Preperation & Shoot for Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter Portrait Shoot.....

I asked my friend Claire Bache to attend as a model as she is a make up artist and fantastic at doing different looks.  She is also very comfortable in from of the camera and this is what I wanted to make the experience run as smoothly as possible.

So we arranged a date and booked some studio time and then I started to think about what I wanted my pictures to look like.....  I did some research on the sort of shots I wanted to get out of my time in the studio but also started to think about putting my twist of the seasons on to each theme.  (Please see researched photographers....)

I decided to split the seasons in two.  Autumn & Winter and Spring & Summer.  I decided to do Autumn & Winter first.....

So I started thinking about the seasons and what people associate with each one.  I did a bit of survey to get peoples thoughts.... The results are as follows:

Winter

Christmas trees and decorations

Cold

Hat, Scarfs and gloves

Presents

Halloween

Skiing

Autumn

Wind

Leafs

Getting dark

Summer

Seaside

Shells

Sun

Sunglasses

Warmth

Spring

Flowers

Easter

Colours

So I decided to use Christmas decorations to represent the Winter party time.  Autumn I took along some leafs I gathered from my garden.  Summer I used shells, sun umbrella and the lighting in studio to represent the sun. And finally I used flowers and colours for Spring.

I asked my model to bring a selection of clothes for each season and went through before what would look good together.  We also discussed make up and what sort of look I was looking for within he image but left the technical side to her as she is the professional after all...

Even though I was working with someone who is comfortable in front of the camera  I wanted to make sure we were going to be covered for different ideas reference modelling poses.  So I took along a fashion magazines and also printed some poses off different websites by just searching model poses in to google.  These did end up being quite handy at the start to get thing warmed up... But then things started to come quite naturally after a little while.

Coming in to the studio the following week to do the Summer & Spring shoot were similar but obviously with different clothes and different make up and different props as above....

I used the wind machine as an effect for Autumn as well and did use on each Season to see what would look good....  I used some props from the studio as well such as tables, chairs, flowers, suitcase, telephone and different coloured cloth.

I used my own personal Canon 20D camera for all of the pictures.  I used a tripod sometimes when I felt necessary.  I kept my ISO at 100 so I would get a good quality fine finish and adapted my f stop and shutter speed to vary light and sharpness.  I tried to use as many different depths of field and angles as possible to get a good choice of images so I would be happy with my final shots.  All pictures were taken with a standard size lens....

Within the studio I think I made use of the space quite well, with making sure the lights were not getting too hot and that props were put away safely after use and when altering the lights i.e brightness, position that I always considered health and safety of me and my model at all times.

My main aim with my pictures were that could be found in any fashion magazine in the supermarkets today.  I wanted to use up to date looks and the feel of high end fashion.

I took around 20 frames for each season and first picked my favorite and then whittled it down to 3 from each with a total of 12 shots for my final Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter Portrait theme.

The reason I picked my final 12 to be my final 12.....

Overall I decided on my final 12 because each image was a little different from lighting to props and model poses.  I felt the clothes and make up along with camera work made each image believable as a high fashion image in each season which was my aim at the start of the project.

My first time in the studio....

My first time in the studio was a little overwhelming.... It was as i imagined it to be with the white walls and lots of lights!  I used the college camera which was Canon which was good as my personal camera is a canon. 

Steve did the orginal set up with the lights and gave us a talk on health and safety i.e how the lights get hotter the longer they are on and to be careful of the wires and props when moving around the studio.  We used different types of light to get different effects, from spot light to soft light to overall lights.

As you can see we just used simple objects from within the studio.  We used the brown wood as a base and each took it turns to shoot the objects.  I used the 'tripod' to do long exposure shots and set my ISO to 100 and adapted my F stop and shutter speed to get differnet kinds of shots.

We did then go on to doing some portrait photography using each other as models and getting used to having ideas ising props etc and got quite in to by the end and got me inspired to get in there and do some of my own stuff and start planning on what I would do while in the studio.  It got me thinking about what props, lights and what sort of pictures I hope to get out of my studio time!

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter - Alex Styles research......

Alex Styles is only 23.  He is from the West Midlands and made his name in the studio's of the heart of the country.  He has photographed many celebrities such as The Saturdays, Fearne Cotton and Dave Berry and many more.....

He also done a lot of work in fashion for well know high street stores, like Urban Outfitters, New Look and for well known productions like the Clothes Show.  He also photographs for hair, product and publications, so from looking at his work he is very versatile.  I paid special attention to his Fashion photography and picked out the above pictures as some of my favorites.  I enjoyed the simple effectiveness of the pure fashion, just showing the clothes and the model.  I like the clear plain background but I also like where he has used the wooden background for the girl sitting down as I think this does add a feel to the picture.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter - Stephen Eastwood Research.......

