Sunday 12 November 2023

Australia + Fashion Photography - Group Show for Head On 2023

 This year I decided I would like to put together an exhibition of fashion photography that would do a couple of things - at least! The first was to show that fashion photography, at it's best is a true art form, a fine art. As I pitched the idea to photographers, sometimes via their agents, I started saying I wanted to show that fashion photography was, 'not just for magazines and then the bin'. I wanted to show that fashion photography was not disposable imagery and that great creative photography was visual art worth collecting, well worth space on your wall. One of the main prompts for this idea - especially the role of Australia, was Brett Hilder's image that he has often referred to as 'Legs Over Ayres Rock'  (Uluru 1976 - then known as Ayres Rock) which is one of my favourite fashion pictures and virtually unknown as I don't think it is part of any of the major gallery collections - god knows why, it really should be! So I certainly wanted to exhibit that picture - if Brett would let me? Thank you Brett. I then began looking around for other fashion photographs that featured something typically Australian - identifiably part of Australia or Australian identity.

Compilation of photographs for the exhibition Australia + Fashion Photography, a Group Show for Head On 2023
Australia + Fashion Photography - Head On 2023

Fashion photography often embraces the generic in how it uses landscapes and location though of course there are exceptions - perhaps laughingly sometimes the only way to identify a location is by the description! 'Shot in pick-a-location' with the model against an unidentifiable  beach/wall/garden or in an international modern hotel suite - the same in every major city. This is not the kind of picture I was looking for. I had recently connected with Tony Potts who had some stellar B&W fashion from the mid 1980s, and he was happy to come onboard. I followed up with an approach to Grant Matthews, Ditto. Australia, Beach, Bondi, these two had me covered. Liz Ham; who could forget her Newtown Punks series which took that very English Punk ideal and yet somehow transformed them into emo-esque Aussie larrikins, though here we have some young women with chickens. Juli Balla bringing a European sensibility to the Australian light and dare I say, an approach to colour and modulating her landscape in a way not dissimilar to the approach of the early European painters when representing the Australian countryside, well mannered, and never too wild. And I have some pictures in the show, from two stories set in Costal and Bush landscapes, both places a deep part of the Australian psyche. Michele Aboud brings a famous Australian to the Australia theme and the saturation of the blue Australian sky as a feature of the land down-under. The exhibition is Co-curated with Head On Director Moshe Rosenzveig OAM.

Photographs by Kent Johnson installed on the promenade at Bondi Beach for Australia + Fashion Photography - Head On 2023
Fashion Photography by Kent Johnson - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography

The pictures are on show now 11 Nov 2023 - 03 Dec 2023, Bondi Beach Promenade Queen Elizabeth Dr Bondi Beach. I also interviewed each of the photographers about their pictures in the exhibition and the information I uncovered about their inspiration and ways of working are, I think absolutely fascinating. The first 30 minute edit of the interviews can be seen or listened too on YouTube here 


Best viewed on Bondi Beach - perhaps while listening to the YouTube interviews above.

Photography by Michele Aboud - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Photographs by Michele Aboud - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography

Juli Balla (middle 3) - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Juli Balla (middle 3) - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Grant Matthews - Liz Ham - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Grant Matthews - Liz Ham - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Brett Hilder & Tony Potts - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Brett Hilder & Tony Potts - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Photography by Liz Ham - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography
Photographs by Liz Ham - Bondi Beach Promenade - Australia + Fashion Photography

Thanks to Director Moshe Rosenzveig and the Head On Photo Festival Team & to the photographers in the show, Brett Hilder, Grant Matthews, Juli Balla, Kent Johnson, Liz Ham and Michele Aboud - there would be no show without you.
https://headon.org.au/exhibitions/australia-fashion-photography

Liz Ham   / lizhamdotcom   Tony Potts   / tonypottsphotography   Michele Aboud   / micheleaboud   Brett Hilder   / bretthilder   Juli Balla   / juliballaphoto   Grant Matthews Kent Johnson   / iamkentjohnson  

360-Degree Virtual Tour of Australia + Fashion Photography at Bondi Beach - Click the X for fullscreen

Wednesday 13 September 2023

A Modelling Portfolio With A View

 If you go looking through my portfolio of fashion images you would be hard pressed to find pictures with well known landmarks. This is simply because Fashion Photography might love luxury, edgy, cool, dark, sexy, whatever; and even the lure of travel - but it's the outfits that have to shine. So the landscape and landmarks almost always play second fiddle to the clothes and the model or the model and the clothes... I suppose that makes the location third, not even second place! But every so often, the landscape or a landmark is required to make a statement about the 'where' and in the case of this photoshoot, the 'who' as well. That's because it is a modelling portfolio shoot for a non local who before leaving Australia, wanted a portfolio to kick start their modelling career when they returned to Germany. 

