Results

Recently I was commissioned to photograph the directors of LexisNexis at their Head Office here in Durban for their Corporate Profile. This type of shoot is standard stuff for me, until I get a curve ball at late notice. I was expecting to do head and shoulder type portraits on a white background, so I brought along two SB-800 units and an old background flash that I use with an optical slave to brighten the background to pure white. However, when I arrived at their offices my liaison person from the marketing department said that they wanted full length photos on the white background. Ack! Panic!

Usually when I do portraits on white I simply stand the background flash behind the subject and aim it directly at the background – it doesn’t show in the image so you can stand it on pretty much anything you like. However, full length stuff is a completely different animal because you have to use two background lights and then at least one more for your main subject. You can’t place the back ground light behind the subject, because whatever you stand it on will be seen in the shot, so you have to do it from the sides using either barn doors or large scrims so that you don’t get flash for the background spilling onto your subject or causing serious flare in your lens. One light in a confined space doesn’t illuminate the background evenly, but two lights aimed across at opposite sides does the job nicely. Unfortunately I only had three with me, two of which were needed for the subjects.

What makes a shoot like this even more challenging is that you’re under pressure from the clock. Directors simply don’t have the time to be hanging around on set while you fiddle and faff with lighting set-ups. You need to know what you’re doing and do it fast. On this particular occasion the marketing department at LN was really lucky to have had all the directors in the same place at the same time, so what I decided to do was shoot full length and not light the background. This meant it went a shade of light grey, which is not first prize, but at least it makes it easier for the graphic designers to deep etch the subject and then put them onto a white background.

These were all taken using a 1.5m wide white backdrop, two SB-800 flash units, a Nikon D700 and a Sigma 24-70mm 2.8 EX zoom lens. The room size was about 5m by 2.5m.

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I was approached by Thabane Ncube and his wife TK from Rebel Monkey to take some product photos of their very cool range of fashion bags, manufactured here in Durban. I did three angles per bag on a plain white background. This was a bit of a challenge because of the shiny nature of the PVC that these bags are made out of, but in the end some reflection is necessary to give the product some “life”, which is what has been achieved here. Keep an eye out for these items in your favourite boutique – they’re very Rock ‘n Roll!

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This past week I photographed some jewellery for a very talented designer, Deepak Damjee. We were quite happy with the results, which are going to be used in some top flight SA magazine adverts.

About a month back, just before I went off on the first Nikongear.com safari, I did a photo shoot for Aaron Nel and Shanthan Pillay. Two talented musicians who are working together. These are a few of the shots we did at my house and then at The Cube on Innes Road, Morningside.

On Friday one of my safari buddies from Amsterdam and I went down to the pier at North Beach to shoot some surfers. I got this one using the Nikon D700 with a 200-400mm f/4 VR lens. Pretty cool, yes?

I was recently approached to take some photographs for the Mineworkers Investment company (MIC) at a land re-distribution project they are sponsoring in Kokstad, KZN.

It was a very interesting shoot that saw me taking some environmental portraits of the key players in the project, namely the Mayor of Kokstad, the Makhoba Clan Chief and some of his people, as well as a few other shots. I’d never been in Kokstad before and was very pleasantly surprised to find that it is a very picturesque part of the world.

Some more corporate portraits for LexisNexis. Click to enlarge.

I had to do a shoot for Floordom this morning at the Plantations Of Hillcrest gated community. Unfortunately the property wasn’t properly prepared for my shoot so I was limited to shooting the staircase, landing and part of the kitchen.

These were taken with the Nikon D700 and Sigma 15-30mm EX.

Reading the Facebook comments of friends and family around the world this morning, almost all complaining about the weather, I felt it my civic duty to share the view from my window this morning with you all.

Click the small picture for the full view…

Last Friday night we were treated to some delicious food, prepared for one of his practical exams by my son, Tyler. I took along my camera and tried to get some decent food shots. Unfortunately I had the swine flu so inbetween dashes to the toilet to blow my nose, I wasn’t really in top form photographically speaking. Nevertheless, here are some pics of the chef and his food.