So, 2011 has been an interesting year for me. It started off quite glum, feeling quite unsettled about my job - I then get a promotion and suddenly...BAM! I'm the manager and photographer of a family photography studio. Hurray! More money and I get to do the job I love - but this meant no time to breathe.
I managed two photo shoots at the beginning of the year and the last shoot I did as Nitemare Photography was in March (11). Ever since I felt so overwhelmed with work that I couldn't physically edit my own images within reasonable time so I just stopped doing it all together.
Recently though, I have realised that there is a gap in my life - I had become a recluse. The one thing I adored about the photography I did was the weird and wonderful people and places I got to work with. The concepts were always close to my heart and the end result was always edited with full passion. I'm not really a seek to be social person, I have my friends and my lovely house with my boyfriend, cat and chinchilla - and I don't really like to go out on nights out. So photo shoots for me filled in that gap, kept me sane.
So yesterday at work I just had an idea - I needed to get out, do a shoot that had no strings attached. No high expectations, no magazines on my back wanting free work done quickly, no other 3rd party to please - just me and a friend doing something creative. So I messaged a good friend and model of mine, Laydee Layton. We have worked on many projects together, I've photographed her quite a lot in the studio and on location at events. She has this beautiful body and amazing hair, shes a real natural beauty so I knew she was the best candiate for the job.
My concept was 1970s trash cinema. I adore films such as Death Proof, Machette and Zombie Land and many more by the Likes of Tarantino. I also recently watched a lot of Freaks & Geeks which is a TV show based in the 70's. There is an appeal to the vintage 70s look that these films have - th
e atmosphere, the clothes, the attitude....We have a poster book with trash cinema posters in them which I also flick through. I also collect old film cameras and have 2 1970s 35mm's. They naturally give off this amazing messed up vintage look that I didn't even photoshop, it just happened!
I emailed Kerri yesterday afternoon with these main ideas - 1970s sexy femme fatal meets Zombie. I was checking my email and Facebook every 5 minutes hoping she would reply quickly and say yes! At 8pm I get a phone call - it's Kerri and she is over the moon and loves the concept and hell yes she wanted to do it! So we chatted and assured we had the concept down, clothing, make up - everything. This is the quickest i've ever organized a shoot and you know what - it was perfect for me! Like I said, no high expectations from anyone - just some fun with a friend.
So I picked her up after work around 8pm and we made our way to the local farm land next to my house. We were against time and it was getting dark. It had been raining all day and stopped just a few hours before we began shooting - phew! It did mean we had this beautiful mist in the background creating this amazing desolate feel. We did a number of shots with and without a flash gun - in the end I shot:
1600 ISO
40 Shutter
4.0 Aperture
This meant the ISO gave me the natural grain I was hoping for. I kept the aperture wide to maintain the beautiful deph of field and the shutter - well, it was getting dark and thank god my new job meant I had a new found steady hand!
We shot with a shovel, pitch fork and a can of Bud. Perfect!
Once we knew we had the shots and it became even more evident we were loosing light, we briskly walked down to another set of fields where I wanted the initial " running from Zombies" shots. It was so dark though I had to use my flash - this meant the images had a completely contrasted look compared to the ones taken in the field previously. In the end my flash refused to work any more (I have no idea why...very random) and my camera refused to focus as it was so dark so we packed it in and walked back. Which was quite creepy to say the least.
A jacket potato, a beer for Kerri and a cuppa tea for me later and tada! We have our first sneaky peak of the photoset
We liked the idea that this amazing woman was living in the middle of nowhere - maybe her parents had been eaten by zombies, and only she knew about this insanity. So she goes out at dusk with her pitchfork and shovel to get ready to kill the zombies and discard of them on her land. No one else knows what she is sacrificing for the rest of the village - or do they?
I hope you like my new set of images. I really enjoyed shooting Kerri, it's always a pleasure!
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