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.

Hong Kong again, and Nick Knight Mastered.

Well July has been and gone, but while it was here Mrs. L and I were in Hong Kong. She was there for two weeks running around like a headless chicken with work, so to try and keep her from going completely mad I tagged along too.

Not being one for sitting around and twiddling my thumbs, I made the most of the time I had while I was there, setting up meetings with Agents and Editors, making a portrait and of course catching up with all my friends in this crazy city.

AirBNB provided us once again with a great apartment, this time smack bang in the middle of Mid-Levels, just off the escalator. If you haven't been to Hong Kong, there is a thing called the Mid-Levels Escalator, which claims to be the longest escalator in the world. In reality it is a series of escalators that take you all the way up from Queens Road, Central to Conduit Road, Mid-Levels. To be accurate (I bet there are some out there huffing), it is the longest series of covered escalators in the world.

The view from the apartment we stayed in was simply breathtaking, I just would never get bored of it, making plenty of photographs as you can see. Even though some were made only minutes apart they are all different. Well, the weather and light conditions are never the same twice are they... 

Created using my Fujifilm X-E2 and it's in-built Pano feature.

I wanted to make a comparison between my little Fujifilm X-E2 and my Nikon D800e, the above image is from the Fuji and the below from the Nikon. They were made about 3 minutes apart from each other, which do you prefer?

Shot on my Nikon D800e using a 14-24mm 2.8 Nikon ultrawide.

While in HK I always take the opportunity to meet up with friends and clients, some of which I am happy to say are both. It was during an evening catching up and having a drink that I was told a magazine was looking for a shot of HK that made you feel how densely populated it is, and give a feeling of claustrophobia. There is a famous shot looking up from the ground in the old walled city which was offered as an example. The walled city is long gone but it's still fairly easy, if you are brave enough to venture into the little back alleys between the towering, stretching apartment buildings to find shots that give this feeling. The brief called for shots without the usual HK buildings in, so sadly the skylines I had been shooting all week were not what was wanted. I had the perfect shot of course, but it was on my hard drive back in Taiwan (bugger) and the two shots below didn't quite meet the brief either, not to worry. Sadly after a week of glorious sunshine, the weather had decided to throw down torrential rain for the second week, and boy did it. I was lucky to grab these two images in a 10 minute break in the weather. If you think photography is glamorous, try standing in a big puddle, at the backside of an apartment block, with unspeakable human detritus all around you in flamin' flipflops, I was on the verge of bringing up my lunch. Still even though the shots weren't used, I really like them, so I guess it was worth it, right?

Braving the nasty, filthy, stinking and flooded alley to get this. 

Thankfully a less unpleasant place to pitch my tripod, right by the mid-levels escalator for this one.

A fairly typical view from the Mid-Levels Escalator as I head up from Queens Road, Central.

The above shot was a kind of taste of street life. I feel I have been neglecting my street photography a little so will try and bring you a street photography special soon. Back to the Cityscapes...... 

Hong Kong is the most vertical city in the world, so it makes sense to throw a portrait orientated shot of it in.

Just waiting for that moment for the sun to set and the city light up, this was always going to be a winner. My favourite.

With my usual peculiar sleep pattern in full effect, I discovered that my friend had posted a thing on Facebook about the Nick Knight Mastered Program. Ever since I first started on this long road of photography, right at the beginning, back in the early 90's before I walked away from it all I fell in love with the work of Nick Knight. His lighting ability has always been the biggest inspiration to me, so naturally now that I am back in the game I was intrigued to find out more about this opportunity.

I guess it was somewhere between 3 and 4 in the morning, I had woken up, seen the facebook link and decided why not, nothing to loose. I filled out the application all the time thinking; "hell I'll never get selected for this course." 

Blow me down with a feather, I only went and did get selected, and now I am on it and both excited and nervous in almost equal measure. It is a great opportunity, the energy from my course mates is wonderful and the build up to it all starting is gathering momentum. The actual start date is at the end of September, at the moment we are getting daily news about who we will be working for/with, setting the projects, mentoring our progressing and guiding our paths to become more focused photographers. We not only have Nick (which is fantastic on it's own), but also 10 and Oyster magazines, the Editor in Chief of Lula and now Vox Populi are also lined up for us to submit our work to and learn from, it seems a new announcement of who is joining occurs daily.

It is all amazing to be part of, I am sure it will be a challenging 4 months of hard work, I will try and keep my blog up to speed with what is going on and how I am progressing, wish me luck, and enough energy...haha. 

This photograph made by Nick Knight is one of the reasons I strive with my work.

Never a truer word spoke.

