Something A Bit Different
I haven’t been out shooting much lately mostly due to weather and a lack of time.
Amanda needed a photo for something so I threw this together one night after the kids went to bed. I hadn’t tried a beauty shot with a reflector underneath to bounce light up. Unfortunately one of my studio lights decided to die so I had to do it with a black background (black sheet pegged to curtain) and use my Sb80DX Speedlite as a hair light.
I would have rather done it with a white background but that’s life 🙂
Nikon D90, 50mm f1.8 Lens, 1 x Electra 500W Compact Studio Light, 1 x Sb80DX Speedlite, 1 x 40′ Silver Reflector.
Adventures In Assisting: Wind, Birds and Duct Tape
Another shoot with Bev Short, who currently has her “All Woman” exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, if you are in Wellington you should go and see it, some of the shoots are on this blog. This one was for her new Tattoo project.
This is one of those shoots that should be pretty straight forward but end up being anything but…
Driving up to the location the weather started to look ominous and as soon as I pulled in it started to rain. I was there first so started scouting around for an indoor location just in case the rain didn’t stop but luckily by the time everyone else got there it had stopped enough to go on with the original location.
Bev and Matt Middleton (SFX make-up) had spent an afternoon constructing a set of angel wings that were going to be put on the model, Andre, using duct tape (see images 3 and 4). The initial setup went well apart from the strong wind that started blowing, luckily Andre’s cousin came along with him and ended up holding the 5 foot softbox from blowing away for a couple of hours.
With wings held on with a roll of duct tape Andre came out and stood on his mark only to have the wings pretty much destroyed by the wind which led to about an hour and another couple of rolls of tape being used to hold them in place.
Once this was sorted out the next element was a dove (we only got 3) which was to be captured just as it was taking off from Andres outstretched hands… The cool thing about the doves was that once they were released they were homing and just went back to their roost… Unfortunately they were a bit camera shy and didn’t take direction too well and 1 especially liked turning its head round nearly 360 degrees which was a bit unnerving.
So after all the doves had been released we were pretty much done… Hopefully with not too much damage to Andres back taking off the wings 🙂
You can see the final image on Bevs blog HERE
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, Nikon D90, 24 f2.8 Lens.
Adventures In Assisting: All Woman Gallery Opening
Last Thursday was the opening of Bev Short’s “All Woman” exhibition at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery here in Wellington. I do a bit of assisting for Bev and had helped with a fair few of the images in the exhibition.
It was pretty damn cool to see them big and framed as a series.
Well done Bev!
Of course I took my Rolleiflex and with some 400 ISO film pushed to 3200 took several rolls during the night. Gallery lighting is not your friend when it comes to photography 🙂
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film pushed to 3200 ISO , CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Chair On Roof
You know you are heading into student housing areas when…
Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Happy Easter
Found this one from my archives… It was an assignment from university where we had to photograph an egg…
Happy Easter!
Nikon F5, 50mm f1.8 Lens, Fuji Sensia 100 ISO Film, Nikon Coolscan 5000 Scanner.
Adventures In Assisting
A couple of weeks ago (it always seems to take a couple of weeks) I did another assisting job with Bev Short for her new project. I didn’t get too much of a chance to take photos on this one as we were a bit rushed due to the fact that even though it is the middle of summer it was stupid cold and then one of the lights wouldn’t communicate so I ended up hand holding a speedlite as a rim light.
Matt Middleton the SFX makeup artist did a great job of turning a mask into a head, dubbed “Bob”,as well as doing all of Steve Francis makeup
The most amusing part was when we were just about to leave, a car pulled up and three guys got out and were a bit shocked by Steves appearance since he was still fully made up and asked him if he was alright… Wish I had got some shots of that 🙂
All in all another fun shoot and I think the final image turned out pretty damn good 🙂
Final image on Bevs blog HERE
Nikon D90, 50mm f1.8
This Is My Camera There Are Many Like It…
This is a shot I took for a post on my Rolleiflex on Sweet Photos Bro… Go check out the full post at the Sweet Photos Bro blog HERE
Assisting At The Fever Hospital
The other week I did some assisting work for Bev Short at the now infamous Fever Hospital.
As well as my usual assisting duties Bev asked if I could take some shots of her working for some future publicity. Bev usually lets me take a few shots when she is working on her own projects and I have put up some behind the scene shot previously but this meant I took quite a lot more than I usually would.
Anyway here’s what it looks like behind the scenes at one of her shoots…and yes that is a custom made snoot on the second setup 🙂 We are after all living in a number 8 wire and duct tape country…
Go see some of the finished shots HERE
My favorite shot of Bev is definitely the last one 🙂
Colour: Nikon F5, 50mm f1.8 and 35mm f2, Fuji 400H Film, Noritsu Scanner.
Black And White: Rolleiflex 2.8 E, Ilford HP5+ 400 ISO Film, CanoScan 9000F Scanner.
Spook The Horses
A couple of weeks ago Alex and I did a photo shoot for Wellington band Spook The Horses for a publicity shot for their upcoming album Brighter.
This was the first time for me shooting on a roof and the logistical quagmire of setting up lights and getting angles. Luckily we had a couple of extras to hold lights since light stands weren’t an option an apart from my equipment showing its age and a few workarounds with duct tape things went pretty smoothly (shots of setting up to come).
It was a great group of guys to shoot and I really enjoyed the shooting them 🙂
The shot was used at http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/utr/interviewMore/CID/407/N/Spook-The-Horses.utr
Go and buy their Album Brighter HERE
Canon 5dmkII, 50mm f1.8, ISO 100, 2 x 500W Electra Strobes at Full Power.
Movember Portrait Project
So Movember has ended and what better way to finish it (postponed due to camera dying) than to do a series of impersonations of famous moustaches 🙂
A big thanks to Ben for helping me out with these shots.
Natural
Chopper Reid
B J Honeycutt
Charlie Chaplin
Death Of A Friend… D70s You Will Be Missed
Last week my trusty Nikon D70s decided that after 8 years of being thrashed that enough was enough.
This post is a dedication of sorts to all the fun we have had together over the last 8 years…
This is the last shoot it ever took… Finishing up the shoot for Spook The Horses on a rooftop in Wellington… You will be missed 😦
All Images Nikon D70s (deceased), Various Lenses and ISOs
Marms
Alex aka Marms (his Tumblr HERE) doing the all important stand-in for testing lighting during our band shoot on a roof…
Nikon D70s, 50mm f1.8 Lens, ISO 200, 1x Electra 500W Strobe
Darkhalide Photography 
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