Eugenia for People of the Globe

Eugenia from Ukraine for People of the GlobeI'm not sure why, but I really like this photograph. It's not anything I did though, it's all her. Eugenia is beautiful, but there's something else. Her features are really unique and her attitude in this photograph is amazing. I've shot with her twice and both times have been great.

Last shoot

Emma; Sydney, Australia; 2009 ©Gabriel Ponzanelli

I shot Emma 3 times while she was in Australia. She was one of my favourite people to shoot, naturally good and a great attitude. Sadly, she's gone back to Canada and we didn't have time to do that last shoot we'd been talking about. Hopefully our paths will cross again some day.

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Emma

Emma; Sydney, Australia; 2009 ©Gabriel Ponzanelli

I need to shoot with Emma again. Hopefully she's still in Australia.

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No news

Emma; Sydney, Australia; 2009 ©Gabriel Ponzanelli

I don't have much to say today. Well, actually I do. Lots. But I cant. Yet. Maybe in a couple of weeks. I'm excited though.

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A cinematic effect

Piper; Sydney, Australia; 2009 © Gabriel Ponzanelli

Earlier this week I did a photoshoot with Piper for my People of the Globe project. After shooting the black & whites I needed, we headed into Circular Quey to try something different. We wanted to use the city lights as a background as I've done many times in the past, but this time I wanted to get the feeling of a movie scene. The idea I had was to get a photograph that seemed to be a still from a film, but with Piper looking at the camera, which wouldn't normally happen in a movie! Because it was just the two of us, I didn't want to set up any elaborate lighting. It's usually a pain in the ass to mess with lightstands, umbrellas, and reflectors without an assistant, so I decided to go with an Orbis Ringflash as the only extra light source and up the ISO a bit to get a good exposure from the available light. This is only one of the frames we got and it has only minimal editing. I think it worked pretty well. I'll definitely be doing more of this style of shoots. Piper was great and really made the shot. She's a great model and a really nice person. I love it when a model is so laid back and friendly that things just click.

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Procrastination

Tetchie; Sydney, Australia; 2008 © Gabriel Ponzanelli

According to Wikipedia, procrastination is "a behavior which is characterized by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time". If that's the case, then I'm definitely procrastinating when it comes to so many things right now that it's just ridiculous. I've been wanting to just lock myself in front of my MacBook to catch up with organising and editing my photographs, and to just finish putting together my portfolio to update my website. But something else always comes up that needs to be done. I feel like I'm drowning in paperwork, appointments and commitments. I guess that's normal, but still. Today I finally had a chance to work on my photographs and I ended up spending 3 hours cleaning up my music instead. After thinking about it for a while, I think the reason I'm procrastinating is that I'm at the stage where I need to pick my very best shots for a portfolio and I find it very difficult to do. No matter how hard I try I'm just never satisfied with my decisions. And the more time I spend looking at them the less convinced I am that they're good enough. The People of the Globe project is a good example. I already have about 35 images that I'm reasonably happy with and I want to put together a book using Aperture, but every time I start working on it I find something in each photograph that I think I can improve. So I start playing with sharpening or adjusting contrast or something that's just a waste of time because eventually I almost always end up going back to the previous one. I have the firm plan of dedicating this entire long weekend to catching up. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, in the image above is Tetchie. She's half Filipino, half German, which turned out to be a great combination. It was shot in Kings Cross, Sydney at night as a fashion spread.

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Black & White with 2 Speedlights

Emma; Sydney, Australia; 2009 © Gabriel Ponzanelli

This shot was one of my experiments with small speedlights. It was shot using one SB-800 on camera as a commander and a little fill light, and one SB-600 through a shoot-through umbrella from camera right as the main light just out of frame. I wanted to create a soft light with minimal shadows.

Anyway, I have another shoot with Emma planned soon. I need to get onto it quick as she'll be moving to Queensland, Australia very soon.

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Random thought

Emma; Sydney, Australia; 2009 © Gabriel Ponzanelli

Life has been strange lately and I haven't been on top of my photography. I have about 6 personal shoots to sort and edit and just haven't found the energy to get them done. It's funny how I can spend hours every day for weeks or even months completely obsessed with my photos, and suddenly something happens and I drop all my personal stuff. Anyway, tomorrow night I have a lighting class so it'll hopefully lift my interest again. The above photo is of Emma, an amazing model from Canada I've had the pleasure to shoot twice in the last few months. She's one of those models that's so enthusiastic and positive that can make any shoot a lot of fun. We'll hopefully shoot again soon.

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