Fast and Slow

Met up with one of my favourite designers today- Airdrie Makim who does Joolz by Airdrie, very beautiful hand crafted jewelery made from recycled materials. She now has an adorable little shop with two other designers on Georges on Collins called Insert Name Here.

I first worked with Airdrie when I started photography, she had so graciously loaned me her collection to play around with.

Designer Joolz by Airdrie

Makeup Justine Bruers

Model Sara Downs

Photography Me

Lighting Assistant Jeff Paine

Assistant Sammi Jones

Evidently it was one of my biggest shoot with a ton of people and lasted about 6 hours. So ambitious this young thing!

So Airdrie and I got to talking about the industry. Everything is so fast paced and things just happen. It's really truly about who you know and it's about networking and pushing yourself and putting yourself out there, because if you don't no one else would know you existed. I'm pretty much the shy lamb, I feel so uncomfortable in social situations and have been avoiding parties and launches, which I should really go to!

I always hear questions on how to succeed, how to be a working photographer- I have a ton of those questions myself. Networking, perseverance, marketing yourself- I have to keep my head down and keep chugging on like the little engine who could.

But everything in this industry is also about waiting- waiting through prep time, waiting to hear back from people, waiting to be approved, waiting, waiting, waiting. It can be so exhausting- it's a social industry and you end up depending on alot of other people.

C'est la vie.

Alexander McQueen SS10

McQueen certainly puts on a show for fashion lovers with his 2010 Spring runway. The theme was Evolution and models strutted in crafted ballet heels, scaly prints on structured dresses against an 'underwater' backdrop. The makeup and hair was a sight to behold with coiled braids, fresh skin and prosthetics utilized to give an alien look.

Watch the show via video at Showstudio.

Enjoy.

Beauty Shoot

Mid-semester break has just ended and I readily used the time to fit in as many shoots as possible. This time around I had a general casting call and had quite a favourable response and compiled a list of possible creatives and models.

This beauty shoot involves Domi Baiocchi (makeup and hair) and Jas B (model), both of whom I haven't worked with before so it's quite exciting. It was a simple one involving two looks and after sending messages and reference images we settled upon a high contrast one focusing on the eyes and one with a diamante design.

As with most of my shoots, we were in the apartment. Jas recently moved to Melbourne and is finding her way around. We've been meaning to work together for some time, so this was an awesome opportunity. She's such a lovely girl and put up with my strange directions (can you growl? like a lion?) with a smile.

Domi (seen above working on the first look) does superb clean meticulous makeup. I love it! Her choice of cyan and blues in providing the contrast look turned out really well, and I ended up preferring the end result in colour as opposed to the original choice of black+white.

This also gave me a chance to play with different processing style. I've been really interested in silvery skin tones, although I'm not quite sure if there's enough contrast and separation from the background. Lighting was done with two hot lights, with one bounced to the ceiling. Vlad provided assistance with adjusting lighting.

Jas also brought along a bagful of jewelery and we attempted an a jewelery editorial. It was certainly an education, as trying to get an awesome set of 8-10 images for an editorial is a lot harder than just getting one kick ass image. In addition they have to be cohesive and tell a story.

For the second look, Domi opted for a casual ponytail, and carefully laid out red diamantes in a scar formation. The next hour was spent attempting to growl, scowl, scream, yell and bring fierceness to the look! Black lipstick is difficult to work with, it tends to stain the teeth so be prepared!

Changing expression and pose shows how remarkable a look can shift. In the first she's a sneering dominatrix, and the other a high fashion model! I like to think so anyway =)

The right people and a good team is invaluable on every shoot. It's a wonderful feeling when everything goes right and you end up with something you're proud of. Much contentment.

First publication

With all my latest shoots and prepping for submissions, I didn't realize I actually received my first publication and tearsheets. What a completely (forgotten) surprise! It's a little article (text and photos) on the 13th Nec Go Cup for the Australian Go Journal, of which I'm now the Melbourne correspondent for. So while it's isn't fashion and beauty, it's still quite exciting and involves the other occupation of my life- go.

Go is an ancient Chinese board game played with white and black stones. It's quite simple to learn but challenging to master, and quite beautiful once you start understanding the intricate complexity of the moves. I started playing about 6 years ago and have been involved in one of the local and more active clubs the past four years. This year (this weekend actually) we're hosting the Australian National Go Tournament, so yes I'm covering the photography aspect again.

One of the Journal editors brought in copies and I get one. Happy.