Shooting on Location - Duomo, Milan - White Caviar Life

I'm back in Europe on assignment shooting for White Caviar Life, this time including an Instagram collaboration with Sydney designer by Freer. I'm a little embarrassed to say this is my first time in Italy and of course Milano. It's a fabulous city and of course arguably the fashion capital of the world - so very exciting! We have already put two shots from this shoot out there, you can check them out (slightly different version) on the White Caviar Life I.G. here. Stay tuned for more.. and even check out my 'down time' shots on Street Fashion Sydney - Italy Edition - here.

Telling Stories in Pictures all over the world..

Kent Johnson, Sydney, Australia.

0433 796 863

kent@artcommunication.com.au

www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

www.fashionphotographysydney.blogspot.com/

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Black & White Fashion in Colour Redux..

I loved this this fashion story 'The Girls Who Fell to Earth' when I first published it in 'Black and White' here on my blog back in 2009. It was a tricky shoot to pull off on the day; we were running about and hour or so behind schedule having added a second model to the shoot extending the time in hair & make-up; being late December the sun was already high in the sky as we began and that by itself was enough to make the shooting more difficult. But bright, very bright coastal Sydney light was not all we had to contend with, the wind was blowing at gale force strength! Blowing so strong that after the first shot I was seriously contemplating packing the shoot in and rescheduling for a more weather friendly day. But we were on location with about 10 fabulous high fashion frocks from the top graduating designers at Sydney TAFE, Christmas was fast approaching and time really was running out. We had to shoot, we had to make the best of a very bright, crazy windy day!


The whole story was shoot as black and white in-camera which is the way I shoot black and white (B&W). I just set the cameras setting to B&W so as I review the shots I am not seduced by the colour of the scene. Its the closest digital equivalent you can get to loading a camera with  B&W film. Of course the 'miracle' of digital is that if you shoot RAW you can always get the colour back. First time round I worked on this shoot exclusively in B&W to maintain my vision for a B&W shoot. But as I went through the shots I did see a few of the RAW files 'POP' into colour in Adobe Bridge and off-and-on ever since I have wondered if a 'colour lunar landscape' version of this story might not work just as well albeit in a different way to the original B&W.

Last week I gave into my curiosity, going through the whole shoot again and making a completely new selection of shoots and working them up from scratch as the new colour edit. Only Elizabeth Di Marco's purple dress made the cut to both the B&W and colour version with a couple of frocks not making the transition to colour at all; they just did not work as colour on this shoot. However I now have two 'new' outfits appearing for the first time, the tan hooped dress and the bold B&W striped jacket and skirt.
















Hair & Make Up, Kathleen Hendry.
Stylist, Lucinda Petroeschevsky - Mayer.
Assisted by Melinda Johns.
Models, Sarah Crawford & Anna Hill @ Platform.
Photography by Kent Johnson, 0433 796 863
Assisted by, Harry Perlich.
Shot on Location at Kurnell National Park Sydney Australia.
December 14 2008. Colour Redux, June 2012.


View the B&W horizontal scroll version here.


Fashion Designers
Elizabeth Di Marco
Sarah Starkey
Melinda Johns
louise Maniscalco
Lisa Catanea, Bianca Linton
Christopher Morro
Sarah Starkey; Ryoko Watanabe
Kathryn Beeson
Bianca Linton, Melinda Johns

out-take : in the night a lonely hunter

Well I always loved this shot but I couldn't quite make it fit with the final fashion story as a whole. Hayley has that great foreboding look in her eyes, you just know something is going to happen! In the end I went with a more confident, slightly mad-and-arrogant look; oh and that shot is also the shot showing the bundle of rope in her hand! Well she is the hunter.



Hayley in a Flesh Sequin Shift by Dan Jones.

Click for the complete fashion story...

Fashion Editorial Collabo w/- Shine By Three

Styling by Margaret Zhang.
Hair & MU by Maria Bravo
Model, Zoe S from Viviens

Margaret is running the Black and White version of the shoot over on her Shine By Three blog and has all the fashion details there too. And of course you can see Margaret & Katie's BTS video linked in on my previous post.

Thanks to everyone for working so well and putting together a great shoot.

Portraits and Fashion Photography Sydney!

I have just spent most of today making a few changes and upgrades to my web site. The first was to put all the portraits I have been taking against the fibro wall into the portrait section of the site all on their own page. So now with these shots of Paul I have 10 portraits in the wall series Here.





Its great to have somewhere very close at hand that allows me to make a series of portraits like these; many more yet to come.

I also managed to get up a page of the New Beauty Photography shot at the studio in Balmain.


And although its been blogged in full here, In The night A Lonely Hunter can now be seen as a horizontal scrolling story. I think the left to right format almost always looks better.



Click the links to view the new pages. Cheers, Kent.

in the night, a lonely hunter..

