Where did that go....?

Where did that go?

The view of Hong Kong from our Air BnB apartment in Sai Ying Pun.

 It is hard to believe, but a whole year has slipped by since I managed to get my butt in front of my machine, take a few minutes away from processing and write to you all. It started with this photograph I made in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, that's when I realised it had been a year since I last wrote my blog. If you look at my previous blog you will see images of Hong Kong as that was where I was when I last wrote.

Over the last year I have been all around Taiwan on a scooter tour for National Geographic Traveller; I have flown to Shanghai and Beijing on commercial photography shoots; touched Singapore for a blink again on assignment for National Geographic Traveller; Shot a look book for a shoe company; landed an image on the cover of Harper's Bazaar Taiwan for Taipei in Style (Taipei's fashion week); completed (sort of) the Nick Knight Mastered course and pushed super hard to build my fashion photography work. I shot a campaign for SanYang Motor Company for their Jet S Scooter; returned to China to shoot a piece for National Geographic Traveller; became a Fujifilm X Photographer; began to work with Cactus Imaging to help develop new photographic equipment, and I even managed to take some time off and have a holiday in Bali. Writing it all out it does appear it has been a good year, and it is only getting better with new clients coming and my business getting stronger.

There is a lot to cover so where to begin, and should I fit it all one blog? Hmm I think that would be too long, so for now I think I will just talk about the Nick Knight Mastered Program. I will blog more and get you up to speed with experiences and photographs from all the other projects, for now though, let's talk fashion photography.

The course was intense to say the least, I had been shooting editorial portraiture almost constantly and so was a little rusty. A fashion shoot I had landed had re-ignited my passion for fashion photography, and so I stepped up to the challenge and got very busy. Now I am the only (or was) member of the Mastered Alumni in Taiwan, this means I have no other members to call on for collaborative teams. I had to find my own, trawling facebook, looking at fashion blogs and generally applying every last bit of charm I could muster, soon enough I had one. Stylist, Hair Stylist, Make Up Artist and Assistants. We were poised and ready for the first project, then bang it landed; "look at a collection from a fashion house and base a shoot on that.", we chose Moschino. If I am honest I never took any notice of Moschino, I always thought it was a bit tacky. The thing is, and what I learned was, I wasn't getting it, it highlighted that I needed to learn more about fashion as a whole. What I hadn't understood was that Moschino is the transient nature of fashion personified, and their heavy leaning toward Pop Art won me over in a big way. So we had a Pop Art feel, style and substance in everyday design, bright colours and plenty of, well...POP! 

Yilan is on the east coast of Taiwan and has an amazing black volcanic sand beach, I wanted a grey day, a grey ocean and the black/gray sand so that the fashion really leaped out. It was good fun, a good first shoot, and the start of a steep and experimental learning curve.

The next project we worked on was about working with a team. My inspiration came from a film called  Perdita Durango. A great film staring Rosie Perez and Javier Bardem with a twisted love story narrative that includes a lot of reference to Santeria, a voodoo religion practiced in Mexico. I took the idea some of the beliefs, becoming a warrior, the five Saints and the Nagual. The Nagual is one with the ability to transform into a Jaguar to escape their enemies. 

Again we found ourselves in Yilan, the shoot was interesting, I am really happy with some of the shots, ultimately it drifted off track a little, we were learning, and I was pushing the team hard. Hell at one point I made my stylist make clothes out of a strip of red material on set for our model, and burned the actual clothes we had been using...

The good thing about the Nick Knight Mastered program is that now I am a member of the Alumni, I am able to go back and look at all the material as much as I like. I am also able to contact people all around the world and work with them. I learned a great deal already and will talk about that more in the next blog.

I bet from the start you thought this was going to be a long blog, I did too, but that is no fun as we are all busy. To sum this one up, Mastered with Nick Knight was ok, I learned about working with a team, about me, about organisation and about fashion. I also had a long conversation with the director of the Mastered group as there were a few things that I just wasn't happy with. Overall it has been a good thing to do and as my career in fashion photography grows, being part of the Mastered Alumni will come in handy I am sure.

One thing is for sure, I absolutely bloody love working with a big team and making fashion photography, being surrounded by creativity is a privilege I am lucky to enjoy. 

Next time I will talk more about fashion and you will see and hear how my direction has developed, I will show you a before and after photograph so you can get an idea about the post production I do, and the level I work to.

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 question, booking, assignment etc..

Love to all.