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Tuesday we were immersed in water; today we transition to baked goods.
Carla Peay and her cute little "I love cupcakes" staff member brought a big batch of less-than-four-hours-old cupcakes to the studio and we built a set for one of her startup ads.
"Just Cupcakes" opens July 11 in Hilltop West, Virginia Beach.
It's tank time. The water is 88F and clear. Walls are 18 percent gray unless I cover them with a black or other color drape.
Mix someone comfortable in the water and see what we can create.
We're working on several proposals that include images depicting concepts/image styles we think the client might use. This is one of those images.
Except, it's not quite the image we visualize, so we're calling it an "interesting failure." I learned the term "interesting failure" from Bill Allard, a National Geographic photographer. Like Bill, I sometimes use it to describe an image of mine or someone I'm coaching/mentoring.
Well, this image was taken, not made, so we're only partway there. The next session, we'll shoot it vertical or crop the left side to get the model out of the center. Also, we'll get the model to lower her forehead to the surface line, keep her eyes open, bring the stingray down with her and have another killer bikini.
Dancer Stephanie Mas dancing underwater using a red rope in the choreography. Stephanie, with Artistic Director Leslie Anne Scott, created a number of artistic interactions between the dancer and the rope. And, later in this session, added another dancer reaching downward to Stephanie.
It would be appropriate to say "this work is being done by professional athletes with safety backup and shouldn't be tried at home."
The Just George's Sports Bar end of the Captain George's Seafood Restaurant building in Kill Devil Hills, NC three nights before the Grand Opening May 15.
Art Director, Larry Peak and I drove down one afternoon to get images of the new building at dusk.
If you're spending some time in the North Carolina Outer Banks, stop at Just George's and have one of their Haystack Burgers. They are pretty amazing.
Dancer Felice Gabrielle Romero underwater with a few yards of coral fabric in the shallow end of our wet studio and cyc.
We typically shoot behind-the-scenes pictures while doing most shoots so the crew has something to remind them of the time and place. This was around lunchtime after shedding wet costumes, except Brett and Nhan were stilling hanging in the 88-90F water.
We like shooting this kind of thing on overcast days, but Monday was a sunny blue-sky day, so the light was subdued with a 20x20' Matthews scrim held in place with PVC stanchions anchored in 55 gallon drums of water. At 8.3 pounds per gallon, each drum weighs about 400 pounds, enough to keep things in place.
New York modern dancers (l-r), Brett Alan, Allison Ploor, Kristina Skjelberg, Megan Krauszer, Felice Gabrielle Romero, Stephanie Mas and Nhan Ho at the surface during an underwater photo session in Virginia Beach, VA June 1, 2009. Not pictured is Artistic Director, Leslie Anne Scott, dancer Lindsey Gruber, photo assistant Christina Macfarlane and photographer Chris Crumley.
When the NY dance company was here last year, we just shot underwater. This year, we added a studio session with a variety of dance costumes and lingerie from designer Jodi Gallaer. A new member of the dance company, Stephanie Mas, is in this picture in a blue Gallaer ensemble.
As with all the dance images, Artistic Director Leslie Anne Scott and Rehearsal Director Allison Ploor are essential to directing the dancer's movements for the camera.