Wednesday 4 July 2012

Balloon Shoot In London

So I've figured, why not do my first proper post on here at stupid o'clock in the morning and tell anyone who's reading about the shoot I did on the 18th June in St James' Park.
I got a message from the lovely Angel_of_Darkness asking for a shoot to be done with lots of sky. I agreed to to it and began doing a quick bit of research. I asked my friend Becca if she would be available to assist on the shoot, since I would need one anyway, and I may as well make it someone I know well :) We set a date for the shoot early on which ended up being a rather huge mistake, since I was then asked to find a Make Up Artist for the shoot. I asked A LOT of people, and everyone was busy that day. Everyone. I finally found an MUA who was relatively new to Model Mayhem, who thankfully agreed to do the shoot mere days before it was set to happen. So a lesson learnt from that shoot before it even began was to make sure you have the entire team on board before you start setting dates.

I did have the slightly pressing issue of it raining... and since I was travelling such a distance and had booked my tickets, it wasn't something we could simply postpone or shift to another week. However, it turned out to be really nice on the day and ideal weather for the shoot. 

It was my first time working with a team too. I've obviously worked with models before; and for my first Model Mayhem shoot, I had a friend come with me in case of stranger danger; but I'd never worked with such a creative bunch of individuals. It was really great having everyone bounce ideas off each other, and it's something I want to try again. Becca was also wonderfully helpful with teaching me about my relatively new lens (I've had since about March but haven't had much of a chance to practise with it) and taught me about spot metering. She's also a professional retoucher, and showed me some little tricks to do when I stayed at hers later... until we were so seduced by her mattress (I've never slept on a more comfortable one in my life) that we both fell asleep. 

So some behind the scenes before I show you the results


Aga applying the makeup


Part of Becca's assisting role was support for the model as she balanced... I obviously chose that moment to make a comment on how wrong it looked from the angle I was at :P


Setting up the shot for one the later shoots


To be honest, Becca's main role in all of this was balloon holder.

Shoot in London was a lot of fun. Everyone's comments were the same "They're used to it". Doing this shoot back in The Midlands would have gotten a lot of comments and a lot of stares. We mostly got amused chuckles; people taking photos themselves (especially when we put the balloons in the tree); and probably my favourite reaction, a young male adult just shouting "BALLOONS 8D" as we walked across the bridge... I wanted to keep him.

The only awkward thing about the shoot was... and in all honesty, it wasn't that awkward but it's something I should be aware of: is pleasing both the model and the mua. Often when I would be taking full body shots, the mua would ask me to go in close and get head shots... and whilst I did that, the model would want to move on to a different location to get more distance shots. It was hard to juggle both of them but they both seemed pleased with the results, so I hopefully did okay.

Speaking of results... here they are:

Model: Angel Of Darkness
MUA: Aga Pro Makeup
Assistant: Rebecca Jane Andrews
Note how I said at the start how she wanted the shoot to be sky themed? Well got one, but then we got excited and moved on. Also, the purple balloon died not long after this shot. RIP Purple Balloon.


I feel I should point out that the blur on her clothes is intentional








Okay so normally, I would not be posting this many. But I loved so many of the shots from this shoot that I couldn't pick. Hopefully. there will be more like that in the future.
We did a second look later on, I'm not AS keen on the results... which I'll explain in a bit. However, there were a few that I was quite proud of which I shall share with you now





There's significantly less... yeah. I do really like these shots, not to the same level as the look before it though. I feel a lot of it comes down to my strengths... colour. I'm not wanting to big myself up when I say this, but I do feel my strength in editing is colour. It's something I'm fascinated with and love to experiment with in editing... these shots were supposed to lack colour, which is easy enough... but then what I had to play with was the lighting in the editing. Something I'm not particularly great at. I can rescue a picture that was underexposed easy enough, but I can't do much creativity with curves and levels. Which was what these pictures needed... and I'm not completely sure I got the effect we wanted. However, they once again seemed happy with the shots so I shouldn't be complaining.

However, I do feel that it's an area I need to work on again. Lighting... both on the shoot and in editing.  I've thrown myself into the deep end a bit with the next shoot I'm planning (although with how long it's taking to get everyone together, it may not be the actual next shoot I do) which is a Film Noir Inspired Shoot. I did a small location scout with my brother today... then it rained so we went home because we're wusses. I have 2 models and an MUA already though, so keep your eyes peeled.

Also fun facts. You may remember that Rebecca (my assistant for the day who let me sleep round hers for the night) had a mega comfy mattress. THESE THINGS ARE EVIL. Lets just say... we had quite literally 10 minutes to get ready for their to be any hope of my catching the train back to The Midlands. You can fill in what happened for yourself.

Take care everyone <3



1 comment:

  1. I adore that first shot with the balloons against the sky - saying that I adore all of them <3
    The colours, makeup and poses are stunning =]

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