Tag Archives: model

Behind-the-scenes of the rooftop pool shoot

A week or so ago posted a picture of a lady in a blue dress next to a swimming pool and in this post, I wanted to go along give some insight into the background and the behind-the-scenes of making that shot.

I had with me my Elinchrom Quadra along with my Elinchrom 100 cm x 100 cm softbox hoisted up high on a light stand. Luckily for me, I had an assistant holding the light as the wind was blowing a gale without their assistance there was no way I could use any sort of like fodder modifier like a softbox as a thing was turned into Mary Poppins and flown off the roof.

In the shop below you can see that I had softbox roughly about 3 m away from the model. The placement of the softbox was as close as I can get without having the shot and I did this on purpose to ensure that had soft as possible light. Because of the high winds, I removed both external and internal diffusers as there was a high chance they were going to blow off the roof, and I really didn’t want to go collect them. 🙂

Behind-the-scenes of the pool shoot
Behind-the-scenes of the pool shoot

As you can see shot was taken in full sun’s on the left side of the model without the artificial lighting that part of her body would have been incomplete shadow and to be honest would have looked like crap, so the only way to get around that is to punch a light into the shadows to reduce the contrast between the left side of her body and the right side that was in the sun.

The light itself is fired by a remote trigger that sits on top of my camera gives me about 70 m range so was able to get back a considerable way and take the shot using a 200 mm lens.

After a little bit of mucking around and getting the exposure right to rest, you could say is history.

Model by the pool
Model by the Pool

An Afternoon by the Pool!

Over the weekend I had an opportunity to capture some interesting photos from the top of the building with the rooftop pool. I must say it was an interesting shoot as the wind was blowing and the sun was out and to be honest, it’s not really the best environment to be shooting but I think the outcome is spectacular.

Luckily for me, the make-up artist was happy to hang around and hold my Elinchrom soft boxes and lights from blowing off the top of the building, I even had to take off the two diffusing panels as I thought they were going to blow off the building never to be seen again.

Here is one of the images that we captured and I’m sure that those trees behind had leaves that morning. hahahahahaha

Glamour on the Rooftop
Glamour on the Rooftop

In my next post will show the behind-the-scenes image and walk you through the set up an understanding of why a position to light where I did and the power on which it was on, along with my camera settings and other information required to set up the shot. 🙂

Happy Easter From My Australian/Bilby Family To Yours!

Oh thank God it is Easter once again!!

I don’t know about you but I like the Easter holidays even though they only four days long, it’s a great time of the year to get out about spent time with the family. It’s not too hot and is not too cold is so the risk of being burnt to a crisp in the Australian sun is somewhat on our side.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family happy Easter and I hope you spend today relaxing with family, eating a shit ton of eggs and chocolate and if you can do one thing today. Put down the phone, turn off the Internet and spend some quality time with the people that you love!

Be safe and I’ll see you on the other side! 🙂

Easter Bunny versus the Australian Bilby
Easter Bunny versus the Australian Bilby

The Lost Indian!

A portrait session I did some time ago where I got to capture a whole heap of new faces with some terrific looks and talent.

The original image of the image below was submitted to the client with limited amount of postprocessing as they required it to be as close to as shot as possible as it was being used for their assessment in their make-up course. Now me being me I tend to go back through my images and play around with different ideas and postprocessing and this is one of those images.

The Lost Indian
Photographing at the Canberra Makeup Academy for one of their assessment nights.

Gorgeous Eyes – Sneak Peek!!!!! With the Best Prop Award Going to Me!!!

Had the opportunity yesterday to photograph a new Canberra model to which I am grateful for not only her giving up her time but also once again Felicity the make-up artist who is always there to help me out and without her help and expertise.

There is a saying that eyes are the windows to the soul and is a portrait photographer is something I believe. I look into the eyes of the people I photograph on each them has a story, a story to which some are happy to tell and some are not.

When I saw photograph of Abby one of the things that struck me with her gorgeous eyes and how they drew the viewer in. She also has what I would think a unique facial structure that compliments her eyes and the shape of her eyes and it was for this reason that I was super keen to capture this and I must say the photos we have do actually do her eyes and a shape justice.

How can such gorgeous eyes be so sinister
How can such gorgeous eyes be so sinister

We spent the first half of the session in studio getting head shots and capturing the essence of who Abby is in the vision which I saw in her eyes.

Gorgeous eyes
Gorgeous eyes

Second half of the photo shoot we were using gorilla shooting techniques, where we will pull up on location with portable studio lighting and speedlites to capture a few shots and then will back in the car again.

One of the locations we stopped at was next to a farm and the reason why we selected this location was because of the long road that led up into the hills however after cracking off a few shots, we noticed in the background a biplane was preparing to take off.

It travelled down the makeshift runway on the farmer’s property to pull in just behind where Abby was standing and I must say I couldn’t have been more excited. To have such a prop appear out of nowhere and considering how she was dressed it was just photo gods were shining on us.

The only reason why we could get the shot was because of the gorilla techniques we were using and I had Anthony Caffery as my assistant holding the light so we could move and adjust rapidly to capture anything that was going to happen…. I just wasn’t really expecting a biplane!!! 🙂

Going to no expense in getting a biplane as a prop
Going to no expense in getting a biplane as a prop

We finished the rest of the photo shoot off in and around the Tuggeranong hyperdome where I think we captured some really interesting photos, some you will just have to wait a while to see.