Yesterday was an interesting day. It started with such promise and I was very excited. But it was going to be a day of learning for me. Let me tell you why. Lets start with the setup, shall we?
A shoot had been arranged for Glynn and I and the CPW team. A tutorial was planned. However, due to illness, two of the team could not make it at the last minute. That's ok. Glynn and I would still do the shoot.
We had the pleasure to work once again with Australian Top Model, Sophie Van Den Akker. Creative Photo Workshops was there working with Sophie when it all started for her. She first modeled for us for our initial Emerging Nymph event, and then for a couple of our flash workshops. Then, she landed her place on Australia's Next Top Model, coming third in the placings but perhaps the most commercially successful of the models since then. Sophie has worked for Nikon, Speedo, Avon and other high profile companies since her TV debut on that interesting reality program. Sophie is a beautiful girl with one of the most geometrically perfect faces I have ever seen. She is a laugh a minute and great fun to work with as a result.
To us, she is still just Sophie. However, getting hold of her is not so easy anymore. She is in demand - and under contract. However, she graced us yesterday with her company for a shoot. And Sophie - thank you! It was wonderful working with you.
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| The lovely Sophie Van Den Akker in designs by Matcho |
There is so much going on in my life at the moment that I have to admit to being plain tired. And yesterday - it showed. Here I was in a fabulous location - an abandoned factory complex in Kensington, just north of Melbourne. I had a wonderful model, fantastic clothes from Matcho, a very talented clothing designer, and my old shooting buddy, Glynn Lavender. Add to that our Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kits and you have the makings of a memorable and creative shoot.
But yesterday my mojo just wasn't working. I think that I was so distracted by other things that I just wasn't problem solving very well. And, as my previous post argues, successful photography is mostly problem solving. To be honest, I believe I was overthinking it. I was making things complex when they were really quite simple. And I learned a lesson from my own book once again. Keep it simple. Keep your lighting simple. Keep your lenswork simple. Keep your concepts simple.
While I am relatively pleased with some of the images, I would love to have another shot at it. Alas, I don't think that will happen. Sophie is off to bigger and better things...
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| Glynn gets into position for a photograph |
1 comment:
Yeah we were both out of sync yesterday (no pun included) and it sure was tough. But as we often say mate, ow many good images do we want from a shoot?
Of course my answer was 30 but it really should have been 42 the universal answer to all questions. We toughed it out mate and we did pretty durn good. Let's get us another model and Matcho's new gear and shoot again after we have some sleep. Let's say September :)
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