So the landmark here, must be unmistakable, the Sydney Opera House and it's always-there dance partner, the Sydney Harbour Bridge. But its still a portfolio shoot and for that kind of picture the model is the key - I don't want the location to dominate the picture, just lend some GPS coordinates and local charm.

Linus, B&W male modelling portfolio shot with Sydney Opera House in the background.
Linus, B&W modelling portfolio shot with Sydney Opera House

I love the Sydney Harbour Bridge and it's Art Deco forms cast in old concrete. Two 20th century Australian Icons. In these shots they do not dominate but they tell you where we are, Sydney, by the harbour, Australia. So we photographed on the bridge, under the bridge, beside, the bridge, and even went to the other side of Sydney Cove to the Opera House and shot on the north promenade, with Linus jogging at the Opera House as so many people do! Yes it's pretty casual in Australia. It was Linus's first photoshoot, and he did well, we did well. Scroll down, check out the shots. If you are on a laptop or desktop computer, click the pictures to see them bigger! Need a portfolio or fashion pictures, just get in contact and let me know.
Male Modelling Portfolio, B&W Mid-shot on location - Sydney Harbour Bridge
Male Modelling Portfolio, Mid-shot on location - Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sitting on the steps. Male Modelling Portfolio, On location in Sydney -  Bridge Stairs
Male Modelling Portfolio, On location in Sydney -  Bridge Stairs

Linus with arms folded for a B&W mid-shot, w/Sydney Harbour Bridge in background
Linus, B&W mid-shot, w/Sydney Harbour Bridge in background

Linus, mid-shot in colour with arms behind his back, w/Sydney Harbour Bridge in background
Linus, mid-shot, w/Sydney Harbour Bridge in background

Full length fitness shot of male model jogging at the Sydney Opera House
Fitness shot - Jogging at the Sydney Opera House

Black and white , horizontal headshot, on location.
Horizontal headshot, on location.

Horizontal mid-shot in B&W with the Sydney Opera House in the background
Horizontal mid-shot in B&W 

A very casual mid-shot, Linus as a traveller in Sydney 2023 with the iron superstructure of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.
A very casual mid-shot, Linus as a traveller in Sydney 2023

Saturday 5 November 2022

Viv in a NYC Cocktail Bar for Head On, Portrait Prize 2022

This picture was made in New York City in 2017, and it's the second shot of Vivienne from 2017 that has been a Head On Semi-finalist image. The other was a more candid shot of a visibly tired Vivienne taken in Lyon, France, toward the end of a month of travel and photography. I love these pictures as I feel that both of them make real statements about the place, the time, and subject(s) being photographed. In both pictures one of the subjects is the location, the other is Vivienne and in each picture the location and Viv are photographed, photographically, very differently.

Vivienne photographed in an intensely patterned faux animal print decor Cocktail Bar NYC 2017 for White Caviar Life.
Vivienne, Cocktail Bar NYC 2017 for White Caviar Life.

These pictures are grounded in my beginnings shooting film as a photographer, and learning to see 'photographically' the desired end result. Where I had to learn to see that end result in my minds eye before having taken the picture. It's very much the opposite of digital photography. I had to have a picture in my head, now the picture appears instantaneously on the back of the camera (or tethered, on a computer screen), but only after the shutter has been pressed. I was talking to a colleague yesterday and I made a statement about this picture to him, which I immediately jotted down before I forgot! These days [photographers] 'they think with what they see, not with what could be'. If I had done that with the picture of Vivienne in the hotel bar I would have had a dark moody picture with a quirky faux animal print decor.

Woman sitting in a dark hotel bar - underexposed, no flash
The dark hotel bar - underexposed, no flash.

