A split day across aerial and pole, with a bit of devilish (Hah) photoshopping in one of the photos to make Lauren up to look like the demon that she would have  looked like if she’d remembered to bring the prosthetics and makeup… You see Lauren and two of her instructors (The wonderful Cakeface and the delightful Nana) will be performing a new cube triple act this year, and needed an image to start slapping on posters.

Delivered.

Also notable is Gemma C killing it on no fewer than 4 pieces of equipment – talk about multitasking. Trapeze, Silks, Lyra and Pole in a single shoot in several outfits. Commitment if ever I’ve seen it! An thoroughly enjoyable day in the company of 7 maniacs that really, really know their stuff – I can’t wait for the next one!

Working at Donna’s studio has become so much easier with the improved pole assembly that let’s us work in the high central area of the main studio, and in contrast to the last time I shot white backdrops there it gave me more control, allowing me to sharpen up the results a little, ever tweaking the result a little each time. I still haven’t built up an overhead reflector assembly, but it’s getting there slowly. We also had a guest appearance from Kym Moore from PoleHog who was there to get some shots showcasing her awesome custom-made polewear, much of which the other performers on the shoot got to try out and take away!

One potential solution would be to use a low power light in a giant parabolic brolly, something I intend to experiment with on my next test shoot, as I’m still chasing the elusive wrap-light I get from Bliss Poledance…

Although mostly pole, we had to sneak a few hoop shoots in at the end before racing away to get to the Flight Fitness Christmas pole showcase. Good grief what a hectic weekend this one was!

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With the clock ticking before the arrival of another child, I was back at Flight for a packed student shoot, again covering aerial hoop, pole and silks.

A new challenge was introduced in the form of Baby Princess Sparklepants – a beautful rescue greyhound who is now the pride and joy of Lauren. Mostly a placid beast, she did find interest in front of the camera on more than one occasion, leading to a couple of hillarious moments!

Although we’re shooting on white again with a familiar setup, it’s undergoing subtle tweaks and revisions not only on set but in the postprocessing approach, and this shoot yeilded some of my cleanest and in my opinion best shots on the setup to date.

The biggest problem with a refinement process like that, is you look back on the the older images from a few years ago and want to reshoot them all, as the improvements are quite startling. I might revisit some of the older shots to see if they can be brought into better shape with my improved post processing workflow, but obviously nothing can be done to update the lighting in old shots.

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]]> https://www.denyer.pro/flight-fitness-september-2016/feed/ 0 https://www.denyer.pro/pole-athletes-megashoot/ https://www.denyer.pro/pole-athletes-megashoot/#respond Sat, 13 Aug 2016 14:31:27 +0000 http://www.denyer.pro/?p=1195 Four days of absolute mayhem in Chesterfield at another Aerial and Poledance Photoshoot.

Experimenting with the white field look a little, I was up this weekend in Chesterfield shooting again with the wonderful Lorna Walker from Pole Athletes. Having just completed a refurbishment of her studio it was great to be back here to take advantage of the now-removable X-Poles and her newly kitted out aerial bay, which has plenty of height and just enough depth to get pretty much any results we want out of the silks and lyra.

If I thought the shooting was Homerian in its scale, that didn’t have a patch on the retouching. With 51 performers shot in total (!!!) and some enthusiastically sized orders from many on the shoot, I had my work cut out getting them delivered in time, especially heading into the Christmas season and a new baby on the way.

A standout from this shoot was Lynda B, who’s an avid motorcyclist and wanted to get some classic pinup poses with her beloved racer. Needless to say this presented a slightly different challenge to the usual shots, getting the bike into position, and then attempting to retouch out the axle stands was a really fun endeavour. Given the work required to get the axle stands out of the finished shot, the next time I’m faced with a similar task I’ll be sure to shoot more plates with the bike held by an assistant, to facilitate a more efficient retouching process. Live and learn!

Part One : Gallery

Part Two : Gallery

]]> https://www.denyer.pro/pole-athletes-megashoot/feed/ 0 https://www.denyer.pro/heir-to-the-chrome-2016/ Sun, 03 Jul 2016 14:29:08 +0000 http://www.denyer.pro/?p=1194 After last years images were so well received, I was invited back to shoot Heir to the Chrome 2016 at the Venue, Milton Keynes.

