January 27, 2011

Sexy male model shoot

‘I bet you can’t take a good picture of me, no one has been able to before,’ my friend Marcus said grinning at me over the white table which was acting as a reflector that sat between us. ‘Really,’ I grinned back, ‘what are you willing to bet?’ Seeing the glint in my eye and the ear to ear smile he sat back in his chair and took a moment to think. I may not be up there with the big boy professional photographers snapping shots of magazine models (yet) but my confidence and skills are growing and it shows.

‘An hour with Marcus’ I called it though it was more like half an hour. From start to finish his personality never let up and what a personality it was. Trying to capture those in between moments when he wasn’t posing or trying to do something for the camera, those real moments, was a challenge for me. That half a second where there eyes betray what is really going on in their heart and mind.

There were quite a lot of good poses as well and my shutter never seemed to stop clicking open and closed. Something like 140 shots were taken, all the while Marcus insisted I was just wasting card space. Wasting card space indeed! More like I didn’t use enough.

It was amazing being in the room with another creative and having a chance to work with them. My friend Marcus, though he may deny it or try and cover it up, is an artist and a writer (aspiring of course). There is something about cooperating with another individual who creates worlds within their own head that just cannot be fully put into words.

Sort of like throwing gas on a fire if you ask me. He may not be a professional model but he definitely has the energy.

Looking back at a lot of these shots and comparing them to work I had seen before by other professional photographers I saw countless things that needed improvement. Timing, focus, lighting, you name it I saw it, plenty of faults in my photography (once again not even going to get into my lackluster skills in post processing).