The hard road of photography

I have been photographing for nearly 6 years now.  Ever since the beginning of these 6 years I knew that I wanted to be a photographer.  Unfortunately my silly 17 year old self saw it as glamorous rather than hard work.  So now I know and I still love love.  I've definitely had heaps of ups and downs with it, perhaps more downs recently because sometimes I just feel like this tiny little fish that is never going to get anywhere in this big ocean of amazing photographers.  I want to make a difference now, not 5 or 10 years later.  Sometimes i find it quite hard to stay positive when it just seems easier to give up.  Perhaps the best pick-me-up is remembering the reasons why i do love it so much, and perhaps also waking up to a better day helps as well.  I'm not sure what I am trying to say here, maybe just that if you are struggling with photography or even just your goals, know that you are not alone in your frustration.

These past few weeks I have been shooting a lot, and it feels great to be constantly practicing and using different people.  but I did find that after one week of shooting I was really tired and as a result i slacked off with my editing.  Which means that now i have 3 photo shoots to edit and i have more shoots planned for the next weeks.  So yeah, very busy at the moment with uni work, i don't actually expect the work to die down until i actually hand in my final presentation.  At the moment I am sort of enjoying the fast pace that I have to work to, but also feel a bit disgruntled that i don't have time to catch my breath and enjoy the works that i am making.  So i am enjoying my work, but i am definitely looking forward to the end of year when i can escape Auckland for a bit. 

Until next time,

Jenni

Moments of change

I had another period themed shoot today in the studio.  I was again doing the hair and makeup so I felt a bit rushed as I'm always quite slow at setting up.  My model was Rachel from my class and she was awesome enough to volunteer to be my model.  The previous night I had done a bit of research into 1940s hairstyles but I was still quite undecided even when I had finished the makeup.  I decided to curl the hair and just work from there.  I ended up half recreating a style that I watched on youtube and I was quite happy with the end result, the only difficult parts were trying to get the layers of hair to stay together (I'm sure that in the 1940s they didn't have layered hair!).

When we finally got to the photographing part I was struggling a bit with lighting as I was trying the butterfly shadow under the nose and got quite frustrated with my results.  I eventually found the lighting that I was happy with, but by that time we only had 15mins left to shoot and it was only then that I was really starting to warm up.  Unfortunately we did have to pack up and that was the end of the shoot.

Normally when I photograph models I am always interested in the transformation I see in the photos and when I use photoshop, but today I think I was more drawn in by the real transformation in front of me when I was doing makeup and hair.  My hair and makeup skills are just that of an amateur but today I felt as if I really did make Rachel's look as authentic as I possibly could.  This is why makeup is always such a dilemma, it's a mask, but at the same time it can bring out such amazing aspects of a person that you never noticed before.  Does every woman feel this almost love/hate relationship with makeup?

A bit of exciting news in my daily grind is that I am organizing a fashion shoot with a fashion design student, hopefully to take place in October, so now I am actively searching for models 175cm + and looking for a great location.  Hopefully I will remember to post updates about my finds.  Wish me luck!

Jenni

Oh and a sort of behind the scenes ;)

Mixed understandings and classic 30s photos

It's been a while since my last blog, unfortunately I'm very good at procrastinating and/or forgetting, but I'm here now.  These past few weeks have been filled with shoots nearly every week for my uni assignment and I still feel like I'm trying to figure out what it is I'm really trying to create.  I've done a few different shoots but I haven't felt that I am going in the right direction.  I've put up some work on the Facebook page that might be interesting as it's quite different to my outside of uni work.

Anyway I wanted to briefly mention a problem I had a few weeks ago with a model who had been a client.  I had done some photos for her but I had not gotten her to sign a contract as she was the one who had commissioned me for the photos.  But after wards when I gave her the photos she agreed to let me use the photos in my portfolio, website etc.  A few weeks after I had done the photos for her she sent me some photos that she wanted retouched asap.  So I retouched the photos for her and sent them back, letting her know the cost of the photos.  She emailed back and said that she didn't realise that I was charging her for the retouching, and that she thought it was a favour for letting me use her photos in my portfolio.  When I read that email I was very angry because I had never agreed to do them free of charge, and it had taken up time that I could have focused on my uni work.  Furthermore we had never discussed the cost of my retouching because she had wanted the photos asap, but i had assumed that I was getting paid because she had texted me beforehand and said that she would be able to pay me for them.  So I emailed her back and explained our misunderstanding.  I did get paid in the end but I had to compromise for only getting paid 50% of what I was owed as I did not want to create any ripples.  Anyway the lesson I learnt was to always get models to sign contracts!

