Second Shoot in McQueen

On Friday the 22nd of November I did the second shoot for McQueen. I set the backdrop and all of the equipment in the exact same position that the first shoot. This helped just get this underway as fast as possible. While setting up a customer arrived and Sarah asked her if she would like to be in the photo shoot. The woman said yes but she had to leave in 15 minutes. I told Sarah that it will take me 20 minutes to get everything set up to how I want it. Sarah asked me if I could come back and shoot the customer and I said yes, in a few weeks. This encounter with the customer sparked the idea AGAIN in Sarah about asking the customers to come in and model their old clothes from McQueen. This was the original idea and half way through the project Sarah now wants to do the original idea on top of the shoots that I have already done. I have no problem doing this because if this was a really paying client I would have to adapt to whatever their require are. But that being said this is an example of how Sarah is to work with. In a split second she gets an idea that she loves and drops everything and wants to do it. 

After I sent up I place my tripod in a position where I could get the shots I needed. The first model was a girls that worked in the shop. She had red hair and was small. After I shot her Sarah wanted the next models in. Each model had 3 to 5 changes of clothing. The next model was taller that the last girl. When the model stood into the frame I suggested to Sarah that I would like to shoot one model at a time. The reason for doing this was because they were all different heights. If I started shooting one model and then go to the next and then come back to the same model I would of had to adjust the angel of the camera in each shot. By shooting all unfits on the one model meant that every picture would have the exact same height and distance. Sarah asked me if I really need to do this and I said yes. By doing this the shoot went much more smoothly that the previous one. Each model was relaxed and for people who never did this before I believe they did brilliantly. We didn’t do poses that made the models feel uncomfortable. Instead I spoke to the models and tried to make them forget about the camera. By doing this I got relaxed and natural images.   

The shoot started at 18:30 and it finished at 22:00. Everything went well and there was no problems. Sarah emailed me the next day and agreed that everything went smoothly and better than the first shoot. 

Meeting with my client

After the first shoot I met with my client. We discussed the last shoot and I showed her one edited image. Sarah told me that found it difficult to style the girl who modelled on the first shoot. She said it was hard to find clothing to fit her body shape. I understand what she meant. Most of the clothing didn’t sit on the model correctly. Sarah said she is worried in case the same thing happens in the next shoot. In the the next shoot I am shooting two girls and a boy. One girl works in the shop and the other is a customer/friend of Sarah’s and the boy is a boyfriend of a girl that works in the shop. Sarah said she isn’t worried about styling the man because it isa  much simple takes of styling a man because you just put a t-shirt or a jumper on and he’s done but with a woman it is much more complex. Women have much more options to chose from when it comes to clothing and there body shapes are harder to work with. I completely understand where Sarah is coming from. 

Following this Sarah then suggested that she would like for me to shoot customers that come through the door of McQueen. Sarah’s idea is that the customers that come through the door get styled by Sarah and then I take a picture of them. Sarah wants to do this in the new year. I like this idea but my only concern is that it is getting close to the deadline and Sarah is coming up with more and more ideas each day. I have told her that we may need to work on some of these ideas after the deadline because I am worried I might be able to have enough time to complete everything she wants. Sarah was understanding and she has told me from the very beginning that if I need anything to let her know because she understand that I have a deadline.  

Images for McQueen an client feedback

Following the first shoot at McQueens I started editing the pictures. I didn’t have to do a great deal to them. The biggest issue with the images was that the floor of the backdrop was heavily marked with people walking on it. This could not be avoided because the first model, Dave, would listen to directions. He would dance around and wouldn’t stand still even when I shouted at him. The images I took of Dave are strong. I am also glad Dave could express himself and dance around the store because the images I got on that night were brilliant. With the editing of the floor I have to go around all the marks with a patch tool and spot removal tool. Each full body shoot took me 15 minutes edit because the floor was very dirty. I started to edit every image like this and when I reached picture number 50 I realised that my client will not want every image. I have since stopped editing the floor and I will meet my client next week to look over the images. At this meeting we will (hopefully) chose which pictures will go up on the website and Facebook page.

I sent the contact sheets over to my client and she said she loves them. Some work better than others and the images of Dave are much stronger than the images of Clover (the other model). I agree with Sarah because Dave is a unique person. I have never worked with anyone like him before. He had never did anything like this before and he just went with it.

