No Flash In The Pan!!

Until fairly recently I had used some cheap ebay triggers for studio and location work which worked fine the majority of the time but became increasingly frustrated with the number of misfires I was getting – you get what you pay for I guess.  I replaced these with a set of Yongnuo RF603 triggers which were a real improvement and my misfire problems were a thing of the past.  A friend of mine Stu Glen was in raptures about a set of Pixel Kings he had recently bought and the virtues of High speed Sync (HSS) which worked with both hot shoe flashes and studio strobes.  I was close to investing in a set but then read that Yongnuo were about to release a similar trigger, the YN-622C, the rest as they say is history!!

These are my thoughts, admittedly based upon one location shoot, about the new trigger.  The   YN 622C is a fairly substantial piece of kit and solidly built with a metal hot shoe attachment.  It is a 2 way transceiver with seven channels and 3 flash groupings available.  Functions available include TTL ratio control, manual selection of power output for different groups and HSS.  The unit runs on 2 AA batteries, has an on off switch together with controls for group and channel setting and a test button, something I missed having on the 603.

My main motivation was to use these on location with my Bowens lights / Travelpak set up so I headed out with the lovely Sharon to try them out in the field.  Set up is a doddle with one trigger locked on to the camera, secured with a locking screw, with the other attached to the Bowens Gemini 500 strobe via a cable which screws into the side of the unit.  The units worked really well throughout the shoot, firing faultlessly, though to be fair the camera to flash distances were not too demanding.  Towards the end of the shoot I really pushed the HSS,  or Super Sync as they call it, and the images posted were all shot at f1.4 and between 1/2000 and 1/4000 sec,  iso 100, which obviously throws up a lot of creative possibilities for future shoots.  So a really promising start and to say I was pleased with their performance is an understatement, will hopefully get to shoot a lot more with them before the winter weather finally arrives.

 

Just Dance

Recently had an enquiry from Jade who is currently in her final year of dance training at Bird College in London.  Jade wanted some images that she could use for upcoming auditions with a few fun ones thrown in for herself.  The shoot took place at Banana Studio in Newcastle with Alex Pretswell on hand to do hair and make up.   I really enjoyed working with her, although she was a little nervous at the start she quickly settled into the pace of the shoot and produced some really elegant, powerful poses that showed her athleticism and grace.  Shooting these images has inspired me to do some more dance related stuff and that has been put on my to do list for 2012.

Rae of Sunshine

Well this was a shoot that was almost cancelled because of the weather, the forecast was pretty poor and it looked like we were not going to get any good light.  On the morning of the shoot I got up  early to chek out the webcam that overlooks the location and it didn’t look too bad so we decided to give it a go.  I made the short trip up the A1 /A19 and through the Tyne Tunnel to Tynemouth to meet Charlene who you will probably recognise from previous shoots on the blog.  Tynemouth is a popular area well known to the people of the north east because of the beach but also draws its fair share of surfers and scuba divers.  The plan was to shoot a couple of outfit changes in and around the beach area, including an old outdoor swimming pool which had been thoughtfully re painted before the shoot :),  before the weather closed in.  As it turned out the weather was lovely, sunny and perfectly still which made for great shooting condition,  this gave me the option of using my new silver lined 59″ parabolic umbrella ella ella  from Hobo Lighting. The quality of the umbrella is good and it is built a little more strongly than a standard brolly making think it would be a better option for location work.   Using a 500w Bowens Gemini strobe running off a Travelpak it gave out a good amount of light which was quite focused and contrasty.  I have read that they are considering making a front diffuser panel for this  which will be interesting to see the effect it has on softness.  It needed careful setting up but when you get in the right place I really liked the effect it gave,  certainly something I will be looking to use a lot more in the future.   As usual Charlene looked stunning and we worked through the different sets quickly before she had to rush off home and feed her new Dalmatian pup Spot!!  A thoroughly enjoyable shoot with a great model, hope you enjoy the images.

