The Alchemist

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Following my successful shoot with Lily I started searching for ideas to repeat the home studio concept. I'd seen paintings by old masters of alchemists and decided I'd try to replicate one - but everything hinged on finding a model who looked the part. We didn't have to look far - Mel is the father of my shooting buddy Marlies & in addition to looking every inch the wise old sage he also has a fantastic beard. He took a bit of persuading but he pulled it off magnificently. Here's a behind the scenes look at the shoot. It was great fun - thank you Mel!

The Alchemist

The Alchemist

Large Canvas Prints Arrive - Wow!

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I recently received an order for 4 of my underwater prints at large size - 900 x 620mm. After discussions with the customer and printers we decided printing on canvas would be best because it would keep framing costs down as no glass is needed. I ordered them 5 days ago and waited with trepidation because I’ve never had anything printed this large before. I knew it should be ok because the file size of the original image was large due to me shooting with the 53M pixel Canon 5DSR… but still.

Well, they arrived today & I’m absolutely delighted - they look stunning if I do say so myself. The image below doesn’t really do them justice, and I’ll post again when they’ve been framed, but I think you can see they certainly make an impression. I’ve included the mug to give you some sense of scale… small they ain’t!

900 x 620mm canvas prints. Mug included to give you some sense of scale :-)

900 x 620mm canvas prints. Mug included to give you some sense of scale :-)

Back in the Pool!

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It was great to get back in the pool this week and it made me realise just how much I’ve missed it. We resumed with a straightforward project just to get back in the swing as it were - Jane diving in off the side.

I first tried this shot around 18 months ago but on that day I was more interested in Jane’s reflection on the underside of the water surface. I’d decided I wanted to use reflections as an element in my Serenity images so I was learning about the camera angle & lighting I needed to get a good reflection - capturing the dive was just a means to an end. But I did like the result, so it was added to the ever growing list of future shoots… & that’s what we attempted on Monday.

It was a fairly simple shoot to set up & I’m pleased with the results. If you’d like to see how I went about it there’s a very short video below.

Pool Diving
Jane Diving.jpg
Jane Diving-2.jpg

Water Dance Shoot Resumes

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Just before lockdown I’d started a new swimming pool project - Water Dance. We had just one shoot and then Covid bought everything to a shuddering halt. Well I’m back in the pool tomorrow!

The main objective is to get some shots of Jane diving in from the side - but I’ll also be testing the stand I’ve had built for Water Dance. As you can see, it’s pretty substantial, but that’s necessary because the models will be jumping up & down on it. The idea is to have the top just 1 cm below the surface so it looks like they are standing on water. If the test goes well I’ll plan the first shoot with Jane in a couple of weeks.

UPDATE;

Tried the stand in the pool & it worked great! Here’s me giving it a try. Don’t worry, I’ll use more attractive models for the real shoot!

Water Dance 1-7.jpg
Water Dance Stand (1 of 1).jpg