the feet as I knew these would not be visible.
As the boat was elevated I had Kimberley stand on a small stool and I shot from a low angle. This made getting the perspective easier.
As can be seen in the photo the lighting for the image was a large softbox placed camera right and a reflector to bounce some light back. The lighting was positioned to match the direction of the light in the landscape image.
This is the full series of the dressmaker and the story. If you want to read the background to the shoot you will find it on this post.
The dressmaker lived in poverty but she was extremely talented. All shehad to wear was clothes made from sacks the kind people at a nearby chocolate factory had given her.
All of the rich of the own came to here to make their gowns, but they barely paid her any attention.
The dressmaker dreamed of what it would be like if she could be like them.
As the night of the ball approached she had made quite a number ofdresses, and she wondered what it would be like to wear them.
Then a client told her that she no longer wanted the dress she had made, and she was not going to pay for it. The dressmaker thought what would happen if she did put it on.
The night of masked ball came and the dressmaker decided to put on the unused dress and attend the event. In the new clothes the rich of the town did not recognise her and happily treated as one of their own.
This post will be quite different to others in that it will not contain any finished images. Rather it will go into the process that went into a set of images that tell a story. The actual images will be in the next post.
A number of years ago I saw a brilliant image of a girl using a sewing machine in a moonlit attic. It set a seed that took several years to come to fruition (over three in fact). I knew that I wanted to do an image of a girl and a sewing machine. As it developed it turned into a sort of Cinderella story and eventually became a series I have called “The Dressmaker”.
The first prop, the sewing machine was bought three years ago at the Petone Fair. A second hand shop was selling them off for $20.00. They were leftover when the tables they were originally sitting on were turned into furniture. I bought the machine and it sat in our storage for years.
The machine
Then this year a number of events came together that made me decide to do the shoot.
The first was my daughter leaving home which meant our family room could be used as a studio to shoot in, and the set could be left up. I knew that to make the image look realistic then staging was important.
The second was a chance visit to my works printers where I saw a pile of wooden crates that had packed some new machines they were installing. I thought that it would be create to use to create movable walls, (as well as providing materials to reline our garage), so I asked if I could have them. They said yes and I was shocked when I got home to find a large pile. It took four nights to denail it so that we could get the ply under cover.
What was a pleasant surprise was the state of the timber that had been used to make the frames. There were lengths that looked just like flooring.
There was other timber that I was able to use to build a table for the sewing machine on. The top proved tricky as the bottom of the sewing machine was not a consistent shape. The machine was quite heavy so the table had to be engineered to carry the weight.
The completed table
I had worked out that two ply sheets were sufficient to build a workable wall but how to safely stand them up took some thinking. Initially I was going to build a floor bracket for them to slot into. I had seen other floor standing walls work in similar form. The problem was that such brackets need to be suitable size to handle the weight.
I then realised that if I took one of the left over lengths of timber I could drill some holes through it, and mount it on top of my existing background supports. Then the ply could be safely clamped to it. This worked perfectly. Once upright I used a roll of wallpaper bought from an Op shop to cover the ply and particular the join between the two panels.
The cross support
The final piece to fall into place was when I went to the Hutt Camera Club shoot at Fort Balance. The model Che wore a red dress that had a really long train. When I saw it I knew it was perfect for my shoot, so at the end of the shoot it ended up in my car.
Che and the red dress
I had already obtained cocoa bean shacks from my work as I had intended to use them in a model shoot. I therefore felt I had all of ingredients for the shoot.
From previous work I knew that Kimberley would be perfect for my dressmaker, so I posted a casting call on Facebook and ended up selecting a model for her client.
Sian, who I have shot on a number of occasions also said she was interested. She proved to a lifesaver when the model I had cast pulled out two hours before the shoot was to happen.
The shoot was scheduled and I started to build the set. I had worked out the camera angle and the lighting so as each piece was put into place I could see how it looked in the viewfinder.
To hide the walls in our family room I attached a second backdrop rail at a 90 degree to the ply and hung some old curtain material. To hide the edge of the flooring I used old suitcases and then on shoot day added some more sacks.