 

Taylor Made

During the course of the summer I’m looking to do a few different fashion based shoots on location to freshen up my portfolio.  Once I started to look for models who would suit the type of look I wanted Bex Taylor was someone who I felt had the look and style needed.  I had seen some images of her on Facebook but also through some really good shots taken by local photographer John Picton which really convinced me she was right.  Fortunately she was keen to be involved so we set about planning a day which would be part studio and part location based.  Bex travelled down to Darlington from Sunderland and we just seemed to get on right from the start.  During the morning we worked on a few different looks, including some natural light images which I was really pleased with.  After a rather rushed lunch (there just never seems to be enough time!!) we drove out to the coast to do some shots on a local beach, weather was great although the light was really contrasty so a good deal of fill light was needed using the Bowens Travelpak and a 400W flash head.  This was also a first try for a brolly box I had recently bought from Ebay which worked out pretty well though I’m now considering buying a suitable octobox to replace this in the near future.  We had another location picked out to finish off with but unfortunately ran out of time, though that is a great excuse to work with this talented model again!!  For some of the images I was trying out a new processing technique (for me) which involved the use of localised curve adjustment layers, gradient maps and some shadow / highlight work.  Not sure I’m 100% there yet with this but it definitely has potential to create the look I’m trying to achieve.  Great day, lovely model, hope you enjoy the images.

 

ps Watch this space as a couple of these images will be appearing in the first printed edition of Elite magazine next month 🙂

Elite Magazine Photoshoot With Nikki Little

Recently I got a message from Fraser Mutch, one of the main men over at Elite magazine, asking about the possibility of shooting some images of model Nikki Little for the June edition.  Nikki is someone who I have been fortunate enough to work with a few times over the last couple of years and I was delighted to get the chance to do so again.  Nikki had entered a competition with the magazine to be their Model of the Month and polled the most votes from the readers.  This was no great suprise to me as she is such an accomplished model with a great look and the portfolio to match.  We got our heads together and came up with a few ideas that we would like to work on and met up at Banana Studio for the photoshoot to try and bring them to life.  We had three hours to get the images we needed for the publication which seems like a long time but in reality with make up and clothing changes the time just flies by.  During the course of the shoot we tried several different lighting patterns to go with the outfit changes to try and give some variety to the images and showcase Nikki’s versatility.  I think we pretty much achieved this goal although we did run out of time on the last idea we had which involved a really athletic pose from Nikki and a lighting set up which i couldn’t get just right, perhaps that is one for next time!!  Having said that there was one real stand out image on the day for me where Nikki nailed the strong, athletic pose and I managed to capture it in just the way I wanted.  It was an absolute pleasure working with Nikki again, such a friendly outgoing model but thoroughly professional with it.  Thanks also to Eric and his staff at Banana and also to Nikki’s Mum who was on hand at all times to help out which was very much appreciated.

 

Tripping The Light Fantastic

Sometimes in life things just seem to fall into place and just work, Tuesday this week was a prime example of this for me.  Siobhan (better known as Bob or Roberto!!) had been trying to organise a shoot with me for some time but as we wanted to do something location based we really wanted the weather to be right so we had several abortive attempts to make it happen.  The weather was so good this week that we just decided to go for it and despite a few spots of rain on the drive up to Tynemouth it turned out to be a gorgeous evening and the light was just fantastic.  Bob is such a creative soul,  she had a range of outfits prepared and a set of inspirational images to work from, so that despite the short notice we were pretty well prepared for what we wanted to achieve.  We did a recce up and down the beach at Tynemouth and planned a few different areas where we wanted to shoot, after that it was pretty full on making the most of the location, light and Roberto’s extensive wardrobe!!  We worked our way along the beach, climbed like mountain goats along the cliffs and used the old outdoor swimming pool that had some great backdrops.  Three hours later we were finished with a real sense of satisfaction of a job well done.  The only let down was  being kept going “please just one more set!!” by the promise of the best fish and chips in the area which were conveniently forgotten when we had finished 😛  To be fair her boyfriend did come to the rescue with a tasty burger which really hit the spot.  Lots of good images still to come from this shoot, please come back to this post as there will be further additions to the gallery.

