Living Statues 2016

Like each year, I make it a point to come to Rehovot for the summer Living Statues Festival. This would be the festival's seventh year, my fifth coming to it.

Like each year I get the usual flash from the side shots, the closeups on the performers using a longish telephoto and the wider view with the audience close by using a wide angle.

Like each year I try to do new things, try out new techniques and equipment in a situation that is one one hand very difficult, with people packed tight trying to see the performances (and it is so hot and humid this time of year!) and on the other hand this setting is great because, unlike candid street photography, you can feel free to take as many pictures as you like, try new things at length, and the results are usually interesting even if unconventional (something that doesn't always go well on fashion and model test shoots).

Desert Colors

So here's another overdue fashion photo shoot we did almost six months ago... this time going back to Beer Sheba for some desert themed portraits.

I was contacted by Adi, the makeup artist, to do a desert shoot. Her emphasis was on the colors of the makeup, but I had though this would be a great opportunity to bring to life another idea I had for a while now.

I had purchased some shiny colored fabrics a few months before this, hoping I'd have the chance to shoot something a little more abstract with fabrics blowing in the wind.

The wind wasn't as cooperative as I'd hoped, but the end results were still quite interesting. I liked the fact that we didn't need a fashion provider for the shoot, as the fabrics doubled as dresses, held together casually with hair clips.

Models: Tal Ratson and Michal Carmi
Makeup and hair: Adi Chen

Photo Recipe

Today we have a short one, bringing together my two great loves: food and photography. In fact, this very blog had started with a food-photography post I put up almost four years ago!

This time I wanted to participate in a photographic-recipe contest arranged by the student body at my institute. I don't know if the contest ever did happen or if I just missed the deadline, but I was making food one day and decided to document some of the process.

It took me twice as long to make the damn thing because I had to stop and fidget with the flash for some of these shots... but once the food was cooking I didn't have that much time for setting it up just right, and when it was ready I wasn't thinking about the pictures anymore - I was way too hungry!

A list of ingredients + instructions after the break...

Living Statues 2015

Like every year I find myself coming back to the Rehovot living statues festival. Being my hometown it is convenient to come visit and go have a look at this year's statues with my folks.

So this festival was in July, and just like the last few times, I came ready with a flash pole, and got the most drama out of these nightshots as I could.

I like to compare the new innovations to the statues from previous years, particularly when I can recognize some of the performers and see how they come up with new costumes each year. I can maybe even see my own work improving from year to year... but I leave that for you to decide.

Brides and Beach

So last summer we did our second bridal photo-shoot (the first one here),  this time on the beach of Caesarea. I had been contacted by make up artist Danit, that already had the wedding gown vendors and the location chosen. We only needed to find two models, which led us to the beautiful Maria and Karina that star in this post. I had also contacted my friend Yael to video the whole shoot.

The schedule for the shoot was clear. We arrive at 16:00 at Danit's house, and begin makeup and hair on the two models in parallel, switch them, and then drive 15 minutes to Caesarea beach to be there at 17:00, with plenty of time to spare before magic hour. In practice, everyone was late (there was horrible traffic), getting ready took longer than I thought, and we had ended up arriving at the location less than half an hour before sunset. So we scrambled, we skipped over some things and went straight for the money shot.

Studio Sessions - Adi

 After a few non-fashion posts I decided to jump back a bit to my first (and so far only) studio session. I had been collaborating again with Zoe from Swans Moda and this time we shot in her studio/basement. You may recall our beach shoot from the year before, or the urban winter shoot.

The model for this shoot is the beautiful, not-yet-even-eighteen Adi Hashamonai, who made things very easy for me as she both knew how to work the camera angles and looked amazing in anything we put on her. 

The studio setup was pretty simple. A white fabric with two constant lights in soft-boxes to burn it out, another constant soft-box as fill from the left, and my flash in a fourth soft-box as key. Then I alternated between the 105mm for closeups and the 50mm for full body and medium shots, as I didn't have enough room to back up to use only the long lens for everything. 

Princess Jewels

After all the fashion and portrait work I've been doing recently, I found that product photography had way more paying customers... this shouldn't be a surprise I guess. 

But I actually really like taking product shots. It's technical, there are well-known rules to getting it right, and with a little practice and fairly basic gear you can get surprisingly good results. 

So I had gotten some work to go and take pictures in a jewelry shop in Rishon LeZion. I knew I was going to use flashes and a macro lens, and I knew the products won't be too large. So in addition to getting the lightstand and umbrella, I also made an impromptu light tent from a coca cola six pack cardboard box and some baking sheets. This looked really ridiculous, and I would not recommend this just because it will make your clients think you're a real hack... but the light inside this contraption was pretty sweet. If you look on the left you can see the shape of the three cutouts where the light comes into the box, and the dark rectangle where the camera comes in.

Rock and Roll Baby

Back from vacation and again trying to catch up on old photoshoots.

These images were taken back in February along with the mystery lady shoot.

We had three models and seven different looks and these two were particularly interesting.

The concept behind this production was masks, as it was just before Purim (the Jewish holiday for costumes) but we switched to a different styling after we felt the masks had done their part. The look we were going for was grungier, rock and roll club party girl look. More after the jump.

Model: Mishel Rabinkov | Styling: Jeni Ageev | Makeup: Iris Roizen Fainstein | Hair: Andrey Zukal | Dress: Natali Boychuck

Mystery Lady

Today I want to write about a photoshoot we did a few weeks ago (yes it takes time before I am even done with the editing and can go on to blogging).

The shots were taken in a pool joint / bar, and the lighting was completely artificial. Which makes it easier in a lot of senses. It also lets you do whatever you want when it comes to light and color.

In this first post from the photoshoot I want to introduce Tal, a beautiful new model I had wanted to work with for a while now. Finally this production took us to Beer Sheva and things worked out.

The theme in this set is masks, and it was part of a session we did for Purrim (the Jewish masquerade holiday).

Model: Tal Ratson | Styling: Jeni Ageev | Hair and makeup: Andrey Zukal | Dress: Natali Boychuck