Archives - March to May 2012:

Marisa Portrait Session - 05 May 2012

We were out recently for a lifestyle portrait photo session with Marisa down in an abandoned building close to the coast in Rincon de la Victoria. The weather was looking nasty all morning but we managed to get some nice shots before the rain came down.

All the photos have been uploaded to a gallery. You can check out the gallery here. The gallery is password protected so you will need to get the password from Marisa to check out the photos.

Should you be interested in a similar lifestyle photo session then get in touch through our contact page and we can arrange a location to suit your ideas. We know of plenty of locations to cater for all tastes. We also have an indoor studio should you prefer. Post shoot we will create your own personal password protected gallery such that you can share the photos with all of your friends.

Carly Photoshoot - 07 April 2012 - Dave/Sonia

We've just finished off processing the images from the photoshoot we did with Carly a couple of days ago. Carly, originally from Middlesborough in the north of England is currently splitting her time between the UK and Spain. In Spain she bases herself about 40 minutes drive from the centre of Málaga.

On Thursday just gone we had arranged to do a photoshoot with Carly in the Hotel Balcon de Europa in Nerja which is situated right in the heart of Nerja only 20 metres from the famous Balcon de Europa which provides pretty spectacular panoramic views of the eastern Málaga coast and on some days if you are lucky you can see the African coast. We decided beforehand to go for two styles, an indoor more moody themed shoot and then an outdoor more fun style approach which would give Carly the freedom to put her dance background to good use with her seemingly infinite library of poses. The outdoor shoot was also nicely propped with a big pink parasol!

Once again, Sonia was on make up duty. She started off with what Carly herself wanted: dark smokey intense eyes. She made the look more pronounced yet allowed it to be not too intense as to look odd with her skin coloring. She used black and brown shadow around the eyes and a more neutral colored pink on the lips to complement Carly's skin tone but not take from the intensity of the eyes as we had some nice contrasty shots lined up.

From a photographic perspective I had a couple of ideas I wanted to try out. The first was a video light for the indoor shots. The second was the use of a big reflector for the outdoor stuff. We did get the chance to use the video light for a number of images, though we had to cut the indoor stuff short as the light of the evening sun was just lovely and too good to miss. It is something I need to get to use more often as it can produce some lovely results and I don't get the opportunity to use it as often as I would like. It is also completely different to flash as you see the result before you take the photo which is one nice advantage it has. The standing indoor shots are lit using the LitePanel MicroPro video light with a full tungsten gel.

We had to ditch the reflector idea as the wind was pretty blustery and Sonia would have had a hard time holding on to the 2.5m x 1.5m reflector! We had the Lastolite 60 x 60cm Ezybox to fall back on as it is far more sturdy on a hand held telescopic pole than an umbrella. All outdoor shots were lit using the Ezybox with a 1/2 CTS gelled SB-900 inside.

A big thanks to Carly for putting up with the wind and cold (well, cold for Spanish temperatures!). Her background in performing arts and dance really does stand out with every pose and it made for some very dramatic images. For a more complete selection of the images from the shoot, head over to Carly's April gallery.

Equipment Used: Nikon D700, SB-900, 85 f/1.4G, 70-200 f/2.8 VRII, PocketWizard Flex TT5 and Mini TT1, Lastolite EZYBOX, LitePanels MicroPro LED Videolight, Lastolite reflector left in the car :-(

Thanks: A big thanks to Javi, Javier, Andres Mena and all the staff in the Balcon de Europa Hotel for helping organise such a trouble free shoot and for the full use of the facilities. A special thanks to Javi for giving us the guided tour of the hotel and for the lowdown on the top photo spots. We would need to be there for a day to get around to using them all I reckon!

Naomi and Gary's Wedding - 31 March 2012 - Dave

We had a busy weekend this weekend travelling to the Lake District in the UK for Naomi and Gary's wedding. I had wanted to get some nice landscape shots as it is one of the most beautiful parts of the UK so between meeting old friends, wandering around the Graythwaite Estate and The Big Day we had our hands full.

We started off late morning at the grooms location and got some nice preparation shots there. We then arrived to the bridal location and amid the madness we got some nice candids and group shots of the bridal party. It was then but a short stroll up the road to the church where a huge crowd had already gathered to wish Naomi and Gary the very best. Post ceremony we then shot up to a particular location favoured by both Naomi and Gary for a whistle stop portrait session with Naomi's hometown in the background. It was then on to the Racecourse for the party!

A big thanks to Darren Athersmith, his wife Lesley and their son Kai. As Darren was primary photographer on the day he had invited us over to join the photography fun. Should you be based in northern England and have a big event coming up in those parts and need a photographer then look no further. You can check out Darren's website here.

A big congratulations to Naomi and Gary on their wedding day. You both looked fabulous. A big thanks also to Naomi's folks Julieanne and Peter for arranging the accomodation down on the Graythwaite Estate. For more images from the day, head over to our wedding gallery.

