The Model Series – Getting ready

The latest image in the model series is entitled “Getting Ready” and continues with the theme that models and the clothes are connected to a point that while getting ready the model would already be in them.

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For the shoot I was joined by two models that I have shot on a number of times before namely Renee (pink) and Sian (green). My home studio was set up like the dressing area of a show and we played with a number of different posing options before shooting the final image shown above.

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The shoot was done in really high spirits and the girls had a great time ironing each other.

For the final shot we carefully positioned Sian onto the ironing board and very quickly took several shots. While it was a reasonably study board I was not sure how well it would last given that it was not designed to hold as much weight as was on it.

Fortunately it lasted the distance and it was only as Sian was getting off it that the bracket gave way. As I had it set at a height that we do not normally use I doubt that I will get in too much trouble with my wife.

The Model Series – Keeping Clean

The third image in the model series was entitled “Keeping Cleaning”.  While the intention with each of the concepts is to produce a single image, this shoot has actually produced two, and so I am trying to sort out which one I will end up using in  the series.

Shot3-Keeping-Clean#2 Shot3-Keeping-Clean#3Not far from my home is a commercial laundry which I thought I could approach to get the background shots I needed. I had decided that it was better to composite the image rather than try to arrange for a location.

I cut a circle in another one of the bike boxes that had been obtained for the “Past Use By Date” shoot and then attached it to the front of the box. We stood the box up and then positioned it on two chairs to get it to the right height for the machine.

The mock up machine
The mock up machine

For the shot of Christa inside of the machine the box was lowered to the floor and she carefully climbed inside.

BTS-KeepClean-2I visited the laundry on a Saturday morning (when it was closed) and we took the required shots. The ones from the studio were on my iPad so that I could line this up as best as possible. The laundry manager was more than happy to help out and in fact she said that the machine was more than capable of handling Christa’s weight and that I could bring her along should the composites not work.

I tried to replicate the lighting as close as I could to that shot in the studio however an exact match was not possible as it was necessary to avoid reflection in the glass doors of the machine. As it was I was not able to completely eliminate them and had to fix the image in photoshop.

I was very pleased with the result that came out. The only issue with shooting against a green screen is that you can get a colour cast on the skin. This is shown in an earlier version of the composite. I still need to do some more work on removing this before the final image is produced.

By sheer fluke when I posted the images on Facebook one of the people who viewed it pointed out that the name on the machine Huebsch is German for “Pretty”. I have checked this out and it is not quite correct and in fact Hubsch is the correct spelling however they are pronounced the same way.

The Model Series – Past Used by Date

The second concept in the model series is based around the fact that fashion is very fleeting. I wanted to express this by having the girls piled in a box like the shops do with their end of line articles.

The final image
The final image

My friend Andrew operates a bike shop so I was able to obtain a number of large boxes that the bikes drive in. These were put together to make it large enough for the four models (Christa, Newala, Shelby & Kelly) to fit inside. All of the models come from Voda Model Management and with the exception of Christa were arranged by Donna.

The models get comfortable in the box
The models get comfortable in the box

There was a bit of fun when they first tried to climb in wearing their heels as they went through the bottom of the box, but we remedied that issue.

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The lighting for the shot was a single softbox boomed out over the box and the second one angled down. As noted in the previous shoot my trigger played up and so I had to use a speed light to trigger the lights. As shown in the image this was aimed away from the box so that it did not affect the other lights. I stood on top of a small stepladder to get the angle I wanted. The top of the ladder is quite large and so it is relatively safe to be up there.

The first grouping
The first grouping

We tried a number of combinations with the way that Christa lay across the top the others before we settled on the final combination. The girls were having a great time as it was a very different shoot from what they were used to.

To get the background I sneaked my camera into a local shopping mall and shot the front of the one of the shops from the balcony. Then it was a matter of compositing the images together and trying to get the lighting consistent.

 

 

Lack of Posts

I realised that I have not posted in a month, and it is not that I have not been taking images. Far from it, but rather a combination of being extremely busy at work and then illness have meant that I have not had the energy in the evenings to write up what has been going on.

I am in the process of remedying that and in the next two weeks there will be a whole series of posts to catch up the several shoots that have been done in the model series.

In the meantime here is one from last weeks shoot.

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The model Series – See the model

In 2014 I shot an image entitled “The Role of the Model” that you can find on this link. The image attracted a lot of attention and did quite well in competitions. So this year I decided to expand on the concept and shoot an additional 11 images.

After initial Facebook posts I got a very good response from models and designers wanting to take part.

Many of the images are planned to be composites so I could book a studio and take several shots in one go. For the first session I planned to tackle three of the images. This post is about the first image which I have entitled “See the model”.

The concept is simple that when a model goes down the catwalk she is no longer being seen as a person but rather it is clothes that are important. I intended to shoot the models against a green screen and composite in a catwalk at a later stage.

Through Donna from Voda Model Management I had the services of Newala, Shelby & Kelly. I had requested that they wear matched sets of lingerie and I shot them using a relatively simple two light arrangement against the backdrop as show in this image

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The radio trigger of my lights decided to stop working the week before which meant on the day i had to fire a speed light off camera which would trigger the main lights using their optical sensors. This works to a degree, but with the major limitation that the time taken for the flash to recharge is considerably longer than for the strobes.