I am happy that my client likes the pictures. To be honest I was nervous because my client was unclear on what she wanted from the models (and still is). On the night of the shoot I did my best to grasp an understanding of what exactly she wanted and I did my best with limited instructions. I am not saying my client was lazy and didn’t care how they were modelled, Sarah says herself that she finds it hard to know exactly what she wants because she has to many ideas and each idea is better than the last. The reason for this is because Sarah told me that nothing is every good enough for her. I felt pressure and actually quite happy when she told me this. Pressure because if nothing is ever good enough for her then we are going to struggle to complete this brief to her satisfaction. Happy because by knowing that nothing is ever good enough for her helps me understand my client better and by knowing that nothing is ever good enough sets my mind at ease and if she doesn’t like something I have done then it isn’t necessarily my fault. I understand that she doesn’t have to like everything I do but by know that she is hard to please gives me confidence when she shaw she loves my work.

TTWU Magazine

On Thursday the 22^nd of November Jonathan and myself met to discuss the submissions for the magazine. At the moment we have five submissions that we feel would strengthen this issues content, we are waiting on Graeme and Sian’s reviews of each others work, a Q&A for Ian F Simpson and also a Q&A for Spencer Murphy. This issue is becoming strong each week. I remember what Graeme Vaughn said to me, ‘you have to understand what you are trying to say with this magazine’. This has ingrained itself into my thoughts each time I come to work on the magazine. I have started to ask myself what do I like about photographic magazines? What I have come to realise is that I enjoy reading about peoples work and how they came to create the images that that get selected for the magazine. By getting Graeme and Sian on board and having them write reviews on each other’s work has made me think that doing something as simple as this could help me do something that other magazines are doing. Small things such as this could set us out from the crowd. I also like bodies or series of work in magazines. Such magazine like Of The Afternoon didn’t have text in their first two issues. I liked this magazine but I always thought it lacked text. I would have liked to see interviews and projects. Obviously they realised this because in their latest copy they have a lot of text and they also now have advertising.

At the moment we are waiting on a few photographers to send us their work along with a statement. When these photographers send their work across that will be all the photographers in this issue. Advertising was tough to get for this issue so we have begun to think about approaching the college to see if they could help fund this edition. Another thing I thought of while talking to Javier was to promote his upcoming exhibition. This would help us in bulking the magazine out with advertising. We could also ask the college to advertise a photography course in the mag. This would also help us when we approach advertising companies. They will hopefully see that the magazine his drawn some attention and want to advertise with us. 

First Shoot In McQueen

On Tuesday the 19th of November I did the first photo shoot for my client. The equipment I used for the shot was; two lights (one for the models and the other to point at the background), a portable backdrop and a grey backdrop. I arrived at McQueen’s at 17:30. I set up the backdrop at the front of the shop covering the front window. This work perfectly as I was worried the backdrop was going to be too large for the shop. I taped the grey backdrop to the floor and continued to set up the lights.

 

The models for this shoot were Clover and Dave. Clover works in the store and Dave is a customer of McQueen. I started of by shooting Clover. While taking the first few shots I new we would have to adjust the lighting because the subject was close to the background and casting a shadow. I new this was going to be a problem and that was the reason I brought the other light. From experience of shooting in small locations I new the subject might have to stand close to the background and this may cause harsh shadows to appear on the backdrop. The main light was positioned directly in front and above the subject. This was casting the shadow onto the backdrop. In order to eliminate this shadow I asked Javier (who assisted on the shoot) to set the other light up and position it low and point it at the area where the shadow in appearing. This fixed the issue and it allowed us to start shooting.

 

While shooting the first model (Clover), Sarah told me instantly that she didn’t like the poses. In fact she didn’t like her posed at all. This was my fault because Sarah was clear that she didn’t want me to pose the models that she wanted them to be themselves. I understood what Sarah was saying, but there is a problem with that, when you asked people (who are not models) to act natural they instantly freeze up. I have first hand experience of this because I ask people to do this on a regular basis at the studio where I work. Their natural reaction is to ACT when they are asked to ACT natural or to be yourself. I think Sarah realized this so I said they best way for this to work is to have the model to stand straight on and have a deadpan expression or laugh because the client wanted the models the look like they were having fun. After the straight on shot Sarah then wanted the model to turn sideways so I could get a 360 shot from front, both sides and from the back.

  PICTURES OF CLOVER

The next model was Dave. Dave is in his 50s. He has a long white beard and long white hair. He is a cool older man with a ‘I don’t give a shit attitude’. As soon as Dave stepped in front of the camera he started being himself. I never once (except for a few times to tell him he was moving to fast) had to direct him. The images I took of Dave are among the best fashion shots I’ve ever captured. This was exactly what Sarah want from the images. She want the peoples character to come through in the images.

PICTURES OF DAVE

When shoot was over I left the backdrop at the store because I have another shoot on Friday night. On Friday I am shooting a mixture of Men and Women. I am meeting Sarah on Thursday before the shoot to look over the edited image and to discuss the logo for McQueen.

