Oops, i've been away

I know I said I was going to constantly update my blog, but i've been away.. and or busy. So therefore, I have a few photos to show for the few weeks I haven't updated for. So lets just get started and straight to the pics.

I can't even remember the order these photos were taken in, but I think this is probably one of the earlier ones this month. This guy had won (earned) a contract with some NRL training camp where he gets to be on their watch list and potentially play NRL. I don't know NRL so it's a pretty rough idea of what it really is. 

It's a pretty basic portrait, but what I like about it is the full body portrait, which is something i've been conscious about lately. I'd gone through a lot of my work in the past, and a lot of portraits I always cut off their feet at the ankles, or thighs, which has always annoyed me. Either shoot tight, or shoot the full body, so now I like the full body look and i'll try this for a while and see how it turns out. 2 light set up, set off with the SU-800. 1x high up near his face and the other one was down low near his legs, to the right which filled in a bit of light. THe original shot was too dark down there, so the light really makes the image pop out, just that extra bit. Other technical jargon - under exposed the background -1EV to make it a bit more dramatic.

This story was about an elderly couple, pictured, who were about to lose their house in Gladstone, as they can no longer afford the rising rental prices in this town. I had another shot where you could see that this guy had his arm chopped off, we ended up running that, but the lady had he hand under her chin, which made her look silly. So I am personally a bit conflicted between the 2 and which I like. I like this only cos she doesn't look as weird, but the one where his arm is chopped off adds more to the story. If it wasn't for the paper, i'd photoshop the 2 together.. bu I can't do that... Lighting setup, again, another light off camera to the right (you can see the shadow behind them) in hindsight i'd rectify that to make it less obvious, but, too late. Only 1 light and under exposed the BG (background) -1EV as per usual.

Another sad story about some girl who's Dr or something shortage.. wasn't paying attention.. but lighting was clamped onto the stairs above them, wide beam to illuminate a large portion of them, and underexposed the BG to add a more dramatic feel to the image.

Now this is where I forget which comes first, so i'm just gonna throw them all up and briefly explain them all.

These 2 are probably my favourite portraits i've taken for a very long time. why? its nothing special? perhaps, but I really like the lighting and the environment he's in, Combine it all together and it makes a really nice photo. This guy didn't want his photo taken, which was the news I got told before I went out and had to convince him to get his photo taken. Turns out he was pretty cool, he didn't mind, but I made his life easier by having these photos done in 30 seconds. I shit you not. I got there a little early and had time to set up, The car park was in a perfect spot where you could see the refinery in the background, which adds interest to the shot, and most importantly, where he would be standing is in shade, no stray light interfering with the flash or anything. Told him to stand there, 'click click click click' "All done mate. See ya later." And that was that.

Speedlight was on a tripod on the boot of the car, right to his face. Nice rembrandt lighting . Simple.

Not into fashion photography. I dread it. The thought of it makes me uneasy. Not because I can't shoot it and not because I'm shit at it.. I kind of am, but only because I don't know how to pose the models. As a doco shooter, you capture things in motion, as it happens before your eyes. Editorial portraits/Environmental portraits are one thing, but fashion.. *shudder* just cannot. SO with this shoot I really kind of struggled in posing her, making it look.. fashion-like. We were in a clothes store in Gladstone and I had one of the flashes clamped onto one of the rails to the left, set at about 24mm to let off a wide beam of light. I wanted to be different and experimented with the 50mm lens. Shot it at 1.8 which normally isn't a good idea, but I really wanted to have the focus only on my subject. In a perfect world i'd pull out the 70-200 @200mm, but with the 50mm I was already backed up against the wall. So basically this is the shot we got. I like the shadow infront of her caused from the window behind her.

P.S they ran this image on the Weekend liftout, which In ever knew existed.. shows how much I know about my own paper.. oops.. Here's how it looked.

Similar set up with this shot, but shot it with the 28-70 @ 28mm. Again, I had no ideas on how to pose this model, the only thing I could think of was 'movement' so I asked them to find a 'flowy' dress. Ended up with this. Turned out better than I thought. I'm happy.

Brief: Try not to buy pets for Xmas as people dump them. This is true, and it pisses me off when people throw away animals cos they are no longer able to look after them. Such a shame. Having 3 dogs and Cats, this was somewhat personal for me. I wanted the image to be sad, somewhat. I really wanted to have a photo of a dog behind the cage looking sad, but that would make the RSPCA look bad, so I went for a happy medium. They wanted a shoot outside in the garden with the dogs running around. Wasn't going to happen. That was too happy a photo. We went inside the dog cage and shot it like this. I wanted people to see the bars, the sterile colours and the concrete. This would emphasise the point I wanted to make. 'These dogs will end up back in jail if you dump them.' 1x Speedlight, high to the left @between 35-50mm to get a beam not too wide, as the flash was about 2m from them.

Kids, read more books! this is my interpretation of that brief. On the job slip it asked for library workers to pose for me, they all bailed so we (I) found some kids to be willing volunteers. I really wanted the DOF and line of focus to run down the books and end up on the kids, however the aisles weren't long enough so that didn't happen. Shot with 70-200 @200mm, 2x Speedlights above high and adjacent to each child set at 70mm to get a nice beam and create that light on the ground under them. I'd like the BG to be a bit darker.. or have some interest in the background, but I didn't and there isn't, but the image still looks nice IMO.

Real simple photo showing off some artists painting, I don't know why I like it. I just do. I like the ambient WB which is Orange, and how it contrasts with the cold white flash.

Simple dance rehearsal photo. Nothing to it. No flash, 70mm 1/125? @2.8, some stupid ISO, probably 8000. Could be wrong.. can't be bothered looking at the EXIF data, if you want to, by all means do so.

Had to take photos of people out and about in Gladstone and I always saw these kids riding around at the skate park. So me being me, I wanted to shoot it. And I did. I had a really cool idea of doing portraits of kids while another one did tricks in the BG. This is how they turned out sorta. With our portrait model I had 2x Speedlights @ 70mm, as it was BRIGHT afternoon sun, and it would need a lot focused light to overcome the sun and get a nice blue in the image.

This is how it was meant to look, but stupid kid looked away. But it's still cool.

Just some photo I liked.

Finally, there was sport, always shoot sport. I was going to upload more softball pics but they all look the same. This ones different cos she gets hit by the ball. I laughed.

So that's the end of my blog. It was a long one, and i'm tired from writing it.. hope you enjoyed it as it's been awhile. Anyway until next time, probably next next week. I'll see you then!

PS I graduated.

I used the Observer paper cos I thought it'd be a good laugh. The girls at work found my graduation photos and posted them all over the office, and they ALL loved the Observer paper in my hands. haha.

Ciao.