3 Sisters Shoot

Maree and myself shot 3 gorgeous sisters the other day. The girls commissioned us for the shoot to give their parents a print as a gift. We were shooting both outside in a local park and inside the studio.We use different lighting set ups during the shoot to obtain different looks. People of different ages have their own ideas of the look they want.Some people like contrast and others like a light mood. We provide colour and mono images. I like to light Mono images differently colour to get the results I want.

The sisters are very attractive and have vibrant personalities so I chose to shoot the outside images with a shallow depth of field and allow a little camera movement to portray that dynamic feeling. Pin sharp has its place and so does movement in the image. Photography for me is about not only filling a commercial brief but also bringing a little something else to the client. I always deliver the requested brief and get lots of information from the clients about their personal tastes. The primary focus for this shoot was a GREAT picture that their folks would adore.....It had to have not only great technique as this would be a very large print, but we had to capture the energy, humour and close relationship between these women.

Maree my prod mgr and second shooter is fantastic on a shoot , she watches the details that I may miss looking through that small viewfinder i.e. small strands of hair across the eye, crooked belts,necklaces and comes up with interesting additional poses.

These is NO SUCH THING as a self made man/woman. I am surrounded by many people that bring expertise,skill and creativity to www.ricwoods.com

Waterford County Shoot ...

Photography is FANTASTIC, I enjoy it a great deal.The people I work with are very creative and they do inspire me. Most of the time when I'm on a shoot I'm full of adrenaline and coffee.

Here is a short movie behind the scenes of a shoot from the Waterford County Land Development campaign. It was late last year on a very cold day. I had previously blogged a few images from this campaign but the small movie is more entertaining for some.

Being self employed it can be difficult to take time out to walk on the beach, eat a good meal,catch up with the family and have some fun creatively,like the blog...Today, I was able to do them all...and secure a new client from Interstate.

The creative for this shoot was under the watchful eyes of Jamie Gilmore ( Little Green Frog Marketing) and his talented crew of young bloods.
By the way all my experiences with horses have been a little on the edge...including this time....Yes they do smell your fear

I was shooting on a D300 Nikon ( Raw Files) Lenses were 80-200 2.8,24-50 2.8 and my fave 24-70 2.8. ]

This is the images as it appeared in the sales brochure...

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

I did a shoot for The Little Green Frog Marketing Think Tank. It was to update some of their staff portraits. My brief was to shoot was to supply images to the written brief

IMPORTANT NOTE:I always ask for a written Brief .Ask the client to drop their thoughts and suggestions in an email ...that doesn't mean i always get a brief.Creative people think in videos and when your a stills photographer if you cant get a written brief it creates a risk that your client may not be happy, because they haven't thought in a stills photography mind set.It also give me invaluable in site into planning the shoot i.e. talent look, costume,venue,camera angle etc This time Mary ( Gidget) gave me an excellent brief with poses, etc Fantastic.I follow the Brief and then add some of my ideas when they crop up.

Prior to the talent arriving Ive read the brief and am able to plan the lighting. Three of the images would need to be deep etched so they are shot on a white back ground son the graphic artist can drop them on their chosen back drop.

I am doing a self portrait holding a grey chip .It helps as a tool to remove an color cast. Lights even strobes do have a colour cast especially as they age.

The images on the left below of the before and after are virtually straight out of camera ( they are cropped etc) . As you can see the contrast needs adjustment shooting into the white paper background which acts likes a large light source.

IMAGE 1: Below is Katie aka Lucy from an old TV show "I Love Lucy" I think she nailed the character.


Image 2 : Mary aka "Gidget" from a an old TV surf series

IMAGE 3: Dominique "Shirley Temple" arrived with a selection of Lollipops, this one was the smallest.


Lighting change now, Jamie the owner of the Little Green Frog helps here.Jamie a good mate always gets into character when I point a camera at him. Here I think here he's being Kevin Rudd.(just kiddin")


The styling of the shoot was handled by the whole crew. I like to be influenced by the other "creatives", it makes for better images.



IMAGE 4: Megan aka "Mafiette" was looking good against black.The Mafia was the influence for the look.

Vision Financial Planners shoot

We have been working with Vision Financial Planners http://www.visionfp.com.au/Staff/hamish_f.html developing a new clean look for their staff profiles. These guys are a great firm and now I use their services myself...us visual people don't do numbers well, so I delegate that stuff to the experts.They are heavily in involved in housing loans so we decided that we would shoot them outside in front of some of those new blue buildings in Newcastle.(see the set up below)

This worked really well until we needed to shoot 3 more staff and the winter weather produced weeks of wind and rain making it impossible make a reliable shoot schedule. So we made another plan ( see video)

We also are able to offer our clients other image styles for their web and brochures.Below is a DL flyer that we illustrated for Vision FP.These are hand dont and photographed then taken into Photoshop for refinement and the addition oif colour. I use Photoshop because I dont have enough timer to learn Illustrator and Indesign...

Film Noir-Hollywood studio set up

Our recent Film Noir/ Hollywood shoot with Kristan was great fun. Maree Nichols was the 2nd photographer and stylist, Jo Nelson did a great job and the right look for the hair and make up.

Every now and then I come across a subject that are transformed when they are in front of the lens, Kristan was one of those subjects.Looking through the viewfinder I just knew that this was going to be a strong collection of images. Her "Armani" look gown was styled by Maree, she has a gift with black cloth & some bull dog clips.

This shoot is the beginning of a series.........finished images will be posted on my website www.ricwoods.com