 

What I learned from this shoot and what I will do differently

On the night of this shoot I was meant to be coming into the store to do a test shoot. This changed when the client informed me that this needs to be the actual shoot. I learned that I can adapt to the issues that are thrown to me by my client. I realized that my skills as a photographers are better than I think I by having a job in a studio working with people has supplied me with the confidence and knowledge to talk and guide people in order to get what I want from a shoot. Another thing I would do differently is bringing a tripod. On the night I forgot my tripod. The reason a tripod is useful is because when doing a shoot such as this it helps to shoot from the same exact spot so the images are all shot from the same distance. At the same time having my camera mounted onto a tripod would have allowed me to capture half of the shots that I did. This was because Dave was moving around (a lot). If my camera was mounted on a tripod I would have not been able to follow him because my movement would be restricted.

Photo Shoot For the musician Nicky McCallan

At the beginning of October Jonathan and myself did a photo shoot for the musician Nicky McCallan. Nicky is a singer song writer from Ireland. 

The photos in this shoot are for the inside shelve of his new EP. The locations for the shoot was in a park and The Metropolitan bar in West Didsbury. Firstly we went to the park. Nicky made it clear that he wants to portray the image of a person that isn’t moody like some artists. We started of with Nicky sitting on the grass and he was surrounded by leaves. We did this because Nicky’s EP is called ‘Hear on Earth’ so we thought we would have him sitting in a open space surrounded by nature. Its hard not to put your own mood and style into pictures because personally when I take pictures my own concept and attitude comes across in the images. This is not to say I don’t care what the client wants, I take onboard what their ideas are and I try my best to get that certain look to come across in the images, but with my style of photography. We then tried several more ideas in the park and then we moved onto the second location which was The Metropolitan.

In The Metropolitan I asked Nicky is there anything he wants from the images, is there anything you want them to say? Nicky said not really, he doesn’t want to pose or act a certain way that would make people get the wrong impression of him. We started of by having Nicky drinking coffee and talking about his music. This made him feel much more relaxed and comfortable. As the shoot progressed so did the shots. Nicky started playing the guitar and I took pictures of him in the position he was already in. I never asked him to do anything. I simply kept talking to him and snapped away. I have attached the images below.

 

 

 

After this shoot Nicky told us that he will use the inside pictures for the CD shelve as he believed they worked better for image he was trying to portray as a musician. 

On the 11th of November Jonathan and myself were invited to the release of his EP which was held in The Violet Hour Bar on Burton Road in West Didsbury. Nicky played the five songs that are on the EP and. When he finished Nicky thanked Jonathan and myself for shooting the images for the inside shelve. Doing jobs such as this is great for the future. Down the line Nicky could want us to shoot again for his next album or he could refer me to other musicians.

Doing this job was a great experience. Having Nicky thank us after his session was a great feeling. Because this job only took 2 hours I took it for granted, but when I realised my images would be inside a musicians shelve I felt very proud and honoured to be a part of it.     

Then There Was Us

On Thursday Jonathan and myself work e don the magazine. This time we focused on submissions for this issue. I suggested to Jonathan that we need to start contacting photographers that would work in the next issue. I wrote to five photographers. The photographers are Michael Wolf, Martin Bogren, Sohei Nishino, Martin Parr and Spencer Murphy. Out of those five Sohei Nishino has declined because of other obligations. We haven’t heard back from Martin Parr or Michael Wolf but Martin Bogren has agreed and Spencer Murphy has emailed us back asking what our budget is. I think Spencer wants money So I emailed him back explaining that there is NO budget for this magazine but it would be great having him onboard. We are waiting for a response. By having such well known photographers in the next issue could help us reach a larger audience. At the moment we are still trying to find photographers that would work in the next issue. 

Conversation With My Client (Sarah)

Today I spoke to my client. What we discussed was the upcoming shoots. Sarah expressed concern because she said she has hundreds of ideas and can’t seem to focus on one.  On Tuesday night we are shooting the boys. One guy is called Dave and he is in his sixties. He has a huge white beard and as Sarah puts it ‘he’s mad’. This is a great idea and I am excited to shoot this guy. By having people of all ages is keeping through to the original plan. Also on this night I am shooting another guy who dresses like a MOD. Sarah has requested that I include the scooter into the image. This will be difficult as the shoot is inside the store. Sarah also brought up that she would like to ask a customer of McQueens if she would model along with Dave. This woman is very reserved and Dave is the complete opposite. By having them both model would be interesting, it could bring a different dimension to the whole shoot, but Sarah is unclear if the woman is willing to do the photo shoot.

