Breakbounce Shoot

This was one of the more fun and creative shoots that had come along in awhile and I thought I'd share our creative process.

Final Car Island image

Final Raft Image

Breakbounce is a funky startup brand that's based out of Bangalore India and focusses primarily on the youth oriented street wear market. They're a mad consortium of artists and fashion designers that are pushing the boundaries not only in the street wear market but experimenting with art installations and guerrilla marketing.

I've worked with creative director Arun Kumar on a few jobs now and we've always had a great time with fantastic results. Probably one of my favourite shoots with him was our Signature Golf shoot that we did in Bangkok about 2 years ago.

Arun had sketched out the concepts and sent them to me. I immediately knew these would be fun as hell to pull off. Logistically it would tricky; balancing strobe with sunlight, heavy art direction and compositing layers of plate images for the background.

The brief was "Urban Explorers"

Car Island concept sketch

Raft concept sketch

On set in Capetown for the car image. The car was painted and we had all the grass brought in. We also set decked the garage to the right, adding signage and tires.

example of plate used for Car BG

Below are various plate shots I took for the background composite. Its important to match the height of camera, focal length and focal distance so that the plates can match with the main image seamless without a lot of warping. I also shot a wide assortment of trees, traffic signals, cars, dockyards etc... for the post team to have an abundance of plates to work with. Equipment used was Canon 5D 2/3, 24-70L, Profoto power pack, beauty dish on stand and an assortment of skimmers and flags. The sun gave a nice rim light.

Example of location plate used for Raft BG

Here is a sample of the main car image. This is RAW and un-retouched, the x mark the areas for compositing.

Styling of the shoot was key to the Urban Explorers theme. This is me messing around but in reality our stylist Lyal did an amazing job, sourcing all sorts of props and cool headgear.

Our 3 final selected models: Parker, Josh and Sean and their portfolio images

Its a wrap in Capetown with Nitisha, Arun and Javed's Mindblowing team

Flying back to Bombay, tired as hell.

Client: Breakbounce, Nitisha Kapur
Agency: AKC (Arun Shyamala Kumar Creative Consultancy)
Photographer: Martin Prihoda
Producer: Javed Aboobaker, Mindblowing Productions, Capetown
Production assistant: Liya Baderoen
Camera assistant: Zach
Stylist: Lyal Seba
Art direction: Lana Goodall
Hair and Makeup: Nathaline
Post Production: Featherwax UK

"Dirty People"

*Amendement to this blog post. The issue of workers in Dubai is a complex one and goes far beyond the scope of this blog post and the pictures included. It was my experience during this shoot that none of the workers we photographed appeared to be working in any abusive or substandard conditions. I personally spoke to the owners of the factories and was allowed to walk free through out the factories unhindered. As I mention below, many of the workers spoke freely about their wages and the living conditions on site, though sparse and barebones, appeared clean and humane. The purpose of this project is not to make a specific political statement but rather to simply to collect portraits of a section of Dubai society that is rarely seen, but fundamentally vital.

For many of us who have visited Dubai, we've seen a virtual paradise on earth with streets paved with (black) gold. Unaware to most visitors is the stark and grim reality that much of this sparkling diamond in the desert was built on the backs of poor migrant workers from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, often in unbelievably harsh conditions.

"Dirty People" is an ongoing personal portraiture project and these images were taken in various coal and marble tile factories in and around Dubai.

Many of the workers live on site or in labour camps allowing them to save what ever money they make and send it home to families in their respective countries. Though they were no doubt dirty, most of these folks had bright eyes and big smiles. They happily engaged with us and sometimes even pulled out little cellphones and took pictures of us.

Special thanks to Mike Jones and Urzala Weiss for assisting me on this project. Please click on images to enlarge.

Wrapping it up in Dubai

I'm going to do a longer blog on this years GPP Dubai 2012 but this is just a quick post as I sit in my quiet little hotel room pondering the amazing week i just had.

I finally got to meet and drink beer with someone who has always supported me and taught me, directly, how powerful social media is. Mr. David Hobby, aka the strobist, you are a scholar and a gentleman...it was great to finally meet you and put a live voice to the blog.

I spent the week surrounded by amazing photographers. From the brilliance of Greg Heisler to the authentic dry wit of legendary photojournalist Dave Burnett and of course light master Joe McNally, the place was awash in photographic inspiration. I met a lot of the people who are dominating the online space; Zack Arias, Steve Simon, David Tejada and of course Bobbi Lane and David Nightingale. Claire Rosen and Chris Hurtt rocked their workshops and wedding photog Louis Pang brought down the house with his hilarious presentations.

Of course Mohamed and Hala put together an awesome week. Gulf Photo Plus is on its way to becoming one of the worlds premier photo events.

I'm a bit sun burnt and luckily have left myself a few days to relax and do some personal shooting before heading of to Mumbai. Between Dubai and the Auzzie workshop i've hardly seen Tonia and Jai in the last month...and am looking forward to a massive hug or two.

watch this space for some of the personal work on migrant factory workers in Dubai...should have some images up soon

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Big Lights Far Away, Sydney Australia

The great news is that our 2 day BLFA workshop is sold out in Sydney, the greater news is that Seminar tickets for Friday evening (Feb 24, 2012) are still available!

