Monthly Archives: May 2011

The New York Sessions – Models in the Empire State

By PaulReiffer | Published May 31, 2011

As part of my “flying visit” to New York, I shot three male models at the Empire Studios – ran by its fantastic owner Romeo, who is also a very accomplished artist. Working with Chris as our session’s makeup artist, and Ben assisting, we shot from 10am through until 4. First up – PJ:

Shooting a mixture of images on the roof as well as the studio – we worked with a variety of setups to add something different to his book. Born and raised in Ukraine, PJ moved to the US 10 years ago and lived in London for a few years in between. As someone who’s looking to move into fitness modelling, these shots were all about the body (with a little bit of weird styling thrown in )

Next up, Paul Osei sat down in Chris’s capable hands to start the make-up process. Born and raised in Africa, Paul had a real itch to make his mark in the modelling industry. He runs track & field as a sprinter, so I was keen to make use of those “funky” flourescent shoes which Chris co-ordinated with some funky eye-makeup for one key fitness look.

Heading back into the main studio, we also made use of the fantastic light that shone through the huge floor to ceiling windows, so we “cleaned him up” a bit and shot the image below – I’m amazed how much light poured around the room. Even though it was bright outside, the position I placed Paul into would normally have cast him purely in shadow – but with the bright walls bouncing the sunlight all over the studio, this look really worked.

Finally, ChrisJon hit us for the afternoon session. A Filipino, based in Queens, NY. He was fairly new to modelling but apparently has always had an interest. With a strong book already, he was looking to add some different styles to the “standard” work. Coming from a very athletic background, he certainly has the body to be a strong fitness model – this was all about getting some more images that would expand his book to prove it.

Again, moving between the roof (which was now in scorching sunshine – to the point where the felt was melting up there!) and the main studio – this time with all of the window coverings removed, we grabbed around 6 different looks – two of which are captured below:

My favourite image from the day? Probably the last shot of ChrisJon against the windows. I just love how the light wraps around him – this was done with *no* fill flash, no reflectors, no “tricks” – just the pure light falling through those huge windows and I think it really works.

At the end of the day, this was a small selection from the many looks we captured on the day-long shoot, many of which will slowly make their way into my guys portfolio – but for now, hey, at least you got a quick preview

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Posted in Creative, Photo Shoots | Tagged ChrisJon, Empire Studio, Fitness, Manhattan, Model, New York, Paul, PJ, Studio | Leave a comment

Olly Murs – The Tour

By PaulReiffer | Published May 24, 2011

The sound of screaming kids isn’t exactly on the top of my list of wishes – but it turns out I judged Olly’s tour all wrong. It seems, strangely, that when Mr Murs plays a gig the sound of the screaming kids is drowned out by… the sound of their screaming mums!

Yes, it seems he attracts quite a range of fans to say the least

Trying not to upset the front row too much (it seems us photographers have a habit of getting in the way for the first couple of songs!) I captured previous X-Factor star Olly Murs at his Portsmouth gig on the 19th May. Full of energy, along with the odd goofy stage-trick , Olly didn’t disappoint his adoring fans, and gave a performance that I’m sure left many with a sore throat the next day. This was one heck of a “screamer” in terms of gigs, and ironically, the only one which I forgot to pack my earplugs for!

Anyway, coming on to rapturous applause and chants of his name, he took the stage and didn’t hold back. Armed with his custom rebel chain mic stand (which looks amazing!) he blasted out the first half of the set while seeming to make use of most of the audience as backing singers too!

On to the second half, and not only did Olly manage to bring his sister Fay on-stage to sing to her, he also managed to cover a Stevie Wonder medley – much to the pleasure of those in the audience who knew all of those words too!

Introducing his new “Rock-n-Roller” mic stand from Rebel as well, the second half gave him a few stage tricks too: It turns out, no matter *what* you do to this stand, it always gets itself back upright! Hard to capture in a still photograph, but if you ever see one, you’ll know about it; it certainly keeps the artist on their toes trying to catch it when it comes back at them!