On a better note, I had an exciting photo shoot in the studio today where I was trying to recreate 30s/40s style photos.  My model was my friend Nicole who I have used many times in my work.  I had a really good time doing all the makeup and styling because I had never really tried period photos before.  I just uploaded the photos and the previews look amazing, I can't wait to start editing!

Here are some photos taken by Angus:

 

One of the raw photos straight from the camera (my model won't like that it's not retouched, lol!):

I'm off to bed now, goodnight :),

Jenni

Caught in the net

As a photographer working in the industry of beauty I see both the beautiful and the not so beautiful, and sometimes it's very hard for me not to be influenced by it as well.  It's ironic because even though I am a photographer and I know how photographs are Photoshopped, yet I still buy into all the beauty ads of how this one product will change my life.  Often I feel like if I take more care with my appearance I will somehow become the doctored images I see every day.  Of course this is a dream that no one can ever hope to achieve, but frequently - I do admit - that I get the impulse to change my daily routine in order to become more beautiful.

But then again I also admit that I love doing portraits because I'm always looking for that shot when the model reveals herself to me, often I find that I get the real person in the last few shots of the day.  Some people hate those last shots because probably in their eyes they seem vulnerable, but that's what I love about being a photographer, being able to catch my subjects vulnerability.

Anyway, moving on from my random thoughts.  Last week I had a photo shoot with my cousin Jenny.  It was a beautiful sunny, freezing day.  I didn't have an assistant and I was also makeup artist and hairstylist which I rally enjoyed.  We visited three locations, Kohimarama Beach, Dingle Dell reserve and also Mt Talyor.  The sun was quite harsh so had bit of difficulty with contrast on the face.  But overall it was a fun shoot as we didn't have any concrete ideas of what we wanted and just worked with the environment that we had.  Jenny was a lovely, very cooperative model that kept a smile on her face even though she must have been so cold.

Since I didn't have an assistant we couldn't get any behind the scenes photos, but if you want to see the finished results, I will be shortly uploading them on my Facebook (search for Chiaroscuro Photography), you can also find photos from other shoots on there.

I am also back at uni now, and slowly trying to adjust myself back to waking up early - which is extremely difficult for me!  I'm starting a new project, so will update when I have some work produced.

Hope everyone is staying warm by thinking about summer - I definitely am!

Jenni

Golden Hour

On Saturday I had a photo shoot with a promo model who wanted new images for her portfolio. The location was St Helier's area, and as I had never walked round that area I was a bit apprehensive about shooting there.

When I woke up in the morning it was sunny and gradually got grayer, luckily for us the weather held and we got some really beautiful lighting. We were also quite fortunate that it was sunny so the model was completely freezing her ass off :P.

Because this was portfolio for a promo model I knew that capturing shots of the whole body was very important, so the whole time I had to remind myself to not just focus on the face, but the whole body. I did find it a bit of a challenge as I always find that it's very hard to arrange a models body so that it won't look awkward.

Some photos from the day:

























I'm slowing organising some more photo shoots for my last 2 weeks of holiday...hope everyone is braving the cold and bringing out their cameras too!

Jenni

Wedding Shoot with NM

Towards the end of the summer holidays I became motivated to shoot again. I had been in a bit of a slump where I wanted to photograph but I didn't want to go through the effort of organizing a shoot.

So I put put a casting call and received a few interested models and makeup artists. I decided to have 2 photo shoots with two different models but both modeling wedding dresses.

The week prior to the shoot I went scouting around the city and considered the locations and the lighting, this really helped on the day when we could plan the shoot around the lighting.

The day before the shoot, the MUA had to cancel. So the only option was to find another MUA or that I would be doing it. Luckily my beauty therapist friend Steph came to the rescue.
This was our team:













I always find it really interesting to see the behind-the-scenes photos because they always look so ordinary, but at the same time I feel excited by them because I know that in that camera the photographer is seeing the image they want, and later through photo shop it will become the perfect photo. And it is also especially fascinating to see myself being completely unaware of anything around me while I am shooting.

Some photos while shooting:












































And it's always helpful to have an assistant with you...so that they can catch the shots that you miss :)













Jenni

Behind the photo

I've been meaning to create a photo blog for awhile and I have finally gotten around to it. I will be displaying and writing about my every day photo activities, whether it be a photo shoot, wedding or field trip.

I've created this mainly so that people can see what it is that we photographers do behind the scenes. I may post up some finished photos but mostly I am interested in showing the documentary side of things, and the thoughts that go through my head while shooting.

Hope whoever reads the entries finds them useful :)

Jenni