By popular demand...

Here are some more images from the Fat Freddy's Drop gig recently, brought to you by a stream of comments and requests from a range of people far and wide...
Enjoy, and feel free to leave comments.



More pics after the jump...

Dropped on both nights.

Wow. What a weekend.
Monday is never a fun day - public holidays excepted - and after two nights of Fat Freddy's Drop, my Monday is definitely living up to expectations. I'm shattered - but in a very good way.
On Saturday night we were invited to see FFD as guests, so albeit rather uncomfortably, I left the camera kit at home and headed out with MSO to catch the show.

Dropping it this weekend...

A while ago I was lucky enough to photograph a music festival, held in Ye Olde Sports Oval of the local University. Lucky because it was was one of the best line ups I've seen when it came to Nu Zild choons. One of my favourite parts of the day was Fat Freddys Drop, who incidentally won two awards at this year's 2009 NZ Music Awards - Best NZ Roots Album and Best Producer. So nice work, FFD.

Unembargoed. If that's actually a word...

So recently I shot a marketing manager for an international finance company, but due to a publication embargo, wasn't able to post any images.
Well, ta-daaa.....
And to be honest - I quite like them. I used only two light sources (one was my flash on a sync cord - can you guess what the other one was?) and with a minimal amount of photoshopping, was able to achieve some quite cool results...
So - hardly groundbreaking news, but after dangling the 'embargo' carrot in front of you in my last post, I thought I'd put you out of your misery. Or relieve the anticipation. Or something.

I'm sorry, the contents of this post have been embargoed...

I'm sorry.
I'd like to tell you about my latest job - really, I would. Although it's hardly earth-shattering stuff, I'd like to tell you who I photographed, where, how, when - but when it comes to 'why', it all becomes clear.
Computer says no.
Well, not the computer exactly, but a missive from The Missile 'advised' me of IP rights, and asked me to embargo the image release until publication date. Which is next Friday.
So as disappointed as I know you must be (?), you'll have to wait until then. Kinda like two weeks before Christmas, but without the joy of unwrapping presents, eating/drinking yourself beyond sensible loading limits, and getting something you actually want/need.

What I will let slip is that instead of the photo shoot being harassed and scrutinised by pedestrians, we were left relatively alone as everyone's attention was focussed on three muscular guys wearing red Speedos, handing out condom-covered bananas. At 0815am. No, really. Togs, togs, togs - undies.

And now for something completely different...

So last week I photographed Gunnar, who's appearing in three scenes of the new Underbelly 3.
He appreciated the more creative approach I took to the shoot, but was also interested in upgrading his portfolio to include slightly safer images - ones that didn't illustrate him 'in role'.
So - an hour later, we had knocked out a stack of images. Sitting down in front of the processing computer, we made our selection, and another hour later he had his extra images. Fast image processing was mainly due to a. the fact he needed to leave and pick up Mrs Gunner, and b. all the years of working to deadline on the Picture Desk of the newspaper has my processing skills dialed in.
Nice.

So - here are a few more images from the shoot, set up in a graphics layout program so they can be quickly printed and distributed to talent extra agencies. And yes, that is some shameless self promotion across the bottom of the card...

Underbelly, thugs, murderers and chefs.

Being given complete creative control is definitely a wonderful thing. Especially when it comes from a prospective subject who acknowledges that their current photographic portfolio is getting dated, and requires refreshing.
OK, they can provide you with suggestions, ideas and guidelines, but other than that, last week it was all up to me. Noice.
The story goes - over a few ales one evening, an acquaintance mentioned that not only is he an apprentice chef, but he's also an actor. And has just landed a part, albeit a minor one, in the upcoming Underbelly 3 series. As part of his acting, he needed portfolio images to supply to agents and talent scouts when he was looking for work. An apprentice chef makes even less than, well, almost anyone I know, so I decided to throw him a line and offer to do some shots for free.
WIIFM? I get to try some new ideas out, without the pressure of adhering to a client's commercial brief. Win-win.
As you can see from the images below, he's playing a thug who gets arrested for murder. Admittedly Gunner does have a rather brutish look, but it goes to show you should judge a book by its cover etc etc, because he is a top bloke. Mind you, at the time of writing, I haven't actually p*ssed him off. Yet.

To satisfy some of the photo-geeks out there (you know who you are...), here is some info about the shoot.

Location: Two locations - one inside in a make-shift studio space, one outside in a funky wee alleyway with an awesome textured brick wall as background.

Light sources: Top pic: Softbox. Below: 'Naked' flash as fill, with rim provided by the big burning ball in the sky. Then honeycomb, skimmed across the face and bounced off silver reflector. Under that - 'naked' flash, and sun as rim light. Finally, honeycomb as main.