Overall, a great show – put on by a great group of musicians. I also managed to grab a shot or two of Mark Pusey – a fantastic drummer who’s performed with some pretty well known people in his time

I’ve added a few more photos of the show into the gallery below too (a few are now in the portfolio also) – be sure to check out Olly’s page (and new single), along with Rebel and Mark Pusey too…!

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Posted in Gigs, Photo Shoots | Tagged Gigs, Guildhall, Murs, Music, Olly, Olly Murs, Portsmouth, Rebel Mic Stands, X-Factor | Leave a comment

The Chocolate Box

By PaulReiffer | Published May 17, 2011

Back at the end of March, I decided to shoot some personal projects that I’d been considering for some time. The only problem is, when you shoot a lot in the same studio or same surroundings, you end up with images that can look very similar. To make sure my own projects didn’t end up looking the same, I wanted to try something : shooting in another studio across town.

Enter: The Chocolate Factory Studios – owned by photographer Damien Morley. Followed by a quick call later to Steve Box; within a day I had a new studio to play with and a trusted model who I knew could give me the shots I wanted

Most of the time, when travelling, I shoot location – so while I’ve used studios all around on a one-off basis, it was fun getting to know a new shooting space from scratch, with the intention of using it at lot more in future. For starters, one of the walls had a fantastic “loft apartment” feel to it – so the first quick shot was the boots in bed

However, this still wasn’t too far from my standard model portfolio work – and I wanted something different. I wanted to try some more detailed, arty, body-shots – perhaps to form a storyboard or a “triptych” of sorts, featuring different parts of the human body (without going into too much detail!). Here’s one of those collections:

Thoughts? Well, personally I’m pleased with the results. As a series for my next portfolio, it really works. Working through a series of other positions – we covered the entire body, generating set after set of body shots that worked in threes – but these were my favourites. Steve seemed pretty happy with them as well

Of course, a large part of Steve’s own portfolio focuses on fitness/physique – so we covered a series of those shots too. I remember shooting this guy a few years ago – and he’s always had a great look – over time, his expressions and posing have got better and better, to the point where he’s a fantastic model to use when you really do need to guarantee a key body shape or look. With a model who knows what they’re doing, I can focus on experimenting with lighting and setups, knowing they’re going to deliver the look I need when I click the shutter.

Of course – there’s one photo that always gets the “that’s the one” – and every now and then, it’s enough of a shot to make it to the front page of my site. Here it is – well done Steve

Next up, three more shoots to get photoshopped, a heck of a lot of images from Thailand AND two shoots to do in New York in a couple of weeks’ time (in a VERY cool studio which looks out over Manhattan )

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Posted in Creative, Photo Shoots, Website | Tagged Body, Chocolate Factory Studios, Fitness, London, Model, Nude, Portfolio, Triptych | 2 Comments

The Hunt for Maya Bay, Phi Phi Leh – “The Beach”

By PaulReiffer | Published May 1, 2011

Having taken almost an entire day getting from the (stunning) luxury of the Hansar resort in Koh Samui, we arrived at Laem Tong in Phi Phi pretty late in the evening. While it was a chore getting there (involving a car to the airport, flight, car from airport, ferry, long tail boat transfer) it wasn’t Phi Phi Don I was here to see – it was the smaller sibling, Phi Phi Leh which we the target for photography the next day. This is where Maya Beach is located – the set of the 2000 blockbuster “The Beach”, and I wanted to head there to see what I could capture as well as put my little “travel camera” – the S95 through its paces.

The hotel offered us a “tour” of 4 hours in a long tail boat, but given what I’d heard of the tourist situation (from around 8am, you can’t actually *see* the bay for the number of boats in it, all trying to get their glimpse of paradise), I chose to have a chat with one of the “Sea Gypsies” next door, who offered me a boat and two “crew” for the morning, on my terms rather than a guided tour.

