John Firth-Smith, Artist's Studio Portrait

I have been working on getting a portrait of John for a number of years now. So I was, to say the least, very happy when he commissioned me to shoot the catalogue portrait for his September 2011 show at John Buckley Gallery in Richmond. John had been kind enough to drop into my Artists Portraits show 'SNAP' at SNO in May 2010 and, I think that helped quite a lot in securing the commission as John mentioned to me on a number of occasions how much he enjoyed the show. He certainly understood that 'SNAP' was about the artist in their space at that tricky moment in time, The Opening!



Click the picture to view larger.





The portrait has been used just inside the back cover as seen below. John also had me photograph a couple of the paintings he had changed a little between the official photography of the paintings and the catalogue deadline. While its had been a while since I have done art copy work those shots went according to plan and into the catalogue as well.







JOHN FIRTH-SMITH

ANCESTORS & ATMOSPHERE



September - 1 October 2011

John Buckley Gallery

The Price of a Photographer's Dreams, by safteyhammer

I stumbled on this video via aphotoeditor a couple of days ago, and other than pretty much recognising that park over in Randwick... I was very much struck by Doug Bayne's aka safteyhammer's argument against; or was it a warning about; the impossibility of instant excellence as a film maker simply by buying a DSLR camera!

An open letter to Canon from safetyhammer on Vimeo.

For those of you who may not have the time to watch I made some screenshots of Doug's graphics illustrating his experience, captioned my Moi!



Go On, buy one its cheap, the world will be your Oyster..



Um, more to this than I thought..



Maybe I need more than a camera, like a budget!



"And I need to come up with some good ideas"



"IDEAS! that's not in the box"



That second largest quadrant, its NOT professional cinematographers by the way, just sayin'







And this is who & what it was all about!





Mind you this is just what happened to film photographers with the release of affordable digital cameras, people started believing it was just a matter buying the camera and picture excellence would be theirs. Instant Fashion Photographers anyone? Sadly or perhaps not surprisingly it isn't so, Ideas and Experience don't come in the box with the camera. My thanks to Doug Bayne for pointing this out in such an amusing and concise manner.



Bloody well done!

Modelling Portfolio Packages, Our New Releases!

You asked for them and now I have delivered; three new Modelling Portfolio Packages, one one of them perfect for YOU!

You Know I’m Hot

-Lets Get Started -

Look Out World
- Here I Come-

Stand Aside – Make Way
-This Is Serious-

Three all new packages, read about how you can have shots like the ones shown here and on my web-site in your portfolio by clicking HERE! No matter how experienced or inexperienced you may be in front of the camera, by taking advantage of my experience and one of these packages, shots like these can be yours.

Kent Johnson, 0433 796 863.

And A Comp Card Too - Modelling Portfolios to GO!

The key to working as a model is having a great book, that means the best shots of you right-from-the-start. You need some versatility and variation in your shots, you want them to be of a consistent high quality and, here's the trickiest bit of all; you want them to feel like you have already been working for a while on a variety of jobs. Creating that feel comes from working with a great team on your portfolio.


Our half day shoot with Richard (on his first shoot) delivered the required results. Before the shoot we went through styling ideas both by phone and email. If you have been following Fashion @ Kent Johnson Photography for a while now you will probably have noticed that be it a Commercial Fashion shoot, Look Book or Modelling Portfolio there are always plenty of great shots to choose from - yes picking the ones you like best can be a pleasantly tricky task!





























Click here to see more Male Modelling Portfolio shoots.


Call or email about your shoot today, Kent 0433 796 863, kent@artcommunication.com.au


Photography & Styling, Kent Johnson
Grooming by Kaori
Photography Assistant, Hugh Baulderstone

Gillian Cooper, Model Portfolio Update..

We had been talking off-&-on about shooting together but it had never happened until now. Gillian needed something a bit different from her swimwear & fitness modelling shots to expand her portfolio; its great to be asked by an experienced and sought-after model to update her book.

We went with some 'Vintage Fashion' inspired pieces from, vests and skirts from Holly Chalmers; I have always thought of Gillian as a classic Edwardian beauty. To complete the update I shot in a very contemporary style for the first two shots below; a full length and new headshot.











You can see more of Gillian's portfolio Here & Here.

And of course if you are looking to shoot your first or update your current modelling portfolio; you can book me on 0433 796 863.

Kent Johnson, Sydney 2011.

Modelling Portfolio - Studio as Location

All these shots are from a one afternoon modelling portfolio shoot. And while there were plenty more that we could have chosen instead, this is pretty much my edit from the shoot. For those who may be interested, here are a few facts about our shoot...

Firstly it was our models first ever photo shoot; we took our time, helped with posing and direction and through great teamwork made all these shots and more, and had a lot of fun.

We had a great professional Hair and Make-Up artist on our shoot to make sure or model looked her best with each outfit change and during each shot. We create magazine style shoots because we come from High Fashion Editorial.

Our model brought more than 5 outfits for out standard 3 look shoot which was a good thing! We picked out the best outfits for a modelling portfolio shoot & still used some pieces I had brought in for the shoot, just-in-case. Styling for fashion & modelling portfolios is very very important, my team and I understand this very well. In the end we did 4 looks + a couple of variations; we always make sure we get the shots!


















H&MU by Emily Hayward
Photography and Styling, Kent Johnson

We had a great afternoon and plenty of fun on our shoot & you will too. If you have been wondering if you can do a shoot and look this good too? Don't wonder, give me a call and book your shoot now!

Kent Johnson 0433 796 863
Sydney Australia.

Studio Swimwear; When Wrong goes Oh So Right!

No I am not talking about a shoot that went wrong, I will be posting shots from this shoot which went 'very right' pretty soon. And; I am not even talking about one of my college lecturers who thought my 'Midnight Cabaret' portraits looked like shots where the flash did not go off. Well I thought they looked great & still do! My part in the story about Brisbane's Midnight Cabaret can be read here..

All this back-in-the-day reminiscing has been set off by the shot below which; as fate aka overshooting-the-pack would have it, is a shot where the flash did NOT go off!



But what is interesting is that what would have been a completely unusable frame if we were shooting film, can, as it were be salvaged from the RAW file... Some might argue the shot is still completely unusable! Well good luck to you. I am yet to be game enough to try and produce a complete shoot in this style however I do think I should put some time into developing a reliable method for producing this look. I am pretty sure we could do it by shooting '80's style' with hot lights. Still I have been working on fusing old working styles with new and did so on the Rapture in Sydenham, fashion story-using old Nikkor lenses with digital cameras for a more arty look. More shots from the modelling portfolio shoot above to follow soon.