Model: Jen Hepburn
A Portrait of Jen
Mathew - A 1920's Mugshot
A few years ago I saw images from the Sydney Police Photographs exhibition online and thought they where so very interesting that I would love to try replicate the look.
So I finally got around to trying it out with my friend Mathew Dobson. While not someone that would be a typical groomed look of that era, he did have suits on hand and was all to happy to jump in front of the camera.
The tricky thing about trying to emulate a photo from 1920's is technology has changed somewhat in regards to cameras, film and development. Back then they used large wet plate cameras. Basically the size of the rendered image was about 5 times bigger than the sensor on today's 35mm DSLR. This does a few things, but mainly the focal depth is very different than can be achieve today without actually using a large format camera.
Solution is to use a technique called The Brenizer Method. Simply you take the photos using a long lens but up close and then stitch them together like a panorama image, except it's a portrait. It gives you very similar depth of field as a large format camera and huge file sizes.
So I successfully created the images with around 9 photos each. The processed them in Photoshop to have the same colour and texture of a vintage wet plate photo. For added effect I also wrote on the images like they did back in the 1920's. Excuse the handwriting, I am much more adapt at a keyboard (most of the time).
Overall I am very happy with the first attempt at this style and hopefully can challenge a few more friends to get their 1920's mug and rap sheet out.
“Loiters in the vicinity of theatre vestibules, tram and bus stop pings places, or any other place that affords opportunities for one of his calling.”
Nina
Quite a while ago I did a shoot for Nanna's Coffee + Vintage. The images are to be used as part of advertising and branding with a fun twist. While that is still ongoing, I ask if I could share a image of first time model Nina that I love. This shot doesn't fit the brief of the project, but it's way to good to not be shown the light of day.
- Model: Nina Bok
- Hair & Makeup: Allie Hill
BLOKTOBERFEST
In June I was commissioned to take a "whip" photo for Convict City Rollers. So early on the Monday morning of the massive long weekend tournament, I setup a very small area on the track to capture CCR skaters Shredz and MissMillie. Short on time, we did about 8 shots before the day's event started.
Finally the image is out in the wild and on a poster by CCR.
Make sure you come along, it's going to be fun!
Weird Crazy Words
Fakington Wilde is a madman... with an amazing beard. He also does weird crazy words in the form of poems.
I met the man at Junction Arts Festival 2012 while he was yelling words at the passing crowd in Civic Square. Yes, it was apart of the festival. He works from tubes, like big batons, with words plastered on them from magazines and other print media. It's freeform, funny and edgy.
Fakington runs Session on a regular basis in Launceston, so you don't need to wait for Junction to enjoy his audible work.
Junction 2013 is just around the corner (Sept 4-8 2013) and the program has one of my shots for CRAZYSPOKENWEIRD . Make sure you get down to it.
CRAZYSPOKENWEIRD - Junction Art Program 2013