We promised a Marrickville, night shoot, fashion editorial. And we delivered! Well we delivered the shoot to several Australian Independent magazines, but it looks like our story was a little too RAW for print publication.. So here it is, shot on location in beautiful inner west Marrickville Sydney, 'in the night, a lonely hunter'. Thanks to all the team for their great work. We love it! 



















Title Page
As per shot 6.

Shot One - Credits,
Claire wears ‘Born in June’ jumpsuit; belt stylists own. Hayley wears ‘Elise Silk’ Black beaded V gown.

Shot Two
Claire wears ‘Born in June’ stripe cotton jacket and black sheer vest; Dan Jones fringed leggings. Hayley wears Elise Silk Black lace sleeve dress.

Shot Three
Claire wears beaded backless shift by Dan Jones. Hayley (lurking behind) wears Elise Silk Charcoal Gown.

Shot Four
Claire wears Elise Silk green ‘vintage’ dress. Hayley wears ‘Born in June’ Stripe cotton jacket and ‘Dan Jones’ fringed leggings.

Shot Five
Claire wears gold lace top and frilled black Jodhpurs both ‘Born In June’

Shot Six
Hayley wears Flesh Sequin Shift by Dan Jones.

Shot Seven
Elise Silk Green ‘vintage’ dress.

Shot Eight
Claire wears black pussy bow blouse and print drape jacket from Born In June under Ocean Ombre Silk from Tessuti Fabrics.

Team

Photographer, Kent Johnson
www.kentjohnsonphotography.com.au

Stylist, Simone Schilperoort
www.thestylemill.com.au

Hair & Make Up, Kaori

Models, Claire Levin,
Hayley Wilson at Platform,

Photography Assistant, Harry Perlich

Designers

Born in June
www.borninjune.com.au
64 Oxford St Paddington
NSW 2021Australia.
02 8094 9830

Elise
www.elisesilk.com
Elise Head Office
147 Norton St Leichhardt
NSW 2040 Australia.
61 2 8013 5417

Dan Jones
BAM Brick & Mortar Brands Pty Ltd
Level 1/151 Lygon Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053
Australia.

'Vintage Fashion' Styling Blasts From The Past...

I have been thinking a lot about fashion styling lately. Styling; finding garments for your shoot or, even harder? Finding a good stylist for your shoot is paramount for good fashion photography. looking over shots of mine from the late 80s reminds me of the different approaches I took to styling shoots.

For smaller tests, as often as not I would visit one of the designers I knew and borrow a few outfits and 'style' the shoot myself (I know what I like but I am hardly a stylist). Just a few items I though would fit my vision for a handful of shots. If we were on a roll I might get together with a real stylist and put together a shoot that looks more like todays 'Editorial Submission' type of shoot. Of course in the days before the internet (OMG!) about the most you could do with a non-commissioned shoot was put it in your book. And then hope like hell you would land a commissioned editorial with your awesome work!

Of course most of my tests were ah, not awesome at all but you keep on plugging away at it. eventually you start to get it right, eventually you start to land some editorial work. Fashion Editors are also Stylists with very high Fashion IQ. That Fashion IQ is also something of a game changer for a fashion photographer. More garments, the pick of the seasons crop. Ideally you have been chosen to shoot the story as your style matches an idea the editor has for the next issue of their magazine.

Fashion by Stephen Galloway, Styling by me.

Styling, designer, Emma.

Mode magazine, fashion editor Kate Stead.

Mode magazine, fashion editor Kate Stead.

Location Test, Styling byNadine Degroen.

Botany Test, Styling by me.

Naturally every stylist has their own approach to fashion creating their own unique look which is something I am very interested in, working in a team that develops everyones visual range. As I have mentioned before, I am always on the look-out for stylists to work with. If you are looking for a photographer to work with please feel free to drop me a line.

A Fashion Editorial Without Any Fashion..

So that means I need some help. Because lets face it, you can't really have a fashion editorial or even a fashion test for that matter without having some fashion. This series stems from a few inspirations but it really all fell (mostly) into place when I saw Manning Cartell's Summer 2010/11 range while perusing the RAFW shows online about 10 days ago.

Suddeny I saw fashion that I knew I could work into the Marrickville Urban Landscape and do it right at night. Really I think the only time it can work is at night. But it wasn't just the MC range, a few days earlier I had been talking with my friend and mentor Brett Hilder and had been thinking about Brett's love of Tina Mondotti, Mexico and his own take on all that is beautiful.













I think the moody light and Hacienda, Art Deco, Breeze Block and re-made Federation architectural mash-up lends itself to a kind of David Lynch, Mullholland Drive mystery narrative. Film Noir, Hollywood glamour and the ingénue!

So to pull it all off I need some help. I need a stylist who can help pull it all together on the fashion front. Or some designers who have the garments that fit the bill. Or both. I think its a great project so rather than put it in a draw and wait... I am putting it out on the net, seeing what the great god Google can rustle up for me. So lets add some keywords. Fashion Stylist, Sydney, Editorial. Fashion Photography; and see if that helps. If you like the look of the shoot, please email me or give me a call. Lets do it.