Photography News Issue 60

Photography News | Issue 60 | photographynews.co.uk

Feature

Snakes & ideas Photo shoot Inspiration for great pictures can come from anywhere. PN reader Mike Martin’s recent photo shoot was inspired by a make-up artist

Like many photographers, I use a variety of sources to generate themes for a photo shoot. On this occasion the inspiration came from a picture found by the make-up artist, Jane Charlotte. We had worked together before and she likes my style. She also knows I’m happy for her to try new stuff without any pressure from me to deliver. The image she showed me was a painting of a male model with snake-like tattoos across his head and face. While she wanted to try to reproduce this for her portfolio, I prefer to take the concept from source pictures and make it my own; I don’t want to copy or reproduce someone else’s work. My immediate thought was to replace the tattoos with real live snakes. As it happens, I know Ellie Bee, a model who also runs the Reptile Room (a snake and reptile rescue service). She does hire out snakes and animals for photo shoots or animal encounters and I have previously been to hers with models who wanted snake images for their portfolios. This looked like another excuse to visit and take some more photos. Jane loved the idea of using snakes. She checked with Paul, the model, that he was comfortable posing with snakes. He had not handled any before but was okay with the idea and we reassured him that he would get to touch and hold one before the shoot, as an introduction. Some people are initially nervous, but I’ve not had any issues with snakes other than the weight of the bigger boa tiring out some of the more petite girls. I didn't need to do much additional preparation once we had the shoot in the diary, just left Jane to work out how to do the make-up and so on. In terms of kit, I took an Olympus OM-D E-M1Mark II and a 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens. For lighting I packed a speedlite (a Neewer TT850) which I was going to fire with a

radio trigger, and a collapsible bounce brolly softbox was the modifier. For this shoot I decided to use a black cloth as the backdrop and took a background support to hold it up. On shoot day I collected Jane and headed for Ellie’s; Paul arranged to meet us there. After introducing them both to Ellie and the animals, I set up the lighting gear in the kitchen which was going to be my studio for the evening. I like to keep the lighting simple and used one light which I could move within a 90° arc from above camera to camera left. I didn’t change lighting much because I’d planned to merge some pictures together so I wanted a consistent light. I did some test shots with Ellie while Jane worked on Paul’s make-up. With the standard zoom and the tight confines of the kitchen it was a case of standing in front of a table and using the wide end of the 12-40mm zoom, or standing on the other side of the table and using the longer end. Shooting in Ellie’s kitchen, converted to a makeshift studio, just shows that you can get creative in a small space. Both the camera and flashgun were set on manual mode. Settings were 1/200sec shutter speed on the camerawith an aperture of about f/5.6 at ISO 200. Turning a painting into a photograph with polished make-up is challenging. Jane adopted a loosely structured design that would allow real snakes to be introduced into the composition. As Jane was applying dye to Paul’s hair, we knew we wouldn’t be able to place any snakes on his head; the male Medusa shot would have to be created as a composite in Photoshop. Ellie and I discussed which snake(s) would be best suited to my shots, considering the temperament of each one – yes, they really do have their own personalities – and how easy they would be to handle, and how confident Paul was with them. Obviously,

the animal’s welfare and comfort were always at the forefront. Paul was coached in the art of spinning before we started shooting. Snakes have a habit of moving around the model holding them, either clockwise or anticlockwise, but predominantly in one direction, so a quick pirouette gets the snake moving back into shot again rather than out. Getting the model to pirouette at the right speed was key especially with the boa. Rotate too slowly and it alters its path during the spin. How much and how long you shoot for depends on the snakes and how they feel on the day. If they are relatively static you can concentrate on getting a pleasing composition. If they are active, you have to juggle directing the model, dealing with the lights and camera, and catching the head in focus as it moves into/out of place, Fortunately, Ellie was on hand to act as snake wrangler and coax them into position. Both Teal'c the boa and Lumiere the leucistic Texas rat snake were quite amenable – Lumiere being exceptionally cooperative. I shot Paul in two 10-minute spells taking about 50 photos in each session. The shoot lasted about three hours and I ended up with 336 shots including test shots, behind the scenes pictures and some with Ellie while Paul was being made up.

Shooting in Ellie’s kitchen, converted to a makeshift studio, just shows that you can get creative in a small space.

Images The snakes turned out to be star performers in Mike’s shoot, inspired by a painting of a model with snake tattoos.

Mike Martin, mikemartinphotography.co.uk, instagram.com/MikeMartin247 Model Paul Miller instagram.com/PaulMi11er Make-up artist Jane Charlotte facebook.com/janecharlottemua Ellie Bee instagram.com/serpentqueen/ Reptile Room facebook.com/pg/Reptile-Room-1464687277140666/ Lumiere, leucistic Texas rat snake; Teal'c, boa The team