What I said at the end of the last one...

What I said at the end of the last one...

Hello again, I hope you are well and all that good stuff. If you read my last blog (I hope you did, and if you didn't, well off you go, read it and we will see you back here in a minute or two, it's short don't stress.), you will be kind of up to speed with my move toward the fashion world. You'll have seen I got experimental and enjoyed myself exploring my capabilities and understanding of image making. Basically I had been having fun and pushing myself, my team and my learning curve close to the max. Then Mrs. L said something to me, and she was right (as is often the case). She said, "your work was better before you started this course.". She didn't mean technically, more aesthetically, I had veered somewhat. Although I felt my skills with lighting, my cameras, and directing my team were better, I had drifted off down some path of incoherent experimentation. In itself, this is no bad thing, but it doesn't bring the bread in, and I am a professional after all. So, yes I had grown as a photographer, but I had also been over complicating things, and loosing direction. 

Having decided I want to shoot more commercial fashion, I know I must think about the product, the fashion. Of course I will continue with my love of portraiture, I guess I like to work with and photograph people. It is also good to shoot more experimental creative work, but on my time, or when a more creative publication allows me to really go for it.

Well, make it more simple I thought...

Fe Dolly (a designer from Taipei) created some outfits and we booked a couple of models for the shoot....

Now it looks more simple, and I guess it was, but I had made an error again. My focused was too much on the location and not enough on the clothes, they are fighting each other in the shots. I had also thought it was a good idea to shoot video at the same time. I am moving toward adding video making to my arsenal, shooting and produce fashion video is a very interesting area, more on that in another blog. Overall I am happy enough with this shoot, but I do feel it could have been better, I learned a lot from it, saw that I have come along way and am more mature and aware as a fashion photographer now, a lot more mature.

We got ready for this shoot in a poorly lit place, that didn't help. Basically, Make Up Artists (MUA) need light. The closer to the light we will be shooting in, the better. An LED torch, although diffused nicely and even is not the best. My poor MUA struggled and I had a hell of a lot of work to do. Now I don't make my models thinner, but I will work on their skin and make up if I have to. So here is a after and before example, you get an idea of the work I have to put in...

As you can see quite a lot of work, and I ended up with about 12 frames of each model, it was a lot of late nights. To get to the finished image was taking 1-4 hours depending, not much fun, but lots of time to think.

My conclusion was to remember it's about the fashion, the outfits, the look, the bags, shoes, hats and accessories. Yes the location is important, of course it is, but it can't be more important than the clothes. Also I need to buy an LED light panel that is battery powered, this will help in poorly lit prep areas and also with my video making.

Time to get another shoot organised, getting a team together and keeping it simple is a plan I stuck too. Rong Chen was our wonderful model and perfect for this shoot, we titled it "White Hot on the Rocks"...

We called it "White Hot on the Rocks" (WHR), because, well it was really bloody hot, Rong is wearing white, and I think you can guess the rest. I was finally pleased with where I was heading and over the moon with the team on this one. It was simple, straight forward, Rong worked well with us (She is in Milan currently, book her and work with her if you can. I can't wait for her to be back so we can shoot again.), within a few hours we were done. I was really happy, and still am, I feel confident I know I am heading in the right direction, the direction I want to head in. Keep it simple, keep it clean, keep it about the clothes, the fashion.

That about wraps up this blog, before you go though here are a couple of extra shots from the WHR shoot, see how much fun we have....

Sadly my assistant for the day Michael Geier had buggered off to find a sunset photograph up a mountain, or he would have been in this, which is my favourite post shoot team shot ever. Wearing the glasses Hair and MUA, Anna Tian, on Fujifilm X-Pro2, Me and looking gorgeous, Model Rong.

Yep, found a river, it's hot, lets paddle..... 

Who needs to go up a mountain to get a dramatic shot, the light came to us, and we loved it, don't you. I really adore it when Taiwan gives us a view like this.

Next time I am going to address the issue of a Tripod, and some technique advice, maybe some other bits too.

Until then, check out my Website, Instagram , Tumblr, Twitter and Linkedin. Remember to LIKE COMMENT and FOLLOW.

Feel free to get in touch, if you have a questions, bookings, assignments etc..

Love to all...