Cool for the Summer

Date taken:  23rd of July, 2016

So I have this thing with doing "bonus shoots" or "mini shoots" inside of a main photoshoot. 

This is sometimes done because we have extra time before or after the main thing, or because some of the clothes or props didn't fit into the main theme but we still wanted to shoot them. 

In this case we met Aviv and Michelle for the "geek chic" photoshoot and I asked them to bring their own clothes, as far as they can find things that fit the theme. A lot of what they brought was right on point and still a lot was really beautiful but didn't fit with the theme. 

So we did a "pre-shoot" where we had the girls put on their definitely-not-geeky outfits and photographed them around the Weizmann Institute where we were setting up. 

Models: Aviv Cohen and Michelle Rabinkov | hair: Neta Hafif Shmulenson | makeup: Anet Nour

Geek Chic

I think this is one of the few shoots I've done that was scheduled for a specific time of year (summer break) and enough photos were ready for posting on schedule (when school started). I was so proud of myself for that. 

It was also one of the few shoots where I had a very specific idea and a fairly general feeling for the styling and hair and makeup, and it turned out to be exactly what I wanted (thanks entirely to the awesome crew we had assembled). 

The concept is "geek chic" and the two beautiful (highly non-geek) girls we had modelling for us got into the role with ease, and the make up and hair creatives really took over where I couldn't really help: all the wardrobe and props and how to set them up to look good and not over the top - was extremely important. Always good to have a team that are creative all around (not just in their specific area). 

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).

Wildflower Spring

This is another shoot in the direction of "model test", continuing a line I really enjoy of shooting beautiful models for the sake of shooting and practicing rather than for a specific fashion... 

It has been almost four months since I headed down to Beer Sheva (once more) for a photoshoot. I wanted to start appealing to a younger audience so I asked around for models under 15. I talked to Maya (on the left) and she was enthusiastic for doing a shoot. She suggested that her friend Bar join us, and eventually we had three models (with Aviv joining closer to the date of the shoot). I met with Adi, that did the makeup for my last shoot in Beer Sheva, and we found a cool location not far from the city, in a field next to a burned tree and in clear sight of the sunset. 

Once more, we didn't have a stylist or fashion provider. It turns out you really don't need one... you decide on the style and make a good moodboard, and the girls bring the clothes they like and feel comfortable in. It's free, and you are free to shoot whatever you want without interruptions... so less of a catalog shoot, more editorial (like the last test we did). 

Models: Maya Yachnes, Bar Shimony, Aviv Cohen | Makeup: Adi Chen

Street Fashion

Today we are joining Yuval on a fashion project that is a little different from any of the past fashion shoots I've done. In this case she played the role of model, stylist and director for the whole project. The idea was to do something that looked candid but also high fashion. The sort of shots a good paparazzi would get of a supermodel while she is shopping in Paris. 

To make things feel more European we needed a location that looked classy and didn't scream it was shot here in Tel Aviv. So I did what a photographer should always try to do, and went location scouting a week before the shoot. 

A good friend from Tel Aviv helped me find a string of cool locations, starting from some new buildings with a wooden deck floor around them, through some renewed buildings in the gentrified part of south Tel Aviv, and finishing on brick road streets on the edge of old Yaffo. 

Our model/stylist had several looks to go through and we managed to get quite a few shots for each of them until sunset. 

Forest photoshoot

This was one fun shoot. There's much to say about the gorgeous Einav, but you'll see enough of her after the break. What I've really learned from this session is how much fun and value you can get from doing a "model test".

This isn't what you're thinking of: a studio session in black and white where the model is wearing jeans and a tank top. It could be... but there's much more to the "test" than that. Somewhere between the fashion shoot, the portrait session and the editorial style shoot there's this weird encounter where model and photographer have sort of a job interview.

The photographer gets to see what this new model knows, what her good sides are, what expressions she can pull off and what poses she can handle. The model gets to know the photographer, too. What he can do, if she can count on him to be professional, and to supply the final image. Most of all, the shoot isn't bound by the need to get all the sets done, or by wanting to get all angles of a location or concept.

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.

