The Lightbulb Project

At the start of September I embarked on my first 52 week photographic project. This was instigated by photographer Joel Robinson on Facebook. The idea behind the project was that he would issue a different theme every week, that all the participants could interpret, and create an image/artwork as they saw fit. I don’t usually do this sort of thing, but felt it would be a good way to challenge my creativity, some weeks have been harder than others, some have required collaborating with fellow photographers to create an image. I have had to challenge myself either to shoot something unique for the challenges, or to learn new editing skills to transform existing images to match the breif.

The images below are from the first 10 weeks, along with any relevant information, or conceptual description.

1 Lightbulb:

2. Memories:

We have just been through 10 years of family photo’s to produce a large wall collage of our kids from birth to now, it’s amazing how they change over time, and the photo’s, many not seen for years, bring back so many memories.

3. Reflections:

The beauty seen from without, is not always the same as seen from within…. reflecting

4. Giant:

5. Underneath:

6. Golden:

7. Connection:

Collaboration between my self and Sybille Sterk a fellow Arcangel Photographer. We supplied each other with several shots of our left or right arm to be used with our own to create an image.
This took my brain all over the place from HR Gieger (which didnt work) through to Terminator, a political battle between Trump and Kim Jong and then around to Blade Runner, which I think is where it ended. It was always going to be based on Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.
Arms: mine and Sybille’s
Background: Fly Paper Textures plus a scene from Bladerunner
Spark: my own shot from a lightpainting experiment.

8. Halloween:

3 image composite

9. Identity:

What is your identity? Online we are all just 0 & 1’s

10. Window:

This is an acrylic window on a childs fort in a local playpark.
It has cracked and lost clarity and transparency over the years. In a way this could be a metaphor for life, when young, things were clear and perfect, but over the years things can become cracked and lose clarity.

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Conceptual Shoot – Strong Female

The aim of this shoot was to portray a strong female character, along the lines of a character from CSI or NCIS. I was experimenting with colour grading to try and give some shots a more “Cinematic look, not sure if that worked, but we were happy with the end results.

All model shots lit with a singe Godox AD600BM, with a gridded 7” standard reflector. The tunnel shots had gelled speedlights clipped fixing bolts in the tunnel roof, and spaced evenly.

Recent Book Covers

A couple more recent book covers using my Rights Managed images, through my agency Arcangel Images.

David Bell, Never Come Back

Mathieu Neu, IDP 37

Waverley Beach Tree Stump

Half burried tree stump on Waverley Beach, South Taranaki, New Zealand.

These tree stumps are from an ancient Totora forest, and have been dated to be 80,000 years old. They were burried by a volcanic lahar.

720nm infrared converted Fuji X-E1, monochrome conversion.

The Daily Challenge – Te Rewa Rewa Bridge

The Te Rewa Rewa Bridge is 70m long and spans The Waiwhakaiho River in New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. It’s form is said to mimic a breaking wave, or a whales rib cage.

More of my artwork can be seen here: Fine Art America
Bridge

Inspired by George Hurrell

George Hurrell inspired shoot. George Hurrell was an American photographer in the 1940’s & 50’s who shot what became to be known as “Hollywood Glamour”. He shot all the famous movie stars of the time in contrasty monochrome. This was my attempt to emulate him.
Godox AD600 Gridded slightly camera left, very high with a steep downangle

Hunger Games

I’ve recently been shooting more conceptual images with models. This is all new to me, as I don’t usually photograph people all that much, but I must say i’m enjoying the challenge immensely.  This photoshoot was inspired by the Hunger Games, and was the first shoot in which I used my new Godox AD600BM Monoblock, to light the subject, instead of relying on natural light.

I was very happy with the results, and look forward to using it more on location shoots.

 

An Experiment in Infrared Portraiture

For awhile now, I have wanted to experiment with shooting portraiture in Infrared. Infrared can create beautifully creamy, smooth and “other worldly” skin textures. It also has a tendency to cause veins beneath the skin to be visible, which is not ideal, and also causes eyes to look black and dead, as the infrared light does not bounce back from within the eye. This can work well if you are going for the dead zombie look, but if not it needs careful work to avoid.

I teamed up with Megan Kay a local model, who specialises in Alt/Boudoir and Fine Art Nude to attempt my first IR portrait session. The weather should have been perfect with strong sunlight and clear skies forecast, unfortunately the forecasters got it wrong, and we were faced with flat overcast light, not the best, but we plugged on and tried to maximise the available light.

I had asked Megan to wear all black clothing and lingerie as my vision was for all the shots to be in a Gothic style, and completely monochrome. I wanted a high contrast between Megan’s skin, her clothing/lingerie, and the foliage in the background. What I wasn’t prepared for was how her different items of clothing reflected. I had my camera, A 720nm converted Fuji X-E1 set to monochrome, as that’s how I wanted to work during the shoot, but the poor intensity of the IR light was not creating the outcome I wanted, so as a test I switched back to Fuji Velvia film simulation, and was very surprised with the results, I never expected the dress to turn out blue the way it did. Various materials that Megan was wearing through the day reflected the light in many different ways; black lace reflected back vivid blue, whilst black satin on the bodice remained almost black.

This looks like it could require lots of experimentation with different fabrics to see what works best, or gives unusual results. One aspect that worked very well, was the way Megan’s skin retained the creamy smooth texture, which contrasted beautifully with her tattoo’s.

Certainly this needs further experimentation.

Playing around with some dispearsion effects

Sugar Loaves at Twilight

Old Volcanic islands of the coast of New Plymouth – Taranaki – New Zealand.

The Daily Post – A Good Match

The Daily Post challenge this week (and not something I have participated in for an age) is “A Good Match”

The 2 cars in the shot below are both 1956 Chevy Bel Air’s, one of my faveorite classic American cars, I think the green and yellow paint word are indeed “a good match”

A Good Match