Photographing Life

In our continuous development process, we worked quite hard to expand our network, bringing brilliant people to collaborate with us. Coordinating more people is not as simple as planning everything on our own, but working together with excellent team members has been a definite boost to our productions

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Visit our new online website: http://theroundpeg.com

More than once I have said that the relation with models is one of the most important things you, as photographer, should look for during a session. You should already know your stuff about lighting, knowing how to change settings on your camera and so on without losing touch with the human side of portraiture or fashion: people.

From this perspective you should be perfect. Imagine yourself a swimmer in a water infested by sharks: bleed and you are done. Photography is not so different in the end: if your models will see you mode concentrated on lights and camera settings and they will lose confidence in you as photographers. In the first example you are dead, in the second your photo will clearly show that the model did not trust you.

I have seen more than once bald photographers approaching a studio session with all the confidence in their technical skills, just to find models intimidating. I have seen them fell completely silent in front of the persons they wanted to frame in their camera.

Communication, respect and trust between photographer and model is paramount: remove one of these and the camera will not lie for you!

http://theroundpeg.com

Finally we did it, we published our portfolio website! It took Fabiana and me a while to find the right domain name and then I decided to build from scratch the minimalistic design you can see over there. The release, yesterday, have been a success and from today we will return to work to fix all the contents after the many comments and honest critiques we received: if you have any, please feel free to send them to me! Next step will be the creation of a theme for the blog and put it online!

Today’s photo is about a great experience we had few weeks ago, shooting some models in the heart of London at nighttime. It has been really fun. Producing a shot like this one may be quite difficult: gather a team of 11 people, make them work together in the middle of a crowd is something intense. But result are intense as well.

What would you say to a colleague asking you:

“Would you like me jumping in that pool of water?”

I mean, honestly, is there anyone around ready to say no to such question? If there is, I am not one of those! Instead, when I was asked the same question, yesterday at lunchtime, I just smiles, preparing my camera, with a simple “Of course!”

I would have appreciated one or two attempt more, just to be sure with the lighting, just to be confirm that the framing was the one I really wanted, but I had no time and I just got two frames. Enough! Next time I will ask for a “dry run” before the real jump, just to understand where my subject will be once in the air and where he will land, in order to maximise the result, nevertheless I like this “splash” a lot. It was just an honest game played in a matter of seconds, and I am happy I have been able to capture it.

Everything started few days after this year’s Notting Hill Carnival. Well, to be honest everything started during the carnival, when I took a photo of two girls dancing on the streets of Notting Hill. I was close to Westbourne Park, the police had blocked the road and we were waiting to move on when some music started and one of the group that was participating to the parade started dancing. The colours were fantastic, so I crouched dow to get a good perspective and I took a few shots. The first images were almost candid, then I was spotted and the two girls smiled at me and almost posed for me. But that was the real beginning.

Two days after I posted the image on flickr I received an email from an editor of a small Japanese magazine, WorldJC (http://worldjc.com), who was enquiring about the possibility to use my photo in their publication. After few emails discussing bits and bobs I agreed. This was almost a month ago, and everything slipped out of my mind but then I received another email containing a PDF with the screenshot of a page where my photo was there, amongst many other fantastic photos in a sort of collage. It was nice to see it, but I was not impressed as, this was my honest thought, the photo came out really small amongst all others. This is when I put the issue away from my mind, keeping it warm to heat my pride (hey, everybody needs it). Thing is that on Monday a parcel was being delivered to my door, but being at work I was not able to receive it and today. I knew what it was going to be, as I was promised the paper version of the japanese magazine., that I am working from home, I was able to take a break and go and get it from the post office.

When I got the package and I opened it (even if the photo was small it was still my fist published photo I could actually see on a printed magazine) I was puzzled to see a sort of advert on the cover of the magazine, but then I remembered that in Japan publications are read from right to left, so I turned the magazine and my jaw dropped.

Front page of the magazine, full page, alone and screaming, there was my photo. I had to stop walking and I bet that the people that crossed my path stared at my growing smile. My photo, on the cover of a magazine. I could not, and I still cannot, believe it. Of course I am not able to understand a single word of what’s written on it, but still my pride went skyrocketing high. My first publication, straight on the cover of a magazine coming from the other side of the world? WOW!

…But how all this happened? How have I been able to get published?

