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Australian glamour calendar

I was in the process of putting away some old transparencies into some plastic containers, so they could be safely put away in storage when I came across a series of images that I did in the late 1980’s when I was first starting out as a photographer. This image above and one from below came from a non nude glamour calendar that I was shooting when I was just 20 years old.

The actual images shown here were scanned from duplicate transparencies, since it appears that some kind individual decided to take the originals rather than returning them. Perhaps the biggest single advantage for photographers now in shooting digital is that we are able to keep original copies of all our work.

Photographers who have only ever worked with digital have no concept of what it used to be like when you had to fight with clients and art directors to avoid losing all your images constantly. This was a real nightmare because you naturally wanted to stay on good terms with the people you worked with, but it also placed you in a really difficult position when you needed access to your own images and clients or art directors had decided they didn’t want to give them back for whatever reason.

I have shot dozens of editorials for magazines in Italy where they wanted all the film and even now over a decade later they have those images sat unused in some filing cabinet assuming they haven’t been lost or destroyed.

The above image was shot on a medium format Bronica SQA with a standard 80mm lens and since it was the 80’s I believe I put on one of those Cokin softar filters that were so popular at the time. The location was actually a museum of some kind in the outback showing how the historical sheep shearing stations used to look, so it was a ready made location in that sense and all I had to do was set up the lighting, which was nothing more than a small silver umbrella fitted to an Elinchrom light on a stand that was pointed down towards the model. It all looks rather dated now but you have to remember this was the 1980’s and I think I can look back with a degree of nostalgia in remembering what it was like to travel 12,000 miles to the other side of the world on an early job at such a young age.

The next image below was done at a place called the Pinnacles, which is a few hours drive outside Perth where they have some amazing rocks that appear from nowhere out of the barren sandy landscape. Although we arrived during the mid afternoon I waited until the sun was going down before shooting this image.

Glamour shoot at the Pinnacles in Western Australia

In a situation like this, the transition from clear blue sky to pitch black sky can all be over in just a few minutes, so you really need to ensure you are in position and ready well in advance to make sure you get the image. As usual this picture would have been done on a tripod and  I would have made use of a handheld meter to achieve the right exposure and these are still techniques that I like to put into practice today. The image below shows what it looked like just a few minutes before.

The Pinnacles in Western Australia

One of the major considerations when shooting outdoors like this is dust and sand, so you have to do everything possible to protect your equipment. Luckily with digital we no longer have to open the back of the camera during a shoot to load film every two minutes, which could lead to all sorts of problems if you were unlucky. On the other hand sensors are by no means immune to problems, so if you are forced to shoot in a situation like this I strongly recommend changing any lenses inside a vehicle where possible or better still using a good quality zoom.

The L series zooms from Canon are supposed to be weather sealed so they should stand up well to this kind of environment, however, you may want to consider putting on something like a UV filter just to protect the front element if the sand is really blowing. Personally I don’t like them because you lose sharpness, but if the conditions are bad, I wouldn’t hesitate to use a filter rather than risk ruining a good lens.

The image below shows me with a model while she examines a Polaroid during a shoot on part of a disused railway track. There is another blog post about a time I entered a bar with a couple of models in the outback.

Myself with a model on an early job