A Grave Affair - Creative Couples Location Shoot

Pictures from shoot at Stellawood Cemetery, Durban
Model/s : Ebony and Aiden
Make-up: Ebony
Photographer: Eve
Equipment : Canon EOS 400D
Focal Length : 105mm
Aperture : F8
ISO : 200
Shutter speed : 1/100 sec
Equipment : Canon EOS 400D
Focal Length : 60mm
Aperture : F4.5
ISO : 200
Shutter speed : 1/200 sec
Equipment : Canon EOS 400D
Focal Length : 40mm
Aperture : F16
ISO : 200
Shutter speed : 1/30 sec
Equipment : Canon EOS 400D
Focal Length : 105mm
Aperture : F8
ISO : 200
Shutter speed :1/100 sec
Equipment : Canon EOS 400D
Focal Length : 35mm
Aperture : F16
ISO : 200
Shutter speed : 1/160 sec

I've been wanting to get Ebs and Aiden into Stellawood Cemetery for a creative shoot for some time now. Eventually we got a chance to meet up amid their hectic schedules.
They are in two of the hottest up-and-coming bands in Durban. Aiden is guitarist for Theatre Runs Red and ANKST! while Ebs is Theatre Runs Red's vocalist. All the work on band related things as well as other more mundane things like work and stuff keeps then rather busy.
They had also recently been rather unavailable because their pet cat needed constant supervision after a nasty accident (the kitty, Thomas, is fine now so cut out your blubbering OK!)
So one very hot and sunny day - the worst possible conditions for a location shoot because of the light not to mention the stinking heat and humidity - we headed off for the cemetery.
Passers by stopped and stared as I got them to pose near a particularly interesting gravestone. One could almost imagine the thoughts that were going through their minds watching us traipse around the overgrowth and set up camera-type-stuff.
I feel very strongly that a choice of location for a creative shoot is very important. For a couple like the Aevil Kids, an off beat location like a cemetery was perfect.
I did a little work in post processing the shots to make the most of the harsh light, making what could have been a shoot killer work well. I find their looks lends itself to the high contrast edgy look that the photos ended up with. I also added a few warming and noise filters and mask effects to "age" the pictures, giving them an almost country western feel, just without the yeehas and silly hats.

The Halloween Serial - Shoot 1 of 5 (for now)

Pictures from shoot at Studio
Model/s: Aiden
Make-Up: Ebony
Photographer: Henrik

Equipment : Canon 40D
Lens : 28-105 F3.5-4.5
Aperture : F8
ISO : 100
Shutter speed : 1/166 - hey thats what the properties say???? was set to 1/160


Welcome to the start of my little pet project: The Halloween Serial.
Yes I'm not kidding and just in case you are wondering, yes, it is getting close to Easter.
No, I'm not anti this or that, I just figure that the sooner I start the project the sooner I can finish it. Maybe I can even sell a pic or two before the insane rush for posters, I wish. (This pic may just already be ready for print on one).

Well I was a just minding own business a while back and one of those thoughts, you know those ones that that are guaranteed to require lots of effort to fulfill, popped into my head.
Well the thought is a bit cheesy but I like a bit cheesy, Halloween is cheesy, so cheese it is.
The theme will be the 4 main characters of Halloween and one extra as the intro. Each of these characters will be serial killers that like to prey on their victims using their weapon of choice. Jack likes his knife, hey that's how you make a jack-o-lantern.
Who knows? I may add an extra one or two later.

The day was a bit odd. It started out by photographing two female models, well groomed and looking lovely on camera.
Ebony, IMO one of the Durban's best theatrical make up artists, can do wonders with that set of brushes and pallet of colours. She first did the lovely make up on the models and then set down to the task of making Aiden look like the Jack-o-Lantern serial killer.
These shoots can be really enjoyable. I will explain.
The model type shoots are cool and I do enjoy them. You get to know the models and most of the time it is really nice.
The themed stuff with someone like Aiden can be really fun. Like when the make up is being applied to Aidens ear he cringes and shouts out "its like a dog licking my ear" well that set the tone of the shoot for me.
When you are doing a theatrical type shoot I feel the sillier and funnier type things can give you better results from facial expressions than a whole series of, "lets try this or that".
Models don't have to look pretty because that's not the point.
"Aiden growl" Aiden goes,"GGGRRRRRR" that sort of thing is fine and everyone seems to enjoy the relief of it.

The other thing that feel is important when you are not working with professional models is that you choose them carefully. I'm not shooting stock or for an agency yet so my models are generally not professionals and while I do understand that for certain shoots a professional model is required, for my projects enthusiastic people are just great. I try to find people that are interested in what I want to shoot and match the theme. Like Goths for a Goth shoot - metal heads for a serial killer, shoot you get the picture. A Pro can do just about anything you ask of them. An amateur won't really know what you are after, but if they are say a metal bassist, and you ask them to do the classic wide-stance-while-they-are-playing-the-bass-pose they will know exactly what you want, and hey presto not too much "move your legs apart - some more - some more - just a bit more" directing.

Enough waffle, on to the shoot. This one's simple: one light and big soft box. I wanted some dramatic lighting so I moved Aiden close to the softbox and checked to see how the light fell on the far side of his face. The more the light fall off the more dramatic the subject will look. Well that's the classic photographic thinking anyway. So close to softbox Aiden. I then draped him with a black cloth. All I really wanted is his face and the knife. The back ground was also a black sheet and nicely out of focus so it was pretty much pure black. The 500WS strobe was at about 50% power, not that it means much, but the histogram for Aidens face looked good so I went with that. The softbox was about 45 degrees to his face and and about 50cm away from him.

