Favourite Portraits 2013

It is that time of year again, when I review my portrait photography from the last 12 months.

2013 has been a transitionary time. During the year I spent much more time outdoors using off camera flash than taking portraits in the studio.

One big change has been that to make it easier to work on the move, I made a rather large technology change. Very few of the images shown here were taken with my Canon 5D Mk II. In 2012 I invested in the Fujifilm Finepix X100 and this was a fantastic camera to carry around and use on the street. Having a fixed lens meant it didn't offer the flexibility of a DSLR, but the image quality was superb. There is nothing wrong with the Canon 5D Mk II, but once you add a grip and a large lens, everything starts getting rather heavy. After careful consideration, and trying cameras from Olympus, Nikon, Canon and Fujifilm, 2013 saw me invest in my first Compact System Camera - the lovely Fujifilm Finepix X-E1. At the time, I felt this was the best of the Fujifilm X series cameras, and even offered improvements over their top of the line X-Pro1. The reduction in weight meant that I could carry the camera and lighting kit much easier than I ever could when I wanted to take my DSLR out for a strobist shoot.

I will highlight some of my favourite shoots, and finish with my favourite portrait for the year. However I realise that everyone has their own personal tastes and what I may choose could well be very different from someone else.

January

January was all about Bex Lendon. The first shoot of the year was at Ian's Studio, in a session being led by fellow photographer R J Bradbury. While the second shoot was at a meet-up for the Facebook group North West Shutterbugs.

February

Something a bit different this month. I didn't have a lot of shoots either in the studio, or outside. But I did end up taking photographs from the catwalk at the London Fashion Weekend. 

 
March

In March I was lucky enough to shoot the stunningly gorgeous Katherine Georgina at True Definition Studios in Hallam Mill, Stockport.

Looking through these images reminds me this is someone I definitely want to work with again.

All three photographs were taken with the Fujifilm X-E1 along with my minimum strobist gear - A Calumet stand and flash bracket, Frio coldshoe adapter, Phottix Stratto II trigger/receiver, Nissin Di866 Pro MK II flashgun and a Rogue Flashbender XL with diffuser panel.

April

I took part in several group shoots in April, at a number of different studios around Stockport and Manchester. I had decided that I would only go to group shoots if they offered something I hadn't really tried before, or there was someone I really wanted to work with.

On the left we have Laura Kolbusz looking rather gymnastic. Top right is Rebecca Selina, and bottom right we have the lovely Sarah Mansfield.

 

May

May was the first month I visited, and then a little later shot at, AWOL studios in Manchester. It was a further eight months before I moved in myself. May was also the first time I worked with all three models shown below.

Top left is vintage model Candy May. This was a strobist shot inside AWOL. Balancing the light coming through the mill window with the light from the flashgun illuminating Candy.

Bottom left we have Rach Gittins. Another strobist shot, taken as part of a Welshot training day. This time balancing flash in the shade of the tree to get rid of shadows but still balance with the natural light.

Finally the image on the right is my first (and still my favourite) studio shoot with another vintage model, Laura Norrey at Ian's Studio.

June 

I didn't go to many events at Ian's Studio in 2013, but I was very interested in the concept of projected nudes. These were taken using a laptop and a digital projector. But the concept is similar to the shots I have been taking in 2014 using a Light Blaster.

As I mentioned, the images were displayed using a digital projector. One of the problems I found with this technology is that the projection is made up of lots of small dots.

The Light Blaster I'm now using is also a form of projector, but uses analogue slides instead of being a digital projection.

 

July

A couple of different events this month. The picture on the left of Ava Castle and the one beneath of Zoe Harlotta were both taken at one of the creative shoots organised by Paul Baybut at AWOL studios.

I'm afraid I don't know who the Laura Croft (Tomb Raider) cosplayer is in the photograph on the top right (if you do know, please send me a message so I can credit). This was taken on a street near to Manchester Central when they were holding the Manchester MCM Expo & Comicon.

 

 

August

I didn't have time to organise any shoots in August, as I was part of the group organising the Ayacon anime and manga convention. However I was lucky enough to have a few minutes spare at the convention and grabbed a few shots of the excellent cosplayers. 
  

 

September

I spent a large part of September visiting Latvia and Estonia. While I did take several thousand photographs, they aren't really suitable for this selection.

The only portraits I took at all this month were of the singer-songwriter Ashley Fayth Moore at a shoot organised through Welshot.

 

 

October

Something slightly different this month. For the second year in a row I took part in Len Grant's workshop as part of the Manchester Creative Weekend. 

Last year I limited my project to take photographs of strangers working in the Northern Quarter. This time I decided to make the project even harder to complete by limiting it to photographs of strangers at reception desks and enquiry counters along Oxford Road in Manchester.

It still amazes me how many people are willing to take part.

November

 
Back in the studio and shooting around AWOL. Another creative shoot organised by Paul Baybut.

The female model shown above is Scantalli-Clad (who threw some fantastic poses) with makeup by the equally talented Alice Bizarre.

Playing the part of the Terminator we have Antony Karanikolas, with makeup by Kirsty Kean.

 

December

For the second year in a row, I went to London in December with Welshot Imaging, for a weekend of various types of Photography.

As part of that, we were scheduled to spend Sunday morning with a model shoot outside London landmark buildings.

Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. I was still setting up ready for my group to shoot Radha M Patel outside the Gerkin when the skies opened and it began to rain. So we quickly moved around the corner to take shelter inside Leadenhall Market.

 

Favourite of the Year

It is always good to look back through your photographs and see what you did, and if you would now have done anything differently. It can also give you new ideas for how you would now put them through post-processing and come out with a significantly different image.

I've illustrated each month with a selection of photographs. But this is just a small sample. It really was a fantastic year.

My favourite portrait of the year is a fantasy image created from a photograph of Morganna Bramah and Jason Romero Barnes.

It may be difficult to tell, but I spent more time working on this image than anything else during the year. Many hourse were spent dodging and burning different parts of the image. Then the lighting needed to be sorted out across the image. Next I worked on the swords to make them more visible against a dark background. I then placed them within a dungeon and finally I added layers of dirt and smoke to get the moody effect I was looking for.