New York City 2015

This time around in New York City, I was going to focus mainly on the people. On my first trip to New York I was overwhelmed by the towering skyscrapers and parks and neighborhoods and I didn't really take many portraits. Two years later, I had already realized that travel (or landscape) photos are almost always more interesting with people in them... 

Very early in this four-day stay I had purchased a new 50 mm lens, this time at f/1.4 (refurbished or used I don't remember). That didn't seem like much of a step up from my older f/1.8 lens, on paper at least, but in reality, the quality gap was pretty big. This new lens gave stunning results, and could be opened up to f/2 before getting soft. My old $100 lens could barely stay sharp at 2.8, and at those apertures, every stop counts. I was also carrying around my trusty 105 macro and the Tokina 11-16 ultra-wide, a DX lens that's also FX "compatible" so that zoomed-in the dark corners were pretty small and could easily be cropped out. That's what you get for going to full-frame before having enough money to buy a full set of new lenses. 

Madison (why I love my new Nikon)

I haven't been uploading recently, and there's a ton of new stuff waiting to come up to this blog. I hope I will get it pretty much in order, and anyway, it's better late than never.

So, going back to May 2015 I had flown to Wisconsin for a conference and some work with the collaboration I was part of. Like every trip abroad this is a chance to see and photograph new sceneries and people, and to act like a tourist and take pictures of absolutely everything.

This was my first chance to try out my new Nikon D610, which performed beautifully and, even though I still love my old D90, did let me do some new things I couldn't get away with using the old technology and crop sensor...

So just a small selection of images from the lovely Madison, WI. If you like this kind of thing, I will link to a few facebook albums with some more images.

Front row to Barca

The last time I really got to use my old D90 as main camera was on our trip to Barcelona. My amazing wife took me for my birthday to see a Barca football game live, and even though I had just bought a new camera, I wanted the trip to be about enjoying the trip, not about exploring the possibilities of a new toy, so I left it at home.

We were there for a few days, but the real highlight was, of course, the game. So I tried my best to enjoy it, and not spend the whole hour and a half just taking photos. We did sit right on the first row, so I couldn't resist taking some shots. 

I was shooting most of it with the Nikon 55-300 lens, which is not ideal, but it can get you real close... in fact, I had to zoom out quite a few times when the players were close to the fence. 

These can't compare with what professionals get on the sidelines of these games, not just because of their far better equipment, but also because they know the right moment to capture all the action. For a first attempt, I think I may have gotten a few shots that are not bad. Here's a few... 

Bridal Bash

We have a lot of catching up to do... My last post was towards the end of March, and I had not scratched the surface of the images from the masks photoshoot, already done a wedding shoot and managed to spend some time overseas (and images pending). 

So in the next few weeks I will try to write (briefly) about all of these shoots, in no particular order.

Today I want to present a few images from a rather long and interesting shoot we did in March... As you can see, the theme of the shoot is bridal gowns. 

I had joined the production when everything was already set up, all I needed to do was choose a location somewhere around the beauty salon and go shoot.

We had four models (!), hair and makeup, and of course the beautiful white dresses that star in this production.

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

Nothing lasts forever

Last month I wrote about the fashion production in mid Tel Aviv, and even that was a month after the fact. This month's blog (yes we are down to monthly updates now) is about another shoot we did a week after the last production.

So, two months after, here's our pin-up mash-up fifties styling meets 90's models for some fusion photography.

Because retro is now vintage and vintage is making a comeback!

Styling, makeup and hair (and concept): Lee Swissa

models: Tal and Shay Aisha.

Last Days of Summer

So it has been a while... again (sigh...)

I admit I haven't had time for blogging but I did keep busy in the photography front.

Last month I decided to challenge myself and go for something bigger and a lot more complicated than the last photoshoot I did at Weizmann... This time I had contacted three models, two make up artists and a stylist to do a life style shoot at the beach. Early morning, at Ashdod's fort beach. This was really much more difficult to arrange and shoot, but the end results are well worth it. Also, I've learned a number of lessons for the future...

Models: Liora Finkelshtein, Or Jacob, Merav Weintrub
MUA: Mary Jane Kvantaliani
Styling: Zoe Simazki for Swans Moda