This one's a bit of a long one on the post processing side and I'm no 'shopping expert. I don't have a big studio, so guess what, you can see all my paraphernalia in the background to the one side of the backdrop. Away with a few easy brush strokes, that done, onto the next step.
I wanted the yellow orange in the face and hand so hue saturation adjustments were done. Also I had to colour Aidens hand as It was not painted. A selection and a few clicks and hey he has a yellow hand. I don't think you could do anything like that to the face as it would look to shopped but the hand lacks the detail so I think it looks OK. Everything you do needs to be in layers - my partner has drummed that into me (I'm a SP - Shop-a-phobe you see). Next I make a copy of the background and blurred it with Gaussian blur and then went to blending properties and selected linear burn.
It darkened it and gave just the right effect that dark rich edgy feel that I wanted.

Well that's how I did this one. Please feel free to leave comments. Jack will get back to you

Pinetown Rally Streets

Pictures from shoot at Pinetown Rally
Model/s: VW and Toyotas
Make-Up: Drivers and navigators may have been but hard to ask as driving by at high speed
Cars makeup consisted of lots or racing parts and stickers
Photographer: Henrik

Equipment : Canon 40D
Lens : Canon 70-200 F2.8 l
Aperture : F2.8
ISO : 1600
Shutter speed : 1/100
Other Equipment : 580 EXII 430EX Manfrotto monopod

I love motorsport. I really enjoy it. LOTS. Part of the reason I enjoy it soo much is its a team sport and I don't mean just driver and navigator. What I'm talking about here is the behind the scenes stuff. Ive had the privilege of being able to hang around and see these guys at work. The cars can come in and about a quarter of the car is missing or damaged I'm not kidding about that either. These guys from the team manager to the coffee maker will slave through the night to make sure the car is prepared and ready to run the next morning.It goes something like this Team manager " We need an engine changed the gearbox changed the front suspension needs changing and brakes need new pads. " teams chief mechanic goes " Is that all ? " Team manager goes "Thats it !! how long?" Chief mechanic goes " MMM 15 for motor 15 for the box 25 for front suspension and 5 for coffee. Thats 60mins chief." OK so maybe Im exaggerating a bit but really the team repairing the car work at a pace I wish that all mechanics could work at and they do it right and in sometimes very unfavourable conditions. These guys are what will make a team win or loose and are as important as the driver and navigator. Im glad to see motorsport is being supported by the fuel guys and quite a few new sponsor names are starting to appear on the cars. This is good. The motorsport community has been hurt by a lot of sponsors moving to other sports as they feel their companies will receive more exposure at these other sporting events. Having said this one needs to realise that many of the guys that are now competing, are doing so from their own pockets, and the big factory teams are only awarding the top drivers spots. Yes the manufactures try to help the privateers by offering parts at discounted rates but still it takes lots of money to prepare a half decent rally car. All of the cars really were nicely turned out and I'm sure it was a bit of extra spit and polish for the crowds and sponsors benefit. Thanks teams all the cars looked super. This rally stage was held on the streets of Pinetown and even though the stage does not really make that much of a difference to standings of the Rally drivers, Its still a whole lot of fun to watch and needless to say the drivers and navigators do their utmost to impress the crowd. I say it wont make much difference to the standings as the stage is only about 2.5km long and all tar most of the other rally stages are 15kms plus and on these stages you really need to be on your toes and serious driving skill to just stay on the dirt not even to mention to do good times and of course you cant achieve the speeds that you can with a tar surface. It may not be the important part of the race but it does bring the rallying to the people and up the awareness of the sport and better exposure to the sponsors oh and its real fun to watch - did I mention that?

From a photographic point of view my choice of taking pictures of at this stage was the about the worst you could possibly think of, we are talking high iso and flashes and crowds that can be rather uncooperative at times. But hey if you set yourself easy challenges you generally don't learn too much. I started out with using my 580EXII flash on my camera and then placed a slave on the ground with a bare bulb Tupperware light modifier on top of it. Hey that light modifier was a real steal (literally from the mother in law's kitchen cupboard) and works really well.
In these situations I really will have to invest in a set of pocket wizards Canons we trigger by the light thing did not work very well and the flashes had to be close. Crap system on Canon's part but at least it goes off if you at just the right angle etc. That ruled out lighting from a distance so 580 on top and just in front of the safety fences was a 430 on slave a nice marshal placed it there for me. I would have liked to do more with the lighting but due to limitations the pictures I don't think came out so bad. I learned a few things but those I will tell in a later post. I picked this corner because its a corner after a long straight and heavy breaking will let those brake discs glow. As it turns out I got a few pictures of just that. Please if you are one of the competitors please let me know. If you are wondering I have many other photos at least one for every competitor that participated.
That panning with the subject skill came in very handy. I used a monopod for supporting the lens and I feel that after a tripod a monopod is the most important piece of equipment in ones equipment line up. Even if you have a IS lens it helps to support the camera and your arms dont have to keep on working as hard. The flash helps freeze the action but to frame the shot you need to pan with the car as it wizzs by.
I dont really talk much about post production but to be honest here the iso 1600 requires noise reduction. I find that Canon's own DPP software does a really good job of the noise reduction. Also I found myself increasing the exposure by about 1 stop or so. Most of my post production stuff is a levels watermark and size reduction.
Well next time I get to photograph the event maybe I will have some pocket wizards.