Shoot 5: Model 8; Steff

I was lucky enough to get Steff into a studio session at the same time as Matt, which turned out highly successful. Steff brought two items with her, the first a teddy bear which I do not know the full story behind and the second a letter, which she carries everywhere in her purse, from a friend who passed away shortly after writing the letter. Whilst we had some fun shooting the images with the teddy in, I particularly wanted to get a really good image of the letter, knowing its importance to Steff.

I am particularly pleased with how the image with the letter turned out, capturing a personal moment, looking over the shoulder and onto the letter, drawing all attention exactly where it needs to be. Even though the letter itself is in focus I did not want to go too close to it, wanting not to intrude that far into something that means so much to someone.

Whilst I also like the other images, the letter has to be by far my favourite of this shoot and of all my images that I have taken so far for this project. I can only hope that the next photoshoots get such positive results.

Images taken on the Hasselblad 503CW, digital back.

Drew

The second person who I chose to photograph was Drew who brought his guitar with him as music has been always been part of him for in some degree or another. Even though he has many other interests, he hopes that music will continue to play a part in his life.

Whilst waiting as I looked through some of the images I had already taken, Drew then turned his guitar around and balanced it on his foot as he waited for what was to happen next. When I questioned him about it - after all, its not everyday you balance a guitar on your foot! - he said that he also does this with his skateboard when waiting around, often in shops, small supermarkets and the like.
Deciding to photograph this, we resulted in this image, which I like for its uniqueness and slightly humourous quality:

Image taken on the Hasselblad 503CW, digital back.

Cairwen

So, two days after my last photoshoot, I am back in the studio with three new models. Three! Having only booked the studio for two hours and not knowing what the three were bringing with them to photograph I was worried about having enough time to shoot the three of them. As it happens though the session went smoothly and I managed to shoot all three of them in plenty of time.

The first person I chose to photograph was Cairwen (Caz). With her she brought along her bracelet and a dress. She also has a tattoo on her wrist which means 'forever' in traditional Chinese and is in memory of her aunt and grandmother.The bracelet was present from her grandparents and her family have been adding to it since then, brining them closer whilst she is away from them studying at university here in Cornwall.

As for the rest of the images in this project, I have here used the Hasselblad 503CW available at the college, (if only I could afford my own!) with the digital back and using a smaller aperture than in pervious images as so to widen the depth of field. My favourite of these images is the first, which I have been told has a very gentle quality to it making it very pleasant to look at.

"What Means Most"

"What Means Most" - the things that mean most to us. The objects or belongings that we would be lost without, that we would be devastated about losing, what we cannot imagine living without.

This is what my final major project is based upon. I am looking to shoot as many persons as possible in the studio with what means most to them. 

I am based in Truro and if you are interested in getting involved in something like this, or know someone who may be, then it would be much appreciated if you could send me a message. Either through here or to my e-mail: andphotography@hotmail.co.uk

Many thanks!

Studio Shoot 3



Back to my Final Major Project 'What Means Most' and my third session in the studio. For this shoot, Mike offered to model for me, in comparison to the previous two shoots where I asked my models if they would be ok to come into the studio with me. For the shoot Mike brought with him the keys to his van which he describes as being everything to him, "its my freedom my escape, my only thing I had left after I lost everything". I found this a difficult shoot as I found it difficult to arrange the shot and had some difficulty in deciding on how to shoot the image.





This image was again taken on the Hasselblad 503CW, which I plan touse for all the images, with a wide aperture for a small depth of field to focus the attention onto the keys. Of these images the first two are my favourite and will both be in consideration for when I exhibit this project at the Lander Gallery in Truro on the 10th June.

Studio Shoot

So today was spent back in the studio shooting for my final major project, titled: "What Means Most". My friend agreed to travel down from Plymouth to spend some time in the studio with some of the things which mean most to her. Unfortunately she could not bring Coco, her maccaw, and so to represent that she brought along with her a t-shirt with a parrot on and a few parrot figurines. She also brought along an old teddy which used to belong to her older brother some years ago and these were what I decided to photograph.

From taking the images from the studio and to my laptop however, the images do not appear the same. Whether this was an error of lighting set-up or camera I am not sure however the images do not appear as bright. The images to me look at lot more dull than they did when in the studio. Here are my favourite two anyway, unedited:

The images were taken on the colleges Hasselblad 503CW on a 200ISO, shutter speed of 250 and aperture f/11

Back Into The Studio

Having got my book project and exhibition out of the way, its was time to think about what I would choose to do for my Final Major Project (FMP). I particularly liked the idea of going back into the studio to shoot some portraits as I had not done this in a while. From this grew the idea of photographing people along with some possession of theirs which has either some sentimental value to them or that is simply that important to them. I could picture in my head a shot of my brother, who is particularly into his music, with his electro-accoustic guitar.

On Monday I managed to book our studio and, as a bit of a warm-up or test run, took some shots of my friend who's ring has sentimental meaning to her. Having not used the studio in a while for concentrating on landscapes for my book project, I was a little rusty to say the least. Eventually I got the shot I wanted after much frustration with the Hasselblad and trying to get it to focus on the area I wanted it to.

Images taken on a Hasselblad 503CW Digital with flash lighting on f/2.4 and a 1/250 shutter speed. The first image being the final image taken and the one which I am happy with after much time trying to get the focus in the right area. Having wanted the focus solely on the ring, this caused much frustration as many of the images ended up focused primarily on the hands/ fingers with the ring being ever so slightly out of focus.

Conclusion: Back into the studio for more practice!