I have some answers, but I would love to explore them in the future. One of the things I have to say is that I have to say “Thank You” to all of my flickr and blog followers, as without them I will probably have not been noticed.

                             

Click here to download:

Shaping_Lights_Workshop_and_fa.zip (852 KB)

Few weeks ago Fabiana and I held the first “Shaping Lights” workshop. We decided to keep the number of participants pretty low this time, mainly to test ourselves, to see how we would have been able to cope with questions and with the general teaching part. I planned to have three hours of theoretical course and five hours of practice and everything went as planned. I dealt with all the technical stuff, while Fabiana handled all the part relative to the model management, something that is completely underestimated by many photographers.

The day went smoothly and in the end we were very happy of the result we got from our fantastic participants. As expected the hiccups are always the same: dealing with the models, understanding the initial math for the f-stops, dealing with the models, getting all the information and trying to play with the variables of exposure and dealing with the models. Yes, I know that I have written the same thing three times, but that part is extremely important and it is a part that it is highly underestimated by many photographers.

When you, as a photographer, find yourself in front of models for the first time you do what every photographer do: you take photos. What you do not realise, especially when you have all the information about f-stops, light, flash power, ISO, aperture… is that you have a human being in front of you. A human being that, by lucky chance, is your subject. When this happen every photographer should understand that there is something much more important than f-stops: the relation with your subject.

During our workshop we underlined this a lot. One of the reason was that we had some really fantastic people around, who were able to get the technical part pretty quickly, and because like every photographer facing models for the fist time they did not expect such a strong psychological involvement.

Are you interested in the Shaping Lights Workshops? Fabiana and I will hold another one in October, so if you want to jump on board you can contact me!  

And what did I get from this workshop? Well, one of the most important thing for me was that I was able to underline my love for teaching photography, trying to being all my passion in this Workshop. Then I had the possibility to work with some amazing people. Fabiana, with whom I am always side to side, Zuzanna, our amazingly talented makeup artist and, in this case, Kamil, a model that exceeded our expectations in every sense. Working with such dedicated and professional people is always an incredible pleasure, because they help things falling exactly where you planned them to fall. If you are interested in working with these top-class people you can ask me their details!

If you want to work with me… I am here, or you can follow me on twitter!

One of the key things I have personally understood of photography is that you have to have a certain set of skills. This list is not unique, everything depends by what are your targets in the field. Do you want to be a photojournalist, or do you want to focus on the fashion field? Are you interested in being commercial or is photography your great hobby, but nothing more?

In the last months I have had a strong voice inside myself, asking the same question over and over again:

“What is photography to Carlo?”

And Fabiana have had a very similar question she asked herself:

“What is photography to Fabiana?”

Therefore is safe to assume that, being the couple we are, the real question would be:

“What is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

When we started, our goal was to produce some photos we saw in some website or in some prints. It was more than two years ago, but then goals changed while we were reaching them.

“What is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

Every time we are this close to reaching our goals, they start growing bigger and bigger, and we like very much to challenge ourselves. When I personally had a lot of troubles stopping people on the street I did it more than a thousand times in one weekend (Thanks Eamon, I owe you one). Guess what? I do not have any problem asking a perfect stranger if I can take his/her photo! The real point is that I am realising that is not what I want to do.

“What is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

Two years ago we did not know what a flash REALLY was. It was not even interesting to us, but in these days we have received only good feedback to the workshop we are holding (are you interested? :P)! Moreover we have discovered a pleasure in dealing with the business side of photography.

“What is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

There is no answer, as what the future was one minute ago is the past right now. I still do not know where we are going as photographers, but it is a fantastic path the one we are following and I am extremely happy about it, and more happy to be able to walk with Fabiana close to my side.

“What REALLY is photography to Fabiana and Carlo?”

…Ok, but who am I kidding? We are on the Commercial side of photography, but I do not know if tomorrow or in a year time, we do not know and we are not scared about it. I have learned that you need to be not only skilled in taking photos, but if you want to survive you also need to be smart from a business perspective.

One of the things I have discovered is that there is one key thing you NEED to have: you have to trust in yourself. Do you really think this guy does not trust himself? Honestly?

…Do you really think we do not trust ourselves?

