Was at a fashion photography class over the weekend and they had hired a model to pose for us. It’s actually amazing what you can achieve with a pretty girl, makeup and just one light in a softbox. I have seen the theory before in countless website reads but this was the first time I’ve tried it and I’m really impressed with the results. As it was in a studio environment with set lighting, I could also shoot manual and the settings surprised me but then I realised the softbox softened up the light a lot.

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Haven’t spent much time on photography of late. Not being terribly impressed with my own pictures as they are pretty much the same these days, so the fashion photography course has sparked a new interest in me. Sure there’s a lot more directing of what you want the model to do, but photography has always been about how light hits the subject and I have most of the equipment to do this now (with the exception of some Pocketwizards, which I am very tempted to purchase now. They are for using the flash system wirelessly so you can be creative on where you place your lights relative to the subject). You pretty much need only a stand, a shoot through umbrella and a flash (double those if you want some balancing light from the other side, a hairlight from the back or endless other possibilities).

I took up the course to learn something new, and what I picked up wasn’t directly related to photography. I realised halfway through the course that I lacked vision. I’m a technically inclined person and I like to apply methods to get me from point A to B. There were certain exercises that required us to direct the person we were shooting and all of a sudden, I had no idea what I wanted to achieve with this. Heh, this planted the idea on me to start collecting images on my iPad (which is now sitting in a port in Hong Kong somewhere as I type this, thanks to global tracking) as a point of reference to show people what I want to take. I also believe that this is something that requires practice and once I can comfortably and confidently get people to pose, I might enjoy the process more.

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I always had an interest in photography, but the catalyst would have been a stunning view of Cradle Mountain in Tasmania when I went there so many seasons ago. Landscape photography led me to chase better portraits and it’s the excitement of being able to create something you never imagined possible before that pushes me on. After the course, I have some ideas on how to proceed, and I hope that I can start creating some pictures that I’d be passionate to pursue again.