New member of the Chris Denner entourage…

We`ve added a new member to the Chris Denner Photographic family! With myself concentrating on the creative side of the business, and Rebecca taking care of the studio management we decided that we were missing the “cute” factor in the studio – enter Indy the Cockerpoo ( cross between a poodle and a cocker spaniel )!

Myself and my partner Kasey picked her up on this weekend, and she`s already filled the house with love and puppy cuddles! Her favourite hobby at the minute is biting Kaseys toes, and she cant get her head around Kaseys afro caribbean hair – she keeps chewing it like its candy floss!

She`ll be coming into the studio with me everyday – so look forward to puppy loves when you come to visit us! Indy may even help Rebecca get over her fear of dogs, she`s too loveable to be scared of!

Xmas list and 2011 best of kit!

So, its that time of year again – xmas.

People think its easy to buy a photographer xmas pressies, that may be true for most people, but for me I`m a really tricky bugger to buy for. So if your photographer other half is difficult like me, here`s my top three purchases from 2011 that may kickstart some inspiration! The best of 2011 ( for me ) were -

In at number three is my Lowepro classified 250 AW. I saw this bag at Focus NEC, and loved it, and now its my main bag. It goes everywhere ( inc all my overseas shoots as it fits nicely as carry on luggage ). Great design, size and features…Lowepro bags are great in general but this is awesome! Loads of compartments for the gear that I always forhet to take like gloves, bcable ties etc. I just leave them in the bag, I`ll never be without these essentials again!

In at number two are my beloved Sniper pro remote flashs. Awesome bits of kit these are, I freakin love these and use them all the time! See a previous blog post for the full breakdown! The below image was shot with the sniper pro`s, they never miss a flash!!

Off camera flash is tricky enough at the best of times, impossible when you cant depend on your remote triggers to fire – with these I`ll never have to worry about that again!

And in at the pretigous number one spot is a very new addition ( I`ve only had it a week! ) is a lensbaby muse. PYou`ll have to focus the Muse by compressing the lens and move the sweet spot by bending the flexible lens tubing, like a bellows. The Double Glass optic features a pin-sharp sweet spot with minimal diffusion at all aperture settings, and its fun moving the bellows around to find that sweet spot! Below are examples from a recent shoot with AJ Superstar, there`s the desired look first, then I popped the lensbaby on at the end of the session. It`ll take abit of getting used too, but excited about the potentional for mischief.

Xmas spirit

This xmas, we decided that we here at Chris Denner Photographic would think of those less fortunate than ourselves rather than blow aload of money on a christmas party. Yes, whilst christmas parties are great fun ( trust us, we love a good party ) myself and Rebecca ( studio manager ) agreed that the money would be better used helping others.

Besides there wasnt enough cash left to buy a Lensbaby ( here`s hoping Santa gets me one for xmas ).

So after abit of thought and looking around at charities, we purchased two guitars ( I`m a musician as well, and so wanted to give the gift of music ) and donated both to the rainbows charity ( http://www.rainbows.co.uk ) as its something we really believe it.

This act made us both feel warm and fuzzy inside, as opposed to feeling quessy and hungover if we`ve had used the money in the traditional xmas party way!

We`d both strongly ask that you all look at your xmas budgets, and if possible, do think of other people during the fesitive period.

We`ll ( and jesus ) will love you for it!!

69Degrees A/W Shoot

In November I was asked to shoot the 69Degrees Magazine Autumn/Winter fashion piece. This includes the cover and a 4 page feature in the magazine. It’s usually the publications biggest issue with 450,000 readership.

The brief was simple enough – xmas wear and party wear. I wanted to stay away from creating something that looked too “High Street” and posy, and wanted a edgier “lookbook” style vibe, tapping into the feel and energy of the city nightlife.

I wanted movement, flow, and that weird scary feeling where you see something from the corner of your eye, so that the image is visually overwhelming.

To create this look, I used my trusty iSniper pro wireless flash units (read a previous entry for a through review), one strapped to a small bowl with grid to create a very narrow and hard mainlight, the other two fired with various gels strapped to them that my assistants moved and manually fired by hitting the test button on the backs of the flashguns as fast as possible.

This created the hazy, sexy colours that leak onto the images as I’d slowed by shutter down so that whilst the flash hit and froze the subjects, the ambient colours and movement could be recorded in the frame as well. Its basic slow sync flash, a very effective technique – in this case I used first curtain sync, but wish in hindsight I`d have tried a few second curtain syncs just to see what the result was. I purposely used the first sync so that the movement and colour leaked over the static flash image, but it would have been nice to see the results for future reference.

The shoot was undertaken in the streets around my studio (Great for being used as a base for changing etc) We got some very weird looks whilst out on the street, as at any one time there was a massive group of stylists, hair & MUA’s and magazine publishers crowded into city streets shooting beautiful people in great clothing.

The highlight for me was seeing a clamping truck that doing it’s job of clamping a car – Great opportunity! So after abit of sweettalk from Ava Maria the stylist, they allowed us 30 seconds with for Tony (male model) to pose on the truck, which then made the final layouts!

Mexico holiday – AquaPak review

Sorry for the slight delay in blog posts, thats simply because I was away on Holiday in Mexico!

It was an amzing experience, and myself and my partner Kasey loved immersing ourselves in the cultaral aspects, and sight seeing opportunities. 29 degrees everyday, and boy was it humid, Kasey was loving it ( being a caribbean girl herself ) but at times I had to retreat to the shade with my books and camera!

