More fashion shoots

for some reason i started enjoying studio work and messing around with lights. It's a tad bleak, concept wise but so is my tutor's work and he's still teaching. I decided i was going to try to work with fashion people and see how that went - and shoot my Canon exclusively.



I tried to use my Ds Mark 2 as little as possible because it's more practical to wear out a uni Hasselblad than my own equipment. Sadly, i have to shoot my camera because it's the only way to start to understand and feel it properly. So most of the stuff here, if not everything was shot on an 85 mm lens or the 70-200. For light i used Bron packs as well as Bowens.




Practice is the best way to understand light and lighting techniques and it always comes as a surprise when i see the final images and figure just how it went. There's still bits and bobs to be sorted out, like proper sync and stuff, but those are details. One of the things i have about my process is that i always do a hit and miss thing before shooting. The intelligent thing would be to use what is otherwise known as an exposure meter rather than fire away 10 useless frames to test the light. I would go so far as to say that it also gets your brain going as well, measuring and imagining. But these are the downsides of digital - commodity.

Fashion Shoots and Complaints

Right. We're in between two shoots, slightly worn out, both inside and outside, feeling like my shoes. Cracked around the edges but still functional. I just finished a shoot for Gemma, which was one of the organized fashion people. Her ideas were ok, very well prepared and nice to work with. Like most fashion students, there has been a lot of reflective golden stuff on the clothes, which apparently is "in" these days. Just quoting a living classic "people seem to like clothes they can see themselves in, much like mirrors". I found that to be quite true as well, surprisingly enough.

On a similar note, yesterday i had quite a fun shoot with a couple of third years for their fashion magazine thing. The final images were for the front cover, rear cover and a few shots for one theme inside. If i'm not mistaking, my cabaret shooting a while back is part of the same magazine as well. Anyway, here's one of the images from the theme. I decided i wasn't going to put too many just yet. Because i am lazy and can't be asked to do so.



In the complaints and grievances department, i am still unbelievably annoyed at how the internet in the university works. I would have thought that two months would be plenty of time for anyone to fix it. I was apparently wrong. Also in that department, i have discovered a new thing that annoys me. People who take the elevator to the first floor. I gave it a lot of though and i guess that everyone from fashion, with big bags and such has so many books, their tiny arms could rip from the shoulders and fall to the ground on that long, winding staircase. Not to mention the fear of heights, when you look between the railing. Or the health and safety issues of actually falling on the stairs with all that paper, braking and subsequently swallowing a tooth. Oh yes, i forgot. If it's coming out ironic and condescending, you're probably getting the point.

The Pirates at the Party

Had a shoot today with one of the members of the Pirate Party.

Cabret Evening

The images are a little bit lighter than they should, but that's only because of the blog uploads. Imagine they are better in reality and that should do it.

Later edit: clicking on the images will show you how they actually look.

The Hasselblad Workshop

Fine. I know it's late and i know i am incredibly lazy. I said i was going to put some images from the workshop but i didn't even manage to look through them today because i always found something better to do.

So, last Friday i was invited at a workshop organized by the company at one of their studios in London. We had a bit of a delay so o i arrived maybe 20 minutes late, due to the fact that i passed the big poster saying "Hasselblad Open Day" at least three times.



I got in and spent about two hours listening to a talk about Phocus - their dedicated software. I must note at this point in time that i find software lectures dreadful and unbelievably useless. You are meant to learn it by practice, not by staring at a guy. Strangely enough, the Hasselblad guy managed to teach us almost everything with regards to the functions of the software in those hours, and made it quite fun.



It was close to 12:50 when they noticed that people are getting a bit anxious about the whole presentation. Time to bring in the hardware. Lined up behind the 8-10 present photographers (which will be addressed from here on as "us"/"the lot")were ten shiny Penguin cases containing ten even shinier pieces of kit with various extremely shiny and sharp lenses. Let the fun begin.



All cameras had their own pocket wizard - type trigger attached to a big 180 umbrella from Pro Photo. Not going to go too much into details, just enough to say that i had the chance to play with the most fun combination of kit i have ever had the honor to see - the H3D II 50 Mpx, Tilt/Shift adapter with lens correction and the 35 - 90 mm lens. That was without a doubt the peak of the day.

Claudiu

Here's a few pictures from my last shoot with a friend. I also shot some tea pots in that weekend but somehow i don't find them overly interesting.

Jaguar Shoot

I assisted Ionut Macri on a shoot for One magazine with a brand new Jaguar some time ago. I found the "making of" pictures and decided to post them here. It was great fun really. It all lasted well past midnight.

We discovered that the fancy car had a video camera just over the rear license plate for parking and obviously took turns at photographing each other with it. That was the highlight of the evening. Enjoy.

Mariola

recent shooting for a fashion designer friend... "to show off her personality" as her boyfriend would put it