Fashion & Portraits

The prop I druled over and waited to shoot for better part of the month was the A-Ford. As it -of course- turned out the car was a pain in the ass to work around. With uncontrollable specular highlights and the blue paint job that sucked up all the light! There was no way I could have made my lightsource relativly huge compared to the  car nore have more power out of my SB units.

First I sat on Monica on the drivers seat and shot from outside, what a mess! Too much stuff in the frame and not enough lights (?.)  Monica was cracious infront of the lens and she made even the bad frames to look good.  It was obvious that  wasn’t going to get the pics I was after.  Asked if she would not mind to model for Janne on the seemless for some time and then come back to me. The arangement gave me time to sort things out wihtout having a model being bored to death by f-stops, flash ratios and diffusion..

She came back and I put her on the back seat of the car. One ezybox is on the drivers seat held by VAL (Janne) as a mainlight and the second ezy is back left in the rear window coverd with a scrim. Flare is caused by the sb80dx and sb600 3-4 meters from the windows zoomed out.

I felt awsome! I had to hold my self back not to scream when I looked at the image from the back of my D200! I made true comeback! Stuggeled,  bailed out on time and came back with one of the best images I have ever shot! “Shoot, suffer,die” says da man and I tell ya, I could have died happy after this shot.

Model: Monica Menniti
Make-up: Noora Hautakangas
Styling: Maiju Siekkinen

This social media stuff starts to pay the off! I wish it paid the bills thou, would be kinda cool to have Facebook paying the phone bills. But more of this after the weekend.

Here is couple of pics I shot of  Salvatore who Id like to call ‘the italian bon jovi.’ I was sure that John did a kakaoke gig at the Soolo when I first heard Salvatore sing living on prayer. Great guy in general too, always smiling, calm and relaxed. I feel like a monkey on a streroids compared to him..

The catch in the session was hard light. The shadows are our friends but its not always available. Thus I thought its better to practice then to shit on my pants when the its the real deal. So off we went to the park with Antti, reflector, ezybox and couple of SBs. Thanks to Antti for assisting, and to Salvatore for being so patient. He did not complain at all, althou the bright sun hurt his eyes and the frost bit his toes..

Little Metallica reference..

Fourth dress of the day and I  was feeling too good. Comfortable, and followed by a rude awakening (hey secod refernce of the post) results to a brain freeze.

The first three dresses worked like a charm  with my lighting but the fourth dress. Ouh, I could not get anything out of it. Nothing! Luckily I started with  easy going window light to save my ass (sloppy there as well and had to do a horizontal crop of the vertical image). I figured that if the model is dark and rock but the dress is not and lighting is it would all even out. It just did not work. Thus no decent images of the fourth dress.

I could have gone to the studio and shoot a second  butt saver too, but why do that when I knew Mika had one? If this was a client shoot I would have done something safe. No decent pic of the dress is not an option if you are paid for the pics. I wasn’t, so I let it go.

Joked about the whole scene to Suvi, and said “try to look like you are living in the States in the fifties and you are waiting for your husband to come home from work. Dinner is cooked and baby on the way.”  Clad she laughed, otherwise she would have killed me..

Lets get the show on the road from last saturdays shootfest!

3 shooters, 2 models, 2 stylists, 2000e worth of outfits and shoes borrowed, a studio and a kick ass location “in the next door.” Selfishly I took advantage of Mikas lasolite ezybox. The second box gives much desired control and touch. I have to buy a second box for myself, there is no doupt about it! I even shot couple of pics with big flashes and felt like cheating on my loved ones. Ooh, how wired? Had to kiss the SB800 and beg for forgiveness.

Huge thanks to all in involed again! Mika,  Maiju, Krista, Heidi, Eero and Suvi!

Krista in her first dress of the day..

The Pub Jaakko,well I just love the place.  Go there also if you come by Kotka.

Philip was cool as always, thanks man. Again.

Updated the flickr account. Now it also includes a portfolio. Its not the same as in here because its hastly assembled of the 200 photos Im allowed to show at once on my normal flickr account.

Some new cool projects coming up..