Blue Summers

I did mention about writing more about photoshoots, I'm so behind! Since the weather is starting to become that dreary cold sleep sort, I'll write about a recent beach swimwear shoot. 

Locations shoots are rare for me, I do prefer the stability and blankness of a studio to create from. Outside I have to rely on the weather and the available light and the actual location itself. I'm actually quite anathema to doing location shoots because every time I venture outside it's sure to rain. Without fail. The original date set for this particular beach shoot had to be postponed because the weekend ended up pouring when I expected sunshine, no it was a definite no go. 

Why a swimwear shoot?

Well, I needed a swimwear look for my portfolio and then I came across Billy & Lola, a darling little swimwear line by Ruth Ziller. Ruth creates her bathers from vintage fabrics she finds in op shops and the designs are a throwback to old-fashioned styles which quite suits my aesthetic especially in an age where swimwear is as tiny, tight, and metallic as possible and leaves nothing to the imagination. Therefore her high-waisted pieces tied back with printed bows completely drew me in. Ruth is also part of the new generation of eco-aware and eco-friendly designers using recycled materials so that's quite exciting.

Prep

Model casting was difficult. I envisioned someone who was lovely and slightly dreamy with an old fashioned charm and long brown hair. Not quite sure why I was fixated on a brunette but I was. There were cancellations and rejections and unsuitable models when I remembered Rebecca, currently repped by Scene Management. I've worked with Rebecca previously on Ghost Story and she had the most amazing skin and soulful eyes...and she had brown hair. She was also a really great person to work with so I was happy when she agreed to model for this.

 A quick snap at the ocean, turned out to be one of my favourites.

Sarah Baxter was slotted in to do make up and hair. She had just started at the hair academy and was showing me cute braids and updos. We decided to get to her place for initial makeup and then drive down to the Great Ocean Road to find a suitable secluded beach. It was going to be an extremely long day and we were looking forward to it! We were originally going to work with a stylist but unfortunately it didn't happened so I picked up the bathers and packed up my bags, discovered I couldn't carry a reflector along with 3 bags I was already carrying so I thought stuff it and got on a train, then a bus, than waited for Sarah. 

My equipment of the day:-

The none too subtle Canon 1000D

50mm 1.8 lens (sweet little thing)

Available light

And two awesome people to go on a road-trip with

While Rebecca was in makeup, I played with Ozzie an overenthusiastic dog who blackmailed me for pats and Sarah's cute niece who insisted I colour a tree and I happily obliged. Then off we went with Rebecca driving.

I google scouted for possible locations prior to the shoot. Google Maps is great because sometimes photographers would leave landscape images and you can see what's in the area. The stretch of beach around Torquay to Lorne be nice to explore. 

The Shoot

We arrived in Torquay after a few hours and came to a surf beach, a little further than the town, spotting a secluded part that looked to be attached to stairs. In our enthusiasm we grabbed everything and trekked down several flights to discover it ends at a rather perilous stony outcrop with 'beware' signs everywhere. Not to be deterred as we were three determined young ladies, we climbed down the rocks.

 

 Sarah touching up the makeup. 

We stayed about half an hour shooting two looks, watching the surfers pass us with raised eyebrows which tells us we should perhaps look for a different location. It was all well and good but we hadn't realized how strenuously hot Melbourne summers actually were. Arriving at the foot of the stony outcrop rendered us in sighs of discontent and the next 4-6 flights of stairs had us collapsing in heart hammering exhaustion and delirious pants. 

 Me. Climbing up stairs. The flushed cheeks and near panic I was in cannot be seen but it's there. 

It was just the heat and bright unbroken sun weighing down relentlessly on our heads, and we didn't have enough shade or water so cue heat stroke and us hightailing it out of there to collapse in bliss in the air-conditioned room of McDonald's back at Torquay. After an hour we were ready to take on the challenge again so we drove through a winding track to somewhere near Lorne. On the way we were stopped by a police car, and got a ticket for using the brakes to keep clear of the car in front of us...........well, always remember to budget for random ticket violations.....

 Isn't this better. No rocks in sight and nothing to climb!

The next beach was so much better, beautiful clear waters and accessible from the road. There was a mob of young men having a barbie (barbeque in Australia) and they called out to us to join them for a spot of beach volley. Smilingly, we shook out heads and walked on by really quickly before bursting into laughter when we rounded into the next stretch.  And then we had two men approach where we were setting up. What a conundrum. With location shoots onlookers may sometimes be a problem, these in particular got the hint quickly so we were able to continue!

