Category:Model
A while ago, my friend Elise called me up and said she needed new pics for her portfolio. She recently had a baby and did not do a photo shoot since her beautiful daughter was born. I am always happy to have Elise in front of my lens. We exchanged a couple of ideas. She came up with this idea of simple white on white idea.It turned out to be a hit.
Let’s be honest: if you have a beautiful and talented model like Elise, do you need more than a simple white background and a one giant soft light? And I think I shot one of my most beautiful portraits during this session.
When we were done with the white-on-white set, we had some fun we a couple of other outfits. Who said a plain white background is boring? As always, Melvin–Elise’s hubby–turns out to be the perfect stylist. He turned the simple look into a more fashionable look in a matter of minutes.
My very 1st photo shoot with a model, Daria is her name, was way back in 2006. I met her on one of them platforms that brought models and photographers together; this was well before social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter even existed. It wasn’t always easy to find models back then. I remember it was a cold day in January when Daria and I did that shoot. And I also remember having a lot of fun that day. At the end of the day, I came home with a couple cool pics–like the one below–and thinking to myself that I should keep in touch with Daria, ’cause I would want to shoot again with her.
Unfortunately we lost touch until somewhere last summer when a mutual friend and photographer did a photoshoot with her and put me back in touch with her. It took us a little while to set a date for a new shoot, but 12 years after our 1st shoot, we found ourselves together in the studio for a new shoot. One that I hope is the 2nd of many.
Well, she’ll have to return to my studio, ’cause I promised her I would teach her to walk on ballet heels 😉
Is that still a thing? #mycalvins? A little while ago, every model and photographer wanted to do their own take on the Calvin Klein underwear thingy, but lately, I’ve not seen too many of those pics appearing in my social media feeds. I did my take on them #mycalvins pics way back in January. I’ve been so caught up in all sorts of projects that I’ve not gotten around to sharing them.
I wouldn’t be doin’ model Romi and makeup artist Elem justice, if I would not share them. So without further ado, here they are:
Well, that actually should say “Assisting a Friend” in the title of this article! ‘Cause my buddy Bart called a couple of days ago if I wanted assist him on a shoot he was putting together for an upcoming exhibition he was planning. We’re both experimenting with color gels. Isn’t every photographer doing that these days? Anyway, Bart and I bounced a couple of ideas back and forth, and we settle on a dark and moody themed shoot with color gels. Bart was gonna take care of finding a model and a make-up artist. I was gonna come up with outfit ideas.
Bart invited the lovely and talented Isabelle to the set as a model and he had make-up artist Michelle taking care of make-up. We did a couple of outfits and light setups and Bart & Isabelle were kind enough to let snap a couple of pics. Which do you prefer: green & orange or blue & orange?
I think I prefer the blue and orange setting…
I’ve been helping out my friends of FashionMove on their casting days over the last few months. We had a lot of fun with the team, as always.
I love working with aspiring models as much as I love working with our team. Almost new models are grateful for the coaching they get from us and they are always delighted to see the results of their very 1st photoshoot with us. And, it is very rewarding to see that some of them continue to become quite successful models.
There was this one portrait I did on the recent FashionMove casting days that caught my eye: this Amy, on her very 1st shoot ever. Isn’t cool that a girl with no experience at all produces a portrait this stunning?
Model Amy’s make-up is done by Shana Meylemans, Maren Nivelle, Ellen Cuypers and Melissa La Piane for Blush Academy + Agency.
And so is my beautiful friend Shannety!
When both girls came in to the studio a couple weeks back, they brought multi colored faux-fur coats. Axelle wore a multi colored coat that matched her dark hair and black basic outfit.
Obviously, Shannety had to wear her favorite color: PINK! After all, she goes by @pinkbyshannety on Instagram.
It is a simple trick: combine red, green and blue light to create white light… At least in theory. Since I’ve been playing around with color gels, it seemed to be a good idea to test that theory. These 2 portraits of Axelle and Shannety are my 1st try at this. They’re quite ok, but I think I need some more practice to get it just right.
btw: in these 2 portraits I combined cyan, yellow and magenta light. The result is the same: white light. But it creates red, green and blue shadows.
As part of that shoot I had with Romi & Shannety early this year, I also shot some portraits of Romi in latex, leather and lingerie. She brought the leather and lace outfit, I added the black latex body suit from Catalyst Latex and the ballet heels from Kassiopeya from my own collection to the mix. Elem did an awesome job at the makeup. The red & blue color gels on my studio strobes did the rest.
Last year, I had Sharon in the studio and we started experimenting with color gels. When she came in early 2018 for another studio shoot, we did pretty much everything with color gels. With good result, I might add.
When we finally turned the colors down, we shot a series of black and white portraits. I liked this one quite a lot.
A while ago, I was looking for a make-up artist for one of my photo shoots. I remembered that Ashley, a model I have with a couple of times, had recently graduated as make-up and hair stylist. So I asked if she wanted to be my make-up artist and if she wanted to model for me once again too. She came in to work as a make-up artist, we set a date for shoot together.
She said she wanted so sporty portraits and some fashion portraits with color gels. So in a matter of minutes we had everything set up for a shoot that turned out a couple of cool pics.