 So what did I do to shape these pictures to 'what they could be'? Lets stick with the cocktail bar shot first. Like most bars and nightclubs that are not a windowed shopfront, even with the lights on, they are dark. Dark for the eyes and very dark for the camera. As I had little by way of lighting equipment, that meant accepting the dark, or of doing something else. Fortunately, what I saw in the bar was an opportunity to do a paparazzi nightclub - Studio 54 - someone famous, who is she? Kind of thing, well lit, or, loudly lit with direct flash like a paparazzi shot so I could emphasize the eccentric decor while borrowing the instant fame meme through the use of strong flash. Above is what the room looks like (camera set for flash) without the additional lighting. Yes its way underexposed due to a flash not firing, but it does show how little available room light there was. As the old photographers joke goes - Available light? Not available... Camera Nikon D810, 50mm f1,8 at f2 125th ISO 200. I needed to hand hold the camera, as I was using the tripod to support the reflector so I could bounce the on-camera flash into it, so I would get that direct flash paparazzi look - but softer and importantly, wider. My back was also against the bar, half squatting in this long but very narrow room. I rearranged the tables to create the foreground shapes, and had lot of work to do keeping the camera straight, the flash going into the not very well supported reflector while directing my sitter, Viv, into a Grand NY Dame pose, unexpectedly confronted by the camera! That is one of the things I love about photography, fashion photography in particular, the make-believe, which now is called story telling though for me they are not quite the same thing. So to my mind, this is a pure fashion shot and not a portrait at all. For years I would never have submitted a fashion picture to a portrait competition. But then, for so many years I kept looking at portrait shows that had more than a few 'fashion' shots in them and so eventually I decided, that a picture like this, was fine to submit. Though having said that. It is also a picture of Vivienne and I, a portrait of what we do - so I guess it's a portrait too after all.

The Lyon hotel room as prepared for a lifestyle shot.

And what about the portrait from Lyon? The funny thing for me is that when I look at this picture, I think it's taken after we made the trip from the Château in Bagnols where we had been staying. That I've taken this picture after we had checked in and loosened up a bit. Changing hotels is often a stress filled day. But that is not the case at all. The picture was made a few days later, Day 3 in Lyon, at the end of a 'lifestyle' shot Viv wanted to do in the hotel room for her website White Caviar Life. Scrolling through the image folder I can see that we did two looks, one a little black dress with her sitting on the bed, then the towelling robe, against the curtains. After an hour and a quarter of working through these themes it was declared 'a wrap' and at that point Vivienne collapsed into the armchair. At last I saw a picture that I wanted to make, Eve Arnold, Marilyn Monroe, on-set-or, is it Norma Jean? Will the real Vivienne please 'let your head role to the side a bit...' So what I brought to this shot was a template of stardom as seen through Magnum style reportage photography of old Hollywood. And black and white, it had to be black and white, of course.

Black and white portrait of a woman in white bathrobe leaning back against a suitcase in a hotel room in Lyon, France.
Vivienne, hotel room Lyon, France 2017 (Head On Semi-finalist 2018).

 As I started out saying, they are very different pictures made using different approaches. The NY Bar shot is completely constructed from the beginning, and the image selected is one of the first 10 frames. The Lyon room shot is made by taking advantage of the situation at the end of a shoot where I could feel a magical image swimming in my head starting to form, and after a little direction I was able to capture in my camera. Thirteen fames, in under two minutes - after an hour and a quarter of shooting. We did two other shots on location in Lyon that day as well. Those are something special for another occasion. https://headon.org.au/

I'm available for for assignment worldwide, just drop me a line and say hello.

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.
0433 796 863




Thursday 23 June 2022

Lingerie Inspired Fashion - The Hunger Games meets The Age of Glamour

This shoot started with an email in July or August last year, about shooting a range, in 2022. It seemed such a long lead time, I wondered if it would happen. We had a mood board. A long siesta.. then back to it. The words were Lingerie and The Hunger Games, the mood board inspo was elegance.  I found some good location options. Then as we closed in on our shoot date the weather really turned on us. We started thinking studio - then my partner suggested hotels. Of course! I've been shooting them for White Caviar Life for years now, how did this not occur to me; an interior location for around the same cost as a studio!

Model photographed in a hotel room wearing vintage style haleter neck bra top and 'carwash' long split pants.

We went with The Old Clare Hotel which has an inspired mix of old and new - and - heating! I dialled that thermostat up to 28 C the minute I got in the room. Our talent for the shoot was dancer, Micaela who was a great choice for our story in four outfits.