Phi Phi Leh Long Tail Boat Trip Maya Bay Phi Phi Don Thailand - Paul Reiffer - Photographer

Being at the northernmost tip of Phi Phi Don, I’d not recommend this location for anyone wanting to visit Phi Phi Le; it was a 45 minute trip just to *get* to the waters of the other island from up here, and I still wanted to beat the other tourist boats. ”See you at 6:30 then!” was our parting joke – ouch, yes, it hurt to be up in time for this trip. In fairness though, 6:30am and there were “Tun” and his little helper “Keiko” fuelling up and getting the boat ready for our trip…

As you’ll see from those images, between fuelling and setting off, the weather changed quite dramatically – and by the time we passed others along the coast, it was clear a storm was coming in. Not great for a once in a lifetime chance to shoot Maya, but it did at least give me a chance to test the S95′s exposure handling in difficult light…!

So, almost an hour later and Phi Phi Leh was next to us – it’s an island made of sheer limestone, worn away at the bottom (at a rate of 1m per 5,000 years) presenting some unique landscapes. More worrying, however, is that from the west (where we’d come from) the sea was calm and no problem. The second we got out into open water to the east of the island, however (where the entrance to Maya Bay is located), WOW – those long tail boats suddenly feel very small, and this wasn’t even a big swell!

“The Beach” (Maya Bay) is actually hidden behind two huge limestone “doors” which tower above you, hundreds of feet into the sky – it’s these which give it the unique look which is so recognisable from the film, but also shows how much protection it needs from the battering of the sea which is just outside.

Still, we made it into Maya. And yes, the place is STUNNING. I can see why they chose it for the film in a heartbeat – and can only imagine how perfect it WAS before it became so famous. Sadly, the weather wasn’t being very kind to us, so we decided to walk to the other side of the island through a cutout to Sama Bay to take a look, and then go for a swim, all the time waiting for the weather to improve just slightly. It has to be said, even with the cloudy sky, the sea was a bright opal colour – but when that sky brightened up, the entire place came alive – and luckily for us it did, quickly, as within minutes of taking this photograph, there were 8 long tail boats and 2 tourist ferries in the bay!

Phi Phi Leh Long Tail Boat Trip Maya Bay The Beach Phi Phi Don Thailand - Paul Reiffer - Photographer

As a friend of mine pointed out, it’s such a shame that SO many people can quickly make you want to leave one of the most beautiful places on earth – but I’m happy, I saw it, felt it and experienced it without the masses, even if only for a brief moment in time!

So, tourists “in pursuit” (it turns out they all follow around the island pretty quickly after hitting Maya Bay), we got out of there and headed to Sama Bay on the other side of the island for a quick look around. It’s SO shameful that a place this perfect is actually littered with trash now. Not on the beach itself, but in the forest areas – tons and tons of plastics, waste, bottles, the works – the tourists really have ruined what was once a paradise.

Sensing this, Tun decided to take us to “Pi Leh” to swim in an unspoiled lagoon. WOW, that made the trip even more worth it. Bright, clear, water, so warm it was like a bath, and not a soul there to race against or ruin it for us. From here, you could also really see the effect of the sea with the undercut of limestone over thousands of years.

Phi Phi Leh Long Tail Boat Trip Maya Bay Pi Leh Phi Phi Don Thailand - Paul Reiffer - Photographer

And that was nearly it. Just time to take a quick look at “Viking Cave” on the way home – along with a quick stop for Tun and Keiko at a private beach before looking back at Phi Phi Leh from a distance.

It really is an incredible place, and the fact it remains virtually uninhabited is at least helping to keep it that way. That said, we, as tourists, really do seem to be trying to trash the island – my only hope is that it stays as beautiful as when I saw it this week for many more years to come, despite the human impact we’re so clearly having.