The Beautiful Natalia Beber (30 second beauty spot) shot on Epic 3032

[Nathaniel Kramer]

My Epics may have lost one half of their value overnight but at least they still capture beautifully. https://vimeo.com/52696952

 

[Steve Sherrick]

And at the end of the day, hopefully that's the take home for everyone, even if you feel you have been burned. The camera is still incredibly valuable by what you're able to do with it. If the client were to come to you and say "Well, we're not happy because those images felt like they were shot on a $19K camera", then that would be a problem. My guess, you don't get complaints like that.

Keep doing great work, the rest will work itself out hopefully.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Those Lomos look great for Beauty work. I like the lighting in this Nathaniel. As for the value of the Epic, being an early adopter, I'm sure it gave you a nice head start building a great portfolio and important contacts. Hard to put a price on that. I look forward to more of your work.

 

[Mestizo Devon]

Nathaniel,

How do I get my camera to Capture/trap :yesnod: such beautiful women, uhh I mean images.

It must be the lighting.....

 

[Nathaniel Kramer]

Mestizo, It is really difficult work. The hours are long. The meals are short. I have to force myself to go to work every day. But the real secret is you need a beautiful model like Natalia, then you need a great stylist, make up artist, hair stylist and most importantly a client willing to spend the $ to make the spot..Once that is all in place, just remember to do a good black shade calibration.....

 

[Nathaniel Kramer]

Bob, I actually shot this with my old nikon glass.I knew would not be pulling much focus for this job.. I never even put on the Arri FF..

the same lenses I shot on my F3's back in the late 80's early 90's. Its nice to work with tools i have owned for over 25 years... 58mm 1.2 and 85mm 1.4
Shot at 1.8 through out..

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Nathaniel,

How do I get my camera to Capture/trap :yesnod: such beautiful women, uhh I mean images.

It must be the lighting.....

I find the cameras tend to scare many of the women away. But their attraction to cash (flashing a few benjamins) is stronger than their aversion to scary camera equipment. Many of them also like to try on interesting outfits, shoes, jewelry, you name it. That also seems to make them more willing to be in front of the camera -- especially if you have a pro hair stylist and makeup person there to pretty them up. You just have to know how to court the local wildlife.

Sadly, there are times it really feels that way. Especially when you have to round up a "model" on moments notice because the model the agency was supposed to send over pulls a no-show. Sorry, my cynical hat is on again.

 

[Nathaniel Kramer]

Jeff, I'm sorry that is your experience. I dont know what kind of models you work with or the quality of their agencies you have where you are located, but in my 25 years of fashion photography (New YOrk, Milano, Paris, London) the only model who ever did not show up was Naomi Cambell when she was booked for me for ELLE magazine. After the editor screamed at Elite for a few minutes, Naomi did show up although she was 3 hours late. I dont mean any disrespect in any way when I say this - but, unless you are a known fashion photographer, you're never going to get treated by agencies the way a working fashion photographer gets treated. I know this from my experience starting out in the business. You have to remember that agencies are inundated by " photographers" who want to do test shoots - every hipster with a 5d is now a "photographer", and what better way to meet pretty girls by taking their pics . If the client is willing to pay the girl (through the agency) then the agency looks at it as a money job and they want their commission so the model is going to show up.. If its a "real" job with real $ and a girl doesn't show up, well then you are working with a crap agency . My advice is to stick with the major agencies in the major cities that have international businesses.. Next, Ford, Elite, IMG etc and that means NYC and LA in USA because any decent models go to those cities because thats where the work is. The models in local markets only do local print work, not international magazines, and its magazine editorial that brings them the catalogue and advertising work which is the bread and butter $ jobs for models.

 

[Philipe Ratton]

Amen.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

All true, Nathaniel! My working markets are Denver, CO and Phoenix/Scottsdal, AZ. There are some respectable agencies serving us here, but the local talent can be somewhat flakey at times. Day rates are low and most of them have other jobs, school, etc.. as they can't really make a living on a modeling career alone in these markets. The ones who become popular here don't stay long and they try their luck in the larger markets, at least that is true of the younger talent, primarily the ladies. The 20-something girls are the worst, they're consistently late, bad attitudes, extreme sense of entitlement and will blow off a job entirely if a friend calls them the night before and invites them skiing, shopping, or whatever. That said, in the past 5 years I've had a handful of late-arrivals or missed call times. Only two complete no-shows, we were able to round up replacements, but what a pain and then delays of a couple hours each time.. The worst experience ever for me with a model was on a 3 day commercial shoot. The first two days went off without a hitch, but day number 3 was almost a loss because the attractive young lady in the commercial decided to show up with a mean hangover. As miserable as it probably was for her, I think it was worse for everyone else. And being assistant director and production coordinator for that one, I took the most crap because I hired the girl. She was an independent I had been introduced to previously on a corporate shoot and all went well there. But it taught me to always go through an agency if my ass is on the line... I know one production company and director who probably will never work with me again over that one.