Slideshow of my first engagement photos session

When I am shooting portrait sessions, I would like clients to experience some sort of transformation. So I like treat them as if they are movie stars. I often give a scenario and I like to see natural actions came spontaneously from them. Well I should sometimes pay attention poses more, but this is my style and I can capture more lively images.

I could eventually put together a slide-show of the engagement session I had in May. Before this engagement session, I had already met Danielle and Simon and I noticed they were so energetic and funny …a  lot of laughs. So I wanted to capture not only romantic but also some humorous images, and instantly I felt like making a side-show. Well…I had prepared some scenarios for them but most of their actions are came naturally from the couple without my directions. You can see how lively they are! 

At the sunset time, I had a technical issue and my flash light did not work. However, I did not want to give up photographing them in the most beautiful time of the day. So I shot series of  silhouette shots. I think the results turned out more natural and moody photos which suit Danielle and Simon, rather than artificial look by a flash light.  

Please hit the video below, and change to 1080P and full-screen to enjoy HD video. I am so glad to take the photos of such a happy couple as my first engagement session.  Wish their long beautiful life.

Autumn landscape in Lake O’Hara – Large format slide film

Another photo from film, but this time is 4×5 color slide. This image was taken at my last autumn trip. When I visisted lake O’Hara, peak of larch trees was a little passed. But I still got some good… actually, some great shots. I will post them in future posts. For this post, I respect the media so I kept the digital processing minimum and only global adjustments were applied. It is nature of slide film. I heard large format sizes of Fuji Velvia had been discountinued in Europe. I hope the supply of the such a legendary film will last longer in Canada.

Lake McArthur area in Autumn by Hiroaki Kobayashi

More large format stuff here:

• Evening with Large Format Cameras (1)
• Evening with Large Format Cameras (2)
• Panorama by 4×5 camera
• A Socky Sock – Worth it!
• Gallery show at Mount Royal University – Size matters, but be gentle (man)

 

Snap with film – Grainy portraits

When going shooting, I still bring a film camera, even to serious sessions. These  images on film are for myself,…just for satisfying my artistic ego. When I have chances to “snap”, I tend to pull my film camera from a camera bag. So these photos may not be published forever; just sit in my photo album. A camera I take with me varies depends on my feeling. It can be Nikon F3 and expecting “thin line” sharp image, or old Minolta and expecting beautiful bokhe. Sometimes I expect very sharp images from medium format camera, Mamiya  645pro; some other days, I try pinhole with rangefinder camera to get ethereal feels. This time, I wanted to try very grainy images from  Ilford HP5 B&W film (Iso 400) pushed to 3200.

Although last time I tried the grainy photo from the same method was about 10 years ago. I am pretty satisfied the result this time. I used the telephoto lens made in early 1960’s. I like this lens for portraits because its contrast is not harshly high compared to modern lenses. I can get mild and gentle portraits but well balanced images. This character of the lens looks more distinguishable with film than digital. I often feel film is honest…..! So I have to be a little more serious while I snap.

My shadow by Hiroaki Kobayashi

Black and white portraits frm Arts hotel – 1 by Hiroaki Kobayashi

Black and white portraits frm Arts hotel – 2 by Hiroaki Kobayashi