Laura B Photoshoot - 25 March 2012 - Dave/Sonia

Today we had the opportunity to photograph Laura in the Parador Hotel in Málaga. We had decided beforehand to take a more sophisticated approach to the shoot, though when Laura turned up on the day, she had such an extensive wardrobe with her we didn't know what to do. As time was against us, we decided to stick with two outfits.

Laura left the responsibility of make up to Sonia. With Laura, given she has such fantastic blue eyes, the focus of the makeup was to emphasise this characteristic. A lighter tone was chosen for the makeup as her skin tone and hair coloring was not your typical southern Spanish look. Also, using too dark a tone would have caused color differences between face and neck. For the eyes, Sonia used dark and blue shades to bring out the eye color, yet keep the look subtle. She also emphasised the almond shape of Laura's eyes. As Laura had a preference for brown on the lips Sonia chose a clear brown to complement the rest of the makeup.

From a photographic perspective I wanted to capture the city lights in the views from the hotel balcony and grounds. Also, some of the guest areas in the hotel provided great backdrops for photos so we wanted to capture those where possible. The only problem we had was the weather, it was very cold out and we had to cut the outdoor shoot short as Laura was starting to freeze!

Most of the interior shots used bounced fill flash using a 1/2 CTS gelled Nikon SB-900. A lot of the hotel lighting was that harsh spot incandescent lighting so we had to be careful to avoid placing Laura directly under that type of light as you can end up with nasty two tone light on the face when using fill flash. The outdoor shots used the flash through a Lastolite EZYBOX as there was nothing to bounce the flash off. One of the images has some two tone lighting due to one of the street lamps on the balcony (my mistake for not spotting it). I had to include it in the gallery though as Laura looks great in it. See can you spot it!

Thanks to Laura for her availability the day. For a more complete selection of the images from the shoot, head over to Laura's March gallery.

Equipment Used: Nikon D700, SB-900, 16-35 f/4, 70-200 f/2.8 VRII, PocketWizard Flex TT5 and Mini TT1, Lastolite EZYBOX.

Thanks: A big thanks to Natalia and all the staff in the Parador Hotel for helping organise such a trouble free shoot and for the full use of the facilities. We were so impressed by the hotel that we decided we must stay over some night. We were almost tempted to have a dip in the pool, but then we realised it was only the middle of March!

MJ Photoshoot - 19 March 2012 - Dave/Sonia

We were out in the woods taking some pictures of our acrobatic model MJ this weekend. We were pushed for time as the natural light was beginning to fade when we got started but it didn't stop us getting some lovely images for her portfolio.

Sonia was on make-up duty and although it took a little longer than expected I think the result was worth the extra wait. Given MJ would normally have a neutral preference when it comes to make-up, utilising neutral colors, Sonia chose a rose and brown structure for the eyes and a rose color for the lips which complemented her skin tone to give that natural yet neutral look which would add to the photoshoot theme we had in mind.

The idea we wanted to capture as part of the photoshoot was that of the outdoors. I wanted to get a couple of dramatic sunset shots before the light of the sun completely disappeared and though we had only about 15 minutes before the sun went down we managed to get a couple. We then found a nice location to finish off the shoot with that nature theme in mind. Most photos were lit using a 1/2 CTS gelled Nikon SB-900 through a Lastolite EZYBOX. The sunset images used off-camera direct flash without a modifier using TTL flash dialed up to +1FEV. I'm usually not a fan of direct, unmodified flash lighting my subject but in certain circumstances it is hard to avoid. This is one of those circumstances as I wanted to balance the light in the foreground with that of the background. I used the gel as the light of sunset is somewhat warmer than that of normal daylight and as such I wanted to have the flash light more matching that of the available light. To get the depth of field on the sunset images I used a x8 ND filter while keeping the shutter speed below the max flash sync speed. This enabled me to get the farthest range from my SB-900 yet maintaining a reasonably narrow depth of field which would complement the clouds in the background.

A big thanks to MJ on the day. I think you will agree from the selection of images she looks absolutely stunning. For a more complete selection of the images from the shoot, head over to MJ's March gallery.

Equipment Used: Nikon D700, SB-900, 85mm 1.4G (Sunset images). 70-200 f/2.8 VRII (other images), PocketWizard Flex TT5 and Mini TT1, Lastolite EZYBOX, Hoya x8 ND Filter

Site Complete - 16 March 2012 - Dave

Well, the website is more or less there, or thereabouts! In English only for the moment. The translation will begin in earnest next week to Castellano. I managed to get the templates working for the dual languages so lets hope there are no more surprises.

Thanks to Kyran for the wonderful suite of software and to Karey over in the States for help with the template. It took a while to get the Java Lightbox going correctly based on the individual galleries but I think it looks pretty good now that the bugs are sorted, personal opinion of course!! If you notice any further errors or dead links let me know. We are still debugging at the moment. A big thanks also to Dynamic Drive for the tips on locking down the galleries.

Also, although I've tested across multiple browsers including the awful IE6, you still might notice a couple of bugs around. If you do I would appreciate you letting me know so I can fix them. We plan to make the site permanently live once we have completed our debugging and the full translation to Spanish is complete. Until then we will be putting it up for testing only. Thanks to those that have given feedback. It is highly appreciated. You know who you are!