I took my walk around camera ( beloved Lumix GF1 ) with its beautiful 20mm F1.8 lens, and invested in an AquaPak waterproof backpack, so I could take photos whilst snorkelling.

The camera really struggled ( for obvious reasons ) with the underwater photography, but was great for getting some exciting action photos in the surf.

The plastic clear panel that you shoot through got a little smeary at times, but overall it was a great investment. The handy strap I shortened so it bearly fit over my head, so the camera wasnt going anywhere!

Theres three watertight seals at the top that you close after placing the camera inside, lovely and easy! no fiddly clasps or levers like other underwater cases I`ve used.

Chichén Itzá was a great experience, thats two of the wonders of the world I`ve seen now! We loved snorkelling most days, one day off the island of Cozumel in a natural reef, but mostly in natural cenotes ( underground caves ), filled with fish! The DOF with the 20mm lens was amazing, and reallt transforms standard holiday photos into much more exciting images!

Unfortunately during the snorkelling off Cozumel, the aquapak suffered a leak, damaging the camera, eventually making it unuseable. Upon getting back to the UK, I phones aquapak, and had great service, they asked simply that I return the bag and camera and they`ll inspect. I`ll keep you all updated on the outcome, but doubt the battle with the manufactor I was expecting will happen!

It was a well needed break, and a recharge of my creative batteries, it is odd though going from wearing shorts and flip flops to full on artic gear now we`re back in the UK!

Houdini – He`s escaped!

On Sat Oct 1st, recording artist Houdini came up from the big smoke for some new promo material for his album / new PR campaign.

The brief was simple, this from the agency A&R man ” black and white James Dean images, vogue, Lady Gaga type thing “. After hearing a rough mix of one of the album tracks I felt like we had our direction – classic vogue.

Now Vogue is an instituation. Scary, but cool. My fav shooter Tim Walker is a Vogue lynchpin, and so they were aspiring pretty high seeing that ( to me anyway ) Vogue is the pinnicle of fashion / music photography. This shoot was all about classic. Not a vintage feel, but some simple, clean and timeless. I see so many bad music shoots where the photographer is far to influenced by Dave Hill ( hey, I love the guy, I`m just getting sick of seeing 2000000000000000 photoclones of him pushing shit HDR band shoots ) so it was cool to approach it from a David Bailey vibe – shape and form, great camera technique and staying as far away from post processing bollocks as possible.

So, I set about researching and brainstorming…I`m known for flare and beauty dish high in on a 90 degree tilt down to create butterfly lighting, BUT this didnt fit with the brief and I really wanted to shoot something different.

So, backlighting was the order of the day ( two 1.5 metre strip softboxs directly behind ), and as soon as we started shooting the clients were loving it!

After that look I threw in a bare bulb kicker right at the front to create the hard shadow ( very Bowie apparently ) and we were all rocking in the studio, just feeding off the vibe.

Good times, its always great when clients challenge you to create your best work x

Mya Blue Beach

A regular client I`ve recently started working with is Lindsey Brown who is the designer and owner of Mya Blue Beach swimwear ( www.MyaBlue.co.uk ).

Her designs are amazing, and its really refreshing to work with a client is very driven and passionate about what they want. This is the A/W campaign, with attached excerpts from Lingerie Insight magazine where she ( and my photography was featured ).

Normally I`m never a big fan of cross lighting, but it really worked in this regards ( ususal blog viwers will know how much I love contrasty, edgy lighting ), and I added a gel`d strobe behind the model to lift her off the back, and I really love the warmth that it adds into the images.

As with all product photography it was shot ultra sharp at F22, 160th of a sec shutter speed so theres no movement.

Cant wait for the next shoot with its possible overseas location!

A Darkness More Than Light

The great news this week is that I`ve won the Bronze award in the recent WPGA ( World Photography Gala Awards ) Portraits and People competition. Regular followers of my work will know how passionate I am about my art and my photography, and this year has seen us winning lots of awards and being ranked by such prestigious bodies as Aesthica, The AOP, and now the WPGA.

The (1st edition) book containing all the awarded photographs in the Portraits and People contest, including my work is now available to purchase from the distinguished www.blurb.com website. Its so flattering having my photography featured in an Art Photography book – very chuffed! Mines the image on the left entitled ” A Darkness More Than Light”.

Nijah

Well, I know I usually blog about photography matters – this weeks entry was going to be about more off camera flash trickery, exciting but we can do that next week – BUT Nijah swaggered into my path, and inspired this blog post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4O6gx2xD_s&feature=player_embedded

He and his crew were working at my studio a few weeks ago, and filmed this great promo – i`d encourage anybody to see it – within a few hours of hard graft.

Inspirational and with something to say, its great working with creatives within other fields – in this case rap and film – and the end result looks and sounds wicked.

As the worlds of photography and videography collide, its great to see a new breed of creatives emerge, utilising as many different techniques or arts to get their message across.

Sniper Pro`s in action + re-touching

Ok, so got the Snipers in action during a fashion magazine shoot on Tues, VERY, VERY impressed!!

Never once failed to fire, hard wearing, great bits of kit. As per my older blog posts, look there as to wear to buy, but definately do buy! Lets us forget about wires etc, just make sure those AA`s are charged!

Above is the straight from camera raw capture ( check out the softbox in the sky! ) and next to it is the first bit of re-touching done by a very creative friend of mine Tim Harrison of VoiceBrand design – professional retouching. The magazine will be out on 18th Sept so I`ll post the full editiorial then.

The thing to notice is the great quality of light my Canon EX gives me with the softbox. Think I`ve found a match made in heaven, and anything that makes our photography easier is alright eh?