Recent Activities

Had two vary diverse shoots in the last few days.

The first was a sweet young thing trying to get her name out in the industry as a Jazz Ballet dancer and into the world of Promo Modelling.  She required some head shots to send out to prospective agencies and later on we will be getting into a dance school and shooting some more action shots.

The second one was for a Personal Trainer who wanted some shots after his own transformation. He wanted some memento shots in the gym.  As it is a big franchise gym and it was open at the time of the shoot with customers we couldn't use any flash. It also had terrible lighting, it was dim and the large gas vapour lamps hanging from the warehouse style ceiling threw light is bizarre directions.
For this reason I had to shoot at high ISO and limited depth of field which wasn't ideal.

Shoot previously under wraps

Some of the images from a shoot last year that were done for a project and until now had been under wraps.  Worked with some talented models and artist. Unfortunately I haven't got everyones names & contact details.


Some of the talent includes.

Body Paint:

Laurie Faulkner

Fantasy Graphic Body Arts

Gina Nomachi

Bellarina B

Models:

Jay Miller

Jay Miller, Body Paint: Gina 

Body Paint: Laurie Faulkner

, Body Paint: Gina, Jay Miller

Censored

These images are so overtly sexual…really?  I have been asked to do some censored versions for face book. Now look kids it is just a Barbie doll…lol


The barbie one is quite rough…..

Crash

I spent the entire day finely editing all the little details, edges, putting in  highlights on the body and reflections, shadows etc on the spoon, file was so big it took 30 min each save and on the final save the computer crashed and corrupted the file.  I have a half way point save backed up, don't exactly remember what processes I did, it is sort of organic in nature as I see something I adjust it, tweak it until it just looks right and real.  So back to the drawing board and come up with something similar.

It would be interesting to see how close the second versions final outcome is to the first or if the creative path leads someplace else……….Since the file is lost I guess we will never know.

Alyssa

Commercial Truck Shot

Behind the scenes of a recent photoshoot of a cement mixer. The locations shots had been done the day before and we were shooting a studio lit side profile for the catalogue.  This was one big cyclorama!

It had a real weird feeling when you first walked in as it was so huge yet it felt flat and shallow. You had this sense that you would walk in to the back wall at any moment yet it kept going deeper. As soon as there was a person or single object inside it lost this sense. Funny how light and space play tricks.

The truck even had its own make up artist in the form of a car detailer on hand to keep it looking schmick!

Apocalypse Bears

Me screwing around……………..

Drafts

Rough job of to test fit the model and spoon, still need to tidy up masks, retouch model add in shadows and reflections on spoon etc.  In other words a long way off being a final.  Below is a variation, a bit more theatrical and comic.

Few more test fits, might not use any of these.

Sneak Peak

Original

Idea is to place one of the finished shots in her hands.

Look Sheet Spoon Project

This shoot is really perplexing me in some ways as I can't full resolve it in my head.  I can visualise the overall and largely the posing and have been able storyboard it as a result.  I know the style in which I want to light it, the type of model, the pose and the condition of the utensils….May throw in some old tools for good measure too.


But as for the hair and make up I am really struggling to visualise it.  Normally I have a clear idea and get unsettled when the Hair Stylist & MUA don't quite get there lol. I'm that predetermined.

For some reason however this shoot it's not the case.   I'm shooting on a black back drop as i don't have a dark mottled muslin backdrop. But figure I can drop in some texture later on. The lighting will have deep shadows so the eyes can't be too dark & heavy as the shadows will already be pocketed in the eye sockets.

The one thing I do know is i want striking oversized lashes,  I think I am developing a lash fetish lol.. The more I see them the more I love 'em..

Story Board...

Story Board….…Theme Board…….Concept Board……Pretty Explanatory Pictures what ever you want to call 'em.

These are some for my shoot sat to try and convey what I am try to achieve to the models.  It isn't easy to get this right when the model is posing with a non existent prop.  All the utensils are ordinary normal, real world scale items from my kitchen.  So I have mocked these (rough) images up to explain how they are interacting with the item and to help get them into pose so it look realistic in the final images. The purpose shot ones should have he angles and lighting matching up.

Fork Follow Up……...

I have decided to do a series based on the fork…(see post a few below).

Some of the utensils will be a Chef's Knife, a Spoon, Rolling-Pin, etc.

In two days time, this Sat I will be shooting the lovely Alyssa for the series.

This is a shot of Alyssa by Caveboy Studios.  I believe that is/was her partner in the background, not sure of the status.

In a few weeks I should have some edited pics to post, so stay tuned!

Test Edits.

Some quick edits to test some post production techniques.

I had a concept in mind for this edit but, ended up going a different way.  Will have to go back and try the original idea on another more suited image.  That is the luxury of doing personal work for arts sake over commercial work where a desired outcome is briefed. With personal work you are free to take the image where it leads you organically.  I guess it is that process which skills you up for being able to achieve a set end point from a fixed start.

The edit is real rough on this one, just wanted to test it for the exotic skin color.

Which do you prefer,  Natural or Exotic???

Angel de Cocina

Making arrangements to shoot more like this to create a series.  Next I think will be a spoon.