Tuesday, March 25, 2014

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Well to be fair, that's how the saying goes, and more often than not it is so very true. It's not often that I am fortunate enough to photograph two beautiful models at the same time. So when the opportunity presented itself I jumped at the chance. Planning the shoot seemed to be pretty much the same as I would do for a 1 on 1 shoot - choose a theme, location, and decide on wardrobe, make-up and hair. I should have been a scout.

All's well so far. The tricky part starts once you get on location. If the models arrive on time (wink wink), getting the wardrobe sorted becomes rather difficult, as you not only have to choose the clothes you want to shoot, but they have to compliment each other - so the compromising begins.

Posing also becomes a challenge, and is definitely twice as hard as when working with only one model. Shadows, which I love to work with, now become a challenge.

BUT, let me be completely honest..........I had an absolute blast, and would suggest you try it out as soon as you can. The girls were great and we had twice as many laughs and twice as much fun. The two were so different in looks and attitude, it gave me an amazing amount of creativity in trying to capture each of their personalities.

Model: Rave A & Ammaarah L from Mould Modelling Academy
Clothing: Shannon Leigh Hardman
Accessories: Lucid Accessories

Check out the full shoot at: Craig Anderson Photography

Until next time

ADIOS

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

CLOWNING AROUND

Still one of my favourite shoots. Did this shoot in collaboration with my mate Paul John Wright and alternative model Rochelle (Scar Raven). Although this shoot was nearly a year ago, I still find the images captivating, but understandably not everyones cup-of-chino.

This was challenging in the planning, trying to find a suitable location to portray the clown theme was rather easy - Holy Rosary Convent in Central.

For those not familiar with Port Elizabeth, it is an old Catholic school that has been left to decay and now almost seems impossible to resurrect (excuse the pun).

In 1867, 6 foundresses left Durban and sail to the missionary station in Port Elizabeth, where they founded the Holy Rosary Convent. It was followed by two other catholic schools - Marist Brothers College for boys and St Dominic's Priory. Holy Rosary Convent, Marist Brothers College and Priory High then merged to form Trinity High School, for boys and girls. The Trinity High School moved to the holy Rosary Convent buildings while a junior school remained at the Priory. However in 2000, urban decline and economic factors led led to the move of Trinity to the Priory buildings when the Holy Rosary buildings were sold.

Hopefully, the building will be saved from utter destruction, and one day transformed to the beautiful building that it is.

So, that's the history lesson over.

As you can see by the beautiful images that we have captured, the contrast of the clown with the decadence of the old building worked very well. There were so many awesome locations within the building, that we were able to achieve what we set out to do. Working with both ambient and strobe lights we were able to make use of the amazing shadows that make this shoot so incredible.

Check out all the images at : Craig Anderson Photography

Until next time,

ADIOS


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

THE BEACH - FOR THE FIRST TIME

So a friend and fellow photographer decided it was time to expand her photographic repertoire and venture into the realm of fashion. That's quite a big step, cos I remember I was taken on my very first fashion shoot with Paul John Wright. Don't get me wrong, I loved shooting people and capturing that emotion, and had tried some fashion shoots on my own.........well I called a fashion shoot until I had to step up to the plate, and my word it was an eye opener of note. No chance of pitching up with a model with a bag full of clothes, a camera and no lights.....HELL, this took planing, location planning, directing skills, wardrobe, make-up, the list goes on and on. And that's even before you have taken your camera out.Once the camera comes out you start to sweat bullets, cos now the real action starts and the creativity kicks in, and man that develops some heat. But what a rush, and when it finally ends, you have that crazy time between packing up and downloading the images onto the computer, when you just hope and pray that you got at least one decent shot, to make the whole adventure worthwhile.

Well I had to learn quick, and thanks to Paul, made it through to the other side.

So when I was asked to assist in a FIRST fashion shoot, all the memories flooded back, and realised that a true test of your ability, is the ability to guide someone else. That, and of course I'm such a cool guy - colon, open brackets. (for those :) )

So the planning began, a theme was decided, a model chosen, a location found and a date agreed - first box ticked. Then discussions began, and the shoot went from a 3 hour beach shoot to a 2 day monster which would have required us to eat, no sleep and drink, have at least 2 cameras (each!) and who knows how many SD cards to capture it all.

But sanity prevailed.

Arriving on location at Sardinia Bay, our first hurdle was to climb the monster dune that now guards this pristine beach we were about to invade with all our kit. But to my absolute delight, WE HAD GAFFERS - I wanted to jump for joy, but thought it would be a tad unprofessional.


Sards is a family beach with lots of kids, walkers and folk there just to enjoy its beauty. But more about that later.

As always, my first action was not to unpack the kit, but to dive into the models bag to see what exciting things were packed. Fortunately I have not been slapped, YET! Needless to say, as with all my shoots, the laughing began and could see this was going to be a good one. Especially when I unpacked the dress I had brought along - sometime people can be so narrow minded :)

The gaffers were great fun, and became the clothes horse for the model to hang stuff on - and I was the one getting flack for the dress?? They took it in their stride and we all had a good laugh.

OK, so remember the family beach thing earlier. Well, there was a young couple with their 2 young kids. The model was bikini clad, and as the evening drew to a close, the young mom was keen to leave, but the dad was adamant to stay and play with the kids until the bitter end. One eye on the kids of course. I am sure that was a very silent trip home in the car. We had a good chuckle.

So the shoot was a huge success. The model was perfect, the gaffers were a hoot and the images look amazing.


Me......well I think I got my one shot!

Go check out the ones that made the cut and let me know what you think.
Craig Anderson Photography

Until next time

ADIOS

PS. Check out my Facebook Page and keep up to date with all the other cool stuff:
 LIKE my Facebook Page