Highly amusing shoot.

I had been booked for a birthday party this weekend with what seemed a funny couple. How funny I was to find out. They had booked the portable studio for their house before the function. Just a few photo’s with friends and family before I covered the evening shenanigans at the venue.

Photo’s of people in onesies, photo’s of people in fancy dress and then photo’s of people in opposing rugby club colours before finally some of people in their glad rags.

Being in Hull the opposing rugby club colours were obviously Hull FC & Hull KR. These two are getting married next year, have been together for over 10 years and clearly love each other. They also know how to have fun and not take things too seriously.

Possibly the funniest and most certainly amongst the most memorable sequence of images I have ever taken. The following image is a superb example of their love.

 

You just can’t beat an in house rivalry 🙂

Weekend funny.

Been out and about all weekend with the family and, as always, had my camera with me. Caught this little sequence of the kids playing with mother nature in Bridlington and though it worth a share.

FMP shoot completed.

All done and dusted in just a couple of hours. Again there was far more put into this on the planning, development and construction of this than the actual taking of images.

Everything went surprisingly smoothly and a great set of images were captured.

One final image, for posterity, of the three girls in the cube together and, inset, the creative team including myself.

Some post production to complete now and workbook to finish off.

Already had my first family shoot in the cube and two more booked through the week which, with the CD’s sold, covers the cost of the beast. Then to dismantle and get to the tip 😦

114 FMP Images

Yes 114 images sourced to adorn the frame of the cube. Images on images within images etc etc 😉

Mostly from the 1960’s which formed part of my thought process to things and people that have been an influence on me at some point.

Time consuming finding them all though. each image has been converted to B&W then given a Red, Blue & Green border to compliment the running theme of the images. Small, barely noticeable but very important 🙂

1.

2.

3.

4.

How many can you name ?

Cube complete & ready for shoot.

Some final bracing, papering and it’s all ready for the shoot. The following 2 images show me firstly finishing the papering off along the double braced top section and the second image and the second image is the completed cube.

I have included the red, green & blue paint containers just to show that this is not just an optical illusion print.

Well happy with the result and looking forward to the shoot this Saturday 🙂

Almost there….

A day of paste, wallpaper, cutting, sticking, drilling and erecting and I am nearly there. Just the front facia to finish off tomorrow and it’s all ready for some test images to be taken.

Sticking and cutting.

Multiplied by 4 and then joined together we now have a 6ft x 6ft x 8ft cube.

Just the facia to go which will allow me to crop in an exact square to create a frame within a frame.

FMP Cube started.

A brief restart after deciding to raise the cube off the floor to enable the creation of an external frame. Just for those who have had difficulty visualising what I’m actually doing this is the first step completed again.

1. The 4 pallets in place. Though they cover too larger an area this is deliberate so that bracing to the rear and what will be the ‘open’ side can be installed. This will save me from needing to fasten things to the floor and damaging it.

2. The first 6×5 sheet in place.

3. The first triangle of 4, for creating the infinity effect, in place. This is simply braced from behind with a piece of wood screwed to the pallets.

4. Boom arm holding light unit fitted with snoot placed in position. Needed to make sure this fitted behind the cube with room for manoeuvre and adjustment before continuing with the build. The light is to create a rim light to the models when they are in the cube. It will also assist with lighting the internal body of the cube.

 

3rd April 

Full day continuing the preparation of the individual parts needed to create the cube. All 4 sides and rear infinity triangles cut and joined with hinges, front face frame wood cut and side supports cut.

Decoration tomorrow with initial trial assembly planned for Sunday. This gives me a full week to resolve any problems before the shoot.

1. Two of the side supports. Other two shown in the inset.

2. Third and fourth panels with infinity triangles attached.

3. Base and one side panel all ready with pile of cut board to be used for framing the cube.

4. Some of the other tools though the hoover is now full of wood shavings from all the cutting today.

FMP Shoot date change and finally used my NUS Card.

Received a call earlier today from one of my models who managed to scald herself with boiling water at work yesterday. Her whole right arm is now bandaged after a water boiler incident, in the hotel kitchen, where she works. Now on sick she will be unable to wear the outfits being designed for the shoot and definitely not be able to dip her arms into paint as I wanted. Obviously the risk of infection negates this and being responsible about H&S is paramount.

Before I had time to wish her well she bursts out that she has found a replacement model but who can only do the 12th. Several calls later and everyone has agreed to move the date to the 12th April. Great to have such a small, yet dedicated team, all wanting to maximise the rewards available from such a shoot. We will not start until about 3pm as the hairdresser is at work until 1pm but she is confident that this will not hold up proceedings.

NUS Card.

Actually used my NUS card this morning for the most unusual of purposes. I needed to expand the base for my FMP cube project and the wood I had allocated for the job was not up to spec in the end. I called a local pallet company and they sell them in a variety of sizes which suited me fine for transporting in the car. I got there and was shown a selection they had prepared to cover the Sq Meters I required which would also fit into my car. The manager asked me what I wanted them for and I explained their proposed purpose . He asked a few more questions regarding photography and then asked if I could prove I was genuinely a student. Showed him my NUS card, he gave me 4 pallets free, wished me luck and delivered them within the hour to my home. Top chap 🙂

Year 3 thoughts.

Thinking about undertaking ‘Extreme Macro’ for one of the studio based modules in year 3. Need to chat with the course leader on what actually is required in Year 3 owing to the change from Leeds Met to OU and if such a module would be valid. Whilst I am interested in extreme macro and wish to try it out I can’t justify the spend at this moment in time for something non educational. Still plenty of gear I would like that could enhance my Uni scope for year 3.

This little chap came a cropper today at my wives workplace so she brought him home for me. This is standard 1:1 macro image using a single exposure at f/18, 1/125th and ISO 100 with my 100mm Macro. I tried a basic 6 image stack with some free software but it wouldn’t blend the hairs properly. Because of this I would like to be clear that extreme macro i.e. 3:1 to 5:1 magnification would be valid before purchasing the tools to undertake such image capture and compositing.

Surprised at how much dust was stuck to the bee.