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It’s not often you get to shoot magazine covers so of course I jumped at the chance. The thing about magazine covers is that it’s never boring, unknown or obscure. The cover sells no matter what people, your parents, your boyfriend/girlfriend, teacher, BFF tell you. People do judge the book (or in this case, magazine) by the cover. So if a magazine wants to survive in today’s mostly digital, online world, the cover has to do its job.
So obviously, this contemporary Christian magazine still has to do what other magazines do. Put someone well-known on the cover versus someone else. Anyways, people who make magazine covers usually don’t have time for photographers to fuss over the shots. They give you thirty minutes and you better nail the thing down or it’s bye-bye, and you’ve got tons of P&P (Photoshop & Prayer) to save the crap you just shot.
For Winnie, my appointment was 5pm and I showed up at her Mid-valley studio at just a quarter past four. Ten minutes to introduce myself to the receptionist, scout around. She’s a genuinely nice lady and really simple and down to earth so she actually meets me, gets her assistant to make me coffee and ask me my shoot ideas. Since we’re not shooting for Business week, including the studio logo and name is out of the question so she thinks two of my ideas work out and offers a room. I see the a couple of possibilities there so she goes off and I setup.
To keep things fluid, fast, and portable, I throw up a Lastolite EzyBox on a Manfrotto 1052BAC stand. Since I’ve no time to fuss with line-of-sight crap, I shove on my RadioPopper PXs on a Canon 580EXII flash.
Clock hits five and it’s action time. Took a couple of frames, moved a to a glass door and bam, much better than the textured wall. Still not getting it. The editor said beauty so here’s this E&Y Entrepreneur of the year winner, savvy business woman and beautiful at the same time. I didn’t want to position her too hard so I changed ideas, asked her to sit and put her hands together. EzyBox up close, my favorite 70-200 2.8 lens at f/3.2, dialed in +2/3EV to factor in all the white and my 5D Mark II’s brain took care of the rest. Did a couple more but I knew I had the cover.
The first shot, I like the textured wall so I had a tight grid on the flash head to create a natural vignette. Flash head zoomed to 70mm.
The logo for A Cut Above featured blue glass with horizontal texture so this door reminds me of the logo in a subtle way so that’s the reason for the backdrop. Felt something lacking and the don’t really like the door frame so next…
The cover shot here. Flash down -1EV with +2/3 for ambient. I did soften this in LR3 a bit for a final but this is exactly what I got out of the camera. Notice I left space at the top for the Magazine masthead. I shot three of the same, with space on the left and right.
Did a standing shot but it’ll didn’t excite me so that’s wrap. And a couple of shots which they also ran inside for the article.
It was a lovely morning when Shee Nee and her boys (and husband) dropped by our studio in two cars. I was a bit surprised but then, when you have a convertible coupé, it will be difficult to pack in three kids and two adults.
Boys, being boys, are pretty tough in a studio environment. They love to act silly, disobey and more. Getting them to sit still is a challenge so we then adjourned to the nearby playground. They changed immediately and became totally animated, energetic and charged up.
As I was shooting alone, getting the car in motion shots were a bit difficult as I couldn’t hang out the back of my truck and shoot so we ended up doing circuits around the playground.
It was a packed day with a afternoon party shoot followed by Lee Lee and her kids. Lee Lee’s baby is just over 6 months and she’s quite a bundle of energy when she feels like it. As she’s not yet over a year, there are limited actions you can get the baby to do so toys, the simple studio floor and perhaps a sibling or parent. Anyways, with babies, we always suggest to take the shoot slow and give them enough breaks otherwise they will break and the crying could derail the session.
With a couple of toys, both kids got pretty natural in front of the camera. Don’t expect to hit off immediately — any relationship, even between subject and photographer will need work and the first couple of shots may be awkward.
Just this June, we had the privilege and joy of shooting Michele and Michael. Michele’s about 32 weeks into her pregnancy and they actually came all the way up to KL from Singapore. We’ve done almost all our portraiture and other photography either on site or in places of the couple or individual’s choosing, i.e. KLCC, nearby parks, hotels, or homes so this was the third time we actually used the “home” part of our home studio.
After our own little miracle from God, it’s a totally different experience shooting another expectant couple. Of course, if they’re first-timer’s like we were then they do appreciate some of our experiences and challenges we faced and still face. We had lots of fun over cheese tarts and poppy seed cakes, books, iPads and toys! The entire shoot was done at our little home studio. Thanks again to Michele and Michael and we pray little Michaela will be delivered just fine, in the hands of our good Lord.
We had a fun time shooting a lovely couple who are amazingly in love with each other and their Savior. We had drinks, cheese tarts and a lot of fun shooting, both indoors and outdoors. I shot this while my beautiful wife was shooting — hey, we’re a team and we both shoot! Photos from that wonderful session coming up soon.
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