I came across Stephen's work and really enjoyed looking at it.... Not much is actually said about him as a photographer but wanted to mention him and show some of his work as this is the sort of work I would be interested in doing!  What I did find out about him was that he was born in Long Island NEW YORK!  He started out as a model himself, mostly body shots, fitness stuff etc.  His favorite kind of shoot is beauty and 2nd up is high end fashion.  On his website he has a Q&A session which provided an interesting read for his personal preferences on the photography that he does.....

Summer, Spring, Autumn, Winter - Jason Christopher research.....

Jason Christopher works all over LA and got established as a fashion and beauty photographer in 1996.  His work has been described as classic, clean and romantic. His interest progressed on to the beautiful designers that he saw in fashion magazines such as Vogue, Italian Vogue and W magazine.

His motto is "Be prepared or prepare to fall."

I have chosen the above pictures as love the make up that are on the models.  Particularly the model with the very bright make up of just the close up of the face.  The lighting is perfect and really like the effect of the light spot in the bottom left hand corner.

The picture of the girl with the big hair and dark eyes is fab!  Its not quite black and white or colour.... It looks like there has been a tinge of bronze used probably by photoshop but think this is very effective for the shot.  Looks very classic and like the fact she is not centered in the middle and the back ground is blurred but you can imagine she is somewhere outside in a sort of spooky classic environment.

After having a little look on you tube I found a fashion shoot with Jason Christopher in New York I believe....  Even though this was not in a stuido enviroment, I enjoyed watching it from a fashion point of view and like to see how he worked with the models.

Here is the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj8XFSNfBcA&feature=fvsr

Then I found one of him in a studio working with Terell Suggs who after doing a little research is an American Footballer.

Here is the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiue3CyePoA

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter - Rankin research....

Other photographers work....

John Rankin Waddell, aka 'Rankin' born 1966 in Scotland and is a British portrait and fashion photographer.

Rankin started at University studying accounting, he dropped out at the age of 21 and decided photography was what he really wanted to do.  He joined forces with a man called Jefferson Hack where they started a magazine called Dazed & Confused.  Since then he started up other magazines and his work got nationally known through using many famous names....

After looking into Rankin's work, I was very impressed with various styles that he approaches.  He has worked with many famous people such as Britney Spears, Spice Girls, The Rollings Stones, Tony Blair and many more.....

I have particularly liked the photos above for different reasons.  I picked them because these will be the type of shots that I hope to be taking in the studio.  Using minimal props or just the model and clothing etc for effective striking shots.  I do like the idea of black and white photography but I think having Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter as my 'Theme' I think colour will be more effective.  I like the idea of using simple but effective props and hope that the clothes and make up will reflect my theme.

Lights, camera, action......

I thought I would put a couple of my pictures up that I am proud of....

The first is from a fashion shoot for a friends fashion project at University.... 

I call this picture Floral Denim.

I had many shots from this shoot but decided to show this one as I am a great fan of landscape photography too (I love the sky in this photo!) and feel that the clothing really fits with the outdoor feel of the picture.  I also get the feeling that the picture may not have been taken in the present as the fashion of clothing that the model is wearing looks like it from the 60's. 



Second and third pictures are from a set of photo's that I took on a camping trip to Wales.

For both of these pictures I had to use a tripod as they were long exposure shots.

        

For my final picture.....

I was the official photographer at the Wooden Spoon Great Lakeland Challenge in August 2010 and was extremely pleased when I found out that my picture had made a regional newspaper.  I had a brilliant time taking photos at this event and was pleased when I saw the reactions that my work got and that people bought the pictures and one even making the paper was a massive achievement for me personally....

Statement of Intent - Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter......

Spring

Summer



Autumn



Winter

I have decided on People and Portraits as one of my themes and its going to be called 'ALL THE SEASONS.....' 

I am hoping to get a set of images together involving Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.  I plan to use models and props to show the seasons and have some ideas to try and make things a little bit different....  I want to show in my selection of images the fashion for each season. Props and lighting will help achieve this along with using different camera settings. The pictures here are from a fashion magazine and the photographer is not named here but this is often the case in magazines. I am unsure of the studio techniques I will be using as yet as I have never been in a studio before however I will ensure I follow all of the health safety guidelines that were pointed out in the briefing such as not leaving bags around, being careful of wires and props around me.  Regarding my camera I will be using various depth of field, varying my ISO, aperture and shutter speed to try and capture and influence the shots according to the season.  Obviously with Summer and Spring I will be looking to use a large amount of light to show the season effectively and with Autumn and Winter using shadows and maybe even darkness to show the mood of the more darker seasons.... I will also be using a tripod to capture my frames and using different angles to influence my work in different ways. I will be taking in some fashion magazines for inspiration and also maybe printing out some model poses off the internet to get us started.