My theme for this story is inspired by lomo photography with those vibrant dashing colours and hazy light flares. Since I don't have a lomo camera, I'd do as much as I can and then adjust during post processing. Bright sunlight can be hard to work with, usually resulting in harsh shadows and squinted eyes. If one has strobes you can try to overpower the sun to highlight the model subject and darken the background among other techniques. What I wanted however was a smooth light with limited shadows and preferably some lens flare, I shot around 1/500 shutter speed and 5.6 f stop and mostly where there were breaks in between clouds. Ideally I should've brought that reflector but alas the lack of multiple arms. Shooting at the beach also has a few other problems- sand gets everywhere. Protect the camera and lens by shielding with your body and checking frequently and cover wardrobe with protective sheets or towels where possible. For wardrobe changes use walls of towels or areas away from the general public.

Shooting. Also remember to wear something comfortable and something you can wear to jump into the ocean with!

 Rebecca having a lark.

She always avoids the camera! Here we get a smile from Sarah.

 Rebecca posing with the teddy bear.

 Shooting. It's the last look and the end of the day, the light is great!

After multiple changes we gladly wrapped up to go home, but not before stopping for drinks and a spot of food so back to Maccas (McDonald's) for us.

 Team shot!

The day ended well regardless of the initial hiccup, I certainly had a lot of fun and it's always great when we get all the changes and looks we needed. A few things to keep in mind for future location or beach shoots- bring WATER and hats and preferably plan the shoot during autumn or spring.  

Prep

A shoot often begins long before call-time. It starts weeks or even months in advance with an idea  and then prep time starts. At the moment I am arranging a whole weekend shoot focusing on beauty work with Sarah Baxter when she emailed me a list of ideas she had. I'm such a fan of her work since the first day we met and she showed me what clean makeup and beauty actually was. She is now enrolled in a hair course so we'll be trying out some new looks!

Unlike a few other shoots, this weekend involved considerably less prep time than usual even though it's no less stressing. We've decided not to involve a stylist and keep it fairly casual. To start off with we emailed each other back and forth with ideas and descriptions and photo references and highlighted those which we were interested in and then we went away to research.

Research is so very important especially when creating an editorial story (double name here, an editorial -is- a story). I'm now focused on photographing both beauty and fashion stories which means I need to know that I can pull out 4-6-10 distinct, different and hopefully amazing images which has complementary themes and can convey a sense of a storyline. However research is still important in shoots not involving editorials. Occasionally I get very strong ideas about what I'm going to create, to the point that I can sit and sketch out the looks and the poses and lighting and setting, and other times the idea is vague so I build upon it. I go and peruse my favourite photographers' sites and images and books and music and magazines and everything that I like and am inspired by and draw together bits and pieces. A lot of times during research I also come across a particular photographic technique I'm not familiar with and if it suits the concept, it's a good time to try it =)

Then comes the practical prep, finding team members and models. I secured my assistant (with much reluctance on his part) and other times I'd usually also try to find hair and wardrobe stylists. For models I like using modelmayhem.com for castings or I'd call up agencies requesting models to test. Agencies are a whole story onto themselves.

It's important to find models with the right look for the concepts and to make sure everyone involved as part of the creative team are on the same page, hence more emails and narrowing down choices and finalizing details. Tonight, two days before the shoot I wrote out all the ideas and marked down the looks and who's doing what. This also helps in laying out the schedule for the day so we can make sure to fit everything in. 

Tomorrow I'll be checking out all the equipment (however meager they are), recharging batteries, grocery shopping, apartment cleaning, going through my notes for the umpteenth time and wait with eager anticipation for morning. My stomach is already rumbling with stress and excitement. How invigorating!

Beauty Shoot- Caroline

Just realized I kept wanting to update but kept putting it off 'til the next shoot and then the next shoot and then another shoot. This semester I've completed 6 major shoots, worked with heaps of awesome new people and hopefully significantly boosted my portfolio another level. It's great because I can now really concentrate on compiling my print book!

Couple of months ago (it always seems a couple of months ago), I met up with Portia Peacey whose makeup and hair work I've noticed for quite a while, so it's quite exciting to finally collaborate on something. We decided on avant garde hair with a European Nordic theme and contacted Sarah (Baxter) to hopefully do makeup. Now I've mentioned Sarah a few times, we first worked together early in the year and her clean beauty work simply blew me away. It was one of the definitive turning moment in my work so anyone can imagine how hilariously happy I was.

Beauty is a big part of the fashion industry- all those skin care, makeup, hair products, perfume, jewelery ads are in most parts beauty photography. It's all about perfection- perfect hair, perfect skin, meticulous makeup application, phenomenal faces, phenomenal lighting and it involves a great team working together which is stressed even more given how the slightest imperfection would be brought up in beauty work. The biggest mistake when trying to shoot beauty is thinking that all that is needed is makeup or a beautiful model, and while beauty usually utilize beautiful models (and makeup) it's actually a combination of everything which focuses on skin, hair and makeup. It's about the art and the perfection and if one facet fails, the whole image fails. This is also perhaps why many would mistake portraiture or glamour work for beauty when they aren't really.

