Maree the ever helpful assistant

We were shooting some high key mono portraits of two brothers, the dappled sunlight was a problem, until I sent Maree upthe tree with a sheet of corflu, to gobo the sunlight.Note that she removes her shoes, sensitive to nature.

John Paul Young- photo shoot

John Paul Young was in the studio the other day for some new promo images . It was a great shoot and JPY was a real pro to work with, easy going and relaxed.Maree was assisting and Jo Nelson was doing Hair and make up.

Some of JPY's well known songs include "Yesterdays Hero", " I Hate the Music" I especially liked the film clip from Strictly Ballroom where he sings "Love is in the Air". It was a great film production.

LOCATION PORTRAITURE WORKSHOPS.(participants images below)

We are running some location portraiture workshops at ProAm photography lab Adamstown .
Maree has been the model,subject,victim and Ive been the tutor,bogey man and box head.
The participants are doing fantastic and we are having a great time. More images on Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ricwoods/

Cliff Hosking Portrait

Cliff Hosking commissioned me the other day to document 50 watercolour paintings he was having framed for an exhibition at the John Hunter Hospital.

Cliff is having he second life. I met Dr Cliff Hosking was the head of the John Hunter Childrens Hispital Newcastle ( NSW Australia) when I was painting a 6 year mural project there in MY other life. Cliff is now retired and is painting more than ever.

LOCATION PORTRIATURE- a class I'm running at ProAm Photo Lab

These are a few of the images were by the participants of a workshop I'm running that was arranged by David Barnes the owner of Pro Am a film lab at Adamstown ( nsw australia)

This was the third night of the 5 sessions and I decided to take the group outside to use some off camera strobes and gels. The previous week we were shooting inside ProAm and the group had a great time with Maree ( my prod mgr/second photographer/very often photography subject). Everyone was very quick to learn how easy it can be to create beautiful light with good exposures and lighting ratios.

I demonstrated how long it takes to set up a scene using 4 strobes and how the strobes are fired by pocket wizards. I have 6 of these and this was great as it enabled me to have 2 students shooting at a time. This is easy on the recycle time for the strobes.

I have 10 + Maree in the group and its fantastic to have people so eager to learn...for me it doesn't get much better.

I used this lane way beside ProAm to demonstrate how easy it is to find and interesting shoot location when you sculpting with light.

The focus was to create not only interesting images to to use it to demonstrate how to direct the subjects, pre visualise the image, synchronise the action and the camera...Here Maree is the victim of some crazy stalker (me)

...then Maree found a bag snatcher...

Below, this is a great double page spread...I can see almost see bold text running down the right side of this image...

The group learnt how to drop the ambient light right down but retain detail

Then the paparazzi became to victim of an unwilling subject.

We then turned around and lit the wall behind us for another completely new scene and tone...

Maree as always gave plenty of great subject matter....

I really liked some of the images captured by those waiting to shoot with the radio triggers

We even kidnapped "the Pizza Guy" for a few of the images.....

I'm looking forward to the next session .We will shoot some inside portraits and Ill show them my post production tips. If your interested in participating in Location Portraiture Workshops shoot me an email enquiries@ricwoods.com

Rod Bathgates-art work documentation

An intersate collector commissioned us to document a recent purchase.It was a pastel by Newcastle artist Rod Bathgate. Some of Mr Bathgate's images may be seen from a previous exhibition at Cooks Hill Galleries, Newcastle.

ON STRIKE-a reminder of hardship.

We did a shoot the other night to commemorate all the people who went through the hardship of being ON STRIKE to lift the working conditions in many industries.
Set up info: D300 shooting tungsten WB. On Boom 2xSB600s triggered by PW with 2xCTO.Camera left low hand held SB24 double red gel. gels.Camera right and left 2xSB26 no gel to edge light the STRIKER.More on our blog site.
Here is the talent carrying the flag for the STRIKERS of all nations. Chris did a great job. The management of the factory didn't like us shooting from a public street towards their front gate. They sent a couple of guys over to stand in the shot ?????? Terrorists??? Chris stood his ground.

Here is the crew, some friends,some students from my PRO AM photography course.They were great too, they got to see me trying to be as friendly as possible whilst still trying to get the shot I wanted.....

Below is the best shot (in my view), I would have liked them to have all their lights on as well , they cast yellow and would of added to the atmosphere but they didn't come on UNTIL we were taking our gear back to the cars.

"ON STRIKE"

Set up-D300 shooting tungsten WB.On Boom 2xSB600s triggered by PW with 2xCTO.Camera left low hand held SB24 double red gel. gels.Camera right and left 2xSB26 no gel to edge light the STRIKER.

Thanks to all that helped. I posted your faces in the "crew" shot, I gotta tell you I kept thinking of Tiananmen Square whilst doing so..........

Dale McNamara- president of Wadom Industries-Bejing

An interstate client sent us a great testimonial the other day after we fast tracked everything for them which enabled them to arrange a portrait shoot for Dale McNamara send them proofs for approval and have the hi res image of selection edited and emailed to them to go to print that day for the shareholders report. My client said "we made them look very good in the eyes of their client being able to do it all so fast, we would be very happy to refer you to others, are you prepared to travel"?


Our subject was Dale McNamara the president of Wadum Industries was great to shoot, a really easy going guy. Often corporate subjects especially those high up on the management level are very busy and have a very strict time schedule and the pressure can be on. We can always get the shot but we want the shot that is both pleasing to the subject and the management,the PR company and the graphic artist etc. In this case our PR firm were also very pleased that the management team said we captured "the essence" of Dale.The PR company wanted Dale to have "at least a few images in a business shirt and tie". During the discussion about the "tone" of the images , format etc
.
We were told how important these shots were as every other board member was dressed this way. Suggesting we could buy him a shirt and tie for the shoot or lend him one was part of the conversation. Finally we our contact said they would ring Dale and get him to bring along a shirt and tie or have him buy one on the way. Dale arrived, no business shirt and tie, he said that he wanted to be presented as people know him and his associates in China and he have a great relationship BECAUSE he is down to earth and presents as who he is all the time. I knew that the PR firm might not be pleased with us NOT supplying the formal corporate style images so I shot Dale with several different lighting styles.( see end of post)
Wadum Industries Bejing is the largest exporter of long wall (coal) equipment in the world.

Here Maree is GAFF tapng the subjects belt, I missed the image of Maree on her knees cleaning the coal dust off Dales shoes. Good idea to have that sort of stuff handy.....especially if you are shooting guys.We always have a black T shirt handy as many times we need to re iron a shirt.

I like shooting men with direct light, here I am using 3 gridded strobes to light the subject.There are times when I choose to let go of a technically perfect exposure to provide more emotion. As Dale was so easy going I knew that he would not be bothered by producing an image that lit by hard light. Here I made the creative choice lighting him this way as he is in a hard working industry, COAL MINING. I also increased the side strobes exposure (camera left and right slightly behind the subject) to blow out the highlight on his cheeks. I believe this helped "pop" the image off the black paper background.




These last 2 images were shot with a 600w strobe hi camera left with a large softbox feathered towards the camera. A large gobo protects the lens from flare. Remember if your using a UV filter over your lens this can increase the flare , it introduces another layer of glass to refract the light.
There is a large styrofoam reflector camera right and knocked out the white background with another 2 600w strobes with barn doors. LARGE gobos reduce flare forward.
I like to produce the image requested in the brief and then give the client some extras in another style of lights.