A couple of weeks ago Eboh Ajeroh invited fellow photographer David Washington and I to a shoot with model Niki J. Eboh set up the lights using a beauty dish and a hair light for the first shot, and then for the second image, orange and blue gels were used to create the disco / neon effect. Ursula Ajeroh did a fantastic job with makeup and sculpting the hair.
A big thank you to all the people who came by the exhibition or offered their encouragement from afar. It was a fun and hectic six days. This was my fifth exhibition, and the largest so far with 23 landscapes and 24 portraits on show. It was great to meet so many people and listen to their comments. The snow monkey images “Relaxation” and “Monkey Hug” along with “Fireworks at Itsukushima” were very popular, however, the clear favorite was the “Into the Mist” shot of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge. I also learned a lot more about marketing, image selection, sales, and digital displays, but I’ll leave comments on them for another post. Right now I have to make sure that people who ordered prints get them before Christmas, and that the images from recent studio shoots are edited and sent to the models. Busy, busy busy.
This is my friend’s Pete Leong’s photo of my exhibition at Global Gallery in Okinawa. The exhibition is from December 8th to 13th. 11AM to 8PM. Only a couple of days left, but if you are in the area please drop by.
No posts for an entire week. Things have been a little hectic with various shoots, an exhibition to prepare for, a sick dog and a keyboard that would only let me use the backslash key. I am slowly getting back on top of things. There are now a thousand or so new images on my hard drive, the exhibition is up and starts tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11AM, the dog is on heart medication, and I have a new keyboard that allows me to type prose more complicated than /////////////////////////////////////////. And why the photo of a stone on the beach? Because it’s a nice stone, on a nice beach. Time for a much needed cup of tea.
PENTAX 645D PENTAX D FA 645 55mm Lighting: Profoto ComPact with gridded beauty dish above my right shoulder as the main light. A second Profoto ComPact with barn doors and a diffuser behind the model and aimed at her hair. Strobes triggered with PocketWizard Plus II’s. Model: Jessica Serna Makeup: Kim Clay
Faces: The Creative Process Behind Great Portraits by Jane Bown is back to basics portrait photography. She used black and white film (Kodak Tri X), a simple manual camera (Olympus OM1), natural light and a whole lot of talent. For 50 years she worked as a photographer for the Observer newspaper. Turning the pages of her book takes you on a journey through modern history. You start with the likes of Margot Fonteyn and Orson Welles, and finish with modern lumineries including the Coen brothers and Spike Lee. The book is well worth checking out. It has left me inspired to put some black and white film in my camera.
Here’s the first image from the latest studio shoot. A big thank you to the model Tomoko Peters, and Kim Clay for makeup. The main light was a gridded beauty dish over my right shoulder. A second light behind the model was used as a hair/rim light. I shot with both the 645D and the 67II. The above image was taken using the 645D and a 67 100m macro lens. You can see a slightly larger version of the image on Flickr. And here’s another image from the shoot. In this one Kim did a peacock/amphibian eye which looks very cool. Using the macro lens allowed me to get in close for this shot, but I did find that the maximum aperture of f4 on this lens means that focusing is more difficult compared to the f2.4 105mm.
In the latest edition of the British Journal of Photography, Adam Woolfitt gives his first impressions on the Pentax 645D. A few interesting comments include the long length of time it takes to write data to the card (the files are very large) and the ability to check the depth of field quickly and easily. He also mentions that Hasselblad have had to once again drop the prices of their medium format digital cameras. The other camera manufacturers are going to have to fight a lot harder to maintain their share of the pie. The post is titled Pentax 645D tested: the New Contender. One question the writer doesn’t ask or answer is “A contender for what?” Answers on a postcard please…
Just made thirty A3 prints from which I will choose about twenty for the portraits section of my December exhibition. I’d already decided to select only images where the subject was looking directly at the camera. The majority, if not all, will be also be head and shoulder crops. There’s a nice mix of images taken with the Pentax 67 and the Pentax 645D. I wonder if visitors to the exhibition will notice the difference.
Yesterday I did a shoot with professional skateboarder Tetsuharu Sai. Photographer David Washington helped provide the battery power and assistance, while skateboarder Matt Hill got me the introduction. The setup was relatively simple. I used a Profoto 300W compact strobe with a magnum reflector, this was powered by David’s Tronix Explorer XT battery pack and triggered with a PocketWizard. We used a flash meter to first check the ambient light and then measure exposure with the flash. I expected to struggle as I didn’t have a lens wider than the 645D’s 55mm but this turned out to not be a problem It looked like we might have to postpone the shoot due to bad weather, but the rain didn’t get past a few drops and the cloudy skies added a bit of drama to the background. Thanks again to Tetsuharu, David and Matt for making this shoot possible.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 