This is Sarah, uber cute! She's standing in for a light test =D

Sarah working on Caroline, our model of the day.

Portia attempting the hair which is a white faux piece styled on the model's own hair.

We are yet again in my little apartment studio so we're working around the bench and table. We are joined by Caroline from Chadwicks and Vlad who's assisting me. The shoot itself it set up against a white wall and I wanted a really nice bright clean type of lighting so (and here's the semi scary part where due to lack of equipment and making do with what we have) we hooked up one of the hotlights on a hanger and hung it through the vent in the ceiling. This serves as my main front light.

Portia subtly changed the hair for three looks while Sarah did a clean face with blue eyeshadow, then blue and silvery lips and then a lovely orange lip.

 

Sarah and Portia stepping in to fix stray hair.

A valiant attempt to introduce a back hair light.

This was possibly the quickest ever shoot we have ever done. It lasted about half a day and Caroline was superb just easing into each change with rapid succession. I did learn however that white is notoriously difficult to light without losing details and definition, so that is something to focus on for next year ;)

 

 

 

Makeup Sarah Baxter

Hair Portia Peacey

Model Caroline @ Chadwick

Photography S de Varax

Assistant Vlad K

Summer

Melbourne has turned into a scorcher when it's not raining straight through for 6 hours. Attempting to sit through 3.5 hours of law exams twice was rather an achievement in itself and at last I'm free. Sweet sweet freedom from being cooped up for two weeks staring at tiny notes and bright computer screens!

Sarah (a very dear and darling makeup artist who recently moved to Melbourne and we've been working together for awhile) and I excitedly planned for a what promised to be phenomenal beach fashion and beauty shoot. Unfortunately, as always when I prepared for a location shoot, the skies thundered and grayed and positively threatened sleet. Slightly dramatic but I'm hugely disappointed in Melbourne 'Four Seasons' weather!

Just the other day popped in again at Insert Name Here to see Airdrie and met the newest designers who joined the store. Eva Q is a must watch young couturist, her current collection an exemplar of hand sewn delicacy, while Hamish of T Shirt Garage produces comfortable male and female tees grafted with muscle car designs. It was Hamish's welcome evening and somehow I got roped in to shooting runway and event! What an interesting experience negotiating through available light, trying to shoot quickly, quietly and with decent composition. Don't think I did so well, but it was great fun =D

I'll soon be busy with a new shoot and will be updating with images from the big editorials from months ago =D Stay tuned!

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.

Self Portraits

I started photography with self portraits (actually it began with some abstract shadows and building tops from the balcony, and of course I also photographed Cat who would get curious at the sight of this black shiny DSLR), but since I've always been more drawn to people imagery and having a lack of models I just used myself (one could also always use siblings, family, friends and random people on the street).

Self portraiture is an art in itself. It's a direct reflection on who you are as an artist, and you not only have to grapple with the conceptual imagery you wish to present but also the technical difficulties involved- focus, light fall, composition anyone? Since you're playing both roles, the majority of time would be spent on running to and fro adjusting all the details. At least I do anyway.

Self Portrait: The Shoot

Since getting my camera back from repairs, I had to try shooting again. Voila, another self portrait (see image above). First is deciding what you want to shoot. It's the same with any other shoots- the theme and details are important. In this case I was influenced by my outfit of the day- a gothic lolita skirt from ebay, a Cue long sleeved collared shirt, a pair of black and purple knee high stockings and my favourite pair of black suede boots. I wanted a white background for contrast (cleared a section of wall space) and hard lighting and shadows (one light top right). Once there is a setup, it's some experimentation getting everything else on camera right. Adjust, adjust, adjust until happy.

 

Then off I go. Trying different poses, different expressions.  One good note about using digital is that I can keep experimenting without having to worry too much. I didn't like the first 100 frames (continuous shooting on bursts of 10), until I started playing with my spectacles. Much better.

Once I get a good selection, it's off to editing, deleting those that are terrible, bad, not good enough and keeping those that are usable. I did basic corrections, lower the saturation slightly, and resized these to 11x14. I really liked a couple and combined them, thus final product:-

It's quite interesting to see the variety of ways that photographers present themselves, some even make whole portfolios of self portraits and it does push one to be as creative as they can to do something different and unique each and every time. I'd like to try the 365 days Self Portrait Project one day, so perhaps....one day =)