Fashion & Portraits

A normal photshoot takes around two hours and I walk away with around 200 raw-images. It takes one or two evenings to edit and postprocess the pictures.

The previous photsession with Philip was typical in so many ways. But worse part is not the shooting or the processing, its the waiting for the next round.

Im impatient as they come and and before the last  images fly off the screen Im already trying to crab the camera to go take pictures of someone.  Usualy I don’t even know what I want to shoot. A person, a face, somewhere doing what ever.  Too bad I don’t like shooting landscape or street. Frankly I don’t give a shit about taking pictures of birds either, it just does not do it for me.

When the bacis of photography is in the back of the head its time to start thinking about content and creativity.This is where things get really frustrating. Clearer the idea what to shoot, better the result! The best picture of the session is not necceseraly the shot you went for but a spinnoff of it. Too rarely I have strong images in my head to beging with. Going with the flow, having a thin red line to hold on to.

Of course it is not always a bad thing to know what you are going after. The image above is from one of those ‘lets just go out and shoot pictures’-photosessions. Maiju  lent me an hour of her time on one August evening and I thanked her with this image.  But the waiting to ge to shoot again, waiting for that one thought that creative funk..  It kills me.

The session with Mira was event to wait for. Highest hopes! The production (its allowed to call it a production.. a assistant, a videoman and  a bar with a bartender..) was bigger than I was used to and I was nervous. Nervous and over excited is not a good combination.  All that hassel and over doing prevents the train of thought.

I was so thrilled about the whole thing that I forgot some basics of the light.  The nikkor 17-55 2.8 used was a loaner from a friend. I pulled it to 17mm like planes said. It made things worse. (Do not try to shoot imporant pictures with strange focal leghts.)  Of course I didn’t mention any of this during the shoot. Complitely lost and swetting, but shuted up about it.  Its all about the appearance.

I’m trying to teach myself some patinece, but sometimes not shooting creepes up on me. Its only a matter of finding a subject to shoot. It can be closer than you think.  In the bar around the corner or in the street. Difficulty being the approach. The girl in pink shirt was in the pub jaakko when I desperetly wanted to take some pictures. Headed down there with a 20mm and sb28 to take quick portraits of anyone who says yes. ( I’d like to take her picture again, but I dont even know her name… help?) t

Anyone with the same problem? My advice? I dont have one. It incurable condition. Either drop the camera or try to find something to shoot for every couple of days. I can handle one week of not shooting but two weeks starts to be too much. Filling up a weekend of shooting keepes me busy enough in photoshop for the week. It still miss the sound of the shutter, the flashing lights, but atleast I have images to work with. Couple of days to a week is also enough for me to forget how much I hate the cactus triggers.