I think the girls had a lot of fun walking down an imaginary catwalk.

I had made contact with the organisers of Wellington Fashion Week to shoot the background. Unfortunately the 2015 shows got cancelled. I have now arranged to shoot a catwalk at the Eco-fashion show in June.

In the meantime I produce three draft images for the girls which are shown below.Shot-2-See-the-Person-#3 Shot-2---See-the-Person Shot2---See-the-person-2

I realised after the shoot that I should have asked to girls to wear colours other than black (which two did) as I am not sure how well the images are going to work once placed against a darkened runway.

ANZAC Week – The Great War Exhibition

This is the second post connected with ANZAC day 2015. As with the first one if you do not anything about the ANZAC’s then this post will provide you with the background.

Wellington is very much the centre of film production in New Zealand in that we are lucky to have Peter Jackson and the team from Weta Workshops based here. Over the last decade their special effects wizardry has thrilled audiences worldwide with the “Lord of the Rings” and Hobbit Trilogy.

Over the last couple of months Peter and the team from Weta have turned what used to be the Grand Hall of the old National Museum into an exhibition of World War 1. It is told life size as you walk through the story of the war.

The exhibition opened on the 18th April and will run for 4 years being added to along the way. It has attracted large crowds since it has opened. We were very fortunate that we got in at a time that they was no queue. Photography is allowed so below is a teaser of what is in there.

The team at Weta are very skilful at making everything look so realistic. You enter into a small village in Belgium.

WW1-1 WW1-2 WW1-3 WW1-4 WW1-5Then each year of the war is shown with the archway telling you the year.

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The exhibition follows Peter’s grandfather through the war starting with him enlisting by lying about this age.

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Peter has quite a collection of memorabilia and many of the elements in the  exhibition come from his own collection.

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In many places through the exhibition boxes contain the smells associated with the war. In the screens representing the tenches there was a real smell of damp earth.

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Around the exhibition are posters depicting modern sayings that had their origin in WW1.WW1-22

The last screen depicts a young Peter with his grandfather later in life.

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When you get through the exhibition you enter a cafe and shop that has be done out like the inside of one of the ships that brought the troops home. You exist the shop via a gangplank down to the exit. Even up close the set looks real.

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ANZAC Week – Museum Lightshow Images

This page contains all the individual images from the videos contained on the previous post with regard to the lightshow on the old museum.

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ANZAC Week – Carillon Lightshow Images

This page contains all the individual images from the videos contained on the previous post with regard to the lightshow on Carillon.

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ANZAC Week – The Lightshow

This is my second post about activities around Wellington this last week. If you are unsure about the term ANZAC then please read my first post.

Just about every town in New Zealand has a war memorial that names those killed in the various conflicts that New Zealand has taken part in. In Wellington we have two, with the larger one taking the form of a carillon and located by the newly built Pukeahu National War Memorial park.

Starting on the 18th a 15 minute light show was created that was projected onto the carillon and then followed by another lightshow on the front of what was originally the National Museum.

We went on a perfect Sunday evening and set up the tripod to record the carillon show. The tower is actually a musical instrument and if you got there for the 7:00pm start the show was accompanied with the bells. It was a very moving experience. The video below is a taste of that carillon show

We then headed up the hill and watched the second lightshow. There was no room for a tripod this time so you will have to excuse the movement in the images.

If you have trouble viewing the videos are wish to see them individually then you can find the Carillon images here and the museum ones here.

 

ANZAC Week – An introduction

A personal touch to an ANZAC tribute
A personal touch to an ANZAC tribute

For reader in other countries, firstly an explanation of what the next series of post are about.

When World War 1 broke out in 1914 Britain called upon its overseas colonies to provide troops and in both Australia and New Zealand large numbers of young men (and a few women) signed up. By the end of the war some 100,000 Kiwis (as we refer to ourselves) had served which at the time was 10% of the countries population. A large number of those were killed or injured and it is estimates that a third of the population was affected in someway.

In early 1915 the British Military leaders brought together divisions of Australian and New Zealand troops and they were called the “Australian & New Zealand Army Corp” or ANZAC for short. On April 25 1915 the ANZAC’s went into their first action landing on the beaches of Gallipoli in modern day Turkey.

The mission was a disaster from the start with inaccurate information and essentially incompetent British commanding officers, so of who had little regard for the safety of their men. For 8 months they tried to hang on against fierce opposition to no avail.

Since then on April 25 each year in towns and cities all around Australia and New Zealand the spirit of the ANZACs, and everyone else who fought in the many wars since are remembered.

This year marks the 100 year anniversary of the landings and as such there has been a much larger focus, than in the previous years. In Wellington events commemorating the centennial started last Saturday and there was plenty of opportunity to get out an take photos.

To do them justice I am going to split up the entries into a series of posts. Once I have them all loved I will come back and edit this post to place direct links into them.

 

A photographic journey