Model standing in profile, wearing a bra style top with paneled skirt in dark blue/green and burgundy.
Click Pictures To View Large

Model reclining on a hotel bed wearing a bra style top with paneled skirt in dark blue/green and burgundy.

 I was looking for moody, not dark, vintage but not old fashioned.

Model standing before a tall window at night in bell sleeve, coreset style top with square neckline, soft red satin shorts and stockings.

Midshot of a model standing before a tall window at night in bell sleeve, coreset style top with square neckline, soft red satin shorts and stockings.

Full length of a model standing before a tall window at night in bell sleeve, coreset style top with square neckline, soft red satin shorts and stockings.
We changed it up a bit, or laid it down.. the model anyway - with her feet up.

Model lying on her back, blue bell sleves, strappy burgundy bra with blue-green-bodysuit

We shot four looks and included front and back shots and worked on capturing key details. Like the splits in the pants in the opening shot of this blog. The fabric panels, the shape and drape of the sleeves. Look at those sleeves! How can you not want to find a way to feature them, so beautiful! I'm glad we opted for the room. Though it was not as large as a studio, it gave us enough of the world to help us tell this fashion story, a little mystery, moody though not dark, vintage but not old fashioned.

Designer - Gemma Pope, the range - Viena

Model-Dancer - Micaela Sacco-Tranter

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.
0433 796 863

Wednesday 9 June 2021

Hollywood Glamour And Swimwear On A Sydney Beach

 And considering our model is also an actor; I think classic Hollywood glamour, from the golden age of Hollywood is very appropriate indeed. Huge credit to Sage who styled this herself although I did add (well remove) something to the whole styling process too; well it is a collaboration. Collaborate we did and these are a selection of the shots that we made, Hollywood? Yes. Vintage swimwear to never get wet in, a head scarf and some serious star quality attitude and there you have it, with Sydney as the twist. This was my second commissioned shoot with Sage in under 6 months and we are both very happy with the outcome. We also shot a summer rapper look too, yes; it's a thing and we shot it and it looks good too; something vintage and something new. Love the shots? You can check out my photoshoot packages on my website here - https://www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au/09Modelling/ModellingPortfolios.htm

Sage modelling a vintage one-piece swimsuit
Sage wearing a vintage one-piece swimsuit

 
Clour modelling headshot for Model and Actor, Sage G
Desktop? Click Images To View Large!
Sage jumping on the beach wearing  a red cropped sweatshirt and floral shorts

Sage jumping on the beach modelling a red d sweatshirt and floral shorts

Profile mid shot of Sage jumping on the beach wearing  a red cropped sweatshirt and floral shorts

Sage looking hollywood glamourous in a vintage once piece swimsuit

Sage - Catch of The Day - swinging on the shark net at Nielsen Park beach.


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Thursday 1 October 2020

An Urban Male Model Portfolio - Sydney

If you have been to my website you will certainly know I love shooting fashion in the urban landscape, day, and sometimes night - even I have recently been noticing a darker edge to some of my shots lately.. There's look books, campaign and editorial shoots. And once in a while I'm asked to shot a modelling portfolio in a similar way. I am OK with that by the way; because I love the possibilities of these locations. There is just one caveat; I think this style is more suited to your second or third photoshoot. After you have covered the basics (which are not basic but I think are essential shots to have). Enough of the preamble. Jimmy and I met at Circular Quay on a perfect Saturday afternoon. Even though I'm very familiar with the areas I wanted to shoot I'd come down a couple of days earlier to check the light, and think about the locations as a backdrop to the portfolio shoot. This  always pays dividends if one has time to do the technical scout. We did a couple of looks down near Customs House, then went up to the walkway next to the Cahill Expressway and worked our way to the start of the Harbour Bridge; a fav Icon of mine, especially the Stairs at Observatory Hill! while we we shooting to an editorial style I was mindful that as a portfolio shoot - we had to see Jimmy. These pictures are his first photoshoot and are his showcase, pictures to send to model agencies; and for IG, anywhere he want s to show them. This was my 'Makin' It Happen - Location Modelling Portfolio' and you can check out the details here.

 Here's the shots. Thanks Jimmy for a great shoot.

