Sunday, October 25. 20092009.07.20: Nikolas' [unsubmitted] Contessa makeup artistry shoot
Two months before the shoot date Nikolas informed me that he had intentions of entering the 21st Contessa Awards in the makeup artistry category. I was pleased that he was aware of the time and effort required to pull together the models, materials, and time needed to do this shoot properly and that he was still interested in competing in spite already-established recognition for his work amongst my clients and in some parts of the industry in general. I never pass on an opportunity to work with Nikolas and we immediately started creating our list of models that we wanted to work with for this project. The list included many people that we have worked with before and we would have liked to have worked with them all but scheduling prevented us from having more than a single day of shooting. July 20th was our scheduled shoot day. The competition required a day look, a night look, and a look that could be whatever the makeup artist wanted to do. In the end, we didn't produce a night look from this shoot that we felt was strong enough for submission and while we had other options, Nikolas decided not to submit the photos for the competition and I supported his decision. We'd do better work next year and this time we'd have the ideas for the competition brewing in the backs of our minds until summer 2010. Still, I felt that we created some solid makeup-oriented images even though most shots were with very natural makeup. Furthermore, I felt that my yield from this shoot contained some of the best shots of Julie's face that I have ever shot.
Thanks again to our models Whitney Grace, Julie Gillespie, Alteira Evans, and Stephanie Calihoo, photographers Corey Thompson (Yellowjacket Photography) and Rob Lim (Rob & Lauren Photographers) and set designer/prop master Christina Ignacio-Deines (IDBohemia) for making this possible and also to all of the models who agreed to work with us but we were unable to shoot. We will work together sometime soon.   One of the first shots of the day at the shoot location. Nikolas is about to touch up Julie's makeup and Julie looking hot as usual.  Most people's favourite shot of Julie from the shoot. 135/2 Defocus Control Nikkor set to the "2R" setting for spherical aberration de-correction. Shot at F/2, nominal sensitivity of the D3 (ISO 200), and around 1/1000-1/2000s. Almost all shots with t he Nikon D3 were shot with these settings and with this lens. Colour photos all untouched outside of Lightroom 2.x. I wanted to experiment a bit with some colour toning and most people seemed to like the "golden" cast that the deliberate white balance offsetting and slight split toning towards yellow for highlights combined with desaturation gave to the photo.  My favourite shot of Alteira from this set. White reflector held above camera and very close to subject to help balance the backlighting of the sun that provides the rimlighting for this photo.  One of Corey's photos and my favourite photo of Stephanie from this shoot. We only met Stephanie this day. She's one of Alteira's friends. Turns out Justin Poulsen knows her, too. Corey was shooting from a low angle through some grass with the D3 and the 70-200/2.8 VR while I was working Rob's Horseman LE.  An experimental shot using no reflector for fill. The ghosting and overall rendition of the 135/2 Defocus Control Nikkor is one of the reasons I still shoot small format digital SLR in spite of the availability of 35mm rangefinders, a digital medium format Rollei system, and numerous large format cameras in my equipment collection.  Nikolas was checking the ground glass of the Horseman to ensure that the camera was seeing what he had envisioned when I told him to pose like he was using the camera. Please, someone shoot a shot like this of me one day or else I'm going to Photoshop my face onto Nikolas' body and it's going to be really weird. Zeiss Ikon, 35/2 Biogon, new Kodak TMax 400 @ 1600 in HC-110, dilution B. Many more photos after the jump.  Corey versus the wasps. I have no idea why he's wearing this reflective bikini-tard all day.  Corey on top of the abandoned house on the property that we were shooting on. The next time Corey returned to use the site he found that much of the house had collapsed. He also noted that the place had been vandalized with graffiti like "Jesus was here" and "666" along with empty beer cans and other litter around the area. I think that his climbing on top of the building contributed to its collapse. Corey insists that Jesus and the devil had a big, drunken brawl in the house, causing it to collapse.  From left, Whitney Grace, Christina Ignacio-Deines, and Corey Thompson. Whitney was one of our models but we were, unfortunately, unable to make her look work with our concept in spite of her incredible eyes. Christina helped harvest and place grass in some of Julie's shots and also helped hold reflectors and Corey assisted with many aspects of the shoot including being official shoot DJ with his iPhone and his mom's iPod amp/speaker system. Highly recommended!  Earlier in the day, Rob Lim carried the Horseman out to our shoot location. Later this day he decided to buy the camera off of me. I believe he is still very happy with the camera.  Rob familiarizing himself with the camera's controls.  A view of Alteira projected by the 210/5.6 Schneider Symmar-S on the Horseman's ground glass.  And a shot of Julie. Both ground glass shots have been rotated 180degrees.  Alteira (accidentally) shot at F/8.  And another accidental F/8 shot.  A more neutrally-coloured shot of Julie.  Hahah!  Cropped to reflect Contessa's 13x10 aspect ratio requirement.  Two of the girls waiting for their turns for Nikolas' attention. Comments
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