Header photo: Entangled in Liquorice by photographer Theta Aeterna with model Inga Olej Model

Theta Aeterna is a hobbyist photographer who (at the time of this interview) is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Whilst new to the model photography industry, they have much experience in landscape and other genres of photography.  

After recently sharing their photoshoot (featuring Inga Olej Model) with the PurplePort community, Theta Aeterna generously gave us their time for a quick interview to go into more detail about the shoot.

Check out the fabulous images created during the photoshoot, and find out what inspired Theta Aeterna for the shoot, how they planned it, the camera gear they used, and more.

Sticky Ideas by photographer Theta Aeterna with model Inga Olej Model

SHARE A SHOOT with PurplePort photographer Theta Aeterna

How did you come up with the concept? Did anything inspire you?

The main idea came from a lovely lady called Inga Olej, who also happens to be the model in this shoot and a new member of PurplePort.

Me and Inga go way back (I used to be her drum tutor during my PhD days), and she shared with me her wish to shoot something with liquorice candy (Haribo Rotella), an implied latex fetish by using the candy as a substitute.  

It was a creative but vague idea at that time. Since her eyes were so bright and her voice so full of excitement, I said "Yes" without any hesitation.

Liquorice Entanglement by photographer Theta Aeterna with model Inga Olej Model

What did you do to plan the shoot?

The first concept was to use the black candy in a fine dining setup. Luxurious setting, fancy lingerie and the stark contrast of sticky, black stuff, like a poisonous spaghetti.  

It became its own animal once we started to experiment around, though.

How did you arrange the shoot?

Although we talked about dates several times, we could not pinpoint the shooting date. Both of our schedules were a bit chaotic and dependent on external factors.

The most important factor was my being in Portugal to be able to shoot. Inga recently opened an art workshop in Fuseta, a small village In the Algarve. It made perfect sense to shoot there. With some fancy tiles and nice window light, it was an interesting location to try this weird concept.

I had to buy the candy in the Netherlands (the Portuguese seem not to like this stuff), which was a total of 750 grams (1.653467 pounds or 0.1181048 stone for you Brits) of this sticky, weird thing that polarises people like marmite or pineapples on pizzas.

Limited space, only one direction to shoot and special mojo gave us the canvas to work on.

Entangled in Liquorice by photographer Theta Aeterna with model Inga Olej Model

What was it like shooting at that location?

It was rather wild and sticky.

First, we had to separate two strains and unroll the black candy since it comes in the shape of snails. The black stuff was everywhere, especially sticking under our feet. We cursed a lot that day.

The light was good, but I decided to use the white wall as a huge reflector and discarded the idea of going only with the ambient light. The "unique" setup was necessary to have enough light in Inga's eyes and body. So we came up with some whacky-looking but functional setup.

That workshop had a lot of paintings and other creations of Inga, which had some influence on my approach to the concept.

When I climbed on the barstool to shoot top-down, I started to think about greed, addiction, harmful thoughts, freedom, catharsis, suffering and relief with the black candy on Inga's face. It was more like how we would get rid of every negative thing in our lives but need to pay the price for it.

Inga embodied those with perfection by adding her own emotions and interacting with that black sticky stuff. It was her idea in the first place, and she made the best out of it. We both are pleased with the results.

Just too much! by photographer Theta Aeterna with model Inga Olej Model

Tell us about the gear you used.

I used my Nikon Z7II with a Nikkor Z 24-70 2.8 S lens. Since most of the shots we both liked were the ones I shot from a top-down perspective, my only option was to go wide.

The lighting setup was a rather make-shift, on-the-go solution. Before we started the shoot, we planned to use the ambient light to its full glory and bounce off a little bit of fill light. That changed when we also changed what we wanted to shoot.

I had my speed-light Godox V1, an Ulanzi Carbon Tripod and Gorilla Pod bendable tripod in my luggage. To be able to get the lighting top down, I decided to have a 45 degrees upward tilt on my speed light to bounce both from the ceiling and from the white wall, enough to reach the reflector cloth in front of Inga, with a 30 Degree(ish) angle.  

I also had my Manfrotto portable diffuser and reflector combo with me. My solution was to mount the speed light on the tripod, then mount the Manfrotto diffuser on the Joby Gorilla Pod and mount the Gorilla Pod in front of the V1 speed light. It looked really weird, but to get more reflection to the eyes and the front of Inga, I also spread the Manfrotto silver reflector between the two carbon legs of the tripod.

I am a veterinarian by profession, and we are used to coming up with ugly but workable solutions. With this setup, I used my speed light at maximum power and spread the light as much as I could, with both the diffuser cap on the light and the diffuser in front of the light.

What still boggles my mind is that it worked. Most of the images have very little correction in post-production. The coloured ones are almost untouched in terms of colour, exposure and contrast.

Out of controle by photographer Theta Aeterna with model Inga Olej Model

What's your favourite image from the shoot?

That's a tough question.

If I had to choose one, I would choose the greenish, desaturated one (see below). It is the most emotional one, or at least the one that represents my feelings the best.

Just Too Much (Green Desaturated) by photographer Theta Aeterna with model Inga Olej Model

Thank you, Theta Aeterna, for sharing your creativity, experience and images with us. We loved learning all about your photoshoot with Inga Olej Model!

We hope you all loved it, too. Don't forget to check out the links below to see more of Theta Aeterna's work!

Here's where you can find more of Theta Aeterna's work

PurplePort: Theta Aeterna

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