Monkey, there’s no other superstar, you know that I’ll be your papa – paparazzi Japanese Snow Monkeys at Jigokudani Onsen, Nagano Prefecture Pentax 645D with Pentax-FA 645 55mm Read the article about snow monkeys and how to get to Jigokudani on my main website
Last Friday I arrived at sunny Naha airport with a ticket to Niigata. Unfortunately, the flight was cancelled due to heavy snow up on the mainland. They told me the next flight to Niigata was the following day, when things would probably be back to normal. The problem was I needed to be in Niigata that night, so that I could get to Nagano the following day. ANA allowed me to change my ticket and get on a flight to Haneda. I then got the monorail and local train to Tokyo Station, and finally jumped on the bullet train to Niigata. I arrived in Niigata 4 hours later and 11,000 yen poorer than I’d expected, but at least I’d made it. Let the adventures begin.
Snow monkeys, Nagano. Mount Ogi Fire Festival in Beppu Beppu Sand Baths Onbashira Festival Korakuen, Okayama Dogo Onsen, Matsuyama Studio shoots with the new Pentax 645D Location shoots with the new Pentax 645D Akita Kanto Matsuri Nebuta Matsuri Shinjuku Shoot Yasukuni Shrine Kishiwada Danjiri Naha Tug of War In the studio
It has probably become obvious that I’ve been doing a series of portraits that all have the same basic ingredients: model against a grey background, lit with a beauty dish and a fill light. For most shoots I did a simple, natural portrait followed by a second look in which the makeup artist, Kim Clay, could flex her creative muscle. The beauty shots are a great way for me to concentrate on the fundamentals. By not showing any jewelry or clothing, you simplify the image. I take the majority of portraits close up and I usually like the model looking directly at the camera. It was during my exhibition that I realized that I work in the studio in a very similar style to when I’m traveling . The majority of prints I had put on display were also head and shoulder crops of people looking directly at the camera. As a photographer I think I am trying to capture a moment of connection between the subject and the viewer. Step by step, I can now add …
I had a few misconceptions about using digital in the studio. One of them is how useful it would be to check the exposure using the camera histogram or the LCD screen. If you are using a light meter then you should be getting the reading correct anyway. The extra checks you can do with digital are reassuring, but not really necessary. One huge advantage, however, is with regards to film costs or the lack of them. When shooting with the Pentax 67, it works out at about a dollar fifty each time I press the shutter. If I shoot a street portrait, I will usually have a chat with the person then take two or three images. I am pretty sure that one of those images should be a keeper. It’s costs a few dollars, but it’s manageable. When shooting portraits in the studio you tend to shoot a lot more. Although professional models may be able to flash the perfect smile at a moments notice, for most people the first dozen (or several dozen) shots …
Another studio shoot, this time with Cece. Makeup artist Kim Clay first put on some natural makeup, and I shot a simple beauty shot using a beauty dish as the mainlight and an octobox softbox for fill. For a second shot, Kim darkened the makeup and gave Cece a jacket. I shot with the same lighting setup. I liked the shot but it didn’t feel quite right. However simply desaturating the image a fraction produced a much more interesting cinematic look. In the future I would like to take this further and “process” the same image in a variety of different ways. Anyone who has watched the various C.S.I. programs will be aware of the differences in color palette used to give the different shows their own look (Compare the saturated colors and oranges of C.S.I. Miami to the desaturated blues and grays of C.S.I. New York.). As a travel photographer the only things I regularly do in Photoshop are dust removal and minor color or exposure corrections. The levels of color saturation were chosen …
This was an interesting shoot with Manda, one of the Marines based on Okinawa. Lighting remained constant through the shoot. Makeup artist Kim Clay added a natural makeup look between shots 2 and 3, and then an evening makeup look between 3 and 4. Another key difference is that the first two shots were taken with the 645 55mm lens (approx 40 mm on a 35 full frame camera) and the last two shots were taken with the 67 105mm lens (approx 85mm on a 35mm full frame camera). The longer lens gives more pleasing proportions to the face, which is why lenses around 85mm are often described as portrait lenses.
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.
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
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.
TRAVEL 67 : Chris Willson Photography 