Full length, pants jumper, no shirt - Urban male modelling portfolio photoshoot Sydney

Mid shot portrait in jean jacket - Urban male modelling portfolio photoshoot Sydney

By the highway, shirt off, full length body shot - Urban male modelling portfolio photoshoot Sydney

Seated mid shot in black and white - Urban male modelling portfolio photoshoot Sydney

Flying jacket, fashion 3/4 - Urban male modelling portfolio photoshoot Sydney

Moody action shot by the freeway, Sydney Harbour Bridge - rban male modelling portfolio photoshoot Sydney

Studio Modelling Portfolio

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.
0433 796 863

Friday 22 May 2020

Debriefing - Chinatown 2007 – 2020 New Edition

It's taken thirteen years for a complete edit of my Chinatown fashion story, and now I'm on my third edit writing on the behind the scenes, of what went right, and what went wrong. Why the complete story of images took so long to light up screens. Perhaps it's time to admit I just stuffed up? Time to admit I wanted more than I was able to reasonably deliver from the shoot? That the only defence I have is I did not know I was pushing beyond my own limits and the limits of my equipment at the time? This might sound like I was reckless in my ambition, but I was not. And let me tell you why. A week before the shoot I went down to the location, the Haymarket, 'Chinatown' in Sydney. Along with Sunny, one of the two models and we did a technical scout. Walking around with Sunny, I made a series of pictures of scenes we could use, taken at the same time of day as our shoot was to occur a week hence. You can scout locations without the talent, but a stand in always makes a difference to understanding the composition. These pictures turned out really well; for what they were. An overview and look at the location - with model - and the same light I expected on the day. So with the test pictures in hand, I had no reason to worry, the camera worked well, we were scaling up on the day of course, but I had no expectation of anything but success.
Timing is always important.
Two models, hair and make-up at the studio, my assistant, the garments, travel into the city to the location. We all ate a light lunch at an Asian restaurant before we took the first two shots, right out front!
Sunny trying on a Barbarella design maxie dress a week prior to the photoshoot.
If you are new to photography in the last few years; you are very fortunate. High ISO no problem. Speedy and accurate auto focus, no problem; fast playback of images, of course! This was certainly not the case in 2007. I had a Nikon D80, with a very average kit zoom, and as back-up for low light, my Nikon film-camera lenses I had cut my teeth on as a photographer, all manual focus, a 50, a 35, a 28 along with an SB 600 flash unit, and of course reflector and my assistant. I already knew the manual lenses were difficult to focus on digital cameras, but I took them anyway – and then I used them.
Location scouting, a test shot with model Sunny in front of a Chinese grocers with passers by, the Haymarket Sydney
Looking at the picture meta-data from this edit now; I'm actually shocked to see that only three of the fourteen images in this story were shot with the auto-focus kit zoom (18-135 f3.5 ~ f5.6). That means even before we lost light, I was shooting with the old lenses. Why; well I think the zoom just was not focusing accurately enough and I had to try whatever I could to get the shots, that meant risking manual. The afternoon I did my location scout was a lovely bright day; now it was cool and overcast, flat light, not much contrast. The D80 autofocus was arbitrary in it's accuracy with the best of conditions, becoming worse as the light or lack of contrast receded. Now I was shooting in July which is winter in Sydney – you do get beautiful short summer-like days of sunshine, just like I had on the test shoot you see here. But on the day of the actual shoot I've got an overcast sky on a 'summer fashion' shoot and models getting cold right from the get-go. Not good, even though we have coats and I'm keeping an eye on everyone keeping as warm – as possible. When things don't work on a shoot; you must quickly find a solution. Panic is contagious and must be avoided at all costs. I believe it's better to move forward and not to bog down, to keep everyone’s confidence up. This is the approach I took on the day.
Sunny catching last rays of light during a location scout for a planned photoshoot in Sydney 2007.
I shot a lot less on some looks than I would expect. Did I have enough memory cards for the shoot? I did, but then again I did not have a lot of memory to spare. I allowed for 3 rolls per shot 3 x 36 exp 108 frames.. If you started shooting film; you will always know how many rolls and how many frames remaining – to get the shot – I had enough memory for 100 frames per shot; this is still what I tend to shoot, though on this day I should have probably shot more, but slow manual, or inaccurate auto-focusing, and camera processing of each frame it burns through time. Manually balancing flash output with manual lenses.. tricky, time consuming.
No Parking. Location scouting the shot with the garage doors in a back lane, model Sunny running, Sydney 2007
As a freelance assistant in in the 1980s I got to experience how editorial photographers; who were typically budgeted 3 rolls of film per shot worked. 120 film or 35mm film; 12 frames or 36; still three rolls. Australian and European photographers went with that, but  some photographers would, just keep shooting, until they got the shot. This could take a lot more rolls.. 'We' called it the 'American method' 'it will be in there somewhere' Film was a LOT cheaper in the USA. In a way; it's what we can all do now with digital! And I wish I had been thinking more like that, both way back in the day, and on this shoot in particular.
Test shot outside a Chinese BBQ restaurant. Fashion Shoot location scout in Sydney 2007.
Battling with your equipment is the last thing you want to be doing on any photoshoot. It is never good. Results with film – if you knew what you were doing – were repeatable and highly consistent. I wish I could say the same for early digital photography but I can't and though digital in 2020 is great; in 2007 it still had a lot of teething issues. When you are fighting with the camera, the attention that should be being given to the models, the framing of the shot, direction, lighting.. it all suffers, as the day marches on and light eventually disappears.
Model sunny in a lane with brick wall and flaking paint as background. Location test, Sydney 2007
We also lost a lot of time on outfit changes. It's curious, because changes in the studio are usually pretty quick and if they are taking too long, it's easy to go and see what's going on. On this day, once models and changers headed off to a rest room to do a change – as you sometimes do on location – time went out the window. It probably seemed longer to me as I was waiting not doing, but my calculations on this front were clearly out!

