Kevin Pack Photography

Portrait Session - Tia

On the 5th January, Tia visited the studio.

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.

Portrait Session - Lucas

In January Lucas came into the studio for a portrait session.

Over the course of a couple of hours, we tried a number of different setups.

My favourite is the main picture (above). With his head lowered, and no eye contact, I think he looks deep in contemplation.

London Shoot

Last weekend I travelled down to London for three days shooting with Welshot Imaging.

 

I had been down for the same weekend in 2012 and really enjoyed the experience. So I was keen to go again.

I'm not going to go into too many details about the weekend itself. If you want to know more about it you can read the blog post by Linda Churchill.

On Sunday morning we were due to shoot portraits using off camera flash outside the Lloyds Building. However due to the bad weather we were forced to retreat into Leadenhall Market. Somewhere I had never been before.

My brief was to show the members how to use a light meter to help balance natural light with a flashgun and my model was the excellent and stunning Radha M Patel. You can see three of my test shots above.

If you look at the two colour photos, you will see that the colours have been processed slightly differently. With the mix of lighting I'm no longer sure exactly what the colour should be. Obviously converting to black and white gets around this colour cast problem.

Looks like I will have to invest in a Colour Checker Passport in the New Year. 

Collaborations & Experimentation

Sometimes you can find yourself struggling to remain creative. New ideas and the inspiration behind shoots can start to leave you.

Warriors

Perhaps you have a formula that you know works, and so you end up falling back to it every time. The result can be that your images all start to look similar.

Don't get me wrong. This may not be a bad thing. If you have developed a certain style, and this is why people come to you, then keep on doing it.

The problem is you may start to forget what you love about photography. Without drive and passion, interest can begin to fade.

 

Favourite Portraits 2012

It has been an odd year. After losing my mother at the end of 2011, both my father and I had health problems in 2012.

But the year also had a few high points too. I really got into instant photography (and hope to post more about this in the future), and at the same time started shooting film again.

I enjoyed the Queen's Jubilee weekend and had multiple visits with friends and family to see events at both the Olympic Games and the Paralympics. On my birthday I got to go up the Orbit and see the Eastend at night.

At the end of the year my father was well enough to come and spend Christmas with me for the first time.

During the year I continued to predominantly shoot portraits, and this blog post shows one of my favourite images from each month.

 

January

 

The year began with one of my favourite models, Hazel, in the studio. Hazel has lots of experience modelling and is always a pleasure to work with.

In this shot I was experimenting with shooting from slightly overhead and with a slightly shallower depth of field than normal. Hazel has beautiful eyes and a great smile, which I've tried to emphasise.

Model shots

Rain
Originally uploaded by Cynergist

Over the last few months I've taken quite a few sets of pictures on model shoots. I've decided to share a few of those on Flickr.

Fashion

My first attempt at a fashion shot. Taken during the summer at a fashion show in Paris.

The shot was taken as the model posed during her walk back down the catwalk, away from the camera, and I loved the way the light caught the profile of her face.

London MCM Expo

I've been attending the London MCM Expo this weekend, taking a few photographs of the cosplayers. Hopefully This will give us a whole set of new images when our cosplay website gets re-launched in July.

As usual, I will also be uploading the majority of images to the MCM Expo and UK Cosplay photo pools on Flickr.