Lately I shocked myself and Fabiana saying that I quite like those huge black glasses so trendy in these days. Yes, I know it is very strange said from someone like me, but in the end I see them as part of a culture that will last few months and that will be replaced by something else even more strange. Those sort of huge black things(!) do not suit everyone, maybe just few of the wearer were ok with them, but my vision is that they create a huge contrast with the today’s idea of fashion. Yes, because in the end it is all about fashion, isn’t it?

A colleague of mine told me yesterday that he was shocked by the fact that French and Italians tend to dress better than English in many occasions. He underlined the fact that just to go to a club, in Paris and Milan everyone is perfectly dressed, while in London the culture is completely different. I would say that, generally speaking, he is right where the “generally” avoids to keep into consideration the clubs in London where fashion is the main theme. Italians and French live much more of appearance than British people do. It is always “Dress to Impress” and too many times that is more important than simply being and the interest of a person is defined by his/her clothes and not his/her ideas.

The huge black glasses fall in the category of the “dress to impress”, nothing excessive, just that detail that, deviating from the logic of yesterday’s fashion, creates an interesting shape in the faces of the wearers. Moreover, they are so huge that they allow a good vision of the eyes, enhancing them in some faces!

Do you love or do you hate them?

I have always considered street photography one of those genres that live and die in Black and White. I know I wrote this already, but sometimes I like to underline these ideas. Moreover I think that they can be absolutely imperfect, with a lot of contrast, burned and black areas. I ask myself if depicting reality in this way has a deeper psychological significance, in that case I would like to know if I have to go and have a chat with a shrink. Joking of course! My shrink already knows about it! Ok, that was the last.

I think that the root of my love for the black and white can be searched in the fact that I see street photography as something in constant movement, where lines and lives merge together to form something more than a simple photo. I like to see the direction of those lines, crossing with the path of someone, or just being the path of a blurred figure walking down the road. This is my black and white, the static meeting the dynamic, the people meeting the lines of the city.

As I perceive them, in the constant swirling of the human nature.

One of the most important characteristic for a photographer, in my opinion, is the capacity to see a photo before pressing the shutter, before even framing the scene. When I started going around London with my camera I felt frustrated, as I was not able to see interesting things and those I saw I was not able to capture in time. For a long time I attributed this to the fact that I was not “gifted” with the “photographer’s eye”: I was wrong. There are people who have this attention to details as an innate capacity, but for everyone else exercise and practice can fill the gap! So if someone tells you that you do not possess the eye a photographer must have, don’t listen, but take your camera and go out shooting: if photography were an exclusive of the “naturals”, we would not have seen so many fantastic and iconic images.

“The devil is in the details” is a quote from V for Vendetta, if I am not mistaken, and it summarise the truth behind the “photographic eye”. We are snowed under a tons of visual information while we are out and around, and we generally avoid noticing all those details who are not important enough. I believe we do so because we are lazy, because our culture made of TV and computers wants us to eat pre-digested details and because there are so many details that our culture do not require us to pay attention to all of them. I was exactly like this: I did not notice a particular pair of shoes, or something someone was wearing because I thought it would have been to complex to keep everything in mind (a sort of “Buffer Overflow” for the geeks like me out there).

I was wrong!

Our mind is fantastic and is able to see and analyse an incredible number of details and whilst in the day to day life this may help giving a better flavour of life, in the photographic world this is the difference between a snapshot and a great photo. The details are the difference between the photo of a nice woman and the one of an interesting one. Giving time, this attention to detail will start unconsciously shout in your mind “Bring the camera to your eye. NOW!” Believe me, there are times when I feel the urge to frame something particular, without a conscious reason. Many times I have dismissed this feeling, losing too many great moments. Our subconscious, if trained enough, will be able to direct you before things actually happen. You can call this sixth sense, photographer’s eye or simply great attention to human patterns and details, but the really important thing from a photographic perspective is that you start learning to trust your senses and, given enough time, you are able to capture great images. There are few things thought, that you have to do in order to gain this degree of skill.

- You have to look around. Even when you do not have a camera you have to notice things, details, actions and moments.

- You have to be confident. If you see something interesting, worth documenting you need to take the photo. Every time you do not press the shutter the moment is gone.

- You have to TRUST your senses. In the beginning you will feel stupid (“Why should I frame THAT bloke?”… just to realise too late he was going to do something REALLY interesting) and many times, especially in the first periods, this sixth sense will fail, but you need to give it time to develop.

- Have a camera always with you!

…and always remember…

Practice makes perfect!