Moving on from the men Sarah started telling me her ideas for the girls. Sarah said she wants the girls to be posed naturally. By naturally she means being themselves, and not looking uncomfortable which I understand. I understand why Sarah wants them to appear as themselves because these women are your everyday woman, they have natural figures and different body shapes. Sarah wants people to look at these images and feel that the are just like them because if people were to see skinny, tall and beautiful models they would think that McQueen catered to people like that.

Moving on we discussed hair and makeup. I told Sarah that the hair stylist I have had cancelled but the makeup artist is still doing the job. Sarah told me that she doesn’t need a makeup artist, but a hair stylist would be needed. I tod Sarah I will try my hardest to have a hair stylist for the Friday night. Sarah wants the hair style to be something different and romantic like a French Roll. As of now I still don’t have a hair stylist.

After hair and makeup we discussed the girls photo shoot. Sarah said that she wants the girls all posing together. I was confused by this so I asked Sarah to explain what she meant. Sarah told me that she that when the girls are modelling she wants the to be GROUP SHOTS as if they are having a Christmas party. I said thats fine but I think we should also do individual shots of the girls. Sarah thankfully said okay to this.

What worries me about Sarah is that she finds it difficult to concentrate on one aspect of the project. Sarah told me she has hundreds of idea I can’t concentrate on going with one of them. I told her that she has to find a way to narrow her ideas down. For example Sarah told me she would like to have a beautiful model in the shoot and style her because the girls in the shots will have all different body shapes and sizes and some of the clothes wont fit them like they would fit a skinny model and at the same time she wants to use people form all walks of life as the models because this is McQueen’s target audience. I told Sarah she has to decide if she wants to use models or the girls and customer of McQueen. Sarah also said that she doesn’t know what to style the girls in and this could be a huge problem. At this point I told Sarah that she should get all the girls that work for her to try on clothes and find 3 items that fit their figure and look good on them, this is what they will be modelling on the night. Sarah agreed to this and this is wear we ended the conversation.

I find working with Sarah fun and challenging. Sarah is like nobody I’ve ever met. She has trouble pinning down exactly what she wants but this is to be expected because this business means a lot to her. I have to realistic, if this was a real client I would have to roll with the punches and do the job to the best of my ability. I am confident that this project will go well. I am already learning so much by working with Sarah.

Editing Issue #2 of Then There Was Us

On Tuesday the 5th of November Jonathan and myself started editing the magazine. At this stage we have three confirmed people that are in the next issue. The photographer Alma Haser is featured along with Graeme Vaughn and Sian Gouldstone. Sian and Graeme are submitting work and they are going to write about each others work. So Sian will basically write a review on what Graeme’s work means to her and Graeme will do the same with Sian’s work. What I like about this idea is that you will have an insight into how two photographer feel about each others work and it will hopefully allow us get a different perspective on how to view the work. Another aspect that intrigues me about this idea is whenever I read article in Source magazine for example I often find it hard to have a firm visual concept  of what the artist is saying about their work, but by having two photographers reviewing each others work will hopefully help others understand how to review another photographers work and to apply it to their own work in the future.

During the editing stage today we also contacted advertising companies. We are hoping to get advertisers involved because the cost of printing this magazine is having an impact on both of us financially. For 200 magazines with 60 pages it will cost over £400. Obviously we have to spend money to ensure the magazine will be of a high standard. Realistically the chances of getting interest from advertisers this early on is slim, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying. I believe the most logical way to approach this is to get 250 copies printed. we would try and sell 200 and the remaining 50 would be sent out to advertisers and other magazines in hope someone comes onboard and supports us.

At the end of the day we realised that we have to start contacting photographers to feature in the magazine because the level of work submitted thus far isn’t of a high standard. We want this issue to stand out from the crowd.

Progress with my client

During the pass few day I started to worry that communication with my client was coming to a halt. Today I contacted Sarah through Facebook because she informed me at the beginning that she will not read large emails filled with information. So private messaging through Facebook works best for us.

The main thing I was concerned about was the the the practice shoot before the actual photo shoot. I sent Sarah the following message.

Hi Sarah, It would be important for me to do a practice shoot in the shop next week. Would this be possible? I was thinking Monday or Tuesday night? It would take no longer than an hour and a half. Cheers

Emmett

Sarah then replied

of course not a problem! what time you thinking? also was going to ask if you were still planning on using a hair and makeup artist? if so do they want images of the girls? could i met up with them before the shoot and i would like to see some of their previous stuff if poss? lauren used to do all the facebook photos and styling. she sent me a link to her website lsat night. i really like the styling and the photos. which do you like? http://laurenreyhani.4ormat.com/styling

Lauren Reyhani – Styling laurenreyhani.4ormat.com

Costume designer/maker. Fashion stylist. Based in Manchester, UK.