Enough of negatives & the cautionary tale. What actually went right?

Well a lot more went right than I gave myself credit for at the time. So one last criticism would have to be that I was not being personally flexible enough with the pictures I took, and with the concept as I shot it. I was looking more for what wasn't there, than discovering and working with what I actually photographed.
I had wanted an edgy shoot but not so edgy and gritty. I wanted images to be more in-focus than many were, at a time when out-of-focus seemed to have become a new industry standard. I was not being pragmatic with the images I had. I was thinking about filling gaps in my portfolio not maximising the use of the work I had in front of me.
Two mdels stepping across the pavement at night outside a jewellers in Chinatown Sydney, 2007 fashion photoshoot.
I did not understand post processing like I do now. Not even close! This was also a major factor in my disappointment. I'm pretty sure I spent a couple of weeks, not days, trying to get the most out of my files and basically, failing. Whereas the new edit was done in less than a day and ticks all my boxes for good pictures with emotion. Same image files, now with over 12 years more experience, and some new tricks too, I am always continuing to develop my post processing skills, it's learning that never ends. One of the major post processing issues I had was converting the RAW files from the Nikon in Adobe Photoshop RAW converter. This was a bad idea (though I did not know it) as the Adobe converter did not understand, or read accurately the Nikon proprietary white balance embedded in the RAW files. This meant I could not improve on my JPEG files! Instead of believing my eyes; I struggled on making lack lustre 'correctly RAW converted images' with flat reds, muddied saturation and lack of vibrancy.. in Photoshop.
Test shot of the red restaurant wall used for an early shot on the day of our Chinatown photoshoot .
The best lesson I learnt from this shoot was that the NIKON software does the best job of converting Nikon RAW files, and that seems as true today is it was then; it's just it took me a few more months, months to work that out. The new series were all converted from the original 2007 Nikon RAW  files then post processed in Photoshop, and have never looked better! A lesson I will never forget.

Another lesson, perhaps the main lesson I’ve learnt from this shoot is pragmatic perfectionism, work with what you've got not what you have not. I would have thought I was already good at that, even at the time, though to be honest, that's a lesson that is always a work in progress.

Let the images speak. It's enough to have set things in motion, go with the story don't try to force it where it does not want to go. Now that does not mean tossing plans out the window at the first sign of something not going quite as expected. It means being flexible, turning lemons into lemonade, setbacks into triumphs! This is how I try to function today, listening to the pictures speak to me as I make them. And I have quite a few stories of how this really does work. I've experienced this most recently during travel location shoots, no coming back next week; public works, a crowd ruining your shot? I don't think so, go with it for that unique point of view, and say thank you to the mysterious gods of photography for the gift. They know more than you and I, trust them and the pictures will only improve.

See the 2020 Edit of this photoshoot Here
Opening title shot for Chinatown 2007-2020. Fashion model in front of Chinese BBQ  shop with BBQ ducks hanging in the window at night. Photography by Kent Johnson.

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Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.
0433 796 863