Georgia On My Mind

Georgia was one of the models at  our  group shoot at Banana Studio back in January.  It was a cracking day but in all the rushing around we found that we only had literally 10 minutes at the end of the session to shoot.  In that short time I knew she was someone I would really like to work with again and the images we got in that time confirmed that and I promised I would make the time up in the near future.  So last week we finally got together for a shoot and I travelled up from Darlington to Banana Studio in Newcastle for something that would hopefully last a little longer and work through a few ideas that we had talked about in the build up to the day.  Georgia wanted some really natural images for her model portfolio and when I saw the new graffiti wall at Banana Studio I knew I wanted to incorporate that into the shoot.  The shot we got from that part of the session has quickly become one of my all time favourites.  We were going for a bit of a Marilyn Monroe look in the last shot (well at least I was!! lol).  Big thanks to Georgia for the shoot, lovely girl, very easy to work with, and I’m sure you will agree has a great look.   Good luck in Miss Newcastle Georgia, sure you will do great!!

 

 

Alex and Debbie

Recently had the pleasure of working with 2 models from Boho Model Agency that I had worked with before on a few occasions – Alex Pratt and Debbie Ingram.  We had the whole day (well I’m slowing down in my old age!! lol) and we decided to split the day between shooting some portraits, headshots and B&W images here in Darlington then making the short trip up the A1 to Newcastle and shoot something a little more expansive at Banana Studio.  Debbie was taking a break from her studies at Edinburgh Uni whilst Alex was fresh from a successful stint at London Fashion Week where she came second in the Top Model UK Grand Final – way to go Alex 🙂   As always the girls were absolute stars, fun, creative but also a joy to work with.  Something we had chatted about for a while was a collage of images of the 2 girls together styled around Cheryl Cole’s look in the video “Promise This” which presented a few challenges in post but the final result was worth all the pain!!

Kellyann Magill

Got together recently with Kellyann Magill to shoot some headshots for her portfolio.  Kellyann was the original face of Boho Models and her headshot is still used today as an integral part of their branding, so I felt a little under pressure to produce something of a similar standard.  Kellyann has a lovely look, great skin and is also an accomplished make up artist in her own right.  We wanted to shoot a few different looks, each with their own lighting and processing to give a very different feel, these ranged from some standard beauty shots through to a Twiggy inspired sixties B&W image.  The day went really well and was a really enjoyable experience, Kellyann was great to work with and I was really pleased with the outcome.

 

4 Go Mad in Newcastle

Well Sunday saw the latest get together of erstwhile photographers Marc Melling, Stu Glen, Grahame Jenkins and little old me.  Banana Studio in Newcastle was the venue and we were very lucky to have a strong line up of models, some of who travelled from as far afield as Sheffield to be with us on the day.  Patrycja Firmanty and Karolina Hejnar were also there and did a fantastic job with the girl’s make up throughout the shoot.  Following conversations with some of the models I had a reasonable idea of what I wanted to shoot on the day, though as always things didn’t go exactly to plan and I found myself running out of time towards the end (sorry Georgia we had such a short time to shoot, promise I will put that right).  There was a  great atmosphere  throughout the day, with the usual cameraderie and banter between the togs  and everyone just mucked in and got the most from the day.  Massive thanks to all the girls: Danielle, Georgia, Jordan, Lizzie and Misha who were all a pleasure to work with, to Karolina and Patrycja for their expertise, to Eric at Banana Studio and last but not least to Grahame, Stu and Marc for their support and good humour.  Watch this space for more images.  Fancy another next month?? lol