It’s been a while since I wrote an article, but I’m getting back to it!
Today’s one will be about this great shoot I recently did with Dzseni. I had stumbled upon her Instagram and slid into her DMs to ask her if she would be up for a photoshoot at the beginning of summer. Indeed I thought there was something special about the portraits she would post on her Instagram which made me want to capture images of her. After postponing several times we finally managed to get a photoshoot organized in September on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
For the location, as per usual for me, we decided pretty late, and we agreed on a pretty lake (see what I did there!). A friend of mine, with whom I did another shoot, (post in preparation), had told me about a place outside of Vienna where the water was beautiful: Gerasdorfer Badeteich. As Dzseni had kindly accepted to drive, we went there.
As always I brought with me my essentials, packing (relatively) light:
My new Sony A7iii DSLR, equipped with my Zeiss Planar 50mm F2
My Pentax 6x7 with its 90mm F2.8
and some film (three to be exact, some Fujifilm Provia 100F, some Kodak Portra 400, some Ilford HP5+)
We started the shoot with some test shots on a sort of stairway to the water, the goal was to get to know each other through pictures, as we had already broken the ice during the ride to the lake. Also, this allows me to see how comfortable she is with getting pictures taken and if I need to direct her poses or not.
Even though she had told me she was not the most comfortable I thought she was a natural! She knew where to look, when to smile, when not to smile, how to get different vibes and different feelings. Shooting her was great fun, even though some bypassers had a good laugh seeing us half in water with photography gear.
We ended up shooting in 5 different locations around the lake, and each had a different atmosphere, and, with the sun progressively setting, a different light. I already mentioned the first location and showed some of the pictures, here are the ones in the next ones :
in a stone path going to the lake with lots of plants around.
A pebble beach on the side of the lake with the sun setting
an Old phone booth converted into a free library. We didn’t take many shots here, but messed around more than anything, waiting for a nicer golden hour.
a pontoon, just during golden hour, in this location we actually found a red lifesaver and had a bit of fun using it for composition.
In the end, I shot all three rolls of film for a total of 30 exposures. The first I shot was Provia, and I have to say, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HOW THE 6x7 SLIDES RENDER!
The scans are also great, this film is the only slide film I manage to shoot. I shot most of it in the first location.
Then I switched to black and white and shot the whole roll in the second location.
Finally, I ended with Kodak Portra 400 which I shot both in the fourth and fifth place and wrapped up with that.
I really want to thank Dzseni for this shoot! I really hope to shoot with her sometime soon! If you want to go check her out feel free to see her on Insta @d.okay__
In the meantime see you all next time for a new article!