The other side of the Camera
My husband Peter is currently working on some quite interesting projects with film photography. Before doing the first shoots with a model, though, he asked if he could test a little on me.
Since I have little to no experience on the other side of the camera, except for the occasional portrait taken of me in the park or at a tourist destination, I thought it would be a great opportunity for the both of us, to try something new, and get some valuable experience in the process.
My husband has also written a blog entry about our shoots that you can find here. It includes more information about his process, as well as some other photos from the shoots.
By now he has also added another post on this project, about his work with Cailee Oliver right here.
One of the reasons Peter wanted to first test his technique on me rather than a model, was that the model would need to get undressed to, at least, a certain degree. This actually made me feel a bit nervous as well. Not the getting undressed in front of my husband part, but rather getting photographed like this.
I have struggled with my body and self-image for most of my life really. And only now after many years of getting fit, building muscle and, ironically, losing weight now due to sickness, I feel comfortable with the way I look.
So I was surprised, but also happy, that I actually like these pictures of myself. And not just because of the extremely interesting technique that Peter has used to create them.
Actually we did more than just one shoot. For the first my husband used a 35mm film camera from Pentax. For more details, I would again refer to his blog.
The finished pictures were good, but not quite how he wanted them to be.
Therefore we also did a second test shoot. This time Peter used his medium format Ikoflex TLC.
Once again some things worked better than others, but I am quite happy with how the shots have turned out.
I actually think I want to keep doing photo shoots as a model too, every now and again. I understand a little bit better now what it actually takes to model for a photo shoot, but I want to get an even deeper understanding and learn more about conveying emotions with just your face and different poses.
The last pictures here are very different. This wasn’t a practice for any project really, but rather some experiments with low-key lighting. The first two pictures where even taken with my husbands digital camera, which I believe he hadn’t touched in two years. He only brought it out to find the best way to set the camera up for this kind of lighting.
The shots turned out very interesting still. On the first one I find that I look like an old biker, haha.
So it was a good experience for me to model under studio lights, and with the instructions of a photographer guiding me. Not only was it fun, but I am also sure this change of roles will help me become a better photographer myself,
Overall my favourite photo of these shoots:
Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful day!
