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Photo Studio – The 2014 Take

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Olivier working on his Charlie Winston look. It will take a few more years for the final unshaved look – so plenty of time to learn how to handle a guitar properly.

18 months ago, we were at the Light Studio for our second shoot (http://lightstudios.org/) – two blog articles and a few pictures, this was our result at the time.

We were back in studio last week on the invitation from Pierre and Tatiana. For our third visit we were all pumped up to do better. So here we go with props and plenty of clothes ready for an extremely tiring morning ….

We used a standard setup, white backdrop and two lights. One main light coming from the left, with a very large softbox lower down at child-height – and a secondary light on the right hand-side to limit the shadows and simplify post-processing work.

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Something we learned with the years – if you want 3 (or more) people smiling at the same time, then you need to either hire a clown (which we didn’t have) – or try to create dynamic poses. Picture from Pierre.

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We went all the way with this princess setup. Obviously the model was more than pleased to comply with our wishes. Only the natural smile was tricked into Chiara.

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Father and son vs. mother and daughter series. Same thing here – we had dozens of takes to be able to find a handful with both models smiling at the same time. The guys are winning this time ?

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One which will probably end up framed in our house. We have hundred of pictures of them smiling separately but having them together this is a rare moment captured perfectly . Photo attributed to Sabrina 😉

Spring is here

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/1600s f/2.8 ISO 100 – Crocus are out – spring is here.

We had two very sunny and surprisingly warm WEs in March – perfect time to visit the gardens, remove some dust from the camera and walk around the spring flowers. A big bowl of fresh air after some strenuous weeks at work. Chiara is is great form, Olivier in the middle of his terrible twos – but we’ve been here before …

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/500s f/3.5 ISO 100 – Olivier in the middle of flowers. Obviously not posing, he was just wondering where to go next.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/640s f/3.2 ISO 100 – Chiara’s natural smile, while not looking at the camera. She was standing high in a tree – wondering who will come and get her down.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/3200s f/3.2 ISO 100 – Some spring pictures – otherwise we would only have kids and it would be boring. It’s always interesting to take “close-up” with this lens, the bokeh almost feel like the image is turning.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/320s f/3.2 ISO 100 – Olivier in the split second after turning back – without yet realising I was waking a picture. And yes that was just before his recent haircut !

Whitstable

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/800s f/4 ISO 100 – See-side at Whitstable. As Chiara pointed out – yet another beach without sand. And cold and windy.

Definitely not a hot-spot tourist destination – Whitstable in Eastern Kent is not the first place that comes to mind to spend a rainy and windy Sunday afternoon. Especially when it’s a two hours car ride from home. But we had no plans – and some fresh air could be of use so we accepted the invitation from Christophe and Emilie.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 40mm f2.8 – 1/25s f/11 ISO 100 – This is what Londoners come to Whitstable for. Seafood and fish, Dover Sole / Turbot / Crab and shellfish for lunch. Some are about the same price as fishmongers in London, but definitely some species we can’t find as well. And as you would hope surely fresh.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – (left) Chiara reflecting on how she should pose. (right) Un-impressed by the crab. We did dissect the beast and she tasted it but it was more questions than enjoyment.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 40mm f2.8 – 1/125s f/4.5 ISO 800 – Enjoying a relaxing coffee after lunch when you are dad looks like that. To make sure they would not sleep in the car on the way to the beach, nothing works better than a teaspoon of espresso each.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/250s f/4 ISO 100 – Both are scared of the waves (as you can see huge here), and water was obviously chilly – so we took no risk no-one was going to get wet.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/160s f/5.6 ISO 250 – Olivier always cold with three layers a scarf and a hat. Eating his coat to show us that we should not stay too long outside.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/320s f/4 ISO 100 – Catching a natural smile with Chiara is like catching a fish jumping out of the water. You need to stay still camera at hand ready to fire for some long minutes and hope she would decide to turn at some point.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – EF 70-200mm f2.8 – 1/160s f/3.5 ISO 100 – Olivier always as close as possible from his mum, walking on a narrow parapet.