Mods edited

I've applied my recently acquired airbrushing skills to the images of Toby and Paul I posted back a week or so. Taking note of the attention to detail behind the mod's mentality, I've very carefully airbrushed any creases in clothes, marks, lines and blemishes to the best of my ability. How's that for a concept? I shall be exhibiting these images and a couple more in January at the Rag Factory so if anyone is about, come and have a look and help us drink 50 crates of free beer!

Here's the event:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172326076122779

"Just pretend the photographer's your boyfriend"

You guys may remember a photoshoot I featured here late last year. The American Apparel style one? Well, Becca's had to step it up a notch this year so she asked if I'd mind doing another shoot, this time involving some nipple action. Every fashion magazine these days seems to feature the odd nipple or 7 so I thought I'd better get some practice in. Briefing to me: over-exposed, American Apparel feel. Briefing to model: pretend the photographer is your boyfriend. There's me stood in a Fred Perry, chunky tassled loafers complete with short hair cut and minimal make-up. I think she may have gotten the "lesbian" impression. Oh well, it worked for the shoot, I think...?

Mods - suprisingly enough

Some recent shots. I'll write something here with more thought and wit later.

Cold Christmas

Worked with Daisy and Kiran on a photo shoot for their fashion promotion shoot. We started off the day on a road trip with the model, Matt, and Daisy's hamsters, Elvis & Quentin. Don't ask. Somehow, it ended up that we dressed the model in a dead man's house, left just as it was, listening to his vinyls. By way of thanking me for driving and agreeing to help with the photo shoot, Kiran threw pants at my face. We headed out to the Hertfordshire countryside to a supposedly haunted pagan church, Cold Christmas, walking on tomb stones and scaring the fuck out of Kiran. The Broncolour flash wouldn't fire with the camera, which is typical, so thinking on the spot I used a longer exposure and test fired the flash by hand. Annoying? Very. But we got the shots in the end. Here are a couple, straight out the oven:

I'll get an example of the end layout once Daisy and Kiran have stopped stressing about their hand in.

Hassle

Hassleblad very kindly let us people doing the digital option loose on their studio and cameras. I think they regretted the move when they discovered the broncolour lamp cover we melted... ahem, Shelley. Either way, I learned a lot from it. It was freshing to work with a professional model and a huge scoop built studio. If you ever get the chance to work or visit the studio then I thoroughly recommend it. This is one of the shots I did. Had a little refresher class in retouching back at uni the next day so below is the before and after. I have much to learn still...

Before:



After:

Not content with the model, Shelley & I stepped in to show her how its done. I think this is a perfect representation of our friendship. Shelley giving me hassle, blad.

Black and white

Some cliche shots of my sister and Antony, looking all mod, in black and white. Ok, but pointless. Back to the drawing board...

back by popular demand

Yes, yes, yes and yes. I'm the worst blogger ever. Apologies but summer happened and I got lazy and my Farmville was thriving. If Farmville was my career, I'd be rolling in it.

But back to my actual profession (or desired one at least), photography. I'm carrying on the mods project. Here's the progress so far. I wanted to shoot at the NUTs Crossfire night but that wasn't til the weekend before my tutorial so I did some practice shots of my skinhead loving sister. Nice shots, but not what I want to "achieve". Cheers though, Feebs.






They're a bit flat aren't they? I had planned on using a hand held flash so I tested it again on Feebs before Crossfire.



Finally, my Crossfire shots. Got a few lucky snaps but its all a bit scruffy for me. I want to be more in control of the composition, lighting and posing - so basically everything. But check out the last shot of Antony and Toby, that's more along the lines. I'm still confused about what lines I want to continue this down but I'll only get it once I go through a few different approaches.










Hope you NUT-ers like the shots if you're in them. Any opinions, critiques or comments give us a shout!

feeling like william tell

i have news! a couple of weeks back i spoke to my cousin alice who's been working on tour with the band squeeze (up the junction, cool for cats - for those who don't know). turns out they want students dealing with all this media lark to interpret their songs and make a video to show when they're on tour. basically, make them a music video. where do i sign?

al gave me the list of tracks & i got first dibs, therefore i chose pulling mussels from a shell. still toying around with ideas but its gonna be a "having a lark at the seaside" type affair. so, who wants to be in a video?! give me a shout at emmie_turner@hotmail.com if you're up for it. also if you have a car you're willing to transport people to the seaside in, that would be fab. hopefully, this should be a really exciting project.

and for those not familiar, here's the track itself:

but the panic is oooooon now!

i have five & a half days until presentation time - six if you include the rest of today but for fear of becoming complacent, i won't. here is the state of play:

i have two very strong images (two top) and one not so much that i might just disregard (bottom). the idea of the project is still very much about the dysfunctional family but less about my nonna. actually, it's not even slightly about my nonna anymore. don't worry, i haven't abandoned her, i'm still gonna visit her and take photos just for my personal stuff. its about those moments where we pass eachother in our own homes. the lack of communication and division between spaces. it's not supposed to be in an extremely serious way, it's just an observation of my own family & therefore probably rings true of many other families - i hope!? for this reason i'm shooting through door frames, isolating with flash lighting, in focus/out of focus - all that malarky.

this weekend i intend on shooting more so that i have a series, but there is a slight twist to the scenearios i'm setting up so watch this space!

and just to keep my spirits up, a fitting tune referenced in the titling of this blog!

very quickly

rosie is about to pick me up for an afternoon of shopping BUT i've just discovered elaine constantine (one of my alltime favourite photographers) is in the process of directing a new film, 'Northern Soul'. you can guess what it's about.

i think its going to be my favourite film. modculture.com are raving about it. here's the official website. if it's anything like the moloko video she directed for familiar feeling, then it ought to be amazing. cannot wait.

300 photos later

fashion shoot virginity officially taken. was working with becca for her "just-make-an-entire-magazine-in-three-weeks-thanks" project. the brief: crack den/american apparel. i had fun.

excuse me but...

can you just witness the fitness please? i love him so much.

that is all.

reeeeewind.

had an absolutely blinding evening/early morning at the new jackpot clubnight this saturday. tiny room + good music x the right people = big atmosphere. here's some of my drunken photography to accompany it. in future, remind me to not mix strongbow & vodka with the onset of a cold. can you also remind me of the importance of removing lens caps as well? i guess we must suffer for our art.