I have looked in to other fashion photographers for influences and gained a lot of ideas for what sort of photographs I want to produce....  I have entered my research of my influences separately.....


I am very excited about getting in to a studio environment for the first time..... And hope I get some decent frames!

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter - My magazine influences....

I love love love fashion magazines! Vogue, Elle and anything that has got nice clothes/make up/interesting people in.


I have never been to a live catwalk fashion show and it's definitely on my list of things to do before I die!






Black and white photography especially with people I think can be very powerful.  The models are very beautiful and have amazing clothes on (Most of which I cannot afford.....)  At the moment as we are coming into the Winter, the fashion that is in the magazines is all cover up winter clothes.  I have picked out some images that I think are pretty cool.....

These pictures have obviously been taken in a studio.  The plain white walls and all over black I love....  I also like the fact that the girl has blonde hair as shows different contrast in the photo.  She has very natural make up on and messy look hair to show the 'comfy' wearability of these clothes.

Even though I probably wouldn't actually wear something like this I think she looks pretty amazing.  I have never done a selection of black and white images so I think I will definitely be influenced to change that by some of this impressive photography.

Elle Magazine images (Possible Winter looks....)

Influence - The day I met Dennis Morris....

Wednesday 13th October 2010


Location - Burton Library
Photographer- Dennis Morris


After finding out that an international photographer was going to do an exhibition at Burton Library I was very excited to see what he did to become what he is today.


I did some research on him and was pretty impressed with his eye for photography and intrigued what kind of life that this man had led.  With pictures of Bob Marley, The Sex Pistols and some pretty amazing black and white photography was all very exciting to me....


His exhibition was a two hour slot of him going through some of his favourite images from back in the day and going on to what photography he is moving on to.


Bob Marley

Dennis spoke quite a lot about Bob Marley as this is where his career began....  He also went into detail about this picture, it was taken at a gig where Dennis was in the pit with his press pass on with his hood up (as you get spit on quite a lot apparently) and he talked about being at an advantage as he knew how Marley moved....  I do like Bob Marley's music and I think this picture captures the song that he was singing very well.  I like the mood of the photograph and get a feeling of what it would of been like to of actually been there.


SID

I'm sure Mr Morris had many more interesting stories about Sid and co but probably best keeping them to him self which is probably what I would have done.  But he did talk about Sid's character and the life/world of Rock and Roll and the fact that this high profile man was quite a genuine man who had an unfortunate demise from a drug overdose.  I can imagine the time that he spent with Sid taking his pictures was definitely an experience he wont forget.....

Growing Up Black

There was a set of pictures which he has named growing up black and this is one of them.  He talked of 'Mr Patterson' who lent him cameras and equipment because he saw the talent and passion that Dennis had.  This photograph is quite real of today's times, as children are involved in a lot of gun/street crime and Mr Morris did go on to speak about the significance of this picture but didn't mean what it does now as to what it did then....

Current Work- China Doll

This is some of Dennis's more recent work and the use of photoshop.  He talked of how he manipulated her eyes and skin and you can't quite tell if she is actually a real girl or not?

Overall I am now a fan of Dennis Morris! I was very interested in listening to him talking about his life and pictures and would definitely like to hear about some of the stories he wouldn't tell at an exhibition!

The beginning.....

Bonjour! My name is Laura Jayne Hayes!


The very beginning....


I love looking at pictures.... I am generally interested in all sorts of photography, but the more creative photos always gets my attention, that's why I love looking through Vogue or other high fashion magazines.


My love of taking pictures comes from travelling the world. I have travelled North America, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, Kenya and many other places.  On my travels I saw many amazing things which I have been able to catch on camera so I can take myself back to that place and relive to a certain extent.  This is where I decided on trying to pursue learning more about the world of photography.


I signed up to do a NCFE Level 1 qualification which I started last September and finished in June this year.  I learned an enormous amount and did assignments on all of the key factors of photography, ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc.


After learning so much just in my first year, I now want to continue to further my skills in all areas and learn techniques and subjects on what I may not have touched on my NCFE.


That's why I have decided to do Specialist Photography and Presentation in Studio Photography which is Unit 211 and 207.  I believe I will benefit a lot from doing this Certificate and look forward to getting involved in the studio with the lighting equipment and trying to get as creative as possible.  As well as doing fashion and portrait photography I would also like to touch on some still life photography using the studio lighting and all of the other equipment involved.


I also work in the events management industry and have on occasions been the photographer on an event and managed to get a whole load of decent images where they are used for various things such as marketing material, photo disk's for purchase and my latest achievement was a picture in a local newspaper..... (No byline though....)


So after all of that.... I'm looking forward to hopefully getting some nice images and learning lots more from the course, my tutor and my class mates!