In the 3 hour seminar I'll be talking about different lighting styles and why light acts the way it does. Its invaluable knowledge for anyone looking to shoot for the big glossy mags or advertising work.

I've expanded the lecture out to also include my experience in the business world of photography, vis a vis: quoting, bidding, marketing, production and contracts.

I'll also be going over some of the mistakes and bad calls I've learned from over my career and for a reasonable registration fee...you won't have to make those mistakes yourself. ;-)

Jump to www.blfa.ca/workshop for registration info. The workshop is full but scroll down and you can still register for the seminar.

cheers and see you there!

Louis Phillipe campaign behind the scenes

Just returned from an amazing shoot in Capetown South Africa. I couldn't get over how beautiful that city is. The shoot was for mens fashion brand Louis Phillipe and the campaign will launch in the next few weeks so can't give out too much info but here's a quick behind the scenes snap of one of the setups.

The sun was screaming bright so to diffuse the shadows we used a large scrim, 12' x 12' and then I key shifted the ambient light back down with a beauty dish. It gives a nice poppy surreal pastel sort of look.

stayed tuned for more images.

New Website is up and Workshops!!

I'm really quite happy to have finally launched my new site: www.martinprihoda.com
Designed by Design Stack here in Mumbai, the site is precisely what I wanted: fast, slick, easy to use, big pictures.

I launched with the following photos from my trip to Pushkar in November

My next piece of news awesomeness is that our next BLFA workshop in Sydney, Australia sold out in 3 days and we've added a second workshop!! after that I'm off to Dubai for Gulf Photo Plus in March and then a personal project which will take me into Oman.

so needless to say its a packed next few months, not too mention all the ad and editorial stuff i'm doing in Mumbai.

anyway, there's a little update for you and their will be lots more in the next few weeks ;-)

Cosmopolitan November 2011 Cover story

Sometimes its the case that the higher profile the client, the less creative you can be. Though they are one of my favorite clients and this is my second cover story with them, Cosmopolitan has notoriously stringent rules regarding everything from the pose of the model, to the lighting and the background.

Its interesting and fun in its own way, to have to be able to deliver with such tight restrictions. I love my personal projects in that they're unbounded and free but working with a strict brief is also good for honing one's skill.

These images were lit simply with a 6 foot parabolic on a stand. The Para allows me to focus or soften the light as I see fit.

Photography: Martin Prihoda
Styling: Aradhana Baruah
H/M: Shaan Muttahil
Retouching: Natalie Buskila

The Perfect Photographer VS. The Great Photographer

Who doesn't have some sort of aspiration to be perfect, (gulp) right?

Here's my list of conditions for the Perfect Photographer:

1. Astute, in-depth technical knowledge of Cameras, can take one apart and put it together.
2. Art history buff, has studied all the great Masters who have come before; can drop names if asked.
3. Can single handedly produce a job with mind boggling efficiency.
4. Sends out the perfect estimate; makes money while remaining competitive.
5. Amazing marketing and business skills. Blog and website always up to date. Sends monthly e-newsletters to clients.
6. Adept and masterful at all things social media
7. Perfect understanding of Lighting Theory, knows exactly which modifier to use and when.
8. Always a pleasure to work with. Clients love the Perfect Photographer; drinks are always on him/her post shoot.
9. Always meets deadlines
10. Knows how to apply makeup on models in case the H/M girl calls in sick/hungover.
11. Pays his/her crew on the day of shoot, in cash if they want.
12. Communicates well with and brings the best out of their models and subjects.
13. A Photoshop wizard, the perfect photographer retouches their own images and delivers ahead of schedule, with minimal revisions.
14. Their portfolio is the perfect mix of personal and professional work.
15. Always demands to fly business class.
16. Can shoot Product, Fashion, Automobiles, Travel, Food and Interiors with equal excellence
17. Nails the pitch every time and exudes confidence in pre-production meetings.
18. A natural Fashionista, styling their own shoots is a breeze.

Hopefully by point 18 you've realized that no such person can possibly exist. In fact I feel lucky if I'm nailing half the things on the above list.

so whats the difference between Great and Perfect?

The great photographer knows their strengths and weaknesses. They move forward in their strength and fill their weaker qualities with people who call those same weaknesses, strengths.

A great photographer may have an excellent eye for detail but is terrible with people. They may have amazing business acumen but a poor understanding of light fall off and what a Parabolic light actually does. Thats okay, though...they know they're not perfect.

Surround yourself with people who are better and smarter than you.

My producer is better at budgeting and project management than I am, my retoucher is infinitely better at photoshop, one of my lighting assistants knows more about how an dSLR works than I ever will (or want to)... If your ego can handle it and you can build a team on this principle; you're in for a wild, successful ride.

The unfortunate truth is that if you try and do it all yourself, you will stay small and ultimately entrenched upon the gilded path of mediocrity.

To be great you have to commit yourself to Mastery, to learning, to plateauing, to failing, to learning...

and that, my friends, has nothing to do with perfection.