The Orb

The other day I shot this picture as a test. Sometimes when you plan more elaborate shoots it can be useful to do rough photographic sketches so that stylists and make up artists know what kind of light and what kind of pose your model will take in the final shot. This is one of those test shots, and even though the model has no make up and is totally unstyled I felt it was interesting enough to post here, as a Halloween special. Doesn’t she look like an elf princess? Now, if only I can find a good make up artist to do something interesting with her delicate features.

In this photo she is wearing my kimono which of course is a mans kimono. Hopefully I will find a more suitable female kimono for her to wear in the final shot. Lit with the help of a Muji orb. Wonderful piece of lighting equipment, don’t you think?

My Toy Soldier

I have been suffering from a bad lack of time/energy these last few weeks. I had a friend (very dear but usually not so near) from the US staying with me for a week, which helped slow my frantic life pace down. After that it has been hard to get back (one gets used to having a beer on the rooftop, looking out over the Tokyo night scape whilst discussing the meaning of life art and everything, every night) in the saddle. My camera has been laying around and my bed has been beckoning louder than any of my friends. So I didn’t complain when I got in touch with a wonderful new model about a possible photo shoot. “What’s your plan?” I asked, “You tell me, you’re the photographer right?”. Right. So, seeing a chance to indulge in my uniform fetish, my one light photography fetish and a bright, smart, fun, very cool model I decided to whip up a “soldier set”. After that it was just a matter of fumbling around with my DIY umbrella light set up, make sure the clothes fitted (a wonderful seamstress friend of mine whipped them up on less than a day’s notice) and start blasting away. As usual, my trusty D90 / SB-600 combo (I have no need for more advanced stuff in my little home studio).

The hat is a (poor) replica of JIA officers cap, the boots and the binoculars are from my own antiques collection (yes, I have too many hobbies) and about 70 years old.

If you enjoyed the first picture, you might want to take a look at an alternative, racier outfit here. A little bit NSFW though. Be warned.

James Madelin – Captain Orbis

Last week I was able to catch up with James Madelin on his hectic world tour to promote the Orbis. If you’re a strobist or into innovative photography equipment you probably know about the Orbis already, a clever plastic contraption that is used to simulate a proper ring-flash (favorite among fashion photographers around the world) at one tenth the price.

James is a proper gentleman and great fun to spend time with. Together with the fantastic people behind Gin Ichi Corporation (photographic supply for pros and the distributors of the Orbis in Japan) we went for a great curry near our offices in Ginza. Here’s James signing my Orbis (we had to borrow a pen from the hotel staff and they only had red). The other pics are from last year, the unboxing of the Orbis (fresh from the hands of the delivery company during a photo shoot) and the very first Orbis photo I ever took, straight from camera.

Goodbye Little Buddy!

Yes, it’s time to say fare well to my little friend whom I never really had a chance to get to know. I’m talking of course of my Ricoh CX1 digital pocket camera. Excellent shots but it never really felt “right” for me, so I gave it to one of my models who will surely use it much more than I ever did. These are some of the very first shots I took with this camera a few months ago (it was just out in Japan at the time), and they are completely untouched by any editing software whatsoever. Raw data folks, even the size is unchanged! Just in case you’re wondering wether you should get one.