 I'll leave at this, I have to go to the gym, it is taking some effort to address the beer and burger fest' that was Hong Kong. I need to be in shape and fighting fit to perform at my best over the coming months. We have friends coming from Austria and the UK, they will be getting a tour of Taiwan, fingers crossed I will be able to see them as well as work, I am sure I will manage one way or another as am really looking forward to seeing them and showing them the wonderful country we get to live in, I expect I may even make some photographs you lovely peeps will see on here in the future.

As ever, thank you for taking the time to look at my work, please go ahead and share it, leave a comment or ask any questions you may have.

Should you need a photographer, feel free to get in touch anytime, I am always happy to hear from people around the world regarding any work they would like to talk about. You can reach me here or through my website: www.duncanlongden.photography

Hit me up on Instagram (my following is growing, but I want it to really fly), Tumblr and Twitter for all the most up to date news and exclusive photographs.

Take care, talk of what you love, not what you don't.

Cheers,

Duncan.

BRAND NEW WEBSITE......

 

Brand New Website.

Hello.

Yep, it has finally arrived, my brand new website. The couple of busy months I had put it on a back burner, however I was forced into addressing the situation as my time with Behance ProSite was due to come to an end. Of course had spent some time looking around researching the best options for me. Basically easy to use, with a clean and simple interface for all involved, eventually I have settled on a site from Squarespace, hopefully you will agree with my choice, feel free to let me know.

Click here: www.duncanlongden.photography and this is where you will end up, you can see all my latest work, in both portraits and fashion plus a few examples of my product work. You can also find links to my Instagram feed and my Twitter feed, follow me on either to keep up to speed on where I am, and what I'm doing on a daily, if you're interested.

As you can see there is some more emphasis on my fashion work, I have been really enjoying being back in the fashion scene and making shoots with other talented creative people. I had forgotten how much I love the process and the results. You can see the final shots from my latest project "The Wanderling" on my site, I'll post a couple of extra shots from that shoot on this blog too, be a little patient and read the words, or just scroll down and have a look, after all I'm not a writer, I'm a photographer.

Prior to "The Wanderling", we made a shoot with the delightful Julia on a rather windy north coast beach. Julia secured designs from James Ma for the shoot, we had the pleasure of Vera Chien working brushes for hair and make up, and my wonderful assistant Choncy is back after being poached by Martin Scorsese (can you believe the bloody cheek of that?). My gosh it was certainly windy and that pesky sand gets everywhere, it even found a way into my Bowens battery pack, it's now at the repair shop. Here are a few from the beach...

Currently I find myself back in Hong Kong for a couple of weeks, this was part of the reason I was working so hard on fresh fashion work recently. The Plan is to try and make meetings with more editors and also photographers agents during this visit. Hopefully they will like what they see and it will lead to more work, I am never happier than when I am busy as regular readers already know. Photography for me is like a drug, I am always looking for the next hit, and want something bigger than the last, which lead me to "The Wanderling". This project had been in my mind for months, I had tried to assemble a team, only for it not to work out. Finally, just a couple of weeks before I was due to head to HK it all came together and it was shoot day. I had arranged to work with 追梦人  (Mong Ren), a great model with a unique look, especially for Taiwan. After our original stylist fell through, she suggested we work with Raymond Chiu, he turned out to be a perfect fit for my team. Raymond is a very talented hairstylist with great vision which extends to styling for clothing too, top dude. As ever having the vivacious Anna Tian on brushes to produce amazing makeup work was an absolute pleasure. Rounding my team up once again was Choncy, Assisting and also shooting some video. Yes you heard that right, some video, a little side project while in HK so watch out for that soon. 

I would like to say a huge thank you to all the team that came together from around Taiwan to make this shoot possible, you guys rocked, made the day fun and helped create some stunning photographs, I could not have done it without you.

The concept for "The Wanderling" was inspired by cinematography, from a feel of being out in the world, I wanted to create photography that reflected road movies, drifting through small towns, dinners and truck stops. The feeling, of freedom without connections, a phrase kept running through my mind "alone, but not lonely". Like I said, head over to my new site for the final selection and also to see lots of new portraits and some product work (more will come). Below are some of the out takes from this fabulous project....

As ever, thank you for taking the time to look at my work, please go ahead and share it, leave a comment or ask any questions you may have.

Should you need a photographer, feel free to get in touch anytime, I am always happy to hear from people around the world regarding any work they would like to talk about. You can reach me here or through my website: www.duncanlongden.photography

Hit me up on Instagram (my following is growing, but I want it to really fly), Tumblr and Twitter for all the most up to date news and exclusive photographs.

Take care, talk of what you love, not what you don't.

Cheers,

Duncan.

Summer begins and I am teaching in the street....

Summer begins and I am teaching in the street....

I have been non stop for a couple of months now, and boy am I loving it. Yes I am working long hours, processing lots of shots and driving up and down the island a fair bit, and yes, long may it continue.

