Spring Course

I was asked by the Stellenbosch University to be part of their spring school & handle the advanced photography class. It was a week long course the 1st week of Sept. My class was really small, only 3 people in the end, but was great to have a more personal course & could help everyone individually nice & easily. We had a lecture & shoot each day & processing in the afternoon. All the shoots were on campus, 2 at the botanical gardens, one at the Jan Marrais Park & the walk up & the last on the infamous rooi plein. I focused mainly on vignetting & creative use of DoF, movement, use of lenses & finding good interesting angles so that your image says what you want it to.

I didn't shoot too seriously myself, but did take a few shots to help explain & show the participants what I was after, how I think & look for other interesting elements around my subject to make the shot more dynamic. Here are a few shots of mine from that week.

Aamz

Some more portrait practice. 1 model, 3 spots & a few flashes later...

Natural Light

Langebaan Park

A new park has just graced Langebaan's presence & we (Ryan, Zynn & I) went through for a session on Tuesday. We made an early start to make the most of the warm winters day & got there around 12. It's been a while since we've made any missions & the park was looking good! I can't remember when last I've really been in a hurry to get my skates on & was so keen to see the possibilities the park had to offer. Just rolled around for a while & noticed there are a few dead spots that need a bit of attention. I overheard the "superiors" talking about it, so hopefully they'll get sorted out soon. Other than that everything is looking & feeling really good & had a fun session.

After quite a while I decided to get the cam out & snap a few shots. Started off with a double flat rail & just shot Ryan & Zynn sessioning for a while. I was quite keen to have a pic or 2 of myself & didn't have anything too special in mind, so just stuck with a fish on the bowls extention & set up & got Zynn to be my trigger finger. My legs were starting to cramp after the marathon session & we were all feeling a bit finnished.

I nearly started packing up, but decided to see what the hip would look like with the fisheye & just took some nat light shots of Zynn. I liked what I was seeing, so set up & caught a few more airs. My legs were feeling good again & was keen to see how high I could get, so put Zynn on the trigger again. After 2 or 3 goes my legs were not too happy, but was too amped to get the shot & kept pushing a few more. Kinda got what I was after & decided to call it a day.

I had just packed up & was feeling finnished from a day in the sun on a nice reflective concrete surface. My body decided to give up on me & had a bit of a spiritual heatstroke experience & made use of the drive back to recover. Bit of a crap way to end a great day, but was well worth it & def initely going back soon for some more, are a few things we didn't get to that I'm keen to try.

Ryan - AO Fish

Ryan - Backslide

Ryan - Misfit

Zynn - 360 Top Soul

Zynn - True Savanna

Ryan - AO Top Porn

Zynn - 360 Fish

Eric - Fish

Zynn - Abstract Mute

Ryan - Mute

Zynn - Stale Grab

PoorTraits

Yesterday seemed like the right time to play with some self ports again, so I got out my old school uniform. Just about ten years since I last wore it or tied a tie & still can't do it properly. haha

We've set up my mom's studio for a photoshop workshop tomorrow & decided to use the screen in there as my background & after a few shots I decided that I've done enough with a white BG & turned it around.

Not too sure what I was after I just played around a bit & eventually thought of using some toothpaste to have the "getting up" theme going... that & I knew with the lighting I had that the toothpaste would glow a bit. I took 1 test shot to see if the framing was ok & was happy, so got my toothbrush, pressed the selftimer & began squeezing... then to look at the camera & think of an expression quick! Put everything down, had a look & was amped. Got it 1st go, doesn't happen too often with this type of thing & didn't need to crop at all.

Today my mom needed some portraits, so set up exactly the same, but lowered the strength of both flashes behind her to not have quite such a harsh rim light.

Strobist Setup
Key stays the same
Me: SB-600 1/8 & SB-900 1/4
Mom: SB-600 1/16 & SB-900 1/8