Be prepared
Hi All. Thanks for dropping by.
Those of you that follow my socials will have seen some of the images I shot from paper on skin. I am am about to share with you my favourite…and how it came about.
For those of you not aware, paper on skin is a competition for wearable art that is primarily made of paper. It is held every 2 years and draws entries from amazing artists from all over the world.
Because of Coronavirus the catwalk event that was planned had to be scrapped. Lyndal (the driving force behind pos) had the idea to go ‘virtual’. After considerable work and research, it was decided it was possible…but only if restrictions were eased enough to allow a ‘crew’ to be in the same space. For a while it looked like this wasn’t going to happen. But the good people of Burnie got the Covid19 outbreak under control … and we were on.
My role was to create still images of the works in a studio-like setting and also get behind-the-scenes shots of the filming etc. (For the first time, a film was being produced to enable the virtual online experience.)
The film crew and I shared a space. To enable us to get through both still and moving images of the expected 30 pieces in the time frame allocated, I would work with a model in my ‘corner’ at the same time as Nick (the cinematographer) was filming another.
My ‘corner’ is the white area in the back. Fujifilm X-T3 16mm @f2 iso800 1/60sec
Work on screen is Guardian of the Southern Convergence’ by Liz Powell and Dr Denise N Rall, modelled by Romany
It worked well…most of the time.
At times I needed to move equipment so it, and I, weren’t in shot. But the biggest restriction was that I couldn’t shoot when Nick was ‘rolling’. The flashes of my strobes would show up on the film.
We had a plan. I would wait for Nick’s call of “cut” and then spring into action. The models (who were awesome to work with…the majority from En Vogue Modelling Academy) were worded up to also listen for the call. We would shoot as much as we could and then freeze on the call of “rolling”. Yes, it got frustrating at times, but I would never have gotten my favourite image if this system wasn’t in place.
I was running 2 cameras for my studio shots. Both Canon 5D4’s with identical settings dialled in to the Godox flash triggers. One on a tripod, tethered to my Macbook, running a 24-70. And the other handheld with a 100mm macro for the detail shots.
Also on hand, was my Fujifilm X-T3 with 16mm f1.4. I used this as my main BTS camera…shooting with available light.
It was the X-T3 that I grabbed to capture this frame.
Fujifilm X-T3 16mm @f2 iso800 1/125sec Model: Olivia. ‘Pretend Print-cess’ by Kelcie Bryant-Duguid
A fleeting moment…a split second. During a “rolling” break, Olivia (the model) and I froze. It was then I noticed the amazing shadows. I grabbed the Fuji, dialled in the exposure and fired off 3 frames. On the third, Olivia turned her head (without direction from me) just enough for her shadow to be in perfect profile. My fave shot!
For your reference, here is the image I was taking seconds before.
Canon 5D4, 100mm @ f8, iso 100 1/200sec. Model: Olivia. ‘Pretend Print-cess’ by Kelcie Bryant-Duguid
Catch you next time.