I was pleased with my results in the first judging of the Hutt Camera Club 2015 Ladder competition receiving a Merit and a Commended. This post is about the Merit image that I had entitled “Mummy”
Mummy
When the topic of “The Street” was announced I decided that I wanted to do an image of a small child on a large street to show lowliness. I wanted to shoot it against a street that had large buildings on each side which would have further emphasised how small the child was. However in order to be safe I intended to shoot the street and the child separately and then composite the two together.
I took some shots in Featherston Street Wellington one morning while trying to ensure that I dodged the traffic. Around where the old General Motors plant was in Upper Hutt there is a new industrial area that has all of the roads laid out but as they have never sold any of the sections is blocked off so there is no traffic
The little girl is named Aubrey and she is the daughter of Ali, a model I have shot on a number of occasions. I met her just before Christmas and found her to be a very smart and articulate 2 year old, so I had figured that she would be great for the shoot.
Now there is an old adage that you should never work with either children or animals and this certainly came into play.
Aubrey woke up from her afternoon nap in a bad mood and by the time she arrived at the location it had not improved much. Unfortunately when we arrived we also found 5 police dog cars at the gate as they were using the area for dog training. While they were all under control and well away from where we were shooting Aubrey did not like the look of them at all.
I decided to shoot anyway so Ali carried her down the road, put her down and then quickly walked away. The shots were taken in a single set as by this stage Aubrey was heading towards the sort of tantrum that only 2 year olds can throw.
I ended up not putting the composite together as I thought that the image was strong enough without it, and given that it got a Merit then the judge agreed.
Each year the Heretaunga Rotary Club runs a major book sale and my wife is one of the volunteers that help sort the donated books as they come in. A number of weeks ago she brought home a collection of photographic magazines for me to look through. They were mainly out of date, however I do like looking for images that may provide inspiration for shots.
I came across an image is an old issue of Photo Review Australia in a section called “Emerging Talent” by Samantha Everton that I really liked.
The expression “Putting on your face” immediately sprang to mind and so when I was doing the Getting Ready image in the model series I asked Sian would she like to help me create something.
I set up a small area of my studio to resemble a makeup area and has Sian sit an pretend to put makeup on. I had purchased three paper mache masks and attached them to a length of dowel that was sitting on a stand uses for needlework. The camera was mounted on a tripod so that all of the angles would stay consistent to make the compositing a little easier.
We tried a number of angles and poses to see which one would work before finally settling on one.
I then moved the masks out of the way and Sian positioned herself roughly where each had been and did a different facial expression at the three positions. Shooting in this way meant that the lighting was consistent across the whole image.
Lighting for the image was two soft boxes. The main one was set camera left and up high. (You can just see the edge of it is the top lefthand corner). The second light was camera right and lower down to add some fill. This light had to be carefully placed to ensure that it did not appear in the mirror.
The composite in Photoshop was fairly simple although given that Sian’s face and the masks are different I did have to use the liquify tool a bit.
The North shore Salon is a major national competition run each. This is the second year that I have submitted images and I was super stoked when I received the news this afternoon that my image “Breaking dawn” had been given a “Highly Commended” Award in the Open Colour Section. I also received an acceptance for my “Role of the Model” in the same category.
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.
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.
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 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.
Not 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
For the shot of Christa inside of the machine the box was lowered to the floor and she carefully climbed inside.
I 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 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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
LIllian
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.
One of the best things you can hear when you deliver images to a client (especially a wedding couple) is when the bride says that she loves all of the photo and that they were exactly what they wanted.
That was Chloe’s reaction when we delivered their wedding photos last week. The wedding happened on January 24 but with their honeymoon and then the death of grandmother the actual delivery of the images was a week later than originally planned.
As we were recording the whole day, the shoot involved my wife (Vicky) and daughter (Samantha). Samantha was officially second shooter but as she hasn’t got her licence yet needed her mum to run her between locations.
Final preparation was done the night before with chips formatted, all batteries fully charged and the clocks in each camera synched as this would make it easier to work through the shots later especially in the church.
The Groom (in Red) with his Dad, uncle and Grandfather on the 18th
For the day I stayed with the groom and Samantha stayed with the bride. It is quite amusing when you look through the images and see how long each side takes to get ready.
We knew from the rehearsal that the church was very small and shooting angles would be tight. Having three shooters did leave us with an advantage that I could cover the front, Samantha shot from the back, and Vicky stayed outside. That way we had all of the areas covered.
The ceremony went without a hitch and we managed to capture all of the important elements (first look, kiss, rings etc.), exactly as they happened, rather than resorting to faking the shot later.
Samantha managed to capture Hayden’s look as Chloe came down the aisle.
As a guest you would not have said that the weather could not have been better as it was clear blue sky without a single cloud and warm. As a photographer I was wishing for the cloud because I knew that the moment we moved outside we were going to face issues with the light.
The family group shots had been planned to occur on a small grassed area outside of the church and we had positioned a car there to ensure that it didn’t end up being used for parking. While it normally would have been a perfect location, the light was creating such strong panda eyes and squinting that we moved everyone to the shade of a hedge.
The location of the formals offered no such shade and so I had work with using the sun at the couples back (with fill flash) or shading them in some way using a diffusion panel. During the practise shoot my wife had been very concerned about the safety of everyone shooting so close to a main road and certainly on the day in question the cars were all travelling at 60kph. As it turned out on once you put a girl in a white wedding dress and surround her with bridesmaids the cars all slow down for a closer look, and in fact at one point the traffic stopped completely to let me get the shots. Chloe was having a great time acknowledging the toots she was getting as the cars and trucks went by.
Formals under full sun are always going to create issues.
The formals ran perfectly to time and we delivered the couple to the reception at exactly the agreed time which really surprised the management there as they were used to photographers running late.
Vicky had gone straight from the church to the reception and had photographed the venue before the guests had a chance to play with it. With the reception we tried to shoot the main elements. During the speeches I concentrated on the speaker while Samantha photographed reactions.
Once all the formalities were over we gathered on the dance floor for the first dance which started out traditional and morphed into something completely different.
We ended the day around 10.00pm and headed home. Once I cleared the cards to the computer there was 1915 photos to worth through. They were taken into Lightroom and before anything else was done to them a backup was taken on a removable drive.
The next morning I did a very quick selection and chose 16 images that provided a snapshot of the day. These were given a quick edit and sent to the couple so that they could post on Facebook.
It was a really long day, but very enjoyable. With the planning that had been done everything went pretty much t
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.
pwfotos 