We have had a funny bit of weather over here (hey look you can take the man out of England but he will still talk about the weather), it was Winter, and then in like a blink the sun came out and stayed out. The island had a draught, up here in Linkou the pool closed, and the water supply was rationed. For two days a week we had to use water stored in a bath to wash, fill the cistern, etc etc. 

Over the last few weeks though it has more than made up for that, 181mm in Taichung in one night and it didn't stop there. Where the rivers were dry, they are now flowing torrents, driving back to Taipei after an event last week was an experience which demanded my utmost concentration at times, as visibility diminished in the heavy weather. We were a couple of weeks into this rain when I got the call from the guys at Frog in a Sock asking if I was interested in hitting up the pool again this summer. Well, what can a busy photographer do but grab an opportunity to get to hang out on a Saturday afternoon, listening to great DJ's spin the best vibes, surrounded by Taiwan's greatest party crowd. 

And would you believe it, the sun came out, the temperature got up into the mid 30 degrees (No I will not give that in Fahrenheit, I am British.), and global revellers poured in from all around the island to make the fun, and welcome in the start of, judging by this crowd, an epic summer.

If you're in Taiwan then bet along to the Roadcastle Waterpark and bust a move...

Vicar, the infamous crate digger played a cracking set in the heat of the afternoon.

Dj Cross Cutz got the crowd bouncing as the sun began to sink low in the sky.

Always on a good vibe with a tasty, ice cold, Frog in a Sock bucket of punch.

It's arrived, the new flag of Havana Land, all hail.

Winner of this years Taipei round of the Redbull 3Style DJ Championships, DJ Marcus Aurelius - 馬克思 Plays the closing set.

Full to the rafters and beyond, DJ Marcus Aurelius - 馬克思 rocks the crowd with his eclectic funky sounds, keeping the packed dance floor and beyond hungry for more and more.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any hotter...boom in comes the gorgeous Sam Smile and.....

....raises the roof....Literally!

In total contrast to the heady day poolside, part of what I have been doing over the last few weeks is teaching street photography using Fujifilm X100 series cameras. My student is a lovely lady named Mira, she has got herself a Fujifilm X100T, an excellent, and as ever with Fujifilm, inovative camera.

Recently I updated the firmware on my X100, it's like a different camera, thank you Fuji for the updates. I really like the focus peaking function, I am trying to practice using manual focusing as much as I can on my Fuji cameras. The X100T has a little pop up screen which helps even more with focusing, offering a magnified view  of the area in the focus point, within the main viewfinder, brilliant.

Admittedly I had been neglecting my X100 since I got the X-E2, however hitting the streets with it again reminded me what a perfectly designed bit of kit it is for street work. For me, teaching is a great thing to do, I never thought I would do it, or could do it even. Admittedly I may not be the most organised when it comes to class structure, I am very much into practical work and then discussing the shots made in the last part of each session. I enjoy very much the process of looking, and explaining how I see things and get my head and eye tuned in to the world around me. As pretentious as I may sound, I enter an almost meditative state.

It is actually lovely to be out with Mira, she has a great eye and with a little practice and familiarity with her camera it will be second nature to enter the settings to create the shots she sees. Like most things in life, it is about putting the hours in if you want to reap the rewards.

Directions.

The great strength of the X100, spot a shot, make the shot.

Encouraging Mira to explore the scene and look at more varied angles.

Heading out for our first walk around the streets, I pointed out this shop and said to Mira, "Now what we need is an older couple wearing something typical for the everyday to walk past." Sometimes you see the shot, you just have to wait a little for the right moment to catch up with your vision.

Smoking.

It was very hot around Longshan Temple on this morning.

Naked Birds.

So that has bought us to the end of this blog episode, I do hope that you enjoyed it. I will talk to you a bit more about all the editorial work I have been shooting over the last couple of months soon. I have already updated my website with a few of the portraits if you want to take a look.

I am gradually getting around to putting my site through a diet and work out to make it nice and trim, much like myself. Thankfully Mrs. L and I have a fitness centre a short walk from us with a really lovely pool and weight room. I have been trying to make the most of it, photography can be fairly physical work sometimes believe it or not. I wouldn't want to pull a muscle stretching to get the right angle for the shot I want, or even worse, not be able to get to that angle at all.

As ever, thank you for taking the time to look at my work, please go ahead and share it, leave a comment or ask any questions you may have.

Should you need a photographer feel free to get in touch anytime, I am always happy to hear from people around the world regarding any work they would like to talk about. You can reach me here or through my website: www.duncanlongden.photography

Hit me up on Instagram (my following is growing, but I want it to really fly), Tumblr and Twitter for all the most up to date news and exclusive photographs.

Take care, talk of what you love, not what you don't.

Cheers,

Duncan.