I had wanted to borrow a portable clothes stand for the dresses but could locate one so ended up building one from more of the left over timber.
The clothes rack support
It probably took the best part of two hours to get everything into place before I put in the lights. My fill light was my Godox AD600 in a 1.5 metre softbox positioned just to camera left. My main light was one of my Elinchrom set up high camera left and positioned above the end of the clothes rack. This light was gelled orange.
One of my recent purchases was a Godox receiver which should have worked with the transmitter on the camera. It was plugged into the back of the Elinchrom and should have triggered it at the same time as the other Godox lights. For some reason this didn’t work and the Elinchrom was firing after the main light, meaning that it was not having any impact on the shoot. Fortunately the Elinchrom has built in optical slaves which work perfectly.
For the shots of Kimberly on her own I wanted to give the impression of candlelight so I had a third light that was gelled orange, and in a gridded reflector to cast a very targeted light.
For my readers outside of New Zealand, our country response to the Covid-19 pandemic was to go into lockdown hard and early. While the economy has taken a hit, our health system didn’t, and we ended up with around 1,500 cases and 22 deaths. The vast majority of those deaths occurred in two aged demetia facilities.
Kate
The benefit of these action is that we last had a case over 20 days and last Sunday (June 7) the last active case recovered. That meant that from Tuesday we could enter our new normal.
Kimbre Viviers
While the borders are closed life within New Zealand could return to a sense of normal. So much so, that over the weekend 60,000 people attended two rugby games, something that other countries can only dream about.
Kelly Kim Harrouk
For portrait photographers to lock down was hard as rely on interacting with our subjects. So as soon as the restrictions were fully lifted a Sunday Club for the Fashion Collective was organised. It was great to be able to meet up with people with no need for social distancing.
Nicola removes the hair arrangement from Kimbre
Adding to the afternoon was the fact that Charlotte Kelleher of CKFilmDesign had brought along some period costumes that her team had made. Combining those items with hair by Wei Jiang and makeup by Nicola Robinson and you could not help but take great images.
Jordan L Rivers
While the studio is full of lighting, the triggers that it used did not work on my camera so I could use them. I had taken my own lights but that was a bit of hassle with so many people present. So with the exception of the image of Jordan above, all of the others shots were taken using the ambient light in the room. Fortunately my G9 is pretty good at handling lighting conditions.
Neen
In addition to Charlotte, one of the other regular’s, Neen also brought some costumes so I shot her in one of the outfits.
It was great being able to socialise and shoot without any restrictions or fear. I have joined in with Zoom sessions with photographers in the USA and I know that they are far from being able to do that.
Back before the world went crazy with Covid-19, I joined up with members of Hutt Camera Club for a Saturday field trip to Fort Balance on the Miramar Peninsula.
Fort Balance is one of a number of gun emplacements scattered around the entrance to the harbour, and unlike Palmer Head still has a lot of graffiti. I had seem in used in lots of shoots but never got there myself. It was built in 1886 as a result of fears that the Russians would invade.
Figuring that there would be areas inside the complex I packed my Godox speed light and strobe. This meant that I could shoot by myself rather than having others shooting over my shoulder.
The trip organiser also brought along Che who is one of her regular models along with quite a collection of dresses.
When we arrived at the location I dropped the gear and spent a good ten minutes looking around before even picking up the camera. This time let me sort out the types of shots I was looking for. I also spotted two areas that I thought had good possibilities.
This shot totally relied on the strobes as this room was in complete darkness.
One was a stair case that had walls on both sides covered with graffiti. I had my wide angle lens with me and I used the distortion it created to use the walls as wings.
The second was a brightly painted wall that matched the colour of the second dress Che was wearing.
Che is only 14 and therefore does occasional slip into goofy behaviour. I thought that we could capture that with the help of one of the largest pieces of art on the walls. The result is the image below
Overall it was a pleasant outing with good company. I plan on going back to Fort Balance at some stage in the future.