Following this Sarah sent me another message which an idea for the website. Sarah wants to include a personal shopping category into the website. This is a nice idea. It could get people interested.

ps i dont like the cover picture!!

id like to get this idea into the website. I think i can make it sound far more fabulous! http://www.jzdstyle.com/store/personal_shopper.php

Emmett

I was thinking 18:00 when the shop closes? Well I am currently trying to arrange a hair stylist as the one I booked cancelled. Lauren’s work looks amazing. I like the images with the brick wall as a background. It would be great working alongside her.

I will ask the makeup artist if she could forward any of her work to me and I will pass it on. She lives in Bolton so I’m not sure if she can come before the actual shoot, but I will ask her if she can come down as it would be important for us all to have an understanding of what you want.

Sarah

Also getting gift vouchers so would like to get that promoted

Afraid no chance of working with lauren.. but good to see some inspiring work. Just a thought, if I could get the boys to come down for the test shoot maybe that would be half the job done? Im concerned about how quickly the time will go on Friday, whatdathink?

And I don’t want make up on the fellas!

Emmett

Sorry. No the makeup artist won’t require photos of the girls but she will require photos of makeup that you want on the models. Okay so gift vouchers will be included on the site.

Yeah if the boys could make it for the shoot that would be great. I will come with images of pose I would like them to do. Could you possibly look for poses that you would like the boys to do. This way we can be on the same page on the night of the shoot and it won’t waste time.

I’m not worried to be honest. If we go in there with a solid plan, then there is no reason why we shouldn’t come away with great shoots. I need to know, if we don’t get everything on the Friday night is there another night that we could shoot. I can also do the Saturday?

Sarah

Yes, Saturday good. In fact might be an idea to have split girls up and do some Friday some Saturday.

Poses sounds scary. Kinda want them looking like themselves A

again I like the pic Lauren did for Mcqueen and fonda. She made the girls v relaxed and they don’t look like they’ve posing

I want he girls feeling as relaxed as poss so make up will be natural and to a minimum

Right, 2 fellas are coming on tues 19 at 630. Will try and a get you a piccy of them so you kmow what to expect! Dave is bonkers, be warned!

Emmett

Yeah splitting them up would work. Okay I’ll keep an eye on bonkers Dave. Looking forward to getting things started.

Sarah

http://littlehillpeople.com/ gonna meet up with this brand on saturday with the aim of arranging so event……?!

Emmett

Brilliant. The more events the better. If you get a date for the event I will come along and take some photos for the website. I think one of the girls in my class is shooting the handbags for their website.

I now have a much stronger plan for what it is we are doing on the nights of the shoot.

The list of things I need to do in preparation for this client brief are as follows;

Book two lights out for Tuesday and Friday along with portable backdrop

Arrange Hair Stylist For Friday the 22nd and Saturday the 23rd (Problem; the hair stylist might only be able to do both nights, either Friday or Saturday)

Start working on the website; (The Typography and the Personal Shopper category)

These are some images I like. I have taken them from the website Sarah attached to this post. The stylist is called Lauren Reyhani. Lauren has styled shoots in mcQueen and Fonda in the past. Sarah sent me the link to her website and mentioned “i really like the styling and the photos. which do you like”? When I told Sarah I like the images below I got no response. I then asked her, to send me any poses she likes so I know that we are on the same page when it comes time to do the shoot. Sarah wrote back I said “Poses sounds scary. Kinda want them looking like themselves. Again I like the pic Lauren did for McQueen and Fonda. She made the girls v relaxed and they don’t look like they’re posing.

This completely confused me. Sarah sends me the link to a website and says she really likes the styling and the photos. I understand she didn’t mention poses but ALL of the models in these images are posing. So what I tkae away from this part of the conversation is that by showing me this womans website she wants the lighting and styling to be similar to whatever images I like. The poses will be natural.

These images below are for Lauren Reyhani’s website. Lauren didn’t do the photography in these shoots, but she did do the styling. What I like about these images is how the lighting and the background work together. The complexion of the models and the colour of the clothes all work well together. The images look clean despite having a brick wall behind. This would work well for the shoot but McQueen is a small store and I need the room to shoot.

The images below are from Sarah’s other shop Fonda. Lauren styled these images and also also shot them. These images are posed, okay the models are not doing crazy poses but they not exactly natural.  My idea of natural poses doesn’t mean the model will raise her arms above her head and look intensely into the camera.