Studio portrait

Really neat when you're contacted by someone who has seen your work on your website and asks you to shoot their portrait. A huge amount of trust has been placed in your hands. You owe it to your sitter to give of your best. It also helps when your client is both gorgeous and intelligent-makes for a pleasant session, and produces some good portfolio images.

Corporate Functions are not that simple to shoot!

I've had a request to send some images from corporate functions that i've shot in the past. I poured over thousands of images from golf days to xmas parties, launches, team building week-ends-you name it! These images seem straight forward, but require a sense of timing and an intimate understanding of the workings of your camera. The goal posts are constantly shifting, and decisions have to be made in a hurry to get the shot. These are just a few-perhaps not even the best, but each image has a story, both personal and technical.

November Bike is a cool deal

Shot the built-up November bike for the website this morning. You've gotta see this baby under the lights-it's sweet! Perve away!
Tech details of the shoot: 3 Studio flash heads in  large strip softboxes as accent lights down the sides of the bike and above, and 1 head in a small square softbox as main light off to the right of camera. The accent lights are around 2 stops below the main light's intensity, since they can be seen in the gloss surface of the bike, and will blow out if they are too strong.
A second shot was done with a huge reflector on the ground in front of the bike. The 2 shots were combined in photoshop with some of the soft reflections brushed through a mask in layers.

So you think you've got what it takes to be a pro shooter!?

So, i get the call-he's from Pennsylvania-the company has these huge vacuum trucks that suck up any old shite, from toxic spills to slime at the bottom of a reservoir. They're doing a big clean up job on the roof of an embassy building here in the city. He wants a pic of his truck on site. No problem-oh yeah he forgot to tell me-it's at night, and I have no control of the way the truck is parked. Bloody thing is backed into a corner, up against a hedge with zero lighting going on-I have to use a 17mm lens to get it all in the frame, and crouch in a hedge with the tripod rammed up against a pole, and a stick in my ass. Oh, and by the way says the foreman on the site-you've gotta do it quick-you'll be in the way. F'k-here goes another day in the life of a rock star.

 Here's the scene as it looked when i arrived.

....and almost an hour later...

35 minutes later, and the lighting is all set up-i get ready to take the shot-the bastard gets in the cab and moves the friggin truck 2 yards forward. He refuses to give me 3 minutes to do the shot-i must start all over again. 15 minutes later, I get the shot-client reckons i'm a genius-I reckon that's why they pay me the big benjamins-oh yeah, right-did this for peanuts!

More Cyclocross Images

I was a pro shooter for many years, and stopped enjoying the cycling scene, but I'll be hanging around at the cyclocross circuits some more in the future-this is a great sport-something that is new to me. I took loads of images of the ladies race-just too lazy to process them all-if you think I got a pic of you-send me an e- mail with a description of your kit and bike, and i'll gladly e-mail you a hi-res shot-no charge, or you could simply steal the lo-res image off this site-not cool!
wayne@wayneswork.com

http://www.wayneswork.com/

The Capitol under moonlight

Doing a photo-shoot on a rooftop last night, and as I was leaving downtown Washington DC at around midnight-saw the moon poking it's way through the clouds. No ways you miss on a photo-opportunity like this! One thing i do feel about living in a foreign land-this is a really neat city.

More Cyclocross photos

CYCLOCROSS ROCKS!

I really miss my ten years as photographer at South African based RIDE magazine-chasing the pro peleton on many tours, time trials, hillclimbs and the likes. Heard there was a cyclocross event near me in the city-not gonna pass up on this! For the uninitiated, the event takes place, usually on a closed circuit in a park or field. The majority of the circuit is single track, with man-made obstacles which are hurdled at a crazy pace after an equally crazy dismount! The racing is lung- busting quick, sometimes technical, and in snow, rain, or shine-all the ingredients for loads of fun!
I arrived in time to see the gals killing each other-respek y'all-you rock! Had some fun with my camera-here are some pics............
See me at www.wayneswork.com

Got an e-mail from a family wanting a portrait as the sister lives in California and is visiting soon.
Set up the studio at home and voila-a great family portrait!(of course it helps that they're a handsome family)

Real biltong at Last!

6 months without biltong is the longest i've ever had to endure. The beef jerky in the US is disgusting! Out of sheer desperation for some salt and protein, I made some myself. Why the hell did I wait so long!?-this stuff is awesome-took a few pieces to some of the lads i've met in this city-and, well, they are confused-why the f#ck have we accepted this jerky shite for so long!!?-i see a business potential!

Just when I question spending $1200 on a lens for my pro digital canon camera-I get asked to do a shoot that requires every inch of the technology in my hands. Case in point:-I'm asked to shoot the opening of a new non- denominational church in Harlem, New York City. Well the lighting is really low and yeuch!- mixed tungsten and fluorescent. I bump the camera to 800 ISO and the lens to wide open-f2.8-and get a great shot of the minister doing his thang!

I need some inspiration!

Ok, so I'm bored-what will pull me out of this state.
Pick up the camera-walk to the creek, take some inspiring macro pics, preferably of colourful insect life or the likes-bloody hell-it's mid winter on the east coast of the USA-everything's either dead or almost dead!
so here are dead things!

Was sent this photo by a girl who was at school with me 30 years ago (that's me second from the right)-i was about 16 or 17 at the time-boy did we think we were the coolest!
That's Lance Crystal on the left-haven't seen him since 1979, then one phone call, and hey-he lives 30 minutes away from me here in DC!-meeting him for breakfast in 2 days time, and gonna catch up-go figure. Chris Ashman-my 'best pal' since age 6-lost him to his life experimenting with the world and it's mind altering offerings-still the nicest guy you'll ever meet-just confused (aren't we all) That's me third from left, and Scott Pettygrove, on the right, came to South Africa from the US for 2 or 3 years with his family in the mid seventies and ended up a schoolmate. Nice guy-his mom made the best polony and mustard salmies-turns out he too lives here close by in Virginia, and we're gonna hook up in 2 weeks! Pretty cool-I love 'catching up'-' "were your last 30 years as crazy/sad/adventurous/lonely/happy/wild/stoned as mine were?", or was I in another world?
I got loads of questions-looking for answers-not finding a lot of help here in the US, but then, it's still early days.