Month: October 2009
It’s a cliché, but something I love about modelling is the variety of people I meet. There are great photographers from every country I can think of. They discovered their love of photography in many ways – art school, elementary school, post-work hobbies or a serendipitous encounter with a random camera. There are full-time professional photographers and photographers who work different jobs so they can pursue photography in their free time. I once worked with a photographer who made his money digging graves (We had some interesting conversations). Basically, there are a lot of interesting people out there with cameras and great ideas.
One of the places where this becomes most evident is at Zoefest. At Mission Beach this year, on meeting our diverse group, my first thought was – we’re all so different! How are we all going to get along for 10 days?
I needn’t have worried. The problem, it seemed, was how to keep us away from each other. How to stop our post-slide show chatting and get to bed at a reasonable hour. Wrapping up great conversations and actually, y’know, go out and shoot. Turns out when you get together with friendly people who all share a common love of creating beautiful images, it couldn’t matter less where we went to school or how we pay our bills.
No disrespect to the wonderful photographers at our event, but one of the things I enjoy most is meeting other models. Ah, the life of a fine-art model is a solitary one. Working with multiple models is not unheard of, but it’s hardly the norm. We’re often admirers of each other’s work, but it’s rare that we’ll get to meet. One particular model and I had been working with the same photographers for years. It wasn’t until this year’s Zoefest that we actually got a chance to sit and talk. And when models get together, we have a lot to talk about…
At Mission Beach, I also got to spend time with two awesome people who have experience on both sides of the lens. They are models who are also photographers, or photographers who are also models (I’m going to avoid using a cutesy portmanteau like ‘modelographer’ as I value my life). They are great fun to work with and have unique perspective. They give direction on a shoot knowing how a pose feels, not just how it looks. And they understand the concerns of a model completely – from, “This isn’t my best angle†to “I might look awesome on this slime-covered jagged rock, but we need to act quickly.â€
Below are a few images created with these two talented photographers.
Vive la difference! I hope I get to see all you unique, exciting and lovely people next year… or even sooner.
Vassanta and I hiked the full circuit of trails on Dunk Island (about 10 KM) up Mt Kataloo, down to Coconut Beach and back to the Jetty. There wasn’t much to shoot with along the hike (but did see some snakes and turkeys), except on the beach. But the view from Mt Kataloo over the Coral Sea was stunning. But we found this really cool tree with a cross hatch growth between the two main trunks. Vassanta managed to climb into the tree to capture one image attached here (how does she do that??). The rest we shot on the beach. More gritty figure work incorporating the roots of a palm tree. I haven’t done a lot of figure work…so I’m loving the results. Also, we found these awesome boulders with some stepping stones that she posed on. Great work by her using the rocks and I did one in color and another in BW. I have a few more images from our trip to dunk Island that I’ll post and then I’ll be working on some other model sessions.
Selection of images from the first batch of film, 6 down and 40 rolls to go 🙂
Here are some finished ones…three I already showed on Saturday night in Mission Beach of Joceline, Bink and Stephanie…..but some might not have seen them before. Also some new ones from a Dunk Island beach shoot with Vassanta…I really like these becuase the high key beach look and color has kind of a “fashion” feel to them. Vassanta picked up a shell and was playing with it…so I got the idea of putting it on different parts of her body creating the black and white series. I then edited it to give it a dark, contrasty look… Feel like I was channeling Vernon Trent…lol
Categories
A few images
Oh all the Polaroid Negatives to wade through… All the 120 and 35mm to develop. My lab will rescue me. But, in the mean time… here are a few finished works from me. Thank you to the models. More coming soon…
Categories
Pictures
As I look through the images figuring out which pictures to work on, I never ceased to be amazed at the models in our commmunity – Their creativity, courage, willingness to do it all for a shot and willingness to suffer bodily abuse to get it. Knees on rocks, cuts on rocks, climbing trees, rolling in mud and sand, climbing into cubby holes in trees, and, in OZ, abuse by bitey things. As I get more into my pilates and yoga practice, I appreciate the hard work it takes to pose as well.
And a special thanks to Bink who went above and beyond the call of duty continuing to shoot even though I’m sure her feet were killing her after being cut on rocks and bitten by a crab, to Joceline for being chased by a Cassowary, to Rebecca for taking an unexpected swim in the rapids, to Vassanta for enduring snakes and lizards (and I’m looking at a picture….just how did you get that high in the tree on Mt Kataloo!?)
So, here’s to the Ladies of Mission Beach. Your beauty, courage and grace under difficult situations inspire me
Hi all
Well we are back in cold Canberra – it was a maximum of 13 degrees C when we landed which is about 55 degrees F.. Rebecca and I had a great time in Mission Beach and are grateful for the invite.
I really enjoyed talking to everyone and seeing the slide shows. I particularly enjoyed the five model shows as the images selected gave me the models viewpoint. The staff at Mission beach were very supportive.
I took 110 Gb photos and had eight photos shoots – I shot most of the lovely models in Mission beach or have made dates for several more but missed out on only two – I hope they come to Australia again and contact me
I mainly used a Canon digital but also had a second Canon digital with a laser drilled pinhole lens which I used on two shoots. I have processed a few images but did not have the time to select them with any great finesse but they are attached (I hope – I don’t really understand what I need to do to post to the blog). I go to Sydney in two days to shoot four models and for a wedding and then my job of forming short lists starts and this will take several weeks. The idea of a book sounds great.
All the best to everyone. Hope all travel is without trouble.
Malcolm and Rebecca Smith
I tried to include two images with this post but it didn’t work – can someone e-mail me how!
Malcolm