In some ways the final shoot of the 2020 Wellington Cosplay Photofest was the one I was looking for the most. The R-Bar is located in Cuba Street and is a pirate themed bar. Until last year I didn’t even know it existed when it was used for the social of the 2019 PhotoFest.
I spoke to the manager on the night and have wanted to get back and shoot there again ever since. So this year, when the opportunity presented itself to book slots over the weekend I jumped at it.
After the fourth cosplayer I was supposed to shoot pulled out I was assigned Tamara, and by that stage the location was booked. Tamara is a professional costume designer and one of her outfits fitted the location perfectly.
Lighting in the bar is fairly low and I wanted to insure that the ambient came through in the images. The achieve this I told Tamara that I would be shooting with long exposures so she needed to hold her poses. She did this perfectly. The strobes were set to fire at the end of the exposure.
This mixed lighting meant that you could meter for it and all shots were based on trial and error and seeing what looked good in the back of the camera.
I really enjoyed the time there and could see it used in future shoots.
The third shoot in the 2020 Wellington Cosplay Photofest was with Gabriela who was wearing a Beauregard costume. In our initial discussions she has asked for a nature environment so we chose to shoot in Trelissick Park in Ngaio. The park has a stream running through it as well as bush. In addition it has some old ruins of ammunition stores that have a very castle like setting.
When we got to the park we discovered another group at the ruins so we started with the stream. The day had stared overcast but by the time of the shoot it was brilliant blue skies and strong sun. Personally those are my least favourite conditions.
Along the path I found an interesting spot with gnarled roots so Gabriela climbed up and positioned herself there. I had brought the Godox AD600 light with me along with the 26inch softbox. Gabriela had asked if she could bring a friend and he ended up holding the light that I had mounted on an extended monopod.
By the time we had finished in this area the other groups had completed their shoot at the ruins so we ended the shoot with some images there.
The second shoot in the 2020 Wellington Cosplay Photofest was with Pohutukaryl Cosplay who was dressed as Chloe Frazer from Uncharted, a character from an action game. The moment that she mentioned street fighter to me I knew that we would be going back to the gun emplacement on Palmer Head.
I have shot at this location a number of times and it is a very popular spot so you never know how many people you will run into there. When we arrived there was a group of girls taking selfies on the roof, and when we went inside we disturbed a couple in an intimate act.
We shot all over the complex to create different angles and looks. For the inside images lighting was provided with my Godox speed light in a small softbox as this was very portable.
We were probably at the site for about a hour before we decided to pack up and head home. We were literally only 50 meters from the bunker to meet up with four very heavily armed police officers. Someone had reported seeing someone with a gun and they were taking no chances. Given that no one saw us with the toy pistol my assumption was that they had mistaken my light stand. That was what the cop thought as well and we were all on our way.
For the second year now I joined the Wellington Cosplay Photofest held over two days. Unlike 2019 the number of shoots was reduced to a more manageable four spread over the two days.
Shooting cosplay is very interesting and challenging at the same time. Th cosplayers are pretty good at getting into their characters, however it is important that you shoot them consistently with what the character does.
Fortunately my first shoot with “Sas it up Costuming” was in a genre that I was very familiar with. She was coming dressed as a Guiddich player from the Harry Potter movies.
We set up the shoot for Saturday morning and she asked that we try to use a park or something that could resemble Hogwarts. I suggested that we could shoot in the park by Victoria University and also around the Hunter Building as it has a gothic style.
I arrived at the park early to discover that it was being used for sports so we ended up shooting around the university. I
I wanted to produce a shot where it looked like she was flying on the broom and I found the perfect location. There was a rail wide enough for her to balance on it. I started with an empty scene then shot her on the rail.
We then shot close ups of the broom handle and end. As the broom she has brought was not a full length we created that illusion in the images.
In photoshop it was a matter of removing the rail and replacing the other images in it. It ended up being more challenging than I thought and this was mainly caused by not getting the angle consistent. Still everyone seems happy with the end result.
pwfotos 