By Russ Freeman, 1337281189
Hi Everyone,
It's 3 years almost to the day that I started working with models to create interesting images so I thought I'd share my progress, or apparent lack of depending on your view :-)
When I bought a camera (roughly) in March 2008 I had no intention of shooting people. I would shoot practically anything from the sunset, reflections, abstract stuff, weeds, the corner of a building, my running shoes, don't walk, more sunsets and moody skies. Anything that took my interest.
In May 2009 I worked with a model for the first time, Magdalena. I had tried to shoot people prior to shooting with Magdalena but it had been a massive failure. No matter what I tried it always looked like a huge festering pile of poo!
Here's my favourite image from my first shoot, with Magdalena:
I still like this shot. It's simple and the light isn't bad. There are plenty of things I would change about it now but for a first shoot with a model it's not too shabby.
At the end of the shoot Magdalena and I reviewed our images, something like 800!, and she told me I should sign up to Purestorm etc. as I would have plenty of people wishing to work with me. After a week or so I signed up and she wasn't wrong.
I shot a LOT of models, tried a lot of ideas. Some were terrible ideas and some were bad only because I didn't really know what I was doing. Essentially my lack of skill squandered a LOT of opportunities. Oh if only I knew then what I know now...
I played with a ton of ideas. Grunge was one of them:
Model is Chloe. Shot with the fabulous 10mm fisheye on my trusty 40D. I wouldn't change a thing. I like the hint of her eye in the image. The detail is amazing! Shot in June 2009.
As I worked with more people the shot ideas tended to get more involved. I guess I was excited by the idea of creating more and more adventurous shots. Again, had I known "less is more" things would have been very different.
Model is Kirsty. This was the last set of the day as she would clearly be in no position to shoot anything else afterwards. When we got back to the car park she still looked pretty much like this and people were really staring. It was a fun shoot.
It was about then that I started to think about "art nude". I didn't really care so much about what anyone else thought about it. I had a view of what was and wasn't "art nude" and that was all that mattered.
Here's my first real attempt. It's called "Dirty Feet".
Model is Lee. She was so good. The forest floor was crawling with insects and she hated them all. To me the image is important because it's not really about Lee. Lee is series of highlights in the image. Shapes that contrast with the texture around her.
Like so many of my images I would do things differently now. I'd remove leaves and noise from the shot. I might compose it a little differently, post processing would likely be different. But, that's the shot I took. August 2009.
It was about this time that I started playing with Photoshop.
Shot with Hazel. Most of the processing is done with Adobe Camera Raw but I removed the chair she was sitting on in Photoshop. "What chair?" I hear you say...that's what I hoped you would say :-)
I had the opportunity to shoot with a Tara. She was bright as a button and came loaded with way more stuff than we could shoot:
We shot some funky and fun stuff. I think she looked like a superhero in this shot :-) Sadly she is no longer with us :-(
I still enjoyed shooting odd stuff and tried combining it with nude. Here's a shot of Linda covered in clay:
When I showed this shot to a colleague he exclaimed "Wow, how did you find this awesome statue". That was a great compliment :-) I was still mainly using Adobe Camera Raw and not really using photoshop at all at this stage.
I then met Artemis. Here's two shots from our first shoot together:
The first shows her flexibility but the second REALLY shows it. When I submitted some of our images to port review over on Purestorm they caused quite a stir. Perhaps a little scary at first...until I realised that creating an emotion in the viewer is IMPORTANT!
Artemis and I shot together 2 more times after that first shoot. We shot a variety of things and we have been crazy in love ever since :-)
Artemis and I shoot all the time and I cannot emphasise how valuable that is. If there is one piece of advice I could give to every photographer it's this; If you want to improve your photography then shoot more! It really doesn't matter what or who you shoot. It really doesn't. Every shot you take, as long as you are critical, is an opportunity to learn and improve.
Of course it goes both ways. For everything I have learnt by shooting Artemis so much she has learnt something too.
And onward...
We've shot in some amazing locations...A boutique hotel near Bristol, UK:
Shot with a big softbox...
Spain...
A derelict manor house south of of London:
It's not all serious...Artemis is lucky in that she gets some fabulous pics for her facebook :-)
We got an image, and a bunch of others inside, of the #1 issue of PHMag. I shot this one, the cover image, when I came home from work for lunch. I wanted to shoot some tights shots but didn't have anything in particular in mind. So with 30 minutes to play we shot this image:
I can't describe how pleased I was with it being on the front cover :-)
A not-so-derelict manor in Oxfordshire, September 2010:
We shot a lot, sometimes others and in this instance Allegra, were involved:
We still explored, as well as shooting, and we still do explore. Here's Artemis posing in her Sunday Best in the bowels of an insane asylum:
Nice hat and baggy pants :-)
And we come to present day. I don't really mind what I shoot. One of the benefits of having someone close to work with who is fabulous at their job is that it doesn't matter if what you produce is good or not. Sometimes the reward is in the process rather than the product. We both learn so much each time we shoot.
And sometimes it's in both. Here's some shots from last weekend when we spent 2 hours shooting in the car park:
And the next day we did a yellow, oilseed rape, shot:
I don't want feedback on the above. I just wanted to share MY photographic journey from my first shoot to my last. It's been enormous fun. I've shot with well over 100 people each with their own beautiful twist on the images we produce together.
I shoot as often as I can but the demands of PurplePort development severely limit the time I have. If I could I'd shoot every day but sadly my to do list is as long as the Great Wall of China.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share...
:-)