Heir to the Chrome is an absolutely fantastic competition, organised by M!itch Gibbens and hosted by the glorious Daniel Rosen down in Milton Keynes. I shot the even last year and was enthusiastically invited back for the follow up this year.

There were some familiar faces, and being remembered by the lighting crew helped a bunch in getting some adjustments to the setup made, as well as helping to rig the audio recorder as, in an advancement from last year, I was there to record the performance videos too.

With an assistant on stop & start duty I was free to hunker down just in front of the judges desk and shoot an incredible selection of competitors and guest performances from the likes of Lisette Krol, Charlotte Robinson, Sam King, Sarah Scott and An Dre!

Both the stills coverage and the performance videos were well received, though it turns out we did such a good job of the audio recording that YouTube content blocked almost everything straight away. Such an enormous pain in the neck that you can’t easily manage the rights for distribution of event videos, and something that’s proving to be an ongoing problem when covering events such as these.

You can check out the videos over at the HTTC YouTube Channel.

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Turns out that living legend Jamie Taylor and the absolutely crazy Emily Smith were up for a visit at Flight Fitness and wanted to shoot. No less than a combined amount of 9 hours travelling cross-country between them – it was a fantastic opportunity to shoot some absolutely fabulous performers.

A great shoot, running solo with my still Under-Construction flight case powering the operation – I really should write that up at some point. Being able to quickly deploy a workstation that has a solid backup strategy in place is invaluable, and so much easier for clients to review images on than squinting at the laptop screen!

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Deb runs The British Poledance Academy in Stoke on Trent, an enormous and quite frankly superb place to train which she’s built up over the years through tremendous dedication and hard work.

My first time at the BPA, so we were all set up to shoot on a white backdrop, but once getting there their mini stage, seating area and studio ambience really got me thinking and I can’t wait to get back there to make more use of the environment as it really is fantastic!

One of the things I want to work on more are contextualised shots of performers, rather than isolated studio shots. They’re not quite as popular but it’s an avenue I want to explore as it will present a whole raft of new options.

I wanted to pull off a shot where the performer was being pulled apart / suspended on the pole by fabric, obviously not something you can do in one take so going in to this I was planning it out as a composite.

Lauren Red kindly obliged to be the model, and the sheer physical endurance of this lady cannot be understated. I think on the final count we hit somewhere near 380 exposures, which meant poor Lauren had to pull off the move somewhere between 100-150 times. An absolute trooper and a testament to the sheer amount of training that these performers do.

The camera had to be positioned on a tripod to enable easier compositing, but it was essential either way as I had to position and manipulate the silks on my own up a stepladder, triggering the camera with a wireless release clenched between my teeth. Not the most glamourous execution but it got the job done!

Returning home to stitch together the composite, it quickly became clear that being unable to see the silks whilst shooting from the camera perspective was a genuine impediment, and the result was a lot more two dimensional than I’d originally envisaged.

I will be returning to the concept at some point, but this time armed with an assistant (Or two) to help waft silks around the place whilst I frame up and shoot from behind the camera!

When I was asked by Liz to come and shoot with her and some of her training partners I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of the venue, but stepping through the door I instantly fell in love with it.

Based on a modernised Viking longhall concept, the Circusmash space is totally free from crossbeams, and super, super high. So high in fact that I topped out my backdrop stands with at least 3 metres to go, I couldn’t believe it. With absolutely no restrictions on height and space it really is an absolutely perfect venue to shoot in, which made setting up and lighting this small group shoot an absolute dream.

Nathaniel and Liz had a great 40’s sailor / navy theme going, and Charlie and Lisa nailed their period Flapper outfits and sports shots. All in all a really successful shoot, resuting in a easily a couple of my favourite aerial shots so far.

Honestly can’t wait to get back there to shoot more, such a great great space to work in!

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As I don’t advertise for family photography you won’t see me doing much of it in the daily course of events. If anyone gets in touch to request such a job though I’m always more than happy to oblige, so I hit the road and drove South to see Chloe and Tom and shoot some portraits with them and their little baby Esmé.

The old saying goes “Never work with children or animals” but honestly, if you’ve got a little patience, it’s really no problem and the results are always adorable, if not necessarily what you’re expecting to get!

Sometimes the shots that you’d classically reject are the ones the parents love the most (Esmé trying to eat her giraffe is a perfect example) which is why I always let clients pick out their own selects either on the laptop at the shoot, or via an online gallery.